Salami anyone?

It's late, and I really should be going to sleep because I have to get up early to work tomorrow. However, I just wanted to share something with you.

Years ago a neighbour told me about making homemade luncheon meat, but until recently, I didn't have a desire to try making it myself. Well if you live in Canada, you'll know why the sudden interest in making my own lunch meat.

Yesterday made some salami. Well, at least I started making it yesterday; but it is a bit of a process. First I had to cure overnight in the refrigerator. Then this afternoon, I boiled the rolls for an hour, drained them, re-wrapped them, then back into the fridge they went for the night. (Oh, by the way, I put in only half the salt that the recipe called for because I find most commercial salami wayyy too salty).

It'll be fun tomorrow to see how my salami turns out.

My finds today

I was running the sons around to various places all over the map today. However, I did find time to hit a garage sale and HomeSense ~ my most-est favourite-est store in the whole wide world! The four tea-light lamps came from the garage sale and the beautiful iron angel from HomeSense. Did I mention it's my most-est favourite-est store in the whole wide world?!

My beautiful angel is physically disabled. She is, in fact, an amputee. That is why I got her on sale for a song. *This is me doing my happy dance!* At first I thought I'd get some polymer clay and sculpt a new arm for her. But my son Zach reminded me that many old statues have limbs missing. So my angel shall remain the way she is. Isn't that typical of us humans, always trying to "fix" things that are beautiful just the way they are?

Today ...

we went to Fort Edmonton Park. It was the first time this year we ventured over there. I think we picked the perfect day because it was lightly raining with off and on sunshine ~ and there were hardly any people at the park, so we had lots of space to roam and explore.

It was a good day.

A Tiny Tuesday Challenge

I was reading ART DE ME today ~ seems Arlene was taking up a challenge that she found on the Funky Art Queen blog. So I checked it out and decided to play.

For the challenge I had to find 10 tiny things, group them together for a picture and post them to my blog. Then I tell you why I picked them and then leave a comment on Funky's blog with a link to mine.

My tiny items include (L to R)
1. A Sparkly bead
2. Candlestick Clue game piece
3. Wooden spool of thread
4. Elf
5. Old game piece
6. Scrabble tile
7. Vintage Christmas tree bulb
8. Marble
9. Bakelite button
10. Retro suitcase key
I chose these goodies because they are a part of a larger collection of tiny retro objects I collect and keep in different jars in my livingroom and ART studio. So many fun things!

Hope you enjoyed looking at my little treasures. Make sure you check out the links in this posting.

I think I'll go over to Creative Sandwich now to see if Bessie & Bea are going to do the challenge. I'm sure that would be entertaining with those slightly eccentric ladies!

Playing with ATCs

Yesterday morning, I had the enjoyable opportunity of introducing my friend Carla and her three daughters to Artist Trading Card (ATC) making. At first, everyone was a little shy and uncertain, wanting to know how to. But once I told them that the only rules for making these miniature pieces of art is that 1. The size should measure 2-1/2 by 3-1/2 inches and 2. That the cards be for trading only, not for sale, and a couple
pointers about backgrounds, etcetera, they were off and running. Just look at all the beautiful cards ~ such artistic flair!


ATC History
Many ATC enthusiasts credit a Swiss artist for initiating the ATC movement in Zurich in 1997. However, many types of "trading art" swaps have been around for a very long time. Apparently, during the Impressionistic era, mini portraits were circulating as business cards of sorts ~ kinda like MOO cards today, eh? Personally, I was swapping Mail ART postcards as early as 1987. I'll have to dig
some up and post them one of these days for you to view.

Hopefully we'll get a chance to get together again and make some more art soon ~ I look forward to that.

Atypical Super Heros

Here's a couple Sad Super Heroes that I completed for a challenge from Sarah. They were created by starting out with scribbles like another set of characters I created earlier.

I'm thinking that this would be a really good exercise for anyone if they were feeling artistically blocked.

Tomorrow morning I'm planning to introduce the world of altered art to a friend and her kids. Tonight I'll get all my supplies together to take with me. Maybe I'll have some interesting things to post then.

Misfit ART

Sarah gave us an interesting assignment for our Soul Journals. We were to do a 2 page spread about a time we felt like a misfit. Using a permanent marker, I doodled over the page (without trying to think about how the end product would be). After all my scribbles were done, I tried to find characters. This is what I ended up with.

I liked the drawing process ~ the characters turned out really interesting, I think. I'll be trying this drawing exercise again, but I don't think I'll go with the misfit theme ~maybe I'll draw some "Super Sad Heroes".

I accept ...

Paint and Paste's Dale accepted the challenge that I posted on my blog during Sarah's absence. (I just checked ~ Sarah's back with more work for us to do!).
Then she challenged me,
see what I did in response to her challenge ...



Check out her list below, see if you can find them in my collage and maybe even give it a go ...
feet
something orange
candy
a purse
something that represents one of your hobbies
vegetables
an airplane
a quote
eggs
a frog
cosmetics
a lamp
something romantic
a house
a recipe
a mirror
someone wearing glasses
something pink
a fork
a word that describes you
Additional conditions:
Incorporate circles in your collage (such as: cut images into circles, create a circle layout, cut your paper into a circle)
Add identifying words to at least 5 of your images (meaning: put the word "egg" on your picture of an egg)

Polka dots!

Don'tcha just love em?

I just can't get enough of these polka dot socks ~ I have several pairs and am always on the lookout for more.

I'm sure that there's a deep psychological explanation for my appreciation for this dotty fashion sense. But then again, other individuals have also shared this passion.

Who doesn't love polka dot socks!

Hot off the Press

The Charming Exchange book arrived at my door yesterday. Yay!
I placed the original charm bracelet on the book's cover in the shot above. The only disappointment that I had with the book was that the original charm bracelet that started this whole thing in the first place didn't appear in the book. I'm thinking that the reason is is that our charm project appeared in the July/August issue of Belle Armoire magazine and there may have been a copyright issue there.

One of pairs of asymmetrical earring sets I made with another artist, Jennifer Rowland appears on page 71.
A Charming Exchange is available for purchase here.

I took my own challenge ...

The list that I wrote up for Arlene to work into her journal seemed like a good thing for me to try out today. Here's the result. I worked on a background that I'd done a while back. I love the colours!

It's off to bed for me cuz I have to get up early tomorrow. I'm looking forward to tomorrow though, because some PHAPers are getting together to play!

I completed the collage challenge scavenger hunt that Arlene gave me the other day. She listed the items that I had to find on her blog. Let me tell you, it was a CHALLENGE to do this collage! She was very symbolic in her choice of items that I had to come up with. But, I'm happy to say that I persevered and I am pretty satisfied with the results.

And now, I sit back and await her completed collage.

I wonder if Besse & Bea will have any challenges on their new blog, Creative Sandwich ....

Yummy!

Look what's brand new in the Blog-o-sphere! Creative Sandwich starring Bessie and Bea promises to be a proverbial feast of artistic charm. In the work for months, the site will feature lots of nutrients for the creative soul as well as a recipe or two I'm sure.

Just journalin' along ...

This page wasn't an assignment per se ... just what I was feeling at the time. I love polka dots, don't you?


Sarah gave a random list of things to do with three spreads that could be done in any order. Each spread was to be numbered 1, 2 and 3. I still need to do spread 3 .. watch for it on a later post.


This is spread 2. I didn't like this one at first, but it's growing on me.


This is my house. If you were to be dropped off in our neighbour hood, I'm sure this visual representation would make it easy for you to find our house. Teehee. The "pocket house" spread was a lot of fun. We were to make paper dolls representing the people who live in the house. I got real lazy and sorta made our dolls more like tongue depressors with heads on them.

The second page of the spread was supposed to have drawings of things that surround us. On the bottom layer, you have our neighbours house. There is a lot of dictionary definitions on the roofs of the houses with descriptors of the inhabitants. The next layer is a Christmas card that I purchased to give our neighbour by an artist friend of mine. And the tiny top layer is a MOO card actually with a copy of a drawing I did when I was about 6 years old.

Now I have to go and try to work on the collage using the list Arlene made up for me!

Journal challenge while Sarah's away

I was talking to my ART buddy, Arlene on the phone and we were bemoaning the fact that Sarah is away. So we decided that we would challenge each other to a magazine scavenger hunt. Here's the plan. We will each post a list of 20 items on our blogs, find each item in a magazine and then create a collage in our journals. So if anyone wants to join us, please do!

1. the letter F
2. animal
3. something musical
4. a glass
5. a child
6. piece of art hanging on a wall
7. fruit
8. something sparkly
9. the letter U
10. something blue
11. a clock
12. outdoors
13. food
14. flower
15. something sweet
16. something red
17. the letter N
18. shoe
19. chair
20. a smile
Create a collage in your journal using these images. Write the title of the collage on your page. Leave me a comment if you decide to play along!