Fun project for "junk" mail

Half a dozen garden catalogs arrived yesterday,of course I'm deciding which ones to cancel and making sure they all get recycled but in between things I think it's fun to save the pictures I like,add them to this bordered paper I had on hand and then attempt to draw some of the flowers to decorate that days letters. Yes, I do write a LOT and I try to keep them as visually bright as possible as many of those I write to are loosing their sight. I don't save up a lot of pictures, just try to use things up and pass them along as they come in. Perhaps that will create a positive energy flow around here which could affect everyone and everything around here. What a Great Way to start the New Year ! I may even return to my tradition of locking myself in the studio on New Years Eve and not coming out again until the day that first painting of the New Year is finished...at which point I emerge, eat half the planet and pass out. (perhaps not such a good idea after all...)

Making the best of it

While the studio is more or less under construction and everything is tossed aside I'm "playing" with the mail and recycling clippings from my garden catalogs into stationery to write my friends and a few favorite relatives. This also gives me a chance to get those pencils sharpened and try drawing a few types of flowers that I haven't tried before. (the drawing is on the envelope and Yes, I'm going to need a lot more practice to get it right which of course is why I do it on envelopes instead of investing in a sketchbook.)

Weekend projects

I've just put the kettle on as I write this . A cup of tea sounded like a good idea and I find myself wondering how long a person can survive on Ramen before they have to get their butt in gear and go grocery shopping. Not worrying about that just now as I take turns between working on the afghan in the house and the sheet rock in the studio. My hubby and I have a system where he does all the top bits and I do anything I can reach from the floor. We're doing walls right now so I have no idea why I shot the ceiling except that I LOVE those doors and the way the light bounces off the pattern in the leaded glass. YES, I am easily distracted by shiny objects but then you knew that or you wouldn't be reading this, would you?

A quiet Christmas

Staying in today except for brief attempts to clear the driveway and a few paths around to everything. The phone and internet gave us a chance to keep in touch with everyone until we get ready to head out of here and visit folks. I'm crocheting an afghan which feels kind of nice in this weather and from time to time I go back and sharpen a few more of the great colored pencils that Doug bought me. It's the biggest set I've ever seen so I'll be at this for a while. In the meantime I'm thinking about all of the other ways to be spending a Christmas and wishing you all a great one.

The start of the snowstorm

It's Christmas Eve day and Doug just shot this video while I put on a pot of coffee so we'l start our day by sharing it with you. As you can see he's shovelled a path to the studio so I may head out there for a while as another wave of snow is headed through in a few hours and may derail our plans to spend the evening with family in town. Yes, this IS Minnesota and we should expect things like that. I'm just glad I dropped off presents at thanksgiving, "just in case". Meanwhile, I'm finishing a cozy Christmas afgahn as Dougie's present this year. With this sort of weather it just may be more useful than a lot of things I could have bought.

Bag Lady

Well, I've been away from this blog quite a while. As you can see I've been sorting through fabrics and "playing" at the sewing machine. No one seems to buy art these days but everyone needs somewhere to put things so these bags should come in handy and of course I'm enjoying a little extra shelf space as I continue to sort things out. I'll try to write here more often as I do.

Did you notice that the handle on one of the bags is made out of a necktie ? Who knows what I'll come up with next. Be sure to keep reading and I'll try to keep it interesting. Bye for now.

Shiny

You never know where you'll find a bit of inspiration or what will make you smile but I couldn't resist shooting pictures of the way this looked this morning. Yes, I'm easily distracted by shiny objects...

All together now

Here's the painting as it started (you can read back to the post where I painted over it & made changes this year) The center photo was the image transferred to fabric 10 or 15 years ago and pieced and hand quilted. The interesting thing about this quilt is that the artwork was all different sizes from 4 inches square to 16 X 20 inches so it was odd to see everything in similar sizes and one block was even scanned from a piece of painted furniture which is also gone as are a lot of the paintings I used in it and so it's fun to curl up in your work, remember, dream and take a nap-now there's art you can use.