Monday This and Monday That

I'm finding the pace of this semester to be pretty leisurely. There are a lot of readings in my English class, but that's OK, because I love reading. It seems like I haven't had time to read in the past five or so months. We're reading mostly short stories, but have three novels to go through. The dummy for my stuffed animal is sewn and I'm going to take apart the sweater tonight. It's due February 9th and I'm just enjoying using my sewing machine to piece things together. I should haul it out more! One of my classmates was smart and is converting a pair of boy's lederhosen that she found at a garage sale into a purse, so she's practically done. It's surprising how heavy it was! I splurged on a $25 beef roast and we had it for dinner last night. Tonight I made a beef casserole with mushroom soup and spiral noodles for dinner. There's still lots of beef left, but it's in the freezer now lest we get tired of beef pretty fast. Ah! Cooking is another thing I sorely missed. It seems nice to just do normal people stuff! The Crafter's Devotional is coming along pretty good. I have been able to do most things, such as "Make something from old photos" (I finally got our wedding photos into an album), looked up Greek and Polish folklore and reflected on why I made art. This book is such a winner! Oh, and I also decorated a sketchbook with leftover cardstock:

First Fibre Project!

Today was really fun. After a brief meeting, I headed to Fabricland to buy supplies for the first homework project in my fibre class.

We have to take a garment and transform it into something new. After much negotiating, my husband gave me one of his old sweaters. He looooves his sweaters and once he found out I would be cutting one up, my selection dwindled :) I'm going to be making a stuffed animal out of the sweater. Stay tuned!!

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Happy New Year!

The first day of 2012 is a bright and sunny one here. Most people would probably not guess it, but Calgary is one of the sunniest places in Canada with an average of 333 sunny days a year. We spent New Year's Eve with friends watching movies and playing games, and a birthday dinner for my mom. Yup, she narrowly missed out being a New Year's baby! I imagine that many people are eagerly beginning new Painting/Drawing/Whatever A Day today. I tried to do this once and I don't think I got past February. I'm not sure how successful I'll be either as I go back to school next week. But I'm going to give it a good try with a book I bought a couple of years ago called The Crafter's Devotional by Barbara R. Call. It's a bumper book of 365 creative ideas that are coded in different ways such as Monday-Sunday, 1-365 and by category such as ideas, journalling and collaborating. In fact day #1 is journalling. I do keep a paper journal, but I often prefer the online ones. I buy cute little notebooks and then usually they get misplaced around the house :-D Maybe I'm just an idea squirrel at heart. Sometimes I find half-filled journals from when I was younger and it makes me glad the Internet wasn't around back then. We don't really get a feel for how we grow and change. Don't rely on your memory either, because even after five years things can get fuzzy. I was only laid off a year ago and have trouble remembering the name of some co-workers.

The activities are pretty free-form and a variety of genres and techniques are represented, which must have been hard to do. Beads, wire, collage, stamping and mark making are just some of the things to be explored. Sometimes it's easier to just have an "assignment" to try instead of thinking up something on your own. The inclusion of personal and family history was interesting to me because I took several unsuccessful stabs at genealogy a long time ago. This book will definitely keep crafty types busy all year long!

Craft Time with Muffin!

At this rate, he needs his own craft box!

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Christmas is for silly gifts...

My husband is the King of Small Appliances. Honest. From juicers to panini presses, small appliances fill up my kitchen. Every time he brings home a new one I try to find room for it. Usually the appeal of the new toy wears off pretty fast, but sometimes not. Last year I received a Breville Milk Frother as a belated gift. A milk frother, eh? This is a product photo:

I didn't think much of the frother at first, but then he made me the most delicious hot chocolate ever! It heats up milk to your desired temperature and once it gets going, you can add hot chocolate or other ingredients to it. Plus the lid is designed to give your nice hot drink a frothy foamy layer. I was impressed! No more nuking milk in the microwave and trying to guess when it's done! For a one trick pony appliance it sure has a permanent place on the counter!

School's Out

And boy, am I glad! I have not really enjoyed this past semester at all. One of the dangers of art school is that it can beat the creativity out of you, and I really feel that way. Last night I was organized some of my lovely patterned papers and just couldn't seem to find that spark. In the the box of paper I found a colour copy of an illustration that I did for a friend years ago and it made me smile. Part of the wonder of it was that I was making it for a friend, and that the idea came so easily.

I'm suffering from a strange sort of confusion. I'm not sure what I really learned in the last four months. The last two projects in drawing did not go well. Same with the final weaving project. I was happy with the piece, which I will share in another post, but that my teacher wasn't bothered me. I was trying a new technique out and instead of a finished piece, the weaving was more like a sampler or a sketch for another project. The potential in it that I saw kind of died away. Building skill is one thing, but retaining the thing that you want to use that skill for is quite another.

My Colour Wheel

Weaving is not quite over yet, although drawing is thankfully. In mid-November we spent a day dying wool with acid dyes. Each student had to make enough samples of one colour series for the whole class. I ended up getting black, which turned out more purple gray! At least I could tell that there was light, medium and dark!

We could organize our samples any way we liked. Mackenzie jokingly said he would be disappointed if anyone made theirs into a unicorn. How could I not? :)

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