halloween fun

You have to see Rubyellen's cakies blog today! She did the cutest story of their take on The Wizard of Oz!...

revitalization

That is the theme for this piece and downtown Lancaster is seeing it's own revitalization right now. I chose to show a traditional form of art for the area-- scherenshnitte or papercutting, which portrays the controversial addition of a skyscraper to the historic skyline of the old Watt & Shand building, along with other references to Pennsylvania Dutch country. Whenever revitalization happens in a city, it usually is accompanied by the cultural arts. 

If you're in the area in November, come to see "Art in Alternative Spaces" held by The Creative House of Lancaster, at Rachel's Cafe & Creperie on Queen St.  There is an art opening on Thursday, Nov. 6th and I'll be there!  I can't wait to see what others are putting up! I hear this is a great place to eat too! Good art, good food... can't beat that!

 

trick-or-treat

happy halloween!

I was going to post a picture of me this morning before I showered, but I didn't want to scare anyone too badly!!! ;)  Nathaniel is the only one who's trick-or-treating this year and he's working on his werewolf costume right now! (inspired by Jacob from Twilight!). I had a fun wig to wear when we walk around tonight but when I had it on the other day, Craig hated it! I didn't know he got freaked out by wigs! So I'll just be me tonight. I will post my drawing in a bit-- my printer is out of ink and therefore will not scan... so I have to run out to get that first. Then I have to drop off the art this afternoon for the show. I don't know how I feel about the piece. This is why I don't normally do this... I'm never quite happy with what I've done... the curse of the artist's mind....ooooooooh!

almost

done...

There's a project in the works with this happy little guy! I'm crocheting like a mad woman right now. I think it's the weather-cold, dark, windy and rainy! Kind of like Forks...

I made a lot of progress (finally) on this drawing but obviously I'm not done yet! I changed my mind about 5 times since this weekend but I've gone ahead with it and it's coming along. What a mess! I need a real work area!!! (Santa?)

I have to run out now to do my "elf" duties... saw a sale on something from Nathaniel's Christmas list! ;)  And there's no food in the house! Craig, being the wonderful husband that he is, got pizza for dinner last evening when he realized I was zoned into my work and forgot all about making anything!!  After 16 years, we pretty much understand each other now!

Hope you're having a great day!

cinderella...

I just LOVE this silhouette film!! I was looking up papercuts for my drawing (hopefully I will show it to you soon!!) and found this on Cindy's fantastic blog scherenshnitte! She's one of my favorite papercutters, along with Rob Ryan! Now I want to make a film too!!!! enjoy...

(for other films by Lotte Reiniger go here!)

still drawing...

avoidance

I am SO good at avoiding getting things done. It's not like I don't enjoy doing it when I'm working. It's getting started and then continuing until finished. Yep... I blogged a lot today because I am avoiding plunging into a fantastically exciting project, one that would allow me to be part of a local art show! Of course if I miss the deadline, then it's all off. So what did I accomplish today? Only this^. Yeh, that's not a lot. I played with ideas in my head and I actually have a good one now. The theme is "revitalization" and I am planning on doing an ink drawing for it. So... I WILL NOT BE POSTING OR READING BLOGS OVER THE WEEKEND. There... now hold me to it!!! And wish me luck. I might end up sewing my curtains, finishing my crocheted apple for the little surprise I was talking about, writing a lesson plan, working on my quilt, or finishing the three kokeshis I started painting. But I need to do this drawing... ugh. I'm always fighting with myself!!!!!

what's happening

Every time I say to myself "I will be positive and focus on the good in life", I come across something like this article.  I heard about this... a sea of floating plastic, growing every day. You know those nice cruise ships? They just tossed the trash into the ocean. Plastic doesn't sink people.  Stop buying those plastic bottled waters and plastic soda bottles! Stop using plastic grocery bags. I know it's impossible to stop using all plastic but really, do we NEED to use so much? And are you recycling it? I am guilty of putting a lot of that in the trash but now I know better.  Sometimes things that are invented to make life easier, just end up ruining it.  One positive though: they are starting to make "plastic" out of corn and this is supposed to disintegrate eventually. But for the rest of plastic that's ever been made, well, it will be around FOREVER. Think about that. 

happy birthday...

Felted sculpture by papermoon gallery

Wish a happy birthday to my friend Erinn at happy living design blog today!  Happy Birthday Erinn!!! Wishing you a year of everything you want and then some!! ;)

love it

I found these here.  from lilfish studios... beautiful blog.

quote of the day

"All you need is love, 

But a little chocolate now and

then doesn't hurt."

~ Charles M. Schulz

for kids... like me

An interactive website of type turning into animals from the book! Grab the kids and look at this!

favorite things

1.  The Human Clock. This is the coolest project: people submit their photos of the time from all over the world and it is a continuous display at the correct time. Too bad we can't add it to our blogs!

 

2. I love that someone made a film about the Helvetica font! I put myself partly through college and then went back during my teaching career doing typesetting. Do typesetters even exist anymore with the use of computer graphics? Our typesetting business was sold to a printer. Hmmm. Did you know I started out in graphic design? I still love fonts!

 

3. Tasha Tudor's Pumpkin Moonshine will put you in the mood for fall!
4. Charlie Harper's graphic illustrations. Todd Oldham's look at it. Why do I love him so much? He was part of my childhood-- he's a Cincinnati artist just like me!

 
5. "Supermarket" by Ben Shahn; Serigraph, $4,500. I love the line work of this. It's not his typical subject matter.
6. Tailgating mittens by Kate Spade. The price: $95.  I think you could make these pretty easily! Even take a store-bought pair and add the embroidered "Hi 5"!

7. Red Balloon. Simple. Perfect. See below:

red balloon part 4

red balloon part 3

red balloon part 2

the red balloon

lace pumpkins

Aren't these beautiful? This is Martha Stewart's Craft of the Day which I signed up for a couple months ago, but have yet to do any of them!  She does have some pretty cool projects there, so if you've never checked out her website, it is well worth a look.  As far as spending a couple hours on carving my pumpkins, I doubt I'd do it. But copying the photo to look at? Sure! We need more beauty in life right now! Speaking of, I need to take photos of the gorgeous autumn leaves around here!

halloween mushroom

Well, when Eva posted about the little twin mushrooms she made at Effunia, I couldn't resist! I have been watching for a mushroom to add to my plush collection and this one came with a little jack o'lantern that is too adorable! And a knitted scarf... so I was sold! Unfortunately the twin mushroom went to someone else, but we got the girl!:

Kiley, the trick'o treat mushroom

sprouted: october 11th

favorite color: orange

favorite drink: apple cider

favorite food: candy corn

favorite activity: going trick-or-treating with her twin brother

favorite seasons: fall

How could I not love her?! My favorite season is fall and I love apple cider! And orange just makes me happy!

cats and birds, and free stuff

"Folkloric Birds" from Yasmine

"Henri" by Will Braden

"My thumbs are not opposable, yet I oppose everything." ~ Henri

I found this funny video on the blog a print a day which Patty told me about!  She found some printables with kokeshi dolls on them here.  This site is pretty cool if you want to print out free stuff all the time! I love the folkloric birds she has up right now!

I'm starting to think about what we can do to prepare for a depression in our economy. It's time to take homesteading seriously again. While I'm still buying raw milk and meat & vegetables at market, recycling, and trying to cut back... I'm still spending too much and not saving enough. As much as I still have hope that the country won't elect Obama and his economic plan, if it does happen, we have to brace ourselves for higher taxes and a minimal lifestyle. I wonder what other country we could move to that isn't socialist. I'm totally serious about that. Craig's company is international... we could actually go somewhere else for awhile.

In response

The only people who weren't behaving themselves were the protestors outside. It was funny because they were standing under a "Wrong Way" sign!  They actually handed the father of that cute little girl, a picture of a disfigured aborted baby and were saying that baby wanted that! Some people are idiots. After seeing Sarah today, no one can tell me that she's not a smart lady. The press just hates her because they don't know what to do with her... they can't find anything intelligent to make up against her!

And she does work those boots, baby!

rah rah Sarah!

Caroline and I attended the Sarah Palin Rally here in Lancaster this morning. We made posters last night and decorated our buttons! It's exciting to get to see a candidate here in our town! We had to get up pretty early and I think I was barely awake. This was the only photo Craig took of me where my eyes were open... barely. 

 

We waited in a line that stretched for blocks and blocks, in 50 degree weather. We were supposed to get seats in the stands but someone said there was access to the area in front of the stage, so we went straight to it!

 

 Caroline was able to stand right against the rail with her sign and I was right behind her!

 

 Here's a little cutie with a message!

 

 I didn't hear who the singer was but he was supposed to be some big name in country music! We just came to see Sarah. Caroline got the autograph of another singer who did one of the opening acts and sang the anthem. She liked Caroline's pin!

 

Then Sarah Palin came out, carrying Trig!  She is prettier in person!

 

She saw Caroline's sign "Palin Girls" and pointed to it, smiled and waved at her!! That was great!

 
She gave an impressive speech. She's intelligent and experienced in the business world. She knows economics. She definitely knows the average American and what they want. She also pointed out that Obama lied the other night in the debate with John McCain about his involvement with ACORN.  I think the "silent majority" will suprise a lot of people at the polls in a couple weeks!

 

It was an exciting morning and a historical event for Caroline to experience... me too! 

tgif

We got the painting all done on Wednesday, the Elementary School Directory done on Thursday, and I've been to market this morning to pick up these goodies!:

 
You thought those were for me, didn't you? They are for Ellie!! There's a stand that sells dog cookies to raise money for a local school that teaches kids with learning disabilities. The kids make the cookies to sell at market each week and all the money goes to the school. And Ellie gets the best doggie treats! (It's not chocolate... just safe carob if you're wondering!)

I did pick up some pretty fall produce... spaghetti squash and bright purple cauliflower!

 
When I was taking photos, I remembered that Olivia wanted to see what a fairy sword looks like... some girls showed this to me on a class field trip through the woods last year! We found dozens of them...

I also picked up tickets to a fun event tomorrow morning... Sarah Palin is coming to town and I'm taking Caroline down with me to see her speak! (The guys will be at their soccer game.):

 
So we'll have to get busy tonight making t-shirts and posters!!! Maybe someday Caroline will want to run for office! Though we are thinking Nathaniel would be the one to do something like that!

And appropriately, this morning I got this link in my email box from Lion Brand Yarns...

  

If you want to crochet a little John McCain finger puppet for the little Republican in your house, click here for a free pattern!  Oh yeah, they have that other guy too. You could put on your own little debate: "I want to give you a tax break" "No, you just want to 'Spread the Wealth' around!!" "No I don't!" "Yes you do!" blah, blah, blah!

he put me to work

Do you remember my post about painting the dining room and hallway? Well, we never really finished the trim on half of it! I'm embarrassed to say that life got a little busy (and I'm lazy when it comes to painting walls and trim.)  So Craig took off work for the day so he could put me to work!!!

I thought that's why I married a handsome handyman... so I didn't HAVE to do these things!! Ah well...
I thought I'd show you one of our favorite October treats... pumpkin gum drops!:

Hope you're having a good day (and not painting trim like me!)

~ the desperate housewife

"walk this way"....

Week #3/ Day #7: 32 minutes total

W 10 min.

(R 2 min., W 1 min.) x 4

W 10 min.

I didn't think I could do FOUR spurts of running but it is amazing how progressive overload works! I did it and I felt good afterwards! Tired, but good. And a little Aerosmith helps too!

Oprah

Oprah is a nut. So are all her "followers". I heard about the show where all the women in the audience where showing sympathy to a woman who left her baby in the car to die in the heat. Please. She should be in jail.  And I pulled up Oprah's website to find all the hilarious comments about how Obama is the "chosen one by God". What?!! Are we living in an age with a bunch of crazies?!! I think the Arab who paid for Barack's Harvard education chose him. And as Barack worked for ACORN (which Oprah groupies refuse to believe for some reason), he decided to get in on the whole government act. He's been raised by a mother who CHOSE to go on welfare because she didn't want to be part of the system but wanted the system to pay her. She hated America. Barack attended a church where he knew he'd make connections and would be backed by radical activists in Chicago. He is a scheming man and I don't see how God would choose someone who believed racist viewpoints. Women who hate men are backing him. Women who feel their lives would be ruined by pregnancy. People who have this wierd idea that business people are bad and so is capitalism. "Poor us, we're all victims!!!". Um yeah. "Save us oh Holy Obama!"  Well, you can believe he's the second Christ if you want to, but I'm not going to believe that garbage.

want to know about the tax plans?

Here's two good articles: The Wall Street Journal's "Obama's 95% Illusion" and "Obama's Magic". Economists will tell you that history has shown when you raise taxes, you hurt the economy. When you lower them, the economy recovers. But you knew that.

** addition: If you think that I'm only focusing on the right to life issue in this election, there's more to it than that. When 100 expert economists speak on why Obama's economic plan won't work, I listen. Read it here.

"It was exactly such misguided tax hikes and protectionism, enacted when the U.S. economy was weak in the early 1930's, that greatly increased the severity of the Great Depression."  Are you scared of his ideas yet?!

And while I'm at it, Biden got away with a lot of wrong facts in the debate, while Sarah Palin was made to look foolish in the media. Guess again all you media hounds... Sarah Palin knows what the job description of the Vice President is! Joe Biden, though he's served with 8 Vice Presidents, still doesn't know!! FactCheck.org even forgot to mention some things about him (are we surprised?!). Read more about Biden's lack of political knowledge here.

jacob hashimoto

Another cool artist, Jacob Hashimoto does these great installations and sculptures, using patterns. I'd love to have one of these in my studio to look at every day! I found him through pikaland and Amy Cartwright (one of my fav. illustrators!).

it's time

It's time to stop being part of the generation of women who are more concerned about their own inconvenience to pregnancy or who cannot say "no" in situations where they could become pregnant. It's time to recognize that babies in the womb are living human beings... we have the medical evidence. It's time to stop worrying about what others think of us when we say that life is the most important issue, and without life there is no need of any other.  It's time to value our children and our neighbor's children. To see families as the single most important thing to sustaining our society. Forget making tons of money. Forget having the coolest car or the best clothes. Forget advancing our lifestyles so much that we have too much free time on our hands. We forgot to value life in all of this. We love virtual games and virtual lives more than our real interactions with our own family.  As women, let's make the right "choice" and choose to be leaders in the groups of people where we live and interact... to support those who are pregnant, to teach our daughters and our sons that life is to be valued and respected and not about stopping it if it's "inconvenient" to our lifestyles. No one who has had a child can deny that they require your world to change as bringing them up and teaching them to be adults is the most important job you will ever have. But it also makes you a much better person in the process and takes away the self-centeredness that we are born with. If you haven't had a child, then give some time to those who are missing a parent or to parents who need a break. You will love it! Large families are the best way for children to value others and to learn cooperation. Why is it strange to have more than two children? Siblings are the greatest blessing in the world! It's time to change because we are heading in a downward spiral to being a society which cannot decide what is really important... we buy mortgages for houses that are too big and expensive, we don't have time to cook anymore or even grow our own food, we don't read enough, we don't get outside enough, we don't interact enough. Enough! Let's be smart women. Let's value the life each person is given.

Marla love

Craig and I watched an awesome documentary about a four-year-old named Marla Olmstead who picked up a brush, started painting, and never looked back! She was big news a few years ago as her paintings started to be shown in New York City galleries for thousands of dollars. What most impressed me was her parents-- that they allowed her the creative freedom to try to do a real painting on canvas and when she was good, to protect her innocence from the crazy world of adults! The movie is called "my kid could paint that" and delves into the whole definition of what art is and how to determine it's value. After a horrible experience with 60 Minutes, they were able to prove that these paintings were all Marla... her true voice coming out in them and her perception of the world in the abstract images. I gained an even greater appreciation of abstract art seeing it through the eyes of a four year old!  I want to give my children paint and canvas and see what they have to "say"! Every art teacher should see this and even every parent. Two thumbs up!