LONG overdue post: art stuff, collage camp, thank yous and happy new year!

i feel as if i’ve been in a coma for the past two weeks.  three weeks?  maybe four.  i have no sense of time and started this post almost a week ago.  everything in life was put on hold while trying to assist in the care of my sweet gramma, trying to find her the “perfect” home, etc.  and omg, we DID find her a home that is beyond perfect.  wouldn’t have asked for half as much as where she is now, but now i know.  she’s great — went from not being able to lift a fork to feed herself to walking from her room to the living room, which is quite far in her large new home.  i’m beyond thrilled. thank you all for your wonderful thoughts and good wishes.

this will be for sale on my site when i remember where i put it - thank you for the image, jo!!!

i also knocked tons of items off my 46 item long to do list and added some new ones… and finished those too.  i made my wee man a blanket with skulls on it (below), a painting/collage for my husby, a painting for my son, a book for my husby with a fabric collaged little pouch i made for it (can’t post all of the photos of that one as it’s got some naughtiness to it — peek below for the non-naughties though), finished another journal or two (alice in wonderland one that debs mentioned is below), made a crap-load of ornaments (well, ten isn’t really a crap-load — some beaded, some fabric, a couple resin clay), designed and framed a small handful of prints for various family members and fell utterly behind in all else (blogging, reading blogs, marketing the businesses… hell, there were two days there that i didn’t even shower.  tmi, i know!).

i also made a genius set of double layer curtains with a little pocket under the bottom layer (you know me and pockets!) to hide my wedding ring in when i’m cooking so my jerky husby doesn’t hide it and pretend it fell down the drain. 😉  yeah, he did that once.

journal: available in my shop

oh wait.  i also made lots of new collage sheets that i have yet to post, a few scarves, a couple of cuff bracelets, some small fabric collages thanks to the magnificent KC Willis’ genius collage camp workshop, and started two large ones.  i totally forgot to photograph most of it though ’cause i’m a jackass.  (a couple of the things are being sent to the wonderful debrina though so with any luck she will photograph them for me with her new fabulous camera, hint, hint!)

speaking of KC and collage camp, it is only $75 instead of the regular $98 this week.  go sign up and join in the fun!! i was the queen of not knowing how to sew, not that that has changed, but she makes things so easy and so, so much fun!

i haven't taken a photo of the completed piece, but i made this for my husby for solstice

detail of the 3d skull just below — that part was complete in this shot.  the fabric above ended up way more dark and grungy and there is a frame of black crackle paste and other textural goodness around the piece, more collage and painting, etc.  this photo is crap… but what else is new, eh?

i have been so busy and sick with worry about my gram, taking time to visit her, and inundated with company and travel and such that i have missed out on thanking some of you for the amazingly wonderful things i’ve received for the art exchange.  i’ll post some now and some later due to the length of this post.

first big thing i sewed with my new machine: finn’s snuggly blanket (skull flannel on one side, fleece on the other — basic, i know, but i sewed it straight which was a challenge for me!!!):

from the fabulously talented rainey of the josie bagley company, i received one of her magnificent white rabbits (she knows me well, clearly, and i LOVE this!):

from the talented debra of dryadart, i received this fabulous altered book page — i LOVE plants and gardening so as i’m sure you can imagine, i adore this:

from jacky in austrailia of art4moi, i received this super sweet and fun stuffed owl.  i love her!  she is perched upon my “favorite shelf” as i call it, right in front of me so i can look at it all day.  she even stands up on her own!

this one makes me sad.  i got a super sweet book, an ATC and a note from this person — if you see this PLEASE email me!!  the sad part was that the package was damaged and the note was half wet and smeared.  the rest of it was totally fine.  the return address on the envelope is where it ripped, and the signing of the note was totally illegible, as well as part of the past two sentences.  i love this book!  and i’m sorry it’s a horrible photo.  i have it on my bookshelf next to all of my favorite books and journals.  please help me find who made this so i may thank her.  there was no contact info in there (actually, i received three other peices with no contact info too, sadly).

happy new year everyone!  some of you are already there — like debs, lisa s, kim, etc.  how’s 2010 so far?  i’m suffering from a hang-over a day early, stupidly, so want to go to bed at 6… but i won’t.  how dumb is that?  the ONE time i get my drink on (with three whole beers), i do it new years eve-eve!?  sheesh.  anyway, i hope you all have a very creative and prosperous new year and i thank you all for so much inspiration and eye candy in ’09, and feel so thankful for all of the friendships i’ve made this year.

xo

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many thanks, beautiful gifts and adventures

still no new glasses but art and soul portland was fantastically fun despite only being able to half-see the beauty of it all.  i was blessed with the opportunity to hang out with kerin and charley, which was much fun indeed!  additionally, i was able to meet many people i had previously only known through blogs and ning groups, and new people i hadn’t met before.  i procured soooo many new treasures and wish i had photographed them before intermixing them into my pre-established treasure trove of art goodies so i could share.

i was very kind to myself and purchased a gift for the art-needy side of alicia… a piece entitled “mind’s eye” by michael demeng.  it was a pleasure to meet him and to see his amazing piece, lilith, in person.

i am a horrible photographer and this piece is much more alluring in person. you know my adoration of hearts!  love this man.

backing up a bit, i have been so busy and side-tracked lately that i have not had the opportunity to publically thank the amazing, talented and beautiful lisa jurist (whom i love and adore!) of mudhound primatives. she has bestowed upon me the most amazing piece of art!  miraculously, she has included my very favorite edgar alan poe quote in it, which she of course had no way of knowing (or did she?).  look at this amazing masterpiece (and again, please forgive my horrible photography skills):

both lisa’s piece and michael’s are just above my monitor on the wall so i can adore them with constant ease.  thank you so much, lisa!  this piece is so amazing and beautiful and i am so very honored to own a piece of your magnificent art!  i am still working on my piece for her, and feel horrible for not getting my arse more in gear sooner.

speaking of gifts, and kerin for that matter, holy crap!  look what that talented beauty made for me:

you can purchase one on their etsy shop (when they get it back up), though not with a 13 because that is MINE. 😉  you can also sign up for their under my wing workshop here to learn how to make TWO winged journals complete with a fabulous bird!  she is so sweet to have made this for me.  all i did was create some banner ads and advertising “junk” for her mixed media art ning.

my boys seem to have jumped onto the “gifting alicia/wifel/mama” bandwagon too.  how sweet is this!

husby burned a heart-shaped hole into this leaf while at work the other day and had it sitting on my desk when i got home with a pretty bouquet of hand-picked flowers:

my little boy is the sweetest little thing too.  he likes to collect things from nature for me.  check out the neatest stash from that cute little monster:

i love those poky ball thingies.  why can’t i remember what they are called?!!  and the moss, and lichen, and crow feathers and leaves… he’s so sweet.  🙂

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whoops.  this was saved as a draft and never published due to yet another big scare from aforementioned “little boy”.  i got a call from his school with a lady on the other end saying “we need you to get down here right away.  your little guy has hurt his neck on the playground and apparently can’t move.  i’m going out there now to see if it’s a 911 emergency.”  she had no idea at that point what had happened but i thought of him falling head first off the play structure and being paralyzed.  thank goddess i was wrong!  he was fine later, as he was able to walk to the office to wait for me.  we haven’t heard back about his xray but there doesn’t appear to be a fracture, but rather lots of sore muscles and a potential rotated vertebrae.  he fell down while playing dodge ball and some other kid tripped over him, landing on his wee neck!  so it’s been a crazy few days around here… again.  they gave us another dvd with his bones on it but i can’t find it right now so i’ll post them later.  that boy is accident prone and expensive!  but he’s okay and that is the biggest blessing of all.