What I Wore (aka it's totally narcissism, look at my awesome thrift find)

I don't have anything particularly pithy to say, I'm wiped out from a day out with my lovely mum and a nice dinner all together - spaghetti, Avenue Bread's rosemary-laced heavenly bread, and maybe a smidge too much wine and chocolate piroutte cookies. Then Ma and I had to watch a few episodes of Two Fat ladies, which is an emotional event in itself. So. Much. Pork. Love, love, looooooooooove Two Fat Ladies. I love their accents, I love their recipes, I love their camaraderie, and most of all, I love their motorcycle and the little treks they take to cook for all kinds of neat groups of people! In the three we watched, they cooked for a group of Irish Benedictine nuns, a group of girls at Pony Camp (oooo, posh), and a men's chorus from Whales. So cool! What I would give for that to be ME! I'd love to roam around making porky loveliness and lamb pies and scones.
Ok, so I would also love to stay put and do that too. Not gonna lie.
So between groceries, lunch, nursery browsing, drives, dinner, meandering through our garden, and cozy tv watching, this is what I wore (except for the shoes inside my house, that is totally not allowed. Mud. It rains here. A lot)...

Wandering outside, getting valuable plant advice from Ma. Costello is eating something disgusting.
I apologize to Michelle right now for how bad my awesome hair looks in this. I ruined her art! 

Tunic: Thrifted at Buffalo Exchange

Leggings: Target

Boots: Sparky Boot by Jump

Super duper fabulous, and full of button-y joy. And blurry. I might be tipsy.
Don't you judge me. I see you.

deco fan pattern!  

I really dig this tunic, it can ride a bit scarily low in the front, but it's a cotton-modal blend and feels like schlumpy pyjamas. Modal is probably one of my favorite fabrics to wear - I've bought unattractive or unnecessary clothing purely because it was modal. The feel of nice modal is somewhere between thin raw silk and sueded, lightweight cotton. Luscious!
I think this outfit worked alright. I had planned on belting it with my corset buckle belt (in blessed spandex and then leather where it counts) but it turns out that it was ready to go to Goodwill for another sassy portly lady. Weeding is killing my wardrobe, but I am getting more toned. I noticed, too, that I bought this tunic in a Large (well, being thrifted, that was really the only size...) but it needs to be nipped at the waist quite a bit.
Yet another project to add to Mend and Hem Mountain.
And in case you're wondering, I was able to wear my tall leather boots in June because it was windy and rainy here. Again. June! I had wanted to marry you and your lovely sunshine! Come back. I will buy you ice cream and even help you eat it. I love you, sunny June. I miss you.

Makin hay, with a side of bacon

This weekend, we had appropriate-to-the-Northern-Hemisphere temps for June, sun and everything! It was a marvel. We spent a good chunk gardening outside (Husbandman is mad for weeding, thankfully, I just like to tidy... compulsively), but squeezed in some wandering time too. We took a nice drive into town and had an awesome lunch of chicken gyros and humus that we shared with Sae. We did a tiny bit of thrifting, but that was cut short by a colossal Toddler Shit Fit. Squidge was off camping with a friend for the weekend, so we were able to deal with tantrums and naps this weekend a bit more smoothly. Mostly mine, but Jellybean had a few impressive fits, herself!

We also drove out to a local nursery, Thompson's, and browsed around. We're on the quest for an affordable camellia - I think we're SOL, but it's fun to hunt around and enjoy all of the plants. Plus, nursery workers are awesome people. I love plant folks. While we didn't find our lusted-after Yuletide camellia, we did find a couple of cheap mint plants and some ridiculously cheap veggie starts. We went home with a morroccan mint, an apple mint, three sugar pie pumpkins, and what Prof Husbandman thought were more pumpkins... but were in fact, UFO summer squash! BWAHAHA.
See, it's funny because I've been forbidden to have more than one zuke plant, which I do already, and most cucurbit (see: pumpkin, squashes, cuke) starts look pretty much the same at the secondary leaf growth stage.
I grew up around plant dorks, I blame them.

Our backyard seen from upstairs, south-facing of course. Apples and veg at the back.

So far this year, we've weeded, pruned all of the apple trees (7 in all, one giant old gravenstien that you don't see here - that one took three full days to prune up), made a veggie bed kind of shaped like a mirror image of Oklahoma, a triangularish ornamental bed, and the Old Man is making a bed out front. That one is weird, kind of a berm of clippings and compost and lawn clods, he claims he's going to put japanese maples and magnolias atop it. Odd man, that one. I have no idea why he wants to do it that way, but it keeps him off the streets, so I ain't complainin'.

Here's a labeled view of our veggies. I neglected to capture the Pumpkin Panhandle off to the left, but we have some. YAY.

click to make with the big

Here is our new ornamental bed, again with labels. Aside from the buddleia and the columbine, I have no permanent plans here. I really look forward to the now-tiny butterfly bush to grow into its full 8 foot purple glory of honey-drenched-smelling deliciousness. I can just imagine, a warm summer day, the buddleia in full bloom casting a nice shadow over the kitchen, windows of the house open, then a breeze hits and everything smells like it's covered in powdery honey pixie dust. Loooooooooooove.

clicky clicky click

Otherwise, for now, I am enjoying these...

peonies, my absolute fave

delicate indigo Japanese irises, hooray!

June! You are off to a wonderful start. Every now and then I'm discouraged with what feels like too-slow or absolutely NO progress on the house and yard, but then the sun hits the front of the house, and I forget that stupid bullshit and enjoy the cute little bungalow for what it is right now.

Yeah buddy

I mean, what's not to like? Weeds happen. All this hard work is paying off, and it no longer looks like meth heads are using this as a cook house. We are making a difference. It IS getting better. We ARE working our asses off.

And my husband IS an excellent gardener (all of the shaping and weeded prettiness there is aaaaaaaaaaaall him). Life is most definitely good!

Paintin' That Bish All Up

I totally forgot to post yesterday - I want to try and at least post a little bit even if my brain is otherwise occupied. It's been a rough week, I haven't had much to say that wasn't heinously negative and no one wants to hear me bitch about my mundane life bullshit. Well, I don't want to hear me do it, anyhow.
But I did get a glass of water poured into my keyboard and underneath my laptop.
So, you know. The thrills never end!

One of the big reasons I haven't posted was I was too busy painting yesterday! I work mostly mixed media and acrylics, and I can rock a tube of acrylic like nobody's biz, even the cheap shit from Michael's (oh, Michaels, you are the bane and yet utter love of my entire existence). I know a lot of people hesitate and go over to those nasty smelly oils because of the difficulty and tempestuousness of working in acrylic, but I guess I just started there and grew there and that's where I'm at. Plus, oils reek and take forever to cure and are all mushy and like nasty frosting from the depths of hell.
That said, I have an old friend who I introduced to acrylics one drunken painterly night, and he's kicked some major ass in that arena. His oils are bitchin like woah: (http://treesfromthewoods.blogspot.com/2011/02/warning-artists-are-bad-for-environment.html). I'm a little envious, but more covetous!

Anyhow, how I like to primarily rock those bitchy acrylics is to do acrylic washes, which are time consuming but worth it for workability and coverage. What you do is you get a stack of those little to-go condiment cups - mine are about a 1.5 oz size - WITH lids. My grandma introduced me to using those instead of aluminum packets or palettes with acrylics. So not worth the hassle, plus, the cups are recyclable. Bonus!
You put your measured/eyeballed amount of paint in the cup, and then add a thinning medium. I prefer Mod Podge because I am a dirty, dirty whore for decoupage and assemblage and it's the best shit for either just about. You can also use Elmer's glue, carpenter's glue (this can backfire and fuck your brushes up but good, make sure you have GOOD brush cleaner or turpentine on hand), or any other paste medium. I also like to add some water to get things nice and thinned. I dig the opacity of acrylics, but I do like to mimic a watercolor wash or a creamy oily blend (but without the aforementioned heinous intrinsic Oil-ness) and BOTH can be achieved with the right ratio of floaty adhesive medium to water to paint. You do have to get a feel for it, play around on a big piece of cardboard and do lots of tests.

One of the most fun ways to get going with acrylic washes is to make an Eric Carle inspired collage piece. You just use plain rice paper or, if you're patient and brave, plain tissue paper. You can freeform your image, or do a little sketch on your mounting medium. With lightweight papers, all you really need is watercolor paper to bear the light load. Once you've prepped your paint washes and your work area, you take a sheet of rice/tissue paper and paint your wash on. Don't overload it, treat the paper like you're doing watercolors on it.  You can make it as thin or thick as you like, and once the first coat dries, you can always go back over in contrasting colors, or complimentary if you like to be all matchy-matchy.
After all of your gorgeous acrylic washed tissue sheets are dried, you apply them to your board, either over your (very, very light) sketch. Or mix media it. Play around! I like to use this method and apply it over newsprint to obscure the words and just get the graphic effect of the type.

Here's my background wash I finished today for an aquatic art nouveau-ish piece I've been rolling around in my head:

yeah, I suck at taking pictures... 

I will also blame my proper lighting and the gloss of the paint as it was drying. 

So there.

Anyways, shitty lighting aside, I sharpened the crap out of this in Picassa so you can see some of the layers. I think this is my sixth or seventh. The first two, I did aqua green and blue washes, all over, no definition. Then a pale blue wash with a wavy brush texture (oh! Acrylics and mod podge = subtle texture love), then a pea green layer just on chunky highlight areas, then a blue vertical wash for tint and coverage, then green again with a rag removal technique to make it even MORE translucent, then the final coat is a vertical aqua streaking done with a sponge brush dragged down it and a rag removal in some areas.
Over the top of all of these washes is going to be a solid acrylic border and a mixed media center (like a center of creamy gross rotting corpse under the ocean goodness). This is my outer sketch, and it goes without saying don't rip my shit off or I'll fucking cut you. If you get inspired and riff off of me, that is so cool, but credit me with said Art-'spo or I will, again, cut you.
That said, I was inspired by Erica Moen, this propaganda poster from the Netherlands, and this propaganda poster from my beloved homeland of the Republic of Cascadia.

I'm not super tidy with my ref sketches. I know what I meant, ok.
Also, I like jellyfishes. Ignore the giant scallop center, it was nice but got tossed out.

So I'd better get back to it, my two canvases (the second is another post for another time, also pretty crap with dead shit, I AM my mother's daughter *snifflesniffle*) are finally dry. Those washes, they take longer than plain acrylics to dry, just so you know. And depending on which type of adhesive you use, the sheen dries differently. I am using semigloss acrylics with a gloss Mod Podge, with has a nice, soft sheen that looks good when you mix a bit of neutral metallic into your washes, too. It's fun to play with. Don't fear acrylics! Make them your bitch!

Bloggin'

Bloggin - don't wanna.
Rain's stopped, there's baby stuff to be crafted up, and two more seasons of Law and Order, SVU to watch.
Add to that, a kid that needs to learn to draw his shapes and write letters, a husband who is going back to school again, and a brain that needs constant stimuli...

Well, I just don't have the patience or will, yo.

Will post pix of goings on in craftyland later.

xoxoxoxo