Opportunity to show works

Our little critique group of book artists will be serving as a panel to discuss altering books and making original books to the Sacramento Book Collector's Club in March. I can hardly wait to show them how unique and interesting our works are. Daryl Morrison, who is head of Special Collections at UC Davis, and is also a mentor and long time friend (used to be my boss), is the President of this club presently and set up our program - and the opportunity to show our works to people who may or may not figure out why we alter books. LOL I just glued some Motrin capsules into my headache book. Wonder if they will approve of that one.

Hair - it grows so fast.

Had it cut really short today. Not a great picture, but I wanted to remember the length - in case I do this again.

Newest art project. Orphanages.

I picked up two picture frames at the thrift store the other day. My plan is to use things quickly when I buy them, and not just add them to the stash. So, I decided to make the little house frames into orphanages. One for boys and one for girls. Here are the pics. I've shown you the fronts and backs. Our challenge for the month for Mixed Media Artists of Northern California is to do something with the word Tea, or Tee. My entry is called ChariTEA.

Where's Anna?

My nephew Lonnie and his daughter were in Egypt over the Christmas holiday. Here's a photo he took of Anna on a camel. What a wonderful trip they had - but we all missed them at Christmas.

President Obama sworn in

Who in the world was NOT glued to the TV to watch the ceremonies this morning. What a glorious hope filled day. When he stepped onto the platform, tears were welling up in my eyes. My prayers and hopes are that wisdom and goodness will follow in the coming years.

After this great start to the day, I was off to the country to meet the carpenter who will be constructing my deck enclosure. Knocked out by the prices, and a little in shock over it, I handed over my Visa card to help keep the economy running. Lowe's can stay in business now. LOL After going to the site where we went over the plans, such as they are, I did some sweeping of pine needles while he set up. I came home to leave him to it, and promptly sat down for a nice nap with the dogs. Great day!

Mandalas

Last evening I picked up my Artagain Black Strathmore pad and Prismacolor Watercolor pencils and created a couple mandalas. This is one of them. It is reminiscent of one of those wonderful California west coast sunsets. If you haven't played with your colored pencils for awhile, you might just want to dig them out and have some fun with them.

Stirring up a dust storm

Spring cleaning in January? I've got to get rid of clutter and peat dust or be sniffling forever. The big push is on to clean up my act by moving the dust around! Those of us who like to keep our windows and doors open in an area with peat dust are just inviting it to come in. Well, I'm retracting my invitation! Not welcome here!

Sneezes and sniffles

Still sniffling in Stockton. I'm trying to get things out of the house that hold dust - and in doing so, I'm kicking up a dust cloud - so I'm still suffering but at least I feel like I'm accomplishing something positive in the long run. We are having an unusual warm spell for January in Northern California. Warm in the low 70s and high 60s. Sunny and bright. No fog! This is very odd. But we are enjoying it - while those on the East Coast are now freezing with below zero temperatures. I like a temperature of 80-85 degrees. That's my favorite. Short sleeves, short skirt, warm from dawn to dusk and into the night. If I could find a place that had that temp year round, I'd be sorely tempted to move there.

New pics

I took these in the mountains yesterday. The snow had melted and left a bright shiny day with warm sun and the freshest air. The shadow photo was one I took while walking the dogs across the road to take a picture on the crest of a hill, and when I looked, there we were. I couldn't resist taking a snap of it.

Playing with photos - digital art

Here are a couple photos I've been playing with. I'm thinking of using them for paintings, but for now, it's just fun to tweak them.

New Altered Book Finished!

The headache book is ready for viewing. Here are photos of some ramdom pages, including one where Nikki is introducing it. The rest of the book is now on my picturetrail site. Go to
www.picturetrail.com/artsngardens

A new quiz

This was the result from a new quiz I took. I love paper, so was pleased to find out I am paper.

You are PAPER!
You are an all natural basic person who likes to act as a foundation to others. You are willing to take a backseat in most of your relationships and let others take the spotlight, while you show your support and help them shine! Underneath it all, you are the one who makes it all happen. You are the focus and stability in any group, even if you are not the leader. Others look to you to set the pace and provide ideas for ways to get things done. But Paper Beware - sometimes you get a little edgy with the people who look to you for support and can give them some papercut remarks that can hurt their feelings. Remember to watch what you say, because you are best when leading by example.

Here's the link. Why don't you take it too? http://www.quizilla.com/quizzes/645550/what-scrapbooking-item-are-you

Nothing much

Quiet times. Fog outside again. One day of sun this week allowed me to tear through the garden and uproot a bunch of things that needed to come out. Between that and the Mexican sage that was left and ready to cut off, the dumpster was full this week. The good news is that it might be sunny tomorrow afternoon, once the fog burns off. I dont' see how anything can burn off when it's so cold outside.

We had a good time at the dog park today. Even Buddy ran around a lot. The dogs were so happy to be there again. They'd pick that over walking around the block any day. Just being off their leashes so they can run free is their big pleasure, and having all those other dogs to sniff and chase! I'm all for the dog parks.

Headaches: an altered book

My latest altered book is almost done. The structure of the book made me redo some of it and rethink the rest. This is a book with signatures where the pages are glued in. They don't take much tugging to pull them apart. So, while I was adding fabrics, glues, images and quotes, it got thicker and the pages just started pulling out when I turned the pages. Okay, maybe it was too ambitious to think I could use all these images. It sort of self-edited! Or my muse, Lollie stepped in and took it over. Now I have only a few pages that are still glued in and a h andful of thicker pages that need to be inserted. That's the problem. How to get them to stay in. I don't want to open up the binding and drill holes or anything. I'm hoping the gel medium will hold them in - but if they don't then I'll have to think of something else. Too bad it happened after the paints and glues and images were applied. This really complicates things. It has turned into another headache!

California is Cold

You know those pictures of surfers, and waves, and beaches with palm trees? Tourist traps! I can tell you that today was in low 40's and I felt like my fingers would freeze off. Of course I'm a warm weather kinda gal. So I bundled up like Ralphie's little brother Randy in The Christmas Story to take the dogs to the dog park, and put sweaters on them too. Nikki runs so much it keeps her warm and Buddy had to explore every inch of fenceline so he didn't complain. But the people there were all huddled together and trying to stay out of the wind. The good news is - we had sun today! I marked it on my calendar. This is the first I've seen of the sun for several days, being fogged in most of the week.