Arty Curiosities & Other Stuffs

 

OK, so I came home from LA on Tuesday night and stayed home the rest of the week because of the Holiday and in doing so I have been experimenting with my Gelli Plate. Here is a pic of some practice prints I did with stencils:

I want to do a bunch more and add more layers to show very faint backgrounds as the very first layer and then add more layers. I need way more practice to make better backgrounds and find better colors that work together.

My friend Cheryl that lives in Washington and belongs to a great AJ Community there posted some home made tin type pics she made on her blog. She explained how to do it with transparancies and sharpie's. Cool! I am definately trying this.

AND in Tim Holtz' 2nd book, A Compendium of Curiosities Vol II on page 55 he shows a technique called Reflective Imagery. He shows how to take an antique looking paper photo, put packing tape over it, put in water, rub off the paper on the back to make it a transparency and tape it down on a piece of metal tape and then stick it to a clear fragment with Glossy Accents. Makes it a charm! COOL! I love new arty stuffs!

Yesterday my day was planned to go see "Hitchcock" at the theatre, but alas, it was not playing in Modesto yet, so no movies for me. Instead a person I used to work with asked me to go with her to Bingo.

So I did and had a blast, but alas, I did not win. I have not played Bingo in a very long time. It was fun to remember exactly how to keep up. And they sure play some confusing games now a days. Whew! I am going back soon, as it is cheap fun and I will win! Grrr! I am determined! LOL!

Do you all watch The Big Bang Theory?? It is my new sitcom love! I watch it as often as I can.

This week I was saddened when I heard that Larry Hagman had died. I loved him in I Dream of Jeannie and Dallas in the 70's as evil JR Ewing. I began watching the new Dallas that began this year also. He was as good as ever again as JR. Hope they continue it because it is now centered on JR's and Bobby's sons.

RIP

Well, that is it for another week. I must return to evil work tomorrow! Grrr!

Stay safe!

Easy Days Ahead....(I Hope)

Hey folks,

Just a short post to say Hey and to let some folks that care and read this blog that I am still alive and kicking.

As usual I have been busier than a cat in a room full of rocking, rocking chairs. But hopefully things will slow down a little soon.

 

Yesterday I wernt with a friend to the movies to see the new Lincoln movie. Since I am and have always been a Lincoln nut, I really enjoyed this. And since I never go to the movies and haven't since I went with my old Boss and the Ops Manager when we played hookey on a work day, a very long time ago, LOL, to see Nannie McPhee, it was a fun time.

 

This is the new fun arty thing I am jumping into next week. This is an amazing toy to use for making great prints. Check out Samantha Kira Harding Video tutorial that is now a separate blog post under this one. WOW! I need You Tube / Blogger Lessons STAT!. LOL

Anyway I will now go so you can watch it. Remember it is the next post down!

 

And in closing, this means that I have to fly to LA tomorrow for a class on Tuesday and will be home late Tuesday night. But I will be home the rest of the week! And then I will play with my Gel Plate! BYE

 

Learn the Basics with the Gelli Arts Gel Plate!

Through the Windshield

 

This is pretty much what I see these days. I travel back and forth to San Francisco each week for work and stay a couple of days and then travel back to my home office. That's about it.

This past week, a number of happenings have really slowed me down.

First I had my debit card hacked and purchases were made to my acct. Luckily B of A contacted me immediately to inquire to the purchases. They were made from a Gaming Company in Europe. Since I am not into gaming, it was easy to figure out, but I had to cancel my debit card. So now I am waiting on a new one to arrive, so until then, unless I write checks or go to the bank for cash, I have no immediate fundage. Interesting! I have to change some other stuff also. I have had a paypal acct with my debit card for at least 15 years that I use to buy tons of stuff online. Now I can't until I get a new card and number. This just plain SUX!

Also my beloved Ipod Touch quit charging this week. So I left it plugged in one night and the next morning it had a full charge?!? No lightening bolt when it is plugged in but it charges. I guess the battery is going. Ugh! Yes, my music is on my phone, but it burns up the battery quick, and I kinda need it for work.

In the course of these weeks I have let my Art Journaling go to the wayside. Yes, I hang my head in shame. But I am looking at stepping back into it full on again, soon.

And nowwe just found out the Hubs has been diagnosed with high blood pressure, Diabetes and high C! Yep he says I gave it to him! LOL

I wanted to give a quick update to the happenings in my world.

Have a safe weekend and I will catch up with ya later.

Arty Weekends

Hey, hey folks!

I have had a couple of exciting weekends lately. Both dealing with art!! YAY!!

I really needed something to bounce me out of my creative block. And so last weekend I attended a Junk Journal Class here in Modesto, taught by a great instructor Aileen Roberts at the Nasco store here. Aileen is an Altered Book Artist and lives just 3 blocks from me in a great big old house that is painted bright yellow and egg plant! So cool. It is a landmark.

Anyway, we started out with a Trader Joe's advertising booklet. This is a great resourse for a junky funky art journal. Then we scraped some paint and threw other stuff down.

This is the front cover.

The back cover.

 

And one inside spread. It was a blast and hope Part 2 will around the corner soon. Please go check out Aileen's blog and website, Outside the Margins, and make sure you check out her own creation of spray watercolors called, Color Mists. They are lovely and add a great finishing touch to collage, paint, ink, etc!

Yesterday, I traveled to Fremont to the Niles District back to my friend Maria's Studio for a day of whatever type of art we wanted to work on. Maria carved 100 rubber stamps this summer and WOW they are cool. (no, I did not take pictures) Dang!) Anyway, I asked her to show me the real basics. I still have a way to go, but these are what I carved yesterday on little Dollar Store erasers:

It was fun just trying to unwind, relax and wrap my busy brain around this very tedious task. I have a long way to go, but this was fun and I know soon I will going to another class that will stretch my carving senses even more. Oh, Lotus?????

Anyway, with that and my recent falling escapades, I have been busy, but moving slow. So onto the falling drama:

First I went "mud wrestling" in San Francisco when I slipped in a muddy flower bed, did the splits and went straight down on my left knee. Not fun. I was muddy from head to toe. My knee bruised and was a little sore, but not bad. Then last Saturday I fell down 3 stairs and really screwed myself up. Nothing broken, again just bruised and very very sore that had me walking with a cane for a few days. So have actully been lucky.

So my new goal is to keep upright. I saw this quote a few days ago, and decided this is me exactly:

LOL!

Well that's about all of the happenings for me, except for this:

Since the St Louis Cardinals and the San Francisco Giants are in the playoffs this week and my son, when he was growing up here was a diehard Giants baseball fan, that now lives in Missouri and is now a diehard Cards fan:

Go Giants!!

Fun New Toy's

Hey folks,

Just a short post for this weekend, that is traveling at lightening speed to end!! It SUX, but that is life!

I went on a small shopping trip yesterday, since I heard that Dyan Reaveley had created her own art journal. So I ran to my local LSS 60 miles away and picked it up. OMG!! It is huge, like 9 X 12 but the journal inside the cover is 11.5 X 8.5. And it has beautiful card stock in it that takes any wet media; paint, inks, water, etc that you can throw at it. She has a video about it on the Ranger blog. Click away on her name above and WOW yourselves! I love this chick!

 

And Dyan also created this little book where she demonstrates her techniques. Love it!

And, onto the finale. Everyone knows by now, I think, that I jumped on the bandwagon for the new Iphone 5 as soon as it was released since I have held off ever getting one. And I also know that some will judge me, because I had to have the next BIG thing....BUT some others will understand when it comes to geekier stuffs, I have no resistance of any kind! I am a total nerd! LOL! So I am simply amazed at what this small wonderment can do.

I have discovered that I can actually work from this phone. I can look at spreadsheets and reports that are attached to emails, and that I can open an attachment at all and see ALL of it, is amazing. All of my email files are on it, for work and personal.

I am also learning about many new fun apps, like SoundHound, that, much like Shazam, listens to the song playing, names it and THEN puts the lyrics right on the phone and runs them in time to the music!!! WOW! since I am a have to know the lyrics to every song person, this is an assest. And it gives me an itunes button if I want to purchase it right then to add it to my itunes library. And it says that it will pick up a song even if you just hum the tune into the phone! Amazing!

But this week, I found out about The Motherload of apps, called TurboCollage. Roben Marie Smith, one of my fave art journalers and teacher's made a video about it and so I downloaded the app and tried it with shots of my journal pages. WOW WOW!!

 

Check this out!  It is an amazing app. I know I am going to have a ton of fun with this. And there is a version for Android phones also, so run, don't walk to this wonderful toy and have a ball. It also gives you options on posting them to Facebook, Twitter, email, etc!

I know now that this alone will have me taking waaay more pics of EVERYTHING in my life, which I don't normally do.

And please notice that I made the background pink?!? Can you even believe that? Lots of changes for me recently.

Anyway, Go click on Roben's name above and check out the great video tutorial that she created so you can create great masterpiece photo collages. And the best part?? The app is free!!! Woot!!!!!!!

Till next time. Bye!! Have a safe week, folks

Gone in the Name of Business

 

 

I began my Transportation career in 1985 driving a School Bus like the above, a 1972 Gillig. Very interesting to say the least. I was OK with the kids but it was not great with the other drivers. Attitudes and so much hatred, I had to leave and find another job. So I ended up in Modesto driving City Buses in 1990 like this one below for a small family company called T.R.I.P.S which stood for Tuolumne River Intercity Passenger Service:

 

Now these were fun. This is a 1963 GMC Transit Coach, (Think The Honeymooners). You could see the roadway through the floorboards. And smoked so much black smoke, you could not see who was following you. And no such thing as AC! Yikes! But baby they would fly! And they had no power steering so you would have to start turning the steering wheel a block from your turn. Whee! Anyway that started my career in Modesto 22 years ago. Of course now days the drivers drive updated equipment like this coach:

Since I have always worked for Contractors, I have worked for 3 different company's in the same  Modesto facility. And now this past weekend we had to remove everything out of the facility that belonged to MV Transportation and leave because another Contractor has acquired the contract and I am not employed by them, nor do I want to be at this time. My husband will be driving there for the new company and I will still be on the road responsible for one less division now.

22 years of my life, Gone in the name of Business just like that!

But WOW what a ride!