Jane's Project

Those of you that keep up with my blog (and thank you!) know that I mentioned I was working on a project for my friend Jane Powell. You know Jane, right?

NO?!

She owns Random Arts in Saluda NC. If you are a mixed media artist, fiber artist, any kind of artist...you HAVE to go there. She has THE most wonderful and charming shop around.

Seriously, Jane carries products there that you can't get anywhere else around here. And if you want something that she doesn't have, most times all you have to do is ask and she will try to get them for you.

How cool is that?

Anyway, Jane has these neat little packs "Sweat Treats". They are ATC packs that have everything that you need to make several ATC's from one pack. She ask me to take a couple of packs and see what I could do with them. Oh, also a handful of trinkets, ribbons and a paper mache house.
Wow! What an great deal for me!

I painted, stained, drew, ironed, outlined, cut, shaped, glued, sanded...well you get the picture.
I ended up with a handful of ATC's, a rusty house and a quiltlet. The picture above is the quiltlet "Play".
See the bee on the flower? That's a real bee! My husband found it in the house and thought it would be a good addition. It looks so cool!
I'll try to add another post later with the house and other ATC's.
Right now, I'm finishing up packing and heading out the door to Concord NC. Going to the Inspired Artist Retreat. Four days of learning, teaching and having fun with like minded people.
I hope that you all have an inspired weekend!

The King

No, not that one...
This one -

This is part of the project that I am working on for my buddy, Jane Powell.
It's an ATC . sealed with beeswax. This is the first time I've worked with the wax and I'm really liking it...Smells so yummy!
Anyway, just a quick post to make up for not posting in over a week. I've been out of town every weekend. And just plain exhausted when I'm home.
Do you ever have two or three days pass and look back and wonder where they went? I've been doing that here lately...So, it could already be Friday but I'm thinking it's just Wednesday...

Baking by The Book

While going through my mom's cookbooks, look what I found!
It's a "How to bake by the Ration Book" . It is date 1943.
There are readers of my blog that will remember this. I can't but am frightened that one day it may come to this...history does repeat itself, doesn't it?
Let's get past that scary thought...
Let's all do everything that we can to live a lean, scaled down life. Let's agree to try our level best to preserve - no Improve - our way of living for our children, our grandchildren.
Now, let's move on to the inside cover...which reads


Who said "No cake"?


And it goes on to give pages of recipes without sugar, without shortening and without eggs! Some use what they call "blessedly low amounts of all three".
I love looking through all of the old recipes that my mom has held onto all these years. A lot of church cookbook just chock full of good ol' down home cooking and baking.
My mom was one of those cooks (and moms) that thought you needed something of every color on your plate...
meat, yellow, orange, green and white...Dinner's ready! Oh, and three meals a day.
I never got to eat pre sweetened cereal until my younger sister was old enough to eat it (she is 13 years younger than I am). Wonder why mom allowed her to eat it and not the older sisters?
Oh well, a short trip down memory lane tonight.
I've got more art journal pages drawn, not colored yet as I wanted to scan them without color first. I've been working on a project for my buddy Jane Powell (Random Arts). I'll share later. I can tell you it involves a paper mache house, Sweet Tweet ATC's and rust strips...oh, and maybe bee's wax.

Patti Digh

(silver writing mine...)

I posted a blog entry a while back

about an awesome book that I had been reading...

you remember, "life is a verb" by Patti Digh.

The one that Jane sat me in a chair and placed in my hands...?

OK, you're remembering now.

Good.

Anyway, today (what a beautiful, sunny, crisp day

to meet a few wonderful people)

I went back to Jane's shop

for a book reading

a book signing,

which I had rather call

"Let's make a new friend day".

Patti Digh was there, reading from that insightful book,

and just generally inspiring all of us to take the time

to Live An Intentional Life.

In reading the book,

I saw that Patti had encouraged the readers

to write in the book (yikes!)

to make it "our book"...

to interact with the words that she had written,

to take the ideas or the lessons that she was offering us

to a higher level.

I secured a silver Sharpie (which writes wonderfully on the slick surface of the page)

and began readin' and writin'...

I underlined words that resonated with me...

I circled passages that spoke to my heart...

I wrote her notes when I was fearful

of my reaction to different "actions" that she suggested...

I wrote out excuses NOT to do them...

I wrote out my responses to the exercises...

and I also drew lines and arrows pointing to quotes that I loved

or stories that brought me to tears...

I wrote out my heart

and I placed that heart right on the pages of that precious book.

You MUST get this book, my friends.

It will touch you in places

that you feared were closed off...

places that you didn't care to awaken again.

But it will touch you in places that you NEED to be touched...

wake up the generosity that

resides within you.

Give Patti Digh an opportunity

to touch your shoulder,

turn you around

and make you look in the mirror at

your own reflection.

And Patti, you ROCK.

And Mr. Brilliant,

I enjoyed sitting with you and Tess outside

on that quaint little bench, looking at my book...

our actions screaming how much we adore your wife

and her way with words.

I'm looking forward to reading more of those precious words.

Live Intentionally

Today I went to one of my favorite places on the earth...

Random Arts in Saluda NC.

Jane Powell, the beautiful lady that is The Shop Owner,

is one Talented Gal...

One Smart Lady.

She sat me down in the shop

and brought a book to me...

told me to look through it.

Really look through it...

I made it to the middle of the prologue before my eyes began to burn...

the moisture started building

behind my eyelids...

threathening to spill over.

The book is

"Life Is A Verb" by Patti Digh.

Go here and read her story, where this awesome book really began...

where It came from.

And then

go Live Intentionally.

Random Arts Blog

Hi everyone!

You need to run over to Jane Powell's blog

and read her interview with Cate Prato about her new book.

It looks like an awesome book. If I can't win a signed copy then I will surely purchase one.

They are giving one away to a lucky commenter at Jane's blog.

So, GO...

what are you waiting for?!

My friend, Cheryl Prater, has a self portrait in there among other great artists.

Speaking of Cheryl...I did notice that she was back in Blog land after taking a hiatus...

I'm sure that some of you missed her...I hardly knew she was gone...

-inset hearty belly laugh here-

I'm glad she's back and among the undead.

I'm off to finish up my Art Journal page for Random Arts Challenge.

Visit the web site to check it out.

There may still be time for you to join in!

Have a peaceful and creative day!

Katie Girl

Well, read down a couple of entries and you'll see that I went to an awesome workshop in Saluda NC on Friday. It was sponsored by Random Arts (http://www.randomartsnow.com/) , one of my Two Favorite Shops. The Most Wonderful & Talented Artist Extraordinaire that was teaching was Katie Kendrick. Go see her fabulous Art Work at http://www.katiekendrick.com/ or keep up with her daily ramblings and adventures at http://www.joyouslybecoming.typepad.com/.

I am mainly a fabric, fiber, mixed media type person...I paint fabric...not faces...so this was new to me...and a bit scary I might add. But Katie made it all fun and quite the adventure! I forgot to take pictures of my own girl and now Jane has reminded me (not to gently either). So, I took some pictures and will go through them with you.

This is the inspiration for my Katie Girl. It was a sketch of a woman with this wild & crazy hair, quite pointed face but very lovable and fun.

You will see that she is far from completed. I haven't even worked on her since I got home...so very busy! But I WILL finish her!

The blob on her head will eventually be her wild hair. I plan on making it appear as if it is "swept up" on her head and the curls will be off the top of the canvas...And of course I'll add some white streaks. Gee, where did that come from. Now I guess I'll have to change the color of her eyes...bluish/greenish/grayish...Oh, I am playing with the idea of making the blob on her head a birdnest, adding a bird up there and calling her Bird Brain. Whatdaya think?

The curly thing at the top (coming out from her head) is one of those wild & crazy curls, not a snake as was pointed out to me...Hey, I could put a jewel on her forehead and then add a..well, nevermind that...
I'm still auditioning the fabric for her dress too. I had sewn on rust fabric for the sleeve cuffs, but that could possibly change also...I see a trend developing here.

Hopefully you will all recognize her when I'm through.

But if not, I'll be happy to reintroduce you all.

Doesn't she have really nice eye brows? I started the painting out with no eyebrows...her face COMPLETLY changed when I added them.

OK then...there you go My Katie Girl.

Happy now Ms. Jane?

Katie Kendrick- Artist Extraordinaire

Do you know Katie? Have you seen her art (http://www.katiekendrick.com/) or read her blog (http://www.joyouslybecoming.typepad.com/)? Have you taken her classes? One very smart lady (http://www.praterposte.blogspot.com/) told me to SELL MY SOUL ( I decided selling my body was just easier) to go to Katie's class... Sooo my husband insisted (Who I am to argue with that man?) that I go, and like a good little wife, I did. And I am so very glad that I did! What an awesome time I had! She is so talented, so generous with herself and the knowledge that she has. I met so many talented women, painted a cool picture of a "delightfully frustrated" lady (we will call her Katie Girl from here on out) and just generally Had A Blast!
I met Kristi Steiner. Ohhh and I believe that I am going to go to her Retreat this September (http://www.kristinsteiner.com/). It's called "Believe in Yourself Retreat" and I hope that my good friend Paula will go with me. I'm in the process of begging her right now.
And even though I had "talked to" (via email) Jane Powell, owner/operator of The Best Shop Around (http://www.randomartsnow.com/) I got to meet her face to face. She is just as cool as I felt that she would be. We actually had quite a few things in common and had a really great talk over lunch. And yes, Cheryl, I gave her a hug from you!
There were 12 people there (including me but not Katie) and they were all awesome. And very talented. Oh, wow and you should have seen what Meg Fowler created...I wanted to take it , and her for that matter, home with me. I will post some pictures. I failed to get everyone's name but there were 2 people there from Alabama, some from Georgia, NC, SC...all to see our beautiful Katie. Does everyone that meets her love her or what? A lot of them were staying for the 2nd class but I had to go back down the mountain. I was just pleased to have one day with all of them.
I love, love, love Random Arts. It is the coolest store around. If they had a quilting corner, it would be The Perfect Shop. Oh, and chocolate...but you can get that fairly quickly outside the shop...so we'll let that pass for now!
Happy Father's Day to all you wonderful men that are Dad's.