We are back from a few days off and I have a lot to catch up on. Yeah, I know you are curious about those two things in the previous post. Not ready to talk yet. Don’t even know if I was ‘allowed’ to post them. The place they were created for is having it’s grand ribbon cutting next week, so I will give more description then.
So last weekend we escaped to Northern (lower) Michigan. We slept, then we slept, then we slept some more. The place we stayed is on a golf coarse and it was lovely. Would have been better without the golfers.
We visited Traverse City on a day that is was pouring rain and we didn’t mind getting wet at all. Apparently not to many other people did either because it was pretty busy. We found a bead store, a yarn store, a hat store, then a used record store, a used video game store/magic store and a musical instrument store. Then we lunched at a microbrewery and had some super yummy sandwiches. Needless to say we like Traverse City. On the way back we found Area 51
and a crazy fake animal place.
There was also a tree next to the highway that had an impressive collection of shoes in it. I tried to get a photo but it didn’t work out. Found this link, apparently a few other people find this interesting.
So it was a good break and we are feeling better than we did before we left.
Remember my gardening posts? Yup still got a garden! It has been a hard summer for some of the veggies and plants. Other plants have done really well. Like the tomatoes!
Already been pureeing them with some fresh basil and freezing them for the winter months. We were planning on canning some but the canning teacher may be busy for a while, so not sure if that will happen or not.
Then there is some other art stuff that has been going on too. I recieved word that several of my pieces will be in 1000 Artisan Textiles (yup, a book) coming out next May. So darn excited about that, can’t wait! Also have My Muse Box in the Fabrications art show going on this week in Kalamazoo.
As for future art I have random ideas for pieces mostly having no deep meaning behind them. So we will have to see what comes about if anything.
So I can’t tell you about the project I’m working on right now but I can show you aspects of it that don’t give any secrets away. So for the last five days I’ve been in this little basement kitchen creating quite the mess.
It took me a little while to get going and remember how to do everything I learned last summer from the class I took. I had a poor first batch. It wasn’t pretty. Oh, I’m sure someone out there may have liked it but it wasn’t the deep jewel tone colors I was going for. Last summer I got deep, wonderful colors. Why not now? Because it’s frickin’ 60 degrees in July! I need the hot and humid summer weather. That’s where this old boy came in handy.
Yup, a microwave. My neighbor had given it to me last year. It’s old, but it works. It’s just small. But not to small for a zip-loc bag of fabric and dye. I wasn’t sure at first but I was a little desperate. I have a big monster of a deadline and can’t waste time or dye waiting for summer to arrive. So armed with couple cooking thermometers to check how hot things were getting in between beeps, I nuked everything. Especially since I was using turquoise dye which needs to get hotter than the other dyes to get more vivid colors, this actually worked out great. But I’ll let the fabric prove that.
I hung it all outside to dry to avoid the tangled, thready mess of the dryer. It kind of looked like gypsies moved in or something.
I also dyed some cotton batting. Why? Because I had some.
I also experimented with some old paper maps. They wanted to fall apart so I laid them out to dry for the night.
And just in case anyone was wondering. The garden is still growing. Growing some really big tomato plants, zucchini, cucumber and mosquitoes. I didn’t plan on the mosquitoes, they just arrived. Oh well.
I know, I know! I haven’t been blogging. Shame, shame, tisk, tisk. On my list of to-do’s the blog gets bumped down to the bottom when other tasks present themselves. Lately, graphic design has been jumping into the picture. Since it is the only one my artistic skills that is actually making any money I must give it presidence. I am doing artwork in the evenings but I’m usually pretty exhausted so projects are progressing slowly. Other days I am so very sick of being on the computer, my back is hurting from sitting hours on end in one chair that I must escape the house. Since it has been lovely outside I’ve been planting my garden, visiting local greenhouses and trying to figure out how to plant and grow the plants I do purchase.
We’ve lived where we are now for around ten years now and it has taken me that long to finally visit a local, family owned greenhouse. Why did I wait so long?! The place is soooo cool! The two year old loved the place and all it’s inside ponds and fish. I got a few veggie plants and herbs but I also got a bonsai that the owner grows himself. With the downturn of everything lately we have taken up a keen interest in buying only American made products and if possible, Michigan made. So getting all my garden stuff from local businesses (instead of online or a big box store) just makes me happy.
But this weekend seems to taken over with a stupid cold that I managed to get. So I’m rather cranky about it because I have way to much to do and I feel like crapola. So I’m sorry if this entry seems a bit random.
I’ve been out in the backyard clearing one of my flower beds out to make way for vegetable garden. My dad and Victor built me a box for a raised bed yesterday. My mom is still kind of laughing at me. Why? Because God has a sense of humor, that’s why. Through my teenage years we lived out in Howell in a 100 year old farm house and 10 acres. My mom has a monster size green thumb, hence, we had one monster size garden. She was always trying to get me to help out and me with my teenage attitude wanted little to do with it. Why would I? It was hot, the weeds never stopped and ultimately I always had something crawling on me, biting or stinging me. So here I am, years later, planning my own garden and my mother thinks it’s rather funny on some level. Yeah, maybe, I’ll admit it.
Oh, still have things crawling on me when I am out there working. I just wear more clothing, no matter what the weather! Gloves, I love my gloves. Occassionally I will take them off for planting but usually they are on and do not come off until the job is done. My plan is to get most of the heavy work done before summer hits. Who knew it would be 80 degrees in April? So I’ve been out in the mornings before the heat hits. I think the seven year old has potential to pick up my teenage attitude towards gardening. He will help for a little while but then complains that it’s to hot and goes inside. At those moments, I think I hear God is chuckling at me.
So the plot has been cleared but I still need to seal up the box for the raised bed before I put it on the ground. I would be working on that today but 30mph winds make that pretty much impossible. So it will have to wait for another day. Farmers Market opens on Saturday where I plan to scope out the veggie plants and I am a little excited.
Oh don’t worry, still doing the artwork by night. Victor has delved into the world of drawing and we’ve had lots of fun with new pens and tools. Currently waiting on some new pen brushes to arrive. There also a great new store called Hobby Lobby that opened up in our area. We go in there as a family and just have way to much fun in the art supplies. Plus there is a comic book store a few doors down and a game store in the same parking lot. Now that I think about it more, that strip mall is actually kind of dangerous for us!
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