Thursday, September 18, 2008

Ouch, ouch, ouch

My legs and hips are at it again. The steroid injection that I received on July 10 has worn off and my nerve bundles are being squished up again. I get another injection this afternoon. I am so excited! The injection makes me run around with so much energy that I can get things done really quickly.
I have been making things:
*just finished my pirate girl costume for Talk like a Pirate day today. This year I am not wearing my beautiful pirate coat that I made last year because I get so hot during the day. This year's pirate girl wears a skirt and a shirt embroidered with a skull and cross bones...arghh..
*working on bracelets using my resin casts, resin papers and various and sundry weird things--my fav
*I've creatively altered 3 shirts--1 from Walmart and 2 from Goodwill. Its so fun- I'll post pictures when my camera doesn't feel so heavy
The other big "Ouch" is the status of the library at school. I have 26 45 minute classes a week which gives me very little time to do library stuff. My situation isnt nearly as bad and others. Some librarians have had their book budgets taken away, some are teaching PE part time. The whole structure here is based on measurements and documentations. Its horrifying because it has so llittle to do with educating children.
Sorry. I still LOVE to read books to kids and get them excited reading.
Time to "Pirate-Up"!
Arrgh me mateys!

Friday, September 5, 2008

Persephone

Just one more posting today.
I get up very early so I can skim time off the top of the day for studio, then I get ready for the day. This morning I went out for a shower at about 6:00. We have an outdoor shower that I adore and use everyday. When I stepped out into the yard I smelled autumn. Its sort of the smell of chilly air. It won't get chilly here for a month or so but I love experiencing that first lung-full of autumn freshened air! Then the owls started calling and I felt pure dee-light.
Persephone's time on top of the earth is growing short and I start to celebrate.
Autumn and winter are the seasons when I feel most alive.

Helvetica


We made broccoli and spinach topping for our baked potatoes last night and watched Helvetica. If you are interested at all in type this is a visual and auditory treat! I LOVED all the commentary! It was BRILLIANT and we got it through Netflix!

Resin Paper


I get so excited about resin. While I was pouring the little house charms, the resin was getting hot and very thick, but I had too much left to just throw away and waste. I quickly severed some pages from a dictionary, slapped some packing tape on the back and scraped out what was left of the resin and frosted the dictionary paper. it cured nice and thick and will look great as panels in bracelets. This would be great for so many things!
BIG RESIN TIP FROM STEPHANIE LEE---STIR TWICE AS LONG AS THE PACKAGE DIRECTIONS SUGGEST.
I did this for the last pour and the resin was PERFECT! It set up much more quickly. I stirred the Envirotex that I get at Michael's for 4 minutes!
Ta-da!

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Lost in Work World

School started for me on August 11. We had one week of pre-planning. Hurricane Faye passed through during our first week of school and shuts us down for 2 days. Faye dropped lots of rain but thats about it.
So I really owe you lots of images.

These entries are all looking a little grey because I am working in the dining room instead of Studio Up--the light switch sizzles when I turn it on so I am a bit wary. We start re-modeling soon and it will be fixed then. I have been strongly drawn to interiors. I subscribe to several home magazines and feast on the images. I think there are some good painting segments in these collages.
I also finished charms for a charm exchange. I soldered copper pipe to little house shapes and poured resin in the pipe bezel. I love these little gems. The swap master asked that the charm be strung to 2 inches of whatever so it can be added to a necklace of 9 other charms. I think I will use a basic rosary link with pearls as my 2 inches.

My head swirls with beginning of the year job responsibilities and I found myself in a hateful state of mind yesterday. Not so good. You know in this life I constantly have to be awake except for when I drive then all I have to do is drive. I've pared down my life to home, job, making, family and a handfull of friends. I feel a little guilty about this but its what I have to do in order to have room and time to think and make stuff.