Running With Scissors...

The boys are gone for 10 days camping with their Boy Scout troop and I'm a free mom! I should be running around the house naked or with scissors or something!.....well okay forget the running naked part I wouldn't want to scare the cats!....I thought I'd be feeling more thrilled to have the time to do art etc but it hasn't quite hit yet I'm still missing them.

I have been experimenting doing some digital art see below:

Praise Who ever Invented Freon!

Houston we've got Air! YES!! Hubby has put the air conditioner back in and we're coolin' with Freon now! :::DOES THE HAPPY DANCE::: Yes, I'm just a little more then excited after living the last week without the air in the main part of the house my studio was hotter then Hades!! I worship whoever discovered Freon! Thanks to all of you who emailed me and posted and offered their sympathies and even help!!!

I did get some more art done...I'm still having fun with the gouache paints click on the link to learn more or order your own set:
Gouache Paint Sets

Here's another altered cabinet card and shipping tag using gouache paints:

How Hot is Hot?

I'm giving you fair warning I'm on a rant today so click away now or read on! Its hot and I don't just mean a little hot its blasting hot, smokin' hot, steekin' hot, hot tamales hot! Just how hot is hot? well for me anything over 90 is hedging on too hot and we have now reached triple digits!! today is suppose to be 107....tomorrow they say 110!! I just love when people say
but it's a dry heat..." ha! dry heat wet heat it doesn't make a difference hot is hot! LOL

What makes it so bad is that we live in a 100 year old house without central heat and air...we do/did have an air conditioner but hubby had to take it out when he put in new windows this year and since we had un usually cooler weather it wasn't a priority and it must have slipped his mind that it just might become a priority HELLOOOO we have reached melt down levels honey!! I put a thermostat in my office yesterday and with the fan blowing from the computer and it being a small room it was 90 degrees...kind of hard to type with sweat dripping in your eyes! Hey maybe that's what they mean when they say "Feel the burn baaaby!"

Sorry, no art to post I'm hoping to get some done if I haven't melted, so check back!

Monday

For those interested in the Attitude Jar it's working great!! It was several days before we had to even dip into it and it's only been a couple of times, not bad I'd say. I had several emails regarding using it for hubbys LOL It probably would work but I don't dare give my dh anymore chores then he already has, he has a big enough list on his own without my help.

Hope all the fathers out there enjoyed father's day. My boys took dh to the American Graffiti Car Show and Festival http://graffitifestival.northmodestokiwanis.org/ that's held here every year.

While they were off at the car show I did finish up a couple projects another altered cabinet card and a Vintage bingo card.

Biting the heads off of snakes!

Forget bats! (Move over Ozzie Osbourn!) I was so ticked yesterday after dealing with bickering teenage boys and attitudes I was ready to bite the heads off of snakes and I HATE snakes, if that tells ya anything LOL Yes, you guessed it summer is in session! and changes never go well at our house, but by the end of the day things had calmed down and once our new summer routine is established it will be fine. Of course having an Attitude Jar is going to help that a lot!

For all you mother's out there I highly recommend making your very own Attitude Jar....take a jar and some scrap paper. On each piece of paper write a chore....not a big chore but something that needs to get done but is small enough to accomplish (i.e., wash baseboards, clean the silverware drawer out, vacuum the car, pull weeds, dust mini blinds etc.) You get the idea now fold those papers over and put them in the jar and when someone cops and attitude forget passing go and collecting $200 go directly to the Attitude Jar and have them pull their very own slip of paper out....I promise it will work like a charm! If you have perfect children who don't bicker with each other or cop attitudes then please disregard!

In honor of siblings here's a 8x8 chunky canvas I did using a picture of my sisters and I (I'm the cute number 3). I used Gouache watercolors to paint the background and then printed a scanned photo out on Epson's Matte heavyweight paper and painted the dresses and hair with Gouache also. You can't see the poem well in the scan but it's a favorite of mine and reads:

"Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow.
Don't walk behind me, I may not lead.
Walk beside me and just be my friend."
~Albert Camus

Celebration Time!

Its time to Celebrate schools out for summer!! YES! a little time now to recoup and gear up for the next school year!

On another note our local Symphony and Art League promoted a project last year for artist to alter full size cellos titled "Cellobration." The same concept of the painted cows that started I think in Chicago and then were displayed around town and since then I've seen painted Charlie Browns, Snoopys, and more cows. Never have I seen cellos which I think is a very cool concept. The cellos were junkers donated by our local music store. The cellos were displayed around town for many months and are now up for auction on ebay...unfortunately the auction is for a short run so I fear they will not raise as much money as they could nor was it publicized enough I feel. There are some awesome altered cellos I think my 3 favorites are no 47 (look very closely at the pictures and read the description), no 46 and 63....of course I have many other favorites as well!
Click the link to see them listed on ebay:

Cellobration

Random Musings!

We've begun the count down now to the end of the school year which is Friday. I feel like at the beginning of the year there's a giant mountain we're climbing up and somewhere around January we've reached the peak and from there on out its a fast descent down hill with as much as can be crammed into the remaining school year as possible. Every year it feels that way for me and summer always seems like semi even ground. There's my random musings for the day!

I've been experimenting with watercolor Gouache and really enjoying the chalky opaque look they have. I've also altered a few Cabinet cards, I wasn't sure what all the fuss was about them until I tried my hand at a few and found it was actually quite fun!

Here's my first two attemps: