You Can Call Me Gwen

Blackberry Apps

Ohhhhh baby.

I've been spending a little time downloading blackberry apps this evening.

I'm pretty jazzed.

Because today I downloaded some fresh blackberries with my Chicken-Raisin' Seester.

 

These little beauties are growing wild all over the back area of her property.

They are a chore to pick, because the birds eat the ones that grow at the top of the vine, and the vines are so thorny that it's difficult to come away unscathed when you move them to look underneath.

A good pair of gloves is a must.

 

 

And when you find a vine full of perfectly plump, ripe berries you have to handle it very lightly or they will drop right off and roll away from you.

And that's just no good.

I had Little Man with me today when we went wandering over the property in search of the goodness.

He was about ready for a nap, so when I stopped to pick berries he was happy just to sit in the shade and relax.

I turned my back on him for a moment to get at a particularly tangled vine, and when I turned back around this is what I saw:

 

 

He and Seester's doggy had made fast friends, and Little Man was just sitting there with his arm draped over doggy's back like they'd been roaming the woods together all their lives.

I melted.

Of course, the hot sun may have had a little something to do with that, too.

We had to stop berry picking before we had a bucketful, but my Seester gave me so many of the blackberries she had picked earlier that I am ashamed to even talk about it.

I think she's been in the sun too long.

I don't think I could be so generous with berries I had bled to get.

Gosh, she's nice.

The berries are delicious and beautiful.

 

 

 

And the cobbler I made when I got home is almost gone already.

 

 

 

This easy-peasy recipe was given to me by friend Peggy years ago.

You really should try it.

You don't even have to pick your own berries.

 

Quick Fruit Cobbler

Melt one stick of butter in a baking dish (do not stir).

Sift 1 cup flour.

Add 2 tsp. baking powder, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 tsp. salt, and mix.

Add 1 cup milk to make thin batter.

Pour over melted butter (DO NOT STIR).

Sweeten 2 cups fruit and pour over batter (DO NOT STIR).

Bake 50 minutes at 350 degrees.

Cool before serving.

If they'll let you.

I downloaded this blackberry app, as well as this one, tonight.

I'll be messing around in the kitchen a little bit this week.

And it's gonna be good.

Chince Prarming's Sunflowers

I'm taking Little Man out to my Chicken-Raising Seester's place today to check up on Alistair and Ambrose.

I hear they're coloring out very nicely, and may have forgiven us for all the months we called them Alice and Amy in our ignorance.

Thinking about helping my Seester weed her garden today (I think she's going to put me to work unless I can get Little Man to act ornery and in need of my oversight - which we all know Little Man could never do), made me remember that I wanted to show you Chince Prarming's fabulous sunflower blossoms.

The plants are now taller than the first floor roof-line of our home.

They are amazing.

 

The little moths like them, too.

 

 

Since these pictures were taken last Friday, the centers of the flowers seem to have doubled in size.

I'll try to get a picure of Little Man standing in front of them so you can get an idea of their size.

My Inchie sure won't be any help.

 

It's been very difficult to draw Inchies during this siege of my poor aching head.

I'm hoping that a day out at the "ranch" with my Seester and Grandshoot will work like medicine.

But even if it doesn't work...

...it'll taste sweet going down.
 

Keeping Blackheart Off Unemployment

I've spent some time on outgoing mail these last few days while I battle the headache that's keeping me from bigger projects.

I'm getting a little Independence Day cheer on it's way to some friends...

 

 

 

...and you know it's against my religion to give Blackheart any plain mail to carry.

 

 

Plus, I'm totally digging making banners of any kind right now.

 

 

When I went to the Post Office recently to mail this package...

 

 

...I asked to see their "cool" stamps and just flipped when I saw the TV Cowboys series.

I'm totally digging the cool artwork, bright colors, and large size.

 

 

 

Why on earth do I ever let them sell me those Liberty Bell stamps?

Blackheart has had his hands full both coming and going from my house lately.

A very colorful package landed in my mailbox on Saturday.

 

 

It kind of made me feel like a pusher to see that another Dear Reader has gotten addicted to cut and paste.

 

 

But it's too much fun to really feel badly about it.

 

 

And just in case the packaging itself wasn't enough, look what was inside:

 

 

Printed, pocket-size tissue that actually makes me want to blow my nose in public.

Too funny.

This cool book was inside the package, too.

 

 

It's a fun read, but I gotta tell ya, two things are really stuck in my mind since I got this.

First, I want to have my own picture taken with a pair of scissors for glasses.

It just seems...right.

Second...

 

 

...I keep thinking about the tremedous potential of a product called "Mistake Out".

I'm sure I'll have more to tell you about this book, but I'm so sidetracked by the cool artwork that I'm having a little trouble concentrating on the words.

Art and words.

Art and words and friends.

Art and words and friends and mail.

Blackheart, I love you.

Heck No Techno

My computer has been down for a day or two after being invaded by a worm - according to Techie, who I am very grateful to have 'on staff' in this operation.

Let me just say that I do not understand 'virtual' worms, or the 'virtual' world inside a computer for that matter.

When Techie starts talking to the Prince and I about our technical problems, he uses a foreign language.

He's very smart, and I'm sure I frustrate him.

I once told him I was thinking about taking a computer class at the local vo-tech.

He got so excited to think I wanted to know about his world that he said, "You don't have to take a class, Mom. I can teach you."

"Um. Okay."

"Want to start now?"

"Sure."

He pulled up a screen for me to read.

I read the first paragraph and asked a question.

"Oh. You don't know that?"

"No."

"Oh. Okay."

He pulled up another screen-full of information.

"Maybe you should start here."

I read a paragraph and asked a question.

"Oh. You don't know that, either?"

"No."

"Oh. Okay."

He went 'back' a little further and pulled up some new material for me to read.

I read two sentences and asked a question.

"Oh. You don't know about that?"

"No."

His next words came without a nanosecond pause.

"You might really enjoy a class at the vo-tech."

Yep. He couldn't even back up far enough for me.

Guest Room Re-do - Phase I

I started a big project this week.

One of my favorite kind...because it's for someone else.

Me Darlin' Mither is still in the process of making her lovely new place feel like home.

A hodge-podge of furnishings and light taupe walls and ceilings, were leaving her less than inspired about her guest room, so I offered to paint the room and put together some new bedding and accessories on the cheap.

The July issue of Better Homes and Gardens just happened to feature "nautical blues" in their monthly "Color Indoors" section, so we took our inspiration from there, and I began scouting for a coverlet and fabrics on Saturday.

 

Typically, neither of us are drawn to blue, but the guest room has very little natural light, and something about the light blue wall color appealed to us both.

I was a bit discouraged by the lack of choices in twin-size bedding, but we wound up going with a simple gold(ish) coverlet.

I bought a stripe to make the bed skirt and a pillow cover, decided it was getting a little serious looking, and added a cotton print for pillow cases and a panel at the bottom of the cream-colored drapes.

I'm still contemplating the accent color we'll need to make these things come alive.

But I'm thinking orange.

Meanwhile, I got the ceiling lightened up with some white paint on Wednesday...

 

 

 

...and went back Thursday to paint the room with one of the Pottery Barn colors from Benjamin Moore (Wedgewood Gray).

 

 

 

I spent most of Friday and today paying with one of my 'humbling headaches' (the kind that make me mindful of, and grateful for, my normally good health).

But as soon as I recover, I am going to start sewing up all this fabric.

 

And as soon as I'm done sewing all this fabric, I'm going to need that zinger accent.

What think ye? 

Love, Laugh, Live

Remember when I posted about fighting off a spending spree?

I really have to watch what I say.

My Prince likes me to have what I want.

And he likes to buy gifts.

I got a package in the mail last Friday and this was inside:

 

 

I know it looks like nine rolls of Japanese washi paper masking tape.

 

 

But it feels like love.

-------

Speaking of love...

All the shoots came home for Father's Day last Sunday.

It took me 31 years to figure it out, but I now know the four steps to a very relaxing family gathering.

 

 

 

1. Order the main course and let shoot #1 pick it up.

2. Let shoots #5 and #6 make the side dishes and set the table.

3. Show up with the rest of the shoots and enjoy it all.

4. Don't drink anything.

The shoots like to have fun, and some of them are gifted comedians.

We were playing a game of Phase 10 Sunday evening, and the Creative Genius cracked a funny just when I'd taken a nice big drink of coffee.

I won't go into graphic detail about the spewing, choking, and coughing that ensued, but Prince Charming said, "Oh, honey. Did you get a coffee nasal rinse?"

When I said, "Yes, I sure did", the comedian quickly replied...

"Oh, no. Your nose is going to be up all night."

-------

Miss Mary Mack and I browsed through a couple of thrift stores on Monday.

She looks for completely different items than I do, so I was touched when she said she'd found something she thought I'd really like.

At the time, I was busy drooling over some metal card files.

Maybe it's the family background in office supplies, but I feel nostalgic when I look at them, and I think, since paper record-keeping is becoming obsolete, these items might be things of the past already.

I love paper and I tried hard to think of some reason I needed these file drawers, but I tore myself away and followed Mary.

She took me to a different area of the store to see the items she thought I'd love.

Two more of the exact same card files.

I didn't buy any of them.

Who needs cool metal file drawers when they've got nice little shoots like that?

No Sleeping Bags, Motels, Rest Stops, Fighting in the Car

I went to the library with Miss Mary Mack last Tuesday evening, after we'd both spent the day doing chores.

 

 
 

It's summer time and the livin' is easy.

And when the livin' is easy, I don't want to run out of easy reading.

I checked out some Zane Grey westerns, one of Fannie Flagg's books, Paradise Lost, and Slaughterhouse Five by Vonnegut.

I only got the Vonnegut title because I've never read any of his work and I want to understand the references to him next time I hear/read them...they've cropped up so frequently lately that it's taken the bliss out of 'blissfully ignorant'.

(If you need to warn me, go ahead.)

Anyway, I got to thinking about the olden days, when I would take all six of the shoots to the library every two weeks and let them check out their limit of reading material.

If I recall correctly, we usually brought 56 books home each trip.

So you can imagine my alarm the day I discovered we'd somehow managed to lose a week and had returned our books exactly seven days late.

A library fine of that size blew a substantial hole in our finely-tuned budget during those years.

I'm sure it meant a few more meals of rice and beans or 'essence of chicken' soup.

During those busy home-schooling years, our time was as carefully spent as our money, and the kids loved to go to the library.

So, when the dentist asked one of the girls at her yearly check-up if she was going anywhere, or doing anything special on her summer vacation, she didn't know why he found her reply humorous.

"Yes. During the summer we get to go the library as often as we want, and we get to stay there as long as we want."

No motels.

No tents or sleeping bags.

No "She's touching me!" or "Are we almost there?"

Yep, those were our cheap and stress-free vacations.

And we still take 'em.

Ring and Run

About the time I rolled out of bed this morning, I got a text from my Beeg Seester asking if I had time for a game of Scrabble and some coffee.

"Yes! Come on over!"

After a close game (which she won by playing her last tiles on a triple-word score), I opened the front door to see her out.

Oklahoma goodbyes usually start in one room, move to the next, pause in the foyer, move to the porch, and continue to the curb.

But this morning when I opened the front door, I found a wonderful package of goodies laying on the welcome mat.

The tag read simply: "For My Creative Friend Who Lives At...".

Naomi and I spent quite some time arguing about just who the package was intended for.

We all know that Naomi likes labeling/organizing/lining up/thinking about her art supplies more than she does using them, so I insisted it must have been intended for me.

But she insisted she taught me everything I know, and if she hadn't been willing to think and learn and organize things I would never have completed a single project.

We finally decided to concentrate on the things we agree on.

1. Any day which begins with a Seester, a game of Scrabble, and the discovery that a friend has left you a baggie full of Scrabble tiles (and some awesome vintage magazines) on the doorstep is going to be a great day.

2. One can never have too many Seesters, friends, or Scrabble tiles to play with.

3. It's hard to express what it means to know that someone has been thinking kindly of you and wants you to know it.

4. We have to try anyway.

 

There are so many cool things to be made with Scrabble tiles.

Try Google-ing Scrabble Tile Art or Scrabble Tile Crafts.

I'd stop and link to my favorites, but I have to go study the Official Scrabble Word List.

Seester may come back.

Sunday Shoes - "Hot Mama"

No socks.

No shoes.

Show me the pool.

 

It's hot out there.

Twinchies: Double the Fun!

The day of the "great flood of 2010", I got the most wonderful package in the mail from Lisa over at Inchie Arts.

She said she'd been following my Inchie Project and wanted me to have some of her products to experiment with.

Oooh la la!

Such fun!

Thursday I took some of the Inchies to my D'Art group meeting and had them all draw one.

One of them grows and sells wildflowers.

One of them has been fasting from processed sugar for six months and had eaten a piece of coconut cream pie the night before our meeting.

One of them drew a picture of her husband vacuuming.

Because that is what makes a woman crazy for a man.

Just so you know.

 

 

 

Now that I know I can draw four Inchies on one Inchie (though I did make that husband look like a girlie man), there will be no stopping me.

Perhaps next year I'll have enough confidence to start my Inchie journal on the 1+ Inchies.

This week I started a different kind of project on these:

 

It may take me awhile, but I'm excited about starting it because the idea came to me quite some time ago, and it will be good to start getting it out of my head.

This is the first of 26 Twinchies that will be in the finished project:

 

"A is for Alphabet"

 

I doubt that I'll work in alphabetical order, but I will be doing a Twinchie for each letter.

I'll let you know how it goes.

In the meantime, back to that bag of goodies.

Remember me saying something about Inchie books?

Well, lookie here:

 

 

 

Ain't we got fun?

And I've been making some greeting cards with Inchies, but these little note cards are just the right size.

 

 

I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with all the products in this wonderful package.

There are some nice people in the world, aren't there?

P.S. There are some nice people over at My Heart's Fancy in Oklahoma City, too. And they have Inchie Arts products on their shelves...

A Bad Attitude, A Tiny Dress, and Some Inchies

Did I mention that Prince Charming planted corn and sunflowers this year?

The sunflowers are now about 6 feet tall and starting to form flowers (I think).

And the corn is making ears.

Seeing this ear of corn was my Inchie moment on Saturday...

...but I have to confess something.

Last night I had to tell the Prince that I am fighting envy and peeved feelings.

It seems like I did a lot of work with digging, preparing, planting, weeding, watching, watering, etc. to get my little wildflowers and herbs into the world safely.

He bought two packets of seed, went out to the spare garden bed, yanked up some invading grass, and sowed his seeds.

And he gets this big show.

I know.

I'm small and petty.

And he loves me anyway.

-------

Sunday's Inchie represents a kick back hour I had with Miss Mary Mack and her lap-top in the big round chair.

Hulu.

Who knew?

My shoots keep me in the loop on all this newfangled stuff.

And I was proud of myself.

I watched the program with Mary and did not do anything else while it was on.

It's a miracle.

-------

Last night I went up to the studio to get a few notes and pieces of mail ready for Blackheart to pick up today.

It's been awhile since I did any rubber stamping, but I did play with an old favorite image for a card I was making.

 

 

When I was digging around for an envelope, I found another card I'd made some time ago with an image clipped from a Living magazine.

Ms. Stewart had a two-page photo spread of different kinds of peaches in that issue.

One of them just begged to be made into a card.

 

My mind just goes.

I can't help it.

-------

And this little bit of chat has nothing to do with anything I usually post about.

But, yesterday, when the dress Miss Mary Mack ordered came in an envelope small enough to fit easily in the mailbox...

 

...well...I just ate my heart out at the thought of having a figure like that.

And now I have no heart.

Scrapping the Plans

Dear Reader Annski asked me about the house plans that she spied under the cuttings on my desktop.

I've been meaning to post about this, since I had some Dear Readers thank me so profusely for the tip about tidy gluing.

The 'house plans' are actually old blueprints from my brudder-in-law's engineering firm.

And they serve a wonderful purpose in my studio.

I use a 70" x 30" table for my workdesk.

These blueprints are about 23" x 33". 

I remove the (very large) staples that hold the prints together and set them upside down in the center of my workdesk.

That leaves space on both ends of the table for the art supplies I like to keep handy.

The blueprints function like a giant sheet of scrap paper.

I doodle on them.

I make little puddles of glue on them.

I drip bits of paint.

I cut up little pieces of paper.

And when I've created a nice big mess, I roll it all up in the top sheet of paper, toss it out, and voila!

I have a nice clean sheet waiting right underneath it.

I can no longer imagine working without this pad of paper on my desk.

When I got down to my last sheet recently, I called the Prince in a panic.

He called my brudder-in-law, who sent home so many large rolls of plans that Miss Helping Hands (who is working for him this summer) had to have help loading and unloading her car.

Ahhhh.

If you work at a table that can handle these, I strongly suggest buttering up an engineer who is in your circle of friends and snagging some old plans.

Or, if you're in the area, call me.

The little girls who guard my supply have been instructed to share with my friends.

 

It's recycling.

And it's wonderful.

The Wise Man Built His House and Added Sand(bags)

I spent some quality time with Miss Mary Mack yesterday.

When the skies opened up on Oklahoma City in the early hours of the day, the French drain at the back of the house quickly became insufficient for the downpour.

When the water started pouring across the threshold of the sliding doors in the sunroom, I quickly became insufficient for the job of keeping it out of the house.

I woke Mary from a dead sleep, and roused Techie from his lair.

Miss Mary Mack and I spent the next four hours using the wet vac, laying down towels and wringing them out in the wringer-mop bucket, emptying the vac and the bucket, and starting over again.

We began to feel this machine was one of our appendages:

 

 

And this just seemed laughable:

 

 

We slipped (and nearly fell) about as many times as we trekked across the floor to empty the buckets.

(Which, I think, was about ten gazillion times.)

I finally abandoned my footwear, there was no time to change.

 

Techie risked life and limb driving to four different hardware stores in the area trying to get enough sand bags to keep the water out of the house.

 

This stuff is heavy.

The two of us worked in the pouring rain to set up a barrier, and it took less than two minutes for everything about us to be completely soaked.

There were a few moments of levity along the way.

Mary Mack emptied the shop vac and then accidentally attached the hose to the blower portion and turned it on.

Yikes.

And I, after my drenching, was dripping more than all the towels I was wringing out, but stopped working just long enough to yell over the sound of the shop vac, "Does my hair look okay?"

She laughed.

I laughed.

We had to.

Every time we heard more thunder we felt like crying.

Miss Mary Mac finally had the wits to remember that the Cable Guy was off work, and she called in reinforcements.

He arrived with a friend about the time the rain let up, and the two of them stood calf deep in mud shoveling out around the French drain, extending the end of the intake pipe, and re-arranging the sand bags.

While they worked, I changed into dry clothes, made a quick trip to the store, and came home to make some home-made pizza for them.

I was exhausted and still had a wet head, but I wanted to show them how grateful I was for their help.

Alas, I didn't know they were leaving for a big fishing trip and had to hit the road as soon as they were finished.

At 2:00, Miss Mary Mack, Techie and I finally sat down to our lunch and caught our breath.

That's when we turned on the news and found out how much worse other people were faring.

That's also when we had time to realize (again) that fighting a common enemy has a way of forming a particularly strong bond between people.

It had been a rough day, but we hadn't been alone in it.

 

And that is happiness.

I've Been Married to Two World War II Veterans

I'm still so sore from the back-breaking job of fighting flood water yesterday that I can't quite find what it takes to post about it yet.

I haven't done much of anything today except to file away some magazine clippings I had piled up downstairs.

They were good for another laugh, though, so I thought maybe I'd share them with you.

This is what my workdesk looked like briefly this morning:

Some of the clippings are just to keep my outgoing mail envelopes from being boring.

Who wouldn't want an envelope with twenty or so ice cream drumsticks on it? 

I already told you about these...

 I glue them on right next to the addressee's name (or my own), so it looks like a statement of fact.

"Naomi is crazy."

"The world needs Helen Weels."

I don't think I've told you about my collection of "I" statements, though.

They are the most fun of all.

I use these to make note cards.

I just line up a bunch of "I" statements, glue them to the front of the card, and add a catchy title.

Maybe something like this:

Then I add a (more or less) corresponding line to the inside of the card.

Maybe like this:

 
  
 
Sometimes I just glue the list of statements on the card front without adding a title.

Then I write something like this inside: "Enough about me. Let's talk about you."

The more random the statements are, the more fun I have making the card.

"I made a new steering arm."

"I chose salmon and talked to my doctor."

"I bought a credenza that smells of stale tobacco."

It's like making up a whole life for myself.

Without having to actually smell the stale tobacco.

Sunday Shoes - "The Little Lady"

Force Yourself - Three More Inchies

Wednesday I spent the entire day with Me Darlin' Mither.

After show-and-tell (she hadn't seen the Flip-Flop Journal) and hairstyling we went off to lunch at Panera.

Their French onion soup is fabulous, and conversation with Me Darlin' Mither is always stimulating.

But an unexpected blessing was mine just because of our seating arrangements, near the door and facing the street.

I didn't see the two young men leave Panera.

I didn't see them until they stopped on the sidewalk directly outside the doors, clasped hands and began to pray.

First one.

Then the other.

I found myself saying a silent amen as they hugged and parted.

It was a great blessing.

But it is very difficult (for me) to draw hands, especially on an Inchie, and I spent three days trying to find a way around having to do it.

I kept thinking about the whole purpose of the Inchie journal, though, so this morning (between two and three a.m.!) I finally did the work I needed to do.

 

Be gentle with me.

-------

Thankfully, Thursday's blessing came in the form of finding several books of interest at a great price at the thrift store.

 

If you've never read Peace Like a River, give it a try.

It's Miss Mary Macks favorite, and it's a great "novel about faith, miracles and family...".

-------

Friday I had the pleasure of Miss Helping Hands' company during a tour of a few local garage sales.

I am looking for books that I won't mind 'abusing' in the name of art, but years of rewarding reading has made it very difficult to imagine cutting, shredding, folding, or in any way disfiguring a book.

I'll get over it.

We found another sign language book which I think is going to become some humorous greeting cards for the family calendar project.

We came home to watch over Little Man during the afternoon.

I let him and Miss Helping Hands play in the hose.

They had a foot-washing ceremony...

 

Then he got her...

 

 

...and she got him.

 

 

Then they both got tired.

 

 

I got my Inchie.

 

What did you get?

It's Gonna Be Fun

I picked up a few books for super cheap at a garage sale today.

I thought I might try each of the projects in that cool book Prince Charming gave me on our anniversary.

When I bought this one, I thought it was just a children's story book.

 

 

But maybe it's a book about Ronald Reagan.

 

 

I was drawn in by the title of this book:

 

 

But I think my 'everyday' must be different than the 'everyday' they are referring to...

 

 

...because I just cannot remember the last time I said,

"Relax. Look at the eel."

Want-Crave-Desire-Pine For

I'm going to spend the day freely today.

I may or may not mow the yards.

I may or may not fold all that laundry.

I may or may not finish ironing our twelve hundred cloth napkins.

And I may or may not write the three or four letters I have been processing inside my head for two weeks.

One thing I will be doing, if the morning is any indication, is fighting off a spending spree.

Some of the stuff I've been wanting for a long time just won't leave my thoughts today.

Japanese washi paper masking tape.

Love.

 

Fortunately, there are only thirty or forty patterns I think I can't live without. 

Why I want the entire collection of Martha Stewart glitter, I cannot say.

 

 

But the package does say "essential".

I'm also thinking, for health reasons, I should not go too many more days without some baker's twine.

 

 

It does not say 'essential' on the packaging, but why state the obvious?

And I'm in actual desperate need of some brown packing tape for this project.

Or perhaps just a roll of double sided tape to do it this way.

This might be a really long day.

Flip-Flop Flim-Flam

(A little apology for my poor photos. It's not the camera's fault.)

I spent yesterday afternoon in the studio with Able Baker Dana, showing her how to make a flip-flop vacation journal for a little girl.

I made one a couple of years ago, but I don't think I was blogging at the time and I thought you might like to see it.

And if you don't like to see it, you can just pretend you do, okay?

 

I didn't take photographs when we first started because we weren't really sure what we were going to do when we wandered up to the studio.

But I can tell you that the first thing I did was trace around the shoe to make a pattern, which I subsequently cut down by about 3/8" all the way around.

I used the pattern to trace and cut some pages from cardstock.

I cut the straps off one of the flip-flops and glued the ends in the holes on the front of the shoe with E6000.

Doing so gave the inner part of the book-back a smooth surface...to which I glued a piece of heavy cardstock covered with lighter weight colored cardstock.

Then I decorated all the pages.

This is the title page.

 

When I started putting the journal pages together I noticed my package of little index cards sitting there on my workdesk...

 

... and realized they would be the perfect way to add some lined pages to the book.

 

Putting them in as separate pages leaves more room for photographs or momentos on the foot-shaped pages.

 

It was hard not to be sucked into a long paper-doll making session when I got out the little cabinet to add some people to the pages.

 

 

Banners are everywhere in the arts and crafts world lately, but I hadn't made any yet so these were my favorite pages.

  

I tried to think of summer-y things for each page.

 

But I fell back on paper dollies when I started getting tired.

 

 

I didn't have to drill or punch the flip-flops to make holes for the ribbon binding.

The rubber on these cheapies was soft enough to run a bamboo skewer through.

 

 

I punched the rest of the pages with a standard hole punch.

I added a couple of flowers and a button to the front of the book and voila!

 

 

All that remained was to draw this Inchie.

 

 

And to write this post.

Four Inchies More

My D'Art group is meeting kind of helter-skelter this summer, so instead of working through any new material, we've been doing some show-and-tell.

Last Thursday Miss B brought the wedding favors she'd been putting together, and the beautiful guest book she designed and made.

 

 

I love this group for many reasons, and getting new ideas to file away is just one of them. 

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On Saturday I did a lazy man's swim with Miss Mary Mack and the Prince.

It felt like a little taste of heaven to float around on that raft in the cool water, under the hot sun and blue skies.

 

 

Though I can't say the ensuing sunburn did.

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That sunburn took a lot out of me, and Sunday afternoon I fell into a rather restless sleep on the front room sofa.

I woke to the sound of power.

 

I have many reasons to thank God for my shoots.

-------

Yesterday I got a very kind email from the owner of Inchie Arts.

 

 

I told her that some of my readers would be surprised to know there are other artists (many!) making inch-sized artwork.

If my current project hadn't started as a way to show my big, scary pad of watercolor paper who was boss, I would surely have invested in some pre-cut Inchies by now.

But who says I can't start another project?

Or four.

I've been thinking about Inchie collages.

And Inchie greeting cards.

And what about an Inchie story book?

And then we could...

Touché!

Creative Genius decided to celebrate his birthday with a party for family and friends at Oklahoma City's oldest bowling alley last Friday.

 

We got "our kicks on Route 66", but it was a bittersweet experience to bowl at the landmark 66 Bowl for, what may have been, the last time.

The family-owned and operated business was recently sold, and will soon be an Indian grocery store.

Alas.

At least our last memory of the place will be a happy one.

We had a really good time for a bunch of non-bowlers.

And today, as I was thinking back over the fun and conversation, I remembered a little "incident" from eight or nine years ago which had to do with bowling.

I had gone to buy some paint from Sherwin Williams (for years he was the other man in my life - until I met Benjamin Moore and Ralph Lauren).

The salesman decided to make polite small talk as he carried the paint to my car.

"So. You like to bowl?"

(What?! Who on earth starts a conversation with a question like that?)

"Um. Well. I guess. But I don't bowl very often."

"Oh. I just asked because I saw your license plate."

"What license plate?"

"The one on the front of your car."

I opened the car so he could put the paint in and went back to the front to see what he was talking about.

This is the license plate that was on the front of my car:

 

 

I'd never seen it before.

I told him so.

I also started laughing.

I told him I was sure my teenage boys had put it there as a prank.

That evening I casually asked the boys if they were busy on the coming Friday night.

"No. Why?"

"I thought maybe I could take you bowling."

"What?"

"I thought maybe you'd like to go bowling with me."

"Is there a special reason you want to take us bowling?"

"No. It's just that...you know...I love bowling."

The lights suddenly came on.

"Mom, we put that license plate on your car three months ago. You're always saying men are so oblivious to things (new haircuts, changes in the wall color, furniture rearrangement, etc.). We thought we'd see how long it took a woman to notice."

Oh, snap.

Sunday Shoes - "Manpower"

These are the Sunday shoes of a hard-working man.

We discovered one of the stumps we thought we'd removed with the stump grinder last weekend was only hiding under the muddy dirt, and yesterday Prince Charming did a lot of digging around it.

This afternoon one of our studly shoots came over and took an axe to the roots.

It was an impressive show of manpower.

The stump and roots are gone now.

 

 

Only the strong survive.

The Inchie Project 2010 - May

Whoosh.

 

May is gone.

Hearing Loss

My good friend, Helen Weels, is having a birthday today.

She is just months behind me in age.

When we get together, we sometimes talk about this phase of our lives.

The joys.

The challenges.

Because I know that she cherishes the handmade gifts I give her, and she especially loves my paper dolls, I went to my studio to make a one-of-a-kind doll for her.

I wanted the doll to represent something personal between us.

I prayed for inspiration.

But I'm not going to blame the result on God.

I'm probably just not a very good listener.

 

 

Wham-O.

Paper, Scissors, Rock

I hope it's a sign.

June started with a real, honest-to-goodness, hold-it-in-your-hand, bonafied, paper letter arriving in my box.

A Dear Reader sent me a sweet little card, with some fun(ny) little craft labels enclosed.

Of course, I had to go visit the Craftster web site when I recieved these labels, as I had never been there.

I'm not sure I should have added it to the list of virtual creative communities I know about.

It's dangerous, if you know what I mean.

But, the labels sure are fun.

 

I love this one, but I think it makes Naomi cringe just to look at it.

 

This is another one which represents a...well...let's just say "conflict of philosophies" between Naomi and I.

 

 

This one is my favorite.

I think I may have to make it my mantra.

 

 

Yep.

Paper and scissors.

They rock.

 

------

Know what else rocks?

This book.

 

 

I told you about it in a previous post, but yesterday Prince Charming and I celebrated our 31st anniversary, and now I own this book.

 

 

 

Because Prince Charming rocks, too.

There are some truly amazing works of art featured near the end of the book.

But the book has instructions for 28 projects you can make yourself (only one of which requires major power tools).

Look at this project:

 

 

And this project:

 

 

I think I want to try them all.

Yep.

All. 
 

Office Supplies: The Real Staples of Life

I don't shop much.

I shop when I need something in particular, but even then I'm usually in "hunt it, shoot it, bag it" mode.

However...

Our Staycation Survey indicated that casual shopping is a fairly common vacation component.

So the four of us decided we would each pick a favorite store in town and go there together as part of our weekend staycation.

We went to Guitar Center with Prince Charming.

We went to The Rink with Cookie.

Bro opted out of his trip to Home Depot (another of my favorite stores) so we could go jump in the pool.

But not before we went to Office Depot for moi.

Browsing through Office Depot?

Be still, my beating heart.

I love office supplies.

So many different ways to tag, label, file, color code, and organize.

And write!

One could spend hours in front of the Sharpie Center alone (you must visit their website)!

Sharpies of every color, shape, size, and tip style.

There were even some colors I didn't own.

After I decided to buy the Caribbean Colors set, I moved on to look at the selection of index cards.

Oh my gersh!

Color-coded index cards, little half-size index cards, and grid design index cards!

I didn't know any of these existed:

What a happy discovery!

What a cheap thrill!

 
  

Casual shopping.

I think I like it.

Eggstra! Eggstra! Gwen's Chicks Reveal All!

My Chicken-Raising Seester had a big pile of us relatives over for a cookout Sunday night.

We don't need a reason to gather, really, but it is always someone's birthday.

This little fella got himself tangled up in his Auntie's birthday balloon, and I happened to be there to get the picture because I was waiting to photograph someone else.

 

 

 

I was waiting for Alice and Amy.

I always check up on my chickens first thing when I visit the 'ranch'.

When Seester called, "Here, chick, chick, chick", a whole bunch of chickens came running.

Including Snow White...

 

 

...and this cocky rooster.

 

 

(Doesn't that thing in the bottom left corner look just like a parking block? Do the chickens have little cars? Coupes, maybe?)

The Naked Neck Frizzles came running, too.

 

 

I feel all kinds of sorry for these birds.

I just can't help it.

Guess which chickens were the very last to come home?

Alice and Amy.

They were together, as always, but they were keeping to themselves.

And they were far away from all the other chickens.

I had to use my telephoto lens to get a picture.

After several calls, they finally came running.

 

 

They were the only ones who had crossed the road.

And, of course, I had to ask them why.

"Why did you chickens cross the road?"

The chickens crossed the road because they were offended.

We call them Alice and Amy, and they hate it.

They hate it because...

 

 

...they are roosters.

"Oh, I am so sorry. I didn't know. I just didn't know".

We are hoping, given time, Alistair and Ambrose will forgive and forget.

Still, it was a terrible shock for me.

It upset me so much I could hardly eat.

I had to choke down that barbecued burger.

And that black bean salsa.

And the artichoke salad.

Oh, and that ear of fresh corn my Cowboy Brudder-in-law had just roasted over the fire pit.

 

 
  

It was rough, I tell you.

Sunday Shoes - "Cookie's Kicks"

These are the Sunday shoes of my eldest Seester.

She's in her sixties, she's a lot of fun, and she's still rockin' the All Stars.

 

 

I want to be like her when I grow up.

Putt-putt, Vroom, Splash: A Two Inchie Story

We took a little bit of "staycation" over the long weekend.

If you've gotta stay home, it's good to hang around with people who are great fun and who have a car like this:

 

 

Friday night, after eating at our regular dinner spot (it's wonderful to have a place where "everybody knows your name"), we tooled on over to Mustang, Oklahoma in this baby.

With the top down.

That's what I'm saying.

This car seems to make people happy.

Many of the people we passed waved and smiled at us.

 

 

Then again, they may have been laughing at my hair.

-------

On Saturday, we got up to small motors of a different kind.

The stump grinder.

El Stumpo Grindo.

The Grindinator.

 

 
  

 

Prince Charming was getting rid of the last vestiges of the overgrown shrubs we removed.

I was pushing the mower.

Maybe it was just my attitude, but it didn't seem to be as much fun as the VW.

The afternoon brought the refreshing we needed...

 

 

...because, as I said, we were chilling out with the right people on our staycation.

It was fun to draw this picture of myself hanging on the ledge in the shallow end of the pool.

That's me in the red there.

I don't mind being seen in my bathing suit...

...when I'm this size.

Happy June, Dear Readers!

June is for:

• June bugs
• vacations
• weddings
• swimming
• graduations
• summer reading
• Father's Day

Enjoy it!

Mary Telephones

In the early days of our nearly thirty years of pediatric visits, on the walk from the waiting room to the exam room we would pass the desk of the lovely lady who took our many calls to the doctor.

On her desk was a name plate which read "Mary-Telephones".

Our beloved pediatrician retired many years ago, but Mary Telephones (as I learned to think of her)has been answering our calls to one, and then another, pediatrician's office all these years.

Until last Tuesday.

Last Tuesday I had the privilege of attending Mary Telephones' retirement party.

 

I had the privilege of thanking her again for being "a kindness in our world" since our first shoot was a toddler.

We reminisced.

We talked about all the changes there had been in the clinic over the years.

The office is no longer open on Saturday mornings for 'emergency' visits, as it once was.

But, during those days, we were some of the Saturday morning 'back door' visitors fairly often.

Several of our six shoots had chronic ear infections.

One Saturday morning I was in the waiting room with the three youngest shoots; ages 2 months, 2 years, and 3 years.

After 15 minutes of studying us from across the room, a young mother of one asked me, "Are all those kids yours?"

(If only I'd collected a quarter for every time I was asked that question...)

"Yes. And there are three more at home."

"Oh, bless your heart! How do you do it?"

"I stay home. All the time."

"Oh, goodness! You need a break. You need someone to come watch them while you go to Target by yourself and just browse around or something."

"Lady, I don't need someone to come watch them so I can go to Target by myself...

...I want someone to come watch them so I can go to the bathroom by myself."