Scenes from My Sketchbook # 14: Women & Creativity ATC

Day 279  This month I have been participating in the Women & Creativity 2012 Sponsored by the National Hispanic Cultural Center here in Albuquerque.  One of the activities was an ATC (Artist Trading Card) swap that anyone could sign up for and apparently they have artists of all ages from all these places
AZ, AK, CA, CO, GA, LA, IN, MA, MD, MI, MN, NE, NM, NY, OR, PA, TX, VA, WI and British Columbia
seriously how amazing is that?  We were given 11 cards, 10 to trade and 1 to keep, and basically just allowed to create.  I mailed them this week, it will be so much fun to see which ones I got back!

Since it was 'Women & Creativity' I decided that I wanted my daughters to also participate.  I sketched out the design and discussed what I wanted in the basic design.  My oldest loves to paint so I asked her to mix or choose a blue for the background which are representing the blue cloudless skies common to New Mexico.  Yes we do paint in our living room, in fact we do all our crafting in there or the kitchen and no I don't cover up furniture~it might get a little messy sometimes but we clean up real nice and I would love to see the kids creating.

Then I worked on the gold, brown, red acrylic mix for the background to represent the Sandia Mountains here in Albuquerque.  Over the top of the acrylic I used oil pastel crayons in reds and browns.

Whether moon or sun over the mountains they always stand stark contrast against the bright blue skies.  Using a yellow oil pastel crayon I colored a circle to represent either of those celestial bodies.  

Next I took an old large metal sewing needle and punched holes around the orb.

Last I gave my youngest daughter a ball of leftover threads from various sewing projects and asked her to sew them into the orb.  Since the threads were scraps there were long and short lengths, she just kept on sewing swapping in new colors chosen at random.

They turned out very simple but they do represent the women in our family, the place where we live, the sky and mountains that we see every day and the sewing that I do.

What will you create today?

Mad Scientist Monday #5: Spam, spam, bacon and spam...& more altered book project

Day 189  Our mad scientist of the week is Zane, a character from the Syfy network TV show Eureka.  Oh lordy can that man light a bunsen burner!  Not too happy with the way his character is being written lately but well I'd be pissed too if the network my show was on was cancelling yet ANOTHER successful show, bah whatever enough with the overdramatic fangirl stuff...on with our creations...

Go ahead take a good look... Zane Donovan Credit

This weekend was the Albuquerque Aki Matsuri (Japanese Fall Festival) 2011 ....we look forward to this every year because it is wonderfully cultural, small enough to be enjoyed and they always have some cool art going on...and of course who could forget the good foods to eat!!!

I wait to get one of these every year....my favorite food...masubi

I think this is an odd concoction, what kind of drugs were people on to go hmmm seaweed, rice and oh I KNOW SPAM that will taste wonderful together!!!  And you know what? IT DOES!

Why do I always find myself singing the spam song, even in the grocery store, yep mad as hatters we are....gawd TV life is so boring without the muppets, SNL (and I mean the real SNL not that boring crap they have been touting for the past 20 years I mean the policically incorrect drug alcohol infused hilarity) and Monty Python

Speaking of odd concoctions.....at least their cosplay is creative...lol...the theme of this year's festival was Kabuki and they gave out masks to paint.

Yep we're all mad here...

Yep back to that book.....the cover is coming along nicely and I will show you the prelim sketch tomorrow...for now you will have to make do with some of the fun I have been altering the inside pages...don't worry I will do some better quality pics as soon as it is complete

Sketching--there is a door in the rock the astrodude is pointing at that I drew and a door opening behind him (somehow managed to get both of these outside the pic frame go figure)

paper cut out with fabric sample scrap behind it

post card cut out over the title page

fabric sample scrap collage for the red planet pages

This post was supposed to go out this morning but Google Chrome or the network in our area or both or something else entirely are not playing nicely......so I hope you got to be creative today...see you tomorrow!

What do a lucha libre mask, a hand stitched pillow and Bob Mackie have in common?

Day 168 well quite frankly nothing except they are all in this post....hehehe...oh I amuse myself don't I??  It is amazing how funny I think I am which is of course not half as funny as the reality...

While the hurricane gets the east coast wet we here in the Southwest desert hope for rain.  I hope you all have prepared and are staying safe this weekend.  Growing up in Florida it took my husband and I a long time before we were not instinctively doing hurricane prep at certain times of the year now we are working on a general emergency family food supply pantry but thats a work in progress.

Here in the desert we don't really get tornadoes or hurricanes normally just the rare snow and ice, the rare flash flood and massive sand storms galore including some incredible 1000s of feet tall dust devils (nothing to sneeze at the ones that have gone over our house have engulfed it and shaken it like a crazed wannabe tornado) and  HUGE sand storms like the ones they have gotten in Arizona recently.  The Rio Grande Valley down below is a fault line, we have 5 dormant volcanoes that sit behind us on the on the mesa and there is a giant caldera (super volcano) just to the north so you know we have our own share of possible interesting emergencies~NOT that I want anything to happen.

So while that part of the country hunkers down the sewing life here continues.....

Hand embroidered pillow.  This design is from a book of mythical monsters and I hand drew this from it to use.

The 18" block tshirt blanket...a gift for my hub on his 40th.

Having a little fun with a lucha libre mask~waiting to see if I get to work on a  costume persona for a local lucha!

A rug of crocheted squares....sewn together

These crocheted squares were in a box of freecycled materials and I knew I was not gonna put them together in a blanket.

The blanket top to the first of my most recent blanket projects....these are 8"squares and the fabric is Mezzanine by Patty Young via Michael Miller fabrics with a Tina Givens for Freespirit Heavenly in blue added in ...

Here is one of the upcycled skirts I made for G1....

A broomstick skirt~we cut off the bottom two layers and left the bottom unhemmed for a raw look

Dragonflies and other beading cut from a totally 80s? Bob Mackie sweater

Dragonflies flying (hand sewn) around the front of the skirt

Loving the way the sparklies go around the sides

Again I hope you all are staying safe and dry over there on the east coast...send some of that leftover rain our way ok?! Back tomorrow with some more clothing redos, thrifting, books and more....what will you create today?

Blink and you'll miss it.....

Day 165 I don't remember blinking but apparently I did because my little baby girls went from babies to middle schoolers...it was seriously a heartbeat in time.  Up until last year we homeschooled then my oldest wanted to try out a school but she had specific parameters for what kind of school she wanted to attend...so we put her name in the lotteries of a few around town and TADA she got into a cyber school the next town over and they only go to school 2 days a week and are one of the few schools in the state that  have Japanese as a language YAY....now it is the next year and my not so little one decided to give it a try too, took the testing and is now a 6th grader.....I would like to pat myself on the back a little because this is what I wanted from homeschooling, the willingness to try new things, to be brave and make decisions for themselves about what they want from their lives and the confidence to say 'when'....

First day of 8th grade....

I will admit having my baby leave the nest was unnerving the first day.  Her big sister walked her into school and showed her how to check in came back out and told me 'you better go in there she is getting ready to freak out', another pat on the back because I did NOT give in to the whiney mom inside me I did  NOT go in I just drove off knowing that she is the kind of kid who needs a few minutes adjustment and will be fine...I did call the secretary later and the deer in headlights freezing only lasted for a few minutes before she recovered and made friends....I expect big changes this year out of her inner self!

First day of 6th grade...

So to treat myself I looked for something on freecycle that I might want...and surprisingly I got these....

Vintage glass containers....

Vintage porcelain cream container, with cream still inside (no I didn't touch it or use it , I'm not that weird, I did smell it though and required family members to do the same, it smelled like wax and cream)

For now I have them in my window until I decide if A) I like them enough to live here B) Which ones I like most C) ok I am keeping them where do I put them or what cute crafting idea do I use them for

vintage glass perfumes, medicines, jars of things that were most likely drugs but called 'medicine' back in the day (those are empty FYI)

A few cool glass inkwells and perfume bottles with stuff still in them..

Glass jars for ink, perfumes and what looks like a  hootch bottle perfect for inner coat jackets

I think these are my favorites...porcelain medicine containers and a blue glass

So those of you with babies enjoy them today...enjoy every moment you have to hug them because one day you will BLINK....so don't look away for too long or the angels will get you

Thank you Doctor Who

Doctor Who ROCKS says the mom who is totally gonna find one of these statues and put it in my oldest's room  one day while she is sleeping, oh yea I mess with my kids like that :)

More UFOs are being completed and more projects in the mix including a really cool one I will start to tell you about soon~doing the research and sketching now~  hopefully get some more pictures up tomorrow!! What will you create today?

Having the Time to DO Art

Day 162

Our life was on hold for the past year or so it seemed...why?  we as a family allowed albeit slowly a sports activity to infiltrate our lives so that in the end that was all we were doing.  It was NOT a life.  Along with other reasons we pulled back, reflected, made some different choices....it was one of the hardest and best decisions we have made.  


As a parent in today's western society we want our kids INVOLVED.  This means we run our kids all over town, eating on the run, living out of our cars just so the kids can have what exactly?  An activity-centric life where your whole world revolves around that activity, your discussions are all about that activity, your meals are planned around that activity, you even find yourself doing the laundry for just that activity despite the load of laundry you just left on the floor wet because you need your ___to be dry before you have to leave.  All of this craziness is designed to give your kid that mythical edge for their future~and lets face it for the most part it is a myth because MOST kids who start that activity when they are 6 are not going to want to be giving up their life to it when they are a teen.  And VERY FEW kids make the big leagues, get the scholarships, get the sponsors...seriously people DO THE MATH the STATS don't lie!  And when you reflect on your life do you want to know that your kid only did that activity because you wanted them to?  Is this your dream or theirs?  If your kid showed signs they needed a break or to stop something entirely would you notice?  Would you talk to them about how they feel?


We have taught our girls that if something you used to love to do is not going the way you want it.....talk about it, reflect and make the changes you feel is right.  Our girls have both left other activities in the past, things they had done for a while, with our full support.  I feel like the girls have the strength in life to say 'when' and make a change even if it goes against the crowd...to be true to themselves.  There is always sadness when a chapter closes and then excitement for the next adventure.  This particular transition was hard, VERY hard.  It was an extremely unpopular decision that we made, it caused a lot of stress but the minute we actually did it we knew it was the right direction because our relief was tangible.  We could actually see the kids relax.  And this time we did not leave the activity entirely we decided to join another group and suddenly our kids were finding the FUN again and really isn't that what IT is really about, the KIDS having F-U-N???!!!


As the weeks have passed we realized how much we had given up~how much this activity had eaten into the routines and rituals that made us a family.  Our family ties were dying a slow death, our closeness destroyed because we had allowed this to pick away at our lives.  Oh don't even roll your eyes, who are you kidding you CAN'T have it ALL....oh we tried to have balance at first but when you are exhausted from running and running in different directions it is easy to get into bad habits.  What had we had given up!  What a lesson indeed!


We don't expect to be the same family we were BEFORE but we do know that we are a stronger family.  We know that we are stronger and healthier~better prepared for next time.  What a ride, what a journey!


All this time to rest and reflect has found the girls creating again in their various mediums...G1 really wanted to create her own poster of a character in one of her favorite video games.......(she started this a while ago but was finally able to finish it YAY)....

Sketching a character from one of her favorite video games.

Painting the poster of her original sketch of a character from a favorite video game.

Finished poster

....this weekend she wanted to do more paper collaging....a chimera (or 3 headed winged dragon)...she sketched it out, came up with the idea to rip pieces of construction paper...she is working on the background and more dragon details today...

ripping paper and glueing

Paper Collage Chimera

G2's art generally takes the form of fashion or music so she created some outfits in her fashion sketch book, cut out pics of her favorite outfits from her rags (I mean Tween Tiger Mush magazines) OK WHATEVER I did the same thing when I was her age, just admit it YOU did too, say it out loud 'I had pics of Duran Duran & Tears for Fears on my bedroom walls' WHEW that feels better  [FYI Pandora's 80s Pop Radio ROCKS with it my Creative Lair has become 24/7 of karaoke complete with tween eye-rolling:)] 

Fashion Collaging

More fashion collaging

Finished fashion collage

Close up of the vintage buttons LOVE the 80s look of the chain one at the top

G2 then took her mad fashion skillz to help me with this thrift store redo for part of G1's back to school wardrobe....this hideous fully flammable polyester number was like 10 ft long and a mile wide but taken in and chopped to the teen queen's chosen length, change the buttons to 'new' vintage buttons, add some shiny ribbon trim to give it some 'bling' and there ya go a unique skirt that NO ONE else at school will have

Original Thrift Store Skirt

Finished skirt redo

Got to run have a bunch more thrift store finds to redo before school starts...serious how cool is this...grab a few plain shirts, some leggings and you have lots of outfits to mix and match at very low cost!  What will you create today?

Been a long time but still here....

Day 157

Yea things have been crazy around here just getting back to the love of friends and family. We haven't been resting on our laurels though we have kept plenty busy.....lots of sewing going on in the background prepping for a few shows and lots of jobs coming up. I will share more tomorrow...

.....my mom sent me out another box of goodies, these beautiful rubbings from Thailand(?) she found in my Grandmother's things....

....aren't they wonderful? I am trying to figure out where they will go because I have to hang them up....

...these dishes that belonged to my Grandmother came in the box as well...fancy and old and I love them....except for a few we use all of our dishes regularly since every day is a special occasion or at least one to be celebrated!!

....the last beautiful things in the box were these pieces of an old quilt with some different types of Sunbonnet Sues than I have seen, applique combined with embroidery....

....to me they look like pieces of feedsack prints too....LOVE IT!

....how Easter ended....that is my table I painted, it looks pretty in this picture against the eggs and jelly bean colors I think...

....egg dyeing process, always best to do outside when you have more than a few kids involved...

....our second fancy dance complete with lots of girls getting done up together and arriving together...

...I tell ya these girls make me cry they are so beautiful inside and out....that is my G2 on the far left in the long purple dress...sniff hard to believe I will have a teenager in a matter of months...sob...happy thoughts for the future...

my 2 beautiful G girls together at Easter...I love them so...

....the whole Easter crew before hiding and seeking 189 plastic eggs now THAT was fun!...

...the end of the day snuggling with the stuffed Easter bunny....I hope your days were beautiful and bright.

What are you creating this week?