Weekend Goodies....

I'm involved in an exercise in expanding creativity. One of the projects was to take pictures of things around you and use it as inspiration. The catch is that you get one shot to make something...no redos. I don't always do my best on the first attempt but the exercise is opening my eyes and sending me down paths I might have never taken.

I posted this picture of a building last week. I love the old fashioned pointing hand. Below is the piece I made from it. I didn't know what to have it pointing towards....."offices" just wasn't doing it for me. And then it came to me....Paris....but of course :) I had fun with it and it gave me a chance to rivet. I need lots of practice at riveting. I'm pretty bad at it.

I spent my free time over the weekend making tear-aways. I tried out some of my "stamperized" pictures. I'll get a chance to work with them tomorrow.

Stamperize your pictures....

You like that word...stamperize. I made that up :)

I've been considering buying some rubber stamps of the Eiffel Tower and other sites in Paris. But I hesitated because I have pictures of those sites. So I hopped onto Photoshop Elements and found the stamp function. Check it out......








Now it's really time to play with some tear-aways.

Glad it's Friday...

What a week. You all heard about my fall on Wednesday. Well that was mid-week. The beginning of the week started with my being called back to the Breast Center for some additional images and an ultrasound because the radiologist had seen something on my mammogram. At this point the diagnosis is "probably benign"....hmmmm. I have a follow up in 6 months. Then on Tuesday my brother was in the hospital for a knee replacement...good news is that he went home today. Wednesday was the fall. Yesterday and today were rather calm and the weather has finally become bearable.

The weekend will come and go quickly. I have a project due that I haven't even started on. I will work on that tomorrow. We have dinner with friends Saturday night. Sunday I've got nothing planned but housework usually sucks up a good portion of the day. I thought once my shows were over I would get tons of work done. Not the case. I don't know where my time goes. I had planned to have all my things up on Etsy by now...I haven't even taken pictures yet and it doesn't look good that it will happen anytime soon.

I bought a lottery ticket tonight. What would you do with $207 million?? I was day dreaming about this on the way home. First it is way too much money to even know how to spend it.....so charity would definetely come in to play. But first a few things for me :) My current house would be history. I would build a new one...not much bigger but with a custom designed studio. But the question would be where would I choose to live. I know you're all thinking Paris....but probably not permanently. I'd get a little pied-de-terre in Paris (and you could all stay there for free). I'd hire a housekeeper, cook, and gardener (stimulate the economy) so I could have free time. There's not much that I want.....no expensive car, no boat, no mansion. What I really want is time. I would be happy to have my days free so I could work in the studio. It was Marcus Aurelius who said.."very little is needed to make a happy life, it is all within yourself, all in your way of thinking".

I think I would buy a new car...a mini....I love those things.



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My Mood Today

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This was on Anne's blog and it says it all for me today. I'm in a sour mood but I'm trying not to show it.

We are have a massive tree taken down. It is in the back yard right next to the house and power lines. Our back yard is landlocked so they have to put the crane in the neighbors front yard and reach between the houses (which are very close) to get to the tree. They were suppose to give us a few days notice so we could warn the neighbors. But they didn't and showed up this morning before I had even gotten into the shower. Luckily the neighbor was out in his front yard this morning because he locked himself out of the house.

Anyway...I moved my car out to the street and went back in to get ready for work....fast...very fast. I didn't want to be around when they took this thing down. I got ready in about 15 minutes, threw some cat food in the dishes and headed out the door. I was walking in the street to my car and fell. Let's just say the tree wasnt' the only thing falling down today...."Big Girl falling down!!!!". There was a guy in his car on the wrong side of the street. I don't know what he was doing there...may have been with the tree company. As I lay in the middle of the street I looked up and him and he waved to me. WTF??? Didn't get out of the car, didn't even yell to me to see if I was OK....just waved. Now my leg hurts and my knee is all scuffed up and I'm in a pissy mood.

Cleveland Photos

I left work early on Friday and had a chance to snap some photos that I've been wanting to take. The first is the side of an abandoned building with a really cool pointing hand sign on the wall.

As I pulled down the street I saw another abandoned building. I wanted to get closer to this one....but that wasn't an option. Not just because there was a fence. The pictures were taken on one of the streets I occassionaly drive down to get to work. Employee's take shortcuts through the surrounding neighborhoods to get to work faster. This neighborhood happens to be ranked the 20th most dangerous in the US. I drive through it every day so it doesn't really seem that bad. But I'm not dumb enough to get out of the car and walk around.

Then I drove over to Tremont to see Saint Theodosious. Cleveland is a steel town...or maybe "was" is a better term. Tremont is located close to the steel mills. The neighborhood is old and has an industrial edge to it. It's become the site of a number of great restaurants and some trendy boutiques.

A classic "Gail"

For those of you that don't personally know me...I'm a very quiet, refined person (for those of you who do know me....stop laughing).

So I was at work late and had to run to the grocery store to pick up dinner and a cake mix for a bake sale tomorrow (our research institute helps support an elementary school 2 blocks away). I'm dragging my butt through the store minding my own business doing my shopping and all I can hear is these 2 little girls (about 4 yrs old) talking and yelling as loud as can be. Obviously Mommy is one of those that doesn't believe in teaching her children how to behave in public. And she also must believe that we all think her little darlings are as precious as she does.

So the one girl is pulling all kinds of items off the shelves and the other one is yelling for her to "put it back". I turned around to see that Mommy is all they way down in the next aisle...typical. I'm desperately trying to block them out but one just went into a tirade and really did scream at the top of her lungs "PUT IT BACK". On the 4th "PUT IT BACK" something in me snapped and it just happened. I turned around and yelled "SHUT UP".

Mommy came and got her children really fast. And then I was able to shop in peace.

Like I said....I am quiet and refined. Now I have to go bake a cake.

Later.

Stamps

I finally had a chance to go through a large package of stamps I picked up in a flea market in Paris....two years ago. I do things like that....buy something with grand ideas of what I'll make and then it sits....sometimes for years without touching it. These have been nagging at me.....hanging around in the back of my mind. So I got them out and sorted through them. Mostly there are stamps from Europe and Asia. There were some old American stamps and quite a few Queen Elizabeth stamps.

Here are a few of my favorties.

I especially like the four chicks from Republik Offerreich (Republic of Austria). I think it's time to do something with these.

Healthcare Reform and Men without Shirts

Excuse me while I rant.......

Healthcare Reform.....WTF?? As a country...why can't we have a conversation about this without looking like a bunch of morons. The fact that a subset of people won't allow town halls to occur in an open and respectful manner says way too much about this country. Somewhere along the line a large part of the population have lost their brain cells. They are buying into the fear and hate mongering that is being spewed from the mouths of political pundits.

And what's with Rush Limbaugh (excuse me while I spit) comparing the logo for the health plan with the Nazi swastika.

If the man even had half a brain he would know that the portion of the logo he is referring to is called a caduceus and comes from Greek mythology. That symbol has been associated with healing and medicine since around 1200 BC. "First do no harm" is a rule of conduct that is taught in medical schools. Maybe Rush ought to consider this rule before he opens his big mouth...but then...if he did....he'd be mute.

And what is it that makes men think it is acceptable to take their shirts off in public. I mean really....unless you are in your 20s and have 6-pack abs....keep the shirt on. Nobody wants to see your grey haired, flabby, sagging, wrinkly chest. I saw some guy jogging today without a shirt....come on...you're old, you're wrinkled..... and you're carrying a golf putter??? What is that all about? To beat the women off??? Or just to beat the women.....when they fall down laughing.

AHHH....I feel better.

Updated Blog List

I've been updating the blog here and there. I added blogs that I read on a regular basis. Check them out. Some great sites and artists listed.

A little more bronze

So I worked on a project over the weekend. The inspiration was an abstract painting by Paul Brent of a suspension bridge.

The idea was not to duplicate it but to use it as inspiration. I was surprised and happy with the direction it took and I can see this becoming a series. Of course the first thing I thought about after I did this piece was to use a map of Paris as the frame and embed a picture of the Eiffel Tower in resin. I have a one-track mind.....Paris, Paris, Paris.

Lou rolls his eyes when I talk about Paris. So he blew me away yesterday when he suggested we go to Paris the first week of December. It's our 10 year wedding anniversay and we were talking about going back to Santa Fe where we were married. Out of the blue he suggested Paris and he's excited about it. It's not the location so much as the time of year. He wants to see Europe at Christmas time. Now it's up to me if we go there or go to SantaFe .... hmmm .... decisions, decisions. What do you think....Paris or Santa Fe??

Catalogs

I got 7 catalogs in the mail today. Clothing, furnishings, gardening.....I threw them all aside to look at just one....the Harbor Freight catalog. I know....I'm such a girl. I lusted over the belt sanders, engravers and dapping blocks. It's like getting the toy catalog at Christmas time. Maybe this weekend I'll actually stop in the store in Cleveland.

I did get a little girly and looked for a bed frame. I've been wanting one for a while. I found this .... a sleigh bed. It wrought iron and whitewashed. I love it. I can see this in the bedroom.

Bar Symon

We tried a new restaurant tonight....Bar Symon. It's owned by Michael Symon...Cleveland's own Iron Chef. WOW!! I had grilled meatloaf with a side of fried brussel sprouts. For dessert I had an ice cream sandwich which had banana bread as the sandwich. It was served with a carmel peanut sauce. It was really good. They have ove 40 beers on tap so it's a fun place to go. And it is on my side of town....which is unusual. If you get a chance...go there. You won't regret it.


Oh yeah...and their logo is a flying pig.....just like Sebastian

Spaz Sisters

For Cris, Vicki, Lora, Cathy....and the rest of you who spaz out and fling something hot, flaming, goopy, ect.... while you are working on your jewlery......



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I think that was the look on Anne's face as she saw my hot piece of silver coming her way.

Inspiration, Part Deux

Man, was I rambling last night. It was late and I was tired. It reminded me of The Birdcage when Gene Hackman is describing the drive down to Palm Beach and he just goes on and on. If you've never watched that movie...go rent it. It's hysterical...especially Hank Azaria as Agador. Plus there's a really nice shot of him in a thong :))

Anyway. I hopped over to Richard Salley's blog last night to see that my love of ancient languanges and scripts has inspired him to do a new series of pieces that include etched metal and faux bone. They are wonderful, of course. He does such great work. Hop over and take a look at them. I love the addition of the Faux Bone and I just took a class with Robert Danick in June with Faux Bone....so it's time I broke it out and started working with it. Richard has inspired my right back.

HMMM....I think this requires a trip to Harbor Freight for that belt sander I've been lusting over. I'm afraid to go there.....I might never come out.....sooo many tools....so little time.

Inspiration

Inspiration comes from many things, places, and people. I don't know why but as I drive to and from my day job, designs pop into my head. Probably because I like to drive and while I'm on the highway I get into a zone. The creative wheels start spinning. It might also be the scenery :) ...well not on the way to work. I see steel mills as I drive across the 490 bridge. But on the way home I get a view of St. Theodosious sitting up on the hill in Tremont. It is a Russian Orthodox church that is probably most famous for being in the Deer Hunter. The domes are amazing and they have the greatest patina.

Some inspiration comes from instructors. Take a class with Celie Fago and you are inspired to perfection while a class with Susan Lenart Kazmer will inspire you to push the boundaries of conventional design.

Some inspiration comes from other artists. Who hasn't been inspired to do enamaling after seeing the work of Angela Gerhard.....or try putting color on metal with colored pencils when you see Deb Karash's work.

Some inspiration comes from friends and acquaintances in their passion for their art, their drive to create something greater than the everyday experience, the love and support they give to fellow artists.

Keep your eyes, ears, and hearts open and let the inspiration in.

What natural disaster are you?

A silly quiz from Facebook....this was my result .... TORNADO.


"Wild and violet to a point that nothing will stand in your path! Riled up by hot and cold wind currents you touch down at the end of a funnel. Anything caught at your focal point is likely to be tossed aside effortlessly."

Actually I'm not a violent as I used to be :)). I've mellowed. But there have been times that I feel like a disaster. And I have been told I have the workbench of chaos.....but I just don't know what Cris is talking about....

Doesn't everybody's bench look like this?????

AHH...But the crown and sceptor for Miss Hot Metal Fling will be passed from myself to Cris this year. She wins this title for tossing a hot metal bracelet on the carpet. Check out her blog....it cracked me up.

I'm off to work in bronze today. Later

A little bronze over the weekend

I did a little bronze work Friday and Saturday. I had a bit left from a 200g pack and wanted to use it up so I made some pendants and a few tidbits. I took the tray out of the kiln when it was 200 degrees. As I uncovered the pieces they had bright pinks in them. As they cooled to air temp they lost that pink color. Although they looked pretty pink in the pic below. Funny...the pendant in front still had the pencils lines on it that I drew when the clay was leather. It didn't burn off...but they did go away when I polished them up.


I polished this one up and put some leather cord in the holes. This one is my "Alien" pendant. Just above the first "x" of leather...it looks like the Alien mask with tendrils coming off the head. Isn't that cool!!!

Benny likes it...it made him laugh...and then he chewed on the leather cord.

Summer Fun and a Flying Pig

Lou and I went to the Avon Summer Market. It was held in a park on Lake Erie with a mix of artists and antiques. It was fun. The weather was a little iffy. It stormed earlier in the day. You can see the clouds building up over the lake.

We stopped in to see Lori in her booth. She has some great jewelry. Check out her website. There was an artist from Cincinnati....Greg's Antiques and Garden... that had garden sculptures and trellis' made from iron. We picked up three sections of decorative fence for the back yard and a garden ornament. I also brought home Sebastian the Flying Pig. I couldn't resist. Right now he is sitting on my dining room table. Proud as can be.

Next we stopped at Las Cazuelas in Avon Lake for tamales. Then to Borders. I picked up David Lebovitz's new book....The Sweet Life in Paris. It's a cook book of sorts which is funny because I don't really cook. He is a pastry chef. It has stories of his life in Paris and recipies. He has a great blog if you like to cook....lots of recipies.

I'm doing a little bit of bronze this afternoon. It was so hot upstairs I had to take a break while the clay dries....which should be quick. Now I'm back to it.

Kaleidoscope....

Check this out.......kaleidoscope app for Photoshop...

We were playing with a similar app on Cathy's i-phone in Sunday. Pat said there was a download for Photoshop so I went out and found it. I have a project I'm working on I thought it might be good for....not so good for the project but it's fun to play with. I took one of my pictures and saved it as the first kaleidoscope. Then I took that picture and made a second kaleidoscope. This is another app that you can spend hours...days....playing with. While you're at it check out Cathy's new blog.

As long as I'm listing sites for you to go to....try Paris Daily Porn....not what you think. Nice pictures of Paris. Actually Paris Daily Photo is also a nice site. Apparently there are a number of cities that have a "daily photo" web site.

You better watch out...

You better not cry ...Better not pout... I'm telling you why....

Obama is coming to town. He will be in Cleveland on Thursday and will be at my hospital, Cleveland Clinic, before he goes to Shaker Heights High School for a town hall meeting. Unfortunatley when he is at the Clinic...it is closed to the media and to the employees. I didn't find out about the town hall until it was too late. If I had seen the notice before 3PM I could have put my name in a lottery to get tickets. Oh well.

One of the docs at work lives on the street to the school. Obama has to drive by her house to get to the school. She and her husband are going home early to see if they can catch a glimpse of him.

He is here to talk about healthcare reform. He has mentioned Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic as models for the efficient delivery of healthcare. Reform is a difficult subject. People expect the best healthcare possible with the most innovative techniques and the smartest people...but that all comes at a price. I have worked in healthcare for the past 30 years and I can tell you that there are no corporate big wigs taking home multi-million dollar salaries and stock options. If there is money at the end of the year it goes back into the hospital to recruit the best people, buy better equipment, train employees on new techniques. It goes to make things better for the patients. Can you say the same thing about most multi-billion dollar corporations?

On another topic....I thought I poisoned Sophie tonight. The kids have fleas so I got Frontline to treat them. You have to place the solution in the vial on the skin between their shoulder blades. Well Sophie can reach that spot. A bit after the application she decide to lick that area. She instantly started acting weird...like she was going to barf...and started drooling. All this is happening while my mom was on the phone. So I threw the phone over to Lou and ran after the cat. I got a towel soaked in water and put it all around her mouth so she would lick her mouth and get some water. And my mom was still talking on the phone. Sophie is OK. I did a search on the Internet. I figured she wasn't the first cat to lick this stuff so it probably wasn't poisonous. Other people reported this happening and suggested the next application be higher up on the neck. But it scared me. I thought I killed my cat. And my mom....she's still talking on the phone :)....not really.

Needless to say I didn't get anything done tonight.

I'm having trouble blogging....

I haven't been making anything new...catching up on household chores. I feel out of sync and unbalanced.....it's been like that since June. I could use a week off to recharge. As fast as our lives move these days I guess we have to find moments during each day to center ourselves. I'm already looking forward to the weekend. Nothing much planned which is exactly how I like it. I want to stop by the Avon Lake Summer Market to see Lori.

Here something to make everyone smile. Lou was telling me that while he was watching golf on TV....Sophie was trying to catch the golf ball rolling across the putting green. This reminded me of that....the cat even looks like Sophie.



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Quiet Weekend

So nice not to have a show....and not to have a show until the Fall. But I have a lot of work here in the house. Lou was in Wisconsin this weekend so I spent all yesterday cleaning the downstairs. Moving all my tools and supplies back up to my workroom, dusting, sweeping and generally getting my living/dining room back to normal. I managed to do that but now the mess is all upstairs in piles waiting to be put back into place. That's the work of another weekend.

I'm off to the PMC guild meeting today. We are having a play day rather than a demo or workshop. Quite frankly I am all played out. I think I am just going to bring all Robert Dancik's new book to peruse and enjoy the company of the girls. Back later

So much to catch up on...

so much went undone while I did the shows. Now I have to catch up. My living room is still a disaster area my boxes all over the place. I don't have a show until November so I want to straighten things up before I put them away. My dining room table is covered with all the makings for necklaces and earrings. Hopefully I'll get to these things tomorrow.

Tuesday Lou and I went out to dinner for the first time in months. We went to the Moosehead in Westlake and ate outside. It's a nice little place close to home. Tonight I had to pay semi-annual sales tax for the business. Actually, that was easy. I have a QuickBooks program and it runs a sales tax report for a specified date range. As long as you enter all your sales you can have a report in seconds. Ohio has electronic reporting so I hopped on and punched in my numbers. Viola!! All done. I also managed to clean the kitchen and mop the floor.

I do feel a bit in limbo. I work best under pressure and now that there is no goal and no pressure I sit looking around the room wondering what I should do next. I guess I'll think about that over the weekend.

I'll leave you with a fuzzy picture of Ben. It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Super Ben.... actually it's Lazy Ben laying all over my mess. He's so cute with his one little black toe. Don't you just want to pick him up and squeeze him?!!

Exhausted..... beyond belief....

but it was a good show. Here's my new tent. I stayed cozy and dry during the storms on Saturday. This was the first show I've done where I was allowed to park right on the grounds...behind the tent. That was such a great convenience. It made things so much easier.

Close-up of my display

And my crazy neighbor Mike.....who looks like Kenny Rogers. He was trying to drive me crazy by hanging his pictures all askew.

It stormed Saturday morning and part of the show was located in a valley....which is where my tent was located. The storm drain was next to my tent. After two hours of rain....it started to build up. So the art show staff and some of the male artists got out shovels and dug a drainage ditch so we didn't get flooded out. I call this picture...."How many artists does it take to dig a ditch?". By my count that would be 5. But I heard that this was nothing...two years ago they had 2-3" of water in all the booths.

I am relieved to have the summer shows over. I get a chance to relax, do some gardening, read a few books, and come up with some new designs for the shows in November.

But right now I'm going to get some sleep.

What's wrong with this picture.....

When you surgeon botches your boob job......you might want to rethink wearing clothing that shows every little goose bump.

My old tent is on the tree lawn for garbage day. I would never recommend buying an EZup. It lasted for a total of 4 shows. I would have been further ahead buying a Trimline from the start. I kept the sidewalls and canopy....plus I have an extra canopy still in the bag. When I first bought it last year they sent the tent without the canopy. I called to let them know and they shipped me a new one. That one arrived and the original arrived. I just never got around to sending it back. Maybe I'll sell it on eBay and recoup some of my loses.

I love three-day weekends

This one was busy. I'm still getting ready for next weekend's show at Cain Park so Friday I worked on jewelry almost all day. Good think Lou like to golf...otherwise he would be complaining that I don't spend enough time with him.

Yesterday I worked in the morning and then went to my brother's house in the evening for a cookout and fireworks. Good food, fireworks and a cool summer night....doesn't get much better than that.

Today we put the new tent through a trial run. Good thing. It took us about an hour to set it up. The first time is always the worst. But we have the hang of it. This week I have to get everything packed up and ready. We set up at 7AM on Friday. The show runs Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Then I am free for the rest of the summer. I want to get outside and work the flower beds, do some painting inside the house. We still need to get all the damage done by the tree repaired. And I can play around with some new design ideas.

Pizza is here...have to go eat. Later.

I'm feeling restless...

Call the pilot...tell him to fuel up the jet. We can celebrate Bastille Day in Paris.

Call the concierge to open up the apartment.

Tell the cook to have lunch ready for us when we get there.

It's good to have an active imagination. Makes the restless days go by quicker.