Spending the morning at the dairy barn. There's been over a dozen calves born i

Spending the morning at the dairy barn. There's been over a dozen calves born in the past 23 days so lots of bottle feeding to do! Its been ages since I hung out in a cow barn. Not since my great uncle sold his farm in NH years ago. This is a real treat for the boy, who's getting to bottle feed some calves! The goats are being goofy, as goats always are. God I love being in a barn!

Soap Making

i've been slacking this weeks thanks to feeling less than healthy. Life has been low key, with a lot of reading, sleeping, journaling and cooking. Today my boy & I did make a bunch of soap for holiday gift giving.
The yellow is goat milk and honey, the red caramel apple scented with aloe added and the blue is a minty scent with vitamin E added. I've laid it out on racks to cure for a few weeks before packaging.
Next up is fizzy bath bombs in a cafe mocha and cinnamon scent!

Journal Page 11/16/11

 This page is wider than the others in my Personal & Potent journal thanks to a fold-out. I love mixing up the size of my pages as much as I love mixing up the size of my journals!

The right portion of this page is a fold-out.

This is the fold-out the way it appears when folded down. The other side of the page peeks out enticingly from behind. I haven't journaled that part yet, so this glimpse is all you get to see for now!

Journal Pages 11/15/11

 I was in writing mode on the 15th, as you can see by these pages! I love it when I get in the groove and just keep going.

Journal Pages 11/7/11

 I was finally able to get some journal pages scanned, thanks to my hand healing enough to work with it easily!  These are the three I did on 11/7/11. I am really liking having and entire journal painted and collaged so I can just pick it up and do pen work and journal writing any time I feel like it!

This one is actually in a different journal.  I was upstairs and the skinny journal was down . I like having multiple journals in progress. That way, no matter what room I'm in I have something to work in once the mood hits!

I like how you can see the banana paper on the inside cover peeking out from behind this page. 

I never know what I'm going to write until I start. For whatever reason the watch image on this page made me think of the snobby, society types who expect perfect behavior. Definitely not me at all!

Favorite Friday's, a tad late!

ALL TIME FAVORITE FRIDAY: At 11:11 am on 11~11~11 my niece had her baby! His name is Travis and he's captured all our hearts already.

Musings

  A transformer at the end of our street blew so our power is out again. I actually enjoy the quiet and the soft light of candles. At the moment I have so many lit the place resembles Dracula's castle. Especially since a lot of my candleabra have skulls or gargoyles on them!

  This cluster is one of the few without the 'Dark Shadows' overtone. I thought it looked pretty so thought I'd share.

New Arrival

  Looks like they'll be a new addition to the family either today or tomorrow. My great~nephew has decided it's time to make an appearnace. Got word this morning my niece is in labor. We're all over the top excited. This will be the first baby in the family since my son was born 10 years ago! 

  I have a cute, mini album all ready and waiting for baby pictures. Can't wait to fill it up!

  On a side note, have cut my hand badly so having a tough time working on art, the computer or doing much of anything. It's throwing off my blogging groove, but I will make up for that as soon as I can with lots of yummy journal pictures & shots from the late 1700's graveyard the boy and I were wandering about on Tuesday!

Small Blessings

  Even though a huge section of this maple broke during the Nor'Easter, our prayer flags and wishing hoop came through undamaged. That's a blessing for sure!

You can see how large a section of the maple broke off.

Our Tibetan prayer flags, which have been hung for several years, and our homemade ones. 

Our Wishing Hoop, made from grapevines I cut myself, and more Tibetan prayer flags.

Monday Musings

  The journal I started making during the power outage last weekend is all painted, collaged and bound. I don't usually fully collage one before working in it, but I wanted to spiral bind it with the Zutter so having it filled with images before hand was the way to go. I wanted the collage to come all the way to the left edge on many of the pages and there was simply no way to do that if I bound it first!  It is rather nice to have a full journal all set for pen work and writing that I can grab any time I'm walking out the door.
  The entire time I was working on creating this journal the words "personal and potent" kept running through my head. now I'm referring to this as my personal and potent journal. I tend not to name a journal because then it feels like I need to stick with a theme, but this one obviously demanded naming!
  This is a skinny journal, only 4.5" wide by 8.5" long. I find skinny pages more challenging to work on, but am always up for a challenge as I feel it causes us to be more creative. It's the same reason I limit the amount of images and supplies I have near me at any given time. If I work with a smaller a mount of images, say a decent sized Ziploc full, it forces me to dip deeper into my creative pool. Plus, I find too many supplies, be it collage fodder, stamps, tools, whatever to be creatively stifling. If you have too much around you it can be overwhelming. Better to push the creativity by working with less than sit there going "Where do I start? What do I use?"

The front cover. the back cover has the same paper on it. I've had this wrapping paper for a while now and wanted to use it for something just right.  For whatever reason, this journal was that "just right" piece.

The inside front cover. I haven't added my contact info yet, something I always do just in case a journal goes missing! I'm also going to add the words "Personal and Potent". Or maybe that will go on the outside cover. Not sure yet on that one.

I've been thinking a lot about Thanksgiving and planning my menu. This page has a bit of Giving Thanks in it. It also has a 60's psychedelic feel for whatever reason. I don't question what I do, I just do it!

The cool and slightly odd snail lady got me thinking about how slow moving I am thanks to pain. It also got me thinking how moving slow is often a blessing. You tend to notice a lot more when you go slow. As for the skull, well I just like skulls and add them in as much as possible!

Favorite Friday's

  Hallelujah! I can finally access the internet. The first thing I did was go in and edit the two posts I made with my phone because the formatting and some of the text is always lost when I post that way. I like this blog to look a certain way, to have some consistency in it's appearance and content, so blogging through my phone just doesn't cut it!
  OK, who is this person I have become????  Words like Consistency and Routine use to be foreign words to me. Running amok, spontaneous and wild were far more familiar terms. Hmm, I wonder if I can be routinely wild or consistently spontaneous? It's worth a shot right?

Blast from the past: Journal page from 4/4/09

  I've been super creative and busy this week,cranking out journal pages,mixed media pieces and mini books daily. The books are intended for holiday gifts. The broke artist's way of saying"I love you, but I can't afford a useless gift you don't need so I made you this stunning book for photos or musings instead. It's far better than a store bought gift, you just need to realize that..."

Blast from the past: Journal page from 1/19/09

Enough babbling. On to my Favorites for this week:

Paint The Town Exhibit at the Prints and the Potter in Worcester, MA. A great selection of works painted in Worcester. These artists really capture the essence of the city.  If you live fairly local I highly recommend stopping by to see this. Then you can pop across Highland Street to The Bean Counter for the best coffee and pastries in the city! 

Missing Missy: OK, we all know I am a sarcastic, wise ass. So is it any surprise I totally crack up over this encounter?  Part of this was in Reader's Digest recently and I'd been meaning to look up the rest online and just today got around to it. This guy definitely is a kindred spirit!

Hmm, not too many favorites this week. Actually, my real favorite was just spending so much time with my family. Life doesn't get any sweeter than that. 

Journal Pages & Musings

  Since the storm Saturday I've had internet access issues. To be honest, it's bugging me for one reason only: My inability to blog easily. Anyone that's been following me for a while will know that consistencey has always been a challenge. Now that I've found a way to blog consistently, something I wanted to do for myself more than anything, not being able to irks me. Isn't it amazing how something we tried so hard to make routine becomes something we don't want to live without? In my case, posting here on certain days has become part of my weekly rituals. Without being able to maintain that ritual throws off my groove! Does this mean I've finally been able to maintain scheduling in one area of life instead of running amok , completely schedule free, as is my norm?

I started making a new journal during the power outage. It's going to be spiral bound so I am painting and collaging all the pages ahead of time.
The banana paper is part of the inside front cover.

A few more pages in the new journal.These are skinny pages, something I find challenging to work on, but like the size because it makes the journal so portable.

I actually have two new journals in progress. The top page here is from the larger of the two. You can see a skinny page below it so you have an idea of the size difference. I like working in all different size journals.
 It keeps me from getting bored!

Nor'Easter

  Thanks to an early season Nor'Easter our power was knocked out for over 24 hours. We're actually lucky to have it back since most of the town & the surrounding towns are still out. Saturday night I was making art by candlelight. Nothing can stop a creative soul when the Muse comes calling!

The Gargoyle's white hat is getting taller.

What's on my art table? The cat mostly. He is convinced I can't possibly create without him adding his energy, and paw prints, to the mix!

This cat is my biggest critic. He's always pouring over my works in progress, especially the journals, and doesn't hesitate to shred what he deems unworthy.

Halloween Greetings from Voldemort. 

The Miniature Menace showing her true nature. Don't let the big eyes fool you.
She is the Devil incarnate!

I seriously need a shirt like this!

Awesome Mail

  Any day I get totally awesome Day of the Dead or Halloween ATC's, papers and such in the mail is my idea of an extremely good mail day. This delightful group came from Alaska. Bet those Muertos were chilly on the way here!

What's on my work table?

What's on my work table varies moment by moment. Here's some of what's on it right now:

   Lots of Dia de los Muertos & sugar skull images for ATC's and cards, Latte pens, ink pads and paper scraps. And that's just in one tiny section of my 6 foot table space! 
  What's on your work table right now?

First Snow

    It snowed last night. The heavy, branch breaking snow that we usually don't get as a first snow. Today the Jack O Lantern and Guardian Gargoyle wear hats of white.

Even though I am not ready for the deep, months long cold and snow, I have no choice in the matter so will just accept it for the beauty it offers. The snow did make a delightfully crunchy sound when walking on it. My late lettuce greens and radishes probably don't appreciate that sound though. In fact, they looked cold! I made a quick, make shift cold frame out of bent maple branches and heavy plastic. Better late than never....

Last 10 songs the i-Pod randomly played: 

Black Hole Sun--Stone Temple Pilots

Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy--Bette Midler

Bodies--Drowning Pool

Domino--Van Morrison

Dead and Bloated--Stone Temple Pilots

Dance Hall Days--Wang Chung

Dirty Deeds--AC/DC

Black Betty--Ram Jam

Animals--Nickleback

I Don't Like Mondays--Boomtown Rats

Can we say eclectic?

Favorite Friday's and Journal Pages

Favorites this week:

This post on Halloween by Gris Grimley, who is an awesome artist. My son and I love the books he's illustrated. Our favorites are Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of Mystery and Madness and Gris Grimley's Wicked Nursery Rhymes. 

(Kelly, if you aren't familiar with Gris's work, do check him out. You'll like it the way you do Gorey's. I guarantee it!)

This mural in Paris. You have to look at the whole, then the close up to really appreciate it. I'd actually posted this one last week, but my favorite Friday's post went off into the ether never to be seen again. 

This blog on creating a Daily Heart for 365 days

Was playing around with sequin waste, distress powders and a few circular clear stamps so got to thinking about the nature of circles and spirals.
Not an unusual train of thought for me at all.

I'd run some metal exhaust tape through the embosser and loved the vintage tin ceiling look it created, so had to add it to a page. I colored it up a bit with alcohol inks.
Unusual for me is the lack of journaling on this page,
 just the thought that came into my head as I looked at the photo.
"She had no shame. Just stood around in bloomers all day"

Journal Pages 10/18/11

  I'm counting the days until my new great-nephew arrives. He's due to make his first appearance in the world on November 10, but babies arriving on a specific date is like herding cats. There are no guarantees they'll do what you expect them to. 

  I'm still in cleansing and purging mode. The back of the truck is getting full of clothes, shoes, household goods and books to donate. Tomorrow I'll probably make the drive to the Salvation Army and drop off. I'll try to resist going in to see what vintage coats need rescuing, but as with babies and herding cats, there are no guarantees!

Done while sitting at Vincent's listening to the music.
Collage, Sparkling H2O's, Gellyroll pen, ink jet transfer

Done at Vincent's.
Collage and Gellyroll pen

Jack O Lantern

An old fashioned Jack O Lantern, carved by my son and placed on the front steps to welcome the Ancestors and keep malevolent spirits at bay. you can tell Jack's getting a bit moldy inside. The boy just couldn't wait until closer to the 31st to carve it up!   In our house we celebrate Samhain, the ancient pagan festival, and Dia de los Muertos, the Mexican Day of the Dead. and yes, he does like to go trick or treating too.