red star studio

good grief!

the lovely Didine has reminded me I haven't been making the best use of my blog here. I can't believe my last post was in February - good greif!  Its not as though I have much of an audience for this fair blog, but I had made a promise to myself to attempt and keep up the space I pay for here. I will admit my creative spirit has been more absent than usual these days, and this blog is creatively energizing, so with that said -

Here's to the first day of making a go of this blog thing again.

Lately I have an affection for trees-on-walls kind of art. Here are a few samples of things I'm adoring lately:

found in the "Saucy Dwellings" livejournal, user "kiwikat"'s string tree is amazing. she says it took her 6 hours and some serious sore thumbs from driving all of the push pins into the wall, but it's amazing!

and of course there are amazing wall decals now. i really like the simplicity of this one from smallandmedium.com:

Now all I need is some blank wall space to create a wall-tree of my own design!

workspace before & after

i've had a struggle getting this all together, but this weekend it seemed the final pieces fell into place. here is the outcome of my organization strategies:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

28 today

i was born at 12:07 pm 28 years ago today. february 4, 1979.

this week has been an oddity in my 28 years.

on Monday i went to inquire about buying a new-to-me car.

on Tuesday i bought the car, a lovely little 2004 black toyota echo hatchback. i had dinner with an extraordinary friend and her growing family, which honestly did make my heart grow in size.

on Wednesday i got up in the morning at 5:30am in agony. i thought if i got up and started my day the pain in my abdomen would ease off. by 7:30am when i had made my way to work in my office i admitted it wasn't going to get any better. by 7:45am i was registering myself at the local ER. by 2:45pm i had had surgery to remove a kidney stone from my left ureter. by 4:45pm i was home again.

on Thursday i stayed home from work to recover from surgery. things were a little better, but i was sure by Thursday i was getting a cold.

on Friday i went to back to work. i drove my new car there. i had a full blown chest cold. my voice sounded hoarse, and i was still a little "tender" on my left side/bladder. but i made it through the day.

on Saturday i was exhausted. so i sat in a chair and watched almost all of the first season of HBO's "Dexter". i had strange dreams Saturday night.

Today, Sunday, my birthday, i read a card at midnight from a dear friend who is currently traipsing around peru somewhere. it made me smile. she has surprised me this year too. in wonderful ways. at 9am my family arrived. we had breakfast together, and later some lunch and birthday cake. my 14 month old nephew gave me a finger painting for my birthday.

in this last year i have taken amazing strides in self-discovery. i am thankful for the people who have stood by me through my transition, and for the amazing people who have come into my life along the way. so much compassion and love in my life. i feel as though this year i may be on the brink of something. something new, or something amazing. its a good feeling. i'm just going to ride the wave of it and see what comes.

calendar

i ordered a 2007 planner for a good friend of mine from the lovely MamaDama through etsy.com. It arrived this evening, and I'm delighted! the planner itself is a lovely monthly planner (that I haven't seen to buy anywhere here in Nova Scotia) but the best part is the hand sewn cover. It fits like a glove and my friend can tuck a few things inside the front cover if she likes.

You can find more of MamaDama's handmade wonders in her etsy shop here.

here it is all wrapped with a lovely matching hair pin surprise.

Here's the cover fabric. Paisley=love. 

Here are some inside shots of the calendar.

blog-land

i can get lost for hours in 'blog-land'. one lovely blog leads me to so many others and i am drifting away on clouds of inspiration.

there are so many wonderful crafters, artists, photographers that blogging has allowed me to discover. my list of blogs that i want to check out every day just grows and grows. its no wonder i forget about my own for days at a time.

my head is full of ideas today. things to do and create and organize. funny how that happens when i'm far away from place where i can accomplish those things. instead i write lists, lists of wishes, things to buy, things to do, places to go, books or blogs to read. and then the lists lie dormant. i think they're in waiting. waiting for me to get it all together and conquer my lists, one item at a time. i imagine years of creative bliss, reading the books, browsing the blogs, visiting the places and being the inspiration to others.

Lisa Congdon

I'm really adoring Lisa Congdon's work these days. I read her over at  A Bird in the Hand. Her main website is here.

 

this piece called "pretty in pink" and this one:

called "sense" make my heart grow three sizes. there is something in there with the color and the dots and the bits of collage that resonate with me. there is something peaceful and profound in each piece that i just love. i can't stop looking at each one. i always wonder when i respond to an artist's work if my response is similar to the place they were when they created the piece. maybe its silly to question that. but i wonder, was lisa in a reflective state of mind when she created these? was she looking for something peaceful?

holiday quiet

i was reviewing the photos from our family christmas eve spent together. i think this one is my favorite. the nephew and his uncle happily reading his brand new story.

it captures my feeling of the holidays for 2006, quiet, peaceful and relaxed. the way all holidays should be.

a new year

happy january 1st!

it would seem i'm not alone in my disappearance for the holidays. believe me, it wasn't exactly intentional. i haven't travelled, and i haven't been away from my new and shiny computer. nothing to prevent me from sitting down and blogging away. except that it has been heaven to just not look at the computer for a while, to enjoy a rest and family and friends.

but now that the holidays are winding on down, it will also be very nice to return to the regular pace of my life. including finding the ideas and the time to write a little something here as regularly as possible.

my largest project of the moment is trying to sort out this:

this is the corner where all of my crafting and art supplies are currently residing in boxes. i need to figure out how best to get organized and make it happen. i have lots of floor space to utilize, so i really don't need to restrict myself to the corner. i'm considering pulling one of the two table/desks away from the wall and bringing in a bookshelf or two. any suggestions would be most welcome.

holiday greetings!

i spent some time creating a 'recycled christmas card' ornament for a friend. it took longer than i expected, and i made very good use of some tiny clothes pins that i conveniently had on hand. i meant to take some photos of my efforts, but forgot before i wrapped it all up to give to my friend for christmas.

instead, here are some of my favorite holiday images from some fellow bloggers i adore:

Emily at Inside a Black Apple's holiday tree:

 

and the lovely handmade wonder of Kathleen's tree over at cake and pie

productivity

this morning has been highly productive.

for fun i googled "productive" in google images. here was my favorite image:

its from a study on how the color of an office's walls impacts a worker's productivity.

my morning went like this:

i woke up early. so rather than falling back into sleep, i thought i would get up and get an early start to the day.

i left home at 6:45. A full 45 minutes earlier than my usual start time. i thought i would treat myself on the warm Monday morning (6 degrees celcius before sunrise!) and stop at starbucks for a peppermint mocha and a morning glory muffin. sadly my early morning meant i had arrived at starbucks before the muffins were out of the oven. so i made do with an oatcake and my peppermint mocha.

at work i arrived before 7:30am. and i have managed to be extraordinarily productive. the time has flown by. (i simply cannot believe its almost 1:30pm and i haven't needed to look at the clock once). its always a great start to the week when things begin this way. i hope this is a pattern of things to come and i can have things well in hand before the Office closes for the holidays on Friday.

I am a very blessed employee who has December 23rd through January 1st off as vacation time. its a very good thing.