bye bye 2008

This is my last piece of art for the year. And perhaps a sign of what is to come..... I am torn between vintage, pretty, white and lacey work //and fun, funky and colourful pieces. As I struggle to find my own "style" I waver between the two. So If I'm ever making something for you, please specify which side of my split personality you want working on it. I think that maybe I just have to embrace the fact that there are 2 different artists inside struggling to be heard. Maybe they each need their own blog........ I will be feeding the funky artist in January -- I have signed up for Kelly Kilmer's "Prompt a Day" online journaling class. Will you join me?(these pages are 8x10)

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star....

My class studied outer space in November. I finally got around to photographing their constellations. We tried some by gluing random stars on the page and then trying to imagine the pictures, but that was too hard for my 3-5 year olds. So we drew pictures with white oil pastels and then put stars on the lines and corners. This was lots of fun, and when I turn off the lights in the classroom, you can see the stars, not the lines. Very cool, considering that they are not glow-in-the-dark stars.

Mittens

We studied symmetry in my class. I gave the students mittens and they had to decorate them symmetrically. Yes, I made the mittens! The kids layed out the decorations and then I hot glued them on exactly as they layed them out. They did a great job -- they could choose from many different foam Christmas decoration and hundreds of different sizes and colours of pom poms.
Happy Winter!I also thought this would be a good place to show Andy in his mittens. Well, maybe boots. MuttLuks they are actually called.(and a shot of the "before" of our entrance way -- it is burgundy and yellow, soon to be off-white and off-white)

Happy Holidays!

O Christmas Tree!

Well, my daughter took my camera cord and then disappeared for 4 days. Doesn't she know better than to annoy mummy like this less than a week before Christmas???? So, I haven't been able to upload photos for a few days.....
but finally,
here is my tree! It's on top of my ikea wall unit -- about 5' high. the tree is about 4' , so I guess that we have 9' ceilings.... I think that the tree is very pretty, but I miss it being down beside me. We'll see what happens next year. .... Speaking of next year, maybe I will have unearthed all of my ornaments by then. I'm missing so many!
(click on the photo above to see it up close and personal)(note "Blowfish Bob" on the lower right)

Holiday Traditions

I forgot to take pictures of the ornaments that I sent for this exchange. I did send Tonya some "Nuts and Bolts" yummy snacks -- and the recipe for them. And explained some of our traditions.

And a cd mix of my favourite holiday tunes:

1. I Believe in Father Christmas -- Greg Lake
2. Aspenglow -- John Denver
3. Winter Wonderland -- Louis Armstrong
4. Little Drummer Boy -- David Bowie and Bing Crosby
5. River -- Saran McLachlan
6. Christmas -- Blues Traveler
7. Baby It's Cold Outside -- Rod Stewart/ Dolly Parton
8. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/ We Three Kings -- Barenaked Ladies
9. In the Bleak Midwinter -- Holly Cole, Rebecca Jenkins, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Jane Siberry & Victoria Williams
10. The Christmas Song -- John Denver
11. Green Christmas -- Barenaked Ladies
12. I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm -- Billie Holiday
13. Do they Know It's Christmas? Band Aid
14. Maybe This Christmas -- Ron Sexsmith
15. Are You Burning Little Candle? -- Holly Cole etc.
16. Christmas Time is Here -- Sarah McLachlan
17. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas -- Sarah McLachlan
18. The Music is You -- John Denver
19. A Holly Jolly Christmas -- Burl Ives
20. The Most Wonderful Time of the Year
21. Hanukkah Blessings -- Barenaked Ladies
(I wish that I had included "I'll be There Christmas Eve by the Ennis Sisters.... Oh, well)

(I also sent a copy of the CD "A Canadian Christmas")

And here's Lauren modeling the apron that I made (it looks way better in person -- here it looks kind of plain......)

Snowmen

I was so inspired by the snowmen on the cover of Cloth Paper Scissors and I knew that my kindergarten students would love making them. They did a great job!Then we wrapped them and made tags. I hope that the mommies and the daddies love them as much as I do!

Ornaments

I hosted an ornament swap at ATC night last night. It was an anonymous 1 for 1 swap . There were some beautiful ornaments. This is the one that I made (glass bubbles on each side). There is more glitter than the picture shows). And this is the one that I got back. Susan S made it!We had lots of fun at ATC night -- I asked every one to bring in some cookies, so we had a little nibblie party. Thanks Barb for letting us take over the store and be rowdy once a month :)
(if you are ever in Toronto, please check out Bizzy B's on Bloor just west of High Park! )

ATCs -- Things with wings

Tonight's local ATC trade theme was "Things with wings" I did some birds, angels and butterflies. The bird silhouette on the coloured backgrounds was not my idea -- I saw it on Julie Prichard's blog (The Land of Lost Luggage). She has some beautiful original art in her etsy shop! It was so pretty that I had to try. I am actually going to try it with reverse applique on a t-shirt.
(the whites aren't so yellow in real life -- the camera seems to have a soft, vintage look lately)

Christmas Lights

I've lived in my neighbourhood for about 15 years -- and every year I've made a pilgrimage to this house. Now I can see it from my front porch. Well, I can see the glow. And I love it.This is Lauren enjoying the fun too! We were on our traditional "walk to buy the tree". Every year we walk to our local Christmas tree lot and buy a tree, then carry it home. Some years the tree has been heavy and there have been tears and maybe a few naughty words. This year our tree was only about 4' tall, so I carried it home in one hand. Why only 4 feet when we have 10 foot ceilings??? You'll see.... I'll post photos when it's up.

Grandma's Sewing Basket

Deb's theme was "Grandma's Sewing Basket" The page is 4x4. I think that this is my favourite theme yet. I had so much fun. AND I had this perfect postcard from a designer -- the candi factory -- I altered it (covered up the funky underwear that the machine was sewing).

Resin

I finally added some beads to my necklace and aged the copper a bit -- now I'll give it to a friend for Christmas. I'm struggling a bit with clasps, so right now it's strung on a fiber. But at least it coordinates....

Power of 9

A group of local (Toronto and area) artists worked on a project together to make sets of 9 3"x3" squares. We met last week to exchange them. The fun began when we piled them high on the table -- a stipulation was that we wrapped them -- so it would be fair when we chose ours.
Then we opened them together, set by set.
And then here are the 9 that I opened. I'm going to mount them on a canvas -- likely 12x12.

Jacky's Gothic Arch

I love working in this shape!(and this colour!) This book is off to Jo in Australia -- and then home to Jacky! I'm excited to have mine come home soon too -- and to send Jo's off home. Will I get to it before Christmas? I hope so! I am sad to see this Round Robin end though -- it has been a good one for me -- no stress at all (except for the fact that some books have taken months to get to Jo, and some have taken less than a week!)

Sew Somerset!

Yes, I'm in here again.I made this affirmation heart so long ago for Ruth. But this photo doesn't actually do it justice. The instructions on the page are great though..... If you pull the ribbons, out comes a large antique key with fabric and fibres wrapped around it. When you unwind the fabric it has a message "to thine own self be true" -- my favourite quotation (Hamlet).
When I saw that the heart didn't match the instructions, I was a bit annoyed and set the magazine aside for a few days. When I picked it up again, I came to this page and said "Hey, that's pretty" (it's the chapter title page). When I got to the article I realized that it was MY article (my own pretty work, LOL). I was so surprised because the article was supposed to be in an upcoming Somerset Home, not this Sew Somerset! Not much editing was done to my writing -- I'm a bit embarrassed over my over-use of exclamation points!!! But I write like I speak, and I'm very excited sometimes.
So, Somerset is forgiven (kind of, maybe) for misinforming the public on the affirmation heart, because they made up for it a few pages later :)

Look for me in upcoming editions of Somerset Studio (Jan/Feb) and the next Artful Blogging.

Don't worry, I'll still remember you all when I'm famous....... I had my palm read last week at a holiday party and the reader told me that many people adore me. I smiled, thinking of my many kindergarten students. Apparently I'm going to live forever too -- because my long life line runs into a scar that I have running up my arm. hmmmm..... maybe Edward is going to come and turn me into a vampire.... sorry, I've just finished book 2 of the Twilight books.......