Book of days

photo.JPG, a photo by lelloavengers on Flickr.

Here's the cover I Painted for my book of days in 2012. My word for the year is Balance and as I'll probably be posting lot about that as I journal and paint in it.... I'll just say now how I did it.

It as a layer of collaged tissue and some paper I made with a crayon resist and then embossing, I can show that process another time. Then I mostly covered it with acrylic and rubbed it off with a baby wipe where the embossing was. Then it's all sprayed with a sealer.... Done!

Happy paint party Fridays!

Calm

IMG_0068.MOV a video by lelloavengers on Flickr.

I love snow globes, I have a whole slew of them on my desk at work, I keep them there so they don't get broke here at home.

So take one minute and watch the snow settle, it'll just make you feel better!

About a week ago the foothills here where I live looked more like we were living in a snow globe........., some giant had picked us up, turned our little world over and dipped the top of our hills into powdered sugar, wish I'd had my camera then, it was so pretty.

And that day I heard a song on the radio I'd never heard before.... "Wish that I could live in a snow globe"!

Did you watch the video? Go do it! It's 1 minute of your life...

Linking to share the joy! Here...
http://meriak.blogspot.com/

And to time travel Thursday on the sidebar!
And Thursday's favorite things at Katherine's corner here...

http://katherinescorner.com/

Ok, so now that I've checked this out after posting I see the video doesn't show up but you can see the snow globe if our click on the IMG thing at the very beginning, not as calming as if it just posted correctly, oh well...

Joining

photo.JPG, a photo by lelloavengers on Flickr.

I tend to want to join every site I see on the Internet, do every challenge, pin everything onto my pinterest site.... It gets overwhelming actually. and at home, I think I have to do everything, fix everything then when I can't I get stressed....

But I'm not feeling as frantic as I was a week ago. For one my husband, the rock, reminded me that it's all ok. he's very good at that actually. And secondly I joined the free e-mails from Goddess leoni and listened to her meditation and felt better! Just one quick meditation, no big deal buti haven't done that in awhile and it reminded me it helps.

I'm adding a link to her site on the side bar where you can sign up for free e-mails or buy all sorts of products...

I' m also adding a few other new links, which would seem like I' m continuing to try to do too much but the two new links "book of days", and "52 play dates"are both free sites where you will find weekly inspiration on art journalist and I' m hoping it will inspire me to art journal regularly which was going to be one of my resolutions. I may give up trying to do challenges with given themes and I may even quit my etsy shop, haven't decided on that....and just work in my art journal. Effy Wild's book of days, asks you to get a new book ready and pick a word for your year.... to center your art around, I didn't even have to dwell on that one.....

I need to find BALANCE. My word for the year.

So here's another few of those little happy thought paper dolls I've been painting with my new word! Sorry it's at touch blurry...

I.m linking this up to butterfly effect as their theme is resolutions, and I plan to make an art journal page with all my resolutions soon!

More happy thought paper dolls....

photo.JPG, a photo by lelloavengers on Flickr.

Since I am still technologically challenged, I can only seem to add one photo per post using flickr as my way to get photos on here, and I have 5 photos or so of these ladies so I Just post one a day.... you can read how they came to me and see another one here that I posted on Wednesday...
http://fallingladies-fallingladies.blogspot.com/2011/12/paperdolls.html

Along those lines of being technologically challenged I have to add if you read something absurd on here, please realize that I'm not used to "auto correct" and since I' m posting from iPad now, it does auto correct and it changes my words randomly, sometimes I don't catch it..... I tried to say"this is my most favorite"on etsy yesterday and it changed it to " this is my most aborted"!?!?!?, I didn't catch it before it posted but luckily I could delete the comment before anyone read it and thought I was absurd. What's your oddest auto correct story?

Happy paint party Friday!

Solstice greetings!

photo.JPG, a photo by lelloavengers on Flickr.

I have all I need!

Sharing with butterfly effect and share the joy Thursday.

paperdolls

photo.JPG, a photo by lelloavengers on Flickr.

The idea for these dolls came to me in that half delirious time when my son was up at 2:00 am for 3-4 nights in a row, and when he wakes up he giggles and laughs hysterically for hours while I try to sleep. I can't of course, because he's also climbing all over me but I do try, and when you get soooo tired your mind starts to think of weird things. These dolls kept coming to me whenever I would close my eyes. All in black and white patterns and swirls...


Not that they're all that original but I think it was a combination of some art I'd seen at the mall that day, and that old skit where you have a paper bowtie, and you hold it up like a mustache and say in a dastardly voice...


"you must pay the rent!"

then you move the bowtie behind your head like a hairbow and say in the voice of the poor herionne desperately in need of rescue...

" I can't pay the rent!"

back and forth 3 more times till you hold it up like a man's bowtie at your neck, and say in the voice of the HERO...

"I'll pay the rent!"

..... "my hero!"

We did this skit in girlscouts when I was young.... hopefully someone knows what I'm talking about.

Anyway, here's the art, done in my goddess sketchbook with a bit more color added than my dream... plus I added some wisdom from the valentine's gift from my mother where she made up a years worth of wisdom written on strips of paper then folded into origami stars. I blogged about it quite along time ago and have been opening a star a day at work all year.

I'm frustrated because for some reason I could only post one picture of these and I have 5 or 6 some of the dolls are cut out, obviously I haven't figured out flickr and blogger yet...

Hope you like anyway!

Wordless wednesday

photo.JPG, a photo by lelloavengers on Flickr.

Distracted....

photo.JPG, a photo by lelloavengers on Flickr.

The story of my morning a few days ago is typical of my life lately.... Hectic and scattered and distracted. It's my own fault, I start by walking to a room and instead of wondering why I'm there, I think, "oh, I meant to go to the pantry first", so I leave to go to the pantry and get there and think, oops, I meant to stop and get the scissors, so I go get them and head out to check on my son. He wants waffles so I pop two in the toaster and head to the bathroom again forgetting the scissors and have to walk back to get them again.... After probably another Circle around the house I actually manage to cut the tag off his pants, put the scissors away and get the waffles to him. Everything seems to involve 3 more trips around the house than would actually be necessary, but I'm still getting things done so all is good. I get him dressed, go to brush my teeth, (impressed with myself for remembering right off)check myself in the mirror, (which honestly most mornings I don't actually do)and therefore realize my outfit does not match. So I start to change, hear the bus out front, and run downstairs to get my son's coat on and see that he's taken most of his clothes off again. We do manage to redress and get to the bus with a backpack and lunch before they leave, which seems amazing in itself!
So now I have 15 minutes before I leave for work, and I have to testify in court today so want to at least appear put together.... I change my clothes 5 times, "put together" doesn't seem possible today so I give up and head out, snagging my head back when I walk out the door because I've gotten my scarf caught on the door handle,( you just don't want to even know how many times I've done THIS!)

So anyway, I'm about five minutes later than usual and driving up what we all call the gulch road, a very narrow, windy, curvy road with steep sides, I come upon a very bad accident, a head on collision that happened 5 minutes before I arrived.... Just when I normally am driving through. No one was seriously hurt, but I'm shocked because the cars look totally crumpled.

Anyway, this was my little reminder to wake up, get focused, organized and slow down to pay attention to the moment I am in! I'm really going to try to stop rushing and getting farther behind because of it....

Linking up to butterfly effect as the theme this week is storytelling.

photo.JPG

I have soooo many ideas and projects in my head. I can't sleep half the time for all the things I want to make, yet I don't make them.

Well I do make things, but I seem to spend more time searching etsy, making treasuries, reading books and the Internet. So I guess my problem would be just laziness, but it doesn't feel that way. It feels like I get stuck in inertia because I want to do so much.... I can't decide which to do first. It's easier to sit still and dream of creating than to get organized, get focused, get prioritized and just do it.
So instead I surf the really cool sites on my son's iPad, because I can sit with it on the couch by my son like he wants! And I start ten new projects and then put each one aside and go read a book, actually I've started 3 books....
So here's something I started....and finished, but have no idea what to do with it now that it's done. I just needed to draw it.




So tell me, do you paint with a purpose in mind for your art or just because it's something you need to get out of your head?

I'm linking this up to paint party friday and creative evryday. And I just have to say... this was so hard to figure out. I still have no camera so I used the camera in the ipad, it wouldn't let me post photos from the ipad to my blog so I had to figure out how to e-mail them to a flickr acct then it still wouldn't let me post from flickr to here so I had to find the embedded code for the photo..... wow so complicated just to upload a photo... is there an easy way?
photo.JPG, a photo by lelloavengers on Flickr.

Fat cats, skinny cats, cats that sit on your head....

I hated the fact that I couldn't seem to paint a cat... So I kept at it! I mean how hard is it really to come up with a cartoon like cat? So I also happened to be going through Carla sonheim's book of drawing exercises and her first one was drawing cats, plus I'm seeing a lot of cats on blogs lately because of Amy's free cat classes,(even though I didn't see that particular class myself), so here goes.... I like these cats much better than my last try on canvas. These are in my second altered book, I'm putting a lot of Carla's drawing exercises in this book too. The fat cat is colored pencil, the skinny cat is acrylic over collage, the three
round cats are watercolor over gesso over tissue, and then there's one on a book page with acrylic and marker and the last is doodled in marker over a mailing envelope. The cat that sits on your head didn't quite get finished yet.

I also stuck in another page I did in my goddess altered book.... It's marker and a little acrylic over the book page... I started it because some challenge weeks ago , maybe an I.f., was vanity. I should say, since I don't think you can read the words, that she't not vain, she's just strong, confident and independent! I didn't get it done on time to post it to the challenge, but I'm adding it in this week with my cats, and linking up to paint party Friday and butterfly effect whose theme this week is book pages! I really love painting right on the pages so the words show thru.... More to come soon!


I have been so inspired to create lately!

I've been reading a few art books,

then I've been checking out other people's favorite art on Pinterest, which is totally addicting,

And then I've seen such really great stuff on etsy too while i've been Christmas shopping on there!

So much to make and so little time!

neverending story.....

Here's my part of the neverending story taking place at Amy's... go here to read the first parts or even join in and sign up to be part of this story...
 http://butterscape.blogspot.com/p/onceuponatime.html

Our heroine and her trusty Pegasus flew over the dark ocean under the full moon, so glad to be together again and out of that cavern.

"GO home?", she questioned, "NO way, I want to see the world, the ocean, the sky, the stars!" and off they flew, low enough to feel the spray from the whales blowholes. The beautiful red haired lady blew a kiss to the closest whale as he slapped his tail down on the water and sent a whole wave up towards Pegasus. The whales moved off in their pod, little calves swimming along next to their mothers.

Out red haired lady flew up and up and up with Pegasus, his mane whipping in the wind. They flew along with a gaggle of geese, flying in their tight V going south for the winter.

The noise from all their honking was way too loud in Peg's ears so up higher they flew. Climbing higher and getting warmer as day dawned bright, clear and blue. They spotted a world in front of them on a pink cloud. Each cloud ahead of them seemed to hold a whole town of little houses, but they headed to the closest one and landed softly.

 It smelled of cotton candy and reminded our lovely lady of small town carnivals she'd been to as a child. They strolled down the lane of pink and blue and peach houses with giant mushrooms in the yards, when they reached the end of Cotton Lane they stopped before a house with a couple out front. They were sitting on their mushrooms and roasting marshmallows over a bonfire. They introduced themselves as Mr. And Mrs. Panda and Poppy Goldwater. They were just back from a trip across their cloud world and kept their guests entertained all morning with stories of their travels. They'd brought back baklava and origami paper cranes and souvenir spoons and shirts with big paintings of crabs on them as that was the style on the cloud number 9.  Peg and the red haired lady told their stories as well and the four of them became the best of friends within hours.

They needed a nap and were invited inside where everything was cuter than even outside. It all looked edible like a gingerbread house and they both slept better than either had in weeks. They felt so safe and protected, with out a worry at all in this cloud world. When they woke the Goldwaters invited them to stay awhile as they hadn't had guests in years. Peg was inclined to stay anyway. .. but when the Goldwaters said they felt strongly that if the pair were to leave soon they'd run into serious danger, they were both convinced to stay a bit. Panda had a touch of the vision and said he saw danger, sea turtles, mermaids and cups of sweet tea in their near future, and he advised they avoid all of the above. "Have another marshmallow", he said and Peg and the red haired day gladly complied.

 They laughed and settled in for a long visit, totally unaware at all that the very near future would be amazingly close to the vision of Panda Goldwater. And yet, our red haired lady couldn't shake an unsettled feeling...

harlequin

I woke up this morning singing a Keith Partridge song:
 " I woke up in love this morning,
went to bed with you on my mind!"

Anyone else old enough to have watched the Partridge family too!!!???!

I also woke up to snow all over the ground this morning...so pretty!

I even walked thru it to take these pics for you...(so now you owe me).... when I think of what I want I'll let you know!

And it's a big birthday week here, one of my sons, one of my daughters and I all have birthdays within a week or so. I've got  a few more years before the big 50 so all's good!!!!!!


I've been working in my little fat goddess altered book that I posted the cover to a few days ago.... and I did a page following Amy's technique....

I layered scrap papers down and I used a quick dry white glue that was a bit messy but it did dry very quick,, scotch brand I think for scrapbookers, then I painted over it with acrylics, then I sketched this lady on top, painted over my sketch with acrylics and added colored pencil on top, I don't like her neck and will have to go back and cover it up a bit but I like the rest alright.

Not my most perfect piece of art but it was fun and isn't that the point!


It's a relaxing technique... to see more of it check out Amy and Natasha's altered book, free class over at Flutterbye. You'll be glad you did...

And I'm linking to paint party friday! Can't wait to see what everyone else did this week, and also to Inspiration Avenue because for once I did something that fits their theme!

And don't forget you have till the 20th or so, (I may get lazy and wait a few more days), before I do the drawing for my pendant, art and ACEO giveaways. Just click on the tiny little linky at the top to see my interview(the first one) and cut and paste it to your blog and answer the questions yourself, then link back to the linky or leave a comment on a post here, which is what some people have done. Either way as long  as I find it you're entered! See ya!

my fat little goddess

I have been watching the videos over on Amy's Flutterbye (see sidebar) that she and Natasha are teaching on book altering. All the classes are FREE! and inspiring!

I love the reasoning behind offering it free... and I'm not sure if these are partially her words from somewhere on her site or mine (!?):

there's enough for everyone,

there's no need for all the artistic competitiveness

so share what you know...


so far they've worked through picking your book, thinning pages, preping, playing, painting the cover and putting in a zipper.... I'm still afraid of the zipper even after watching that one, plus my book is VERY old so the strings may not be able to handle the stress of the zipper. I'm still working on a portrait on one of the pages I collaged on, but here's the cover...

I may not be done, After seeing it here I think it needs some black words stamped in the background or something. Putting her on the cover does sort of make the book about a theme now, but that's OK, I want it to be full of powerful,
 strong,
 pretty
 women,
 and maybe stories of goddesses or such.

She sort of reminds me of the Venus of Willendorf or one of the other old ones, I could see it made of a tiny piece of clay on some long ago altar (minus the bright colors). and... just because I love them....

here's a few goddesses, some are based on real artifacts and some aren't.

Oh, I'm linking this up to the butterfly effect as their theme this week is also goddesses!

silent

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
She's thinking........




I'm linking this little mini canvas to IF and to Creative everyday and to Artists in Blogland

sisterhood

 I finished my spread in the sisterhood sketchbook challenge for October and got it mailed out today. I love october for it's cool weather, falling leaves, crisp air, indian summer, crunching through dried leaves, and the anticipation of  Halloween for dressing up and all, even though I didn't dress up this year. So that's what I did my page on and I had to throw in a falling lady since I started with putting them in almost every book so far...

I also worked on some art from Carla Sonheim's workshop that was in  Rice Freeman-Zachery's book: Destination Creativity that I won, (that I keep mentioning every week because it's been Fun to read). It was a cool project where you started with a photo of a lion... here's mine from a fountain...

then you do some one-lines of it, pick your favorite and she walks you through a painting her way...  and I ended up with this lion...

So...  then to try to make this technique more of something of my own and not just be copying Carla Sonheim I did this piece of my son using her technique still but alittle more of me in it......

I 'm wanting  to try knew techniques lately but I want them to look like something I made and not something the person I'm learning from would make...it's a fine line between feeling like a thief and feeling like an artist. Next week I'll show you the art I created using the workshop from Jesse Reno in the book...
And if you didn't hear about Amy's project; go check out our Animal Farm blog...
http://sketchy-commies.blogspot.com/
 where we're posting sketches we did in our sketchbook exchange. It's going to be a quick turnaround and so far I'm enjoying it, but I won't post my sketches..., you'll have to go to the blog to check them out...

And also, To enter my giveaway go to the linky at the top of my blog and cut and paste the interview I have posted in the first spot there,, answer the questions in a post of your own and link up. You could win a pendant, an ACEO or a falling lady print! You have until late Novwember....Better do it now before you forget. I really want to see what people have to say ....

See ya! Happy Paint party friday and artists in blogland saturday

True North

I was making a treasury for the nonteamchallenge on etsy called "You are my true North" , and since TheJetty won, it's a nautical theme and I found some really cool jewelry by Licky Drake of HappyGoLicky
http://www.etsy.com/shop/HappyGoLicky?ref=seller_info




Her shop is so wonderful... I will be adding some items to my Christmas list...


Anyway, ......... my camera died so I can't show you what I made this week... I've worked on the sisterhood sketchbook and in my own sketchbook and the new sketchbook for Amy's Commy project! And.... I started a drawing and a painting from the workshops in Rice's new book that I won thru Seth Apter's blog... I love the book and am having so much fun trying their way of creating. The book has less art and more about the expeience of the art retreats which is really the people... than I expected, but that's not to say it's not wonderful (which it is) and I'm still pouring over it.  But that'll all have to wait for PHOTOS!
 So to have something to show I looked thru some things I might have photographed but never posted so here's one of my favorites...

She's Queen of the Bully Hill wines and Sweet Walter Red is her favorite just like mine! Gotta be sweet!

Oh and if you didn't already, please go up to the linky at the top and submit your interview to be entered into my GIVEAWAY... if you don't know what I'm talking about then still go up to the linky and click on it and click on the first entry which is mine and it explains the whole thing.... try it, you'll like it...

Control

This painting I did about a year ago and shoved away in the closet, but I thought I'd pull it out for the Butterfly effect's MASK theme... You'll just have to figure out the meaning behind it your self as I didn't put as much thought into it at the time as one might think, honestly,... other than creepy trees grabbing her waist, (really that's all they're grabbing, which isn't how it looks so that's part of why I put it away) and hands everywhere, I'm pretty sure it said something to me about loosing "control" of my life... so much happening that I had no say in... but you take it how ever you will...

Oh, and if you didn't see my last post... click on the Mr. Linky above and then click on the first one there, to see the post about my giveaway just for linking up with an interview of your own.... please play along... you have a whole month!

interview giveaway!

So on wednesday I posted my answers to Amy's interview, go check it out if you missed it...http://fallingladies-fallingladies.blogspot.com/2011/10/amys-interview.html

and now like I promised I have another interview that I want you all to play along with... and as incentive... I'm having a giveaway to celebrate over 100 followers and almost 100 posts... here's some of what 3 people randomly drawn  could get in the mail just for cutting and pasting the interview and answering my questions...

                                                A pendant made from one of my watercolors...

   An ACEO

Don't hold me to that literally as far as the ACEO goes as I may not be able to locate the original so it may be a different one...
                                                                       And ................
                there will also be an 8x10 print of one of my falling ladies,

So here's too much info about me...

1. What should you be doing right now instead of sitting on the computer?

                    Getting in the shower to get ready for work.

2. What's the messiest area of your house? and dare you to show us...

                    My closet is totally a mess, clothes everywhere and tons of beaded necklaces   and scarves hanging... but that part actually looks pretty.

                                                     
3. 5 simple things that make you happy right now, above and beyond the obvious like your family and your health...

                  1.) A rose my husband brought me last week (I sketched, painted and photographed)

                  2.) Wind blowing leaves off the trees
                  3.) CANDY PUMPKINS

                  4.) Messy or used paint brushes

                  5.) Crows in the road

4. When did you last cry?

                 I cry easy and often, but the last time was when my husband called me at work from home as he gets home before me and cooks fancy gourmet meals, (Yes, you ARE jealous right now, I know!) and he puts my son on the phone...
                Many of you know my son is autistic and even though he repeats what we say sometimes, or repeats lines from movies or even rarer asks for what he wants, he's still considered nonverbal as he doesn't initiate conversation... so my husband says to him, "tell mommy you love her", and my son said..."love you... foreber". ...... I could cry again typing this.

5. Favorite book...

                Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

6. How many pets...

                We have 2 cats and a bunch of fish is all right now. This is Tyrone, he used to be Peabody but then became Tyrone when we put him outside for peeing all over the house. He needed a tougher name and actually became the leader of a street gang who he shares his food with, and they've learned to hunt in a pack... a truly scary thing to watch. He was eatting a  squirrel 2 minutes before this photo.

                And here's BobDole, his mom, whom he hates.

7. 2 Goals... one huge and unrealistic one,  and one achieveable one...

                 I want to quit my day job, earn $100,000 with my art so we can get a cabin in the woods with a big pond, big enough to have a tiny little island on it. The island only needs to be big enough for an adirondack chair and a beach umbrella so I can sit out there and sketch. I originally wanted an arched bridge to it but that wouldn't keep the kids away now would it! (So I'll paddle to it in a canoe I keep hidden.)

                And 2nd: I want to lose 30 pounds by Christmas, You might think that's more unrealistic than the cabin and pond, but I think I can do it, with yoga  and taichi and no more candy corn!

8. 5 things in your purse besides money and a cell phone...

             My mini sketchbook
             a little silver frog to remind me of frog magic and water!
             Burt's bees lipstick, the only makeup I wear.
             3 or 4 hair thingy's
             my camera

9. The emotion or feeling you hate the most...

             Guilt... I avoid guilt at all costs by trying to do the right thing but it still doesn't work, I feel guilty about everything,I feel guilty I haven't done enough for  the rest of my family because of the autism, I feel guilty I haven't cured my son (I KNOW), I feel guilty for driving too fast, eatting too much junk since then I won't be healthy enough to live forever for him, I feel guilty for feeling guilty , good lord!

10. If you could have 50 pounds of anything except money or gold what would you want?

              Glitter, not to use in art, but just to roll in or toss in the air! can you imagine!




OK so now it's your turn, cut and paste to your blog, make a post and link it up here...You've got a month,till November 20th... then I'll draw names from everyone who played along!
and since I did include some art I feel justified in linking to paintparty friday,creative everyday, whimsical wednesday, maybe even creative fridays and fiberart friday.

For some reason I can't get the linky to go on the bottom of the post so I put it on the top of my blog, which is good as it'll stay there anyway...