Big Mouth

My last post on January 7th was about the snow that fell on our small corner of the Earth. The following morning we awoke to more and all I could think was “Sara, you and your big mouth,” like I had challenged the snow gods to make up for the manageable amount that had fallen the day before. I’m not sure where I picked up that habit but I do it a lot. Any time something happens after I comment on the subject, I immediately place it on my list of whooopsies.

That was the last snow that has fallen in our area. But now because I’m typing this – I predict that we will get some very soon and my list of whooopsies will continue to grow.

Winter is a challenge for many of us. The shorter days and lack of sun can quickly lead to blue moods and a constant deficit of energy. In an attempt to keep my spirits up, I invested in more art supplies!

Thirty new vibrant RoseArt markers to keep me happy and best of all they cost next to nothing! (My budget is on the side lines applauding loudly.) The markers alone are pretty and the rainbow colors can brighten the greyest of days but using them is what keeps me truly afloat. It doesn’t matter if I create a masterpiece or just outline a few letters, the point is I’m creating something. Here is a glimpse of the doodles that fell out of my markers while Matt, my parents and I were enjoying a game of Scrabble. (Somehow, I managed to win that game… I attribute it to the doodles).

Some recent days have been harder than others. I can’t deny them because the struggles we face make us who we are.
[Edited to remove approximately 3 paragraphs.]
I’ve removed these words because it was more of journal selection than a blog entry. Not a bad thing by any means but I’ll summarize instead. Try to live your life in front of your own eyes.

Iggy Pup, our vivacious Boston Terrier, turned two on January 7th. Life is not always fun and it isn’t always easy but Iggy helps to remind me that it is all worth it. Small moments, like catching a few rays of sunshine during a lunch break or getting a kiss from your puppy can salvage a bad day. You can never take things too seriously, especially when you have Iggy passing gas in your immediate area. Also Iggy is great at reminding me that a nap now and again is perfectly acceptable.

Take care and be well. Find your happy thoughts today and keep them in your pocket.

 

Snow Business

There is a song that contains the lyrics “I want to want wash my hair in snow” … that lady is CRA-ZY!

Snow is beautiful. It gets you out of school when you are a kid but for the most part it just means more work for adults. If I could sit back and enjoy it for its beauty and magic, it would be one thing. If I could bundle up in an adult sized snow suit with mittens hanging from strings and my ear flap hat and make snow angels and forts until my nose got numb, I’d love today. Unfortunatley with two deadlines looming – Matt and I had to get up early and get to work – Snow or no snow.

The drive to work was slow going and we didn’t see any plows. I find this terribly amusing since the last “snow storm” we had, which turned out to be more of rain and slushy mess, precipitated dozens of plows on the roads. I have an image in my mind of snow plows sneaking from behind one tree quickly ducking behind another – waiting. Waiting for us to finish shoveling so they can come and fill in the driveway and corner. Its like a big challenge. If we finish before the plows go by we have more work to do but if we wait to shovel, the plows will not come down our street. Its a conspiracy, I assure you.

Work was work and I’ll spare you the dramatic nonsensical chaotic happenings. After work the roads weren’t as bad as they could have been. I think we dodged a bullet to be honest. Last winter we had a blizzard which resulted in Matt and I digging out the car multiple times with my car shovel (thanks mum & dad!) and pushing the car. Our road was blocked by 4 feet of snow at least and even the bus routes were a blooming mess. Tonight was pretty easy going and it was very beautiful despite the shoveling.

Things have been busy here. At least in my mind. I have been thinking of doing a “365 day” project. Perhaps a photo or a drawing or a doodle or a short story with illustration or a combination of any or all of the above every day for the whole of 2010. Sadly I haven’t committed to anything and just have a bunch of photos but not one for every day since January 1st. That saddens me. Some day I want to make a decision, stick to it and run with it through the ribbon at the finish line.

I have started an art journal though. I’ve completed one page and started a second. Here are the pages:

Matt and I did a short drawing session at the Southwest library on Wednesday. I felt very awkward and am not sure I have what it takes to draw figures.

Matt is uploading his daily sketches to his Flickr pool so be sure to drop by and show him some love = http://www.flickr.com/photos/22411827@N05/

I’ve been fascinated by photo manipulation lately. Imitation cross processing and retro-vintage looking shots are very “in”. I gave Picnik a look and came up with these two edited photos:

I hate to end this post since I haven’t blogged in so long. I hope you will forgive me but with a double deadline tomorrow, I need some rest.

Take care and be well.

 

A Sunday Tale

I could bore you with the adventures of my day. Like a play-by-play account of how Oliver kitty woke me around three am by puking on my pillow, narrowly missing my face. How my plan to wake before the sun and snipe an Ebay auction failed but I did wake up to not only my own alarm but Matt’s too. Then there was the unexpected win of an Ebay auction and my adventure in the kitchen to make stove-top mostacolli before Matt’s dad arrived to watch the game. Of course I could include how I went over to my mum and dad’s and helped make another type of Christmas cookie after making two other kinds yesterday. I’d probably have to include the heart breaking discovery of my fountain pen ink order out the back door in a puddle of snow. Lastly I’d mention how Matt and I went Christmas shopping and I ended up buy more stuff for myself.

Of course I will spare you with the boring details of my Sunday. Instead here are some pictures of the Christmas cookies that my parents plus Matt and I have been working on.

Cut outs – the staple of every family Christmas. There are many family photos of us making these cookies since my sister and I had to stand on chairs to reach the counter.

Peanut Butter Blossoms. This year we had trouble with the brand of chocolate chips – no perfect melt. I offered to eat all these “dud” cookies.

Gingerbread Cookies. My dad loves them so we helped decorate them.

Cyclops are totally Christmas-y, right?

This one totally reminds me of Mr. Bill.

A couple in love. awwww.

Yes, Iggy Pup is immortalized in gingerbread cookie form.

I’ll close this post with a photo of our Christmas tree. Wishing you and yours the happiest of holidays, regardless of which one(s) you celebrate. : )

Take care and be well.

 

delayed goodness

Finishing things give me such a great glowing feeling of accomplishment and success. I finished the baby blanket for my coworker Jonelle and her “in progress” baby boy.

I gave it to her November 2nd. Wow that is awhile ago already. Here is a closer look of the stitches. I’m so pleased with how it turned out!

This month has been going so fast. Actually this entire year has flown by. In honor of November, many people take part in NaNoWriMo which stands for National Novel Writing Month. I knew this was not the year to try if I was going to successfully finish any of my current in progress projects. Since I have been trying to journal daily I thought a drawing or journaling NaNo was in order. NaNoJouMo, which stands for National Nonstop Journaling Month, was already in existence thanks to Dawn over at D’Blogala. She is providing prompts in case you get stuck on a day which I haven’t used yet but I am going to copy them all down and keep them in my arsenal.

Here are the results of my NaNoJouMo – Hope you like a few or some or all

Since I don’t have an November 1st, here are a couple of glimpses at the end of October.

November 2nd was a good day for crayons.

November 3rd wasn’t very eventful (top).
November 4th was much more enjoyable (bottom).

November 5th was a good day to doodle a sleepy clock.

November 6th included “Hancock” which was a good movie – I was pleasantly surprised.

November 7th included a trip to Taco Bell where they said I was “Special” – or was it my taco?

November 8th culminated in my embarrassed realization that I often draw Iggy Pup’s coloring incorrectly (top).
November 9th was our first crock pot dinner of the season nom nom (bottom).

Since the crochet baby blanket was finished, I needed to dive into my next yarn project. First I dove into my yarn stash and grabbed my favorite rusty orange and some other goodies.

I’m just doing vertical stripes of hdc (half double crochet). This scarf is coming together so quickly and will soon be sent to the awesomely talented Mia in New York!

Have you heard of Movember? Check out what Wikipedia has to say here. I made a few paper mustaches on Friday while at work. Don’t I look cheeky?

There is also a “Hulk Hogan/Fu Manchu” and a “Charlie Chaplain” stored on the side of my work-mac just in case.

Thank you for stopping by. Take care and be well.

 

and then

This will be a two part blog post. Due to my elongated absence from posting, my plethora of abnormal tidbits to share is quite substantial. Lucky you!

I began thinking about odd expressions in the American-English language. One I got hung up on was “in a pickle”. Such an odd saying since I can’t find any evidence of a person being within a pickle. I can safely tell you that no pickles were harmed in the making of this drawing (I couldn’t find one large enough).

Matt and I have a knack for visiting art supplies stores when we are bored or have some spare pocket change. I brought home this set of watercolors from Michael’s. They were $4.99 and I had a 45% off coupon in my pocket. Love them! That robot’s arm is missing which explains his less than pleasant demeanor. Remember C3PO when he was disassembled? No robot enjoys missing limbs.

Autumn is an odd season for me. I love it on one hand but my allergies make me hate it and then there is raking leaves, and shorter days and lots of cloudy and rainy weather… Well, I tell people it is my favorite season so lets just go with that. Our raking adventure isn’t over yet – Saturday will be our final yard purge. I need to get the gardens ready for the winter and plant two more perennials that I’ve neglected thus far. Poor rakes, always being used and then put away in favor of snow shovels. I did discover that snow shovels make scooping up wet leaves much less messy on the hands than doing it the old fashioned way. Go me!

Sunday I felt pretty much like the sock monster on the bottom of this page. But the sun was out so I gave her a pretty bow for her rays. Yes I am a dork. Are you just now noticing? By the way, the dates are wrong on this page and the last but have since been fixed.

Just a warning for chocolate lovers – the next photo is graphic.

Yes. I encountered abused and neglected chocolate. That poor Hershey bar just wanted a chance to be loved and cherished and savored… poor poor chocolate.

Before I end this post, I owe you all a belated Happy Halloween. Iggy Pup was a pumpkin this year since I didn’t have time to alter his cowboy costume. Our lil Boston seems to have a very muscular physique and his chest was just too broad.

Take care and be well.

 

of headaches

Have you ever woken up with a horrible headache? Yesterday morning I tried so hard to undo what was done but couldn’t re-wake up no matter how hard I tried. I tried breathing through the blankets, I tried breathing through one nostril and then the other but failed and nearly suffocated. Stuffy noses and autumn seem to go well together, don’t they? Heck, clogged sinuses and every season go well together for me. I tried massaging my temples, hiding under Iggy Pup and even smothering myself with my pillow. All to no avail.

What better way to document such a horrible beginning to a stressful day than with – a doodle page in your journal?!

So you see, a horrible little demon spore was incubating in my head causing the throbbing sensation behind my eyes. As the day went on, he grew wings and a love of slam dancing. I told my coworkers that in the event of my head bursting open, they should collect the pieces and capture the beast. What would be cooler than having a pet demon that came from inside your head? I could train him to do marvelous things like take paperwork upstairs and check the fax machine. By lunch I was certain that a ruptured skull was inevitable then as my plans to catch and tame this mythical entity grew and developed, I found myself without the headache. Had the lil booger reabsorbed into my brain tissue? Oh well. Maybe next time.

If you have ever had a wet sock, you will completely understand why I am on a quest for new everyday shoes. My right shoe developed a nasty crack which grew into a full blown chasm. Friday night it was raining and as Matt and I rushed around to get candy for our theatre excursion, it decided to rain. Puddles and cracked shoe soles do not get along very well. I found myself dragging a sloppy wet and cold right foot along for the viewing of “Where the Wild Things Are”. Luckily I enjoyed the movie and paid little attention to my squishy sock. I can happily report that as soon as we got home from picking up Iggy Pup, I put on dry cozy warm socks and my foot lived happily ever after.

Have you ever had more than one pet at a time? If one pet is eating one type of food it is inevitable that another will try to steal that food since it is clearly better than their own. Toby kitty is the worst at this. Toby will push his kitty kin out of the way and greedily scarf down their food. He also steals Cheerios from Ripley mouse and even has munched on fish food before. Iggy Pup’s kibble is not safe either… oh what a silly kitty I have. Oliver kitty has been diagnosed with kidney trouble. I refuse to say disease since it is in the early stages and he is well and happy. The food he is on is quite expensive and I’m thankful he is just a slender little frame with lots of fur who eats small amounts. Enter Jaba-the-Toby. If I don’t sit and make sure that Prince Oliver is happy and eating his food daintily, Toby will rush over and push in front of Oliver. Mister fussy pants, being a regal flame point himalayan, will turn up his nose and walk away – afterall, food that is good enough for the common kitty should not be eaten by royalty. The joys of pets – **sigh**.

The bottom doodle is of Matt. Yes he was changing his clothes and insisted he was drowning in his shirt. It was quite entertaining but I fear he was upset that I didn’t rush over to save him. There wasn’t enough room for me to dive in and lifeguard him to safety. Oh and for the sake of honesty, his pajama pants were dark blue with little flags on them – not the red I used. Sorry Matt – next time I promise to realistically portray your flailing attire.

So that is the summary of my doodle page. I hope you enjoyed the stories behind the doodles or at least the doodles.

Matt’s parents asked me to decorate their pumpkin on Sunday. I happily grabbed the Sharpie marker and got to work. Having just seen “Where the Wild Things Are” on Friday, the characters are happily inspiring me still. This pumpkin’s shape seemed to scream “Wild Thing!” to me. Now I just need to grab my yellow paint and go back to fill in the eyes and maybe some white for the teeth. What do you think?

Some days it feels like I’m being watched over. Some days I am. That is Lavinia kitty in the window watching Matt and I embark on our day.

Take care and be well.

 

art it up

Some days I feel like I’ve forgotten how to create. I buy all kinds of pens and art supplies but for what reason? If I can’t pick up a stick and scratch something into a dirt pile, what is the point?

Other days, I get a tingle and something falls out of my pen. I call this one “Jump Rope Girl”… obvious eh?

I make an effort everyday to notice something that I might normally miss out on. How many times do you fail to SEE what is near you? Beauty is everywhere, you just need to be ready to take it in.

Once in awhile I get a good idea. Here is the long awaited story behind the bookmark. I must offer the disclaimer that this is neither very interesting nor worth the wait so I offer preemptive apologies too.

Once upon a time, I sent a package out to @michaelramm but as I was about to seal up the envelope – it hit me how lacking it was. I couldn’t send it before putting something else into that echoing chasm of envelope. A piece of drawn artwork was out of the question since nothing decent had fallen out of my pens in quite awhile. I ran through a mental list of possibilities.

I have a stash of dried Queen Anne’s Lace. I made a point of cutting some when were were out at the dog park. The flowers are gorgeous but dried, they take on a new life. They remind me of frozen fireworks, suspended in time and space. The color is muted and delicate much like the many vintage books that exist in my “cut up” piles. I also had a roll of packing tape handy since I wasn’t about to wait for glue to dry.

The end result was this bookmark which came to life very quickly and looked just how I had pictured it. Into the envelope it went and off to the post office I went. And we all lived busily ever after. (snickersnort)

I slept much of this weekend away. I find myself exhausted and run-down but the naps have helped. Maybe I’m fighting off a germ or virus or maybe I’m adjusting to the shorter days and colder temperatures. Is it possible for a human to hibernate? Iggy Pup asked if we could this morning. I found it very difficult to say no.

Take care and be well.

 

Paper Play

I spotted Moleskines on sale at Barnes & Noble and spent a good long while picking up and examining many of the available options. The small versions are around three by five inches which would be a nice size to tuck in a back pocket or kangaroo pouch in my hoodie. In the end I walked away empty handed like so many times before. So much money for a tiny notebook. So much money for something that… I could DIY!

The chilly weather led to the opening of a new thermal shirt this past week. The packaging included a piece of cardboard. I saved it like I save so many odds and ends that might come in handy. I chopped that piece of cardboard down and then opened my new ream of 22lb paper. I chopped that down.

Then came the great debate. Should I hand sew the binding like I have done for all my previously made books or should I give the sewing machine a try. Out came the sewing machine. I tried to adjust the stitch length to the longest but had some trouble keeping the stitches exactly in the center. I was thrilled that this ended up not mattering in the final cahier.

Having the signature and cover piece in hand, I opted for the DIY easiest method. I have to admit by this time I was feeling a bit lazy and grabbed the closest bottle of Elmer’s school glue. (Yes, I have bottles of glue lying about the house.) I made sure to apply glue along the stitches to ensure nothing came unraveled and then pressed the signature into the cover. I folded that baby up and put it under my ginormous stack of library books to dry.

After some corner rounding and gentle spine manipulation, I admired my Mock-skine Cahier. Best part – it was made for just pennies and reused some packaging materials! The above pictures shows a large sized Moleskine Cahier (5.25 x 8.25 inches), a pocket sized cahier (3.5 x 5 inches) and then my slightly smaller Mock-skine. Not too shabby, eh?

My apologies go out to @michaelramm for not getting the bookmark included in this post. I promise it will be the next to appear here.

Take care and be well.

 

tumblr

I have started a Tumblr account. LINKAGE

I’m probably not doing it right. I’m using it as a place to keep track of things that capture my attention or inspire me or amuse me.

Maybe if you are a Tumblr user you could offer some pointers or if you like what I post, add me to your friends.

If you are new to the idea of Tumblr perhaps join me in a quest to do it all wrong and enjoy every minute of it! It is free so there is nothing to lose.

Take care and be well.

 

little of this

Once again I find myself looking back at all the time that has slipped past me… Should I be getting used to this?

Sunday morning I awoke at 4am to join my Mum, sister and her husband for the Elkhorn Flea Market. We were through the gates just after they opened at 7am.

I saw this dress and thought about having a vintage and antique wedding. Matt and I have a lot of talking to do about preplanning and such even before we start the actual planning of the big event. I snapped a picture since I loved this dress and documenting ideas and inspirations has to be a good thing. always.

The same booth had a gorgeous quilt for sale. I bought it for $8 and we continued on our adventure. We misplaced each other but that is common during our Elkhorn Flea Market adventures. Mom and I would some how wander ahead of Andy and Jenn but then in the next moment only I am straggling behind looking at something that caught my eye. In the end we all climbed back into the truck with our scores in the back.

You may be wondering why I bought the Ziploc bag of vintage sewing notions. Take a closer look at that bag. Do you see the blue pen? The blue Esterbrook fountain pen? I was lucky and caught site of that gorgeous needle in the haystack while walking through a random booth. I made a squee noise, opened the bag and checked out the pen. Nib was intact and looked good, the lever moved and the sac didn’t make any crunchy sound. The pen body and cap were in good condition and both “jewels” are there and beautiful. I asked if I could purchase just the pen but they said it was a package deal. So for $2 the pen and bag of goodies joined the ranks of my purchases with the quilt. The last item is my first Tunisian crochet hook. Mum bought it for a dollar just for me under the conditions I show her how it is used when I start my first Tunisian crochet project. Deal!

Matt and I were more than happy to take Iggy Pup to Lake Geneva on Saturday followed by a stop at Burlington’s dog park. He was exhausted but fought sleep like a trooper.

Now it is my turn to fight sleep and watch some tele before relinquishing control of my mind to the dreamer in me.

Take care and be well.