Green Pages in a Snow Storm

After adding my pink pages, I realized that during the crazy schedule of summer, I had never added these green pages to my blog. Today, the weather has turned from cold to colder. My outdoor planters and vegetable garden will most certainly be frozen beyond repair. Truthfully, I'm a lazy gardener and in a way, I welcome the change because it signals the start of a time when life is a little less busy worrying about yard work.






Warm pumpkin muffins should be coming out of the oven and it's time to put up a few Halloween decorations. The kids love them both.

Pink Pages

Here are the pink pages I came up with for the Monochromatic Pink swap at Amusing Muses. I forgot how much I really enjoy the color pink until I started working on these.

Anyone ever heard of suzani fabric? Well, I just recently learned about the stuff which is hand stitched in India I believe and I couldn't be more in love with the colors and patterns. Of course I took liberties, but, two of my pages were inspired by the shapes and colors somewhat of the fabrics I learned about. I'm also very attracted to soft blush type pinks that are paired up with neutrals like woody warm browns and creamy warm wools.

In Tempe, AZ there used to be a remnant shop (don't know if it's still there) where I found a bunch of old powder puffs. Now mind you, I am the kind of person who buys strange items like that to make art with. I was especially attracted to them because of the word "Lushus" that is printed in gold ink on the back. I've had these sitting in my studio for ages and finally put one to good use on this page. I sewed sequins and beads on to add a little sparkle and funkiness as well. I really like the way it came out.

School is back in. More time for art and unfinished projects.

Bad Mother and Seeing Red

The following pages are from a monochromatic red swap that I participated in during the month of May over at Amusing Muses. Like many mothers, I find myself this summer trying to sneak in creative time, but, have had little success. I guess that's okay for now.

I've been thinking about reading a book called "Bad Mother." Anyone read it? I'm one of those women who love my kids and love being with them, but, at the same time I enjoy my private art time and really need it to be happy. Having the kids around all day... and mind you I have three boys who are constantly jockeying for position.... is a real stress inducer for me. Truly, I would fail miserably as home schooler. I mean seriously, just bring in the white coats right now.

A couple of weeks ago I was looking for some reason to join twitter and found an artist who has made it a personal challenge to create art at least 20 hours a week. She has started a following of other artists that are attempting the same and even though they aren't all able to achieve 20 hours, they are all joining together, talking about it, working together, posting art etc. I love the idea of it, but, at this point in my life, I have to be realistic. Twenty hours ain't gonna happen, but, maybe I can squeeze in 4 hours or even 2. That's okay though. How many times have you heard someone say, "They are only little once."?

Next post, I'll add some pages from my recent monochromatic green swap. Now I've gotta go and see what color comes after green. Stay hydrated!

Inspired by the "red light district" in Amsterdam

I just heard from a friend that Rainier Cherries are on sale this week.

Woot!! I love those things.

Greetings Blue Fans

At my kid's elementary school, a handful of dedicated moms decided it was time to start a much needed after school program 2 days a week. It began about a month ago and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Enthusiastic kids just showed up and seem to be coming out of the wood work... or orange and green panelling in the case of our outdated school. On one day we have homework help and on the other we alternate between some sort of sports activity (kickball for example) and an arts and crafts project. After one of our days playing with homemade play dough (thank you Jeannette) we came home and continued the fun. Here are some photos that we took of the stuff we made at home. I plan on taking more photos of the projects we make at school to post here. The kids are so creative and uninhibited. I love that about them.

This is NOT a toilet! It's a basketball hoop with an automatic ball return built in.

The office re org project is 80 percent complete. I ran out of steam and insight so decided to finish at a later at an undisclosed and undecided date. How's that for being noncommittal?

Over at Amusing Muses I am participating in a chunky book swap called "Monochromatic Blue". I just finished my pages this morning and couldn't be more surprised at how different they are. More proof that "melange" is the right studio name for me. Mixed media pages using mostly blue were the primary criteria for the swap. I'll be doing the next mixed media monochromatic RED swap too. It was fun and I already have some pages that are primarily red. If yellow ever comes around, that might be a bit challenging.

"Blue Mood"

Wouldn't it be interesting if bobby pins were used by aliens as body jewelry or even perhaps antennas of sorts?

"My Favorite Pair of Jeans"

"Storm"

"My Favorite Time is When You Just Laugh, Laugh, Laugh"

"Lushus"

"Blueberries"

"Sea Energies"

I thought it might be neat to do a stained glass kind of technique so the image below shows that. I used vellum and dye markers to get the effect.

Thanks for stopping by. See you next time.

Lenny Found a Home

Happy New year to all. In reviewing my previous post I realized that Lenny the Alien was mentioned and wanted to let you know that he was adopted over the holidays. I'm hoping to get some feedback from his new family about how he is doing with his lazy antenna. I'll let you know what they say in future posts.

For some unexplained reason, it seems that everyone I know is going through a clean out and organize period, myself included. For about two years now I have been feeling less than comfortable and inspired in my studio space, but, thanks to a very supportive husband and the start of school after winter break, I find myself reorganizing my space. I finally invested in some Elfa organization shelving and it's been a breeze figuring out how to get this space in a funtional state. If my instincts are correct, 2009 holds to be an extremely productive year for art and all things creative in my studio. As soon as it's finished I'll post some pics. Only problem is I don't think I did a "before". Oh well!

Until next time...