6.23.11 ... my new backdrop

my darling husband has been carting an antique fence section through our multitudinous moves for many years now. i always said 'it is so perfect for something. i just don't know what yet.' and here it is. i have been thinking about making a backdrop for my vintage shop and now i have one. it's a fold up deal with a base. this way i can set it up where ever the light is best or even outside. first, ev cut the fence to size and then i painted it because it had an awful dried blood red paint on it. i painted a few coats of the base color - a creamy vanilla white - to cover the red really well. then i added the pale blue.

this is my nifty keep your paint can and your painter happy idea. i protected the can seal by placing tape over the ridge so that it wouldn't fill up with paint.

then, when you are done --- you simply pull the tape off and discard it. and you have a lovely, clean paint can top as you see in the first photo of today's post. that is the can after i had painted. and it is now sealed back up perfectly. and neatly. and happily. like magic but really just sharp thinking.

hers is one photo i took using my new backdrop. if you'd like to see a few more please visit my joonE shop: www.joonE.etsy.com i like the way it turned out. for a first time idea it is fine by me. today i went to my second sign language class. it is fun but i can't share photos so i have these which i owed you for a few days anyway. hope you enjoyed today's post.

sweet dreams, everyone. thanks for stopping by. until tomorrow. happiness to you. from me. with heart. ox joon

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2.24.11 ... miniature idea note sack and follow-up

while organizing my art room and my thoughts today this popped into my head - a miniature idea system with a grocery bag design. i can keep it on my desk without losing much space and have tiny pieces of paper handy for my brainstorms. i can jot them down and stick them back into the grocery sack. the photo above is actually the reverse. the other side has the beginning of the phrase. i just loved this photo for my post beginning tonight.

i used all sorts of scrap papers and trimmed them into 1 1/2 X 2 1/2 inch sheets. i love reusing small pieces of various papers.

here is the front of the bag. small stuff that goes thru my head ...

i stitched some sides and used glue stick for the remainders.

papers i used include bank deposit receipts, ledger paper, used envelopes, utility bill paper - the blank sections, white paper and my favorite robin's egg blue quality cotton paper i got off the clearance table at X PeD X. i also used a few lottery ticket papers.

here is yesterday's project completed. i love the cover and, as you can see, so does my honeymoon moose.

now i have no excuse for not compiling collections of ideas. i only need 310 more for this year's challenge. :)

sweet dreams, everyone. thanks for stopping by. until tomorrow. happiness to you. from me. with heart. ox joon

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1.23.11 ... exploding art collage

i was introduced to this project when i returned to college the first time. it was 1987-ish and i was working on an elementary education degree. one of my classes was about the art of teaching art from K-8 and we made these wonderful notebooks - scrapbook style - with 100 art projects inside {if you wanted an A} so we'd have it as a resource. at the time, i thought it was a crazy idea and insane amount of busy work {i did have three young boys to mother} but that scrapbook is one of my favorite things and i love looking through it for inspiration. over the years i have made excellent use of it both when i taught and for myself and my family. it brings back many fond memories and i find the old fashioned look of the lesson copies - they're all typewritten with simple hand drawn illustrations - charming.

i used two of my favorite discarded children's books to create this piece. the scene slices were in my stash. i had cut up the book in a variety of ways, mostly different sized strips. today i happened to locate a couple that matched up and that inspired me to do an exploding scene if i could find enough that went together. i spent a very long time locating them, but enjoyed myself. we listened to pandora windham hill. quite pleasant. the background piece is from another book. i love how well they compliment one another. the serendipity factor is very high. and i love that.

the background is also collaged a bit, the end slices are not in synch with the main scene on purpose and i used the sticker glue since i had it handy. i made another small batch of stickers but they weren't done drying by the time i had to run outside for my usual catch-the-twilight, freeze-and-cross-my-fingers-that-a-few-photos-will-work. i hope you enjoy today's creation. have you ever done one of these? i think you'd like it. i know i will do more throughout the year. they are always so individually unique there's no way you could tire of the process or results. let me know if you try it. i'd like to see what you do.

sweet dreams, everyone. thanks for stopping by. until tomorrow. happiness to you. from me. with heart. ox joon

Posted via email from just joon

1.12.11 ... mending & soup

i was mending and choosing papers for other projects and cooking and mending and so much more. there's no way i could bear to show you my super mend project which is in a state of limbo at the moment. do you ever fix large sheets or tablecloths, that kind of thing? i am working on this old, old and may i add old, mattress pad. it's so groovy because it is all cotton and very worn and soft. the side panels, if they ever had elastic, are no longer so much as curved no less gathered. we started using it as a nighttime film/tv blanket and the poor thing is really losing its everything. so i have patched it many times but now it needs a seriously patched - giant - center section. i mended a greenland sized tear and managed to get one half of one side patch completed. then i worked for what seemed like forever on an even larger piece on the reverse side. i am using old sheets. i have it pinned and ready to sew but there is no way i had the stamina to tackle all that mass of fabric by the time i accomplished that task. i made a new hungarian goulash soup recipe. we added a few touches and it was delicious. it is still FREEZING here. that is crazy talk for austin. but the soup was a perfect warm up.

so my photos today are taken with my iphone. i just didn't have any light, especially by the time these were completed when low light was not even an option. it was dark. i took these knit pants out of the dryer and found a seam split and while i was preparing to zig zag it i had a brilliant idea and placed this piece of scrap underneath. boy, did that ever make things a snap. and now the seam is reinforced better, too. i hope you can get an idea of what i did. if you ever mend knit seams you will understand why this was just plain dreamy.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

this is the reverse side, once trimmed.

and here is my soup.

now it is time for another west wing episode so i leave you with a wish for a warm, toasty evening. 

sweet dreams, everyone. thanks for stopping by. until tomorrow. happiness to you. from me. with heart. ox joon

Posted via email from just joon