I am away from my machine (and every other supply and tool I might normally use, including the ability to find a blue colored pencil should I want one - long story). There's a graphic novel series in progress - yep. But, I planned ahead, and I sent many projects on their way to Gooma8x before I loaded the car, got older, and left for my own version of stand by the balcony door and wish I could live out the plans in my head, which mostly involve walking to one end of the beach or the other, as far as I can go... and yet can't.

Machine shots are on the Here2There blog. I love these shots and, well, these pieces are fabulous.

from Facebook ~ Moments: Two tiny snails picked up on the way to the car and put in a lid to take to school. The lid stowed in the floor. Bird out the window in a tree. Bird out the window on porch steps. Snails in floor on a lid. Snails forgotten in excitement over bird. The relative size of a 5-year olds Croc to a baby snail? Squoosh. Mom's relative comfort level with picking up squoosh out of the floor of the car?

It was a bit gross. And they were in the floor because he is maybe the most fearless of all of us, but he has a bit of an aversion to the "slime" snails leave when they (ahem) yeah... that, in your hand. So, they were on the lid.

Fittingly, the new episode of the Creative Mom Podcast is entitled "Making Moments" (EP 129). It's live as of today.

ATCs for the April exchange: Bursting. In keeping with the "Art that Matters (to Me)" (theme of EP 128), these ended up with a bird spin. A journey back into some watercolor though... which was reward in and of itself.

Respite: The mockingbird there on the same wire this morning, a little one asking to draw in the car, and then wonderful lines about Camellias in The Elegance of the Hedgehog.

And today... after tracking down a YouTube clip of the CSI theme song (by The Who) for a Science Buddies blog entry, I poked around a bit. I don't get the setting of this video... but just close your eyes and listen.

So, it's true... I HAVE been trying to get the Threaded Thoughts blog fixed in the MT software so I can redo the layout. But, it hasn't been working. All of my blogs are run from the same interface, but for some reason, I can't get the Threaded Thoughts styles updated. But, I was checking the cover art post I made just now and saw (to my shock) that my "real" site design is now gone... and lots of stuff here that I wouldn't normally have here. Oh my!

Bear with me.

It's not on my list today. Sigh.

I'm working hard (on far too much), but Pandora is a constant backdrop for me, and I keep finding new artists I love... In checking out a song by Kim Richey this morning, I stumbled onto a page to find this cool cover. For some reason the great art really caught my attention this morning ... probably the many layers and levels of it. Fits my approach to the world! I love the "Chinese Boxes" cover art, too... and so far I love many of the songs I've heard from that one. It's a constant negotiation... buy singles at iTunes or buy albums!

If you've got a great Pandora station, I'd love to know!

Fiber collage response to "Something you put off doing" for Creative Therapy catalyst #61. This piece of art is the center around with the Creative Mom Podcast, Episode 128: Art that Matters spins.

Hey all you knitters out there... I spotted something yesterday at the hair salon that I want to track down. I didn't even have my glasses on when the woman who had been getting her hair cut next to me got up to leave and was fidgeting with a long scarf with a hood as she said her goodbyes. I'm pretty blind (it's true), but I was close enough to see it... and ask... "Did you make that?" She said yes, and I said... "Noro?" She seemed surprised, but said, "yes." (Now... really... Noro is "that" distinct... because I could tell without glasses that it must be Noro.)

She didn't seem to want to say much about it. But I asked if it was an online pattern, and she said, no, that she'd purchased it.

Ring any bells for anyone? My impression of it was that it was ribbed through the length of the scarf, but not ribbed (I don't think) through the hood. The hood was like a generous "hoodie" hood, and the ends just extended into a typical maybe 5 or 6 inch wide scarf.

I would buy the pattern if I could figure out what it was - and who carries it online.

This is my contribution for Creative Therapy #59. (Congratulations to founder Karenika, by the way, on her new baby!)

When I first saw this topic on the list for the group of artists who respond to the weekly Creative Therapy catalysts, I moved right along... "apologize to someone"? Nothing jumped out at me. In fact, I signed up for other catalysts in May. Then the moment with the gumball machine happened... the stuck penny... the shaking... the gumballs all of a sudden raining down around us... our confusion... and then the discovery that the force of the gumballs (gobstoppers, really) from within had broken through the glass.

I still haven't gotten rid of the broken machine. Gramma replaced it with a new plastic one, but there's something so compelling about the broken one.

At any rate, this piece came out of that. It's a tongue-in-cheek moment. Yes, even so, it fulfills my growing need to create art that - to me - matters.

(PS - not surprisingly, the scan is pretty bad and not overly true to color.)

I'm showing off our coffee sleeves in celebration of Earth Day 2009 (the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, in fact --- Earth Day pre-dates me. Really?!?!?!). Read the fully story on the Here2There blog. If you'd like to order one, let us know. Each is unique, hand-made, your favorite colors... even your kid's art is possible.

Whatever you do today, think about ways in which you can make a difference - and a change.

Ziploc bags may only be a few pennies each, but how many do you use in each lunch... multiplied by "x" number of kids.) I am surprisingly "green" in my fiber art. Many of you are familiar with the pieces I make using scraps and piles of thread that would otherwise be thrown away. I love that I can "reuse" so much of what might otherwise be trash.

I hope you, too, find ways to live more "green."

The new episode of the Creative Mom Podcast is titled "Nudge." (It's forthcoming... recorded late last night and hindered by the heat here in the Bay Area which kept turning the fan on my computer on... which meant I had to wait until it clicked back off each time because it's too noisy.) In Episode 127, you'll hear me talk about "nudges" and about sketch nudges that have been important for me recently.

Catalyst #58 went live today at Creative Therapy, and as I saw the announcement about it, it struck me that Creative Therapy also is a "nudge" for me right now. The art I've done for CT in the last several months has really pushed me and forced me to keep working on pieces that I might otherwise have never done.

This piece... it's for the "Favorite Word" catalyst. I had a very different idea in mind, though the fiber collage was part of it. I was waiting on some prints I'd ordered from Snapfish to arrive because I had something multimedia planned, and while I waited, I decided I'd go ahead and start the fiber component. I thought I would then cut it up and integrate it with the other elements. But once I started playing with the pieces, something very different took shape.

These pieces have had (and continue to have) a profound impact on me.

I want to go here... and sit... the right moment in life, the right person, the right pair of binoculars. I want to sit.

Taking a look at totes and placemats from the last several months.

I posted these to Flickr today, knowing that both of my recipients had received their cards. Every time I thought about posting these, I'm filled with this need to "explain" them. Isn't that odd? They really are about luck though, and I'm sure the people who received them looked at them and "read" them in a particular way, which is the whole point!