{this moment}

Painting a BIG painting

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words (or just a few) - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

This time of year

This time of year it has been so very hot for so very long and there is still so very much longer to go until it cools off. I find myself trying to stay cool in our house cave with the drapes shut to keep out the heat and light, but there is still so much to do. Like preserving summer's bounty.
In the before photo above, you can see a lot of key limes from our tree (and it is absolutely loaded with more), some pickling cucumbers and some jars that I picked up at a garage sale several years ago. Time frame: early Saturday morning.
Now we go to later that same day:

and

 Lots of chopping, grating, squeezing, measuring, mixing, cooking, stirring, and baking.
From the key limes I made key lime curd (recipe from Barefoot-Contessa-Cookbook by Ina-Garten), key lime yogurt cake (my adaptation of Ina Garten's lemon yogurt cake in Barefoot-Contessa at Home) and Key lime shortbread squares (my adaptation of Debby Maugans Nakos lemon shortbread squares from Small-Batch-Baking, the absolutely best baking book ever written about baking in small amounts for small families or even just yourself).  The bread and butter pickles in the 2nd photo are from a recipe given to me by a friend. Dan can hardly wait for them to cure - I told him that he has to wait at least one full week!

At this time of year, living along the south Florida coast (and having spent so much time living on a boat and in the Islands), we avidly watch the weather in the Atlantic. I am praying that Irene stays out to sea and doesn't do much harm. We have been through two dead-on hurricane hits (one a 2 and one a 3) and multiple tropical storms - and believe me, you do not want to experience that!

Hope your summer has gone well and you are staying cool. It's amazing to think that school has already started for the year and that it is almost Labor Day. thanks for reading.
Chris

{this moment}

hana, the snow leopard

tracks across the freshly made snowy bed

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words (or just a few) - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

wabi-sabi a la gecko galz

trying to be a bit more wabi-sabi in my scrapping

getting down to basics

the photos are of the Okefenokee Swamp in February

and of North Carolina in September

the patterned paper is now & zen 

from the gecko galz zen garden collection

the ribbon is hand dyed (what about a tutorial on dyeing?)

of course, the ink is tim holtz distress ink in crushed olive (thanks Leanne!)

and the little golden accent up in the corner is from my

vintage jewelry parts collection

Chris

Magic Feather Project

I have embroidered a feather for jude hill's -magic-feather-project

Check it out.

Her blog is so beautiful and inspirational -

one of my favorites!

Chris

Easy rider

ME AT 4

elements thanks to Cynthia (Studio Calico papers) and Julie (the little yellow man).

Chris

Happy anniversary to you know who

marriage is -----

matrix

mattress

maturity

all these and more.

Chris

Let's Ride at Paperissues!

the latest challenge is up at http://paperissues.blogspot.com/ and it is Let's Ride!

I did this layout a while back for a Team Edward vs Team Jacob challenge

I really like Edward much better but so many people had picked Edward that I just had to be contrarian

and besides, I got this great idea to combine the picture of a wolf with a picture of a bike!

Another layout I did that is about cars is one I did for the late blog These are a few of my favorite things (so miss it!) I used to drive a Saturn and this photo was taken of me at the dealership when I bought it.

Be sure to post your "ride" at paperissues.

Chris

{this moment}

 Setting up for a painting session

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words (or just a few) - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Prickly Pears

A new painting

really digging in!!

Chris

Corners of my life

One day last week I went up to Viera, FL (about an hour north of where I live) with some friends for a little shopping trip and lunch. DH gave me $20 to blow at Hobby Lobby so armed with a 40%off one item coupon and my $20 bill, I found some great accent pieces for my house - these incredible paper and wood balls and seeds, and some beautiful softly painted silk magnolias (which I combined with some brownish red eucalyptus twigs that I had at home). So loving soft, natural colors right now.

I had made the little felt and button dress a while back but just felt like putting it out with some button pins that I have also made, and then I accented my Peony painting with a wonderful rose bowl that my mother gave me many years ago. Always makes me think of summers in Missouri and all of my grandmother's rose bushes - so beautiful!

A shell in a hand-wrought bowl and a pile of books - always a big part of my life.

Right now I am reading the wabi-sabi house by Robyn Griggs Lawrence (recently reprinted as Simply-Imperfect-Revisiting-Wabi-Sabi-House). I am so taken by the simple beauty of this book and of the idea of wabi-sabi - imperfect and transitory beauty. I am slowly savoring this book and going a room at a time cleaning and eliminating "things" down to the essence.  I will take some photos as I go along and share with you some of the wabi-sabi philosophy (I was lucky enough to get the book Wabi-Sabi for Artists Designers Poets and Philosophers from my local library - this is an absolutely brilliant and inspiring little book (only 96 pages)). I remember that Barbara Sher wrote in Wishcraft-How to get What YouReally Want that the Creator wants you to be all that you can be and that He/She helps you along the way with serendipity (coming across books or people or opportunities at the times that you need then - of course, many times we reject these opportunities or don't take advantage of them).  I have been paring down my life and my art in the past year leaving myself open for new ideas and opportunities - and I was very very inspired by the Northwest and many of the serene aspects of that part of the continent. So who knows where this is going..........

AND by the way, I did manage to finish the quilt top by hook and crook and lots of piecing - even piecing the batting! Now I need to go through my fabric bin and hope to find a piece of white or very light fabric to use as the backing and then something for the binding - almost done!

Thanks for reading,
Chris

Quilting on a wing and a prayer

I have been sewing fast and furiously on my summer-inspired quilt; the quilt is a log cabin style sewn directly onto a light batting and will have a piece of fabric added as backing and then the corners tied. I have used only fabrics that I had in my stash (which is shrinking rapidly since I have not purchased any fabric in over a year) and with batting scraps (this will be the last project that I can do without buying more batting). I chose to use a mix of cottons in blues, blacks, tans, creams, greens, yellows, and whites to create the look of summer - blue skies with white clouds, the beach, ocean and river, the sun, the grass and flowers. It has a soft, cool look to it, and I know that it will look even better once I paint my bedroom walls a light blue this coming fall. BUT I have a dilemma..............I have finished 18 blocks and have 7 left to piece -

these are strips already cut for future blocks

and this little shoebox contains the remaining scraps to be used - SO the question is - will I have enough fabric to finish???????

I will let you know later this week!
Chris

{this moment}

"Things fall apart;

the center cannot hold."

-W. B. Yeats

I am forever inspired by Amanda Soule and her wonderful blog soulemama
so in that vein, here is a moment from my week
{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words (or just a few) - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Life is short

Laugh when you can... ✿ Apologize when you should... ✿ Let go of what you can't change... ✿ Love deeply and forgive quickly... ✿ Take chances and give your everything... ✿ Life is too short to be anything but happy... ✿ You have to take the good with the bad... ✿ Love what you have... ✿ Forgive and forget... ✿ Always remember that life goes on... ✿ Re-Post if you agree Life is short...

 thanks Debbie for saying this so well!

It is a typical summer in Florida (very very hot and very very humid but very little rain) so I am caving in my studio - sewing a new quilt, painting lots of new paintings, and reading voraciously (I have been obsessed with the George R R Martin Game of Thrones series and am now in the the fifth and last so far, A Dance with Dragons - so perfect as an escape for hot summer afternoons).

I have been thinking quite a bit about the making of art and being an artist - what to show to the world and what to keep private.  I will be posting some new pieces in the next few days and talking a bit about art making.

See you soon, 

Chris