Art on Vacation

Earlier this summer Jeremy and I took the girls on a trip to Sayulita, Mexico, with his parents and brother's family to celebrate my in-law's 40th anniversary. It was a wonderful trip filled with lots of fun experiences. As we explored this beautiful, small town, with cobblestone streets, I was struck by the art I found everywhere! From shop signs, to painted menus, mosaics at the fish shop, to murals on the walls, we were surrounded by art!

Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.

-Pablo Picasso

The work of the artist is to lift up people's hearts and help them endure.

-William Faulkner

Art is the signature of civilizations.

-Beverly Sills

Quote of the Day-

In the broad earth of ours,
Amid the measureless grossness and the slag,
Enclosed and safe within its central heart,
Nestles the seed perfection.
-Walt Whitman

(freebie image from Dover Publishing)

Happy Earth Day

Walk the kids to school, walk home. (go about my daily business) Walk to the grocery store with my reuseable tote bag. Walk to school, pick up the kids. Walk home. No driving today. Too bad life isn't always so simple.

Sweet Pea and Sunflower plants from my daughter's 4th grade class.

"Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. "

-Rachel Carson

Quote of the Day-

I have bursts of being a lady,
but it doesn’t last long.
- Shelly Winters

(freebie image from Dover Publishing.
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Make some mistakes...

Kerry and I are always looking for new art adventures. In addition to launching our new webstore (see below) are are venturing deeper into the world of collage. Who knows, we may even put some of our new collage items up on our store. For now, I'd just like to give you a quick sneak-peek. This is one of my mixed media collages.

It is on a 8 x 8 canvas. I used a vintage letter, reproduction images, antique buttons, paint, mod podge, handmade and other papers as well. As always, I like to incorporate words into my work. I used the quotation "Those who don't do anything, never make mistakes." I like the sentiment. It challenges me to take some chances, maybe I will make some mistakes. Hopefully, the chances I take will lead me to more creativity and fulfillment.

Although I sometime find it hard to know when to stop, I am calling this piece complete. I think I like the final result.

things are changing...

"None of us knows what the next change is going to be, what unexpected opportunity is just around the corner, waiting a few months or a few years to change all the tenor of our lives."

Kathleen Norris

Stress

At this busy time of year....

Stress: The confusion created when one's mind overrides the body's basic desire to choke the living daylights out of some jerk who desperately deserves it.

In times of great stress or adversity, it's always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive.

....how do you deal with stress?

Quote of the Day-

During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary
act.
- George Orwell

Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.
-Henry David Thoreau

Do you tell the truth?

Happy Fall

Bittersweet October. The mellow, messy, leaf-kicking, perfect pause between the opposing miseries of summer and winter.
~Carol Bishop HippsDelicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.
~George Eliot

Quote of the Day-

Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use. -Emily Post

Friday Freebie - end of summer

Labor Day marks the traditional end of summer for families accross the country. Our kids went back to school two weeks ago. But, for many, this is the last day of the pool being open, the last day at the beach, the last big weekend for those big barbeques.

My friday freebie, vintage postcard offering, is a tribute to those sensational swimming pools of years gone by and the family weekend at the beach. Enjoy your long weekend. Happy Labor Day!

Every now and then go away and have a little relaxation. To remain constantly at work will diminish your judgment. Go some distance away, because work will be in perspective and a lack of harmony is more readily seen. -Leonardo daVinci

Irish Wit and Wisdom

You can keep away from the rogue, but you cannot keep yourself safe from the liar.

Oh Boredom.

Boredom is not an end product, is comparatively rather an early stage in life and art. You've got to go by or past or through boredom, as through a filter, before the clear product emerges.
-F. Scott Fitzgerald

I am suffering from boredom. It is a horrible malady--getting in the way of creative process. I hope that what I am feeling is just an "early stage in art" and that a "clear product will emerge." Hopefully Fitzgerald is correct and not Beaton's interpretation.

Perhaps the world's second worst crime is boredom. The first is being a bore.
-Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton

Sleep....

I was cheated of an hour of sleep this weekend, as were you. We turned our clocks ahead an hour so that we may all "Spring Forward."

Which is your philosophy?

Sleep is when all the unsorted stuff comes flying out as from a dustbin upset in a high wind.
-William Golding

It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it.
-John Steinbeck

As for me, I just want my hour back.

For those of you reading our blog outside of the United States, we just turned our clocks back in accordance with Daylight Savings Time. Many, but not all, countries observe this time change. For you trivia buffs, I just learned it was one of Benjamin Franklin's many ideas.

March comes marching in...

March comes "in like a lion, out like a lamb," or so the saying goes. Our March seems to have a case of multiple personalities. We hit a high of 72 degrees on Saturday, March 1. The kids were happy to be outside, riding their bikes and running around the park.

Sunday, March 2, I awoke to blizzard like conditions. Our snow storm left this on my juniper bush...

The snow came fast and furious. Thankfully it stopped during the morning and only left three or four inches for us to deal with. The high was only about 32 for the day.

With a 40 degree drop in temperature in 24 hours, it's a wonder that we aren't all catching colds. (I know they say you can't get a cold from the weather, but such a drastic change in the weather has to take it's toll on our bodies.) Hopefully it didn't take it's toll on my tulips which are peeking out of the snow in this picture.

Our little teaser of spring, even summer-like, weather has left me pining away for warmer weather. I can't wait for the season to change. I want to see what comes up in my garden, plant new flowers and spend time out doors. But the wind and chill keeps me inside.

As Kerry mentioned, the weather leaves us to our at-home tasks and art endeavors. So I sit, at home, making things to use this summer.

This is my version of Kerry's patchwork bag. I can't wait to take this one to the park for a picnic, or to the beach with my book inside. Doesn't it just scream "SUMMER!"

I love the bright turquoise and orange mixed together. It is definitely a summer combination. The colors remind me of the ocean, the sunset, and tropical fruit. Okay, enough dreaming!

So back to the March in like a lion thing, it really has nothing to do with the weather. While writing this, I learned it's really about the constellations, and how Leo (the lion) is in the night sky with regards to how Aries (the Ram or lamb) is positioned at the beginning and end of the month. I never knew.

March is a month with many faces. It is American Red Cross Month and Women's History Month. If you are religious you can celebrate the days of St. David, St. Joseph and don't forget St. Patrick. And of course, this year, there's Easter in March. And for those non-religious, you can celebrate National Reading Day and Pi Day. (Pi, like in math, not pie, like in yum-yum), and don't forget St. Patrick's Day! And then there's the Ides of March and the Equinox--the arrival of Spring. I can't wait for the weather to change. I hope old Henry here isn't correct, and that the warm weather comes as quickly as the first day of spring will come.

The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another. The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month.

-- Henry VanDyke

Happy Rally Day, and other trivia

While flipping through my mom's extensive postcard collection, I found this little gem:

(another freebie image, right click and save to your computer. Happy Rally Day!)

What is Rally Day? I asked myself. A quick check of Google and Wikipedia, found many possible answers. One source says Rally Day is a "warm-hearted homecoming when friends greet one another again," after Labor Day. There are girl scout rally days, church rally days and legislative rally days. Many car clubs use Rally Day to enjoy "Rally Cars and Rally Stars." (Gee wiz, could I be a Rally star someday, I never knew...) Russell Sage College has a week of events leading up to Sweater Night (including sweater stealing) on the eve of Rally Day. But I don't think these little ones are intested in sweaters or cars.

The real Rally Day began at Smith College in 1876 as a celebration of George Washington's birthday. Over the years the celebration has included speeches, awards, performances, music from the glee club, square dancing, carnivals, formal teas, and dinners. This year's Rally Day is today, February 20.

George Washington was born on February 22, 1732. You probably know all the good stuff he did from your American History courses, but did you know he was a high school drop out and never went to college. He never learned Latin, Greek or any foreign language, like his contemporaries. He married late in life, at the ripe old age of 27 and was the happy step-father to Martha's two children.

While Martha was devoted to George, she was a less willing first-lady and is quoted as saying "I think I am more like a state prisoner than anything else, there is certain bounds set for me which I must not depart from..."

Two year's after his departure from office, George fell ill with pneumonia. The pneumonia probably isn't what killed him, though. Most likely, the doctor's perscribed treatment of blood-letting and doses of Mercury Chloride did him in.

But his legacy as the Father of our Country is what we celebrate on Rally Day. Don't forget to put on your Rally Day hats, and send out your Rally Day cards. Be sure to bake yourself a Martha Washington cake ( see recipe below) and celebrate Rally Day!


And certainly, don't forget what Martha said:

I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances.

Martha Washington

Happy Rally Day!

*****

Martha Washington's Great Cake
(One of Mrs. Washington's favorite recipes)
Take 40 eggs and divide the whites from the yolks and beat them to a froth. Then work 4 pounds of butter to a cream and put the whites of eggs to it a Spoon full at a time till it is well work'd. Then put 4 pounds of sugar finely powdered to it in the same manner then put in the Yolks of eggs and 5 pounds of flour and 5 pounds of fruit. 2 hours will bake it. Add to it half an ounce of mace and nutmeg half a pint of wine and some fresh brandy.

Cold, cold, cold

It was a balmy 52 on Tuesday. We were both excited to get back to work and back to walking. Our excitement didn't last long, however. Wednesday it was 17! What a difference a day makes! Now it looks like we are stuck in the cold. The forecast, except for a brief warm up tomorrow, looks dismal. This is a big bummer for us, because the studio turns into an icebox when the temperature stays a 32 or lower.

So, our creative studio time is on hold for the time being. We are forced to focus on other projects. Laundry, cooking and cleaning....not exactly creative. Maybe we will get out the sewing machines and stitch up some surprises.

For now, studio hours are on hold. But we have lots of plans for the Spring thaw, expanded studio hours, a garden party, maybe an art swap, who knows what we'll think of next!

And, your quote for the day, comes from the teabag wisdom of Good Earth Tea:

Why should I buy expensive art when I can make my own.

Piero Milani (1964 - )

Side note: When I looked up Piero Milani I found one reference that says he's an artist. I found lots of quotations by Piero Milani, but no art. Does anyone know who he is? Just curious.

In this month of Thanksgiving, I want to take some time to give thanks. I know it may sound corny.....or not. But I may get a little thematic on you for a while, so bear with me... here is my first installment of thankfulness. I will begin with a quotation (teehee)

"Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful."

-Buddha

I guess this one struck me as a good motto, a mantra even, to always try to look on the positive side of things. As Kerry could tell you, I am sometimes more the optimistic of the two of us. Sometimes that's good, sometimes that's bad.

I recently read on another blog about the "high thought" (It's on Tanya's Blog, which I found via Mary's Blog). I love this idea! What is the positive you can find in a situation? Even a bad one? I guess it is that whole glass half full or half empty debate. I think it is half full. My philosophy is to always look for the positive, even when it is hard to find. Who really wants to dwell in negativity? I have found that if you like to stew in your own negative thoughts, you'll have few friends to share them with.

What is your high thought for today? What are you thankful for?

Oh No! Another quote....

Free is the best. Anything free is good.

--Sandra Bullock

Okay, okay. I need to stop looking for quotations. It is hard to find a quotation on getting things for free. Just wanted to say, that we are giving out a FREE goodie bag. Just one more day to sign up. We will be closing the sign up Monday morning and drawing a name from the list.
Good luck!

Halloween is coming...

When witches go riding,
and black cats are seen,
the moon laughs and whispers,
‘tis near Halloween.

~Author Unknown