Dots

I dotted almost everything I made this week.  The process reminds me of handstitching.  I think that's why I like it so much, and used it so much.

Dot, dot, stitch, stitch.  

Moths

I am working a late shift this week, 430pm till 1am.  A shift familiar to me from my early days at Alaska Airlines.  But it's been years since I've worked that late.  And at the moment it's making me an insomniac.  I can't fall asleep in the middle of the night, and just about when I do, I have to wake up to get the kids off to school.  Then I can't sleep during the day, so my mind is very unfocused.  Thinking of million things at the same time.

Today, I drove an hour to the other side of town, looking forward to check an artist/mixed media/paper store, that I've been wanting to visit for some time.  It's called The Occasional Artist.  

And...out of all the times I've had time off to check it out, I had to pick a day when they are closed.  In fact, this whole week they are closed as they are participating in a big mixed media event that goes in Phoenix this time a year, Art Unraveled.

So I came home, made me lunch, tried to take a nap, and I all I could think of was moths.  I heard a story on NPR last Friday.  I didn't finish listening to it, but what stuck was this sentence: Moths are butterflies that come out at night.

And here...I used black board, lace, a part of a stamp, and created a moth.

Now off to pick up the kids from school, and then I have to go to work.

By the end of this week, I will be a mess if I don't get my body and mind to relax and go to sleep.

Blackbird

Last Thursday I had a mystical experience with a bird.  

See, birds chirp in the back yard all the time.  We have three trees and they like to hide in the shade.  But the chirping was so loud last Thursday, and so repetitive that I went out to see what was causing all that noise.  And there it was, a large black bird.  A raven perhaps, I am not sure.  And this blackbird started chasing me.  I thought it was either hurt or protecting something.  I looked for little ones, or eggs, but found nothing.  It chased after me, as I walked around the back yard.  It was getting so close to me, that I found it very unusual.  It was not scared of me.  

I reached out to touch it, and it let me.  After a while it even flew on my head, then moved onto my arm.  I fed it some bread and gave it some water.  

It spent the afternoon in our back yard; eating bread, drinking water, climbing on me when I'd go out to check on it, walking around my mint garden.  I was so happy.  I though I'd get a new pet, one that'd be free to fly around, and come to my backyard for food and water and to hang out with me.  

At dark, it flew on the lower part of our roof and I said good night to it.  

The next morning, it was gone.  I looked for it around the house, but not a trace.  It's almost like it never happened.  

And I am not sure what to think of the whole thing.  Why did it come?  What was it looking for?  Why was it not afraid of me?  I've never had a wild bird behave this way. 

Maybe it came to give me an inspiration to paint.  Because I have been painting it all day long.  

Traded my first ATCs

Yesterday I went to my first ATC trade meet up/event.  There is one every month at the local craft store, Craft Fusion.  I took the ATCs I made painting poppies with acryclics.

And in exchange I got these:

I also have been practicing watercolors.  Poppies off course.  I can't stop thinking about them after seeing them back home in Macedonia.  

And tonight, I opened a box and found these tree seeds.  I am not even sure what type of tree they came from.  I am trying to remember where I picked them up.  I remember thinking they looked like wings when I found them on the ground some months ago.  Tonight they looked like birds.  So...........I gave it a try to practice watercolors painting birds.

ATCs

The satisfaction of working small is that I have time to finish it.  ATCs, something new for me, and I like them.

I got some discarded matt boards, from old photographs.  And I thought I'd give it a try to make pseudo ATC.  They are not the right size, I just cut them to something small but inconsistent, 3"x3", or 3.25"x3"... This birdman stamp I got recently has intrigued me, so I played with it a little bit.

 

Then I am trying to finish up some projects, such as these bags I was making out of old button shirts and fabric remnants.  

 

In between all that, I hang out with my kids, or in this picture my daughter.  The two of us were waiting for my son during his weekend pottery class.

 

And then I also had a visitor, my Bulgarian friend Lora, and her newest addition to her family, her third daughter.  

 

And, I also got my eyes checked, and got new glasses.  So here I am....a 'selfie' for you.

Time to return to work

My two weeks vacation is coming to an end.  Back to my job tomorrow.  It seems that I was off more than two weeks.  It was time well spent, time off to recoup, regroup, to not have to worry about having to be at any place at a particular time.  I did some crafting, I went to NYC with my husband and kids, I drove to Prescott, AZ with my husband and visited some galleries and co-ops, I got a volunteer job to teach refugee women to sew, I took my kids to Halloween parties, I did not sleep in, as I wanted to make the most of my days, I helped my dad search for a job, I watered my plants with no rush, I enjoyed my time off without feeling guilty spending it without a particular plan.  It felt great.
Here are a couple of pictures of the pine forest near Prescott.


I tried to practice some collaging.  It's new to me, I picked up a book at the library and got inspired to work on some house shaped collages. 


And some smaller ATC size ones too.  I hand stitched this time, fabric on paper.