Breathe

No pictures or fancy fun as I try to normally post, just this: 

March 11, 2010
i need hope
it is the only thing i live on and i am dancing in it tonight
i am rejoicing in hope
running skipping hopping tralala trippingly toppling in hope tonight
every day is one day closer
closer


to breathing


to living


to starting my life anew


to waking up


breathing in ease


i am happy tonight


knowing i am hopeful

love

love
love
hold on
hope
                       - Eva Markvoort 1985-2010

This post is in memory of Eva who lost her fight this past weekend while waiting for her second double lung transplant, I did not know her personally but I've followed this courageous young woman for more than a year and cried at her online goodbye in February - Breathe easy, Eva, the hard part is over.

I ♥ Books

My newest obsession (yeah, I know yet another) - bookbinding, I love books, big books, small books, picture books, new books, old books........... 

I've started with coptic binding and have made 4 so far, they are not made of the finest materials but for my first ones I just needed to practice, I LOVE making them.

The larger one is fabric covered in which I put a coat of decopauge over so it will stay clean, the white/beige and yellow ones are covered in a flocked paper and the book w/ the birds is just regular paper - all were made with regular copy paper and used AstroBrites in the case of the blue one.

The picture above are the inside covers of the 3 smaller ones - I tried gluing the first and last pages to the inside of the blue one but it came out wrinkly so I didn't bother including it in the picture :/

I'm off to finish working on a couple larger art journals Ive started using watercolor and other good paper, I'll try ribbon binding on one of those. 

Binding my time................at the Shores 

Nothing's Safe

Happy first day of spring! The snow has finally all melted and the lake is not a sheet of ice anymore - I saw the first boat on the water yesterday even! 

 ☼ Little darling

It's been a long, cold, lonely winter

Little darling

It feels like years since it's been here

Here comes the sun

Here comes the sun, and I say

It's alright ☼

My dear sweet mother had a table easel delivered to me for an early birthday present. When I opened it up it had the most wonderful smell - oiled beech wood, it just filled my art room with the wonderful aroma! So, in looking it over my eyes spied a verrrrry nice flat sanded surface that was just begging for some fun, one thing led to another and this is what happened...heeee! 

Here it is open, it can handle up to a 32" canvas I think it said:

This is the back, I used some of my favorite stencils I've cut: 

 Not sure if it has reached the "finished" stage yet but for now it'll do. 

Oh, one more thing to share, after painting my art room I dedicated a wall to my talented artsy friends:

*sigh* another crappy picture but still holding out for that new camera, Tom has about 6 weeks to get the hint! OK gonna run - I'm in search of my next flat surfaced victim.............at the Shores

 

The Office

Today it's a good news, bad news post. The good news is my husband got a new job, the even better news is yesterday he and his new company submitted the winning bid for a contract that he'd won for his old company for the past 8 years - it's karma at it's best. 
The bad news - he's working from home. You know, it's incredibly difficult to get productive with him here 24/7, don't get me wrong, I adore my husband...but...... So in trying to get him a place off of my dining room table I poked around the house trying to find a spot, basement? Nope, not quite finished there plus with the hot tub and all the furniture there's really no room left. The guest room? Plenty big but I dont want any smoking in there. Then I thought about our entryway/foyer whatever you want to call it, it's plenty big enough...soooooooo it was time to rip down the wallpaper (last in this house) and paint.
Here are pictures of the finished project though I still need to get a nice desk and maybe a pretty lateral file cabinet in there, nothing too office-like: 

After about 5 hours, I got busted by Tom taking one of my many breaks (delirium had long since set in):

Now, if he'll just let me be, I've got important projects to complete..........at the Shores