no rain, no rainbows... or: choosing the rosy-colored glasses

finally... a slow day. a day to NOT go anywhere!!! a day of rest. a day halfway in between winter and spring... not raining, not exactly sunny but not totally cloudy, either... when i DO have to travel into town, i am usually blessed by gorgeous views; of my mountains, of cloud shows, of sunsets, of the ocean... the snow has been lingering just up on the foothills, contrary to MY wishes for spring to be fully here!!! but, living in the northwest means spring brings a lot of rain. so i'm stuck halfway between wishing and complaining... hmmm. i choose... WISHING!!! BOY, AM I BLESSED!!! two more pages for my friends RR angel book. she has both fairies and angels in her book so i did both, also, as both do make me smile... LOOK! i'm smiling right now!!! finally, my exchange group cards are done. i added some bling... hard to tell from the photo but there are rhinestones (faux). and i added homemade envelopes...(that is a magazine page, believe it or not... gorgeous, no?!)one of my trips to town involved playing (naturally!!!) and my daughter and i went into her favorite shop to browse... ( i'd like one of each, please!!! including this fab chandelier!!!) (in case i haven't mentioned it a dozen times or so... i LOVE paper dolls! how cool to hang them from the chandelier!!!) all this changing weather has brought many lovely evening skies... i remind myself: no clouds, no sunset colors!! no rain, no rainbow! may you have lovely silver linings to every dark cloud in your future.... sparkly, multicolored raindrop wishes to you all... go now and PLAY!!! p.s. yesterday was a wonderful treat for me!! i LOVE all things gypsy... everything about their culture fascinates me. i kinda hoped my parents WOULD sell me to the gypsies sometimes (did your parents ever threaten that?)... i reveled in the pleasure yesterday of meeting a lovely couple who did actually run off and join the gypsies!! yes, i was a bit jealous... what a delight to meet them...

is it winter or spring?!

the bohemian is so happy...things are blooming out!! it's spring!! it's spring!! this bush is just buzzing with bumblebees doing their happy jobs... she is working on her " in-honor-of -spring" card for her stamping group exchange... outside her window a spring shower is falling softly... WAIT!!!! WHAT is that solid stuff in among the rain drops?! no. it can't be... but listen to the weatherman. he is calling for... NOOOOO!! did he say...SNOW?! BUT... it's march now! and things are blooming out and the world is soooo ready for spring! and the sun's been shining and the temps have gotten up into 60 degrees! and this forsythia is definately saying...shouting... that it's spring!!!! okay. yes, the trees are still a bit winter-bare... BUT! but... but.... yes, it DID snow on the foothills yesterday. yes, it DID snow on the bohemian as she was out driving this morning. BUT!!! (stamps foot here and the pouty lip sticks out...) HUGE SIGH... and so our bohemian will find spring joy in creating. and take her own advice: to seek sunlight, the spiritual kind. and read whatever makes her heart sing... and watch the birds fly. and LIVE!!! and not save her favorite things for a special occasion because BEING ALIVE IS the SPECIAL OCCASION!!! hope today brings much JOY, SUNSHINE (the spiritual AND the physical kind), and LAUGHTER to your beautiful day...

moments of art in a daily life...

this little cherub is a page i did for a friend's round robin book with an angel theme... i just want to hug him!!! the background is one of those faux encaustic wax backgrounds i made at the craft retreat. the yellow is much more brilliant but my camera didn't play along... look at these lovely gloves i found!!! they make me smile just wearing them! our winter has been so mild that there hasn't been much need for gloves, but i just have to wear these little bits of art... just 'cuz.... and this is how my left-hand page of my round robin journal FINALLY turned out. i kept hardly anything from the one i was trying to plan out. but playing with paper dolls is always fun, fun, fun... that's the artsy fun in one slice of my daily life. here's wishing you all many, many days filled with joyful, artsy FUN in your every day living. i'd love to hear how YOU make your day fun-filled. (does is always start with coffee, like mine? )

total randomness....

weather in bohemia today: rain, fog, sunshine, snow on the foothills, rain, sunshine, repeat randomly throughout the day... the bohemian's weekend was spent inside the sports' dome watching the state wrestling tournament. about 10 hours for 2 days in a row. yes indeed, sore bum!! $3.oo waters?! well... our school girls' team took 4th place and my daughter took 4th place. about 500 athletes gathered there, boys and girls. it was inpressive. she pinned her opponent... a sadness: remember this mask the bohemian painted? it fell from the wall and broke into pieces. sigh. get out the super glue, but it will never be the same... a glad thing: the forsythia is blooming out!!! come on, spring!! another glad thing: new clay creations to play in the paint with... and a start in my altered book for the RR. the left-hand side page did not turn out this way. the bohemian was not satisfied with it and kept changing it. she'll post the final results later. and the cute gloves she found... well, that picture just disappeared. so maybe she'll post that later too. lovely spring rain+sun=rainbow wishes to all...

good day, sunshine...

yes, it has been rainy lately but the last two days have been glorious!!! they begin with misty, moisty mornings... then beautiful spring weather. of course, the bohemian was shocked this morning to discover it had dipped down to 26 degrees! it has been keeping to the 50s. but it seemed damp rather than frosted... the bohemian has been wandering in blogland, trying to find inspiring and challenging blogs... her muse has been a little absent-minded lately. this black page was inspired by a michelle ward challenge: "come over to the dark side". yes, that little girl is the bohemian. yes, she has red-winged blackbirds in her neck of the woods. yes, some day she WOULD like to learn to dance some latin-type dances. another try at the challenge: 'braving the elements" (michelle ward). this is the beginning of the layers. now where to next...? another faerie for her faerie book... the hopeful faerie. a much-needed muse right now... the bohemian-townie-hipster daughter created a bunch of these sweet little cupcakes made out of old sweaters!!! aren't they adorable? this one is a wild blueberry cupcake, looking good enough to eat... yummmmmmyyyy! matchbook card valentines for la familia... (these were so fun to make!!!) put in pics of the parental units to remind them of what they looked like:).... the beginnings of a cover for an altered book... hurray for upholstery fabric sampler book gleanings... and another breath-taking glimpse of her bohemian mountain as the sun begins its sinking of the day... crispy sunshiny wishes to everyone. take time to make art!!

hawk feathers and handmade envelopes...

hawk feathers, soaking in bleach... serendipitous find in an open field... drying now, on a chair beside the woodstove. gorgeous natural colors, soft and silky... now, to turn them into altered art... the bohemian sat in a gym all day saturday to watch her youngest wrestle the very tall girl beside her... notice she is standing down one step but still taller than the bohemian's daughter, who won first place in sub-regionals. 2 more weekends to go: regionals and state. the bohemian took her friend's class in BACKGROUND PAPERS at her retreat in Jan. this first picture shows marbling done with shaving cream. beauteous, no? here are faux encaustic wax papers (actually, crayons on a hot iron... it's too bad you can't see the metallic and glitter of the crayons!) the bohemian soooo loves bubbles! these were made by blowing inky soap bubbles and swiping them onto the paper ... FUN AND BEAUTIFUL!!! now to turn them into collages... friday the bohemian's mom came over and they made envelopes from calendar pages and magazine pages... wouldn't you just LOVE to get sent a letter in one of these?! swoon... the colors made the bohemian unable to stop smiling! and, at last...time to put away the snowmen. here they sit in their pile, waiting to go back into their boxes. sad, sad, sad... see you next year, happy snowmen ( and women)! it's raining AND sunshining right now. and you know what THAT means! gotta go look for the rainbow! happy heart and valentine wishes to everyone!

did you ever want to be someone else? just for a day?

are you tired of our bohemian's re-treating? hope not! the new day dawned...the bohemian was up and into the shower. this was the view that greeted her from the upstairs bathroom window of the dorm!!! so she ran for her camera (quietly...late night sleep-ins were still in dreamland...) and snapped the picture through the window... ooooo! it got better.... the day came like fire over the edge of the world. this HAS to be a good omen! yep... it was dress-up day. oh, what creatures visited the hollywood awards night!! there were fairies of all kinds... silent movie screen divas... mousecateers... (yep, we all knew the words to the M-I-C-K-E-Y song!) then guess who showed up in her spider web arm warmers... and her striped legs and lacy black whirly-twirly skirt? she had a ratherlarge ring on her evil hand... it bodes no good... if she opens it, out will spring poison!!! oh relax... she just kept chocolate in there. what?! her chocolate's all gone?! look out! run away! uh oh, she cackling.... did you guess it was the wicked witch? not the flat pancake one, of course. the one who covets dorothy's lovely red sparkly shoes! isn't dress up fun?! austin thought so too. may your days be filled with playfulness! dress up, if you like that kind of thing. it's fun to be someone else, but just for a very short time. hope you love the skin you're in!! cackle if you feel like it...it's kinda fun. and do it LOUD!!! and pay no attention to that man behind the curtain...