An Artful Summer

Finished my altered cabinet cards and sent them winging their way to Jeri in Texas! They were a lot of fun to create, tried a few new things, and enjoyed the journey. As you can see from the new picture, the roses have begun to bloom and they are Beautiful!! Even despite this soggy spring, they are blooming away. Good news to share: I have been published again in Somerset Studio Gallery, Summer 2011 issue. A favorite piece of mine on Page 11, then a Whole Page on Page 58. Whoo Hoo!!! Very exciting!!

I'm trying to get back on track as far as posting to my blog. I've just been invited to participate in an Altered Cabinet Card swap by Jeri Aaron. I'm very excited to see what I can come up with for the swap! The theme is "Birdsong". Hmmm brings lots and lots of images to mind! Will have to look through my cabinet cards, see what inspiration I can find. Jeri has had a long road to recovery from surgery last autumn, so hopefully I can incorporate her recovery into this swap!

I'm very excited to be painting! Inspired by Kelly Rae Roberts' "Taking Flight", I just started painting and I'm very pleased by my first efforts. It is encouraging, and I really enjoyed it, so I hope to do more. I also did a collage entirely of torn paper, a scenic view of Cape Lookout. I am going to do some washes of color over the various parts, and also add some texture with stamps and heavy gel medium. It's very exciting!!

Just finished my submissions for Somerset Studio Christmas issue. I made an altered fabric book. Started out making one with canvas, but ended up completely different. Worked hard for a few days, plugging away, before it came together. Also sent in three of the bird ornaments I made for Christmas last year, as I thought they were very pretty. Did a rosette of white wool felt with a collage center. Hope something makes it into the magazine!!

Still working on the Christmas submissions for Somerset. Must get them in the mail by Friday. Having a lot of trouble with what started out to be a simple altered fabric book. Been back and forth,spent a lot of time painting pages and fooling around. Still nothing that I want to submit, though. I had a good idea in my head, but it sure isn't transferring into actual art. Will work again tomorrow.....

Working on Christmas submissions for Somerset, when (at last!) the sun might actually come out and I could be out working in the garden. Hopefully, this altered fabric book will come together and I can get everything in the mail. Worked a little bit in the yard yesterday, and wow!, the weeds have really loved this rainy weather. The poor roses are hanging their blossom-y heads, will have to sacrifice a lot of blooms because of the rain.

A beautiful day yesterday, finally some sun! Went to Heirloom Roses (www.heirloomroses.com), near St. Paul, a little heaven of old fashioned roses. Sara and I looked, sniffed, admired, and wound our way around all the paths, arbors, tuteurs, and even an alle' of my favorite flowers. We ended up in the greenhouse, challenged to only pick a couple of the many different types and varieties of own-root roses. I was determined to find a moss rose, and at last, I have one, a white beauty named Alfred de Dalmais, originally cultivated in 1855 in France.