STUDIO SATURDAY: THE NEW PASSION VORTEX

I've been sucked into an art journaling vortex, with so many options swirling around me that I don't know where to begin! There are classes to take, magazines and art supplies to buy, blogs to read, tutorials to watch -- I want it all! Of course, this is not a novel experience for me. I went through pretty much the same thing when I learned how to sew; to quilt; to garden; when I took up garden design, container gardening, and patioscaping; took up visual merchandising; started writing, and then discovered blogging. (What can I say? Ever so often you gotta try somethin' new, to keep those creative juices flowing!) It's never been quite so bad as this but then, thanks to the internet and social networking, I've never had access to quite this much information. It's mind boggling! Anyhoo, here's what I've been doing this week:

Finally got to do my first "whimsey grid" in my Letter Lovin' class, but first I had to make a Letter Love practice journal out of a simple composition book and duct tape. Who knew "duck tape" came in such cool patterns and colors, or that composition books came in anything other than black?

Practice, practice, practice!

Then I added at least half a dozen new art blogs to my bookmark bar. One of my faves is Julie of Balzer Designs. She does this cool series called Art Journal Every Day, and I just stumbled upon an old post of hers called No More Blank Pages. Apparently I'm not the only one who sometimes freezes up when faced with a brand new journal full of pristine white pages. You just hate to take a chance on screwing them up! This article helped me get past that, and gave me several ideas for super simple backgrounds that I can come back and add more to later. If they are already good and messy, you can let go of that whole perfection thing and just have your way with them!

I used acrylic craft paints on this one.

I finished up my Color Love class, but the facebook group that grew out of it just hated to disband (you can get a bit addicted to sharing your work, tips and ideas with other like-minded people). Some of the more experienced artists in the group have volunteered to take turns posting projects for us to try each week -- to hold us over until our instructor Joanne opens up her next class. I guess I'm gonna have to take a short break from Letter Lovin' each week to go back to Color Lovin' and try some of these "extra" lessons, because the stuff I've seen posted so far just looks way too fun to pass up!

Brought to you from the
Wee Little Studio

KNOW WHAT I LOVE?

I love having a cute little watermelon in my fridge, personally autographed by the farmer who grew it.

I love having faces to match the names of the farmers and ranchers who raise my food.

I love having tomatoes that aren't all the exact same size, shape and color -- tomatoes which not only taste like summer, but smell like it too!

I love it that, for once, the deer have allowed my Purple Hyacinth Bean vine to bloom abundantly in several different locations.

I love it that, after that vine blooms, it gets big shiny purple bean-like pods all over it. If you leave them there to shrivel and dry, you can then pop the pods open and out will tumble the cutest little seeds which look like Oreo cookies! Stick a baggie-full in the veggie drawer of your fridge, and you'll have seeds aplenty for you and everyone you know next year.

I love it that all that rain we got in the last few weeks took plants that were on their way to being summer-seared and gave them new life!

I love it when I stumble upon a color-mad juxtaposition such as this one -- one which occurred entirely on it's own, with no help from me. The butterfly weed keeps reseeding itself, in new locations each year, all from one tiny plant that I put in several years back. The funky fuchsia gomphrena with the fireworks-yellow tips is a new, plump, long-stemmed variety which is leaning down from the beds above.

Most of all, I love, love, love it that my American Beautyberry, which didn't get any berries at all last year, is now covered in bright fuchsia clumps of them, and that those berries will stay on into winter, even after the leaves drop off.

TIME TRAVEL

I have been keeping track of my days in notebooks and agendas for about forty five years now, and have pretty much filled up an entire cedar chest with them. The odd thing is that, other than using them to nail down the sequence of events over on my Miss Becky Goes Abroad blog, or to figure out when my last eye exam or mammogram was, I almost never go back to look at any of them. It's just way too time consuming to dig through them all. I have, however, found another way to time-travel, one that just tickles me no end. 


Once you become a home owner, as I'm sure you know, there seems to be a never-ending to-do list, and sometimes I feel a bit overwhelmed by all that still needs to be done here at Seasonality. One thing that helps me to adjust my perspective is to scan back through the photos I have posted on this blog. I feel so much better once I've taken one of these quickie trips through time, and am reminded of all that we have accomplished already, and just how far we have come. On one cooking blog that I was reading for a while, at the end of each posted recipe, there are links back to each recipe she posted on that same date in each of the previous few years. It got me to thinking, about how fun it would be to have those kinds of links on my own blog. If only I knew how to set something like that up, then on any given week -- take mid-July for instance -- at the mere click of a button, I could travel back through the last four or five years and see just what I was doing in...

2008:

My first ever float at the Blue Hole with the Muses,
which inspired one of my first ever mixed-media pieces - Arms Wide Open.

Pining for a gen-u-ine cistern, to replace our little green plastic rain barrels.

2009:

Attending my first ever Rain Dance.

Dealing with the heartbreak of having to move Mom into assisted living.

Brainstorming ideas for transforming this eyesore area into an Hacienda-Courtyard-Kitchen-Cantina Garden.

2010:

Going bonkers over producing my first ever little Sugar Baby watermelon.

Getting the Cantina Garden all decked out for an upcoming cousins reunion, and wondering when the heck that Mexican restaurant that went in across the street was finally going to open!

2011:

Tearing up our kitchen and bath.

Beginning my search for the perfect tomato tart recipe.

Being ever so grateful that my hubby was finally living here full-time, even if it meant having a garage packed full of stuff that needed homes to be found for, and reorganizing just about every room in the house!

Yep, we've come a long way baby, and it sure would be awesome to have some of those flashback links on my blog, so I could remind myself of that on a regular basis, don't you agree? If only I knew how to install them!

ART FOR THE CHILDREN

Remember when my daughter Lex taught herself to do embroidery last year, just so she could turn an old shabby chair into a fabulous Dia de los Muertos chair? It was auctioned off at a fundraiser for Wimberley's after school art program, Arts from the Heart. Well, it's that time of year again!

This time she was given a little metal soda shoppe chair to transform, and once again, she felt compelled to call on her embroidery skills.

With the addition of some sparkle-glitter spray paint, and water-color-swirls fabric, she ended up with an absolutely adorable mermaid chair.

I think some little girl is going to be over the moon when this shows up in front of her desk or vanity, don't you?

CREATIVE REUSE: WHAT WAS IT?

image from brookegiannetti.typepad.com

Many years ago my hubby and I stumbled across a galvanized barrel similar to the one above, at a flea market, and brought it home. The lady who sold it to us had lots of them, and believed they were originally for bathing one's kids in. I wasn't so sure about that.

We have always used ours as a planter. When we lived near the gulf coast, and were going with a tropical theme, it got drizzled with ocean shades of aqua and cobalt blue.

When we moved here, it took on the violet and tangerine hues of a Hill Country sunrise.

image from miswesternmalaise.blogspot.com

They became quite popular when this version appeared in Smith & Hawken catalogs a while back, where they were called "antique planters". I've heard others refer to them as "vintage wash tubs" and even watering troughs for animals. I suspect people have used them for all these purposes over the years, but it wasn't until I stumbled across this photo on Pinterest recently, that my gut finally said "Yes! Now that makes perfect sense!"

In fact, it's got me on the look out for a second one, and if I ever do find one (for a reasonable price, of course), we just might be adding a little bit of rain gutter to that pump house of ours, which sits right next to my new raised beds. My only dilemma is how to keep it from becoming a breeding ground for mosquitos. Any suggestions?

SUNDAY'S SIMPLE GRATITUDES

Great friends who are there for you, in good times and in bad...

sharing with them the thrill of watching a doozie of a little thunderstorm roll in, from the vantage point of our upstairs porch -- something Mr. Toad has always wanted to experience...

and Salt Lick Barbecue.

It just doesn't get any better than that.