Getting back in the groove

As much as I loved all the fun stuff I’ve been doing the last several weeks, at heart I’m a homebody and it was wonderful to have a weekend at home with no plans. I’m not one who can burn the candle at both ends, so when I haven’t been busy with all the fun stuff I’ve been busy resting so I could keep up. My creative time has been very limited even though my brain has been working overtime churning out new ideas. What a thrill it was to slip so easily back into a creative groove this weekend!

I love to color fabric and then stamp and stencil all over it but I’ve been looking for a way to take it up a notch and make it more personal. It’s been suggested to me that I should add more writing to my work. The mystery of how to pull it all together resolved while I was away on an adventure and I finally had a chance to play with an idea on Saturday. I’m loving the results!

Creativity in the garden was on the agenda for Sunday. I still have a lot of planting to do, but I made a lot of decisions about what to plant where and that’s the really creative part.

More decisions were made on my trip to Judy’s Enchanted Garden with mom. I love all the beautiful nooks and crannies in that place!

I’ll leave you with this pretty bouquet that Thursday made for me. It’s parsnip blossoms!

Crazy Spring Art Party Love

Ohmigosh I have so much to tell you! The last several weeks have been FILLED with crazybusyawesome stuff. Just today I finally had a minute to stop and look around.  I’ve been super-inspired by all the fun and I can’t wait to work on new art projects and get stuff planted in the yard. In the meantime, here’s some pics from just one of the fun events (more to follow!).

Look at this! I wish I’d made this! Isn’t it lovely and inspiring?  It’s just one of many beautiful things made at my table at The Great Spokane Art Party.

This was my table. Looks like a party yes?  There were 20+ tables with different artists doing make and take projects. And there were tons of people wandering around drinking wine and eating goodies and sitting down to do projects at whichever table struck their fancy.

My project was mixed media self portraits, which was really just an excuse to paint with your fingers and play with my stamps and stencils. My table was crazy busy all night and so much cool making happened.

I even had several gentlemen sit down and get messy with the paint!

I had so much fun! I really love teaching people who don’t see themselves as artistic or creative. It’s amazing how much they relax and have fun once they get their fingers in the paint (which happens right away in my classes!). Which reminds me, if you are local and interested in hosting a few friends for your own little art party let me know – I’d love to come teach for you!

Art and Walking

This is Mike. Mike was one of the very best persons ever. We lost him last summer to a really sucky horrible disease called pulmonary fibrosis. Mike ran in every Bloomsday they ever had.

Bloomsday is a 12K here in Spokane that attracts 50,000 or so participants every year. Despite spending most of my life somewhere near here, I’ve never done Bloomsday. It’s become sort of a point of pride that I don’t. But I’m doing it this year for Mike.

A bunch of Mike’s family is walking/running to honor him and to raise awareness and money for pulmonary fibrosis. There is a Bloomsday for Mike page where you can learn more about pulmonary fibrosis. I would be so honored if you choose to make a donation to support our efforts.

And let me be perfectly honest: this is going to be a big effort for me. I’m not a runner so I’m going to walk. I’ve been out doing some training the last few months, but not enough to make this anything less than a daunting task. I walked 6 miles a week ago Sunday for the MS Walk and I learned two things from that: 1. I got this. I know I can do it. 2. It’s gonna hurt. Love for my friends who have MS buoyed me through that and love for Mike will carry me through this.

This is me with my friend Vickee at the MS Walk.  I was so proud to walk for her team!

Sheesh, now I’ve gone on and on about walking and I haven’t even mentioned art! So here’s the deal: Saturday I’m going to teach at the Great Spokane Art Party. Food, wine and hands on art making, all to raise money to support early childhood education. What’s not to love about that?

This is a gratuitous pretty foliage photo from my neighbor’s yard. I didn’t have any Great Spokane Art Party photos but I wanted you to have something pretty to look at.

So anyway, what I wanted you to know is, I’m feeling really blessed by these opportunities to use my abilities to help some people out. Art and walking for others is kinda cool.

Saturday Ramble

Mom and I had a Saturday ramble this weekend, the first one this year. We love to jump in the car, hit McDonalds drive-thru and see where the day takes us. We usually have at least our first destination in mind but we stay open to serendipity. We were jonesing for some vintage shopping (can’t wait for show season to start!) and after a few false starts we ended up here:

Roost is my new favorite store! It’s the perfect mix of pretty styling and junky piles of stuff to pore over.

We also went to Two Women’s newish store downtown:

We loved this place too.

Next we headed north, caught a takeout lunch at Aloha Island Grill and hit the garden center at Fred Meyer.

Here’s my garden loot! At the top you can see the cute plate rack mom found at Roost. She’s going to use it as a coat rack – genius!

Here’s mom’s garden loot. Note the flowers stashed in the dog carrier.

When I started laying out my vintage loot, Pistol thought I was making a cat bed.

I came home with a pottery barn duvet cover, an old baby quilt in beautiful shape, a fleur de lys finial and my favorite, this wonderful little statue of St. Francis. Love!

Playing Hooky

I took the day off on Friday. And I didn’t work on art projects. I’ve been working diligently on art projects on all my weekends and holidays since the first of the year. Between eating better to improve my energy levels and a new focus on my goals (more on these topics in an upcoming post), I’ve been much more disciplined about actually working on stuff.

Here’s proof I’ve been working on projects. I taught my new Stitch Up a Sundress class to my mom to practice and work out the kinks.

Anyway, what with all the working at work and the working at home, I was ready for a day. I didn’t really have any plans but I ended up shopping all morning. I didn’t buy much but it felt like such a luxury to just putter around in the stores with no schedule and no pressure to hurry home to work on stuff. In the afternoon I took a nap, cuddled with the cats and read a murder mystery.

Saturday I played hooky again, enjoying Spokane’s St. Patrick’s Day parade. I love the bagpipes and the green jello shots!

I’ve been wanting to stitch something more embroidery-like than any of my current stitching projects but I’ve been unable to figure out exactly what I wanted to do. A couple of days of brain rest must have been good for me as I finally figured it out on Sunday. Yes, I know I don’t need another project right now, but I’m pretty excited about this one.

This is not just another gratuitous cute cat photo. No sirree. It’s a visual aid to some very important information. I’ve been strictly instructed to inform nikkidaisy readers that Bobby and Sark are not just cute funny big cats, they are also extremely handsome and very loving cats. It’s true. They have beautiful soft shiny coats and they are very cuddly and lovey. They are also cat-dogs who greet me at the door and follow me around everywhere. They learned everything they know from Pistol.

Practicing

I love doodles but I’m not a natural doodler. I never doodled on my class notes or my PeeChee folder.  I don’t doodle on my agenda in meetings. I have to think about doodling. Weird, I know. But I love doodles and I want to make them, so I’m practicing.

I’m especially inspired by the doodles of Pam Garrison and Alisa Burke.  Lucky me, Alisa Burke teaches wonderful online classes that are helping me figure out the doodling that doesn’t come naturally.

I’m learning that even when I make a mistake or draw something crappy it looks better if I fill the page and add details.

So I’m practicing filling the page and adding details.

I’m also practicing being brave about my art. A few weeks ago I was offered the opportunity to show my work to a gallery to see if they liked it. Terrifying. I don’t even like calling people on the phone, never mind all the fears about putting my art out for people to love or hate. And really, I don’t feel like I’m ready to be in a gallery. But I’m also practicing going with the flow and taking opportunities when they are offered. So I made an appointment.  And then I felt like I was going to throw up. But I went to the appointment and it went well.

They don’t have room for my work right now but they want me to teach! Which is what I really want to do right now! I’m ready to teach, far more than I’m ready to exhibit. Teaching is on my map for this year. And now I have an opportunity because I practiced being brave.

And honestly, I’m just so happy with myself for making that appointment.  Because hard, scary things get easier with practice.

Stuff I’ve been working on

This piece is finally finished-ish. It’s painted collage on canvas, 11″ by 14″. The goal when I started was to make a piece that was turquoise, red, yellow and pink. HA! Green laughs in the face of my pitiful attempts to leave it out of anything I paint!  I’m really loving the turquoise, red, yellow, pink color scheme though, so I’ll probably try again.

The part of this that’s intriguing me at the moment is my tiny timid attempts at writing and doing a little pen work. It was even tinier and more timid to start but I really liked it so I went back in with a bigger pen.  It has been suggested that writing works well with my work, that it makes my work more personal, that I should do more of it.  Also, I love words and the texture of writing and I’m also really loving writing along curves right now. So I’m gonna go with this writing thing for a while and see what happens. Perhaps I will write on some turquoise, red, yellow and pink curves!

These are my current working conditions. I can’t really sit at my studio table without being joined by one of these two.  Besides the distracting cuteness, there is the sheer amount of space they take up. My cute little kittens have turned into cute very large cats. Ah well, this is a good problem to have.