International Yarn Bombing Day!

You ask, "What is yarnbombing?"  It's where you take a yarn creation and apply it to something out in the world to make it prettier, softer and more colorful.  You could call it street art, yarn graffiti or random acts of knitting and crocheting.  Check out this website, yarnbombing.com for more info and this link explains how Int'l Yarn Bombing day began and this flickr page for more glorious pictures!

This Saturday June 11th, to celebrate and join in, take something you've made and put it outside for others to see and be a part of it!  I'm going to make some flowers and hearts to go around my car's antennae.  I don't have much time so I need to make a few things today and tomorrow morning and then have my car wear it while I drive down to my sis' tomorrow for her daughter's dance recital.

Here are some of my fav's that I stole from google images!

Wished I had known about this earlier so I could've found a group and contributed in a bigger way.  Why?  Just for the fun of it.  Happy yarnbombing day to you!!!!

Pluggin' Away!

Hi!
I got to cleaning more last weekend than I planned and didn't do much on the cabinet refinishing.  I did spray the knobs with the clear coat and let 'em dry all week so I'll put 'em on the finished cabinets later today after work.

We've been working away doing paint prep work but the contractors haven't been here for a couple weeks.  So my son went from working in the house to outside paint prep and he fell from the ladder onto the cement but he's ok, thank GOD.  The contractors have some other jobs so hopefully they will be back next week.  I really need to get the plants in the ground soon!

I used my 50% off coupon on guess what?  YARN.  What else is there??  Adding it to my stash.  May use it on my next project.  Only read a little bit as I have been exhausted this week and have enjoyed just thinking about being able to crawl into bed and just SLEEP.

The DH has got me working on a new project (in between customers) of writing down all the furniture that we have room by room and research what it would cost to buy new today and if we sold it, what the fair market value of it would be.  DANG, it's reminding me of how expensive new furniture is, so take care of the stuff you own.  To replace it would be crazy $.  The purpose of this project is to see if we are over or under insured.  I think this will help us to figure out what to keep and what to get rid of before and after we move.  This is not a very FUN project :(                                          

I found this picture while searching images and I loved her artwork; you can find more of her at: Maria Molinari.

This picture shows how I feel right now.  Hand in hand we can make this a better, safer world.  Have a fantastic weekend despite everything.

Artichoke Man

Another art project from college:

I don't know what prompted me to make an artichoke into a character.  Maybe it was because it was a vegetable both my kids would eat (dipped in garlic butter of course) way back when.  I thought I'd hang it in my kitchen but it always got packed away which is what happened again.  Someday I say to myself...I'll have all my stuff out and it will be like Christmas morning!

I don't remember what the assignment was but I liked how it turned out.  I know it had something to do with color because I would never have chosen red and pink checks as a background.  When it finally gets unpacked and has a place to be hung up I think I'll paint over the checks maybe black and white...hmmm...dunno?  I had a nice weekend and a lovely visit with Tracy.  It just goes by way too fast.  Hope you all have a terrific week!

Decorative Art Nitestand

Several years ago I was into decorative painting.  I still love to paint but finding the time to do it is what's hard!  I used to try painting while being here at the shop in between customers but the paint would dry in my brush by the time I got back to it and found that crocheting was much more portable.

My fav piece that I did was this nitestand.  It's my own design.  I like how it turned out.  I'll get back to painting one of these days.  I always thought it would be fun to paint themes/scenes in children's rooms.  

The more correct color of the nitestand is the first photo.

I've been busy here at the shop and then I've been staying late to list some stuff on ebay since they have free auction listings thru Sept. 7th.  So I haven't been working on fixing up the house very much. 

The new garden has been doing very well.  We've had such a mild summer so far.  Really it's the coolest one I can remember!  That fact alone has kept my new plantings from burning up for lack of a root system.  I can tell it's gonna be warmer today, though.  No cloud cover this morning and as sunny as can be...but I don't care because I'm going down to the beach to hang with my sis and her family and to see my mom, too.  Mom, sis and I are planning to see the movie, Eat, Pray, Love and share a bit of "girlfriend" time.  I also need to return a really cute blouse at a boutique my sis got for me for my b-day because it's too small, ugg!  Damn menopause!!

Have a lovely weekend and stay cool!!

A Girl Her Dog and Her Wagon

If you click on it you can see a bigger picture!

Here is a collage of a collage that I made back in college.  It was supposed to be a piece using ink and pencil and only done in black, white and mid-tones (gray).  We were to find things in life we liked, loved or had affinity for.  We were also to include a silhouette of ourselves somewhere in the picture.  We were to write about what was happening in our life at the time we were making the piece (writing is at the bottom).

When I got this out of storage and read the writings it totally brought me back to that time in my life; it was a mini diary of snapshot in time.  I had gone back to school after getting divorced from my children's father.  Yes, I was a starving student and had a starving artist boyfriend, too.  It is amazing what you can do without much money really.  Museums usually have one free day a month to visit and the student ID helped, too.  There was the library and parks; picnic lunches or cheap fast food.  With not much help from the ex there was bitterness and resentment.  What balanced it was to create art.  My escape from the cruel economics of life.

The pen and ink outlines are taken from a vintage photo of a girl, dog and wagon that overturned spilling out flowers.  Then I added a rose, a songbird and an outline of a winter barren tree, 3 things I love.  The photo I chose reminded me of both my younger sis and my daughter when they were little with our family dogs.  What kid doesn't have fond memories of their dog & wagon? 

We never lived together but the boyfriend was talented, funny and romantic and we had a great time doing artsy-fartsy stuff together.  We went to art gallery openings, traveled up the pacific coast to draw and paint; he lived in San Luis Obispo for awhile, I'd go to visit and almost moved up there with my kids but after a couple of years or so I figured he was never going to settle down or ever have a pot to ....you know...#$!@ in.  I had two kids whose needs grew, like $ for college soon, etc.  The relationship took it's course and he took it harder than me but we moved on. 

More art from my "Bohemian" past life in the days to come!
Hope you're enjoying today.

Punchinello Says Hello

I made this hand puppet several years ago for my sculpture project in college.  I hand sculpted his head and hands out of paper mache and then painted him with acrylic paint.  I hand made his gold beads; designed and sewed his costume.  From the top of his hat to the bottom of his clothing is about 18".  His poor collar is very distorted from being packed away in storage.  It was made with gold wired edged fabric ribbon.  Awhile back when I was re-packing items getting prepared for moving, I took pictures of some art I created to send to my pen-pal in Nova Scotia, Canada.  These pix were taken quickly before packing them away again.

Remember Punch and Judy?  How Punch had a stick and wailed on Judy or threatened her?  Well, he was a modern version of this old Italian clown.

A bit of history for ya: 
Pulcinella, often called Punch or Punchinello in English, Polichinelle in French, is a classical character that originated in the Commedia dell'arte of the 17th century in Italy and became a stock character in puppetry. His main characteristic, from which he acquired his name, is his extremely long nose, which resembles a beak. In Latin, this was a pullus gallinaceus, which led to the word "Pulliciniello" and "Pulcinella", related to the Italian pulcino or chick.  End of history lesson!

He used to have a big box that was his stage that I made out of a cardboard box and covered with striped purple and lavender wallpaper and made fabric side curtains.  That is long gone and I don't have a picture of it, sorry.  He looked rather cute hanging out in his box/stage.

My son who was young and in grade school at the time thought he was scary.

I think I got an "A" grade on it.

Thanks for stopping by!