March Greetings

I've been a less than stellar blogger so far this year which I have no excuse for...lord knows I always have plenty to yammer on about! Hope everyone has ushered the month of March in with gratitude for being one month closer to warmer weather : )

In the previous post I had some little gifts I had made for my friend - well, they have been safely delivered to California: 

She messaged me to ask if I'd be making more to sell and I immediately said "No, that is OOAK" shortly thereafter she wrote back "OOAK?" I told her it meant One Of A Kind - she thought I had already named it haha...anyway, it stuck. Meet Annie and Ooak : )

I cut another stencil for a book, this time it's Frida Kahlo. I really like how it came out. Also I've been getting some mini's for the shops made, nicely priced at $20 ea. I might add! And the photo on the right are the first 4 of 25 small notepads I am making and donating for a couples retreat - hope they aren't too "hippie-ish" for their purposes! I covered some gessoed canvas (I have 5ft by 18ft rolls of the stuff) with a batik for the front covers making them pliable and regular chipboard for the back.

A patient I've spent nearly every Friday afternoon with for the past 2 and a half years died a few days ago. This beautiful one's for you Mrs. McFarland. I'll miss you.

Shelter in a storm....................at the Shores

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

 

Painting Completed My Life

This blog post title is a Frida Kahlo quote and it's pretty much how I feel, there is very little I'd rather be doing than paint, or at the very least creating - anything really. I've been working on some more books, my poor Etsy shop has been untouched for quite awhile. I feel guilty in a way but have always refused to "make" myself do something because I think I should (with the exception of going to the doctor or paying bills). So, I'm ready to get more books bound and for my first one I put an image of Frida Kahlo done with a handcut stencil I'd done and added the very quote I just spoke of. I was inspired by a piece of fabric someone sent to me, she knew I loved street art and Banksy in particular and thought it'd be perfect for me - she was right! It's Frida meets street art! I have a second sketchbook I am binding with the same stencil but on an VERY happy yellow floral. 

Yesterday I the weather was cool and I decided to hit the bike trail for a nice long ride. It was almost too long, I was a little concerned halfway through it if I hadn't bitten off more than I could chew. I rode 15 miles from home and the legs were beginning to ache and the lousy seat was starting to get verrrry uncomfortable. I'd though about calling home for Tom to come fetch me at one of the roads the bike path crosses but decided I went that far, I really needed to suck it up and get home on my own. Well, I did and I did. I woke up at 3am to some aching legs so with the help of some Tylenol PM I went back to sleep at about 4. I'm now 258.4 miles out on my virtual Trans American journey. Still not even halfway across the 737.7 miles across VA!

I hope you had a great holiday weekend, our warm days are numbered up here but I'll take as many as I can get. 

Now a sweet song I was reminded of when it came on my iPod while I was writing this. I had a secret crush on Joshua Kadison when his Painted Desert Serenade album came out in 1993! 

You got me talkin' to the moon you got me walkin' in the rain................at the Shores