What Would You Do If You Knew You Could Not Fail?

I would fly above the trees.

I would write a novel.

I would cook more often.


Interesting....

I know I could try to write a novel, but I never get past the brainstorming stage.  When I look back at my plot ideas, they sound silly, so I ignore them.

And I am not intuitive AT ALL in cooking. I've wasted so many ingredients by failing to put a lid on the pot (the instructions didn't say to) or not knowing the proper amount of a "sprig" of rosemary.   I'd try all sorts of inventive cooking methods if I knew they wouldn't fail.

Sure, I could take lessons.  And I have, in other things.  But it's fun to suppose, isn't it?  What would you do if you knew you could not fail?

Medieval Garden Fabric and Lace Book Pages

Over the past few months I've been sharing pages I made for the fabric and lace book.  These are the final pages, made for my friend Liz's book. Her theme is medieval gardens, and my pages played around with the idea of love.

The outside page shows a couple entering through a garden gate, with a quote above it that says:  "Back on its golden hinge, the gate of Memory swings, and my heart goes into the garden and walks with the olden things."

The inside left page is a garden scene that opens to display a poem about a young man playing 

the lute to his love.  It was written in the 1500s and I thought it was perfect for the image I was planning to use.  I layered lots of fabrics and metallic lace, and I accented elements on the garden doors with a Viva pearl pen in white.  I love the 3D effect I get with them.

The inside pages show a young man playing the
lute, with a girl seated next to him. I decorated this page with golden lace and embroidered ribbon.  To accentuate the fabric pages, I used a white signo pen on the white flowers and used a bronze Viva pearl pen to give dimension to the oranges in the tree.  

Here's a look inside the doors. I love poetry, and this was a perfect way to share that.  I dyed the flowers (which started out white) using a lavender Tombow brush marker.

And the back cover of this signature is a gardener working his land.  Someone had to get the garden looking good before all that love could happen!

Art Journal Pages

My friend Jen and I are doing a coast-to-coast partner art journal, from New York to California.   We're working in our own for a few pages and then switching to work in each others' books. My theme is "words," which can be quotes, song titles or lyrics, favorite book passages, or any other thing we can think of.

This first page is a pop-up butterfly my friend Pat taught us how to do at last month's Keys 4 Art retreat.  I decided to paint a background for this little cutie and add a quote by Buddha to go with it.  Love this pop up technique, Pat. Thanks!  (When you close the journal, the butterfly flattens.)

Here's a vintage image with song lyrics from

Pictures of Me by The Last Goodnight

I used bits and pieces of papers printed with my gelli pad for the background on this page, with collage fish and my own sketches.  

I'm going to try to find lots of uses for these gelli pad papers I've been creating, so lots of experiments coming up.

Vintage Journal Pages

I'm thinking of summer these days...waiting for the chill of winter to finally say goodbye and bring us sweet warmth and sunshine, sticky ice pops and lazy, hazy days.  Remember those?

Bloglovin

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

I'm going to be following blogs using Bloglovin.  For some reason, they request we "claim our blog" online, so I'm doing that here.

New Lace Book

My friend Eileen is participating in a lace book round robin and asked me to make a page for her book. Although I'm not taking part in that particular swap, I've never made any fabric book pages for her and was happy to have a hand in her book.  Her theme was accessories, which is so wide open -- so it took me some time to narrow my ideas down.  As I do whenever I start a group project, I brainstormed the theme and started scouring both my stash and my sources to find images and embellishments that would work with the theme.

I used this image by pre Raphaelite Frank Cadogan Cowper because of the rich design and beautiful accessories she is wearing.  Whenever I am going to print an image onto fabric (I use Jacquard brand prepared sheets) I always increase the saturation of the photo by about 25 percent.  Even with the best conditions, some vibrance is lost in the printing, and this boost helps keep the vitality of the image.

This hairpin is something that could have been worn by the lovely lady in the picture.  It is tucked into a pocket I fashioned from some velvet trim.  The golden lace at the top of the book is from M&J Trim, one of my favorite NYC garment district shops.

The button in the top right was a plain rhinestone, but I aged it with a bit of watered down acrylic paint to fit with the overall look of the page.

I found this vintage watch at a consignment shop just downstairs from my apartment. 

Love the look of it.  And the black beaded medallion is from a garment district shop as well.

This pendant also might have been worn by the woman in the photo.  Eileen loves things Asian, so I wanted to include it for that reason as well.

A fragment of a poem by Mary Oliver seemed to call out to be paired with the image on the corresponding page.  The beautiful fabric in the background is shot through with gold threads and mimics the pattern in her headpiece.

And this french script fabric is the backing for the page, which is all ready for Eileen to tuck into her book.  

Thanks for looking!

You remember Hurricane Sandy, the storm that devastated the beaches of New York and New Jersey.  Yesterday my daughter took me on a tour of the Toms River beach area, and while many homes and streets have been renovated over the past 5 months, there's still a lot more work to do.  Here are a couple of pics...

Only the top floor is left of this house

and this one, too

It's sad to see this.  There are still many houses marked with large red "X's" to indicate they will be razed and either rebuilt...or not.

Real estate signs are up on many once-prime properties

I wonder if property values will ever recover. In the meantime, it's a buyer's market.



And on a much happier note, for those who have asked for a grandbaby update, here's my little guy at 7 months!

Later that day, he was fitted for a pint-sized, skull and crossbones print helmet, which he'll wear for a month or two to correct a little flat spot at the back of his head, something that developed when he was turning his head to only one side (and corrected with physical therapy).   He looks like a little football player, doesn't he? He quickly adjusted to it and seems to prefer helmet on to off!

And Liam's mama is in her fourth month of pregnancy with the twins.  It looks like they'll be due around the same time as Liam's first birthday. For a couple who needed in-vitro for their first baby, it's a triple blessing!