There is a new blog hop going on and we are going to be giving away 10 copies of Ricë Freeman Zachery's new book, Destination Creativity: The Life-Altering Journey of the Art Retreat. So stay tuned! I start the circle off on October 3.

Monday, October 3rd: Melanie Testa
Tuesday, October 4th: Seth Apter
Wednesday, October 5th: Mary Beth Shaw
Thursday, October 6th: Carla Sonheim
Friday, October 7th: Lisa Mayers Bulmash
Saturday, October 8th: Melissa Manley
Sunday, October 9th: Deryn Mentock
Monday, October 10th: Jen Cushman
Tuesday, October 11th: Jill Berry

On Friday I dyed the three soy wax resisted hankies I spoke about in this post.

This has been such a fun project.

I have four hankies soda soaked and ready for printing, I am thinking they will be freezer paper resisted with intricate little corners-trees, birds, peaks of buildings and cityscapes. I see myself wanting to work on this project for a little longer and wanting to purchase more hankie blanks.

In kismet like similarity, a woman name Sophie Herxheimer has a Call Out for hankies (with an extended deadline) through The London Printworks Trust. I am going to send at least one of these hankies, if not more. You?

I have been working on Hankies, slow and steady, I like this project a bunch. The above hankie's edge was painted with Pebeo Setacolor , then stamped with a multicolor stamp. The Hankie itself is a tiny little square of hemmed silk habotai (bought from Dharma Trading). These feel more like pocket squares than hankies, but fun and pretty just the same.

Here I am showing you a 'before' photograph and ask that you return in a few days to see the 'after'.

My Man and I are preparing for our Switzerland trip and for whatever reason, he came up with the idea that we needed denim jackets. This made us go to the Levi's store in Times Square. Hemmed squares, hankies and bandanas have taken my creative attention, so when I got to the cash register and saw this bandana for $12.50 I thought, 'Soy Wax!', save the money and make your own! Haha!

Stay tuned.

David and I raised a collective, $9,191.81.

This has been one heck of a year. You guys have helped me through it in more ways than you know. My world and the love in it has expanded and without measure. I continue to heal, David and I both continue to heal, it is not easy to be a care taker. Thank you for the cards, artwork, hats, letters, thank you for the love.

If you want to donate money and have not yet done so, please do! David's workplace will match all funds up to a specified amount and I would love it if we topped the $10,000.00 mark! Here is David's page and here is mine.

It was an emotional thing to walk. Tears were just under the surface for me, sometimes popping right out. And if you follow me on facebook you will know that I wondered if I could handle wearing the t-shirt that indicates I am a survivor. I wore it, no biggie. The best part was looking straight into a fellow short haired survivors eyes and smiling. Her smile in return was tentative at first, then broad.

It took us 1 hour, 23 minutes and 23 seconds to reach the finish line. If you know me, I was expecting the walk to be more like exercise and less like a saunter. My walking pace is fast, David can't often keep up and needs to remind me to slow down. We sauntered. I kept my eyes peeled and checked the other survivors out. It was fun.

Thank you for supporting us.

I have received a lot of postcards, cards and notes. So many that I have begun to keep them in a propped pile that I can change and sort through each day. I love little tableaux's, altars with magical items, colorful plastic rings, jewelry, coins.

Arrow responds to finger with many a face. He has some great expressions.

Silly little eggs cups of encouragement.

I am working on more hankies and have an exciting one coming through. I will post sometime this soon.

First, I apologize. I want to work more on printing subtle hankies this week but I am again on deadline for another project. More will come with this softer and gentler hankie style.

These are silk hankies and the idea to create a softer and gentler more subtle hankie came from a mess up. Thinking I would need to work with a dye like paint, I tried using Pebeo Setacolor transparent paints to stamp with. It didn't work, the color soaked into the fibers of the silk and splotched.

Not wanting to waste a hankie I quickly painted all four edges of the hankie to create a colored border. Then I took out my opaque acrylic paints and stamped some borders around a few of the hankies.

I want to carve some tiny rose bouquets but it will have to wait until I finish the project on my desk.

I have also been taking photos of the Ever Gorgeous Arrow.

I am embracing the photos Arrow will allow me to take. He doesn't like busy flashes in his eyes, he doesn't like to stop doing what he is up to. He just wants admiration and strokes.

A friend of Arrows' has passed into the Fields of Plenty, safe passage, Nelson.

I met Ricë Freeman-Zachery a few years ago at Art Unraveled and I was immediately drawn to her. She can be found sitting in the lobby at retreats stitching on clothing. Much of the clothing she wears is hand dyed, overdyed, stitched and beaded by herself. She has orange hair and is a free spirit. Her husband is as glowing and vibrant as she is and is easy to enjoy a good laugh with.

Ricë's latest book is called Destination Creativity: The Life-Altering Journey of the Art Retreat and it is as raucous, fun filled and amazing as the art retreats that it talks about. This book has features on particular artists, like Carla Sonheim and Jessie Reno as well as some how-to projects (Just go watch Jesse paint). I contributed a little bit too!

Watch this video carefully and you will see me!

If you have always wanted to experience an art retreat, are getting the gumption up to sign up, or if you have been on a retreat and would like to capture the vibe again, go get a copy of this book, sit back and enjoy the ride.

Hankie blanks arrived at Casa Melly this week. I have been anxious to start printing and playing with them.

You can see a bit of a rose that has been popping up in my work in the lower left side of this painting. And the rose was just sitting there, looking pretty and asking me to print it in a multicolored stamp.

So I cut the stamp, mixed the paints and tried it out on scrap. I made slight adjustments to the colors before proceeding. I used to just start printing right on the good stuff and I have learned the hard way that using scrap is a great help.

Then I went for the gusto and printed the stamp on a cotton hankie. This rose stamp measures about 4 inches and I have to say, I love the size! It is incongruous to what you might think of as 'hankie size' and that makes it work for me.

I may do a tutorial later in the month but for now perhaps you might be inspired by this incised stamp making video.

Or perhaps you might like to purchase a back issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors that explains the multicolored stamp making process in detail, Patricia Gaignat taught me all I know about it and she wrote an article to boot!

Ang came to New York yesterday and we had a spectacular day. I would even say it was magical. First off, I love this woman. She is going through a growing spurt and is fulfilling a dream and I admire her for it. She has been a thick and thin friend, I have known her for a long time.

We rambled through the Met and saw a few shows. We talked and looked at things casually. It was great fun.

Then we went to the roof. We weren't taken by the sculpture but the drinks were great and the view?

Then we walked through the park, listened to a man play saxophone.

We sat and talked.

We walked past a group dancing the Tango. We laughed. I could have had a-gizillion-trillion additional hugs, don't worry I will get some soon.