Does Absence Make The Heart Grow Fonder???????

 I have been absent from my blog for too long.  Did you miss me???   I probably won't be doing the Tea Cup Tuesday every week as my life has taken me in other directions.  But I do hope to at least do a blog post every week.

I am on a HUGE mission to finish up some sewing, quilting, crafting and more projects over this year.  I completed a quilt and it is now waiting for binding.  I have another quilt at the long arm lady's shop and it should be returned to me in a couple of weeks.

When they are done pictures will be posted.

I have been working on the Altered Books I have created over the past 20 years.... YEP... 20 years. Most are fully done but I discovered a few that I never really put finishing touches on to make them complete.

The reason I am inspired to do that is that a good friend and I recently attended the most amazing art show at a nearby college....  It was held at Penn College in Williamsport, PA.   It was actually a double art show.  The formal show in the main gallery was called  BOOKS UNDONE.   The art of the altered book.

Click on the links below for the brochure and the catalog of the show.

Brochure:

 Catalog:

In addition there was another show in the main part of the library called Old Books, New Lives featuring altered book art created by students and faculty members using books that were ready to be discarded from the library.  To me this part was the best and here are some  pictures of work I REALLY liked.    I am showing some of the items since their pictures were not included in the catalog and I think these are really terrific.

What a fun way to use books that are scheduled to go to the shredder!!!  Good recycling.

I hope you will come back again next week to see what I am up to.... perhaps I will have the quilt bound and ready to show off.

Liberate Your Art

I missed a week or so because I was in the midst of several projects around the house and just couldn't seem to sit down and write something.

And then a big SWAP in which I was participating came to a close and part of the deal was to blog about it if I had a blog so HERE I AM.

Liberate Your Art is a big swap started awhile ago by one of my favorite on line artists... Kat Sloma.

The deal is, you send 5 postcards to her and you will get 5 back plus one from her. (And they are to be copies, not the originals.  Some are collage, others drawn and others photographs.  You never know and they can come from all over.  

My postcards were some photographs I took awhile back.  They were, as I tell folks, taken in one of those serendipitous moments.   I was getting in my car to run errands and about to turn on the windshield wipers when I realized what a lovely picture mother nature had provided for me....   Since I always carry my camera with me I was able to take a picture or two of this lovely surprise.  I have to admit I hated to run the windshield wiper and erase the lovely picture.  But errands had to be run so I did it.

Here is the result.

I love this kind of swap because, while it doesn't take a whole lot of time, you get immense rewards,  I have also participated in a number of post card swaps with Lisa Vollrath.  So many in fact that I now have a notebook filled with those results.  And I added these new ones to that book...........

 You can check out and possibly join with Lisa's group at this link.....  http://www.lisavollrath.com/.  I can't find a link for a current swap but if you get on her mailing list you will no doubt learn about future ones. I should mention that her artwork can be unusual!

 I am sure there are other swaps out there.  I just don't know about them "yet"....



SO here is the picture I promised of all the postcards I received.  Some drawn or painted, a collage, and some photographs.  A wonderful mix.  I am so glad I participated.

And here is a link to see what this is all about and what folks participated this year..........

LIBERATE YOUR ART.  Check it out.

I hope you will come back to visit my blog.  I write about Tea Cups, art and crafting I do, and what ever else that seems important at the time.

My new toy

For Christmas this year I received a new "toy," a Cricut^®Machine.  I have been playing with it and cutting out some things that will eventually be titles on pages in some of my scrapbooks.  But the one fun thing I did was an elaborate cut out about coffee which I framed.   Here is the result. I will probably do one about tea next.  I have the "cut" file already.  Maybe a fun thing to show on a future Tea Cup Tuesday post.

I know the picture shows up terrible but I hope you get the idea.  I should have taken the picture before I framed it behind glass and sealed the back.  But I hope you get the idea.  I now have it hanging on the wall in my office.  I used an old frame I found in my workshop.  I may use some gold Rub and Buff on it eventually to make it look better.

    I got the "cut file" on Etsy from

SASCreative

 

She has some other ones I may get in the future.  I really like her work.

 

For those of you not familiar with the Cricut^®Machine here is a link to let you learn.

Cricut® Official Site 

  Be warned. You may want to get one for your self.  I also have a die cut machine.  But sometimes  I can't find a die that has the look I want.   And the cuts you get from other people don't cost nearly as much as a die might.

 

Anyway.... This is my first big attempt.  I will try to show more things I have done as time goes on. 

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Be sure to some back on Tuesday for Tea Cup Tuesday.  I have a craft project I am showing that incorporates a broken teacup. 

Teacup Tuesday

It is time again for Tea Cup Tuesday.  Here is one of my favorite teacup and saucer sets. It is called ANGELA.    It is Royal Albert of course!!!!!

I hope you enjoyed the tea cup I have selected today.   Come back to visit on Saturday to see what I am crafting and next Tuesday for teacups and crafts.

  I will be joining with the following Tea Parties and blog parties on the days they publish.   Some are on different days of the week so my listings will show up then.  And some may not be available every week.  Be sure to check.

Hope you will visit them too.

NO PLACE LIKE HOME

Bernideen's Tea-time Blog *
Ruth's Antiques  Teacups *

Share your cup  Thursday*

SNOW.. SNOW... and MORE SNOW

I suppose it had to happen.  We have had a fairly quiet winter......  a tiny bit of snow here and there.  AND suddenly it was like it had just been saved up for one massive dump.  In all the years we lived in Maine I don't really remember one that was like this all at once.  It accumulated over the winter, storm after storm but I don't remember quite so much all at once.

Here are a few of the pictures of this storm they creatively named Stella.   "Stella, Stella, " as Elaine on Seinfeld would say!!!   (check it out on youtube if you don't remember.)

  This is what things looked like when we woke up on Tuesday Morning.  At least a foot or more.

 

 And here is what things looked like on Wednesday morning........... A bit over two feet!!!

My car almost disappeared.

The birdbath took on an almost regal look...........

                The most important thing was to keep the pathway open to the bird feeders..........

So, while my husband and two or our neighbors worked on our shared driveway, trying to keep things clear.........  I stayed in the house and worked on various housekeeping chores that needed to be done.  I would have felt guilty "playing" with my crafts I think.

I hope, by the time Tea Cup Tuesday rolls around next week, life will be back to normal again.

My husband and neighbors have the driveways cleared, sidewalks too. So now we just wait for warmer weather and pray it won't cause flooding.

I haven't done sewing except to hem some trousers for my husband.  No crafting except working on my 30 Lists project.  I don't know what I am getting accomplished but I do seem to keep busy.

Because I didn't get anything ready for St. Patrick's Day here is a look at the party page I did last year.    St. Patricks Day 2016        It shows my favorite St. Patrick's Day tea cup.

Be sure to check in on Tea Cup Tuesday for another Tea Cup crafting project I made awhile back.

Today is the day of the Blizzard of 2017 called Stella.  So far we have a LOT of snow......   and we are probably only half way through it.....   To show you how much here is a   comparison of our last snowstorm and this one..........

  This was last week just after that storm....                 .

And here is this week's storm, probably only about 1/2 way through it....

We are barely into this storm.  I imagine it will go for at least the rest of the day and this is early morning right now.

Yesterday I took this picture of my daffodils, getting ready to blossom. They made it through the last storm.  I do hope they survive this pounding today...........

Happily I don't think I have anyplace I have to go today.  So hope to stay in the house and catch up on some projects!

As I said last week I hope to continue to show you come projects using teacups and saucers.........

Here is a Tea Cup project I did awhile back..........     A Tea Cup pincushion.  As I said in my last post I don't like to throw away pretty teacups if there is something else I can create with them.   That is  what I did with this one.

  I made a ball of batting covered with fabric to serve as the pincushion.  You may have to keep adding stuffing a few times to have it stuffed enough.  I stuffed so much it is really almost hard.   Once it is full enough   I ran a bead of glue just inside the teacup and pushed the cushion into place.  Next,  I glued the gimp around the edge and added the little roses. And then I glued the teacup to the saucer.  I did this last so I could better handle the teacup as I put in the batting.  Actually pretty easy if you are patient. You can use ribbon and decorations to match your teacup and saucer.  I did this one because of the roses on the tea cup and saucer.

And so another teacup that won't hit the trash barrel...........

Since I have been away for awhile I may be missing some tea parties out there.  If I am please let me know so I can add them to my list.....

     I will be joining with the following Tea Parties and blog parties on the days they publish.   Some are on different days of the week so my listings will show up then.  And some may not be available every week.  Be sure to check.

Hope you will visit them too.

NO PLACE LIKE HOME 

Bernideen's Tea-time Blog *
Ruth's Antiques  Teacups *

Share your cup  Thursday*

Away go the magazines...

 So yesterday it snowed again.  Just when we were hoping spring was on its way.   We just had a week of lovely warm weather.  The grass was greening up and my daffodils are ready to bloom.  Now the weather gurus say we are going to have another week of winter...........    I guess Punxatawny Phil, that rascally ground hog, was right.   SIGH......

 No new crafty projects to share with you today.  I am continuing on with my 30days of lists.  It is actually helping me to use up some of my stash of papers and also those list list pads that keep accumulating.     Here is a collage of 5 of the days that I have completed so far.  Nothing fancy....  But I am doing it and it feels good.... Isn't that part of why we do this stuff.

 I started the new year in a mood to declutter again.  Don't we always.   I did quite a bit in a couple of rooms and realized my craft room was actually the worst.    I decided I have kept WAY too many magazines.  Time to declutter them.  The first part of that is to get rid of Somerset Studios and other magazines of that type.  I thought about selling them on ebay but they don't get enough to make it worth it.  SO.....  I started to rip out the articles I wanted to keep... and toss the remains.  

I found  65 magazines (from over 12 years) that I needed to get rid of....    They are equal to 2:inches wide for 6 issues.  So the depth of all of them is a bit over 21 inches.  I reduced that space to 3 1/2 inches when I put them into file folders.  And that includes the folders....   So while it may sound   "nit picky"  it gave me a goal.  I had all the magazines in magazine holders on a couple of shelves and including the holders it took u a LOT of space.  Now that the articles are in folders they really only take up about the width of one of the holders.  So I can use the shelves to put boxes of sorted fabrics, up off the floor.  Makes sense to me.  Unfortunately I still have a long way to go.

Enough for this week.  Be sure to check in next Tuesday when I join the Tea Cup Tuesday crowd.  I have a very cute Tea Cup craft to share.   And will probably include some St. Patrick's day tea things as well.

And next Friday I am going to share the new and interesting crafting item I received for Christmas.