Nothing much

I did survive the grocery store trip yesterday. It wasn't fun but now it's done until the shelves empty out again. When I came out of the store pushing the cart through the dreaded slush and ruts I was hot from roaming those aisles, like I said I'd be. So loading the bags I was thinking, gee, it's not so bad out here. Then about half way through I started to get cold and by time I finished my hands and cheeks were freezing. I got in the car and looked at the temp gage and it was only 12 degrees so of course I was cold. Actually that's warmer than we've been and after today we're going to enter a real January thaw and go to 30! A few warmer days and some sun will be wonderful!!

I was catching up and reading blogs today and they all made me think of appropriate words for the year. I can think of a few for myself that would fit but wouldn't be too helpful to the esteem which always needs a huge dose of help. So I'm thinking that because I always procrastinate or think about things too long, that my word needs to be "DO". Yup, just "DO!" If I could actually "DO" something artful everyday without over thinking it or procrastinating, if  I will DO just one cleaning/uncluttering thing a day, it might be amazing what I can accomplish. If I would just make myself "DO" something each day or at least once a week that I'm scared to "DO" or think I can't "DO", then what possibilities might open up to me.
Maybe the self-esteem will appear a little at a time, maybe the anxieties will fade, maybe I'll decide I am somebody and really "DO" have a life. Maybe.....I just have to "DO" one little baby step at a time and if I can "DO" that then next year I'll be happy to choose the word "DID"!
I read Sharon/Norah'S post a little while ago. I got so tickled reading because she reminded me of something I do constantly but always lose. Finding faces or creatures on the wall, floor, clothing, everywhere and anywhere. I love watching the fluffy clouds and how they morph into faces, bodies and creatures, but I seem to never have a camera or pencil & paper ready when I see them. There's one room where I spend a lot of time thanks to nature and a tummy that gets upset at the least thing.....the bathroom! And while I sit there, it never fails that I find a face or creature in the tiles on the floor, the patterns on the wall, the towels or the latest one that I lost now....the little hallway rug! I'm always tempted to jump off the pot THRONE, run for a pen and outline what I found! If I went in with pen in hand, I might've captured some of those fleeting fairies, gnomes, witches, bugs and creatures! For 3 days in a row I saw a face in that rug and it really crossed my mind that it's my rug and if I want to take a marker and outline a face, I can....because it's mine and it's not like I live in a mansion or anything. So if I mark the rugs or in the very dinky bathroom, if I mark the walls & floors to draw out the faces and things, so what? How many others constantly see faces and creatures everywhere? What do you do with them when you find them? There's a little store we stop at that's covered with field stone. While I sit and wait while Rocket runs in, I study those rocks and have found many creatures ready to jump out or weathered faces wanting to come alive. Wonder if they'd mind marker on their stones?
So it's nearly 3 pm and I have that mail art to start on and I want to do a altered words/altered thoughts page, too. I'm going to grab another book from the pile and pull the pages to work on them and do them following the rules and guidelines on Campbell Jane's page. If you don't visit her already, go here : http://www.alteredpages.blogspot.com/  . In the Readers Digest Condensed book I work in now, I'm leaving the pages in, even though it does make it hard to work on some pages because as I've shown I work with different colored pens and some paint here and there and then add images if I'm so inclined at the end. So this will be faster and easier doing some pages Campbell Jane's way. I adore all her work, btw, not just these pages.
I'm off to "DO" it, now!

ARGHHH!

Today is one of those days! I didn't sleep good, so slept too late and that started the day (yesterday, too) not going my way. I want to do some art just because there are artsy things swimming in my head I need to let out (good or bad) and there's another piece of mail art I need to get done although seeing it's not done (not even started) and in the mail TODAY, it's gonna be late anyway. BUT, I need to go to the grocery store and I cannot tell you how much I hate going, but I have to, I put it off until I'm out of things I have to have. I'm in a decent mood, too and so I don't want to ruin it by going to the darn grocery store! By time I get to the register, I'm hot and irritated, grumpy because of the prices and already dreading the walk through the parking lot with a loaded cart, trying to push it through snow, slush and ice. Try that, when you're fat and having to dress in boots, heavy coat and gloves.....try getting in and out of a car with all that on. Yes, I could park the cart, go get the vehicle and drive up, but even there you have to keep stepping off the sidewalk and it's built up with ice and it's way too easy to slip and break or sprain a ankle or some other body part. Don't even dare to ask if there's HELP to take your cart (s) to the car and loading. The prices keep rising and the help goes away. We won't discuss baggers, either, except to say that I don't think they bother to train them any longer. I load the conveyor right and they still pack everything wrong.
So see, my mood is trying to escape and I'm not even gone yet! There's also the drive there. Now I only have to go like 5 minutes away, across our little town. But, for those living in snowy Winters, you know what happens. It's snowmobile season, so you have to watch out for those buggers pulling out in front of you, hidden by a snow bank or thinking they can cross the highway before you get to them. In the Winter you can't just pull into parking lots, you have to watch for those snowmobilers because the trail runs right through the entrances to parking lots.
Arghhh! I've tried to convince Rocket to go to the store for me, but unless I bribe him with "I'll pay for HIS beer" with grocery money (if he's out of beer), it doesn't work.
And then, back a few posts I did mention the diet word! It's time. I'm already a week off the scheduled (in my mind) start and it's now been pushed to this coming Monday. But, going back to the store, I'm not good in a grocery store. No, you have to walk in and you're immediately in the BAKERY/Deli! Now what kind of cruel joke is that to those like me who happen to start drooling at the very smell of sweets and carbs? I've done it, I have gritted my teeth and made it through without stopping but it's not fun and I fight the constant tug to turn around and go back. Of course, then you also have to pass up the cookie /cracker aisle, the snack aisle, the  breads and of course the candy aisle. And in the Dairy, just grab the milk, eggs and Smart Balance margarine while ignoring the luscious coffee creamers calling to you and the sour cream and cheeses beckoning you to come get them. You look at the celery staring up at you from the cart and it's begging for you to grab some dip or even some cream cheese to make some dip or spread on those green ribs.
So I don't wanna go but it's 2 pm and I better go or I won't and tomorrow it'll be even worse to go. There's tourists in town and it's going to really get built up with them as the week goes on, we're talking thousands of them! It's the National Vintage snowmobile races this week end as they gear up for the World International Snowmobile races next week end.
For sure I'm not going into town or any store/restaurant then. If I was a Winter person, a snowmobiler, a snow & cold person, I'd love it. But I'm not. I want long warm sunshiny days, blue skies, a lake and birds chirping out happy songs. Not the roar of snowmobiles and stench of exhaust. ARGHHH!
And with that, I'm really going off to the store....I will SURVIVE but my arty mood will be gone, I'm afraid. On a good note, the Packers play in the first rounds of play-offs on Sunday and I can pick up treats for the game because the diet doesn't start until Monday! YEA!!!

New Mail Art

The mail art I sent out reached it's destination so I can show it now. The special birthday fairy hasn't even opened it yet to look at the card. I did send her a email just now telling her how to open the envelope without damaging the art. I just always think who ever gets the mail art will figure out how to open it. She was thrilled and I was thrilled to hear that! As usual as soon as I set it in the mail I began to fret that she wouldn't like it. I did scan a picture of the front and back before I put on the address and postage this time.

This is the front minus the address. The background started with blends of Twinkling H2O's, then a piece of wall paper border. The gal is painted over a magazine advertising I liked. I just printed it in b&w, glued it in place, covered it in gesso and then painted, using acrylic paints, more H2O's, white gel pen, and some metallic acrylics & glitter glaze. The bird was just a image I've used a lot because I like it! After adding the address & postage I added some flourishes. (which didn't look right and should've been added  a couple steps before that).

This is the back of the envelope. It also started with Twinkling H2O's for the background border and then a piece of background print from Altered Bits http://alteredbits.com/free_art.php  that I just adore!! The flower is cut and rearranged from another piece of wall paper border, another bird image and the Fairies are from yet another piece of border. Crowns were from Lisa's Altered Art. It all has a touch of glitter for sparkle, of course, and shading. Both sides are glued and protected with Mod Podge, some glue and a final spray of glossy protective finish.

Click on the pictures for a larger size to see it better. The scans never show the pretty sparkle or shimmer.

So, I'm back

Once again I let days get by me without getting on here. Mostly I was too busy reading other blogs to do any posting of my own. And I guess I just didn't have anything much to say and nothing to show. It's the January doldrums but they last until April!!
I do have a couple things to show today! One is just a non-sense play thing and the other a collage bookmark. I think a piece of mail art may arrive at a Fairy house today and then I can show that also.

So here's the fun part. This is one of those little wooden manikins used for posing when learning to draw bodies in motion. You know, one of those things you have to have and then you never use it? This gets moved from shelf to shelf, looks over me and taunts me. It always worried me because it was faceless and up here in the North, you really can't stand around naked for long without freezing or getting frost bite! So I gave that Manikin a face and then found it some clothes;  now it's a LADYKIN and doesn't bother me anymore. I know.....I never said I was a sane person!

Her face was a doodled face done on the art table covering, you know one of those things you do mindlessly while watching TV or something. When I changed the covering I ripped off and saved a tidbit here and there for use in collages.

 I taped this face to the blank head and she's been standing there with just a face, naked, freezing on the shelf right in the window! Last night I decided she really needed some clothes on so I sifted through images and found this suit cut from a sewing pattern. I posed her to fit the suit and taped it in place! Now I have a Ladykin who isn't bugging me any longer! Should I decide I really need to use the ladykin, like I should, the suit just pulls right off.

A while back I picked up a few cheap notebooks and thought I'd use them for journals. They were wire bound and had some pocket pages, too. But they were cheap....like a $1.00 so really had thin paper. I started working in one and right away knew I'd have to glue 3 or 4 pages together to do any art on them. So I did that and decided to fold several pages together and glue as half pages and so forth. I started to do art on the pages and the more I did, the harder it was to turn the pages because all that paint and medium was sticking to the wire. Then one page got so stiff it started to tear away from the wire. So, I had a teensy fit and ripped all the pages away! They will now be used as tip ins in another project someday. I need to learn how to keep the paint and such away from the wire binding if I want my pages to open/turn. I took one of the folded pages and just played with it some more and decided, even though it was a little wide, it would still make a dandy bookmark! So I continued doing layers and collaged both sides. I just kept playing with it and laying it aside, but last night I finally finished it, except for adding some tassels and stuff.

So this is 3 thin sheets of notebook paper glued together, folded over and glued again. Next was layers of torn printed card stock and several metallic paints, some other ephemera bits and pieces, glitter, cheese cloth, a bit of crocheted lace, images and more paper bits and a bit of stamping, covered with glossy Mod Podge and a touch of irridescent gesso.  The red poppy is cut from a napkin, outlined with a white gel pen, the little Fairy girl is from a collage sheet from Lisa's Art. I can't find the little siblings to give any credit but when I do I'll come back and add it. I think the bookmark will be a B'day gift to my Mom who is an avid reader! I think clicking on the pictures will gave a bigger clearer look.