July Update

Okay, I think I have fixed my water. I tried to show the depth while keeping the horizontal surface intact. I can see it takes some practice to do a good job here. I am happy enough with it that I am not going to rip it (there goes that frog again) out again. I kept the duck! He was no problem. Now on to the tables and umbrella.

Tagged!

Well, I have been tagged for a meme. Sue in western wa did this to me. The version she had which I guess I am using is:

Five things to do before I die:

1. Get high speed internet!

2. Have a maid.

3. Go to Ireland. My maiden name is O'Keefe.

4. Take lots of art workshops.

5. Get a degree in theology.

Five things I can do:

1. Spoil my grandchildren and I do enjoy it!

2. Make art. Lots of it. Especially for gifts.

3. Enjoy my cat and dogs.

4. Bake/cook. I like to bake more than cook but oh, one can't eat too much of it.

5. Take walks. Which I should do more of, just ask my son.

Five things I cannot do yet:

1. Act silly any ol' time. I included this silly picture of me with gift wrap someone put on my head just before taking a picture just to practice this one! This was Mother's Day this year.

2. Just play. No goals, no necessary end product, just play for it's sake alone. Even as a kid I had trouble with this.

3. Make professional quality art.

4. Go visit my kids or sisters any time I feel like it and stay as long as I want.

5. Live by my daughter and grandchildren. (James, she doesn't move around like you do.)

Five things that attract me to the opposite sex:

1. Seeing men being kind to their families.

2. Seeming capable as in Mr. Fix it all.

3. Overall intelligence.

4. Like animals.

5. Sense of humor.

And my husband fits the bill!

Five celebrity crushes:

1. Hillary Clinton who I admire for her drive and determination in a man's (still) arena.

2. Mia Farrow for loving her adopted children and standing up for all children.

3. Grandma Moses for taking up art, a new undertaking at 90 years of age.

4. Bob Barker for urging people to be responsible for their pets.

5. As you can see, I just am not up to doing celebrities, couldn't think of anyone else to fit here.

Five people I would like to do this:

1. Tally

2. Sunni

3. CC

4. a2susan

5. the family jewels

If any of you have been tagged for this one already, just pass it on.

Oooops!

I was stitching away and kept getting more and more uncomfortable with my pool. Can you see what I did wrong? I was building the walls of the pool instead of describing the flat surface of the water. I was trying to show how the pool goes from shallow to deep but this was not the way to do it! So, FROG! (I believe that is what Tally called the process of ripping out). Try, try again! I never did like that saying but there is no way I can leave it like this.

ATC Fun

I have been having fun playing around with ATC's again. This time I thought I'd make a whole page of background. I think I'd call this background Kindergaarten! It was fun and relaxing to do. I colored with markers on bristol board. Then I cut it into pieces without trying to find the "best" parts. I thought I would just work with them the way they turned out. A minor challenge - the best kind! I have several more to play with.

Looking at the two enlarged cards, one with hearts and words of love is for my sister who just lost her husband. The other started as a doodle by another sister. We were at a party given by
yet another sister. Tena was playing a game and
getting bored so in her boredom she doodled this
pitcher. I asked her if I could keep it; she thought I was nuts for wanting junk but said okay. Now I have used it; I knew it would come in handy sometime. I am pretty happy with what I am doing with these. They are bright and cheerful which fits me well. Hope they brighten your day as well.

July Page Started

This is my July page so far. I left a lot of the top paper on to help keep the page clean while I work on it. Living in the dusty desert and having so many pets in the house makes it hard to keep the desert brown from invading every single thing. Can you guess what I am beading a picture of? If not I guess you'll have to wait to find out! Check back again. I love the visits to my blog. Oh, I will tell you that the little yellow item is a duck! I couldn't find anything small enough so I made one by connecting small beads.

Finished!!

Except for putting this on it's backing with blanket stitching all around (which I won't be doing until all my circles are done, I don't think), this page is done. I am happy with it. I had to rip out my train tracks since my husband(you know, the Old Goat) pointed out I had the rails underneath the ties and no train can run that way. I am sure my dad did a better job than that when he worked on the Alaskan railroad! I am still not totally thrilled with the tracks but those are the beads I've got so those are the beads I used! I would have liked a lighter brown but I am not ready to order more at this time.


Now it's time for July's page. I have an idea of what I want to do but who knows if it will turn out how I think. It's just a thought at this stage and we all know how those thoughts can change!

BJP Update

It's coming along. Right now I am waiting for

beads to arrive to make the Alaskan railroad which my dad worked on back around 1937. He never quit talking about Alaska, WWII or Hawaii all the while drinking his coffee and living on Clarke Dr. in El Cajon, CA. How's that for a brief summary of my piece? ; )

ATC series Done

Hey, I was able to make a series of these
doodle ATC's. I am happy with the way
they turned out. But, enough is enough.
Now I am going to try decorating a large
page and then "find and finish" some cards
from it. Maybe someday I'll find time to
check out some ATC sites and see what
others are doing. Right now I am having
fun just playing around.

ATC's in a Series?

I started with one doodle ATC and now have four. I am trying to see if I can do a series of them. I guess this is a series but I want to do 6 or more if I can. Someone mentioned with the posting of my first of this series that it didn't look like a doodle but like art; I don't know, I just start and keep going till it is finished. Maybe I don't know what doodling is really as my family says I don't know how to play either! I will admit my first inclination faced with the first blank card was to put a vase on it (who knows why) so I did and worked out from there. Then the second card, well it worked the first time so I did it again. Then I expanded on same theme for 3rd and 4th cards. Maybe that's where I am diverging from plain doodling. What do YOU think?

BJP update

I finished the palm so now I just need to
embellish the hand and surrounding area
with flowers or whatever. I had to take out
the outlining row of beads. When I filled in
the hand I ended up pushing the original
outline outward and changed the shape of
the hand. After I removed them the hand
was actually back to the original shape. So
I have learned to be careful how close I
place each row of beads.

By the time I get 12 of these "pages" done
I will probably have learned a lot about
beading on a fabric.

Anyhow, it's been fun and I am happy with
the way this page is turning out.

Ode to Pandora

You're a brat, kitty cat!

Up on my table where you should not be,

You purr and you preen "look at me!"

You're a brat, kitty cat!

You nibble my toes and wake me from sleep

so I'll play with you at a quarter to three.

You try to sit on my keyboard,

then play with my screen.

You're a brat, kitty cat!

You tip over my beads, tangle my threads,

and then sit right on top of my project.

You're a brat, kitty cat!

Oh, and I love you sweetie.

Doodle ATC

I read on soulatplay's blog Magic Indigo about making doodle ATC's. I
thought I would give it a try. This is my effort done in red colored
pencil. Being a doodle, it went fairly quickly and was fun to do.
I think I will turn this into a series. Hmm- should I stick with
red and change vases and flowers, or change colors and stick
with tulips, or.... Thankyou, soulatplay for getting my soul to
play! This is just what I was looking for when I joined the
BJP.

Recipe Card

No decent artist or crafter has only one project going at any one time; I am no different.

I got my first magazine from a new subscription to "cloth-paper-scissors" and found a recipe card swap with entries due no later than June 15th. I thought it would be fun so quickly made up a card (quickly being 3 days) hoping to get it in on time. It was a fun project but sewing vinyl is not easy which they mentioned in the article about recipe cards.

I wanted to get a postcard back to see that the magazine got my entry so I took a picture and printed one out as a 4x6" picture--voila! instant postcard! Today I get it all to the post office and hope I didn't make my recipe card too heavy (there is a weight limit and I don't have a scale at home I can trust for 1 ounce or so). If it's over weight I guess I get to keep my own card instead of getting someone else's. The point was to have fun and I did.

My Pets

I want to share my pets with viewers of my blog. Sambo, my poochihua is on the left with his chewbone in his mouth. Skoshi, my shitzu, is on the right keeping an eye on Sarah's bone. Sarah, my german shorthair pointer is in the back wishing for Sambo's bone. They are always wanting what the other has - hmmm, sounds a lot like the trouble we humans have, yes?

These are close-ups of each one. Once in a while I get a good one of Sambo. Being all black with dark eyes makes it difficult to get a good picture.

BJP started

Well, it's June 2nd and I am underway on this month's page. I have decided to use my dad as the theme for this month since his birthday was June 4, 1918. While he was very ill I traced his hand and am finally using the tracing. I have reduced it to fit on a 6" circle of blue felt. I am putting a purple heart and flag on the palm as he fought for his country during WWII and received a purple heart for an injury he received during the war.



After retiring from the military, he became a gardener for San Diego City School District besides constantly working in his own yard so his handprint will be in green.



So far that is as much as I have planned. I have already changed some of what I thought I would do as of yesterday so nothing is written in stone. If it isn't set in beads there is change possible!



The first picture shows the page underway. Yes, I have paper on the top side besides the bottom but I do have a reason. The top paper has the main pattern which I am transferring by outlining with beads rather than try to draw on felt. I will tear it away after the outlining is done.The flag only has a single line but that can be winged from there.



The second picture shows the beads I have gathered for this page. I certainly won't be able to use all of the types chosen and I may pull others but this is a start. I drilled holes in some seeds I had gathered from a tree in my dad's yard (I believe it was a breadfruit tree); they are on the tray but probably not visible and I will paint them if I use them. There are also some tiny shells on the tray as my dad was born in and loved Hawaii.







The third picture is a closer view of what I have done so far and the fourth picture shows how much I did while I was waiting for the first three


pictures to upload onto my blog - I am a VERY

slow beader! I am also on dial-up.

So far the felt is beading up very pleasantly and easily. I decided to put the backing paper on just to be on the safe side.















Now, the paper pattern has been removed so I can fill in the shapes.
















Well, my flag ended up a little askew but I am not going to redo it. One thing to know about me is I am not a perfectionist! I like quality and try to do a good job but perfection is never my goal. In fact, I tend to do something a little off on a project that looks a little too mechanically perfect. You will see I prefer czech seed beads over the japanese beads although there are times I will use them, even the delicas.