#61 Buddha

So here's a sad thing, I'm not completely sure where Buddha is... I am pretty sure he's in the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco. He was adorned by flowers, so beautiful and so peaceful I just had to take his portrait. I remember the moment, just not the location!! I picked a Myrtle flower in Aunt Ann's garden when we went to her funeral on Monday, and although you can scarcely see it in this copy, thought it went beautifully with the other flowers... He's lost his halo, but unexpected company puts a damper on creating!! Like numerous others in the past two months, maybe he'll get finished one day!

{Amusingly, I dyed the paper he's sitting on with tea, when tea gets stale I put it in my art room for that very purpose, tho' my everday black tea rarely goes stale I drink so darn much of it... occassionally I'll get some decaf or something else that doesn't get drunk quickly enough... I must have lost a box of Earl Grey at the back of the closet or something as I have an old stash of those tea bags I've had forever in my supplies, which is what I used today. I almost had to stop mid creating to run to the store to buy some Earl Grey, it smelled soooooooooooo good I could hardly stand it!!!!}

every little girl's dream

...is to be a princess.  I guess some of us have princesses on the brain lately, what with the royal wedding and all (please note the date on this card - 29 - the royal wedding day date!) which is why I chose to give Meg Cabot, prolific author of The Princess Diaries a card!  It didn't have quite the look I was thinking of when I started ... but with our time constraints it certainly celebrates being a princess well - all sparkly and pink and tiaras and ballgowns!

#60 through this window...

In 1981, I was looking through this window at the Union Jacks we'd put all along the hedgerow out front to celebrate the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana. We watched the entire thing of the telly, but at least it was at a decent time of day! One of my favorite things that day were the little metal caps on the milk bottles delivered to the door that morning were printed with "HRH Prince Charles to Lady Diana" or something, know I have one somewhere, I'll have to go on a hunt for it!

When I came across this photo of Capper's kitchen window I was immediately transported there... (I also have images of the milk bottles too, so keep your eye out for them!)

choices...

This week's NYT Book Review highlighted a memoir about William Styron written by his daughter.  We recently read Sophie's Choice for book group and I was taken aback at how autobiographical the character Stingo was ... and Stingo was rather foul in the story.  I think it might have tainted my memories of him after reading the book! The Styron's Connecticut home is around the corner from my house, so many afternoons I'd pass Bill Styron walking along, with or without a dog.  He was always friendly but never really looked cheerful.  In Stuart's baby book I have an envelope (that once contained a generous savings bond) welcoming "Stewart" to the world.  It was simply signed, in blue sharpie, Bill Styron.

#59 Fathers and daughters

This totally needs a poem or some little inspirational quote about dads and daughters, but I could neither find nor come up with one... Figure it'll probably end up on this year's Father's Day card, so I've got a while to come up with something!

Anyone have any brilliant ideas for me?

the world thanks Rachel

As I try to find different authors for these cards (it's harder than you might think!) I found a photo of Rachel Carson and i mmediately imagined her surrounded by butterflies.  As she progressed, she gained butterfly hair which I think  looks quite fabulous!  I'd like to add a few butterflies to my hair - but if they look anything like the gorgeous hair clip my sister bought me for her wedding, I'd better pass.  (I look like a creepy 12-year old with hair clips!)  Now my sister, she could rock butterflies woven into her gorgeous mane of hair!

#58 Eilean Donan

On that same trip to Callanish we stopped and had lunch at Eilean Donan castle. We didn't go in or anything, we had a ferry to catch, but wow what a gorgeous view for lunch... Some day I'd like to go back and explore this bit of the world...

speaking of cappers...

When my sister and I were young, one set of grandparents was in London, the other in their little stone cottage in Cornwall.  The drive between them was long but I always knew we were getting close when my mom would point out the Jamaica Inn.  The rough, craggy Cornwall coastline was home to Daphne du Maurier's books, and although I've never read Jamaica Inn, I feel like it's been a part of my life forever.

#57 - Callanish {one}

When I was a teenager, I saw a watercolour painting of the Callanish stones in the Outer Hebrides at Capper's house, and I couldn't wait to get there. I have some great Callanish stories, but todays is simply this. I had been wanting to get there for so long (over two decades), when I came up over the hill and the massive stones were in view for the first time I literally cried I was so overcome by emotion.

(my house isn't going to have a b&w left in it this time next year!)

feeling like Banksy

I was ready yesterday's paper this morning (yes - I am a little behind in the news...it takes me all week to read the Sunday NY Times let alone yesteday's Hartford Courant) and I saw this photo of a giant missile hole through a building and immediately thought, what would Banksy do with this?  Banksy, a truly talented British street artist, creates on broken pavement, derelict buildings, old billboards, you name it, under the cover of the night.  No one knows what he looks like (or so it's said!).  So, Inspired by Banksy, I put off the poor dog to create a little hope for Libya this morning.

#56 - Does anybody really know what time it is?

The other day this song came on the radio, back when we were kids, Chicago was one of Marla's favorite bands. I still always think of her whenever I hear them.

As I was singing along, I thought what a great illustration this would make, all I need is a busy street scene (not so easy on Cape Cod this time of year...) So when Marla brought us to NYC last weekend, I made a point of taking some shots to play with! Times Square won.

for Matt

We recently had this very cool artist hang a show at the library, Matt Wood.  His work is large, mainly black and white and some of it is a bit alarming.  But it's all fabulous.  Matt is also a compulsive journal maker - he left out reams of paper for patrons to interact with his art (although he invited them to write/color/draw in his journals, no one actually did - they all preferred a blank sheet to create on).  Matt is then going to create another piece of artwork from the doodles & drawings left by patrons (including my sister who was inspired to create her hammered flower piece) so I couldn't let the exhibit end without adding to the pile!  I used a press release I had sent out to the papers for his exhibit and included so words from the article, too.  I am going to miss the gigantic, bold pieces (I think next month's exhibit is bird photos....no comment).

#55 - Alice

Happy Easter. I started this collage this morning, and after everyone had left and we'd cleaned up all of the mess, I went back to it... everything I tried to add I didn't like... so it stays the way it started this morning... simple...

I took this photo of Adriana wearing the aforementioned Queen of Hearts dress made by our Nanna on my old cell phone at the pumpkin patch! I came across it yesterday, and couldn't resist it!!! You'll see her again in it, I'm sure! The book the page is from is one from my collection, it was given as a Christmas gift in 1919!!!

out of my league

I found this great photo of a deep-sea diver and (amazingly - it's only about an inch tall) saved it for a future project - and today was the day - it's perfect for 20,000 Leagues Below the Sea.  This another book I've never read but I have been on the Disneyworld ride (the old and the new version) multiple times.  That's gotta count for something, doesn't it?

#54 - colourful zebras

If you're ever going to pop in unexpectedly, could you please make it very soon? Today would be good.
We're having dinner tomorrow, so we spent the day cleaning and making raviolis, my husband tried to convince me that making 100 of the little suckers had to count! We finally got around to dyeing eggs after 8, and decided to go the old fashioned route, some food colouring and vinegar... they're quite lovely. Simple, but lovely. Fortunately, I had some cute photographs I'd taken at the Franklin Park Zoo to play with today! I dyed a zebra a couple of different ways, and the lion originally was purple but you couldn't even tell, so I made him yellow, which you also can't tell! The zebras were way more satisfying!!!

the black spot

Treasure Island is one of those wonderful old stories that have you hooked from the first page...I wish I had more hours in the day to devote just to reading; the time I spend seems most inadequate - I read at bedtime with my mighty book light and fall asleep quite easily.  Of course, I wake up later with a cramp in my arm from holding the book at some oddly adjusted angle, my eyes too blurry to read on.  Some mornings, I think I can squeeze a little reading time in between walking the dog and washing my hair.  Inevitably, I am late for work or for whatever the day holds in store.  But I am not thwarted!  I will fit reading in, whether it be waiting for my daughter's dance class to finish or over leftovers at work, and it's all because of treasures like Treasure Island that cleared this path of devotion!   

#53 - Easter wreath

So I figured today being Earth Day, I'd create a recycled project... but I came home to our Easter wreath hung on the door, which I've hated for, well many years, and thought to myself, "I could either throw the darn thing out, or save it from the landfill by giving it a little love". (You missed the hanging by an old silver stretchy cord, that's way overstretched, and the lovely raffia bow...) So that's today. Of course, I loved it before I added the polka dots and stripes, so if you ever come visit at Easter, you may find it doesn't look quite the same! Nothing to do with photography, so I added my gorgeous niece Maddy & the Easter Bunny.

a fairy song

My sister and I grew up with the flower fairy poems by Cicely Mary Barker.  The poems by themselves aren't much, but pair them with her exquisite fairy paintings and they become unforgettable.  We've both spent countless hours sharing these lovely works with our girls (and our boys! Thank you, Cicely for including boy fairies - they work especially well as tree fairies!)  I wrote the entire Rose Hip Fairy poem on this card and didn't like the way it looked under the gorgeous Rose Hip fairy, so I wiped over it with more paint and I actually like the depth it gives her.

#53 _ Aunt Ann

We lost Ray's Aunt Ann today, and when you've been with someone for 23 years, his Aunt Ann is also your Aunt Ann. She was one of the most lovely people I've ever known, truly.

Everytime I saw her she always talked about the white peaches from Connecticut (and her photographer grandson who she was so proud of), I will miss those conversations. I will miss her.

#51 F is for Face

and fairies and flies...

#50 _ Tyger Tyger

When we spent the night at my nephew's in Brooklyn, we were discussing William Blake at an ungodly hour... seems appropriate that my first block was T for 'Tyger' (okay really it was T for telephone booth, which is my photo on the other side!).

yet another unfinished but presentable enough project...

#49 _ the dunes

So I was sitting in my fabulous guest room at my sisters, woke up and hand-coloured this b&w I took years ago... unfortunately the dye pens reacted badly w/the paper I used, so it's pretty bad. The art is bad, the day was fantastic... This week was not all about the art, it was about enjoying time with my sister and her family, and oh how we did!

remember my name

Anytime someone comes into the library and asks for The Diary of Anne Frank, I always feel a sort of melancholy.  To think of what happened to normal families like hers during WW2 still seems unfathomable today, even though we know it truly occurred. Anne was a strong young woman, and partly because of her, we'll always remember what happened to millions of people...and even though we can't remember all the names of everyone who perished, remembering hers will help us remain aware.

wednesday, april 20 ... virginia

Ah, Virginia Woolf.  My sister & I realized that between the two of us, we've read exactly zero books by her.  So, she's on my 'to read' list now.  I did pick up a biography about her but it's so poorly written that it probably should be a discard, not a resource!  The background is a letter from VW written in her own handwriting.  I think it adds an element of of beauty to card.

tuesday, april 19th - feeling blocked

Apologies for my terrible, horrible camera.  Between it and the wind this afternoon, I am lucky I still have hair.  Sarah asked my husband for a couple of wooden items that included wood cubes - when we came back from nyc there was a big pile of blocks just waiting for us, calling make me into something - so we cut and pasted and laughed all the while we created.  The upper block is the letter "P", the lower vintage Life Magazine photos.  They would look so much better if you could actually see what's on them...

monday, april 18 ... nyc

As we were visiting all week - art was created everyday, just not posted! I marked something off my life list with my sister & our girls on Monday...I walked over the Brooklyn Bridge!  Not sure why it has held so much fascination for me, but it did and now I'm looking forward to crossing it again, this time from Manhattan to Brooklyn.

#48 - spring

Today I'm at my sister's, panicking because I need to create... so I borrowed a hammer from her husband, and made a impression print of leaves & flowers I found in her garden. The stems & leaves are photos by Marla of some tiles she loved at a potters in Pennsylvannia years (& years) ago...

a little Gorey

Near where my sister lives is Edward Gorey's house.  We took our girls there when they were fairly young, and much to our horror there a macabre scavenger hunt throughtout the house - you had to find all the Gashly Crumb Tinies in their various states of demise...imagine our shock when our beautiful blond babies were saying  "look, I found George smothered under a rug" or  "there's Amy who fell down the stairs"... once my sister got into looking for all the tiny people who died tragically (my favorite was Zillah who drank too much gin) it lost it's horrific meaning and simply was fun, the way quirky Edward Gorey had intended it.  After all, with a name like that, how could you not be a little gorey?

fell flat today

I have had a million things to do today and I still haven't done them all - so I was at the forget about it point but it made me too guilty to think I hadn't created today (I've done laundry, tidied, made a new room for my sister's visit, driven my daughter all over, and I am so ready for bed but my bed is in pieces as I type..).  So, for my sanity, I've posted Flat Stanley (colored by yours truly) on the Appalachian Trail in New Hampshire.  We hiked part (a good sized part) of the Presidential Range and took Stanley along for our adventure - when the wind wasn't blowing and the sun was shining I was able to take this photo...sadly, Stanley lost an arm on this adventure, but trooper that he is, he made it all the way home with little complaint.  Now, I am going to produce some real art, 'cause this was really cheating!  But I did draw it, and I did color it, I did style & photograph it, just not today...

#47 - the gas pump

I was out photographing a friend of mine, years ago, for the cover of a Cd he was making... He brought me to this old gas pump while we were out because he knew I'd love it... which of course I did. I always said I was going to go back when the light was right, blah, blah... but never did, and now it's been gone for years. A little hand-colouring, and dimensional paint for the flowers... think I may have gone overboard, because now the flowers compete with the pump...

I'm off to Marla's for a few days, I've packed a few images, who knows what will be created... (other than lot's of laughter and happiness!!!)

#46 - 16 tiles of inspiration {one}

Many years ago, we were tiling a window sill and my husband, Ray, bought a set of tiles he just knew I would adore. They were about 3x3 and came in a sheet of 16. Kind of light blue with explosions of other blue in the glaze, I couldn't stand them. Thought they were hideous. Uggh*. (The sill remains un-tiled, and un-finished to this day). But I kept them, because well, that's what I do. I'll make something with them. But of course, everytime I looked at them I thought, ugghhh... Yesterday I was reading an article about an artist's studio, and she had on her wall a collection of images that inspired her. So I thought to myself, that's what I'll do with those nasty little tiles... So today it's these beautiful foxgloves from my garden, I find much inspiration in the beauty of flowers. Would have been way more inspiring, except I got home from a seminar this evening after 10, so it's kind of rushed. I've decided I can revisit anything at anytime if I feel like it, because I hate feeling like I'm not done all of the time.

Oh, & P.S. *(Marla who has some of the best taste in anyone I know, liked them, so perhaps he could have been right).

A few leaves.

Thank goodness for the newspapers...I was at a loss (seems to be a real dilemma lately) of what to make and I came across an article about a researcher, who, while going through Civil War documents, found nearly 3,000 letters and papers written by Walt Whitman.  Whitman was a clerk for the attorney general long before he wrote Leaves of Grass at age 40.  The papers aren't poems, they are simply legal documents that he transcribed, but they give insight on his views at the time.  The article described an interesting guy;  at one point he was dismissed for his clerk job at the Bureau of Indian Affairs because Interior Secretary James Harlan deemed his poetry immoral, and he visited tens of thousands of wounded and sick soldiers during the war, writing poetry all the while.

#45 - one of my favorite things...

I showed Adriana last night's project, she liked it... but commented that all of the images I used were really old... so here's a more current portrait (but still not new in the life of a 10 year old!!!). What you can't read is 'There are few things in life I love as much as this face' and that goes way beyond the physical, it is this soul is so amazing, she brings me such joy, she is truly the most wonderful part of my life...

How quickly time passes us by.

Maddy was invited to a book club that recently was reading Little Women.  She was the only one there under 40!  She likened the experience to hanging out with the yayas (she had just finished reading The Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood) which cracked me up.  There are some parts I adore about my daughter growing older, like the conversation blossoming into the adult realm, but sometimes, when the light is just right, I see her with her hair in a pony tail on top of her head, squatting down to look at something in her stripey tights and purple suede books and think, ah, where did the time go?  She is now a little woman after all.

#44 - Adriana in chair

This was a Christmas series, I think Adriana was 3 (judging by her hair...) we sent out 4 different images on our cards (this wasn't one of them...) from very shy (my fave) to laughing out loud, to a nice little smile to hmmm can't remember... have them all somewhere... This looked like it needed to be 'antiqued'... so I tried. Thought she needed a hat of some sort, but I couldn't find one I liked, so you may see her again...

Adriana & I went to Soup Bowls for Hunger tonight, got to choose a gorgeous pottery bowl to have our delicious soup in... last year they raised $40K for the food pantry! Our Girl Scout troop helped decorate about 100 of the bags that were placemats and then used to take the empty bowls home... we loved looking for ones we made (yes, I helped finish up those last few!!) Can't wait to add to our collection next year!!

Now we are six.

The poem swirling around A.A. Milne's head is "The Friend" and it stars Christopher Robin & Pooh.  I am sorry you can't read it easily as it's very sweet; it may just be time to invest in a camera that I can take photos closer than 3 feet away without blurriness!  You can hardly see tiny Piglet resting on his shoulder!

When I was a little girl, I can remember my mother reading to me from one of A.A. Milne's book of poems.  My favorite always was "Now We Are Six", I loved it for it's childish simplicity, and, rereading it today, I found I still knew the poem by heart.  The one my mother always read to me was "The Good Little Girl", with the refrain "Have you been a good girl?" repeated multiple times - I wonder if she was trying to give me a hint?

#43 - The Four Stones

When Adriana was little we took her on a megalithic stone tour of Wales, she was delightful, such a trooper... Just happy and game for anything... So we arrived after hours of driving to this site, The Four Stones (aka The Four Kings) at Old Radnor, in a plowed field that was very earthy smelling (yes, other people may just come out & say all you could smell was cow manure)... Both her and Ray were less than impressed... "Want to play duck, duck, goose?" I asked... and all was happy again in stone searching land... 'duck... duck... duck...'

Whodunit?

I found this great photo of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ~ gotta love that handlebar mustache!  I've new been much of a mystery reader, so I focused more on the bloodiness of the "crime" and less of on the solving of it; please note my bloody fingerprint in the corner!  Funny, the color scheme is similar to Julia Child's... The background was this neat scrap of paper that someone left in the library while doing some genealogy work years back; it had a list of birth and death dates scribbled on it, along with some random names - perfect for a Sherlock Holmes card, except, once again, I got carried away with the paint and very little of it is visible!

#41 & #42 - another diaper cover (w/flower)

I couldn't post just another diaper cover yesterday, so today I felted a flower to go on it so at least it was slightly decorated... might make another out of flower out of felt I'm thinking as this wasn't the look I was going for...

Let's hear it for the girl!

Yesterday's NYT Book Review had a short article about author Beverly Cleary.  Cleary, once a librarian herself, felt she could write better books  for children than were currently available at the time; welcome to the world, Ramona! Cleary wrote books to entertain, not educate, and wrote the type of books she was looking for as a child: "If I suspected the author was trying to show me how to be a better behaved girl, I shut the book." I LOVE that quote!

We'd better be brave!

I found this photo in the newspaper and it stuck with me - when I glued it down and looked at it closely, all I could think of was Brave New World by Huxley.  I imagine, for our younger generations, they will have to be brave to face the messes we're going to pass along to them.  Sorry for being so maudlin today...I did photograph the card on some baby kale greens waiting to be planted...adding a little hope to the image!

#40 - el bateye Caguana (dos)

I only pulled the two off the wall, so who knows what will happen to {tres}... might just stay b&w and boring!!!! {doubtful}

(one of these days I'm hoping to replace my own point & shoot so I can stop using my daughter's camera for these photos!!! maybe even do something crazy like white balance!!)

Just a little curious.

 My Roald Dahl loving son also adored Curious George, much to my surprise.  It took me a long time to warm to the naughty little monkey!  When I found the picture of George and the inkwell, I immediately knew that the ink would flow down over the Reys...poor H.A. - something weird happened while I was painting - two drips of water? gesso?  somehow got on each side of his glasses, making him somewhat cross eyed (I don't believe he was in real life!) so he looks a bit goofy.

#39 - el bateye Caguana (uno)

Way up in the mountains in Puerto Rico, in a tiny town called Caguana, near Utuado are these fabulous Taino Indian ball courts that are lined with petroglyphs... I've been lucky enough to go twice and just think it's one of the most fabulous places (if you can handle the journey getting there!). Photographing natural light means that sometimes you lose your sky, in b&w if you expose for say, a petroglyph in the middle of the day, your sky goes completely white - ugghhh. Very unappealing. So I've got this set of b&w images I've had up for years (took them in '99) and always think I'll scan in the negs. and play with them. Well today, I just took them off the wall and painted and dyed them. Looks so much better. It's a triptych series, so you'll probably get bored by #3, but gosh I'm happier already!

(sorry about the warpy image...)

She's a master!

I kept wanting to add more to this card but couldn't really decide what - all I could think of was that old Saturday Night Live clip with Dan Ackroyd as Julia Child and was so distracted by those memories of the giant flesh wound that I found it difficult to add anything else! (maybe that's why my color choice is so red... )  The base of the card is Julia's recipe for Boeuf Bourguignon from The Art of French Cooking.  In book group we read about Julia Child - I found her fascinating. 

#38 - Flower Fairy

Almost went to bed instead of creating tonight, I'm barely hanging on... I love Mary Cicely Barker's flower fairies, learned tonight there's this great website, I'll have to share it with Adriana.

Toad in the Hole

The Wind in the Willows was on of the first books I read aloud to both of my sons together.  We loved reading about crazy Toad and his obsession with fast cars, the picnics on the riverbanks with Ratty and Mole, and the wonders of Toadhall.  The boys were equally as delighted the following year to go on Toad's Wild Ride in Disneyworld: a neon colored, blacked lighted, fast moving, crazy fun ride with Toad in his little car.  When we visited Disney years later with their little sister in tow, the boys couldn't wait to take her on this ride - but in true Disney fashion, it had been replaced with something newer (I think it was to do with Winnie the Pooh, so it certainly lost it's wild ride status!).

#37 - S - I - L - H - O - U - E - T - T - E

I can't even think the word silhouette without Adriana's little sing songy S I L H O U E T T E - it was one of the first big words she learned to spell (I think in the second grade...)

Taught a portrait workshop tonight to the Cape Cod Viewfinders, great fun, think it went over well... I'm as goofy when I speak as when I blog or anything else... Didn't get home until 10, so I was completely finishing this ATC I've almost got finished, but... in total Sarah fashion couldn't find it!

While searching, I found this silhouette of me from a few years back... I think it was a Martha Stewart thing, take profile photos on Polaroid 600 film (now you know it's been a while!) and then cut them out and use the (black) back side and voila, a perfect silhouette (double chin? oh darn, I cut that a little closer to the jaw line than I meant to!) Was making a matching pair of me & Adriana (Adriana & I?) for our dollhouse, but (now here's a huge surprise) I can't find hers!!!!! (Adriana's was a silhouette we'd had done at the fair when she was little, know it's in the front of a book somewhere, which book, yeah, no idea).

#36 - Baby bed finished

I saw this pattern on Etsy way before I could even attempt to begin to crochet it, and had to have it, I thought it was so gorgeous! So here it is in (perhaps) it's final state, I may still add a little fringe here and there!!! And then there's a baby to pop on it...

Couldn't post yesterday, because there was no way I was photographing the fringe by anything other than natural light!!!!

Off to teach a workshop tonight, so who knows what you'll get out of me today...

Let me tell you a tale...

I'm sure the two cities Dickens wrote about didn't included the NYC skyline but you work with what you have!  My stack of author cards is growing pretty large - some of them I love, some I don't like at all!  I think I will feel a weird sense of loss (if) when I use the library cards all up.