Prize and Surprise

Do you remember this?



If not, I ended up winning 3rd Place and today my prize arrived.

Check it out:

Who doesn't need their very own enchanted bandages ... I'm tempted to cut myself (ok, I'll be honest, not really ... but I am considering breaking a nail) just to have an excuse to put one on! The art postcards were just a super duper surprise bonus.

You can visit Nancy at her website or her blog, but be prepared ... you'll want to stay a while.



How about this one:



Did you ever notice this little cutie on my sidebar?!? If not, click it ... I don't know if the free poppets are still being offered, but it's worth a look (though don't be surprised if you find yourself wanting to purchase one of your very own) ... I received mine today:

Now that I have this little charmer, I just know I'm going to have to get him a leetle friend ... or ten! He's about two inches tall, but packs a LOT of charm into his tiny frame.

*sighs*

Go HERE to see more poppets (and additional links, too)

4 Days ... SERIOUSLY?!?

Yup ... Seriously.

The day of unveiling is a mere 4 days from now. Wow. Time flies!

I actually finished my knit up last night.

... and here's one half close up

... and the other half

OK, so it's not knit up, but is made up of homeless crocheted squares.

The blue squares were extra's from THIS huge project; the larger yellow squares are crocheted from the softest Bamboo yarn - ever; the two smaller yellow squares (side by side in the center) are leftovers from a baby blanket & the "connector" threads are various bits of random yarns from my big basket of yarn options (not quite as varied as I was hoping) that include: white and tan varieated cotton, super poofy hot pink softy (but in an acrylic way) yarn, tri-colored purple yarn (of the Walmart variety) and wicked cool autumn colored ribbon (the odd little tuft at the center of the yellow square at one end [or top up the knit up] and the connector of the yellow square to the blue square as the other end [or the bottom]) ... too much information?

You'd think the hard part was done, right? WRONG. There's the figuring out of what pole/object it should adorn ... though today at work I spotted the place I want it to go, so I think that one's a done deal ... as long as I can work up the COURAGE (a.k.a. the hard part) to actually DO IT! EEK! Yep, guess I have to admit that as much as it fills me with excitement to think about doing the deed and seeing my knit up banner wave, I am also filled with serious fears about getting caught in the act. This town is not known for it's mellow cops and their good senses of humor ...

*insert nervous twittering giggles here*

It's all good ... somehow I WILL overcome my twitchies and the knit up WILL go up. Do me a favor and think really positive can-do thoughts for me ...

... and if you find yourself wanting to be part of the fun (and I have a feeling many of you do), go HERE for the scoop, HERE for making sure you've got everything you need in your guerilla knit up kit, HERE for some ideas/reassurances on getting away with it (will be reading and rereading this post a few hundred times) and HERE just to get to know grrl a little better.

... In other cool news, I just found out that I am

one of seven finalists in the Art/Illustration Sub-Category of:

To see the list of other finalists (listed with their links) go HERE

.

The winners will be announced tomorrow.

HERE's where you can find the first round of winners. You can also vote for the People's Choice award from this first round. I've already voted.

Anti V-Day Contest Entry

Who's surprised to hear that I waited till the very last day to get started on my entry? Yep, me neither. I had it in my head that I wanted to do a mock Valentine ... the front would be a happy image with the words, "thanks to you" in some large scripty font and then you'd open it and there'd be the words, "I've got a serious case of" and a picture of a burning heart ... get it? a serious case of heartburn ... bahaha ... at least I crack myself up. After many wooden matches and heartshaped pieces of crumpled paper, all I could get were these:

Not exactly what I was going for ... phooey.

So

with an hour to go (seriously close ... it's 11:49 as I type) I broke out some Bristol Board and a favorite black pen and some red ink ... the camera and some brightness manipulation (it's late and the light bites) ... here's my entry, "Restricted":

... phew! just by the skin of my teeth.

I'm up against some seriously amazing artists and their awesome contributions.

Wish me luck!

With thanks & an update

I'll start with the update. As you might remember, I added washi papers to one side of the heart and all I have done since was coat that side in gloss varnish and paint the flip side white:

and here are a couple closer shots:

Feel free to click on any of the above images to see an even larger view. Next step? Not sure, but I think it includes seed beads ... when will I actually have a few hours to spend on these?!?

also,

I truly appreciate all of the wonderful & generous support

& kind words you have showered on me. It has made a world of difference.

thank you

I'm going to be extremely busy during this job transition ... I'm not the only one moving and have offered (been hired) to help the others with the transistion, too. If I seem to have vanished, it's only an illusion ... I'll be back ... have to be back on the 12th if I want to enter something in this:

... and there's still time if you are interested in submitting something to the contest, too.

Just click on the button above to get the whole scoop.

Plus, in my non-copious spare time, I still need to finish up my mock-knit-up for:

... at least this one is already in the works ...

and again, there's still time to join!

Finally ... thought it was time for another

Cigar Box tease ....

ready?

are you sure?!?

cool ...

on the left is a small notebook with the ring on top (handy for lefties like me)

the moleskin notebook on the right is really small, but soooo ready to be marked up.

Be well & dream BIG!

Always, ~M~

In my Attempt to Avoid my Heavy Heart ...

I'm feeling a bit heavy hearted. I decided to take another job and had to give my boss my two weeks notice today ... this would have been a lot easier if I didn't care so much for her. I feel a bit fragile & pretty raw ... so ... even though I have a feeling this is going to be an exercise in twisted delight, instead of working on this:

I thought I would take inspiration from Robyn (click HERE) and post this:

Don made this bronze heart for me (Valentine's '99 - it should be noted that we aren't big into V-Day celebrations, so this was a huge surprise). We were living in Baltimore, MD. He was working at the New Arts Foundry, so was able to make the casting & soldered the "broken lock" part after it was cast. I'm not sure what the material was he used to sculpt the heart, but I am fairly certain this was a one time casting - I don't believe there is a mold of it. Before it was cast, he inscribed the back:

It's really hard to read in this photo ... it says, "Baby, you didn't need a key, you broke the lock to my heart".

*sighs*

If I don't say it enough, I know that I am a lucky, lucky girl.

When the new job opportunity came up, I had a lot of soul searching to do to make my decision. One night I broke out the Sculpy and the next thing I knew I had these:

a bunch of freeform hearts. I wasn't thinking about them as I was forming them - the hearts just seemed to happen. I also had no clue what I was going to do with them. On Saturday I cut out hearts from some of my favorite washi chiyogami papers and attatched them to one side:

I will varnish this side to protect the paper ... but then what? I don't know. I have a feeling I am just going to go with whatever happens ... maybe they'll turn out to be happy little hearts of hope. Guess we'll see.

"Nothing is so strong as

gentleness and nothing is so

gentle as real strength"

Ralph W. Sockman