every-single-day

Round Robin

Yesterday I created stations of creativity. I set up my journals and painting supplies on the floor, my sewing on the table and created a space to do yoga in the main area of my studio. This way, when my sewing got to a sticky point, I began to paint, or do yoga.
I love working this way! This means that I can easily have a distraction when my mind gets muddled.
I have been working on the large nude, whom I am calling The Bitch, because she is demanding, wants everything to be perfect and asks-no tells me, to rip entire areas out and redo them. I need patience to work on her, acceptence even. She is her own woman.
So stations work well for this project.

So this set up was on the floor behind my sewing table. This is one of my journals, 140lb cold press watercolor paper, with sandpaper paintings glued onto the two pages shown. I do paint directly into this book too, just not on this page.

I work in Gouache, my favorite paint. It harkens back to my training as a textile designer. I also learned to use Luma dyes, but I love Gouache, it's opacity.

I suppose I will spill it (Jody)... the SOLAR POWERED Squirrel can be found at Lowe's.

Go Ahead!

Feel the jealousy. You know you want one. You know every American should have one. They probably already do and you are way behind the learning curve on this one.

Your very own SOLAR POWERED Squirrel. Bet you want to know where we found it too!

Where I Get Distraction

Alright. These are a few of my favorite blogs...

It all started because I wen over to Mariko's site, Super Eggplant. We all know she is a genius. She knits, sews and cooks among many other specialties. She has great taste in music when she reveals it. She turned me on to the Fiery Furnaces.

Of Course, Mariko made Macaroons. A cookie I have never tried and am somewhat obsessed with at the moment. If I find a superior bakery that has them, I will buy them. I am not going to bake them.
Yet.
I like virtual cooking.
This post brought me to A La Cuisine, where I virtually enjoy all sorts of food. I mean just check this page out! You can gain weight just cruising these pages.

And then I somehow stumbled on Thimble. I am fatally attracted to the craft soundtrack she and her mate put up. She just updated this list and you know my Amazon Wishlist is gonna get bulkier real soon.

And then there is Wee Wonderfuls, whose really got her craft on.

Seeing as I am somewhat addicted to birding at the moment, it should be no suprise that I am in love with The Bird Machine. The artwork on this site doesn't necassarily have anything to do with birding, but I liked the seque.

So that is about as much as I feel like writting today. I am not in the mood to check my spelling and make nice. I am all PMS, crampy and in a state of discombobulated kerfuffle.
Ya don't get to hear those words very often and yesterday I heard kerfuffle on the radio!

I forgot to mention Angry Chicken.

These are a few of my...

Favorite things...

Nail Polish, even if I am too active to let it try properly, even if I really am a tom boy, I love nail polish. Go here and play! Pretend for "grown ups"!
Always with a large grain of salt.

M.I.A This chic rocks! She is as close to Cibo Matto as you can get but she isn't like them at all. Who the hell knows what the lyrics are about!
Check out what Metacritic has to say about it. Her.

The Garden State (soundtrack). It has made me want The Shins Album, but I bet many people would say that.

I have been converted to listening to books at work. I LOOOOVVEE to read and nothing will take it's place in my life but staying focused at work sure is easy when I listen to books on tape. I mean CD. I mean MP3. The Big Year, I loved listening to this book, and it is a good segue (is that how you spell it?) into my next obsession.

I am waiting for the birds. Last year we put a bird house out, this year we wait for some neighbors to move in! We even went and bought two bird feeders this weekend, this is in an extended effort to reclaim our fabulous backyard and to heal from the loss of our old friend the TREE. Yesterday we got our first customers to the feeders, a Tufted Titmouse and a Black Capped Chickadee. Today they are eating foods foraged from the wild.
I love them, the yard and the whole earth.

I am also quite taken by KnitCast, I sorta wish I had the energy to podcast, I think it would be awesome to have a fiber art, beading, dyeing podcast. If anyone knows of one, please pipe up! I wanna hear about it.
For that matter if anyone listens to any podcasts you think I might like, even a little bit, please pipe up!

And... Another retreat is coming up!

One of those things...

My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Sister Inspired Battle Axe of Loving Mindfulness. What's yours?

I am now a member of the Uniterian Jihad.
Read more here!

Also- The bulk of my main web site redesign is complete. Please check it out!
melanietesta.com. I still want to nudge and change a few things but it will have to get done over time.

She Looks Spanky!

She looks so pretty in her new colors! No more silly putty, burgandy or country cute crap for my safe and toasty home. It is so exciting to get work done on the house!
Last year we had the landscaping and the roof done, this year we painted. Yeah for the purdy girl!
If you look REALLY close you can see the king of my heart in the above photo. Because he is so Fab and you all love cat photos (I can tell), here is a close up of the sexy beast.

He so fine! He so fine, he blow my mind. He's Arrow. hm, hm, So Arrow! Oh sorry, I am off on an eighties song and showing my age.
And please, don't look at the peeling paint behind the magnificient feline. Someday we will attend to that too, just ignore that.

In Creative news:
I am working really hard on the large nude. I don't want to share it yet. I am not ready. I do want to sew it for another hour or so...
See you later!

What I am up to.

Five foot one and three quarters! :)
No.

I am happily working on the large nude. She is coming out fabulously, photo updates soon-she is not ready to be revealed yet.
She is funny! She balks me, I had to rip out more quilting stitches this weekend. She tells me what she doesn't want more than what she does. She is up on my design wall at the moment, I love how big she is! I need to give myself some space from her. I think the next step is to muddy her up a bit, create some areas of stitching that seem painterly and break up the pristine quality she has right now.
I can already see some embellishments that need to be done.
But all of this is babbling without photos! You have no idea what I am talking about.

This week I will be uploading the new melanietesta.com web site. A friend and I have been working it out. I will be working on it over the next month or so. I will keep you posted!

And finally if anyone tried to sent me email over the weekend? Resend it. I had a glitch and won't be able to retreive any emails sent over that time.