Grammy Karkie is away this week. I know she'll miss me. We have fun together. I love it when she takes me to a restaurant and gives me the lemon from her ice water while we wait for our food.
What is a lemon, anyway?
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh well, not so bad once you get used to it.
The Holding Space open house last week was a success, despite the heat, and the poor function of the air conditioning there. I think the unit was just overwhelmed by the 112 degrees outside and crowded room inside.
The heat didn't dampen the joy and dancing.
The event is just the beginning of a series of seminars and workshops they hope to hold in the future.
Including one to do a mud/plaster treatment on this wall. My son soundproofed it with old carpet remnants nailed to the drywall, then he attached this bamboo to give the mud something to adhere to. It looks pretty good like this, but he'll be adding the mud/clay/plaster and it will really be something then. Its a green technique, and I'm looking forward to being there to watch and learn how it is done.
They will also be featuring local art, and participating in the Final Fridays Gallery Walk downtown every month.
Before the room filled up, I snapped some pictures of the finished rooms. I've shown you the faux finishes that I did there, but the rooms weren't done yet. I think they've turned out beautifully. And the kids did it all with NO budget.
Everything is second hand, some things were found along the side of the road. I gave them some hand me downs and paid for the paint.
My dear niece in Utah, had earlier shipped them her massage therapy equipment that she no longer used. (thanks again, Alicia!)
The kids were creative with their decor, making the most of what they already had, and using lots of elbow grease to make the rooms look warm and welcoming.
I'm very proud of what they accomplished.
Family and freinds came to play music throughout the day, and vendors were there to share information about what they had to offer for the community.
Some local artists brougth their work, there was chair massage, hand writing analysis (I was told that the point on my T's means that I can be sarcastic and like to tease, but in a friendly way, not mean, and that I am very social and empathetic), tarot card readings, and a lot more.
The evening featured a Kirtan, which is kind of a singing meditation. This one was done by a woman with a really pretty voice, Jerri of Heartsong Pathways.
The best part of the whole day was watching my son in his element. I was glad to see how he had found a place for himself in this world. He had a rough road through the years, to get to this point, and as any mother knows, there are few joys bigger than seeing your grown child find his way and find his heart's desire.
My husband and I wanted to show our support for the open house, so we bought the stuff to make treats, and I baked 6 batches of cookies to set out along with some iced tea.
When I bake, I don't use a recipe. But heck, if you've ever made a cookie, you know the basics and there isn't much more to it. I do the basic- butter, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla all creamed, add the eggs, add the flour/salt/baking soda then embellish each batch a little different.
One batch was chocolate chips, another peanut butter with Reeses Chips and chocolate chips. When making these, I switched out half the butter for chunky peanut butter and used a little less flour.
The third was a granola cookie. For that, I added cinnamon, flax seeds, dried fruits, oatmeal, almonds, and sunflower seeds, then lessened the amount of flour. To keep those from being too healthy, I threw in chopped up white chocolate chips.
One of my tips for baking, is to chop up the chips. I put a half bag at a time in the blender on chop and grind the chips up before adding them to the dough. You need half as much, (saving a little tiny bit of calories) and every single bite gets a taste of chips in it.
I baked way too many cookies, but they freeze well. The trouble will be how much the bags shrink in the freezer… if you know what I mean. Those bags of cookies saved for a future purpose just never last.
This week, I'm heading to Indiana to see my sisses and their families. While there, I am attending the annual family reunion of my dad's side of the family. We always call it the Downey Dinner (I grew up as Karkie Jo Downey)
My sister, Bobbie Sue, has been collecting recipes all year from cousins and aunts to compile a cook book, and I got to make the cover for it, and named it "Downey Dinners".
She has filled the pages with old family pictures, stories, and illustrations, and I can't wait to see it all together. When I get to Indy, we'll be assembling the books, and then bringing them to the big event to pass out to relatives.
For my cover, I did a small pencil sketch from a photo of my Grandma Downey, as she was holding up a fish she had just caught. I changed the fish to a wooden spoon, added an apron to her dress and set her in front of a table filled with bread dough in progress. She was renowned for her home baked bread. (Bobbie Sue inherited her skills in bread making, I did not)
I had to add a cigarette hanging out of her mouth, because that is how I always remember her.
After I finished the sketch, I scanned it, edited it in sepia, then printed it on mat photo paper.
Next, I used Copic markers to add some color, and white ink to add highlights, then cut out the image.
My cuz, Paula (who was in our tag book swap), sent me a scan of her dad's grade school report card with Grandma's signature on it. I used this as the background for my tinted drawing, and then layered it over some kitchen-ey old wallpaper, inking the edges of each layer for depth.
Then, I scanned it again, and added the words in Picnik.
(feel free to use these images in your own art, if you'd like. I'd be honored to see Grandma Downey in someone's journal or on a tag somewhere!) Just click on the picture to open in a larger window, save to your computer, then print.
My Aunt Alma had sent me a recipe for my very favorite pie and I offered to do an interior page with it. At the time, we were going to divide up the book and cousins were all going to do some of the pages, but Bobbie Sue was brave enough to take on over 130 pages on her own. I did end up still doing this one page, after all. But it was a very last minute project. I was hoping to find a better photo of my aunt, but none was available right then, so I had to use a snip from a group shot. Its a little blurrier than I would have liked.
This page went together really fast, maybe 15 minutes because I was running out of time to get it to the copy shop Saturday afternoon. I used a favorite wallpaper background, the photo of my aunt that I slipped into a mat from an old album, the recipe card she had sent to me, and a clipping from that day's paper that just happened to mention that Sugar Cream pie was the Hoosier state pie. Who knew? And how serendipitous that it happened to be in my local Lawrence, Kansas paper the day I was making the page.
I finished it off with a hand drawn vine and rushed both pages off to the UPS store to be copied. I think they do the best job for the price. I'm always happy with the color and quality there.
Before I head East for my trip, I want to announce the latest winner of the $15 online dress form tutorial.
Debbie of Romancing the Bling
If you'd like a chance to win one, please leave a comment on any post. If I draw your name and you are already taking the class, I'll send you a kit full of vintagey goodness to make the doll from.
Please forgive me if I dont' have time to answer comments. I will keep up with dressform tutorial orders and can send you the passwords from my Ipad. I'll ship all order from the Boutique on Thursday the 11th.
It feels good to be done with the swap, but I've got that after the holiday let down now. There is still the pile of goodies that came as gifts to play with tho, that sure helps.
And I can take my own book down to enjoy and flip through whenever I want. That is if I can lift it… its HUGE! Over 40 artists gifted me with an extra tag for my swap book.
Its a book that is so big, it can practically bury a Dorkie.
Poor dog. She sure is patient with me. Yes, she is wearing the book around her neck.
Here it is in its full magnificence.
That is a whole heap-o-tags.
And I have the BEST display for it! Debra G. sent me this birdie-shaped iron hook, and I sprayed it white, then beat it around in the gravel a bit to distress it. I added a bird nest charm that was a gift also.
Of course, between my bad hand writing and the fact that I got a couple of different kinds of nests, I'm not sure who this one is from.
And its such a sweet little nest, I just love it and the way it looks on this hook.
Here is a peek at my pitiful list. Its all color coded, and I am rigorous about marking items off as I go. The typed names are just fine, its my hand written notes that screw me up. I have hand writing that is almost as bad as my singing voice. And you DO NOT want to hear that. It compares with my dance moves. Only Sugarwings can appreciate my dancing and singing skills. She even thinks my notes are fine, but then she can't read. She likes me to make notes for her to tape to things around the house.
I need to keep better lists when I do a swap. Another problem I have is that I scratch things off the list after I've contacted the person, then I can't go back and read what I'd contacted them about.
How embarrassing.
The grand, globs of gifts are extreme! Its always a surprise to see that someone has packed up such nice, thoughtful things for me (and my fairy baby too)
These metal birdies were from Chloe Rose.
I did the same thing with these as I did the bird hook from Debra, painted it white and beat it up in the gravel. Then, I hung the whole flock from the chandy above my desk.
The pink twine they are suspended with was from Jennifer Phillips.
One other problem that I have with some names in swaps, is that people go by lots and lots of names, between their full, given name, a nick name, a blog name, email address, or the return address label that might even be their husband's name, or just an initial along with a last name I've never heard.
I try to keep it all straight, but sometimes people contact me with one name, sign the note with another, or have a different one on their return address. I can't always figure out who is who or match up names with email addresses or blog names.
All I know for sure is, that EACH SET OF TAGS GETS A BOOK MAILED TO THE ADDRESS THAT CAME WITH IT!!
And that is what is the most important thing to keep track of.
I am deeply appreciative of all the thought and care that goes into the gifts. Thanks, everyone!
Kathy made the Dorothy charm for me, and the rosette is from JoAnne.
Becky made this for my budding little artist.
And I got one too!
The sparkly locket, I'm afraid, is on the list of bad handwriting mistakes. I don't know who its from at this point, but I'm wearing it and enjoying it right now. Thanks so much for thinking of me, kind swapper!!
I hope I don't get my crown taken away because I'm not linking with everyone who was so generous and thoughtful to send things…
But hopefully, everyone will enjoy their books and this public THANK YOU will suffice!
And I will share some of it with you. I've scanned some of the great ephemera I was given, and all you need to do is click on it to open in a larger window, save, and print from your saved file.
I'll leave you with some eye candy, a few of the yummy treats that I was lucky enough to get from my swappin buds.
The weather is still smoldering and sizzling around here. I've been indoors avoiding it, with the excuse that Sugarwings was ill and I needed to cuddle her, and that I had tag books to do. The heat has had me house bound almost as much as a big snowstorm would mid-winter.
The dogs and I have barely shuffled outdoors long enough to move the sprinkler, which has been running pretty much non-stop daily. Its good to live in the country and have well water, I'd hate to see a water bill after this heat wave.
But I've had enough of being held captive by the weather! This weekend, we are hitting the shores of Lake Clinton and getting some splash time in.
There is nothing like playing out in the water to make the most of a hot summer day.
(That is Sugarwing's daddy and his Gypsy Beloved doing aerial yoga while being pulled along behind the boat.)
I hope your weekend is a good one and you find some ways to beat the heat too!
Ps- I'm going out of town on Wednesday. If you are still sending tags and haven't got them to me, TUESDAY morning, I'm making the LAST books!! So, over night them if you are serious about being in the swap and just didn't have time to get them here. And please contact me so I'll expect them.
All of the people who sent in their tags now have a book sent back to them! There are a few stragglers that I am waiting on, and those books will be made this weekend. But for now, FREEDOM!! I'm feeling a bit worn out and crossed eyed from doing so many tag books and labels, its good to be away from it.
My desk is calling to me, I've missed my arty time there. I bought some new Copic markers and am dying to play with them.
I want to show you some of the pretties that came in the mail to me along with the tags. Thanks to all of you who joined the swap, and thanks to those of you who sent treats for Sugarwings and I. We are having fun with our packages!
This queenly bird was a gift from Mercedes.
How wonderful are these bird house tags??? Cheryl always comes up with something extraordinary. She had them packed in the darling box, which is now living on my desk.
I'll miss checking the mail every day to see what shows up. I was always blown away by the lovely wrappings, like Sheila had on her vintagey tags.
And this simple burlap bag was a cute idea. Even cuter, it was filled with fab metal tags from ________.
Oops, I lost where I wrote down her name and they are not on the tags!! Sorry.
And I love old wallpaper boxes, this came from Debbie Mc Renoylds and was filled with great, old trims.
Jingle sent Sugarwings this pretty pink clothes pin doll.
Robin sent a mini purse full of jewels. I've already shared some with my son who makes jewelry too, and the rest are in a glass bottle on my desktop.
Of course, Sugarwings had to scoop up the pink purse and sashay awasy to go and play dress up!
My pal, Cami, is as big of a bargain hunter as I am. She knew I'd appreciate hearing that she found this Fitz and Floyd dish for only 75 cents!
I'll have some more photos of the goodies later. And wait til you see my own tag book, made up of over 40 tags given to me as hostess gifts. I think I could enter it into the world record book for its size.
All of you will immediately be hosting swaps to snag a book like that of your own!
Thanks again, swappers!
I honestly enjoy doing these swap books, even if this time, the size of it got a bit overwhelming and I wasn't able to get much done besides tagging. Its a joy to open each package and see the creations inside. I show you all the crap I make on a regular basis. Its fun to see what is on the other end of the blog, the things YOU make.
I'll announce the latest winner of an online dress form class soon.
I'm giving one away every couple of weeks. Leave a comment if you'd like to have a chance to win.
Ps- I'm going out of town on Wednesday. If you are still sending tags and haven't got them to me, TUESDAY morning, I'm making the LAST books!! So, over night them if you are serious about being in the swap and just didn't have time to get them here. And please contact me so I'll expect them.
This girl is just getting cuter and cuter. She seems to think she is big enough to keep up with her sibs and likes to chase Sugarwings now.
And when all the big kids got balloons at the ice cream shop, she had to have one too.
She likes hanging out at her parent's new business, Holding Space. There is plenty of room to crawl around, a big mirror she can meet another baby in, and lots of bright colors.
I painted the rooms for my son, according to his feng shei designs. The entry is all metallic, the treatment room is blue and purple swirls for water. This room is "fire", so I did my version of a sunset.
We painted the top 1/3 of the wall red, the bottom 1/3 yellow. Then I brought up some yellow rays into the center, and around that, I painted the middle of the wall orange. (I saved money by mixing the red and yellow to make the orange, instead of buying another can of paint)
With a torn up tee shirt, I dabbed on, and blended some bright colors of acrylic craft paint.
The lower part of the wall is very colorful, but as I worked my way up, I changed to accenting with just a couple of colors.
There are high ceilings with a skylight, so its the perfect environment for plants.
The whole place is so inviting, I love the bright colors, even if they are the opposite of what I do at home. I used to do murals and faux finishes for a livng and kind of miss getting to lots of things that I wouldn't do for my self. Its fun to experiment with the bright side.
I gave up doing this full time because it is such hard work, and I felt like I was crippling myself doing it. But now that I rarely do decorative painting, and have a son who is a massage therapist, it isn't as painful as it used to be. After i finished this work, my sweet boy gave me an hour's treatment on my neck and shoulder and I felt better after that than I did before I'd even started painting.
Kind of makes me think his business will be a success, since he is so good at making aches and pains go away!
If you are in the area and need to feel better, give him a call.
We still have work to do, at the Habitat resale store, we bought a $5 window to put in this opening to give the massage room more privacy. After that, we'll paint the trim. Around the doors, I painted the trim with bronze glaze in a dry brush technique. For this, I'm not sure yet. I'll have to see how the window turns out, we are going to paint the glass with a mandela pattern.
Canvas drop cloths are waiting to be dyed and made into curtains and Sugarwing's Daddy has some other green/low cost decor planned too, but the space is already functional and open for business.
I gave them one of my favorite lamps, made by a friend. I hated to see it go, but it looks so good here, I just had to. I've got some hand blown glass lamps that I'm sending over too. I love them, but right now, they are just hanging in my shed, which is a silly waste of their beauty.
His Gypsy Beloved will be making her "Freaks", for sale. She makes funny little fairies and sock dolls too. Plus, she will be doing guided meditations. There is already a good following building up for her Wednesday night group sessions.
And my boy will be selling his silver wrapped jewelry. He has some skills, doesn't he? I love seeing the detail in his work.
Of course, I think these are his best creations.
He also travels to festivals to do massage and energy work, so I made a sign that he could easily transport. Its an old door panel, that I painted blue, flicked with white, then did some swirls on. This looks complicated, but takes only moments to do.
I dip my rag in multiple colors and do quick swirls with it.
Over that, I did some lettering, making the "o" a planet. My writing is far from professional, but suited the theme.
To get the watercolor look on the lettering, I let the white dry, outlined one side with black, let that dry, then outlined the other side with blue. While the blue was still wet, I used a brush loaded with water to bleed the color over the white paint.
I hope to do a larger, more permanent sign for the business too, but need to wait till I get caught up on a few more projects. Tag books for one… a painting of my grandma for a family cookbook, some decor for Jenn Hayslip's event in the fall, and about a billion more things. If you were wondering why I hadn't been making my little pretties or adding new goodies to the Boutique that explains it!
Thank goodness this is still selling each day! Thank YOU to all of you who are signing up for the $15 online classes. And I'm sorry I haven't had more kits to list, the ones I put in the Boutique went fast. I'll try to make up some more, I have a table top of supplies set up to go…. But- there is only so much time in a day. And not quite enough of it.
If you have any questions about the classes, feel free to ask. And I'd love to see what you make. Maybe we should have a linky party and show our creations? No two turn out the same.
Seems like this is becoming my "Summer Giveaway" too. I'm giving one away for each drawing I do. Leave a comment if you'd like to have a chance to win.
On Friday, Sugarwings and I had a Girl's Night Out. We got all dressed up to go to the local community theater to see a play about pirates. Before it was time to leave, I double checked the theater's online site to see when we needed to be seated and saw that there was a costume party before the play! Now, how did I miss that before, that is the kind of thing that we just love to do!
We had about 15 minutes to devise a costume that looked piratey. What we came up with is kind of a shabby chic, princess, cowgirl, gypsy pirate, but she loved it.
Especially since she had a treasure bag hung on her belt that held some jewels and a half a roll of Lifesavers.
She also raided my jewel box and put on an armload of bracelets and a few necklaces.
The cowgirl boots were the only boots we had in her dress up closet, and were a few sizes too big, but she insisted that they were just right. Of course, they ended up in my purse, and I carried her most of the night because they kept falling off every time she took a step.
She was entranced by the play, and thinks she won the costume contest, even though she didn't. She was so enthralled by the show she let her "Shiver Me Timbers" float melt and forgot to drink it.
I'm hoping the theater will have more kid's productions, this was a blast for both of us.
So, Friday ended much nicer than it started. I got up early that day, with a fistful of dollars, and all the garage sales circled in the ads, finally heading out for some thrill shopping, it has been months since I got to scour for junk. Even though there were only a minimal amount of sales listed in the paper, I was up at 7 am and ready to hit them.
Instead, I walked out the front door into the breezeway and saw this mess! (it was even worse than pictured, I took the photo after picking up a bag of ripped up trash)
We'd had our own pirates over night. Coons came through the window to raid the cat food.
That is my curtain and the rest of the window's weather stripping on the floor. They tore the screen right off its frame and shredded it.
We've had trouble with raccoons in the past (I've walked right into a herd of them in the pitch dark, lurking in the breezeway, waiting to eat me- now I turn on the light before entering the room at night) so, I keep the windows closed out there, but since its been 104 degrees with a heat index of the surface of the sun, I cracked it open a a few inches to let out a bit of steam.
Who knew that the marauders could get through such a small opening?
The destruction they did seemed unwarranted for the small amount of food that they got. I think they were mad there was so little there for them and they wanted to teach me a lesson. They got a handful of cat food (stored in a plastic jug with a lid on it) and two juice boxes from the cooler. There was no good trash for them to eat, they just ripped the bag open out of spite.
You'd think that these guys might have barked while our home was under siege. They bark if a bunny comes within a 100 yards of our house or if a leaf falls from a tree. Although, even if they had warned me, I doubt if there was anything I could do. Coons intimidate me, they show no fear and always win a stare down contest when we get into them.
At first I was sad about these curtains, but then, I realized this was just the reason I needed to redo the room and get new ones. Its been this bilious green for years, and I've been wanting to redo it, just haven't done it.
Now, of course, its too hot to even think about, plus I'm still knee deep in tags. But I'll start the hunt for the curtains and that will lead me to the right colors for the room and I'll be thrilled to get it painted. I chose this green the day a beloved puppy died and I wanted something physical to do, and a color that was bright. So, not a lot of thought went into the color, I just grabbed a bright can from the store (oops paint, which someone else was smart enough to turn down), ran home and started to paint to take my mind off being sad.
The thing is, I just don't like living with brights too much. I prefer soft backgrounds. So, time for a change. And when I get the new curtains up, I'll keep the windows all the way shut to protect them from pillagers.
I'm continuing this giveaway. The prize is a dress form tutorial. If you have already purchased one of the $15 classes, (thank you!!), then I'll send you a kit of vintage goodies instead if I draw your name.
Yesterday, 50 tag books went out in the mail! That means I'm over 1/3 done. I'll work on as many as I can this weekend, then take a break for a few days while the stragglers come in. Your tags should all be mailed to me by now. If they have not been, please let me know.
photo #1
I thought you might want to see some of the combos I'm sending out.
photo #2
There have been some lovely books being compiled, because there is so much beauty for me to chose from.
Photo #3
Great work was sent in for this swap, I'm loving the theme and what everyone has done with it!
Photo #4
Sorry I can't link to each and every artist I'm showing, but these have already been mailed, I can't look at the backs to see whose is whose. Some I remember and some I don't. I don't want to list a couple people and not all.
Plus there are about 3 billion of them and I just don't have the limitless time to do the links PLUS make the books. Sorry.
You can look at our Flickr group to see more tags and see who has done which if you'd like.
Photo #5
Ya know, it might be nice if the artists left comments if they see their work and let us know where they are, such as:
"photo 3, row 1, tag 2" and their name.
Photo #6
With so many tags to pick thru as I put the books together, playing match up and assembling ones that look nice together has been a piece of cake.
Photo #7
But I do have to warn late comers, that their books might not blend as well, if I don't have as many to chose from. When it gets down to the last few books, whatever is left goes into them.
Photo #8
But honestly, I don't think anyone will mind! The artwork will be just as fun in a variety as it is in a matched up book.
I'm continuing this giveaway. The prize is a dress form tutorial. If you have already purchased one of the $15 classes, (thank you!!), then I'll send you a kit of vintage goodies instead if I draw your name.
Some of us don't mind this heat wave at all!
Hope you are finding ways to keep cool too.