Lately, 11.16.14

Lately...

Eating: too much sugar! I found some really good gluten free chocolate chip cookie and brownie mixes at Aldi's and I've been having some every day. Not good! My hands have been hurting more lately and I'm blaming the sugar. It's got to go!

Drinking: tea, tea and more tea. I just left Target with 4 boxes of tea in my bag and they will probably be gone in a week or so. It's definitely the time of year when I start craving more hot tea. Also drinking:  Utopia wine, made by M., for this  project.

M. is very happy and honored to be a part of the Utopia project:) Here, he's opening the first bottle of Utopia wine for the reception held by the film maker, Peter Roloff and the historian, Doris Keeven-Franke.

Utopia wine (Blumenhof's Plan B) with a custom label for the project.

Along with Utopia, we also got to try this: a hard liquor from Norway. It's really different- in a good way. You notice the anise flavor right away and then caraway in the finish. It's very strong- but good!

Reading: Great articles on Brainpickings about Georgia O'Keefe.

Listening to: NPR on the way to work and on the way home. I know it sounds boring, but it's how I unwind and it's the only way I get the news, so it's a good thing. Soon, though, I'll be switching it up to Christmas music :)

Watching: Our last episodes of Bill Maher and Anthony Bourdain, since I'll soon be canceling the cable. Tooooo expensive considering we only watch those two shows and there are very seldom any decent movies on. Netflix is a much better option for us. Recent winners (as far as I'm concerned!), Happy and A Year in Burgundy.

Making: Two custom order pouches/wristlets. Yay! And making over Peanut's little school desk, with a chalk board top and, soon, paintings of  some of his favorite things on the wooden seat and back.

Thinking about: How to stay in "simplify" mode with the holidays coming up.

Laughing: At Peanut and his potty training apps on Sister's phone. Oh, my! So funny!

Disliking: That Eddie has to work 12 hour shifts, 12 days in a row because of this Ferguson insanity. But, they are paying him well, so as long as he stays safe, it will be worth it to him.

Loving: Oh, my. Lots of things. And I'm grateful for every single one.

I'll leave you with some Sunday scenes:

Our cozy little "fireplace".

And our first snow in the new place. Definitely not as picturesque as our old place, but that's okay.

Have a great week and thanks for reading!  Juli

Sunday, Monday Studio Scenes, 11.10.14

Busy times around here lately- going out for good dinners and wine, going to movies, celebrating birthdays, Peanut and Baby G. time and some serious studio time on Sunday. It feels good to be busy. I'm just hoping it doesn't get too busy. Probably wishful thinking with the holidays coming up. But, oh well, I can wish. And try my best to keep it simple. With that thought in mind, I wanted to pass on a really good article written by Leo Babauta (which you can find here). He has great ideas about keeping your life simple and it never seems to fail, when I'm getting away from the "keep it simple" mindset, I get an e-mail from ZenHabits. And then I do a little self-check to get back on track. It's a good thing!

Anywho, back to my busy-ness! A few 'scenes' from the past week and weekend:

Beautiful flowers from M. for our 10th anniversary :)

 

Finished pouches/wristlets, heading to Blumenhof...

...with my outdated cards attached. I know! Much of the information needs to be updated. But the important info. is still relevant, so I went ahead and used them this time. I'll be looking into some new ones soon.

My re-located and re-arranged painting space ...

ready for some painting time!

 And, at the end of the day, Sunday, this is what you would have found in the 'studio' aka the loft...

My vintage t.v. tray- looking worse for the wear since it has been my go-to side table when I'm working on sewing projects. It's small (ish), lightweight, portable, foldable and has just the right amount of lip around the edge to contain everything.

Display and packaging material on another table.

And, finally, my messy, messy sewing table- a loaner from my daughter, who inherited it from her German, hair-stylist Grandma, Agnes. It feels good working on it :)

 As you can see, I'm a messy worker.  When I work, everything I use is everywhere. When I'm sewing, there are bits of fabric and loose threads all over the floor (and me!) and when I'm painting, I get paint everywhere- my hands, my clothes, my hair, the floor. It's really kind of ridiculous.  That was the main reason I moved the painting space to the loft. Before, it was just off of the kitchen and I was really nervous about contaminating anything food related with oil paint or turpentine. That would not be a good thing!

 Well, I know it's a short post tonight, but now that I've revealed my mess to you all, I feel the need to go tidy up! I'll leave you with some images of the awesome stained glass pieces that my Fine Craft students are working on. I really stressed paying attention to the contrast (of light and dark, low intensity and high intensity colors, complimentary colors, etc.) and they are turning out to be some of the best stained glass pieces in the ten years that I've been teaching. This is also the first stained glass hamburger in my class ;)  I love it!

 Till next time~ Juli

Sunday Scenes- Inspiration Found!, 11.2.14

Well, since winery season is slowing down, I actually have Sunday scenes that are not of the inside of my house! Man, it was nice to get out and do something. It seems like it has been a long time. And maybe that's what I needed to do to find some inspiration. Because inspiration was found :)

M. and I went to two of our favorite places- the St. Louis Art Museum and Sasha's Wine Bar in Clayton.
Here are the scenes:

The works of Nick Cave (there were many more than these) were the most interesting that I've seen at the art museum in a long time. I was disappointed that there wasn't an artist's statement (or one that I could find, at least), but I could have stayed there all day looking at these multi-media sculptures. They were a combination of crochet and other found or re-claimed fiber pieces, along with miscellaneous found objects such as metal toys, ceramic bird sculptures, beads, buttons, etc., attached to sculptures of the human form. Very cool.

This caught my eye because it was made of the same plaster impregnated gauze that we use for many of the sculptures we make at school. After seeing this, I thought it would be cool to challenge one of my more advanced students to try something like this. We've never attempted more than the upper torso and head.

A 3-D Lichtenstein- something I've never seen before.

Wayne Theibaud's food paintings. I know I've probably shown this here before, but I'm showing it again, because I like it!

Native American cradle board. I've always been fascinated by cradle boards (or papooses, as I have always referred to them) and wonder why we don't still use them. Moms (and Dads) could get so much more done in a day, don't you think? I guess the baby sling is today's version of the cradle board. But they don't look nearly as cool and could never pass as a work of art.

One of my all-time favorite artists (just behind Edward Hopper) - Georgia O'Keefe.

If there was one person, living or dead, that I could meet and have a conversation with, I think it might just be Georgia O'Keefe.

And onto our favorite wine bar- Sasha's, in the historic DeMun district of Clayton.

It's the first time I've been handed an IPad for a menu. Weird. 

 

I had another, really cool photo to show you, right here, and then I accidentally deleted it from my IPhone. Dang! If I can recover it, I'll post it on Facebook.  It was a photo of  a man who looks exactly like Vincent VanGogh who hangs out at Sasha's all the time. He has been there, sitting at the same table, every time we've been there, for the last couple of years. So funny!

Okay, so the following scenes aren't from Sunday, but they're just too cute not to add them.

Baby G.'s first Halloween

My dad's first time wearing a Spiderman mask (I think!).

And Peanut's first time wearing a Spiderman mask... and costume! 

It was a Happy Halloween and a very inspiring Sunday afternoon.
Have a great week!  Juli