The Husband's Weekend Work

Bark and a lot of it: 17 square yards that had to be spread out over the front and back areas between grass, shrubs and flower beds:

Before and after pictures with at least 1/4 of the bark still remaining after the work of the weekend.

And on a lighter note, the iris are blooming in our flower beds!

What's blooming in your yard?

(image from art in red wagons)

P.S. Post Card Swap

Post Card Swap

What  is it?  Just what it says, Swap A Postcard!

• You make five postcards and mail them. 
• You will receive five postcards from five other people in the swap.

What do you provide?

• Five handmade postcards
• You can draw, paint, cover with fabric, use rick rack, copy images, whatever!
• Anything that will go through the mail will work.

What do you get?

• Five unique postcards from five different members in the swap

How do you sign up?

• Just let us know you are joining the swap by mailing your snail mail address to: inspirationavenuepostcardswap@yahoo.com

Sounds like fun to me! I am in. It starts TOMORROW! All details can be found here TOMORROW!

National Poetry Month and a Creative Challenge

On Inspiration Avenue, and in conjunction with National Poetry Month, we have a weekly challenge.

April is National Poetry Month and in honor of that... a challenge to revolve around poetry, but also include other forms of the written word, a favorite quote, or novel, or perhaps merely a special word. What inspires you, and how does it make you feel? Pour out those feelings artistically! Whether in oils, collage, watercolor, mixed media, photography, digital art... anything goes, just express it!

Iris are fun to paint, and inspire me.  So I decided to find a poem about iris and then paint one or two.  Here is a poem about iris written by Edith Buckner Edwards in 1961:

Iris, most beautiful flower,
Symbol of life, love, and light;
Found by the brook, and the meadow,
Or lofty, on arable height.
You come in such glorious colors,
In hues, the rainbow surpass;
The chart of color portrays you,
In petal, or veins, of your class.
You bloom with the first in Winter,
With the last, in the Fall, you still show;
You steal the full beauty of Springtime,
With your fragrance and sharp color glow.
Your form and beauty of flower,
An artist's desire of full worth;
So Iris, we love you and crown you,
MOST BEAUTIFUL FLOWER ON EARTH!

Inspired by iris, I got out the silk paints and spread them and all the paraphenalia that goes along with painting on silk, and began this painting with iris as the theme.  It took about a week to complete.  It is ready to frame in a convenient size of 16" x 20".  This is my answer to the Inspiration Avenue weekly challenge.

Back on the Knitting Front: Bitterroot Shawl and Hermione's Socks

From painting, now back to knitting.  I finished the Bitterroot Shawl and another pair of socks.  First, the Bitterroot shawl by designer Romi Hill.  She created this pattern, saying:

Legend has it that long ago, hunger swept through the Native American tribes. As time passed slowly and food supplies dwindled, famine beckoned disease and death closer and closer.  One day, a mother knelt in sorrow by the river, her children sick and dying. The Sun heard her cries of anguish and took pity on the mother, changing her tears to Bitterroot, that her people might never be hungry and sick again.

Now I did not quite understand how the shawl looked like bitterroot.  But it sounded like a nice legend, and it did have a methodical pattern to it, so I'll just put it together in my mind that way.  Here are some pictures, but won't bore the post with how many beads were put onto it or how long it took to knit.  All those details can be found here.

a close up:

The Bitterroot was finished just in time for spring, along with Hermione's Everyday Socks.

Now for Hermione's socks. I decided to knit these because podcaster Tina from Knitting Blooms likes this pattern a lot.  Designer of the pattern Erica Leuder (free pattern on Ravelry found here) says...

Hermione, as described in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series, is a rather smart and practical heroine. While she can dress up with the best of them, these socks remind me of something she might wear while practicing charms or transfiguration or reading up on Arithromancy in the Gryffindor Common Room.

 Well said.  So I can wear these in any Common Room.

The sock yarn is Regia, my favorite blend of wool and nylon for long wear.  The best part of the sock, IMHO, is the eye of partridge heel that is very sturdy and closely knitted.  My close up is not as good as designer Leuder's, so I'll just show her heel photo:

Thanks for looking.

Original Silk Paintings, now on Etsy

A few silk paintings are now available at my Etsy store.  GO HERE to ETSY for my listings.

Silk paintings, mixed media, hand painted, 12 mm silk material, Jacquard silk paints, all originals, steam set for three hours, gutta resist, and mounted on sturdy frames, sizes are all 8" x 10", easily frame-able.

...more sizes and more products will be on the way once the sleep fairies and the silk materials continue to wind their way to Colorado

Jacquard Silk Paints

They arrived, the silk paints, that is.

Their colors are varied and the maker numbers are 721, 745, 701, 722, 712, 730, 715, and 735 in addition to the 11 year old colors (number 717, 732, 706 and 701) that are just becoming depleted.  Love the vibrancy.

Works in progress that needed extra colors are this

and this

Finished works tomorrow?

Easter

The tomb is empty.  

Easter blessings to you readers.

Inspiration Avenue

Inspiration Avenue.  What is it?  From the Etsy site, this is a brief description of this lively group:

Inspiration Avenue is an interest based global Etsy team wherein we promote, share, and encourage each other’s creative work through a positive environment utilizing the goals we set through our team blog, correspondences, and meetings. 

Our team members are comprised of a diversified selection of artists totaling no more than 25 – 30 actively participating members who work in a wide range of artistic mediums including but not limited to painting, collage art, paper arts, jewelry design, fabric & fiber arts, digital design, photography. 

Our goal is to assist our members in increasing visibility for their handmade creations. We accomplish this by mutually sharing helpful online tools with each other, promoting artisan creations through our weekly inspirational blog challenges, and participating in annual blog parties and charitable events.

Given the small size of our team all of our members are encouraged to participate by helping out with the upkeep of our team Twitter, Facebook, and blog activities, and by joining our administrative team when a position comes available. 

So if you’re looking to get involved with a small, fun, and active team that encourages positive relationships through an environment of artistic inspiration, look not further.

That being said, I am happy to become part of this team of talented individuals.  And I have even re-opened my Etsy shop with a small start.  I'll be adding more items in the near future.  My button, so kindly supplied by Jenn, a superb watercolorist and one of the team members, is on my sidebar and also here:

Jenn can be found here:

The rest of the Inspiration Avenue members are listed on the right side bar of this blog.  Each person has a blog and an Etsy shop, displaying an amazing amount of diversity in their talents.  Visit them all!

And take on an art challenge weekly through Inspiration Avenue.  This week's challenge can be found here...

Every MONDAY a new theme is announced. Participants have one week to complete their submissions. Submissions MUST be added by the next  SUNDAY NOON, EASTERN STANDARD TIME. We are a global team and we work according to EST so, please check our clocks on the front page (right sidebar) to make sure you submit by the deadline.

Mennonite Girls Can Cook: Potato and Farmer Sausage Casserole

Dottie: this is your dinner tonight.  We send with it our thoughts and prayers, and hope it brings comfort.

Mennonite Girls Can Cook: Potato and Farmer Sausage Casserole

Palm Sunday

The Easter Season begins today.

Palm Sunday and what it means can best be found from the Bible.

The MennoniteGirls say it all here on their website today.  Not only can the Mennonite Girls cook, they also know how to live life to its fullest!

RookiePainter Entry for March 2012

There are many fun places in blogger land to see others' artwork and challenge yourself with improving your personal art skills.  Some sites I found to peruse other works and to enter art challenges are:

RookiePainter

Sketching in Nature

The Jane Eyre Challenge at Pen and Ink

Inspiration Avenue

At the Rookiepainter, the current contest in March is to provide a sketch or drawing of this photo of a drawing of a copper pot and a silver pot:

This is my pitiful rendition:

It definitely reeks of rookiness, compared to some other entries, although I think the silver pot is pretty good (watercolor on art card).

Go go the RookiePainter blog to enter the contest and see some beautiful watercolors!