"Breaking Sound" Altered CD art show

"Breaking Sound" sponsored by Emerald Isle Framing, the Rookery and Kodiak Island Brewery, invited artists to submit artwork incorporating CDs in some manner. the show opened last night and will be on display for a couple of weeks. it's been good to have something to work on during these dreary rainy days.

now it's time to start planning my next halibut tail for the KIVCB's 2nd annual halibut tail auction...........

"erzulie" and "papa legba" ~ collage & embossing on CD. these are haitian veve symbols~ erzulie represents the spirit of love, emotional healing & creativity. legba represents the spirit of the guardian of the crossroads, the provider of opportunity and remover of obstacles.

"shhhh" was made by bending a CD in half. the assemblage includes an awesome old plastic doll ear i found beachcombing one day. really! how cool is that find!

"beach diva" (i know, but i love urchins). i dyed a bit of raw silk, added vintage mother of pearl buttons, pearls and hand quilting, and stitched it and the backing piece over a CD.

this is my favorite, "time in a bottle" ~ remember that jim croce song? i papier mache'd over a CD for texture, painted it, added a chunk of hand made paper and aged copper screening. i played with a heat gun and an old credit card (someone told me if you melt them you don't have to pay off the balance....) and popped the bottle through the opening. all the little metal bits are found on local beaches. i just love how aged this ended up looking.

not just exciting, stinkin' exciting!!!

you know how sometimes you're just not in the mood to stop what you are in the middle of and cook dinner??? now that the kids are grown and i'm not working full time, this happens to me more and more. if i'm gluing, or stitching, or have my hands dye or wallpaper paste, i don't want to stop and marinade the poultry. so it's like a standing bit of humor here that when the husband walks in the door after work and asks that loathsome question "what's for dinner?" i hand him a bottle of wine and say "this is." it buys me a few more minutes at least.
a couple weeks ago i visited Mad Housewife Wine's blog and saw they were holding a cork slogan contest. this was for a slogan, seven words or less, they would use to print on their corks for their mother's day bottling. i couldn't resist, and sent in my favorite saying.

well, last night they announced the winner, and it was me!!! boy howdy when i saw MY name i think my heart stopped for a bit. i feel like i won the wine cork oscars or something!!!!

if you like a nice glass of wine, let me suggest you try mad housewife. they have four varietals, all lovely, and for every case of white zinfandel they sell they make a donation to breast cancer research. there, another good reason to have a glass with your girlfriends!

a late happy valentine's day

the highlight of valentine's day for me this year was the package i received from my vintage valentine swap partner dolly. she made me a sweet decorated valentine box, and filled it with so many goodies i couldn't believe she fit it all in there. papers, ribbons & trims, old sheet music, sweets, hand crafted tags, a beautiful vintage hankie i adore, and my favorite, a little lavender filled shell. what a wonderful partner. it was fun swapping valentines again, thank you dolly!

the news stories dwindle, but haiti is still there...

life goes on - that's just the way life is. but there are still little bits of things we can do to help those around us in need, without creating huge riffs in our day to day routine. many of you probably already browse through etsy shops occassionally (or regularly, or obsessively as the case may be.)
i'd like to encourage you, who are reading my silly ramblings right now, to visit one special etsy shop started by rebecca sower. i won't go into all the background in this post, but you can read all about what rebecca has been doing with a group of haitian crafter ladies and how the earthquake has affected them, and how you can assist, here on rebecca's blog, and here, on the haiti by hand blog. any of you who have watched the movie "what about bob" with bill murray will know it's all about "baby steps."
please take a moment and click on that haiti by hand button over there to the left - see it? i have donated this sea glass and pearl necklace, and i would dearly love to send it to one of you!

octomom's got nothin' on this...

at the beginning of last summer i mentioned a very cool embellished art quilt round robin i am participating in. i think i showed a couple of the sections i had worked on. we are still all plugging away at each other's tops, understanding that life, families, etc. butt in on our creative bubbles all too often. but, we are getting there. i just finished my section on this beauty - i tell you what the last two ladies were tough acts to follow! this one gave me a bad case of coveting my neighbor's quilt top, but managed to pass it on down the line earlier this week. i was happy to be able to incorporate some rusty bits of stuff from the beach into this one. i can't wait to see it finished.