365 days of colour: day 60

sorry, picture from last weekend trip to the zoo. Couldn't manage more than posting an old one after skiing all day - sooo tired. Had a great day skiing though, explored a lot of the mountain, saw the back side of it with it's amazing view, skied harder than I've skied in forever... muscles are burning... I'm going to be so sore tomorrow... but it was fun. Luke got off the bunny trail and rode further up on the high-speed quad even. We found a trail through the woods that connected one trail to another... a long winding trail with lots of bumps and jumps... and then at the end.... oops... a 3 foot drop off to the trail and no time to stop and think, just had to jump.... aaaaah... I made it! Barely... But Luke didn't. He landed in a heap - laughing though... got up and yelled "THAT WAS AWESOME!!!" and wants to do it again. We will see....

365 days of colour: day 59

365 days of colour: day 58

Trial Run

Yes, Frank cut the wood for me last night. It only took him all of five minutes. Much better than cutting by hand... I should really learn to use that tool myself. Before I turn 40, maybe. Anyway... I made this smaller shelf out of the scrap wood. It's far from perfect, the wood kept wanting to split where I was screwing in the wood screws (I wonder if they are too big? Or perhaps it was my electric screw drive skills (or lack of)). At any rate, it's perfectly usable for a studio and not too ugly. It's only the picture that makes it look crooked - it's straight enough ;)

365 days of colour: day 57

First Crocus. I hope Spring isn't just teasing us.

365 days of colour: day 56

A Work In Progress of a New Sort

I've been looking for a shelf, or a hutch thing, something, anything, to go on top of my work bench in my studio to hold all my beads and keep things organized. I couldn't find what I was looking for and decided yesterday to make it. I'm no woodworker... but I'm not going for a piece of art or anything close. Rustic is fine. I want to put all my beads in little glass canning jars, so I wanted the shelfs narrow to fit them. Here's my wood. I was hoping to get Frank to cut it for me (I marked all the spots where I want it cut), but he didn't get home until too late. I'll try cutting it myself tomorrow... by hand, because I have this stupid fear of power tools. Oh well. Maybe I'll get one or two done.

365 days of colour: day 55

Last day of vacation, thank goodness, I'm exhausted. Zoo today, school tomorrow.

Happy Ring!

My friend Andee from Germany made this ring with one of my flower beads - I love it!

365 days of colour: day 54

I'm using a photo from the other day at the aquarium... my pictures from today didn't work out as hoped and I'm too tired to try to take something new. So what is it? The underside of a starfish, really up-close-and-personal.

Today was a beautiful day, so much sunshine and the blue-est sky. I managed to get to the art group meeting after all - I thought I couldn't go but Frank had his schedule confused and it turned out he could take Luke to his basketball game instead of me. But then, it turned out that I had both car seats in my car and I had to leave a bit early to make sure Luke had a safe ride. Oh well. The rest of the day pretty much followed suit. I tried to get Luke to go for a hike with me down a beach path, but he was too tired from his basketball game. Not too tired to go jump on the trampoline next door when the invite came five minutes later, though. So... I did yard work instead. Dog poop. Joy. But then I hung the trellis next to my studio door and planted the evergreen clematis to grow up it. It will be beautiful when it fills out.

365 days of colour: day 53

365 days of colour: day 52

Bones. Not real. Children's Museum. Luke loves it there.

365 days of colour: day 51

If I'd been using my head... I would have gotten a shot of the eclipse. Oh well!

I'm really enjoying this skiing with Luke thing. Today we went skiing to make up for missing his classes (he's missed the last 4 classes due to illness and road closures). He did so good - he made at least three runs with no falls - he was so proud of himself! We had a great day, sunshine again. And then tonight he lost another tooth... must remember to get the tooth fairy to pay a visit.

365 days of colour: day 50

Tweet!

An Etsy treasury to celebrate the return of the robins! Check it out: http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=29455.

365 days of colour: day 49

Winter vacation this week - we started it out with a trip to the Seattle Aquarium. It was a gorgeous day, and a holiday, which meant that I had a very hard time finding a place to park. It was crazy busy, not at all my kind of Aquarium day. Plus I had the wrong lens with me and so almost none of my pictures turned out... and none had magic in them.

One of the new bathrooms

I have not talked about the remodel in awhile, have I? Well... that's probably because I'm sick of it and just wish it was done already. I mean ALREADY. Seriously... it's dragging on. But look, progress. This powder room is almost done. Just have to set and grout the tiles, trim, install the fixtures, hang the light and mirror... done. Well, ok, that's a long list. That's why I don't talk about it, it's discouraging.

365 days of colour: day 48

Ah.... sunshine today. Soooooo nice.

365 days of colour: day 47

365 days of colour: day 46

Just some Valentine's Day tulips, I think tulips are one of my most favorite flowers... though it's hard to choose... there are so many beauties. Poppies. Lilacs (because they smell so good). Clematis. Camilla. Magnolia. Mmmn... I'm craving spring.

365 days of colour: day 45

Happy Valentines Day!

The dining room feels so empty without the bird painting. Miss it already.

The cute little vases on the mantel are by Julie of Farmer Julie. Check out her etsy store - she's got a really cute cake stand there right now!

365 days of colour: day 44

First sign of spring!

The Flock is Finished!

“Mrs. Arhon’s First Grade Flock” - Inspired by the students’ study of Wildlife Artist, John James Audubon, Mrs. Arhon’s first graders created a wildly wonderful masterpiece of their own in this mixed media wall hanging - a work that honors both the art of children and Audubon’s desire to protect and conserve America’s birds and their habitats. Each student contributed to this work of art by drawing a picture of a bird and then helped to cut the birds out of fabric – selecting their own color combinations. The birds have been arranged on the canvas with other images from their drawings to create a landscape full of fanciful birds on a background of bright acrylics and sealed with a coat of clear acrylic medium. The edges of this 30” X 40” gallery wrapped canvas have been finished with acrylic paint so that it may be hung in your home without needing a frame.

365 days of colour: day 43 - Almost Done with the Birds

I'm SO happy tonight. We got the last of the birds on this morning - the last three boys wanted black birds, I couldn't believe it! But it's ok, they turned out good and it needed a little black and white to balance the clouds. I was thinking the painting needed a heart and so I asked one little girl if she liked hearts - of course she did - and so she and I cut one out and glued it on her bird. Then I brought it back home and worked on the edges two sides are striped, two are dotted. And when Luke got home from school, we added the last details to Luke's bird - the worm hanging from it's beak and the swirls on the bird's belly. All I have left to do it even out the gel coat so it's evenly covered and it will be DONE! I'll get a good front-on picture tomorrow when it's all dry. The colors on these are off - where it looks yellow on the side with the dots it's citrus green, for example.

Necklaces Listed

New necklaces available now on Etsy!

The Point

And the whole point of all that messy work... a nice background for my necklaces. Hmn... it's better than it was, but it's not quite perfect yet.

365 days of colour: day 42 - More Mona

Here she is dry and sanded:



I liked that... but the print was still too much for a background... so... I painted. And here she is... she's a little gloopy but... I'm going to try to work with her this way. I can always try another layer or sanding down the road.

365 days of colour: day 41

You know that phase of almost any creative process where... it's just ugly... where... you could decide right then and there to cut your losses and start over or move on? Or... you could push through and make it work and possibly be very glad you did... or possibly realize you should have given up sooner? Well, Mona and I are at that stage of the process. I think it will be ok though. Tomorrow I will sand down the bumpy parts... and paint in some white areas... and maybe sand some more. And then decide.

Preview

Here are a few more necklaces (I've got 7 now, not including the dragonfly that sold so fast!) They will go up on Etsy soon...I need to work on better photography for them though.

365 days of colour: day 40

Meet Mona. She's a manequin I bought a few years ago - if you have been following my blog for awhile, you'll remember Frank came home late the night she arrived and I had left her on the dining room table, apparently glowing in the moonlight or something. Anyway, she scared him - freaked him out so much that he actually woke me up asking what the hell??? I still laugh about it every time I look at her. The next day he decided she needed a name and started calling her Mona, and so she has been, ever since, Mona.

Most days she wears an eclectic collection of necklaces, so many that it looks like body armor and you don't notice how naked she is. Yesterday I decided I needed her to photograph my new line of necklaces... however, it didn't take me long to remember why I don't use her for that - she's plastic and sort of shiny and the pictures never look good. So she's getting a long needed and much thought about face lift. I'm going to plaster her with music sheets. And paint her. And distress her. And when she's done, if all goes well, she's going to make a great backdrop for my jewelry. I hope.

Our Primary

We went to the caucus today and made our vote count, the only way our state lets us for the primary. It was an amazing experience: democracy in action at the neighborhood level. Only 36 people in our precinct showed up, which was kind of small compared to most of the other precincts - but there was over 3000 people total, more than twice as many as expected. Our Governor showed up unexpectedly and gave a short pep speech. There was so much hopeful energy and enthusiasm - it was so refreshing. Groups of voters were spilling outside because there was so many people and it was so loud inside it was hard to hear everyone's statements for their candidate of choice, but but it was easy and SO satisfying.

365 days of colour: day 39

My river rock lampwork glass heart paired with a Karen Hill Tribe Silver Dragonfly and finished with a great dinosaur fossil bead.



Available now on Etsy.

365 days of colour: day 38

I adore this, do you? It's the first in my new line of necklaces - more to come tomorrow!

365 days of colour: day 37

Cheating a little here with the 365 days picture... at least it feels like it since I posted a larger version earlier, but I think it's ok.

3 Birds Left

Almost done! Spent the morning in the classroom again today, only three more birds to go. Plus the border/edging, which I might get to today, or not.

365 days of colour: day 36

more pink in february. cabbage. or kale? blech.

6 More Birds

Three hours with the kids at school = six more birds. Eight more to go. I like it better with each bird added. The kids love it. Teacher does too.

365 days of colour: day 35

More Auction Project

Wow. This is bigger than I thought it was going to be. I got the background done this morning.



And then I got the sun and tree (isn't that a funny tree? Three different kids drew very similar trees like this, it seems to be the "class tree")and clouds and fence on...



And then I put Luke's bird on since he's here and could help pick out the colors. Tomorrow I go and sit with the kids and help them cut out the fabric or paper for their birds and will put them on. 14 birds to go.