I can't say that I've worked a whole lot more than my usual 40hrs, but each day has been busy from start to finish with trying to help stranded people on the west coast of Mexico after hurricane Odille hit about 10 days ago.  Busy days like that, leave me tired and want to stay away from the computer.  So I haven't blogged a whole lot.

I can't say that I've made a whole lot things either.  Two weeks ago an accidental encounter with a friend inspired me to make cards.  It was probably time to take out a pad of pretty paper I got on sale a year ago.  

And a letter that I received in the mail from another friend, inspired me to write and send a handful of my own.

I started adding the dress cards on Etsy.

Crafty Chica

There is a successful crafter in my city, a talented lady that I'd like to call a friend, or at the very least I can say that I know her and she knows me.  Her name is Kathy, aka Crafty Chica.  She has a new product line and she's recently made appearances at various Michaels stores in Arizona, Nevada, California (and Texas I think) to promote her products.

I visited with her when she was at my local Michael's store.  I bought some pretty papers she had, as well as iron-ons sugar skull and more.  I used the paper and made a couple of ACEOs with it.

Loteria

On my trip to Portland a couple of weeks ago, I picked up a sheet of Loteria table with great images.  Ghost, devils, skeletons...you know....the colorful Dia de Los Muertos images.  A few days ago, after a coat of paint over some matchboxes, the little images on the sheet I had were perfect fit to go over the little boxes.  

So I asked my dear friend and co-worker, who is from Mexico if the Hispanic grocery stores carry them.  And they do.  There are three Rancho Market stores within a mile from my house.  Yes!!  I will be looking for more Tablas de Loteria.

Portland

I don't frequently do things that are out of my comfort zone.  So I thought it was time to do something like that.  I enjoy travel.  Road trips are high on my list of things I like to do.  And I work for an airline, but I don't travel by air too often.  Part of it is that once I get to another city by air I don't like trying to figure my way around and the possibility of getting lost.  It's out of my comfort zone.  

When we travel by air, I let my husband do all the figuring out once we are at our destination.  I've never been to a city by myself, with no wheels.  And that is exactly what I did last Friday.  

I flew to Portland.

By myself!!

I sort of had an idea in mind of what I was going to do, so even though I went by myself, I had a plan.  I heard of this very cool mixed media art store and I though I'd visit it.  It's called Collage.

On my way to it, off course I got lost.  I took the bus in the opposite direction.  I took me few stations to realize, but I kept calm, got off the bus and turned around.

I also stumbled upon this inviting yarn shop.  They had nice woolen yarn, so thick, I am not sure what size needles you'd have to use to knit or crochet something.  And also one skein of it was $80.  It looked very cozy.

These flowers were growing wild on the side of the road.

And these flamingos looked great in someone's yard.

I never thought of strawberries growing in a pot.  But what a great idea.  I wonder if they'd grow in Arizona.  If I'd be able to keep them alive.

This pet bicycle caught my interested.  I've never seen anything like this in Arizona.

I ate lunch here.

A yummy grilled cheese sandwich, with lavender flavored goat cheese.

And I am not sure what this was.  A community kid clothes donation??

A community book/library cabinet, covered with stickers.

As I rode the bus, I saw a big park and I got off to enjoy it.  It had a "reading room" with a couple of library book shelves with books and magazines to read.

I crafted in the park.

I bought some hankies, and made a curtain when I came back home.

And something I saw at one of the stores, inspired me to fill in the bezel of this hat pin with some embroidery.

Recycled journals and blackbird stamp

I got softer material to carve, and gave blackbird another try.  Not too bad!

And I cut up some paper bags, and made some journals.  I really like the pre-printed art on the paper bags.

Carving my own stamps

I inquired at a local art store about teaching a class.  I noticed they don't offer an ATC class, but do sell a variety of blank ATCs.  One rule though is that  in your class you cannot use materials not sold at the store.

I use a lot of stamps in my work, because I struggle with drawing.  And they do not sell stamps, but they do sell stamp making materials.  

And here I am giving my hand a try at carving my own stamps.  I used a linocut first, we had an old one sitting around the house.  I cut it down to smaller sizes, and made my first two stamps.

The linocut doesn't take stamp ink, but I did have screenprinting ink laying around.

I present you, blackbird.

.

And these flowers were inspired by my stitched cards.

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.

Macedonia Pt.4 - Relatives

At one point during our trip, my husband asked me: so who are your relatives and who are your friends.  To someone who didn't know the relationships, it would be hard to distinguish, because both my relatives and my friends in Macedonia I have known all of my life.  

Even an unimportant trip to the grocery store will make you run into a relative or friend.  And when we visited people's homes who invited us, if one was to judge by their hospitality, it would be hard to distinguish whether they are a relative or a friend.  Our culture is very hospitable.  People open their homes and feed you all the time.

  So I want to say that the whole country is my family, because if they are not by blood, then certainly they will be somehow related by marriage.  It's a small country, you know!!

So lets start with my grandpa. 

 

I walked to his small apartment the very first day I arrived.  I guess I couldn't wait.  I am his first grandchild, he is my last surviving grandparent.  I wanted to see him and I wanted him to see my kids.  

He spends the summer days at our house just outside of the city.  There is a small vineyard there, and other fruit trees and vegetables.  It is there that he makes home made wine and rakija.  In the photo above, he is holding a photograph of him and my grandma, my dad and my uncle dating  back in the mid 1950's.

Above: My grandpa, my uncle and aunt, me and my kids.

Above: my uncle Krste and aunt Nada

Uncle Krste and aunt Nade, are not exactly my aunt and uncle, they are my dad's.  My uncle Krste is the youngest brother of my grandma (my dad's mom).  Growing up I spent a lot of time with my uncle Krste and aunt Nada.  I am also told that whenever I'd ask my parents to buy something for me, and they would tell me they didn't have money I'd answer back to them: let's go to uncle Krste, he's got money.

An unfortunate event happened during my last week in Skopje.  Their tiny condo caught on fire.  They share a common wall with their neighbor who is mentally ill.  He's tried to burn his condo many times.  This time, he burned down his condo, and having a common wall with my uncle, their home suffered a lot of damage. 

Above: my uncle Gjorgji and aunt Duska 

They live next to my uncle Krste.  They too are my dad's uncle and aunt.  Uncle Gjorgji was a journalist for the local newspaper.  And he was my saviour when I had to write essays for school assignment.  He was the person I went to for help.  Many thanks. 

Above: my uncle Lazo who lives in Ohrid.

Above: uncle Lazo and aunt Betti.

Many years ago I spent a week with them in the summer.  They didn't have kids back then, and now their son is about to graduate from college.

Above: my grandpa's brother with my son. 

Dedo Stavre (granpa Stavre) is my grandpa's brother.  He is uncle Lazo's father.  They live in Ohrid.  

Above: my unlce Janko in Gostivar.  He is my mom's first cousin.  His brother, uncle Pavel is the one that lives in Palm Springs, CA.  Uncle Janko took us to Vrutok, the spring of the river Vardar, that crosses through Macedonia and ends in Greece at the Aegean Sea.

 

Above: Maja, my cousin's wife.  This was the first time I met her.  I could not make it to their wedding a few years ago.  Maja is an artist, a sculptor.  She has a studio in the old part of town (Stara Carsija) which I enjoyed very much.  We spent a day with Maja, museum hopping through old town.

Above: Renata, one of my cousins.  She is actually my second cousin.  He parents bought the apartment where I grew up.  So I was fortunate to visit and show my kids the home where I lived when I was their age.

As I am going through my photos, I am realizing that I never took pictures of some of my relatives.  Wrapped up in our pleasant conversations after decades of not seeing each other, and enjoying the good food, the opportunity to capture the moment with a camera didn't even occur to me.  So the last photo is a courtesy of my cousin's cell phone.  See...sitting at a table eating food.  All the time, at every house.

Above from left: myself, my mom's brother, my cousin and his wife, my aunt.