10-minute collages

What have I been doing the past few weeks that has kept me from my "fun blog?" I dunno, but I've apparently been very busy doing it.





Part of the busy has been the studio remodel - photos to come as soon as I can locate the digital camera. One of the great things about the remodel is that I know where everything is, everything but the paper & book 1/3 of my studio has been sorted, organized and LABELED (very important part of the process, I'm discovering.) I've got my act more together and it's easier to do fun, quick art...





... like this. Last year for my birthday a friend gave me a very lovely travel tea mug and some very delicious tea. I truly appreciated it but you know paper-geeks, I was almost just as into the wrapping paper & ribbon as I was the gift itself. I put it aside to make some collages for my friend and I and the bag was unearthed this week. When everything's organized and labeled it took me 10 minutes to do both collages - and yes, I put my toys away when I was done - probably the MOST important part of the process.

The background papers are tissues I decorated in the Jacqueline Sullivan workshops I took in February. The upper one is tissues torn and glued down to the little board. The bottom is tissue that was painted on to phone book pages, with a piece of twine stuck in between. The little birds and accompanying leaves are from the wrapping paper, the leaves running diagonally in the corners are the ribbon my present was tied with. Everything's stuck down with matte medium. The pieces are 2"x3" and will go in little black frames. I'll see my friend this week (I don't think she reads this so I'm safe writing about it) and will put one little frame in each hand, put my hands behind my back and tell her to pick a hand. That will be the collage she receives.

I just realized doing this blog post took about as long as it did to do the collages. Here's to organization. Shall I yet again make my Scarlet O'Hara like declaration? "As God as my witness, my studio will never get that bad again!" Hope I stick to it.

What a wonderful way to spend some time

I'm so excited, I feel like a colossal geek.

Several summers ago, while researching what to do with the zillions of tomatoes that were coming in from the farm share, I came across the most delightful foodie blog, Orangette. It was the first blog I followed religiously. Orangette (it was quite awhile before I realized her name is Molly) writes the most endearing stories to accompany her delicious recipes. She's so personable when writing, really, you feel like you know her. I got all teary-eyed when she got engaged and when I read her entry about her wedding I think I cried enough to make a little snort noise.

And now Molly has a cookbook out, "A Homemade Life." It's fantastic, I've already read it from cover to cover and can't wait to start cooking from it (there's a majorly disruptive studio renovation going on right now.) What could be better?

Molly's coming to Portland tomorrow night for a reading at Powell's. I'll see you there!*

*I got a new phone, complete with camera. Hurray!

Happy Day!

Today is day one of Lisa Vollrath's printables countdown for St. Patrick's Day. I'm glad I got to you well before the holiday this time! Go check out her website and see all the great stuff she has available.

One of the things I'm going to try harder at accomplishing is her Make It Monday challenge, found on Mondays on her blog. I'm going to try harder to accomplish a non-work related something each week, Lisa has great ideas so I'm following her lead. Then I don't have to think. Last Monday's theme was Postage Stamps, here's the ATC I made...