class of '59

class of '59
Originally uploaded by merckury

i found a stack of old high school graduation pictures at mom's house and asked if i could borrow them. as usual, the question of "what the hell for?" came up. "just for fun" is my standard answer.

this was some of the fun.

i *heart* sunbeams

Originally uploaded by merckury

a recent picture of moi, playing in a sunbeam.

something i've done since i was a little girl... errr, younger girl... since i'm still a little girl at heart. and also in stature.

there's no place like home.

a couple of little house i created not long ago. it seems to be a theme lately. home.

just beautiful...

the positive & negative

so it's one of THOSE fridays, again. spelling test day.
except that it wasn't. it was yesterday. i missed it.

i know i wrote the latest schedule down right. i know i heard correctly when she said that they had reading festival, but that we'd work the test in anyway. i know i never saw the sheet she waved in front of my face with the dates of march 9 and march 22. the one that i saw showed march 8 (which was a 1/2 day, no school on march 9), and march 23. i wrote it down. i checked before i wrote it. i checked again after i wrote it. i checked again before i pitched the paper. the date was easy. it's mom's birthday.

but she told me....

i'm scared of the red ink!

i have to go to the school today and give a spelling test. that's easy enough, as long as i can keep the little buggers calm & quiet through the process.

...but I have to see "the sarge".

(that's the name we've given this year's 3rd grade teacher. it fits beautifully.)

why am i scared? because i accidentally blew off the last test and got a little red ink nasty gram from her that wasn't really for me specifically (but it applied to me) about letting her know if we can't make it.

i thought they outlawed teachers using red ink?

oooh, we're cool....

i've been passing this sign for quite a while now. i still don't know what it means, but it's time i found out.



from the looks of things,
the program has been a real success. < < sarcasm

iced tree

the first journal I made just for me.

materials used:
paint, rub'nbuff, handmade fiber paper, napkin, postage stamps, tags, bubble wrap print on a hard bound blank book.

imagination,scissors & glue! oh my!

This makes me laugh everytime I look at it. And I had such fun making it!

Here's the scoop: My husband's mother and aunt hold "Camp Grandma" a couple of times a year for all 11 grandchildren. They rent a jumbo van, collect all the kids and head out on some wild weekend adventure. A good time is had by all.

The kids have taken to calling them the "Queen Grandmas" (though this sounds suspiciously like a title my mother-in-law would have come up with for herself *smiles*).

The concept for this was created by my mother-in-law (she's the one wearing the body ofMary Queen of Scots) for Aunt Dawn's birthday. The finished product was created by moi, and went far beyond what she had envisioned.

Aunt Dawn loved it. I

:o)

my space

so this is my "studio"
(hahahaha)

It's where I play
and dream
and hide from the world

(mostly my kids and that one annoying neighbor)

It's the only place on the planet that's
ALL MINE.

(doesn't keep the kids from spending more time back there than I do, or the husband from from using it as a tool dumping grounds, though.)

It's nothing special, just a space that I don't have to clear in order to serve dinner.

thick as a brick

journal page-

It started out as a written rant, but when I thought about it a little, I decided that her intrusiveness would have her reading all about herself, so I went visual instead. Maybe it will fool her. She's thick as a brick.

Any way... "She" is a neighbor of mine. She spends way too much time here.... I'm not much on fluffing the esteem of insecure people. This seems to be the duty she most wants me to perform. I also don't have patience for people with a shortage of common sense. She's seriously lacking in that department, too.

Also, it offends me when people I don't particularly like walk into my house without waiting for me to invite them in. It also offends me when said person decides to stays for hours on end, despite being told that there are many jobs to be done that day and no time for visitors. The fact that I continue doing whatever I was doing and don't drop everything to entertain should offer a hint of some type, but like I said: She's thick. As a brick.

She doesn't leave her house in winter, so I have a reason to look forward to it this year.
"Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!"

not so great at sharing, huh?

I haven't posted anything here for a very long time. I've spent hours and hours scanning stuff, but when I start browsing through my folders, I don't see anything worthy of public display. Not that this is any more worthy than anything else, it's just time to get back in the swing of things.

I'm not sure who this woman is. I started with the cat eye glasses and was thinking of Aunt Dee. She and Aunt Karen have been having some issues recently and I (jokingly) offered to make Karen a voodoo doll to take her aggressions out on, which promted me to start thinking about what details I would use to convey that this was representing Dee.

The cat eye glasses. For sure. She's sporting them in her 8th grade graduation picture. The only other thing that stands out to me about her (as a physical characteristic) is a picture of her with her skinny little legs poking out of her communion gown at the hospital while recovering from rheumatic fever. Beyond that, I'm at a loss.... and I'm not making the doll anyway. It was just something to ponder.

But this looks more like my mom. Who also sported some cat eyes back in the day.

my very best work

Christmas was great, despite the unexpected car repairs that ate up the budget.

I had an enlightened moment as we were rolling down the road with the wheel ready to flip off at any second... Christmas will no longer be about gifts and how much we spend on each other.

Every year at this time, for the last 3 years, something major happens that breaks the bank. This year it was the car. Last year it was bank charges from hubby and I doing too much shopping at the same time. The year before I was trying to keep our home out of foreclosure (almost unsuccessfully). Somehow, I still always managed to spend too much of what we don't have. I spent the day feeling guilty knowing that I was neglecting some important responsibilty to buy my kids toys. And not enjoying the guilt at all. It stood in the way of enjoyment.

I want to go back to basics. Make it a time to spend with friends and family; enjoy good food and great conversation and maybe even some good drink. I've been moving this way over the last several years, but this year sealed it for me.

Despite that bank busting repair, and a lot less than usual under the tree, the kids ran around all Christmas Day saying that it was the best Christmas ever. And I didn't have to play referee once!

That's all I need.

big stinkin' giraffe

:o)

hurry spring!

We got our first snow today.

Mother Nature is not being kind.

Usually the first few times we see the fluffy white stuff, it disappears as fast as it falls. Not this year.

There's at least 6 inches on top of my grill. The weather man called for up to 3.

I hope he found a good hiding place.

I can't make any art lately. I try, but it's not there.

I hate this time of year.

what's my sign?

I've been staring at this sign for years. It's what I see when I look out the window from my seat on the couch. I decided since it was such a regular part of my life, it deserved a photograph of it's own. I think it will end up as the cover for a photo album I keep, honoring the effort of pulling our home into the current century. I think we'll be well into the next century before we get there...

It's an actual photograph, colored with my latest new toy... caran d'ache neocolors II.

They're kind of like a regular crayon, but much smoother, water soluable and very blendable. They provide better coverage with a much smoother finish than regular crayons. I like Crayola's portfolio water soluable oil pastels, too; but these are different. Firmer... less messy.

This paper (regular ink jet paper) wasn't the best surface for working on. Blending was nearly impossible and the addition of water just makes a big mess.

remember who you really are

This was inspired by teesha moore's work.

It's a journal cover that I made this past weekend after spending some time enjoying Teesha's website.

I've got a long way to go before I'm in the same league as her, but I had a good time with it.

The colors look funky in this scan... the pinks aren't quite so bright and the background is actually purple, not blue.

another recent journal page.

"found poetry" is amazing... no matter the subject of the written text, i can usually find a couple words on that page to describe what i'm feeling at that moment.

this one is a gentle reminder to myself that i need to listen more, occasionally look the other way and always show my love.

... it also reminds me of the path i travelled when those things weren't shown to me.

secrets

This is another journal page...

I made it while I was visiting my bestest bud in Florida for a long weekend. I took more art supplies than clothing that weekend and it caused me excessive worry about whether I'd have to pay additional mega-bucks for my bags being overweight. It weight exactly 38 lbs... phew! (and my clothing bag had a few pounds to spare...)

I was slightly hungover after having several drinks for the first time in several years during the creation process.

The night before, after consuming those drinks, we wandered through some galleries in Delray. I felt very inspired by... ahhhh, can't remember his name right now... Salvatore something. His work is almost all hearts. Very textural, intriguing, colorful hearts. He tolerated my drunken ramblings in the middle of his gallery like a true gentleman. (And he's a real cutie, too!)

I've come to the conclusion that this represents something I still carry as my own "little secret". I'm still not telling!