On Vacation

Life has been increasingly busy, so I am needing to take a vacation from making art.

This may sound counter-intuitive. Usually when life gets busy and stressful, I find that making art is a release and a relaxation for me. Over the past 18 months, being so fatigued with my pregnancy, and then busier and more fatigued with the new baby entering the mix--I just can't keep up with everything. My work (and income) have suffered, my kids are complaining about "Spaghetti Again?" for dinner, my house is an overrun cluttered mess, etc.

It has become frustrating and disappointing for me to look forward to some art time, only to have a cranky baby and not be able to get to my project. I am not complaining about the baby. He is a sweetie and a treasure--my little bonus baby, and the last one we will have, so I am enjoying this small window of time. But he is only 9 months old, and requires a lot of time and care, on top of my other daily duties with the other two kids, work, husband, house, etc.

So, in order to really enjoy where my life is now, and not resent the responsibility, I need to reasses my daily goals. I'd rather give up art time for a little while, and not feel like I am failing when I can't get to the projects that I want to do.

I have 1200 unread messages in my inbox--mostly from art Yahoo groups. I am going No Mail for awhile on many of them, keeping up with Art Charms and Collage UnLeashed, and a couple other small local groups, but that is about all I can handle right now. I just can't keep up with it all right now.

I am hoping to return to "normal" this summer, when Fletcher is a little bit older, the kids are out of school, and we can play outside. I might pop in here on my blog now and then, but I might not. I don't want to have the stress of wanting to post more frequently, and then not having time to. I'd love to be able to blog a couple of times a week, but that is just not in the cards right now. I hope that you all will join me again when I am back up and running!

I am also going to be concentrating some more time and energy on my neglected quilt pattern business. I began designing and publishing patterns in 1999--I can't believe I am going on 12 years! But I haven't produced much of anything new during the past few years. I am still building up my website, and I would like to continue to get my products listed on the site and develop a new pattern or two this year. I have a few things on the "drawing board". So, I guess that will be a creative outlet, but pattern design is a little different than just my art play time--it is more technical and I have to think about marketing, packaging, production, etc. Anyway, you might be interested in seeing my business website Elizabeth Anne.

I hope that the rest of you will be able to have a creative 2011, or possibly take time off to do what you need to do.

"I'll be back".

School Auction

Every year, my son's preschool has an auction to help raise money for the school. These are a couple of the things that I made to donate--polymer clay pendants on an organza ribbon and cord, plus a couple of quilts.


One of the local quilt stores, The Quilt Works, kindly donated the tops, and I provided the back and batting, quilted and bound them. We all had a fun evening bidding on items and raised a bunch of money to help the school!

Bead Storage

The subject of Bead Storage came up last week on the Art Charms Group. I thought that I would share with you my very unique first bead storage system--Skoal chewing tobacco cans!

I started beading as a freshman in high school, using tiny size 12 seed beads. As a young person, I didn't have a lot of money to spend on bead storage--I wanted to spend my money on supplies. Some of my guy friends chewed tobacco (yuk), but I discovered that the cans snapped shut tightly, and were just the right size to hold a hank of beads. Plus, they were cheap--I paid my friends .05 cents to save them for me. I would wash them out and put the beads in. The only disadvantage was not being able to see through the green tins. But I typed out labels (yes, on a typewriter), and taped the labels to the cans. I still use these cans for the older stash.

My newer stash, though, is color coordinated in the clear plastic compartment containers that you can get everywhere. I have about 3 shelves stacked with beads and wire in my living room!

In the Kitchen

Those of you who know me well, know that I am not a very good cook, nor do I particularly like cooking. So why did I spend a good portion of my time last week in the kitchen? Crafting of course!





I have been very busy whipping up some new batches of what I am calling "Silky Bath Salts", which are a mixture of salts and oils, as well as making some scented Hot/Cold eye pillows and neck pillows--sewn with my own hand dyed Sateen or Silk/Cotton Radiance fabric!

Here are some of the blends that I've been "cooking up":
Lavender/ Pink Grapefruit
Desert Sage/ Sandalwood
Vanilla/ Lavender
Peppermint Stripe and
Holiday Blend (gingerbread, cinnamon, and vanilla)

What I don't sell at the craft show will make great Teacher Gifts, I think!

Where Has the Time Gone?

I need to get more recent pics off my camera and onto the computer--I am so bad about that--but meanwhile, here is a quilt that I made from start to finish for a customer who will be donating it to raise money for a dog rescue. I was pleased with the outcome. I hope it will bring lots of money for such a good cause!



Wow, its been several days since I posted about the CED. I have been absolutely swamped with my longarm quilting business responsibilities--it is my busy time of year, getting quilts completed for my customers to give as Christmas gifts, plus working on new class samples for January-April, and quilting a few class samples for other teachers! But, I have been making at least a bit of time every day to create, sort of....

Saturday--no problem! My own little craft night while watching TV with DH. I worked on some charms for the Blue, Silver and White swap on Art Charms.

Sunday--Totally wiped out from working on the longarm all day. After I got the baby down, again, I sorted through some of my polymer clay buttons that I am planning on selling at up coming craft shows.

Monday--Not a very creative day, not much time. Cranky baby = cranky mommy. I spent a few minutes cutting down some quilted book covers--again for the craft shows.

Tuesday--Better. I put the baby in the backpack for about an hour and jazzed up some of my hand dyed scarves with metallic fabric paint! Fun, and so invigorating!

Wednesday--Varnished my paper beads for the Autumn charm swap on Adornmentz. Painted some papers that I will be using in my mini art journals, plus spent almost an hour sewing the edges on about 10 books--that was huge! I kept expecting the baby to wake up again, but he let me create! Good boy!

Today--The kids were off for Veteran's Day, so what better than to take a trip to McD's and craft ! We were there for about 2.5 hours, and I finished my Autumn Charms. Off to get a little more work done tonight....

CED Day 5--Much Better!

...Some recent painted canvas pieces. I'll use these for book covers, bookmarks, jewelry, and maybe even a purse.

Oh, what a difference a day makes! My son was sick last night, but today--all better! I don't think it was a full stomach flu, just some little bug. So, thankfully, we are all currently healthy in this house.

Plus, I had a more creative day today. The two boys ( age 4 and 6 months) and I "played" outside this afternoon. It was a beautiful day, about 68 degrees, just perfect weather! I got out some dyed scarves that needed a little something more, and was able to stamp metallic copper leaves on about 7 of them. My 4 year old played in the mud, made mud pies for me, and instructed me in playing a Goblin Trick or Treat game, which I could do while I was painting! I hung up the scarves to dry on our awning, so that the baby could watch them float in the breeze. My scarves do have a few little mud splatters on them, when my son got a little to enthusiastic with the mud, but I think they will wash out, if not, I'll keep them for myself!

And, I will catch up a little here, posting some projects that I've been working on this past month.


Fabric Earrings for the "My Favorite Things" swap on Adornmentz.


Dangles that I made for a swap on Art Charms--I used polymer clay beads that I have made.

CED Days 3 and 4

Well, yesterday was NOT the most creative day ever! Got off to a bad start--my son's preschool called early to cancel school for the day due to the teacher's having the stomach flu. While I am glad that my son didn't get it (knock on wood), it was kind of a bummer because that meant I had to miss my monthly Mixed Media Mavens meeting, which I was looking forward to. Can't expect a 4 year old to sit quietly while a bunch of women gab about art!

So, I had my hands full with the two little boys home, then early release day for my daughter. The afternoon was spent gathering up my supplies and samples to teach my Art Quilt Embellishment class last night. I am always frazzled getting ready for a class like that! It was fun, but a little stressful from a teacher point of view--I always want to make sure I am not forgetting anything! We played around with different ways to embellish with beads and buttons, plus Shrink Plastic, Fun Foam buttons, Model Magic and rubber stamps, wire wrapped beaded dodads and more!

Home by 9:00 to finish getting the kiddos off to bed and feed the baby. By 9:45pm, I was out in the garage finishing up a quilt on my longarm machine for a customer. I have a bunch of work deadlines looming and am feeling stressed about that. Back inside by 11:15, just in time for Baby to wake up again! Off to bed at 12:15, having done no real creating except for the few minutes that I was demo-ing during class. I guess that that will have to do!

Preschool was canceled again this morning, so I do have the two boys at home. But I am going to try to sneak in some creating after lunch, before I pick up my daugher from school.....

....Later that day.....Oh no, my son has the stomach flu! It came on this afternoon. He hadn't eaten much all day, said his tummy hurt at lunchtime, and was a little "off" all day. It came on just after dinner. He is sleeping now, but I am on alert.

On the creative front, I did get a few minutes to work on my daughter's Christmas present pink, white and black quilt before my son got sick. That's something!