ATC's: more Hand-Drawn

The two themes here were "Artist's Choice" and "Lanscape." I did "Psychedelic Lady" for my choice, and since I don't do good landscapes, I cheated and made little tiny "Landscaping" maps for a path. This was a very fun swap to make cards for, I just hope I like the ones I get in return.

ATC's: more Hand-Drawn

The first one on top here is a cat theme, and it's my favorite: "Cat Spaceship." It's based on some drawings in a really fun children's book called The Truth About Cats. The second on top is, you guessed it, trees. I call mine "Modular Tree." The bottom one is on fish, and mine is called "Prehistoric Fish" based on some Walter Anderson artwork I saw in a show here at the Bell Museum.

ATC's: Hand-Drawn

These were for an ATC swap through Swap-Bot, and most of the themes were chosen so I had to come up with my own interpretations. "Professor Plum(p)" was for the theme "faces," and mine is based on an illustration from the classic version of the game Clue. The Self-Portrait was, well, you know, based on me. The bottom left one's theme was "Egypt" and I just looked up an image of Nefertiti on the internet. I call mine "Nefertiti's cousin" because mine is not as pretty as the image I saw. So I thought her cousin might be a little more manly-looking. She probably has a moustache. The dragon is from a super cute dragon I saw on Art.com that I can no longer find.

What Are you Thankful For?

Thanksgiving approaches. Life is a little chaotic right now. My Dad is in the hospital and far away and it's tough cuz I can't do anything from here. I'm going through a medical thing myself and having lots of headaches and other side effects. I finished my first quilt top and it's gorgeous and I love it. I got promoted at the library and am supposed to go to training on the Monday after Thanksgiving but my medical thing is going to interfere so I'll have to put it off another two weeks--I hope my boss won't think bad of me. Good, bad, happy, sad. All seems to be compressed right now into a very short time period, like a TV mini-series.

I like Thanksgiving and thinking about the things I'm thankful for. I'm thankful in particular for my Dad, who's mellowed in his retirement and is really fun and silly now. I love him when he tells me stories about his life, even when I've heard them before. I'm thankful that he's gone back to an early love--singing, and his life has been enriched immeasurably by his singing group. I'm thankful that I got to go to a concert of his this year and hear him solo on his favorite song: How Great Thou Art. I knew he was a good singer, but he brought tears to my eyes when he sang that, both because he was so good and because you could feel his enthusiasm. I'm thankful that he doesn't take things too seriously and can laugh at himself, which is always a good lesson for me. He's still my role model, which is really satisfying to realize sometimes.

I gotta go call the hospital and see how he's doing.

Dia de los Muertos Postcard exhibit winners

These are the winners from the exhibit. They got their postcards printed up for the MCBA store into sets with 2 of each winner. I bought a set and was kind of annoyed to discover that they didn't even acknowlege the artists by name on the back of the postcards. It just says something like "one of the postcards from the blah-blah-blah exhibit." Kind of lame. As far as the winners themselves, I liked them pretty well. I felt like my art compared well with everyone else who entered. I don't really like that one red winner, though. I just don't think it's that well done. It seems kind of slapped together. I really like the lizard, he's cool. I think that's my favorite. And the yarn one is really fun, I like that, too.

Dia de los Muertos postcards

Mine is the one with the family group against a blue background.

Dia de los Muertos postcards

Mine is the one with bowls of ice cream under the skulls.

Dia de los Muertos postcards

Mine is the one with the slices of pie under the skulls. I really like the one to the left of mine.

Dia de los Muertos postcards

Mine are the guitar guy and the one right below it with the skulls on a pastel background

Dia de los Muertos Postcard exhibit at MCBA

This is the exhibit I have cards in. Some really fun entries, I hope they do this again next year.

Nancy Drew deco

This is a page I created in a small deco for a group I'm in online. The theme is Nancy Drew with a Twist, and the twist is your interpretation based on one of the actual Nancy Drew book titles. So I chose one with "crossword" in the title--The Clue in the Crossword Cipher, #44-- because I have this great crossword puzzle rubber stamp. Then I found an image of a cipher (some coded text) and messed about with that, ripping it up and inking the edges to make them look burnt. And the photo is a real vintage photo of some mystery lady. I chose her because I thought she looked sort of worried and nervous, good for a mystery.

Not a Very Jolly Jester

J. got this cute jester outfit for Cocoa for Halloween but she was not amused. She did agree to wear the collar but the hat was out, no way.

My First Quilt Square!

Hooray! I'm so proud. I am taking a beginning sampler class at this wonderful store in Minneapolis called Glad Creations. The instructor is an absolute slave driver, but I'm really learning a lot and I would totally recommend her as a teacher. That little black toe in the bottom left corner is Cocoa helping me take the picture by putting her paw on the quilt. Such a good doggie.