story of my life

Week 14: Doodle-a-Day

01:Sara 02:M 03:Sara 04:Sara 05:Sara 06:Hunter 07:Sara

Meet "Q"

For the past few weeks Hunter and I have been reading "The Secret Series" books.  We're on book two which happens to feature a little creature called a homunculus.  The heroine of the story, Cass, made her own little rag doll version out of old clothes and tennis shoe tongues which inspired Hunter to come up with a version all his own.  Sunday afternoon I was presented with this:

And then the request: "Make it, Mommy."

So I did.

He reminds me of a cross between a blue meanie and Plankton from Spongebob but the boy is happy.

Which always means that I am happy. :)

Today Hunter turned 8 years old.  In all that time we've been apart for a sum total of less than one week and it seems like yesterday that he was born.  It goes by so fast.  I know everyone says that but they say it because it is TRUE. 

Hunter, I love you with all of my heart.  I am so lucky God chose me for your momma.  Happy Birthday my beautiful, sweet, funny, charming, nutball of a son.  I love you infinity of infinities. 

Always, Momma

Week Two: Doodle a Day

 

8:Sara 9:Hunter 10:Hunter 11:Hunter 12:Hunter 13: Hunter 14:Sara

Week One is here.

It's a good thing

Oh, Martha.  My love of all things label-ish plus your simple aesthetic has made me a bit grumpy over the fact that there is not a Staples in Virginia Beach.  I mean, seriously, there are about 70 Office Max/Office Depots but not one Staples?  Anyway, because I'm trying to be *good* and use what I've got around here I realized that I could just make my own cute little chalkboard labels!

I found some Wallies chalkboard peel and stick sheets in one of my stash drawers and realized that I could just run those suckers through my ancient sizzix using a scalloped label die.  (I almost feel like I need to explain what a sizzix is...kind of like the first time Hunter saw a corded telephone.)  Anyway, instant sticky chalkboard labels!  I bet you could use the chalkboard contact paper, too!  Now I've just got to figure out how to recreate those file folder labels before I cave to the 'free shipping' offer...

 

 

 

 

2012 in Doodles

 

Pages from Taro Gomi's Daily Doodle Calendar.

1:Hunter, 2:Sara, 3:Hunter, 4:Hunter, 5:Sara, 6:Hunter, 7:Hunter

 

Required Reading - Sew La Tea Do: 25 Favourite Things To Sew

Sew La Tea Do: 25 Favourite Things to Sew by Pip Lincolne

In a word, this book is adorable.  Between its cute covers you will find instructions and patterns to make 25 things.  Included are projects for kids, for adults, and for the home.  Pip Lincolne writes the super-duper popular blog, Meet Me at Mikes, and lives above her store which, aptly enough, is named the same thing.  

This is Pip's second how-to book and I honestly want to make everything in it!  The instructions are clear with plenty of diagrams for those of us who are visual learners (ahem, me).  Some of my favorite projects have to be the tunic dress, the pajama bags, and the foxy quilt.  Just look:

Tunic dress.

Pajama bags!  My sis had one of these when we were growing up and these brought an immediate smile to my face when I saw them.

Foxy quilt...Hello cute.

Not only is this book full of useful projects (must make pajama pants) but the book itself is beautifully designed and the photography is ace.  I love that it includes full sized patterns and that the book is spiral bound so that it lays open while I'm working.

There are 18 huge pattern pages made from sturdy paper so they'll withstand repeated use.

I was so impressed with this book that I immediately ordered Pip's other book, Meet Me at Mikes, and I can't wait for it to arrive!

You can find out all about Pip at her blog and there is also a flickr group here where people can post their projects from Sew La Tea Do.

Have you acquired any new craft books lately?  If so, and you want to share, please link them in the comments!

xo

Sara

Burning the midnight oil

I finished FTB Journal #1

I loved making this journal.  It's certainly not perfect but I like the way it turned out and learned so much throughout the process that I am confindent the next one I make will be even better.

The book cover was from a thrift store find (who knows how long ago?) and the yellow fabric strips are from Lizzy House's fabric line, Castle Peeps.  I don't have any waxed linen for binding so I used baker's twine that I coated with beeswax.  I do the same thing when I make Remains of the Day journals.  Not that I don't like linen thread, I just have a ginormous spool of baker's twine that I'm gonna be passing down to Hunter, who will, in turn, pass down to his kids, if I don't use it up! 

The 10 signatures are composed of various scrapbooking papers and vintage papers I had around the studio.  I hoard, so having enough paper for these journals is never a problem for me.  I did try to pick out boyish papers and there are a few sheets of the new October Afternoon line, "Rocket Age", in there.  Man, I love that line.

Now that I know what to expect when it comes to putting one of these together I will be on the lookout for book covers that I think will work for these journals.  It has been a lot of fun working on this one, that is for sure.

It's not too late to sign up for Full Tilt Boogie--it's open from now until forever, no closing dates--once you're in you are always a member and you can refer back to the videos and blog whenever you feel like it.  Just one more reason I love Mary Ann's classes.  That and I end up with journals when I'm done!

Flipping out

Ah, sorry for the blog neglect.  It always happens, though, so I'm sure you aren't surprised.  The epic deployment cycle has begun.  We are trying to stay positive and not get too overwhelmed (which is easy to do--the overwhelmed part not the positive part).  Anyway, the last few weeks have been a blur of dreading the departure and getting ready for the departure and dreading the departure some more.  There were no major panic attacks but a ton of crazy things kept happening (like the oil change place KILLING my xterra...long story).  Now that we are in the "deployed"  phase  every day that goes by is one day closer to M coming home. 

I was playing around on the Mac the other day and found this app in the app store.  It lets you convert your movie clips into little flip books.  I've been obsessed with making flip books since I was little so of course I had to try it out.  I'm not sure the app saves you a lot of time because the time it takes to draw the pages just gets replaced with the time it takes to cut and arrange the pages but the results are so cool! 

This little book has about 200 frames for a 9 second video:

The frames are printed out pre-numbered and you just cut them up and put them in order.  I bound this one with some 7 Gypsies masking tape.

I have a feeling I'll be making more of these to send to the husband.  Sometimes analog is the way to go.  :)

Happy Monday, xo Sara

 

 

GYPO Week Two--Camille Rose Garcia

This week the Get Your Paint On class entered week two and our focus has been on artists who inspire us as painters.  Mati and Lisa posted some great examples of influential painters and our assignment for the week was to make a painting based on the work of an artist we love.  I really dragged my feet on this one trying to decide which painter(s) I like.  The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I don't follow a lot of contemporary painters.  Photographers, yes.  Painters, not so much. So I had to go back to painters I used to follow years and years ago which was a nice trip down memory lane!

After a bit of digging, I finally settled on the beautiful and talented Camille Rose Garcia.  I first read about her in the mid 2000's in Juxtapoz magazine.  Boy am I happy I kept all of those back issues!   Her style is considered a bit dark but I find it very whimsical and lovely (partly due to the many references to cartoon characters).  Many of her bodies of work explore heavy themes like over-population and habitat destruction and I appreciate that she uses her art to call attention to issues she finds important.  Stylistically, I  like the  rich, saturated colors and tons of black she uses in her paintings.  I also love her repetition of drips, bubbles and stylized patterns.    She has a great site here and I highly recommend reading some of her interviews around the web so that you can get a glimpse into her own influences and get a sense of her razor sharp wit.

My week 2 painting was influeced by these works by Camille Rose Garcia:

(the 3 previous images are Camille Rose Garcia's work)

 

As with my last painting, I started with collage on bristol and painted on top. 

(testing shapes on top of the collage)

My final painting:

(Paper, gesso, ink, acrylic and water colour.)

Thanks so much for following along as I work through this course.  The class has been a needed distraction from the day-t0-day and I have found myself thinking more about art in these last couple of weeks than any time I can remember in the recent past.  It's nice.  Really, it's been better than nice.  :) 

 

Loving

Loving this amazing card set.

This:

+ this:

= a year's worth of greetings!

This set has 20 beautiful cards.  There is not one I don't love.