Watercolor carrying case

The dilemma!!  Haha!  I'm packing to move and will soon be taking a 7-10 day road trip across the US.  We will stop at many beautiful places so I wanted a way to carry some extra paints with me.

The inspiration -- my old watercolor carrying case (with not enough colors available)

I've been reading lots of tutorials all over the web about converting Altoid boxes into miniature paint carrying cases. If you want to read about other carrying cases, just google "Altoid box watercolor carrying case."

Some of the colors I would like to have with me, but I don't want to carry a palette and this whole box.  Space is a premium in our little car with four people and a dog!!

All done!!  6 more colors -- Yay!!  I just pushed Sculpey clay  into the bottom and made miniature indentations into the clay with back of a pen.  I baked it at 275 degrees for 15 minutes.  When the box was cool, I added my new colors.

As you may or may not know, we live on the outskirts of Philadelphia (well for the next 12 days we do).

During a recent trip to the Philadelphia Zoo, I spotted these doors.  I want to make these for my dream home someday -- check out the handles.  

A perfectly bonsai'd Moutain Laurel in Wissahickon Valley Park

A beautiful old home in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia.

My backyard Eden is a website that allows people to post all their handmade projects.  If you want to check out all kinds of neat new DIY projects, click on the link below.

new and old

 A new quilt -- the perfect size for a picnic.  This quilt was an attempt to use up most of my fabric.  I am moving in two weeks, and would rather move the fabric as a quilt, than in boxes.  I didn't buy any fabric for this quilt.

The back of the quilt

A new sketchbook page -- playing around with watercolor washes, markers, gouache, and yarn.

An oil painting from when I was 18.

 Stained glass stars I made two years ago.

A painting for my friend's birthday.  I actually painted two, but the second picture was too dark.

I made my sister five owls for her birthday.  This is the picture she sent me of them hanging in her room.

design seeds: leafy hues

Design seeds is an amazing blog for choosing color schemes. Check it out if your looking for some inspiration!

design seeds: leafy hues:

new sketchbook pages

the lighting for these pictures wasn't too great -- another cloudy day!

Is there a theme here?

 A new friend I  made at the thrift store.  He was marked down to 50 cents because he has a little chip on his ear.  It was a very sad story.

 My most favorite pencil holder.  Another 50 cent find

 My sister wanted owls for her birthday -- unfortunately, he didn't have his beak when this picture was taken. I guess he's speechless

I don't have anything to say about this

I was watching the show Portlandia last week.  They did this one skit called "put a bird on it."  Basically, everything the two actors came across they stuck a little paper cut out of birds on. It was really funny and so true for the modern crafters -- believe me as you can tell from above, I am completely guilty of this.  Maybe I need to 'put a fish on it', or a hedgehog or a cucumber or something.  

Some new elephants -- the elephants across the bottom row are starting to move towards a henna theme.  I think that they work much better.

Elephants, elephants everywhere I look

Finally

I'm going to start posting again!  Look for a new post this week.

new stained glass piece

new stained glass piece, originally uploaded by handmadejoot.

My stained glass studio time ended two weeks ago -- this is my very last piece. Hopefully, in the near future, I will have a studio space I can cover in little shards of dangerous glass. Somewhere, my kids know to beware of - "this mommy's space." I'm going to miss working with glass all the time....

new projects

Drake went to a birthday party at a - paint your own pottery - shop.  I think the dog he painted looks just like our border collie.

One of my friend's birthday was in March.  She has wanted me to make her a market bag for a while from an original pattern created by me.  I have been making these bags as gifts for about 6 months, and now use my bag as a purse.  I have almost eliminated my need for plastic bags when I go shopping.  It holds so much stuff and I think my bag is really stylish.  The bag I made for myself uses completely different fabrics, I'll post pictures of it one day soon.

Last summer, I was walking a couple of Jack Russell Terriers when I spotted a table of free items in someones front yard.   It appeared that the person disposing of all the free items had traveled all over the world and found all kinds of neat knickknacks that didn't look so great in their living room in America.  I got two glass bottles from Spain, a puppet from Mexico, a throw pillow cover from China, and this whale from ?.  I have always liked the drawings of killer whales from the Pacific Northwest tribes.   I have begun painting this whale in that manner. 

the very beginning of a tribal whale using oil paint

 the inspiration for my whale

Thanks for reading!

stained glass owl

stained glass owl, originally uploaded by handmadejoot.

I finished my stained glass owl from this post http://jootjoot.blogspot.com/2010/02/my-week-in-pictures.html

I hope the birds at my feeder aren't afraid of him!

New Font

I was looking on www.searchfreefonts.com and came across one I really liked. I think I could use this one on a t-shirt or even a gardening poster.  Maybe something for a child's room....  The font is called 101 my yard.  If you have any questions about how to install the fonts on your computer, just ask me. 

live nesting owl camera with baby owlets

http://www.sportsmansparadiseonline.com/Live_Owl_Nest_Box_Cam.html

If you have time, watch this.  It's very soothing and cute.

Nice Things To Do

--listen to the birds
--drink coffee and read a book

--sew hexagons for a quilt -- it will take me approximately 3 years to sew enough!
--cook a long, vegetarian complicated meal with fresh bread
--listen my kids tell stories about their dreams
--meet new people
--watch lots of Jon Stewart clips
--sit outside in the sun with my eyes closed

--talk to my husband about politics (watch any Michael Moore movie)
--cut stained glass for a new project
--plant seedlings in warm, moist soil
--reminisce
--cuddle with a pet
--sit by a river

More circle quilt blocks

Today I made a couple more circle quilt blocks. I fussy cut an owl block then made the block using this tutorial.  I, also, finally made a block out of an embroidered worm I made a while back.

    

Spring Break!

Today we are off to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. It will be great to be outside for a bit spending time with my two little boys.

Sketching

It seems like I have had the flu forever!  I'm slowly starting to creep out of the funk...  In the meantime, I've been trying to take 30 minutes a day to sketch something new.  Ideally, I would like to complete my still life sketch (required in all art portfolios for entering school) within the next two weeks.  I keep on putting off the still life sketch -- it sounds so boring!  These are my first 3 sketches.....

 

  

-- have a nice day!

My dog

Ummm, how cute is my dog?

She's a very pretty border collie mix who just finished a bath.

One block wonder quilts

Since I am moving across the country in 3 months, buying books, fabrics, or anything really is not going to be very wise.  I can still dream of buying fabric and books and starting a new beautiful quilt.  Maybe in my next house I will actually have a studio space instead of dragging my sewing machine around my house so I have room to sew.  This is the book I am dreaming about right now. 

 

The quilts: (from flickr)

Joy Pelzmann one block wonder

Mary's One Block Wonder

Kaleioflower by Cindy Wilson

Marie's Quilt

WOW!!!  I am dreaming of making one of these!  The one block wonder is made from a single piece of fabric!  Let me say that again - you only have to buy one piece of fabric to make these quilts.  I couldn't believe it.  I guess there is a lot of waste fabric because of how you have to cut the fabric, but from the looks of it, it is completely worth it.  Plus, I always need new fabric for my stash!   I finished my paintbox quilt this week -- I really need to take some pictures of it now.  I, also, made two stained glass stars.  I must take pictures!!!!!