Page 13 and 14 - Sketchbook

Now, this is fun.  I had the RedStripe Beer caps sitting around because I have always thought they were pretty.  I flattened them out mostly and glued enough pages together to accommodate the weight of them and suddenly they became round-abouts in the map.  The color match was really close, and one thing just led to another... 

Pages 11 - 12 Sketchbook

this has gold candy paper in it and started life as a photo from maybe the cloisters... or maybe somewhere else.

Pages 9 and 10 - Sketchbook

Pages 7 and 8 - Sketchbook

It Snowed AGAIN!!

Pages 5 and 6 Sketchbook

This is shiny, with the trees being dark behind the cutout.  

pages 3 and 4 of the Sketchbook

This was the format I used for all the pages, info on the left, work on the right.

I'm Knitting Bling

The color is a little off, and I only have one ball of Artyarns Beaded Cashmere and Sequins which I just decided I NEEDED and of course I did not NEED but I am enjoying playing with it. There is not much of it in a skein so I am making a little cowl and just doing the pattern from the Yarn Harlot although I don't have enough to finish it I will do a couple of rows that will roll inward and call it a day before I completely run out. Bling is hard to see, but it is pretty and I have never knit with it before so when done and I can find a model I will show you the finished project. I bought it at the marketplace at the Vogue Knitting Live show that was at the NY Hilton this weekend. I just did the marketplace on Sat afternoon but it was great fun and I got to fondle a lot of yarn that I might have otherwise missed.

Sketchbook Pages 1 and 2

These were the rules I set for myself.....more pages to follow.  I only did 20, because I had to glue a lot of pages together to make it possible to do all the glue things I did, so this won't go on forever...

The Sketchbook Project Book

I know everyone thought that I hadn't completed this sketchbook/journal because I was so quiet about it, but I DID finish it. I did a lot of glueing together of pages and set myself some rules because I wasn't sure I could do it. I am delighted that I got it in the mail before I went to Las Vegas for the wedding of the century and I am delighted to be able to show you the cover, since I scanned it all before I sent it.

I did rules for myself... no new material in the sketchbook at all. Everything had to already be in the house already. I had to just FINISH it somehow and send it to the ArtHouse Coop and then I could take a deep breath. No evaluating it beforehand. So every now and then I am going to show you a page or two and you can join me in my big sigh of relief.

For those who know all the stories

Leslie, Danny and me. We are joined forever, especially on days like January 13, 2011 ..........
and aren't we all lucky!!

after lots of snow and other excitement

I went to Las Vegas for this! They really look happy, don't they? They had just managed to light that center candle without setting the dress on fire. This was, in her eyes, a MAJOR accomplishment.

It's obvious she is going somewhere...

Him: "You going too?"
Her: " At least I fit in here Fat Boy!"
Him: "But are YOU going too?????"
Her: "I don't think so, but if I squinch down a little more I think I can"

Me: "Dream on, both of you"

Rosa Mexicano near Lincoln Center

Has this wonderful blue wall of cliff divers. There is water running down the wall most of the time and I love the effect.

Did you?

"Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?"

-- A.A. Milne, author

The gift of a Tutorial

No, not MY tutorial!! my friend Gill over on An Elegant Sufficiency has a tutorial on making these wonderfully useful bags. How do I know how useful they are? Well, I was one of the lucky recipients of a gift bag from Gill this Christmas and you can see from the picture above how I have put it into action. It is a great size for all those odd items that ... since I am an avid subscriber to the "pile" system of organization ... make my organization slide around on the desk and degenerate into messiness immediately.

I can assure you that they are easy to make, I found myself thinking "I can do that!" and I should do that because the organization method I most prefer would benefit from one of these bags in every room and just looking at mine makes me smile.

This was a while ago, but I love them..

These statues were in the plaza around Columbus at Columbus Circle I think in October, I know, but it was during the time I was among the missing here and I just found them. Sort of Velasquez meets chessboard...

and then there was this....

This was for Wendy and Aldo's new baby. I barely finished it in time for the shower, so this is the only picture I have of it. All sock yarn, the pattern from Mason Dixon knitting that I keep coming back to and lots and lots of Garter stitch. It was fun to see how sock yarn that I would NEVER have used together became part of a good looking whole. Kaffe Fassett is SO right. When it starts to look wonky, don't rip out, add MORE color.

Work

This is what I have been working on for a while. It finally made it to the wires. There are beads on the points, which you can't really see in this shot, but they give it a little weight at the bottom and they sparkle a little too..

we're gonna play ball...right?

For the past 6 months this ball (or its predecessor) has joined us on every walk we have taken. Sienna always carries it on the same side of her mouth and has learned to bark around it when she wants to. It originally functioned as a mute. Now, not so much.