what the monster named vertigo and i did yesterday

many days the monster and i dance together with a great deal of tolerance for each other,

 and many days we fight with each other.

 in between there are bouts where i surrender to the beast.

the past few days the beast has been acting up in the most wicked of ways.

 i drop things, so no running with scissors or glass for this girl

my brain and legs are not connected, so no stairs

no going to the store with the kids and hubs, not in the mood for stares and glares from those few who assumed i had lunch with jack daniels

just to name a few activities that are no-no's

during these bouts reading, typing, writing....beading are out.

although i may have surrendered to the beast, i won't let it win.....this arty girl is making art in some form or another.

so off to make tassels and grow patina is what i did.

80 glorious yards

of several different

colors

and

textures

of fibers

these are couture tassels.

huge

floofy

2 or 3 of these will be sold with these

oh-so-yummy-hand stitched-hand beaded-hand bags

the remainder of the tassels will be offered up for sale

individually.

finally i remembered to add apple cider vinegar to my shopping list

and found that this form of vinegar

grows patina so much quicker

than distilled vinegar.

i have also made some pretty neato discoveries

most accidentally

in a few days

i should be ready to

post my first tutorial!

can you believe this!

i was amazed to find just how quickly this much grew

say a couple of hours vs a couple of days.

this arty girl is off to do some housework, make some more patina-ed charms and

some chocolate chip cookies as a first day of school prize for the boys and

a treat for the hubs who has been working his tush off in the horrid heat.

until next time

mwah!

a trip to the flea market, a wedding anniversary, a bit of creative stitching, my first piece of art in my shiny clean organized studio

a few years ago we use to hit flea markets and estate sales fairly regularly.

i did not realize just how much i missed treasure hunting until we got a chance to visit a flea market this past sunday.   with a very small budget i searched for treasures oh-so-carefully.

2 of my favs..... i feel as though the flea market angel must have guided me to find as one time i looked down just in the nick of time and another...... a glint of neatness caught my attention out of the corner of my eye.....

a very old scale. 

 i love the patina of the aged metal.

vintage industrial with a touch of victorian

craftmanship, detail, charm, beauty

this is a 1920's household budget keeper.

i have never in all my years of hitting garage-tag-estate sales, flea markets and antique mall-ing ever seen one of these.  all mine for 10 bucks.....left me with a few cents to divie up in to each of the yellow tins.


they say when you have 3 of something you officially have a collection.


i now officially have a collection of vintage fans.

guess i also have a collection of kids too.....

i also found this nifty neato vintage keeper of time from the guy i came to refer to as the $5 dollar guy.  every thing i touched he would say 'that's five bucks, its really old'  i fell in love with so many things but since he was not willing to haggle or deal i only purchased this one thing from him. 

i set it to the day and date my knight-in-shiny-armour and i were married

i found myself with a few other items. 

still need to snap photos.

on august 6, 1986 i met my knight in shiny armour.

on august 4, 1989 i married him.

i will love this man till the end of time

and the week after that

i have never been a play by the rules kind of girl.  i am out of the box....all of the way

i never looked healthy in white or off white, so this girl went with pink for her wedding dress

my mom made the dress and to this day i don't know how she did not lose her mind

creating this dream-come-true for me

oh-so-ticklish i am

gotta love these guys...stan, jr., doug

wish i would have thought of this attire for the wedding!

steph and i are adding some beading to our bags

without giving it much thought

i began stitching glass beads

using the bag that will be mine

as the experimental

first.

i usually don't plop my purses down

so glass beads are no problem

for a bag-o-mine

but should i use glass on

bags that will be offered

up for sale?

not sure what to do here

here is what i have done so far

and......drum roll please......

my first official piece of

art in my oh-so-clean and organized studio

and a gift for the hubs, and myself too

in honor of our 21 years of marriage

a collage of items from the 1920's

under a very old bubble glass

picture frame....

a portion of a journal page from the 1920's that i wrote our wedding date and first date on

the small piece of paper says from bill f. , i found this attatched to

the whitmans label that is up top on the collage.

had to include this since the hubs is bill f. too!

just a wee bit more stuff in the studio to shuffle around and monday i will be back to work full time in my studio.

it took so very little time to put this collage together.

being so organized again

i knew exactly where to

go for everything

i needed

whoo-hoo!

so until we meet again.....

mwah!

cleaning and arting

i have been busy for a couple of weeks reclaiming, cleaning and organizing my studio by day, and sometimes when i am on a roll into the late night.

before heading back downstairs this afternoon thought i would share a few pics of what i have been doing by night.

rag roses created from ripped strips of muslin.

twist 'em tight or twist 'em loose and you get a whole different look.

it is amazing how many of these can be made while watching my fav comedy or

science geekery  show.

a close up view of a loosely turned, twisted and stitched rag rose.

steph and i recently each purchased drawstring backpacks hoping to get some

inspiration for creating our own pattern.  we each then embellished our bags.

3 lovely rag roses with some satin stitched leaves above an exterior pocket.

a cascade of glass pearls on the pocket.

loved stitching the pearls on all willy nilly.

on a wing and a prayer. 

wings stamped onto muslin with stazon and the word pray stamped

onto a separate piece of muslin and then stitched and pillowized (yes, it is a word, in my world at least!)

scrap fabrics and tuelle added and stitched to the bag.

a bit of blanket stitch on the exterior pocket to give some detail.

gratitude - something i am so very grateful to have learned the importance of.

bliss - i am learning to follow it.

faith - something i am learning to have and amazed at experiencing the miracles unfold.

it is the simple things that can bring so much happiness.

steph created the pattern for this bag and stitched it together.

i am getting ready to embellish it.

this one is MINE....all mine....

but we will have 2 or 3 more of these up for sale soon.

beads, buttons, sequins, tassels......hmmmmm what to add, what to add?

still gathering info for my tutorial on growing patina on brass charms.

stay tuned!

bertie bert recouperates after getting a chance to go play in the backyard with the puppies!

till next time

smooches to you

so busy, so happy, so excited......

for the first time in 2 years my studio is almost mine again.

it is a long story. 

do i explain?

 to speak of it again would be like hauling a bag of trash around and constantly smelling the stink of it. 

it is time to just get rid of it.

it is time to celebrate.  be happy.  be free. 


when someone uses you....when you let yourself get into a situation where you are taken advantage of and you suffer from 'too freakin' nice for your own darn good' syndrome....

i have learned my lesson......mmmm.... i have learned A lesson.

for 2 years i did not make art, a few pieces of jewelry.....but no real art.  lots of bouts of depression every time i walked down to my studio and became overwhelmed by the mess. 

getting back to happy.....so happy......

my soldering table and glass cutting table still need to be cleaned.

several pieces of ephemera and vintage photos need to be filed.

i now have a full 2' x 2' of work space!  whoo-hoo!

lots of trash dumped.

lots of someone elses stuff to be returned.

lots of stuff to goodwill.

i sat in my studio and cried as i looked around friday.   

the chaos

the clutter

the confusion

the sadness

fading away......

i lost a huge piece of me during that 2 years.  being so sick on top of the situation i ended up in....made it worse.

would i find the same me i lost 2 years ago? 

i don't think so.

i think......i know i am going to find a new improved me.

a healed me.

a more creative and inspired me.

a happier me.

a stronger me.

a ready to be successful me.

a faith filled me.



this arty girl was a hopin' and prayin' to be full time in her studio as of  today, but the weekend did not go as planned.....it was better. 

today was not as planned either, but so good to get out of the house. 

tomorrow i can not wait for it to get here, ok it is technically tomorrow, so i mean my version of tomorrow......

 i am running to my studio,

expectations high, face happy,

attitude properly adjusted....

patina and verdigris everywhere

i have been on a mission to figure out how to patina and obtain the verdigris effect without chemicals.

my first tutorial will be on how to add patina to brass, and eventually to other metals.

this arty girl is on a budget at this moment in time and knows others are too and my mission to find the safest and least expensive way to give an aged appearance to metals has driven me into mad scientist mode.

my kitchen looks like the lab of one!

here a just a few quick picks to give you an idea of what i am seeing take place in my lab right now!

sea salt and distilled vinegar method 1

sea salt and distilled vinegar method 2

hard boiled egg method

can not wait to have all of my results to pass on!

the last month in many photos...few words

this last month i have

1. finally recuperated from my visit from the tooth fairy
2. recuperated from the effects of the pain meds and anti-biotics
3. am no longer melting...we got our air conditioning fixed finally!
4. realized i hardly see my kids anymore now that it is summer. 
5. realized how much i miss them when they are gone so much
6. realized just how much they are growing up and becoming their own peeps
7. realized i really have neglected my blog
8. hormones suck
9. insomnia due to sucky hormones sucks more
10. celebrated the 20th birthday of my baby girl, and yes i will say it again, how did she age and i did not...really
11. played nurse to a really ooey gooey boo boo....i really don't like ooey gooey boo boo's
12. had my mind blown while trimming my middle guys beard....i have a baby with a beard...weird...hey i rhymed
13. said good-bye to my 80+ year old love seat...sniff sniff.  the hubs saved the fabric and springs
14. a livingroom filled with vintage/antique chairs and really needs a coffee table in the center of the room, kind of looks like we are holding 12 step program meetings!
15. refinished a few pieces of furniture
16. realized my work is never done
17. learned alot about how to patina and verdgris brass charms....stay tuned my first tutorial coming soon, still learning!

found myself very sad that the telephone nook-soon to be shrine was ugly wood underneath all those years of paint i oh-so-carefully stripped off.  so the first coats of primer were going on here.

ummmm  on the shrine...but if you forget to make sure the lid is on tight when you shake, shake, shake the can it ends up all on the ground, your feet, your legs....

primed and painted white.  not sure if it will stay white since i am not sure where exactly i will hang this, at least in this house.  once we move in our dream house....lots of wall space!

this really needs to be distressed...it looks tooooo new.  the chair a few pics up had the holy canoly distressed out of it. 

the guys and i blew up the air mattress and layed out on the driveway and watched fireworks

blech.

this is what happens when a boy flies over the handle bars of his bike.

you know the saying the taller they are the harder they fall

seems to be true

my baby, just shy of 6 feet tall

made it back home before he let the tears

flow.

the front side

the back SLIDEEEeeeee

the yummy inside

stephs 20th birthday cake-tas-trophy

and finally

guess what this is?

the answer:  a lesson not learned.

always, always, always put the toilet paper away as soon as i get home from the store!

who did this?

nighty night!