Friday, December 21, 2012

Wrapping up the Project Week

Finished Objects on Friday, one knit and one painted.  Linking up with Tami at Finished Objects Friday.
And linking to Fiber Arts Friday.

Elowen Shawl pattern found here

purl bump pattern
The pattern gave me a bit of trouble at first.  But it ended up being a generous size (59" x 24") and the colors go well with denim and grey.

And then a completed silk painting that took the Frame Depot longer to matte and frame than it took me to paint.  But they did a great job after lots of discussion on how to stretch the fabric without tearing the edges.  The technique Mr. Framer used was called "sinked" as it was stretched over foam board with another layer of foam board cut around the stretched silk, then matted and glass covering it and a frame edging cut to size and attached. I could not get a straight picture with the matte looking other than whoppy-jawed, so just did a close up of the silk.
Matted and framed with non-glare glass; dimensions 39" x 31"
This will go over our fire place after Christmas.

Did you finish any projects this week?  One project we still need to complete today is cleaning off the gunk on the top of the ceiling fan blades.  Would Tami allow me to show a picture of the dust before I get up on the ladder to clean and then after?  Think not.  But go visit her blog to see others' finished objects on Friday. And be sure to look at Fiber Arts Friday where there is lots of alpaca going on.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Favorite Christmas Images

Just to share some beautiful Christmas images I have been collecting on Pinterest, and hope you take a moment to enjoy the season... 
Angel with Lute di Jacopo (Italian Mannerist painter, 1494–1540) source

Luca Signorelli (1441-1523) source

George Bernard O’Neil (Irish artist, 1828-1917) Hanging the Mistletoe 1892 source

Gustave Brion (French painter, 1824-1877) Christmas Singers Detail 1856 source

Melozzo da Flori (Italian Renaissance artist, 1438-1494)
 Angel Playing the Tambourine source

That is a DOG by the fire! source



linking to Inspiration Avenue and  the Victorian Era

source

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Beginning...

to look a lot like Christmas in our house...




Right down to a cute old fairy type elf who watched me make lots of cookies today.  Yes, I burned one last batch thinking the timer was telling me the oven was still on, but it kept beeping because there were cookies ready to be taken out of the oven.  That oven and I had a bit of a communication problem.


The gingerbread men recipe called for unsulfured molasses.  I used blackstrap molasses.  The recipe is here.

Mr. Fairy Elf must have sneaked a crumb of a cookie because his expression looks like a piece of it got caught under his denture.  His little cheeks are so cute and red from the cold ... or did he get into the amaretto again?

Happy Saturday!