Lunch with Sally

Did you ever try to get a dear friend to come out of her doldrums?  Well, I did on Wednesday, when I should have been making art for the big WOYWW event in two weeks. 

Instead, I talked Sally into going with me to buy fish oil for Bleubeard's nasty looking coat.  I was told the fish oil should help put the shine back in it, but all I could find were those soft-gel tablets.  Not sure how well that will work, but that's a story for another day.

After I bought the fish oil, I suggested going to Old Town for lunch.  Before lunch could happen, I had to take a photo of this piece of art.  Thankfully, there are lots and lots of sculptures in the Old Town and downtown area of my city.

Then we were off to a local restaurant.

I asked Sally to smile, but that was about all I got out of her!
 

A quick look at the menu and I was ready for a Veggie Pizza.  It was marvelous, and larger than I expected.  In fact, I brought half of it home and even shared a piece with Sally.  Of course, she shared some of her fries with me, so I thought that was a great trade.  After all, I'm a fool for fries, since it's not something I would make at home.

Having been to this restaurant before, I knew it was too dark inside to get a decent photo of the pizza, so you just have to take my word that it was as beautiful as it was delicious.  Although I've made no art, I got Sally out of the house, which was the plan!  How do you get your friends out of their doldrums?

WOYWW 206: preparing for the 4th Anniversary Party

This week I'm preparing for WOYWW's 4th Anniversary Party as always hosted by Julia at Stamping Ground.   I've made some more color mists (see how I made the original batch here), this time mixing mica powder colors together to get some truly different and unique color combinations.  I've also made some ATC backs using my word processing program, since I don't have any of those cute stamps I'm sure so many of you stampers own.

Of course, I know you really came to see the rocking horse, so this evening I removed this beauty from a wall and brought it to my craft room.

I so appreciate you dropping by and when you leave a comment, please include your # so I can find you.  It makes it so much easier and saves lots of time.  After all, none of us has much time with only two weeks till the biggest Wednesday blog party on the internet!

Remembering on Tea Tuesday

Some of you may remember I took care of my friend Sally's sick cat while she was away.

You may have even seen where I documented it on my monthly calendar.  The reason I show this is because I am remembering Sally's cat, Kathy Lee, who was several years younger than Bleubeard.  I think she was about six or seven.  Kathy Lee had been sick for a long time.  The vet couldn't figure out what was wrong with her, so threw lots of expensive tests and medicines at her.

Nothing helped, so Sally decided it was time to say good-bye to Kathy Lee.  The vet took care of the shot while Sally held her.  Then the vet removed her and they cremated her.  Today Sally and I went to pick up the box of ashes that was all that was left of Kathy Lee.  I went with Sally because this was a very traumatic experience for her.  After we returned home, we sat at Sally's and remembered funny, joyous, and quirky things about this beloved family member.

Those of you who are frequent visitors to my blog may remember what my garden looked like last year.  I can only hope for as bountiful an herb harvest this year.

I remembered I had put out the word to all my friends for any pots they might have.  When I got home, I found all these black pots on my doorstep.  I quickly took them to the garden, then went inside to make some hot chocolate.  I knew I needed to clean up the area where the pots had sat for two previous years, but I wasn't expecting the overwhelming heat.  From early morning when I returned to Sally's it had gotten quite hot.  I was shocked, but had already planned to have hot chocolate today.  Maybe you can see the Christmas tree mug on the fence.

OK, is this a better photo?

Maybe now?

Looks like I now only need soil and more cardboard or newspapers to finish this herb garden I hope flourishes as well as the one I remember from last year.

What did you remember today?  Did you remember to drink something fun?  If so, I hope you'll leave a link, so all my Tea Tuesday friends and I can drop by for a visit.

Sunday Art

Yesterday my friend Sally and I went to Century II to the Art and Book Fair.

This fair used to be held the first week of our annual River Festival, but for the past two years, it has been held before the festival.  It worked out well because there was less traffic, and the roads weren't blocked off due to runners whose route took them past this building.

The first booth I saw was one I had seen at last year's Art and Book Fair, but didn't have time to take the number of photos I wanted to take.

This year I wanted to make sure I got photos, because as I was taking these, I saw my camera was nearly out of battery power.  I always keep an extra set of batteries in my purse, but I left my purse at home, so I had no back-up. 

However, I was determined to take a few photos of these beauties.

Although there were fewer crowds, the ones who were there had a tendency to stop right in front of where i was taking a photo!

That's when I panned to the left and got another blurry image of all those Santas.

I remembered these people from last year, 

but this gal (on the left) was new.  She was painting while people were shopping.  Kathy had already purchased a canvas of a meerkat.  The man's pottery on the right reminded me of pots I had seen in the 80s.  Although I loved the 80s, this was not one of my fond memories.  Some things never change.

One of my favorite images was the four tiles on the left called "Oz."  I've always been drawn to anything Oz, since I live in Kansas.

The one on the right top was called "Red" for Red Riding Hood and the big bad wolf.

Of course, Sally was drawn to the jewelry,

while I was impressed with the glazes on this pottery.

There was wool,

photographs,

and hand cut (fussy cut) paper.  I wished I had gotten a better photo of this one!  At least I got one of her business cards.  Apparently her booth (or wares) won best in show for this two day event.

Since I was nearly out of battery power, I tried taking a few shots of several booths.  When I took these photos off my camera, I had to laugh at the guy on the right, who looked like he was playing with something in his jeans.
 

This glass art was phenomenal, but of course, I would have no place for any of it in my house.

Sally called this "dark art," and I rather agreed, but not because of how dark it was, but more for the subject matter.

More yard art

paintings,

and wood (on the right of this photo).

While we were walking to the fair, Sally asked me what I hoped to find and I told her "mixed media."  When we approached the booth on the left (above), she asked if this was what I considered mixed media.  Note the long sculpture on the right with the face.  It was all Sally could do to keep from buying it.

I was impressed with these pieces, which were made of clay,

along with this one that was truly mixed media with its ceramic bird and copper wire nest.  While Sally debated buying the piece you can barely see on the right, I talked with the shop owner, who gave me her card and told me she sold through the internet, too.

Sally and I both agreed this was NOT the booth we would ever want to visit!

This booth was run by a young man who admitted he made all these stitched pieces.  They were quite clever and he sure impressed me with his sewing skills.

Sally got into a conversation with a local artist whose work she fell in love with.

For some reason, I couldn't get excited about this yard art or art meant to look and feel vintage.

I'm not easily impressed with pottery, but this was the second glazed pottery this year I had liked.  This booth was called the Jewelry of Pottery.  This artist uses a special effects glaze he gets by adding zinc oxide and silica during the firing process.  This crystalline process makes the pottery look like it is in bloom.  It was a fascinating process as he described it in detail.

And it's a good thing I spent so much time at this booth, because when I turned my camera on again, my battery had died.  I got no other shots, including Sally loading up on candy, homemade bread, popcorn, and cookies she took home with her.  And I didn't even have a chance to show where we ate, one of her favorite Mexican restaurants I had never been to before, which was uninspiring to me.

However, I hope this brief tour of the Art and Book Fair was inspiring to you.  By the way, I'll be late visiting for tea tomorrow, since I am going with Sally to pick up the ashes of her cat who had been so sick and I took care of while she was on a trip to visit her son.  So please enjoy your favorite drink without me.  I'll be by later, though, since I never miss Tea Tuesday.

Silent Sunday: Happy Mother's Day (even more so if you're a care-giver)

Just because . . .

I've been spending a lot of time away from my computer, working on this scrappy journal for the past two weeks, and have little else to show for the time I've spent in my craft room.

Because I have nothing else to show for my time away from my blogging friends, I thought I would show what I go through to get to this point. 

The first thing I do is go through my images, ephemera, and other goodies I intend to use for a specific journal.  This can take awhile, especially if it is a journal with a theme.

Once I have determined the images, etc. I want to use, I cut many things to size.

Next I make a few sub-assemblies, then I embellish (and sew) a few pages using them.  When I make a sub-assembly, I might use a different colored thread than the one I use on the page just to keep everything interesting.

Once all the pages are sewn, I stamp images onto areas that have voids, or areas I can't sew on because of what I've added to the back.  I do all my stamping at once, that way I only have to clean my stamps and acrylic blocks once.  My preferred ink for these journals is StazOn, a solvent based ink, because it is waterproof no matter what ink or paint the recipient might use on the page.

And here we've come full circle.  After all the pages have been sewn and stamped, I review each page before I add it to the signature.  I don't want two pages the same color next to each other, nor do I want two pages next to each other that I've sewn similar sub-assemblies to.

For this book (and all my scrappy visual journals), I have made two signatures.  In case you need a review, a signature is, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, "one unit of a book comprising a group of printed sheets that are folded and stitched together."   Both of my signatures have 14 sheets and I have folded each sheet once which produces two leaves (each leaf is 1/2 the size of the original 8.5 inch X 11 inch sheet).  As a result, each sheet yields four pages.

These pages are for my friend Kathy, who I promised a scrappy journal to.  These are probably the most boring looking pages, but Kathy requested something simple, so that is what she is getting.  And because this is about all I've been working on, this is all I have to show and tell this week.  What have you been working on?

My spring garden

Yesterday, after the hail, rain, and wind swept through the plains (OK, this isn't Oklahoma, but the song ran through my head, none-the-less), I felt it was now safe to transplant the herbs I bought on Herb Day into larger pots.  It also appears the cold and snow are no longer in the forecast, either.

The first thing I did was drag all my pots into my garden, since I only plan to grow herbs this year.  Unfortunately, the pots needed to be cleaned and the dead plants or weeds removed

before I could add the herbs I bought over the weekend.  Moving the pots was a major undertaking, and I was already ready for a break.  But there was far too much work to do before I could rest.

My helper was not much help.

He preferred snooping

and sniffing to planting and weeding.  If I ever get a new helper, it will need to be a big strong man!!
 

I bought one perennial I decided did not belong in a pot.  This is a blackberry bush and should produce blackberries next year, if I'm lucky.   I don't really have a good trellis system, so decided to use two tomato cages that I won't be using anytime soon.

It took forever to dig through that black weed-barrier cloth I foolishly allowed friends to talk me into using a couple of years ago.  I never should have let anyone talk me into tilling my garden, because I had the perfect system known as "lasagna gardening."  So now I have to start the garden over again, building the garden from scratch on top of that useless and unwanted weed-barrier cloth.

For those of you who have no idea what lasagna gardening is, it begins with a few layers of cardboard or newspapers, which you wet down really well.  To that, you add "brown stuff," meaning dead leaves, etc.  Then you add "green stuff," meaning grass clippings or veggie/fruit kitchen waste (no meat).  Water each layer as you add it.  Then you repeat as many times as you have brown and green "stuff."  You can see I have lots of brown stuff, but no green stuff.  That will need to come later in the summer.  But for now, I'm not going to rush the garden 

because pots are my "garden" of choice this year.

I have three pots I haven't yet used, but I have a ton of seeds I still need to plant.  That means I need to buy a few pots (and possibly a bit of soil) before I can plant the seeds.

But for now, I'm happy with the way this garden is starting to take shape.  I still need to find a pot I'll be able to carry into the house each winter, because I was told the eucalyptus won't overwinter outside.

So how does your garden grow?  Is it doing well, or have you not started it?