20 posts from 2007

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The puppy is gone.

Last Thursday before I left for work, I kept hearing a wimpering outside. I searched, but couldn't find anything. That evening, I heard it again. This time, I opened the door just in time to see a puppy skitter into the bushes. There she was - hiding under the chimney of the house, behind the bushes. It took us an hour to get her out. She was so scared. Right from the beginning my husband said, " You know we can't keep her. She's going to be a big dog". Well, I called the shelter, the local vet and put an ad in the paper. No one claimed this sweet, german shepherd puppy. I think she had been abused as she ran anytime we would raise our hands - we just wanted to wave her to us(come here puppy), she thought she was going to be hit. We spent the weekend, with a terrible snowstorm outside, getting her socialized and housebreaking her. She loves the snow. Well, dear hubby found someone at his workplace to take her. They are a family with kids and a big yard for her to run. He took her, and her toys and food, this morning to pass her on to them. he said they were very nice and already had a name for her - Annabelle. I hope she blesses them as much as she blessed us.

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Mid December. Wow.
So much to do...so little will to do anything. I just want to stay in my nice warm house and curl up with a book or work in my studio.
The Realtor lunch went well. They "complained" about how hard the trivia and other games were - but they laughed and had a good time. You need something different every once in a while. I'm very happy to have ended my time on the board of directors, and it was a good way to depart.

I decided to decorate for Christmas. This is the year of collections. On the mantle is "Santa World" on the funky 1/2 round desk is "Creche World", on top of the china cabinet is "Angel World". Another table in the family room is "Christmas tree world". The big tree in the window looks lovely. I borrowed dad's tall skinny tree that Mom bought when they lived in the condo. Much easier to deal with than the big Mountain King. It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.

I'm not working on any swaps this week. I've never received the autumn September swap back from Shokupan. Very disappointing. It was a 3 item exchange and then you had to send postage for a flat rate box. Pretty expensive for a swap. I wrote Shokupan, but I guess she's offline. The swap site has been overrun by these wierd, french collage artists. I think that "swap" doesn't translate the same way in french. They are not interested in swapping - they just want to get people to visit their website and buy their weird art. On Swap-bot I have fared a little better. I've sent out 2 business idea swaps, a Christmas matchbox swap and 2 clothespin doll swaps. In return I've gotten a clothespin doll and a matchbox. Still waiting on 2 ideas swaps and a clothespin doll to arrive. I'm signed up for a couple in January that are more "art" oriented. I always send mine out in the first week after getting the swap partner address. No one else seems to be so "quick".

There is so much war and famine and illness in the world. I suppose being dissed in the world of swaps is pretty petty to complain about.God is so good to me. I just pray he never removes his hand from my life.
Time to get to work. - Indygirl

The cold of winter is here...and the leaves still lay like a thick carpet over the lawn, as I haven't had an opportunity to rake them up. Needless to say, there are no Christmas decorations up at my  at my house either. I love looking at the lighted Christmas tree, but I hate all the work of putting it up and taking it down. Theologically I have trouble with all the pagan origins of most of the decorations, anyway. I'm not sure how much I will do this year. I talked to Dad about getting Mom's santa collection out of the boxes and putting them on my mantle. I can't decide if that would make me happy or sad.

On an artsy note, I did a clothespin doll swap last week. Very cool. On of my partners loves Bon Jovi, so I did a Jon Bon Jovi doll for her.The other didn't give me any big clues in her profile, but her favorite color is red, so I made her one I called,"the lady in red". It turned out awesome, (in my humble opinion). I painted the peg red and then sculpted the chest and head from red sculpy and place it on top. The part of the peg that most people use as the neck became the waist. I embellished with small red and gold beads. I've looked around the internet and don't see anything else like this out there. I've done a couple of other explorations with this technique. I think I could make a whole series of whimsical clothespin dolls like this. Oh....and one of the best things - I found something to do with those stupid, unrecycleable, water bottle tops. I cut eigth of an inch wide by three quarter inch long slits in the bottle caps for each of the clothespin "legs". They make perfect stands for the dolls and can be painted or covered with fabric. Mui Groovy!

I'm preparing for the Realtor Christmas party. Thank heavens I'm not the V.P. next year, so I don't have to think about setting up these meetings and parties! In the past the parties have been brunch, entertainment and about an hour of drawing out names and handing out door prizes to each person. This year I'm having a reception table with  punch and nuts/mints. Lunch buffet. Music. Games. A small gift wrapped in a white embellished sack,(already completed and sitting in my spare bedroom), and a little tulle circle filled with candies as a favor. Everyone has been asked to bring food or paper products that will be given to the Community Sharing foundation. I'm planning on taking a nice picture of everyone at the party in back of the food stuff. Good PR to run in the newspaper. One of the bah-humbugs on the committee didn't want the board to give gifts to the attendees. She couldn't believe that there were people who would be attending who wouldn't get a Christmas gift otherwise. She owns a Real Estate company, and has many agents who probably don't make 10,000 per year. In addition to the agents who are having financially difficult times right now there will be office help from some of our bank affiliates and other vendor help, who just don't make alot of money, and being adults, most of the gift giving will be for the children in their lives, not among the adults. I think sometimes it's hard for people who have so much to have their eye open to those around them who do not fare as well. Anyway, the gifts are nothing big or spectacular, just nice little things for their desks and pockets - like paperweights, candles, card holders and thermo mugs.

Just an added note. Happy birthday Sara. You will probably never read this, but incase you do, know that I was thinking of you on your birthday and hoping you are well.

Well, I sent my first swap on the swap-bot site Wednes

day. It was a a swap for 10 marketing ideas. There were 2 partners. The one "catch" was that the 10 ideas couldn't be on white paper in a white envelope. That really got me thinking once I got in my studio, and I hope I didn't push the envelope too much for the other participants. I did 10 individual pages with collaged backgrounds, the idea for the page was on yellow cardstock and glued into the collage and then all then pages were placed loose leaf into a binder that was custom made for my partners based on their profile. One of my partners has a business where she transforms vintage fabrics into usable items, (like Christmas stockings, etc) - so for her cover I took a vintage linen, embroidered doily. I glued it with fabric glue to chip board and created a kind of binder/envelope. I tied the whole thing with a ribbon and then wrapped it in colorful card making paper and dropped it in the mail. My other swap partner is a graphic artist, so her cover was a strong graphic design made with card making papers on chipboard and then tied with a ribbon to close. I'm uploading pictures.

Today is the bazaar for KKS. I took my kitchen supplies, butterscotch pies and crafts down last night for the set-up. I ended up putting in mostly jewelery for the "craft" table. I've been making pendants, bracelets, earrings, and key chains out of soda cans. I don't know if they will sell. I put 3.00 on most and 1.00 for a set of keychains.

Hard to believe it's Thanksgiving time already. Lots to do in the next 6 weeks!

-Indygirl

I've spent Sunday afternoon/evening and every evening this week in the theater. The girl who has often helped me hang shows and run the board for my shows had taken a job in a neighboring state - 4 hours away. Her son was scheduled to light his first show and Mom was going to be his "mentor". I've stepped in to help since she's out of town during the week. Last night was tech. It went well. We made a couple of quick, unplanned changes during the intermission, to change the angle of a key light and reduce some shadows on the set. William is a good kid. I hope he gets lots of good, confidence building responce from this show. I'm lighting "Witness for the Proscecution" in the spring. I've been in e-mail convo with the director, set designer and others. So much easier than the endless production meetings of old.

About a month ago I ordered some balloon lights to use in 2 ways. #1 I need to re-work some candles that are used during initiation rituals and memorials by my sorority. I wanted to take the current base and replace the lousy bulb on the top with one of these LED lights that could easily be turned on and off and the battery would last a long time,(the current ones are only used once a year and the AA batteries have to be replaced each year for most of them) #2 I wanted to use the extra lights in the light-up diaramas I build. Buying them in enelopes of 2 at Walmart in the wedding department wasn't very cost efficient. So I bought this box of 30 balloon lights on the internet.

Problem - they blink. I can't use them for either project. AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHH! The company doesn't do returns. Now I need to figure out what to do with them. I was thinking about making blinking christmas earrings.But, I'm not sure where I would sell 15 pair. (or 14 pair - I might have to keep a pair!) If I try this I'll try to do a picture...or maybe a video! I wouldn't know how to upload a video...but who knows, maybe there are instructions somewhere.

Gotta hit work early today because I have to take my SIL to her hair appointment at noon. Work is still busy, busy! I'm selling a mix - forclosures and nice home, both. Got 4 that should close this month. It's been a good year.

-Indygirl

For those who like to swap and get cool things in the mail, here's another site you might want to visit. I haven't swapped there yet, but they have tons of swaps going on all the time with timelines that vary from a couple of weeks to a couple of monthes.

Here's the link: www.swap-bot.com

I'll still be swapping here, too:-)

Happy swapping - indygirl

I just finished the favors for our annual Realtor's banquet. The theme is "Making a Great 2008" and the favor is a little box with a compass on the top and inside a quote from Henry David Thoreau," Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined". On the bottom is the event name and date. For the box I bought 10 packs of stick matches - 40 boxes all together,(may have to get more depending on the reservations).The boxes are 1.5" x 2" - not the big fireplace matches. I poured the matches all into a jar and then covered each of the boxes with some textured look paper some teal, some sage green. I glued a ribbon to the bottom that sticks out of each side about a 1/4 inch. I put an "Andes" mint in each one on top of the quote in the bottom.

They look very nice. I hope they are appreciated. I've been to this banquet for 13 years and they've never had a theme or favor, or anything that took much thought, really. That's why attendence is soooooo poor. Maybe after this year, next year's attendence will be up.

I just finished the upcoming "homes" magazine for my company. It's always intense for a few days as I edit the photos and and copy and write for the properties that the lazy agents have decided not to submit. If I didn't feel such a commitment to the clients and the company as a whole I would simply leave out those properties whose agents don't care enough to do the work.

Anyway - it's done and being proofed. I'll do a few corrections tomorrow and then it's off to the printer.

A few of the girls from church came over on Sunday and we made caramels to sell at the Holiday Bazaar on Nov.3, 2007. They are delicious! One batch didn't set up. They were too soft to cut and wrap, so, after 2 days in their pan on the table, I put them back into the pot and brought them up to 250 degrees. They already seem to be setting. We'll see.

I'm in charge of the "cookie walk" at the bazaar. People from the church make decorated cookies and then on the day of the event they are set up on tables. Customers buy a cookie box for 3.00 and can fill it from the cookies on the table. The person in charge of the "walk" the last couple of years has always made several dozen cookies herself to make sure there were plenty. I suppose I should get around to that pretty soon.

I'm also in charge of the annual Realtors banquet for our board of Realtors. It's on the 1st of Nov. I chose a nice restaurant that is about 20 minutes drive for most of the board members. Prime Rib and Roasted rosemary chicken. $20. State president is coming in to speak. Should be a popular event.

I have promised to help a friend's son with the lighting for the show,"Proof". That's the first week of November. I need to finish reading the show so that I can talk with him about his ideas and figure out the best way to bring his design to life.
The following Friday is the Holiday bazaar and luncheon for my sorority. I'll be baking cookies and pies for them, too. Of course both bazaars require about 20.00 worth of arts and crafts to be donated to sell.
If only I could take off work for a couple of weeks and still be paid! I really do enjoy all the "making and baking" and the money earned goes for such good missions and causes.

Dad turns 70 at the end of November. I'm hoping to get my brothers together and have a nice dinner out for him. My eldest bro is diabetic and his wife is a vegetarian. I'm afraid to try to cook for them or I would just invite everyone over for dinner.

Mom has been gone for over a year now. I miss her so much. We all do.

Gotta go get some of this extrenious work done.

-indygirl

Here are some of the bazaar arts and craftsI talked about in my last blog. On top are the bird box and the boo boo bunny. The second row has the shadowbox with the drawing on a book page, the little keeper box, the lodge-like altered photo and frame, the pig box and the pumpkin pin. On the bottom are the stars made from sugar gum pods and toothpicks.

Rainy and grey....it finally feels like fall. The leaves, damp and colored dark in rich color by the day are swirling their way to earth. I don't want to go to work - I just want to stay in my studio, listen to instrumental music, and create. But, I don't think my clients would understand my romantic, artful cravings. So, with a song and a prayer, I'm off to the real world.
I've been creating little works of art and some nice crafts for our church and the KKS bazaar.

One is a little "dark",so I'm not sure if it will go in or not. I have been seeing some portraits and pictures that used pages from books as the background and then applied the image on top. Generally a single color sillhoette or negative image and then allowing a line or a word from the page come through the image to speak to the piece. I bought a book called "The Titans" at a garage sale and then tore a random page from the middle. I drew a protrait of a girl with minimal features and her hair wrapping down and becoming one with her arms and shirt, on the page. I masked out a phrase I thought was provoking,"I was surprised he didn't wake up when I came in". I used a shadow box and put a purple paper mat in the center of the depth and then the picture at the back. It looks great. I need to learn to make a nice shadow box to make this an affordable art opportunity for future works.
Since the bazaars are geared toward the holidays I may try a more jovial approach, (art - lite), and try images over holiday story pages or perhaps printed over tradional recipes. I could see it going religious, or thankful-harvest or santa-christmas tree, or new year-sparkly. Lots of options. I could probably then use the altered pages to cover journals, or boxes, or make note cards. Who knows where this will lead?

I've also made some little wood boxes, painted black. One has a little Japanese paper piece with a red bird on a curly-q limb applied to the center of the top and to a corner of the inside. The other has a resin pig carrying a basket of apples glued to the top. Both are very cute. There are also some groovy "stars" made of a sugar gum pod with toothpicks glued sticking out of all its little spikey holes and then painted silver. I think I will add some irredescent glitter very lightly and then hang them with fishing line. They won't sell for much - maybe a dollar or dollar and a half each. There are "boo boo bunies" made from folded washclothes with sewn eyes, nose and tail. You put an ice cube in the back and use it with kids for their "boo boos" I also have a little round "keeper" box with an abstract painted wood round on the top and a pumpkin painted pin. There is a lodge-like picture frame that my SIL gave me. I've altered a stock picture of a barn in a field and put it in the frame. I think I'll give it to her to put in the bazaars as part of her crafts. I need about 25 dollars worth of saleable items for each bazaar. I don't think I'm there yet.

I do have a plain wood,unassembled rocking horse in the studio. I was going to paint it with a nursery rhyme theme. I could probably just paint it like a classic rocking horse and put it in one of the bazaars for at least 14 or 15 dollars. They cost 25 to ????? if you try to buy one out somewhere. However, these people coming to these bazaars are looking for a deal. So there's no use putting a big price on things or doing anything too sophisticated - they won't sell, the charity won't make any money, and you have to take it home.....feeling defeated and unloved, of course, because no one wanted your beautiful piece of art!
Later -  off to work I go.