Weekend Plan

I have a quiet and maybe productive weekend planned. 


This list just about covers my expectations. 

Because mostly, I'm in a stitching mood. 

♥

Playing Dolls with my Sister-in-law

You can only ask a really really REALLY good friend or Sister-in-law to help with a project of this magnitude.  And so, I admit that I took full and unashamed advantage of a really really REALLY sweet Sister-in-law last Friday.  I'm so excited with the results that you know, I must share. 

The underlying purpose of the project was to combined all the original dolls, reproduction dolls, finished dolls, naked dolls, arms, legs, heads and parts into one of my two glass front cabinets that face each other. Therefore, creating space for all of my jewelry making paraphernalia.

And did I tell you that nothing had been dusted or polished in years?  Kristin removed everything out and onto the studio work table.  She dusted everything.  She polished the glass shelves and mirrors.  And then I did the easy part.  I put them all back and their new spots.  And I ended up with plenty space for all my jewelry stuff.

All of the above pictures are from one side and the below pictures are from the other side. 

notice the doll reflections in the bead bottles and in the boxes below...cool!

Two of the three sections of this side is for my jewelry making stuff.  I haven't rounded it all up yet.  This is just the tools and supplies that were on the studio work table.  I will continue to gather the jewelry stuff this weekend and I sure am missing my really really REALLY sweet Sister-in-law.   

♥

About my Arizona Company

The first thing we did before the to-do list was posted was to show and share in the sewing studio.  Kristin and the girls brought their aprons-in-progress for me to see and I was so thrilled with how they each made them so personalized with their own likes. Of course I showed off my aprons and my quilting projects too.

I thought we might have time to start the free motion stitching on the aprons (number 3 on the list) but we ran out of time.

They wanted to make charms for their ankle bracelets so we got started with that early Thursday morning so the charms would have time to set up hard.  They selected and strung their beads and then the next day we attached the charms. 


We had enough time to make memory wire bracelets too. 

On Saturday more family came for dinner and I spent the day in the kitchen.  I managed to get 2 food pictures.  Edamame Salad and Stuffed tomatoes.  Both were yum. We had 26 at the table and everyone enjoyed the get-together.

Everyone left Saturday night and I pretty much crashed all day Sunday.


Then Monday morning Kristin called to say they wanted to come back for a couple of hours.  We managed to have a little Inktense on Fabric class and when I looked at this picture this morning, it looked like they each painted self portraits.  Funny how that happens. 

We didn't get to "take a break to wash windows" but Mark (brother) and Andy (nephew) did that Saturday.  In other words, they came to play and I put them all to work.  


We did pretty good with the list.  I will tell you about number 6 in another post.  We didn't make the peanut butter cookies and didn't get back to the sewing studio to free motion.


They stopped back by this morning on their way back home to Arizona.  A good and fun time was had by all. I just wished they didn't live so far away.  I'm thinking my SIL and I could really get into some fun stuff together. 
♥ Sharon

Stepped Out

Sorry, I forgot to tell you that I was stepping out for a bit.


Have Arizona company here.


We are doing fun things in the studio.


Of course you know, I will be showing and sharing. 


BUT......

MY CAMERA PROBLEM IS THE CAMERA AND NOT THE BATTERY.   YES, I AM SCREAMING ABOUT THIS!!!


Sick about it.


Not sure what to do just yet.


But I'm sure realizing my old camera was not-so-good. 


Back later,
♥

Morning WIProgress

This morning I had a clear head and motivation to start again.  I find it very easy to get clogged and distracted to the point of stopping if I let myself think about the whole finished painting before it is finished.  It is a trap.  I warn you, don't do it.  Of course, I also had a life distraction this week and sat on a jury trial.  But all in all when I feel this clog happening, I just stop and tell myself the time is not right for me to continue.  I don't feel a "flow" happening. So, after a very short break, today I show more work in progress from my morning art period.  

The way I start again when there are so many different ideas that I have floating around in my head about the possible outcome, is to start back with something that I am sure I want to add to the painting and put all other ideas out of my mind.  This one thing then unclogs and lets the inspiration start to flow with reason.

In other words, I think the composition has to build.  The story has to be revealed little by little.  How can I know exactly what will be in all areas of this canvas from the beginning?  When you start to read a story, you don't know the ending until you get there.

Enough for today.
Sharon

WIProgress Big Mistake

Big Hair Mistake

Change is easy

More WIProgress

My Progress is slow.
My nap was great.
My old camera....

Saturday WIProgress

Here is a start and I'm totally bummed! My camera battery just conked out....like it won't charge.  And I can't exactly go and get one and I just want to take a nap now.

Thanks to all who are commenting on my last post.  I'm getting you added to my blog list. xo

Maybe I can use my old camera. I'll check.

One more thing.  I used the "original size" photo on this post.  I love love big photos but does it give you any problems?
Thanks,
Sharon

On my easel

On my easel

This is what is on my easel right now. And I don't care if the studio is a mess, I AM GOING TO PAINT THIS WEEKEND!!!

But what I want to talk about is blogging.

Have you noticed that I have changed my header?  Slowly but surely I am trying to get it looking a little nicer around here.  But that's not what I wanted to talk about either.

There are two things I want to talk about.

One is about comments. (I LOVE THEM!!)  About a year or so ago, I read a blog post about making it easy to leave comments.  I'm sorry I didn't bookmark it and it is not a blog that I read but was blog hopping and somehow ended up on this blog that had huge following like seven thousand or more.  Really. Anyway, it was a good post about spam and making it easy for your followers to leave comments.

I can say that Blogger is on top of the spam issue now.  I haven't had any of those nasty spam comments since they started their spam filter.  So, I took the advise from the blog post and went about making it easier to leave comments at my blog.

Here is what I did:  Go to your Blogger Dashboard, then to Settings, then to Comments.  Scroll down to "Show word verification for comment" and click the choice to NO.  For a while, I moderated comments older than 14 days because that seemed to be where the spam was landing but I don't do that anymore.  I made these changes more than a year ago so you want notice any difference.

Next,  did you notice that I added the Blog List that shows a little picture of your post along with the post title.   It is in my sidebar and I gave it a title of "My Wonderful World of Bloggers".  If you want to do this, go to Design, then to Add a Gadget, then select Blog List.  There are options and you want have any trouble with that.  I only wish I had realized that I could add several of the gadgets because I would have organized my list  into blog themes, like art, quilting, photo, etc etc.  I might get around to that some day.

But what I really want to say is I have reverted back to my original method of reading your blogs.  That is to say, I come to My Blog and scroll down and pop out to Your blog from my Blog List.  It is so nice that the new entries are at the top.  I still have you all in google reader but it is so cold over there. And there is so much clicking to do and the truth is, I don't leave as many comments when I have to click and click and click to get there.  And when I get behind and can't keep up, the number of unread drives me crazy with pressure.  I know, I am crazy.

But here is the best part,  I enjoy seeing your beautiful blog with your beautiful header and all your sidebar thises and thats.  And I am likely to leave a comment unless I am sneaking over for a quick peak when I should be accounting or selling insurance at this desk in town.  It just feels like a real visit when I pop in and see your personality showing through in you blog design. Actually I find it inspirational. You all look the same in Google Reader. And if I get a post or two behind, I don't feel any pressure because when I pop over and scroll down, I know immediately if I have read everything or not.

I didn't mean for this to be so long but ....well it is.   Now, I have a favor to ask , I don't have all of your blogs in my list yet.  I am slowly but surely getting there but if you notice that you are not in my list and you want to be.......well just tell me in a comment and I will put you there.
Thanks, watch for me.
Sharon

 

Big big huge gigantic rip roaring task is finished

triple dresser
top drawer is store bought finish
middle drawer is one coat of  paint
bottom draw has dark wax over paint

end table
showing the cream finish that was on the end tables and head board

end table finished

head board and light fixture finished

odd table 

dresser finished

me finished

 The big big huge gigantic rip roaring task is finished.  I can't believe I did it in one week.  After I mentioned on an earlier post that I was about to undertake the project, Lisa gave me a gentle reminder about Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.  I remembered when she posted about using it and what I remembered is that she had to order the paint and that it was expensive. 

So with her nudge, I went on the internet to review and lo-and-behold, I found a cute little shop in Waco that carried it.  You know that Waco is my go-to big city just about 35 minutes up the road. 

Here is what appealed to me about the paint.  NO PREPARATION necessary.  No sanding, no stripping, no nothing.  I have only dreaded this chore for about umpteen years because in the early nineties, I used a high gloss cream color paint on this 1960s furniture.  And I never managed to finish the chore as evidenced by the triple dresser.  

So, I hopped into my car last Monday afternoon and high-tailed it to Lily Lane Home which is located in Spice Village.

Oh yes and one more thing,  I didn't even empty the drawers before I painted the fronts.  Just pulled them out and painted right there in the bedroom.  It could not have been easier. Yes yes I did put a big piece of cardboard down to work over. 

I painted 5 pieces plus the two little light fixtures and didn't use a whole quart.  I also bought the book, Quick and Easy Paint Transformations which is full of projects.  The color I used 

is Graphite with the Dark wax over it and it gave a soft black.....perfect!!!!

Here is what I know,  without Chalk Paint, I would still be daydreaming about this project.  I was dreading all the drawer emptying, and dragging each piece to the garage to prepare.  Well, it just would not have happened this summer. 

Coming up next:

ART