Third Time's the Charm

I've been trying to get my camera to upload pictures for over a week now-for some reason, they didn't want to load until today.  I can finally show what i have been up to lately.  First is some fabric (white cotton) that i decided to paint and stamp on to use on some "pod dolls" i decided to make after seeing some large pods in a tree recently.

Started by spritzing w/tim holtz sprays.

Stamped the white image then added the black circles.

Closer view of the fabric.

Last, i added the text in black.  When i finish my prototypes for the dolls i'm calling "pod people"  i will post them here~

Today while mowing out in the "country" i came across tall grasses that had been slept in.  If you look closely you will see a large indention on the left and a small one on the picture on the right.  I'm pretty sure they were from deer-mom or dad left the large indention and the baby left the smaller one- Don't think it shows up as well in the pictures as it did in person.  Saw tons of butterflies, a roadrunner, few hawks and baby birds who could not yet fly.  Gary came across the item below.   It now resides with my collection of "nature finds" for lack of better description. (along with my skunk and opossum skeletons)  It's about 3 feet long. 

e

Snake head (rattlesnake)

Help Trudi pick her Moos!

Trudi Sissons (Twodressesstudio) needs help to narrow down her moo card choices.  Click on her link (above) to get the scoop on how to help-and she's making it worth your while with a chance to win a copy of Seth Apter's new book "the pulse of mixed media" as well as sets of her moo cards~

Take some time to check out her blog while you're at it, her digital work is stunning.

Texas Tornadoes

Yes, we do things bigger in Texas-now officially say there were 14 tornadoes here on tues.  I sat in front of the tv watching the coverage-pretty amazing when you think about how they can broadcast a tornado as it is happening.  The most unbelievable was seeing the semi-trailers thrown through the air like nothing-and being glad my son was nowhere near here.  We just got rain in my part of town-thankfully.
  I lived through a tornado when i was in elementary school-in Hurst Tx.  Think it was 1972-hit early on a sat morning.  A section of our fence came through our sliding glass door-thankfully my brother and sister were not up watching cartoons yet as they normally were on a sat morning-30 min later would have been a different story.  I remember my mom yelling "TORNADO, get into the hallway!"  we all ran into the hall and did the "duck and cover" we learned at school (Harrison Lane Elementary) By then it had passed through.  My dad finally entered the hall and my mom said "where were you?"  she had thrown all the covers over on him and tangled him up-he had just gotten loose.  Our dogs were blown into the front yard-dad brought them into the bathroom for us to dry off when he went out to check on house and neighbors.  Our dogs never liked storms after that.  Our fence was blown over/away,  sliding glass door gone and some other damage, but nothing too major-so i think we should all be exempt from any other tornado for the rest of our lives~
    

Quick Update

 First, my aunt Norma turned 70 on thurs so Happy Birthday to her!  (she is on the left-age 19 and my mom-21)  they were so 60's!  

 Next i've wanted to try some little fabric houses (inspired by pinterest of course) so here is one attempt.  We also worked on these at my last art meeting-i'll add that picture later.   the purple houses are flat-made those for our swap.  I actually started making those in 2007-that type, but put them away for "later."  Later came so I made these.      

 This is a piece I started a year or so ago.  Reclaimed wood, joint compound, paint, rusted metal fence piece and egg images.  I plan to add a bird image sitting on the wire, but just haven't done it yet.  

Finally a snippet of a piece I'm sending to an art call from Seth Apter.     Click on the link to read the specifics.  It's in conjunction with his new book: The Pulse of Mixed Media.

Life in the Joy Household

Hard to believe i haven't posted in over a month (OK, so maybe it is)  There has been allot going on in
my life.  Some big changes and more to come.  For those that know my son and his "struggle" to grow

up (that's the nice way of putting it) :)  He has *finally* found something that
that will put him on the path to independence.  Something he never thought he would do, but the opportunity came up, he signed up and was accepted. (no, its not the military) He is driving a truck.  He found a course affiliated with a trucking company-you train for a month then they put you to work-with a training driver, not on your own until they sign off on you. He seemed to take to it very quickly-even aced his commercial test with a 98.
He left Wednesday morning for his first run.  He has been to Denver already and is headed to Pennsylvania as i type.  They stopped at a casino in Iowa last night-good place to park and sleep (more quiet) and you can walk around the casino and stretch. (and pull a slot machine and win $44) He will get a lesson in mountain driving by sat night-Appalachian mountains-i would be sweating bullets.  This is such a huge thing in our family-he has had so many jobs and no desire to grow up-i was beginning to think that I would have to move away instead of him ever leaving.  :)   
    Gary is going to make some big changes too-but I'm not writing about that until he actually leaves on Sunday (assuming he doesn't change his mind)  which will affect me too-
  As for art, I seem to be struggling with creating-last year i went the first 6 months without creating and that seems to be happening again.  I dyed some fabric last week-avacado dying-beautiful.  I made a little 3-d fabric house (picture soon) but other than dabbling here and there, nothing to speak of.  I think it's because I am tired of all I do-I feel like i "copy" for lack of a better word all the other stuff that is out there-i put my own spin on it, not exact of course, but i'm just not feeling the usual feeling I get from making something-I need to find my niche.  Maybe if i clean out my art room-and i mean really think about what i want to keep and what i never use, then having an orderly room would be more condusive to creating.  I have had "urges" to play with fabric, so I think that is what I need to do for awhile~

 

New Journal and pinterest

I finally filled my former journal and needed a new one-kept putting off making one then decided that i
have plenty of books i've made in the past that were just sitting there waiting to be used.  So I introduce
my newest journal-made at Artfest in 2002.  It was an Albie Smith class-whom i adore.  I think i've taken
four classes with her in the past and every one of them was great-she is a great teacher and you come away

with a finished product. If you ever get a chance to take a class of hers-do it, you won't be sorry!

Have you discovered Pinterest yet?  It is so addicting but so full of inspiration.  I've done a few things on there (tutorials) that i've found and made a few recipes that were really good.  Here are some fabric hearts i made recently-inspired by things i had seen.  Today i made crock pot chicken and dumplings~they were pretty good for a short cut of the real thing-didn't stop me from eating them!

Happy 50th Anniversary to my Parents

  January 27, 1962 they said "I Do." 
He was on leave from the Navy, she was in last semester of college.  He went back to Hawaii and she finished school-then they got to live "Happily Ever After."

50 years 3 children, 4 grandchildren and 2 bonus grandkids later, they still do~
We love you mom and dad!

Jeanne Art

These were done by my friend jeanne-she doesn't have a blog so i "blog" stuff to pin for her :)  check out my pinterest board "friends art" to see more.

(under donna joy)

Anatomy of an Art Piece

Thought i would chronicle a piece of fabric art this week.  I was given a wonderful stash of rusty metal pieces
some years ago-chicken wire, old bed springs, barbed wire, misc large pieces of metal-you get the picture.  I knew i wanted to use some of the chicken wire on a fabric piece-so I got the base of the piece ready and attached the wire to it.  There it sat.  

 Last week i went through some fabrics to start in on this piece.  I knew i wanted a western theme to go with the chicken wire.  Reds of course.  This is what i gathered to use on the piece. 

I then picked my "base" fabrics that the rest of my "collage" and images would be built on.
I then layed out the images to decide on their placement.

 Here you see i've removed the middle image-decided it was too much.  I'm trying out my belt piece but not really liking it.

 I decide to go with a large rusted nail-what has it got to do with cowgirls?  Don't know but i liked the look along with everything else.  Originally i was going to make this piece with the short side top and bottom.   After playing around, decided to turn it in this configuration.







After allot of playing around, this is how the piece turned out.
 Images layered with burned papers, a suede piece to finish off the top and bottom along with the fringe-because a cowgirl needs a bit of fringe.

 

 Closer looks at some areas of the piece.
And there you have many hours chronicled in these photo's. 
I think i'm happy with how it turned out~

My Word for the Year

I've never been one of those to pick a word for the year.  I've never been one to sit and ponder deep thoughts about the world and my life-that's just not me.  (i'm not saying i'm stupid, just don't do the really deep thinking like some that i know)  there is nothing wrong with it~my brain just doesn't think that way :)
  So this year I decided it was time to put on my "big girl pants" and get over it.  (life, not the word thing)
My word is...

It is time to :

I have heard on Oprah that people have to "accept the new normal" to get past the "stuff" that has happened~only then can they move on.  After all that has happened in my life in the last 2 1/2 years, I am going to try really hard to let it go so to speak~all I have done is dwell on "what was" instead of "what is."
Over~thinking too many things. (at least according to one person)  The past is what it is, nothing can change it so with the new year, it's time to move on best I can and live.

My Latest Scores (for the grand sum of $1.00)

I've been lucky the past few weeks with "trash finds" and one goodwill find that cost me 1.00.

I happened to be in the store the week of Christmas-saw a lady holding a wooden box that she picked up from the shopping cart of "new" stuff.  I thought "you really don't need that-I do"  :)   It worked because she put it back.  I casually walked over to pick it up, inspected it for show and took it.  It's not in great shape, but love the patina/words.  It's sitting on top of some suitcases in my bedroom now.

My next finds were trash finds.  The lampshade is wire based-like you see now w/"stuff" hanging off of and decorated cool.  This one still has the fabric on it so i'll leave it like that until i decide to deconstruct it.

Second, my french doors-intact, no broken glass-must have remodeled.  2 houses down so they were carried home in the night~   Gary didn't seem too happy since i have other "future projects" sitting in the house and garage.  That is one of my goals for the year: to finish some of these things-or in some cases to start!   I've tackled one of those this week.  Found an old chair some time ago that I cut up for "parts" to use in mixed media.  The legs were still intact.  I had some leftover wood from a repair in the house so i cut it down a bit and screwed it onto the legs.  I made a cushion of foam and will cover it w/fabric for a stool/leg rest.  Just need some nails as my staple gun won't penetrate the dense wood. It's a start!

Wooden Tree

Made this in dec-used carpet tack strips (recycled)
 attached to a board and added glitter glue~simple project