I HAD SUCH A FUN FRIDAY!

I had such a fun day today!

I love my days off from my wage earning job. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate my career and especially love it when people get better and tell me how much I helped them. That is a grand prize of satisfaction for a job well done! And that DID happen this week too~!

All the more reason to treat myself on my days off, right? RIGHT!!!

So today I did. First I enjoyed a morning at home...swifting my new floors (which was really fun...I am amazed anew at how pretty they look!) Have you ever been obsessed by floors? It's crazy I know, but a wonderful kind of CRAZY~! Then I gathered my things needed to go run errands. First to the post office to mail Kaeli's birthday gift [the fabric pocket book] (and a few other parcels)...(This is NOT Kaeli) Then to the library where I picked up my art that has been hanging there the past several months! I got LOTS OF Positive FEEDBACK on how it was appreciated, oohed and ahhed over by patrons, etc. Photos of it taken by cell phone camera etc.

That feedback is worth all the tea in China!

I was very close to the thrift store so I had to go in. I hadn't been other than to drop things off for donations in a very long time. I got some FREE BOOKS, lots of tissue paper for fabric art making; and other odds and ends for crafting!

And finally I went to Michael's for art supplies for ART AND SOUL. I had some coupons. I LOVE Michael's COUPONS!

I got a $20 art journal for $10.99! (45% off) And I got Acrylic Matte at 40% off! And acrylic paints were only 77 cents instead of $1.39 or more~~~ I got some other cute inexpensive doo-dads for my treasure pocket books! I am saving my list of things I need for A & S for other days with other coupons! I am a smart shopper! LOL

And THEN...I took myself out for Espresso Gelato! (see first photo) ANd it was GOOD!!!!!!

My energy level was sky high long before I ate it. And now I am REALLY FLYING!

Happy Friday!!!!

I have three orders for my treasure pocket books so will be busy sewing all weekend long!!!!!!! (the little kid photos are old photos of a fun ice cream day with them...all the photos just show my jazzed, happy, elated state of being!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

For Sale!

If anyone wants a little fabric/fabric paper/beaded book of pockets like these posted yesterday I will gladly make you one for $25. (postage is whatever it says on the package when you get it...just send it to me then.) You can tell me in the comments here or email me at lyn_fred1@comcast.net. Send a mailing address and a theme or I will make one up to suit you as I know you to be from your blog! ;-) (the above 3 already have homes)

[money made from these sales will go toward art supplies for my two days at Art & Soul]

Grateful Thursday and Embroidery Joy!

This is the cutest little sewing machine that DH brought home and surprised me with a few weeks ago. He put it on the mantel over the fireplace and I spied it while we were eating dinner! Where did that come from? The little wheel goes around and the needle goes up and down...

and the treadle just like grandma's machine I used to have works too! I just love it!

It's all of 3 and a half inches tall and 3 inches wide.

I do have the most thoughtful DH on the face of the earth!

Remember our Nephew Allen who stayed with us for almost a week on his way to LA to make his way to stardom? I am embroidering him this pillowcase to encourage his coming back up to SF

to study at the American Conservatory Theater Master's Program! Hoping!!!

and on the back I just went a little crazy...

I love making French knots!

Soon he can rest his sweet head on it! To sleep perchance to dream, Allen! Happy Grateful Thursday.

My list for this week:

1. A new blog follower, who turns out to be a former HS classmate, whose new blog I discovered about his new ranch and horses, writing, poetry reading and much more which can be reached here. 2. A potential new art commission I will tell more about if and when it evolves. Just being asked is such a compliment!

3. Reading about the first day of school in first grade for my twin grandchildren!

4. Getting art ready for a new juried art show OUT OF TOWN!

5. Receiving my tickets for ART and SOUL in Portland in October!

a good week

good health

happiness

and yours are?

Birdy Wednesday: 3 Fabric Books and More Figs

It's hot where I live this week. 106 degrees F. yesterday! So I enjoyed looking at my photos from the ocean and beach of several weeks ago and found these sea gulls for Animal Wednesday! There are now Three Fabric Treasure Books completed seen here on top of my sewing machine!

buttons and yarn/strings hold pockets closed, beads are added to the ends of the strings

binding done with embroidery floss

Clips and beads add more embellishment

view from above

all the pockets now lined with fabric paper (see process for making it on earlier blog post)

inside back cover lined with fabric paper printed on using Transfer Artist Paper (TAP)

And then there is more manna from the fig tree...SWEETER than the best decadent candy!

Wishing you a sweet Wednesday!

The SketchBook Project or What Lynn Does When She is Bored

I came home early from work today!

I had no plans.

I cleaned up my work area (putting folded fabrics into their bins in the garage)

I watched the tail end of a fairy tale movie.

I dozed.

I got on line.

I found a project called The Sketchbook Project. It's on a website called http://www.arthousecoop.com/. They say they are revamping their website, but you can go to the Projects page and sign up for this one if you are interested. You can also get there from the logo on my sidebar.

The people running the site are in their early 20's. There are two of them.

The gist of this project is you send them $ and they send you a moleskin sketchbook.

You draw in it.

And then you send it back to them by Jan. 15, 2011 and the books go on TOUR all over the country

(see pic of map on my side bar) and they live in a library in Brooklyn, NY and people with library cards can check them out and "read" them.

And they give YOU a library card to track your sketchbook in the library and when it is on tour.

I believe you can put your book up for sale too if you want.

Prices range from $5 to a $1 million. Some people have great senses of humor, or they are really really good artists.

I just thought it would be a fun thing to do.

I hope my Pay Pal had the funds to cover this project!

LOL

I better not come home early from work too many days a week.

Cactus Monday...I'm BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All my succulents were gifts from others. Aunt Mimi's Jade plant that I planted from several cuttings is doing really well. I have two pots going. Her plant was huge. So I imagine these will go in bigger pots before too long. This pretty came from cousin Judy's garden and survives even when I go long weeks forgetting it.

as does this one

and this one. All from Judy's green thumb.

I had a fun day on Sunday if getting up at eight a.m. and taking my time on computer/blogs; sewing cloth books; cutting fabric paper and sewing it into the books; beading, washing floors, washing clothes, laying in the hammock in the sun and dozing, and interweaving those projects over and over again...I didn't leave the house except to go into the back yard.

I had to laugh at myself when I was mopping the tile floors for the first time since they were laid. I have used the swifter on them up until now but decided to use the new mop I got yesterday and filled the new red bucket with hot water and had at them. I found myself bending over forward time after time to see if a mark on the floor was dirt or the design in the tile. Most of the time it was the tile. I laughed because I wanted tile that looked like a dirty floor so the dirt would not show. And lo and behold it does not! Kind of hard when you actually want to make it clean~

I feel fulfilled this Sunday night writing this. Tired in a good way, satisfied, grateful for a clean house, an attractive house; satisfied for having finished two more cloth books; relaxed from the hand sewing and beading on them. I will sleep well tonight.

As I wish you a Happy Cactus Monday... I'll go into work today...what will you be doing?

Sunday Fabric Paper Making, Sunflower & Figs

Henry V always curious to see what I am up to...comes with a welcome to see me making fabric paper this morning out on the patio... My materials needed include an old cookie sheet, torn pieces of muslin, tissue paper, glue, water and a brush...

I first lay out a piece of muslin on the cookie sheet and slather it with a glue/water mixture, then I tear tissue paper and layer it on top of the fabric and add more of the glue/water mixture to hold it in place...

The flowers are tissue paper too...a pretty find in my gift wrapping paper box...

Henry inspects and gives his opinion... he's a critical judge

It hangs on mom's old plant rack outside the "studio/family room" door to dry

Soon it will be used for the lining of a few more of those little cloth treasure books I am making!

Remember when I planted sunflower seeds?

Well as far as I can tell only two of them bloomed, both in pots on the back patio...none that I put straight into the ground.

But here is the first to produce a flower, it's small and pretty.

My fig tree is also "in bloom" or full fruit!

Plenty for me and for the neighbors and the birds!

Have a delicious Sunday!

;-)

OH WHAT FUN WE HAD! Georgetown, CA!

My DH likes to surprise me...take me on short trips not too far from home, but not tell me exactly what awaits me/us there. And of course he doesn't always know himself so in a way it's a surprise for him in part as well. Yesterday we drove to Georgetown, CA, about 2 and a half hours away from where we live North towards Auburn past Placerville.

Our first stop was this thrift store where DH found a wood plane for his collection! I did NOT buy that green tube for white water rafting as that is not my cup of tea! We always stop to read historic signs

You can read it too if you enlarge this photo

Further into town there was ANOTHER thrift store!

and there I found some cute ladybug buttons and some pretty beads.

DH got a book by artist Charles Russell and some Civil War relics.

We walked past the fire station

and stopped in at this local grocery for ice cream

I liked the colors and metal work in this shot

the ice cream was good too!

Next we came upon this art gallery!

We met the two proprietress' two local artists

who announced how much I looked like a tourist

with my big hat and camera around my neck!

I had to admit that I was in fact a tourist!

The gallery was full of interesting art by many local folks,

there were wonderful paintings, glassware, bowls made from gourds,

digital art, and one textile art piece of interest.

Unfortunately, they were not keen on my taking a lot of photos,

worried as they were about people copying the art on line.

However,

the woman who made this beautiful glassware, Kristi Kolln of Garden Valley, allowed me to photograph her work and it is stunning!

She explained in great detail the process of making fused glass,

a two stage firing process and I have to apologize for not writing down what she said, as I know I forgot most of it, but the small pieces you see inside the work

are glass fragments. It is beautiful.

and it was so much fun meeting and talking to these two women, who are in the process of getting this art gallery off the ground.

They invited you all to come visit and see for yourselves!

When we left there (after having our ice cream) we headed up the road a mile to

a big park where the "surprise" was to take place.

We had come to hear The Old West Trio again,

one of our favorite Cowboy Singing groups.

It was outdoors in this huge beautiful park full of fir trees, and the local gentry all turned out for the event which was FREE! We had brought two of our canvas folding chairs to sit on.

And the locals sold good food for dinner.

DH had a grilled hamburger & soda and I had a Polish dog and fresh lemonade (no sugar please)

Later we had homemade cookies

that were decadently filled with chocolate chips!

I wish you could hear the beautiful melodious sounds of this American Indian flute music

and drumming that played before and during intermission.

Wow!

Kids ran around and danced and played

and had a grand ole time!

A real delight to see. Okay, I admit, this Steve of the two Steves is my favorite! (I think he is awfully handsome) I have a funny story to tell about the other Steve who is singing here with his wife.

(and I apologize for not knowing her name)

But after the show was over I stopped in the restroom before the long drive home,

and was washing my hands next to another woman.

I just said, "That was a real enjoyable evening!"

And she said, "Yes, it was, and that is MY SON singing!" I asked which one, and she told me

the tall Steve was her son, and wondered aloud if it was okay for a mother to brag

about her son! I assured her it was A-okay in my book!

He has a wonderful voice and she has bragging rights!

I loved it when couples got up to dance too.

I sat and finished off another of my little treasure books I had

started at home. I enjoyed the hand sewing on my lap

while listening to the wonderful music. Thanks DH for yet another wonderful day and night on the town!

This time Georgetown!

;-)