HAPPY 40TH, KRIS!

Today is our DIL's BD! Happy Birthday, Kris! The big 40!! I'll be heading off to the kids shortly for the day and to stay for dinner to help celebrate Kris' big day! We are really lucky (or should I say Darrin and Dawn are lucky!) to have such a great daughter-in-law and son-in-law (Jeff). Kris is a great mom and wife and of course Bob still says she makes the best apple pie!! So HAPPY BIRTHDAY again, Kris. We love you lots!!!

Six Words for Today

My friend, Mary (check out her web site) sent a comment on her six words. These are great! "worn out body - mind to follow" Is that perfect or what! Thanks, Mary!
We had Diane over for dinner yesterday and had a nice afternoon with her. She and Don are coming next Sat. for dinner too, which will be nice. That dinner will be a Mexican fare! Yesterday, I made grilled salmon with mango salsa (home made), roasted vegetables, spinach/artichoke dip and brownies w/yogurt ice cream for dessert. Really a good meal if I say so myself!

I did get to work on the beading for my shibori piece last night. I'm liking how this piece is turning out. There's sure a lot of hand work on it but it's been nice having some to do at night. It's just hard to sit and watch TV and not do hand work. I'm hoping to have the beading and stitching all finished by this coming weekend.
I'm heading to JoAnne's this a.m. to get some more thread for my wolf piece. I need pale, pale shade of gray. Then I'm off to a meeting at our library. There's lots of discussion in the town regarding the costs associated with having our library here in Goodrich. I'm not up on all the facts so I want to attend the meeting today to get up to speed. I can't make the township meeting on Tues. night as it's Kris' BD (her 40th!). Have to get the body moving....which isn't easy!

Art of Natuare in progress and stuff

Yesterday, my hubby put up a rod so I can step out of the tube and hold on to something! We have a whirlpool tub for two that is getting harder to get out of each night. I think Bob's afraid one of these nights I'm going to fall out. He would hate to have to call 911! And so would I..very embarassing! Gee, my 'six words' could be: "Lady falls. Husband embarrassed. Divorce pending." Anyway, he installed this for me yesterday! It's really nice! Now I just need to remember to use it. I'm so used to grabbing onto the wall.
Before we went to the wedding reception, which by the way was quite nice, I continued stitching on my Art of Nature piece. This is one of the wolves which I think looks like a female. I do need to pick up one more shad of gray in the lightest shade. I think she's looking pretty good so far.

Here's the back of the piece! Kinda looks surreal..maybe I should use the back vs the front!

I'm off to market shortly to get some dinner fixings. Diane is coming for an early dinner. I'm still not sure what I want to make. Need to get out my Skinny Girl and Cook Yourself Thin cookbooks and come up with something new!

Six Words

I just love this picture! Makes me smile. It's from 'Free Antique Images' blog. Since I didn't have any pics to post today thought I'd pick one of my favorites from his site.

I was reading an article in the July/August issue of the AARP magazine on telling a story in only six words. The article starts out....Ernest Hemingway was once challenged to tell a story in only six words. Papa came back swinging with "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." Isn't that just great! For those too young to not receiving AARP yet, you can read the article here. Today I feel "worn out body - with young mind". I sure feel that way..guess it wouldn't make an interesting article but then I don't have a way with words.

Warm today but not as humid as the past few days. Bob was very dehydrated on Thursday so he's back to drinking lots of water and now Gatorade when he's golfing. We have a wedding reception this weekend; dinner with Diane and Don; Kris' 40th BD on Tuesday...lots going on...have to get this body working. Hurting a bit again...darn! Just having to keep moving..maybe I need to change those six words!

Zentangle Time

So I was 'surfing' one day and came across a web site called Zentangle. This is the coolest technique to do! OK, so it's just doodling and they gave it a fancy name..whatever, it's a hoot and I'm addicted. Last night at the CCC fiber group I show them how to get started and some of the patterns from the web site. You can actually order a kit which has some instructions but I did a search on YouTube and came up with some good video's to watch. And of course I found a cheap book of patterns which should be here this week!

I showed my Art Diary page 5 & 6 a week or so ago. This was my attempt at using the 'zentangle' technique in quilting. Inside the large circle is where I played with different quilting designs in a whole cloth piece. Heck, that's what we do most of the time anyway is just doodle with need and thread. I was going to write in the curved areas but I never did. The doodling really shows up well on the back side that I painted.
I just bought some cheap drawing paper (70lb) from JoAnne's or Michael's (can't remember now) to use. The web site has in their 'zentangle' kit "a mould-made, acid-free, 100% cotton, heavy-weight fine artists' paper with a beautiful vellum surface finish". If I get really good then I'll switch to better paper..until then...Here's my first 'zentangle' I made!

My 2nd zentangle!

I got fancy and added some color.

I took a larger square I had done (you can see the missig piece above in the corner) and covered a canvas panel (on sale at JoAnne's) with some matte gel medium that I had added Setacolor paint to. Then I place a piece of dark blue tissue paper I had on hand on top of the painted (wet) canvas. Then I put some of the painted gel medium on the back of my zentangle and placed it on top of the painted tissue/canvas. I painted over both the tissue and zentangle piece with the rest of the colored gel medium. I'm going to take the top circle piece and/or triangle piece (from the 3 doodles above) and put them on a smaller 5"x7" canvas panel. All you need to add are hooks on the back and you have a nice hanging!

My doodle on a canvas panel

But check out the 'zentangles' the ladies made last night at our group! I've mentioned before how talented they are and 'doodling' is easy! We had a small group (only 6 of us) but here are their pieces! Aren't they great!

Carol's

Debra's

Joetta's

Judy's 1st

Judy's 2nd

Michelle's

Hope they enjoyed this 'doodling' and can use the technique in their art somewhere! I know I will!

Art and Magic

No, not my magic! That part follows some of my art pics. My family has to scroll through and look at my art just because they're my family! My friends may or may not care about what grandma did today so for them I'm posting pics of my current project. This is the start of my piece for the MQAI Art of Nature exhibit (due beginning of July). This is a picture Dawn took last year in Indiana at the wolf preserve. Isn't this great picture! I printed it out on fabric and now I'm thread painting it. I'll cut out the piece after the thread painting is finished then I'll be make leaves and branches so it appears the wolves are coming out of the woods. I just love this picture!
Here is some of the thread painting I've been doing. It's a lot of thread work I can tell you that.

So now the magic part! I took the kids to the library in Davison today for a magic show. The libraries have such great free programs during the summer for kids. I just think they are wonderful. So off we went to the magic show (after stopping at our house for lunch and the camera - which I forgot!). The magician was Bill Schulert (I'm not sure I found the correct web site so I'm not posting, but this man was good!).

Of course we had to stop for ice cream before the show! We only do this once in a blue moon because grandma is too cheap and too conscious of sugar and fat...boring!

Ginny (kids cousin who is being the Nanny for the summer), Amber, Grandma and Nick enjoying our ice cream!

This little girls expression was priceless! She was in awe of his magic (she got a poodle balloon for assisting).

Bill did tell the little girl to wash her hands when she got home! He followed this up with having her 'erase' colors from a coloring book, then the pages went blank, then he has us scribble in the air and the book had scribbles it in! It was great! Yes, I was impressed!

This was why he told her to wash her hands when she got home!

I love when kids laugh! Nick was laughing so hard as was Amber! This just makes me feel so good to see them laugh out loud!

Isn't this great! All smiles!!

You can see how many were there. They always have a full house at the free shows. And now more then ever it's great for parents and grand parents to take advantage of free shows.

This was a hoot with his rabbit! He was adorable...he ended up picking out the card the little girl has chosen from a card deck! Still don't know how it did that!

So we ended the day and it was fun! I dropped the kids off meeting Darrin at the A&W in Ortonville (no, I didn't stay for hot dogs and root beer!). I think the kids enjoyed the day as well. Now to plan our next outting!

Where are they?

Sitting out on the deck this morning with coffee and camera in hand...I just had to take a video of the 'sounds'! I love hearing the birds in the morning. It's so peaceful and a great way to start the day. It certainly puts a smile on my face. The birds are there you just can't always see them after they've had their fill from the feeders.
I know I moved the camera too much but the sounds don't care! Watch and listen..OK, mainly just listen!

Now to get to work!

Day Trip

On Sat., Mary, Karen and I went to Grand Rapids for the opening of the 'Musings' SAQA exhibit that Mary was co-curator on. The show was at the Gerald Ford Museum and it was wonderful! My 'musing' piece didn't get juried into this show but I can see why! The quilts were spectacular!! And I mean spectacular!

This was the fountain at the front of the museum. It wasn't on when we first went into the building but was on as we were leaving. A nice mist came off of it which was quite nice for folks that were sitting around it. The day was warm and beautiful!

This was inside the museum looking out at the fountain. The building is quite nice and the exhibits are as well. Carol T. and I, a few years back, stayed at a hotel right around the corner when we attended the fiber convergence. We did go through the museum and saw most of the exhibits. It's certainly worth the trip to go back and see facts and memorabilia of President Ford and we got to see the doll collection from Carolyn Kennedy.

This was the large poster sign at the front of the building for the Musings exhibit. Isn't it great! They also had several throughout the museum. I think it's a great poster for fiber art work.

Oh, this was a shot of some buildings as we were coming back from lunch. I just love the blue looking buildings against the blue sky.

Another building along the water...which was quite brown but I don't think that's any different then my last time here! The water was moving quite rapidly!

OK, so here are two 'tourists' checking to see if anyone is still inside this rocket! This particular rocket was used in training the servicemen to rescue the astronauts. Only problem was this particular one they couldn't find! I think it was Russia or some other country that did find it and returned it. Now it's on display in GR. That's Karen on the left trying to see if anyone is home. Mary is on the right.

So, as I said, a few years back when Carol T. and I stayed in GR, we ate at the Sundance Grill about 3 times! The food was great...and the restaurant was still there within walking distance of the museum. So that's where we had lunch! This was Mary's corn soup which was really good! We got to sample!

I was so hungry I forgot to take pics of our lunches. Karen and I share fish taco's which I've never had but I would again. They were quite tasty. Mary had a southwest chicken wrap which looked really good and must have been. She didn't have any leftover to take home! Well, guess I'm just as bad..yes, I ate my 1 1/2 fish tacos and had room for dessert! Which was Key Lime pie and I ate the whole thing! But I did have one small piece leftover for a picture!

Karen had cheesecake which was so HUGE! She has her hand next to it so you can see how large it is...but guess what! There wasn't any of it leftover either! Shame on us! But we did walk quite a ways so that was good!

Oh, I did have this little black bean that was leftover...I thought the picture was interesting as you can see his tiny shadow..ok, I amuse myself, what can I say!

"Musings" artists selected for Gerald Ford Museum exhibit

Juror Sandra Sider selected the works for "Musings," which will be exhibited at the Gerald Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan from June 19 - August 30. 2009.

Selected Artists

B.J. Adams

Mary Andrews

Polly Bech

Shelley Brucar

Benedicte Caneill - 2 pieces

Cheryl Costley

Marcia DeCamp

Mary Diamond

Clairan Ferrono

Ann Harwell

Peg Keeney

Eileen Lauterborn - 2 pieces

Denise Linet

Ann Loveless

Dottie Moore

Susan Sanborn North

Frauke Palmer

Pat Pauly - 2 pieces

Marti Plager

Judith Plotner - 2 pieces

Christine Predd

Casey Puetz

Tracy McCabe Stewart

Gwyned Trefethen

Gera Witte

So here's a video of the show. I'd like to post some of the pictures but I need to get all their names and quilts together and make sure the artist doesn't object.

Week Ending

Woke up to thunder storms this a.m. Wonder if we reached another 3" of rain! It has stopped now and is suppose to get up to 80 today. Just my kind of weather...NOT. Don't like the heat or humidity but guess that's why we have AC!

I made stuffed mushrooms for dinner. They were based on Bethenny Frankel's recipe. I have her book, Naturally Thin, which is great! She has some recipes in the book and on her web site. Anyway, I stuffed mine with a little rice and spinach and the rest of her ingredients. They turned out great. Actually, this is the 2nd time I made these and I had to try and remember how I made them the first time. Maybe next time I'll make them exactly as Bethenny does! The Portabello mushrooms take the place of meet and along with some pasta and salad we had a great meal.

I'm off to GSQ guild meeting today. I started thread painting my Art of Nature piece and hope I don't run out of thread!

3 1/2" of rain!

Yep, we rec'd 3 1/2" of rain yesterday!! It really poured most of the day and lots of flooding around the area. We met with our friends, Joan and Jerry, last night for dinner at Lucky's in Davison. Yum! We had a really nice time and look forward to seeing them again soon!

Here's my current 'hand' work piece. This started off as a piece of shibori (dark fabric) to which I cut and added some hand dyed lime fabric. Looks nice but predictable.
I cut the piece in four and started playing with the arrangement.

The four pieces were sewn back together and then I did some free motion quilting. Now I'm doing some hand embroidery work on the piece.

Closeup of machine and hand work.

Bob picked up his 'free' cell phone yesterday and I'm off this a.m. to get mine. It's an LG Vue and really seems nice. As long as they're free, I'm a happy camper!

Embeadery Bracelet

Yesterday I posted the start of my beaded bracelet. Here's the rest of the process. After the herringbone stitches were completed, I went back and started to add beading around the edges. Then I filled in remaining areas with large beads.

I glued another piece of suede on the back and made sure all areas were covered. I placed the cuff around a small glass to dry (adding ruber bands to hold in place).

Here's the bracelet all dry and ready for me to cut the edges.

Here are the edges cut off. Now I just added Velcro for closure....
And here's my finished bracelet! Margaret Ball has a great book and tips on her web site. I reference her book often in my work!

Off to babysit kids today. School is out for both of them so now our summer together begins! It's raining so Bob won't be golfing today.

June Projects

First, Mandy had company this weekend! Her buddy Cody! He is so good for Mandy and keeps her on her toes! Plus, I know she enjoys the company. Here they are keeping an eye on the neighborhood!

Two years ago, I made several beaded bracelets based on the pattern by Margaret Ball. I have Margaret's book, Embeadery, and it's great. Check out her website to see some of the wonderful beading she does. I use her book often for stitching in my art work. I love any type of hand work and the beading just adds to a finished piece. At least in my mind!

Here's one bracelet I made. The base is a very fine ultra suede.

I love doing hand work and find it hard to just 'sit' and watch TV. So I thought I'd start some more bracelets. I had two pieces of beige ultra suede (you need one for the backing) so here's my start. I'll post pictures later this week on the finished piece. It's actually drying right now and all I need to do is add the closure(s). Here's the start using a Herringbone stitch.
And the binding is on Lenore's piece. I do need to put a sleeve on this and then I'll take to our Library here in Goodrich.
Here's the back of Lenore's piece I finished. It shows all the stitching in it. Bob actually likes this side better then the front!
Another beautiful day today! Sun shining and very pleasant. 47 degrees around 7 but it's suppose to be in the high 70's again today. No humidity so that's fine for me!