A 'Geezzz' moment

I've written about 'Still Alice' and I certainly had my share of 'her' moments yesterday! So we were meeting friends for dinner and then having them come over for coffee and dessert. Sounds simple doesn't it! I made 'home made' banana pudding to use in the Nila Wafer banana pudding dessert. All is well until I poured some of the 'hot' pudding on top of the wafers then (per recipe!) put sugar free cool whip on top..thinking to myself..gee, that hot pudding wonder what will happen to the cool whip! And yep, it happened..cool whip started to melt. OK, on to next step to hold off until the pudding is chilled..then I put on the cool whip; added some nice toasted coconut and another layer of cool whip. Looked nice (this is NOT my picture above!). Into the shower, getting dressed and thought, heck, I think I'll have a banana before dinner..I'm getting hungry. WAIT! Banana!! I forgot to put the banana in the 'Banana nila wafer pudding'. Not big deal. I just sliced bananas put them on top of the cool whip then added some more cool whip. Whew!
Off to dinner at one of our favorite spots and had a great time. Back to our house for coffee and chatting and just a really nice visit with Joan and Jerry! As we were walking back into house after saying good bye to them, my hubby said "I thought you were going to make dessert?" WHAT!! Dessert!!! I forgot to put out the dessert!!!! Did I mention I forgot! Boy, do I feel like a dummy! Bob called Jerry and told him to come back and get the dessert. I'm sure they think I've totally lost it now! Oh well, the dessert was really good and refreshing! My 'Alice' moment for the day (you have to read my blog post here to know who 'Alice' is).

Lynn from Beading Heart Art blog talked about her 'blog book' she had made. I've seen books from the Blog2print web site on some other blog sites as well and I had my first year of 'blogging' put to paper! I received my book last weekend and it's wonderful! High quality paper, binding and even has a table of contents! This is a "year in my life" as my hubby likes to say - Dec. 2008 - Dec. 2009 Check it out!

table of contents!

Just some of the entries

I am really impressed and will have the current year downloaded while we're in Florida next winter.

Chatty Cathy

Guess I'm just a Chatty Cathy today - can't do anything else productive. My back is OUT AGAIN!!! UGH...woke up Monday a.m. with slight back ache but that's a norm actually. As the morning progressed back spasms and yada, yada...so I'm not a happy camper right now. Wasted day yesterday doing nothing!!!!
This a.m. I was reading the QuiltArt digest and saw a 'bleep' about time management. Sometimes the emails in this group get a bit 'boring' (e.g. Project Runway, TV shows, etc.) but I did think this quote was good. "The more time you spend talking about what you have been doing, the less time you have to spend doing what you have been talking about." (Norman Augustine)
I love that quote! someone else on the list commented about people standing around all day talking about what they've done or what they haven't done anything. I know some of my friends think I waste time having a blog. To be honest, I think back to what I 'used to do' in the a.m. Well, I used to drink my coffee and watch GMA then get up during the commercials and feed animals, pick up the house, etc. I don't like to waste time hence, during commercials I always do something. Yes, I am a multi tasker! So now I BLOG while watching GMA, drinking my coffee but I don't get up during the commercials. Sure, sometimes it takes a lot of time to upload pics and write my blog post but I think it's a good "waste of time" rather than sitting around eating bon bons, watching the boob tube or as the lady said on the digest, talking about what you haven't done. I also like having a journal of my daily life and thank goodness I document some of what I've done! I can't count the number of times I had to look up a technique I blogged about! The mind goes first you know!

So you ask..what's up with the picture of the doll! This is a Chatty Cathy doll..I know I had one of these. I had my last doll given to me at Christmas Time when I was in 9th grade!! I remember this clearly because I hid my doll from my girl friends. But back to Chatty Cathy..she's not really a very pretty doll is she!! Yikes! I started looking at some of these old dolls from the 60's and they were almost scary!

Well, I guess I 'wasted' enough time! Hopefully, tomorrow or Thursday I'll post pics of my Blog Book! Lynn from Beading Heart Art had a post about her blog book she purchased from Blog2Print and it looked great. I got mine this weekend and it's super!! Can't wait to show pics of it. So this Chatty Cathy will get back to putting ice packs on her back and doing nothing today..did I mention I'm doing nothing!! hmmmmmm

July Date Night

Last night was date night with the grand kids. what a blast we had! After a GREAT pizza dinner (THANKS, KIDS!) from Guido's we played some games from the TV show 'Minute to Win it'. I went out online and found some we could play. We had a timer set to a minute and kids had to keep their balloons up in the air for a minute. We started out with two balloons but they got a little frustrated so we backed down to one. It was a hoot to watch them. And yes, that is The Cake Boss on the TV in the background. We watched on and off the entire night episodes of this show! I've only seen bites and pieces but it was actually interesting...except for all the screaming..I couldn't handle that part!
Kids were really getting the hang of this. We also tried keeping the feather in the air but wow, that was really hard. I ended up on the floor blowing on the dumb feather - and no, there aren't any pics of me doing that!
So while Nick was still working away at the balloon in the air routine, Amber wanted to play 'beauty shop'...oh my gosh..we've been playing this since she was a month old (ok, slight exaggeration but it seems like we've done this forever!). Yes, I'm usually the first guinea pig..Nick didn't realize what Amber was doing to me and when he walked in the room he had this shocked look on his face and said "grandma you look like a baby"..then he started laughing so hard he fell on the floor. I took these pics myself by holding the camera out in front of me. Hence, not great photo's but you'll get the drift of what I looked like!
Amber didn't want me to post pics of her! I said if I can post them of me, you're going to be in them too! I feel like Pebbles or Bam Bam!
So Nick got in the act next by doing his sister's hair!
Yea, she was really excited about the new 'do'.
Our skateboard king! He's really getting good at this!!
OK, so next was, "Grandma, let do make overs"..where do these kids get this from! hmmmmm not me! he he he
This was Nick putting makeup on Amber. I had to direct him as to what to do but he was really getting into it.
End result was pretty good..although, she's pretty enough without all this goop on her!
So we wanted to do something special for Nick too, so I had Amber get some shaving cream from her dad's drawer and we gave Nick a shave!
Actually, we used the back of my comb to shave him. Looks like he's enjoying this part of his makeover!
So now on to grandma!! This video is of Amber putting makeup on me. Nick said all I needed was a red nose and I'd look like a clown! All in all we had just a great time!


I brought with me the book, Blue Bead, written by Kate Boyan. We all sat on Nick's bed and I read this story to them. They loved hearing the story and seeing all the pictures of Kate's beautiful beading. Nick said it must have taken her two days to do all the beading. I said more like 2 months for each picture! Amber thought it cost her at least a thousand dollars for all the beads. I didn't comment on that! Kate does some beautiful beading and her latest piece, a beaded wolf bag, is just outstanding! Check out her blog.
All in all we had a great night! So much fun hanging out with the little ones. Now to plan for the next 'date night'! Grandma is going to run out of ideas soon!

Guerrilla Art

My Guerrilla Art Piece

Last night was our CCC fiber meeting and Mary was on for the monthly technique. And what a fun, relaxing technique it was! Guerrilla Art! Mary said she read an email sent out by Cloth Paper Scissors on making guerrilla art. Basically, you make a piece of art then leave it somewhere for someone to keep or pass on! There was also an article in CPS (which I didn't read!) on Guerrilla Art (July/Aug issue) but I think the links on the CPS web site give you a better idea. You can read about them here and you can see a video click here.
Mary gave each of us a piece of card stock to use as our substrate and then she brought TONS of media for us to play with!! Threads, paints, stamps, tissue papers, you name it and she had it for us to use.
So here are some of the other pieces the ladies made. This was Mary's piece.
Marty's art work - she made two!
Karen working on her balloon (check out her beaded ring her BFF (me!) made for her!
Joyce's art work (she made two pieces also!)

Carol's lady! Well, it started out as a lady!

Joyce's 2nd piece

So we're each going to leave our art work somewhere. We'll write on the back that 'you've found a piece of art work and it's yours to keep or pass on'. What fun!! And such a great idea. I don't think I've ever made something so quickly without thinking about the design for months and months (ok, slight exaggeration but in some cases it's true!).
So read the article and pass it on! Surely has to make us feel good! Now if we could just put a GPS device on the art work to see where it ends up!

Bragging Rights and painting finished!

Today is bragging rights for this grandma and 'mum'. Seems like all the 'kids' are being pretty active this summer. Makes me feel like such a slouch!! Ian ran in a 5k race this past weekend and got 1st place in his age group!! Congrats, IAN!!!! He received a very nice limestone trophy which really is pretty cool. Kids live in Indiana, hence, the outline of the trophy. I think he should have rec'd a LARGE bottle or two of water. MJ said it was HOT but he ran really well! Ian loves to run and he's good at it too. I did have a widget of his races this past school year and hope to do the same next school year. Actually, Ian's also good at basketball and all other sports!! Just a natural.

Kayla was also busy last week assisting at an athletic training camp held at Ball State. The camp was for high school students and Kayla was part of the staff. The pics are her with other ball state staff and one where she is getting "taped up" during a class! Kayla is 2nd in from the right.

This is Kayla being 'taped' up....why being taped up? Kayla is studying Sports Medicine at Ball State and I'm glad she is. When the kids were here last Nov. I sliced my finger (badly) with guess what, yep, rotary cutter..but Kayla knew how to tape it up! Pays to have medical people in your family doesn't it!

This past Saturday…my son, and his friend, John teamed up with two others (Bonnie and Bob) to form a 4-Person Co-Ed Team (Team JEAR/Chrysler-Jeep) and participated in a 28hr Adventure Race. The race is called The RAGE...go figure! This is just a recap from my son:

"The canoe leg took us 3hrs to complete the 15 mile section; then we moved on to the Mt Bike section (30 miles); then switched out the bikes for running shoes for the 16 mile trek leg to located 16 Check Points. After refueling our bodies we headed off on the Mt Bike leg for the next 30 miles of Mt Bike trails. The team covered the majority of the course in just over 27hrs straight! Most people just cannot imagine putting your body or mind through a challenge like this, but when you complete a race like this as a Team…it is just amazing and so rewarding! "

This picture of my son is from a race earlier this year but I had to post a picture so this will do!

The Team finished with a 5^th Place Over All Finish and 3^rd Place in the Co-Ed Division (4-person.). CONGRATS, Darrin & your team(s)!!! No, he didn't get this 'sport' from me! I sat on the back of horses!

Progress on my MQAI piece came to a halt when I decided I didn't or shouldn't have cut my 'birds' out. I've done this technique two different ways and decided I didn't want it cut out (after I had!)..so I had to repaint! Soooooo I had this drawing already drawn out on the wrong side of my Tyvek, so I just retraced the picture on the right side, which is now in reverse! But who cares or who knows, right! Anyway, I did finish the entire painting. I used a walnut ink for the background and I think it looks very much like bark, which was the intent! Now to quilt and burn!

Today is Drs. appointments and running errands with Bob so I won't get my piece sandwiched until Friday. Thursday is our CCC fiber meeting and I'm making a cake to celebrate our 8th year anniversary of forming this group.

Mandy is doing so much better. She's actually trying to put her foot down and bear weight on it but when she does she limps really bad. She's getting so good at running on 3 legs! And her tail is up and wagging so we know she feels good. She's still confined to the living room and carpeted hall area. She still can't walk/run on our wood floors. But so far so good!!!!

End of week - beginning of another

First, this is a picture of my BFF who moved out west two years ago. This was the day, Lynn was leaving (along with Flat Stanley and Lynn's two cats). And the picture below is what I rec'd in the mail on Friday!!! Isn't this just a beautiful stone!!! I have the perfect silver necklace to put it on and can't wait to wear it! So a HUGE thank you my dear friend, Lynn. Miss you LOTS!!!!!!

I had a comment from Karen over at A Creative Kick about why I was using Tyvek and what kind of paints I was using on my 'birds'. I wanted to use the tyvek because in my head I wanted to burn some of the areas of the birds..don't ask why because I haven't a clue! It was just in my head!! Which doesn't always equate to a good art piece!

I've done about four art quilts using tyvek and 'burning'..one of the latest is my Hokusai I did for the Inspired by the Masters challenge last summer. You can see the process I used on this piece here and some other Tyvek pieces here. This is my finished wave piece.

As far as paints, I use Setacolor, Jacquard and Liquitex soft body paints. I don't dilute them - just use straight from the bottle. I really like the Liquitex soft body mainly because there are so many colors to choose from. I normally purchase these when we're in Florida with my 50% coupons! Seems like my friend and I are at Michael's every week and of course they 'give' you the coupon so you come back! Sometimes I even mix the different paints and they work just fine.

The Tyvek I'm using is actually Tyvek fabric that I purchase through Joggles.com. This Tyvek is not as stiff as the mailing envelopes we use and it actually has a right and wrong side. Think I posted on this last week! I traced on the wrong side...you can still paint or burn either side but I like the way the paint is absorbed on the right side!

So that's my story and I'm sticking to it! Hope that explains my process, Karen (click on my links above to see the process for the wave - that might help as well).

Off to work on my birds now!

MQAI Progress

Before I show my progress on my 'birds' for the MQAI exhibit, here's my latest peyote needle case I finished. The pattern is from Beth at Until We Bead Again. I ordered some more cases from Beth as she now has me hooked on making these! Can't wait to start on another one! I used different colored beads than Beth's pattern called for, only because I didn't have all the colors and was too cheap to buy more! I'm keeping this one because I used #15 Delica's for the 'white' on the pattern and I only had crystal in a 'white and only #15's'. All the other beads were Delica's #11's which the pattern calls for. There is a slight distortion using the smaller size Delica's but it was also a good practice and learning experience for me.

This is the other side, again, my horse is a different color! But I really like my needle case.

Now on to my MQAI progress...I mentioned the Latin - Mexican Folk Art web site where I obtained permission to use one of their photos for my latest art quilt. I forgot to post a picture of the original art work. This is a photo of Tomas Rameriz's painting. I love his birds and if you go to his web site he has this similar pattern in so many different colors. They have lots of different Mexican and Latin American art work for sale. Check it out!

Yesterday, early, I got the first shades of blue painted on. Did I mention I had to redraw my pattern? The Tyvek material I'm using is basically like a 'fabric' and has a right and wrong side. The wrong side is quite 'slippery' and the right side appears to have a weave to it. I blame my 'Alice' moment on the stress of Mandy as I did the tracing on and off during her 1st week of recovery.
So who is 'Alice' you ask? Still Alice is a really good book written by Lisa Genova about a woman in her 50's diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease. My friend, Mary, recommended this book to me only because she and I have to use stickie notes to remember to even call each other! It is a good read - actually a good book to listen to on tape/CD. Anyway, we call ourselves Alice quite often!

OK, so back to art work...

Yesterday afternoon I finished the rest of the dark blue. What a fun piece to paint! Very relaxing to say the least.

I'll rough cut out the design this afternoon or tomorrow and then start to audition on background fabric. I'm thinking of maybe even using a bright background vs the 'bark' type background..depends on whether I retain the original 'bark painting' theme or do my own interpretation of updating this old technique to a modern art technique.

I'm off to pick up the house; pick up myself and head out to get the car wash, pet store (Sybil needs some more food!!) and grocery shop. My friend, Mary, watches her great grand daughter so I may stop at Panera's and pick up lunch for us. I'm always motivated by food! That will get me through the grocery shopping part of my day!

Hot, hot, hot

Before I get into the 4-H fair pictures (which was HOT, HOT, HOT!) from our outing yesterday, thought I'd post some of my current art work! Yes, I said artwork, finally!!!!

The theme for this year's MQAI exhibit is 'South of the Border'. I had wanted to do a thread painting of a Golden lion Tamarin monkey, which is an endangered species, but couldn't get permission to use the photo. So I resorted to looking at some bookmarks I've been saving over this past year and find some other inspiration. There are several different art forms of Mexican Folk Art and I found a great web site, Latin-Mexican Folk art, that sells some of these great pieces.
I was quite inspired by the art work so I contacted the web site and they gave me permission to use one of their photo's in my quilt for the exhibit. You may have to click on the picture to see the drawing, even then it might not make sense! I'm using Tyvek fabric for my substrate to paint on, trying to replicate painting on bark, which is a folk art tradition dating back centuries Latin America.
Here's what I painted on Tuesday. Colors are orange and shades of blues and after the painting is finished, I'll cut out the drawing leaving about an inch or two around the edges. I'll attach to my quilt sandwich then free motion quilt and burn away some of the edges and several areas within the painting. Bark painting is so interesting and I want this piece to look a little on the 'old' or 'aged' side. Hope it turns out! I have another piece that I started hand stitching on last month which is a record album but I don't have pics of that yet. it's been in my sewing room for over a month and only has about 25% stitching finished. Today I plan on finishing up the painting on this piece. Click on the picture to enlarge so you can see the birds.So here are pics from the fair! The circus was great as usual but check out the pattern on this duck! Of course, I had to take a picture just because of the shading and colors....hmmmm beading, painting??? Love this duck!

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The little girl 'in the air' is only 7 and her mom is beside her - not net either!!! The circus is the best part of the fair. A really nice show and we've watched some of their kids grown up over the years! I took Amber to her first fair in 2002 which she was 3! The circus is run by a family called "Circus Pages". They put on a really entertaining show for young and old. Geezz I sound like an advertisement!

It was really, really, hot yesterday...we got to the fair grounds at 11 and didn't leave until 5:30. I think the kids enjoyed themselves because there is so much to do and see! And lots of free stuff as well, which is always nice isn't it! I have to admit the old body feels the 'day' today. Sign of old age and maybe the heat as well. Just another memory for our journals! So I'm off to take some of my RA meds! And to get the day moving..or do I mean to get the old body moving!