Friday, January 31, 2014

Contribution from the Closet

Snow days have a magic all their own. I used the one we had to make some progress on one of the boxes I have under construction. It’s not quite finished yet. I took a few photos – close-ups of details. In addition to some last bits, I still have to finish the bear and it is underway. Sometimes it looks as if a project is taking forever and then all at once, it appears to come together almost overnight.

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Wednesday, January 29, 2014

The Plan

Hi ho. Sebastian here. I waited. Sometimes I waited alone.

Sometimes I waited with a friend.

We were very patient. What were we waiting for you ask? We heard it was supposed to snow! We love it when it snows. Not just a little bit but enough to cover everything in white. Here where I live, snow is an excuse to make a grand ol’ day of having fun.

Now waiting for snow requires a lot of patience. And sometimes you have to wait a very long time. I knew that it might take a while for the snow to show up because that is how snow is. If it just drops from the sky without any warning, everyone goes scrambling around trying to make sure everything gets taken care of properly. But if it takes its time arriving, there is the fun of anticipation. Waiting can be very, very worthwhile.

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It wasn’t my idea, but when I found out about The Plan, I didn’t have any objections. No, I thought The Plan was a really good one so I encouraged those with driver’s licenses to follow through with The Plan which included bringing home some Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Since it is nearly February, I was happy to see that they modified their usual selection to include these festive ones.

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It did snow – not quite as much as the weatherman said it might - but snow is snow!

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Now being a bear doesn’t mean I actually get out in it. No, I’m pretty much a ‘look at it from the window’ kind of guy. First of all, The Plan meant that someone had to guard the doughnuts from the Abominable Snowman while they played in the snow.

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That’s what I told them anyway. Secondly, I didn’t have any snow boots and everyone knows that a bear without snow boots is just asking for cold paws. You just can’t eat a Krispy Kreme doughnut with cold paws. Let’s keep our priorities straight.

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Now The Tophinator is new at this sort of thing so he got fooled into going outside. What a nut! I could have told him it was cold but he had to find out for himself. I think he thought if he ran fast enough he could keep his paws off the ground but that gravity concept hasn’t sunk in yet. It was fun being inside watching from the window with a cup of hot cocoa in one paw and an X shaped doughnut in the other.

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Oh, I also commandeered the remote control to the TV. Everyone knows if you have the remote, you get to choose the shows and I decided to have a Little Bear marathon. Captain Picard will have to “make it so” another day.

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Monday, January 27, 2014

Monday’s Photos

Here are a few photos of what has been in front of me the last few days.

They give me some perspective.

The camera sees things I miss –

like details.

It also gives me a record of the before and after -

especially when I start a new project as in these photos.

I like to see the transformation of a box into something more.

Is this a change in my standard operating procedure - beginning on a second while the first is still underway?

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Tuesday, January 21, 2014

White Front & Back

It’s coincidental – really it is. That I have been painting with white paint today. Well, yesterday, today – and probably tomorrow too. I’ll show you why I think it’s coincidental.

This is the front. I’m trying to talk myself into adding color to it.

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And this is the back. Same goes for the back. After all they go together – front and back.

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I took the following photo to see if I could capture more of the dimension of the various elements I have added. Part of the pleasure is trying new things, new techniques. This was fun once I got my courage up.

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Now for the coincidental part. I think I will start by quoting an essay I read recently in one of my favorite magazines (Our State). Susan Kelly writes “Here in North Carolina we’re allowed to love snow, because it’s a fleeting, temporary gift . . .”

So knowing that the snow we got would disappear almost as quickly as it arrived, I took a few blurry photos in the dark of our front yard

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And our back deck.

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It was kind of thrilling watching it come down. Mostly because some of us like to hope we will get to enjoy the beauty and quiet of a new fallen snow. We’d like to see it at least cover the blades of grass completely. Ah, well, maybe next time.

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Sunday, January 19, 2014

Roses and Peanut Butter

I’m making some progress on my current project which you can see a bit of in the following photos.

This first one shows the transfers slowly being revealed along the edges. When I first used this technique on one of my pieces, I wasn’t quite sure how it would turn out. Over time I have figured out a way that seems to work for me pretty much most of the time.

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Here I am playing around with an arrangement of elements for the top. Before getting to this point I have thought and thought. Today it was time to act.

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And finally, I can see it coming together. I rather like it like this but it is unfinished so I will be moving onto the next stage which will involve adding color. There won’t be any going back now.

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Here’s a couple of recent photos of my partner in crime. Here he waits to see if a peanut butter sandwich is going to come upstairs. I call this photo “Hope”.

This one shows his under bite and if his furry face doesn’t cover it up, it kind of looks like one of those dogs in the ads that appear to be talking.

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This one is “Gee, she must be making bears again.”

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And that is what is on my agenda for Monday. Hope yours is happy! As always, thanks for visiting!

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Wednesday, January 15, 2014

I’m determined . . .

to make some progress on this piece since this is Round 3 (begun in 2012 and added back to the list in 2013).  Before there was no paint at all and now there is a little.

This section took me a while to figure out and three tries to figure out how to do it in a way with which I would be happy.

The same goes for this part. Three tries.

When I said “try, try again” I wasn’t really expecting it to be a literal interpretation but hey . . .

movement in a forward direction counts in my book – even if it is slow going.

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Sunday, January 12, 2014

Two Hands

The other day I received an email from a friend. Not just any friend but one of my dearest friends whom I have known for a very long time. She was going to be within an hour’s drive and thought we might be able to get together.

She was bringing her work to the Quilting and Fiber Art Marketplace. I thought I would show you what a fertile imagination and a pair of hands can create.

Meet Susan Edmonson.

She is the brilliance behind Susan Edmonson Designs.

She designs all kinds of patterns. (and sells them!)

She quilts.

She appliqués.

She embroiders.

She embellishes.

She teaches.

She lectures.

She inspires . . .

and she lets little bears ride on her birds.

If you’d like to see her work in person, she will be at the next Quilting and Needle Art Extravaganza on January 31 in Statesville, NC. Information on the show can be found here. She will also be teaching at John C. Campbell Folk School among other places.  And if you just want to learn more about her work without going anywhere, you can find her on the internet here.

Of course, there’s never enough time with a good friend so I’m trying to bribe her into returning sooner rather than later.  And while she’s busy doing at least five of the above things, I plan to take the inspiration she left in her wake and do something!

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