Spring has Sprung

Well sorta, in about three weeks most of the bulb type flowers should start popping up.  This from past experiences/observations of when the Robins, Cedar Waxwings, and Grackles return from their winter feeding grounds.

The neighbors crabapple is preferred over ours, once they pick it the birds will start in on our tree.

Some of the Robins are looking a little rough around the edges, this one was healthy looking.

Grackles are pairing up already, not surprised.

Oliver Files: Time Out for Oliver

Time out for Oliver, and of course Angel goes into his crate and won't come out so both got locked inside. He has a fascination with laundry, ie fetching it and then shredding it to pieces preferably while I'm on the phone. They both fell asleep in his crate.

Angel started nodding off at this point, she spent the last two years of Silky's life (our Weimeraner) sleeping in her crate with her so it's not surprising she's sleeping in his crate now.

Oliver Files 021914

He's practicing for his full time job as professional door stop!

He's uncertain as to which side is his "good" side.

Earth Pigment Painting Live Stream

I will be Live Streaming this evening at 8 pm Central Time (Iowa), join me for chat while I paint fabrics with earth pigments for an upcoming solo show!

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/mark-making-with-nature

Pigment Painting Live Stream

I will be Live Streaming this evening at 8 pm Central Time (Iowa), join me for chat while I paint fabrics with earth pigments for an upcoming solo show!

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/mark-making-with-nature

Lakota Healing Song

More Stitching

Adding more vine tendrils and bits.
Hand dyed french cotton threads, natural dyed flax, natural dyed painted silk chiffon, on white silk dupioni fabric. Machine and hand stitched.

Working with hand dyed french cotton thread, I'm using a single strand to create a background layer of delicate tendrils.

Working with a couple of colors of hand dyed french cotton thread.  Next I will add more vine bits (like the upper left hand corner) using the same thread only double stranded.

I'm using the ivy bits on my house as my inspiration.

I love how they crisscross defying the laws of design!

Desk Ideas

I'll have to clean it out first, but this lovely little secretaries desk sits right across from my computer table in my studio!  It won't replace my office desk, but will give me a place to put important stuff that I use on a daily basis in my studio.  Speaking of my office it's in sad need of cleaning, ever since I moved the computer out of there I haven't been spending any time in there, which I need to resolve and soon.

The Oliver Files: Wanna Dance?

John and Oliver play dancing in my studio while I was stitching away and Angel observed.

Sandman in progress

Stitching now with indigo dyed linen threads.

Rust Dyed Wool

Rust dyed wool fabric, love the marks on the bottom piece, it's just begging to be hand stitched!

WIP ~ Sandman

WIP ~ Sandman

4x6 or so inches

Natural and rust dyed cotton scrim atop monoprinted muslin fabric.  Hand stitched with natural and commercial dyed cotton threads, wool batting.

I will be adding some machine stitching next and then will go back into the piece with more stab stitching, maybe layer some more cheesecloth onto the surface and then add french knots and some coils.

This is a small piece I started around 7pm this evening designed to get me back into the habit of stitching as I have a solo show to prep for that I'll be hanging in April, most of those pieces will be machine stitched and then waxed (encaustic).

Oliver Files: The Family Room

Or maybe I should say his play room?  This is what the floor looked like before I went to sleep last night, in fact the rubber chicken is still stuck to the chair, where he left it!  You'd never know that the day started out with the floor clean and all of his toys in the bucket.  Angel doesn't seem to be bothered by much of this so I guess all is good.

A close up of the rubber chicken stuck to the chair.  Oliver loves shredding paper, so we've learned.

Heart

More heart shaped potatoes.

Water Heater Woes

Well the water heater died sometime between last night and this morning.  I was a third of the way through my shower when I realized that the water was getting colder, NOT hotter!  It's rather cold here in Iowa in February and while yes the house is heated, I gotta tell you a cold shower in the winter is no fun!  It was a quick shower.


So this afternoon's activities involved going to Lowe's, I needed black duck tape for a journal project, so we could look at water heaters.  There's a LOT of choices out there on the market right now like do we want 20, 30, 40, 50, or 60 gallon unit, do you want it to be energy star ok I thought they were ALL energy star now but apparently not, what kind of warranty do we want, so on and so forth.


We came home w/o a water heater, no suprise there right?  I will be making some phone calls tomorrow morning, in addition to cleaning out the laundry and furnaces rooms to make way for the new unit, and the eventual removal of the old unit.


Until then it's sponge baths and cold showers!

Journal Cover

Went to Lowe's today to find black duct tape, and a new water heater, I found red duct tape with polka dots and no black duct tape.  The story about the water heater will be on my other blog.

I love the polka dot duct tape, my only complaint is that it doesn't come in the yellow, orange, or apple green, only red.  Oh and I still want some black duct tape for another project that's currently in progress.

Now all I have to do is go to Staples and pick up one of those ring binder doohickies for my journal pages and I'm set to go.  I have a back up plan, just in case I'm not able to find the ring binder thingy, I will add grommets to the front and back covers and then add some of those big rings thingies for the pages and dividers.  

Over all I'm quite happy with this project, it's been helpful in putting together my new business plan, my overall mission, and how I hope to get there!  I still have gobs of questions I don't know how to answer and will be thinking about those as I clean out the furnace room this week, in preparation for the removal of the old water heater and arrival of the new unit!