When the darkness descends,

and the Muse is argumentative, it's obviously time to obey her.  This in-progress painting is getting darker and darker (reminds me of  2024 generally).  Last week it went from mostly red to very colourful.

This week it went crazy with additions until the colour changes were enough to make the eyes bleed.

Parts of it had me so happy with the range of colours,

and shapes,

and textures.  I can hardly imagine where it's heading from that high contrast Wild and Dark photo at the top.

I did manage to get some pony beads for and on the mini fabric-painted  journal.  I've added a pencil to show scale as sometimes those who see my completed book projects are shocked by the size, very much larger or smaller than they expected from the photos.

I'm not sure what will go in this travel journal, so we'll wait with bated breath on that, shall we?

And just in case you were concerned I was lazing about this week, I did, finally, get started on my Christmas cards.  About time, right???!!!

How's your week gone?  I'm just going to pop over to see when I finish my coffee!  

It's cooling down here...

in British Columbia, Canada, which means more time in the studio, of course.  And it's a hodge-podge on one of the tables.  I can actually see four books-in-progress on this half of the table alone.  You'll note the toilet paper roll thingy is just above that riotous canvas piece.  It was not nearly the success it was meant to be, although there are parts of the painty blue and pink twists and turns on that canvas.

One of the books received some black ink work on the fabric cover with the next step to include addition of beads on those trailing elastics.

The floral signature in process received some more flowers and decorative pen work this week;  goodness knows what else will add to the fun.

A highlight of the week was a Saturday morning playtime with Eileen and Laura.  Eileen brought a project for us (just in case we got bored 🤣); she'd been making tassels for an upcoming market giveaway, so we got to make some too.  Eileen had cut a large amount of her wonderful hand-dyed fabric into strips, so there was ammunition aplenty.

My first attempt included an over-inked stamped word, so I kept that one for myself and made a couple more to add to the box for Eileen.  It was great fun, and has me giving the side-eye to a pile of fabric that I keep handy in the studio for goodness-knows-what. 

Laura and Eileen were so fast with the technique that they had the box near-full when I was on my third one!

The photo above, if you can believe it, is of the same canvas piece that is in the first photo.  It makes me wonder how many layers are on there, and how many more can I add?  With this week near finished, I'm thinking I can get three more layers on it before the weekend.  Maybe? 🤔

Happy week to you all - I'll pop over and check out your week when this is ready to go!  

Well that went quickly -

 - this week, I mean.  We were away celebrating a grandson's fourth birthday  which was a real treat.  You can tell from the photo that he enjoyed it, too!

I did manage to get some work done in the mini collage journal ( know you'll recognize this first one from last week, with what I expect to be the final tweeks).

I also manage to make a colossal mess of one of my tables when I cut, and cut, and cut more circles.

I did manage to get a start on the floral collage in that travel signature from last week, though, and the table did finally get sorted (into another mess, of course!).

And somewhere along the way I played with some new Sharpie pens and finished another grandson's birthday painting.

I did not, however, do any major testing on that wacko toilet roll holder thingy from last week, so that's an excitement-yet-to-come for you all.  🤣  May your week have been filled with a host of fun creativity; I look forward to stopping by to see your results!!

In full (fall) force...

 ...I'd say.  

There's just something about fall that pulls me into the studio.  Normally, it's the cooler weather, but that hasn't been the case this week, so I'm blaming it on the colour.

I'd planned on using the leftover circular 'flowers' from last week to add to the floral travel journal as auditioned below.  I can see that I need some more, though, so that's a project for leftover paper bits this coming week.

I particularly like this one on the lower right.

I found a toilet roll holder lurking as I was on a cleaning binge, so I turned it into this 'something-or-other', and plan on using it for a funky gel print background, assuming my mental image matches the reality.  Of course, there are no guarantees that will happen.  😉

I started on some cover embellishments for the travel journal, with more to come.

And I had some more fun in the mini collage journal.  Only 3 gazillion more images to finish. 😉

I can't seem to stick to any one colour combination for more than a few minutes at a time, so I'm jumping all over the place.  

I particularly like this colour combination.

This oh-so-blue one needs some contrast don't you think?  What's your suggestion?!

And what the heck have you been up to this week?  I can hardly wait to pop over and see!

Well, wasn't that...

 ...a summer to remember?  The Creston valley was so hot in July that we were sitting in 36 degree weather in the shade as we enjoyed our family reunion.  In August, a visit from John's son arrived with showers and the perfect weather for that coastal man.  September is so confused that I'm wearing a winter coat as I walk to the gym in the morning, and I'm sporting my bikini (if I had one) in the afternoon when it hits 24 degrees.  The best part?  There was no fire season in our area this year, and very little smoke.  That's a welcome relief from the last five years or so.

I kept my promise to myself, and enjoyed family and friends this summer, with little artwork amassed to show for it.  I did manage to play with some black backgrounds on the following 6" x 6" papers.  All, of course, were done in an attempt to use the amassed scraps that seem to 'mountain up' in my studio.

And I did manage to stitch some signatures to pop into this mini travel journal (5" x 3" x 2").

I really like this style of journal taught to me by a good friend, Carol Geurts.  It has been sitting for months, though, waiting for that stitching to happen.  The procrastination bug hit me severely, and it's been so long now that I'll need to learn that fancy elastic knot-tying all over again.

I've got another one on the go and will try to get the stitching done this week, instead of waiting for months.  :D 

I'm going to take some time now and pop over to your blogs to do a bit of catching up.  I've really missed you all this summer, and hope your summer was as refreshing as was mine.  💖