"I Made This!" Monday-Full Moon Dreamboard

This week, for Jamie Ridler's "I Made This! Monday blog share, I am sharing my

 FULL PINK MOON DREAMBOARD

What dreams need tending?

I was pretty disappointed (but not really surprised!) that it was far too cloudy to catch even the tiniest glimpse of the moon during the full blood moon lunar eclipse...maybe next time! (Oct. 8, 2014)

Thanks for reading, hope you have a happily creative week ahead!

Happy Me, Laurie.

 

Gallery 52-Clouds

This week for Gallery 52 of 52 Photos Project, we are sharing photos of CLOUDS!
OH1  One of my very favorite things in this beautiful world, clouds! Oftentimes, I will say to my husband, "it;s such a BIG SKY day!", meaning the sky and clouds are just so enormous and enthralling and unfathomably breathtaking, rendering us measly humans so microscopic and unnoticed in the scope of nature! I am lucky to have lived in three places where "big sky" days are plentiful-the Midwest (Missouri), Washington state (where I live now and relish the ever-changing cloudy skies!) and the Gulf Coast of southern Florida state, where the following photos were taken, on Siesta Beach, Siesta Key, Sarasota, Florida. My mom lives there, and my grandparents before her, so I grew up visiting there and have been to this beach dozens of times...in fact, I leave in one week from today to spend 14 days visiting my mom (with my kids and grandson meeting me there too!). These were taken on my last trip there, in September, with my best friend (who lives in St. Louis!) I couldn't choose which one I liked best between these two, so I am sharing them both! Same beach, different days!

I love how teeny the people walking along the beach look in this image!

This cloud was so huge I couldn't even fit it all in my viewfinder!

Do you have a crush on clouds like me? :)
Thanks for reading!
Happy Me, Laurie.

I Made This!-Summer Fest Poster Submissions

This week for Jamie Ridler's fun weekly blog share I Made This!, I'm sharing photos of three mixed medium pieces I created for a local call for art. It is a bit unusual for me to create specific art for a specific reason, as I have so many photographs, as well as a growing "stock" of various art work that I can choose from to submit...but this time, since the chosen art is to be used for a local town's annual summer festival poster, I decided to create some new summer inspired mixed media pieces made just for this event call for art, instead of just "falling back" on my previously made art & photos.

They are all made with acrylics, assorted papers, glitter, paint pen, and watercolor pens. I also made sure to leave spaces on each for the text information about the festival that will need to be added by the festival sponsors. I wasn't really sure what I would end up making, I just kind of had little "inklings" of possibilities, and, as I do with most of my creativity, it evolved intuitively as I worked! I am pretty "ok" with how they turned out, and think that this last one is my favorite, although the top one is probably better for the necessary informative wording to be added to. I try to put my art aside for at least a few days after working on it, to be able to look at it again with "fresher" eyes than after I have been looking at it for hours as I work on it! Of course, I will "clean up" these images before submitting-I just took these real quick with my iPhone to be able to have for this post!

Thanks for reading-hope you are able to create something today!
Happy Me, Laurie.

Gallery 51-Petals

This week at 52 Photos Project, we are sharing photos of PETALS!

When I saw this week's photo prompt, I knew exactly which image(s) of mine I wanted to share!

A curb catches the many small beautiful pink petals of nearby cherry blossom trees

a pile of pink!

I also thought you might like this photo which a friend took of my & my hubby being our goofy selves, having a cherry blossom petal "fight"!

I believe I "won", although I DID find petals in the oddest places that night
when I changed into my jammies for bed, lol!

Thanks for reading, have a beautiful day!
Happy Me, Laurie.

I Made This! Monday

A few months ago, I started a Meet Up group called "Collage and Mixed Media Artists of Sno-Co"    ("Sno-Co" being short for Snohomish County, where we live!). I did this to be able to meet & mingle with other local artists during a dedicated creative time together; sharing ideas, inspirations and like-minded friendships. As a work-from-home artist, I know that the time working alone, day in and day out, in your studio can often feel a bit isolating, and desired another way (other than the internet) to connect with artists. Within a few weeks time, I was pleased that 25 local artists had joined the group! We meet once a month for 2 and a half hours on a weeknight, in a large meeting room/art gallery at our local library. There are usually between 5-10 of us gathering to work on whatever artsy goodness we feel called to bring along, ranging from ATC's, collage and beading to browsing magazines for eye catching images and words, watercolor and wool felting...which is what I am sharing for this weeks I Made This! sharing at Jamie Ridler Studios.
I have long been fascinated with the fiber arts but equate them with sewing skills, of which I possess nada...sewing on a button is a major undertaking for me! Duct tape, a stapler and a glue gun are my buddies when it comes to tasks requiring anything remotely associated with sewing! (just ask my kids who endured years of homemade Halloween costumes held together in some very, uh..."interesting" ways other than needle & thread!). I met a new artist friend last fall who has been creating amazing fiber art for over 30 years, and after wistfully remarking to her that I had long wanted to learn some simple wool felting techniques, showed up at one of the MeetUp group gatherings...and proceeded to generously share a few hunks of newly shorn and hand dyed wool along with needles, a few other basic supplies, and, most importantly, her patient expertise...and off I went, into the world of wool felting! I started with a few multicolored strands of wool that evening, in hopes of simply getting a feel for what the technique entailed...and soon found the repetitive movements of the needle punch tool quite calming and meditative. After about 20 minutes or so, I happily discovered that I had created a small oval shaped disc of pleasing color pattern, which I immediately thought to make into a pendant, adorned with other beads and perhaps charms on a necklace for myself! I was so surprised at the relative ease and simplicity of this creation and knew I wanted to explore this artistic practice further with the hopes of creating more similar possible jewelry and adornment pieces. Upon returning home after that evenings meeting, I was excited to share my little felted piece with my husband and start perusing my jewelry supplies to make a lovely unique necklace to show off my first ever wool felting attempt/creation...but soon discovered that the little oval piece was nowhere to be found! Not in my purse, wallet, coat pocket, art supply bag, just NOwhere! After much mind wracking and lamenting my carelessness, I finally came to the conclusion that after completing the piece at the gathering in the library room, I had set it on the table where I was working, and at the end of the meeting, neglected to pick it up and it got folded in among the newspapers covering the tables for protection from possible creative messes (paint, water, etc.) and got thrown away as we cleaned up the room. My sweet husband called the library first thing the next morning, in the hopes that someone had found it on the floor or somewhere, ANYwhere...to no avail. I was so upset, disappointed in myself and genuinely sad that the beautiful evidence of my first attempt at an art technique that I was so certain was beyond my capabilities had gotten tossed like a piece of trash, and surprisingly, stopped short of asking him if he would help me dumpster dive out back of the library...! Fast forward a few months, to our most recent Meet Up group gathering two weeks ago, where I unpacked my very own wool, needle tool and mat, and proceeded to get back into the rhythmic pattern of wool felting, creating these three pieces shown in the photo below. I was verrrrry careful to place them into a zippered pocket of my purse when completed, and am pleased to report that they managed to make it home with me, safe and sound! I have plans to make these into pendants as well, and perhaps the finished creation will be shared in a future I Made This! post!

What have YOU made lately?
Thanks for reading, have a creative day!
Happy Me, Laurie.

52 Photos Project-"A Day In My Life"

This week for Gallery 50 of 52 Photos Project, we are sharing photos for the prompt:

A DAY IN MY LIFE

I only remembered to take a few photos specifically for this prompt, so I will just share a sort of "run down" of my day and a few photos I did manage to remember to take throughout the day!

9:00 am: Woke up to (dumb!) woodpecker drilling on the living room window & two dogs in my face, as usual!

sleepyheads Annabelle & Dottie

*9:30-ish : went downstairs, turned on Pandora, let the dogs out, filled their bowls with their breakfast, let them back in, and hand fed our one dog (Dottie) who often eats so fast that she barfs...while hubby made  our morning lattes.

*9:45-ish: made us breakfast of Dave's Killer Bread toast topped with organic raw pistachio nut butter, bananas & flaxseed.

*10 am-noon-ish: hubby got down to work in his home office (at the kitchen island, and yes, still in his robe, lol!), while I checked my emails, watched a few videos, listened to a few podcasts, researched healthy food items we discovered this past weekend at the Seattle Veg Fest, made copies of new recipes, wrote out grocery list, did a load of laundry, texted with my son, let the dogs in & out a few more times, and joined a new creativity Meet Up group.

hubby hard at work

the girls hoping for a taste of my breakfast!

*noon-2:30 pm: went outside to work on phase 2 of Operation Fern Spring Haircuts! Yesterday I trimmed 24 giant ferns in our side yard and today, I began tackling the 65+ feet of even bigger ones growing against the fence along our driveway. It is not "hard" work, just very hard on my back with all of the low stooping/bending over...so I had to take breaks every 10 minutes or so to stretch out my back! Also went inside for a quick snack or fresh avocado with garlic on Mary's Gone Crackers and a handful of super sweet fresh raspberries! Got about 25 feet to the ferns trimmed...and my back (and the blister on my finger!) is saying that is enough for today!

BEFORE

AFTER

snack time!

OUCH!

*2:45 pm: made us a late lunch of  brown rice, quinoa, refriend beans, fresh avocado, salsa & garlic, with raw fresh baby carrots, broccoli, spinach & a sample bag of Way Better multi-grain tortilla chips (from this past weekend's VegFest!)

*3:30 pm-: left to run errands...Comfort Vision to pick up my new prescription sunglasses, Mattress Depot to try out latex mattresses, Michaels Crafts (for some on-clearance "impulse" type goodies, jewelry findings and felt for a project), Oroweat Bread Outlet store (for whole wheat Bobli crusts & salsa, both of which they were out of!), Redbox to return & rent movies, and finally, WalMart (for a watch & pita chips for hubby, craft stuff, Hello Kitty coffee mug, panties, nail polish remover, and make up remover pads for me and new Nyla bones for our dogs!)

*6:30 pm: finally home again...made dinner of brown rice spaghetti with butternut squash sauce, garbanzo beans and steamed broccoli, and a big salad of mixed greens, baby spinach, shredded carrots, roasted red tomatoes, baby peas, sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, flax seeds, nutritional yeast flakes and a freshly made dressing of pureed pesto with oat milk, olive oil, black pepper & garlic. (and also fed dogs and let them in and out...and in and out!)

*7:30: watched "Jeopardy", talked to my son on phone (he is on a road trip for 9 days in New Orleans, working as a cook for the WCW event)

*8:30-10 pm:  researched mattresses & watched NBC Nightly News" "online with hubby, watched a few videos and read a few blogs (and finished writing this blog post!)

10 pm:  snuggled up on the couch to watch "Dallas Buyers Club" on DVD...

I am assuming that my day will end like most do after heading to bed when the movie is over, to read for about an hour and fall asleep listening to our favorite rain sounds CD!

And what did YOU do today?!

Thanks for reading, whatever you did, hope it was a good day for you!

Happy Me, Laurie.

I Made This Monday!

Yay! It's Monday again, so that means time to play along with Jamie Ridler & friends blog share I Made This! Monday.

I MADE THIS!

 So...I have a fascination with all things clay...but the only creative clay experiences I have involve a long-ago middle school class where all I learned was the how hilarious it is to toss wet clay onto the ceiling when the teacher was not looking and wait a few days for it to suddenly fall from the sky...and cutting Play Doh hair when my kids were little! I recently purchased a Groupon to take a beginners pottery class (on a wheel just like Demi Moore, lol!) but have not yet summoned the courage to actually make my class reservation...so I thought I'd start slow at home...using this Crayola brand air drying clay I found in the stationary/kids craft aisle at our grocery store! This 2.5 lb. tub cost $6.99, and came in white and natural colors. I went with the white so I could paint what I made (though I already have ideas for the natural color too!). I am a complete jewelry fixings/findings hoarder, so I decided to attempt to make a few pendants to incorporate into more elaborate beaded/charmed/found object necklaces (someday!). It was pretty supple & easy to work with, though a bit sticky at first, then got drier the more it was handled.

 I used a very small cookie cutter & this  handwritten stamp for the heart pendant, and this mold (found at a thrift store) to make the face pendants.

I let them air dry for about 4 days before I got around to painting them, using these paints:

I am pretty happy with the way they turned out, and will probably make more soon, using letter stamps to make word pendants, and other assorted items to press patterns and designs into the clay. And hopefully some upcoming Monday, my I Made This post will be sharing photos of the finished jewelry pieces, embellished with beads and charms and such into completed necklaces!

What did YOU make recently?

Thanks for reading, have a creative day!
Happy Me, Laurie.