Mama's Midlife Mire: Art "Therapy"

My Tie-Dyed bedsheet

Thu, 22 May 2008 22:27:47 GMT

Well, here it is! Not bad for a first-timer, eh? I knew it was going to have too much white still showing, because I needed at least twice as much dye as I had, considering I was dyeing an entire sheet rather than a T-shirt.... but, it didn't turn out as bad as I thought it might. I also could have used a few more hands - it was so big that I really didn't have anywhere to lay it out, so I did it outside on the patio table... but it was really windy, and some of my pleats got way too big, but I got tired of fighting with it, so hey, good enough I guess! Kiki was properly impressed - I rinsed and washed it this morning before taking her to the co-op (I couldn't wait 'til I got home, I was too worried over how it might have turned out! Last night I dreamt the colors all mixed together and it was mostly brown, with lots of undyed areas...) and she was like "Wow, that's cool! You even made green and orange!" (because the kit just came with blue, pink and yellow...um, yeah, I know how to mix colors, lol!!) Then she says "I'm proud to call you my mom!" And I'm not sure if I should be happy or offended by that remark!

Now I just need to figure out how to make an angel costume out of this...!! It 's hard to really show you the colors, but these are pretty close.

Here is the sheet, folded in half, one pic of each side ~ to give you an idea of the size, this is draped over the back of my 7' couch ~

The interior swirl ....

Check this out - looks like a snowflake! I couldn't have done that by trying :)

This section is how it should look:

But this section is due to the lack of dye, so you don't get that cool intermingling of colors:

Well, there you have it! I will post some more pics when I somehow pull an angel costume out of this... good thing it's just a lil' ol' homeschool group!!

My New Project

Fri, 02 May 2008 01:00:12 GMT

I am doing a photography project that I call:

From

!!!

I am trying to find every letter of the Alphabet to photograph, which I can then use to make wall designs and stuff like, our last name, or Kiki's name for her bedroom wall, or...well, who knows? I'm hoping to find some 'natural made' as well.... like these:

That last one, I'm not sure if it's a Y or a V.... guess I should've gotten more of the trunk....

I even found a word:

A good one for Mother's Day!

This is what Alan and I did as we walked around downtown today.... I asked him if he'd mind, and he actually quite enjoyed it! We saw things today in a whole new way, and we had a blast. One last thing we saw today, that has nothing to do with letters ~

the first goslings of spring!

The Fairy Tree

Tue, 18 Sep 2007 04:03:52 GMT

Take a look at my pics for my latest 'creation'. Kiki had some birthday money and bought a set of Disney Fairy figurines at the Disney Store. (Do you remember how cool those stores were when they first opened? They were just like the gift shops on Disneyland's Main Street. Now they are one more 'cheap stuff for not cheap' kind of places...but, I digress...) Anyway, those little dolls got my artist's eye seeing.... on a walk with my dog, I picked up some tree branches, went to the dollar store for some silk florals, dug in my craft closet for beads, jewelry wire and fine glitter dust, and voila.... the fairy tree was born. I am sure I am way more excited about it than she; she has far too many toys, not to mention that she flies through "favorite things" at the speed of light....after my week of imagining and creating, she has moved beyond fairies to something else....I supppose.... she hasn't really said, but it's how it usually goes. But I had a brilliant time making it! I need to find a way to make money off my little 'creative bursts' ...

Back in Black

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 07:20:14 GMT

Guess What??? I am sitting at a real desk tonight! Yay!! Yep, the furniture is in and - well, somewhat set up... I did the computer desk first, as I was tired of the sore bum.... I think, that when all is said and done, the room is going to look good. Even Alan, who likes black, well, I think he wasn't so sure... when I set up my desk and set my hot-pink bin on it and my wild little mouse pad, his comment was "wow, I think it's going to look really good when you get it done!" Well, of course it is, oh ye of little faith! Of course, the school-room posters like the 'Presidents' and 'Multiplication Chart' sort of mess with the plan, but then again, school is the plan, so that's how it's gonna be. Remember what I said about oil based paint? I take it back. Geez, what a pain! It took forever to dry; we actually drug the pieces out to the back porch to 'bake' in the sun for a day...and I still got black paint on my carpet! (yeah, I got it out.) You can see a lot of mistakes, too... brush strokes, slightly covered spots....oh, well. No one is going to notice that stuff when it's all in here. The good thing is, the sun (or the drying process in general) mellowed out the shine a bit...it was like, lacquer-glossy!! Not now. Which is good. I just have to finish the door of the cabinet. I bought some scrapbooking paper, and I am going to put it over the metal insets in a collage sort of way using Mod-Podge. We'll see if it looks as good in 'real life' as it looks in my head! Oh, and I need to get some fabric to recover my chair seat. It's an antique, so I didn't really want to paint it...but I can put some cool bright fabric on to coordinate it....I hope! I'll put some pics up - someday - of the finished room - if I ever get it finished.

My Projects!

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 06:20:34 GMT

I've posted a few pics of the stuff I've got going....these are going to go in my new office/schoolroom. I am totally excited! I found this really cool mousepad - and a little box - oh, I should put up a picture of those so you know how they look - and I am decorating the room based on those. Which may sound silly, but I love the colors and designs so it got me started! I think it is going to be my "happy room", lol! The blue of the nightstand is much more turquoise/aqua than it appears, on my monitor at least. I'm not sure I'm thrilled with the knobs I put on it. I had them in mind, but in retrospect them seem a bit too old-fashion. I found this great sort of s-curve black iron bar, but because it is an old piece of furniture (from about the 40's) none of the current one-piece bar type pulls are the right length. The desk, computer desk and bookcase I am going to paint black. Well, I'm not sure about the bookcase yet. I may add some bright details to them, we'll see. Since none of the pieces match in wood type or style, I want to pull them together by making them all the same color. Instead of curtains (I already have white wood blinds for privacy) I have a beaded garland and those, well.... plastic, clear-colored, twisty wind catcher thingies. Yeah, so you know exactly what I'm talking about, right?? More pics, okay... I am having a blast doing this. I have to stop for a bit as we (Kiki and I) are heading to the coast in a couple days, but I'll get right back to it when we return!