Creative
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Preoccupied
With books. The Hunger Games trilogy to be exact. Over the last week that’s what I’ve been reading. Of course I could read them all at once but other things have gotten in the way. Work for example. Went back to the field for a few days to the Big Thicket in Beaumont, so paired with my reading I don’t have much time for blogging. I will need to take a break from reading to tackle some creative projects though. Julia Cameron in The Artists Way writes that reading is often a good excuse not to get things done. And she’s right. Reading, at least for me, is very consuming.…
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Leo the Model
So I made these two baby hats for some coworkers out of scrap yarn I had in my stash. Always a good thing to find a way to use leftover yarn! Leo obliged me with some modeling… A nice profile view. Not sure about this mom! But really, I’m just a cute baby! Of course Leo and Samson are no strangers to modeling! Hehe!
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Evening at Brazos Bend SP
The weekend we moved to the Houston area we went out to Brazos Bend State Park to check out the Perseids in the night sky. We set up on a short boardwalk to a large pond not too long before sunset. This time I bought my tripod because we were aiming for star and moon shots. We ended up not seeing but a tiny handful of meteors due to the very bright moon. I ended up converting most of my photos to black and white because I liked the feeling of them better. I even tried an HDR image, something I haven’t done before. I’ve mostly avoided it because I…
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Bloom Scans
I said on Wednesday this could be a new addiction…and it is! My mother in law wanted to give it a try so we bought some flowers and had some fun with the scanner last night. Here’s our results. More experimentation in the future! I think this one is my favorite. I would like to try more bulbs and fruits in the future. This is Polish white garlic; Chris just bought some to plant for the fall. I’m dreaming up awesome plant collages now…
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Sewing How-To | Easy Baby Quilt
Let me preface this post by saying that I am not a seamstress. I just wrote ‘sewer’ and realized it looked like the sanitary system, sewer, so now I realize why we don’t write that for a person who sews. *doh* Ok, back on track here. My sewing abilities began in 8th grade Home Ec in the form of a square pillow. I sew squares, folks. That’s it. I had a brief run in with a blouse that just did not work out. My mom worked with me on it but I finished back at home in Florida and I just didn’t like how it turned out. Maybe another pattern…
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Artist at Work
I did this project at the last minute. I’d remembered my sister in law, Stephanie, had once asked for a sunflower painting, but I just never found the inspiration to get it done. Her birthday came up and I decided it was the right time so I went for it. I said in another post that I typically take my time hemming and hawing over things before finishing it up but this one worked quickly. I think the last hour was spent listening to Mumford and Sons on Youtube. Good music to work to. A conversation came up with Chris last week with his mom when she asked if he…
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Blue, Green, Yellow and Complete!
I inched along long enough that I finally finished the shawl! I’m not quite sure when I will ever wear this. Maybe it will be a take to the movies shawl or a grab to fancy up something when I go out shawl. I dunno… It would also make a great scarf, too, so I like that aspect of it. The yarn grew on me despite being quite slippery at first. I still had some dropped stitches and would have to back track but it worked out well in the end. YAY! I go through creative cycles where I make, make, make and then read, read, read…it’s time for the…
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Texas Wildflowers: Saururus cernuus, Lizard’s tail
This plant is one of my favorite wetland plants. They offer beautiful texture to the marsh and smell pretty good, too! A wetland plant, they are a perennial and range to approximately 2′ in height. Lizard’s tail is native to much of the U.S. and can be found in freshwater to brackish marshes. The plant mainly spreads by rhizomes so it would be easy to divide and spread in a garden. Apparently in Connecticut and Rhode Island the plant is considered endangered! More information: +Missouri Plants information +USDA page +Wildflower.org +Connecticut Botanical Society +Pond Megastore potential place to buy it for your garden. +Water Garden.org another potential place to buy…
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3 Book Reviews
Back in April I wrote about three books I’d bought at the used book store. I finally finished all of them, the last one last weekend. Here’s a bit about what I thought of them. Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States by Bill Bryson: I was familiar with Bryson’s work from A Walk in the Woods but had only thumbed through his other books at the store. This one was on clearance so I nabbed it and was immediately fascinated with the book. The book begins with the initial colonization of the U.S. and how the English language was brought over from…
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Hollyhock Pastel—Finished?
Finishing something is a struggle for me. At what point is it done? Right now I am struggling with the background. I don’t particularly like it. I tried to mimic the photo, the blurry background and all but I’m not liking it too much. What do you think? I was thinking of blending it more and making it a more generic darker/darker green background. I just don’t know.. What I want to do is spray it and put it away but I also don’t want something crappy lingering around either. I did the main part of the flower with pastel pencils, which I actually liked except I’d invest in better…