It Takes Guts!

And I have them!
I have pictures to prove it!
Went to the hospital last Saturday with chest pains... scary scary scary.
Nothing wrong with my heart. I have an upcoming doc appt to find out what is up-- I will spare you the gory details. This blog is my happy place. And these pictures make me so very happy.

I am such a nerd. I was so excited about them the CT scan-dude burned me a cd of them.
Images are slices of me from either front to back or top to bottom.

Heart lungs liver~

Kidneys~
Lungs~

Lungs, kidneys and ovaries~

Serendipity and Ezmaralda~

I love serendipity. lovelovelove...

This may sound a bit rambly, but you should be used to that by now. (grin)

I am taking a class at ArtFiberFest taught by the talented Deirdra Doan. We are making dolls- and I am excited to get myself back into making more dolls again-- it's been years and I miss it.
The other day I was reading Deirdra's blog and noticed this fabulous scarf her friend Lulu was wearing... wait! That scarf looks familiar! That's my Ezmaralda scarf-- which Lulu purchased from me at ArtFest08!
This scarf was obviously made just for Lulu Moon! See? Serendipity! (entry link)

So Deirdra and Lulu and I have been emailing and we are setting a studio day-- here in my chaos- (good reason to clean), with her, Lulu, Jackie and myself. New friends who are on the same wavelength. Perfection.

So-- go visit their blogs.
Deirdra's link~
Lulu's link~

Here are some shots of the Ezmaralda Yarn (before it's transformation into a scarf).

Art Outside and Color Inspiration~

This morning I was dozing on the couch, after waking up before 5am! I had a cat on my legs and I was watching the tree limbs blow back and forth. I was wondering what was going to get my attention first today. After deciding (it wasn't hard to do so) that I will work on my demo for ArtFiberfest, I realized that I have not blogged in a week! gasp!
So this post is to catch up on what has been 'a-happenin'

Last weekend Paul took OFF (a rarity) and we played in the dirt most of the weekend.
Tree-Hugging-Dirt-Worshipping-Granola-Eaters that we are. Sat. morning we took a Master Composting class, taught by Dr. Rot. Informative. We compost by throwing all our compostables in a big pile outside and turning it randomly. So we learned a ton about what we are doing right and wrong. After that we decided to groom the front garden a bit. Well "I" got involved, so it turned into a sculpture session!
How FUN!
We had these huge, hideous juniper bushes -the ones that smell like cat pee?-- ugh.
I guess them to be at least 20+ years old.
Here is a pic of the first monster we removed~

Guess what we found underneath??

A cobble stone wall!

I was beside myself about it.... I looked for gnomes and fairies but they must have gotten away too fast.

Then we removed the second bush-- which always reminded me of a giant tribble. It looked like it would scurry off any moment.
Paul standing by the dismembered bush-- shows how monstrous the thing was.... Paul is almost 6'6 tall!

After~

House shot before bush monster removal....and After bush monster removal...

Other fun shots from the weekend...

Amazing azalea and rhododendron bushes we drove by.... astounding color!

Flowers I bought at Farmer's Market...

Clayboard Video~

It's UP! The video of Jackie and myself playing with clayboard and experimenting with the tools she gave me for my b-day.
(See previous post with more pics)

You can see me in my fiber/painting studio, see my wall of fiber (I know-- it's an illness, a sick amount of fiber) and see Ezmaralda the studio cat in her basket. It is strategically placed so the heat vent on the ceiling blows directly on her(the diva).

Oh-- and go visit Jackies and Liz's site-- IllustrationStories.com. It is very inspiring and FUN!

IllustratingStories.com - Creating with Claybord from Illustrating Stories on Vimeo.

The girls and I are leaving now for yarn shop crawl (tour?) in Portland with my friend Ruth and her sprite Zoe (who is 4). I will take pics and share my day with you!

The Art Journal Itch~

Not sure where this itch is coming from. I have always been very fascinated with other artist's journals and sketchbooks. I dabble in them myself. Mine are more of like note-taking OCD and random collage. Nothing too impressive but they make me happy.

I am making the covers from vinyl coated 3 ring binders we have had for years. Upcycling!
There is cardboard under that vinyl. Once I deconstruct it I tape it all back together and gesso it. Some of them I glue denim pieces to the bends to make it stronger and some I use canvas pieces. All get a good coating of gesso. They are all in the painting stage. I am building layers of color right now.
Here they are... I will keep posting as they progress.

This one is going to be a "Fiber Art Diva" journal. Not sure if I will keep it or sell it. Inspired by ArtFiberFest ladies.
The base is a vintage Singer Sewing guide binder I scored at Goodwill.
I gesso'd and painted the cover and let the sewing maching image show through so I can feature it in the final design (still very unfinished). The inside cover will be left untouched. Not sure what I will do for the pages. I think I will leave the tabbed divider pages and add blank and decorated papers in between.

This cover will be for my "Creative Calender". Inspired by Pam Garrison and Gennine.
No pages yet-- but soon!

Cover laid open~ Still very 'in-progress"~

I am in LOVE with my new neon gaffers and duct tape. love love love (swoon)

These two are gifts for my nieces.... who love to draw and create. This gives them a place to store their drawings and to write their magical ideas down.

Covers~

Inside~

This cover is large and is for a collaboration with Jackie and Liz. More on that later as it develops. I am exploring the color yellow.
Back to work!

Art Fits & Worms~

Lotta Pictures today!
There has been work happening in the studio lately. Not nearly as much as my brain wants to create, but art is happening nonetheless.
I have noticed that I seem to work in fits. For a while it was a knitting frenzy. Journey Hats.
Then spinning. My yarns are such a satisfying medium for me, but I burn myself out. I spin until my elbows and back are all knotted up and that makes me cranky.
I am in the midst of a painting fit. And an Earth Mamma fit. I have come to realize that everything I do I approach as an art medium. My girls. My house. My garden. Heck, I even sleep like I am making art. (manic? haha) This great epiphany transpired at ArtFest in April.
(oooh-- great yarn name- Transpired Epiphany!) I think I talked about this before....I frequently find myself in a state of angst over what I am NOT getting done. I should be making more art, or I should be spending more one-on-one with the girls, or my house is an embarrasing mess, and on and on and on. It is all my art. I love it all and will forever dip from one thing to the next in loops. I DO get things accomplished, I DO produce. My girls are fantastic people. My house will get messy again in 5 minutes anyway.
Enough ranting. Here is what is UP!

I am creating a rash of art journals. Not sure what will come of them, but I have an itch that will not get scratched. Some are gifts for my nieces, some I intend to sell and some are for ?? me? not sure. In the cover-making stage now and I am planning a separate blog post for them.

Yesterday Jackie came over and forced me to paint/play. She took a video for her site that I am sure will mortify me. I was all decked out in my house-hag-wear complete with my art apron and a binder clip in my hair. loverly. But realistic. No time to get barbied up. Who really does that anyway? Get all prettied up to paint?
I will post the link here when she publishes it. OR RSS her site or watch for it. IllustratingStories.com

We played with clayboard. We took a clayboard class together at ArtFest where I created this...

Jackie gave me clayboard and tools for my birthday!

Here are some shots of the day's work.

Close ups~

Last night we (the family) took a Vermiculture class. Worms! We take care of them and feed them our compost and they will do what worms do....poop! This poo is gold to feed our plants.

Worm Wranglers!

Today I am having a spinning fit. Look for a shop update the endish of this week.

Birthdays!

This month is birthday month at the Hanlin house!
Mine was May 10th-- Mother's Day! I turned 39 years young.

We spent the day at the coast. I am such a fan of the ocean. sigh.
It rejuvenates and relaxes me so much. This time we went to Long Beach peninsula in WA. We explored Ocean Park and visited the yarn shop there.

(more pics here...)

Then on to Cape Disappointment State Park where there are 2 awesome lighthouses and the most amazing old growth trees! The bulk of our time was spent walking the trails and communing with the trees.

An artist sketching a tree~

Yesterday my Ann turned 10! My baby. sniff.
Happy Birthday my beautiful, silly girl!

A gift rabbit for Ann-- Eve whipped up this crocheted carrot hat in just an hour~!
Off the computer now for some creating time-- Jackie is coming over and forcing me to paint. She is so mean.
But first some fiber play!
Have a spectacular day!