The S word!

Snow!

My goodness, if I get off the path to the chicken coop I have to wade through waist high snow drifts!  The three calves are not impressed.   Large areas of the fences are buried and the sheep will be going wheresoever they want if they decide to lift their heads from their hay bales long enough to gaze around!  Lambing starts this month because the ram decided to set his own schedule!!!  :O

A short visit but we packed a lot of stuff into the time we had.  The arrival of MORE snow sent them back on the highway early.  It is turning into a long season!

Scheduling

I'm still in class and I do luv my water brush. It is very portable but I will be looking for another container that is a wee bit deeper.  This is actually my applique container.  One lesson was an exercise in using limited colours.  And just why can't a sky be yellow!  ;~)

I am continuing to add recipes to my cookbook.  I googled some smoothie ideas and decided to shake things up a bit more.  The bread section is actually the biggest part of the book. 

I gessoed my binder and sprayed over my happy lady!!! S'nice!  I will probably find more recipes but the book is basically done.  Now to get some smudges on the pages.  lol

Wish I could say my wall hanging top was together but the table is covered with mixed media stuff and the last few triangles require a math style thinking cap. ;~)

The new day timer is working great and I  got this week's DYLP pages finished up.

The coming week is a flap on a flap and I wasn't going to do flaps all the time but as I was doing this one I started thinking that my diary of each day could be behind the fold over page. It might be more visually pleasing. Something to consider for the following week.

So this week has been sweet and kinda salty.  A nice taste sensation that makes for some lip smacking.  

Sweet Grace

I found this picture on Face Book this morning.  Dear Lord, I want to be in the front row.  Hopefully with a good grip on my skirt though! LOL

I did a Meyers-Briggs personality test the other day and I have been contemplating it.  By the grace of God, I am what I am.  Interestingly, My Rooster is the same as me except for percentages and the last letter.  He is for mercy and I for judgement.  :O  My misidentifying him was from lack of understanding of some of the key words. I do keep a dictionary by the computer and a few around the house. ;~)  He is a front rider.  I do try to hang onto his coat tails.  Grace is the desire and the ability to do what is in you to do!  Becomingness, the air with which something is done, if you like.  Understanding helps me become who I am meant to be.  It is a creative process, unique to me.

I digress.

But I decided this morning to work on my own personal recipe book, as per DD#2's suggestion.  My first page is a printout of the above photo and sets the tone for my collection.  I used the dictionary to double check some spellings.  I want to get the happiness factor up in my meal prep.  I want to include grace.

I didn't exactly embrace cooking,  just the cook book but I am doing it 'my way'! And doing it for me, my way...  Well, it took me 5 hours (which is the biblical number for grace) to make my title pages and I had a SWEET time.  That happens when you please yourself.  I need to do it more often!   It makes me grateful.

First section is drinks.  If I could I'd do smoothies all the time.  They are my breakfast and sometimes my lunch.  I can eat on the run!  This page was inspired by the Joggles video of the week.  I can't say enough good things about this site.

 Toast is my comfort food and the Mennonites are onto gluten free bread.  Woo hoo!  I liked making bread.  I hope to like it again!  Baking powder biscuits.  Bring them on!!! I tried spreading my Gelatos all round and over the dictionary page.  A basic and harmonious colour family.  Pasta will go in here as well.

Vegetables that aren't liquefied!  They pack a lot of GO power.  I found an old gelli plate paper and broke open a coloured ink pad. I do like borders on my pages.  This section has my first recipe which was roasted veggies and I added a note to check ALL the veggies for doneness!  ;~)

The Rooster is fanatical about having our own meat.  Raw meat doesn't turn my crank so I roast most everything while he seasons, sautees, slices, smacks, and smokes, ETC!  This will be a thin section but I'm starting to get pretty creative with the pages! I sprayed ink but then after I lifted the paper towel I ended up using a brush to soften and fill in the main attraction.  I even started to go back and add more to the first pages. 

I'm a snacker, crackers, cookies and chips.  So paper towels for fingers are necessary.  I also discovered that the ubiquitous glue stick is very under rated.  It is going to be my favourite glue for most things now.  :)

I'm on a roll with one dish meals.  Prep time is minimal and I can get back to reading catalogues.  Hmm, I may need to jazz up the tag some more.

 Sweet Desserts!  I'm a cookie person and these gals are into all kinds of sweet things.  This will also be a slim section as DD#2 shares her expertise in this department.  I hadn't considered the significance but deli paper is certainly appropriate for this divider.   sweet!

Sauces for my beloved noodles. Soul food!  If you haven't tried corn noodles you are missing a delicious treat!  YUM!!!  We schedule soup for one night a week, Thursdays,  which happens to be tonight and gave me lots of creative time because the Rooster is a production cook, making his own broths and stock.  My soup skills are sinking as he does large stockpots and freezes supper portions.  Supper is thawing as I type.  lol   This page is a good lesson in a basic broth that was kinda boring so I just kept on adding and adding and I really like it.

Odds and Ends!    Another page I just couldn't leave alone.  The oops! was because I inked up a back of the clear stamp for goodness sakes!  Grace turns an oops!  into a creative opportunity.  And for that I am very thankful!

wow ain't she sweet!

This is as valentiney as I get.  ;~)   I got to thinking about smaller projects, seasonal wall hangings and the month of February.  I am not sure I want red hearts in my front room but rich jewels would make my heart sing, "Ain't she sweet.  See her walking down the street.  Now I ask you very confidentially, ain't she sweet!".

I got a sketch.  I got a plan.  I even got fabric!  The background was bought for a round tablecloth years ago.  Confirms my colour choices have been consistent for this room.  The two hand dyes are from Vicki.  It is the first time for me to use my cutter for cutting and I am very impressed.  I just used the centre triangle from the three inch Triangle in a Square die.  Matching has been a dream even with my improvisational piecing.   (so far)

 My first rough draft.  I need to ensure eye movement all around.  The left hand corner is up for analysis.

"Now cast an eye in her direction.  Oh me, oh MY! Ain't that perfection!".    At the very least...  SWEET!

The grand kiddies are coming today but I do hope to get around and see what kinds of sweetness the sweethearts in the rest of Canada are sampling on this week's The Needle and Thread Network.

more sweetner please

I can't do valentines without reds, pinks or even the softer mauve's.  :(  I need more colour!

The lesson,  Ink TENSITY,  uses the Derwent pencils.  Teacher has a whole lot more pencils than I do. I even threw in a couple of Faber-Castell's.   I wonder if I could throw the Derwent Blocks into the cake mix!  I shall be what ifing...

And speaking of sweetness..

 Not what I am supposed to be doing at all but I really feel like sticking my finger in the icing bowl this week!

A sweet mood

A good friend gave me this gorgeous planner.  It did remind me that I didn't get everything done last week and I was starting to see red.  Then I saw the week ahead of me and realized this is a luving week so I have sweetly changed gears!   Thanks, Carol.  You are an angel!!!  ;~)

Applesauce!

There is a whole lot of fun going on!  I need to get a bit more balance as an apple a day keeps the doctor away but we all know what eating too many slightly green ones means!  ;)

Apples by the bushel

There are an awful lot of apple varieties.  Tame and wild varieties.

And boy, do I have a large variety of journal materials.   It is recommended to have samples of ones supplies because if you can't judge an apple by its skin colour, how easy to be fooled by a pen or paint colour.

This was also a heads up to use up supplies before they dry up! :(

And who says you have to spray those coloured inks.  Dip the old paint brush into the open bottle.  Luv it!

 I started the next lesson and I had to go back and dig through all the plain old pencil crayons that I gave to the grand kiddies 'cause the teacher uses those, too!  :O   I really like using a waterbrush.  It feels a bit more natural in my hand than a paint brush. 

The various supplies have been enumerated and identified. Teacher says there are worse addictions!  lol Lesson two, the cover page was just a go for it and get familiar with them.  I expect improvement and understanding shall be revealed in the next 13 lessons.  I'm kinda excited.  I may be polishing the apples before I hand them out!

wow- warming up winter

Ta heck with ground hogs.  Winter will just be as everlasting as necessary.  I shall think warm thoughts, stitch warm covers, and sip apple cider by the fire!  The little rug is my only rug hooking attempt and if I had time, I'd do more. I liked it!

I'm going to leave the finishing of my leaf wall hanging until I can see green leaves in the landscape and work up my nerve to stamp on the quilt top.

In the mean time I am really warming up to these blocks from my old ufo pile of scraps.

When my thoughts kinda freeze up at the end of the day I can just put two fabrics together and sew.  When I get tired of that I switch to the iron and trimming. They'll finish at five inches and I'll need approximately 64 blocks.  They are going to be such fun to arrange!  

I shall try with the first teacup and then after I warm up I'll  get busy on the cold cups.  While I'm stitching I shall think about the kitchen curtain as the blinds are up and the curtain rod is hung.  The window trim needs another coat of paint but I'll wait till the wind changes and the draft settles down. ;~)

Stay warm and see what the other gals from The Needle and Thread Network are doing to stay warm.

Apples for the teachers

I really like taking classes on the Internet.  I am learning which ones to take and how I like to work.

I have been following  ...And Then We Set It On Fire:.. which is a technique blog with guests and resident artists.  There are monthly focuses and I am even going to help my friend with one month.  I think every month will be interesting and I want to make opportunity to follow along.  This month is low immersion dyeing.  I've done a bit, want to do more and have lots of things to learn.  It certainly fits in perfectly with my fibre related goals. And I do have some supplies! ;)

Late in 2013 I signed up for Color Love 101 with Joanne Sharpe.  It is all about how to use watercolours and all the mediums,  pens and pencils available to make lovely art journals.  By the time I accumulated what I needed life had moved on and I had a hard time clearing a spot in my calendar.  Last week Joanne kindly got me signed back in as I'd lost my info so I could begin.  I daren't draw this out as I have lots of things to do this year.  oops, sorry for the pun!  There are 15 lessons and 25 videos.  I don't know if I can actually do everything in one month but I am sure gonna try.

DD#2, mother to my grand kiddies is concerned about my cooking skills.  I can cook.  I do cook.  But it is definitely NOT where I get my creative jollies!  ;~)  The Rooster luvs to cook and plan and experiment.  I say, "Have at it!".   I am a very plain cook. Fast and easy is my main requirement.  I am also a vanilla ice cream and white cake type.  :(   Since I was diagnosed as Gluten Intolerant my baking skills have solidified, well, actually shriveled right up!  :O  So she thinks I need a personalized cook book and although she hardly needs recipe books herself, she's been gifted with Mennonite ones.  There are some great GF recipes.   I am hopeful of eating Kielke (noodles) again!  She lives in a Mennonite town and they do cook wonderfully.  Anyway we went over her books and with the help of the grand kiddies I have earmarked possibilities and will try to get at least a B- in cooking class.  I did perk up when I realized that I could do the illustrations in this, my very own, cookbook!  Last night was roasted vegetables.  The Rooster has kindly supplied a nice flavourful meatloaf. :) I only got a C- as I stuck a fork into the potatoes and they had cooked wonderfully.  I forgot to test the turnips and the carrots! :(  VBSigh

I might have to eat a few apples myself, but there is a slim to no chance that I'll ever do pies!  LOL  ahem, I can make a great apple crisp but with vanilla ice cream; and a possible gourmet upgrade to butterscotch ripple.  Have NO fear.  This will never turn into a food blog! 

I'm in the Mood to colour February RED!

 

It could be because it is the heart month.

It could be the challenge of working in red.

It could be because red is DD#1's favourite colour and I need to get back scrapbooking.

It could be that my budget is in the red and I need to change that.

And it could be that I need a steady supply of apples for the teachers in my classes.

Febrrrrr ary

I can't quite believe that January has been ripped of and replaced by February on my calendar.  I am happy with the plan that I have in place for weekly themes and because it will be a BUSY month I thought to post the Document Your Life Project (DYLP) inspiration for this coming week on Sundays.  This is not pintrest but a watercolour on paper by David Brown Milne.  I got it from the Winnipeg Art Gallery this summer.  The theme for this month will be red as a kind of thumbs up against this relentless cold.

And this is my mixed media piece from Creative Jump Start.  Not quite like the teachers sample but still quite fun.  hmm, maybe I'll spray more water and try again??? :O

I shall continue to mix things up in a warm manner for the month of February!  :)

When the guests are gone

We do have the best sunrises (and sunsets) here on the prairies!  Course you have to be up early to see them! 

The kids left me some great starts for more mono printing.    Mono printing was demonstrated for the jumpers in Creative Jump Start 2014 and gelli plates were used as well as Plexiglas, and a garbage bag tightly taped around a glass cutting board or hot pad. They give slightly different effects but all work and now I understand why.  I'll be using all three methods.  So I did play and I used some to get my Document Your Life Project moving along and I think I'll be all caught up for the new month.

A start but I shall definitely be tweaking as I go along as I doubt I'll be always adding the fold over.

Week 2 and I'm not sure this week is finished although I did get a lot down on what happened.

Week 3 was add an envelope and I chose a bill as a reminder to stop spending.  ;)  I do like envelopes but this page is a bit bleak. Ha!  Must be I'm mourning the loss of the buy now, pay later plan!

Week 4 was write a secret letter and cover it.  I felt this needed a fold over page and it is no secret that I am determined to find, focus, follow, finish, and finally complete projects.  Now if I could find the paper of what happened this week! :O

Week 5 was a doodled border and I was in a hurry so ...  But I do like these scribbley borders.  This was party week so I can pretty much remember the fill ins. Next week's page is something inspiring, pintrest, which I am steadfastly resisting as I have too many inspiring ideas already!  It'll be great to actually write in the prepared pages instead of looking for scraps of paper that have gone missing! ;) I need to make the monthly tabs.   I also anticipate a gradual change in my style as the weeks unfold.

The guests may be gone but it was a wild time in the playroom yesterday.  I'll  clean up after I share some highlights.

The Creative Jump Start  party is ending except for the dispensing of some party favours. Now I will not be quite so hasty in doing a thorough cleaning up in the party aftermath.  So many useful objects that are used as tools or actually become art!  Who knew?  lol  Here are a few of my favourites:

I pulled the cardboard off a box, soaked it and I now have kraft paper with lovely lines on one side and the inside makes wonderful paper mache that makes very light weight embellishments.  I already knew about the molds for fondants and cake decorating but I was thinking clay.  I have been  saving cereal boxes and I saved the brown paper from my new curtain rods. I can't wait to try more shapes which get a bit of gesso, some paint and an whole new life!!!

So many utensils and tools that make marks although there is always a market for special gadgets.  I'm slowly converting to homemade sprays or at least modifying the compositions of bought ones by diluting or remixing for custom colours.  Coffee and tea solutions can be sprayed on for antiquing purposes.   I am better understanding matte verses gloss,  gel medium verses matte medium, various glues,  and cheap verses artist grade and professional.  Everything works but not everywhere. ;)  The format was a video from the teacher and then a forum for the class where questions were answered and that alone was worth the money.

I absolutely luved this bubble wrap technique.  It was demonstrated with the small sized bubbles and I had to try it with the big ones.  Woo Hoo!  Talk about champagne!  I really get high when I get into the bubbly!  :) Hint- see the parchment paper, you melt coloured bubblewrap.

Dripping, spreading acrylic paint onto a nonstick surface means you can pick it up and lay it down on something else when it drys.  I do like this concept but I need more practice.  It does work with a stencil as well but the parts need to be connected and I need to practice the amount.  The white silicon sheet doesn't work as slick to my mind.

This was a blast and not exactly furthering my goal for more fibre related projects.  And I am sure I can't possibly find a spot for found objects in all their variety and abundance.  But...  totally fun.  I didn't have a prepared canvas and was not prepared to like it so much.  Therefore I just used a cereal box cut down to size.  Then a hunt for stuff, i.e. junk.  I'm still wondering if I should add more.  Pearl dots???  LOL  Then we were to gesso everything.  gnash, gnash!  Then you sprinkle dry coloured pigment and spritz with water.  I didn't know if I had such a thing. I did sprinkle something on the tray and tried spritzing and it works. :)   Now, I am gonna hyper down and consider what colours.  That done I think the tea stain spray kinda antiques everything.   I shall post the finished product when the effects of the bubbly wear off!  ;)

It is gonna take the rest of the day to restore some sort of order to the Coop and Saucer Playroom which has my cups in hiding and the long stemmed champagne glasses are clanging and splashing bubbles all about.  I wonder if there are any half full bottles left???