Anneelaw - journal pages

Sorry it took me a few days to find time to do this post.  I've been having trouble with uploading pictures and they've been taking forever so I have to wait until I have a good chunk of time in order to upload anything. 

Without further fuss, here are the journal pages (and the journal box they're stored in)....

Above is the journal box as I sent it out,
and below as it is now.
It's hard to tell in this picture, but the
little red  beads are actually lights!

Below are the four journal pages I started her off with...

Arlee did these....

 

These were by Robyn...

These by Amy...

  

 These two (above and below) are by Talitha.

and finally, these are by Gail...

Aren't they great??!!

EDITED TO ADD:
Yvonne very nicely let me know that her pages weren't posted here.  I'm not quite sure why they didn't show up because I do remember posting them. 
My apologies Yvonne!

Here they are....

Anneelaw is home!

Do you remember this?

Several months ago I sent this metal and glass contraption out into the world in the hopes that my creative friends would be able to turn it into a doll.  The base as shown here is made from parts of an old table lamp.  Our challenge was to create a portion of a doll (for instance, a head and the torso) but not a complete body.  As the doll traveled to the different artists in the group it was up to them to add the body parts (or not, depending on their whim).  I am absolutely blown away by what has come home to me!!

PLEASE MEET

ANNEELAW...

Isn't she incredible? 
To say that the artists in this collaboration
are talented has to be an understatement!

Would you believe that she was even outfitted with a light in order to keep her true to her roots?  She is most definitely a society gal out for afternoon tea with her friends (or is she perhaps on her own and looking for a man??).  

My thanks to the artists who contributed so brilliantly - Gail (our fearless leader); Arlee, Amy, Robyn, Talitha and Yvonne.  Please be sure to go to our group blog to see all the other wonderful dolls that were created.  All of them are spectacular!  

Tomorrow I will post pictures of her travel journal...stay tuned!

Quilts - last part!

Quilts - part two...

Here are a few more of my favourite quilts 

that were on displace at our local
quilt guild show this past weekend...

quilts....

This past weekend our local quilt guild had their big show and I took a few pictures of some of my favourites to share with you.  I'll post some today and will post the rest later in the week.  The guild has well over 200 members and is quite active in the community.  I was a member for a number of years, but finally gave it up in favour of having more time at home to create.  Hope you enjoy seeing some of the show...

Art Doll - Coolaberation - 'Onoma'

I just finished working on the last doll in the 2010 Coolaberation and I'm sad that the fun is over.  The last doll I received is 'Onoma', a being from outer space who just happens to be suffering from amnesia.  Onoma never did have a specific gender and I assume is neither or perhaps is both!!

This is Onoma...

Onoma arrived pretty much complete, so it was hard to know what to add.
After much contemplation and some prompting from Onoma,
I decided to emphasize the width of his/her shoulders and
added the silver-covered doweling, along with the
metal 'tassels'....

Onoma has a very interesting waistline so I
added some copper embellishments...

Finally, Onoma spied a set of glasses
in my stash and was quite sure
they were ones that were lost
on his/her last visit to earth.

Who am I to argue?

Then, it was on to work in the
journal...
Page One....

The quote I found is by Marcel Proust and reads "When nothing else subsists from the past, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered, the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls, bearing resiliently, on tine and almost impalpable drops of their essence, the immense edifice of memory."   The reason I chose this particular quote is because the story line that goes along with Onoma states that she/he keeps smelling a particular odor which is a reminder of something just outside the memory.

Page Two (above) and Page Three & Four (below)

As I said before I'm sad to have this round robin end.  It's been such a great learning experience to play with such talented artists and to have to stretch my own creativity to try to keep up with the talent this group has. A big thank you has to go to Gail who organized us and kept us on track and also to all my fellow artists who have taught me so much. 

Crazy quilt book available!

I'm happy to announce that

my friend Pam Kellogg  has
just made available 

Volume 2 of her
'ELEGANT CRAZY QUILT SEAM TREATMENTS'!!

This volume is just as great as Volume 1 and I am happy to say I have downloaded my copy and can't wait to play with some of her wonderful charted borders.  Pam says there is a third volume in the works too, and I know I'll be ordering a copy as soon as it becomes available.

Go to her site HERE
for further information!!

Mumblings

  Our house is now on the market so we are having to live like we're in a magazine spread at all times in case we need to clear out for a showing.  Not the funnest of occupations, but necessary if we plan to move.  Several people have commented that we won't want to leave now that it looks so nice - hah - it's going to be a huge relief to get out from under all the WORK!!!

 Yard sale is planned for this Saturday - anyone want to take odds on whether or not it will rain??

Proud Mother of the Groom!!

Our handsome son and his beautiful bride

It was a beautiful wedding.

Our family,
Jack, Julia, RJ, Winnie, Shawn and me.

Congratulations Julia and RJ
may your lives be long and happy!!

ARGHHHHHH!!

Do you know that old children's song that starts out with "I am slowly going crazy; slowly crazy am I going; 6-5-4-3-2-1; switch"? 

Yep, that's me.

Called in the real estate today to start the process of selling our house and, as we feared, we were told that we would get much better offers if we were to cover up the fact that the hardwood floor in the living/dining room is worn with a nice new carpet. 

ARGH!!!!!!

So, we hared down to the carpet store and picked out some cheap carpet and they will install same on Wednesday.

I can hear you saying, well, what's so bad about that?

 

What is bad about that is that new carpeting means that the quarter round has to be removed.  AND, that, in turn, leads to having to repaint the baseboards....again.  

AND, to make matters worse, I've already thrown out my painting clothes!!!!!!!!

W-A-H!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Veil for a bride

I'm not sure this is what Julia was envisioning or even if it is going to fit but, for now, this is the veil!

Something fun!

I'm switching gears for a little while this week and concentrating on something I love doing and that's creating something in crazy quilting!  Most of you know that both our boys are getting married and one of the weddings is May 14th and I needed to get busy on the crazy quilted clutch purse I'm making for Julia.  Today I sat down and actually finished it and had a totally good time doing it too!

Here is the front....

and the back...

Clicking on the pictures should embiggen them for you!

Now I'm on to making a birdcage veil (wish me luck).

working, working, working

- studio cleaned out and spiffy (except for the floor) - check
- living/dining rooms cleaned out and spiffy - check
- master bedroom spiffy (almost) - check
- 2 spare bedrooms spiffy - check
- laundry room floor installed - check
- new 'flooring' in the cupboard under the kitchen sink - check
- furniture going to kids moved - check

STILL TO DO:
- wash & wax studio floor
- install carpet piece in downstairs closet
- get rid of more furniture
- clean windows
- fix chipped paint
- finish cleaning out the garage (already one truck load ready to head for the dump)

- get rid of one rather largish clotheshanger (better known as a treadmill) that absolutely nobody in their right minds seems to want

And how was YOUR week???

It's not true!!

Reports of my having fallen off the face of the earth are not true.

We are getting down to the crunch time with putting the house on the market and are narrowing in on the major things we needed to get done.  I'm still going through 'stuff' and getting it gone in one form or another.  The garage looks like a cyclone hit out there and I know I will be spending a number of days setting up for a massive yard sale.  

In the meantime, I'm also doing such delightful things as touching up paint (open jar, stir, find paint brush, dab on a little paint in a couple of spots, close jar, wash brush.....rinse and repeat).  

We get the apartment on May 1st and will start moving some things then and will make the final move when the house sells.  Maintaining two homes will be a chore because I just know that we'll have taken something over there that we find we need more desperately NOW.  Just hope the house sells really fast.

Oh  yeah - and getting ready for the weddings too!

Needless to say my posting might be a little sporadic over the next few weeks.  Rest assured I'll be back with regular doses of mumblings before long and in the meantime, I'll post as I can! 

Please feel free to mumble amongst yourselves!!

Journal for Prince Charming

Robyn's Prince Charming has a wonderful scroll for his journal...great fun to work on although it was a little bit outside my comfort zone.  I like to do whatever it is I'm adding separately and then attach it when I'm done (less chance of mucking it up that way and easier for a do-over if need be).  With this scroll, it needed to be worked on directly.  I"m pretty pleased with the way it turned out....

Hopefully you should be able to click on it to see more of the details.  I found a wonderful quote from Kermit "Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection - the lovers, the dreamers and me".   I also added "It's not easy being green" (which is, I think, another Kermit-ism)..... "Time's fun  when you're having flies",  and "A frog he would a-wooing go, whether Venus would let him or no".    Venus was referred to by one of the previous artists as being the one that was keeping him in his frog state.

The background was already a lovely mixture of print and gesso (?) so I simply used some acrylic stain and over top of that drybrushed a bit of green for highlights.  Then I added the stencils and the paper ephemera and finished the whole with another coat of antiquing.

There's only one doll left to work on, and I'm sad.

Frog Prince - reveal

Sorry about being missing folks, but this having to get the house ready for putting up for sale is taking more time than I anticipated!   We're getting there....slowly.

I HAVE been playing a little too!
Here's the wonderful Frog Prince
the latest in the Art Doll Coolaberation 2010
dolls to come to visit...

Remember that odd-looking wooden 'thing' I posted about last time?
Well, it was the base for this....

Yes, it's lurking under there!  It's been painted green and has been given a fabric 'skirt', held on with upholstery tacks.  A little bottle full of flies (for his lunch) has been added and I added a dragonfly charm to the lily pad Talitha made.  He's also sporting a new balloon, because after all, what self-respecting frog at the fair, wouldn't have balloons to attract the ladies?

Tomorrow I will show you my journal entry.

Twins!

Now don't go and get all exciting thinking I'm
making any sort of 'announcement'!!

These are two baby dolls (twins actually) that were dressed by my friend who spends literally hours crocheting lovely outfits for dolls and then gives them away.  Each of these dolls has a dress, a slip, an undershirt, underwear, bootees, a hat and a coat....all crocheted and designed by her.  She is in her 80's and credits the miles of crocheting she does with keeping the arthritis at bay in her hands.  She wanted me to buy these dolls and she would dress them with instructions that they are to be put away for my grandchildren.  Don't know what I'll do if we end up having boys!!

Finally, here's what I've been working on lately - wonder what it will turn out to be?