Fanfarlo!

Saw these guys last night at Great American Music Hall! So fun & absolutely great sound. {Thanks Julie!} Fanfarlo check 'em out. Enjoy!

Cold Hands

Even though I've been crafty all morning (making, cutting, writing), my hands are freezing! It's simply chilly here in SF this week. *Lots* of rain. But that hasn't swamped my mood about this page. Long before I actually moved to San Francisco, I loved that Natalie Merchant song "Milk and Honey." Give the lyrics a listen if you haven't for a while. I've decided I need to focus on some of my story instead of: all boy, all the time. And I'm going to post some pages here as well to help me document. For my scrapbooking friends, you've got to see these brads from Oriental Trading. They are hefty, well-made and completely charming!

Supplies: Patterned paper> SEI, BasicGrey, Hambly. Alphas> American Crafts, Jenni Bowlin. Brads> Oriental Trading, SEI, Creative Cafe. Ink> Martha Stewart Crafts, SEI. Stamps> Hero alphas, 7 Gypsies, Inkadinkado. Rub-ons> BasicGrey. Chipboard> American Crafts. Other stuff> Prima florals & pearls, Vintage map with calligraphy from Kenner Road, Creative Cafe gems, tag from Living Room Floor, felt coaster from Michael's, vintage butterfly, trims & threads.

I will...

I have many resolutions this year and one of them is to create a new banner for this blog. Why does that feel so difficult? I'm always so impressed with amazing banners, and when I grab Somerset's Artful Blogger, I first flip to the back where they feature beautiful banners. I've even seen them on etsy...for sale! So, I'm publishing myself a deadline: by the week's end, I will create a new blog banner.

In a word...

Welcome to the New Year! Two thousand ten has lots of promise for me in the creative arts arena. I've been working to free up my time so that I can work on my illustrations and collage art. And right out of the gate, I've got a fresh start! At the indirect urging of my friend Amy and her past January podcasts, and through the inspiration of Ali Edwards, I've chosen a word to help guide my creative endeavors this year. It's a word that I had chastized myself with last year in the avalanche of projects happening around me. I often felt out of control, and that my creative time was not my own. I have always been (and will likely continue to be) an full spectrum art & crafter. I have tried to do it all: paper, fabric, paint, rubber, wood, metal. And that won't change. What *is* changing is my purposefulness. My intentions. My focus. *Focus* Focus on what compells me, what intrigues me, what challenges me. Focus on the lines and shadows. Focus on the dailyness. Focus on learning. Focus on being present. And not just the art, but on parenting and friends. Focus on being present in conversation, and fully committing to the moment. We'll see how it goes. What might your word be?

Autonomous wax

'Tis the season for a new greeting on the front door. I make these hang-signs for holidays, for seasons, for reminding the boys to dump the sand from their shoes. This one has an old drawer pull with distressed paint still on it. I love the handle, the weight of it, the patina of the exposed metal. And I reluctantly added it to my sign, telling myself if I found a better use for it, I'd grant permission to deconstruct it. The sign also has some splattered crayon wax (with rhinstones), and oh how this brings back a memory. One Christmas on Cooper Hill Road, my mom had a whole tray of red votives alight on a coffee table. My brother, being a boy cooped up mid-winter in Connecticut, was under the table, and sort of lifting it with his feet. You see where this is going? So we had red wax on the oriental carpet, and one very angry mom. After attempting to remove the wax by iron-&-brown-paper-bag method, we were left with a stain, and a lesson-learned. Even here on my sign, I am reminded how autonomously hot wax (mis)behaves.

Christmas Quail

Here stands the Christmas Quail. She's supposed to grace my holiday postage, but I'm struggling with the color of her plummage. The good folks over at Zazzle have printers that print a few steps darker, and I have to plan for that...so we'll see. I wish I could say the Christmas cards were this far along! I'm quite tempted to buy a few boxes, pen our names & send them off. But then I recall the exponential satisfaction of handmade...

Microfilm!

I'm smack in the middle of a Kits class (taught by May Flaum) over at BPS to learn some new tricks about using up the last vestiges of my scrapbooking kits. She's got some great suggestions, tutorials, & challenges to get you moving. But she also encouraged us to build our own kits. I've never done this before, and *loved* focusing on using up some great supplies and favorite items that haven't yet made their way into a project. And then I came across a spool of mircofilm while hunting for some black lace...and voila.