Monday, April 4, 2011

Random Acts of Art Kindness




So we were playing Scrabble the other night and we always each draw a tile to see who goes first. We both drew a V. There are only 2 V's available. What are the chances that we'd both pull it?



I found this wonderful handmade postcard waiting in my mailbox this afternoon when I got home. It's paper, fabric and laminated fabric stitched together. It was made by Jan Hodgman as a RAAK. That stands for Random Act of Art Kindness. I LOVE IT, and it perked my day right up!

RAAK is from Millande's Art Group on Ning, if you haven't been there I highly encourage you to visit and join. Wonderful women sharing their knowledge, lives, insight and kindness. I'm inspired every time I visit, and I've learned quite a bit. It's caused me to work a bit outside of my comfort zone. and that's always a good thing.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Rainy days are gone, and the weekend is now



Baby tomato! This is Mr Stripey. When he grows up he is supposed to be red and chocolate striped. I've never grown this one before, so we shall see.

We got a ton of rain this week, officially 3.99 inches yesterday. My yard was a swamp and my driveway a river. The veggies loved it, the tomato plants look like they grew a couple of inches. The roses lost all their petals but overall look ok, but the impatients got all beat up.

I planted a Honeysuckle against the fence on the side yard; and strung up garden twine to give it something to cling to. It grows so fast I think if I stand there long enough I'll see it move.

On the crafty side:
I bought the equipment to make lampwork beads. Very fun! I get to use a torch!! woo-hoo!
so I've only tried it once so far and was not as difficult as I imagined. I did do one thing wrong: I set everything up outside. It was a gorgeous day, sunny, breezy and I was playing with fire.... so I set everything up on the table in the back yard. The blue part of the flame is the hottest so that's where you have to hold the glass. Well, in the sunlight or dappled shade you can't see the flame at all. All I could see was the wavy distortion in the air.
Problem two: nice and breezy. While that felt fantastic, you really don't want the wind blowing the flame around; it needs to be nice and steady.
In spite of that I made 5 beads. Not too bad for a first time:







I know that with practice I will get better, but now just to find the time to do it.
quilt
I have so many things I want to do this year.

I have 3 quilts in the planning stage and 1 a little less than half pieced.
I want to make the baby some clothes.
I want to work on layering in my art journal.
I want to go to the beach once per month.
I want to dance.
I want to continue to lose body mass.
I want to creatively landscape my yard and make it so nice we love to sit out there.

Here's one last pic: