I've been busy

So you want to know what I've been up to? Silly question because if you're reading this blog it's to know what I've been working on recently. First up:  Not long ago I joined an Altered Switch Plate Swap at http://www.atcsforall.com/ and made these for the swap:

What do you think?  I like all of them but the flowers are my favorite.  I'm curious to see what I get back in return.

My Guy and I also decided to throw a dinner party for 8 of our closest friends and that happened last night.  The party, wine and food were a great success. How could it not be, they are all wonderful people.  Oh and I want to thank Linda and Mike for bringing us 6 bottles of their home made wine.  We've yet to taste it because we had so many other bottles already open. But I can't wait to try it.

So you are wondering how does this party relate to my art? Well, for about a year now I have been planning to create a mosaic table using a very complex design (for a mosaic newbie, that is) and I'd been procrastinating because, as usual, I was unsure of my abilities to handle the design. However, wanting it to be finished by party time necessitated that I simplify the design greatly to something that I could finish by Friday evening. It wasn't the design that I originally worked on, but both My guy and I love it.

My Guy thinks I work great under pressure; I guess I do.  He didn't think I get it done on time considering when I actually started cutting the tiles (with a ring saw).  But finish I did.. mostly... it was finished enough to serve dinner on. I'll tell you, I felt a sense of accomplishment.  Here is a picture of it:

What else have I been up to? This isn't art related but it is fun to eat the results. Yes, I've been tending my vegetable garden.  Green peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, and lemons. (Nothing on the lime tree yet.) Anybody have a to-die-for eggplant recipe?  if so, please, please post it in the comments section.

OK the last picture isn't from the vegetable garden but I'm proud of it just the same. They are my unripe lemons from a lemon tree I've had for several years.  Why am I proud? I've finally remembered to water it on a regular enough basis that it is actually growing lemons this year. :)

Thanks for reading. What has your week been like?

Name That Tune

These ATCs were made for an ATC Swap, at http://www.atcsforall.com/, called Name That Tune.

 

Sharp Dressed Man:	I Got You Babe
Hush Lil Baby	I Love You Truly

 

Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.....~quote by Charlie Parker ~

Black And White ATCs

I created these for a swap Black And White swap at http://www.atcsforall.com/   but they weren't the one that were sent off to new homes after all.  I chose others to fly. I should have taken a picture of them but alas I forgot. They really were much better.

 

White ... is not a mere absence of color;
it is a shining and affirmative thing,
as fierce as red,
as definite as black....

By: Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)

ATC's Traded

These are my newest ATCs created for trading at http://www.atcsforall.com/ .

The theme was image transfer. I used packing tape as the transfer method.

Be as a Bird

Be as a bird perched on a frail branch,
that she feels bending beneath her,
Still she sings all the same
knowing she has wings.     ....by Victor Hugo

This is a mixed media collage on a canvas panel. Size is 5 X 7. Bird is a photo on a cloth background fabric and rubber stamped leaves. Stamp was carved by moi (me).  Sheet music is from scrapbook paper.

I love that quote, and I wish I could be as a bird with my art. 

Sunflowers in Woodland

Ever since we moved to our new home, I've been fascinated by the fields upon fields of sunflowers that are grown in our area.  Here are some photos I shot during a drive along the country roads near my home.

 

                              

Fever

Here is an journal page inspired by the week I was sick. Other than this I haven't been inspired by much. I think I'm procrastinating because I want to paint a portrait of my daughter but I'm afraid I'll do a horrible job. So I don't do anything at all. I hate that about myself.


Fever
Originally uploaded by LittleBit-ATCs

Catalog Girl

Here's a my practice piece, a portrait painting with acrylics.  It's a page done week before last, before I got sick. 

I'm just learning to paint portraits with acrylics and I never realized how hard it would be to paint the shadows and various tones of the face. I've painted flowers before and it wasn't this hard.  I'm such an impatient person, and having to paint over several days is tough.  I should probably take a class but I'm more of a self taught person. (Hey I need an excuse for why it doesn't work.) I was thinking I should probably post a copy of the photo I was painting from but I'm not sure I want you to see how really bad my painting is.  What do you think? Should I? 

Last week was a waste as far as anything, including art, was concerned.  I was sick, sick, sick with 102 fever and the flu, I guess. Not sure exactly what it was that made me so sick that it had to be burned out of my body and had to take a whole week to do it.   All I wanted to do was sleep.  UGH...I hate sleeping, especially sleeping during the day.    Thanks goodness that's over. 

That's all for today, thanks for reading.

From Zentangles to Fashion

Can you tell I like this style? I can't seem to stop drawing these. I usually draw them while watching TV.

This page was inspired by my little fashion crisis this weekend. I just wasn't sure my outfit was right for the party we were going to on the USS Hornet. It was labeled a Semi-formal event but I'm just a casual girl and so I just felt wrong. As it turned out not too many were dressed in semi-formal attire so I fit in. But not before driving my husband a little nuts. Oh well.

Thanks for reading.

A thing of beauty, a source of frustration

We've had an interesting weekend.  Ever since we moved into the new house we've wanted to change our kitchen faucets.  The old ones were ok enough but because of the extreme hard water, there was a lot of residue on them that was hard to remove.  So we chose this weekend to change them out.

We didn't just change the faucet, we also bought a new garbage disposal, new shut-off valves, all new drain pipes...everything under the sink was to be brand new including new tile for the cabinet floor.  We reasoned that we shouldn't do things half-assed, we should make it all brand new and pretty.  It was probably a good idea considering the hard water deposits on the faucets but My Guy is not a plumber and he hates plumbing but he also knows it shouldn't be all that hard (if you know what you are doing...ha ha)

So Saturday noon, off we went to the local Home Depot list in hand to buy the faucets and the plumbing supplies we needed.  Some $400+ later (who knew it could be so expensive) we were outta there and on our way home to get to work.  My Guy, turns the water off at the main valve, and started taking things apart only to discover that the shut-off valves we bought were the wrong ones, so back to Home Depot we go.  And while we are there, we might as well get... well, you know how it goes...$$$ cha...ching.

We get back home to find a puddle of water under the sink. What the heck???  We had turned the water off at main valve, there shouldn't be water under the sink but there it is, a big puddle of water.  We mop up and discover that the ugly cabinet flooring/tile can't be scraped up because it's wet and it takes heat to dislodge it.  Now we have to wait until morning for it to dry so it will come up without destroying the cabinet bottom.   My guy does what he can under the sink and before you know it, it's 7 PM and too dark to see under the sink.... where did the time go? 

Sunday morning we have our coffee, read the paper, do our usual Sunday morning stuff before getting started. My Guy is finally able to scrape the old tile off the cabinet floor so I can do the tiling while he finishes the plumbing. Geeze, it only 7  12" X 12" flooring tile pieces, they already have the adhesive on them and all I have to do is cut 4 tiles to fit.  Who knew 7 floor tiles would be so frustrating? To be fair, the cabinet bottom was not square and it was my first time laying this type of tile.  Once they were down, that was it.  There should have been only 5 cuts, but nooooo, I had to cut them at least twice that many times....and my guy is looking at me like, 'how long is this going to take?'  No, he didn't say it and was actually quite supportive but I felt like an idiot. Unfortunately, there are gaps in the tile and I know that every time I look at it I'm going to wince. 

Finally, the faucets are going in and they look beautiful and everything is going smoothly...too smoothly. Of course, it was the tubing that leads from the water to the fridge that started to leak. Turn the nut, leak. Turn again, leak slower but still leaking and so on.  My guy says "I can't turn it much more" and I hear the frustration in his voice. I rush over to research on the net. Thank goodness for the net. The writer says, 'use a plastic compression valve with plastic tubing'....a ha! That's it. 

So now it's all going together and it looks beautiful.  The pipes look great, the faucets look great, the disposal looks good, and even the new sink rings took great.... It couldn't be that simple could it? No, of course it couldn't. We started the dishwasher and all was going well until it started to drain and now there was more water everywhere and it was coming out the overflow vent. What the hell?   Now what??  Back to the net I go. What I learn this time is that the knock out plug had to be knocked out if you're going to drain a dishwasher through the garbage disposal and it hadn't been thus causing the overflow. More mop up to be done and then disconnect the dishwasher drain, knock out the plug and reconnect. Then try again with our fingers crossed. Whew, this time it all works.  Well, we hope..... 

 

Aren't they beautiful? I think so. I'd show you under sink but well I think My Guy and I are the only ones who'd find that interesting.  Thanks for reading.