What Influences Your Dreams

      What exactly makes your heart rate go up and your body tingle and no I am not talking about your partner either. Though my partner does this to me, I am talking about you personally. When I was a child a really good book could hold me enthralled until I finished the book, it did not matter what chores or friends were around. I had to finish that book, this often lead to me getting into trouble of course, but I didn't care because the book was that good. I still enjoy a good book today, however, it does not make my heart rate go up anymore and unless I am at the end of the book I can put it down today. What makes my heart rate go up is the process of a new project!

     Yep, I actually dream about my projects in great depth. Sometimes my dreams are so detailed that I can literally see how something came about. A television show or a movie could prompt a thought on a project especially if it is about something that was a book when I was a child. Many things have changed since I was a child and the things I remember most vividly are those things that I loved to do. Although I may not do those same things today, being reminded of those activities can still bring a smile to me, as well as, a warmth something akin to a hug from within.

     I remember watching birds fluttering about and wanting to be able to have wings to fly and the grace and agility that they had. I did not want to be a bird I just wanted to have wings. Even today, birds are still something that catch my eye and make me smile. Birds inspire me and influence my work. Butterflies will also inspire me, I remember thinking once that butterflies were lil fairies, they were the remnants of the fey folk that I read about. It was a very sad day for me when I was taught that butterflies were truly caterpillars. Aw well, there are some dreams that even against facts or opinions you must cling to and butterflies being part fairy is one I still hold onto.

     So for me I have a bird feeder and a bird bath and lots of bushes for the birds to hide in so that I can have a daily influence around me. So where I live I have Swallows, and Red Headed Finches and a Mountain Blue Jay, Morning Doves, Crows that seem rather big, so they may be considered Ravens I am not sure. And there are Rose bushes and an Orange tree and Grapefruit tree in our yard that attracts butterflies. Now I didn't plan our yard it was already created when we bought the house and yet when looking for our home it was the birds and flowers that attracted me it as well. What else influences me well, holidays will influence me.

     And my most favorite holiday is coming up and I have been very busy with a project that I am immensely happy with. Yep, Halloween is next month and the past few years I have been adding to my Halloween decorations and this year is no different. My husband and I have been wanting to find a life size body to put out in our yard for a few years. We never really found one we liked though and now I know exactly how to make one. I enrolled in a mixed media class this semester, and the very first project was to create a form using gesture as our thesis. We needed to create the forms skeleton out of chicken wire and then we would use paper mache and paper clay to create the body of the form. I knew immediately what I wanted to make as soon as the professor told us about the project. I still need to finish adding my glow in the dark paint to my brain, and add the blood, build the tombstone and lay it all out in the yard but yep I have the first body for my yard. Below are some of the pictures of my chicken man in various stages of construction, the wire frame, the paper mache, the paper clay and the near completion.

So what influences your dreams and what do you do to bring your dreams to life.

Whatever, Have I Been Up To

I love the last few months of the year, I always have the amount of holidays that come in at this time use to fill my mind with thoughts of family, warmth, and cheer. As it was those were often illusions, however, in the last 15 years I have been able to have just that. This year, I have begun to add to my Halloween collection. I must say that I absolutely love Halloween I am not so fond of the cutesy but hey you can't have everything.

Halloween is known in every culture, in every nation only it isn't always meant to go door to door asking for candy. It is a holiday meant to honor ancestors and those that passed. To celebrate the harvest and the end of one season and the start of another. It is a a celebration to honor what has passed and what is to come. This is why I love Halloween, though I do love the stories and the Horror that America has added to the holiday as well, lol. So for my collection of Holiday decoration that I began awhile back I am going to add my yard man and here he is in his beginning stages, and in his papered stage and now in his paper clay stage. and there is a close up of his hands so far his hands have been the most difficult part of doing him.

I am finding that this has been a fun class so far and I am enjoying it greatly. Creating the skeleton from chicken wire was not as difficult as I would have thought it would be and making the paper clay is a great way to recycle. All in all so far my Mixed Media Class has been a fun learning class.

Sticking With Your Dreams Even When

As I continue to try to define my dream, I find that I often get distracted with other things. Even though my dream is still lurking around it just seems so much harder at times to actually begin working on it. My dragon has all the material ready, the outline is drawn, the thread and fabric are there waiting for me, and yet I still have not been able to sit down and start it. So many things are happening right now and its all about living life.

We finally finished the tile in the dining room and kitchen and I must say it looks pretty good. The counter tops arrived and the wood for the new faces of our kitchen cabinets. We decided to go with Knotty Alder. For the most part on the remodeling home front that is, my part is there but it is now on the back burner. So I do have a bit of a break in that department. So below is a picture of knotty Alder wood and a cabinet that has been made from Knotty Alder. It isn't a picture of my cabinets, but it gives the general idea of what Knotty Alder can look like in a cabinet.

Kitchen tile

Knotty Alder Wood

Cabinet built with Knotty Alder

However, I still have many other projects that are in the incomplete stage and other projects that I have been working on. As for some of those projects, they too shall stay on the back burner as classes have so far completely captured my attention. Attending three class and each class being three hours long is not typical of me, taking three classes is typical just not the length of those classes. However, I am thoroughly enjoying each one, they all present a challenge to me in different ways. At the moment in my mixed media class I am currently working on a life size torso of a human being it is to show gesture. To create the form we are using chicken wire, armature wire (which is really a 16 gauge wire that has a bit of strength to it but it is still flexible enough to bend and re-bar wire which is very flexible. My greatest challenge at the moment is creating the hands and as the hands are really the main focus of this particular gesture piece I have to get them right, the hands will give the piece some of the more realistic gesture of the piece I am trying to capture.

My life size skeleton using a denim shirt to add some focus to the piece.

one hand experiment in progress still need to add the pinky though that is today's job.

And so my dream of Smaug once again must wait to be fulfilled, I do know that with each new project and the completion of other projects that Smaug is very important to me and I will begin soon. Oh yes, I almost forgot I have also been working on crocheting a valance for my kitchen window and one half of the valance is almost complete. 

Detail of the stitching of the kitchen valance.

view of the kitchen valance with the progress so far.

I have been quite busy and am still working towards my dream of creating the images that I see in my mind and making them into real and tangible items. I have met a few challenges along the way my ability to not be able to draw does hinder me, however, that is where the Photoshop class comes in because by being able to manipulate photo's I will better be able to make a model of what I see in my mind. The graphic arts class will give me a better understanding of how to lay my work out in a straight forward and sequential manner as well as teach me depth and perception abilities. And the mixed media class introduces me to new techniques. Therefore, though I have not reached my dream yet, I continue the journey to my dreams. After all life is about the journey not the destination, So I think I will continue my journey.

School Started on August 19

Ok so classes started up again for me on August 19, so now every Tuesday and Thursday I am in classes all day. I am taking a Mixed Media class, Graphics Art which I thought was on the computer but is actually all done manually which may present a challenge as I don't draw. And my last class is Photoshop, which is humorous as well as I don't take pictures to often. However, I took all of these classes in the hopes of furthering my understanding of how to design and properly proportion my work. I have always had ideas but my ability to see things 3-D is seriously lacking in my mind. Each of my classes are 3 hours long and with only about 10 minutes in between classes. My daughter and her friend are also taking classes so it keeps me motivated to go.

Now on the home front I have also been busy, we have begun the remodeling of the kitchen, we pulled out the oven in the wall cabinet and built the basic structure for the new oven and it is now in place. We tore out the old cook top and the new one is in the shop waiting on the new counter tops to arrive. We refinished the front door and replaced the glass in it and I must say I am just loving the front door now. It adds light into the hallway and the deeper color on the door makes it look very nice. Here are some pictures of it now the first picture is what the door looked like before we remodeled it and the second and third picture is looking at it from the outside after the remodel and the fourth is a close up of the window.

I am really pleased with how it all came out. My husband and I each look at a project and we discuss it and look for ideas of what we want once we have decided what we wanted then we look for the material we will need. We went through several ideas for replacing the stained glass that was in the door first. At first we thought about finding a new stained glass but we couldn't really find one that suited us. Then we considered putting in two pieces of glass and filling the space with marbles to give it a dimensional look but that didn't work either. The final result came from a visit to Rockler's where we saw the perfect fit for us and here is the link for where they have several different  pieces to look at.

http://www.rockler.com/search/go?w=glass

And a local glass company cut the glass to the size we needed. And now we have the perfect combination that we both enjoy.

Organization and dreams in life

       Organization, well that is a mouthful in and of itself.  According to Merriam-Webster online the definition of organization is three-fold to make it simple I have brought the definition to the forefront of my life.

            or*ga*ni*za*tion

       : a company, business, club, etc., that is formed for a particular purpose

      : the act or process of putting the different parts of something in a certain order so that they can be found or used easily

      : the act or process of planning and arranging the different parts of an event or activity

So let’s look at the definitions, I can honestly say that at the moment a company is not what I need, so we will skip that definition. Now the second definition is definitely what I am attempting to do with myself and the various areas of my life. And the third definition also applies to what I am trying to do. When organizing it is always difficult to get started because when you think about the whole project it becomes overwhelming. This is what I did, first I began by looking around my house to discover the various different areas that required some form of organization and I chose the smallest area first. Let’s face it we all want to know we are making progress right and as this is the month of August that means school is going to begin and then the full round of Holidays will begin and we know that time becomes a precious commodity.

So first step is to make your list it can be a simple list or a long list whichever is easier for you:

         Example: Fabric Organization

                           Gather all your fabric in one spot, doesn't really matter if that spot is a cabinet, tub, or floor, or in my case a wardrobe bought to store the fabric. Gather either comic book backings like these:

http://www.amazon.com/Current-Comic-Book-Backing-Boards/dp/B003ZUK2J6

Or Acid free foam core board like this

http://www.amazon.com/Elmers-Acid-Free-16-Inch-2-Count-902015/dp/B003NS4HQY

Measure the space that you will be putting your fabric and wash, dry, iron and then fold your fabric around your chosen backing board. I prefer the comic book backings myself because I don't have that added step of cutting the boards to size. Also rather than buying from Amazon, you can look for a comic book store in your area and they will most likely carry these in stock and for about half the cost.  

Here is a tutorial on wrapping your fabric around the boards.  I thought about writing my own tutorial but you know if you search google your apt to find a tutorial on just about anything and if you don't then you know that it may be a good thing to write one up if you know how to do it easier or there isn't one there. In this case Cut To Pieces by Angela Pingel is great and full of details. She also gives a quick shot on how to store fat quarters here as well.

http://cuttopieces.blogspot.com/2011/02/fabric-folding-tutorial.html

Go from this 

To this, I am still working on getting this even more organized but this isn't bad for a first swing.

Now you get the picture right. Okay so here are some links on articles about organization.

http://allthingsplastic.net/category/plastic-storage-boxes-bins-and-containers/    this is an article on the difference of using plastic to cardboard or metal boxes. It has some good points and it has some rather obvious points but I felt I should be open to suggestion.

http://thyme-is-honey.com/2013/08/15/the-daily-page-notepad/    this is a website where she offers organization and daily sheets.  You can order notepads or you can order a digital download. Whichever is easiest for you.

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/85709199133505260/  This is a great idea for one of those old metal filing cabinets. I know my husband may find this useful in his shop.

http://www.sassyquilter.com/organizing-fabric-scraps/  this is a way to store all those fabric scraps instead of storing the pieces of fabric to one day use try this one.

http://www.craftsy.com/pattern/paper-crafts/printable-project-life-journaling-cards/45051  Tags to help you keep notes.

http://www.craftsy.com/pattern/paper-crafts/printable-journaling-cards/45215 Printable Journaling Cards

http://www.craftsy.com/blog/2014/07/ways-to-store-pdf-patterns/ ways to store patterns

http://theartofsimple.net/daily-docket/ and here is a free downloadable daily to do list

http://www.woodberrydesigns.com.au/willowscraftroom.htm and another complete planner download.

    All of these links will show you or provide you with ways in which to bring organization to your life and in doing so help you to bring dreams to life as well.

How Life Can Interrupt Your Dreaming

       I got a phone call on Tuesday that caused me to interrupt my intended plans for yesterday. So with that being said, I was not able to work on my Dragon and I got very little done on my Roman Blinds. What I did get done was I pulled up some designs on my embroidery machines and began to stitch them out. I was able to complete one, (which just by the off chance that the person whom these are for happens to stumble upon my blog would see it) I can not post that picture yet. The other piece that I did, hmm, well lets just say that frustration was the name of this piece. I broke 2 count them two needles on this piece then it began to behave. I thought. I got through 18 of 42 color changes.Then the third needle that I placed in, I must not have tightened it down enough, because it got pulled out and skewed the fabric. So, needless to say, several hours of work went down the tube. It is not salvageable to me because it is too far off. The photos below show the overall picture and in the second picture I have shown with arrows how far off the design went and where it started. I must say with hand embroidery this does not happen as often. You can have problems, but they are different kinds of problems. And usually as long as your not doing counted cross-stitch, are fairly easy to fix, On machine embroidery it is often much harder to fix.

So my plan today is to work on this design and hopefully get it done correctly and hopefully get my rings sewn onto my Roman Blinds so they will be ready to hang this weekend. Then I will have one more project marked off my list of projects.

Next time I will post links to sites that can help you organize your projects and possibly get you into a position that helps you to know exactly what you have left to work on. Until then continue to live life and pursue your dream.

From Dreaming to Actuallity

     Dreaming is fun and it can be healthy, however if all we ever do is dream how then will we progress. Therefore, this past weekend in between working on remodeling our kitchen cabinets, running to stores and appointments, I drew out the outline of my Dragon. I worked on the Dwarven Runes and took a USB drive to a Staples and had them print me a copy of my Project out onto a 24 X 30 sheet it may actually be a bit bigger than that. To do this it cost me about $4. This might seem like a lot of money and when you add it into the overall cost of the project it isn't even a drop. It is I think a necessary step though, by the time I had gotten it home I knew the runes were proportioned well, but the dragon was too small for what I was hoping to do. Which is okay because it was the proportion of the runes that I was having a problem with not the size of the Dragon that I wanted to do. I then took that copy and transferred the runes to another drawing of the dragon that I made that was more to the size that I wanted. I still have to transfer the runes to the plastic vinyl piece that I will use to overlay the canvas as I work on it.

   And to continue to make progress, yesterday I took inventory of the items I have purchased so far to work on my Dragon. I figured the best way for me to keep tabs on everything is to actually write it all out and take pictures of it.  It really is amazing how much material you think you will use but will I end up using all of it well I don't really know, what I do know is that as I have wandered in the shops and online I have found some amazing things for Smaug's creation and they just had to go home with me. Today, I have a few things I still have to do like going grocery shopping, doing laundry, doing ironing and some house keeping. Then I need to finish sewing up my other two roman blinds I did finish one and got it hung and it works for me.  So life does intercede and I must take care of the basics in order to continue making my dreams into an actual piece.

So here are a few quick pics of what is to be used in my Dragon and to give credit where credit is due, many of the items were bought at JoAnn's and Micheal's but I did find this wonderful charm shop online I believe it was at Esty and I have included her business card with my photos because the charms were just so cute and perfect and they were really reasonable priced she is in Canada, hmm I wonder if that means my Dragon is an International Creation?

The Place where I picked up my charms except the crowns and keys.

Let's see we have crossbows, axes, hour glasses, crowns, keys, birds, swords and shields,

Don't you just love this little skull bead. 

This is my roman shade.

So now that you have just a glimpse of what I have been up to the last few days, I am off and will post some more pre-op photos tomorrow. It is really hard to do this the right way instead of just jumping in and starting this is a whole new experience for me really it is.