MORE Excuses!

Today's excuse?  It's too tidy in here!

OK already!  Enough!  

My sewing room is now as tidy and clean (dusted, vacuumed, windows washed, Christmas fabric put away) as the rest of the house. I am afraid to go in there because I don't want to mess it up.

I have a plan (and the ingredients) for dinner - chicken breasts with a white wine/mushroom gravy, asparagus and rice.  While I was thinking this dinner plan through, I thought perhaps a dollop of Dijon. Imagine my surprise when I found a Rachel Ray recipe using almost all the same ingredients as my plan. I have made the mushroom gravy. I think this may turn out to be delicious. (Update:  It was!)

Sadly, the vacuum cleaner is not working properly and needs to go to the vacuum cleaner fixing place.  A terrible state of affairs since I still have that one room to go and it is VERY dusty. Then, of course, the rest of the house will need vacuuming again ...  Happily, the vacuum cleaner fixing place is in the same mall as The Cactus Club ... and we haven't been there for several weeks for wonton and Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc!

I shall leave this blog for a while and return later - after I have created something.

Well, it turns out I did not create anything, but I brought out a piece of painted fabric/paper that I made this summer with my friend Becky.  I cut it into ATC size and ended up with about 20 cards.  I then started to put Kreinik braid and beads on two of them - until I jabbed the needle straight through the grown-over holes in my middle finger. I had forgotten how much that can hurt! I just packed all the paraphernalia up and put it away. Now my sewing room is back to where it was a few hours ago - tidy. I am beginning to think the creative switch that was turned on about 4 weeks ago has shut itself off again ... and I have not been for a walk for about four days.

I need to start taking pictures of things that I have made and putting copies in my altered book/ journal. The above is a picture one of the covers. It was made with pieces put together from a class I took with Pat Crucil (curved piecing) and with Barbara Shelly at the Thread Bear in North Van before we moved to the Island. I love it!  

I understand from a news clip that a Birmingham, England has eliminated the use of apostrophes on their road signs. I wish they had eliminated periods some years ago!

ArtsyQuilty Melty Experiment

I started to write a blog on January 25 and lost interest ... this actually all happened on January 26 ...

A scan of my experiment (8 3/4" x 7 1/4") with sheers, Textiva, Angelina, Walnut Hollow heat tool, metallic threads and free-motion embroidery on a piece of Kunin felt covered with a green metallicy fabric I bought to make something with for Christmas a few years ago. I am not too pleased with the colour, so I shall try the camera and see what happens to the colour with a photo, rather than the scan.

It HAS occurred to me that if I continue making small items, my stash will NEVER get used! I really must try something a bit larger.

Frank and I went to Qualicum Beach today to the Old School House to see the surface design exhibit. I liked some of the work, but I came away feeling like I am creative and do good work. We then went to an art supply store/stationers. At both places, I was spoken to as if I were an artist. It was just great. Then on to a quilt fabric store for a look-see. Lots of notions and fabric, but nothing I needed!

I have spent the evening in artsyquilty mode with the above piece doing a little more melting with the small pointy tip from the Walnut Hollow tool. It is a neat little gadget, but one needs to take care with the amount of pressure used as it gets very hot and melts the fibres quickly. Next to be added - beads I think, and maybe some hot-fix crystals - then a backing. I was originally planning to cut it up to make ATCs or APCs, but have decided against it because I like it the way it is.

I went for my walk today before we went to Qualicum Beach. The swans were in a different field and there were not as many as there had been. I love to watch them on these wonderful, bright, crisp, sunny days. Apparently we are expecting more snow tonight and tomorrow. 

The dining room is almost back to normal and even though I said I wouldn't be cleaning the glass and mirrors in the china and curio cabinets, I did and put the cleaned and dusted china, glasses and curio stuff back. The room now has a warm, rich look.  

Frank has put two coats of paint on one wall of the sun/living room with the vanilla-y/ caramelly colour. The remaining walls will  be the same orangey as in the dining room. It would be great if we could paint the windows too! They are old double-pane with broken seals with crud between the panes. Oh, and if we could paint the ugly carpet too ... 

Prince Visits

Rosie's Boy-Toy Prince, making himself at home on our chair.

I was right yesterday when I said I would not be spending a lot of time playing with artsyquilty stuff. I made myself available to the painter (Frank) to provide ice water, tea, coffee, paint tray cleaning, sanding-dust vacuuming and preparation of really yummy wraps for lunch, and super-yummy roast pork, mashed potatoes and gravy for dinner. He made his own G&T and my V&T when he was finished painting. The final result should be just great, as the Creamsicle colours looks great with the oak furniture.

Anyway, I just settled into artsyquilty mode and had the iron steaming when Helen phoned to let us know that she had a large amount of leftovers from her dinner party tonight and if we liked, she could bring them for dinner tomorrow night. So I guess HER stash will be used before it turns blue and furry in the fridge.

One wall in the dining room is finished with the second coat of orange paint and three other dining room walls have been given their first coat of the vanilla-y/caramelly paint.  Tomorrow's plan is to fill and sand one wall in the living room and finish the remaining second coat in the dining room. No cabinets will be cleaned until ALL sanding has been done - I just can't face the prospect of cleaning them twice. As a matter of fact, ongoing sanding is a great reason to do NO dusting or cleaning ... and I am quite happy not to! 

I shall provide more ice water, tea, coffee, paint tray cleaning and hold the door open for HMc when she gets here with dinner!

Perhaps I should NOT have torn off the ugly wallpaper ... I shall think twice before I do it again!

More Excuses!

Another cold, crisp, bright blue Vancouver Island day! I walked past the farm on Cedar Road and stopped to watch the swans. There must have been over 200 of them in the field.  I really must (a) learn to use the new camera and (b) take it with me when I go for walks. The cel phone camera really doesn't cut it! 

My friend Kass says it must be a sign of aging that I have started this blog. However, even though she may be younger than I, she shops on the shopping channel, but she did introduce me to Winners, so I can't be too picky about her shopping habits. Our late friend Susan would not use the the shopping channel because both of us were night owls and she was afraid I would recognize her voice if she called in to buy something. 

The painting of the dining room will commence tomorrow morning. This means that I have to empty the china and curio cabinets (I was planning to clean them anyway ... maybe not imminently, but sometime ...). I think this project may well count as 'using the stash' in that the paint colour has been mixed with paint from previous projects. We have enough orange for several walls, including the sunroom and dining room. We bought a rich creamy, vanillay-caramelly colour for the remaining walls. I think it should look great.  Rather like a very expensive Creamsicle.

The downside is that I probably won't be spending too much time with my artsyquilty stash or this blog for a few days.

The First ArtsyQuilty ATC

Back again after skipping a day or so.  Had dinner at Dianne's last night.  She lives in a trailer and had never had more than one person over for dinner before.  We had wine, shepherd's pie and lots of laughs.  She sent us home with leftovers for tonight.  

Frank painted the wall in the dining room that I tore the ugly wallpaper from about a year and a half ago.  It looked better with the wallpaper gone, but it looks even better with a coat or two of paint!  Next project - two walls in the living room.  We have more orange in the house than most people find in their Christmas stockings, but both Frank and I like it and it matches our chairs. 

Above is my favourite ATC. It is made from fabric paper (white glue, muslin, torn white tissue paper), painted with two or three Golden acrylic paints (I forget which ones), a line of assorted beads, ending in a butterfly. The pink/mauve area is rolled to the back. It is made from orange (there's that colour again!) polyester chiffon, white painted (more Golden acrylics) Misty Fuse, Textiva, and turquoise metal foil with two dangly strands of more assorted beads, one ending in another butterfly and the other in an opalish oval bead.  Not only is this one my favourite so far, it is also my first and I have used it in place of my own photo, since it is so much better looking and is not fussy about lipstick and hair.

I played for while tonight in my sewing room, made another ATC.  I now have five lined up along the bookcase. They are fun to make and oddly enough, not all that easy, due to their small size. One of the Yahoo groups I belong to trades ATCs. I am not ready to put myself 'out there' just yet. I need to do some more experimenting which is fine by me, but may limit the amount of time I can help with painting the living room! I need to set up a photo-spot to take pictures since the ironing board is usually occupied by a cat.

I thought I was using my stash, but one of my three cats decided the spool of thread in the sewing machine was a cat toy, so she pulled the thread and emptied the spool for me.  I think she ate about a foot and puked it up on the cream-coloured carpet ... Also, one of my gold-leafing pens was dry so I had to throw it away.  I don't think that counts as 'using' my stash.  I have, however, used a few beads ... a bit of fabric ... some paper ...

This past summer, my friend Becky and I made fabric paper. Fun and messy, and definitely a warm, sunny day, outside on the table with a plastic drop-sheet, with a glass of wine project. Next warm, sunny day, I shall make a lot more. When I was quitting smoking, I bought a roll of rice paper, brushes and ink to try brush painting. I never got around to it, because I went back to re-teaching myself italic calligraphy (I am left-handed which makes calligraphy difficult - especially since the hand drags through the freshly applied ink).  So, while experimenting with something else a week or so ago, I used some of the rice paper. I am anxious to try it for fabric paper instead of using the torn white tissue that I used last summer. I would love to have some more of the fabric paper to help me through the long winter days - it paints beautifully (Golden acrylics) and can be sewn, both by machine and by hand.

I had planned to go to the surface design exhibit in Qualicum Beach with Marjorie, but Marjorie's fourth grandchild (a girl) was born last night, so we have put our road trip off until next week. Everyone is fine, including the grandmother!

Prince has been returned to his castle after two days of playing with Rosie. Rosie is exhausted!

PONDERING:  Five free hot wings with a 15-piece KFC bucket.  Five?????  How many wings does the average chicken have?