Painted Inspiration

About a year ago (yes, I take my time) I was inspired by an idea I saw from Alisa Burke's website. I purchased a drop cloth and used black shoe polish to make the words from a poem. Once I was finished I wasn't entirely sure what to do with it, but I new I would eventually make a decision.

Today was the day! I had to cut the drop cloth so it would make a suitable rug. Although I was quiet pleased, I felt I needed something to tie it all together. TADA a pillow!!!

I am very pleased with this project! It's cozy with a twist. Hope you find your inspiration today!

Passing On

This is a painting I did when my dad found out he was diagnosed with cancer. This hung in his house until the day I came to clean his house out after he passed. I actually had this in the back of my car for 2 months before deciding to bring it in my house. When Jacob saw it sitting in the corner he immediately wanted to put it in his room. I think my dad would be pleased to know his picture was hanging in his grandson's room.

Possibilities

I love the 3rd Saturday of every month! I realize that sounds like a female biological clock statement but NO, that's not what I'm referring to. The 3rd Saturday is Creative Fun Day at Jil's!!! This is when we get together and craft/brainstorm/create and any other creative endeavor that rears its head. Today there were several people there and I had a great time.

We made art bombs with acrylic paint and a few simple items that are normally combined during elementary science fair projects. This was way COOLER!! There were so many projects going on today. Book making, book mark making, word birds and upcycling t-shirts. It was definitely a day filled with possibilities.

 I worked on making prayer flags and I really enjoyed putting this together. There is something soothing about blessing something as you make it. I have a few more items I want to add before I decide what I should do with it.

And like my house, we had a chaperone during Creative Fun Day.

Paint Party

Last night my mom and mother-in-law came over and we had a paint party. My mom wanted some painted rocks and Elaine wanted to paint some pots for her sisters she will be visiting in a few days. I wasn't working on anything specific, I was the helper for the evening.

My mom really liked the penguin I painted a few weeks ago so this was first on her list. I helped with some of the detail items but she painted 90% of the rock. Yay! The other rock painting was to be a sweet bovine in a resting position. It was a bit more difficult and didn't turn out as well as the penguin BUT not bad for the first attempt.

MOO!!!

I think the pots turned out fairly well. Kind of like something that belongs in a cute boutique. I added the orange dots to the swirls because I thought it added a little depth to the pot.

It was a great night for togetherness and crafting! Happy crafting to you!

exPeriment

It never fails, anytime I try to do something remotely creative I seemed to always have a supervisor. It wouldn't be so bad if he didn't stare at me with those accusing eyes. Oh well, gotta love him.

In one of my other blogs I have a post with several random, unfinished projects. Unfortunately, this isn't uncommon for me, but every once in a while I find an idea and can give these misfit crafts a fighting chance.  The marbling effect on the canvas was made using shaving cream and watercolor paints. It was super easy and Andrew loved helping with this. I sewed a large button onto one of the hearts and decided to use a zig zag stitch to attach the fabric. I'm not a great seamstress and I made this in a bit of a hurry so don't judge the slightly poor quality. :). Aside from having numerous unfinished projects, another fault of mine is not being able to leave well enough alone...

....so I took my bleach pen and printed some letters. This may have ruined an already sketchy project but I don't mind. I'm still in the experimental phase.

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ComPlete

I guess this continues the theme of paper, provisions or paint. Earlier in the month I had some patients cover wooden balls with colored tissue paper. This was a quick and easy activity which seemed to be enjoyed by the participants. Well, I usually can't seem to get anything accomplished in a timely manner and this wasn't really an exception. Today I decided to give the decoupage baubles a real purpose and they are now a cute bracelet. I personally don't wear bracelets but this will make a great item for the Ripples/Kindness Co-op initiative. More on that soon!

Pastry Time

There's a bakery in Weaverville, NC, the  Well Bread Bakery, and they have the best eclairs. The best part is they are the diameter of a small plate. As I was perusing one of my cookbooks I found a recipe for chocolate eclairs. The first statement under the recipe read something like this; eclairs are no more work than  iced cupcakes. Sounds easy enough doesn't it? The first step is to make the pastry dough, after it was allowed to set for an hour you pipe the dough onto a cookie sheet and bake.

Twenty minutes later out came these golden pastries. So far it's going well and been rather easy, onto making the custard filling. That was a bit tedious and it was taking a long time to cool so I placed it in the fridge and off to bed I went.

When I arrived home from work I assembled the eclairs and melted the chocolate for the glaze. Then we ate them!!! The pastry was tasty and the custard filling was really good. Obviously the size of my eclairs paled in comparison to the bakery's and they also lacked a little in the visually stimulating department. I will have to say this is one of those things where going to get them is better than knowing you can make them.

UnPredictable

A few weeks ago I traveled (a long way) to a book fair. I purchased several books with 1/2 of them relating to crafts and art. I've had a few days to look at the colorful pictures and painting techniques in some of my treasures and I decided to try one of the simple procedures and I'm rather fond of the way it looks.

The process for making fun string paintings is super easy and a lot of fun. This was made using acrylic paints I purchased from Michael's. I squirted small paint dots/blogs in different colors in a horizontal row. Once I had a line of paints almost the length of the paper. Hold the sting in both hand and pull until there is a small amount of tension. Gently roll the string through the paints until it's covered with paints. Then place the string on another piece of paper. Here is where the fun begins, you can let the string randomly fall or purposely design your painting. I chose to let it go wherever it wanted.

You could take this technique in so many directions. Place another piece of paper over your initial painting and you could have mirror images. I thought it would be kinda cool to take the string painting and see if anything visually jumped  out. For instance, in the first picture I see someone in the right hand lower corner dancing. Now I can paint in additional items and create an entire scene for the dancer.

Spa Day

I'm not sure how this fits into the whole 30 days of "P" but it's definitely going on here.
The above items are the many things needed to make cold processed soap. This is a rather tedious activity which requires a lot of attention to detail, which is something I'm not always good at or even willing to adhere to. However, it's a nonnegotiable with this activity.

There are actually 2 separate mixes going on, one is the combining of the oils and the other involves mixing lye and goats milk. Since lye is a caustic material special safety measures should be taken. Once both of the mixtures heat to 100 we combine them and let chemistry do the rest. Apparently, if you allow the oils to heat much beyond that point it will break down the lye/milk solution.

When the soap reaches an almost pudding thickness we add the essential oils and pour into molds.  We made two 4lb batches, one was patchouli scented and the other batch was lavender mint. Traci's house smelled like a spa by the time we finishes.

Once the mixture is poured and looks relatively smooth we cover with wax paper and blankets. We wait 24 hours and then the soap is cut into bars. Essentially, it takes this amount of time for the ph to reach a safe level. Some people say you should wait 6 weeks before you use the soap so the liquid can evaporate and the soap will last longer. I choose not to do that. I may wait a week before I use the first bar and by the time I get to another bar (we usually make fat bars) it's been about 6 weeks. I think we've decided to venture out of our comfort zone and make 16lbs in a few weeks. We are trying to plan for Christmas. Maybe that's the "P" in this post...plan.

Provisions

Last night Lance made a delicious meal, Mediterranean quiche and creole roasted potatoes (fresh from our garden).

Not only is this a tasty meal, it fills the house with the smell of all those lovely herbs and veggies as they are cooking. Right before this dish enters the oven it is topped with slices of goat cheese. 

This recipe can be found on the Food Network website. Enjoy!!

Powerful Patters 2

I wanted this to be part of the first post but  for some reason I was unable to include these images. Just as well. The images below are images of fireworks from last nights celebration. I was able to edit them in Photoshop Elements and Paint Shop Pro. I am rather pleased with the results. I think these would be very cool in art projects. Don't be surprised if you see them again in the near future.

Powerful Patterns

 

 July 4th is the day we celebrate our country's independence and I L-O-V-E fireworks. Naturally, I wouldn't think of  missing the local pyrotechnic celebration.

 It was a lovely display of color and power in the sky. I think fireworks should be part of many different celebrations not just Jan 1 and July 4th.

 Wouldn't this be pretty for Christmas? 

 How about your birthday or anniversary?

 Maybe I enjoy fireworks because the have such beauty in their randomness. Even though they are designed with a pattern in mind, I think there is always an element of mystery until it actually unfolds in the sky.

HaPPPy 4th!!

I spent the first half of my day working in a skilled nursing facility. It gave me the perfect opportunity to make some festive flowers! Several people participated in this activity and they really seemed to enjoy making the decorative flora. This lovely rainbow colored flower is now an adornment on the physical therapist's cabinet.

The reactions I get when I start bringing craft supplies out during a treatment session always surprises me. More often than not, people become intimidated or nervous when they think we are doing "art." I usually here something along the lines of "I'm not artistic" or "I can't paint". However, their anxiety is soon dispelled when I show them how easy the activity is or I say "oh that's o.k., you can't mess this up."

I like to take a large tote bag of random craft items with me when I am working in the clinic. You never know what will appeal to people and I like to be somewhat prepared. After paper flowers were made I had a fair amount of tissue scraps and I needed to do something with all this colorful paper! You guessed it! We brushed a decoupage fixative over the wooden beads and used our scraps to cover them. I brought the beads home so I can string them on ribbon or decorative cording  and return them as fun jewelry for the folks who made them. As I worked today I thought a little about my blogging theme for the month and I decided to make a little change. I'm making an executive decision, (If Obama can do it so can I) I am changing my theme from "Food, Fiber, Fabric and Fun" to "Paint, Paper and Provisions."

T.G.I.F.F.F.F....

To kick off the upcoming 4th of July holiday I made a lemon mousse parfait with layers of homemade whipped cream, toasted coconut and blueberries. It was a great finale to our light meal of yummy fish tacos.   This yummy dish also goes with my next "30 days" challenge. I've decided the theme needs to be fairly broad because I'm afraid I will be busy this month and unable to adhere to a narrow focus. Soooo for the next 30 days I will be posting things related to Food, Fiber, Fabric or just plain Fun!!!