I’m in the Everyday Adventures class through Big Picture Scrapbooking. The class is based on the Keri Smith book How To Be An Explorer Of The World. I’ve completed four of the five first assignments; the last one I’ll do this weekend because it involved people watching and I’ve been locked away in my office by myself all week. Click the photos to see the larger versions.

Right Where I’m Sitting:

Small Thoughts:

Small Thoughts elaboration:

Structure:

Becoming Leonard Cohen:

Monster Me

April 23, 2010coco8199 Leave a comment

I have a little monster. She is what makes the little pesky gerbil sounds I hear coming from my studio when I’m watching tv or laying in bed at night. It sort of sounds like a combination of “get in here and make something”, the sloshing of glue, and the rattle of my DPN stash. I can also here it at work when a bit of chatter comes from the bottom drawer where I’ve stashed a pair of socks I’m working on. She hides things in my bag too; like craft books, and colored pencils. Want to see what my driving force monster looks like?

Thanks Miss V!

Thoughts Dump Post

April 21, 2010coco8199 Leave a comment

To elaborate more on the 10k Hours project that I talked about in the last post, I stated that I wanted to “do one creative thing a day”. That is somewhat vague. What I mean is: I didn’t want to say I’ll be binding books for 10k Hours because there is so much more to it than just stitching paper together. There are so many things that I am incorporating that I would have felt very boxed in by that statement. As, I have said before, I am no longer going to just make pretty journals. Not that I won’t make journals but that is not my focus anymore. What I will be making will likely be a piece of “art” and not a functional/useable book. I am not limiting myself to techniques on paper either. I do so many things that I do not want to just say something like “No, quilting, you don’t have a place here” because I can incorporate it into a book (and have big plans to do so). So, that is why I’m saying that I’m going to do one creative thing a day. They will all (most likely) be associated/incorporated into a book because that is what I want in life, to be a Book Artist.

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Yesterday, I took my camera along with me on my afternoon walk around town. The day before a gorgeous pink tree caught my eye (and nose) so I *needed* to take a photo of it. I wish I could bottle up the scent too. I don’t have a clue what kind of tree it is but I would love to have one in my yard.

I also snapped a few photos of the lilac bush outside my office and the churchyard gate across the street.

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I finished knitting the April Fools Socks that is the April pattern for the Star Athena Sock Pattern Club. This sock was fun! All that is left is to snip the scrap yarn and bind off. They look so cool that I just want to keep them together for a few days.

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The Everyday Adventures class started on Monday. I’ve had so much fun thinking about my surroundings in a different way and documenting them. I haven’t finished the first few assignments yet but I’m working on them. I’ll post photos of them sometime soon. This is the Goggles of Enhanced Perception which was the preclass assignment. I had so much fun making them.

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April 9th & 10th there was an event at the Southwest Virginia Community College called Minds Wide Open Celebrating Women In Art that focused on the women of Tazewell County that are artists and makers and supporters of the arts. I had two pieces in the gallery and I did a bookbinding demo on Saturday afternoon. Before I went to the event I spent the morning at Thistle Cove Farm’s Sheep Shearing day and some little *Wild Thing* followed me home. I had so much fun and got to spend the morning with wonderful women that I love dearly. You can spot a photo of me on Sandra’s blog, I’m wearing my favorite green hat (photo #5).

There was a giant sigh of relief on April 16th. Tax season is finally over. Me & the hub cleaned the house from top to bottom. I started cleaning out my studio and already have a bunch of supplies that I want to get rid of. I also started cleaning the second batch of the fleece. I carded the first batch and it is so pretty. I’m torn between dying it first and then spinning it or spinning it then dying it. I’m not sure what color(s) yet either. I’m leaning toward spinning it first so I’ll know how much yardage I have, then picking a project to make (hopefully a sweater) and then dying it. That’s a long way off though, I’m on batch #2 and the bag is still overflowing.

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I’ve had great mail all week. Monday, I got the Intentions Yarns in Courage from The Loopy Ewe. Yesterday, I finally got my package from Jlist (things take forever to get here from Japan) which was full of Bento goodness.

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I’ve been meaning to post the flowers in bloom around my house.

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I’ll leave you with a photo of a very happy Raisin.

Plans For the Future

April 13, 2010April 14, 2010coco8199 2 Comments

Spring Fever. It struck with a vengeance this year. After three months of constant snow, I just couldn’t wait for the sunshine. It’s the main reason I’ve been slacking on blogging. I’ve been trying to get outside everyday and I haven’t really been knitting or crafting at all. I read Miss Violet’s blog, June Bug On A String, and recently she has begun the planning stages for her 10k Hours project. I’ve been so inspired by her posts and it kind of fell in line with what has been rattling around in my head so I’ve decided to join in.

My basic goal for the project is to do one creative thing a day. This could be a simple sketch or something that will take several hours to accomplish but the most important thing is that I will be DOING something. I’ve been known to go for weeks or months without making anything because I get busy and tell myself that I’ll have time tomorrow/this weekend/next month/when X is over. The truth is I know that even on the busiest day, I could carve out at least 15-30 minutes to do something, and that is just on the really busy days. I had already planned to reopen my studio on May 1 but I don’t really have any goals set in place. I have a few ideas scrawled in my ideas book but for now they are just ideas.

Tax season is over on Thursday so the stress of my through the week job will lessen drastically. My first goal is to spend April 16-30 planning the rest of my year and taking stock of what I actually have in my studio. I cleaned my studio Sunday but I didn’t organize anything, I’m planning to get everything organized and stored in places that make sense. I know there are things lurking in the studio that I haven’t touched in years. I may even post some of my destash stuff in my Etsy shop. I’m also planning to finish some things that have been hanging around staring at me longingly such as my Sylvi coat and Asymmetric cardigan (its now to warm to wear either) and my bright happy colored spinning. During the two weeks of planning, I’m going to try to resist the temptation of starting something new (except for two things with a deadline in the first week of May). I need to stop jumping head first into twelve different projects at once because, in reality, I only have two hands and I haven’t quite figured out how to clone myself yet.

For me, the 10k hours project is about getting to the level artistically that I want to be at instead of dreaming about it and saying “someday” I’ll have time. I’m not getting any younger and “someday” will probably never come so I have to make that time TODAY. I’m hoping that through the 10k hours I’ll streamline processes and know what works for me and what doesn’t. I want to learn new techniques along the way and find new ways of combining my talents (books and fiber). I also hope to create cohesive collections that have gallery potential… but that’s a long way down the road.

EDIT: Just for the record… there are two things that I will be starting with in the two weeks. I signed up for the Everyday Adventures class that begins tomorrow and I also signed up for a Murder Mystery Spin Along that should ship out sometime next week.