Details

God is in the details, goes the old saying. I always look for the details; my eye tends to crop what I see.

I love details, and I love the unfinished. The secret to the "unfinished" is balance: There's a portrait in Versailles of the young Napoleon Bonaparte by the artist David, which is unfinished. I first saw it on a school day trip when I was 16, and fell in love with it. I thought it was perfect just as it was, and that had David finished it, I wouldn't have liked it so much. I think it's because you can feel the hand of the artist, his spirit, a footprint in time. Why he didn't finish the portrait I don't know, and I never cared enough to find out. In my eyes, it was perfect...

Weekend update

A little dress hanging from a chopstick. The faux stitching to simulate mending was inspired by Ruth Rae (if Ruth didn't exist we would have to invent her! we have similar tastes in the quiltie department and I always find her work inspiring.)


After my second session at the Yoga studio, I decided to go back to practising at home. The first teacher was good, but she threw in some of her own moves ("dance" movements, she told me proudly. Huh?) that I wasn't too keen on. The second on relied more on bricks and sandbags and bolsters and straps.........ye gods! This is supposed to be Hatha yoga. If you want to create your own, then don't call it Hatha! We were only 5 people in the class, and the teacher crouched down to one of the students and had a long conversation with her, which I found very distracting. I started getting tense, but I stuck through it. When I left I knew I wouldn't be coming back.

Some things you cannot improve on.

I started hatha yoga many years ago with an instructor who was excellent. All she required was a mat. I took classes with her regularly, until she left. Her classes made me fit in mind and body, and I really miss her. I will just have to discipline myself and practise at home, regularly. I can do this because she taught me well. I have done it, I just need to get back into it.

Ephemera Part Two

[detail]

Don't limit yourself. Stamp here, print there, scribble here, collage there. This face (by Teesha Moore) was blown up and printed directly on the emphera, as were the rabbits in my previous post. It's a delicate operation feeding the paper through the printer, but it is worth it!

Ephemera

Note: the bunny image is not a stamp; it's Victorian scrap printed directly onto the telegram.


Detail from a Dubious Document made with a Western Union telegram. Those were the days!

Fromage!

Say Cheese!

This new piece, and more watercolors from my food illustration days, are now available on eBay.

Mine eyes have seen the beauty in ...

A dried pod almost 8 inches long.

Old pegs from Art from Scrap (Santa Barbara)

Dried fruit and hibiscus flowers from Trader Joe.

A new week

[Tags available on eBay]

I'm slowly getting back to my normal energy levels. It's been difficult adjusting to a total of 6 hours of back and forth jet lag, daylight savings time, the red-eye and all that stuff. I took myself to a yoga class on Saturday and spent yesterday stiff and sore. I'm going back this evening for another class so I can continue easing back in. For my Toronto friends, the Roots store on Yonge St. at Rosedale has a yoga studio above it, in case you're interested.

But enough of that!

This doesn't mean I haven't been busy. My rubber stamps are ready to be scanned and sent to Stampington. I cannot tell you how exciting this is for me. And other things are being done, slowly but surely. Stay tuned!

Flowers

As they say in Italy, sono stanca da morire*......... so I'll leave you with these beautiful flowers I photographed in Julie's garden.

*I am dead tired.

Canadian Content

My debut in Somerset Life.

Katie Maksym (who took the photo of me and Ludgera that I manipulated and used on my stationary), informs me that the new Somerset Life is already in at BizzyB's....

I call this magazine scrumptious because if it were food, it would be a gourmet feast, one that changes every issue, but always a feast, a moveable feast, thank you Mr. Hemingway.

And another thing...

This week, while I was travelling and recovering from jet lag compounded by Daylight Savings Time, I was given this award at scrapbooking.com's magazine.

Thank you, Jami Petersen, editor of Scrapbooking.

A week to remember, Part 2

Kellen Giloff and Jenny Doh...if you want to know why they're laughing, you'll have to check out a future issue Somerset Life. Meanwhile, I'm in the April 1 issue. It's as delicious an issue as always, so watch out for it.

(You can see better photos of this visit at Jenny's blog )

And before I knew it, it was Thursday. I had made arrangements with Jenny Doh to meet up at the Stampington offices....

Well! I couldn't have wished for a warmer and more enthusiastic reception. The energy was positively humming, and it was a testament to the fact that if you have good managers, you have a happy, productive staff.

Kellene, Jenny, Jana, and all the artsy staff (including Diane at Reception-- she was very sweet!). I thank them all from the bottom of my heart. I am thrilled to be working with them.

I left with a gift from Jenny, something I've long admired and secretly wanted, those scrumptious crocheted necklaces that Jenny is famous for.

Now, if you'll forgive me, I have to go and finish an article on ... fish, and start carving some stamps.

A week to remember, Part 1

We'd been talking about a visit for months, and finally last week, I flew to Santa Barbara and spent a week with my friend Julie. We speak on the phone often so there wasn't much to catch up with, so I relaxed into her daily routine. I did my usual California rituals (one of them being In N Out) and I got to visit with one of my favorite people, Robin Abcarian, who is senior features correspondent for the L.A. Times. The last time we'd seen each other was about six years ago when she was visiting in Toronto. On the Wednesday, I went with Julie to her widows' group, aware of the irony that I qualified, and met a lovely bunch of women who have all been recently widowed and support each other at a potluck dinner every week. It was good to see that Julie has this support.

I renewed my friendship with fig and avocado trees, and the orange tree was laden with the juiciest oranges you could imagine. I ate my last one on the morning of my departure and it was so juicy that I had to eat it over the kitchen sink.

I spent a lot of time with Shadow. I was alarmed to hear that she was ailing and may not be long for this world, so she got a lot of attention from me.

Back home

On the red-eye flight from San Fran, and so much to tell. My news will have to wait a tiny bit longer after I get some rest. Meanwhile, here's Shadow, and me, among the calla lilies. I spent a lot of time with her....

I'll be back!

California, here I come/right back where I started from..... which is no lie. I started from San Diego. I'm just wondering it they changed the State motto to "I'll be back" -- or as the Governator says in the TV commercial, "You'll be back."

I'll be back March 16 in the dead of night.

Meanwhile, be well, be safe, be happy.

Bright sunny day

A cheap, ugly fake flower part, dipped in plaster and embellished with beads and wire, becomes beautiful!

It's damp, it been rainy, the temperature is rising -- can this be a prelude to spring? One can only hope.

My city

"Come with me to Canada. Toronto is just like New York – without all the stuff." -- Steve Martin to Tina Fey on 3D Rock.

A little bit of humor goes a long way.

White

Beautiful lace and plaster of Paris....


Need I say more?

The book is one of my old school textbooks, Pantagruel by François Rabelais. I do not miss school, I have to tell you!

A sampling....

....of my Bird by Bird Journal. I'm leaving for Santa Barbara on Monday March 9 for a week, so I'll be binding it when I get back.

Pretty simple

My tastes are simple. I like simple, but it has to have quality. A handful of quality items means more to me than owning loads of stuff of little quality. I learned that early on within my own family: quality over quantity. It cuts down on the clutter, too.

I like the Italian term: sprezzatura. It dates from the Renaissance, meaning something that looks simple, but has a lot of thought and work behind it.

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