AT THE GALLERY

THE GREAT GERMAN SHEPERD

I have a german shepherd.  He is my baby and he is the silliest dog I have ever owned. We got him as a pup and right from the start we knew we would be in for a ride!  Exept we didn't anticipate that the only issue was going to be that he hates riding in the car!

Like many large breeds, he has no clue about his size.  Only that he thinks he can sit in your lap.  There he is sitting with his auntie (or should I say (sitting on his auntie!) watching daddy making something in the kitchen.  He helps me with the laundry and takes off my socks in the evening.  Actually, once the sun goes down he will try to take off anyone's socks should they be dumb enough to take off their shoes while in the house.  Doesn't matter who it is, guest and family alike.  A firm no puts a stop to it of course but you have to give him an A for trying.  I also taught him to say banana....well, he doesn't really say banana but he will try to say it al long as there is a treat involved.  And can he talk?!  If and when he is in the car all he does is bark.  You can hear him coming in the next town.

I am a german shepherd owner and it takes a rare breed to own a rare breed.

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!