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For something completely different, I thought I’d end this by looking into our collective future, with a celtic cross tarot reading!

What covers us - Nine of cups.  The atmosphere of this project has indeed brought satisfaction

What crossed us - The sun.  Achievements in the arts - no time to rest on our laurels!

What was beneath us - The high preistess. The card of the hidden subconscious -  this card has a special value for artists, poets, composers and mystics.

Behind us - the moon, reversed.  Imagination constrained by practical considerations - we put the practical behind us this month.

Above us - Eight of cups.  This is the card of what could be, and it is about abandoning success - a warning to not let the energy drop now that the project is over?

In front of us - Four of pentacles, reversed.  Setback in material ambitions.  Hmmm….

Our fears: Nine of swords, reversed - Tomorrow is (just) another day

The hopes and fears of those around us:  Judgement, reversed - failure to find happiness?

Our hopes: Eight of swords, reversed - new beginnings now possible.

Final outcome:  Ace of cups - Productiveness, beauty and pleasure - a reminder that when the mind is filled with Spirit, the spirit will fill the material cup to overflowing.

Thanks to everyone, especially the people who came up with this idea!

No, I haven’t forgotten that this is a leap year, but I have a different project in mind for tomorrow.

A quickie, playing with a recent photo:

All I’m making tonight is excuses…  and phlegm *hack*

The top left stamp is from a real stamp, the other ones are from two stamps I tried to make with the soft polymer clay. I think the yin yang looks more like a deformed pac-man.

So what do you do when you end up with a mass of wiggly eyes? I decided to cover a cat toy with them!

Shilla is interested:

I’ve been sick, and although I worked on making some handmade paper, I didn’t finish. So tonight I made hot cocoa.

I thought y’all might get a kick out of the crafty items I picked up for no good reason.

And here is what I did with yesterday’s paisley:

There’s another thing I want to do with this, but must go to bed!

I tried to clean up the darker pendant from yesterday and it fell apart.  I buffed up the lighter one and reshaped it a little.  Then I used an old crafty thing to attempt to put a design on this pendant and it was too old to work.  I’m going to bed now.

Still needing work on both of them

I’ve been working on this cake recipe for a while - the point is to make something both tasty and good for me.

Recipe:
1 cup raisins (fiber, iron)
4 eggs (good quality protein)
1 lb brown sugar
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup molasses (iron) or 1/4 cup marmalade (very good fiber, Vit. C)
1 can pumpkin (Beta carotene, fiber)
1 tbsp vanilla
1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tbsp ginger
3 tbsp cinnamon (Reputed to help with blood sugar metabolization)
1 tbsp nutmeg
1 cup chopped pecans (good quality protein)
1.5 cups oats (fiber)
2 cups Bisquick

Soak raisins in water, OJ, or possibly rum, preheat oven to 350.

Stir eggs, brown sugar, oil, pumpkin, spices, vanilla, and molasses together.
Stir in raisins and pecans.
Stir in oats.
Stir in Bisquick.
Spray cake pan with Baker’s Joy. Spread batter in pan.
Bake at 350 for 40 minutes

Glycerin soap. The blue is pearl-ex blue-green pigment which Jacquard says can be used for soap. The Chinese motif molds came from an Asian ethnic grocery store. I don’t know what the original intention was, but the molds made for some beautiful soaps. I didn’t get the pouring down until the last mold set (of course). There are a couple of soaps not show because they didn’t come out of the mold right - the blue got left behind.

If anyone wants to tell me what the Chinese characters are on the soap at bottom right, I’d appreciate it.

I made a candle today, and lined the mold with crimped paper:

Also, while I had the light box set up going, I got my husband to arrange a few items for me to take still lifes:

Mom showed me how to make clay roses when I was a kid, so this took me back to my roots.

Result of one of yesterday’s experiments, + a quick gift for my husband - Kew is our name. I think my things are getting smaller - by the end of the month, I’ll be stringing three beads together and calling it a project!

FYI - for those who like to color, you will find this site quite interesting: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/artists/coloring/

Today I made a couple of experiments - I melted some wax and poured part of it into a container.  When it cooled enough, I pressed a few of my rubber stamps into the surface.  I’m hoping when it hardens up, I can then use this as molds for sculpey.  The rest I mixed in some procion dye - I’m hoping that I can use that to batik fabric, but it’s not looking so likely at this point.

While watching MacGuyver:

Dover coloring book, aquarelle pencils

Eyes are my biggest obsession, and they are the one thing I can draw without any effort. I did this quick sketch while waiting for our food at Macaroni grill.

Took an old photo and played with it a bit in gimp. Make that a very little bit: