Action

Action is The antidote to despair! Joan Baez

I took a little creative action this morning and sliced up yesterday's watercolor strips the other way...and now I have a watercolor mosaic! Each little square is just 3/8 of an inch. I think it's kind of magical...and it looks prettier in person.

I might turn this into a birthday card....I just have to come up with the best way to use it.

Every day there seems to be worse news than the day before as our country is in chaos and our democracy is under attack. But I still have to believe that in the end things will be OK. In the meantime we have to remember that action is the antidote to despair.

And as the sign says...we have to LOVE MORE....and find a little joy everyday. 

Paul and I attended the Hands Off Protest in Portland today.

It was an amazing and energizing event and far more people than I expected. It was reassuring to see so many like minded people taking action. 

I got to chatting with a woman next to me...and she knew some people who were up in one of the tall buildings looking down on Monument Square watching the event. They sent her a video from their vantage point...and she sent it to me. 

Here's a screenshot from the video. That's Paul and me in the bottom middle with the yellow arrow. We were really packed in there...and everyone was so kind and friendly. A peaceful protest at its best!

It was nice to have Senator Angus King show up and say a few words.

This is a moral moment. It is not left or right, it is right or wrong. Cory Booker

Skinny Strips

Jane asked me to return this wool cutter to Patsy. It's used for cutting wool strips for rug hooking and I think it looks like a funky antique. 

It's been in our car for several weeks.....but it turns out that Pasty had a second one and asked me if I wanted it. I don't hook rugs...but I do play with wool strips....so I put it back in the car and brought it home.

I got to thinking today that if it can cut wool...can it cut fabric? Paper? Yes it can. I tried it out on all kinds of things today including a loose watercolor.

I know I can cut paper with my long arm slicer...but this little cutter cuts 3 perfectly even skinny strips at a time. And it's kind of fun to operate. It feels special.

I didn't have too much time to play with the strips...but I think there's lots of potential for all kinds of perfectly cut skinny strips.

With the right focal point...this could be really interesting.

And if I cut this the other way and put it back together....I would have a teeny tiny watercolor mosaic. That's another day.

Yes, I can cut paper on my slicer...but I can't cut fabric....and skinny strips are tedious with the rotary cutter. 

The wool cutter easily sliced through this fused papel of hand dyed fabrics.

Oh....the possibilities of all kind of skinny strips!

Forced Spring

Paul and I transitioned from the Down East coast back to the condo today....we had such a good time with our dear friends. 

When we left the buds on these my second set of forsythia branches were tightly closed...and when we came home they were in full bloom. 

We had a little snow...a little sleet...and a lot of light rain during the drive home....so some forced spring was a welcomed sight.

Photo Dump

As the Maine welcome signs say: Welcome to Maine, The Way Life Should Be.

Here's a quick photo dump from a fabulous day in Maine. The way life should be.

A view from the balcony.

Charming downtown Eastport Maine....our destination for breakfast.

The view of Patsy and Brian's house from the other side of Sipp Bay.

A lovely hike around Sipp Bay.....I loved the blue trail sign.

Quintessential Maine coast views.

And still lots of time for cards. And if you can decipher a few of the columns here...you'll know that the girls ruled in euchre and pinochle! 

Patsy uses every inch of this score book I made for her two years ago! She writes down every score of every game she plays with anyone. And she plays a lot of games. 

Good Things

I was able to connect the top to the bottom on this beautiful wooden puzzle during breakfast!  That was a good thing!

And I made good use of the car ride...and cut and folded the first 100 the 300 Christmas matchbox covers.

That's a good thing.

I was pretty tickled with my set-up where I taped a box on the corner of the board to hold everything in my lap. It worked perfectly! I'll do a 100 more on the trip home.  

And when we got to Perry we took a deep breath and soaked in the beautiful view and an enjoyed a great meal and an evening of cards with our dear friends.

That's a really good thing.

Spring and Summer Colors

I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for." Georgia O' Keeffe

Dreaming about spring and summer colors while making a snippet color wheel. Or is it a rainbow wreath? Either way....it's a joy thing.

And here's a little color in the still snowy backyard....a fabulous found object! Well done Paul!

Happy Transgender Day of Visibility. I stand with my trans friends and family!

Paul and I are hitting the road tomorrow. Our destination is Perry, Maine to spend a few nights with our dear friends Patsy and Brian. 

And it gives me a chance to post one of my little little maps. We'll take a more direct route....but we won't mind the four hour drive.

There will be good food and conversation. And there will be lot of laughter and cards. Just the distraction we both need.

Timing for my post nuggets might be a little later than usual the next couple of nights.

It OnlyTakes Two

It only takes two to get a conversation going....and it only takes two to do some joyful puttering. I actually do pretty well on my own...but I wanted to try and widen my joy circle a bit.

I'm trying something new at the Handiwork Studio and Market here in Portland. 

The hope is to have a monthly Joyful Puttering session doing simple art projects with anyone who is interested...and my first session was yesterday. 

I'm not charging for these sessions...but I welcome donations to Maine Needs.

We had snow in the morning so that may have impacted attendance. I was hoping for at least two to get things rolling....and that's just what I got. I was thrilled to putter with with Amanda and her daughter Isabelle...and Margot came near the end and might come next time.

We started with simple strip collaging from my recycled cards left over from my Words of Encouragement project....and this particular color scheme that Isabelle created really caught my eye. She cut it up to make bookmarks.

We had a delightful conversation about our art and interests and some of the things they would like to work on. They thought they had friends that might be interested next time and maybe even a few younger kids.

I made cards to hand out with a little bit of my story and contact information and I stitched on some snippets for color and interest. That prompted our next project.

Next time we will collage with my vast supply of snippets and collage paper scraps. I will introduce snippet rolls and snippet color wheels that will be user friendly for kids. 

We'll see how it goes and it if catches on. But really...it only takes two! 

I Love a Parade!

I had to dig deep to find joy in the snow today.

We got about 5 inches...and I wasn't even tempted to get out in it this time.

It's pretty...but it's almost April and in general I'm over it.

But the snowy inspiration word worked to my advantage 
in the Wordle puzzle this morning!

I'm having no trouble at all finding joy in this fabulous wooden puzzle gifted to me by Amy and Lisle. 

Do you see the frog that I just added this morning? 

I've done this puzzle once with Patsy and Jane while we were together in Perry. 

We were all working on different sections so I don't remember that at the very top there is a parade of dancing people. They go in upside down....so I had to flip the photo to share the celebration. 

I do love a parade!

It reminds me of my favorite parade above my front door. What I love most about this parade is that it's led by a little girl.

My sister Angie drew it with with a sharpie and it's one of my favorite pieces of art!

She projected a small image she found onto a piece of paper that was taped to the wall...then filled it in with sharpie. She was so talented in so many areas...and she is dearly missed. 

Figuring It Out

There's really not a difficult thing unless you decide it's a difficult thing. Otherwise it's just the next thing you're figuring out. Flying Edna

Using an idea I've seen here and there I forged into this accordion project for a birthday card without searching for basic directions. Next time I'll do things a little differently because I like the concept. It's just another thing to figure out.

I cut out a butterfly from a book I found at a thrift store...and used some of my greeting card strips for the cover.

I cut out another butterfly and traced it on two different kinds of paper and glued them onto an accordion folded piece of heavy paper. The last butterfly is a colorful landscape scene. 

My accordion folds are WAY too big. Smaller and shorter folds would have allowed for more folds...and more butterflies making it much more impactful. 

It's impossible to cut around the antenna....so I came up with an idea of how to add them back in after. I dissolved a few small scraps of water soluble fabric to create a slurry and soaked some black thread. 

It was stiff when it dried so worked well for the antenna. 

 

(I don't like that I can see the fold above the butterflies...smaller folds next time!)

Altered Art Journal

I've already mentioned that I have been working on an altered art journal for Becky. I altered one for myself based on a Sketchbook Challenge class I took from Design Matters Art and Craft School....and I've been slowly working in it for several years years. There are LOTS of posts on the blog of my progress under the label art journal.

Starting with a commercial sketchbook Becky sent me....I ripped down pages and stitched in bits of art and ephemera from her pile. This eliminates some of those intimidating blank pages and giving some of the page spreads a jumping off point for whatever she wants to do.  

I just finished...and her art journal is sufficiently altered and I will take it to her at the end of April when I visit.  So I can't reveal the whole thing...but I can give you and Becky a little sneak peak at a couple pages.

I left ALL the threads for Becky to do what she wants with.

Some of the page edges are wrapped....making it quite colorful from the side.

Every page is not altered so there are plenty of pages that are blank and whole for Becky to do whatever she wants. 

I thought this was the perfect card to put near the front...and it layered perfectly with a beautiful watercolor that Becky did.

And I love that the It's your turn card is from a heating and cooling company...a perfect found piece of ephemera. I examine every paper product that comes into my house. Is it something or nothing? (That's actually a line from Becky.)

I cut out and stitched on this lovely watercolor tree Becky painted on the edge of one page...

and layered a doodle and a gelli print on another. I really enjoyed pairing and layering the papers.

Becky's is the blue one...and mine is black. I have  six or eight pages or so left in mine.....and Becky has years of creating ahead of her in her altered art journal.