coo coo ka choo part two

as it turns out, i did not sit on my front porch staring at the yard sale all morning! after my curiosity was satisfied, i went for a fifteen minute run (in the process of easing my shocked body back into the task), strapped on the sandals and walked downtown where i spent a sunny and funny afternoon with ricë freeman-zachery and her husband, earl, who zigzagged their way through lawrence on their six week art retreat/book signing tour of the US! i also got to meet two terrific local mixed-media/fiber artists, traci bunkers and kelly buntin johnson. we wandered up and down mass street, in and out of shops, made a pit stop at the brewery, went to au marché for christopher elbow chocolates, and took a detour to the coo-coo-ka-choo house, where i got to prowl in the back yard this time. the only bummer of the day was that i had to miss out on the tour of traci's studio. but my time was up! the girls were at home hopping up and down like pogo sticks waiting to go to the grand opening of the outdoor pool. so i returned for my charges, stuffed myself into my swimsuit and off we went into the land of aquatic chaos. they wore themselves out swimming and i wore myself out daydreaming and gawking at the sparkling sky. couldn't have asked for a better day!

so that's where they were

celebrating the discovery of some missing objects! the thieving troll revealed some of its hiding places around our house, and it even managed to round up the greater part of our town at the yard sale across the street this morning. i love spying on yard sale behavior - the people who come, what they buy, how they jockey for parking spots and merchandise, and what's left over even when it's marked free at the end of the sale. endless entertainment! happy weekend to you!

stick a fork in it

no, it's no one's birthday but my mind is still on cake today. what's your favorite flavor? do you go for a sheet cake or layer? bakery or homemade? the frosting - buttercream or that whipped garbage? and how long do you keep up the charade of cutting dainty slices before you give up and start eating directly from the cake?

(now a magnet and a print.)

between the streets

the theme for corner view this week is "end of my street." sure, i could show it to you, but all you'd see is a stop sign, a storm drain and maybe a fire hydrant wearing a baseball cap. to appreciate the full range of grit and beauty in this college town, you really need to get between the streets and skulk through the alleys. i've posted enough of my own alley crawls, so today we'll take a look from the perspective of some other lawrencians. put on your boots and let's go!


(behind dirty dillons, our downtown grocery store)
photo by stephanie weaver



(somewhere around 8th & new hampshire)
photo by adrianne nuñez



photo by bonnie cherry



photo by nick schmiedeler



(plane crash behind the lawrence arts center)
photo by anne patterson



photo by andy timmons



(ongoing debate as to whether this says poopshit or poopship)
photo by angela babbit



photo by nick schmiedeler



bonnie cherry

thanks to nick, adrianne, stephanie, bonnie, angie, andy and anne for the use of these gems! hope you all enjoyed the tour!

thanks to the teachers

the minutes melted into each other, one day folded into the next and somehow we've arrived at the end of another school year. my little ones are a lot bigger, brighter and closer to discovering who they are. i doodled this one to give as teacher gifts, a little something for those amazing people who gave their energy, patience, love and knowledge to my children every day of this school year. a big hug and a huge thank you to the teachers of this world!

(now in the shop as a print and a magnet.)

kaleidoscope candles

ever make those 'stained glass' votives with tissue paper when you were a kid? this project is a twist on that, using novena (altar) candles instead. not only are they super inexpensive (usually less than $2) each, but they last forever and the color becomes even more vibrant as the candles burn down. you can find novena candles in the religious section of many grocery stores - skip the saints and go for the clear glass. locally, i found them at checkers for $1.25 each, but you'll have to wait for the re-stock - i bought all the clear ones. (sorry.) i also found them at world market but they're a bit pricier, around $4 each - a surcharge, i guess, for going the route of secular procurement.

cut tissue paper into squares and rectangles, then layer the pieces randomly on the outside of the glass candle with mod podge. if you work with harmonious color palettes (green/blue/purple or red/pink/orange/yellow), the colors will layer and blend beautifully, giving the candle a look of a kaleidoscope or stained glass. for a frosty effect, put a layer of very light colored tissue on top of a darker color. for a shimmery finish, mix a little glitter dust into the mod podge before applying it to the candle. that's all! let it dry and then let it burn!

to do today and stuff i did

where would i be without my trusty checklist? increasingly, nowhere. if it's not written, it's not done. electronic reminders are next to worthless. it's too easy to click ignore or to push off the deed to another day. i need something concrete and in my face that says "do this now", plus i thrive on the satisfaction of crossing out or checking off a task on a real piece of paper. so i doodled a set of my own. but i found that they fell short, because traditional to do lists only cover a sliver of what the day demands. you can wake up knowing what you MUST do, but you really have no idea what you'll HAVE to do. you can cross off "pay bills", "finish project" and "return books" with ease because there are spaces for those neatly planned activities, but what about the fifteen minutes you spent looking for a lost shoe on the way to the library? the half hour you invested in cleaning the nutri-grain bar off the carseat and the applesauce that got launched on the ceiling during breakfast? the morning you spent covering your co-worker's ass and the two hours you spent re-formatting a document for your flighty boss? where is the credit? where is the fairness? these are time-eaters and accomplishments too; shouldn't you get to cross these things off your list? yes, you should, and now you can with the "stuff i did" checklist. think of it as express journaling, a down and dirty summary of your day, a document that dishes up a little justice to the tasks you didn't expect.

i've put these files on flickr as free printables (for personal use only, please)! click here for to do and here for stuff i did. once you're signed into flickr, select "all sizes", then "download large size", then print away to your art's content on 8.5"x11" paper - i used astrobrights for a kick of color. each sheet yields three lists - just trim them apart with a paper cutter. happy list making, and don't forget to check the boxes when you're finished with your day. get the recognition you deserve!

a mind-boggling process

such is the nature of parenting - the most non-linear, emotionally involved job i've ever had, the one that so often leaves my head feeling like it has been through a blender, the one that has the most curious way of dishing out its magnificent rewards just when i'm ready to buy a one way ticket to the moon.

a bit late for weekword (mother) - please visit aris for more interpretations and to join in the next weekword!

first stop, gift shop

this morning i tagged along on a field trip to the spencer art museum at the university of kansas. twist my arm! i love going to the spencer - it's a beautiful, harmonious building with sunny yellow walls, fresh art, great educational programs, and it's very relaxed and unpretentious - a place where i don't feel like a guard is constantly waiting for me with a cattle prod. art museums are curious structures to me because i have strong emotional reactions to them - either i feel right at home or totally unwelcome. sometimes it's the collection or theme of art that pulls me in, but just as often the draw comes from the location or atmosphere surrounding it. i love the meadows in dallas for its collection of spanish art and the small, intimate feel of the building - quiet and reflective. the art institute of chicago is full of childhood memories for me, the getty is just spectacular because of its setting above LA and for how the collections are neatly housed in different buildings, and the walker in minneapolis loves to serve up bizarre things that make people stop and wonder whether it's art or not - my favorite was the load of trash plucked from the streets of new york and rolled up in a ball of dung. the kimbell has a cool layout, a great restaurant and a kick-ass gift shop. the gift shop is always my first stop at any museum! i had to break protocol with that one today, though - not wise with a group of 20 four year olds.

my friend julie unveiled her buffalo lucy shop yesterday and i'm having serious restraint issues with her purple african jasper ring. i adore the lush gems and the detailing in her pieces, right down to the sweet little buffalo on the back of each one. but for now i've got to get away from the computer to buy some printer ink, deliver another batch of magnets to the post office, and then come home to make more magnets before the thunderstorms arrive. have a great day, wherever you are!

something calling

my gig as a sunshine blower is coming to an end for now, but i'll do one more for happy's sake! this one is a re-do(odle) of a past drawing that was in need of some zip and salsa. let's hope that 'something fabulous calling' winds up being my car keys and my girl's glasses, both of which vanished 15 minutes before the school bell rang this morning. there is an invisible troll living in our house that wanders around purloining stuff when i'm not looking, i'm convinced of it! this one is now in the shop as a print and a magnet. thanks everyone mucho for a great few days over on etsy! the doodledeal goes through the end of the day today or whenever i can be bothered to edit my shop header. anyone want a thieving house troll? if i find him, i'm going to list him on etsy too!

time to fly

two happy doodles in a row! what is this sunshine doing to me? well, making me happy, i guess! just updated my shop yesterday with some new doodlemagnets - finally made some mini versions of my doodles, including this one, make time for your art, creative fire, glass of wine, i did not just do that, and travelgirl. i'm doing a little promo from now until monday, may 10 - buy two magnets, get one free!

time to fly off into the sunshine again! have a great day!

dance in the daisies

happy may! hope you all had a fun, relaxing weekend. after all that talk of hard work it was time to dilly dally for a bit. and dilly dally i did, with some phenomenal creative gals i've wanted to meet for a long time! over breakfast on saturday morning i finally met the delightful nina along with a few mutual friends here in town, and she is as adorable and warm as her children's illustrations! then i headed for the plaza in kansas city, where i met the fabulous terri and her just-as-fabulous pals deb and julie, who are just as funny and whip-smart as she is! we had no issue whatsoever polishing off a bottle of wine getting to know each other. nina's and terri's visits were entirely unrelated - just lucky for me that they both landed in kansas on the same day! amazing day, amazing girls! thank you for the soul food!

a couple of creative prods to pass along...

> the may prompt for creative every day is intuition - join leah and the rest of us if you'd like to share your creative interpretations of the word!

> check out the buffet of may art experiments at daisy yellow!

> jeannine has organized an art journaling workshop called mining the metaphor - anyone is welcome to participate and it is free of charge!

> weekword is back in action! rachel is the wordfinder this week and it is "story" - just leave a comment on her blog if you'd like to participate, and then on friday, post your photo, drawing, journal page, whatever creation you feel moved to do by that word!

happy creative monday to you! now off to get some coffee - i've run out of exclamation points.