Nature Imitates Art

Yesterday I took pictures of my garden because every fall I stand with a basket of bulbs, trying to remember where my daffodils are located. The plan is to add to the existing bulb 'grid' every fall and I have happily reached the need for a plan, or risk digging up or damaging flowers.

As I focused the lens on these Bleeding Heart, I remembered a pink heart I'd whipped up a few weeks ago. And here they are: Bleeding Heart vs. Beaded Heart.

Inspiration Strikes

Flipping through a magazine, an image sent me running for my notebook to jot down an idea for a scarf. As I penciled, I pondered why nobody had come up with this design before: so simple and yet so clever!

A few segments into the project, a light bulb went on: it's a VERY annoying design to knit - that's why! I'm not even sure it'll live up to my expectations; the jury is definitely still out, yeah, not even in the same building!

Clums-day

Do you ever walk into furniture? Furniture, you usually circumnavigate without a single thought? Today I walked right into the corner of a desk: #%@*&!!
Now, I use Chris' copier every week, tapping an impatient foot at the slooowww machine, snatching my papers as I dash around her desk back to my corner of the office - No Problem!
Not today. Muttering several bad words under my breath, seeing stars (I never see tweeting birds! Someone inform the cartoon artists), I marvel at my clumsiness. How? Why?
Chris was not at her desk today - which messed up my auto-pilot trajectory. Instead of circling wide, I circled, well, into her desk. Funny, how a small change can have big consequences (Trust me, it's a doozy of a bruise). Get well, Chris, the office is dangerous without you!

Sunday Tri-athlon

Replace running with a movie, swimming with knitting, toss the bike for an exer-cycle and you have my kind of tri-athlon. Since all events happen simultaneously, it is actually much more challenging than the traditional version. To make it a successful sporting event, careful choice of movie and knit project is essential! It's all about balance: the better the movie, the easier the knitting must be!
Today's flick: The Wrestler.(Let me just throw in for the other three people on this planet who have not seen it: NOT a first date movie! Never mind the blood, but Mickey vomiting and - much later - "wooing" a gal in the restroom: dead-end for romance!). Good choice for my tri-athlon, since there was no danger of emotional tears dripping onto knitting nor dropping stitches due to wild action scene.
The knitting portion consisted of a new scarf design; fairly straight forward but any knitting on dps (double-pointed needles) demands attention. Note to coaches: Fair Isle is not recommended for this event - stick to one-string projects or the athlete may find her-/himself busy snipping yarn off the peddle gears. Point deductions from the judges!

Adventures in Grouting

"Adventure"?! you wonder...Well, there was blood, and a sudden understanding of the concept of a 'ceramic knife'. A couple of band-aids later, I'm back to happily grouting, tapping, wiping, grout working itself up my arms and onto the kitchen floor. Then I run short of grout. No big deal, right? WRONG! The next batch of grout is fancy (a.k.a. expensive), pre-mixed and determined to only stick to my hands, NOT the table. To add insult to annoyance, it looks like cracked gypsum, not hardened beach sand - which is so perfect around my little glass lobsters.
I spent hours running after more of the cheap kind and will start my rescue/salvage mission tomorrow. For now I'll play a bit with metal...

My Studio - before and after

My studio only has a small window, so I painted the walls in layers of speckled yellow to create the illusion of warm sunlight. A stretch in a basement room, but it worked! Until I sat at my workbench, that is. The mellow yellow bothered me to distraction.

I rummaged for some scrap paints and - voila'. The gritty "brick" wall just goes with hammering metal, no?

More Media Than Mixing (right now)

I am having a ball playing with mosaic work, bead embroidery on an apron I just sewed, painting, a knitted scarf design and finishing a few jewelry projects. My mother rolled her eyes - transatlantic and via phone wires, like only a mother can - and asked "But I thought you just went to a metal working workshop?!".
Eventually, I'll combine some of the techniques I'm exploring right now: just wait and see!