Happy Mabon!

I saw Rebecca Sower's mood board for fall on her blog and decided to make one for myself. I used a frame (bought for a dollar at a garage sale a long time ago), cut foam board to fit, and covered the board with white burlap. I hung it at the end of my long/narrow kitchen and figured that I can change it out season to season.
 For autumn, I went with vintage Halloween postcards and book markers (from my collections) buttons, feathers, brooches, a necklace, ribbons, fibers, a chocolate wrapper from my vacation to Seattle, a card about the upcoming Andrew Wyeth exhibit at our art museum, and whatever else just seemed to fit.

What a fun project! and I am already thinking of a few changes for Thanksgiving, and then a whole new look for Solstice and Christmas!

Have a great weekend!
Chris

Just wishing and hoping, and hoping and quilting

The fall equinox will be September 23at 5:05 am, and I am so very ready for cooler weather. Even though the temperature outside may still be 88, the light in the house has already moved to fall locations and I am responding to that shift. I rearranged my studio so that my painting area is directly below the south window, and I have designed a new tessellations wall quilt for this fall. (see the basic layout above).

Lots of little fabric squares being cut out and then sewn together.

I made leftovers soup this afternoon (leftover pork and broth, leftover chicken, leftover spaghetti sauce, leftover squash, and then chopped onion, potato, carrots, and celery with some herbs. YUM! and then we will also have a small loaf of homemade Country-style bread from Small Batch Baking.

This weekend I will be heading over to Sarasota for the Florida Watercolor Society show - lots of brilliant paintings and inspiring demos, and of course, lots of vendors!!!!

ttfn
Chris

{this moment}

{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. 

Sweet Hana and her yarn forest! (Yarns purchased at Tuesday Morning - all hand-dyed!!! A real steal - I am in Yarn Heaven right now! Casting on several new projects!)
Chris

Painting with friends

Last week in my Thursday painting group, a friend showed me some photos that she had taken of prints in her stateroom from a cruise that she had recently taken. She had already painted her versions of two of the prints and was ready to start on the third. So I thought why not paint my version also - and I did. It is always so amazing to see how different painters see and paint so very differently - always a fascinating and enjoyable surprise!
Mine turned into a color study using two colors, a gold-yellow and a teal.
Chris

The colors of my life - painting and thrifting

A study of yellows and purples

colors I love to paint

BUT

almost never buy or wear

Last week I really helped the economy!!

I had been having so many problems with my car (a 1998 Buick Century

that my husband inherited when his mother passed)

but I was trying to wait until next year when our finances will be better.

DH told me that he was concerned about the reliability of the car so

I went looking and purchased a new car

a Glacier blue Honda CR-V

whom I have named Miss Blue (my blue jeans baby!)

then I actually did some driving around town

and hit some thrift shops

Things are really really dead here so many of the thrift shops are having big sales

I went to 2 of the best ones - thrift shops from off Orchid Island (where the rich people live)

(Maybe you have heard of Orchid Island in the Stuart Woods's books - he lives here as does Carl Hiassen)

Anyway,

one of the shops had 75% off all women's clothes and I spent $28 and got

Talbot's tan pants

Old Navy tan cardigan

Jones NY black blouse

Talbot's black patterned knit top

white Austrian top

2 J Crew embroidered tops

So love the embroidery!

I did a quick look-up of pricing on line when I got home

and I got $400 (retail) worth of stuff for $28!!!!!

BUT

did you notice

everything I purchased was black, white, tan, or navy?

Interesting?!?

thanks for reading,

Chris

Some days.......

Every once in a while Amanda Soule of soulemama has a post called "some days", and I can always relate!

Some nights after you get in bed, you hear cursing from the bathroom - you get up to discover that a filling came loose from DH while he was brushing his teeth, and now your budget for the month that was strained will be strained even tighter with the cost of the dental visit.

Some nights you are just falling into sleep when you are rudely awakened by a retching cat standing on the night table by your side of the bed. You then discover that she has been eating leaves from the bouquet of lilies that your DH gave you.

Some days you discover that the only quilt backing fabric that you have in the house is 14 inches too narrow, short, whatever, and you have to scrounge to find some scraps that can be sewn together to make up the shortage.

Some days you are finally able to get a certain craft book from the library and you discover that someone has cut out pages 161 - 165, the exact pages where the instructions for the project that you wanted to make were located.

But you know, it's all good.  Every day is a gift, and some days you just have to laugh!

OR PAINT

Have a great day!
Chris

Revisitng the Classics

One of my favorite "first liners"

is the opening sentence of George Eliot's Middlemarch

handmade flowers of vintage laces, silk dupioni, and hand-dyed muslin

with centers of vintage buttons and a vintage cuff link

I created the figure by cutting out sequential cardboard figures,

layering them, and then pasting over with papermache

finally covering with vintage pattern paper, and painting with acrylic paint

The bustle was constructed from hand-sewn silk dupioni and vintage lace

the picture was copied in reverse from Dover's Women, a pictorial archive of 19th century images, 

(all copyright free)

and then image transferred to the gessoed and painted canvas.

I added the typography (computer) and the Prima rub ons.

I actually made this piece back in the winter and submitted it to Somerset Studio 

for their Classics issue - but they did not use it so I am posting it now.

Hope you like it!

Chris