#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!

#97 portrait of fall

Just another of those days where creating took a seat, really, really, really far in the back... But I got to create senior portraits on the beach last night, what a gorgeous night it was for that! Sometimes living on Cape Cod is what it's all about.

life is but a dream

Still not back to my author cards...I barely stay in the realm of literacy these days.  I think it's because I've so much stuff to do at work and so many books to read for my committee that I have had it a bit with libraries and books.  Yikes, did I really say that?  But, that's just today.  Tomorrow, after all, is another day. 

so many books...

So little time!  Remember in grade school when our teachers would read to us?  We'd put our work away, and lay our heads on our desks, ready to be transported away....    Some days I think it would be lovely to relax and listen to a story that someone is reading to me...I know there are books on CD but that requires work!  I don't want to have to listen in my car or get up to change a disc...I just want to hear a good story.  Mom? Care to read to me?

#96 Solitude

I've always wanted to try encaustic painting, and I'm getting closer. I've bought myself a book (the International Encaustics Conference is in P-town this week, which started up my need to try it again, of course it being a very busy time at my studio, I didn't sign up for any of the classes, probably should have anyway!) So yesterday, I just did a little beeswax painting. Man did my art room smell soooooooo good, still does this morning actually! There were moments last night that I loved this image, by the time it was done I was certainly less enamored with it! So although this is supposed to be a journey using supplies I've already got, I can't use those big hunks of beeswax until I get a little resin, seems okay to me!

#95 felted seaglass

I love seaglass. Marla & I both do. We can spend hours searching for the perfect pieces (much easier in Puerto Rico where everything is thrown in the ocean - sad for the earth, nice for seaglass hunting). So last night I decided to try to combine two things I love, but unfortunately, I don't actually know how to wet felt, so didn't work out quite the way I'd planned. The felt bit worked just fine, the wrapping it bit, not quite as well!

a promise

I have decided to stop taking this art thing as yet one more thing to do today and embrace it with a more relaxed attitude.  I love making stuff, I love this blog, and I need to remember that.  So, I promise to smell the flowers along the way on these beautiful days and create as I can.

edith

I found this fabulous photo of Edith Wharton in her party gown, probably taken on her way outside to take tea under the wisteria hanging over the grand porch of her mansion in Massachusetts.  I remember having to read Ethan Frome and The House of Mirth for school requirements and finding her writing slow and sparse.  Perhaps it's time to revisit her; I could certainly use a gentle read - something slow-moving right now!

go wild

I photographed this card on my peony tree - I thought it was only right that max should be swinging around in a junglelike setting and I chose this photo because the shadow of the leaf looks like a monster claw.  How cool is that?  Where the Wild Things Are was both of my sons favorite book when they were little.  We read it so many times that I can still recite it by heart!

#94 photos of Adriana

One of the things my life, more importantly my art room, lacks is organization. Figured if maybe I had a place to put some of those gazillion photos, maybe I'd neaten up the place a little. Used those old Ritz boxes which I've got about a million of as I never throw anything out. All of the embellishments were scraps left on my workspace from previous projects. I think there's a name for this.

#93 daisy chair

A couple of weeks ago this chair was at the swap shop, I knew it needed to come home with me and live at the studio. Turns out it's from sometime between 1930 and 1935, kind of cool. It was caned, and the caning was ripped to bits (it had been previously re-caned). Learning to cane is not on my list of things to do, so I had Ray make a new seat for me which I covered with my same felted (or fulled if you prefer) sweater from the other day. My photo was going to be my lovely daughter with the new seat and my braided rug, but she's a girl and sometimes girls are a little tricky. So it turns out to be a portrait of a chair. When I got home from Adriana's violin concert I decided it still needed a little something, so I felted a daisy for the corner. Now I'm thinking it might live with me instead of my props.