Thing-a-day.com

Actual question, on an actual date, created while still on the date.

i finished this before the day was done, but haven’t had a chance to upload it until now. this was supposed to be a sketch for another drawing i was going to do later, but once i got out my straight edge i just sort of went nuts and put in a lot more detail than i first intended. this always seems to happen to me. i asked my roommate (who is also participating in the thing-a-day) “should i draw in the windows?” to which, after three hours of working on her own thing next to me, she replied “NO.” so, here you go.

click here for larger version

I decided to make a thank you card for an awesome guy who helped me get my new computer setup.i decided the best thing to give a computer guy would be a VERY handmade card.

it came out a little less slick than I envisioned, but i am still proud of it.

tonight I cooked a tasty lentil dish with apples from a recipe courtesy of orangekerry. trevor drank magic hat no. 9 and raided my music collection while I chopped away at celery and garlic with what in another person’s hands would be considered a bread knife. I guessed at spice measurements and tried to use my oven to toast bread. for once my calendar is correct on the first of the month.

I really dunno where I was going with this.
I’m extremely disappointed it day #1 but I expect to make something cooler in the days to come.

Just a drawing then it became a watercolor then it was modified in Photoshop.

It’s seamless.

My plan for Thing-A-Day is to document my surroundings and the minutia of my daily life, a la Project 365. I got started by working through some new images from my immediate surroundings: a decaying plantation somewhere in the Deep South.

To the side is a small preview of the image. Clicking on it will take you to the full size image hosted on my site.

shoot it again: find a topic and shoot it, again, again, again, again, again….

angie tore through a few things tonight…

I don’t have a hint about how to get my blogger account hooked up to this thing so here’s a link

http://backyardacademy.blogspot.com/2008/02/thing-day-1.html

Nope, I don’t have a photo to post, but I got out the drawing tablet for the first time in an embarrassingly long time, and worked on a cross-stitch design. It split into two, somehow, but I’m hoping to post pics tomorrow. I discovered that Patternmaker isn’t installed on this machine, so I’ve made graphics that have to be translated into graphed designs.

I feel that I’m really in the “getting organized” stage, which I should have done last week. But the tablet is attached now, and I know where my stitching bag is. I’ll find out in the morning just what my daughter did with my colored pencils and such, and locate the Patternmaker install CD. Yep.

It did feel great to have time on my schedule devoted to “being creative” and nothing else!

Though I haven’t yet figured out a grand unifying theme for the month, I’m happy to at least be making something rather than sitting around thinking about it. I am a SAHM of a little boy who keeps me busy, and my art time is almost nonexistant these days. I’m hoping this challenge will get me back into the art-making habit. I was considering doing a daily craft with my son as my Thing, but I’m not sure if I want to do that or try to steal myself some grownup time…

Tonight’s effort is a collage of felt, cardstock, shrinky plastic, sharpies, beads, fabric, all glued together. Inspired by my friend Becca telling me today about her dog who loved to pluck lemons off the tree and roll on them. Dog looks like my late great Mocha Dog , though. The title is “Citrus Smile”, although the dog’s red tongue and mouth appear to have cooked black… This is my first time playing with shrinky plastic, so it was a learning experience. Next time I’ll remember to poke holes before cooking… Anyway, this was a stretch. Definitely outside my comfort zone, which is paint and canvas…

I made some cranes and boxes today. They’re all smaller than a quarter. (Shown here with a hard drive to give a sense of scale.)

I decided I’m going to carve a letterbox stamp a day, possibly based on weird Nebraska history. This one’s a tribute to Alfred D. Jones, Nebraska’s first postmaster, who didn’t have an actual office….so he carried around everyone’s mail in his hat. You can’t make this stuff up.

So I had a great plan to do some ATC’s today, but didn’t.  I shared my baby steps for my garden and a bit of makeup artistry from last week (no, I didn’t cheat but I did post a pic of it). Happy creating everyone!

http://teawithren.blogspot.com/

Ren

Crocheted Chocolate Donut w/Royal Icing & Sprinkles on a Knit Dessert Plate

For pattern/links see http://momentsandthings.blogspot.com

i read a statistic recently that says americans now consume about 25% of their calories in the form of beverages.

i don’t really want to read the one about the billions of plastic bottles that end up in landfills every year.

i’m as guilty as the next guy, really. and i know better.

these were all collected in my room over an undetermined period of time. after this, i’m going to bag them for recycling.

Our first theme is “books.”

Today we decided to make book marks for this theme.

Here is all three of ours (my 8 year old’s, 5 year old’s and mine):

And a close-up of mine:

It says “A book is like a garden carried in the pocket. Chines Proverb”

first of a series of headdresses - taken as a test shot, before sewing - mainly because I like to dressup… (had to fit it on my own head. tricky) 

     Okay, made it in under the wire.  Here is my first owl (my first plushie ever) and I think he is pretty cute.  I am learning many, pretty basic things doing this: sewing in a straight line is hard, sewing in tight circles is hard, hand stitching takes a long time, I need a seam ripper and straight pins, picturing things in 3D is way harder for me than 2D. I am liking this a lot though, go day #1!