Friday-12:15pm

Leah sent me a sunrise picture from their house.  This is what they see mornings from their dining room/living room windows.  Beautiful!

Today it is dark, cloudy, but warmer at 19 degrees.  Supposed to get up into the 30s by Sunday--whoohoo!  

Dark days are good sleeping days. 

Of course, with Karma, every day is a good sleeping day--LOL!

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Her grass has fallen over, but it's still green.  Lasting pretty long this time.  Maybe because it's pretty close to a cold door--almost like being in the frig--LOL! 

My birthday present to self arrived!!  I would never normally buy whole huge sets like this--whoohoo!! 

Each bottle was wrapped in plastic. 

She sent this leaking silver distress paint bottle for free. 

A new bottle and the one color that she didn't have will come next week. 

I slowly unwrapped them all.  Here's the distress paints in their bin on the wall shelves... 

...and here's the dylusions sprays. 

The three metallic colors of distress paints I stuck in with some other metallics and the odd goldens, etc.  Meanwhile... 

...the leather cover wasn't apparently dry yet--buckled.  :(

So, I misted it on both sides, placed it inside of some waxed paper, and inserted it into the stack (under the Synonym Finder book). 

I think this stack is going to be here a long time.  I don't care if it takes a month for them to dry in there now that I know what they can look like in the end.  I'll just keep flipping them and checking them.  Don't want them to get moldy or anything because of the lack of air circulation.  ;)

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I drug out my mister box and my old watercolor moleskine to play with some of the dylusions sprays!  The test--I soaked this page spread well and let it totally dry.  Then laid a stencil on top, misted it well with water, let it sit a bit, and then dried it with paper towels. 

I love this kind of shadow effect you can get with this technique. 

If it wasn't bone dry the water would have taken up more of the color, I believe.  At least that is what I've seen on videos--along with lots of other fun things to try, too.  What vibrant colors!!  I haven't even gotten the distress paints out yet!  :)

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I lost internet Weds afternoon, but when I unplugged and replugged it was okay.  Then at 2am Thursday morning it went out again.  I messed with it three times (unplugging, etc) in half an hour and gave up.  When I checked around 4am it was on again--and it's been on since then.  ??  I'm hoping it was a fluke or a maintenance thing (companies assume most people are asleep in the middle of the night).  Seems to be fine and stable (know how to check online now).  I have my fingers crossed.

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Well, for the first time my sleep was really off.  I wasn't able to get to bed until 5am for a couple nights...but still woke up in a few hours so didn't get much sleep at all.  Was really dragging for a couple days, but then finally crashed last night.  Still tired and yawning today.  Hard to make up sleep--takes a while.  Now this happening once in a while I wouldn't mind.  Just so I don't start having regular troubles sleeping or start sleeping around the clock with the any & all irregular hours like I used to.  

Time will tell, eh?

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I'm not going to worry about it.  Whatever happens--happens.  I can always go back on the melatonin...which is good to know.  :)

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Anyways, enough on that subject...she says yawning--LOL!  I finished Nurse Jackie season five--talk about a cliffhanger.  Realistic, but so sad.  Now I can hardly wait till season six becomes available on Netflix.  Today The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is supposed to arrive in the mail.  Time for lunch...or breakfast--LOL!  The day awaits!  Be well, safe, and happy!!  :) :)

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"Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair."

Kahlil Gibran  

Tuesday-11:15am

Good T-Day Morning!

Longer post with lots of pictures today.

Karma's been wanting more attention lately.  Not that she doesn't always use me as a heating pad in the winter--LOL!  I realized that since I added the leaves in the table she can't sit and look out the window at "her" end of the table anymore.  So I got out the old TV tray and her favorite old bath mat... 

...so that she could sit by me while I wrote letters. 

LOL!  As you can see, I am still finding it quite amusing to paint just the one little nail on my left hand in color or sparkle and do the rest in clear polish.  This time it's gold. 

I'll definitely do this again for Miss Karma.  She really settled in and even dozed. 

I figured out a way to press the damp leather!  I had these two blue plastic trays... 

...I laid down the damp smaller leather cover and placed the plastic I borrowed from my gelli plate on top. 

I didn't want these circle thingies on the bottom of the trays... 

...to leave marks on the leather. 

So, sandwiched the leather cover inbetween the two trays and stacked heavy books on top.  Took three days for the smaller cover to dry under there--but look! 

It worked beautifully!! 

Right now I am pressing the larger leather cover.  Going to take more than three days, I think.  But I am so happy with the results that patience is not an issue.  :)

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 I had the junk journal out again and was working on the Journal52 prompts.

For "abstract" I did get out more trash and have a blast!  Didn't even use the screw bolt, broken spool, or pill bottle. 

But this!  I had such fun with this that I washed it and saved it to use again.  It was the bottom plastic holder for a package of 24 glue sticks. 

As you can see I just played like I was five again. 

Well, not even. 

When I was five I colored inside the lines. 

 I had been playing with a page--just painting layers of my very old gold shimmer mist on it.  Was curious as to how many layers it would take for it to just look gold without streaks.  I think I painted 5 or 6 layers and it only looked solid gold from a side view with the light hitting it just right. 

Anyways, I had this golden page...and the next prompt was "Lost art of Love Letters" and they had this quote as an example... 

"Tis better to have loved and lost 

than never to have loved at all" 

by Alfred Lloyd Tennyson.

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I was in a silly mood.  Wrote that quote down...and then added mine--LOL!

Tis better to have loved and lost 

than to live miserably in "love".  ;)

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And then the next prompt was "When I grow up..."

I finger-painted and glued a small statement on top.   

Never!

Rita PitaPan

Fargoland 

Told you I was in a silly mood.  ;)

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Over the weekend we had 40-55 below wind chills again and -26 degrees.  My check was in early so I had Cashwise deliver groceries on Sunday and placed my big sprays & paints birthday order at Nona Designs.  (She had the best prices, had the big sets, and no shipping costs over $99!).  Baked bread.  Did laundry.  Made bean soup.  Finished the last of the five letters I had all set and ready to answer--and another one, too, that came in the meantime.  ;)  It warmed up yesterday--saw 8 above.  And right now it is 10 degrees.  March came in like a lion...so maybe it will actually go out like a lamb?  Time will tell, eh?

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Caroline comes this afternoon.  I've already been rearranging on the wall shelves to make room for the coming colorful birthday goodies!!  They should be here this week!!  Whoohoo!  Two more prompts and I will be caught up on Journal52.  Oh, and I should add this post to The Artist's Playroom today, too!  

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 I am definitely not seeing sunrises any time soon.  Back to being a night owl...and feeling more like my old self, to be honest.  Felt so familiar to be quietly bringing letters down to the mailbox in my robe at 2:30 in the morning because I'd never be up early enough to beat the mailman.  ;)  My routine of the last two years is totally thrown off, but I am adjusting and will find a new one.  Or should I say an old one--LOL!  Have a fabulous week!!  :) :)

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"My storehouse having been burnt down, 

nothing obstructs my view of the bright moon."

Masahide, Zen poet     

Thursday-10am

Good Morning!

Just to show you why up here we say things like..."Don't like the weather?  Give it time."  This was the blue sky with white clouds we had yesterday afternoon...

...and this was the white out condition we had less than two hours later.

Miss Karma wasn't feeling that good during the night.

Barfed up food (no grass and she hasn't been eating Phil and Fern anymore) in two places on the carpeting yesterday (which I covered up with rags so that none of us would step on the scrubbed wet spots) and a big one on the rug by the door.

So big that it needed washing, right?  Well, you might remember how there was almost no backing left on those two rugs and I bought this carpet tape to put on the back so I wouldn't break my neck on the slippery rugs, right?  I can't wash that rug anymore.  But I did have a spare that has been rolled up in the storage area lo these nine years since I moved across the river to Fargo.  I bought the rugs when I lived in Moorhead--needed three over there, but only two here.
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So--I rolled up the gross old one that won't clean up well and went down to dig out the spare.  Now they had all been used for six years in Moorhead, right?  Well, it's downright amazing what another nine years will do to a rug--ROFL!  Here's the back-taped old one in the kitchen... 

...and here's the spare unrolled by the door.  Can't really tell?  Here let me really show you...

They look like two different rugs--LOL!  One is light cream and one is tan.  One is falling apart and one still has rubber backing--intact.  One is thin and flat as a board and one has pile!  

I actually forgot these ever had pile--LOL!  Dagan and Leah noticed it the minute they walked in last night.  Still makes me smile in wonder every time I step on it.  Ahhh!  The little things in life, eh?
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I guess I have gotten my mojo back!  Putter!  Putter!  I had to go through and take the seals off the tops of all the rest of the new Dick Blick liquid acrylic bottles.  

You know how sometimes the seal comes up but you're left with that film of paper left behind?  Every one of them.  So, messy--but all done.  (And my sciatica was quite patient with the process...I am whispering...don't want to jinx myself.)  
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Then I started the new cover for the binder insert I saved.

You can see how I was using those new brass strips.  LOVE THEM!!

Took me a while to decide where the covers should end up as far as the flowers on the print went.  (Darn--didn't really think of that before I cut a hunk of fabric--duh!)  Then I penciled in where to glue the boards and where to cut in nothing flat!

Got out my PVA glue...

...brayered them down...

...grabbed my clump of used waxed paper, stacked some heavy boxes on top, and left that overnight. 

Meanwhile...the fauxdoris.  (Faux Midori travelers notebooks)  I cut the leather piece I bought off Amazon and it was large enough to cut a large and a smaller cover...just like I hoped!!  Remember the Midori rubber bands I bought?  I tried them out and they will work great on these!

I folded the covers in half and stacked a bunch of books on top of them and left those overnight, too.

Unlike the nice flat binder cover pieces...the leather didn't really enjoy the book pressing.  The bigger one is close, but the smaller one wasn't anywhere near cooperating.

I got an idea.  I wet one of the tiny scrap pieces of leather, folded it, bulldog clamped it, and left that to dry all day yesterday. 

It worked beautifully!  The water did not ruin the leather, but the clamp did leave marks and weaken the fibers at the fold a bit. 

So--I am thinking.  I will figure out a way to wet them, fold them, and maybe just book press them without ruining my books or leaving marks on the damp leather.  So waxed paper or butcher paper won't work because it creases and crinkles all up when wet--trust me, I know--and would leave marks if directly next to the leather.  I am going to search for something smooth and plastic, I think.  But the fauxdori project is coming along quite nicely!
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I'm having more trouble trying to figure out how to make the inside piece for the binder cover that will include a pocket.  The sewing machine will be coming out soon, I think.  If I mess this up terribly...I can always start over.  I have a lot more fabric and chipboard, so no problem.  (These are the things I tell myself so I can take plunges into the unknown--LOL!)
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Dagan and Leah came over last night with food from Arby's!  (I sent fresh bread home with them.)  Leah worked on her sample for her baby shower thank you cards.  

There was enough dark brown paper when she was shopping Monday night but Leah had to ask them to order a stack of the green paper.  It's from our local K&Krafts shop and they'll call her when it comes in.  They're just great about doing special orders.

We all like the simple style.  Hard to see--here's a close up.  The green paper is textured.  Kind of linen-y.  

I was Leah's assistant last night as we experimented with the new Christmas card stamps and blue ink pad colors.  We just LOVE these winter scenes!!

They are even prettier stamped up than we expected!

They will have a sentiment stamped along the bottom.

So happy we have found something we all love that are really simple for us to make!  We can actually make up four years worth of Christmas cards to have on hand!!  Awesome!  And if we want to make other cards in the meantime any given year--we can (and probably will).  But we will know we will be set for four years!  Talk about taking the pressure off!  Nice!  Whoohoo!! 
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Dagan brought back my old TV computer box.  Remember it sounded like the fan was going crazy or something?  He hadn't had a chance to mess with it--plugged it in--turned it on--and it seemed to be silently working just fine.  Another mysterious repair by the tech fairies?? 

So, he re-hooked it up last night.  Left the cover off just in case, but it appears to be working??  And I have volume control again--TaDa!!  Happy me!
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And again--just in case--the other computer tower is standing by.  ;)  We'll see how it goes.

When they left last night the TV computer was busy doing some kind of re-setting itself up.

When it was finished...it said there was no connection.  I called Dagan.  Just had to shut it down and start it up again and it was fine.  I haven't tried to turn it on yet today.  I better check, actually.  I have been putting off starting the final episodes of Breaking Bad (and have managed to not know how it ends, so don't tell me, please!) and I am about ready for a relaxing TV marathon day.  (If you can possibly call visiting Mr. White and Jesse relaxing--ROFL!)
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Aha!  Looks like I can start watching Breaking Bad today!  Whoohoo!  But first...I wonder if I can find some smooth plastic...
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Have a great day!!  :) :)
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"Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished."
Lao Tzu