Distractions

I'm no good tonight... I'm down in my studio, trying to straighten it for guests coming on Mother's Day. Yes, I'm working on it this early. It will take that long. However, at the rate I'm going, It may be NEXT Mother's Day before it's finished. I did start out honest enough. I threw in a load of clothes from the massive pile I have to do down here (no, I'm not sharing a picture. You'd drum me out of the blogosphere.) But then I sat down to read emails 'real quick.' That was my first mistake.

An email from Vanessa led me to her blog, which kicked me over to Collage Diva's blog that led to Michelle Ward's Green Pepper Press blog. I've always thought of joining in on her challenges but haven't yet. I then hopped over to Michelle's blog itself and read about these Wall Notebooks. I must have one. You can get one here for only $11.53. I even doodled here to see how much I'd like it. It's a keeper. Although I guess it brought out my inner 4 year old.

The doodling reminded me that I have several moleskines collecting dust. I pulled those out and found this rudimentary sketch I did of my feet sitting on those wooden cabana type chairs at St. Pete Beach in January.


* Note* I ran off to put a load of clothes in and came back to this little guy dead on my open book. I guess he was as tired as I feel and just couldn't hack it anymore. He died at my 'feet'. ha I crack myself up tonight.


I sketched over the pencil with a 'waterproof' pen I have. Couldn't find my watercolors (probably stolen by some child) so I pulled out the fluid acrylics to try. They're made with water or something right? So I added water. So much for the 'waterproof' pen...


and I'm not a sketcher or a watercolor artist (paint bleeds!) but I still like how this simple painting came out. It brings back a good memory anyway, even though I have fat feet in my Birkenstocks. hehe


After looking up the wall notebook, I was then distracted by the remembrance that I have a GC to Amazon! Yippee! Shopping time! I checked out my wishlist. Hmm, I think I have half of what is in there. Time to update apparently. So I searched for possibly purchase candidates:
Zakka Sewing - really caught my eye. I always fawn over the Japanese crafting magazines but am reluctant to pay so much for one plus the exorbitant shipping costs.
Pretty Little Felts - Oh goodness. Anything felty is catching my eye lately now that I bought one of those hand felters that holds 5 needles. I found this helpful tutorial by Betz White on felting using this tool too!
Rethinking Acrylic - I LOVE this book! I picked it up from the library but love it so much I might just purchase it. Lots of texture, layering, unusual ways to use all sorts of acrylic paints including my fluid acrylics. Vivid pics too.
500 Handmade Books - Have you seen this gorgeous book?! I don't know if I need to own it but just looking through it makes me want to start folding, tearing, burning, piercing, painting papers and collecting nature items to use in my art.
Crafty Chica's Guide to Artful Sewing - I'm just sure this is going to be a perfectly fun book to do all the projects out of. Can't go wrong with the Chica.
Stitched in time - Has anyone bought this book yet? I love little sewing projects and this adorable book by Posy Gets Cozy has me yearning to create.

With too many choices and not enough decision making power in my brain, I gave up on the shopping. I hate to purchase something I'm not sure I'll LOVE and it will just sit around and collect dust. I hate dust.

I decided to look up images to use as stencils. Do you remember my stencils post? I get so many visits from people because of that one post. I have to tell you about this new tool I purchased to make my stencil cutting life easier. After you get the hang of it, it's much easier than an exacto. And I used my 50% off Michaels coupon to get it! Yippee!

Last Saturday I collaged this canvas using a peacock stencil I cut out. I forgot to use stencil adhesive so the paint bled a bit. (Using gel pen around the edge covers a multitude of sins.) I like the effect though. * Quote is by William Shakespeare *


Anyway, the picture looking up led me to many fascinating blogs.

Check out this one. The post I popped in on, she was talking about a month long blogathon. Great blogs to check out that are participating.
I saw a blog for this assemblage artist. Beautiful creations. Reminded me I wanted to look up Dale Copeland. I think I just saw something about her in a recent magazine. Don't ask me which, I'll have to check. Anyway, I found her blog and website. Gorgeous!

Always fun to peek at another person's life.

And now I'm blogging my evening. Anything to avoid being productive apparently. So there you have it. Hopefully I didn't bore anyone to tears by now with the walk through my scattered brain. I told you all it needed a spring cleaning!