Art work admiration

While I was on my last road trip I took a tour of this beautifully decorated house.  In one of the girl's bedroom were these three pieces of artwork on the wall... "live"  "out"  "loud".  It was made with torn paper.  The owner of the home is extremely talented and her home was filled with so much of who she is.  I love so much of her decor and I found out later that she has made a lot of it herself.  Giving her a shout out!

I had the inspiration, paper, glue, canvas and time.  

1.  Use old book pages and tore them into pieces.  

2.  Glued them randomly all over the canvas.

3.  I used one scrapbook design for the circle on all three canvas so they would match.

4.  Orange, blue and yellow scrapbook paper was used to make the petals.

5.  I used a large dinner plate to draw a circle and a small plate to draw the inner circle.

6.  Glued the torn pieces to make the design.

7.  Used a black sharpie to draw the words.

A couple of things... the book pages I used had wide white margins so I trimmed them off so I only had text.  The scrapbook paper varied in thickness and I found I didn't like using the thicker card stock.  When it's torn it shows the white edges, so I trimmed it off because it was distracting from the petal design.  I also found small torn piece worked so much better.  It was like making a mosaic design.   Overall, I love how they came out and this is a project I can see making over and over.  All kinds of words and themes to explore!

I found some Xmas scrapbook paper and made these.  Not sure if I lke the outcome but it motivates me to keep working on it.  Great idea for holiday decor. though.

Monday thoughts....

A series of events have taken place this past week or so that have made me take a moment.

First, a good friend’s mother passed away a week ago.  I knew she was ill but when I got the news it hit me like a ton of bricks.  Lottie was extremely talented and creative.  She was a true authentic artist.  She love Mexico and everything about Mexican art and culture.  She was a fabulous furniture designer/builder.   I once traveled with her to Mexico. San Miguel de Allende and many small pueblos near Patzcuaro, Mexico.  We saw the pyramids, we walked the huge Mexico City Zoeculo  and visited Frida Kahlo’s Azul house.  We fell in love with San Miguel’s architecture, and met many artisans, woodcarvers, metal workers, mask painters and furniture makers.  She gave me so much inspiration.  I hadn’t seen her for few years but I’m always reminded of her whenever I look at a small framed Frida Kahlo postage stamp she gave to me.  May she rest in peace.

Second, three friends had car accidents this past week.  Thank sweet baby Jesus all suffered either no injury or minor injuries but still they had injuries.  Two cars totaled and one van undergoing a month long repair.  All the accidents are the true sense of shit happens that sets a whole lot of things in motion after being stopped in your tracks.

Third, my printers decided to go on an electronic glitch adventure.  My large photo printer decided to get stuck on “Error B200”.  As I researched “Error B200” I came to realize my five or six year love affair with my Pixma Pro i9000 was over.  The Canon support person gave me some bad news about “Error B200” – something to do with  electrical mambo jumbo bullshit and kindly emailed me a local authorized Canon repair shop.  But he added,  the cost to have it repaired might be close to the cost of buying a new printer because of the nature of “Error B200”.  A number of YouTube videos addressing how to deal with “Error B200” on a Canon printer suggested best way to solve “Error B200” was to use a heavy sledge hammer!  But wait!!!   I just bought ink!!!!   I can’t even get the stupid ink cartridges out of the damn printer!  Which leads me to telling you about my other very simple basic 3 in 1 wireless printer/copier/scanner machine.  It wouldn’t print ---it decide to only give me blank sheets of paper.  It would copy, it would scan but no document or email printing.  I figure I should buy ink for it since it only had black ink.  Well holy moley, the damn machine prints now.  Back in business, ah nope… the Epson XP200 will not print on cardstock, ever!  Not that kind of printer!

I did buy a new printer…and the love affair continues… Pixma Pro 100 this time around.  It’s wireless, it’s huge, it’s heavy, it’s awesome!  

But really, having printer problems is not a life changing event.  Life is a constant movement forward with us moving right along with it.  Challenging and reminding myself the power of now, this exact moment....in love and grace.

Architectual beauties

While I'm in my hometown I drive pass these beauties.  They are magnificent, huge, unique and architectural beauties.

This house is just around the corner from my parent's house, when I see it I know it's time to make my turn onto my parent's street.  I don't know why I didn't take a shot of the whole house.  It's beautiful and such a home.  I always wonder who the family is that's so lucky to have breakfast in the white windowed room.

This is a magnificent house and so grand.  I've been in this house and I remember taking the stairs up to the highest floor and listening to T.Rex singing "Bang a gong".    I love this house.

What a front porch on this house!

I noticed many brick homes and this one I love the  design within a design.  I wonder if there was a time with brick was abundant because there are many that were built next to each other, almost like it was a new material to use on houses.

Look at all the details on this house. Columns, bay windows enclosed porch and the block style foundation.  Yep,  the stairway is purple!

 This house is a gorgeous yellow!  I just want to sit on the porch sipping my lemonade!

How grand it this house.  I wonder who's all lived in this house.  I passed this house so many times on my walk to high school and thought how amazing it would be to have a house this grand.  It sits at an angle and makes such a statement.

This house I drove passed a million times and it's so beautiful even in it's state.  I don't know if it's being renovated but I would have loved to gone in it.  It sits next to a beautifully restored house.

Next to this house!  What a house!  It's home to some kind of shelter for kids I think.  I didn't have time to ask for a tour...next time I'm in town I'll have to ask for a tour.

 This house has some neat angles and bay windows.  The porch says come sit with me.

 Now, this house was very interesting.  Colors and designs on all sides of the house gave it such character.  There were such large trees surrounding this house I wasn't able to get a photo of the intricate  details using paint colors and fish shingles.

This house was grand as it sat at an angle on this corner.  Once again a awesome porch and such details. Even the out buildings were a piece of architectual artwork.

 

There a so many more houses, this was just a sample along a few blocks on one street.  My parents live in a 1940's Bungalow style home.  Not sure why I don't have a photo of it.  It's a very cool house full of great architectural details.   I read that some of the houses were Four Square architecture style... made popular from mail order catologues.  There are also Bungalow, Queen Anne, and Vernacular architecture styles.  I think the Queen Anne style is what the large magnificent houses are.  A girl can dream of what it must be like to call one of this beauties their home.  (as I return to Arizona to my ranch style simple design home with no porch to sip my cold lemonade on a hot Arizona afternoon!)