Flying to MARS

In less than a week I'll be flying off to MARS.  I do love the looks I get when I say that to people.  Nope, not flying to the planet.  I'll be heading to the Sierra Mountains in California.  MARS stands for Mountain Art Retreat Sleepover.  This will be my third year of getting together with a fabulous group of women who are artists.  All of them live in California.  I'm so very lucky to be included with them.

We spend the weekend creating art, gabbing, eating, laughing, drinking, creating more art, laughing some more.  I learn new skills.  Create some good stuff and have a WHOLE HECK of a lot of FUN!

MARS is held at a YMCA camp above Grass Valley.  Lovely trees, a lake, places to walk, sunshine to sit in and the potential to see bears, but haven't yet.  There are assorted cabins that different groups of the 25 of us stay in.  I'm in the Golden Bear cabin, which makes me a Golden Bear Girl.  There are six of us in the cabin. I share a room with my pal, Sharla.  Lindsay and Karen share another room.  Paula and Joy are in the 3rd room.  A seventh woman was supposed to join us this year, Marilyn.  Unfortunately, she had foot surgery and can't come.

We share treats with each other.  This year I decided to decorate the chocolate that I always tend to bring.  I'd picked up some plastic palate knives and, with the polka dot paper to wrap the chocolate, I created some bears.  Thanks to my friend, Kelly, for the encouragement the day I made these in her studio.

We also make little gifts to share with everyone else.  This year I decided to use some of my needle felting and made barrettes for everyone.  I figure if they don't want to wear in their hair, they can attach to clothing.

So here's a basket of barrettes.  I've enjoyed looking at them all month.  Love the colors.

Getting Ready for Spring

I can hear the frogs croaking again at night and am wakened by the birds singing in the morning.  Nugget, our cat, wants to be outside all the time.  It's nearly Spring and although it hasn't been a particularly difficult winter in the Pacific Northwest, I can honestly say I'm ready for warmer days.  I've never liked shoes and being able to ditch the slippers and go barefoot at night is one of my greatest comforts.

My sister's birthday is this month.  Although 2 years younger than I am, Cyndi has been retired for at least five years.  She raises butterflies in her backyard in San Diego.  She has milkweed plants and other plants that caterpillars love in pots throughout her yard.  The caterpillars munch on the plants.  When big enough, they attach themselves to the eves of her house and garage and spin their cocoons.  When the time is right, butterflies emerge and flutter around.  I have to say it's quite magical to stand midst them.

In honor of Cyndi's beloved hobby, I created a mixed media piece for her.  I'll mail it to her next week and hope that she likes it.

Groundhog Day

I have discovered that blogs require time, dedication and consistency.  Those seem to be three items of which I seem to lack large quantities.  Nevertheless, here it is, a few weeks since my last post and I've been busy creating.

Yesterday I went to my friend, Kelly's house, for an afternoon of art.  Kelly has a drop dead gorgeous studio that she and her husband built last year.  I mean, it is GORGEOUS!!!  Set up with great speakers for music, lovely views into the woods, tremendous space that inspires me.  Kelly always provides a delicious spread of healthy foods and a yummy wine to quaff as we create.  And we take breaks from our creating and chat and munch and share what we've done.  I really love playing with her.

So yesterday I brought my felting machine.  I set out a piece of green felt for backing and proceeded to lay down layers of roving and felt away.  The machine was making more noise that it normally does, and the process was taking longer.  I pulled out the instructions and discovered I probably need to replace the needles.  That didn't stop me yesterday, but I will do the needle replacing job before I use the machine again.

Anyhow, Kelly gave me a great idea for the cuffs I'm making (stay tuned for pics).  I created a bunch of barrettes after finishing the felting.  I'm stoked with what I did - but just wish I'd been a bit more careful hauling the machine and my supplies in one big bag.  Next time I'll break it down into two smaller bags so that I'm not faced with back and arm aches the day after.

A MARS zine

For the past two years, and again this April, I will fly to MARS.  Not the planet, although that would be interesting to do, too.  No, this MARS is the Mountain Art Retreat Sleepover.  It's held in the Sierra mountains, above Grass Valley.  About 25 women haul their art supplies with them to this wonderful retreat area, a YMCA camp.  We set ourselves up at our space at a table and for 3 days we create art.  Or we just visit, laugh, eat, drink wine, laugh, eat some more, and then wander back to our spaces to create more art.  It's really, really fun.  As several of my friends there have said, "I'm spending time with my tribe."

I come back home feeling really refreshed, inspired, relaxed and ready to create more art.  I love MARS.  I so very much enjoy hanging out with these women I only first met two years ago and yet whom I feel I've known for a long, long time.

So this year Lindsay Ostrom asked us if we'd like to contribute a page to the MARS zine.  I said yes, although I've never even read a zine.  But I checked it out on Wikipedia:

A zine (pron.: /ˈziːn/ zeen; an abbreviation of fanzine, or magazine) is most commonly a small circulation self-published work of original and/or appropriated texts and images usually reproduced via photocopier. 

And I decided "I can do this."  And so I did.  Very fun and I look forward to seeing the finished zine.  Thanks to Lindsay for spearheading this process.

A Prime Number Day

This morning as I was driving into work I was trying to remember what the date was (I've been out of it for the past week - sicker than I've been in many years).  I realized it was a prime number day 1-7-13.  Not being a number person, I was proud of myself for even thinking of it.

On the weekend I started to feel better after literally spending 18+ hours per day sleeping during the week.  Whatever crud I had - it laid me low.  So I was glad when I felt better, and felt creative.  I decided to try my hand at my friend, Lindsay Ostrom's, monthly challenge.  Her challenge for January is entitled Home Sweet Home.

She asked us to look around our houses and find something that we really like that has sort of become "invisible" - or at least that's how I interpreted the instructions.  We were then to draw or write or do something to highlight that item.  She'd written her blog from a Starbucks because the power was out at her house.  What I picked up from her blog was that she doesn't like coffee.

That statement prompted me to think of my hourglass coffee maker which I just LOVE.  It's a coffee maker that allows me to brew coffee with cold water.  I got it a couple of years ago and it's the coffee I regularly make around here.  Basically, you grind your beans and put them in the basket, you pop the basket into the bottom of the hourglass.  You pour cold water over the beans.  You screw the top on and put the gizmo onto a shelf for a couple of days.  You wind up with what I refer to as coffee extract.  The extract is stored in the "bean kanteen".

To make a cup of coffee you heat water, put two cupfuls of extract into your cup and fill up with hot water.  I make mine by heating milk in the microwave, putting most of it in the cup with the extract then topping off with hot water.  The remaining milk I froth with my mini frother.  Basically, I'm making myself my own cappuccino.  LOVE IT.

Anyway, I chose to draw this great kitchen tool.  I colored it with watercolor pencils and then decided to chance it and actually added water with a brush.  I think it's a pretty accurate rendering of the item.  But I took some photos of it and will add one or two of them, too.

Ah coffee, with less acid from this type of brewing, it's yummy.

A New Year - A First Post

It's January 3rd, 2013.  I've been nursing a cold since Sunday.  Only maybe it's the flu.  Low grade fever, racking cough, runny nose.  It's just lovely being me this week.  True to my normal way of dealing with being sick, I've tried to sleep my way through it.  Done a good job of it too, 18+ hours per day of sleeping.  Think it's working though, at least I'm feeling slightly better this morning and my head isn't pounding as much as it has.

So, this is my first post on this blog.  I've tried starting one before and didn't follow through.  I've never been a journaler or diary keeper.  Oh, I will start with the greatest of good intentions but I lack follow through.  Perhaps it's my Gemini brain, I keep flitting from idea to idea.

  

Anyhow, I'm giving it the proverbial "old college try" again and will see where this goes.  I'd like to post photos of art projects I work/play on in my collaborative art group, UGRA (Underground Railroad Artists).  I've photos locked in my computer.  If I add them here, at least they'll be more accessible.  I really don't have a plan, will just fool around with this and see where it goes, and hope I can develop some follow through in 2013.

The above photo is a pale shot of some felted cuffs and little matchbook paper tablets I made.  I stole the idea for the tablets from Janet Chance, an UGRAette.  I colored card stock and cut copy paper to fit, stapling it inside.  On the outside of them I wrote "Notes to Self".  Gave a bunch of them away at Christmas.

The felted cuff idea was stolen from Cloth, Paper, Scissors.  I've made and given away quite a few of them.  People have told me I could sell either of these items.  My problem is figuring out how to feel comfortable marketing my stuff, not to mention coming up with an appropriate price.  The other, perhaps bigger problem, is that old Gemini brain.  I've made 'em, I'm bored, move onto something new.

Maybe that's my resolution for 2013 - to take advantage of Lindsay Ostrom's (another UGRAette) 52 week challenge this year.  Pick one thing and do it each week.  If I do that, I may see progress and improvement in my artfuller life.