not exactly art

one of the things I've been fussing about is the state of my website

the original core of this thing was originally written about 15 years ago, and has undergone many permutations since then

the problem is -- it LOOKS like it's 15 years old

the whole "look" of web pages has so changed in that time that the site is almost useless

but I'm reluctant to let the domain name go because I'm concerned what might pop up with my business name on it if I do

so, I need to make it look better -- but I can not justify spending a lot of money on a new program to do this with -- and I don't really want to spend a long time learning a new program either

the other day, after a conversation with my daughter about this issue, I went snooping around in the programs that I already have on my computer

one of them is Publisher 2003

and I have not used it much -- it's just part of the Office Suite that I have (and I use Word and Excel, which are also part of that, a lot)

so I did what I've been doing since the early 1980s when I saw my first "personal computer" -- I went looking for a book

I found a copy of this particular book for 37 cents (I love Amazon for this purpose)

so for the next few days I'll be stepping through the text with the program open to see if I can get comfortable enough with the program to create a whole new look to my website

I'll let you know how that goes

so while I'm not talking about art, I'm taking this opportunity to rant about something that bugs me

this headline was on the FRONT PAGE of the local paper yesterday

read it closely now

"Suncor airs on side of caution"

wait --- AIRS?

don't we mean "ERRS"?!

OY!!

I know that the paper no longer gets set in lead type (yes, I'm old enough to remember when it did!), that it gets set much the way I'm writing this blog right now

and they use spell check to catch the spelling errors

but obviously the idea of proof reading for content has fallen by the way side

unbelievable --

ruminating, designing and gratuitous cuteness

alpacas are ruminates

they are also really cute and soft and a wonderful fiber to work with

and this one looks like he's flying -- or at least trying to lift off

which is sort of how I feel right now

last week blogger crashed us and a long post that I had written on Thursday morning was one of the many that they took down in the rebuild

and even though things seem to have returned to normal, that post never reappeared in their "fix"

in addition to that, I've been "ruminating" about redoing my website and feeling sort of like I had no clue where to start (not to mention that I didn't want to spend all those many, many hours of "code crunching")

this week I was offered the opportunity to consider doing a complete overhaul of the website and transfer my daily postings to that domain as well -- every artist's dream -- complete control over my work!

so, I'm feeling like my feet are off the ground

I'm sure there will be some bumps along the way, but I'm really excited about the whole idea

and if you are thinking about doing this too, I highly recommend Carol to help you out -- you can find her at 2FishWeb.com
this week I've been thinking about doing some new jewelry pieces

one of the designs I've been fiddling with is a smaller version of the piece that made the finals of the Fire Mountain Gems competition

the other day the DH took a browse through the box of cabochons that I have on hand and told me there are still some pretty good pieces of stone in there

so probably next week (after we get paid) I'll be putting in an order for some bracelet cuffs and maybe some other stuff so I can make up some more stuff to put out on my Etsy store and maybe enter in a competition or two



and I'm hoping my daughter won't mind that I lifted this photo off of her page to show it off here

this is gratuitous cuteness if ever I saw it

makes me think of a John Lennon lyric

"beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful boy"

(and the mommy is no slouch either!!)



time for me to get busy!!

doing the part I hate

this quilt is going to be in at the Mancuso Quilt Show in Denver the end of the month

I'm really delighted that it will finally get to be seen in a public venue

but between now and tomorrow evening when I hand it to my regional SAQA representative (who will take it up for the "hanging") I have to write my Artist Statement that will go in the binder with the other ones for the exhibit

uh, I really hate this part

and I admit to being a bit intimidated by knowing that some of the other artist statements in that binder will be from "known" quilt artists, and I don't want to look like a dope on paper

can't my work just speak for itself? apparently not

so I'll be working on that today
meantime, in keeping with my new attempt to keep putting things in my Etsy store, this bracelet was listed this morning


over the weekend, after debating the pros and cons right up to the last minute, I paid the fee to renew my domain registration, so the website will stand for another year

and for the first time in about 10 years I'm thinking about a major overhaul that will completely change to whole approach of the site (yeah, I needed another big project to work on -- heh)

time to go to work!

real progress!

the sign is finished!

right now it looks like its just floating in the air out there, but when I do the seam down the side it will be fine

the hanger from the sign is a design I used on a quilt I made for my daughter a while back, and all I had to do was pull out the folder that had all the paperwork from that quilt and make a copy of it -- makes me happy that I keep those files!

and once the sign was done, it was time to pin the window fabric to the top

so today I hope to start attaching the panel that goes at the bottom and then the panel that goes to the left

(and I'm already starting to contemplate what sort of pattern I'll be using for the quilting)





I've been working on some designs for the redo of my website -- this was actually kind of fun!

lots more work writing html code to do, but the graphics part is fun

need a pencil?

I use regular ol' #2 pencils for sketching, writing, transferring patterns, etc., etc.

this week I found that I was down to about half a dozen 4 inch long "stubs" and decided it was time to get new pencils

my plan was to pick up a package of a dozen pencils when I was in the office supply store picking up cartridges for my printer

heh, well

a package of a dozen pencils was $2.99 -- $0.25 per pencil

this package of 72 pencils was $4.99 -- only $0.07 per pencil

now I ask you, how obvious was that?

so, I won't need to buy pencils again for a while

so today I won't have to go anywhere and I hope to get some work done on the quilt -- and there's a new beading design forming in the back of my head -- all things I can work on while I rest my back (which I threw out yesterday -- ouch)

lets hope that all works

A new look

For the last few days I've been fiddling with the idea of opening a new shop on Etsy that actually has the same name as my blog and my website. I've been reading a bit about branding and using a consistant image, and I'm convinced that is a good idea.

One of the things that has been hanging up this idea is the whole "make a banner" issue -- this morning I decided to take on the idea, and this is what I came up with.






I used a photo of one of my art quilts as the back ground as a starting point, and I've stuck with the lettering style I've been using for quite a while now because it looks "artful" but it is also easy to read

So the new banner is ready -- now I just have to open the store and put in stuff -- "JUST" -- yeah

oh, and while I was at it, you may notice a new look here on the blog too -- and I'll be doing some new business cards too (something I had already decided I need to do)

looking good!

one more square

seems I'm in the "slogging along" stage of most of the projects I'm working on ----- BLEAH!

but I did finish this afghan square last night

we made a trip to Walmart yesterday to get dog food and pick up some other household necessities, and it pretty much wiped me out for the day

spent some time working on new graphics for the web site --- decided that the ones we had were just too "fussy", so I'm creating new ones that have a cleaner look







the top graphic is the old one



the bottom one is the new one


now I'm working on changing all of the other lettered "buttons" for the site too

it's sort of tedious, but it is something I can do while I'm sitting in my recliner with my computer in my lap

onward

mittnz, progress report and "image"

So here is the 6th pair of mittnz

Only 3 more pair to go, and I started another pair (bright pink!) last night, doing about half of the ribbing before I got too sleepy to remember it is supposed to be K2, P2, not some other odd permutation of that count!

Which means I need to think about picking out the yarn for the other 2 pair to be knit and getting that packed up for the car trip.

I'm happily anticipating the arrival of "The Yarn", which is supposed to arrive tomorrow (according to the UPS tracker). Just about this time every year I start knitting a sweater that will be a Christmas present, and I figured that getting it before I start on a cross country car trip will be good as that will give me lots of swatching time. And hopefully it will be well underway by the time we return!

After thinking about possible ways to put color inside the shadow box frame that will hold the balloons, I decided to do a strip of beading that will go all the way around.

Here is the little "map" I drew of where the colors need to go based on the painting the DH did on the plastic for the back.

This little piece of beading is the bottom, dark blue edge of the mountains, and I'm starting to make the transistion there to the green section

My thinking about doing this beading strip is this:

1. The reflective quality of the glass will brighten the inside of the frame and improve the look of the piece

2. I can stitch through the beadwork at the top and the bottom to attach the balloons and "suspend" them in air

I can tell you that working on this strip reminds me clearly of why I don't do bead loom work. This folks, is the beaders version of 999 rows of garter stitch ---- it's boring, best done while watching an interesting TV show or movie!

At least one of you has noticed that I've been playing around with the format of this blog. The answer to the question asked on my last post about this is -- Yes, all of the above!

Part of the issue at work here is I'm working on revising my website, and that always leads me to examine what all of my studio online presence looks like. Right now I'm trying to decide if I should change my Etsy shop as well and make the whole "who are you?" issue clearer by having everything carry the same name. (When I first set up the Etsy shop I was deliberately trying to create a different "persona" for some of my fiber arts things, but all of this work has merged since then!)

So be patient with me here as we have a sort of mini "identity crisis" and try to figure out what we want to look like.

Spring Cleaning?

Ever since I had that "ah ha" moment not long ago when I declared myself to be a multi media (or mixed media) artist, I've been thinking that I probably need to give my website a "make over"

probably an EXTREME make over

trouble is, I don't really have any idea where to go with it from where it is

I mean, the format is relatively non-offensive (I think), and the "click and buy" thing on it works, so that part is all ok

Trouble is it doesn't come close to covering everything that should be there, and while I like the buttons I designed and am using on it, I also liked the combination of newsletter/boutique that it was before I went to the current format

and then there is all the time that it takes to redesign a site --- and trust me, it takes lots of that because I use an old compiler and a lot of hand written code --- because I like that whole "control of the content" thing

I need to decide (in the next week!) if I'm going to keep the site up or just ditch it entirely because it's time to pay for the domain name again if I'm keeping it

{sigh!}

Time to go lay down in a dark room and think about this

Web ponderings

Just when I was wondering if it was worth while to keep paying for my domain name and the monthly hosting

I actually made a sale from my web site!!

I'm amazed and truly pleased.

The goodie will be on it's way post haste of course

So now I'm thinking it's time to actually put some more stuff out there --- like maybe some of the new jewelry?

I'll keep you posted!!!

odds and ends from a busy Sunday

yesterday was one of those days that I was busy all day, but I really have nothing to show for it!

for one thing, I can't believe how long it took me to work up this banner for the Etsy Store remodel -- and I'm still not really happy with it, it just doesn't have that "collage-y" look I was going for, and I'm about to decide that I don't yet have the graphic software chops to do this with technology -- bring on the scissors and glue

I finished repairing the giraffe, so today I'll be packing him up and preparing to mail him off to his owner. I'm pretty happy with the repairs, and I'm pretty sure she will be too.

For the first time since I bought the new and wonderfully large cutting mat, I actually put it to good use yesterday. Since all of the applique blocks are done, it was time to cut the stripping for the quilt, and for cutting strips there's nothing so wonderful as a roller cutter and a large mat. Today I will begin setting it all together -- WHOOO HOOO!!


This, as you may recall, is the State Fair award winning remade shirt.

and this shirt arrived in the studio yesterday direct from the DH who has declared it too short to stay tucked into the jeans

this one has been "gently worn", so what I do with it can be totally a matter of whatever inspiration strikes me -- will there be beading? painting? applique? felting?

possibly all of the above, but it doesn't have top priority right now as I'm trying to finish up all of the Christmas projects and get new inventory ready for upcoming shows.

While I have not yet received the confirming paperwork, one of the shows I had applied to has cashed my check, so I'm guessing that means we're in it. So, I now have a Nov 8 deadline for these new jewelry pieces.

so for today there will be laundry and quilt work and jewelry and more work on sewing the new animal I'm making and some work at the drawing board on paperdolls -- just a usual day!

surprises from the dye pot

this was the dying project from Thursday

these were done with brown, and while they are lighter than I was looking for, they are at least colors I can make use of


this, on the other hand is no where even close to what I expected!

these definately hot pink colors came out of a BLACK dye pot

Say WHAT?!!

Ok, my day's of fiddling with the food color dyes are done -- it's off to the store for some RIT sometime next week to redye these and hopefully get something that I can actually use

geesh
Another piece of jewelry complete!

this is a piece of quartz with lapis flecks, all made up

nice

so now I'm doing a pair of earrings (unusual for me) that are about 20mm round cut crystals that will be encircled with beads

we'll see how that comes out



You know what they say about rabbits --

these are some preliminary drawings for the paperdoll project

I actually really like the one on the right except for the somewhat mean expression

So, I'll be printing a bigger version (the original drawing is about 3 inches tall), and working with tracing paper over it to redraw the face

In the next few weeks I will be totally revamping my Etsy store. They have added some very nice features that let the "shop owner" set up different sections which would be nice for my many different projects. Meantime that means I'm redesigning a banner ad that shows more of the many things I do, and thinking about store policies, etc., etc. I'll be announcing the Grand Reopening as soon as I'm done with the makeover!

After several discussions, the DH and I have decided to downsize some of our collectibles, so this morning I listed the first of the ones we have decided to sell on Ebay. I know this may not be a great time to do this, the economy being what it is and all, but we'll see. If you'd like to see the piece, you can click
here

Today it's cool and foggy, the first of the promised cold weather for our weekend -- earlier in the week the forecast was for us to actually see some snow -- not my favorite forecast, but it is October

time to get busy!

We're LIVE!

Introducing -- the new website!!!

Its alive (like Frankenstein's monster?!) -- and I'm ahead of my deadline

There will be more updates and additional buttons added as soon as I finish the next parts, but for now, the bears (and critters) and the jewelry is out there

YIPEE!!

Click Here to go and check it out.

(and PLEASE! -- if you find anything that doesn't work, please let me know right away)

Enjoy

just when you thought we were done cutting holes

two more get added!

This piece had been working under the title of "Earth Angel", but now I've renamed it "Lace Angel" as the background looks more and more like lace!

As I was starting to work on this yesterday, the DH said to me "what do you think about putting in two more tear drop shaped holes?"

It took me all of about half a second to say "Good Idea!!"

so here we are -- now I need to work the two new holes with the proper sequence of colors to bring them to the same stage as all the others then we'll see just how much else needs to be beaded -- or cut -- who knows!?

And at long last Raphael is flying on one wing

(and a prayer, no doubt)

probably flying in circles --

still lots of wing feathers to go here, but it's looking good

Yesterday afternoon I made the trip to the fabric store (to get a batting), and actually stumbled upon a fabric to use on the back of the lamb quilt! (just when I had quit looking for one) Pictures tomorrow (I washed it and need to press it before I take a picture)

In the same trip I found more pieces of fabric to use for the bird quilt, and this morning I spent considerable time enlarging the drawings so we can get started on that one.

This box of loveliness arrived on my door step on Thursday afternoon --

just one problem -- they substituted a color, so now we're trying to figure out what to do next -- meantime, I may not actually NEED that one skein they substituted, so it may not be an issue at all --

I'll be figuring out the pattern and knitting a test swatch to see where we are here (I just don't want to get within 2 inches of finished and run out of yarn!!)

One of the biggest time eaters in the world is maintaining a web site.

I have been working on a totally new version for about a month, and have now reached the stage where I need to clean off the server (I really don't need to have graphics of pieces that I sold 3 years ago still out there!) and start over.

Since I have had so little traffic to the site in the last few months, I decided to do the drastic thing and just put up a "pardon our dust" panel until I get it finished (hopefully by the end of July)

So this is what you'll see there for now -- and I'm working on it!!

time to get to it---

baaaaaaaah, baaaaaaah

another of the lamb blocks complete!!

this one should have been a black sheep --- I had the body about half done when I realized that I had trimmed one of the foot pieces too short and it wasn't going to work

sooooo, I took the body off, removed the offending foot and replaced it then went back to the body

ah! much better! Right now the block is drying from the "spritzing" I did to remove the markings, then it can be pressed.

NEXT---

here we have the last parts and all of the parts

by now this is becoming really clear (I think!)

hopefully today I will get this put together and finished then put it away for the finishing of the quilt

I think its going to be cute!

I did the kitting up for the last of the angel panels. It took a while sorting through the fabrics as I wanted to keep the style of fabrics close to the same and the sky, frame, skin, wings and halo colors are all the same, but I needed to color coordinate the rest of the pieces. Mission accomplished!! I can start in on this one this afternoon.

Progress was made on the beadwork too, and I've started playing with design ideas for some new beaded bracelets.

Meantime work continues on the website coding -- have finished the coding for the main jewelry page, the pins, earrings, bracelets and strung necklaces -- which leaves the pages for the art clay, the set stones, the beaded necklaces and the other jewelry like pieces (like badge lanyards, etc) to be written -- those of course are the bigger pages (the beaded necklaces being the longest list and I'm not sure if I will have to build individual pages for the pieces themselves or not) -- it is progressing, tho', and I'm hoping to get some of it loaded up soon.


Lookie!

Green Beans!!

so far they're looking pretty good, the dog is (mostly) staying off of them, and the birds didn't eat the seeds

I'm pleased

and here, being pointed at by the big yellow arrow, is the very first pepper!

isn't it cute?

ok, its little, but I'm already looking forward to being able to pick it. It also looks like a couple others have "set" on the other plant




and these little lovelies are tomato blooms

when we lived in California and plants this small started to bloom we used to knock the blooms off to let the plant get bigger, but we're not doing that here -- the growing season is just too short and there is always the danger of hail destroying the whole garden

while the DH mows the back yard I will be weeding and giving each little plant a shot of Miracle Grow food

Its looking good!

working on the web site

it has been brought to my attention that despite my best intentions to revise my website and get a bit of EVERYTHING (well, at least almost everything) that I do put on it, it hasn't happened yet

yes, I know the road to hell is paved with good intentions

I usually do this website revision during January and February, but frankly I was battling with other demons at that point

So the last couple of days I've been doing some page design and drawing the new graphics that I need to make this "new look" happen

these are just a sampling of the many that I have drawn, colored, cut out, scanned with the "busy" background, then cropped and saved as files that will work to be clickable buttons on the site

I know, there are some folks that would have done all of this on the computer, but I enjoy the "old fashioned-ness" of drawing the letters and symbols by hand --

and as far as I'm concerned the only thing better than a huge box of colored pencils and markers is an equal number of tubes of beads in as many colors --

or an equal size stash of fat quarters --

you get the idea -- I just like the "touchiness" of the whole process

so, now today I'll be working on the coding for the new page -- this is where what I want to see on the screen runs head on into knowing how to make that so -- and sometimes there is frustration and swearing and a lot of "nope THAT didn't work" in this process

I know there are "WYSIWYG" website builders out there, but I want to understand it on my own, and I want control of the code and I'm too tight to spend the $$ for one of those programs which I would then have to figure out how to use --

so there will be more fiddling and drawing and tweaking and loading -- and hopefully soon a real "live" website with some of my stuff available directly for sale and lots of pictures of everything I work on

bear with me here