A long day (in my life)

Today Dana and I are scheduled to be on our way to Kathy's studio for our third We 3 Art Day. This time our medium will be beeswax, something I have never worked with, and am anxious to try. I have several projects I'm working on, so decided to document them since I don't really have any projects to show or post today. And yes, I will take photos of our beeswax experiments and post them on Friday, since tomorrow I will be participating in Seth Apter's second Buried Treasure collaboration (see Monday's entry). Click on any photo to enlarge.


I began my day by making coffee, then cooking some eggs for potato salad.

As I was putting the eggs in the pot, I dropped one, so had to clean it before doing anything else.


Since I had the cleaning supplies out, I decided to get the vacuum out as well and do a bit more cleaning.

The eggs were still not finished, so I got out my paints and made a few backgrounds, while working on my disintegration project that will be unveiled on August 1. It's finally getting light out.

They were actually pages from the bundle I will be working with.

By now the eggs were finished and I cut up potatoes while the eggs cooled enough to peel them.

While the potatoes were cooking, I peeled the eggs and got the rest of the ingredients ready to make the potato salad. Then it was off to the shower where I didn't take photos.

Next it was off to my garden where I noticed that the plants had taken over. I was so happy with the garden's progress (although it is rather beginning to get overgrown), I had to take a few photos. I've never had a garden that did this well before.

The black pot in front has potatoes, the other pots have herbs. There are tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, cantaloupe, and onions in this garden. It is nearly weed free due to lots of layering and shredded papers I use as mulch.

Last year, when my neighbor put up the fence, I was afraid it would change the air flow of the garden. However it doesn't seem to have hurt anything.

This is the approximate view I see from my kitchen window. The bamboo poles leaning against the fence supported the snow pea vines while they were producing seven peas. Yep, seven!

You can tell it's still early, since both cars are still in my neighbor's driveway.

The "empty" spot in the garden is where the lettuce had been. I will plant more there in late August for a late harvest.

Marigolds keep bugs out of the garden.

The garden is 8' wide by 17' long.

Not long after I finished watering, my neighbor Sally came up and picked a few peppers and tomatoes.

I had her stand next to the tomato plants so you can see how tall they are.

I suspect they are about 6 feet tall, at least the largest one.

Back inside, I wanted to seal the wall hanging I'm working on. I've never used Mod Podge before and decided to try it, since I have so much of it.

There are lots of scraps here.

They needed to be sealed, since there were some edges that hadn't stayed glued down.

While spreading the Mod Podge around, I added some silver mica to give the piece a silvery shimmer.

The Ott light really washed out the color when the Mod Podge was still wet.

Now I just have to clean the brush and allow the piece to dry overnight.

Back upstairs, the Disintegration project piece is dry and I decided to take it outside to work on while I start a fire in the chiminea.

I really want to use these cups in the Disintegration project, so I have started a nice hot fire.

While the fire is blazing, I threw the metal cans into the fire. If you look closely, you just might be able to see them.

While the fire was blazing away, I got the idea of burning a window screen. It was off to the basement to cut a piece of old metal window screen.

I was mortified when, instead of turning colors, the screen started to disintegrate. Oh well, it IS a disintegration project!!

The tins are cooling and the disintegration project is coming along nicely. I've just glued a piece of old shingle on the other side, while Bleubeard cleans himself.

Now that I've started to work on the bundles, Bleubeard is getting interested.

Actually what he really wants is a bit of loving and affection. There's always time in the day to show a bit of love and receive some in return.

The tins are out of the chiminea. The sun is starting to peek through the trees that line my back fence.

Bleubeard is convinced it is now time to go inside, but I want to finish the bundles before we pack things up.

The bundles are decorated and the sun is beginning to beat down.

The fire is completely out and my coffee mug is empty. It's now time for a refill, then to return to the basement and begin the assembly process.

I took a break from the disintegration assembly (I'm easily distracted and the glue needed time to dry). I need a box to take my things to Kathy's. I have a bag, but I now have too much stuff to take and the bag doesn't have stable sides. I decided to glitz up this plastic container. I first painted it green, but I didn't have enough green to complete the job, so I found some gold and painted over the green. It is now mid-afternoon and the paint should dry in a few minutes in this sun and heat.

I had just finished remaking the covers for my Anniversary Skinny when Halle called. We talked for about an hour, and as soon as we hung up, Kathy called. We conference called with Dana, who had also been trying to call me. Seems her car was not drivable, so I called Sally, and will be driving to Kathy's tomorrow.

Late in the day (around 7:30 pm), the Disintegration Project is complete. Here is a photo of the back side. I began with a shadowbox type substrate, then glued very thin paper bags I had painted over the piece, along with some of the pages from the Disintegration Bundle.

Here is the finished project after I put it through a "stained glass" filter in Photoshop. I really like this picture almost as much as the completed project.

Here is the same photo, altered through several filters, the last of which was dotted glass. I may not know much about Photoshop, but I'm in love with the effects I can achieve using filters. I guess that is really the FINAL thing I did before calling it a day. I had never used the "filter" effects before, so spent some time playing around with them. And boy did I have fun!! I would never have done this had I not wanted something artsy to show on my blog.

I wanted to try some nature printing and took this photo for a reference since I had planned to take this book back to Kathy. She asured me she didn't need the book, so now I can try some of the techniques in this book in the next month or so.

One of the last things I have to do today is pack my beeswax supplies. Since I'm only partly finished (only the items from the basement are packed), as you can see from the half empty tote, I guess I had better get going. But, before I do, I need to finish a hostess gift I'll be giving Kathy. Yes, I'll take photos.

And finally, I posted this day in my life to this blog. Don't forget to visit Seth's blog tomorrow for the latest collaboration links.