Duty Time

It is just after six in the mornin' and I'm dressed, sans shoes but I'm dressed. The oatmeal is on the stove and my peanut butter & banana sandwich on toasted wheat bread is already packed and waiting for my lunchtime which will be enjoyed in the busy, noisy, dusty, smoggy, dirty, niftiness that is downtown Los Angeles. I have jury duty today. I'm going to be wearing icky clashing sneakers with my wide legged jeans because I will be doing a bit of walking and it is summer and my sad feet are very unhappy right now. I am not a cell phone person, I have no laptop and there are no computers in the assembly room so I will have many hours of sitting on plastic molded chairs, shifting to accommodate the painful tail-bone. I will also read up half a dozen magazines and then move on to books for school, unless of course I get called into the room, the room that makes me feel stupid and nervous especially when I have to stand in the jury box and talk about myself. Then I get all nervous and shaky and people snicker and I want to kick them and then run away crying. I am not quite into public speaking...so, with that all written while my eyes are still trying to focus, I leave you with happy colors, vivid patterns and a fun toy I made for the Birthday-Birdie. Happy Friday!

Guerilla Girls (for a day)

 

Last Wednesday I had a swell and fortunate time of playing with flickr folk and newfound friends. Our original plan that we made two months ago consisted of this grand idea that we would all traipse down to my local Red Cross and donate our crafty blood to the cause. It figures that Wednesdays are the day that my Red Cross doesn't draw blood from that location. Never to frown upon mishaps, we decided we will donate blood next time on a different day of the week or we would find a nifty blood mobile and do it there and then of course find a lovely bakeshop to up our blood sugar back to normal. Instead of the great big blood date (as we were calling it), I sent out an email assignment to come prepared with some guerilla art projects (this book is a great jumping off point.). We were going to get our art on and perform random acts of kindness and fun. That sounded like a delightful plan...and it was!I put together wee drawstring bags with tiny painted locks, happy lengths of ribbon, long strips of card stock and of course sharpies and keys. The idea would be to decorate your lock, write a happy message out on the paper, laminate with contact paper, punch a hole and lock it up with the lock somewhere out where the world could find it. My good gal SoMany took it a step further and added notes to the keys and left the key out there for someone to find and a note as to where to find the lock. It would be a found scavenger hunt! Yes! I know! my head is spinning I tell ya, SPINNING with ideas! I am dizzy with them...ideas that is.

Ms. SoMany brought along clear contact paper and GIANT sharpies. We wrote out messages of kindness and stuck them on walls and such. Like graffiti only not damaging in any way to someone else's property. I know, we're rebels, totally.

 

 

The problem with all these great ideas was there simply wasn't enough time to do them all. The lovely rosiefruit brought along rice cakes, peanut butter and birdseed and we were going to tie guerilla bird feeders in the park.

Then there was Ms. Jenny's idea of moss graffiti which we did not get to see because Jenny rocks her busy, busy work for the ever fabulous Craft Magazine.

 

 

After much planning and thinking of how we were going to execute all the fun, we ended up invading the space at Reform School (Thank you Tootie!), arting it up on the floor and tables, playing with the Art-O-Mat and then leaving secret messages on the telephone pole outside. It was a truly delightful day of jumping, arting, rak'ing, and laughter....lots and lots of laughter!

 

How lucky am I?

a sort of week in review...

Actually just a montage of some pictures from the week to prove to myself that I was creatively productive. For most of the week I have felt sluggish and disorganized. I still feel this way but now I can look here and think "Oh yeah, I did do something!"

This week coming up will be set aside for jury duty and paper writing with perhaps a smidge of crafting thrown in. Happy weekend! Back to my scissors hunt, dinner cooking and movie watching. Hooray!

It's the little things

Why oh why is it that I get my best post ideas when I'm in the car or it is three in the morning and I am too tired to actually wake up to type? I feel a need to write more but to write more upbeat and happy than how I feel most of the time. I can't even muster up the energy to stomp on over to pepper lemonade for a rant or two. How irksome!

School has been taking up a monumental amount of space in my brain, but that is a good thing. The other small parts are still consumed with anger and sadness that comes and goes with some or no warning. Sometimes, there are tiny, wee pockets of colorful flashes of creative ideas and I write those down wherever I am so in the margins of my notes on Vygotsky or Dewey you will find a list that reads:

*bunting
*halloween bags
*patchwork worms
*produce bags
*repurposed art swirls for the 'do
*bake more shortbread
*onion jam

followed by a doodle or two of a star monster or belly warmer. Then, when I get a moment to actually create something I look at the piles of fabric and simply fold and arrange or I sit down with an unread magazine or I think about how I really and surely must finish that darn BIG paper! Aaack! I must do that first, I must. It has been due FOREVER! Seriously, next week while I battle jury duty, I will work on paper while at home and if I have to go in I will bring my embroidery. Do they allow tiny sewing needles into a criminal courthouse?So, while I sit and ponder all I have to do and I think about my sad thoughts I sometimes feel like I'm being pulled under and I wish so that I could crawl under the bed to hide. Then I look up for a moment and I spot a small mound of fabric scraps in yellows and pinks and oranges and I smile. I see my newest etsy acquisition and I giggle or suddenly my nose works and I can smell the cinnamon baking in the oatmeal bars I plan to bring to a friend and I take a deep breath and thank the sock monkeys that there are all these little things around me to make me smile.

Monday was spent with a dear friend and her babe as we prepped and put together a bunting and a half for the wee one's upcoming first birthday. I finished the second one yesterday and I think it makes a lovely addition to the tiny bedroom and quite possibly I may need to keep it! Or maybe I should make up a few more and toss them into my sad and neglected shop. What do you think? Do you think these could be happy in your home?

a new month, a "new" bed

I'm running out of combos for the bed but still, I make do. I would hate to duplicate just yet! Also, I kept forgetting to take pictures so here ya go, better late than never.

In case you didn't know....

Sometimes, I'm silly....