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Monday, April 30, 2007

BEST WISHES...

Here's a Wedding card I just finished. I made it for my friend's daughter Nicole, who is getting married on May 12th. It almost done. I just have to finish the back by adding my favorite "Indian Wedding Poem" to the back. The poem reads:

Now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be the shelter for the other.
Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be the warmth to the other.
Now you are two persons, but there is only one life before you.
Go now to your dwelling, to enter into the days of your life together,
and may your days be good and long upon the earth.

Ok, just a quick one for now. I'm really sleepy, and I'm going to bed!
Good Night.

Friday, April 20, 2007

AHHH CLEAN!











Ahhhh Clean!
A place for everything, and everything in it's place.. or so it goes. I don't know how long it will stay clean this time, but I'm really making a effort to keep it that way. it's amazing how much stuff you can accumulate. I can also see each creative phase I've gone through. From Abstract paintings, to Polymer Clay, to jewelry making. It's like a living journal!

I've done some purging, and even started a "for yard sale" box, and actually parted with some never used art supplies...which.... weren't very many, because I kept thinking "hey, one day I might want this again!".... yes, I suffer from "packrat syndrome"

I devised a couple clever ( I think) space saving, clutter busting ideas. Since I've been into the collage thing, I've really gone wild buying all those cool scrapbook papers. But they were everywhere. So I took an old yard stick, which is actually 48 inches long, and hammered small nails about every 6-7 inches, along the length. (there's still room for more!) On the back side, I superglued washers at each end, to hang the yard stick horizontally. That took all of 5 minutes to do. I bought a pack of those big black paper clips, and started sorting through, and organizing the paper. I was going to do it by color, but decided to sort them by pattern instead, although I think it may work best to sort them by color, if I'm working with a particular color palet. Anyway each pattern got paper clipped together, and hung by the corner. The big clips can hold a good stack of paper. It's a great way to keep the paper neat, and accessable. When I 'm using them, I just take them all off the nail hooks, and lay them along my side table. They don't get all spread about, and mixed up this way, and when I find a sheet I want, I just remove it from the clip. Another thing I did was to keep all the sheets that had been cut, seperate. I use a really cool square vinyl tote, that I got free for buying a magazine subscription. The papers fit perfectly, and I know to look in there before using a full, uncut sheet. For smaller bits of paper, I just put them in a large plastic bin, that sits on my art table.
I've also started a collection of ribbon, that was spilling out of the basket I was keeping them in. Of course they were all coming un-wound, and making me nuts. So, I took a length of yarn, tied one end to the middle of a pencil, ( you could use a popscicle stick, or square piece of cardboard, that you
ve made a hole in the middle of, then string the yarn threw the hole, and secure with a knot on the underside) then started to "string" each spool of ribbon. I tied a loop at the top of the string, and hung it on the corner of my shelf. Wow... I don't think I've ever been this organized in my life! My next project? sorting through all the images I've printed out. Hmmm we'll see.

Here's a few more pictures.






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Monday, April 16, 2007

Being ARTY....

Here's my latest collage!

Its 5 x 7 inches. I'm debating on wether I want to add it to a canvas and create a bigger piece. I really like the way it turned out! Here are the PSMWG'S"..(my best friends, just our initials)...Winnie, Gloria, & Patti. (minus the "S" Sheila) They're all hard at work at my house, on our first ART NIGHT! We has sooo much fun! Their creativity came pouring out!




I can't wait for our next time doing art together!

I've been busy working on more new pieces for Etsy. I just finished an order for custom collaged Birthday invitations. They took a lot longer than I expected, and I really didn't charge enough. Oh well.. I'm learning.



Thursday, April 12, 2007

HAPPY "FREEZE-TER"

Let's play.. FIND THE CAR!
Can you see it?... maybe just the anntena?
Yup, that's my car.
Under over a foot of snow! This was my Easter... Brrrrr. and Grrrr! One day it was 80... what a tease, we thought Spring was really here. There were beautiful Yellow Daffodiles, Little green buds popping on the trees. Then.... SWOOSH!... 24 short hours later....... SNOW! and LOTS of it! It started Good Friday afternoon, and NEVER stopped snowing till Easter Sunday evening. Typical for Cleveland. They say, "If you don't like the weather, wait a minute"..Yup, that's us.

Well, It was a weird Easter. Daughter Jamie left on Vacation to North Carolina's Outer Banks, Eddie was sick at home, Best friend Gloria snowed in. I did enjoy the company of the brave few who did make it over. Nephew Michael, wife Antje, and their adorable kids, Carmen, and Anna (shown below). Rita and son Patrick also made it in from Willoughby, about 25 miles East of Cleveland, and in the middle of the famous "Snow Belt"... even they didn't have as much snow as me! Finally my other daughter Allison made it in, and spent the night. We napped after everyone left, and got up and watched the "Best of Friends" on video. I had alot of leftovers!
Well. I'm sure Spring is still out there somewhere right?


The weekend before Easter, I finally had my long anticipated "Art night" with my best girlfriends, the PSMWG's.. minus "S"... Sheila was in W. Va. attending her grandfather's 90th. birthday party. I get some things take priority.
Well.. we had sooo much fun! I pulled out most of my art supplies, and everyone was their most creative!
We feasted on Chinese, and had a ball. I can't wait for the next one!
See the pics below.




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