Where did that week go?

I was certain I'd have a host of projects finished this week and yet, here it is Thursday, and I'm wondering what I did this week.

I managed to finish the cover for the Japanese Stab Binding book, and that was great fun.  My usual boisterous colour preference came bounding out of the closet (in there for a time out due to misbehavior), and splashed all over the thing. 

I took the whip to it (the colour preference, that is) and managed to complete a journal page in the large journal.  It's a wee bit quieter.  We're still awaiting our normal spring or what passes for normal this decade.  Spring warms up our surroundings for a day or two, then retreats like a shy kitten sending us lashes of rain and wind, repeating the process again and again.  By the time we get a real spring, it'll be squished up tight into fall at this rate.

I completed some tags from oddments that were drifting into the 'too-long-on-the-table' phase, and they're tucked away neatly in the tag box now, bless them.  They'll head off to some unsuspecting recipient sometime in the next few months.

I did manage to work in the heart journal this week, starting four or five pages that are now looking for additional embellishment.  I managed to make and send a couple of birthday cards (sorry, no photos) and did several hours on the 'Why is that not done yet?' curtains.  Good grief, when I have a crazy idea it just keeps on giving, and giving, and giving.

I reorganized my shelving for the book-making section, and can see that the bottom two shelves (not shown) that are hosting office supplies will need to be cleared out in the near future.  The shelving unit is filling at a great rate.

I hope that you were not only productive this week, but that you enjoyed the process as much as I have done.  Happy creating, my friends.

With the Easter weekend...

 ...come and gone, it's back to the quiet studio life.  That doesn't mean it's not been a happening place in there, though.  I had the cutest 5 year old grandniece visiting and playing in the studio.  (The other grandchildren are too young yet to venture in there without the supervision of a whole tribe. 😀)

In her mind, we had waaaaay too little time to play there, but that leaves room for a return trip, right?

Esmae spent time playing with colour, frottage, and all sorts of tools and techniques, and she made a fabulous birthday card for her second cousin, to boot.  Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of that since she had it signed, sealed and delivered before I could turn around.  That girl is FAST!.

Esmae borrowed her small cousin's Easter ears, and I think she looks great in them!

She entertained us with so many shenanigans, including an upside down love fest with her dog, Banksy.

I did manage to get started on the cover for the Japanese stab binding book (yet to be named).

I'm loving that black-gessoed paper piece in front, which started out this uninspiring peach.

I got started on the cover of the black and white journal, going with the most unconventional reversal of covers, since I've got a most unconventional idea for a case.  Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Please let me know all your Easter doings in the comments...I hope you were enjoying the lifting of restrictions in your area, and that you, too, had visitors from far-flung places.  

Cows are pretty boring...

don't you think?  Their muted colours just don't call to me, although their dispositions are often calming, and I enjoy the soft moo from a contented cow.  In my world, though, cows would be a wee bit more colourful, 

as would their surroundings.

I'm pretty sure they'd be popping with colour

with their makeup done to the max.

Surely they'd sport every possible combination 

of contrast and impact?

Well, the good thing about being a crazed artist is that one can create any world that floats through one's imagination.  

And that makes me wonder what one could do with hippopotamusssssses or .....

NB  This whole post is brought to you because a fellow artist, Eileen Gidman  issued an invitation from  Kootenay Meadows Farm to attend their Spring Turnout on April 23.  This event is the release of their dairy cows 'into the wild' and is a popular event for locals, artists included.  While I'm not attending I know Eileen will be there, and my Colour Spirit will be mentally painting the cows as I see them in my dreams.  😄  

And I'd love to know what you would do to make the world brighter, lighter and more colourful?

Goodness knows...

 ...it was time for a clean up in the studio, but I didn't expect to get wrapped up like this.

It happened when I tore off the badly abused butcher paper protected one of the tables.  I decided to play with it, throwing drips and slabs of pigmented self-levelling gel in red and blue.  The red had dried a good deal, hence the globby look.

I added some foil since I'd not played with that for a while, and then tore into it with Inktense pencils, knowing full well that the polymer of the gel would resist a good deal of it.  The results were truly fascinating, and I can see using these for tag backgrounds.

I got so distracted that I never got to clearing the other table at all, and now it's covered in hearts, journals, Inktense and butcher paper that needs more work.  Does this ever end?  Apparently not.

I've spent a good deal of time this week stitching on those dryer sheet curtains, and the more I do, 

the more there is to be done.  I haven't even started on the loops to hang then yet either.

And cows - did I mention I want to do some cows?  Watch this space, 'cause goodness knows what will happen next!