A lazy Sunday, goodbye to February

These beautiful strawberries called my name this morning . . . so I took a quick snap while I waiting for my toast to brown. My sweetheart is out biking - the "Chilly Hilly" on Bainbridge Island, so I'm now at the studio playing with the new rubber stamps that I made. The sun is shining and I've got the windows open. Goodbye February . . .

Postcards, catching up on my mailing

I've really gotten behind on my postcard mailings. Having just received a great card from my friend Kari, I felt motivated to get my act in gear. Since I've been so remiss, I have several months to make up for. I was using two cameras last week during my Oregon trip - our trusty Nikon point & shoot and my Iphone. The tulip photo was taken in Portland - flowers on the table at Robin's. The sepia photo still life was snapped in Ashland at Prize. I took the photo (of the couples going to France) from a display and put it next to a decoupage plate (one of those incredibly expensive numbers from John Derain). I added the type using InDesign.

Sewing on paper is a passion - and for the 'Paris' card I sewed two layers of card stock together since the metallic paper is difficult to write on. Took this photo with the Iphone as well. Voila!

There's more than meets the eye . . .

For the second year in a row I've created a book - in Iphoto - using our Valentine's Day walk pictures. Last year I made a huge mistake - I didn't pay attention to the page count (26) and just filled the book with the photos I'd taken. When the book arrived I was so bummed - there were lots of blank pages.

first page - you can have a title and a small amount of text

This year I snapped many pictures - so there'd be plenty to choose from. Here are some of the spreads. It's so easy to do and I'm quite pleased with the results. For $14 + I got 3 little books - shipping included. They come nicely packaged with each book tucked in a clear cello envelope. I definitely see more of these little remembrances in my future.

flowers at the market

delicious donuts & pretty produce

couldn't resist the pussy willows or the evening view at the day's end

need I say more?

Waiting for the train in Seattle

Robin's Valentine Tulips

This past weekend I took the train to Portland and drove to Medford with Robin. We had a great time with her mom. We also managed to complete all of our business as well as getting in little 'culture' (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), eating good food, shopping, watching a little Olympics and meeting several friends for coffee in Eugene. I took my camera and will have pictures from a great little shop in Ashland, Prize, to show soon. These photos are from my Iphone. It's a super 'spur-of-the-moment' camera, and with the Best Camera App I have a lot of fun.

Fruit at Pike Place Market - Jury duty lunchtime

Robin's Roses from JS

Window sill still-lifes make me smile

What I see from my kitchen window is quite pleasant - in real estate jargon it's a "territorial view." Close up, there are neighbor's houses, in the distance the backside of Queen Anne Hill - dotted with more homes. As spring approaches many will become obscured by leafy trees.

My window sill presents a different landscape, which also changes with the seasons. The tulips went into the compost bin, and freesias before that - I love fresh flowers. Favorite pieces, the painted dress and the bird salt/pepper shakers make me smile as I wash dishes or fill the dog's water bowl. I'm especially fond of these wooden birds - I got them on Etsy. I move them around the house, creating little vignettes to brighten my day.

We both see . . . beauty in Ballard

The more familiar two people become, the more

the language they speak together departs from that

of the ordinary, dictionary-defined discourse.

Familiarity creates a new language, an in-house

language of intimacy that carries reference to the story

the two lovers are weaving together . . . Alain de Botton

Walking on Valentine's Day through Ballard . . . for coffee, the farmer's market and the surrounding residential neighborhoods. A lot to look at and appreciate . . . a lovely day.

Wrapping . . . Valentine's, but not for me!

I just finished a very fun job - wrapping Valentine's gifts for a client who's taking her kids skiing for the holiday. I got the job Wednesday and shipped it out today. Whew! Luckily, I didn't have to purchase the gifts, I only had to creatively package them.

All of the gifts were wrapped before they went into their respective containers - gifts for the boys went into red take-out boxes with jazzy labels. (I LOVE InDesign - the fx command for type can be very handy!) The girls' packages were tucked into red canvas bags that I embellished with fancy ribbons and felt monograms. I used large cello bags to contain everything, since I didn't want any 'shifting' going on in the shipping boxes. Now it's time to work on my Valentine's!

Thinking of Anne, my dear friend

We all make friends who we instantly click with, the phrase "separated at birth" can ring so true! I only knew Anne for nine years, but it felt like a life-long friendship. When I think of her, which is often, I am so grateful for those nine years.

We occasionally got together at her dining room table to 'make art.' She worked on a journal for her daughter. I supplied papers and glues and other ephemera. It was a joyful process for both of us.

Along with one of Anne's oldest friends, I created a book for Anne's beloved daughter – comprised of notes and personal memories. It was a true honor to work on this project, and as I designed the simple pages, I realized that Anne made everyone she met feel that she'd known them forever. She listened, focused, laughed and remembered. So today, as the anniversary of her passing looms, I'll do the same.

Everything looks better with glitter glue

This weekend my sweetie and I will attend the Beaux Arts Ball at the Portland Art Museum. So we need masks. Needless-to-say, a trip to Display and Costume Supply (one of my favorite shopping destinations) was in order. They have everything for dress-up and more. While I found several masks that I really liked - especially a gold/black cat face, complete with whiskers - I soon realized that whatever mask I wore had to accommodate my glasses, since my world becomes quite fuzzy without them.

My husband had expressed interest in Venetian masks and I almost purchased one with a huge pointed nose, but thought that eating and drinking would be challenging. His rigid paper mache mask is from Venice - with a little jazzing up from me - red glitter glue accentuates the leaves' veins. It's very well constructed - with lovely black satin ties.

My mask got more drastic alterations. It is much more flexible and my glasses easily fit behind. I started by hot gluing large rhinestones over the spots where the elastic headband poked through. . . then I went wild with more rhinestones.

It still looked bare so I rummaged in my collage stash and found wired floral leaves, cutting off the stems and placing them between the sun's rays. I didn't like the little pointy wire ends and decided to cover them up. These funky typewriter-like letters were perfect - plus I could spell something. "Goddess of Art" was my first idea, but had too many letters. "Art Queen" worked better. Even with the letters, I still wanted more embellishment. I have tons of these little white flowers and the red-tipped leaves added the finishing touch (and covered up my over-zealous glueing). Red, platinum and silver glitter glue were the finishing touch - I had to stop myself from putting glitter dots everywhere. A black velvet top and pants for me and a snappy black suit for him will complete our ensembles. Can't wait . . .

Oh, Roll on Columbia, Roll on . . .

My sweet husband and I spent the weekend at Skamania Lodge on the Washington side of the Columbia River. The weather was typical – northwest winter, cool and rainy, but the scenery was stunning and the toasty fireplace in the lodge lobby kept us warm and cozy.

We took a drive/hike on Saturday with our friends, up the Gorge to Marysville. The landscape changes dramatically - going from lush douglas fir forest/ferns to dry brush/craggy rocks - it's really quite spectacular. We also visited Stonehenge - a memorial honoring local soldiers that were killed in WWI.

I took many photos, but few of the big vistas - my little point and shoot didn't do the views justice. I focused instead on the little details that contributed to the overall picture.

Many of the fences are built of mossy stacked stones, with old railroad ties holding everything together. The ties create ledges and I discovered several carefully arranged still lifes.

I was captured by the subtle winter colors - even tho' the day was gray, but not raining, there were bright spots of color everywhere.

The mono-chromatic atmosphere enhanced the limited color palette. I finally had to stop photographing because I kept getting left behind by my hiking buddies.