slow going but finding time to create


This is a tiny spot that I can show from the upstairs room which is mostly mine. It is the only room upstairs besides the bathroom which has not been painted since we moved into our house over twenty years ago. I am planning to paint it yet, sometime, but we first need to get the rest of the house more in shape. I am planning to have an inspiration wall, or two in this room - only need to decide how to achieve that. I would prefer not to cover it with bulletin board material but not certain otherwise. I have to do more studying of what others have done. I remember seeing a spectacular wall of an artist BUT can't remember where - maybe it was in a magazine, in which case I may never find it again lol
I am thinking of doing the walls multi-coloured. I may do some flowers or something too. I'm sure it won't be happening for awhile. I'd also like to pull the rug from the floor but that also could be a challenge. This is what a friend and I did in daughter's room a few years ago(mostly my friend - who is an artist living in British Columbia.)


Not the greatest photo but you get idea of the floor. There had been rug on the floor and we found old vinyl tile underneath. I love this effect. Sigh - some day.

I'll show the first couple of steps here of how I played with that skirt I showed in a previous post.


I then did further embellishment but now wish I had used a tea dye or something so the white does not look so crisp. I think I'll still try applying some tea dye. I might try that tomorrow - maybe I can show you on Monday.

so little time, so many ideas:
I'm practically chomping at the bit to dig in and do much more creating. Ahhh - someday I will again find time - just not quite yet.

These are a couple of photos of some fabric I've been working with. The darker flowers were done as rub-ons with Shiva paintstiks.



The more subtle shading is done with a bleach resist. That one will require more painting, I think.



Over the next days I'm hoping to get into some denim redesign. I've been investigating and have some denim to work with and ideas. If anything comes together with that I'll try to share.

Almost forget the bit of exciting news ~ I entered a number of my photographs and art quilts in the Saskatoon exhibition. I didn't have time to give the photos any added TLC with mats or anything but decided if I was doing it I needed to get on with it. Judging is happening this week. The exhibition is next week so I'm hoping to get to see them displayed on Tuesday. I'll let you know how I made out. Yipes - I was SOOOO apprehensive BUT I did it and now I may get a bit of local exposure. I've some other ideas as well - just need to have the time to actually do more art.

Gotta run.
angels be with you.
Don't forget to leave a comment if you've not already done so for the give away. I think it will have to wait for the drawing until early next week. Apologies for the delay, just too busy at moment.

Creating and design:
The painter has finally started in our house today after 20 days have passed since the fire. Our patience has been wearing thin. In the meantime I decided to rip the wall paper off the one wall in our bedroom and paint all the walls there. Insurance is paying for painting in the kitchen, living room and back entrance. We have decided to paint two of the bedrooms and the main room in the basement as nearly everything is out of the house. It's quite scary in the basement especially as we had SO MUCH STUFF there. I had many of my vintage books which I recently acquired as well as many magazines and also most of my cardstock. Fortunately my main studio which was recently completed has not been affected. Big sigh.



I won't show you colours yet. We are in process of getting ready to move back to our house on Friday. The painting will not be finished but Greg's Mom has a big birthday celebration happening on Saturday so out of town family are coming to stay. We will be very glad to move out of the basement here after 19 days. We were SO LUCKY to be able to move in temporarily as the hotel would just not have cut it for this lengthy time period especially with a teenage daughter and all of our special food needs. I really dislike restaurant food at the best of times and if I'd have to do it everyday for every meal - YIPES.

So we'll kind of be camping in our own home for awhile till the kitchen is finished (could be a number of weeks yet, but, we'll try to enjoy it. Kat has been fantastic with the whole thing. I actually had a meeting with her teacher this morning to do wrap up for this year and make plans for next. I was so impressed with how attuned the school has become to our daughter and her needs. Teacher also commented on how terrific Kat has been doing. THANK GOODNESS FOR ALL THE ANGELS AND FOR OUR CHRISTIAN FAITH WHICH HAS GOTTEN US THROUGH MANY CHALLENGES.



And so I've been buying numerous magazines and borrowing many from the library to help me through this difficult time.


I've been trying to do designing on a budget to help myself with the design and colour choices that insurance is not covering. Unfortunately our flooring is in really bad shape as is our bathroom. We'll have to wait. Other things have been priority.



It's now Thursday. I want only to say about the painting that I walked past our house at 10 p.m. last night. The painter was still there with his bright lights shining. I am SO impressed with his concern and time commitment. So many people have NO CLUE what it is like to not be in your home for an extended time period, without having planned to do so.

I'll quickly share a link to a blog that I absolutely love. the photographs, the designs, the colours. lafifole.blogspot touches me, and I think many others, at many levels. Take a moment to check Anne's blog if you are able. You may fall in love with it just as I have. I know numerous of my friends will enjoy the most recent photos from teatime.

Angels be with you dear friends in whatever adventures you may be finding.

Life is truly good: The past week met us with some new challenges but we are all safe and fine. That is the important thing. Last Thursday morning at 4 a.m. we woke to the sound of our smoke detector. I ran out to find the dishwasher all in flames. We were able to go out the front door. Greg put the fire out with a blanket and I phoned 911 on the cordless phone which Greg brought to me from the coffee table close by. Greg was a bit perturbed with himself for not switching off the furnace fan as the furnace managed to spread the smoke throughout the entire house. It’s OK. The smoke detector worked. We are all safe including the pets and we had insurance. There is a cleaning crew that has been washing, scrubbing walls, packing boxes, using ozone machine and ripping out cupboards and flooring that need to be removed. We will get new flooring put in our back entrance, down the stairs and into the main room in the basement. All the replacement work and painting will be done by a carpenter. We’re getting bids for these jobs and then insurance company will choose.

Sorry to tell this almost by rote but the whole thing seems just another adventure in my survivor life series. I am trying as much as possible to laugh, to think of the good things that can come of this, Relationships of family and friends are being strengthened. I learn of kindness from people like Constanza, near strangers, who are offering help. I learn of people that don’t really care. I learn of how very, very strong I have become when a friend comments on how so many people would be very “pissy” (her word, not mine) about the whole thing. As I skip down the hallway of my mother-in-law’s basement where we are residing, I realize that life is truly good. As I shed a few tears of sadness, exhaustion, I realize that life is truly good,

The fabric photo shows a piece I had dyed brown, used a bleach resist on and then painted with white fabric paint. The photos are from before the fire.



The greens and flowers started as a small gift to myself late on Mothers Day. They were embellished by a dear kind soul at the nursery, florist shop. They smell so wonderful at this time where it often felt like smoke was curling about near my nose, inside my nose, in everything that I breathed in. Now I am reminded that my cell phone, which I have with me near constantly, was in the kitchen right in area of greatest smoke concentration. Oh well. I need it with me.
The pears and lamp with ribbon (I'll catch you up with these tomorrow) only show how I am trying to make our temporary abode into somewhat of a home.



Thanks to all who have offered support of any kind, especially of thoughts and prayers

Angels be with you,
Wendy

More art in progress and another journal page to share. I'm also working on the banner for my etsy shop so hopefully in the next few months LOL.














I'm realizing now that I would have preferred without the black trim around the words from the book for the journal page. Oh well, better to learn on a journal page than on a canvas.



I remember now the difficulty I had with the face also. Because I used a pastel for the purple I got a bit of smudging where it wasn't supposed to be. Also, the face being smaller I wasn't using the right tools - mouth especially got larger than I'd planned. Like I said, oh well.

The robin started out as this crappy photo from a long time ago. I wouldn't be able to tell you how I ended with this image.



I did use my old photopaint program and I think I did lots with effects. other than that I'm not sure. You'll be seeing more of it as I don't really like using others images, if possible, even the copyright free.

And a couple of pics of the fabric I've been painting for the last few weeks.

Here's a little book I made for the ar-TEA swap hosted by MaryAnn: I finally finished this at about 1:30 a.m. and popped it in the mail today to my swap partner in Finland. I had so much fun making it. The size is 4" x 4". The cover and right hand pages are done with fabric. The back and left pages are done with collaged watercolour paper. I used decorative papers to do the quotations and photos.

I must leave my computer as I am exhausted. Much has been going very well the last few days and I will be freed to do more creating.

Till tomorrow - "angels be with you".

And thanks for all of your kind comments and observations. I'll be back to you soon.

Thoughts for today:
I absolutely love today's calendar page from Mary Engelbreit.









Do you remember the doodle I'd shown a few days ago with the heart?










I was busy carving on the weekend and this is the result.











I'd forgotten to take any ink along to the farm so didn't get to try it until last night. I was so pleased. I hope you like it too. I'll be doing more with this fabric but not for a few days.





"What wouldn't you give... to live, love, and be happy... DELIRIOUSLY HAPPY... forever more?
Well, that's just it... you needn't give anything... JUST DECIDE... to live, love, and be happy... DELIRIOUSLY HAPPY... from this moment forward."
the Universe
at Inspiration Peak

Fabric play: I finally grabbed a couple of minutes outdoors when it wasn't drizzling to play with my red shiva paintstick and some of those oak leaves. The brown fabric had been washed and dried and the new leaves picked when I took Billy for an afternoon walk. I love doing all this fabric play. Now let's see if I can get into my left brain a bit and actually complete some of these many started projects.


The pencil doodle is for a stamp. That will take some major patience to do all the carving. Wish me luck.

Angels be with you,
Wendy

My sewing machine: Only a few days ago I realized I haven't been at my sewing machine since early June. Even though I have some pants hemming to do for Cat, I'm really looking forward to getting back to it, getting back to working with fibres, fabrics, buttons. Journal quilts have been on hold. Today I chose to work on one for June. This is what I have planned so far, oh, and the binding and the other fibres. You'll have to wait until it's done. I forgot to mention that the orange button will be for the August quilt. YES! orange is the colour for August.

On the red fabric I used some dishwasher soap with a bit of bleach in it. I needed to experiment with the stamps. Initially I had far too much soap. Later I didn't get so much of the whitening effect, but it got darker instead. Not certain what happened. I then used black dye based ink to do some stamping. I just have to determine now if there are any possibilities for setting the ink? Hmmm, any ideas? I'm wondering if I can press it. The fabric is for Christmas projects so I've some time to sort it out. I also need to determine some time soon if I can use spray varnish on rice paper. I love to use rice paper and I've got quite a lot of it.
Angels be with you.

Only beginning of April journal quilt: My excuse - umm - April is a shorter month, I had one VERY busy week, I kept changing my mind about the fabric I want to use, BUT mostly I think I've been procrastinating about the weaving. I REALLY want to do it, but I'm quite UNCERTAIN how it will work. OK, I think I'll JUMP right into it today - after I do a huge grocery shop and take the dog for a walk, OH and eat breakfast and the list goes on. Hopefully today.

Presents and WIPs: I have much to post about today so will probably need to do more than one post. This one is about presents I received in the mail in the past few days. The first present was from Mary Ann who is so kind with her giveaways every other week. I was so excited to be chosen to receive this book titled "Designing with Fabric". It is an absolute treasure trove. I can hardly wait to dig into it. At first glance I noticed a reverse stamping technique. I did not have any bleach here otherwise but decided to try some liquid dishwasher soap which I had purchased a couple of years ago for stamping on jeans. I thought if it worked on denim - why not other fabric. I did some stamping on a piece of this sheet which wasn't quite right for what I had purchased it. I want to turn it into a journal quilt sometime. I'm not certain what I'll do with it yet but hopefully I will come back to it.
The next day I received a wonderful paper doll from Emily. I so admired the paper dolls of Emily which I had viewed on flickr. They are fabulous. I am inspired once again to try something that I thought I never would. Hmmmm - that list of things to try keeps getting longer and longer. We'll see.
Then yesterday there was another parcel card. Because we have to pick up our mail at the post office we need to be there before 5 on a week day. I got the package at lunchtime today when Greg walked in the door. I'd kind of started to worry about my "cuppa tea" swap package. Sometimes our mail is SOOOO SLOOOOW. But after I opened the package I had to put on my "be inspired - not intimidated" hat. There were many gorgous pieces in the package from Regina. I admire anyone who can do paintings. And today I received this wonderful card, together with the fabulous case, some stamped cards, vintage postcards, buttons, and these whimsical angel earrings.
Huge thank yous to Mary Ann, Emily, and Regina. This emotional artist has, well, I think you get the picture. I'll get some tissues now to dry my face.

Presents and fabric: The first two photos are of the fabulous ATCs I received from Janet. I was very fortunate to have my name chosen for her giveaway with the "one world- one heArt" draw. Thanks Janet. I love them.
The fabric is for my April journal quilt. I purchased it yesterday. The colour is yellow. The technique is fabric weaving. You can be certain I won't be doing a regular weave - too formal for my liking.
Better get to those inchies. Yuck. I hate when I procrastinate so much. Would help if I were feeling better.
Angels be with you.

Friday: Though today is Saturday and actually already Sunday in many locations, I need to tell you about my visit with Naomi yesterday and also show you these Friday's finds.

For anyone familiar with Julia Cameron's books, "The Artist's Way" and "Finding Water" you will know what I am talking of when I say Naomi and I have been doing some "time travel". We've been trying to determine some reasons why I go so frequently and quickly into activation, what I would describe as panic attacks. Because I've been having self regulation therapy for a few years already my body is somewhat accustomed to this reaction and I can often deal with it. The more I am able to tread gently around the edges of the activation the more I will be able to "flow through the challenges". Naomi believes there is probably not anything specific causing the concerns for me but instead a number of areas all in combination. Probably the most significant would be my childhood health issues, a general anesthetic, and more recently our daughter's health issues. So as we tread softly around all these issues I become exhausted.

Today was a day for recuperating. It was also a day for working more in that basement room. It's getting closer. I'll try to let you know as soon as it's more ready. I'm certain I'll feel more relaxed, and free, once I have our home more organized and ready to play, play, play.

When we were in Saskatoon yesterday I rewarded myself with some new fabric, angelina fibers,

some papers and heavy body acrylic paints, as well as a few postcards and paper items I got in an antique store just off Broadway, for anyone familiar with Saskatoon. I also got more wool roving and needle felting tools.

Over the next few days I'll be completing my journal quilt for March, getting ready for a swap, and hopefully sharing more about the needle felting. Until then I'll leave you with these first two pictures of the main level from the Avenue Building (built in 1913) where I go to see Naomi. It's a fabulous place.

Angels be with you.

playing: with paper, stickers, fibers, embroidery, old buttons. The fabric is some I found for works in progress - postcards, mini-quilts. Maybe I'll have some done tomorrow, or can at least show them.

Colour as promised:
Friday's Finds - these are mostly for working with fabric, though not all - sponges, stencils, beads, stickers, board books.
Soon I'll show some actual finished work, I hope. lol