one third done

I've been pondering a lot lately. And in all honesty, its a lot of bickering with myself over things that make for pretty boring blogging so I decided to just sit and think and let the blog plod on without me.

Its also a little sobering to realize that since today is April 30, the year is one third over. That seemed to bolt by in a blink. I wish time came with a pause button...

But I've also been puttering at various things that are bloggable so I thought I'd do some random today.



The Eighth Wonder of the World


I told you I was cleaning my studio. See that? That there is the corner by my paint supplies? See the brown stuff? That is F-L-O-O-R. Haven't seen that in, well, longer then I care to admit to. I admired it for a while. Took a picture. I may make it the wallpaper on my laptop so that I can look back on it with fond memories. (I took this picture a week ago. It still looks like that. I heard tell there is a betting pool on how long it will remain that way. I caution those who have put in long term bets to reconsider...)



Now we're talking...

I went to Michael's today in search of some incredibly strong double sided tape and came home with this:


I was sold the moment I read the line that says "Aggressive permanent adhesive." I imagine it growling with fury if you try to separate whatever it is trying to hold together. Its like the ninja of the double sided tape family. The idea that it will be wickedly defensive of my artwork sent me into a hysterical giggle fit at the store. I think they were happy when I left.



Every day is Halloween...

Or at least it will be when I rule the world.

A while back I bought some cool halloween flannel prints and then realized I had no idea what to do with them. Mary said she could put them together and she did:


This will be one of those fluffy "rag" quilts. Apparently I have to wash it until it begs for mercy. I'm pretending not to notice that it got up to 75 degrees today. I plan to wash it (over and over until I hear whimpering coming from inside the washing machine) and use it. I refuse to acknowledge the warm weather when I have something this cool in my presence.


Speaking of...

I am not one of those knitters who abandons her wool and heads on over to lightweight cotton in the warmer months. I may sweat and curse as the yarn sticks to me while I knit, but I use wool all year round. Before I left for IQF I cast on for Multnomah (its a free pattern you can find in her right hand sidebar). Here's where I'm at with it:


Yarnhog started knitting it and I love a simple shawl that shows off yarn so I decided I needed to copy her. I also copied her plan to use larger yarn so that it would be bigger then what the pattern produces. I'm using Lorna Laces Shepherd Worsted in color Satsuma.

I adore orange. The variegation in this is beautiful.

The thing I really like about this shawl is that the body of it is simple garter so its nice and spongy and then the border gives it some nice personality. I'm done with the body and heading into the border. Of course, when I realized I'm at 229 stitches and am continuing to increase for another 40 rows...well...there was whining involved. But I'll finish it, its too pretty to let it join the ranks of unfinished projects.



In the studio

I've been working on several things but I can't show you because I'm hoping they'll land on some magazine pages in the near future.

But I did finish the art journal I started way back in this post so here are a few shots (I left the photos larger then I normally do so click on them if you want to see bigger images):



I'm a complete border addict. In fact, if I'm not careful, I can fill half of a page with just border after border after border after border...they are like little addictive rows of collage goodness. And since I like to make the pages in my art journals different sizes, things like this make me stupid happy:


Just a chaotic little pile of edges of pages and tons of borders. *sigh* Heaven...




Reading

I was lamenting to Mary yesterday that I can't seem to find any good books to read lately. I think what's happened is that I've been reading the same authors for a few years now and I need to find a couple new-to-me writers. She suggested this book:


I'm really diggin' it so far. I'm already fifty pages into it and I have a feeling it won't take long to finish it. A good book is the perfect addition to the incredible weather we had today. I love being able to open up the house and let all the breezes in. Dooley love appreciates it as well, always opting to nap belly up in front of an open window. Its not exactly graceful to look at but he enjoys it so its all good.


Plymouth is having its third annual Green Street Fair this weekend. Its all about recycling and organic and I'm hoping to go tomorrow. Its getting better every year with more art booths and activities. I saw a clip on the news this evening of a woman who sells bubbles for your pets that are flavored. The one she talked about was salmon flavored. Seems odd but I think little man would go nuts for it, especially if she has a chicken flavor. I'll have to check that out and see if we can get him some fun.