August Page Update

Truly, I am working on my August page. No, I haven't started
September yet but I am plugging along. I redid parts of the tree as it wasn't quite looking like a tree. It was more difficult than I imagined it would be! The water is looking good; hopefully the waves will turn out well too.

I have enjoyed taking some time to get back to the blogs to see what everyone else has been doing. There are some pretty nice pages out there. Now, to get back to my beadwork....

The Kid's Bathroom

Okay, on we go to the kid's bathroom. Since there is a boy and
three girls the room couldn't be too feminine or too masculine. The kids decided dolphins would be good for all of them. My daughter found pictures in an animal encyclopedia and looking at a two to three inch picture, took chalk and drew the dolphins on the wall. She didn't use a grid or any other means to help her enlarge the pictures. Then she painted them with regular household paints and a few craft paints.

For the ocean she painted the walls turquoise and added a wave shape at the top which my great photo taking skills didn't catch. Oh, yes they did. Look at the last picture. You can see the wave shape over the dolphin leaping out of the water over the toilet.

I think she did another really great job again. Don't you?

The Hallway Gallery

My daughter has turned her hallway into a changing gallery of her
children's artwork. Some of the art is from school and some is made at home.

At the bottom of the stairs she painted and stenciled her sign directing "visitors" to the stairway gallery. Then she hung their artwork. Simple but a great way to show lots of art (the fridge just isn't big enough).

I've placed here the main gallery and some close-ups so you can see what they all do. She definitely is creating a home to
encourage them to make art.


Next post on this subject will be the kid's bathroom. I neglected to take pictures of my daughter's bathroom which is also painted, stenciled and decorated. Oh, well, I can always do it next visit.

Do you see my new cursor? I don't know if the cursor and the ad showed up or just the ad (which I didn't realize was going to show but oh, well).

One Room of My Daughter's House

These are pictures of the room my daughter painted for her two youngest girls. I'll let the pictures tell the story mostly but ask you to check out the cloud window valance she made of quilt batting she cut, separated into two plies at the top and slipped a rod through. The clouds were shaped into regular and special cloud shapes so the girls could "see" things in the "clouds" as we all like to do when we are out in a cloudy day. Don't you like the way she made the door a door of a little cottage?



The dressers in the room are old ones my older sisters had when they were young (too many years ago to go into here) my daughter freshened up with new paint and decals.


The cottage and castle on the walls were done by photocopying pictures my daughter liked in the books she reads to the girls every night. She enlarged the pictures and then cut them out and
decoupaged them to the wall.


Aren't these girls lucky? I would have loved a room like this as a child.


Since this room had the most pictures taken of it and my computer is having a lot of trouble uploading pictures right now, I will
share the other rooms when I can upload a little better. Something for
you all to look forward too!!

Started at Last!

Well, I finally got started. I actually began on August 31st; still in the month of August for my August page. It's been an extremely busy month so I won't sweat it too much. I'll be back home next week and can work on getting caught up then.

I took pictures of my daughter's house I want to share with everyone. She has made a home a lot of kids would love to live in but I'll get to that next week. Check back; you'll be glad you did.

New Doggy

I got a new dog the a couple of days ago. We went to the pound to
look for my granddaughter's lost cat. I knew it was a dangerous place for me to go and it proved to be so. I now have my fourth dog! I changed her name from Chiquita to Brandy. Chiquita wasn't bad except everyone seemed to think or add "banana" so after many names to consider I settled on Brandy.

She was supposed to be a scared and mean dog but one look into her eyes and I didn't care! This mean little dog is now happy and playing with my grandchildren! She is also getting along pretty

well with my other dogs already. My Sambo, the black dog, is actually the most moody (mean?) dog of the bunch.

My Crafting Space

I like color and more color. I painted my craft room to reflect
some of this. Then I covered everything with projects, ideas and bits of projects. I am still trying to find space to leave my sewing machine set up. Except for wanting more room, and who doesn't wish for that, I feel very happy working away in here.

Spirit Doll

Hi everyone! I have been busy with everything but my BJP page.
I am out in California right now visiting with my children and
grandchildren. I went to a memorial service for my brother-in-law and am making this doll for my sister.

I chose some fabric I liked and a pattern from Kivett Studio's site. I liked the idea of a butterfly being the emergence of new life. I painted the face directly on the doll with orange and pearlescent white acrylic craft paints mixed together. I drew the face with a marker pen and dabbed varnish over it to make it
permanent.

Then I started beading. First I went around the face. I used a magenta metallic bead at first but the finish rubbed off right away (disgusting how it did that) so I changed those beads out with a bright pink. Then I went Robin's route and just started adding beads. I sewed on the sequins but later removed them since beading around them didn't work too well and I thought they would look better on top of the beading instead of surrounded by it. I am getting close to being done with the doll and will add a beaded hanging cord of some sort to the head and fringe to the bottom of the doll.


I outlined the wings with a colorful silverlined bright mix of beads. I tend to want to fill in the wings with the mix but everyone who has seen the doll so far says they like it with the edge finished but the fabric showing. Should I go with what I feel or am I adding too much beading? What do other beaders think? Most of the people who have seen it tend to like less beads than more so I am not sure. Any suggestions here are quite welcome.

My cat has enjoyed the process as you can see. She loves sitting in small containers and playing with my beads. She doesn't know a diet of beads isn't good for her!

Another Birthday Card

My sister's birthday was in July. I decided to give her a birthday
card and of course, it had to be homemade. She has recently lost
her husband and is going through a tumultuous time. Thinking of
her while I was making some of those ATC's I made one just for
her and decided to give it to her as part of her birthday card.

I didn't want to attach the ATC permanently to her card so I made some photo corners by cutting small strips of colored paper
which I folded into corners (see picture) and glued onto a background rectangle. I glued the rectangle to a piece of cardstock I cut and folded for the card.

Next I glued two pieces of leftover strips of decorated cardboard leftover from my journal project on both sides after first wrapping them with thin (28 gauge) copper wire on which beads had been strung.

On the back I stamped the card with a stamp I had made for me with a design I came up with about 7 or 8 years ago. I have used this a lot on the backs of cards and boxes I have made or decorated over the years. I didn't get such a good picture of the stamping so I took a picture stamped on plain paper so you can see it better.

I haven't given the card to her yet as I will be seeing her shortly.
I sure hope she likes it. She isn't quite into abstract or mixed media as I am but she does a fair amount of quilting, folk painting and other paintings (just how would I label an ocean painting, a wolf in the woods painting and a rustic cabin painting when

putting them in context with the quilting and folk painting??, anyone??) but she appreciates what I do usually.

Birthday Card

My son's birthday was August 2. I always make him a birthday card. I like to make something special. He loves his fruits (in fact, that's his main diet) and had told me recently how he climbed to the top of the plum tree in the yard of the house he lives in to pick the last of the years plums.

I recounted to him the story of when he was just over a year old he ate a large bowlful of plums. I had set the bowl of plums I had just picked from my father's tree near my son who was munching on a teething biscuit while sitting in his highchair. I went away for a few minutes and when I returned the bowl was empty. I didn't even find many of the pits! Well,
everything turned out okay and he's never lost his love for fruit.

So, I decided to make him a picture of plums. I bought three plums in varying shades of purple and took pictures of them in different containers and configurations. Then I sat down and drew them with NuPastels. I think the picture came out pretty well! The only trouble was that I remembered he now takes pictures of the cards I make and then throws them away; heaven forbid he should keep dust catchers around! So, skip the picture, I'd do something else.

I decided to make an enlargement of one of the pictures I took,
the plums stuck in an old mayonaise jar. I printed it out, folded

it in half and cut out the jar shape. That made the card! I took

the grocery store fruit and veggie advertisement page to make

the envelope. This way, he had a handmade card he'd enjoy and I didn't mind him destroying. I'll frame the picture I drew for him; he doesn't count "art" (on the wall, I take it) as dust collectors.

He liked the card when he saw it and is happy I will give him the framed picture of the plums.

July is Finished!!

I've got it done just in the nick of time! Just kidding. It didn't need to take all month but I fooled around with this or that so it did.

Now, the story for this page goes back to my childhood. My family didn't have a lot of money and there were six of us kids. My parents moved to Clarke Dr. (same one as on my June page) when my oldest sisters were finishing high school. We didn't have the money to go places or to take summer vacations so my parents did the next best thing (which really turned out to be the best). They got us a pool!

The pool wasn't big and it didn't have a diving board but the times we had in it! The first thing my parents did was get the Red Cross out to teach the neighborhood how to swim so they didn't have to worry. Then it was Marco Polo, playing sharks (till we scared ourselves right out of the pool and into the house), baseball and volleyball. Every summer was spent in this pool with our friends.

And that brown table, well that was there for most of the years I can remember. It fit right in that spot. We ate dinner there and partied there too. We went through a number of umbrellas.

Over the years all the shrubbery grew and Dad would cut it back to keep it from overtaking the whole area. He'd prune it back to almost nothing; we'd think he might have killed some of it but it would grow back and get all bushy again.

Some of the special times connected with this pool were 4th of July parties and sitting on the roof of the house to watch the fireworks. Sometimes we went to where the fireworks were done but that would be after a day partying by the pool or else we would go to El Monte Park for a picnic, come home for a swim and then do fireworks. The other special times were all but my oldest sister's weddings. You see, my second oldest sister got married on one of the hottest August days anyone could remember (her cake was tilted in the pictures due to the icing melting). Our wedding receptions were held at our house with a keg of beer, lots of food, punch and the pool. Yes, guests brought their suits and went swimming but that wasn't the highlight. It started with this August wedding and the brothers of the groom. They threw the groom into the pool while he was still in his tuxedo! Of course, every man wearing a tux ended up tossed in and that was the start of a tradition that was passed down through every single one of our weddings!

So, you can see why I wanted to bead this page. Half my life's memories are tied up here. I don't think my parents had any inkling when they got this pool for us kids just how much it would end up meaning to us.

Weather

I thought I would share some pictures of the rainbow and double rainbow we had this afternoon. We had rain to the east, north, south, and west of us but all we got was a sprinkle! At least the mountains to the west feed our well!

Just for Fun - A Blog Thing

Your Birthdate: November 15

You take life as it is, and you find happiness in a variety of things. You tend to be close to family and friends. But it's hard to get into your inner circle. Making the little things wonderful is important to you, and you probably have an inviting home. You seek harmony with others, but occasionally you have a very stubborn streak. Your strength: Your intense optimism Your weakness: You shy away from exploring your talents Your power color: Jade Your power symbol: Flower Your power month: June

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

July Update #2

This is an update on my July page. The picnic table is all done. Now I just need to figure out how I want to add the fireworks. Afterall, July may be about swimming but it's also about fireworks and the 4th of July! I only ripped out the umbrella twice; whoever said "measure twice, cut once" wasn't thinking
about people like me! I looked and said this section
is green, this one is white, checked it again, and
then put in a whole section of white where it should
have been green! I am really getting to know that

frog well who says "rip it, rip it"!