*Finally*

After not having the...time, inclination, wherewithal, energy, juice...take your pick, I finally did something creative today. I had stashed away my maternal grandmother's locket for quite awhile and found it again last week.

I wanted to do something other than just wear it on a chain or a ribbon, so today, I got out my never-before-actually-used-successfully-by-me Tricord Knotter. Since this locket has such a beautiful rosy gold hue, I decided to use garnet beads and pearls on a white cord. I am pleased with the results.

This locket is only one of two things that survived my grandmother's death. It contains the only photo I have of her as she was as a young woman. I'm guessing that it dates back to the very late 1800's, given that she wasn't yet 40 when she passed away. I've always known that I wanted to incorporate pearls but wasn't sure until today how.

I still have to add the clasp, but that means that I have to *find* the clasps first. There's always tomorrow...

Remiss again

It's not that I forget to post...it's that I've been needing a poke to do so lately. So thank you Eric for the email.

I haven't had much time recently for being creative...lots of things happening on the home front. More work on my house, some financial woohas and looking for a *gulp* job. Preferably something i can do right here, but I'm not holding out much hope right now. Ethel apparently needs some work _again_ and hopefully, it will work for my friend Mark to come and do so tomorrow.

It hasn't been all unfun however, I'm knitting a nice girly tank top for my kid (well, hardly a kid anymore) friend Aubrey. She now lives in Florida and hardly has a need for wool socks, hat and mittens, so it's something she can wear there. She's in love and discovering that it's fun dressing like a girl, so after this tank top is done, I'm sewing a skirt for her to wear with it. I have a little over a week to finish both, but the front and back of the tank top are done and just need the shoulder straps and the finish on both the neck edge and armholes. The skirt....piece o cake with my mad sewing machine skillz. I found this lovely silky sarong-y fabric in my stash, that is gorgeous with the green of the tank top and her mum assures me that orange is her new favorite color.

A girl after my own (orange) heart!

I'm backing up all my files for this 'puter work coming up so I'd best get back to it!

The back of my altered cd

Someone from the arttechniques group asked how I finished off the back of my cd's so I thought I'd post the scan and supply an explaination.

I covered the back with cardstock, by liberally applying a glue stick to the cd and burnishing on a circle I'd cut. I read a hint somewhere to cut the circle larger than the cd and cut it down to get a good fit and I have to say...it worked like a dream.

The transparency is a short history of my family moving to the US and how they came to be in Iowa. I found a font (gothenburg) that reminded me of old family documents, downloaded and installed it, typed the document in MS Word, translated it in babelfish, copy/pasted back into my Word document and voila'! I printed it out, cut more circles, used a little liquid adhesive just to hold the transparency in place and then used copper tape (for soldering stained glass etc) to finish the edge.

The label was simply typed up in the gothenburg font and adhered with the copper tape again. It's part of the definition for the word 'relic' and also says..."a bit of soil, a forgotten key, some photos and a last name". Although it's difficult to see, that is a photo of my mother taken from their wedding portrait.

...and now, for something completely different...

These are 2 APCs (artist postcards) that I created a couple of years ago, but I still like them lots and need to make a set for me. Still using family photos and transparencies. I do have in mind some more experiments, like using tranparencies for image transfer. But work first, play later.

Saturday AM

After waking at the @sscrack of day, I'm here at puter, at work still, after more than 3 hours. I've been compiling various de-stashing lists so I don't tear at my hair because I can't find what I'm looking for, printing those lists so I can make sure they are up-to-date, creating an online calendar to remind of when I can advertise on various yahoo groups, making lists to battle the "shiny things" monster and hopefully help keep focus, updating blogs, trying very hard not to get lost looking at other blogs, considering the future, no matter how bright nor dim it may be.

Life at its best, eh?

Oh and I've decided that I've cultivated horrible keyboarding habits. Such as not capitalizing, using weird made-up sandiwords, not seriously paying attention to little things like punctuation. I'm a smart woman, it's time to start *looking* like one online. I'm still me, just working at being me better.

I may have to have my favorite editor peer in here every once in awhile to beat my @ss if necessary.

altered cds

These were made for a fatbook I signed up for in one of my yahoo groups. It's a fatbook with the theme "Relics". I had something else entirely in mind to do for this, but I just couldn't make it work.

I decided to look up the word 'relic' and it sparked this idea. I printed these main photos of my greatgrandparents on our farm (circa late 1800's) on transparency. I found a nice grungy cardstock to cover the cd and then applied the transparency. I did a similar process for the back.

The photos in the slide holder are of my parents from their wedding photograph (circa 1937). The paper covering the holder is a brief family history that I wrote, translated into German (thanks to babelfish) and copy/pasted into MSword using the 'gothenburg' font. I then printed it out on old parchment paper. (old cos *I'm* old and I got it when was in high school).

The vial holds some soil from the farm and the key is an old skeleton key from my vast collection. The fibers are from an even vast-er collection.

ok so...

life goes on. moods swing. it gets hot, then cold, then rainy. i still have a hard time with focus. i still am battling depression. it's all old news.

the new news...i take myself far too seriously. *bangs head on desk* i think i may be the last person to recognize that. d'oh.

ok so...i might seriously muse. but now...posting art work!