What a Week & A Bit of Art Making

Yikes It's been one of those weeks where the days go by so fast if you stopped to take a look you got left behind!!

Today is the last day of Mazatlan International Moto Week.

This is the signal that business and tourism will slow way down. On one hand everyone looks forward to it :) On the other hand it also signals the beginning of the season of Economical starvation. :( Because we are in reality a resort town our economy relies heavily on the tourist income. Every year a number of businesses close because they can't make it till Oct. This year may prove to be an impossible one for more then the usual amount of business because of the US, & World economies.

Jackie P and I have pretty much got ourselves on a bit of a routine for her care. :) We more then likely have another week or two before they can do any kind of surgery. Then we will decide how to go from there.

I did manage to get a few things made last week. I don't know about you but I'm a much happier (& I'm sure easier to live with) girl if I can play in My Little Art Corner for even a few minutes every day :) I don't have to get a project done or even progress very far. It's that my imagination has a bit of time to come out and play.

I've noticed that a number of Mexican jewelry artists have been creating wire wrapped crosses. Oh some are soooo beautiful and oh so costly :( I had an old chunky silver and red colored stone cross, that was in a bunch of "thangs" an Expat headed north left behind. That's what I used as the base. Then at the bead store I found these ever so cool freshwater pearls?? that were in the shape of crosses. With a bit of wire and dark brown faceted beads I wrapped the pearl cross on top of the silver/stone one. Then right in the center of both crosses I wrapped a little blue heart. I know I've mentioned before that sterling silver, (which by the way is always stamped 925 on the back instead of sterling here.) is such a time consuming pain in the as... toosh to take care of. Oye! especially in the humid rainy season!! Silver will tarnish while you are wearing it!! I've gotten to the point of finding other imaginative ways of wearing pendents, instead of using a silver chain. :) Soft double sided satin ribbon is so simple and dare I use the word... romantic looking. I take a little stroll up our street and at the end of the block is a little Papelaria (paper goods store) that sells tons of ribbon in different widths, sadly no velvet. I can't find velvet anywhere in town :( I now string my necklaces on a piece of ribbon that matches my mood that day :)

I'm slowly getting things made for my "Girly Girl" room. More about a "nother" time. Jackie D passed on to me ( no she didn't pass on it's the mirror she passed on!! ) one of those very inexpensive sorta wood framed mirrors, I beat it up a bit painted 2 coats of alternating crackle medium and white paint. I found that if I do more then one layer of crackled paint it looks tons more like it aged naturally instead of the out of a bottle yesterday look. Then topped it off with my secret antiquing formula (brown&natural shoe wax) and a good buffing with LW's shoe brush. I don't think confessing this will get me into to much hot water. The shoe shine kit is a very unused item here!! :) hmmm LW?? On the mirror I sanded off spots of the silvering and and glue copies of clip art to show through the front. Added some raw umber patina to the silver hooks so they would look a bit aged.

Four years ago on the 15th of April LW and I became room mates, I made a gift of a little tag book for him. I found a package of match boxes. They are about twice the size of the smaller wood kitchen match boxes. I printed out an open book cover piece of clip art I found on The Graphic Fairy blog. Then glued, aged, fluffed, and decoupaged it to the match box. I painted the sides to look like the pages in a closed book. Gave it the title "Love Letters"

EERRGGHH why did blogger turn this upside down????

I made my tags a size that would fit into the "book" Since I have never done any kind of scrapbooking the only exposure to "tags" I had was years ago the old Victoria Magazine did a feature on Sarah Lugg and her simple collages made with tags. I have always admired them and when left to my own choice those are the kind of tags I enjoy making the most. So for LW's book I spelled out the word love, one letter on each page/tag. The cover has another piece of clip art of a love letter I think it's also from the Graphics Fairy. I never miss her little daily offerings, she has the best clip art and we are lucky she shares her collection with us :) On the inside of the cover is a picture of a pewter heart. That little heart was in the first bouquet LW gave me. Funny how these simple expressions of love are cherished and mean more then expensive elaborate gifts.

L is dried Basil leaves

O is a piece of sea glass inside a drawn heart and has on O painted on it.

V is 2 small end branches of bamboo we have on the patio

E is black pepper corns.

I finished off the backs with copies of pictures that make my heart smile. then tied them together with a bit of old twine

That's pretty much what I've been up to lately. Gads I really didn't set out to write an epistle today but I have rambled a bit. So much for that Blog tip of sticking to 300 or less words. But then I've never been very good at following the should and must do rules. I figure that if you are tired of reading my post you are more then capable of hopping to the next one. Ya know some days you feel like a Chatty Cathy and some days not :)

So those of you that have hung out with me to the very end thanks for stopping by to see what I've been up to. :) And have a most audacious today or tomorrow depending on where in the world you are ;)