Artful Adventures

Be Grateful & Pay it Forward

 

For the last 2 years, I've tried to get a photo of a crow, but they don't sit still long enough around here to let that happen.  But on Thanksgiving Day, as gray as it was, I did it!  Not perfect, but I'll take it.  As grateful as I am for that picture, that's not what 'm writing about.  It's about showing  gratitude and paying it forward, which just happened to be Crusade #22 on Michelle Ward's other site, the Street Team Challenge.  I remember reading about it when it was posted, but found it almost overwhelming.  So very many people have always been so good to me, and I have some really special friends that have always gone above & beyond-how do you even begin to meet that challenge of finding something that huge to do something that would properly pay it forward?  Today I finally figured it out, and it's something you all could do, and I'd be thrilled if you all would join me in this one, it's quick & simple-donate blood to your local Red Cross.  I had to go there today to donate blood for myself in case I need a transfusion for my surgery coming up, and while I was sitting there it hit me that it's the perfect thing to do to pay it forward to everyone.  The Red Cross is there to help everyone, and if you ever needed blood, I'd be willing to bet that you'd be thrilled to have access to some.  Here's a few facts, courtesy of Red Cross.  Did you know that if your blood type is A, it could potentially be transfused to anyone needing platelets, regardless of their blood type?  Most patients undergoing bone marrow transplant, chemotherapy, organ transplant or radiation rely on platelet transfusions to survive.  O Negative red cells could be transfused to 100% of the population.  O Positive red cells could be transfused to anyone with a positive blood type, about 85% of the population.  Those with AB blood type, the plasma in your blood could be transfused into any patient regardless of blood type (used to treat patients recovering from liver transplants or trauma), and the platelets can also be transfused to infants & children.  And finally Type B donors can donate platelets using a apheresis process which allows you to donate that part of your blood up to 24 times/year or alternate between that & whole blood donations.  Cancer patients rely on these platelets as their defense against excessive bleeding.  It's amazing how taking a little time to donate blood could potentially help so many people, it's something that I was totally oblivious to, or just never thought about, not sure on that one yet.  At any rate, both Gary & I are going to make the commitment to donate as soon as I get the all clear signal from the doc that I can do so.  And it's going to feel good, knowing that it could help make someone's life just a little better.  Anyone care to join us?   

While we're on the subject of Michelle's crusades, surgery & such, I've been trying hard to avoid her Crusade #24 , Final Wishes, but it's time I met it head on.  I've struggled with this one, thought about it for a very long time, refused to deal with it simply because it's something I don't want to deal with!  But there's no time like the present, and it's in the back of my mind anyway, so I may as well just spit it out and get on with it.  As I've mentioned before, on Dec. 17, I'm having a hip replacement, a simple, done everyday, kind of surgery.  Except when I had my first one done 8 years ago, something went horribly wrong with the anaesthsia, I went into cardiac arrest, spent a few days in CCU, then went back the next week & had an uneventful, but successful, surgery.  When I woke up, I thought it was a couple of hours after they sedated me & expected a leg that hurt like hell.  Instead, I woke up 3 or 4 days later with a sore chest from them beating on me & wrists that were sore from being in restraints & me fighting it.  Now I do know that the chances of that happening to the same person twice, have to be smaller than getting hit by lightening while sitting on the couch watching TV, but it did happen once, so I know all too well that it's not impossible.  So, I'll write out my wishes, short & sweet, and leave a note on my studio table where to find them in case I'm not coming home.  But for the record, I have every intention of coming home, so if I find the seal broken on that envelope from someone peeking, there'll be hell to pay:)  On a brighter note, are you all still celebrating and lighting candles?  I have been, and I'll share more about that tomorrow, I seem to have written a short novel here today!  But I'll leave you with something to celebrate, even a rotten apple can look good with the right photographer, and you all know that's not me:)  Gary's back up walking around & snapping pictures-yay!!

A quick recap of the week-how did that fly by so quickly?

 Yesterday was a stormy,hot, humid, sticky icky kind of day, with storms hammering most of the state.  Just as it was getting close to the sun going down last night, it was storming and yet there was a spot where the sun managed to reach through and shine on top of a low layer of clouds.  The picture doesn't do it justice, but there were so many layers of clouds that were visible, making it strangely beautiful.

Not quite sure how last week flew by, but fly by it did!  Last week end Jeremy was here to help Gary take down some trees.  There's always some sort of glitch that happens so it never all gets done, but at least it's started.  In the middle of it, the chainsaw broke so that took several hours and an internet search to figure out how to fix it, and they were back in business.  Those 2 scare me when they do this-something ALWAYS happens, they've never gotten hurt but the potential has certainly been there! 

This time around, it was the ladder that took a beating.  A limb didn't go down as expected and just like that, the ladder got trashed.  But the good news is that neither of them were on it at the time!  Like I said-those 2 scare me sometimes! 

Gary did find time to rearrange some of his found metal treasures on a stump in the yard, and just like that we have new yard art!

Seeing that for this post, I'm just hitting a few things frm the week (more to come later) I have to share the baby birds:)  Chickadees set up house in a bluebird house (we have everything BUT bluebirds that use the 3 houses we have for them!) after hearing babies chirping last week end, it was time to investigate.  Gary was able to get a picture of them through the top of the box, but it has wire over it to keep unwanted critters out of there, so you'll have to look close to see them.  The 3 babies are all sitting butt to butt, so cute!    More & more flowers are blooming everyday, more pictures of that coming soon.  Funny story about the poppies, we tried for years & years to get a transplant to take of these flowers, what we didn't know is that once you get them, they take over!  After killing off some perennials with their rambunctious growth, we finally got them moved to an area that's not too bad, but they need to be moved again soon.  Last week, I was visiting Jen Worden's blog, and she mentioned how sometimes it seems like no art is being made, when in reality, it's really is being made, just not done & ready to show, and then all of a sudden there's a bunch that's done.  That's so true!  Once again, I have a bunch of things in progress, but nothing ready to post, although a couple of neckalces just need to be aged & polished and then they're ready to go.  But the canvas work, that's another story!  There's a bunch in various stages of completion, but with every layer of paint or glue, there's a day of drying it seems.  So my question is, when I see folks churning out a couple of canvases a day, how the hell do they do it!  Speaking of arting, Jen's challenge for this month is to grab one of the many art technique books you own and work through the book-great idea!  One of the books I recently got was Acrylic Revolution written by Nancy Reyner.  It's a great book with a ton of techniques, some of which I've done, but most are new to me.  The really nice thing (for me anyway) is she shows everything using Golden products which is what I use anyway, making it much easier to get the desired results, perfect!  And to make it even better, Michelle Ward's challenge for this month at her other site, GPP Street Team, is to work with a resist.  She's using wax (or crayon) for the resist, but there's a different resist technique in this book that I may try instead or do both, but any way you look at it, I can do both challenges at once, you gotta love it when that happens:)   Ok, I need more coffee!  One last photo of a portion of a shade garden we did last summer in the front of the house, which turned out even better than I'd hoped for.  Oh, one more thing-anyone joining me in sending in their skinny jeans?  Read the previous post if you need to refresh your memory, but lets all do this!

Make some stencils-it's fun!

Michelle Ward has once again come up with a fun & useful technique to try over at her other blog for the GPP Street Team .  Last month it was about carving stamps, this month Crusade 19-Cut it Out is about cutting your own stencils.  Both of these crusades give us the knowledge (and the tutorials to make sure we get it) to make our own tools to use in our artwork, which gives us even more choices to make our art, our own!  You won't see the stamps you carved or the stencils that you cut in anyone else's artwork, making it truly unique.  Cool, right?  This was my first attempt, even though it's been something that I've wanted to try for a very long time.  I used a close up photo of a bee balm bloom (try saying that 3 times fast-lol) from our garden last summer, turned it into black & white, and cut it out with a stencil burner, using a little artistic license in the process.  Forgetting to make a "bridge", it didn't turn out quite right, but will work just fine anyway.  On the right page, I used what is really more of a mask, sprayed it, shifted it a bit & sprayed again with another color.  On the left page, I used the 2 end pieces (which should have been 1 piece and be the stencil) placed one piece on the top of the page, the other on the bottom of the page, and did the same as the right page-sprayed-shifted-sprayed again.  Fun & quick!  Last summer I played with spray paints for the first time, using foliage and fodder from the yard as masks.  You can see the results of that first spray painting here , which I followed up with a step by step of how I did it, you can click here for tutorial on this, if you'd like.  Since Michelle has extended the challenge until May 7, there's plenty of time to try some more tricks with this and join in the fun!  This all looked like so much fun that Gary joined in again this month.  He used the same technique that I did, except he drew his own design, you can see it all at the end of this post.  Can you believe that he even drew his own design?  I may have to set him up with his own blog pretty soon!  If you haven't already, give this a try, you won't regret it, and you'll be making your art even more unique than it already is! 

GPP Street Team Crusade #16

The crusade for January over at GPP Street Team, a challenge site run by Michelle Ward, is to Journal your Blog.  So here I am, squeaking in at the last minute with a quickie journal page for the challenge!

It's a black & white photo, taken in June, along with a post from another day in June. I added a little color, some dried wildflowers that I picked last summer, and a little handwriting.  The thing is, I look at my blog as sharing moments in time.  It's morphed into such a blend of life, family, art, and anything else, that "moments" is the best word that I can think of to describe it.  That particular photo was taken with the sun shining just right, at the perfect angle to get the palm shadow on the wall behind it, and still have the metal chair with a face & some foliage showing through-a moment that would be difficult to duplicate.  But here, on my blog, I get to share those things with whoever wanders over here to take a peek-a peek into the moments that make up my life. 

Infatuation

Crusade #12 over at GPP Street Team for this month is to blog or journal about a crush, infatuation, or obsession that you have on someone or something.  Well, I've had a "crush" on Prince forever, but that's already been discussed, and apparently surprised a lot of folks with that one:)  My obsessions tend to be about things that in the grand scope of life are totally ridiculous, or can't be changed anyway-in general, a waste of time & energy.  Like right now I'm obsessing about the fact that I want to take a hot shower, something that's impossible right now because the hot water heater bit the dust yesterday.  It wouldn't be so bad, except for the fact that I woke up in the middle of the night Friday night, not feeling good, and it all went downhill from there.  So for the last 2 days I've been wrapped up in a blanket, freezing, feeling like crap, and all I want to do is to take a long hot shower with unlimited hot water.  A typical type of obsession for me, something that can't be changed.  So, I'll go with infatuation for this one-which is still water!  Besides needing it for the everyday things, I need to be by water, to watch & listen to the waves, to stick my toes into it, to pick stones on the beach and to watch the sun set over it.  My best memories from my childhood are of swimming, boating, water skiing, canoing, I was in the water as much as I could be.  When I'm near water, I can think clearly (or so it seems), calm down no matter how crazy I am at the moment, and allow myself to just be, relax & enjoy.  A couple of weeks ago, a friend came out with her 5 year old, and we went to Algoma so she could see Lake Michigan for the first time.  I was present at the birth of Miz Cyd, being a Lamaze coach for her Mom, so I truly enjoy sharing in any of the many "firsts" of her life, and it was especially sweet to share my infatuation of water with her.  Watching her reaction to it and seeing the world through the eyes of a 5 year old for that moment, made it all that more special for me.  She ran straight into the water, and just stood there with her arms wide open, soaking it in through all her senses, reminding me once again just how special this place is.  Fortunately, we live less than 30 minutes from the lake, where we've spent a lot of afternoons this summer, and when we come back home, we can drive just a couple of miles to a small park on the bay side & watch the sun go down-not a bad deal.  So I'll leave you with some photos that I hope help explain my total, complete infatuation with water.  And hoping I haven't bored you all to tears with all my talk of the beach this summer! 

Let the music play!

The crusade for this month over at Michelle Ward's GPP Street Team is to make some noise & blog about music.  If anyone asks me who my favorite musician is, without any hesitation, I ALWAYS say Prince.  So for this crusade I cruised on over to You Tube to see what it was all about, find my favorite Prince tune & blog about it.  Little did I know that it's a whole new world over there!  It didn't take long & I was watching videos of all kinds of music, and got lost in that for quite a while.  Madison Avenue was another choice, but then there's the music from way back when by Styx, The Eagles, Jefferson Airplane, Pink Floyd, and the list goes on & on.  I finally settled on Annie Lennox, I've always loved the Eurythmics, and her voice to this day, is amazing.  Then there was the decision of which song to choose-not an easy task, but I finally went with Sweet Dreams, an oldie but goodie:)   

While we're on the subject of music, a couple of weeks ago, we went to

The Flying Pig for the Saturday night live music in the gardens, and were treated to a performance by

Hayward Williams.  He was sooooo good!  He's a young guy from Milwaukee, that we'll all be hearing a lot about in the future, there's definitely a long & lucrative career ahead him.  Besides being a talented songwriter & singer, he's got a way about him on stage, that you also like him as a person-it was a great night!  And now, I'm heading back over to YouTube to see who else I can listen-this could be a new addiction!

What's that Smell?

The challenge for the month of June on Michelle Ward's Street Team is to make an association with scent and making art, so that when you will always remember June of 2007 by a certain scent, as that sense has been proven to be the most powerful of all for recalling memory.
The day I read this, we happened to be in our local junk store (tourist trap variety) and got a whiff of the new incense that they're carrying-would you believe they had root beer incense?  And it smells just like a root beer!  I'm going to date myself now, but that smell immediatly brought back memories of hot summer days when I was a kid, and we'd all pile into the station wagon and go to the drive up A&W-you know back when the waitress came to the car and placed your order on a tray that hooked onto the rolled down window.  The root beer was always served in a frosty mug, and they had little teeny ones for the little tykes-god, I can smell it now!  Burning that incense now, brings that memory right back to me anytime I feel like it-gotta love it!
This summer, we've gone to the beach in Algoma on Lake Michigan, at least once a week, to pick rocks, watch the water & the birds, and just chill out.  I've been bringing a little journal along with me in a ziplock bag that also has a sharpie and a $2 box of watercolor pencils, so if I get the urge to remember the day, I can attempt to draw something and maybe pick up something off the ground to add to it.  So for today, the scent that I would associate with art is that of water-it's not a smell I can describe, but I sure know it and love it.  The art is rudimentary, at best, but it'll serve the purpose to remember the day.