3 generations and 8 place mats later

 The little piece you see around the edge and a couple of much smaller ones are all that remain of that fabric so this project worked out just about perfect.

 Yes,those are the place mats. This fabric (which seems to be some sort of canvas or heavy twill) was just printed on one side. It would have been great in a sun room, porch or on a patio if there'd been more of it this time around.

 The last time I had this fabric out I made tote bags with it.

I'll be finishing those place mats today, there are still 4 of them at the sewing machine. Getting that project done cleared out almost 1/2 of the box I'd stored the fabric in so I'll be sorting and re arranging some of those smaller plastic boxes and should come out of this with one or two that I can use for other projects as I move on through the debris field here. Each project leads to the next or builds on it but I'm so busy sorting it out that I can't really see where it's leading, I just know that I'm moving forward and even slow progress IS progress.

Prosperity, Luck and the attempt to bring it about

I'm trying to decide if I've overworked this little painting by making the table area more intense. What do you think?
The colors in this are supposed to bring prosperity and good luck so I'm hoping they will.
It's hanging in my kitchen now.

Inspiration, Process and Prosperity

I've been working on the house again and reading a book called "Move Your Stuff, Change Your Life. How to use Feng Shui..." and it turns out that The messiest corner in my kitchen is supposed to be my "prosperity" corner so in addition to cleaning it up, repainting and putting new shelf paper in the cabinet I decided to paint a little watercolor in "prosperity" colors to hang on the wall based roughly on a small photo I'd taken of flowers from my garden in a small vase that I shot last year. In the first picture you see me getting started on the painting, in the center I've thrown coarse salt into the wet paint to draw off some of the color and produce the textured look you see in the finished painting. (yes, most of the salt shakes or brushes off as soon as the paint is dry) it's a bit messy to work with but the results are interesting. I tried it in the background of a painting the other day and will post a picture of that one soon. Anyway, I'm thinking it works for me-we sold 3 DVD's today and are hoping to see more improvement in all of our efforts soon.