In the Studio Again

Photo from
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blockpartypress/2210303986/

Well I am finally back in the Craft Room after a bit of a break. Sometimes I just get.... well... bored is not the right word, but sometimes I need to get out of the craft room for awhile. So instead of spending the evenings and weekends in the craft room, I have been curled up in one of the armchairs in the front room, reading books and drinking tea. Lots of tea! I drink a custom blended "Rose Petal" tea. Loose Leaf black tea, with rose petals & rose oils. It is a dainty, yet refreshing blend. Over the last 3 weeks or so, I think I have gone thru almost 2 pots a day, every day. (Along with a dozen or 2 books, and a few plates of scones).

But I was not feeling the "urge" to go into the Craft Room, and even trying to "make" myself create was not working. I would spend a hour or so reading thru craft mags, or browsing blogs and Flickr, but nothing was inspiring me. I think that I just needed a break, and reading is a good relaxing escape from having to really think about anything in particular.

But on Friday afternoon, I found myself wandering in there, (book abandoned mid- chapter, which when you consider that I read a book about every 1.3 days it is saying something that I could walk away so easily!). I spent some time picking up in there, moving around some stuff to make my desk look cleaner ( I am not sure if it IS cleaner, but it LOOKS cleaner) , and by Saturday afternoon, I was back in the mood to create.

It was nice, it was easy, and I didn't have to force myself to think about what I needed to do- it just flowed. And flowed quickly- I think that I finished a painting in about 2 hours from start to finish- I usually hem and haw over it for hours or DAYS at a time trying to be happy with it. I just put in "Casino Royale" and by the time that James had his heart broken, my painting was drying, and I called it good.

I have not taken any pictures of it yet, but I will post it when I do. I am now officially out of Canvas, so I have all this creative juice ready to flow, and I am empty handed. ARG! And let me tell you, after the cheap, ugly, hard to paint, flimsy, flat canvas that I got from Aaron brothers last time, I am not touching those. At $8 (on sale) each, for a lousy little thing, I think that I can wait 2 days for Dick Blick to deliver my high quality, nice and thick canvas (at $3 each!). So for the next day or so I will have to cap on the creativity and wait for my Delivery.

Also- I ordered a 3x2 foot canvas! I think that I will be a bit scared of it (the biggest that I have ever painted is a 8x8 inch). I am going to try to make a painting to hang over John and I's bed. Our house is SO lacking in any kind of art. (At least outside of the front room and guest room anyway.) Our Bedroom consists of a bed, a nightstand (which is really a pine-wood tv tray) with a clock radio, a lamp, and a silver tray with my perfumes on it. That is it. No Photos, no dressers (we keep those in the closet), no art or anything.

We have painted the room so many times in the last 2.5 years (white, to a soft mocha, now to a cream- with many coats of each) that we have never really put anything up.
I would love to have a mirror on the wall behind the bed (to reflect the light from the window on the wall across from it- our room is kinda dark before the sun shines in there in the late afteroons) but John has a "thing" about hanging a mirror over our heads. I think he has images of a huge "crash, glass everywhere, sliced heads or necks, and trips to the ER" in mind, so hopefully a canvas will not scare him.

Oh well- my canvases will be here in a few days, I already know what I want to do with the big one for the bedroom, and I will go from there.

I am also starting to plan for our road trip. We are driving to TEXAS in a few weeks. It should be tons of fun- but we leave in 2 weeks. Time to get the outfits, luggage, pets, maps, plans all worked out. That should fill the time until I write again :)

Have a great day!

Back in Action

Hello!

I have been MIA for awhile. I had this issues with my back\shoulder area last week. It was itchy and stinging and just really hurt. I was going nuts because nothing was working- Aveeno Lotion, Neosporin, lots of other kinds of lotion- and nothing was fixing it, adn to top it off- there was nothing showing on my skin. It looked perfectly normal. Then some bumps appeared (like spider bites) and after a few days of it getting more painful, I finally gave in and went to the Dr to see what he had to say.

Well turns out that I had Shingles! Which I think is kinda weird. I mean I had them when I was really young (which is REALLY odd- kids normally never get them) and then to have them again before I even hit 25 is weird (IMHO).

For those who don't know what Shingles are: When you get Chicken Pox the virus lives in the base of your spine for the rest of your life, and can resurface at any time it pleases in the form of Shingles.

They are really really painful. It is one of those things that you cannot SEE, but your nerve endings are basically going nuts and it feels like you have a sunburn and someone is scratching it with needles. And it also itches (like a sunburn) but the goal is to not itch it- because even having your clothes touch it means that you are in pretty bad pain. Even a breeze that touches your skin can cause pain (because of the over sensitive nerve endings under the skin).

They are not "catchable", you cannot get them from anyone, but since it is the same virus as ChickenPox, you can give CP to someone who has not had them (like little kids). As a matter of fact- that is how my little sister got CP when she was young- she got them when I got shingles.

Shingles are normally brought on by lots of stress- and the last month has been one of the least stressful that I have had in a long time. I was missing quite a bit of sleep lately- but I have not been stressed out about it- just tired.

So the worst part is the pain, but coming in close second was the cost of the pills (which doesn't cure them- shingles just go away after a week or so- or when ever they feel like it, the pain can last for months if it feels like sticking around that long- but the Meds try to rush the process and pain to finish a bit more quickly) but the cost of meds for a 7 day rounds was $216! YIKES! and that was WITH Healthcare and going to Wal Mart to get the best price. OUCH! (sigh) It seems to be my lot in life to get odd illnesses and then have to pay a bundle to fix it.

But I will be back in the Craft room this weekend, and we will have to see what pops up. I may do some painting, but I may just clean up. No matter how much I clean in there, all it takes is about 2 hours of creating, and the whole thing is a mess again. But last weekend I did manage to go thru some of my stuff and I took a stack of things over to a friend who also loves to get crafty. She got "new" free stuff, and I was able to pass along things that I didn't think that I was going to be able to use, and I freed up some space in my paper bins :) Everyone wins that way!

I am also REALLY wanting to buy a sewing machine. Not a nice one- just the bottom of the price range from wal mart sewer (like$75). I want to use it to be able to sew on my projects, and to be able to make some things for around the house. do you know how long it takes to HAND SEW a pillowcase, or a curtain panel? I do- and it takes forever and still looks funny. Hey, I can hand sew, but I never said it was pretty. So I may get one, but we will have to see. I spend almost $300 in heathcare last weekend(not including the cost of insurance, which just went up almost 45% this month! ouch!), and I was not expecting that expense, and so my money fund for the next month is smaller than I would have expected.

Oh well- enough chit chat! I have to get some lunch and then back to work for me!

Have a great (and Shingle-less!) Day!

New Painting

I was really inspired by the cover of the March 2008 Better Homes and Gardens Magazine. I was not sure what I wanted to do about it- (paint, scrapbook, cardmaking?)- but I decided to do another painting using the shapes and colors of the cover photo.

My last one went over pretty well- but I wanted to change up the shapes of the flowers to give them a more soft and flow-y feel (like Peonies have) and so that is what I made. The colors for some reason are not as true as they are in person- the soft green is kinda muted in this photo- it almost has a yellow look to it- but in person it is much more soft mint green. In real life it stands out a bit better, I think my camera doesn't like that color (I have had issues in the past with it).

So that is one thing that I worked on this weekend. I ended up having a pretty full weekend- there were fun things to be done that I had forgotten about- but I will post about that soon :)

News From the Craft Room

Ok- my mother of all people chided me about not updating my blog often enough, and so I thought I better do it before another weekend creeps up and passes me by without posting. (and Due to bad weather I plan on spending the weekend in the craft room creating, and not on the PC)

Above is one of the painting that I had been working on that I finally finished last week. I thought it was pretty cute, and I posted it on Flickr, and it has been getting pretty rave reviews- I feel so flattered. Someone (who knows what they are talking about since they are in respected scrapbook\art kit as a designer) said that they loved it and that I should be Designing Scrapbook paper. (!!!!) I nearly died! To have someone mention (even loosely) that I had any kind of skill and say that I should do something that I have as a dream, well- that was life affirming! It was a good day :)

I like the photo that is posted above- but it is this one that is getting the better views and comments- so I will post it too. It is the same pic, but from a different angle and you can see around the other side.

I am not quite sure what I am doing in the craft room this weekend. I am out of canvas- and I order mine from Dick Blick. They are SOOOO nice and SOOOO cheep compared to what is to be found around here. I went to Michaels the other day, and a 4x4 canvas was 7.99 and it was totally cheaply made. At Dick Blick a 4x4 nice canvas is about ohhhhhhh $2 or less. How can you beat that! (except I have to actually ORDER them and wait for UPS to show up.)
I may check out Aaron Brother's and see what they have. They will have good stuff if they have anything, but I only need 1 or 2 to tide me over until my UPS man shows up during the week.

I also want to start sewing- but I still have no machine. And I should probably not spend any more money this week, so maybe not this week. Oh! I bought the most amazing "quilt stack" at a fabric store last weekend. The prints are all amazing- they remind me a bit of Amy Butler, but it is a touch more cute, and a touch less formal looking, but it is adorable. I will post picks of the fabric when I figure out what to do with them. I wanted to scrapbook with them, but they are so cute that I will probably kill myself trying to make my first sewing project a quilt. :)

Oh well- I am still rambling about nothing. I have not slept very well lately. I was really tired all of yesterday, and it was a LONG work day. Got to work at 7:50, didn't take a lunch, left work at 4:15, went to my parents house and got dressed up, and then went to the place where my work gives a Monthly presentation, and I was there from 5:00 to 10:00 last night. Went home and got in bed by 10:30, but I could not fall asleep. I was TOO tired to sleep, and I tossed and turned forever it seemed. And we had a 10am appt this morning, and so I had to be perky and happy and not tired looking when I got to work at 7:50 again this morning. Ugh- I think that I may need a nap today :)

Anyway- I Hope you have a great weekend!

Well Hello My Pretty!

This is my New Phone- The LG Voyager.
Cute huh? It is the "other" iPhone. The front has a full touch screen, and it also flips open for keyboard use ( I still use the touch outside for all of my Texting). It is a Full MP3 player, has US navigation abilities, voice recondition (which works really well) and it Also have a pretty decent camera.

I am now a "Verizo-ian" and this was my fave. I have big thumbs, and honestly- I needed a phone that I could Dial and Text with that was not going to get messed up by my thumbs (hitting 2 or more keys at a time). And the Buttons and touch screen buttons are really easy to use.
John (who had the same phone since 2003) also needed a new phone (both our phones had charging issues and also had a hard time keeping a charge)- and he also decided to get one. We have spent the last 2 day messing with them, and they are awesome :)

I did finish one of my painting this weekend. It was 7:15am on Monday morning, and I was awake, showered, dressed and about to finish getting ready when I got a call from my boss and he informed me that it was a holiday and we were going to be closed today- so to take the day off and enjoy:) So I decided to make some tea and go into the craft room and finish my painting. It turned out ok- I was pretty happy with it.

It was a "copy" of something that I had seen at Borders, and I will post the Painting and the inspiration sometime later today.
I hope your weekend was awesome!

Long Time no Post!

Howdy!
It's been awhile since I posted last. I'm not sure why, but I am guessing that the 8 hours a day I spend working with a PC may be the reason I am not jumping for joy at the PC when I get home.

I have been spending a lot of time in the craft room latley. I am working on a painting right now- well 3 of them really. one of them is going well and should be done today. One of them is stumping me- I cannot figure out how I want to finish it- and the third? Well I may have to just give up on that one. You can only repaint and paint over somthing so many times before you just are over it. Maybe I will use that canvas as my "Paint Board" and so after I make a few more paintings it will have some random paint blob affect going on.

I am also thinking about making some 4x4 canvases. Dick Blick has great prices on them, but I may pick one or 2 up at the local art store and see if I like the size before getting a shipment of them..... we will see.

Sorry for the random rambling. I have had trouble sleeping latley. I had a bad 2 weeks, then 4 or 5 nights of great sleep, and now I am going to bed at 9:30\10 ish and I wake up at 4:30ish and cannot fall back alseep. So this morning (and on a Saturday too!) I woke up about 5ish and by 6:30 I was sick of laying in bed trying to not wake John up. So I have been web surfing for a hour, and am finally ready to leave the office and start my day. It is still early, but maybe I will go into the kitchen and make some "saturday morning Cinnamon rolls" for John as a supprise :)

Have a great day and I will post some pics in a day or so :)

Gettin' Crafty and Other Stuff

Hello :)
I hope everyone had a great weekend! Mine was pretty good- cold and rainy- but good.
Saturday I spent the morning playing in the craft room (with lights, DVD’s and space heater all running and making me happy) and sipping my Rose Petal tea (Yum!)... hmmm now that I think about it... I might try making some of my own rose tea-hmmmm.... but that is for another post- and most likely a post for my cooking blog).

Anyway- Saturday night John and I went to the Symphony at Cal Poly. As usual, we were in our favorite seats, and the music was amazing! They played Debussy, Tychoskhy, and A wonderful piano sonata4 by Beethoven. The Pianist was the most amazing musical thing that I have ever seen. She played the entire piece by memory (blending in and out of the orcustrha flawlessly), and her hands were really amazing. The piece was fast and complex, but her hands flowed like liquid silk and was smoother than seemed humanly possible for such complex music. It was amazing :)

The next morning (the 3rd) was John and I's 3 and half year anniversary- and so we went out to the Apple Farm for Brunch (our favorite place to get breakfast) and it was Cozy and fun.
We spent part of the early afternoon doing our own thing (me reading with some tea- him with his laptop) and then we headed over to my parents house to watch the Super bowl. (Random fact: we have been dating for 42 months, and it was the 42 super bowl- and meaning of life of you have read hitchhikers guide to the galaxy)

It was not a overwhelming weekend- but we will do something more "special" for our anniversary in the next month or so- this month is just so busy already with the weekends already half full of plans.

Well, as promised, here is the project that I was working on for John. The PDF of the pages are available from Ali Edward's site (see link on my sidebar) and I put it together a bit different than she did. She used a sewing machine (which I still don't have) and red felt (which I have but am using for another project).I made mine in more of a "board book" style.


Here are some of the photos from the book. It was about 10-12 pages long. Each page got something different done with it. Some had longer writing, some had just 1 sentence, some had just a touch of embellishments, and some were more elaborate. Each page had a photo that corresponds with a reason why I love Him.


(We are in the Jelly Belly Factory getting a Tour- Because I couldn't just drive by the factory without a tour!!)

(BTW: those are NOT my kids- they belong to my sister!) lol




It was a bit harder than I first thought it would be. I had to cut and measure all the pages and in essence- make a book, and then figure out the best way to attach it to the outer binding, and how to make it close properly. (A "hanging inner hinge" bind worked pretty well- as you can see in the above photo- the spine of the book is free floating and keeps the spine from cracking when you read the pages).

Anyway- I need to get back to work- but I hope you enjoy the pics :) I will try to show more projects later :)

Inspired By Color...

I have been working on a few things in the craft room the last few nights. I cannot show any of it yet- some is still "in process" and 1 of them is a gift for john for our 3 year 6 month anniversary.

We celebrate out 6 month mark with somthing nice or romantic since our first date was going to the Fair and that is what we do on the "year" Anniversary. And the smell of corndogs, sheep, hay and kettle corn are not quite what you would call "Romantic"- fun- but not romantic.
So we do somthing "fru fru" at the 6 month mark. This year we may cop out and just watch the Superbowl with friends\family, but it will still be fun, and I will still have a gift made for him.

But he lurks around sometimes, and knowing his comic timing- he would visit the day I post pics of what I would be giving him- so I will post picks after I give it to him :)

But here are some photos From Flickr that I have found recently that have inspired me in some way or another. I love the Colors and texture of them.

Enjoy :)
(PS- I noticed after i posted all of these that I am in a "blue green" mood I guess- :) Which explains why everything I touch latley ends up those colors.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dominicspics/821487676/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/backlitcoyote/636618434/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/ms_jane_under/1936287830/


(to me it looks like the lights are smiling at me) :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrzeb/399289895/

Keep Calm & Carry On

Here is one of the canvases that I painted on the other day. The Colors are not really super close- in person it is much more vibrant- but these are some of the colors that I will be using in the Craft room when I get around to painting it. It will have blue walls, white trim, Brown and White storage baskets and shelves and soft lime green and soft orange accessories here and there (Urban outfitters has some cool ones) here I want this http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/productdetail.jsp?color=80&navAction=jump&id=14406581 and This http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/productdetail.jsp?color=30&navAction=jump&id=12982740

I spent a huge part of my time this weekend in the Craft room. The floor is mostly clear, the work table has about 2.5 square feet of space clean for use (which is only about 1/3 of the table, but it is a start) There is still of alot of stuff to put away- but the hard part (finding a home for it all) is mostly done- now I just need to get it there :)

I will post more later as i finish more projects, and make more progress in the room. In the mean time- you can check out Flickr and see the pics that I took months ago of the room and get a idea of what it looks like when it is cleaner. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/8707192@N02/sets/72157602112510460/)

Have a great day!

New "crafty-ness" to come soon

Ok- I have not been very "crafty" Latley- and most of my recent blogs were bemoaning the eveil sickness that I had (which I think is really gone now- the coughs are almost non-exsistant now) and the fact that my blog was not getting along with me- but with sickness and blog issues resolved I plan on getting back to the crafts.

The Cooking Blog has been absorbing a bit of my time latley- which seems like a good excuse for avoiding the craft room- but I will be honest. The Craft room is in SUCH a state of disarray that I spent about 4 hours in there last friday afternoon, and I can now see about 75% of the floor, but most surfaces are covered in "stuff" tha still needs to be put away- over even harder- found a home so that I CAN put it away.

Also- we have had nasty cold weather here- (there was SNOW on the hill the other day- that only happens about oh- every 15 years or so) and the craft room is usually pretty cold since I keep the door closed to keep the avalanche from gaining access to the hallway and it takes a hour or better to get to "warm" and lets face it, if you have to choose between cleaning a cold room, and baking somthing tasty in a warm kitchen- most would choose the kitchen as I did.

But today I am going back into the depths of the room and will try to make some more progress so that I can start crafting again in a nice clean space.

And one of the biggest reasons that I have not been "crafty" is that after the holidays of rushing to make and get out christmas cards, and getting crafty with wrapping the gifts, and trying to make the house look cute- I was burned out and had no inspiration to want to craft. But Last night I watched 3 hours of Project Runway (and I am now caught up!) and I am full of crafty Ideas. It is odd that I can watch a fashion\sewing program and get inspired to work with paper- odd- but it works for me :)

Anyway- I hate to post without a picture- so above is a pic that I took the other day. It is of a plant that is in our parking garage here at work.

Ciao!

SuperChicken Cooks is Now Live

Well I now have a cooking Blog. It is www.superchickencooks.blogspot.com/
It is still new, but I am working on it :)

Hope you like!

Ciao

Finally Making Progress

Yep- thats right! I am finally getting this thing up and running the way that I want. Of Course changing the templet means that all my links and "extras" have been erased and I have to start from scratch, but that is ok! It was time to do some purging of old info and adding of new goodies.

I will be probably eb working on this over the weekend, so check back soon and hopefully things will be looking up to standard them.

Also- and super huge "thank you" shout out to Rachel From "Bling". Without her help, links, and letting me know I am not alone in the HTML confusion, I would have been totally lost, confused and frustrated. So Go check her blog out (http://www.blingonmysewingmachine.blogspot.com/), see the cute genius that is her work, and also check out the Etsy shop with new goodies (see her blog for the correct links).

Welcome Friday! I am happy to see you!

Updating the Blog

"If you want to truly understand something, try to change it." ~Kurt Lewin

That is For Sure! I am not so good at figuring out the whole blog stuff- and trying to change it has been a learning experience. Hopefully things will look ok when I am done :)
So Pay no mind to the oddness you may see in the next few days- I am trying to figure out some new looks for the Blog.

The most notable is the background color. No More Black for now- White Feels so fresh to me for now- and so Fresh White it is. Also- Because I used to have black, I could use color Fonts easier, and I am trying to go back and change all my old posts to a normal dark color that is easier to read- but If I do not get to all of them- oh well I guess.

I am also changing up for fonts, and items on the sidebar- so stay tuned and I will let you know when I am done and you can give your opinions on the new overhauled look :)

Also- I am finally on the rebound from the Evil cold I had. I still have a cough here and there- but I am back to the land of the living (and without the hernia inducing coughing). Glad to be back :)

On the Slow Mend

Well I am on the mend- slow but sure.
I went and saw the Doctor yesterday, and I now have some antibiotics and I am feeling better. The cough is the most annoying part of the ordeal. If not for the cough I would be able to sleep thru the night ( I take full doses of Nyquil and I still cannot sleep thru the night) and I have not been able to "lay down" for over a week now. I have to sleep sitting up, it is really annoying, and not very comfy- but it keeps the coughing down.

I think that in the next day or 2 I will have shaken most of the coughing. My head and chest are almost cleared up, so that will be the end of the cough :)

I am off to the Chiropractor today. A few days ago, I must of pinched a nerve, because half of my left hand has gone mostly numb. I can feel it, but it has a odd half life feel and I would like to get it back to normal--- after avoiding Doctors and Chiropractors for the last few years (they are too much $$$ for me) I have 2 appointments in 2 days- the Irony of it has not been lost on me. I guess I need to be better at "maintenance" and less on the "overhaul". :)

Happy (and healthy) day to you!

Still sick- still feel miserable- not much to say- but I thought I would post a pretty pic for ya :)
It is of our lavender plant in the back yard. I took this yesterday. It was the first time that I had gone outdoors for about 4 days, and it was nice and warm and the lavender was too pretty to pass up.

Have a good (and healthy) day! :)