Holding a bubble

On the eve of Spring Break I look at the list I have been working on for 2 weeks of what to do with my endless days. Tomorrow is 'town-errands day' so that I won't have to leave the yard much after that. I want to get to Trenton's quilt shop just to browse.
I have been thinking of Jerry Cutler's thoughts on being a painter and finding a "Self-Sustaining Aesthetic". I'm afraid my self sustaining aesthetic is wobbly and as a matter of fact the search for a self-sustaining aesthetic has kept me from painting. I just like to paint.
So I have a wild hair.
My plan is to get some practice painting portraits of dogs. I saw a flyer at the vet's office last week advertising paintings of pets. I think thats a great idea. I remember hearing of another painter doing that same thing with portraits of people; she would charge $75 and if you didn't like the portrait you didn't have to pay. What a great way to get practice! I have no interest in working through a portrait to make the patron happy, I just want to learn what there is for me to learn from painting.
I need to put this on my spring break list. Then I will post the flyers in vet offices. Dogs only. Shoulders and head. From a photo. 16 x 12 or 18 x 24. $100.

More Sigrids

Just fresh off the camera!

Welcome Sigrid!

I have sorely neglected this blog. Our remodel is done. The wedding is over. Today begins spring break for me in our house. Last spring break the house was in de-construct and today it is done! This remodel has made me fall in love with our house and yard and sometimes I wonder how it can be so that this is ours. It has taken our lives so far to get here.
The orange blossoms are blooming and I can smell them from the window.
We have a new puppy. Her name started out as Fifi, but it is now Sigrid. Dan found her while on a walk. She was just a puff ball, actually a soggy puff ball on that morning. Someone had dropped several of these pups around town. People who found them took them to the vet. We came back for ours and now she lives with us.
I need to take more pictures. I used to love my camera.

Kitchen Walls!

Color goes on them today! I have waited so long. Well, I chose a buttery white b/c the white plaster looked so good I wanted something with just a tint. Perhaps we can put our kitchen cabinets back up this weekend and almost have a working self-enclosed kitchen.
I went to Hobby Lobby yesterday and was horribly seduced by a little black chandelier for $49.99. I still might take my 40% off coupon and skip down and get it. But I have been planning to make one out of a bike wheel. There was a little bike long forgotten under the house. One of the carpenters saw it and pulled it out for me. I have so many beads and wonderful things to hang from the spokes AND I have a light kit from IKEA so I am already! I'll keep you posted. It will be SO fun. I want to hang it above my work table in Studio Up.

Here are some inspirational homemade chandeliers:
Bike Wheel
Coffee Stirrers
Eye Glasses

At Hobby Lobby there was a bountiful assortment of letters to hang on the wall. My favorite. AND many were half off!
Check out this cookbook: Back of the Box Cookbook.
Its my other new favorite! I got it at the library and have put it on my Amazon Wish List for later. No boxes of jello or cups of pulverized potato chips, but some really fun and healthy kinds of foods.
Right now I am listening to Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin. Its the 3rd in the series of Adelia, Mistress of the Art of Death. Ooooo.... so good! And I am reading Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks, it is such a good read. I listened to People of the Book (also by Geraldine) last spring and it was SO good! What dee-lights!

79 Degrees!

Yup, thats what the authorities tell me! Of course, there is that 98% humidity that evens everything out.
The kitchen floor finally got its final sanding and first coat of polycrylic. My bare feet love the feel of the wood floor. I sure wish the floor could talk to me. I think it talks to the souls of my feet, but they aren't talking to me either.
I got into the Thornebrook Show on October 3 & 4. Mark your calendar. I really liked doing the show last year. It was the first time I let my books out for the public to see. It was dee-light-full to watch people choose which book worked best for them. It was quite a treat to realize that people will be writing in those books I made out of stuff that quite likely would be thrown away. Its my favorite.

Little Octo

I have about six 12" x 12" stretched canvases that I got at Big Lots of all places. This is the first one I've used. Its a sketch for the big painting that is blocked out on a giant canvas.
This was FUN! I don't have my painting supplies set up so I used what was around. I had some water-based oil pastels (dee-vine!), some aquacolors, a bottle of cheapo white acrylic AND 2 VERY BAD brushes. After many layers the little octo got finished up. I adore using a bad brush b/c it takes a certain consciousness away. I feel like I'm fighting and that falling in love with my own mark-making is more difficult. I used a pen tip to dip in white paint to make the suckers. The painting really needed that.
NOW, my job is to move on and make more. I can even make more octo paintings if I want to!

Lazy

Being that there are carpenters here everyday, all day, I find it difficult to focus. I don't get as much done as I would like.
Our daughter and her fiance came over for the 4th of July. We needed more chairs for the dining room (the only communal room in our house right now). I bought these chair twins from a guy who sells furniture in his parking lot, $20 a piece. I LOVE chairs and these 2 just stole my heart.
Here they are all cleaned up. They both had old pressed cardboard seats that were broken through. When I pulled the cardboard off I found out that the chairs were originally cane seated! I didn't want to have the caning redone. I wanted cushy seats so I cut down an old memory foam mattress pad and upholstered one with a four sack and the other with a bean sack. Both sacks were gifts given to me years ago that I have been saving, waiting for the right project. Viola! I really should have centered the design on the seat, but I get impulsive and just want to finish. They are extremely comfortable. The chairs are very sturdy and have been around probably longer than I have.
Exciting.
It must be summer of 'chair love'. I also finished making slip covers for 2 very comfortable upholstered chairs that I got from the same guy for $50 a piece. The plans in my head involved printing text on the fabric. Stay tuned for pictures and explanation.