The Journey Continues

 Today I'm picking up where I left off on the canvas that used to be a teapot painting.

I didn't have a real plan in mind so I decided to do a neurographica exercise in paint on the canvas instead of in ink on paper like I did yesterday.

I enjoyed doing it a lot more like that and was fairly pleased with the results. I'm not sure where the painting will go from here but I think it's got a good base structure to work with now.

Who knows, I may do tomorrow's pages that way too. It may not improve my painting but it's doing wonders for my mood and my sleep.

It's Thursday now and as you may have guessed I just couldn't leave that painting alone.

I kind of fell into it. And the canvas reflected that.

I got a bit lost after that but enjoyed the wandering. I am indeed more of a "process person" when it comes to art and you'll never find a piece of awe inspiring beauty here but you will come across some fun ways of looking at things and processing the bits an pieces in life that come our way.

What a difference a day makes. I find myself  hearing those words in a song Nat King Cole sang. I seem to have my own personal soundtrack in life. Nearly everything reminds me of a song lyric or a movie quote. Are any of the rest of you that way? It entertains me as I work.

I'm pretty happy with this so far and will go back to worrying about why more of you aren't at least following my zazzle stores if the blog doesn't interest you. I must be doing something wrong and have yet to figure it out. Any comments?

Well, I'm off to zazzle to see if I can figure things out there. I figure if my own family isn't interested enough to follow me there has to be something wrong with me or them. What do you think?

It's Saturday now and I'm still painting over and over this canvas. I may just have to set it aside and move on to something else.

It looks different here because I gessoed over it and tried painting with watercolor instead. That lead me in a whole different direction which I continue to pursue.

At this point we decided it was finished and hung it on the gallery wall.

Pulling Ideas Together: Hats, Flowers etc.

There are a lot of things I've been wanting to try for a long time and I've finally gotten around to working on them.

I started with a red hat and a purple hat to honor my Grandmother and my Mother.

Next I added a straw hat to honor my other Grandmother who used to take me to her little County Fair.

I threw in cups, saucers and a teapot to honor my friends who visit me for tea.

As you can see here part of the designs that are on the purple hat are the same ones that I used on the wheelchair ramp that I painted in front of my house.

So is the band on the red hat.

Of course the daisies began to creep in too.

Did you figure out why I put stripes in the background? I just had to continue with the theme I used on my wheelchair ramp project. I guess you could say the stripes represent the posts.

Grandma Julia, the straw hat is for you.

The design is still evolving and I'm working in some fun touches that remind me of my siblings as well.

I've wanted to include all the favorite things about my family and my garden so I needed to add roses here as well.

Things were looking pretty good at this point but I decided to add some lilacs because as kids we loved to play in the lilac bushes and I continue to grow them now because they make me feel happy and young again.

There are so many other things I want to say and do with paint but only so much room on this one canvas so I'm wrapping this one up and moving on to 2 other paintings.

All that remains now is to take this to Zazzle and find as many ways to share it with others as I can.

As always I will start with postage stamps, cards and stickers so that I can write everyone that's been asking me about this. Then on to all sorts of products for everyone else.

The 90 minute potholder

I can't begin to tell you how many of these potholders I've crocheted in the last 40 years or how many balls of yarn and hooks I've given away while teaching others how to make them. All I know is that it's a running joke among my family and friends as they walk through each other's kitchens, look at the stacks of potholders and say "I see Julie's been here".

They don't always end up completely square, if there's just a tiny bit of yarn left I can't resist using it all up and they get a bit larger or longer than usual but they all work great. The thing I enjoy most is that they're an easy "take along" project and if I happen to finish one while out and about, people react as if it's a magic trick, it seems to surprise and delight a lot of people and that makes us all smile.

Mums

Flowers can brighten your home and your life in many ways. The most exciting thing about these is that my family shared them from an Anniversary and a Birthday Party so each time I pass the mums on the way in or out of the house I'll think of them...and smile

  Yes, this is the planter we built last year that used to be up by the driveway. We like it much better up by the house and I've put the side where everything matches facing the side that I see every day.

The reason the trim on this side doesn't match is that we were recycling free scraps of siding we picked up around town from internet listings.

Yes, I will be painting that trim around the door next. I keep meaning to but there are SOOOO many other things to paint around here and it's easy to get distracted...and fun too!

Lemon Lilies and Daisies

These yellow lilies were from my parent's place and always remind me of Mom who even painted her kitchen this color.

Daisies are another favorite that we share.

A busy worktable

There's still a lot of carving sanding and painting going on with the dala horses which is a challenge because I'm still trying to get that new tablecloth hemmed and mend the lining on my winter coat. I hate to have all the  fabric projects around the sawdust but there aren't a lot of other options right now.
I'm also pulled by the sunflower painting that I started last summer and hoping to get back to work on that soon.
In between that I'm attempting to get some drawings and watercolors done while dealing with the house and family issues.
I'm luckier than a lot of people because most of my days are pretty uncomplicated. That may just be part of the obsession that comes with being an artist. Your often so "into" what you're doing that you're simply unaware of anyone or anything else. It makes me a lousy wife, friend, sister,and aunt. I regret that but I'm either unable or unwilling to change now.

Projects and ideas in photos and paint

 These went fairly well but I've got several days into them and I'm still adding layers of clear coat so it may be tomorrow before I'm actually finished with them and ready to send them on their way.

 Coming to the end of that project I'm kicking around ideas for what I want to do next. I started by photographing my Christmas stocking. So far the plan is that if I don't like the way the photo itself works on a greeting card I'll just use it to base a series of drawings and paintings on until I find an image that works for me.

There are several reasons that I love this stocking. Of course the top one is that I designed and made it out of a lot of great things that people I care about have given me. I'll give a short list as I finish this post.

 There is a stick pin that my sister Becca cross stitched for me and some some plastic "shrinkies" that she made as well (drawings on a shrink plastic that turns them into small charms)

 Some of the fabric is from my cousin Susan's wedding in Hawaii, there are buttons from my sister Chris and hand made paper beads from my husbands aunt Doris.

So many things from so many people, and now I want to share it with more. I'm hoping that they'll love it as much as I do...now I've just got to decide which photo to start with...

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.

Crafts to go and back again

I had places to be this afternoon so I grabbed one of those patchwork cats and a bit more embroidery floss to finish off the edges in between things. I got quite a bit of it done too but now that I'm back home I got one of the place mats made as I did a load of laundry.
HISTORY in fabric: One of the things that's most amusing about this project is that my Mom gave me this fabric which was left from a bunk bed play tent made for some of her grand kids. I can't tell you exactly how many years ago that was but one of the boys got married last year.
I haven't gotten any pictures taken of it yet but I'll be posting them soon. Meanwhile I'm headed back to the cutting table to see how many more I can make. It also occurred to me that there may be enough to cover the cushions for my wicker chairs to match.

Here it is! I kind of like it, how about you?