Speaking of big birthdays...

Tom's dad, Irvin is celebrating his 90th birthday this weekend.  We're traveling to northeast Nebraska and I checked the weather and it's gonna be a cold cold trip, something like -17 degrees overnight on Saturday, omg!  Honestly, I know I don't have enough warm clothes packed in my carry-on!!!   Sweet baby Jesus.   On the other hand, it's going to be sweet seeing all the family!

What to blog about??

I've had the worse case of mental blog block.  I have so much I could share but for whatever reason I just can't seem to put the time into posting on my blog.  

But it's 2016 and as most people it's time to reflect on the past year and start some newthings in the new year.  How I want to do this is post things from the past year.....  It was a busy travel year, it was a busy studio time year, it was a busy spending time with people year, along with all the photos to documenting everything.  That is one thing I did do, photographed everything 2015.

So let's begin.....

In March I traveled back to my home in Nebraska for my dad's 80th birthday party.  It was so much fun.

This is my family mom & dad and six of us kids.

This is my siblings and Texas cousins

My sisters & I always take a photo...this time we were lucky to have our brothers, too.

My parents, Gilbert & Kay Tinajera

My niece made this cool book.
The grandkids wrote letters to my dad of lessions learned from him.  

Here's something I forgot about...on my drive from Denver to Nebrasaka I drove Mini Lula through a ice storm.  The roads were clear and wet.  The temps were very cold and the windshield index was even colder.  I learned driving Mini is different than driving a regular car or truck.  It rides low to the ground and all the surface water was hitting Mini all the time...with the windshield index so cold the water was freezing and icing up the Mini to the point of no air getting through the front grill.  Scary scary scary drive!  Won't ever do that again!

Waffle making with the twins!

This was such a fun day with the twins, Addison & Olivia!!  I just got a waffle iron and we're making waffles.

Addison mixing the dry ingredients 

Olivia mixing the wet ingredients

The girls watching me whipping the egg whites

Addison is helping dress up the waffles with a dust of powdered sugar, slices of fresh strawberries and whip cream!

Olivia eventually ate her waffle

Addison loving her waffle creation

Monday thoughts on Wednesday...

I've become a faithful follower of Super Soul Sunday.  I usually DVR the episodes so I can watch and absorb what the conversation is about.  I've watched the episode with Thich Nhat Hanh, He is a Zen Buddhist Monk, he's so spiritual and wise.  So much of what he talked about has resonated within me.  He talks about listening..."compassionate deep listening"  Helping him/her to suffer less.  And then at another time give your thoughts/advice.  I will work on this kind of listening.  I need to read some of his books, too.  Check him out.

He also has four mantras he spoke about.  

1.  Darling, I'm here for you. 

2.  Darling, I know you are there and I'm so happy you are there.  

3.  Darling, I know you suffer and that is why I'm here for you.  

4.  Darling, I suffer, I am trying my best to practice, Please help me.

Happily ever after....

I made an embellishment for one of the boxes.  It was a bridal gift.  I love love love how it turned out!

Glued it to the top of the cement box.  Add a tea candle and wrap it nicely and it becomes a gift.  Hope the bride likes it as much as I loved making it.

Making boxes!

Making more cement boxes!   Getting box molds ready.  Spray with vegetable spray after reinforcing the boxes with tape.   

I used a differnt cement mix this time.  It used sand instead of gravel.  It was a finer texture.  It was easy to mix and simple to use.

I used glass tea candle holders as the mold for the hole.  The key here is spraying with the oil spray and to remove the glass holders after the cement sets but before it's totally set, otherwise you will not be able to remove the glass.

The tops came out perfect and fits nicely

In order to make the pendants I needed some background paper.  I had fun creating these sheets!  I used an idea from a book by Sally Jean.  Make a list of different things like, use paint, words, magazines, chalk, pencil, photograph, smudge, stamps, etc.  Put these in a bowl and as you pick out a work you do that to the paper.  Easy way to get your creative juices going.  I new I wanted light colors and lots of blues!

My work space as I make the charms and solder them.

I decided I also wanted to use stamped words on the lids.  I learned to anneal the metal to make it softer and easier to stamp!  Best tip I've learned.  You mark it with a sharpie and heat it until the sharpie mark disappears.  Remember it gets super hot so have a shallow container of water to dip and cool the metal strips.

I wanted to experment with other shapes and other wires.  I flattened some copper wire and shaped it into a heart.  Soldered it to a brass metal square flooded with solder.  Love love love the outcome.  

I have 30 boxes to finish!!

Soldered gems

This is what's on my work table.  Working on soldered photo holders.  I'm using glass babbles.  I used two pieces and I sandwich a background with words.  I have to add the photo holder wires.  I'll post the final pieces when finished.

Painting signs

There was a faded signed hanging on a tree in my courtyard.  So I figured it was time to repaint it.  One of the blogs I follow showed how to paint lettering on signs.  It looked simple enough.  I sketched the word POOL and then I used a white paint pen to write out "RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER". 

I dug out the acrylics and started painting.  I wanted the sign to look like a vintage sign.

I aged the sign with some tinted wax.  

Once the wax drys, I took a rag and polished it to a nice shine. Drill two holes and used wire to hang it back on the courtyard tree.

Looks great and sends you in the right direction to the pool!  A fun project for sure.

Sun day, pool day

It's always sunny and warm, today was not different but today I spent it in the pool.  The mermaid enjoyed the warmth and sunshine, too!  Tomorrow I'm spending most of my day in the studio.

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!)

Buddha

I don't know much about the study or following of the spiritual teachings of Buddha, but I had to stop and give an offering.  If you look close you'll see coins, rocks, beads, stones, hearts, a ball, a beer cap and a dollar bill.  I love his big smile and great spirit.  I might have to visit this Buddha statue more often.... plus the view from where he sits is awesome!

The Three Universal Truths

Nothing is lost in the universe - we consist of that which is around us, we are the same as everything. 

Everything changes - everything is constantly changing.

Law of cause and effect - we receive exactly what we earn, whether it is good or bad.