well that took forever

my little prim and proper project from last week

has evolved

or should I say

invovled

I had an idea that involved shopping

ugh!

... it was a simple idea ...

but this is what it took to execute it:

Home Depot tool department to buy a soldering iron

Online Shopping for copper foil tape (which took nearly a week to arrive)

Local  Craft Store for copper jump rings

Lowe's for plate glass and glass cutting tool

Home Depot again for solder and flux

will I do this again?

I have all the supplies to do it

but I have to first get over my exhaustion

prim and proper

I brightened up my workspace with this lovely little primula from the grocery store today

I thought she needed to have her portrait done

sometimes I think I have to always be near water

... even if it's only an inch wide and a millimeter deep

happy Thursday

it's been fun to join you on another wintery day

 - I hope yours has a spot of color in it too!

making color

 it was fun to read how everyone is tackling their winter blues and lack of color:

We are painting the interior of our house, all kinds of wonderful colors.....tomato bisque, apache clay, grey expose, honeysuckle beige (a yellow), canyon earth,dusky hyacinth,and wetlands (a green). Wonderful names and wonderful fun colors. They are all in a color family and when I look from one room to the next, it makes me smile.   -Yvonne

Everything around here is white with snow and so this afternoon l paint a sun!  -Lynda

turning all the lights on in the house or my studio seems to help!!  -Caterina

surrounded by colorful things, from embroidery to Tibetan prayer flag, and no matter what the fickle weather throws, there's color in my mind's eye, color in my memories. I wear red, stay in bed imagining the vistas of this wide, wide world, listen to colorful music, eat apples, beets and carrots, fling colorful words and strokes in pencil, pen, or brush across a ragged page, and so abide, content within my days. -Ms.

yes, I'm big-time color starved--I need to go pull out some colorful fabric and make something/anything with it!

-cat@sea.sky.stone

I am dreaming of green...I bought myself a bunch of tulips, orange with yellow tips, with the groceries this week. What a gift !  And my rainbow of embroidery floss does make me smile.  -Kim

Yes! You diagnosed what I'm suffering from! I hate my phone's camera for that reason-- all of the photos come out "blue" and somber. Today I tried retouching photos for my post on a "new" editing program my daughter loaded on my computer. Things are a little brighter, but could be better.  -Nathalie

***

our fog has lifted today - finally

but here are a couple of parting shots from yesterday

Rime Ice coating the tree branches

(Rime Ice, which I had never heard of before now, is formed in freezing fog conditions)

are you color starved too?

 we've had a lot of fog this last week

it just washes the color out of everything

and I find myself color starved

this ball of yarn is like a great big vitamin pill of color

(warm woolen socks in process)

it reminds me of that Deathcab for Cutie song Lack of Color:

if you feel discouraged that there's a lack of color here

please don't worry - it's really bursting at the seams

absorbing everything - the spectrum's A to Z

and coincidentally enough, those guys (DCFC) are from around here

so they knew what they were talking about when they wrote that song

what are you doing for your daily dose of color?

I know Corinne is elbow deep in paint

Patty's playing with beeswax

Dawn and Tammy are crocheting up a storm

Sharon is rediscovering her beautiful bead collection

Becca has her camera

Kim has her lovely stones and journal

Lynn has illustrated a book

... I am surrounded by encouragement and inspiration ...

x o x o 

going for a dip

... oh don't I wish

:)

actually, here I am dipping things into beeswax again

(please don't look too closely at the sink full of dishes in the background!)

I'm dipping hydrangeas again, but this time I'm dipping a whole section at a time

(see THIS previous post for an earlier hydrangeas in beeswax session)

another change: I'm using a mini crockpot for melting the wax

and today is a particularly photogenic day with all the afternoon sunshine

- wee hah -

I'm soaking it up

aren't they pretty in an old jar?

I also love how they look in a simple bowl on the table

pure loveliness in my view

staying in

it's day three of steady rain

... a good thing if you're a duck ...

my herb garden is ponding

and I'm off my New Year's resolution to walk every day

so I'm staying in and making things

*

about the photo storage limits on blogspot:

the best solution seems to be keeping your photos at a maximum 800 pixels height or width

(the storage is free for that size)

and if you are over the limit or nearing it, either start deleting or start paying

I found my storage information at the very bottom of my PicasaWeb account page

I also found it on my Google+ account information page

Thank you everyone for your comments and feedback!

I think it was a very helpful discussion!

If you are new to this conversation and want to read all of the comments,

please visit this post: photo storage question

photo storage question

has anyone encountered the free 1GB limit for Blogger photos (stored in PicasaWeb)?

I haven't hit the limit, but deleted all of my 2008 posts just in case

I'm hoping that will keep me in good standing for a while

2008 seems like ancient history and I never look back on those earliest blogging days

.... it actually felt good to hit the delete key ....

a good day for the beach

(Mukilteo Beach on Puget Sound)

I gave myself a mini escape to the beach a few days before Christmas

not to catch any rays (the sun went down at 4:00)

but to look for stones

isn't it an amazing place?

I never tire of it - no matter how cold it is

(not much sand - but lots of great beach stones!)

and now I've washed and dried the stones I collected

and painted them too

(another thing I never tire of - perhaps the most relaxing art project ever!)

balance in 2013

do you choose a word for the coming year?

I'm on again off again

last year - no word

year before that - my word was resolute

this year I'm definitely feeling the need to carpe diem - carpe anum?

seize the year

give it a word

a goal

a purpose

a plan

B A L A N C E

is my word

... could it be your word too?

I felt especially off balance this last month

- sigh -

but now it's a new year

- whew -

*

my art journal is where I committed my word

first laying out all of the leftover words from this year's projects

letting my thoughts go where they go

laying out paper and color

symmetrical as per my usual

- B A L A N C E -

placing the words coherently

- using all but five from my jumbled pile -

how did that jumble string together?

B A L A N C E

look about at morning and keep the children on time

then make long from little - with other and many

we have a seaport from azure set among our young maidens

live for each other

I N   2 0 1 3

... well at least I get it :)

carpe anum

happy new year to you and to yours as you balance it all