art in red wagons: March 2010

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

tea 4 two giveaway

As a thank you for coming over and sipping your hot cuppa with me most Tuesdays ...

... I have 4 of these little tea holder jobbers

I made them with love

and with hopefulness

that you'll enjoy the tea

and continue to visit

I will pick 4 names next Tuesday out of the comments left on today's post.

And to all of my hostess these past 6 weeks ... I also have one for you and a little something extra too - for all the extra you did for me :)
***

Please also visit these fine blogs for a nice visit and a hot cuppa:

Thursday, March 25, 2010

1 award, 5 blogs and 7 things

thank you Penny (The Linen Shelf)

for the award!

Penny has 2 blogs

Penny's Hen House and The Linen Shelf

(you might know her Hen House blog from the Tuesday Tea parties)

I would like to pass this award on to these 5 beautiful blogs:

***

and now 7 things about myself that you might not know:

I have always driven a stick shift car (except for a mini-van I once had for a couple of years)
I'm addicted to puzzles (sudoku and crossword puzzles mostly)
When I have a newspaper I always read the obituaries (I read the news too)
I used to be a Republican (sorry)
I was badly bullied as a kid - but now all those bully kids like me for some reason (I help out at school with at-risk kids)
I have wanted to be an artist for as long as I can remember (but also wanted to be a nurse because I knew I would need a "real" job to stay alive)
I can't stand Christmas (it's complicated)

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

k is for ....

kneel

here is my inchie this week for the letter "k"

I used pearl-ex powder for the edging

and a bit of fiber at the bottom

the image is from a vintage postcard

***

I'm tempted to go off topic with my sober-minded themes

how about

k is for .... kippered herring?

***

Inchy by Inch Alphabet challenge

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

tea and spring

I have a new bike :)

and I rode it to the bakery for tea

it must be spring!!!!

and look at all the flowers in bloom!

we've had a very mild winter and an early spring this year in Western Washington

I wonder if we'll have another scorching summer?

Oh well ....

***

for more signs of spring among the tea ladies, please also visit these lovely blogs:

Monday, March 22, 2010

... if you are posting to your blog a Tea On Tuesday post, Dianne is hosting this week (her blog is Bits and Pieces of D) and the theme she chose is: "What signifies the coming of spring for you?" It will be fun to see what spring is like in your part of the world .....

moving right along

making progress on my 99 inchies (see THIS post)

(20 down 79 to go)

there's even one with a redone fugly button

there's still time if you want to swap too

99 inchies due by April 16th

(here's the thread)

Thursday, March 18, 2010

fugly buttons re-done

I bought this jacket 2 yrs ago and have only worn it once.

I hate the brown fake wood buttons.

(I'm hoping I haven't insulted anyone that might have the very same jacket!)

so what do do?

alter the buttons of course!

(click on image to enlarge)

I used old book text first;

applied a thin layer of gesso;

then decoupage medium and a flower patterned paper napkin;

then cut out words edged with gesso;

then more more gesso along the edge of the buttons;

then more decoupage medium.

Only problem is I don't think they're washable.

I suppose I could have dipped the buttons in a polyurethane as a final coat.

In the meantime I will try not to spill anything on this Bright White jacket (ha!)

If you have the same jacket as me - are you going to fix those buttons too?

(giggle)

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

T today ...

... today's hosted theme for today is

"where you live"

(thank you Penny at The Hen House for hosting today!)

where I live in Western Washington

there are lots of bridges, barns, quaint old buildings, tall trees, amazing walking trails, misty valleys, long twilights, green pastures
(click on pictures to enlarge)

and just a hop skip and a jump from me is

Seattle and the Puget Sound ...

Seattle is just like my town, only it's all grown up

... and they mostly drink coffee there (wink)

I love both coffee and tea

and it has nothing to do with politics (another wink)

***

for more "where I live" tea posts, please visit:

Monday, March 15, 2010

tomorrows tea ....

... if you are posting to your blog a Tea On Tuesday post, Penny is hosting this week (her blog is the Hen House) and the theme she chose is: "Where You Live." You can be as specific as you'd like, but the main idea is to get a feel for your part of the world - because we ARE from all over the world!

"j" is for ...

This is for the Inchy by Inch weekly challenge.

I had a really hard time coming up with a word that starts with the letter J.

I've been trying to use words that are important to me personally.

I could have used "jump for joy"

but I'm not a jumping sort of person.

Or "just do it"

but that's reserved for athletes (I'm not an athlete by any stretch of the imagination).

Or "jazz it up"

but I don't like jazz much.

Or there's jive, jinx, jubilate, jeer, jiggle and jolly.

Ugh.

I kept going back to the idea of Justice.

This one works for me.

Just curious -

can you come up with a J word that's meaningful?

Also, here's how I made the nail heads in my inchie:

I just cut a straight pin with my "designated crummy scissors."

The Inchie Arts material is nice and thick to take my homemade nailheads.

I just create a hole using a large needle.

Then I add a dot of glue and insert the "nailhead"

The thickness of the Inchie base is great, because the homemade nailhead doesn't poke all the way through to the back.

Inchie Arts ivory inchie bases.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

wishing you ...

a daffy dipsy daffodil sort of day

and a happy daylight savings time :)

Thursday, March 11, 2010

"bricolage" inchies

On monday I posted an inchie and Bleubeard and Elizabeth commented:

These insanely tiny pieces are beginning to call my name. Now if I could just figure out a way to make them bigger (grin).

Well, I went over to her blog to see what she's been up to lately and I saw this post and I commented:

what a fabulous word (bricolage)! You could use this technique and then cut out a few one inch squares of the most interesting bits - and voila - you would have some amazing inchies (hint hint)

so I gave it a try.

As she said, Bricolage is:

Bricolage: (from Merriam-Webster)

Pronunciation: \ˌbrē-kō-ˈläzh, ˌbri-\

Function: noun

Etymology: French, from bricoler to putter about

Date: 1964

: construction (as of a sculpture or a structure of ideas) achieved by using whatever comes to hand; also : something constructed in this way

this is my full sheet of "bricolage."

then I cut it into 1" strips using a ruler and an x-acto knife

then I cut the strips into 1" squares, using a template and scissors

now just a few finishing touches with fibers, beads, sanding, etc.

and attaching it to a wonderfully thick, ivory colored inchie square

(another shameless plug for Inchie Arts and their fabulous art board bases)

and I'll have well over 100 inchies

why 100?

I'm in a 99 inchie swap

and no, I'm not crazy :)

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

today's "t" ... and "life" happens

Today's "t" is brought to us by Ooglebloops - the theme today is "life!"

The tea I'm drinking is a powdered sencha green tea that you can just sprinkle into your water bottle, shake it up and you're good to go .... perfect for "life!"

I'm drinking it from my Tea Jar that I picked up at our local tea shop here in town.

(I've given you the link to shop online - but their website is under construction and the tea jars aren't listed yet)