A Week of Hope

Hope is what we do when the odds are long and the options limited. It is the stubborn act of trying when despair feels easier. Rather than passive optimism, hope is the commitment of those who believe they can make a difference, however small. 

Hope is not a promise. It is not a guarantee of success. It is the courage to act in the face of uncertainty. And right now, in this fragile moment for our democracy, it it the most important responsibility we share. Marc Ellis

Today if the first Sunday of Advent....and this is the week of HOPE.

While I was putting the second layer on the tree today....it rained tiny ice pellets that looked like a million tiny snowballs. I couldn't wait to get my hands on them! It wasn't snow...but it was festive...and it added a spring to my step and I hung the felt garlands and sparkly light covers on the tree.

I will save the special ornaments for December 2nd.... Shupe Tree Day. It's a sentimental family holiday.

This tiny fiber optic tree from Becky always puts a smile on my face.

I love the festive lights of the season. 

May we carry hope in our hearts....and collectively have the courage to make a difference in our very troubled world. 

Wonderful Whirlwind!

What a wonderful whirlwind of celebrations over the past couple of days. A refreshing change from our mostly quiet lives. 

Today was Paul's birthday. North headed back to Denver...so the house was quiet again. We both did exactly what we wanted and needed to do which included a delightful walk on a trail through the woods and I got the bare bones of the Christmas tree up. 

Thanksgiving leftovers with a slice of apple pie and a scoop of ice cream topped off the birthday.

Happy Weekend After Thanksgiving from the Shupe Family!

And Happy Birthday Paul!

And it was nice to have a few of the cousins together.

Hem for a Lifetime

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.

Today was just packed with outings and family....more on that in the quiet of tomorrow. 

This morning before all the festivities I taught Langston how to hand stitch....so he could repair the hem on his pants. I loved every minute. 

I could have done it for him...but teach him how to hem and he can hem for a lifetime. 

You can read about another time I gave Langston  sewing lesson in this post: https://joyfulputtering.blogspot.com/2022/11/quick-study.html

Extra Family

Our nephew Langston took the red-eye last night from Denver to Boston...and the bus from Boston to Portland this morning.

What a treat to have extra family for Thanksgiving. The boys and Kelly will join us tomorrow for another family gathering. 

Before the three of us had our Thanksgiving dinner this afternoon...we spent the morning taking Langston to our favorite spots on the coast.

I made a few photo montages for Alyson, Langston's mom...

so I thought I would share them here too. I love Maine!

Dinner, Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

I loved hearing from so many of you today! Thank you for taking the time to comment or reach out by email after yesterday's post. It was fun post for me to write...and I'm tickled at the response. 

A big shout out to all of those people in our collective lives who let us shine...and ramble on! 

Paul and I had dinner with Dana and Anne last evening....I had breakfast with Marita this morning...a quiet lunch with my puzzle to recharge....and dinner and dominos with Paul this evening. Connecting with each other and taking time for quiet things that bring us joy is what this season is all about. It's really what every day is about.

Along with the little Pooh characters on my window sill....I Give Thanks for all the blessings in my life.

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Let Them Shine!

The most underrated act of kindness is letting people be. Let them mispronounce a word, talk too much about a show they love, or get excited about something you don't understand. Everyone's got something that lights them up. Let them shine, even if it's not your thing. Jay Shetty

When this quote scrolled across my screen I felt like it was written for me. And it's a great reminder for all of us as we gather with friends and family during this holiday season. Let's let others shine!

I mispronounce words and mix my metaphors all the time. I talk way too much about a show I'm loving right now and can go on and on about the details of project or new idea that excites me. Many of these things are not Paul's thing....but he listens to me anyway. I obsess about menus for family gatherings and I have odd little quirks about ridiculous things around the condo that Paul puts up with....humors...and mostly radically accepts. But almost always...he let's me shine.

Thank you Paul....for this underrated act of kindness and love. And thank you for this lovely found object...perfect for this week of Thanksgiving. 

And thank you to those of you who continue to follow along here as I ramble on and on and on about this and that. Thank you for looking past my typos and syntax errors....because writing has never been my strong suit but I do it anyway. (I had to look up syntax to make sure I used it correctly.) 

I've been writing about my joyful puttering every day for almost 11 years now...and it still lights me up. 

I hope there are things that light you up...and I hope you join me as we let each other shine!

That Moment

Subtitle: It Feels Like Magic

Sometimes joy looks like that moment when you notice your wire vine has leaves that are like tiny saucers. 

I took my wire vine to the sink to water....and I also gave it a little shower. I was absolutely smitten with the way the water pooled up on the concave leaves. 

And joy sometimes feels like that moment when watering my plant led to an idea that will end up becoming one of the repeated themes in my Playful Pages art journal.

I love Rebecca Chapman's use of black and white transparent tissue photos in her work....but I was struggling with the prints I made from my photos. 

I love the simple lines and round leaves of the a wire vine...so why not copy them like I did the ferns a few days ago! I already had some pressed....so off to the printer I went.

I placed some of the pressed vines on the printer bed....fed my taped tissue through the paper feed...and printed in black and white.

I love the result...other than the positioning over the tape. 

I found more vines I had hiding in books and made 3 or 4 prints to cut up and use throughout the journal. I started by adding to the cover. It was either going to work...or not. 

I added swatches of the tissue prints using matt medium. I put down a thin layer of medium and placed the tissue with the printed side DOWN so the ink would run. I carefully smoothed it out and topped it off with another layer of medium. The medium makes the edges of the tissue nearly disappear. I cut the pieces smaller than the cover on purpose.....then using a black pen I extended the lines of the vines so they would go of the edges of the covers. I also added a few more leaves here and there. The vines were just the focal point! It worked! 

I'm going to enjoy all the moments I incorporate the

wire vine prints into my little Playful Pages journal. 

It feels like magic!

It Can Wait!

Melissa Kirsch's newsletter in the New York Times yesterday was was called Pushing Off...and headlined three words that were reassuring to hear. It Can Wait!

Where has the time gone....I can't believe Thanksgiving is just a few days away. The holiday season has its own engine...Melissa writes...one that's been gaining momentum since Halloween and will shift into even higher gears as we hit the straightaway that leads to the year's end. There's an urgency that can feel both exciting and overwhelming.

My latest finished puzzle.
I LOVED IT!!!

While we prepare for and savor the holiday season there is no way we can do it all. Whether it's art projects or the chores still on the do list...you can't do it all. Some of it can wait. Some of it has to.

I finally feel like I have a bit of creative momentum...and I hope to find a little time each day to keep the spark alive. But some of it is just going to have to wait until after the holidays. It's time to get the guest room ready for our lone Thanksgiving house guest and do a deep clean of the condo. There's still some shopping to do and preparations for Thanksgiving...Paul's birthday and all the family gatherings that will happen in the next week. Then there's Christmas decorating....and I really want to savor all that holiday joyful puttering.

But....I did want to share a little peak at the inside Playful Pages of my newest handmade art journal. I DO hope this is one project that doesn't have to wait until January.

These are just the bones....the background pages that are already layered....overlapping in interesting ways. But they are just the beginning of the journey I am taking with Rebecca Chapman's Playful Pages class.  

I had an incredibly productive day getting all kinds of things checked off my list...including another step in the journal that I can't wait and share tomorrow.

Just look at these puzzle colors!

The colors and the vintage vibe coordinates with my journal!

Maybe IT....will become part of my inspiration!

"Playful Pages" Cover

I counted at least 80 ducks on the pond today! What fun it was to hear all the honking and watch them playing round. They're all on their way somewhere...but I'm so glad they stopped by for a visit!  

I used a heavy calendar page as the base for the cover of my Playful Pages art journal. I cut swatches of the painted papers and randomly patched together them like a crazy quilt attaching them to the calendar with a glue stick. I folded the edges over to the back and covered the inside cover with vintage floral paper. This is just a base layer.....I will likely add more as I go along with the class.

This two sided vintage looking paper was the inspiration color scheme for the papers and the book. It reminds me of the wall paper at my grandmother's house...maybe that's why I was drawn to it. I used a little on the cover and will incorporate it here and there inside too. I'll share the inside pages tomorrow.

I was also compelled to do a few more prints using brighter colors as the underpainting.  And they coordinate with the vintage inspiration paper too!

Powder Prints

This frosty leaf was my favorite find on my walk this morning....it has a bit of a swirl! 

And what's not to love about this beauty. 

Before I start sharing my Playful Pages journal, I thought I would backtrack a little and share more about the process of gelli printing with paint and baby powder. When I'm working with the gelli plate it's hard to take photos because I work fairly quickly...and I get so absorbed that I just forget. But I'm going to try and explain how I made these three prints.

I'll start by saying that I got the idea of using powder from two artists I admire. It's much easier to see the process in their Instagram videos than in my photos. 

Here's a post by Drew Steinbrecher. 

I was also very inspired by this post by Brigit Koopsen. Now I want to do more with multiple colors. 

I rolled a thin layer of paint on the plate...it was a mixture of blues and greens.

I sprinkled baby powder OVER the paint....and it will act as a resist.

If you use the powder on the first print...you will get white spaces in the print. If you don't want the white spaces...start with a sheet already painted.

This is the first print...and you can see that there is still quite a bit of paint on the plate....and the powder is mostly there too. It looks like that's powder on the print...and some of it is...but some of it is also the white paper showing. You can brush off the the excess power on the print with your hand or a damp cloth...or just leave it. 

I always used a "junk sheet" to quickly pull up extra paint on the plate after a print. I use the same sheet over and over and it often gets interesting. 

I thought the first print was a little dark and...and I wanted to soften it and create even more texture. 

So I applied another layer of paint to the plate...this time a lighter blue and green with a little white mixed in. I sprinkled more powder...and printed over the SAME print. It lighted it up...and doubled the texture...even after I brushed off the powder. 

I used the same junk sheet to try and get more wet paint off the plate. 

This is what the plate looked like after the two prints. There is still powder residue...AND remember there is paint trapped UNDER the powder. 

I spread a thin layer of white paint over the whole plate and pressed a clean sheet of paper onto the plate and let it sit there for about a minute. That fresh paint helps clean the plate and pull up most of the paint. 

These clean the plate pick up prints are always some of my favorites....you never know what you're going to get. And I particularly like this one. 

The white paint mixes with the bits of color still on the plate to create a dreamy background. That dark blue was trapped under the powder....now it's back on top. So much scrumptious texture!  

And here's my clean up junk sheet that I used in between prints to remove any remaining wet paint. 

To fill it in a bit....I put just a drop of aqua paint on the plate with a spritz of water. I smeared it around with my brayer creating almost the consistency of watercolor. You don't need much! 

Then I took one last print with the junk sheet. The watered down paint fills in the white spaces and gives me a usable print...or the base for another print. Layer...layer...layer. 

"Playful Pages"

Subtitle: Transparent Photos

I looked closely at the frost in the grass this morning...and spied this clover leaf surrounded with ice crystals. It made me smile.

One of my motivations for making double sided gelli prints is to use them in my handmade art journals. So using some of my recent powder prints...I'm going to assemble another little journal following along with a class with Rebecca Chapman's.

I enjoy Rebecca's loose style and her use of hand painted papers and transparent black and white photography. I signed up for her Playful Pages mini course a while back....I watched the videos but never actually made a journal using her technique. Now it the time....we'll see how it goes. I struggle being loose....but I'm going to try.

In this Instagram post Rebecca features some of her mini collages using black and white transparent photos. I love her use of the photos!

It all starts with prep work...and preparing some cohesive papers was a start. I also needed to print some of my photographs in black and white on tissue paper. 

Rebecca showed us her way...but I did it my way by taping the tissue to a sheet of computer paper and run it through the printer with the tape side heading in first. It works great! 

I put the pressed ferns right on my pinter bed and photocopied them. I forgot to change it to black and white so the first print is green.  It actually looks like the ferns are sitting right on the tissue! 

I like the nice clean background rather than the grayed backgrounds from the photos above. So I think I will play with the settings in photos to lighten background....or I can remove it entirely in my Pages program. It's time to play...for Playful Pages. 

I'll keep you posted.

Hard Frost

November at its best has a sort of delightful menace in the air. Anne Bosworth Greene

We've been just a bit frosty in the past few weeks...but last night was the first noticeable hard frost. Delightfully menacing. 

It's time for Mother Nature to rest for the winter.