Barnen Stuga

Between Two Hearts

is the name of this stained glass window. My baby brother built a Barnen Stuga for his three kids in Arizona. Since I put stained glass windows in my playhouse, I insisted that their playhouse had to have one also. I made the window last summer here in Texas and shipped it to Arizona for him to install. The above view is from the inside looking out. And this view is from the outside. The design was spontaneous and was meant to represent the scribbles that I use to do as a child and then color each resulting space with a different color. Do kids still do that? Well as always with me the window took on a life of it own while in progress. "Between Two Hearts" is about a family that lives in Arizona. The five green jewels between the two hearts represents mother, father, and three kids. Each child is represented in the piece. Andy, the only one born in Texas and being born on Davy Crockett's birthday is represented by the swath across the middle from side to side that reminded me of a coon skin hat. Our Mother was a Crockett and we connect with David Crockett six or more generations back. So Andy is very proud to have been born on his birthday.
Linnea is represented by the beautiful delicate sea shell in the bottom corner. And Aubrey is the little sunshine that lights up any room she is in. There is the Brazos River winding through it which represent my Brother who was born in Texas and a bit of dessert and mountains for my Sis-in-law and Arizona. The big purple teardrop on its side at the top....well that's me...I miss them so much.
This is the Barnen Stuga in progress in the fall of 2004. Andy with friend is under it and Linnea and Aubrey are the cuties above.

My Friend

There are friends and there are friends and then sometimes there are friends. My friend from a long time ago arrived Saturday morning in time for a "bag and boil" your own omelet, bacon and cantaloupe. That was fun. I got an e-mail last week with the instructions. Here it is: Break 2 eggs in a large zip-lock bag. Have a spread laid out of anything one might like in an omelet. Like onions, bell pepper, mushrooms, tomatoes, cheese, black olives. Then everybody writes their name on the bag and adds what ever ingredients they like. Zip it up and drop into a big pot of boiling water. Boil for at least 13 minutes (we had to go a little longer) then dump it out onto your plate, chunk the bag. You can boil 7 or 8 at a time if the pot is big enough. It was a great custom to taste omelet.
Try it!
Now, about this friend. She is the kind that when she comes, expects to do some big project. In the past we have totally organized my closet. You know, go through each piece and keep or get rid of. Go to Wal-Mart for storage boxes and plastic hangers... NO WIRE HANGERS. Or one time we took everything out of my kitchen cabinets and rewashed ever dish and put them back. One time she brought her own chain saw and we trimmed trees. Now it works both ways because when I go to her house we go to Lowes for buckets of paint and repaint and the inside of her house. Every room a different color.

So I'm showing you this one drawer in my studio. My wish this trip was for help with organizing the studio. This draw was stuffed so full of lace, ribbons, and all kinds of trim that when I tried to get something out I couldn't find. I wish I had taken a before picture. Anyway, here is an after picture. Everything is organized and rewound on acid free card and in tubs and I can't wait to get started using this stuff. Of course we touched some other shelves too. It was a great visit. What a friend.

Friday Evening at my House

Welcome to Friday evening at my house. I'm getting ready for a visit with a long time friend from the Dallas area. She will get here for breakfast tomorrow. Lots of fun planned. I'm too tired to go out for a stroll tonight so I'm showing three of the six windows of my Garden Palace. One of my unfinished projects. The windows are finished but the interior is not and now the outside needs repainting already. More on that later but I thought your might enjoy the windows. Have a great weekend and as always, make time for ART. I am!

What's Next

Now that I only have to put the finishing touches on my Book of Dreams.....like finish the back of the cover and do something quick with a few remaining pages....I'm already thinking about what to do next. I found this cute little Rooster book and since I have chickens and have taken pictures of my chickens, (well, some people take pictures of their dogs) I think I will do a Chicken Journal.
But first, I am going to do a Heart Journal. You know, I "heart" this and I "heart" that. I have been working on a list of things I "heart" for over a year. I have this little list right here on my desk. When I think of something while I'm daydreaming, I just jot it down. That is what I'm going to use.
I'm going to do pockets, layers, images, embossing, stamping, cutting and pasting with a quick, liberating, freestyle. It is going to be so fun!
Come do it with me.
It sure would be fun if you would join in with me. This would be a little Me Me book. We could share it with each other like our Book of Dreams. Leave your comment, if this sounds fun to you. I'm sure you already have your list just like I do.

Now, I'm gonna refocus work work work at my desk job. (I'm so lucky to be my own boss so I can play sometimes instead of work.......)

Book of Dreams....Watercolor and Embossing

Week 8 Part Two
Click on image to enlarge The part 2 challenge this week was embossing and then watercoloring a background. I think I did mine backwards as I did the background first. Also, I used Caran D'Ache Neocolor II (watersoluable crayons) instead of traditional watercolors. I was turned on to Neocolor II by Teesha Moore in her "How I Journal" tutorial that she so generously has shared at her web site. There is no telling how many artist she has inspired and I for one was mesmerized when I first discovered her web site just after the beginning of this year.

I love this page of my daughter when she was 17. I was working on the composition and knew I was going to use "fly" on the page but another Book of Dreamer, Jeanne, did a page with "let your dreams soar" and that is how that came about on my page. Thank you Jeanne. (She also is the one who inspired me to start my blog)

I still have a little to go before I can say this book is finished and I'm going to wait until then to post all of the pages like Kari did here. Again thank you ArtsyMama for all your hard work. I'm hooked on altering books.

Book of Dreams...Fusing with Found Objects

Week 8...Part One I have been wanting to try this technique so I was excited about this weeks challenge. I found a little handkerchief to use for the background and cut part of a second one used above the frog. I found some little silk flowers and added beads to the center after fusing. I used a little swatch of fabric and a torn piece of a printed page. I am a little disappointed that the frog doesn't show a little better. This will take experience with the three different polymer media used. Of course, I did a little freestyle sewing after fusing and as always can't help but pick up the paint brush to add a little. I'm OK with it for the first try with this technique. I Will definitely do this again.

I will do Week 8 Part Two a little later. But first, I need to bless this house and especially the floors.

ArtsyMama has posted her complete book here.

Friday Evening at my House

WELCOME to Friday evening at my house. We have a hen setting on some eggs and noticed a shell she had pushed out and thought one had hatched. It was too early so I'm afraid I disturbed her to look. While she was off the nest, I gave her fresh straw. Now I don't know if that will be alright with her or not. The shell was from a broken egg not a hatch.
The daily announcement from the garden by DH, "I brought produce". Today's is in the bucket. Earlier this week is in the basket. I'll be cooking some of it in a jiffy. Wish you were here to enjoy. You can't tell much about it yet but here is the start of a Treasure Map. Son and his boys are coming tomorrow and I have a surprise planned for Tim and his cousins. I'll be working on this later tonight. I don't know how I'm going to finish this up with out Tim seeing it. Might be a late night. I will share more after the treasure is found.
I'm going to cook now. Have a good weekend and make time for ART. I plan to.

Friday Color Red

WE "HEART" TOMATOES

Found Objects for Book of Dreams...Week 8

Inspired by Gudrun and her last page for Book of Dreams I found a small collection of old scarves for consideration as "found objects" to use in this weeks assignment. This week raps it up and ArtsyMama has done a wonderful job of leading us along this journey. This weeks task is to use found objects and a fusing technique. Also a part 2 for this week is to do some embossing and use watercolors on the page. I will be doing these things just as soon as I decide on the images I want to use.

Thursday Color Blue

I went outside again to search for blue. I think this wild passion flower and wild grapes will pass for shades of blue.

Wednesday Color Black and Gray

My unfinished project.....in Black

Tuesday...Color Brown

I went out to capture brown from outdoors and ended up chasing this beautiful dragon fly. It's brown.

RUST

Playing the blogging color game with Stephanie and Mav. Go see.

Blogging Game of Color

I'm going to play the game of color this week that Stephanie and Mav have going on. Check it out. I have to catch up with Monday's......color white. Here is a squash of unknown variety. Haven't cut into it yet to see what it has crossed with. Last year spaghetti squash, white patty pan and a green winter squash were planted. This has to be a cross between two of these. We're going to cut it tomorrow and I'll let you know.

Another Birthday Boy

Happy Birthday Timothy. Today Tim is 12 and as he says a, "preteen". He is one of my dream kids (grandkid) and since father's day is coming up I decided to use this father-son pic from last September. Tim caught the fish!

Happy Birthday!!!!!

Happy Birthday.....Kevin

Here is the birthday boy. Happy Happy Birthday. Sorry I can't see you today. Looking forward to this weekend.

Book of Dreams......Week 7...Fabric

This is a follow-up page to the first post today. Another fabric page using 1968 black and white polaroids copied with digital and then printed on fabric.
I really liked the weaving that ArtsyMama did on her tutorial page so I decided to do that on this page which led me to weaving the basket with ribbon as well.
The basket represents the recurring dream and the pictures were taken on the "doorstep" in the dream. Isn't it interesting how it all comes back together today, the eve of his 38th birthday.
Well the day isn't over but I did ART instead of yard. It is so very hot out there today. A real Texas summer day.

Book of Dreams......Fabric

Oh what fun fabric is. I guess that stands to reason since I have been working with fabric since I was in 7th grade and my Daddy challenged me to sew for myself. Mother was teaching me and we were poorer that church mice but I didn't know it. Daddy told me that if I could sew for myself, he would provide all the fabric. And I did. And he did.
So, here is what I did for this challenge. Being an impatient person and not having a scanner here at home to scan the 1968 Polaroid above, (I work between office and home) I used my digital camera and took a photo of the photo. Here is a hint for you if you worry that the fabric will get caught in the printer. I did the trial and error thing with several different pictures and different types of fabric. I used and easy tack repositionable spray adhesive on a piece of paper. Then I positioned the fabric of choice on the paper and cut the fabric to fit after positioning it on the paper. That worked but I noticed that each time the piece came through the printer the very top of the fabric had rolled down a little off of the paper. Now here is the hint. I machine stitched with long stitches along the very top leading edge of the paper/fabric. It worked. After printing, I carefully removed the stitches because the same paper can be reused over and over again.
I had fun with the freestyle stitching. I used fabric and ribbons for the whole page spread except the paper butterfly and of course I have noticed that I just must paint something on each page. I used Golden Fluid Acrylics to color the little stamped flowers.
I have another fabric page in process and am pulled between working on it or going outside and washing windows and pulling weeds and trimming hedges and weed whacking and sweeping out the garage and and and ......have a great Sunday. I'll let you know what I decided and oh by the way, I did the 4.5 hours on the riding mower yesterday.

Friday Evening at my House

WELCOME! to Friday Evening at my House. So what do you think? I like it. I like it a lot and you will notice that unlike "store bought" flags the front and back are different. I just can't do the same thing twice. Can't do it. You also might notice that you can see through it and I decided that was OK with me too.
I really had a lot of fun doing this. Maybe you can't see the detail but there is a lot of freestyle stitching going on here. That was the fun part. I didn't make or use a pattern. Just cut and sew down. The design just evolved as I went. I will be making more but I am going to make the little garden flags that slip onto a holder and is put in the ground.
Here is detail of the back side before it was finished. This is another of my "Klimt inspired" pieces like the benches shown here. Had a great time at the Scrapbook Convention. Got some good stuff. I'm going to rest up tonight and then I will start working on my next page for the Book Of Dream project. Here is a start. I printed on fabric and then did a little freestyle stitching. I'm not sure that I will use any of these but I needed to do the trial and error thing and then practice. Inspiration is still swirling at the moment.
PS....this is the yard work weekend. That means about 4 to 5 hours on the riding mower. Also, hope to see my son this weekend as it is nearly his birthday.

Scrapbook Convention

I'm so excited! My friend, the one who is always sharing neat stuff with me and has more toys than I do, has invited me to go to The Great American Scrapbook Convention in Arlington tomorrow. Can't wait. If you are in the area, see you there.

Flag Progress

Will you come back to Friday Evening at my House to see more?

Corners Of My Home

Surprise. Surprise. Here in this little corner of my home. Ginger growing. This is what happens when one gets caught up in altering things.

Make time for ART.

Book of Dreams.....Pop-Ups

Great fun making this "Pop-Up" page. I used my butterfly and garden pictures taken last week. I printed a mirror image of each and glued them back to back so the back side showed pretty too. as always.....

(click on the image to enlarge)

We are each of us angels

with only one wing,

and we can fly only by embracing each other.

crescenza