UPCYCLING..Red tee

I have finished all my paintings for now and want to get some clothes ready for warm weather. I really don't need new ones but am a tad tired of the old ones. So rather than give to the needy I am giving a try at revamping them and at the same time trying new sewing techniques and ideas. 

My first endeavor is to re design this tee using this printed fabric. 












Originally it had a border on the bottom and sleeves  made of a different lacey fabric that shrunk when washed, then faded to a strange variation of red and looked pretty awful. I cut the trim off and now will add the printed fabric to replace it. If I don't it will be way too short for my taste.

Today I decided on doing a scalloped design for the bottom and perhaps even for the sleeves. The sleeves will have only a very small border so not sure the scalloped design will look good...I can decide later...when I get to them.  









After the borders are all sewn on and finished I will use the Alabama Chanin way of hand sewing, using a cardboard template shown to add leaves in a design down the front from the shoulder across to the opposite edge on bottom. I am using some fabric from an old sleep shirt I never wear for the leaves. They are ever so slightly different in color which is a good thing but also I am backing some of them with the border fabric letting only a tiny bit peep out to tie the whole thing together. 




This is an experiment for me. I usually do not like to remodel, would rather sew from scratch but my way of thinking has changed over the years and I have learned so many new thing I am excited to give this a try. When I am finished my hope is that this will make a nice addition to a denim skirt I have as well as a jeans go-with.


January 29, 2014

A new day of sewing and I finally have the designs laid out 

and a small start on the hand sewing.








January 30, 2014

Worked today and managed to get all the sewing done on front. I like the way it looks and have decided to leave the sleeves plain with no  fabric trim. Tomorrow I will finish it off by hand stitching the sleeves since I have no red machine thread to use. Hoping to wear it along with my blue skirt to the outdoor Elvis concert in Crystal River tomorrow evening. Now I just need to decide on what chunky jewelry to wear with it.



January 30, 2014

Put the finishing touch on my upcycled tee this morning by doing a back stitch along the two slits on side of tee...

Here is a pretty awful shot of me trying the skirt and shirt together to see how they will look...I think they work together...In fact it will work nice for jeans and other skirts...I'm happy with it.

LOVE HATE RELATIONSHIPS

I have a love hate thing going on with my computer and all things electronic. A couple of weeks ago I discovered my DVD burner would not burn disk even though it had been working perfectly a few days previously. Then shortly after that I saw my virus program was not working but would not update and left me with no virus program.

After spending and inordinate amount of time trying to figure out my DVD drive I finally said to heck with it. But the virus program really ticked me off since I had half a year left on it and they are not cheap and I do all my banking online so could not be with out it.

So I called the number given for support and after 4 hours, I kid you not, 4 hours I spent on the phone with them. After all that time I was told I needed to purchase their lovely program to the tune of $200 fix my computer remotely. By now it is the wee hours of the morning and I am needing to leave the next day for my daughter's home for the Christmas holiday. I ended up not purchasing the program but came home 4 days later, dinked around a little more and was finally able to to get it up and running again good as new. I just uninstalled it and re installed it using the registration number...Now why could they have not told me about doing that. All of these problems with the virus program and the DVD driver happened right after a "Window's Crucial Upgrade."  Microsoft's words not mine.

Now my DVD drive is still not working. Even though I am not worried about it right now I decided to do an online chat with the company support and they gave me a couple of suggestions for fixing it...I said thank you and proceeded to follow the directions to the letter. By the time I finished doing as they instructed I had messed up my Google home page, lost all my information I had stored on it and when I hit my Google icon on desktop I got the 'Bing' home page which had a stupid ad that kept popping up in the middle of the page . When I tried to close it out it popped over to another tab which was for an upgrade to all the drivers on my computer...I could not get rid of it and my two choices were to save  or install...The save button would not work so finally out of frustration I said install. Hours later I finally got it uninstalled. My very old Google page is now up and running but not the new one. My DVD driver still is still not working but at least now I can open email and find what I want with out having to deal with 'Bing', 'Yahoo' or any other home page I do not want. 

Then to make my whole day complete I wanted to watch a movie on my DVD player connected to my "Smart TV" and my settings on the set are changed (another wonderful upgrade) and I can't use it or the VCR even though a few days ago it worked just fine. That means another appointment with the cable carrier...

But no problem...I have a small player I use for class videos so I decided to tote it to the living room and plug it in...watch the movie on it and then tote it back to its storage space. So out it came along with a serge box and stretched cord across the room to the outlet. I  plugged it in and voila...nothing...no matter what I did it would not work. 

About now I am ready to throw all the TVs, computers and any other devise that even remotely appears to be anything  but hand driven out the window. But I didn't. Instead came back in to my computer, sat down  and starred at it, wondering where my astrological chart had me at this time and what kind of karma was I working off today.

Now the cardinal rule to any problem is to trouble shoot it from the simple to the extreme. How did I forget that?  My super hero to the rescue! Hubby took things in to his own hands and checked why the little DVD player would not work and it appeared to be a plug in the back that was not inserted fully into the slot...DUH!...first thing to check and I forgot to do it...

Out came the surge plug again and we get everything set up and are finally going to watch the movie we started out to watch a couple hours earlier. Great! About a half an hour into the movie we both agreed it was not to our liking so off it went. Back into the storage with the DVD player and on came an old stand by, Law and Order. That is when I went back to my sewing machine that I felt confident I could make it work.

So the sewing I had intended to get done today got waylaid by my need for electronics in my life. How much simpler and serene it would be if I could just rid myself of all of them. Well, not my sewing and washing machine. 

ART IN THE GARDEN

This morning I finished my painting that is the reverse of the first painting I did in the intuitive workshop I had with Ellen, Debbie and Liz. This double sided painting will be hung between my garden room and the back yard where my bottle wall resided before the Florida weather and inferior wood slats we used took it's toll and Bob took it down. Hopefully the paintings will last a bit longer.






First painting I did and the one that will face inward towards the garden room. I have named this Buddha's Tears. It is rather serene and will be a nice one to sit and contemplate while having tea or coffee.

This is the one I just finished and like it very much. It is Bob's favorite. Since it was the last I decided the spot that was giving me problems in the center of the painting needed my word for the year added to it. "ASPIRE." I think it worked out well and completed the painting. 









It is fun to see the two paintings together and I know I am going to like my art gallery in the garden.

PAINTINGS FOR PERGOLA

For the last few days I have been working on getting all the paintings completed for the pergola. Today I finally accomplished just that...Here are the four paintings I am going to hang out there...I am not sure what order they will go in. I will see when it warms up this weekend and have a chance to hang them...

My first one was painted in a class taught by Shiloh Sophia. Ellen and I took it via online streaming a few months ago. She is my 'Harvest Goddess'. She has been patiently waiting for other paintings to join her so she can be out doors where she belongs. It is 24 x 24 inches

This is the second painting I did this past weekend while Ellen was here for the Brave Intuitive workshop I had. I think it is one of my favorites. It is also the largest. 30 x 48 inches

My third painting. I didn't like it at first but it is growing on me. It is 24 x 36 inches

This is the last one and the only one to hang landscape style. It is only so so...Seems rather cluttered to me but it is what it is. I had fun painting it...did some splatters with a brush and dropped glops of paint from high so it would splatter...it is 36 x 24 inches


I am calling the four of them finished and ready to hang on the weekend coming up. The weather is suppose to be nice and warm and perfect for working outside. 

Here is where the four of them are going to hang..On the lattice in the pergola. 

RE-GROUPING

Today was another day of getting back to normal though I am still trying to figure out what "normal" is. I had a very lazy day which was nice.Painted the edges of two paintings so I could call them complete.

 The round one looks so very good on my table. Here it is with the glass topper over it. The base is the wicker basket Ellen got for me at a yard sale (she is the yard sale queen in my book) and Bob painted it black to match the furniture my daughter Cassie and I found at a local yard sale that we came across while walking during her vacation in November. 

The other finished painting is the one with the mirror and will be installed under my pergola soon as the weather gives us a break. 

When my daughter came down on Saturday she brought this organizer for me and I had planned to used it for sewing tools. Spent a couple of hours sorting out my sewing machine cabinet drawers and putting things in it and in the end decided it was not going to work as I envisioned it. So I removed all the 'stuff' and reorganized the drawers, which were in sore need of it. Found some treasures there that I had forgotten I had and some I wonder why I have them. Some I know I have never used nor will I ever use them. But back in the drawer they went waiting for a new home to be found.  One nice thing is I now know what is in them and where to find it when needed.

My new organizer will work much better with art supplies...that is coming after the paintings are finished.

Tomorrow I hope to be inspired and get one more painting, maybe two, complete so I can install them along with the two I have and then I can call the pergola my art gallery.

I think I will plan a concrete workshop for early spring and see if I can get a few new items for my garden. Any one interested? It will take place in my outdoor studio. I have some Styrofoam cooler boxes I want to turn into large rocks using newspaper, chicken wire and thin set...hummmm you say..Stay tuned. 

BRAVE INTUITIVE WORKSHOP

I just finished putting all the stuff away from having my painting workshop here and what a glorious workshop it turned out to be. Now I want to catch up on my blogging.

Ellen came on Wednesday and stayed over until Saturday afternoon. here is the first painting she completed.















Then came Ellen's second painting finished. ...















Here is my first painting finished. I am going to do a second painting on the reverse side so I an hang it free between my Garden Room and the back yard (where my bottle wall used to be) It will act as a divider and be seen from both sides. This side I have named Buddha's Tears.

Interesting at how similar the colors are in mine and Ellen's paintings. Not so with my next one.












Here is my finished second painting. I decided to use the painting as a back ground and collage these two items on to it. I like the way it comes out and when I get it hung in the pergola the mirror will reflect something other then my car roof...

Below is the detail on the bottom of the painting...















Then my daughter arrived on Saturday just before Ellen left for home. We painted the remainder of the day with my grand daughter joining us for dinner  and spending the night to be able to continue painting through the weekend. Here are my grand daughter's paintings.






I love this one...Liz does not like a-symmetrical or geometric so this was a real stretch for her to do this painting.

Then she finished this one in the wee hours of the morning when she and my daughter stayed up most of the night painting. This is gold gesso on the back ground.

Then comes my daughter's paintings. She was going to do 2 large ones but decided to paint on both sides of the boards so she can reverse them when ever the moods strikes...Only 2 of the paintings are complete as of the writing of this blog plus the round one she did for my table topper. This is the first one she finished.














Here is her second finished painting...what is fun with her paintings is there is no orientation issue...She can hang them how ever she feel like and it will work.


















This is the round table topper she did for me. It looks great on the table with the glass over it...




















Then because he could Marshal got in the painting business also. Here is a pic of him with paint in his neck. He had to investigate everything each time he ventured into the garage...Once when one of the paintings Deb was working on slipped off the stools where it was perched he immediately trotted over the wet paint..leaving cute little paw prints all through it. She is leaving some of them there since it is going to be her 'walk through the garden' painting. Bob had to wash marshal's feet before we could let him in but we do still have paw prints all over the garage floor.

I have two more paintings started plus the one on the reverse of the first one but not far enough along to post them. When they are finished I will add them to the collections making 13 in all. What a memorable week of fun we had.

A WEEK OF FUN

Today was spent getting the garage studio ready for our first day of intuitive painting starting on Wednesday morning. Here is Bob hanging my inspirational and motivational prompts.

The large squares are aides and ideas for using different tools in case we hit a snag on what to try next. All of these were in the book Brave Intuitive painting by Flora Bowely

Then there were my two large 30" x 48 " panels I needed to gesso. 

As I prepped my panels so did my daughter living in Orange Park. To have them ready for our painting session next weekend.  

I have not seen Ellen's panels but think she is doing 2 large canvases.


More time was spent making my grocery shopping list and gathering up some supplies for my own painting.

Then I boiled my eggs for the Cobb salad and have the chicken marinating and will grill it tomorrow. Also tomorrow I will be making the Kale and Chive Muffins tomorrow since they can be frozen. Planning on making enough for the following weekend when my daughter  Deb is here for her three days of painting. I am trying to get as much done ahead of time as possible since we have two dinners to attend on Monday and Tuesday evenings and I want to do as little in the kitchen during the week as possible. Ellen will be here on Wednesday morning then the week of fun begins.

FINISHING UP

Cobb Salad

Today I spent an inordinate amount of time getting the remainder of my plans in place for my week of non stop intuitive creating coming up starting on Wednesday. I suppose there are those who will ask how can it be intuitive if I am spending so much time planning. Sometimes I ask myself the same thing but that is how I am. 

Fruit and Nut Salad with Chicken

Ellen is interested in staying healthy as I am so I spend time finding healthy food to fix for us. I do this every day but when having company I like to go the extra yard to fix special so I go through all my recipes from the healthy blogs I subscribe to and pick out a variety of fun recipes.

Kale and Chive Muffins

Posted  are some but not all, of the recipes on my menu for the 3 days she will be here. Kale and Chive Muffins, Grilled Prosciutto Peach Salad, Cobb Salad and Fruit and Nut salad with Chicken. There are others but those are the fun ones. 

Then I made a list of all the things I need to get done to be ready for our week of fun and was surprised at how many of them are left to do so made a plan of which day to do what and when. I needed to do this since we have two commitments coming up which will tie up both Monday and Tuesday evenings.

Grilled Prosciutto Peach Salad

Ellen will probably leave on Saturday but my daughter is arriving on that same day to spend a few days playing in paint so I will be doing this all over again come next weekend...

Why? Because I love to cook and entertain. Because around the table or across from each other we relax and let our protective guard down and become ourselves sipping our coffee or tea and munching on goodies...there is no better time or place or way to communicate with each other. We do it in bars, on picnics, in the car or where ever we are we like to break bread with our friends. 

I would like to credit the source of my recipes by saying thank you to Ancestral Chef and Against all Grains. If you have not looked at those two blogs and are interested in eating healthy you are missing out. http://ancestralchef.com/  http://www.againstallgrain.com/

GROWING UP

Today we celebrated my grand daughter Stacie's 23rd birthday. It seemed like it was just yesterday we celebrated her joining our family. Where does the time go. 

Here is a photo taken when she had made her first cloth doll and I displayed it at a doll luncheon we had in Mt. Vernon Washington. She was only about 8 at this time. Since she was in school and could not attend our luncheon I put her photo next to the doll she made. Needless to say she was so very proud of that doll as was I of her.

Last spring  Stacie gave birth to her own real live doll Emma Sophia. Soon now Stacie will be returning to complete her schooling in the medical field. With a baby, school and a part time job she is going to be one busy mama but that is what happens when you grow up. We all know it will be worth it in the long run. Happy Birthday Stacie!

JUST ANOTHER DAY AT HOME

There is always something going on in my home even with out me even trying. Today I tried my new spiralizer and what fun it is. I spiraled a butternut squash to use for spaghetti instead of spaghetti squash though I think next time I will use the smaller spaghetti blade. I have some home made sausages roasting in the oven with onions and green peppers and will serve them with the squash and a red sauce over it..I hope it taste as good as it will look. Need to add a tossed salad to it and dinner is served. Paleo style. 

This is the first time of using it so I need to figure out how to use up the cores that are left. Today I just cut them up and added them to the oven roasting sausages and veggies but think they would work out great in a soup or salad. Well, some of them will be good in a salad. Not so sure about the winter squash.

After getting all the squash dealt with I decided to make some visual inspirational cards for my painting retreat coming up soon. Also since the painting is going to happen in my garage which is not the most cheerful place in the world I thought it would be fun to have them printed on card stock and hanging from ribbons from the ceiling..Bob will hang them for me come Tuesday afternoon. 

Then, so I do not have to have my book laying around getting messed with paint I made cards of ideas from the book on what to do with your fingers, thin bristle brushes and foam brushes, marking tools, spray bottles and rags...

We will be starting on Wednesday so I need to get the garage nice and cleaned up and arranged for two of us...later there will be more when my daughter and her friends arrive..that will be on Saturday by lunch time..

All that is left to do is gesso my two plywood panels so they are ready to go on Wednesday morning and figure out lunches and dinners for the time I am having company. 

WHAT THE BIRD SEES and other trivia

I have this pesky Mocking bird that is attacking my window and making a complete mess of the window, screen and ledge below with, to put it mildly, bird poop. It is distracting, annoying and irritating when I am trying to do anything in my studio so I did some research on what to do to discourage them from doing this. One of the items mentioned that was not a major purchase was a set of vinyl owl eyes for the small sum of $8.00. Now first I need to drive miles to the store to purchase them involving at least a gallon of gas at $3.50 a gallon then my time which I deem quite valuable but even at minimum wages is another $14 plus dollars. So now this set of stick on vinyl eyes are up to more then $25. I could get two sets for almost the price of one if I do it on the same trip and I do have a front window the Mocking bird has discovered so if I add on another set of eyes I am spending over $33.00. And that probably will not cover the tax our dear politicians need to keep them in business. 

I am not a stingy person and I try to make ends meet and have a little left over at the end of the month but do not like waste so I am constantly looking for alternative ways to get something accomplished. Today I did just that..

What the bird sees

Since one of the deterrents for the birds is a set of owl eyes I thought why not make my own so I did. I drew two circles, colored in with a black marker and voila' I have owl eyes. And they work!  I saw the little bugger come towards the window twice and detoured as soon as he saw the eyes starring back at him. Problem solved for the cost of two pieces of card stock and a black marker..both of which are always on hand. 

I am hoping later when the light changes this will stop but if not I will make more card stock eyes...even though they are the silliest owl eyes I have seen to date they work.

Drawer of clothing patterns

I finished marking and storing all my patterns so here is a photo of the filled drawer and what it looks like when it is organized and I can find what I want. While I was doing this I came across several patterns I had forgotten I had and will be making in the coming months. So for every action there is a reaction...my reaction was "Yea! New stuff to play with."