Hidden Treasures

Although I'm not doing any swaps for awhile, I am still honouring my RR commitments. Here is the beginning of my fabric book -- in a themed RR called "Hidden Treasures". Pages must have something hidden for the owner to find -- maybe in a pocket. My book is called "The Secret Garden" These pictures don't really do it justice.......

This is my cover. There is a key hidden in the pocket/pouch that says "secret"This is what you see when you open the door. A young couple having a secret liason, LOLThis is the grafitti wall for each person to sign!Here is the full page with the young couple. there are lots of little things hidden behind netting, tulle and organza. I put some paint on the pages for some extra texture. It really helped finish the page for me.The nest is a little pocket. I put a stamped ticket inside for each member of the RR -- it's their ticket into the garden.Don't I procrastinate well when it's report card time???? LOL

Art Fiend

I made these kind of pins for lots of friends for Christmas a few years ago. Mija's popped off somewhere (at an art retreat, I think!)(I hope that someone found it and is enjoying it.....) Anyway... Mija asked me to make her a new one -- it took me a really really long time to finish it. Yes, it is supposed to say Art Fiend, not Friend. Because Mija is such a fiend!!! (not at all!). She sent me lots of goodies in return (not necessary at all, Mija!)(but I loved it all). If you get a chance, check out Mija's new etsy shop -- she sells lots of cool ephemera! (and she sells some of her art too) Just click on the link below!
Mija's goodies to buy!

Yippee - i - o

Or should that be yippeeeee --- I owe ? That would be timely......

Anyway -- I had a terrible time with Penny's theme (horses) and colour (brown). I am terrified of horses (only to be surpassed by my fear of skiing and of public bathrooms). And although my name is Brown, and I wear brown, I'm not too fond of working in it. I just told myself that "brown is dark white" and then I went ahead...... here's what I came up withI learned a lot about horses while doing this. Well, my guilt of ripping up books usually means that I have to read the books before I cut them up. I skip this with foreign languages. That's why I use German and Polish text so often..... it saves me a lot of time.....
Penny's pages were all tip-ins. I'm not sure if I like tip-ins or not....
(that's when you make your own page and add it to the book -- usually using the side tabs which the book owner provides)

Blythecicle Dolls

They make me laugh. Poor Blythe. I keep abusing her picture, LOL. I just love that sideways glance!

The never ending Winter....

It's snowing again. I'm at home sick -- really sick! Too sick to make art or do my report cards. I can't even concentrate enough to read a book. So I'm flipping through decorating magazines -- I've already decorated my new house!! (on paper) I'm sure it will change many times over the next few months.....
Here I am last weekend -- see the SOLD sign -- that's my new house!I'm thinking about painting all of that iron railing stuff in off white. Shabby Chic like.... Note that there is no light at the front of the house. I have to add one at considerable expense. And one at the side door. And one at the back of the house. The flag flying there is a faded flag of the Azores Islands, part of the republic of Portugal. The neighbourhood is predominately Portuguese (mostly from the Azores). So I'll be practicing my Portuguese here!
Adeus!

Monica's Wedding

My friend Monica got married yesterday to Peter. It was a beautiful ceremony in the chapel at The Old Mill -- and then we went to a reception at Le Jardin. I don't know how she does it, but Monica looks younger now than when I met her -- about 10 years ago. I met her at a neighbourhood community centre when I started lifeguarding. My new house is right across the street from the same centre -- life is coming around in a circle. I got to see many old friends -- some who still work at the same community centre -- so I'll be seeing them a lot more really soon!
Here we are last night -- near the end of the night -- I'm a bit tired!And I made her this: The frame is 8x8

Hippity Hop, It's an Easter Swap!

This will be my last swap for awhile. I'm in an Easter swap -- just like the 12 Days of Christmas one! Again -- Heather Simpson Bluhm is hosting. There are a few different groups (4? 5?). I'm in the Pink group. It's just the name of the group. I don't think that our gifts have to be pink.
We don't get to start it until 12 days before Easter. So I can't show you what I've made. But here is the wrapping (click for a better view) The tags are bamboo tiles. And they are very cute! I used a clear stamp from Stampington for the rabbit (I think that it's the French Dictionary Page set)
Okay, twist my arm, here's a sneak peak of what's inside.... LOL....

Family Day

Today is Family Day -- a new holiday in Ontario. It's nice to have a holiday in February! I needed it. In celebration of my family I'm sharing a few pictures.
First -- my family around 1970My Grandma and Grandpa Poole (mom's parents) with me in 1966My Grandma and Grandpa Brown with me and my brother in 1972My baby around 1990Lauren and I in 2007 -- we like photo booths! (click on it to see it bigger)
My brother and his family in 2006
Ray and I in 2007

Flag Day

Flag Day in Canada was on Friday -- and I forgot to post my flags :(
They were part of my Red and White ATC Swap at Bizzy Bs

Red and White

Our theme this month for ATCs at Bizzy Bs was Red and White. This is one of the red and whites I did. I've kept this one for myself. I'm going to frame it with some red fabric behind it. (the image is a rubber stamp -- Paperbag studios -- stamped on cotton organza with Cherry Pink Stazon. I layered on lots of different white fabrics and put a little stuffing behind the image to make it puff out a bit. Then I crazy stitched it all together.

Whites and birds -- encore une fois!

Do I do too may spreads with whites and birds? It's very much in my comfort zone...... This is a spread that I did for Rachelle. -- her theme was whites and birds -- so you can't blame me for this one, LOL!!! The backgrounds are papers, gesso, fabric and texture added with white paint. Only the nest side has fabrics and fibers. Maybe someday soon I will branch out and do texture with colours!

Orange

June picked out the fabrics for this collage a long long time ago when I did a demo at Bizzy Bs. (They were my fabrics -- I let people pick fabrics and then I was demo-ing techniques -- but I never made it to June's) I finally sat down and made it. I'm quite happy with the results! It's about 5"x6". The old alphabet is laser printed on transparency.
I'm working very hard at using up my fabric stash. But people keep giving me more faster than I can use it up. (please don't stop!) Oh well.........

Ch ch ch ch changes.....

Changes are coming! We're moving at the end of April. We bought a house! It's only a few blocks from where we live now. It's exactly where I want to live! Unfortunately it's clad in this lovely angel stone -- but I'll be painting it a nice light sage green some time in the future.... It is semi detached -- that means it's attached to one other house (this is very common here in Toronto). It's got a little back yard for Andy to run around in. And an apartment upstairs for Lauren. And a basement for me to work in. What more do I need? (a giant kitchen? It's got that too!)(Yes, there is workspace for Ray too -- we didn't leave him high and dry, LOL)

There are many more pictures of the interior of the house in my PictureTrail Gallery, but they are password protected. Because I don't own the house yet, or anything inside of it, I wasn't comfortable posting pictures of someone elses house (I did have permission to photograph). If you would like the password, please email me.

I'm supposed to refrain from calling it "The Money Pit". Unfortunately it's taking up every penny that I have, so I won't be swapping/trading until May. I'm sticking with my RR commitments, but that's it. I'll still be making art -- I just can't afford to mail it anywhere!

The Year of the Rat

Thursday marked the beginning of the Lunar New Year. In the Chinese zodiac, this is the year of the Rat. I was born in the year of the Dragon (very auspicious). My forcast for this year insists that this will be year of wealth. I can't really see that happening....... well, monetarily anyway... I'm very wealthy in other ways!
I made this ATC for Diana. These very cute little rats were in the newspaper. So I did a packing tape transfer. That's the best way to use newspaper images! I am very impressed with the quality of the image.

I'm still loving birds........

This spread is for Sandee in the We Dream in Colour RR . Here colours were white, sepia and an accent colour -- I guess that my accent is robin's egg blue -- but this isn't a Robin. Oh well.....

Balance

We all need balance in our lives, don't we?

Zetti Doll

I made this for a friend -- it is very bird like -- but has no wings..... Maybe the next one will have wings!

The triangles are staying large.....

Here are the rest of them:

AAAAAAAAKKKKKKKK !!!!

Somehow I made my triangles too big! Iremember, back in December, carefully measuring them. They can't be cut down --- so I have to make new ones. Oh crap! They took about 1 1/2 hours each to make (yes, I'm slow....) Well, I'll be adding images, and be selling these on etsy, LOL! Want a banner triangle?

Lots more triangles!

Here is Jamie's colour combo -- I'm posting it again -- because I added the flower at the bottom and it looks more "finished" It is my favourite of them all. This is how my garden looks in early spring -- all dark green and muted and shadowy
These are more of the colour combo that I picked --- Sara, Jude, and I picked the same colours, so I got to make 3 of them!

Faith

This gothic arch page is for a friend of mine.... shhhhhh.... don't tell her...... it's a surprise....

More banner triangles...

This one is for Jamie!

I LOVE banners

I am in a banner swap -- we're spelling "creativity". I'm the letter "i" . Well, one of the letter "i"'s. I have to make each one a different colour. Well, Sara, Jude and I picked these colours.... so this one will be for one of us.....(more throughout the week!)

Bizzy Bs

Last night we had a fun night with our ATC trade -- unfortunately we were missing lots of our favourite people! I have become self appointed as the "facilitator" of the group (no, not dictator, LOL) (and honestly, if anyone else wants to take over this job -- feel free -- it is incredibly hard to please all of the people all of the time.). So we organized a lot of themes for the year and began to organize demos -- our first demo will be Sandy's shrink art embellishments on February 8th. The theme for that night is "Red and White" -- think Valentines day, Flag Day or whatever red and white images you want to use. Please let me know by January 30th if you will be playing on Feb 8, so I can email everyone the number of ATCs that they need to make. I will be sending out an email reminder, don't worry. (and I'll let everyone know by February 1 how many they will need to make)(generally it's between 10-15)

Here are my "men" (click on the image for details) I have a quote by Oscar Wilde on the Back:
"I sometimes think that God, in creating man, rather overestimated His ability"
It has nothing to do with the very cute Oxford Impressions image on the front that I RUBBER STAMPED! It is a photostamp -- and I had great success! I hand coloured it with Tombo markers and photocolours (oils). The background is telephone book with gesso and coffee -- and has some music and and some have a little definition of "fears" on it. The one I kept is "lose" I generally don't compete unless I'm pretty sure I'm going to win. I really have to get over this. I hate losing. It's my mom's fault. You don't want to play any games with her. She's ruthless.... (sorry, mom -- but it's true!!! -- but I'll still play with you-- I don't mind losing to you). I'm also terrified of getting lost. I don't even like going to the washroom in a new restaurant because I'll get lost. This is very strange, because I have an excellent sense of direction. And I don't remember ever being lost.

Blogging without obligation: NO means NO

See that little picture on the sidebar? To the right? The one that says "Blogging Without Obligation"? That means I don't have to blog. It means I can focus on other important things like eating, sleeping, school, etc. So everyone who keeps emailing and calling to see if I'm okay -- I AM FINE. sheesh.
On Saturday we went to see Sweeney Todd. I love Johnny Depp. And I love Tim Burton. this was great, lots of blood and stuff. Don't see it,mom, you won't like it.....
On Sunday I prepared for back to school.
On Monday we watched a movie (dvd) -- Mostly Martha (In German with really fast subtitles) Two thumbs up. I was asleep by 9:30.
On Tuesday I watched the first episode of House (my favourite tv show). I was asleep by 9:10.
Tonight I went to the theatre. We saw a play -- part of the Next Stage Theatre Festival. It was called Jesus Christ: The Lost Years. It was about Jesus's teenage years (well, up to age 30). Since one of my favourite authors -- Christopher Moore, also wrote a book about this (Lamb), I thought that I'd check it out (well, courtesy of a student of mine, whose mom kindly gifted me with 2 tickets!!!) It was hilarious! If you like to laugh -- and don't mind a bit of blasphemy/ sacrilege go and see it -- it's playing at the Factory Theatre in Toronto until Sunday!
On Friday I go to ATC night at Bizzie Bs. I'll post my "men" ATCs then. I've also been working on some things for publication -- but I won't be able to show them until they are published -- many months from now.
But I'll leave you with the last of my birdie ATC series -- They are not the last birdie ones I'll ever do -- but these were the last of an ongoing swap...... these were the favourites I decided to keep....

Green and Yellow

This is Peg's board book. Not my favourite colour combo, but I had fun. I cheated. I used this great piece of collage paper from Somerset Studio (you know, an old freebie), and then I added some text from a children's book, and some fibres for grass, some of those prima flowers(from the bottomless bottle.....), and the pear rubber stamp (I coloured it in -- I never colour in my stamped images -- but this isn't looking too bad. More coloured rubber stamps later in the week :) Ray finds the woman's face disturbing, but I find it mellow.

You can't take THESE on a plane

You can try, but they take them away from you and give them to your mommy. Nice try, Lauren. Did you really think that you could sneak on a knife???? Mmmmm, almond butter... yummy. I'm actually not sure why they took that away. The first guy said it would be okay, but the security people passed it back to me. I'm sure that they had a great explanation, and I'll let you know what it was.......

L'autre dead guy

Lauren goes back to France today :(
We had a mommy and Lauren morning yesterday -- we cut up old sweaters and t shirts and made new ones! I now have 2 new cool cardigans and a new t shirt. I made Lauren this dead guy -- she wanted one (I think that she felt left out because I make cute things for the doggie). I've wrapped it in a soft silk bag -- so she can use it as a little face cushion on the plane.
Lauren won't be back until the end of June -- so I won't see her for awhile, so I'm sad.... although my mom says that she'll be back in 4 short months (I'll live with this strange math....)(maybe you just count the in between months...). She's taking a whole suitcase full of groceries back with her -- lots of maple syrup, peanut butter, tahini, spices -- and tons of cookies and candies that everyone gave her for Christmas. I had to buy a new suitcase yesterday, because the last new suitcase has jammed wheels (you think maybe it's the weight???)
So later this afternoon we'll be braving the frigid weather to take the TTC (transit) to the airport. Lots of people offered rides, but we're pretty happy with our non-car, save the environment independence!

Icicle dolls

Some Valentine-ish icicle dolls. These are very nice and relaxing to make. No hand sewing. Hand sewing gives me stress. Most people find it relaxing. I really am an oddball, aren't I?

2008

I don’t make resolutions – that is such a powerful word, and it seems that I’d be setting myself up for failure……

So, here are my wishes for 2008:

1. Buy a house!
2. Go to the gym regularly (hahahahahaha)(Lauren laughed harder than this....)
   
3. Don’t join as many swaps – try to join more challenges, and make art for ME
   
4. get rid of some junk (hahahahaha)
5. clear off my work table so I can actually work at it – then keep it that way
6. make my Christmas cards in the summer
7. see my friends and family more often

perhaps I should just call them dreams……..

Buying the house is my #1 priority. I don’t need anything else. Just that. With my own little art room and a little yard. And a huge garage for all of my stuff.
(that banner is my first piece of art for 2008, I made it this morning-- I made it for ME)

RIP Son of a Dead Guy........ we will miss you....