crafty mcgee

Hints of color

I heart my new camera! It picks up subtle colors so well, as you can see in the picture of our winter flower, hellebore. It was a rainy weekend, so I didn't keep my camera outside too long (a habit I'm sure will change with time), but I did find out that it can also take amazing macro shots

like this witch hazel. It's a tiny blossom. The garden catalogs are starting to trickle in. While I'm fairly happy with the "woodland" part of my garden, the flower bed was mostly a bust last year. I think that I plant things in lovely decorative clumps like you see in the photos, but it doesn't ever work out quite right. Maybe this year I'll do one of those maps. I'm also looking to plant another tree somewhere in my yard. A branch blew off a tree and dented my neighbors roof, so of course they had to cut down all of the trees in their yard for revenge. (Do you see me rolling my eyes?) There were probably four or five of them, all different sizes. So I'll do my bit to offset their foolishness. I also heart trees...a lot.

dia de los experimentos

I joined a Dia de los Muertos postcard swap, and wanted to do something a little (OK, a lot, I guess) different. I had this idea to print on some kind of open weave fabric to get a rough, see through effect. I nixed burlap (too heavy), and came up with the idea of using natural color cheesecloth. Here's a picture of it on top of muslin, which I used as a backing surface, and also printed some straight on in case I had to come up with a Plan B.

Of course, I used my gocco, but I had no idea if it would actually work. Then, I needed to print a slightly strange, but bright and Mexican-y picture for the cards. It was time for the printer to get into the experiment act. I printed on pink construction paper (too bright), card stock (too dark), and finally

 
yellow construction paper, which was just right. I stitched all the pieces together with some brightly colored koigu, and this is what I came up with. Roll your mouse over the picture to see how the detail pops out on the skeletons in lower light:

Kinda otherworldly....muy bueno!

green, purple and made by me

Here are the items I made for this month's "green and purple" color-iffic swap-o-rama. The postcard is a modified version of the sampler from Katherine Shaughnessy's The New Crewel - an excellent embroidery book with great design. You can see a more detailed picture of the card on Flickr, where you can also see the non-handmade items, if you're curious. The box is a hand painted Altoid tin with a flower patch added for some flair, and the little patch is from some out-of-print fabric that I thought I posted about before, but can't find now. Hiding in the back is a decorated jar of sand - my swapee collects it from all over the world, and since she's in Portugal, I'll bet she doesn't have any from here:

A beach near my house on a rainy morning last weekend. The weather's been perfect all week, but it's predicted to look like this again come Saturday. Oh, well- have a good one, anyway!

self portrait tuesday: the murky abyss

Amorphous, sometimes human. This would be an appropriate place for a poem, if I wrote poetry. Suffice it to say I've spent too much of my life in this darkness. While I don't run from it, I have respect for it and live my life to keep it in the depths.

self portrait tuesday: ...but what I'd really like to do is direct...

*or cinematography, or editing.  I adore film. Ever since my mom took me to see A Hard Day's Night when I graduated from kindergarten, I've been hooked. I'm a total film geek. You know how most people listen to music when they work? I watch (or listen) to movies. While I don't regret entering the graphic arts - it's a good fit for me - film editing is definitely my Career That Got Away.  How are other SPT'ers "Exploring Their Identity"? Check here.

For the 99% of you who aren't film fanatics, the little guy is legendary Japanese director Akira Kurosawa.

self portrait tuesday: october project week 4

   

   
I knew I'd get myself in there somehow this month. Next month's challenge, "Expressions of Identity" should be just that - challenging.  Find more self portraits here.

it takes so little to amuse me...

Roll your mouse over the picture.

Tee hee. Thanks to nona knits via knitting Iris via little birds.

self portrait tuesday: october project week 3

A view near my work in Pioneer Square in Seattle. I love the light this time of year.

Time to unpack the Halloween decorations (this could also be a favorite colors picture).

Still more trees. Sigh....I just can't help myself. They are so incredible. Those patterns, and the combinations of patterns!

Okay, this one is sort of a joke, and it's blurry 'cause I was far away. But I could take at least one of these a day in the fall. And honestly, I don't mind spiders (from far away). They remind me of digging in and homemaking for the winter.

self portrait tuesday: october project

Fall is my favorite season, October is my favorite month of fall. The theme for this month's Self Portrait Tuesday is "Self-Documentary".  Since I can't think of any aspect of my life that I would want or even be able to show on an ongoing basis (and it wouldn't be interesting if I did),  I'm going to document October. I will insert myself in the photos whenever possible, and I think that in seeing what I love about this month, you will learn something about me. I hope this isn't too much of a cop out.
   

self portrait tuesday

This week, I thought I'd just point the camera at various body parts, and see what turned up with the best composition. I love digital cameras.