Studio Table

Seth Apter is hosting a blog hop-show us your studio table.  Reality.  Not the pretty ones we see
in magazines~ This is how our tables and the tables of others look most of the time.
We all know you can clean it off and have lots of space but the minute you start a project (or two) you
are back to the 12" spot to work in...
Looking at these pictures, i think after I finish this current project and clean up a bit, i'll post a picture of how the table look occasionally-like the day between projects. :)

Neglecting the Blog

close up of "circus:" fabric collage

one of my circus collage's in progress

Wow, didn't realize i hadn't posted in so long.  The past few months were busy.  My parents put their home of 41 yrs on the market and it sold the first week.  A month later they were out.  We helped with massive packing/going through attic etc the final four days.  It was hectic to say the least.  The new homeowners have already made changes and called me to pick up things that were accidentally left behind or hidden in
the far recesses of cabinets and storage building.  Between their move and emptying my grand parents' home earlier this year, our house would now qualify for an episode of Hoarders.  Until my garage sale later this month (hopefully it will cool off for it) I have 2 refrigerators in the kitchen/breakfast nook.  One will go in the garage when i get rid of the freezer that is out there~ There is a basic path through the garage, my dining room, kitchen, living room and garage are crammed full. Found a lot of memorabilia type stuff that would have been tossed if it weren't for me helping at both houses.  My dad would have left the contents of the attic if i hadn't gone up there and got most of it down.  He was beyond stressed at that point.
   I have done a little bit of art lately.  I'm working on a collaborative halloween fat book and my art swap
for this month's art meeting.  Our theme is "dirty, old circus" and it was right up my ally.

This is a book i did this summer.  Made fabric paper out of muslin and tea bags. Stamped on them and glued them down.  Will do another post on this and my circus collages soon with better pictures 

stamped tea bags

Book page

book cover

dis·in·te·grate

verb

verb: disintegrate; 3rd person present: disintegrates; past tense: disintegrated; past participle: disintegrated; gerund or present participle: disintegrating

break up into small parts, typically as the result of impact or decay.

 

I decided i wanted to do another "bundle" this year-the one i did yrs ago when Seth Apter had everyone making one was my learning curve.  It was not cool like so many others-i know better kind of things to add to it this time.

 Started with a piece of muslin.  I laid papers on it, tea bags (empty and some with tea)

 more muslin, rusted metal, chicken wire

 cardboard

 rusted muslin

 grapevine (grows in our back yard) sheet music

 tied on some washers

 secured it all with some pink twine and thin cotton fabric strips

It was night when i got thee urge and about to rain, so i hung it on the back porch for a few days.  It now resides in a tree so I can't see it daily-and be tempted to take it down early.  It's been out for 3 weeks now-so I will take a photo from time to time before i remove it at the end of summer.

In Hiding...

I've been holed up in my art room the past few weeks.  It was past time to re-organize, clean and
purge the place.  Too much stuff laying around in piles and no room to create.  I started a post on hoarding but i'll save it until i am done then i can include before/after photo's.  I also started a new DISINTEGRATion bundle  in my back yard.  I'll do a post on that too with the before photo's~
more later~

Mother's Day and other Stuff

Mom and Dad  Mother's Day at Joe T Garcia's

We did our usual brunch/lunch on mother's day at Joe T's in ft worth.  Nice to see my family-we live close but don't always see each other.

 

several weeks ago i won a journal on instagram from freckles and sam 

 

 

 

 

 

packaging for my journal

My book came all the way from Australia!  I plan to include the fun packaging on one of the first pages~I actually wrote a paper on this book in the 10th grade :)  the inside is filled with heavy watercolor paper-great for the paint and glue i plan to use~thanks again to   Cassandra Madge!

my new journal from Freckles and Sam

the inside cover

Art from last Year

     Going through some pictures,
 i came across something I made last year but never put on my blog.
Since I haven't posted much this year, thought i would blog about this fabric.

I started with a square piece of tan duck cloth. I decided that my main 'motif' would be hearts.

 I free-handed hearts in white paint where I wanted them to be, then started adding color.

I gave them more dimention by adding color on top of the initial color.  I free-handed 

 various shapes to add more character.

 Everything got a black outline.   Dots, dashes and scribbles were added where I felt they were needed.

finished piece of fabric

close up of heart

another heart-this one with splatters

Just some Pictures

treasures from my grandparents' home

wooden thread spools in various sizes that were my grandmothers.

more thread

vintage christmas packaging decor

 

 

 

 

 

banner I made for my cousin

 

 

 

 

 

this is what a gutted couch looks like. Takes up much less room in the trash.

What I've Been up To.

After my grandfather died, my parents drove to East Tx, then up to Missouri-Just in time for a massive snow storm.  My grandfather's remains were flown to Mo.the sat after his death.The funeral ended up being postponed for 2 weeks due to weather. He was finally laid to rest at the Missouri Veteran's Cemetery on Feb 13th.  Thankfully the weather cooperated while we were there.  It was nice to see family-even briefly.
His house sold in december so my parents and aunt had been up there all this time packing up, donating and throwing stuff out.  They came home briefly, then gary and i drove back up with them on the 24th of feb.




 Gary and Dad took a u-haul trailer up to St Louis to move some things to my aunt's.  Mom and I stayed at the house and went through more stuff, supervised the "junk" guy and his helpers.  They got a few truckloads of things. Since we were at the house all day with no vehicle, we went for a late dinner in branson when the guys returned. IHOP never looked so good. :)  Not really able to cook much since we were packing up the house and trying to keep groceries to a minimum.    Wed was Gary's birthday.  he and i took the trailer back, ran few errands in town then back to the house.  We all went to lunch-KC bakery and bistro.  good sandwiches.  (this is also where donuts came from that we partook of a few times) :)   More stuff around the house.  So many things that were stored probably since the move from st louis-every check they ever wrote (other than ones we have shredded in the past.)  a neat view into their lives- Dinner at Danna's  BBQ that night.  Thurs guys got the u-haul truck we planned to drive home.  We hired some of the helpers from tues to come help load the heavy stuff-once i got all the boxes in-we had that thing basically loaded in 2 hrs-thankful for the help~  Mex food at Tequila's tonight.   We stayed at the Kimberling City Marina & Resort thurs.  Gary and I went for a walk after dark-came across 8-9 deer at the park-they just stood and watched us go by-on our return, they ran up the hill into the dark.  Pretty cool to see that many at once.
Fri we went back to the house for one final check before dad went to sign the closing papers on the house.




Gary and I took off in the truck-one final farewell.   lunch in springfield (Village Inn of course) then hit the road home.  took a very "off the beaten path" trek after I forgot what road we were on- so used to taking the "mountain" road home and hitting 40 that I forgot we were on the turnpike and needed to exit.  so we got to Tulsa and found an alternate route.    The wkend was spent emptying the truck (mostly alone on sat)
gary's help sun-in the icy cold crummy weather.   :)   I'll miss that view and house-My grandparents loved their time there-as did all who visited.   

Harry Moody June 26, 1917- Jan 29, 2014

Me and Grandpa 1963

 My grandfather passed away wed night around 10:30.
I sat with him most of the afternoon and part of the evening. I played music for him-swing, hawaiian and Anne Murray (his favorite singer)  before i left i told him "one last song" and played Tennessee Waltz (anne murray)  and told him good-bye.  He had 96 1/2 yrs on this earth-up until the weekend before Christmas in pretty good health.  His last fall, breaking his leg, seemed to be the downfall.  My aunt and cousin got to see him the week before-I'm very grateful for that.
He is now dancing in heaven with my grandmother...

Mon Nov 11, 2013

Nov 11, 2013  grandpa's last flight.

Ice Storm Dec 6th 2013

neighbor's tree from front of my house

 

This was our neighborhood on sat (7th)  it was like an ice rink.  Not an everyday or even yearly thing here in N Texas-it was pretty while it lasted.  I believe tomorrow it is supposed to be around 72...typical Texas winter :)

Happy Thanksgiving! and WIP

Happy Thanksgiving to friends and family!
  Inspired by the current Cloth Paper Scissors mag I decided to try my hand at some wire art.
I decided to try this dress using rebar wire and not what the article suggested.   Let's just say I would
suggest you use same gauge wire she used.  Less cussing. 
Here is where I am at now~

dress shape is one I "winged" as I went (fabric already pinned so no before photo)

 

dress with fabric skirt attached

soda bottle for size reference

side view of the "sleeves"

 

  My plan is to add a layer of something to the front of the skirt-hanging off the wire "waist" and I will
add something to the bodice area too, but haven't decided what that will be-More pictures when I finish it.  I may even start another one w/20 gauge wire this time. 

Quick Post

I'm feeling the need to re-do my blog. Again.  Maybe it's the right-brainer in me that I can't find one design that i can stick with.  I feel the need to change it up around halloween (for the month) or after that for "now."  So for now, i leave you with this:
http://en.sommer-sommer.com/braintest/?data=NTMsNDc%3D
and you can see if you are left brained or right brained.  me-right. 62%  38% left