the end...

So last night, I came home from a family portrait session in Wellfleet, (great family, beautiful spot btw) and was so exhausted I could barely move. I sat and thought about this project, about getting up and making something, about the reasons I was doing it, and made a decision to stop. For a bunch of reasons. It was more fun when Marla was doing it for sure!, I should really be cleaning my house everyday, exercising more, marketing my business everyday, doing my books everyday, updating my studio everyday, creating photography samples everyday, doing my studio blog everyday, insert any of a number of other things here, but what I'm finding is that I'm creating just for the sake of creating something. Most days I cram in a project which I can't do the way I want, or rush it just to get it done, or whatever. This adds more junk to an already bursting at the seams house, and isn't helping either my creativity or my inspiration. Almost 5 months later and my art room is even messier than when I started I think! I need to create for the pure joy of it, without the pressure of trying to meet the deadline. I think if I were a working artist (which technically I am, but in a totally different way) and spent my days creating anyway it would be different. I create everyday. Family portraits, senior portraits, marketing pieces, even art on a regular basis, etc., so for at least now, that's where I'll put my energies. Honestly, where they should be at this point anyway! I'll still be creating all of my kooky things on the side, I think some little part of me thought I could just create the kooky and get rid of the portraits. But I've learned through this little exercise that is definitely not in the cards, my kooky is just a release for me. (& much if it is better seen just by me too!!) So now it's time to figure out what it is I want to do with myself. A much better use of my time! It will definitely include handcolouring some more of my stone photos, I have one hanging in the studio, and it brings me such joy every time I walk by it. That's what art is about for me.

oh... know any good crafts from the 70's? I might have a little time on my hands?

Speaking of the 70's, Ray will be happy that I'm finally going to get back to the project I promised him, braiding little rugs for the stairs!

I may still share a project or two, I've enjoyed this blog, so maybe we'll just give it a different by line and continue it differently. Marla's coming to visit next week, last time she was here the craziness started, maybe this time we can find a new path for this little adventure we've had!

#148 Home

Bear Bear was a favorite companion of childhood, he was even strapped into the passenger seat when I left for college... I found these b&w's I'd taken sometime 20+ years ago, and knew he needed to be immortalized. (& yes, I do have this song on my ipod).

#147 Sean the sheep

Todays silly little sheep, he's quite tiny, and not that much better looking than the photo! comes from two different things. One is a piece of roving Adriana was making something with at some point, that instead ended up going through the wash, voila, instant felting! So I had this little body that needed a head, etc. Weeks later, I go to the fair, Ray & Adriana are spinning themselves silly, the entertainment is karaoke (!!?), unable to stand it any longer, I visit the sheep, and there I find myself these fabulous sheep, nicely shorn, except for these silly little dreadlock-y bits around their faces. I know immediately that's what's going on the body. Adriana came up with the name!

#146 puffins

When we were in Acadia, I really wanted to see Puffins, but there simply wasn't enough time... darn... I'll just have to go back... or... I've heard there are Puffins in the Orkneys, one of the places on my long, long, list of places I've got to get to... maybe I'll just visit them there!!
In the meantime, I've a frame for an Acadia photo...

The frame, another from my wedding frames... this was table #3. Hope they had fun too!

#145 yet another 70's craft

Macrame... Ray kept complaining that the cord for the fan in the kitchen was too short, today he got a little macrame extension...

wonder if he wishes he hadn't said anything!

#144 mermaid {two}

It's so hot, we should all be mermaids and live under the sea...

#143 experimentation

We got home from the fair last night at around 11:30pm, decided I might as well experiment as I didn't have any time to do anything else. Turns out handcolouring with pastels is not such a great plan...

#142 the bouquet

I accidentally posted on my studio blog, and decided I'd leave it! Here's what I said:

I photographed a job for a client, and the next day got the most beautiful bouquet of flowers delivered as a thank you, what a treat! So I did what any photographer would do, I photographed them!

#141 Callanish {two}

I love handcolouring the colour images, especially these ones where there is very little colour to begin with, think they come out so well...

Must be time for another Callanish story... when we arrived the sun was out & shining brightly, then it got cloudy and windy, then it started to rain, I laughingly said, 'gosh, we've had every kind of weather but snow' within minutes big enormous bits of hail started falling from the sky! We 'battened down' behind the big stones, my friend Mouse behind one, me behind another, and the only other couple there behind another. I took a video of us, but of course I'm laughing so hard I can scarcely breathe, the video bounces around erratically and you can't make out a word I'm saying!!!

#140 it was then...

that I learned how much love one heart can hold...

beautiful hands

I had a henna artist come to create gorgeous designs with (and on) my teens at the library.  She's fabulous - her name is Jamilah - and she lets the girls create their own designs and later on adds hers.  The palm is my design, she added a beautiful lotus on the top of my left hand.  Henna is tricky (you can see a few globs on my hand!) but really good fun.

a little shadow box

With some of my library kids, I made nichos, tiny shadow boxes inspired by the arts of Mexico.  We had a great time making them and I want to create more...little boxes all over the house; that's all I need!

#139 the best sound...

in the world, is without a doubt, for me anyway, the sound of children laughing. It is pure joy.

I think Marla may have taken this photo of the girls, maybe in Puerto Rico, I came across it and knew it needed to be hanging on my wall, it's got such great emotion!! & they're wearing their cute matching Mimi dresses!

#138 Goldfinch in Sunflowers

During last summer's excursion to the sunflowers, we had a calendar of sunflowers to give us ideas and inspiration. Well, the entire time was so magical, and we loved every bit of being there, but we started making jokes, well, if only a goldfinch would land right in the middle of the patch... and lo and behold, a goldfinch landed right in the middle of the patch, just like in the calendar! I was so excited, until I looked at the images later, and of course, all of the ones with the birds are the dead, nasty looking flowers! Still way, way, cool. Yesterday, I thought a border might bring your attention even more to the bird...

#137 that's it?

So I was so inspired to create today where I've had a boring couple of weeks, but after a long day, & then making dinner (guess I do make it once in a while), Adriana wanted to make a duct tape purse, so that's what we did. Decided to make a wallet and low and behold, the day is at an end, and it seems that this is what I've got for today. My goodness. I feel so creative, and yet what I produce is well... not so very much!!! Maybe tomorrow!

#136 finally

my gosh... in the big scheme of things, that it took me less than two weeks to make a blanket should be a good thing, but boy was I happy to finish it last night. I'd thought about a ruffly edge, but thank God, I'm not a ruffly edge kind of girl because I don't think I could stand one more minute. It is perfectly baby sized (ended up about 38" square), I hope Olivia is warm & comfy with it!!! It was definitely created with love!

#131 bright future

Last Saturday, Adriana & I went to see the Lion King on Broadway, what fun we had. The show was amazing, we couldn't have loved it anymore, such a great time! And we had a lovely day just the two of us, wandering the streets, window shopping, etc. Of course the day would have been made more perfect for Adriana if we had happened upon the Cash Cab!!!!! Our entire waking day was spent on this venture, so I created an image that showed the fun of the day!

#128-#135 almost

oh man, I certainly cannot make a living at this. I have two rows left, it's now at 37" square, and after these crazy hazy, hot & humid days sitting with a blanket on my lap, I'm ready for it to be done!!!! Should be done tonight!!!

a cloudy day

So far, I've created four tiles for the deck, this is the largest one...it reminds me of a cloudy day with the different layers of colors in a brooding sky.  It's also awaiting grout, as are the other three. Tomorrow's project.

Maine

Well, it's been a while since I've posted...the days of my life have been way too busy to set aside time for this!  Unlike my wired sister, I went to Maine without a computer (but I didn't like the lack of cell service!) and didn't really create a thing.  And that was good, too.  But now I'm feeling like I've got all my ducks in a row (for the moment any way) work is okay, I'm organized & on top of things, my daughter's away until the end of the month, and after that wonderful trip I'm feeling centered again.  We have a little tiled deck byour kitchen door that keeps loosing tiles - it drives me crazy - so I decided to put my seaglass to good use.  All the sea glass in this mosaic is from Maine (mostly from that skeevy little section of beach that my sister mentioned a while back) and, even though it hasn't been grouted yet, it looks awesome.

#126 and #127 still going...

I've been crocheting my little heart out, the bigger it gets the longer it takes for sure! It's coming... I saw these great baby blankets at the library craft fair, $35. they were selling for!!!!! Oh my gosh. I'm so not going to be selling crochet anytime soon!

#125 Olivia's blanket part one

Our cousin Sian, had a baby last week, Olivia Kitty (isn't that the cutest name ever? she's named after her paternal great grandmother). So she needs a gift, I thought a big, chunky, baby blanket to lie upon would be perfect. But I'm neither that accomplished at crochet, nor do I have much free time now I'm back from vacation, taking portraits every day and trying to get the studio back in order, so it might take me a few days. This big granny square (16" nearly square) is the first bit...

#124 a house fit for a fairy

I have wanted to go to Monhegan Island to visit the fairy houses for years... I thought it might make the perfect ending to our Maine vacation, but when I thought about the logistics, I thought perhaps Mackworth Island would be a better fit. So we ended our fabulous trip to Acadia by visiting, and building fairy houses. Like the shirt my daughter brought home with her, Life is good.

(mine is the one with the shell flower, Adriana's is the fabulous one with the great birch bark cover, Ray found it for her, boy was I jealous! What a perfect home for some fairies...)

#123 the bear

Today was our last day of vacation, and it was just perfect. We went to the top of Cadillac Mountain (in the sunshine this time), went through the Gardens of Acadia, had yet another fabulous picnic, explored more tidepools, had a beer tasting at Atlantic Brewery, Lobster rolls for dinner... what could make this day even better? How about a sweet bear roaming through our backyard when we'd just finished dinner? Ray was like, 'oh look, a bear.' So nonchalantly, we almost missed what he said! What a treat!

#122 Bubble rock

Yesterday was a great day, we climbed up to the bubbles and bubble rock, of course we all had to take the pushing the giant erratic off the cliff photo! We had a super picnic out on a beautiful trail, overlooking the ocean, Great Island trail, gorgeous! We did a ranger program, Tide Pool school, amazing! We saw a Brittle seastar, sea urchins, anenomes, lots of different algaes, and learned all sorts of cool things about barnacles - we even got to see them eating with their feet! What a great place Acadia is...

#121 seaglass

Yesterday we explored Bar Harbor. Ray & I went to the actual bar that it was named for, and explored at low tide finding sea urchins, fabulous smooth rocks, cool barnacles, all sorts of things to discover, but no seaglass. Marla, who didn't come with us, found this skeevy little area next to a vacant building, and found the motherload of seaglass and sea pottery. So of course, I had to go check out that little spot too after all the good finds had been found! I'm still glad we did the beautiful venture (well mostly...)

#119 & 120 Acadia

Yesterday we went on one of the sunset horse rides along the carriage trails, it was just fabulous. And we walked along the ocean walk on the rocks leading to Thunder Hole. It is all so beautiful here! Today we hiked the Beehive trail, I have to admit, I am so proud of myself. I was awake for a good portion of the evening worrying about it, but today I decided I had the strength to climb it. It's almost 500 feet, nearly straight up, you climb using iron rungs and ladders, slightly nerve wracking if you're afraid of heights like me! Adriana did great, I was super proud of her too... We picnicked at Sandy beach (very cold water) both days. Every day is just so gorgeous here, it is going to be hard to come home...

#118 Acadia 1

Oh my gosh, Acadia is beautiful. Our house is super sweet. The weather is not completely delightful, but it's all good. The fireflies at night are amazing, there are so many and they twinkle everywhere you look. Went up the top of Cadillac Mountain today, albeit it in a layer of fog and cloud, still gorgeous, and had popovers and tea with some yummy seafood chowder at Jordan Pond House. Outside. A wonderful day...

#116 & 117 walking the dog

So this probably shouldn't have been a two day project, but life is busy, so there you go! Years ago I bought this for Lucy's leashes at the Ikea. I loved the way someone had put the dog's name on the sample, and came home and made my own. But I've always hated the colour I stamped it. It was this great brown ink that I loved on absolutely everything, but this. Not sure I like the green either... But the flowers are a cute addition!

#115 _ Knit Wit

Some days I know I have some serious issues. I'm not sure I know many people who would have to have the Knit Wit in it's original box, with all the pieces included, even the pom-pom maker as seen on TV! Someone liked it enough to buy Knit Wit pattern books even, who wouldn't want that? At least it was free, and I think tonight is the first time I've used it although I've had it for ages... Think I'm going to whip up the afghan next...

I should have a label for my freakish 70's crafts that noone else has done since, well, you know, the 70's...

#114 _ 4th grade

School's out for the summer. Let the games begin! I can't come up with any fabulous 4th grade memory at the moment, so I'll just post the image, and try to think of something later (how sad is that?)...

#113 3rd grade

One of my favorite memories from 3rd grade was the lighthouse trip, one of Adriana's too. I was lucky enough to get to chaperone, and it was so great. Made you feel so lucky to live on the Cape (many things do...). We got to go inside Nauset Light, one of the Three Sisters Lights, and Chatham Light. It was just such a perfect Cape Cod day. I love being with the kids too, they kept calling me "Adriana's Mom", as in, "excuse me, Adriana's mom, can we...?" I thought it was adorable.

It also was the first year she had to take the MCA's test. Amusingly she aced the math, got every question right. 3rd grade math, check.

Tomorrow marks the end of 4th grade. So the book will be done for now assuming I do that for tomorrow's project. 4th grade. Geeeeessshhh, where does the time go?

#112 Moon lanterns

Adriana & I made lanterns for the Moon festival today, yes, we know it's not until August! Think of how many we can make between now & then if we put our minds to it!!!

#111 the Queen {but wait, there's more}

You'll have to wait to see the Queen. Perhaps you should learn to curtsey while you're waiting... Obviously not my photo, but I think it's a totally gorgeous image of her.

#109 & 110 1st and 2nd

In 1st Grade, Adriana had Mrs. Drake, her favorite teacher to date. I remember going for our first parent/teacher conference with her, and expecting all glowing remarks about my amazing, talented child. Instead, Mrs. Drake told me how most days she was that same fabulous child I was expecting to hear about, and other days she thought I'd fed her pure sugar for breakfast she was so wild & keyed up. I think my jaw literally dropped. She's just a normal kid after all!
2nd grade was when she learned about the Saguaro, our visit to Arizona when we got to see one was one of my way early projects. Adriana made this really sweet Saguaro hotel with all the birds and animals that call the big giants home.

#108 Kindergarten

I decided I didn't want 'portraits' of Adriana in this album, I wanted it to be 'real' Adriana. I laughed out loud a lot of times as I was going through old photos of her. She is such a character!

Adriana met her bff Carly in Kindergarten, she came home and told us she had a friend named Curly. 'Are you sure it's not Carly?' I asked. 'No, I'm sure... it's Curly'. Still makes me giggle!

#107 school days

Last night, before the Bruins game (YEAH Bruins!), I finished this album I started in a class at Colorful Creations years ago... think Adriana was in Kindergarten or 1st grade. But now the album itself is finally done, and ready for the pages to be started, so I think there's K through 4 in your future.

#106 a colourful child

I still have the soccer one, and one more I'm thinking about, and then maybe I'll be done with the silhouette series, but how much fun are they? How funny that we cut her hair right in the middle of these!

Of course today, I could make the 'here's a child with a nasty stomach bug' silhouette, but the lighting in the bathroom isn't quite right...

I should really have a label that's called, 'thanks, Martha'.

#105 a childhood continued

Adriana wanted the accordian, but it didn't work as a silhouette. At all. The piano wasn't that great either! We still need a soccer playing Adriana and I'll be happy.

sailing, sailing

Well, this is the last of the gulls (thankfully) and they are meant to stand on the posts at the pier (my husband's job).  Behind them is one of 4 portholes, ready to cruise.  A little stressful trying to get this all done - perhaps I should have started a few weeks back...

#104 portraits of childhood...

This is a work in progress... but when I scanned in these two silhouettes I loved the way they looked together, and decided that this was it for today. Adriana does not play the trumpet, although she wanted to, she's the lucky owner of her grandfather's. It makes an ungodly noise when she plays it, but she is actually improving I must admit. She's working on Taps. The violin was the instrument for this year, but I don't think it will be continuing into her future... sadly...

As I'm a fan of blogs that tell me how to do things, here's a quick tutorial!
Creating silhouettes: Take a profile image against a light or white background, I used the doorway and the shower curtain! In Photoshop, I adjusted the contrast a little and then made it black & white. I printed it and cut it out very carefully with tiny scissors (the violin image I needed to do some of the detail work w/an Xacto knife). I then turned the image upside down so it was the plain white background and scanned it with a black piece of paper behind it. How easy is that? And wait, there's more fun to come!!!!

#103 felted scarf

Some wools work better for needle felting than wet felting, and I've found one. I crocheted this scarf back in March, when it was still scarf weather (although this weekend, you could have probably got away with wearing one on the Cape!), with the intent of felting it. I even alluded to it in my very first post. Fast forward almost a hundred days, and last night I worked & worked & worked to get the darn thing to felt, and it did, sort of. Just not really. I still have plans for this scarf, so it may just be the never ending project.

work? or art?

This morning (before running off to 2nd recital of 3) I painted wooden circles that my husband cut for me, 24 in all.  They are to go around portholes, to look like rivets, again for the big dinner dance.  Can't tell you the theme..it's a secret...but I'm sure you can make an educated guess....

seagulls everywhere

These guys are all similar, just choosing to fly the other way.  Pretty pleased with these (a lot of work for a 3-hour event!)

here a gull, there a gull

I've been making things for Maddy's big dinner dance next weekend and I find it's pretty time consuming - won't show you all the boring stuff but I made some seagulls for the photo backdrop - had to cut them from foam board and them painted - the wing span is about 18".

After all, tomorrow is another day

Well, life has been crazy - between work and meetings and dance recitals, we had no power for 44 hours.  Not only does it put a damper on internet use, it also puts a damper on creating...it's not much fun to come home from work and try and make something by lantern light.  God knows how the Old Masters did it (perhaps that's why they were masters!)

#102 jewelry 101

I totally need to take a soldering class. I'm hopeless at it. Ray said it was because the soldering iron I bought myself was useless, so he had me use his torch. Yeah, that worked well. The solder is much smoother than I normally get, but the photograph kept catching on fire! So I gave up on earrings & decided to use another piece of seaglass, what can happen to that? I thought to myself. Well it turns out it can get charred and get so hot it cracks. Hmmm. Who knew? So it's jewelry 101 for me, know any teachers?

#101 wedded bliss

This is another of those portraits that came with the studio... Every time I look at it I think to myself, I need to sew some of those flowers. So today I did. Think it may still need a little something else. And like those other people, if you know these two, let me know, you can have them!

#100 Senior portraits

This is certainly pushing it, but I spent literally all day creating high school senior templates and cards for the upcoming class of 2012, and by the time I got home, walked the dog, ate dinner, I had nothing left in me. Not a creative drop. I could barely move. So it's not my finest day, and it's the closest I've come to cheating.

One of my favorite senior portraits on the beach from last summer is the front of my mini cards this year. Thanks Hannah!

#99 Jellyfish

I love jellyfish. I know that they're taking over the world, and causing all kinds of havoc in the sea world, but man, they're cool.

...and honestly, that's totally our fault, not theirs!

#98 flower

after 11pm again, oh dear... what to do? a little kirigami flower, perfect! The center is the back of my friend's wedding dress!