Currently: April 29, 2005 When I was visiting my parents a few weeks ago, Mom and I caught an episode of Crafter's Coast to Coast where a mosaic artist made a garden edger.I LOVED this idea. I have a section in my yard that could use something like this. I have horrible black plastic edging that has decided to give up.
Isn't that awful? Mosaic is a craft that I have been wanting to try for a long time. I just don't know if I want to invest all of that time and money on a place I am renting. I suppose I could dig it up and take it with me, but that seems like a lot of work.
I spotted the You Grow Girl book a the store the other day and it looks like a winner. I think I will end up getting it. I did, however, buy a knitting book called Loop-d-Loop. I have been eagerly anticipating this book. I love Teva Duraham's designs. They are so original and spectacular. I have not been much of a knitter, but I had been working on one of my books a while back and it was like a knitting crash course. Which, I suppose, is a good segue to give you an update on said books. They seem to be dead in the water. I have not heard hide nor hair from the packager even after repeated attempts of contact (boo!). I have mixed feelings of being really bummed and really relieved. I suppose the act of finding a publisher is one that takes time, but the longer it takes, the more I want to just move on and forget about the whole thing.
I get fitted for my muslin sloper today, and I can't wait to get the final pattern. I had heard that most pattern companies offer sloper patterns, usually found at the back of the pattern book and was pleased to find that is the case. At least with Vogue.
I got a Sundance catalog the other day and FELL IN LOVE with a pair of shoes. Usually Sundance shoes are totally and outrageously overpriced. These shoes are by no means cheap, but I decided to splurge. And...speaking of splurging....I just had to do it. I know we are supposed to be saving for a house, but..I just couldn't help it. The only things I didn't get, which I am sure I will cave soon and purchase are the teapot and the sauce boat (I can't link directly to it).
Tutorial Update: All pics are taken (three cheers for a decent camera!) and all I have left to do is assemble and write the instructions.
I was really excited when I read in the newspaper a month or so ago that Cost Plus was going to grace Olympia with it's presence. I don't care if it's a Big Box store, I love it. I loved it when we were in Santa Cruz, I loved it when we were in San Diego and I am going to love it here as well. We just happened to be driving by yesterday and just happened to notice that it was the GRAND OPENING. We had to pop in of course. We didn't buy anything but I spotted a rug that would be perfect for our living room.
Have a good week!
April 22, 2005
The felting tutorial is coming right along...hopefully I will get a chance to finish it this weekend.
I actually have a lot of homework to do over the next few days, which is strange since I haven't had homework in YEARS. It's cool because it's painting homework. I don't think I would be as enthusiastic if it were something like math. I am really enjoying my class, and I am learning a lot, mainly in terms of working with oils. It's so different.
I am going to the library today to get some books:
You can tell where my mind is! I actually found that list of Job Burnout books in a graphic design magazine called Dynamic Graphics. I also picked up an English mag called Digital Creative Arts, and it was a special Illustrator issue. It's pretty cool,... I realized that there are so many things about Illustrator I don't know, and that I am not using. Hopefully I can get excited about it again.
I am also really enjoying the glut of japanese craft books that have been circulating recently. I bought the Anano Cafe book on eBay because I was TOTALLY sucked into the glory. What a beautiful little world. I love that it's not too cutesy.
I am going to try to make some granola this weekend. The Tassajara cookbook has what I think is the best recipe. It calls for some funky things like barley syrup and almond extract, but it makes the yummiest granola.
I am so excited for summer. The rain has stopped and the days are getting longer! Yay!
Thank you thank you thank you for all of the kind birthday wishes and compliments on my mom's birdhouse. We both really appreciate them. Not really a whole lot going on this week, aside from starting my painting class. Last night we did a value scale, which if anyone has taken an art class in their life has probably done. I know that I have done a bunch of them throughout my schooling. We are going to be working with water soluble oils, which should be interesting. This weekend I have to find some reference photos of things I want to paint. I am thinking of going to the library and finding some pictures of animals. It's also pretty funny to look at some of the girls in my class and see myself ten years ago. If only I knew then what I know now....
Sunday J and I are going up to Seattle to Taste Washington at the Convention Center. McCrea is going to have a booth there so it's sort of a work function. J will probably have to pour wine for a bit and I am going to take that opportunity to walk around and sample all of the food. To go to this event is friggin' $85 a ticket! For THREE hours. That, to me, is CRAZY and I am totally too cheap to pony up that kind of money on my own volition. One of the perks of being involved with a winemaker I guess.
I have almost all of the supplies to start the felting tutorial. I found this great tutorial by Neysa Phillipi (it's a PDF) where she takes felting on wire to the next level. Our little ornaments are flat, and this tutorial shows how to felt a three dimensional animal. She does some amazing work.
Another felting link I have been storing for a bit now came from the Fabulous Kim. It's the Crafters Coast to Coast segment featuring Maggie from Super Maggie and her method of felting a scarf. I wish I could have caught that episode. I also wish they would have shown how she makes those wonderful flowers. I would have liked to have seen that.
Have a great weekend!
April 1, 2005 linkYesterday was my birthday, I turned 31 (on the 31st no less!) I think that Jeff and I are going to go out to dinner tonight and eat yummy Italian.
As promised, here is a pic of a birdhouse my mom made for me:
I love it SOOOO much! I think it's the cutest thing ever. My mom is a birdhouse-making fool. She has about a million of them and they are all as cute and clever as this one.
I will also make a tutorial on the wire armature needle felting for all of you who requested it. I need to get all of the supplies, since everything that I used was my mom's. I actually thought about documenting the process as I was doing it in Wyo, but that would have been too easy and too smart. I am never that together.
While I was home, like I stated before, we went through a lot of the stuff I had from my childhood and I found a book that I ABSOLUTELY loved, and thought I had lost. It's a fairy tale book illustrated Janet and Anne Grahame-Johnstone. They were twins who worked together on their illustrations and I remember falling in love with the pictures when I was little.Here is a pic from the book. It's from The Frog Prince:
I am so happy to have found this again...it's so inspiring, and just in time for my painting class!! When I pulled it out of the box, it was one of those "Oh. My. God." moments when the memories come flooding back. I have been devouring the book like crazy, studying the art and all of the little details. You can order the book used on amazon, unfortunately they don't have any pics of it. The book also contains a fairy tale called The White Cat, which I had never heard before or since. I would ask my friends if they had heard it and I could never find anyone who had, it's not very well known. It was only recently that I discovered it's origin. You can read the fairy tale itself here. And another article about its creator, Madame la Comtesse d"Aulnoy.
