Iowa

For the last few years people have been coming into my life continuously who have some connection to Iowa: either moving there, moving from there, grew up there, etc. Living in California, this is sort of a big coincidence. Each of these people has ignited either a little or a lot of hope in me and each time it has been disappointed. I used to say Iowa owed me something and I was waiting for it to pay up, now I wonder if it just hates my guts and what I might have ever done to it. Another chance is coming up, we'll see what happens.

After catching "Weird Science" on cable over the weekend, I've decided that Anthony Michael Hall in

After catching "Weird Science" on cable over the weekend, I've decided that Anthony Michael Hall in pretty much any 80's movie is my IDEAL BOYFRIEND. He's sweet, funny, intelligent, dorky, and pretty much worships his chosen lady. Plus he has that adorable lispy way of talking. I acually had a pretty (read VERY) racy dream about him on Monday night that my cat interrupted at a very inopportune moment.

This is my weekend project. The short, and really only, version is that I painted the hallway, then put up a piece of lace and spray painted over it like a stencil. (can you see my cool shower curtain! it was a housewarming gift from Marie and Natashia) I think it turned out cool, it kind of makes me wish I still had the kind of parties where you make out in hallways because what else is there really to do in the hall?

Click here for a picture showing the green stuff from a distance with the glitter in the entry doing it's thing! Pay no attention to the mess, but do note the elusive Sabine on the little couch.

Cautionary note: spray paint is one bad mother. If you get it on anything it will not wipe off with a damp rag. It will however blow all over the place and coat everything with a fine layer of green dust. I still have spray paint on my hands in spite of exfoliating strenuously and my thumb is raw from pressing down the button. Also, make sure you get enough lace. I have a 12" problem to solve.

inexpensive things that I am too scared to buy because of the Mortgage Monster:

inexpensive things that I am too scared to buy because of the Mortgage
Monster:

Moleskine journal
Buela, Yoko CD
Thicker than Water CD
Koigu for new Chicknits hat
new Chicknits hat pattern
Acrylic paint

If you know anyone who is looking for a room to rent in Roseville
(Sacramento Area), please email me. I'm looking for someone to rent a
room in my house. I'm really nice, honest!

reading

The Da Vinci Code (you'd think I'd remember how to spell davinci now
that I'm over halfway through the book, but no.)

This book is perfect for the winter version of 'beach reading:'
Hybernation Reading! A page turner that will NOT let you get out from
under the blanket on the couch, you have to keep reading it. So fun!

p.s. I did work on a special crafty project over the weekend but I
don't feel like I have a great finished picture yet so you'll have to
wait. But it did turn out cool. It also turns out that I have green
paint in my ear this morning as well as up my nose?

for the weekend:

cheap lace, 3yds
blue glitter . . .

you'll see!

Maybe now

I've had the nagging feeling for about two or three weeks now that I
need to get a journal going again (my "little book" as a friend used to
call it disgustedly!) and that I need to start drawing and in particular
painting. I've actually never painted and only drawn in college back
when I started as a design major. Back then I didn't trust myself to
make art right out of my body so I tried to hide in things like
photography: I hoped the image would make some sense on its own and I
wouldn't have to actually create anything. The whole thing freaked me
out so much that I switched to writing. I guess it's taken this long
for me to get comfortable.

Winters Tale

I think my ancestors hybernated during the winter. It may be that I am
descended from bears insead of primates. The only thing I have been
able to motivate myself to do lately is cook, soup primarily and a
little hot cocoa, so I have tasty things to eat while snuggling on the
couch under a blanket. And while I hybernate crafty visions swirl:

Wall mural depicting medieval unicorn
Green hallway paint, using lace as a stencil
Covering the house in jasmine come spring

what I needed to hear

"One composes within oneself one's true place of origin."
-Rilke

Thanks Ms. Smith
http://www.kerismith.com/blog/archives/000052.html

when I see things like this . . .

href="http://www.bolgenlaw.com/2004_01_01_blogarchive.htm#107409600253389877">Pumpkin
Spice

It really makes me want to work on the sweaters I've started and never
finished.

So far so good. Here's a highlight of the quilting on Grama's quilt. Like the part on the top left where I'm ripping? Free motion quilting is very difficult to rip because the stitch size isn't regulated and can get really tiny. I'm not sure if you can tell but the flowers are done in red thread and the crazy stuff is purple.

Creating Magic

I watched that movie "Autumn in New York" on cable over the weekend. I think that's the name, with Winona Ryder and Richard Gere? How many times can this story be told? But my point is that once again one of these crappy romantic films has a kick ass set designer. I need to recreate the magical hanging mobile in Winona's character's room. It looks like it's made by dangling at least 40 strings of decreasing lengths of silver and crystal beads from a 2' long bar and putting windchimes on the bottom. Then hang in the middle of your gigantic New York loft. You can breeze through it when feeling magical or bump into it to add a note of charm to your clutziness: say when that fetching stranger three times your age happens to call, catching you off guard.
It could happen, you're creating magic!

Here's a pretty blurry picture of the cool faux finish I ended up doing in my bedroom. I used the technique called "colorwash." Which involved putting the glaze on with a brush and blending in a cross hatching "X" motion. I really like how it turned out, now I'm not depressed about my paint every morning when I wake up. I used Maroon glaze over the paints I already mentioned: a total of 3 coats. The good news is that the glaze didn't take longer than the regular paint.

p.s. I did some real work on grandma's quilt this weekend and I forsee it being done by the weekend!

searching for magic

searching for magic

maybe this will help?

dannygregory.com

art begets art

I finally got up and started the final painting of my bedroom. I had
initially painted it a dark hot pink: "royal love." The coverage was
really streaky but I called it fine for the time being because I had a
housewarming to get ready for. Last night I painted a coat of "purple
passion" on top of it and the color is much mellower and spicier at the
same time. Like it knows it's sexy and doesn't have to shout. The
coverage still isn't perfect so I think I'm going to try putting a glaze
over so it will be textury on purpose. That felt so good that this
morning in the shower I had a million quilt ideas including a design for
the baby quilt I'll be making and a free motion pattern for grandma's
quilt (still not finished!).