Yippy Yuppo

Ink and yuppo

I am having so much fun with alcohol inks and yuppo.  Even though these are pretty, I am still not getting the effect that I want.  Practice, practice, practice.  It is an experiment where the potential is limitless.  Once I get an effect I am happy enough to reproduce I will be putting them in the shop.

Thursday and Friday I spent an overnight at the camp.  It was nice to be off the grid (again).  So quiet, no phones, no cell service gave me time to reflect on the different directions my company can take.  And even though it is very exciting I sometimes feel overwhelmed with all the possiblilites.  If anyone in the Catskill region reads my blog and would like to have a very part-time job, or internship, let me know.  I would love to talk to you.  The business is small but there are several areas I need help with.  Organization, marketing, packaging...... And I am always looking for another artist to play with!!!!!  If you are interested send me an email.  Reply to andrea@creativezenart.com.

TANGLES AND QUILTS!!! OH MY!

A little fun with scrap quilting

Happy Super Saturday everyone!  Today is a beautiful sunny day and the air is so crisp and wonderful.  I love this time of year!

I am still unpacking boxes for the studio.  It seems like a never ending project.  I keep asking myself "how in the world did I fit all of this stuf in about a third of the space.  Well, I think I had more shelf space but that can be easily remedied.

In any case, one of the boxes I unpacked this week was all of my practice quilt pieces.  When I begin to quilt, I practice on a scrap quilt sandwhich to make sure the thread, tension, and machine are all working in harmony.  Most quilters do this.  What happens is that you end up with lots of practice quilt sandwhiches.  I was collecting quite a pile of them.

Then Zentangle came into my life and I began to tangle one of the sandwhiches.  It was so much fun that I have decided to do a series of them and hang them all over my studio.  The practice quilting pieces already have the "strings".  All I have  to do is tangle.  This is going to be so much fun that I think I will design a class for other quilters who may want to explore this technique.

HAVE A SUPER SATURDAY

NAMASTE

HOW WE CELEBRATE

An interesting thing happened to me over the weekend that I would like to tell you about.  I always wear my fitbit (except when I am charging it of course).  My fitbit began to vibrate as I was walking. It was telling me that I had reach 10,000 thousand steps for that day!  Now here is the interesting part....I immediately began thinking about celebrating my wonderful achievement!  Visions of goodies began to flash through like lightening.  Would it be icecream?  cupcake?  pie?  cake?  Then all of a sudden I stopped in my tracks.  Wait a minute! I realized I had somehow gotten turned around in my thinking?  I asked myself this question......

When and how did sweets become the poster child for celebration?

When the pilgrims decided to celebrate their good fortune and new friends did they think  Oh, yes,  Ladies, let the pie baking begin!? No, and was their celebration any less celebratorial?  No. There are lots of arguments about what they actually ate but ice cream was not their first thought I am sure. And there are so many other examples but you get the picture.

What a time I had arguing with myself over taking care of myself in a better way.  After about an hour (no, I am not exagerating), I decided that I would celebrate by NOT having icecream or any sweet for that matter.  Instead, I had a nice healthy dinner and it was soooo good.

HOT HOT HOT!!!!!

Fabulous Frock

The weather wasn't the only thing that was hot on Saturday.  The Greene County Coucil on the Arts hosted a wonderful fashion show right in downtown Catskill.  The first ever!!!  And there were wonderful designs to see.  These pictures are just a small sample of some of my favorites.  The captions underneath the pictures are mine just so I can remember the design.

Go Ask Alice

Joe's Garage on mainstreet has been totally renovated which made it a wonderful venue for the show.  And it was a packed house.  I came home very inspired to create more one of a kind in my studio.

If you missed the show come and see it at the Council on main street where you will be able to get a close up of the fun and fanciful offerings called "wearable art".

SWEET SUNDAY

ZenQuility

About two weeks ago I posted about Slow Sundays.  The problem is that Sundays aren't so slow anymore.  In fact, without the Sunday family gatherings, I am not sure what Sunday represents.  I have given it a great deal of thought actually and decided that as much as I want the old Slow Sundays to come back I know they can't.  It is time to create a new Sunday, a Sweet Sunday; a Sunday where we find time to savour the day like we used to savour our Sunday meals.  It is ok to create new traditions.  So from now on, Sweet Sunday is what I will call this day.  My awareness will be about finding something sweet or good in my day.  What will you call your Sunday? 

The photo to the left is a combination of quilling and zentangle.  I will be teaching this class in the near future.  To sign up visit www.creativezenart.com or send me an email at andrea@creativezenart.com and in the subject line put ZenQuility.  Make sure you leave your full name and address so I can add you to the list.  Once I have six people signed up I will announce the class date and time.

SWEET SUNDAY TO YOU!

SLOW SUNDAYS

 It has been such a busy day today and yet it seems like it went slowwwwww.......which is nice being that it is Sunday.  I spent the last few hours working on the website and sending out email campaigns for my next drawing meditation class that is coming up this Wednesday at Columbia Greene Community College in Hudson.  The class is a more advanced class where students will explore drawing on a tan tile with brown, white, black and blue pens.  I hope I have a full class because this one is going to be fun.

When I was a child, I remember Sundays as being full of family and food!  It was amazing to watch the adult talk and laugh.  My family was full of characters who had gone through a great deal and still managed to come away with the most amazing sense of humor.  Most of them are gone now but the memories still make me laugh out loud sometimes when I think of them.  And the food.....oh my God!!!!  How many of you out there remember having Sunday dinners with the family including grandparents, aunts, and crazy funny uncles? I wish we still had Sundays like this.To my Grandmother's and Grandfathers.  May you live inside of me until I am with you again.    I love you all.!!!!!

WACKY WEDNESDAY

Quill & Tangle

Boy, what a month June has proven to be!  It went by so fast but we got so much done around the house with a few flower gardens. But the most exciting thing I have to tell you is about the trip I took to Buffalo to attend Midsummer Tangle 2, a four day, CZT workout retreat.  We learned so much in such a short time that it was amazing.  Unfortunately, I came down with the same thing Jay had and today is the first day that I have been feeling good enough to go through all of my stuff.  

I will post some more pictures in a later post but everyone was so excited to learn about Sonya's class involving tangles and quilling. What a perfect combination.  I will be teaching this class in the near future for sure.  This is the picture of her work.  I will post mine when it is finished..  Until then, I think I will take a nap.