Baby It's COLD Outside!

Wow - It doesn't look like it's going to warm up any time soon up here the predictions for the next 10 days is the highest during the day it will get to is 32 (today) and the lowest looks to be about 16...yech. This girl is in hibernation, I let the mailman bring my art and book supplies to me. Speaking of which, I'd ordered 3 books (all said "in stock") from Amazon.com nearly 2 weeks ago, I chose 5-8 day shipping and they still haven't been shipped - what'd they do? Lay off the shipping department after the holidays?!? Sad - I really need one of those books to finish up 2 custom book orders. :\  

In my wait, I made another Frida Kahlo book for my shop , I think I'll be doing more with contrasting colored spines, I love the look. I am not a huge fan of her artwork but find the story of her tortured life fascinating. She waged a battle not only physically but internally. Her crazy relationship with Diego Rivera was something else! If one only knew of the tumultuous marriage between Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, they would find it very hard to believe that they ever really loved each other, wholly. Even though they were divorced and then remarried, carried on numerous known affairs while together they really did have an undying love for one another.

"There have been two great accidents in my life. One was the trolley, and the other was Diego. Diego was by far the worst." - Frida Kahlo    

 “If I ever loved a woman, the more I loved her, the more I wanted to hurt her. Frida was only the most obvious victim of this disgusting trait.” - Diego Rivera   

Here is the crazy album I was working on in the previous post all finished. I used black cardstock inside for the pages and the size was to be able to handle either regular sized postcards or photos.  I left some slack in there to hopefully accommodate the thicknesses of the postcards without the thing bulging too badly!  


I found this vintage purse from the 60's on Etsy, I favorited it yesterday, and this morning I must not have had enough coffee at the time to kick start my "sensible self" ...I bought it HA! It suits me - I like it! 

 Stay warm, friends!

I wish I knew how to break this spell...........at the Shores

 

The Wait

So, here I sit anxiously waiting on some supplies to arrive via post to continue my quest of 12 books in January plus 2 custom orders for journals. I have however been working on a "different" sort of book - I'm hoping it turns out, it's an odd sort of book, here is the top view of the cover, can you see how the pages will go in?? If looks fuzzy on the edges it's because it is! I frayed the fabric all the way around (did you know it is much easier to pull the threads out to fray going in one direction than it is the other? It's true!) If it turns out it'll be a neat sort of book, there will be 2 sets of pages (book blocks)...keep ya posted on how it turns out.  


Have you ever been on stumbleupon.com? I have, I spend way too much time "stumbling" - oh the things I've seen, learned and read by stumbling...crazy. Art. Cooking. Alternative Health. Gardening. Travel. Painting. Books. Music. Architecture. Just a few of my chosen stumbling topics.  

Short post today but wanted to pop in since I promised myself I'd be more faithful in posting. 

Have you ever bought a song from iTunes because of a song in a commercial on TV? I'm guilty.  This was such a happy ditty I couldn't resist ; )

I'm a young soul in this very strange world....at the Shores

Button, Belgian, Ribbon...Oh My!

I am on my way to my goal of 12 new books for my Etsy shop and I aim to have them done by months end. I did all 3 in different binding techniques: The earthy batik is buttonhole bound, the blue/purple is ribbon bound and the type writer fabric is Belgian bound:

I have a bunch of new fabrics that I am itching to get onto book covers:

  

The themes are all over the board but I suppose that matches what goes on inside my head at any given moment anyway!

I've had quite the start of the new year, New Years day we had a bit of an accident here - I'll just say it involved my husband, a head split open in two places, an ambulance and 2 EMT's, I've just gotten over the horror of that whole scene. 

Last weekend we were in upstate New York for a few days - WAY upstate (60 miles south of Montreal, Canada) what beautiful country it is up there to be sure. I added up the time I've been in the passenger seat of the SUV since Thanksgiving and it totals 78 hours. I sure hope that's it for awhile!  

From the passenger seat as you are driving me home....to the Shores

Joy of New Things

I am crazy for new stuff...not clothes or shoes but art supplies, new funky fabrics for my books, or organizational/storage for my studio,  - these are the things that make me smile BIG. I've been rather bad at taking care of my toys like leaving my paintbrushes in the water, or completely wrecking my beloved cutting mat which is one of the top 3 of my most used things ever (the other two are a heavy duty clear gridded ruler and my Xacto knife). My sweet niece bought me a new cutting mat for Christmas, oh the Joy!   

My kids got me a neat thing to sit my various spray cans, adhesives etc. Now if I can only become disciplined enough to put things away once I've finished using them instead of letting the mess grow and grow then find myself working on a 1 square foot corner of the only empty space left on my table! Ach...baby steps. Rome wasn't built in a day.  

I think today I'll make a new lined journal for the shop, the fabric is courtesy of my friend, Susan...she knows well my weakness for batiks - love the earth tones and pattern on this one!  

Two more banned books bracelets are finished and being packed up for my "bookie" friend, Lisa in Utah. I made the boxes from some hand painted and collaged papers I had stashed that I just thought "some day I might have a use for these" - See, this is that "some day"! (I'll never be accused of being proficient in box making but they'll be protected during shipping at least)  


Now if I can get my counter there on the left to change from the "Happy Holidays" theme....it doesn't seem to want to change : (

My favorite Crosby, Stills & Nash song, today it is anyway! 

Helplessly hoping for organization..............at the Shores

New Doodle

I hope everyone had a nice, safe New Year's Eve! Ours was pretty uneventful really, we hate getting out there on the road when many have been enjoying their adult beverages to excess and lose their intelligence when it comes to getting behind the wheel. It also was our 8th wedding anniversary...feels like much longer when I think about all the things we've done and the places we've been!  

We also had Tom's kids and grandkids over for a holiday dinner last week, everything was pretty yummy. Here is the centerpiece I had on the table, the one good thing about having it after Christmas was I bought all this stuff on clearance!! It was so sparkly and festive : )  


I also made a trip to Hobby Lobby on the 1st, no better way to start the new year now is there? Plus I had a gift card from the grandkids burning a hole in my pocket and also needed supplies to make 2 more banned books bracelets (see previous post for a picture) for a friend. I broke down and bought some watercolor supplies since my kids got me a book on painting doors and windows in watercolor. I've always been chicken to try it but just LOVE the look so I'll give it my best shot!


  

Here is the zentangle I've been working on over the past week - I really needed to work on something I didn't have to do. It was another like the last one I blogged about where I drew the string (or doodle), cut it into 9 pieces and filled card by card and put them back together. I just love the surprise I get when they are re-joined!  I call it "Joriki" which is a Sino-Japanese term meaning ‘power of concentration’. This refers to a meditator's ability to enter into and maintain a deep trance state for long periods of time which pretty is pretty much where I am when I do these!  


That's it for now....I have a ton of things I am working on, time to knock them out one by one, too bad my lack of focus keeps me in the middle of 10 things at once : / I guess this is just how my brain is wired (I like to think this is the case anyway)

No relevance for this video, just think BNL are just plain fun! 

Garfunkle?? Giggling.............at the Shores