Focus on Life - Aged Beauty

Aged Beauty: this week's Focus on Life theme.

Much of our furniture falls into that category; 'passed-downs' from my husband's side of the family.  Most have stories that go along with them.  For instance, his grandfather was born in the four poster bed in our guest room.  It was a rope bed with a feather mattress back then.  When we inherited it, we replaced the mattress, I promise!

Then there's our Vita-Nola.  Not a Victrola, but along the same lines.  My husband's great uncle purchased it back around 1917.  In time, the phonograph passed from her uncle, to my husband's grandmother, Lela.  Many years ago, she passed it on to us, confiding that she learned to dance listening to records on this phonograph.  She passed away several years ago, but I can imagine her, dancing along to the big band music.

The records are clay, not vinyl. The entire needle-head mechanism tilts back when not in use.  Since it's not electric, we could listen to 1920s big band music by candle-light when the power goes out in a storm.

Researching it on line, I came across this period advertisement. I love it: "mistress of every mood - a solace, and a joy".  Music truly is both, and so much more.

Speaking of aged beauties, next year will be our home's 100th birthday.  It's a little Craftsman's cottage and I hope to celebrate its centennial with a 1920s style garden party.  Can't you just imagine our trusty Vitanola providing the music for such a bash? 

So there's my story for this week.  It's probably the least artistic of the photos from this series - I'm looking forward to seeing everyone else's contributions.

Focus on Life - Up Close and Personal

China Rockfish - his pectoral fin remind me of fingers!

This week Sally has challenged us to explore the details of the ordinary up close with macro photography.  Since I seem to be on a fish kick, I thought I'd share a few closeups of some of my favorite friends from the local aquarium. 

I took a number of shots trying to catch the movement of this China Rockfish's pectoral fins.  Rather than a solid fin, it's composed of individual streamers that seem to fan somewhat independently, in waves of motion.  

Spiny Lumpsucker

This little guy is only about two and a half inches long.  Isn't he cool?  There are so many interesting things about him - all the little spikes, how fast his fins fan (you can't even see his pectoral fins in this shot, they're moving so fast - like a hummingbird's wings), his bright blue eyes.    Then there's his name - Spiny Lumpsucker!  So named because he also has a suction cup on his belly for attaching himself to reef rocks.

Another rockfish

This shot is straight out of the camera - the slight graininess is from pushing my macro to the limits to catch this guy.  He's yet another species of Rockfish, but I think he looks like a dragon. 

Thanks again Sally for this week's prompt.  To see what others decided to study up close and personal, take a gander over at The Studio Sublime and Week 14 of Sally Rusic's Focus on Life photography series. 

Focus on Life 13/52 - Having Faith

Starting to unpack into my new studio space

This week was moving day for my art studio. 

Finally!  A part of me cried happily, while the other half wished for a couple more weeks to prepare.  I'm not good at moving!  One of my goals in life is to move as seldom as possible.  I love traveling, hate moving.

Still in my old space, I tried and tried to sort and purge.  Some stuff left, but mostly I organized.  Wednesday I moved into my new, much smaller space.  With everything in boxes, the space was almost completely unnavigable.  In one move, I'd become a hoarder, slipping through the narrow passages between the boxes as I tried to figure out where to start the unpacking process.

It was like one of those tile puzzle games where in order to move one tile you have to shift and slide all its neighbors.  I set my cutting table up in one direction.  Nope, didn't work.  So I decided to rotate it ninety degrees.  An hour later I had rearranged everything else enough to manage the switch.  Good thing there wasn't a fire alarm during that time - I'd buried the door!

When I left Wednesday evening everything sort of fit.  Maybe.  My main work table is still leaning folded against a wall.  I have space either for it, or for my second big shelving unit and the mini-fridge, but not all three.

Could I fit the little fridge somewhere else?  Should I just get rid of it (I don't use it much)?  Which do I need more - the shelving, or the large work table?  Which would make me most productive in this space?  I have fifteen foot ceilings; how high should my other shelf go? (the two shelving units are both modular, so I could scavenge the one to add to the top of the other like playing with tinker toys).  I already have to stand on a step stool to reach the top shelf.  If I only stored light stuff up high, could I bring in a ladder?  But then where would I put the ladder?

Other work kept me from the studio most of yesterday and all of today, but I'll be back there continuing to purge and sort and play real-life Tetrus tomorrow. I keep reminding myself what a wonderful, exhausting problem to have - designated space to create my art and too many possibilities in the form of tools and supplies. Even if the space is currently as bland and sterile as my picture indicates. 

Right now, I'm going entirely on faith.

Faith that it will all fit.

Faith that I can make this work.  

Faith that I can transform my new space into a creative haven.  A colorful, bright, productive workspace. 

Because without faith, it's all too overwhelming.

So that's where my thoughts are regarding Sally's Focus on Life prompt for this week.  I'm looking forward to seeing everyone elses' interpretations.

Manic Monday Seven Days a Week

I'm behind the times again.  Seems like I'm in a constant rush to catch up, rushing through my days with the Bangle's Manic Monday as my soundtrack.  At the beginning of the month, my studio mate announced that she was breaking her half of the lease and moving her studio back home.  Which launched a frantic search on my part to find someone to take over the lease and find a new space I could afford on my own.  I found both, thank goodness.  But now I'm in the process of preparing to move.  I hate moving!

I've been in this space since 2008 and have accumulated way too many wonderful possibilities.  Too many to fit into my new, smaller space.  Seems like all I've been doing this month is sorting.  Some of it has truly been fun and I've rediscovered any number of forgotten treasures. 

But it's taking so long.  And I'm supposed to have it done by this afternoon because tomorrow Leah and I are hosting a Destash Sale, so others can add to their cache of possibilities while helping us pare what we have to move.  To top it off, my day job ramped into overdrive earlier this week as well.   

Every once in a while I think Leah has it easy - she's getting rid of most everything.  Acyrlics, lots of papers, watercolors, pastels, crayons, a flat file, stamping blocks and inks, even finished art work.  But no, I'm not ready or willing to divest myself of so many possiblities, so many dreams all in one fell swoop.  So I'll keep on sorting. 

Focus on Life 10/52 - Packages in the Mail

This week's theme is All Wrapped Up, but what I'm thinking about right now is unwrapping.  Specifically, tearing open wonderful packages that arrive in the mail.  Isn't it the most wonderful thing when you arrive home after a long day to see a package waiting for you, tucked into your front door.  Sitting there, patiently waiting for you to come a long, claim it and find out what's inside?

I've been most, most lucky recently! 

First, I received a wonderful package from Jeannie Dukic.  I was the lucky winner of one of her wonderful blog give aways where she was giving away several of her new polymer clay pendants.  Jeannie does an incredible job with packaging.  Opening the box, I found the tin in the back right, with a a beautiful polymer clay lid.  Inside the tin, I found her wonderful packages, including the cutest little envelope for her business cards.

I haven't had the heart to take the pendants out of their clever packages yet, but I promise to share pictures when I do.  In the meantime, here's a close up of her papercut decorations.

Thank you so much Jeannie!  I already have plans for the hot pink/orange Half Lotus charm.  Just need a wee bit of time in my schedule to finish putting it together. 

This week, two more packages arrived in the mail!  One from my Bead Soup partner, Tracey Nanstad, which I will share in a separate post.  And the second was COOKIES from Sarah of Saturday Sequins, one of my bestest blogging friends. 

Homemade Peanutbutter Chocolate Oatmeal cookies, along with a little note saying they were Mr. Sequin's favorite recipe!  Now wasn't that a wonderful package to unwrap?  Yum!  Thank you Sarah! 


This immediately makes me want to turn around and send someone a package, because it's almost as much fun to wrap and send as it is to receive and unwrap.  So, if you'd like to potentially get a small package from me (it might just be a decorated letter, or it could be cookies, or beads - who knows?) leave a comment saying so and I'll randomly pick several of you to send something to. I'll do the drawing next Wednesday. 

Queen Anne Book Company

 Just before the holidays our local bookstore closed its doors for the last time.  The old owners had sold the store earlier in the year, and the new owner had seemed really excited.  And then maybe six months later, closed the store.  Everyone in our neighborhood was stunned. 

Towards the end of January rumors began to circulate that some of the employees of the old bookstore were banding together to open a new one.  A countdown appeared on the paper covered doors - changing every day - to the elation of the community, with conversations about the new bookstore popping up at the coffee shop, the bank, the grocery store.  I may live in Seattle, but Queen Anne is very much it's own neighborhood, like a little town in the heart of the big city and this was big news.

Yesterday, Queen Anne Book Company opened its doors for the first time!  When we arrived yesterday evening it was packed inside.  I should have snapped the picture then, as opposed to when we left some time later.  In this age of Amazon and Barnes & Noble, it was great seeing the community support for a small, independent bookstore. 

Welcome to the neighborhood! 

Value, Texture and Line - Monochromatic Compositions

This week's Focus on Life prompt is Monochrome.  Color is the single most personally important element in my art work.  Color is what drew me to seed beads in the first place - those pure pixels of color in the form of tiny glass beads.

When you take away color, you're left with value, texture and line.  I found myself looking for these elements every where I went this past week.  

In particular, I found myself noticing all the public art work which ignores color completely, focusing on the other design elements.  My favorite I've decided it this window screen on one of the parking garages downtown.  I love the overlapping, concentric circles, like ripples in a pond.

Focus on Life 7/52 - First Blooms of Spring

After a week of cloudy weather, the sun burst through the overcast and it truly felt like spring.  Especially when I spied these flowers hiding under a winter bare tree on my walk home.  I've always loved snowdrops, and this one was so open it reminded me of a starburst.

And walking up my front steps, I found these:


I can imagine them opening to the sun's warmth, then slowly furling again as the day crept into shadows and on toward evening, which is how I found them.  I can't wait to see them fully open tomorrow! 

Thank you Sally, for your photo essay prompt for this week:  Beauty of Flowers.  It reminded me to look around me as I walked through the neighborhood this week, and to track all of the wonderful signs of spring.

And thank you for stopping by for a visit.  To see more responses to this week's prompt, don’t forget to visit Sally's blog for the list of all the wonderful people participating in this week's  “Focus On Life” 52 Photos.

Focus on Life 6/52 - Feel the Love

This week's challenge, Feel the Love,  nearly stymied me.  It was forefront in my mind Thursday as I hopped onto a bus while running errands downtown.  The bus was strangly full, with several adults just standing in the aisle, looking at the back door as if they planned to exit, but not moving. 

Confused, I glanced out the window just in time to see a child burst from the bus in an explosion of color and fly across the sidewalk to the wall, where he hopped up onto a bench next to his friends.  As I watched a line of children slowly appeared - one at a time bursting from the bus at weighted intervals (their little legs having to climb down the steep bus stairs).  Each was invisible to me until they lit on the sidewalk outside.  Each flying to the wall to join their companions as if drawn by some natural law. 

This has to be one of the grayest bus stops in the city, but not on Thursday.  On Thursday six brightly colored children filled the bench that on a normal day barely seems to accommodate two adults, the fifth boy drawing the sixth into his lap, while the girls lined up alongside, shoulder to shoulder.  I knew I had to snap a picture.   I caught this as the bus started to pull away. 
 

That same stop a day later - grey, isn't it?

 

So that's my entry. 

 

Thanks for stopping by!  Now go on by Sally Russick's blog and check out what the others found for feel the love.

Focus on Life (5/52) - Flower Socks

Way back when, when we were newly married, young and very poor, my husband surprised me with a pair of socks.  He explained he'd thought of buying me flowers.  But he knew how cold I'd been, trying to adjust to a Missouri winter.  So he splurged on a pair of fancy knitted wool socks instead. 

They became known as my 'Flower Socks' and every time I wore them we both smiled.  One of those lovely inside jokes. 

Fast forward to this week and Sally Russick's latest Focus on Life challenge: to find and photograph hearts in our every day lives.  Specifically, Capture our Hearts.

I immediately thought of those Flower Socks, still tucked away in the back of my drawer.  They've been joined by lots of other fun socks over the years: quirky socks, bright bold oh-my-gosh socks and of course, cuddly warm socks.

Like the pair above, a Christmas gift from Mom last year, photographed with my new (purple) boots.  I went shopping earlier this week hoping to replace my very-worn pair of black lace-up boots and brought these home instead.  A definite splurge since I still need new black boots.  But how could I resist!?  'I could always return them' I assured myself.  Which was a lie, because I knew when Joe saw them he'd smile and say I should definitely keep them. 

another Christmas gift - from two of my best friends - skulls & hearts, aargh!

And yes, my husband does on occasion bring home flowers (but never when they're expected, which is as it should be). 

Focus on Life 4/52 - Create Art

Choose a media and run with it, Sally suggested in this week's photo essay prompt.  Create Art!  I already knew what I'd be working with - the cultured sea glass beads from ZnetShows which had arrived the previous week.

I love sea glass.  My husband teases me when we go to the beach because I spend so much time searching for sea glass along the tide line I forget to look at anything else.

And here was 'sea glass', with it's soft matte finish and not a sharp edge anywhere to be found, delivered directly to my door.  Lovely!  And so much of it.  A true embarrassment of riches. 

Apparently they sent their packets out in 'color families'.  Mine, as you can see, was very, very green.  After getting over my initial shock at the color, (I hadn't designed with green in ages) I began to sketch.  Then to stitch.


I just wish my hands worked faster.  This is as far as I've gotten:

New Growth, freeform beaded necklace with 'sea glass' shards

The green glass shards reminded me of the new growth from my earlier post, so I decided to give them an enchanted garden to grow through.  I think it needs more layers, but am letting it rest for a little first, just in case it really is done.

This piece - very much still in process - also works with the green shards.  It was inspired by a photograph of a clump of sea grass from one of my favorite books, Archipelageo: Portraits of Life in the World's Most Remote Island Sanctuary. Destined to become a pendant, I turned the design upside down.

More fringe to go, then vine work around the ring leading up into the bail.  Not sure what I think - I'm reserving judgement for now.

Now let's go see what everyone else cooked up this past week by visiting the Studio Sublime.