I made a.....

*walks in, chortling softly* I'm makin' something, I'm makin' something!! I'm makin' a ... a... *walks around it, taking a careful look* um, is it supposed to... *doubtful look* really, I thought it might be more... well, um, more.... but hey! I'm makin'... um... a Make! Yes that's right, I'm makin' a Make. A Real Make.

It's a kind of a laminated Make, upcycled. Yes, an upcycled laminated Make.

*takes another careful look* Tis a useful sort of upcycled laminated Make. *nods* Oh not so useful as a Chocolate Chip Cookie Make, or a Walnut Brownie Make; I freely admit this! It could not possibly be so useful. Doesn't smell near so good and the waiting time is rather unnerving. But all the same *nods again* I am making A Really Useful Upcycled Laminated Make.

Here are the ingredients: 3 used shipping boxes, each cut in two; two bottles of school glue; some masking tape; a bunch of old catalogs. Eventually I will need some spray sealer and probably some screws. Then I'll have to decide if this Make gets painted, or left as is.

I believe this laminating process could be called papier decoumapage, or possibly papier decoumache (ummm, decoumapage will be just fine, thank you). It's pretty messy and I had to wash my hands twice when I was done BUT when a person is makin' A Really Useful Upcycled Decoumapagely Laminated Make she has to sacrifice just a little for the cause. *nods*

It started out rather annoyingly; we kicked the boxes around in the hallway for a while before I figured out what I wanted to make. Gryph was less than pleased but, I admit, I was stubborn. And I used a lotta masking tape figuring it out, so then I had no choice. I had to make a Make once I used up the masking tape.

You can see that the boxes needed a little work before I decoumapaged them. They sort of needed a little work while I decoumapaged them, too.

The decoumapaging has been done: front, back, inside, upside down, one layer. It is no longer a buncha boxes to be tripped over. It is a Make, a Real Sturdy Make. Can you imagine finding something so really very useful in nothing but discards?

It's a versatile kind of A Really So Very Useful Sturdy Upcycled Decoumapagely Laminated Make. It could go sideways.

Or not. Probably not, because A Versatile Kind Of A Really So Very Useful Sturdy Upcycled Decoumapagely Laminated Make will fit best on the wall if it is vertical. Maybe it will live on the kitchen countertop. And yanno, right now for some reason I am seriously inclined to fill it with Tupperware.

*wanders out singing "I made a Make, I made a Make, a REAL Make, I made a MAKE!*

Hello there! I have been busy reclaiming my soul, one stroke at a time. Folk art patterns, watercolor pencils, and Pigma Micron pens are the tools in my rebirth. At the top you can see some of the watercolor drawings that I have done, including the blue stars that I have started tangling already.

Underneath, you can see the greeting cards I have already finished. The green on the pears, by the way, is actually a softer, yellower green. I think my camera wasn't quite accurate.

The inkwork patterns I use are all Zentangle patterns. You can find more at http://www.zentangle.com/

The nicest surprise in the yard this year: two of the volunteer sunflowers, covered with volunteer morning glories. Have no idea what variety the sunflower is, but the morning glories are an heirloom variety, "Grandpa Ott." They're a deep purple with crimson throats, and they just glow in the sunshine.

I dearly love my watercolor pencils. Never really had a chance to play with them before. This is a folk-art bird pattern which I have made my own.

May Day, 2012

A gorgeous sweet scented gift from the earth; this is my Mock Orange.

Spring garden post with pics!

Her Pinkness sprawls across the corner of two yards; this is only part of her glory. She is repeated from yard to yard to yard across the neighborhood. Someday I will find someone who knows her name.

Senetti is the unexpected star of this year's garden. She brings us butterflies of various kinds. Because the wind kept blowing her over, she ius tucked into a pot which currently contains two American elderberries. You can see one at the front of the pot.

This is the old metal shelf unit that I repurposed for a raised garden bed. It's filled with compost and sticks, lots and lots of sticks. The blackberries are Triple Crown and the strawberries are Ft Laramie. Various herbs share the space also, including garden sage, thyme, lemon mint, and parsley.

The cherry trees are in a bed which was layered with compost and leaves. The clay is as sticky and bricklike as they come, and so there is a layer of half-done compost on top. It's made a big difference. You can see that the onions and asparagus like it just fine. The bags in the background are what is left of the gift of leaves.

The Mock Orange smells so beautiful this year! I'm waiting for the day when it bursts into exuberant bloom like Her Pinkness did; should be tomorrow or the next day!

The Long View, lol... these are the various pots on the driveway, including my strawberries from last year, the red-veined sorrel, the lilac, and a new rose. Behind them are the trees--hard to see, I know--on the far right (in the southwest corner of the yard) is the apricot, then the peach (not leafed out), then the two plums toward the southeast.

This is the long raspberry bed in process. Gryph the Garden Builder did much of the work on this one. It started with a layer of sticks which was trampled down to six inches; after that came layer after layer of leaves and dirt (with lots more sticks mixed in) which we were gifted by a neighbor after a yard cleanup.

Just a few more bags of leaves and dirt to go...

The finished bed!

Happiness

I want you to be happy. You know, with the kind of happiness that sneaks in around the edges so that you don't always realize just how happy you are, but every time you get a quiet moment it floats in your soul and lifts you up, leaving you to recognize that no matter what goes wrong, no matter how hard life gets, you're still at the heart of it filled with happiness.

That's my wish for you.

That's the kind of happiness I feel. I don't always realize it; the pain takes all my concentration so much of the time, and the worry takes so much of it as well... but in the quiet moments when I sit peacefully, the happiness bubbles to the surface again, a gentle reminder that the real me is still here inside myself.

The house is a mess, the garden desperately needs attention, the bills are expanding to take every cent and then some. It all adds up to huge worries, fueled no doubt by the pain, but then there are moments, wonderful peaceful moments.

Saturday I stood outside between Grandfather and Grandmother Maple trees in the midst of the wind, singing the Autumn in. The song just bubbled up out of my soul like an artesian spring.

Tonight a friend posted that she wished everyone happiness and as I smiled at her post I remembered my own happiness. Gryph doesn't see it often enough anymore, so I'm posting it here: at the heart of it all, I am a very happy person. Life is good. I am beyond lucky.

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Gryph}}}}}}}}}}}}}} Thank you for being my love.

Cath