The Farm; Spring 2010...

We traveled north to Alger Michigan this weekend to visit the farm. It was a little warm, but we had a wonderful time. For those of you not familiar with "the farm" it is eighty acres in the middle of nowhere about an hour and a half north of Saginaw Bay. My mother-n-law grew up there...

Now the property is used as vacation/recreation property. It's a little like camping as the house is very small, if there are more than three or four people in the house we are sleeping on the floors, and you have to bring up bottled water; there are a lot of minerals (mainly sulfur and iron) in the water and it's not very good to drink it. But it's absolute beauty; a 50+ year old apple orchard, wetlands, dear, birds, coyotes and even a black bear now and then...

The girls had a blast, they ran around with my nephew Jakob and played superheros, basketball off the side of the barn, and they even convinced Jake to play "Little House On The Prairie" a couple of times. With the exception of near 90 degree weather on Sunday and no air conditioning (I'll admit I'm a wimp when it comes to warm humid weather) we had a perfect weekend...

Life is too precious to not enjoy the simplest of things. Caterpillars, butterflies, ice cream, mud puddles, apple orchards and great big barns just to name a few...

A bookmark in progress...

Honoring my Aunt Judy, I am trying really, really hard to be creative every day and to do what I love to do - create beauty. This is the current bookmark that I am working on for my bookmark challenge; to create one new bookmark every week. These are simple to make, and will force me to create a little bit out of my comfort zone as I have only about a 2 inch by 6 inch canvas to work with!

I am making my bookmarks out of paper cloth, so this is also allowing me the opportunity to create a new sheet of paper cloth every week as well. I am one day behind on that because of being up at the farm in Michigan this weekend. I will post pictures of the completed bookmark and the new piece of paper cloth on Friday.

I have done a lot of soul searching the last month and a half. The last several years have been all good, but a good many dreams and aspirations that I seek, have really been put on hold the last several years. I'm quite positive I am not the only mother to experience this, we do it all the time. I don't want to look back and be bitter and resentful because I never got to do what I dreamed of. The truth is, there is no reason I can't do what I dream of, it is just a matter of sometimes putting myself first. On that note, I wish everyone a Blessed, dream filled week!

It has been quite a journey the last couple of months. My Aunt Judy, also my Godmother, passed away on May 5th after a long battle with Cancer. She was, without a doubt, an amazing woman, and I will greatly miss her. She was the matriarch of her family, the "ruler of the roost" and the foundation that kept everything together. She taught me how to paint on wood, "make stuff" and was a creative person long before there was Martha Stewart, HGTV, or Craft Blogs.

She created beauty in everything and in everyone she touched; she was an artist, decorator extraordinare, valiant warrior, a mother, a grandmother, and a great-grandmother. Known not only as Judy King but also as Tootsie, Great Tootsie, Aunt Tootsie, and just "The Toots". My Aunt Judy lived every day to the absolute fullest. She was a breast cancer survivor in 1995 and lived well beyond the 6 years they gave her. My husband fondly recalls meeting her for the first time: She pulled him aside and said "I am living on borrowed time, I don't have time for games, are you going to marry my niece or what?" As he later put it "How could I say no to Aunt Judy, of course I was going to marry you!"

In honor of my Aunt Judy, I am going to make every effort to live my life to the fullest, and evaluate what is truly important to me, decide what I want from this life, and then go after it with an open heart, and a creative spirit...

A papercloth bookmark challenge for myself...

I have been experimenting with a lot of paper cloth making lately. I find it to be an easy way to "play and experiment". I have made several bookmarks from this paper cloth. They are easy, quick, and allow me to create something useful that will add beauty to someone's life. Since they are simple, I am challenging myself to creating one a week for the next year. There, I did it, I finally published the challenge to myself that I have been thinking about for the last two months! Now I am committed...

My Aunt's death was hard, it forced me to really look at what is important to me right now in my life: My family, my health, and my passion to create beauty. I haven't figured out the whole balancing act yet, I may never quite figure it out, but I'm sure going to try. This challenge is one way for me to start truly creating every day. I feel better about myself, my family, and my life when I create and I know My Aunt Judy is smiling down on me...

"Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?" Luke 12: 25-26.

Papercloth

Of course making a paper cloth book bookmark every week also means making a new sheet of paper cloth every week! My plan is to start the paper cloth every Sunday evening, finishing on Monday evening. By Tuesday it will be dry and ready to use in some bookmark making. The piece above was made with turquoise, green, and yellow tissue paper, used dryer sheets, and old ledger paper. It was then painted, stamped and embellished (with a little bit of glitter, and metallic paint).

I think making paper cloth is a great way for me to experiment with creativity and not have to worry about "completing a project". It's my way of just playing around. It is also a good way for me to practice collage techniques, and creating different layers. This piece was made at Christmas time from red and green tissue paper, wrapping paper, old ledger paper, stamps, paint, glitter, and used dryer sheets. The book that started all of this wonderful paper cloth making is "Stitch Alchemy, Combining Fabric + Paper for Mixed-Media Art" by Kelli Nina Perkins. This is an absolutely wonderful book! It changed the way I think about fabric and paper. If you decide to make your own, please share some pictures!