Artist Journals, Knitting, Flowers

Robinsunne and I are collaborating on an Artist Journal mini-course at the library, which you may remember. The quick recap is that Artist Journals can be anything, narrative or not, personal or not, for a purpose or just to explore techniques...you get the idea. They are any and everything. This seemed like a logical next step to try with our intrepid library artists! So we plastify the children's room and cram in there and make art together. It's fabulous.
Here is what I have done so far...and let me say that Jonas and I are collaborating on a book together.

If you're wondering, yes, that is a domino,
and it's affixed with some seriously strong
Acrylic Gel Medium.

Perhaps you also remember the travel journal I made for Jonas last summer (you can read about it here and here).

I finished the Simple Yet Effective Shawl and was unprepared for its smallness. It was disappointing that it was not the vision I had for it, but oh well. I am wearing it here as a kerchief, because the ends of it, when worn in typical shawl fashion, are not even close to meeting. I am not busty, or large, so I don't know what's up with that. Perhaps I will ultimately gift it to a midget or a small child.
Also, sneakily, the pattern photos have way wider swaths of pattern repeat...I followed the directions and my result is different (and I wouldn't have had enough yarn to have wider swaths either!). So, it is a good basis for a pattern, but I was underwhelmed and even annoyed, ultimately. If I buy a pattern, I expect it to perform like the photo or I feel tricked.
And if you are wondering about my absence this week, I made a really quick trip to the BIG big city, Boston, for a fancy event, wearing these shoes. So as a result, the flow of things around here is pretty compressed, as my graduation and end of semester wind up next week. I have lots of loose ends to tie up and am praying that everyone stays well and healthy and goes to school next week as they are supposed to so I can do what needs doing (and what didn't get done this week!). Schoolwork, then housecleaning.

There were lovely blooming flowers
and two very un-shy little sparrows, mating brazenly just off the side-walk from us, something I had never seen in wild birds. Sorry, no pictures, that just felt like too much of a violation since I am not a bird pornographer.

Generosity

These sweet things came from dear Emily, of Ravenhill. She has a shop also, and is the maker of all things gorgeous. Can you believe this sweet spring-like bird fabric? It's so super. I am thinking of a single valance for the window next to my bed...just a little border of something around this rectangle, and hanging it where I can see it often. And watch how the light plays through it. Thank you for your kindness, Emily! Just a lovely spring boost of blogland friendship from afar. Inspired as we were from our Saturday Art at the Library, our Sunday morning included some art-making at home, working on those pages we began and gesso-ing more paper.

Jonas's painted page, see all that cool texture? It's from the Flexible Modelling Paste.

Sylvan's house with Red Truck in garage.

Homage to a Good Red Chicken

These last two come from an idea I got from Totally Smitten Mama, where you (or your kids) use a permanent marker to first draw a simple design, then you add paint. (I should note that I prepped the pages with gesso on both sides.) The sense I got with her project was that the kid would do the drawing and the grown-up would paint it in, but Sylvan was not interested in that kind of collaboration. I was in charge of paint-mixing and brush cleaning. So I made my own.

Can we ever have a food-free post from Creative Endeavors in a Busy Life? you are asking.

Sunday Crepes with strawberry sauce and yogurt, and our own maple syrup.

Second batch of sourdough bread, this time with just under half of the flour as whole wheat.

The answer is no. I may be on the No-Carb Left Behind diet, hopefully only momentarily.

Finally, I have been given my very first blogging award from Skip the Chips! It's the Lemonade Award and apparently I show Attitude and/or Gratitude. Thanks, Peggy.

Here are the rules:
1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude.
3. Link to your nominees within your post.
4. Let them know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link this post to the person from whom you received your award.

I hereby nominate (and this is very hard): A Sew Groovy Chick, Make it Smirk, Miss Smith at Home, Philigry, Tollipop, and Totally Smitten Mama.

Art, Sewing, Bread, Library

They have a French name, but I call them mini-daffodils,
obviously mugging for the camera.
They come from my sweet library director.

Art at the Library: Artist Journal Mini-Course
We had the first workshop today at the Rockport Public Library and I am happy to tell you it was a total success.
We had fun. We had all slots filled. We spoke about memoirs, journals, and creating personal narratives. We had books on display from our collection that reflected these themes, for adults and kids. We were packed into the plasticized children's room, USING PAINT. In the Library. With lots of Books, Carpet, etc. And it was just terrific. Amazing art playtime was had by all. Also: we were lucky enough to be the recipient of a Rudman Family Grant from the Maine Community Foundation, to help with underwriting the cost of supplies, a stipend for Robinsunne, and purchasing an instructional video with some of these awesome techniques we are playing with.
Today it was paint, spray bottle, scrunched up paper towels and newspaper, and flexible modeling paste (think spackle but when it dries it doesn't crack), to make these interesting multi-textured bases for our pages. More embellishments to come!

Swap--CHOO update
Peggy and I have been getting some great PR for our Swap! We are featured on the Swapdex as well as on One Crafty Place. This last blog has some great ideas for Easter/Spring crafts you should definitely check out (OK, even if it's actually FALL for you southern hemisphere gals). And amidst our arting at the library today, Carol showed me her wonderful trick with the thimble that she told us about in the comments section of the Swap--CHOO post; it made the whole process very smooth. I really did have to see it to get it, but perhaps this is because I am not naturally facile with the thimble. There is still time to join the swap, just leave a comment with your email address on the original Swap--CHOO post.

Kitchen news
This becomes THIS:
Remember Annie's no-knead sourdough post I was telling you about? In addition to sending along the starter, there was also a complete dinner for my family. That EVERYONE. ACTUALLY. ATE. And even LIKED (yes, even the fussy among us). Chicken paprikash, Israeli Couscous, and Sourdough bread. And it was just about the best gift I have had in a long time, given at exactly the right moment. Again, thank you, friend.

So I tried the recipe for the bread. Totally easy. The only thing you have to consider is the time frame, but I technically could throw together the dough in the morning, let it rise all day and make loaves when I get home in the afternoon, to eat with/for dinner. Let me just also reiterate: No kneading required. And again, she is giving away starters to any interested parties; leave a comment on the blog.
Here is the result:

The aroma was amazing.

I also lack the right size and number of Dutch ovens to bake the loaves in. But I winged (wung?) it, with a covered casserole dish, and a glass bowl with a glass pot lid on top. At any rate, here is the result, and it was truly incredible. It was also kind of magic that the sourdough starter, a wild yeast from some 100 year-old organism, made this! It really worked!

Art at the Library 2009

Jonas's dollhouse birthday cake (it's SO SMALL)

This month we will be kicking off the next segment of art fun at our own Rockport Public Library, a mini-course on artist journals. Many of the techniques we'll play with are also ATC-friendly, they are multi-layered, textured wonders, with as much or little text as the artist needs/wants. We will have four sessions, the third Saturday afternoon of the month, from March to June, from 2:30-4. Space is limited, so call the library to sign up (236-3642). Robinsunne and I are collaborating on the teaching part of it and she has already made a yummy sample book, with some pages of a few of the techniques we'll be trying. Here's one of her delightful pages:
That crazy texture you see is this neat spreadable modeling paste stuff, available locally at Rockport Blueprint, and it is a bit like spackle (for your walls) but it doesn't crack when dry, it sort of turns out feeling like thick, bendy wallpaper.
This is what we did for our Snowy Day themed preschool story-time at the library this morning, when I was standing in for Miss Jane. We read snow books, we talked about snow and what we do in it. The parents enjoyed it less that the kids, perhaps. But the snowman craft was a hit, proving that you can't go wrong with googly eyes with this crowd.
And I had to show you the tiny purse for our friend the birthday girl, filled with tiny packages of Sculpey dollhouse food (baguette, pretzels, cookies, cinnamon loaf, a fancy sandwich), for Sylvan's special friend Sophia. And he enclosed a photo of himself. (I think he is hoping for one from her in return.) That lovely cake you saw above was Jonas's gift to her, because even though he doesn't know her like Sylvan does, we all feel like we know her well because Sylvan speaks of her so often. Sylvan reported that the party was a hit and the birthday girl wore a very fancy dress!