croque-choux

A day to remember

Mother's Day was yesterday here, and it was awesome. A quick trip to a local brocante (flea market), Japanese food for lunch, the kids were being good, and best of all: one hell of a surprise.
Miles decorated a heart shaped box at school with a little poem inside, my daughter got me this shisha mirror good luck charm made by a tribe living between India and Pakistan, and the DH outdid himself by getting me one of the very last tickets to see Eric Clapton. When I opened the envelope (collaged and decorated by my kids) I was thinking "hmm, gift certi ficate!", and then I saw the concert ticket - THEN I saw that the concert was the same day and that in a few hours I would be driving out to Paris to see Clapton in concert. Woohoo! Awesome. I've been listening to Eric Clapton ever since my early teens but never managed to see him LIVE, so this was a very cool present! I've been wanting to see him for about 30 years now and wanted to see him before we both get too old to enjoy concerts LOL. Merci!!! I even made this tiny video for such a momentous ocasion- but my camera proved unworthy so please excuse the quality. Just wanted to share :o)

Create your own video at One True Media

Meanwhile, behind the scenes...

Where have I been and what have I been up to?

I've been busy:
a) Getting a job (got it!)
b) Working on my Backtack III softie
c) Making a couple of ATCs for a swap on Flickr

Photos coming soon!
PS: thanks to everyone who wrote to cheer me up when I was sick :o)

Ow.

  Back to posting about my creative endeavors once I get this off my forehead.

  Migraines  suck.  It's been awhile though, I guess I shouldn't complain...                                                                      

Artist Trading Card in a hurry

 

The only creative thing I managed to do today. One ATC,  hold the beads, comin' right up. Fresh off the sewing machine and out the door in a flash. It was still warm when I put it in the envelope :o)

I used a little irise film, a top layer of gold tone synthetic sheer fabric, and Sulky silver metallic thread (Opalescent) around the edges so the colors change a lot depending upon the light- the results are pretty when you hold it in your hand but it's very hard to photograph! I just noticed that Sulky has a free projects section on their website - this one is for my friend Barb at Woofnanny since she has a thing for men's ties :o)

PS: Speaking of ties, here's a great tutorial for a necktie schoolbag.

A real scoop

Oh la la- Quilting Arts has a blog! How cool.
Bookmark this puppy right away! I'm so jazzed about this. This will make waiting for their magazine seem less long- I wish it came out more often than 4 times a year.
Many thanks to Sandy at Dangling by a Thread for the link- Sandy you're the best! Did I mention how thrilled I was? Oh, sorry.  Well then... did I mention that my friend the amazing Lisa brought me back the latest issue of Cloth Paper Scissors from L.A.? Big deal you say? Actually it IS a big deal because to my knowledge you can't find this magazine in France! I must subscribe asap (i.e. as soon as I get a job).

Need inspiration?

I know I do! I've been feeling a bit stuck lately. Last weekend I worked on an altered book I started some time ago, while the kids painted and did collage. It's far from finished but here's a little peek at it. Can you see the niche where I put a tiny mirror? The book doesn't have a theme or anything, the only thing I know is that I want it to look old and a little beat up. My daughter started one too, using an old board book.

Well anyway, back to the inspiration:

Two new really nice blogs, found thanks to comments left on mine: Francoise in Belgium quilts and paints. She wrote me and I'm glad she did because she has a new blog called creatilfun! Sue in Massachusettes wrote me too, and you can see what she does at her blog Threads. I just noticed that Sue gives online classes too! A class in making handbags, and a class in silk fusion (wow). Bookmark these so you can see what these two artists are up to. (OMG, now I really feel unproductive right now!)

Awesome fiber art by Linnie Craigie who is inspired by traditional Mexican yarn paintings, geology, and geography. I found this thanks to a Flickr photoset. Flickr is an endless source of fun and inspiration. Here are some of my favorite photos.

Now for some craft links. All kinds of stuff here, even a fun idea for chocolate spoons- great with coffee!

How about a little Japanese cute?
I also found this Japanese cat artist at Nyagomi.com- how I wish I read Japanese! Check out her blog, see all the nice ceramics and things at the shop, and take a peek at how the artist works.

Lastly, I challenge you to do something you think you can't do.

Just like mormor used to make

I just love the idea behind this Danish website: mormor.nu! Mormor means grandmother in Danish and the youngest employee at mormor is 68. These grandmothers knit and crochet retro style baby and toddler clothes with the best materials (you won't find any mass produced acrylic baby sweaters here!) and best of all you can buy them online.
If my son was still a baby I would've loved to buy him something from these grannies because he doesn't have any grandparents at all, and all this stuff is handmade with love- each item even comes with a nametag with the signature of the grandma who knit or crocheted it! This is quoted from their website: "Mormor.nu has found some of the best Granmas to help us produce our baby-clothes. The older generation pass their special knowledge about housework and handycrafts on – mostly accompanied by a cup of coffee and vivid conversations across the table." What a nice philosophy.

Whiplash challenge, n°3

Here is my Whiplash contest entry for this week's theme "No fear"! I don't know where the idea for this came from, but whenever I make something it's usually a product of several things from my stash just coming together, almost by accident, in this case:
- a scrap of hand painted cotton, done ages ago in a textile art class
- a piece of painted and distressed Tyvek, which I almost wrecked because I got a little too enthousiastic with the iron
- beads in the same colors as the background
- a little appliquéd Moomin figure, with just the right expression on its face
- a bit of sheer green ribbon, frayed, fused, and emboidered over
- little plastic eyes (hiding in the tree trunk)
I thought this was fitting for the No Fear theme - dark places and the unknown are always a little scary- so here's our little Moomin trying to make up some courage for himself, a good thing to do in a his situation.

It's 5 x 5 inches, (is this a mini wall quilt?) and made using the same techniques I use for in my fabric postcards. The square format is something I've been wanting to give a try since discovering art squared. But I cheated a little because art squares are supposed to be 4x4 :o) Anyway, here are some other picture and close-ups of my entry- click the photos to see them bigger. (Ill try to add better ones on Flickr later). Don't forget to go over to Whiplash, check out the others, and vote for your favorite! Thanks to all the people at whip up for putting this weekly challenge together!