chasing rainbows...

the soul would have no rainbow, had the eyes no tears.

-john vance cheney-

i begged her not to...

i begged her not to bake these red velvet cupcakes, but she did it anyway.  my 16 year old daughter loves to bake.  she says it's relaxing.  i've never found baking to be relaxing.  to me, it is work you have to do to get something really good to eat.  but last night, when she said she wanted to bake, i tried to talk her out of it.  don't get me wrong.  i love baked goods.  i mean, i really love them.  i just can't say no.  but lately, my waistline is suffering.  the calories just don't burn off as fast as they did in my 20's. or 30's.  it could be that we just finished her last creation - a three layer toasted almond-butter cake.  so, here i am, all alone.  with 18 or so cupcakes just sitting on the counter.  i have a cup of tea brewing and i've made my choice.  i want this one.  the one with the coffee filter.  she ran out of paper cupcake liners and i told her to use a coffee filter.  i just bought these pretty (yes, coffee filters can be pretty) natural colored coffee filters and i actually like how this one came out.  kind of rustic.  and good.  so, so good.

wait, don't throw me away...

i was getting ready to take some clothes to the goodwill when this sweater fell out of the bag.  it was almost calling out to me.  something like, "wait, don't throw me away".  i decided to give it one more chance.  not good for wearing - too short and a big fat turtleneck.  but i do have a grungy, white pillow that needs a cover (never buy white pillows when you have kids or lovely, ivory and rose floral couches either, but that's a whole different story).  i whipped up this sweet pillow cover in about 20 minutes.  i just put the pillow into the sweater to get an idea of size, turned the sweater inside out and sewed a big square (no measuring - there was kind of a design to follow).  i left a small opening on one side.  then i squished the grungy pillow into it and sewed up the opening by hand. voila!  a nice, soft (ungrungy) pillow for my studio couch.

1969 was a very good year and 1980 wasn't too shabby either...

i made these year ornaments with some remnants of grandma's vintage tea towel calendars.  i have a few more years, but these two were the coolest.  i put a hurtin' on my inspiration overload this weekend.  replenishing my supply of tea towel calendar ornaments, finishing this little leather "musician journal".  it's a new design i'm trying out.  it has a mix of blank staff paper, brown kraft cardstock and vintage music.  my favorite part is the teeny, tiny harmonica.  it actually plays.  fun.  i took advantage of the sun today to take pictures for my shop.  i've listed some of the ornaments and this journal and i'll list some more items tomorrow.  so yeah, it's all working out.  one step at a time right?

inspiration overload...

have you ever had inspiration overload?  it comes on when you have too many ideas swirling in your head.  too many projects begun, but not finished.  my desk is a clutter today of too much inspiration.  i've stopped to make a cup of french roast and see if i can quiet my brain.  maybe i should have made decaf.  i have several journals started - one needs a cover, the other two need guts.  some collages of silk and other old stuff.  a painty thing that is way out of my comfort zone and therefore i don't know what to do with it next, if anything.  a week long experiment in which i am trying to get an old book to a perfect state of wrinkledness (new word)...  in times like this, it's best to choose one and finish it and then on to the next.  a few more sips of coffee and i should be on my way to plain old inspiration.  the kind where i actually complete something.  hope you're feeling inspired this weekend...but not too much. 

some inspired decorating...

today, i took a little break from art making and did some decorating on my mantel, as it has been quite bare since christmas was taken down a few weeks ago.  the mantel in my living room is an ever changing display of whatever mood i happen to be in at the time.  i'm generally pretty thrifty about it - i never buy anything just for this purpose.  last month i hauled in a giant branch from the backyard and decorated it with some of my book page ornaments.  but i usually never do the same thing twice.  so, off to the cellar I went.  I found some lovely old frames and i was thinking of maybe just displaying the frames empty, as i've seen that before and i like that look.  however, when i turned them over, they were all closed up with wood and brown paper.  too complicated to empty them, so i left them as is and decided to display the back instead.   i like the look of the old brown paper and the nails and wire and string.  then a nice stack of books without covers.  i did make some lovely journals with those covers - still a few in my shop.  my favorite old bottle, a bit dirty and just right.  a sprig of dried plants that my daughter found for me.  i don't know what this plant is called, but my grandmother always had some growing in her yard and it reminds me of her.  a couple of bird nests that i have found recently, as they tend to fall out of the trees in the winter.  the frames needed a little something so i tucked in an antique envelope and postcard from my growing collection of mail ephemera.  an old tin ceiling tile, which used to be a clock (a few of displays ago), but i decided to take the clock parts out and that left a hole, but i had some nice butterfly tape - a piece of that over the hole - perfect.  what else...  last was the big crane.  i folded up a crane, much bigger than my usual size, out of some brown shipping paper.  all done.  love it...  

number 387...

in flight to someone special...