Puppy!!

Meet Maurice (I think that's his name, I'm not 100% committed yet). We got to pick him out Sunday, but we don't get to bring him home for a couple more weeks. I keep telling myself to just enjoy the peace and quiet while I have the chance!

In the meantime, I've been doing some work in my fabric journal, mostly inspired by an online class I took from Rebecca Sower. Trying to loosen up as always.

Dabbling

We went camping recently, to a vintage trailer rally. It was a small one, near Point Reyes with such lovely people, we enjoyed it thoroughly. Very low key, lots of good food and drink. Mario laid on the ground to try to capture the gorgeous sky with the full moon and our lit up trailer, and I love how it turned out.

I recently finished making a new fabric journal. I had actually made the inside of it a long time ago (It took me MUCH longer than anticipated to actually complete the first one I made).  But I just made the cover for it and I want to start working in it now.  This one was bound differently than the first one I made. 

And I even got one page done inside it!

This was me playing around, trying to be loose and playful. It doesn't come easy for me.

And last but not least, one of these cuties below is going to be ours in a little over a month. 

We lost our basset hound Claymore a couple years ago, and we're finally feeling ready for another one. I'm very excited, but nervous too. Am I up to a puppy again?  We'll find out!

Mish Mash

I've been working like crazy, but have tried to make myself take a little time for art here and there, and have actually managed to do it, for a change.  It's a good stress reliever once I get going!

This one below I have to confess that I did while spending most of a Sunday on the couch watching the entire 7th season of Game of Thrones, in preparation for the first episode of Season 8 (finally!)

My boy Claymore, from our favorite picture of him, playing around with scribble sketching.

 I did this while looking at a real star fish, and staring at the detail for as long as I had to for the white pen work gave me a true appreciation for the miracle that nature is.

I'm having surgery next week (sinus), so I wanted to finally get a post done before that. The good news is that my Mom is coming to be with me and I'll be off work, so totally worth it!!

Playing

I've been trying to develop an art habit again, just playing around and putting no pressure on myself. Trying to remind myself that I still know how to do some of this stuff, and that I actually enjoy it! When I'm not feeling inspired, or my job sucks too much out of me, approaching my studio starts feeling like a guilty chore, which is ridiculous. Once I actually start doing something I lose myself in it and enjoy it.  It's the STARTING that is often so hard for me. 

The piece below is done on wood covered in plaster.

I sort of took a scribble art online class (by this I mean I signed up for it and watched a couple of the  videos, which is about as long as my attention span ever lasts), in an attempt to loosen myself up, which is hard for me. But once I relax into doing it, after the first horrifying scribbles that I'm sure will have entirely ruined the piece already, I find it fun.

I can't explain this one...

 Trying to just be really loose and play with pastels.

This has been a blessedly wet winter for us, which unfortunately just makes me want to lie on the couch under a warm blanket and watch Harry Potter. Hopefully longer days and a little sunshine will help me want to start spending more time in the studio!

Christmas

Since I've done nothing really creative but decorate, I thought I'd share a few pictures as my way of wishing you all a Merry Christmas.  

I filled my lantern with Shiny Brites this year, I love it so much at night when it's lit. Not sure how I didn't think about doing this before now!

I also filled an old tool chest with them, and it also glows wonderfully in the evening with the little lights all reflecting. I saw something recently where someone had made ornament holders out of little old oil cans, so I immediately had to try it, as I have a few. I love how it lets me highlight my vintage bells.

My cocoa station moved and expanded this year.

This guy just makes me laugh. 

I wanted to do something with this precious old baby shoe.

A festive scene in my village

 A corner of my kitchen. The snowman usually hangs outside as he's a lantern, but I'm enjoying him inside this year.

Hubby and I went to the Napa Valley for the day Saturday, and there's a store in St. Helena with this T Rex skeleton taking up most of it. We assumed it was a reproduction they bought for god knows what reason, but no, it's REAL. And available for 3.9 million if any of you are in the market for one. 

His name is Roosevelt and he's sporting a sexy gold tooth. We were pretty tempted - if only our house were bigger.

I hope you all have a wonderful and safe holiday season with your families.

Halloween!

Two posts within days from me, Blogger won't know what to think!  But I said I was heading off after my last post to decorate for Halloween, and indeed I did.

I love transforming my house at this time of year - I think I love it even more than Christmas, just because the time of year itself is such a huge relief at the end of a hot summer, and this year particularly when my family not far away were repeatedly threatened with evacuation (and once, actually evacuated) due to fires from record-breaking heat. 

My friend Val made me these felted wool gourd guys - aren't they fantastic? I was so excited to get them out this year for the first time. I should have taken a picture of the back of the green one too - he's got the cutest butt crack!

And speak of being excited to get something out, this papier-mache jack o lantern at the top was a Christmas present from my Mom last year - it's the real thing, very old, which is hard to find since most got destroyed over the years, especially since they didn't have battery powered candles back in the day!

My husband surprised me with this transformation, below. This guy normally has a lovely face and is carrying a crusade flag (the piece is titled "Personal Crusade"), so he put a black hood over his face and made an ax for him - I couldn't figure out what on earth he was doing that he needed to borrow red paint. He's pretty proud, and deservedly so!

This is a cabinet in my bathroom.

I love the old beat up wind-up lion below, but he's in such bad shape that I think he's only appropriate for Halloween!

I painted something!

I thought I'd forgotten how. To make a long story short, I wasn't feeling well for many months, I just focused on making it through work, then came home and laid on the couch. Even when I started feeling better, I'd somehow lost the habit and the confidence to go into my studio and create. And when I thought about it, I had no idea what I would even want to create, where to begin. I just kept putting it off.  

But my sister, who loves the ocean so much, and her husband recently got a used motor home so that they can go camping at the ocean, and I wanted to make her a "trailer-warming" gift for it, so I finally had the motivation I needed to make something. And you know what, I really enjoyed it. All it took was deciding to make something, and just starting. Hopefully I'll start creating more, although I do have some very busy weekends ahead, so I'm not quite sure when.

We did do some camping this summer in the canned ham (otherwise known as Lil Stella), the longest being a week at Big Sur. Such a gorgeous area of the California coast. 

There's a waterfall falling directly onto this beach, it's kind of hidden in the shade. It's just stunning in person, I didn't touch the colors in this pic at all.

Okay, now I'm off to decorate for Halloween, because Hallelujah, it's Fall! It's still warm right now, but Fall is definitely in the air, and there's no time of year I love more...