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

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This week, we learned how to paint The Uniform Girl, in Juliette Crane’s How to Paint a Girl E-course.  Here are a few pictures of my first uniform girl.

 

 

 

Juliette teaches you to use these “templates” for your girls, so you can get over the “where to begin” and get on with letting your creativity flow and develop.

Daily Inspiration

  

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I never pictured that I would accomplish the goal of having my photos organized.  It always seemed like such a huge and impossible task.  One of the Daily Inspiration quotes I recently featured was from Ben Stein who said, “The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: decide what you want.”  I realized that was key to me resolving my photo hoard.  What do I want from my photos?  I thought long and hard and here’s what I want:

I want to live with my photo memories.  I want my photos to be a joy in my life, not a weighty impossible task or a confusing hidden hoard.  Here’s how I’ll accomplish this:

1.  I want pictures in every room.

2.  I want an album of “the most important pictures of my life.”  If I could only leave my daughter one album, with a reasonable amount of pictures that summed up her mother’s life, what would that be.

3.  I want an album or collection that gives my daughter a sense of family history.

4.  I want a collection of photos that are easily accessible for conversations with friends…fun snapshots of life.

5.  I want to preserve photos that don’t have a particularly strong meaning for me in case they’re wanted in the future.  I want to do this digitally so I don’t have to live with the clutter of the actual photos.

I think these decisions will make things easier.  Let’s see.

Daily Inspiration

 

Every man’s memory is his private literature.

Aldous Huxley

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This month, I’m playing around with spool knitting.  I’m using two different spool knitters…the more traditional French Knitting Bee, and the mechanical Embellish-Knit!  Using a variety of yarns, here’s what I got:

With the Embellish-Knit!

Deborah Norville Collection Serenity Sock Weight Yarn – Paprika (Weight – Super Fine 1)

Vanna’s Glamour – Bronze (Weight – Fine 2)

 

Lion Brand Yarn Fun Fur – Raspberry (Weight – Bulky 5)

Note – This was a big “no-no.”  Only thin yarns (3 and below) should be used in the Embellish-Knit!

With the French Knitting Bee

Patons Be Mine – Plushy Pink (Weight – Bulky 5)

Loops & Threads Impeccable – Grass (Weight – Medium 4)

 

Loops & Threads Impeccable – Summerset Ombre (Weight – Medium 4)

Now, what to do with my knitted tubes?

 Daily Inspiration

 

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Stampington & Company publishes a wide variety of arts and crafts magazines.  The magazines are works of art themselves.  They are printed on thick, lovely paper; the photographs are vivid and exciting; the articles are inspiring and written by both professional artists and artists who create as a hobby; and the instructions feature the latest techniques and trends.  These magazines aren’t inexpensive, but as a special treat, they’re yummy!

Daily Inspiration

 

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This week, I learned how to paint my first “faces” taking the How to Paint a Girl E-course.  I can’t say that I’m satisfied with them.  I think I’ll do a little more fiddling.

I also finished my first project for the 2012 Creative Color Challenge.  January’s color was Tangerine Tango.  My plan is to create a yarn vase each month, using the challenge colors.

Daily Inspiration

 

I decided to start anew, to strip away what I had been taught,

Georgia O’Keeffe

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The other day, as I was getting dressed for work and burrowing around in my make-up drawer, I thought, “ENOUGH!”

I gathered everything up.

I grouped like items together.

I ended up with this.

It was a little painful…the waste of it all…but once done, it felt great.  My make-up routine is much simpler now than it was in the past, and it’s time for what I have to reflect that.

Daily Inspiration

 

There is no personal charm so great as the charm of a cheerful temperament.

Henry Van Dyke

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“What Constitutes Success”
By Bessie Anderson Stanley (1904 Brown Book Magazine)

 He has achieved success who has lived well,
laughed often and loved much;
who has enjoyed the trust of pure women, who has gained the respect of intelligent men
and the love of little children;
who has filled his niche and accomplished his task;
who has left the world better than he found it,
whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul;
who has never lacked appreciation of earth’s beauty
or failed to express it;
who has always looked for the best in others
and given them the best he had;
whose life was an inspiration;
whose memory a benediction.

Interesting Note:  A inspirational writing similar to this is often attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson.  If you’re interested in how that misattribution occured, you can check out The Ralph Waldo Emerson Society page on Success.

Daily Inspiration

 

Let your heart guide you.  It whispers, so listen carefully.

Littlefoot’s mother, Land Before Time

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I’m taking Juliette Crane’s How to Paint a Girl E-course.  I chose this course because the only type of painting I’ve ever done was very dependent on patterns, and I wanted to try painting a little more freestyle.  This week, Juliette showed us how she paints faces and hair.

I wanted to practice on some smaller canvases, so I prepared three new background and started to paint three different girls.

I thought it would be fun to show you the girls as they were just getting started.  The fun thing about this course is that Juliette shows you how to develop and work with the girls until they become who they want to be.  Let’s see who these three want to be. 

Daily Inspiration

 

I am learning all the time.  The tombstone will be my diploma.

Eartha Kitt 

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When I consider the things I would want to have done “if I die today,” having organized photos is one of those things.   

I have never had my photos organized.  They’ve always been in boxes or some type of jumble.  If I’m honest, I’ve never thought of this project as truly being done.  I’ve always thought of it as something I’d like done, and something I’d always get to, but deep in my heart, I never believed I’d do it.

This week, I’m gathering up all my photos in one location to see what I have to deal with.  But more important than that, I need to figure out what I want my photos to do.  How do I want to live with my photos and what purpose do I want them to serve?  To tell you the truth, I don’t know.  I’m going to be thinking about that alot because I think it is the key.

Daily Inspiration

 Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose.

From the television show The Wonder Years

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I’ve never caught the knitting or crocheting bug.  I hope I do one day.  In the meantime, I picked up these fun little gadgets…the French Knitting Bee and the Embellish-Knit! 

Spool knitting is also known as French knitting, corking or tomboy knitting.  It uses a spool and four posts to produce a narrow knitted tube.  Spool knitting is a traditional way to teach children the principles of knitting…that knitting is a series of loops strung together.

The instructions for both spool knitters were clear, but it did take me a couple tries to figure it out.  I think that had more to do with me than the instructions.

The French Knitting Bee is more like a traditional spool knitter.

The Embellish-Knit! is a mechanical spool knitter with a hand crank.

The Embellish-Knit! produces a more tightly knit tube than the French Knitting Bee.  As I was photographing the instructions, I noticed that you are not to use a standard 4-ply worsted weight or heavier yarn in the Embellish-Knit! or you can damage your machine.  Oops.  I did that.  Fortunately, I didn’t damage my machine.

How can you tell the thickness of a particular skein of yarn?  Just check the label.  There will be a picture of a yarn skein with a number in it.  The number tells you the thickness of the yarn.

Join me in February to see what we can do with spool knitting.

Saturday, I announced that I was giving away a copy of The World We Found by Thrity Umrigar.  And the winner is…Max the Quilt Cat.

Daily Inspiration