Hold Dear

Family.

YO! Casey is in the hiz-zouse!!! Okay...Miranda rolled her eyes too when I said that! :-) So Casey and Amanda arrived in Portland, Oregon today. They left yesterday morning around 8:00 am and about 6:00 pm today, they pulled up to what will be their home for the next month or so. So excited! We had a very low key evening...sat around and chit chatted, had dinner, went for a very brief walk (was just too darn cold!), Glen and Casey played guitars, made some tea and then called it a night. We tried to introduce their cat, Bellatrix, to Atticus but that didn't go over very well (Glen will attest to that!) Here a few pictures. I didn't really get a good one but wanted them to have a picture of their very first day in Oregon. The plan is tomorrow we will drive into downtown and just make an easy day of it. Drive around, stop and have lunch somewhere. Just hang out.

So Casey and Amanda will take residence in the spider hole....

Very cute kids. They are so nice too and so nice to each other. Glen, Miranda, and I are so excited to show them around and help them as much as possilbe. We realized that it's our turn. Glen's mom took us in we quit our jobs 12 years ago and bungee jumped from Northridge, California to Portland, Oregon. So very happy to have a chance to repay the kindness to family as they try on Portland for size. I hope more of my family gives us a chance to repay that kindness! Let the migration...BEGIN!  (spoken in my best Cartoon King voice - from Pee Wee's Playhouse).

Studio Friday

Okay so this week's topic for Tine's Studio Friday was PLAY. Sounds great, huh? Well hold your horses because the play was that you had to choose a medium and then do whatever you would do with your mouth! This was much more difficult than I thought but you know what? This was big fun! I used acrylic paint and without having the normal control, the paint was mostly blobbed on. I think that ended up giving it oil paint look to it. With my face so close to it, I really couldn't tell that I was achieving roundness and it felt like the paint wasn't going anywhere near where my brain wanted it to go. I kept thinking "this is gonna look like one of those elephant paintings!" I'm pretty amazed that it actually looks like an apple. What a fun exercise....sure pushed my comfort zone though! It was SO hard not to grab the brush with my hand and put the color right where I wanted it!

 

So who knows....maybe I'll do a whole series. :-)

Happy Friday to us all!

Book of Dreams.

So I think I've finished the cover for my Book of Dreams altered book project I'm doing. If you want to find out more, be sure to visit ArtsyMama.

 

Just had some fun with this. Not terribly crazy with the blue stars so I may silver them up or something. Used Heidi Swapp letter masks. I LOVE those things!

I have some pages started and am working on my pockets but not quite done. I'll finish it up this weekend and get it posted. I want to do several pockets, just to see what works. I want to have fun with this project!!! One of the pocket will be made out of copper mesh ... kind of a take off from pockets I learned to make in a class called Taste of Memory that I took from Nina Bagley last year at Art and Soul.

Cheers!

Girlie.

So here is the picture of Miranda in her Blockbuster uniform. So cute!!!

I just love this kid! I hope she's happy at Blockbuster! I'm happy she's at Blockbuster...why you may ask...well Miranda gets five free movie rentals a week AND she can get new releases one week early. Works for me! :-)

Behind.

I am feeling like I am behind behind behind with all my extracurricular projects that I want to be working on. What can I say....life has been busy. I had a Research Paper prospectus due yesterday for my Art History class. Decided to do it on Albrecht Durer and his woodcut illustrations. Got it in and feeling pretty good about it. My nephew Casey and his girlfriend, Amanda are moving to Portland (can you say HAPPY?!) so we've doing lots of bits here and there in an effort to make them comfortable. We've alsos been trying to get the garden cleaned up now that the weather has turned nice. And then on top of all this, work has been super busy! What's up with that?! :-)

Anyways, we have a field trip on Monday for my class so I won't have to bust my chops reading this weekend. That means I can catch up on my projects: Circle Journal with some online friends, get some entries together to apply for a Design Team (!!!!!), Book of Dreams, Studio Friday, and Rhonna's 21 Day Challenge Round 3. I wasn't going to do the challenge but I realized I JUST started a new habit and decided to modify it a bit to fit the challenge format. And I'm excited about it because it's not anything to do with my exercise or Weight Watchers (which I just recently re-joined). It's about consistently spending time creating. Oh and I also want to jump in and do some Freestyle stuff too.

I also have a journal to finish for a friend who ordered it a LONG time ago. I think I'll just have to give it to her since I've taken so long and she hasn't said anything! She is a very good friend so it's not like I wouldn't have given it to her for free anyways. :-)

Oh and quickly, Miranda started her job at Blockbuster and so far so good!!! We are SO happy for her!!! She let me take a picture of her in her uniform last night. At first when I asked her to pose she said "ahhh...that's weird" but then I told her that I have a picture of myself in my McDonald's uniform when I was a sophomore in high school. It's goofy but I am so happy I have that! I should take a picture of it and post it, just for old time's sake. :-)

Happy Thursday and here's a funny for you!

My Buddy Dan.

Last night Glen and I went to see Dan Piraro, cartoonist extraordinare, at the Wonder Ballroom. It was SO FUNNY! I absolutely love this man! The show started at 8:00 but he came out around 7:30 and just started talking and answering questions. Very informal, funny. As people would walk in, he'd tell them not to worry, the show hasn't actually started and they haven't missed a thing! It was a very funny running gag. Funny, political, vegan, animal rights activist...aahhh...my kinda guy! After the show, Glen and I bought his new book, Bizarro and Other Strange Manifestations of the Art of Dan Piraro. and met him. Nice guy. We met his wife, Ashley, too. Gorgeous! She is a full-time animal rights activist so that just made her even more beautiful! Seemed like easy-going people. It was just a fun fun evening! 

Being the conscientious blogger that I am, I, of course, asked if I could take a picture with him. Dan was extremely obliging.

Hope you have a fun day!

Human Clock.

Have you seen this? Click on view the clock once you are in. It's addicting!

Haiku You.

This week's Haiku offering....

Found a dime today.

A dog might have peed on it.

But a dime's a dime!

Yesterday's Ribbon.

In the ongoing adventures of 52 Reasons Why I Love You, yesterday's ribbon was....

46. I love you because you are so passionate about flying and having an airplane.

I am so happy that Glen has something in his life, other than me, of course, that he is passionate about. I have my assorted art projects. They keep me happy and keep me going. At any given moment, I always have something that I love love love doing and when I not doing it, I'm dreaming about it!

Glen is that same way with his flying. I've learned over the years too that when he starts talking about flying, cleaning, travel plans, or working on his airplane, I listen. Doesn't matter if I have no clue what he's talking about. I still listen. Heck, sometimes I even learn something! He has worked so hard to own his airplane and he deserves to be proud of it.

And the good news, last time we went up, I was so focused on taking pictures, I was hardly nervous! And gum helps. For some odd reason, if I'm chomping on gum, it helps distract me. And I'm not a gum chewer so go figure!

Oh FYI...I got my first terminology test in my History of Graphic Design class back...out of a possible 5, I got a 5! Whoo-hoo. Now I have to write a topic proposal for a thesis paper. It's due Wednesday so I guess I'd better get to work!!! I am still not 100% sure what I want to write it on. EVERYTHING about Graphic Design interests me...hieroglyphics, calligraphy, wood block printing, bookmaking, printing press...and then there's historical periods that influenced graphic design...renaissance, arts and crafts...and I'm supposed to choose??! Oi...I should always have such decisions! (spoken with my best yiddish inflection).

Happy Day to you and yours....

Book of Dreams.

I am joining in a group that ArtsyMama has organized. The group is called Book of Dreams and it was inspired by this book. This book is so gorgeous. I am totally inspired by these visuals. Having just finished Rhonna Farrer's 21 Day Challenge Part Deux, I have realized that my "alter" gene has totally kicked in. MUST PLAY!

I've gone back and forth on what book I want to use but have decided on just a very generic book I got a Goodwill a long time ago for $1.99. I bought it with the intention of altering it one day...well, my dear Wanderer, one day has arrived!

I have started the preparation process...tearing out pages and gessoing. I'll wait to do anything with the cover. I trust in this process enough to know that I'll recognize when it's time and what it should look like. I would like the title to be "Color of My Dreams." I have a pretty strong vision of the color pallete and my thought is that I will put some color on the pages and then just let my muse take over. I'm hoping she shows up for this project. In fact, I'm counting on it!!! I recognize NOW that that was what happened with some of the pages in my 21 Day Challenge project and I was usually happy with the results.  The black birds on the grayish background was one of those experiments.

I originally was going to use this children's book I found very recently at Goodwill...but as usual, Atticus had something to say about it...

"Not this one!"  "I LOVE this book!"