Journal inspiration

Although I wasn't feeling well (caught some nasty cold), I finished two paintings on Saturday:

"Crazy Cat Lady"
11x13" linen canvas,
acrylic paints
watercolor pencils
collage paper
varnished

"Good Witch of the East"
10x13" cotton canvas,
acrylic paints
watercolor pencils
collage paper
varnished


Both are in my Etsy shop. I seem to can't stop painting, next week I'm getting more canvases and I've already planned a painting for the Christmas present for my mother in law, yikes! *^v^*

Grab a cuppa, here are some links to some art journal goddesses to get you inspired:
iHanna
Ann-D
d'Blogala
Cat Sidh
Kathrin Jebsen-Marwedel
Ingrid Dijkers
Jodi Green
Kira Girl
Violette
Tribambuka
Willowing
Teesha Moore

The day after birthday

Thank you, guys, sooooo much for all your wishes! *^v^*
It was a great day (apart from another row with my mom, but that's normal, so let's pretend it didn't happen), I spent time with my friends and got some wonderful things: Robert gave me a book of my dreams about the Art Nouveau artists and my best friend Anna gave me some items with the seahorse motif on them (I love seahorses, they's sooooo cute! ^^), including the cutest seahorse punch for my art journal! And the champagne was delicious! *^v^*
(And Robert prepared beautiful breakfast and made tea all day, and even washed the dishes twice! I didn't lift a finger all day!)

On the next day me and Robert went to the wood to take some photos of the Autumn,

and in the afternoon we helped our friends to move to their new apartment. Busy and a bit tiring day, but very nice. In the evening I even managed to work a bit on my journal, and tomorrow I'm definitely painting again (I didn't have time since Monday, grrrrrr.....)!

As for the new hairdo - it didn't change much. It's shorter but apart from that the hairdresser didn't want anything to my hair because she said they wouldn't have a good shape if she cut it into some longer and shorter parts. And I agreed with her, especially since I had no specific hairdo in mind. Maybe next time, when I give my hair some more nourishment - I bought a special hairdresser's shampoo and conditioner, so I have high hopes for the new shiny healthy hair! *^v^*(eeeeeeeek, red nose... it was rather cold!)
Also, she worked with a big round hairbrush and a dryer a lot, and I had quite an elegant styling on my birthday, with the ends curled a bit. When I woke up the next morning - I looked like a hairdresser's disaster, so let's just say that my hair do what they want and no fancy styling is possible, just a nice 'artistic' mess! =^v^=

I am a birthday girl!

Today is my birthday. I'm 33. *^v^*

Last year this time I said to myself "I have a feeling that the next year of my life will be special!".
And it was! *^v^*

I started and practiced new crafts: naalbinding and weaving, both I like very much.
I knitted my first sweater (and then more followed this one! ^^).
And we finally worked out the plan to come out of debts - the plan that works! ^^
I took up embroidery again and created the first WordPictures (more definitely to come in the future!).
We decided to face reality and close our online shop, which was the only sensible thing to do under the circumstances and it was a good move that let us move on in life.
I started my first ever art journal and was brave enough to fill it page by page with different things.
I took up painting again, and I love it, and I'm going to stick to it!
And I even sold my first painting on ebay, yikes! ^^

So, generally, a great year behind me, and there is a message for the new year that has just started for me: "This year is going to be even better than the last one, in every aspect of it!"

And today I'm going to a hairdresser, to my mom's for lunch, then we are meeting my friends for champagne and cake, and who knows what the day may bring? *^v^*

Journaling a bit

I finished some journal pages lately:

These two are to honor the great swap with Myriam! *^v^*

Here is my assignment for the SuziBlu's Community - a mandala: it's been created on a green background because green is a colour of hope and I strongly hope for all the things I put here, and they are all connected - so, I need money to pay off all my debts and buy a bigger, better place to live, where I could have my own room - a studio for painting and sewing. These are my current needs.

On the left hand side of my journal I placed all the symbols of my needs on the red background (red being for me a symbol of fulfillment). The disco ball is me being happy about my wishes coming true! *^v^*And it's a funny thing because in her recent email to me Suzi wrote about the place with a disco ball, and here it is - in my journal! Coincidence? No, there's no such thing, it's a destiny! =^v^=

BTW, everybody's doing this so I didn't want to stay behind - I set up my Etsy shop! *^v^*
For now there are two paintings there but I'm planning to sell there my sewn creations and other things created and for creating. More items soon, so stay tuned! ^^

Painter's heaven

I've been to the painter's heaven today! *^v^*
Imagine a room full of canvases, cotton and linen, in various shapes and sizes, painter's boards and passepartouts. That's where I bought three new canvases for my paintings (and started to work on two of them as soon as I got home! ^^). I felt tempted to choose some bigger sizes, but I must remember I am restricted with the size of my flat - I can paint as much as I want but then I have to store those paintings somewhere!...

On Sunday I finished last pieces from the "Girl Loves..." series (there are four in a set) and they are on ebay right now. In fact, the Cooking Girl has already been sold and paid for, awaiting the shipment to the new owner! I'm very happy about that. Partly, because of the money of course. But also because that's a test for me, for my creative skills, for my ideas, for my ability to send those ideas to the world, whether somebody likes what I'm making the way I do.
I think "Girl Loves..." will consist of only four pieces for now, but maybe I will add more if I manage to find the same size painter's board to make them (they were from the old supplies).

So, maybe apart from cooking you also like Cleaning?

or Shopping?

or maybe Doing the Laundry?


I really cannot decide which is my favourite, but it's a one housewife's tribute to all the housewives out there! *^v^*

Also I tried to make a video of "paintings in the making" but I cannot force the video editing program to work - I've tried to use Cinelerra, but it doesn't want to cooperate and just closes when I try to load a file, well... (yes, I am a Linux user, no Windows Movie Maker for me, thanks! ^^) Maybe next time, when I figure it all out.

As for the knitting Lucinda - thank you for the words of compassion, I was so sad about the sleeves that I didn't touch it on Saturday nor Sunday, but I picked it up on Monday and kept knitting for about 10 rows. I would like to finish it really soon, because new projects are waiting (maybe this thought will give me the strength to hurry up with Lucinda?)! *^v^*

Nameless art

My friend Kate saw my paintings and immediately asked about the name of my style. I said I didn't have any name for it, it's just me playing with paints and scraps of paper. But she said I needed a name, and it must be something with "neo-" at the beginning, because it would draw people's attention to it.
Well, she knows best, she works part-time in an art gallery... *^v^*
Maybe if I wanted to attract the attention of the art critics, the name for my art would be a good marketing move. But I don't. This is my vent, my meditation time, my creativity time and its outcome - the paintings. If people like it I'm glad. If they want to buy it - I'm glad as well, because it will provide me with some money for more art supplies (and yarn, let's not forget this one! *^v^*). But let's leave the elaborate names for the things that can be easily put into defined boxes.

Okay, if I really had to come up with a name, I would call it a neo-collage kawaii! *^v^*
(kawaii is a Japanese word and it means "cute", but you know it, right? Gwen Stefani uses this word A LOT! ^^)


Anyway, yesterday I needed to knit some small quick project (when you sometimes need something really badly, like the world would end if you didn't get it!... ^^) and decided upon the hat - I don't really have an Autumn hat, not too warm but warm enough to keep my head away from the November chilly weather.
So, I took a ball of Exclusive 100% Superwash Wool from my stash and this pattern. 2 hours later I had this - a Pixie Hat.
First, it was a totally different hat, but when I finished it it turned out that it's way too big... so I frogged it and started again, using the Pixie pattern, and this time - a success! *^v^*I added a short crocheted under chin band and a button, because it kept sliding away. And I know it's a child's hat, but who cares? =^v^=
I should also add a big flower onto my hat because, as my friend Kate says, "flowers on hats are hot this season!". *^v^*

This one gave me a real pleasure especially because I had to frog the bigger part of the Lucinda's sleeves last night... Yes, you heard me correctly, I was about at the hight of the elbows when I realized that I had way too many stitches (and still several increases to make). So I checked the pattern description one more time and to my horror I found out that I completely ignored one expression: "increase 1 stitch in every 8th and 10th row interchangeably 9 times". What I did was of course increasing two stitches, on both sides instead of only one side at a time... I wrote down all the rows and increases on a piece of paper, and now I shouldn't make a second mistake.
Today I'm knitting and painting (I received a new set of Autumn colours paints by post this morning, yikes! ^^), so expect new "Girl Loves..." pictures on Monday!
Have a creative weekend! =^v^=

Swaps rule!!!

This morning the postman brought me the swap parcel from Diddlinaknits! *^v^*
At first, it looked like this:
(In fact, at first it had a paper around it, with stamps, ect, but I ripped it away, so there was nothing interesting to photograph... ^^). All the goodies were placed in a beautiful box that I'm going to keep and use for my scraps of papers for collages (I'm crazy about all the cute containers!).

Then, I opened the box and found these - some things expected and some - a total surprise!
So, there was IK Fall 07 magazine, that I missed on their website and Myriam was so kind to find for me in her local shop, then the Kool Aids for my wool dyeing experiments (now I understand why you're not so happy to give it to your Little Man, Myriam, the instructions start with: "Place 1 cup of sugar...", brrr....)
and something that apparently you all know from your childhood - the Shrinky Dinks! *^v^* So, lots of experimenting for me!
But then, there was also a perfect size purse notebook in an orange covers (I love orange!), a lip balm in the cutest little cover (I won't be hunting my lipbalms all over the bag from now on! ^^), and the proof that Myriam is a mind reader - a set of Sharpies in funky colours! *^v^* I've heard and read about them from a fellow art journalists, but I didn't think I'll be able to try them out so soon!
I had no idea what to start playing with, so I panicked and opened the lip balm first! *^v^* When I calm down, I'll make myself a cup of tea and read the Shrinky Dinks instructions. *^v^*

BTW, sometimes the smallest things bring you happiness - the Kool Aids were in a ziplock bag, another item unknown here ! *^v^*


To cool our heads down a bit, here are the photos of the current state of my Lucinda cardigan - the fronts has been sewn with the back and waiting for the sleeves, hood and a zipper:

The sleeves keep growing everyday, and as you can see, I substituted the middle bobbles panel with a pearl stitch panel, I didn't like the bobbles at all. Also, the cuffs are quite long here, but I'm going to reverse half of them to get a thick warm pair of cuffs.
One more thing - I can show you now the painting I couldn't show you before, because it was in the swap parcel for Myriam (and this morning she received her parcel). This is called "Knitting Girl".

Have a great Thursday! *^v^*

IK Winter issue

Have you seen the preview of the Winter issue of Interweave Magazine?
I love three designs:
Henley Perfected Connie Chang Chinchio

Citrus Yoke Pullover Katie Himmelberg

Celtic Tote Jennifer Tallapaneni

Do I want to buy this issue? Well...
I had a similar problem with the Fall issue - at first I didn't like many projects so I decided not to buy it, and then I saw many designs knitted by you, guys, and wanted to make them, too, and the IK Fall was already sold out on their website (lucky me, Diddlinaknits got one for me in her local store! *^v^*).
There's still time to make up my mind and maybe more projects will grow on me, and I may have some extra money from selling my paintings on ebay (there is one bidder already, hello, my bidder! *^v^*).
BTW, "Russia" and "Underwater" have also been listed on ebay, in case anyone from abroad would like to bid on them, here are the shipment costs (priority mail):
to Europe - 6 USD
to both Americas/Asia/Africa - 10 USD
to Australia - 15 USD

Today I'm recovering from last night's visit to Jeff's American restaurant with Robert's mother (the portions are soooo huge there!...), working on new paintings, continue my Lucinda sleeves (I'm past 1/3 already, and it seems that I'll have enough yarn for the hood, yikes! *^v^*), and thinking about making a video - everybody's making videos now and putting them on youtube, so I might as well! ^^

Happy Wednesday!

My first ebay auction

Okay, so I managed to list my first item on ebay - my "Girl Loves Cooking" painting, you can find it here.

It's my first sell there, but I have a long history of the positive transactions both as a seller and a buyer on the biggest Polish auction website. I am honest and reliable, and you will get what you paid for, that's for sure! ^^

If you like my art, please support the housewife and provide her with some pocket money for the yarn and art supplies! *^v^*

Jeg elsker...

I love the rough surface of the cotton canvas by Talens.
I love placing more and more layers of paint, crayons, scraps, stamps.
I love shading which results in the shapes emerging in front of my eyes.
I love getting a sudden idea for a painting.
I love the smell of a varnish (I know, it stinks like hell!...).
I love the fact that I'm doing it with NO initial purpose to sell my paintings.
I love the fact that I may put them up for sale, if I choose.
I love to make something and not to judge the outcome.
I love the variety of ways in which I can express my ideas through painting & collage.

This one is called "Underwater", and it says 'One day I will move all my shells so they could live happily in the bathroom.' Which I will. As soon as we redecorate our bathroom next year (now they live on the bookshelves and in the boxes). *^v^*

- 11x16,5" cotton canvas by Talens
- acrylic paints
- watercolour crayons
- scraps from the French edition of by Agatha Christie
- varnished

On ebay soon! *^v^*
(as soon as I figure out why it doesn't want to upload my photos!...)

And I was a good girl last weekend and finished knitting the fronts of my Lucinda cardi, time to cast on for the sleeves! *^v^*