Happiness To Be Dissolved

Here's another board book from the round robin I've been participating in. This one came with a three-ring loose-leaf of chipboard/cardboard/tag board, oh let's just say VERY stiff pages that one could remove and work on. Very easy to handle when painting, though not really an altered book, but still fun to work in.
These photos make the background look really really fuchsia pink, but they were much more orange-y in person. After painting several acrylics on (took a lot of paint, this chipboard stuff really soaks up the paint like a sponge.) I waited for them to dry, then I stamped with a cloud stamp in orange to give more texture to the colored background.
We were supposed to include quotes that we liked, so I found one that I'd saved from an old Oprah magazine, along with that orange/yellow graphic on the right. That formed a pocket above which the words read: Happiness Is A Warm... And I also found a vintage-y looking sticker in the same colors.

The quote is from Willa Cather "That is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great." There are cancelled stamps of animals and lava, and a photo of a fractal image. More cloud stamps in orange and the red CONFIDENTIAL stamp that I have.

The words above the pocket for the tags reads: Happiness Is A Warm....So the tags answer that with BLANKET, SUMMER DAY and CUP OF TEA. I found three different orange ribbons to tie on the tags.
The back of the tags have a cancelled stamp with a blanket or rug, a summery piece of fabric, and stamped image of a cup colored in with colored pencils.. Yes I know Java is coffee and it says TEA on the other side. Turns out I don't have a teacup stamp, oh well, I liked how it looks, and one warm beverage is as good as another. And I also stamped over the tags with a stamp that says "Take Note" in a circle.

I just finished another board book from this project that I'll share soon here. And I have one more to work on, then that is it for this collaborative project. After working in a few of these books, I find that I like working in board books for some reasons, not so much worry about the background paper buckling, small compact size, but that they are harder sometimes to handle to keep them open as you're working, to not break the binding as you pin them down flat. Also, I guess when I do work in an altered book, I like to be inspired by the actual book, either the title, the text, or illustrations. And that really isn't appropriate or possible (several of the books have been completely gessoed) here.

Every Ukelele Needs a Case

My youngest son, Alex just turned 14, and his big gift from us was a soprano ukelele. We couldn't find a case that he liked and that was the right size. So I told him I would make him one. And I *gasp*, actually did. Within a week even. It helps when your "client" lives with you, enforcing deadlines, poking and prodding.

We found a really long sport zipper, and he said he liked this soft flannel for the lining.

See, the ukelele looks so snug and happy in there.

It fits in pretty easily.
I worried about making it in white, a kind of canvas/upholstery weight thing that I had in my stash. But his idea is to doodle on it and let his friends help him art it up.

It was hard to get the dimensions just right because I'm really 3-d challenged when it comes to sewing. So it is a little too baggy in some spots and too tight in others. But overall, I think it looks pretty good. I originally made it with the black hand straps, but then he decided that "oh I'd like a shoulder strap too", so that is kind of tacked on as an afterthought instead of sewn into the end seams like I normally would have.

I used the box that the ukelele came in as a pattern for the fabric pieces and as the stiffening for the whole case. I thought that it needed more than just a bag to keep it safe, especially if he is bringing it places or to school. I covered the cardboard box in an adhesive vinyl shelf liner that we've had for ages and never used to keep the cardboard from collapsing from any moisture. This means that the bag isn't washable though, so we'll see how that goes. I can always take the box out if we need to.

It only took a few hours, and most of that was puzzling over the shapes and how to put them together, I hope he uses it for years to come. It is fun to have a second ukelele player in the house, as Zach has a baritone ukelele. I told the boys they need to learn "Dueling Banjos" on ukelele, I think it would be a YouTube viral sensation, but that's probably because I'm their mother....

A Corpse Exquisitely Revealed

I'm happy to finally get to share one of the exquisite corpse pieces I've been working on for the last few months. This one has reached its owner, so I can now reveal what I did.
This round we were actually doing figures, each artist starting with a "head" on a long skinny rectangle divided into squares. We are also adding words depending on which section we are working on.
In this picture you can see the 1/2" that I got to go on as my clues. I figured that the yellow bit on the left was the bottom of the arm, and the stripes were the bodice of a garment. So I got this far with a torso/hip section, and thought I was done, but then realized, no, it needed more.
First of all the hand needed to be holding something, and the "belt" needed a bit more oomph. I also had to add the words that are part of the game this time.

I found this turquoise bead in my collection that I thought looked like an egg, I wanted an egg shape to go with the skirt material nesting egg print. The bead is quite flat too, so it fit on the quilt very nicely. I stamped the words with one of my favorite alphabet stamps on some of my hand-dyed cotton, this was then hand-stitched on with orange perle cotton.

I did a lot of decorative stitching on the skirt to add more texture. I think I would wear a skirt that looked like this. I probably wouldn't walk around holding a blue egg. but that's another thing.

I really like this photo a lot, showing all the special bits that I added to the belt, like the Chinese coin and glass beads.

And here is how the whole thing looks. I think this was my very favorite of the pieces I contributed during this round. I'm glad that Joanie likes the finished piece!

Santa Cruz Art League Fiber Art Exhibit

My quilt, Lorabunda 3-Step is on display at the Santa Cruz Art League
for their

5th Annual California Fiber Art Exhibit

From July 3 to August 2, 2009

The juror for the show is Deborah Corsini who is the Curator of the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles

And consider yourself invited to the opening reception if you're anywhere nearby, here is the information off of the invitation, I would love to see you there:

Please join us Saturday, July 11 from 3-5PM for the opening/reception of the 5th Annual California Fiber Art Exhibit. We are celebrating the diversity of contemporary fiber arts, this exhibit will feature 62 works of art encompassing two-and three-dimensional works across the fiber art spectrum, including but no limited to wearables, art quilts, weaving, basketry, beaded work, and felted pieces.

Santa Cruz Art League
526 Broadway, Santa Cruz CA
For more information: 831-426-5787 or www.scal.org

Why Is The Cat In The Pool?

Why was our cat Spike sitting in the pool the other day?

This is the dog pool. She likes to dig dig dig in water and cool her feet off.

It was formerly the boys wading pool, but they of course haven't used it in may years.

It is certainly not intended for use by cats. I just love this expression on his face: "Oh no, caught in the act!"

He was certainly not happy to be caught sitting in the pool. I think he knew it was strange for him to have been in there. Look at this murderous glance sent my way as I snapped these pictures.

Wonder what else he does that he's not supposed to??

Finally Dressed

Yes, I'm finally all finished with the dress. I figured out how to draft the missing neck facing pattern pieces so that it would work (pshew), that was the hold up. And the set-in sleeves weren't too hard once I got the gathering right. I really liked using the serger to finish the raw edges, it saves a huge amount of time.

Here's a view of the back. As you can see, it hits me right above the knee, so it feels terribly short to me. I'm not sure if I'll be comfortable wearing it or not...The pattern package suggests wearing it over jeans or tights, which might be good, we'll see how daring I feel, and whether or not the nasty rash from the blackberry vine attack on my leg heals up.

I'm probably a little too pleased with myself, oh well, you can sue me if you must. I'm just glad to:

• have actually FINISHED something I said I was going to do
• something that is cute
• and wearable
• and oh, by the way, done!

The Negative View

Looking at the negative view

of very ordinary things

reveal unseen patterns

unsuspected movement,

and a graphic vision I can't manage to see with my own naked eye.

Thanks negative setting on my camera phone.

Just a boring old high school parking lot at night....

Arboretum Detour

Hey! Happy July! Can you believe it, already?
On the hottest day last week (over 100F), I was happy to go down to Santa Cruz for some kid related taxi service, where it is almost always much much cooler. I had a few hours all to myself so instead of going home to a hot house, I detoured up to UCSC (University of California, Santa Cruz) to visit the arboretum.

It was absolutely perfect up there. Very warm, but not too hot, a nice breeze, and only a few people walking around the arboretum pathways.

I was bummed to not have my camera, so these are all from my camera phone. Not too bad, but I would have loved some super closeups of all these unusual plants from around the world. But, I can of course, always go back can't I?

It is a pretty informal arboretum, the pathways are meandering, as opposed to straight/angular, and not terribly well-marked in some places, but it suits Santa Cruz very well. Plus it is huge, lots of room to spread out.
I don't recall visiting the Arboretum when I was a student here (for 2 years), I wonder what I would have thought of it back then?
I was trying to get a picture of the clouds in the sky that were reflected in the water. It was really beautiful. There are a lot of birds that hang out in the arboretum, so I'm sure they use this water feature frequently.

I loved this little statue tucked away under some big trees. It was very unusual, but somehow familiar.

Look at how those flowers glow, as if they've captured the sun itself. Some kind of lily perhaps? It was in the South African garden section I think.

This is Leucospermum cordifolium in case you're wondering, another protea.

This protea looks so much like an artichoke, doesn't it? I would love to do a screenprint of this flower. It would look great in all kinds of color combinations.

These reminded me of doll dresses. They would also make excellent, though tickly, earrings.

I really loved seeing so many orange flowers at once. Orange is a color that I find myself drawn to a lot these days.

This tree had a lot of character. She was very very smooth and cool, with a soft hardness that reminded me of a really muscular human leg.

I was watching this quail family for quite a while, then they decided I was a threat and scoobled off into the underbrush. They have such great camoflauge, can you even see them here?

Other animals I saw were tons of hummingbirds, many many lizards stretched out in the sun, and then really fun was a little bunch of rabbits. One of whom was doing something really strange, wish I'd taken a video of it. He kept running up to this flat stepping stone that was in the sun. Flopping on his belly, stretching out fully and then rolling from side to side, almost onto his back.. Then he'd sit up, look around, dart off into the bushes and dart back out on the stone, repeating the process. I was cracking up! There were several other bunnies watching him, probably wondering what the heck he was doing, just like I was. Animal comedians, gotta love it.

Rainbow Nails

I encountered this display of Sally Hansen HD nail polish and was surprised by this color range. They've got them all! I think the only one that would be strange would be yellow. They're pretty true, vibrant, vivid, bright colors though and they made me happy to see the rainbow spread out in Longs (now CVS, R.I.P. Longs Drug Store, I'll miss you.) Makes me wonder if you can do art with these polishes? Do the colors combine well? Would they last or would they quickly degrade whatever you've painted them on? hmmmmmm. According to the ad the secret ingredient in these "high definition" colors is: "Special Ingredients:Real Liquid Crystals "

I've written before about my thing about nail polish. And how I keep buying it, even though I can't keep nail polish actually on my fingernails in anything resembling a decent manicure for more than about 15 minutes maximum. I do like always having color on my toenails, and have a better track record with keeping those presentable for a bit longer.

I used to always do my nails when I was a work-in-the-office type, and was much better at maintaining a manicure. But now that I'm home and using my hands in a much more shall we say *active* way, the need for an ever present manicure just isn't there anymore. But the need to buy the nailpolish is for some strange reason. One of those habits I still have, but haven't really worried about getting rid of it. Luckily little bottles of nail polish don't take up a lot of room like the other things that I like to buy or collect even though I don't really need them.

Farming Joy

It was finally the first day of pickup at our neighborhood organic CSA farm, Camp Joy. We now get a weekly basket for 19 weeks of whatever they've got ready for us. If you've ever thought of trying a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) I really recommend it. You'll get in-season vegetables and fruits that are so fresh and lovely, plus the knowledge that you are supporting a local farmer who loves what they do. I swear you can taste that love and joy in everything they produce. A good alternative if you don't have a CSA available is going to a farmer's market if there is one near you. Just to get the super fresh fruits and vegies is worth that extra effort because they taste so much better. ie, tomatoes actually taste *gasp* like tomatoes!!

I always like to take my camera to the farm and have a bit of a walk around and see what changes they've made in the months since I've been there.

The grape arbor is lovely and shady and the grapes look plentiful this year.

Several of the pathway junctions are covered with woven arbors with climbing roses. Really pretty and much more in control than mine at home.

The rows of flowers are really gorgeous, and always make me regret not signing up for the weekly bunch o' flowers.

They really plant a nice mix of flowers, poppies, statice, cosmos, etc. I think this is a good way for them to attract and keep the bees that are an integral part of the farm's operations (not to mention the honey production part of the business).

I think those are alstromeria, but I could be wrong. I just like how happy they make me just to see them all growing so strong and soaking up the sun.

I like to check out the various ways they come up with to keep the birds away from the vegies, like these wire grids over the pepper plants. Sometimes it doesn't take much to deter the birds, but if you want your peppers to mature without little holes in them from bird pecks it is worth the effort.

The deep shade is such an eye-catching thing when you are out there with the crops on the sun-drenched hillside. It just screams out "Oasis here!" The people who work this farm are out there quite early and then take a siesta when the sun is at its peak. Smart huh?

Some of the plants are planted differently than just in rows, like these squash plants here. I guess because of their rambly ways it makes more sense to have a circular arrangement.

I'll have to try this next year! My pumpkins are in a row right now, they seem happy so far.