NaNoWriMo

I recieved the latest round of ATC's this time the theme was 'your favorite movie'

 










Here are the ones I recieved. That is Johhny Depp in Crybaby, Casablanca and Moulin Rouge. I have not seen 2 of the movies so now I guess it time to hit the video store and check them out.

Knitting

I have been hard at work on the socks and I thought you might like to see a work in progress.

 











I think that they look pretty good so far. The rest will be black and white stripes with black heels and toes. I am using Brown sheeps Wildefoote and its really nice yarn to work with.

NaNoWriMo

Well NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow. The acronym stands for National Novel Writing Month. It where a number of fool hardy souls commit to writing a novel of 50,000 words in thirty days. I think the first year, 1999 there were 21 people who attempted this and 6 people finished. It has been done every year since then. This year they are expecting 75,000 people to sign up. If you sign up to do it you are a participant and if you finish you are a winner. I figure if you don't finish you still have written a lot more than you did the month before so thats a plus. Check out their website for more details. There is also a book written by the founder Chris Baty called No Plot no problem. I have the book and its great. You don't need the book to participate though, just go to the website and sign up.

Sarah and I have both signed up, so November is bound to be pretty crazy. Its good that Dave usually cooks dinner on Thanksgiving since Sarah and I will be attached to our laptops. 

The Montana trip

Well we are back from our long weekend. It was great seeing Sarah and spending some time with her. We had a suite at the Holiday Inn express that was really nice.

 










Here the two of us are at a restuarant waiting for food to show up. I actually got tired of eating out. After 4 days I was ready for home cooked food.

 









Here is Sarah in her new scarf, supporting those Griz colors. We had a good time at the football game. Ironically the Griz were playing Idaho State and beat them 23 to 10. It was a very good game, it wasn't decided until the last minute and half so that made it exciting. We took her out several times shopping for a few things. I think she was really getting into having things bought for her again. Sometimes she seems so settled that I don't feel needed at all anymore and at others she's a little girl again. I guess that is the way it works.

 










We met her friends at the Food Zoo; that is Beth, Joanna, Sarah and Kyle.

Once again I had fun in the art dept of the bookstore. I bought a set of Caran D Arch water color pencils. I really like them. I also bought a sheet of paper that replicated postage from all over the world. I figured that will be fun to use.

I found out where Josephs Coat a yarn shop had moved to. I picked up some bamboo yarn to make a scarf out of. Its a nice shade of blue. I also picked up a gift for my friend Amy who was watching my animals. It was some of that silk sari waste yarns in some wild colors. She loved it. We also went to this store called Rockin Rudy's which was pretty incredible, room after room of cards, journals, papers gifts, jewelry and more. They had some great things in there. I ended up coming home with a moleskine watercolor notebook. This is the first place I have seen them so I had to grab that for future use. The weekend slipped by too quickly.

Today I spent my time cleaning. I finally got the weaving studio done and then worked on my computer desk. Its almost finished. I really want evrything in good shape before Nov 1. That leaves tomorrow to finish up. I am doing NaNoWriMo which starts Wednesday, I will explain what that is tomorrow. 

There be Snow here

This is what I woke up to this morning. It does look pretty but I don't treasure driving in it yet.

 

 









Tomorrow I head up to Missoula to visit my daughter Sarah in College. Its been 2 months since I have seen here. I can't wait.

Yesterday spinning day was at Celeste's and it was a blast we had 6 people show and fun was had by all. We ended up at The Yarn Connection to get Debbie some sock yarn. It is so fun getting people back into knitting and spinning when they have let it slide. It looks like I will have both Amy and Debbie knitting socks soon. I picked up some yarn to make my MIL socks for christmas. I will have a pair I can work on when I am up in Missoula, I have to hide the pirate socks around Sarah. I'll post a pic of them as soon as the pattern is visible. I have not gotten back to them since I ripped them out to the ribbing the other day.

Today the knitting women meet, I ownder how many will venture out in the snow. I can see that the roads look pretty clear just wet so that should not be a problem.

If you'd like to see the other Long necked Women check out Violette's blog where she is posting all of them. 

Bejeweled Woman

Over at Violette's site she posted this face she used in a journaling class.

 













Then some of the glitters gals challenged us all to use the face and create something.


 













Here is my lady. I am calling her bejeweled woman. I took a background page I had created previously with twinkling H2o's and drew her on the paper. I had added earrings and they looked awful so I cut her out and glued it to some black cardstock also added the checkerboard border using sepis Pitt artist pens and a stencil. I will probably journal something on this later, but I have not decided what. I used derwent watercolor pencils onher head covering and then a Niji waterbrush to bring out the color. I made her a pair of earrings and sewed them to the card stock. I think this would be fun to do her as a doll and really embellish her. Although I struggled with this figure the entire way I am realy glad I did it. I learned a lot.

Knitting

I worked on the pirate socks till 1 am last night or I should say this morning. Then I had to rip them apart. The graph is in shades of white and grey. You use the white yarn in the grey spots and the black yarn in the white spots. Needless to say I was not paying attention and did it the opposite. I am using Brown Sheep Company's Wildfoote Luxury sock yarn. Hopefully today I will be able to knit it the correct way.

I am off to a spinning day at my friend Celeste's home. It should be fun. 

Another beautiful fall day

We are having another beautiful fall day. Clear blue skies as far as the eye can see. Yesterday we finally got the sheep's hooves trimmed so they are all set for winter. I spent some cleaning up the pasture of garbage and twine. I really need to go out and rake up all the pine needles. Its too bad I really did not like making pine needle baskets as I have a free supply of the things.

Yesterday I spent some time cleaning up the weaving studio and then messed it all up when I decided that I need to organize the stash better. I am almost back to a workable room again.














This is what a so called organized yarn closet can look like. I got my yarns divided by type, ie linen, silk, mohair, cotton. I tried to separate the cotton into type and then by color. I like the arrangement better. After taking this picture and then looking at the other side of the room where my handspun yarns are I thought yuck what a mess now I need to work on those too. I do not know why I can't keep things in order.

I started some pirate socks for a christmas present for Sarah. I was going to do them on 2 circulars and then I realized I'd have four balls of yarn hanging off it. Too complicated for a traveling project. So I am going back to 4 dp for this project. I am using this pattern but I will do them in black and white with black heels and toes. I think they will be really cute when finished and the best part Sarah will be surprised and delighted.

The Art Room

No it is not finished. I have been thinking of posting pics of my new room but it always seems to be a work in progress. If I wait till its really done it may be another 6 months. So here it is as of today.


 










I put the words Create Art up for inspiration. I do plan to add some more embellishments to the letters, I just stuck them up there to see how they would look.

 









I have an old dresser that I plan to paint, but for now it holds my paint rack and paper cutter and lots of other stuff.

 










This is a computer desk my husband had but he gave it to me. With its L shape it has a lot of work space plus the pull out shelf for more. I really like it. I have several plastic organizer drawers under the desk. There is still enough leg room so that is great.













Here is another old computer desk that I am using for beading. It also has that extra pullout shelf which is really nice.

 













Here are two bookshelves that I have. I am sure they will be filled up soon

Things are looking up

I think a trip to the art store always makes things better. I had my Dr.appt this morning, I had a biopsy done and results will be back next week. My Dr, thought it was just menopausal stuff but the biopsy will make certain that is all it is. They are giving me something to stop the period and I needed to stop at the pharmacy and pick it up. I thought I kill a little time at Roberts, my favorite craft store.
I bought some wood letters to decorate my art room with and their 12 x 12 paper was on sale so I came home with about 8 new sheets that are really fun. Lots of color and texture that will be fun to use. I spent a total of 7.00 so that was great.

The episode of the view was great. The way Rosie ended the segment was great too. She said everyone is an artist, the art is inside you waiting to come out. Linda and Karen are also selling shirts that say "I am Art" . I really think that visual journaling is scrapbooking for adults.

I have been really worried with this health thing and I think that is over now. I feel so light and uplifted now. Art can do that for you, its a great healer.

The Secret

My favorite new movie is The Secret. It really talks all about the things in Ask and it is given by Ester and Jerry Hicks. It does remind me of What the Bleep movie because they do showcase a lot of different people. I watched it again last night and am inspired to work at using it in my life.

When I was working on my shrine for my mom I asked my cousin for some pics of my mom which she did send to me but along with that she sent a pic of my Great Grandfather Patrick Farrell.















I do not know when the picture was taken, sometime in the 1800's I imagine. He looks a little stern but I guess most photos of that period look that way. There do not seem to be many pictures of the women in the family which is what I would really like to have. In fact its my brother who has most of the family pictures and he is always promising to scan them for everyone but it never happens. I know there is a pic of my parents wedding that I'd love to have a copy of. I guess that I need to pester him more.

The authors of Visual Chronicles are going to be on the View today. That will be fun to see and hopefully get me out of my funk and back to doing some Art.

A long day

Its been quite the long day. Tried taking a shower but their was no water pressure. So I got dressed and went to Apple Athletic club and took a shower. Then I went to knitting which was held at Fred Meyer since the coffee house was closed for the day. Then it was on to lunch which was very disappointing, then physical therapy and then the ultrasound. I had a nice time at knitting but I was distracted all day because of the ultrasound this afternoon, I have had a period for 2 weeks with cramps everyday. That is not normal for me. I went to the Dr and he ordered an ultrasound and a referral to a gynecologist. I had the ultra sound today but they never tell you anything. My appt with the ob/gyn is tomorrow. I try not to worry about it but that is hard.
Tonight I have the blahs big time. I might just cook a hot drink and crawl into bed with a book.

Last night I bought some of the small bead containers and filled them up already. I may have all my beading things organized soon. I really need a day where I can sit and play, maybe friday. I hate weeks like this. This is sure turning into a depressing post....sorry.

Finding what you are looking for

As you all know I am re-doing an Art room and in the process looking for ways to store things differently. I got a copy of Organize your Craft room from our local library and saw lots of things I wanted but couldn't find anywhere locally. That is frustrating. First I decided to buy one of these paint carousels They hold all this 2 oz acrylic paint that I have from my tole painting days. It holds 160 bottles. I found I could stick other kinds of paint in there too.













On my way to the section of the store for the paint carousel I found these bead containers.







They are exactly what I had been looking for. I had already looked all of this store and all the others in town with no success. They must have just ordered them. They come in several sizes. I bought the medium size butI think I need some larger and smaller one too. I love that you can see what is inside them. I will mount them on the wall somehow. I ended up buying all the medium size ones I think I may need to head back to the store for small ones before they are all gone. This could get dangeous.... I might see something else that would be perfect.

My Mom's Shrine

I started blogging all about the monday blues and stuff and I got even more depressed so I decided to share artwork instead. Ever since Violette did the shrine for her dad I wanted to do one also. I need to find a few more things to add but this is a start. I made this little shrine while I was camping in the Tetons.


 










Here is the front I need to find another picture to add here. I think it would look better with 3 of them.

 











The insides of the box.

 














This side shows some things about my mom. The scissors ar becuase she was a hairdresser before she married, she loved Vogue patterns and she sewed most of her clothes from them, She loved to wear hats and she loved drinking both tea and beer.

 














This pic show a young and older pic of her along with a cardinal and wolf which were animals she liked. I added the word signing because she had a beautiful voice and loved to use it. Other small word adorn the sides were other things she liked like opera and yoga. There is some blank space so I may add more to this later. It was a fun project yet challenging to encompass a persons life in the size of a tin. 

The Pink house

I am having a hard time getting back into the groove. We had a nice time in the Tetons, it rained most days but it was still nice to be there. We ended up visiting areas in the park that we had never been to. One place we went is called Mormon row, its an area of old barns and homesteads where Mormons settled the valley. The barns are unique. They are run down but you still get the feel of what it must have looked like originally.












Here is the typical look.












Here I am in the doorway of one of the houses.











I was particulary taken by this pink house. It actually looked light peach close up. So many old homesteads are just wood. I like to think the person living here really needed some color in their life. It was owned by a hommesteader named John Moulton.












There was another house that had just a smithering of turquoise painted on it. For some reason that really fascinates me.

Still working on the room

I have the room all painted, painted the bookshelves and have moved my stuff back in. Now I am doing all the organizing which takes a long time. I spent today trying to organize all my beads. I need to go look for some storage items that are small. I ended up moving an old computer desk in the room to bead at and that seems to work well, The table went over to the spare room where the sewing machine will be. It is starting to shape up. I now have to also clean up the spare room as there is fabric and fleece all over the bed along with all sorts of stuff. Its hard figuring out where things can go now. I am hoping that in another couple days I can have both rooms done and then set about cleaning up my weaving studio. I wanted to weave some shawls on my Tri-loom and I can't find the screws that hold it together. That is so frustrating.

Loon Lake and more

Last saturday Dave wanted to take this back road from Ashton to Flagg Ranch which is between Teton and Yellowstone parks. We took Flynn with us and had a nice outing.

 










When I saw this sign I had to have a picture, and no, squirrels are not buried here.

 










This is Loon Lake a few miles off the road we were traveling. My friend Amy camps here in the summer. She is always inviting me up there but the timing is never right, maybe next year.

 










Dave enjoying the scenery and watching the grill cook our lunch, well at least he is supposed to be watching the food.

 










Look what I found on the way home, this was about a mile from my house.Its a sheepherders wagon. This guy was a peruvian and was bringing his sheep down from the mountains. He had a Great Pyrenese dog and several border collies and a horse to haul his home. 












Now here are all the sheep.... One year I actually saw the sheep go down the road right in front of my house. That was really neat to see.


Decorating

I am still working on the room. I am looking to have a seaside cottage look. I painted the walls a light aqua and the floor is the color of sand. I decided to paint the 2 bookshelves I have in there. So last night I primed one of them and painted it this morning. Its a very pale blue. I think the other big white bookshelf i will just repaint white or cream. Mainly since that is the color paint I have that I think would work. It is turning out to look pretty nice.

In between all this I am managing a little knitting, I am trying to finish a second sock, I am on the heel flap so it should not be long now. I went to the dollar store looking to see if by some miracle I could find those holders to store my stamps but no luck. I of course did not leave empty handed though. I got 2 new stamps, one a parrot and the other a stamp of a french poster. Also found some vintage notecards and a some reflective stickers to re do my mailbox. Not a bad haul at all.




Anniversary Trip

Our anniversary is tommorow. 21 years legally and 25 actually. We are going to haul the trailer out and spend some time in Yellowstone and Teton. Dave has Friday and Monday off so he'll take an extra day and make a really nice long weekend. The weather is lousy today but it is supposed to clear up so I am keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't snow or something like that. I'll be back on line Tuesday.

Organizing your craft

I wanted to share this with the group at Violette's message board. Its a great way to organize stamps. This is in my sister Pegggy's studio. The problem is she got them at a dollar store last year, or maybe it was 2 years ago. They are plastic but they work great. I guess I need to start looking there for good storage ideas.

Its all about the Beauty

The short jaunt I took to Jackson and the park was great. After spending the day there all I could think was how incredibly beautiful it was. I have been here so many times and I do appreciate it each time but there was just something special about it this time. The weather was beautiful, the air a little crisp and oh the Mountains look gorgeous. The pictures do not do it justince











Here is a view of Mt Moran from the Jackson Lake Dam. That spot of snow is the glacier that never melts. I think this view is my favorite.











This view brings in the Grand and all the rest of the Catehdral Group.











Here is another view from the lake.

I started my day early and drove to Driggs to see the yarn shop they now have there. Its called Mt. Knits and is great. She specializes in hand painted and variegated yarns. She has koigu, lornas laces, Mt. Colors, rowan, Noro and more. I went home with some crack cocaine otherwise known as Rowans Kidsilk Haze in this shade of luminous orange. I found 2 cones of naturespun, one black and 1 royal blue. I got for a deal at $4 a cone, I will weave scarves with it.

Then I headed over the dreaded pass, my least favorite road in the world to drive. Jackson was crowded as usual, so I headed to the Park. I drove up to Signal Mountain looking for a picnic area but I did not like the ones I saw. After taking some great pics from the Jackson Lake Dam I headed over to String Lake. I had lunch there and dug out all my art supplies. Yes I brought way too many but that was ok. I made a visual journal page on the empty nest and did a few background sheets
trying pastels, twinkling h2o's painstitcks, watercolot pencils and more. It was fun seeing which worked best on the different papers. I need to remember pastels are a waste on watercolor paper, but other things worked great. I decided that I like some of the lower weight watercolor papers to do these pages. Cardstock just can't take any water without buckling.

Next I went over to Jenny Lake and sat on the overlook and watched the tourists and enjoyed the view. It is just so beautiful here. I love the park in the fall. There are fewer people and it is so much nice. I think next time I will throw in some camping gear and just spend the night. I came home relaxed and renewed.