Time away

Some of you may wonder what I have been doing for the past several days. I had hoped to recharge my batteries, create a few tutorials, work on my AB lessons, and visit a few blogs. Instead, I turned my computer off, spent one entire day doing NOTHING (OK, I succumbed and watched a bunch of TV shows I had video taped), and the rest of the time I made a bunch of messes.

I'm not sure I am really back, because I don't feel like I have had the time away I needed, but I will try to catch up beginning with all the truly beautiful and wonderful comments and well wishes I have received while I was away.

So what did I do, you ask?


I attempted to create a fabric bead tutorial (after all, fabric is one of the lessons I will be teaching for my AB class) using from back left clockwise:

heat tool
Baby bell cheese plastic wrappers (the things we are willing to eat in the name of art!)
White glue (Elmer's Glue All in this case)
Plastic straw
Fabric
String



I made the beads by wrapping the torn fabric around the plastic straw. I used scissors to cut a small piece of the fabric before I tore it. I glued the fabric bead on the end to hold it together.


I cut the plastic to size (the size of the bead) and wrapped it around the bead. I tied it with the string, which took longer than making all the beads put together. I'm glad I only did this once, because once I heated the plastic with the heat tool, it turned black and disintegrated. For some reason, I thought it would shrink and adhere to the fabric, but instead it nearly caught fire. So much for THAT tutorial!


I spent another day making more resist fabric. I'm still not finished because after I applied the resist, it started to rain. And rain. And rain.


Before it rained, I went shopping at my local thrift store. I found these adorable animals. It's a good thing I hadn't found these before I sent Annette her gift of fabric, or they would have accompanied the fabric to Canada.


Of course, the previous owner didn't take very good care of these stamps, so they really need to be cleaned. I paid $6.00 US for these six stamps which are marked "Stampin' Up."


I spent an entire day cleaning my front garden of saplings and sucker trees. Ignore the fact that this photo was taken the next day, because I was quite tired after all that work in the garden.


I went out to take the photo of my garden and saw the commotion down the street. Being a curious person with a camera in hand, I noticed it all came from my neighbor Sally's house.


I was shocked when I saw Sally's front yard.


If you didn't read about her tree, please see here.


I couldn't believe it was all gone, down to the grass. And as her "tree guy" promised, there was no stump, as there was at her next door neighbor's home.


As Sally watched the "tree guys" finish their job, I joined Sally for some late afternoon conversation. We sat on her front porch and caught up after having gone to dinner two nights before.


Back to my front yard (I thought that was Sally's car parked at my house, and it turned out it was), I picked up all the trash that had accumulated from the new neighbors. In the process of throwing everything away, I found an old lighter that I decided to put to good use.


Remember this piece I made as part of my Button tutorial?


This old lighter that no longer worked and was more than likely thrown away by someone looking for a yard to dump it in, found a good home in my art. I think I found the perfect embellishment for this piece that was really lacking before.


I ended up coloring my resist fabric in the house. I made a horrible mess, which prompted me to mop, dust, and vacuum as a result. I also spent a little time bonding with Bleubeard who has been quite lonely lately.


On Saturday, I took my internet friend Lisa's advice (she also lives in Wichita) and visited the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum as another Stay-cation. I have 484 possible photos on my low-res option for my camera's card reader and I used every photo. I also didn't get through the entire museum, so plan to go back, but on a weekday, since they are open longer, as


their web site shows. Four hours was not long enough to take in this four story building. I now must go through all these photos because I have so, so many of them, I could show you a few every day for a year and not show them all. This was one fun and memorable Stay-cation.

I am going to take more time away from my blog, but I will post a few things as I either make them, or have time to show them. Right now, I am trying to get back to making art, something I don't feel I've done in several months. I will post this with CED, also. Thanks for stopping by and for not abandoning me. Your friendship, readership, and comments mean more to me than you will ever know.

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