If we want everything to remain as it is, it will become necessary for everything to change.~guiseppe tomasi di lampedusa

First, I wanted to share another cool postcard I got from Postcrossings. It's from Justyna from Poland. I love the name Justine but I'd never seen it spelled this way.

Secondly, I want to share with you my adventure in using the sewing machine in my art. Now, You have to understand that my sewing machine skills have been rather limited. After my stint in Junior High school Home economics class(many moons ago) making a very basic jumper, everything after that was pretty much self taught. I think patience or lack thereof was a major factor. Some years ago a coworker sold me this sewing machine for $100.oo. It sat in my then office for years and then got moved to the garage. Only recently since I redesigned and relocated my studio did I lug it back inside where it continued to sit until a few weeks ago. I've been seeing more an more stitching on art and really loved it when my buddy Robin sent me something through the mail with stitching on the envelope. From then on I was hooked. So, here's the sewing machine finally set up.

I started out with this piece on card stock- with torn dictionary pages, watercolor and spray paint, oil pastels, used waxed paper that I'd used to cover my table while working.

And then I reached into my stash of index cards that I'd been addicted to doing for months and started tearing them up. I took them to the sewing machine and began stitching around the edges. Mind you it was a mess. Back to the manual to figure out how to back up the stitching. Back to the manual to figure out which stitching, tension etc I should be using. I mean there was no where in there to tell me what to use for stitching on an index card. :) I was so frustrated when I started in the middle of the paper I got the bobbin thread tangled up which sucked up the needle thread and I was so frustrated at that point I forgot to take pictures of that little mess. Anyway, I kept at it and came up with this.

Then I went back to the index cards and added the flowers and the border, or what ever you call it across the bottom.Maybe it's a gate, maybe hedges. That card just happened to be sitting right in front of me shouting,"pick me!." So, here it is at this point.

Something was missing. I decided it needed outlining so I took a Sharpie Paint Marker and outlined some of what I stitched. I decided then it was quite nice. I even hand sewed with regular red thread, although I should have used embroidery thread, now that I think about it. Trial and error. Jam up the sewing machine but learn as you go. I surprised myself because the color choices are not really my usual.

So, that's all for now. Bye. Please come again.

Trahsjbjorsn foru d ble blo

I don't know what the heck the above title means..... I just made it up because I am too damn tired to think of a title and I wanted to get your attention. :) And because I am too damn tired I'm only going to show you this........

That's it for today. Thanks for stopping by. Please come again. I thank you for your support and comments. :)

Here Comes the Sun...........

..... in the altered book

..... and on an index card. I rather like this, myself. No. I rather looooove this. I can see it becoming part of a lot of other things.............. Little darling, it's alright. Here comes the sun, doo doo doo doo........ Hope you're having a good day. Please visit again.

Smash Book Revisited

I am making my way through this book. Leaving it alone for awhile and coming back makes for new ideas, additions etc. I find myself becoming more free, trying more and more for less perfection. Here is another page with some closeups..

. Hope you are having a good weekend,

Be Careful About Reading Health Books. You May Die of A Misprint. ~Mark Twain

I finished the little journal. It was a learning experience, matching up the holes etc and not knowing if I should be going in the front or the back. And then I wanted to get the pages in a certain order as if reading a story and as I was sewing them in they fell on the floor so I ultimately ended up sewing one of the pages upside down. I think the tapestry needle was too big. I have marks on the spine I need to cover up. Still, I am tickled just opening up the little book and seeing the pages I created. Not too bad for the first time. I thought about mailing it to the Pink House Studio but she may still be recovering from her recent marathon event. lol.

Playing in the Heat

It was 90 degrees here today and humid. Yuck! Makes it hard for things to dry and you have to use extra Modpodge. Last night I just grabbed some cardstock that I'd previously painted and started tearing up my own collage papers. I like the colors. Makings of more mail art for sure. Thanks for stopping by.

Recycled Again

An index card, water color, crayon and the petals/leaves on the tree are from a baby wipe I used to clean up paint on hands and table. I have a pile of those now. I am learning how cool they can be if you stencil, sew and paint on them. I am quite sure I am not the first person to discover this. But sharing is caring.

Shrooms

I received another postcard from PostCrossings today from Russia. I like this one. The person wrote that in Russia they eat hundreds of kinds of mushrooms and some people like to pick them up in nearby forests. This person is a vegetarian, so eats them regularly.

And check out the postage stamps. Makes me want to draw them, too.

This is fun. Thanks for visiting.

I Merely Took the Energy It Takes to Pout and Wrote Some Blues." ~Duke Ellington

Did you miss me? I haven't been here for awhile. You know how life has a way of just getting in the way sometimes. I have actually been creating a lot..I have a lot of energy. I have been bouncing off walls .... just not getting it out there. Without a lot of explanation I'll just show you. Ok? Ok!

Yes. I finally got it set up in a place where it will get used. I have to review the book to remember how to use it.

An apron I have been working on for MY MAN (the wonderful chef that he is)for goodness knows how long. I think I got bored with it so I have to figure out how to fix that. I wonder if he'll really wear it.

These are some of the little indexed card images to go into this little recycled book I am making. And this is a work in progress. I new adventure to work on something so large. My art table is so full I have moved to the floor. I might have to rig up something to get it off the floor where I can stand up. It's hard working on the floor and forget it if you've left something up on the art table several times. I guess that means covering the wall with something or I might end up having to paint the wall. You know what happens if you give a mouse a cookie.

I went from one extreme to the other. A really mini book (using recycled toilet paper rolls) I've been working on in the mornings IN THE VAN before work. Do you remember the creativity kit? The things you take with you- on the go creativity kit? I have learned as the weather changes, you cannot leave markers and certain things in that bag. They melt or leak or get dried out. So I have had to make some adjustments as to what goes in to that bag given the season. Joanna, you cannot leave this stuff in a hot car all day. But I might need it! Whine. You cannot possible need all THIS STUFF in the 25 minutes you have before you go in to the building. This is the conversation I sometimes have with myself. So, I have resigned myself to resize for IN THE VAN times.

So, there you have it. Maybe I have ADD now in my 50's because I jump around so much. I feel like I am making up for lost time. I know a lot of people who have several projects going on at the same time. My trouble is that I do not have enough hours in my day. Damn 9 to 5 job gets in the way but it does pay the bills and provides for more stuff to play with. I cannot seem to regularly finish one thing. I get sidetracked because something else will ignite something else and I have to check it out. I am now writing ideas down in a little journal. Do you get that way? Do you have more than one thing you work on at a time? And is your work space so messy that to someone else it would seem you could not possibly find anything? But you, in fact know where every thing is or pretty nearly? If I cannot find what I need on my table I find myself walking in circles, making the rounds , trying to picture in my mind where and when I last used it.Kind of like I used to do in my driveway when I was in massage therapy school memorizing the origin and insertion of about 100 some muscles. Walking in circles, holding my little index cards, talking out loud. Hey!! Another idea ignited. I still have those index cards. I should get them out and use them as backgrounds for art. Ha ha ha. I make myself laugh. Thanks for visiting. Please come again.

Recycled

So.........I made a simple mini journal from the cardboard of a cracker box. Can't get much simpler than this. Collaged over both sides with my original art and taped them together with masking tape. I don't think they're quite finished yet but it's a beginning.

And then I thought I would put these

(which I was going to originally put in one big frame but didn't like the way it looked) in the mini journal instead.

I'm not sure how I will attach the pages to the spine.......... to sew or not to sew. I'll let you know....... I appreciate you're stopping by.

Land of Ghur

This is a picture of my maternal grandmother, Jeanne Marshall. I do not know how old she is in the picture.

This is me about 6 yrs ago.

How uncanny put side by side.

It's like living in the Land of Ghur. I recently paid a visit, to see this lovely, laughing child shouting all these expletives. "alfodijf. !!!RHBUCRO."

That's how life seem to me to feel sometimes. The exclamation points come before the expletives. Do you ever feel like that? Glad you stopped by.