Still squeezing in some creativity

In between being terribly sick (bad cold) and all of the necessary school planning (split grades = lots of work), I made a new lanyard today! It's for my classroom key and my other necessity -- my lip balm :). A whistle and my school ID will go on there too -- last year's version broke in half.


My old lanyard was about 10 years old and was starting to fall apart. So I made a new one. One that is very "me"! I don't expect it to last 10 years though. So I think that I'll make an assortment of them and wear them as jewelry. I'm not sure if you can see from the photo, but I've hand sewn some buttons on there, in addition to some of my favourite abc fabric scraps and other text fabric. And of course, lots of tea dyed muslin and cheesecloth....

A bit of art

Now that I'm back to school, planning takes up most of my time. I still try to make some time for art though (and I have some projects coming up later this fall).

This one is brand new. It has a painted background with paper layers but the tag on top is encaustic.

The collage at the top of the post is watercolour mounted on canvas. It was originally part of a book spread, but the person who it was for dropped out of the RR, so I added a few details and then mounted it on a black canvas.

A Weekend Away!

Mr. B won an award at work "The President's Club" Award, so we went on a trip with 8 other couples (including the company president).


Our day started at Chudleighs Apple farm.

We picked an apple or two and then ate lunch.

Then we walked around and looked at the farm animals (aren't they cute?)

Someone making a donkey out of herself.....


I like llamas!

Then we traveled on to Stratford... did I tell you that we were in a party limo? Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of it.....

Then we checked into our hotel room, then went out for dinner. My meal wasn't all that photogenic, but Mr. B's scallops were!



Then we traveled down the street to the festival theatre to see Camelot. I'm not a big musical fan, but I love the story, and I really enjoyed watching Geraint Wyn Davies as King Arthur. (I've had a secret crush on him ever since Forever Knight, lol)


The next day we went out for brunch and had a bit of free time in Stratford. I found a fabulous clothing store, Resonance, and could have spent many hours and thousands of dollars in it. I'll be back there for sure...... There was a beautiful coat that I didn't buy... but I'm still dreaming of....

Then we waited for our limo back to Toronto. And we waited and we waited and we waited. The limo driver (not the one from the day before, a new one) had picked up our luggage at the hotel, and was driving our luggage back to Toronto. WITHOUT US! Sheesh.

But look what I found while we were waiting.

Justin Bieber's star. He's from Stratford. So hey all of you young ladies... I touched the star that Justin Bieber touched. I am so cool.

So we made it back to the big city a few hours late. But it was worth the trip :)

Pixlromatic

this is my new fun app!


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Location:Up north

Oh, the silliness

this week has involved a bit of silliness. can you tell?


the face is because I keep seeing coloured leaves falling! Yikes!

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Location:Up north, on an island....

At the beach...

Okay,well, our little island doesn't really have a sandy beach, but it does have a dock! I'm off now to enjoy the sun!!!!!
But I'll leave you with this....




(above pick is Meep and I right after Meep serenaded me with her uke - it looks perfect,doesn't it???)

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Location:On vacation

well, I realize that if you are a regular reader, you likely think that the whole last few months haVe been one big vacation.... But really, I've worked hard. School planning, learning a whole new curriculum, etc. AND last week I painted ( walls) all day, every day in the stinkin heat.

but now I'm off to girls week at the cottage.
Meep, Gaayla, Ooga and I ( code name Click Click Mwah) (ummm, our theme for the week is Cavegirls....)

So here we are, ready. For our big adventure.....



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( I'll be posting our antics and my art projects remotely this year! 3G rocks!)

Location:On Vacation

ArtUnraveled - my friends!

A big part of AU is seeing my friends ( oh, and eating the fab omelets every morning, lol)(and eating at My Big Fat Greek Restaurant)(and happy hour)

Ruth, Maija and I - the best roomies ever!



Joanne
I should ( and will) see her more often than once a year, since she lives so close)



Adena from Alabama






Lynda from Phoenix


Don and Susan Madden- who drove me to the Orange Tree, ate breakfast with me, and delivered Little Dude to me ( more on that in another post)



I didn't get a photo of some people... I'm missing Fran! I should have taken pics of Linda and Chuck who organize and host AU. Oh, well, next year :)

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ArtUnraveled Day 7 part 2

In the evening Ruth and I took the Party Animal class from Olivia Thomas. It was really fun! take a doll class from Olivia if you get the chance. You will not be disappointed!
I learned that I need to loosen up and stop focusing on being perfect. This is true for all of my art. I need to relax more....
I didn't quite finish my Party Cat, but I was really close!
Here she is!



I'll finish it as soon as I get home,and I'll take another pic. I REALLY like making these, I'm sure that I'll be making more.



from the left: Zombie Girl, my finished Party Animal, Bunny, and Olivia Thomas' Party Skelly!

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ArtUnraveled Day 7

Monday was "A Day to Dye For" . The teacher was supposed to be Lorri Scott, but Lorri has a torn retina and can't travel :( We missed you Lorri!
Glennis Dolce, aka Shibori Girl, was our teacher. I was off to a slow start ( I was so tired) but I picked up a bit in the afternoon. I didn't dye all of my silk, but I'll dye it at home.
Here are my silks (the top pic shows my stitching before I pulled it up and dyed)






the finished silk sampler (the stitched one from the pic at the top) is the top left blue white and green silk


And below are my cottons and silks dyed with indigo (the bottom ones are still wet) Glennis makes moons for Jude Hill of Spirit Cloth if you're thinking that it looks familiar:)


Glennis is SO knowledgeable about her art! She was so interesting.....

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Art Unraveled Day 6

Day 6 was supposed to be a day off :) but Maija talked me into taking a class with Diane Cook. The class was called Words of Inspiration. It was a metal etching class ( which I have done before) and we made beautiful cuffs.

This was my workspace



And my finished piece


I LOVE my cuff! I am so happy that I took this class! thanks Maija!

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ArtUnraveled Day 5

No class today. today was the shopping extravaganza! I was being frugal, but I did buy one of Jane LaFazio's fabric collages.... I can't find the photo that I took, so that will come later.

Saturday was also the Artist "Showdown" and Auction. many of the teachers participated! The instructions to the artists stipulated that they could not use their " usual" materials or work in their "usual styles" . If they were caught working IN their comfort zone, their piece would be taken away! The pieces were auctioned off at the end. The money went to a scholarship fund for one or two people who can't afford to come to ArtUnraveled. Spreading the Art Love....

Jane LaFazio



Olivia Thomas



Angie Platten and Jane Eileen



Tom Ashman



Dan Carrel (Sp?)



Ruth Rae



Michael DeMeng


Michael deMeng ( the auctioneer)and Rice Freeman Zachery ( Chief heckler and MC )


I did bid on a few pieces, and I WON the last piece of the evening. Michael's mask! He was lovely enough to sign it ;) and now I have it to blackmail him. Feathers,Lace, pink, glitter and sequins,lol. although the style is typical Michael:)



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ArtUnraveled Day 4 Part 2

In the evening I took Ruth's class. Creativity Exposed. Collaging a few small pieces and then building on them. I brought a pretty little dress to mount mine on. It was pale purple, so I switched out my regular palette for one that was purple and green ( and a few accent bits) . I'm pretty happy with what I made. Perhaps this will lead a foray into some new colours for me?

Some collages and a cuff :)


Mounted on the dress


I stitched one collage on my tank top ( all hand sewing, so you people who say that you "can't" use a sewing machine CAN embellish your clothes)



A close up of that embellishment


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artUnraveled Day 4

Another blissful day with Jane LaFazio! today was Sketching and Watercolour - Pods and Pinecones. it was really hard! but Jane is great and gives lots of constructive criticism, so everyone had GREAT results.












This is what the class produced. Amazing.



If you'd like to buy a dvd or download one of her classes, you can get them from interweave Press. I don't know how to make a link with Blogpress, so you're going to have to google it......


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