Bye Bye Studio...

...otherwise known as what I've spent the last two days doing. 

This summer my studio is getting a makeover.  The roof leaked all last winter and there's no quick and easy fix, so we really have to redo the whole roof, including half of the garage roof.  And since redoing the roof means we have to rebuild the walls anyway, my sweetie asked me if I'd like to have a bigger studio.  Well, I could hardly say no, could I? 

I picked up the building permit on Tuesday and since I have to leave to go to my mom's on Friday, that left just a few days to get everything packed up.  I started Tuesday evening and packed 8 boxes of books before I went to bed.   I took some pics of it in its almost normal state when I got up on Wednesday morning.

art table area

                           

sewing area

 jewelry area

Wednesday morning I hit it hard and worked all day packing stuff.  I had to go into Lowes once to get more boxes (yikes, I packed a whole lot of boxes) and I stopped to eat dinner, but all told, I spent about 14 hours packing.  It seemed like every time I turned around, there was something else to pack.  :)  Here's what it looked like this morning before I started in again.  

nothing but bare shelves

35 boxes of stuff stacked to the rafters in the garage

                                             

This morning I took the time to finish the the buttonholes on the shirt I made on Monday so I could pack up the sewing machine and the last of the sewing stuff.  Once that was done, it was a quick half hour for my husband and son and a few neighbor boys to haul all the furniture out to the garage, and presto chango, it was all done. 

 

looks pretty much like it did when we moved in two years ago

all my stuff, anxiously awaiting its new home in a few months--a few months, right sweetie?

Happy Birthday Giggle!

Today is my sister Gayle's birthday.  In honor of that I decided I'd post some pics of the mini quilt I'm working on for her last year's birthday.  So like me to be a year behind, huh?  :)  

I think I'm about finished adding flowers so now I have to add the beading for the centers.  I did a few centers on the small flowers last night but I don't like them so I'm going to have to cut the beads off and start over.  I think I might have to buy some different beads to get the look I want.  When the beading is all done, I have to decide if I'm going to add a border to the quilt.  I think I want to machine quilt the words of the song that was the inspiration for this quilt on a border but it's something that I'm going to have to think about for a while. 

Nestled In My Backyard...

Last weekend, Al finished the siding on my new garden shed (thank you so much sweetie!) so now I can show it off.    I still need to paint the trim and bring the door up from my mom's and get in installed but even with that still undone, isn't it awesome?  If I were a little girl, I'd be finding furniture and a tea set to take out there and make it my playhouse. 

I can't wait for a sunny day when I can get out in the yard with a sketchbook and my paints and try my hand at capturing it on paper.

Sneak Peaks

I've been spending a lot of time on the road the last few weeks, alternately going to my mom's and bringing her up here to stay, so I haven't had much time to blog lately.  But I couldn't let any more time go without showing some sneak peaks of my almost finished garden shed.  I have to find time to search out an old door and then the rest of the siding and shingles can be put on and the trim painted.  I'm very, very excited about how it looks so far--exactly what I wanted!

I can't wait until it's all finished!  How can it not be cool?  It has two of my absolute favorite things--old windows with peeling paint and old metal roofing.  The windows were found on Craigslist for cheap and the roofing scrounged from my folks house. 

Oh the Beauty of the Earth

I noticed last night that it's been a long while since I had a new blog post.  I've sat down at the computer many times over the last few weeks, intending to blog, but haven't managed till now.  May is usally a busy month for me because it's the end of the school year and there are band concerts to get ready for and year end tests and such. This year it's been busyness plus loads of worry for my mom and stepdad, who spent the last 4 months in various hospitals in Las Vegas, struggling to fight off one infection after another after his heart surgery.  Last Friday, Harry lost his struggle and passed away. 

It's been a tough week.  But, it has been a time of consolation and healing too.  This last weekend I spent most of my time getting my yard and garden in shape for a jazz band concert  scheduled to be held on my back deck last night (the concert had to be moved because of rain but that's not important).  Anyway, as I was working in the warm sunshine, pulling weeds and planting beautiful, colorful flowers and seeing the beauty of the flowers and trees already there, I was filled with such peace and joy.  God's creation is so beautiful and I am so thankful for having eyes to see all the colors of the foliage and the flowers, and ears to hear the birds chirping and the sigh of the wind through the trees. 

Here are a few of the things that bring me joy in my back yard.

My new peppermint and spearmint container garden

Blue bottles salvaged from the recycling center

One of my rose bushes in full bloom

Another rose bush

A lilac in bloom

This year's big outdoor project--finishing my garden shed and finishing the landscaping around it and around the stream and pond. 

I might try to post one more time this week but then I'll be gone for a week or two as I stay with my mom and help her out.  She'll be home from Las Vegas this weekend and I'll be really glad to be able to give her lots of hugs and just take care of her for awhile.

Friday Night Fun

What does it say about me that my idea of Friday night fun is sitting in front of the computer, messing around with my photos?  Sad, Melis, just sad.  :)

I've been looking for a few months now for a book to help me create digital artwork.  I'm interested in digital collage and in making art quilts from my photos.  Well, today I scored!  I went to Joann Fabrics to get some fabric dye and of course, since I had a 50% off coupon, I looked through the books.  I found a book called Artistic Photo Quilts:  Create Stunning Quilts With Your Camera, Computer & Cloth.  It has a lot of the information I've been looking for and so I've been playing around all night with some of my photos that I thought would make good graphic images.  I put together a rough collaged quilt in Photoshop but I can't upload the file to my blog, Which is really sad because I really like what I've come up with so far.  Oh, well,  I'll just have to be content to share some of the individual photos that I played with.  Hope you like them!

Playing With My New Camera

I've been having fun this last week, playing with my new Canon 50d dSLR camera. It's got a lot more functions than my old Minolta so I'm still fumbling around trying to learn what it's capable of.  It takes beautiful pictures.  I've been trying to take it with me whenever I leave the house but the weather's been kind of crummy so I haven't gotten many good shots yet.  I did play around last night in Photoshop, trying to get better color out of the photos I took on Wednesday in Kingston and Hansville.  Here are a few of my favorites.

Beautiful old fence in Kingston

Blackberry blossom in the rain

Heuchera plant at Point No Point Lighthouse

Rusty bolt and washer underneath stucco on the lighthouse

Barbed wire fence at the lighthouse