Creativity, Crafts, Books, Movies, Greyhounds & Favorite Things

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I love a clever idea. Several weeks ago, I did a post, New Favorite Notions, and Veronica of Yes I Know, My Dogs Look Funny, mentioned that she stores and organizes Bettina and Blue’s collars on a pants hanger she picked up at Target.

It has 5 different “levels”…

…and the hanger arms swing out to allow you to hang your pants, or slip your martingale collars on.

I thought, “Why didn’t I think of that?” Then I thought, “Wonder what other clever ideas my friends have for using something intended for one purpose for something entirely different?” Here’s what you told me:

Madi’s Mom of Madi and Mom Down Home in NC immediately thought of a Welch’s Concentrated Grape Juice can used as a biscuit cutter by her mother-in-law, Grandma Margie.

Madi’s Mom still has that little can. Here’s what she told me…”We have been married for 43 years…she was using this can when we were dating, so it is probably 45 years old.  My daughter used to marvel at the precise size of each biscuit and often helped Grandma cut them. My mother-in-law, Margie, was a dear lady. I also treasure two of her handwritten recipes, especially  the one for gingerbread.”

Madi’s Mom also remembered that, “Grandma Margie was the person who taught me to put a few holes in the bottom of juice cans and cranberry sauce cans to get the contents to come out whole.”

Daisy, Bella & Roxy of Downunder Daisy mentioned that some of their mom’s pottery serving bowls have ended up as hold-alls for loose screws, paper clips, rubber bands and anything else she doesn’t want to throw out.

Georgia Little Pea’s mom also had a great idea for re-purposing…”I use our old quilt covers or extra fitted sheets as Georgia’s bed covers. They’re big enough to be used 4 times over (4 different sides) so saves washing.” Georgia Little Pea’s blog is Little Dogs on Long Leashes.

Sue of Graceful Greyhounds mentioned that dolly pegs are ideal for wrapping ribbons round. Not only a great idea, but I learned that dolly pegs are what I call old-fashioned clothespins.

Urban Hounds hasn’t made one yet, but said that she loves the Kindle (e-reader) covers made of old books. Chick-Lit Designs has a bunch of cool covers and you can find tutorials online if you want to make your own.

Jay of The Depp Effect had several great ideas…”We use a pretty but cracked mug to hold teaspoons near the kettle, and also a placemat under the mugs when we make tea, to catch the drips.”

“We also use those free plastic grocery bags for peeling vegetables into, so once you’re done, you can pick the whole thing up and empty it into the compost bin – or if you don’t have one, into the waste.”

Lynne of Dip-Dip and The Bridge might have the most unique idea for taking something intended for one purpose and using it for something entirely different. She uses yarn for plants.

Well, she works a little crochet magic on the yarn first.

Thank you, to everyone who submitted these great ideas. I also want to mention that at the very last minute, I emailed everyone (except Urban Hounds & Georgia Little Pea) and asked if they had the time, would they send me a photo of their idea. I hoped that I would get a few, but since I waiting so late, I would have completely understood if I didn’t get any. Everyone, EVERYONE, replied back to me. Bloggers are the kindest people. Thank you all, again!

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There’s a new trend sweeping Blogville…the Mini-Me!

Freedom, Casper & Nikki Mini-Me’s

Where do Mini-Me’s come from? They are the handiwork of Lynne who writes the blog Dip-Dip and the Bridge. Lynne is Dinah, Bridget and Elliot’s mom. She also has an Etsy shop called Handmade Gifts By L with even more of her lovely crocheted creations. Let’s look at our Mini-Me’s.

Freedom

Casper

Nikki

Each Mini-Me is a custom made to look exactly like Big-Me. Let us show you.

Freedom’s crooked ear

Freedom’s beautiful brindle fur

Casper’s spotted ears and brindle patches

Nikki’s white chest

They even behave like the Big-Me’s.

Mini-Me Freedom showing Mini-Me Casper that she’s in charge.

We love our Mini-Me’s! Thank you, Miss Lynne!

Anyone can have their very own Mini-Me. Just contact Lynne at chi-chigirls86@hotmail.com.

Note from mom…

Isn’t a blog post a wonderful thing? You just choose the pictures where everything looks nice and well-behaved and you have a lovely little blog life. But here’s what was really going on.

NEW TOY! Where’s the squeaker?

NEW TOY! Let’s toss it around and do zoomies with it.

It’s not a hedgehog. I could care less.

Note: No Mini-Me was harmed in the writing of this post.

Additional Note: I am honored that Roxy the traveling the dog is featuring my work on Artsy Fartsy Tuesday. Thanks, Roxy!

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Here’s what’s been happening in my studio…

I’m putting together an online class on how to make fabric flowers. I put together an outline, and now I’m fine tuning. An important consideration is making sure I can demonstrate how to make the flowers with the video focused on my hands. I’m also practicing what I’ll say. Right now, I’m just pretending because I don’t have a video camera, but I’m hoping that if I keep practicing, it will come a little more natural once I begin videotaping. If you walked in on me, you’d think I’d lost my mind.

 This Week’s Inspiration

In 2013, I’m doing Inspiration Mondays and Results Thursdays. Every Monday, I’ll post a painting “inspiration” and then on Thursdays, I’ll post how I’m interpreting that inspiration.

Last week’s inspiration was the 1940’s. This is the girl that came out of that inspiration…

Last week, I asked for your inspiration ideas. Thank you for all the great suggestions! I’m going to work through all of them.

This week’s inspiration is from KB of Romping & Rolling in the Rockies…NATURE.

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I’m reading Creating A Life Worth Living by Carol Lloyd. I picked this book because I’m trying to figure out the place I want painting to play in my life.

This week…Chapter 8, “Goals,” redefines goals and then guides you through the process of conceiving a single, long-term goal, reflecting your most important creative aspiration.

Whenever I think of setting goals, I tend to feel defeated right from the start. I love the author’s thoughts on goals…

“Old-fashioned, boring goals stink. But well-crafted, creative goals–that’s a different thing altogether. They are tantalizing, provocative, and gorgeous. They are little aesthetic worlds perfectly shaped from your own desire. They are works of art designed and created for a single person: you. You create them for your own benefit, your own excitement and joy. And just like a successful work of art, a creative goal should provoke you to new insights and new experiences.”

Here are the parameters of a good creative goal:

1. It lies within the arc of your faith.

2. It is rich in visual and emotional imagery.

3. It is in the area that excites you the most.

4. It’s objective.

5. It is an event or an occurrence that happens in time.

The author then gives you a framework to write out your goal:

Goal:

Timeline:

Means of Support:

Desire (What’s at the heart of this goal?):

Images:

Here is my goal:

Goal: I sell my art at art fairs…anywhere I choose…five or six a year, and I offer instruction and inspiration to other artists through workshops, online courses and in publications.

Timeline: Two years.

Means of Support: My husband’s and my current jobs.

Desire: I want to sell my one-of-a-kind paintings because it is exciting for me to create them and then find a customer that feels a special attraction to a particular piece. I want my artwork to be a source of income into retirement and selling my paintings will give me a reason to continue to paint and learn. I want to sell my paintings at art fairs because I want to meet other artists and make new friends, and I love the idea of meeting my customers and selling directly to them, face-to-face. I want to travel and see different parts of the country. I want to share my art and the spirit behind it with others. I want to inspire people to create and embrace their own unique abilities and vision. I want to help people see the sacred aspects of creativity. I want to teach because I always learn more than I teach and it’s fun to watch people learn new things. I want to be open to new opportunities and possibilities. I want to be generous with my time, talents and resources.

Images: I see myself preparing for and then traveling to a new location and show. I have everything nicely organized and ready, so it’s fun. I enjoy the excitement of the event and getting to meet new people (other artists and customers). Before and after the show, I enjoy seeing a few local sites. Between shows, I enjoy painting, writing and working on creative projects. I receive exciting new proposals, and I get to pick and choose the ones that I can best contribute to. There’s always something new to look forward to.

Now, I want to get this goal written out and pinned up in my studio. I want to keep it in front of me.

I’ll admit, it feels a little freaky to write this out and put it out into the world, but that’s only because it makes my inner critic uncomfortable. Take that, inner critic!

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Every Saturday, I share my weekly Artist Date. This week, I decided to have my date at a restaurant, so I headed to one of my local favorites…Uptown Kitchen.

Uptown Kitchen is a wonderful restaurant that offers interesting, fresh, healthy food.

It’s a beautiful space and the staff is top notch.

I had a bowl of soup and my favorite drink, The Elvis (peanut butter & banana).

Although I enjoyed my lunch, I didn’t enjoy having an Artist Date in a restaurant. Restaurants don’t tend to feel like “hang out” places.

So, I’ll classify this week’s Artist Date as a “learning experience.”

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Every Friday, I share a poem. Friday is also the day I post a prompt of something you can do to make the world a kinder place. I call this the Kind is Kool challenge.

I offer both the poem and the kindness challenge without any obligation, so “Comments” are turned off every Friday. Enjoy.

The Poet’s Song

The rain had fallen, the Poet arose,
He passed by the town, and out of the street,
A light wind blew from the gates of the sun,
And waves of shadow went over the wheat,
And he set him down in a lonely place,
And chanted a melody loud and sweet,
That made the wild-swan pause in her cloud,
And the lark drop down at his feet.

The swallow stopt as he hunted the bee,
The snake slipt under a spray,
The hawk stood with the down on his beak
And stared, with his foot on the prey
And the nightingale thought, “I have sung many songs,
But never a one so gay,
For he sings of what the world will be
When the years have died away.

Alfred Lord Tennyson

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Kind is Kool Challenge

Week 8 Challenge – Shop at a local business.

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Every Monday, I’m posting a painting “inspiration.” Every Thursday, I’m posting how I interpreted the inspiration. I decided to do this to keep myself painting, to strengthen how I go from an idea to a painting, and to give myself permission to play and try new things.

This week’s inspiration was the 1940’s. Here is the girl that came out of that inspiration…

AND…I want to thank everyone who left me an inspiration idea on Monday. I’m going to use every one of them, starting next week! Again, “thank you!”

How to be HAPPY!

Every Thursday, Jay of The Depp Effect, posts something that makes her happy, and I’m playing along. She encourages us to look around and notice the things that make us happy. It really makes you consider the things that make life good, and often those things are small but powerful.

Here’s something that makes me happy…SOAPSTONE.

I think I’m drawn to soapstone because of the endless variety of patterns and colors and the beautiful smooth feel. I don’t collect soapstone, but if I get a few more pieces, I’m going to have to change my story because the lie is going to become pretty obvious.

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Do you have a clever idea for using something intended for one purpose for something entirely different…like using a coffee mug as a pencil holder? If you do have a great idea that’s made your life a little easier or a little more fun, I’d love to include it in a post I’m preparing.

Share your cleverness with me in the Comments or send me an email at whatremainsnow@gmail.com. Pictures are welcome.

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Freedom: We love a good joke around here. Have you heard this one?

A local business was looking for office help. They put a sign in the window:

HELP WANTED.

Must be able to type, must be good with a computer and must be bilingual. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer.

A short time afterwards, a dog trotted up to the window, saw the sign and went inside. He looked at the receptionist and wagged his tail, then walked over to the sign, looked at it and whined.

Getting the idea, the receptionist got the office manager. The office manager looked at the dog and was surprised, to say the least. However, the dog looked determined, so he lead him into the office. Inside, the dog jumped up on the chair and stared at the manager.

The manager said, “I can’t hire you. The sign says you have to be able to type.” The dog jumped down, went to the typewriter and proceeded to type out a perfect letter. He took out the page and trotted over to the manager and gave it to him, then jumped back on the chair. The manager was stunned, but then told the dog, “The sign says you have to be good with a computer.”

The dog jumped down again and went to the computer. The dog proceeded to demonstrate his expertise with various programs and produced a sample spreadsheet and presented it to the manager. By this time the manager was totally dumb-founded! He looked at the dog and said, “I realize that you are a very intelligent dog and have some interesting abilities. However, I still can’t give you the job.”

The dog jumped down, went to the sign in the window and put his paw on the sentence that mentioned being an Equal Opportunity Employer. The manager said, “Yes, but the sign also says that you have to be bilingual.”

The dog looked him straight in the face and said, “Meow.”

Casper: Ha ha ha! Good one, Freedom. I like this one.

A man decided to go on a safari. He took his faithful dog along for company. One day the dog starts chasing butterflies and before long the dog discovers he is lost. So, wandering about, he notices a leopard heading rapidly in his direction with the obvious intention of having lunch.

The dog thinks, “Oh boy, I’m in deep stuff now.” Then he notices some bones lying nearby on the ground and immediately settles down to chew on the bones with his back to the approaching cat.

Just as the leopard is about to leap, the dog exclaims loudly, “That was one delicious leopard. I wonder if there are any more around here?”

Hearing this, the leopard halts his attack in mid-stride, and slinks away into the trees. “Whew”, says the leopard. “That was close. That dog nearly had me.”

Meanwhile, a monkey who has been watching the whole scene from a nearby tree, figures he can put this knowledge to good use and trade it for protection from the leopard.

So off he goes. But the dog sees him heading off after the leopard and figures that something is amiss. The monkey soon catches up with the leopard, spills the beans about the dog’s ruse and strikes a deal for himself with the leopard. The leopard is furious at being made a fool of and says, “Hop on my back, monkey, and see what’s going to happen to that conniving canine.” Now the dog sees the leopard coming with the monkey on his back and thinks, “Oh boy, it looks like I’ve really had it now.”

But instead of running, the dog sits down with his back to the leopard and the monkey and pretends that he hasn’t seen them. And just when they get close enough to hear him, the dog says, “Where  is that monkey? I sent him off an hour ago to get me another leopard, and he’s still not back.”

Nikki: You guys are killin’ me! Here’s my favorite.

A woman brings her parrot to the vet. The parrot is stiff and lifeless.

“I’m sorry ma’am, but this parrot is dead.”

“How can you tell so quickly?” replies the woman. “Isn’t there a way to be absolutely certain?”

So, the vet whistles and a beautiful black Labrador Retriever walks in the examining room. The Lab sniffs around the parrot for a few moments, then looks at the vet with sad eyes and shakes his head.

“A dog shakes its head and I’m supposed to believe that?!” cries the woman. “You’re going to have to do more to prove that my poor parrot is dead!”

So, the vet leaves momentarily, comes back with a cat and puts it on the table beside the parrot. The cat looks closely at the parrot, walks around it, prods it a bit, then shakes his head and jumps off the table.

Finally, the woman seems convinced. As she turns for the door, the vet announces that she owes him $500.

“$500?!” the woman asks. “How in the world could it be that much just to tell me my parrot is dead?”

“Well, it would have been a lot cheaper, but with that lab report and cat scan…”

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Here’s what’s going on in my studio…

Last week, I mentioned that I put together a proposal to teach a fabric flower class online. Thank you for all your well wishes. I am so happy to tell you that my proposal was accepted and now, I’ll start to put together the class! I’m looking forward to the challenge, and it will be a challenge particularly because I’ll need to learn to shoot the video. Fortunately, there’s a lot of information out there to help me.

This Week’s Inspiration

In 2013, I’m doing Inspiration Mondays and Results Thursdays. Every Monday, I’ll post a painting “inspiration” and then on Thursdays, I’ll post how I’m interpreting that inspiration.

Last week’s inspiration was ICE. This is the girl that came out of that inspiration…

This week’s inspiration is the 1940’s.

Now a special request…I would love for March’s “inspirations” to come from you. Do you have an idea for me? If so, please leave a comment with your inspiration idea. It can be a word, a story, an idea, a time period, a book, a song…whatever you can think of.