Hold Dear

happy halloween!

Hope you have a good one!

Nephew Casey as Chucky!

i've missed you!

Sorry for the that unexpected break my precious bloggy darlings! Just a lot going on in my little existance. And mostly all happy stuff! Lots of prep for my visit from my sisters this upcoming week AND also, I had a visit from my brother last Wednesday!!! AMAZING that within the span of a week, I got to see my sisters and my brother! I have a few fun pics from his visit that I'll post tomorrow.For today's post, I wanted to share with you this month's Just Johanna Design Team work I submitted! I still have one more project to finish so I'll share that in a day or so!

Art journal pages.

A few cards.

And a journal! I used my fabulous RubiCoil for this one. Love it!

Okay, I'm off! Sister and nephews arrive today and there's still some work to be done! Have a wonderful day!!!

our little atticus.

I first had the title of this post as "my little atticus" but then I remembered that Atticus is actually NOT my cat! :-) Although.... Miranda has acknowledged that when she moves, Atticus should stay with us because he loves me so much! Eeeeeeek! That makes me so happy!

So my day started off really bad! When I went downstairs this morning, I could instantly smell that certain kitty stink we all dread! Geri, our 14 year old cat, who had been inside all night had let loose in several spots in the house, with "loose" being the operative word here. EGADS! I thought I had encountered a crime scene! I just about barfed! As I'm getting older, I just have less and less of a tolerance for that kind of thing! Too many pit toilets I guess. So needless to say, I spent my morning shampooing the carpet!   

Not sure why I thought to share that with you, other than it fits the "cat" theme of today's post. Sorry! :-)

Okay, so moving right along (yes please do!), I have two pictures of Atticus to show you! I know it's been awhile and he's just getting cuter and cuter!

Miranda and I went to Goodwill Friday evening and I went nuts with the fabric. I piled it up on the piano while I was running around and later when I went back to get it, I saw this...

So cute! That blue and pink fabric you see there will soom be curtains for Miranda's bathroom! I loved the fabric and Miranda "approved" it. Now to just find the time to throw that together, ideally before my family arrives!!!

Later, after the fabric found it's way upstairs, Atticus stashed himself in the bag, clearly trying to initiate a game of "guess what I am!" I guessed "fabric" and I won! :-)

So today the official count down starts! One week from today, my sister Simone, will be in the house! In MY house! :-) Then Wednesday of that week, Renee, my other sister, will also be in my house! Eeeeek! I'm so excited!!!

Okay, see ya later!

drawings.

I first want to say "hi" to all my blogspot friends! Blogspot is being a poo and I'm unable to visit anyone! Here I am with a few minutes to play and I get NO cooperation from technology! :-)

To entertain myself, I am going to share with you some random pictures from my drawing class. This class is SO fun! It's not very social in that hardly anyone talks which drives me nuts! I'm not sure why some classes are like that. I still make my occasional joke and talk to people but I can tell it throws them off. Oh well, I'm getting lots of drawing done!

I confirmed in this class that there won't be a test! Ya-hooey!! To get a decent grade, all ya gotta do is show up, draw, show improvement, and participate in the critiques. I can EASILY demonstrate that I am improving. Here is a still life I drew several weeks ago.

Boxes. I have to add that this was one of those exercises where we had to switch places after an hour and work on someone else's drawing. Yuk!!! After two people working on my drawing, I just thought to myself, "It's SO dark!" We were supposed to try to achieve five color values but I all I see is light, dark, dark, dark, and darker.

Today we focused on shadows and perspective.

Then teacher dude rearranged the objects and draped fabric over it. I LOVED doing this one! I could have worked on it for another full session of class! And no one got to mess with it except me! I still need lots of practice but I definitely feel like I'm improving and workin' things out! :-)

I hope you're having a wonderful weekend!!!

stamps.

I have been obsessing over postage stamps lately. They are SO gorgeous! Last trip to the post office, I almost felt like I was buying scrapbook paper. The clerk showed me the sheets of stamps and I said, "I'll take one of those, and one of those, and one of those, etc."

Fortunately, I have kind of outgrown stickers and am not compelled to actually use them in a LO. However, I just may create a LO about them! Hmmm...

Well...Phooey!

So what am I going to do with this???

I found it at a garage sale. Artsymama aka Kari has one she showed over on her blog. I totally fell in love with it so when I saw this baby sittin' there...I knew it was going home with me! I paid $15 dollars for it so I didn't think that was a bad deal!

The thing is, I have absolutely no idea where I am going to put this thing! The wall space in my studio is all spoken for and I have rearranged so many times to accommodate the stuff that follows me home that I'm stumped! Thankfully, that didn't stop me from buying it though! :-) Hmmm....I'll have to just wait for some inspiration. I'm sure it'll come to me. I could always do what Kari did with hers. Look here!

I thought I'd also share some color with you!!! I have been hitting the thrift stores pretty hot and heavy lately and with my rekindled interest in embroidery, my eyes were happily open to catch these finds!

I have tons of embroidery floss accumulated over the last, a-hem, 30 years, but I just couldn't resist. Plus I'm sure it was something like $1.99 for the whole kit and kaboodle.

And then there was this beautiful bag of tapestry wool. Hmm...I just love the colors and have been using it as a color wheel! I'll dig through it and find two or three colors that work together and then use it on something. Fun!!!

Oh and I have to tell you about an embroidery yarn that I just discovered. DMC Cotton Perle #5. Yeah yeah yeah, I'm sure it's been around forever but hey, I'm always late to the party! It was on the supply list for the To Have and To Hold class and recommended by DJ Pettitt. I am now in LOVE with this stuff! The colors are great and it's thicker than regular floss so you get better mileage when you're going for color, punch, or accent on your piece!

Okay...I'm off to enjoy my rainy Monday evening. Miranda and Doug are in the kitchen making cookies and I have a cup of tea going. Hmm...life is good.

rain rain.

In the words of Bambi's Mother in "Bambi, "Winter has come to the forest." They say the rain will be around for awhile so ...sigh... time to break out the winter gear and embrace the chill. That's okay. I bought a cute London Fog rain coat at Goodwill today so I'm good for awhile. :-)

I have a couple of pictures to share with you. Friday morning (Friday the 13th!) I had my camera with me and saw the most lovely sunrise through the clouds. I snapped this picture while I was driving, which I don't recommend. It's pure luck that it turned out because I wasn't about to review it and try for another while driving!

This was about 7:15 am. I just thought it was very surreal with the skyline!

I also wanted to share a picture with you of what the view from our balcony looks like these days. Remember the picture I posted for Studio Friday showing my "outside?" The trees are starting to change color and here's what it looks like now.

And then one last shot I took on the campus of PCC (Portland Community College) Sylvania. Just LOVE the fall colors!

My Glen left today for another two week trip to Kalispell. We got out of the house early enough to stop at Vita Cafe for some breakfast. Yum! After Miranda and I dropped Glen off at the airport, we consoled ourselves with a trip to Scrap, Urban Outfitters and then Goodwill. Sigh. I miss him already.

Oh well. I'm a big girl. He'll be home in two weeks and the day after he returns, Simone and her other boys will arriving in Portland for a week's visit! Renee will also be joining us later in week. We have at long last made arrangements to "place" my Dad's ashes in the Willamette National Cemetary. It's been almost 11 years since he's passed but we still have his ashes and just had a tough time bringing ourselves to figuring out what to do with them. We are actually referring to this event as "planting" my Dad at Williamette National Cemetary. He loved loved loved gardening so this is an appropriate expression for us. I'll share more about this later because right about now, I feel like putting on my jammies, make a cuppa, and have myself a nice little sprawl!

Hugs!

more art and soul.

So I'm feelin' like I have finally recovered from Art and Soul. It was SO amazing! I loved EVERY minute of it! But, it was intense. Not necessarily because of the classes but just also because of all the anticipation of learning and excitement of being at Art and Soul. My last day was especially tiring because I had a class during the day and then one in the evening class. But oh what joy! I would do it all again in a heartbeat!

I had so much fun meeting so many artists that I follow and admire! And it was so fun to see all the art "celebrities" in person even if I wasn't taking one of their classes. There were even some familiar people in some of my classes. That was cool! And EVERYONE was SO wonderful! So giving, so generous, so kind! And so humble! It was a beautiful thing! :-) I was CRAZY with all the goodness and love that was all around me!!!

So here is a quick picture of my trades. I had a very cool experience in my Creating Metal Charms class. There were a few women in this class that I was speaking with and I wanted to just give them one of my trades. Well they turned around and let me choose some items from their personal collection of geegaws! Swoon! One gal gave me some old bingo tokens and another let me choose some metal pieces from her vast collection! What a treatly treat!!!

Here are a few pictures from my classes. I think this will catch me up with one exception. I haven't yet finished my purse I started in DJ Pettitt's To Have and To Hold class. I probably won't get a chance to finish it for a couple more weeks so I just thought I'd show you the "in progress." I absolutely loved this class and loved DJ! An incredible person and artist!

Recognize the fabric? DJ advocates using recycled fabrics such as old articles of clothing so I thought I'd sneak in the fabric that I bought at Goodwill. Remember? It's effectively recycling, isn't it? :-)

And here's a picture of me with DJ. What a wonderful soul. I am SO happy I got into this class. It was a memorable experience and it was more because of her than the fact that I learned a new skill. Oh and it really makes me happy that I am not self-conscious anymore about asking to have my picture taken with these "celebrities." I just wish I could crop out my neck! :-)

One of my classes was Ladies in the House with Beckah Krahula and unfortunately, I forgot my camera that day. I did make a new friend (happy!) named Debra and she graciously said yes when I asked her to take a picture of me with Beckah. Be sure to visit Debra's Etsy shop and check out her beautiful jewelry! She is very talented! Thanks again Debra!!!

I don't have anything to show you from Beckah's class because Holy Rolling Moley it is a work in progress!! I have to do a lot of practice with the soldering iron before I can make something that I would ever hang on a charm bracelet!!

The class I took Sunday evening (I was SO tired by then) was with Susan Lenart Kazmer. It was called Creating Metal Charms. I didn't really make anything in the class although I did use her tools to stamp out some copper pieces that will someday be charms. But you know, I was SO okay with not making anything because just the experience of hanging out with Susan (and the class) for the evening was worth it. I was SO entertained. She is so talented and her passion for what she does just comes out. Plus I got to see pieces that she has created IN PERSON! OMG! THAT was SO worth it. Holding her work just totally puts me in a trance. It is utterly breathtaking. She is one talented lady and just a lovely person. It was also wonderful because the other students in the class were just so fun to talk to. It was a perfect finish for my Art and Soul experience!

I can't wait until next year!!!

studio friday.

The kids over at Studio Friday have an appropriate topic for today, Friday October 13th. FEAR! It was suggested by Casey and she said:

"I have been away from Studio Friday for a while, and I really struggled with the toot your own horn topic.  It actually made me do some free-writing and I thought of another topic that might be helpful for some of the studio friday artists: Fear.

Hmm. Interesting topic for me. As an artist, what do I fear?

At first I thought, I'm afraid of nothing! I am experimenting! I am playing! I am actively discovering what I can do! And that's when I  s l o w l y  realized what I fear.

When I began looking through scrapbooking and stamping magazines, Somerset Studios, etc. several years ago, I really felt like I wouldn't ever be able to create anything new. I felt like it has all been done before. I was too late. All my favorite color combos were already being used. LOs were already saturated with my favorite embellishments. I felt like I was too late to the party. :-)

And then I found a quote by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. This amazing, powerful quote put me in my place and REASSURED me that whatever I create, it WILL be new. It may have elements used by other artist or be influenced by other artists but...whatever I create, can trust that as longs as it's from my heart and hands, it will be original. And that's because it will be my original. Here's the quote:

"Nature never repeats herself, and the possibilities of one human soul will never be found in another."

No one else has will EVER have the same unique blend of skills, knowledge, love, passion, dislikes, fears, family, childhood, etc. that I have. Therefore, no one else will ever be the same kind of artist I am.

So having said all that, I know my fear is that I won't ever realize my potential! That I won't ever figure it out! Will I ever find my authentic style? Find myself? Find what I'm "good" at?!

I do, fortunately, recognize that I am on the right path. I know this to be my truth because I am SO happy! Sure there are bumps. Sometimes I have to go slow. There are times when I feel like I'm going too fast! And then there are the times when I come to a complete stop! ! But Oh Lordy! when I come over the horizon and see somewhere I haven't been before? I am filled with pure joy and my heart and hands can't help but smile!

I'm not always sure which way to turn, which tool to use, which song to listen to, what color to use, etc., but I know that as long as I trust my heart and stay on this path, I'll get somewhere!

Thanks for being here with me!

studio friday.

Over at Studio Friday, this week's topic is STICK IT TO THE...  BOARD as suggested by Jill.

"It would be interesting to see the variety of bulletin/memory boards in our studios. What is pinned to them? Photos? Notes? Reminders? Ideas for future projects?"
~Jill

Ironically, I cleaned up my bulletin board about two weeks ago. It was SO messy and SO full of pictures, etc. that it wasn't something I enjoyed looking at anymore. It actually stressed me out. Then I saw this post on Pam Garrison's blog. Pam's friend, Amy, has an "Inspiration Board" in her art room. That totally inspired me to turn my bulletin board into something useful as opposed to just a "catch all" spot.

I have a few favorite bits tacked up to the board and I also have cards, envelopes, etc. that my on-line pals have sent me! Don't know if this is the place where those things will always live, but these friends totally inspire and encourage me so these keepsakes are very special to me and for now, this is where they belong! Now I everytime I look at my bulletin board, I can't help but smile.

Hope you have a smiley day! :-)