URL: http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping Parameter(s): u= HTTP method: GET Mama's Doodles: June 2007

6.30.2007

Mosaic of memories



It was a family vacation full of all the stuff we like best:
time with our cousins from "Cago" :: boating :: bumper cars :: water fights from all three stories of decking :: swimming :: golfing :: pedicures :: water sports :: & plenty of relaxing!

My only regret was forgetting the !!!paints!!! for junk-a-doodle making with Kenzie's cousins. I had all the supplies. But no paint. I did do some fancy mani & pedi's on all my neices though! Yet, I left my own to the professionals. Too bad the gal seemed legally blind, and I could have done a better job myself. :)

Now, I'm off to continue catching up on blog reading. When the number of feeds starts to be overwhelming - it's time to weed some out. It's definitely time to take back a bit of control in that realm.

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6.22.2007

Ozarks vacation

Isn't this ridiculous?



It's where I'll be for the next week! I'm looking forward to it. The house will actually be chock full of extended family. A nice communal holiday at the lake.
But, no internet connection?
In a house like this?
Are you kidding me????

Joanne, was just at the lake. She promised to leave a wee bit of custard behind for me (apparently, custard is pretty special up there). We'll see if she's good for her word. :) She also blogged her vacation as it happened. AND, looked good in a swimming suit.

Aside from having a obnoxious farmers tan, (making swimsuit wearing even less pleasurable for me).
Not to mention a forced detox from the internet...
We're gonna have so much fun!!!!

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6.20.2007

kenzie's doodle #4: A zebra



Today, Kenzie was practically begging to do our art project...by 8:30 a.m. As you can tell, I usually don't have her hair combed by then. She changed into her painting shirt on her own accord and forced me right into:

A Zebra. She said with this coy little expression.

The outcome is:



As usual, I let Kenzie do all the painting, which again resulted in a big pile of stuff all toned in the same color. Sadly, aside from flowers, which I didn't want to include this time - I couldn't think of a thing to do with the other junk. So, I scrapped it and kept it simple. We have some pieces that aren't the color they should be (eyes and ears), but, I do want her to enjoy and be free in the process.

As Kenzie painted, I busied myself with sorting another junk pile which sits on the counter in a basket. I found this little picture of her in her lion get-up and decided to include it.

So, we have a cowardly zebra - hiding out from the mean, mean lion. Said lion is licking their chops. :)



More collaborative art done by parent & child can be found HERE.

***we are headed for a week in a lake house at the Ozarks. I intend to do this with my neices, for next weeks project! (so FIVE little pieces of junk-art will be made. The nephew (age 1) will have to watch and be inspired).

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6.14.2007

The strangest thing I ever:

Made.
I think. I dunno. I have indeed done plenty of strange things.



I saw the tuturial for Fused Plastic Bags , and being an avid recycler with a whole lot of plastic bags stocked up, now that we don't have smelly diapers to dispose of anymore - I decided to have my way with this little project.



And I kind of like the outcome.
It'll make a great pool bag. Although I don't know if I'd carry it on a regular basis. The front and back are different, one side is embellished with the pocket. The handles, I jazzed up with some spare binding for extra support. And Voila. A mess of fused plastic, gone handbag.

At the start, I overheated a batch of bags, resulting in some holes... I then "patched" them up with some other blobs of plastic - resulting in texture like this:



I'd planned to piece in different colors and patterns, yet...I was in a rush as the gal was (is) sleeping and I wanted to be done with this before she woke up. I've got some pressing tutu matters to attend to after all. sigh.

I had Jack Johnson's "Reduce, reuse, recycle..." stuck in my head the whole time!
And there ya go. Go ahead and curse me, while it's running through your head too! :)

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6.13.2007

kenzie's doodle #3: A hippo

Another piece done in interest of The place where little and big art meet:



A Hippo, she ordered. Our junk pile included two umbrellas at her insistence (is it bad that I keep the accumulated junk collection in the liquor cabinet??) Kenzie painted. Mama arranged. Oh, and the background was Mama's fault too.

(I do plan on playing with this in photoshop and my new wacom design tablet, but figured I'd post it to the sites before I totally "cheat" the result).

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6.12.2007

waka-wonderful



..we had a very different experience at the Wakarusa Music Festival, then we did last year. This year - the weather was cool and blissful, we had private camping, and friends from San Diego to join us. Although it ended with a bang of a lightening storm (which scared us into the car, where we actually slept quite well!) it was just the dose of adult fun I think we needed. It was Waka-wonderful.

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6.07.2007

C-R-E-E-P-Y

In my last post I mentioned that my daughter and I had done some art together which resulted in my new banner. That same day, she also did this piece that left some really interesting impressions. We were painting on glass inserts taken out of an old french door, and she really loved smooshing the paint all about it and the texture that resulted. As did I. It's really pretty cool all by itself.

Anyway. She had asked if we could "please make a helmet and a guy on a bicycle".... I didn't have time to revisit the idea, nor did I have any frickin' clue how I'd pull that off using pieces of junk, like we did with the lion project. So, onward with the point:
Tonight, when playing with my new Wacom tablet thingy (which I LOVE), I opened a random picture to mess around with. I accidentally chose the shot of the glass she'd made.

Now, I'm not good with pencils. I'm also very clumsy with this tablet thing. But, within the texture -- was totally an accidental guy with a helmet on. He's odd looking, but HE IS THERE.



I'm very peeved at myself for not realizing that I should have made a copy of the image before I drew on it.
I swear!!, that I only followed the texture that was already there. I just drew in the black lines with the "pencil" tool in photoshop.

I will take another picture of the glass piece to prove it. Why? I dunno. It just totally creeped me out.
I'm off to Wakarusa tomorrow! Let the adult fun begin....

***edited to add: Below is the "blank slate" from which I drew the bike helmet guy from. Do you see "him" too? :) Or, is this just the work of a warped mind? I see him right here:

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6.06.2007

Cleaning House

I've been "tired" of my blog's look for a very long while. So, I finally decided to do something about it. So, you'll note some things have already changed, and you'll also be noting me piddling around with some more revisions over the course of my spare minutes. {hopefully}

My new banner is another product of a joint artwork done with my daughter. But, since I did the majority of it - ignoring her request for a "helmet, and a bicycle guy" :) - I won't be posting it over there.

I am, however, uber excited about some new toys I got for my anniversary. It was supposed to be the anniversary where my husband and I treated ourselves to new dishware, a new rug, and a trip to Wakarusa . But, my wonderful supportive guy also gifted me with a new zoom lens for my camera, photoshop, and one of those design tablets! Um. Initially, I was horribly embarrassed - but I got over that pretty damn fast. What a man.

Except, now I'm a bit consumed with playing with the new toys - and the blog revisions are even more despised...



A photo, just to pretty this post up a bit. Until next time. Which probably won't be until I've caught waaaaay too much sun, drank too many beers, and danced my arse off this weekend.

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6.05.2007

Big Bowl o' pincushions.

See my new bowl? Isn't what's going on with the glaze just lovely??



Amy made it. Not only did I get the bowl, but I got to meet Amy & her, her, her, & her at a bloggy get-together this past weekend!

Can you believe I walked away with more than this bowl?? Jenny, is moving, and had mounds of excess goodies. (not to mention, the MOST fantastic home). With very little prompting, we all took care of a significant amount of that problem for her! :) On an aside, my poor husband had been quite worried about me -- meeting up with a whole bunch of people I met "on the internet...." What a pleasant surprise for he & me!

Ok, see what's inside the bowl? It's some pincushions I had started for all of them, which I'll admit to some severe procrastination. The short story is that I had an event in another city before the bloggy get together. I had this novel idea, stolen from Maize to make some pincushions for the gals. Maize had sent me one -- which I promptly attached to the bobbin winder on my machine.... The thing has saved me from profuse cussing in my studio. My main pincushion always seems to be at another spot in the room when I need it, so this little guy is always on the ready while I'm sewing and removing pins. I also have one downstairs for pinning emergencies. So, I thought the thing was brilliant and I set about making some as little gifts for my new friends. The plan was to finish them all IN THE CAR. And, then...my daughter puked during the car-ride. Twice. And, I didn't get the pincushions done. I kind of forgot about them after all that puking. Sigh.

Yet, now they're done. They are cute and simple and ready to be given. A moment too late. But ready for next time.

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6.04.2007

a mini pedi.

I meant to post this on Kenzie's Doodles , but erroneously chose the wrong blog on the dashboard. Oh well. It's kind of artsy enough to belong here too. :)



We added some lovely to Kenzie's fingers and toes. And, then at Kenzie's insistence - to Mama's toes too. (I don't "do" nails. Just don't like my hands enough to draw attention to them. :)



For a fun pedi and/or mani -- use the non-toxic paint markers to dot, stripe, or smiley face on those nails. It's worth a giggle for the wee one. And, it's good distraction from a bad paint job.

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