This is for MizSmoochie Lips. It's to make up for being such a lame swap partner. She sent me a wonderful box full of wonderful things and I only sent my 1 art piece. I am soooo not cut out for swaps. I hope you like it Tia. I don't know why I felt the need to turn Glinda the Good Witch into a cupcake, but there it is. Did you know she was 53 when she played that role? Amazing!
Last week Tia called for people to post their art mistakes and I LOVE that idea. I've got tons, so I'm gonna post them every once in a while. Sometimes our mistakes help us grow to be better at what we are striving to accomplish. This is the first collage I ever made. I looked at Altered Art for over a year and collected things before I ever even put gesso to paper. I was so terrified of not making something good. Something I loved. I went about it all wrong. It has no soul. I basically went down a mental checklist of things I loved about collage and made sure each element was in the piece.How could I go wrong? My husband took one look and said, "That looks like Monty Python". Ouch. I didn't make another piece of art for over 6 months.
I started small and this piece spoke to me. The haunted eyes of the children and father. The absence of the mother. Her image is the same one I used in my first collage. I like her better here.
This lovely lady is my Muse. She has no name, but I know she was meant to be mine. There is an old farm house across the highway from our neighborhood. The sweetest couple lived there and they always had huge, beautiful vegetable gardens. The man would let my son (then only 3 and brother less) ride his tractor and pull onions. He finally became to old to keep up with a 100 year old home and the land and it all was sold. He was so sad to leave his home and it broke my heart.
The house sat for sale for over two years. Then I noticed a sold sign in the yard. The new owners began renovations on the old house and used bulldozers to scrape up and turn over all the gardens. One day there was lush beautiful vegetable plants (they were growing wild now) and the next there was sod laid out in neat rows. Then they bulldozed one of the two barns. I so upset and one Sunday afternoon, when there were no workers, I went over there to look at the other barn before it was gone too. My heart was beating out of my chest and I just knew any minute a police car was going to drive up and I'd be arrested for trespassing. There was nothing left inside and the workers were using it to store the new wood siding for the house. Still I poked around and took a few rusty nails and found a glass jar with a rusty lid. I was poking around in the chicken coup and when I looked down there was a black piece of cardboard in the straw. It looked like the cover of a book laying there. I picked it up and turned it over and it was her. Left alone for all that time, laying in the chicken coup. There I stood in a hot, dusty barn with chills all over my body. It may sound strange, but I know I was meant to go there and find her before they tore the barn down. So she is my Muse. I don't think she needs a name. But her influence was enough to call me across the highway to her and now she has a home.
First off look at my sweet boys "Arting" yesterday morning. My three year old is actually striking a pose for the camera with one hand on his hip. Very suave sweetie! Thank you for the watercolor book Mrs. Cheryl!!!
First you need red wine. Some to serve and some to use for the recipe. And music. Mazzy Star worked well.
And bread baked by someone that's not me:) I also served cooked shrimp and cocktail sauce as a before dinner snack.
List of ingredients:
Add 1 teaspoon olive oil to medium hot skillet.
Add scallops and Mr. Salt.
Don't forget Mrs. Pepper.
And one for my Homeys.
And don't try to screw the olive oil cap onto the uncorked bottle of wine just because you usually re-screw a cap after pouring a glass of wine. Just........no.
Add the asparagus to your boiling pasta water and cook for 3 minutes.
Zap it for two minutes.
Remove asparagus and add pasta and boil for 3 to 4 minutes. Drain pasta when done.
Scallops should look like this when they are done. Transfer everything to plates and serve.
Hey, at least it's not Lunchables.
This cutie is one of the little girls I used for one of the tag swap girls. I think she is so precious!
This is the outside of a business letter from Sweden in 1863. I love it because it's such a beautiful blue, the handwriting is so elegant and you can still see the seal used to close it. Also the paper itself has such a wonderful rustle to it when it is handled. I LOVE the sound of old paper and old book pages. I wish I knew Swedish and I would know what it was about. Below is the invoice from the inside. No envelopes, just the contents folded and sealed. Very romantic, even if it's just a business letter:) These pages would make great backgrounds or papers for collage. Let us see what you create if you use them.
Look at what wonderful goodies my Cupcake swap partner Miz SmoochieLips sent me!!!!I LOVE them all and have had to explain to the boys OVER and OVER why they can't eat the cupcakes. The packaging and the presentation were as fabulous as the actual swap stuff! AND, I totally pimped out my car with the cupcake air freshener! LOL!!! I am so very pleased Tia. Thank you ever so much sweetie! Love, Jamie
This piece is for my lovely friend Cheryl at Stash Studios. She is a constant source of inspiration, support and joy in my life. Thank you for everything. Love, Jamie
Next is a photo of sweet Jennie Sliza. She looks like a teacher to me for some reason. I love her dress and the background used by the photographer. If you look on the table beside her there is a cabinet card photo leaned against the books. Possibly of her mother. It was a common practice to do this if someone close to you had passed away as a remembrance. Also the book she is holding looks to be a family photo album. Cool stuff!!
