RRR Challenge and Book is Done!

 First I have to share that my book is at the publishers! I'm exhausted and happy. Belonging to the group Arts in the Cards was a godsend for me. It allowed me to be creative in a different way than writing and to be a part of a group since I spend most of my days the last five months alone in front of my computer. The last challenge was Reduce, Recycle, Reuse. Here are my ATCs (artist trading cards, 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches). Enjoy!

Every project allows us to learn something about ourselves. When I got out my box of saved items, I began to see a theme to my obsessions.

Here is a list of items used:

Tissue paper, Trick or Treat bag, dye catcher cloth, envelope, catalog pieces. Korean dog treat label and a part from a gift bag

Spice flier, postcard, Starbucks coffee sleeve, dye catcher cloth, gift bag and a stamp

Atlas page (sent to me as gift wrap), tissue paper, postcard piece, flash card, apricot label (plastic), Trick or Treat bag, stamp and catalog piece

Tissue paper, Trick or Treat bag, JC Penny's shopping bag and catalog parts

Atlas page, wrapping paper, ribbon, airline menu, candy wrapper, envelope part and a stamp

Atlas page, ribbon, airline menu, candy wrapper, gift box part and a stamp

Dye catchers cloth, postcard, placemat, flash card and the inside of an envelope

Trick or Treat bag, tissue paper, envelopes, dye catcher cloth, Korean dog treat label and a part of a placemat

Bookmark, gift tag, flash card, catalog part and two different envelopes

I think I was successful with recycling and reusing. Didn't reduce my box of saved treasures by much, but I sure had fun.

Earth

I am fortunate to belong to a wonderful postcard  group called Postmark'd Art. We started doing element exchanges where you create a 12 x 12 inch piece based on the element then cut it into six 4 x 6 inch postcards. This exchanges element was "earth." For weeks I kicked myself for signing up for this exchange because I could not come up with an idea so I simply stopped thinking about it. While I was digging out my mailbox for the third day in a row, I was thinking about how much I was looking forward to digging in the dirt when suddenly I got the idea to needle felt. Once I got going all the stress and worrying that I had been doing evaporated. I even used some precious felt from my beloved Georgia (country not state) and lots of other roving that I had purchased but never used. I also felted in the little felt balls that were on one of my sweaters! It was almost as good as playing in the dirt.

Martha Dominquez-Diaz "Ex-voto"

At  the end of last year, Los puntadas del alma/Stitches of the Soul explored spirituality as a them for our quilts. I thought I would share a few of the quilts with you. I love how each woman in the group has her own distinctive style and while they support one another, they all stay true to themselves.

Martha is one of the most generous and caring people I have ever met. I also happen to love her style. She is learning that less is sometimes more. She loves to embellish.

Here is Martha's artist statement:

My faith is a vital part of my life. I believe in the apparitions of the Virgin and praying the rosary. I've survived many mishaps by meditating. Miracles can happen!

This Ex-voto is thanking the Virgin of Guadalupe for her intercession during my car accident; being able to walk again and take care of my two sons.

My fe es una parte vital de mi vida. Creo en las apariciones de la virgen Maria y en rezar el rosario. He sobrevivido, gracias a la meditacion. Milagros si occurren!

Este Ex-voto es: dando gracias a Nuestra senora de Guadalupe por su intercesion durante mi accidente automovistico; por poder caminar y por el cuidado de mis hijos.

Translation of quilt: "Am I, who am your mother, not here?

On october 19, 1995 I had an accident. Thank you Virgin of Guadalupe for the miracle of being able to walk and take care of my sons.

The Butterfly Project

I apologize for not posting. I spend my days interviewing, researching, and writing. I am trying to finish my book. When I'm not working on my book, then I try to find someway to be creative in a different way. With Las puntadas del alma/Stitches of the soul, my group at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago, we are creating butterflies for the Holocaust Museum Houston. 

1,500,000 innocent children died during the Holocaust. In an effort to remember them, Holocaust Museum Houston is collecting 1.5 million handmade butterflies. The butterflies will eventually comprise a breath-taking exhibition, currently scheduled for Spring 2013, for all to remember.The project is based on this poem.

The Butterfly

The last, the very last,
So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow.
Perhaps if the sun’s tears would sing
against a white stone...

Such, such a yellow
Is carried lightly ’way up high.
It went away I’m sure
because it wished
to kiss the world good-bye.

For seven weeks I’ve lived in here,
Penned up inside this ghetto.
But I have found what I love here.
The dandelions call to me
And the white chestnut branches in the court.
Only I never saw another butterfly.

That butterfly was the last one.
Butterflies don’t live in here, in the ghetto.

Pavel Friedman, June 4, 1942

Born in Prague on January 7, 1921.
Deported to the Terezin Concentration Camp on April 26, 1942.
Died in Auschwitz on September 29, 1944.

More than 12,000 children under the age of 15 passed through the Terezin Concentration Camp between the years 1942-1944. More than 90 percent perished during the Holocaust. 

More than anything, I wanted to take the time to create something that took time to honor all those lost children. It's approx. 10 x 8 inches and took me about 30 hours to create.

Resolutions

I was not going to share my resolutions, but after talking to a couple of friends, they insisted that I should. So since I live to serve, here I go.

I read somewhere that 44% of Americans make New Year's resolutions. What I couldn't find was statistics on how many actually work on them. I suspect it's a pretty small number. I am someone who actually likes making resolutions and working on them. I did fairly well last year. I admit that I am better some years than others. For me, resolution are a matter of being more aware.

I think I will keep what I wrote last year out as a reminder since it states so well my ultimate life goals. I also read a great book, The Happiness Project, which influenced me too. I don't think I learned anything new in the book. It did give me food for thought and Gretchen Rubin, the author, writes well. Our lives are just in very different places. She has small children and I do not. I've worked through many of the issues she now deals with. I am so impressed how she has used her project to change people's lives.
  
"Every new year people make resolutions to change aspects of themselves they believe are negative. A majority of people revert back to how they were before and feel like failures. This year I challenge you to a new resolution. I challenge you to just be yourself." --Aisha Elderwyn

This quote is a great one to remind me that "Be Karen" is a good resolution. Which also leads me to "Say what I mean and mean what I say." I actually started doing this toward the middle of last year and it caused amazing changes in some of my relationships with people.

This year I want to work on "Let it go." I truly want to release past pain and move on. Life keeps moving like a stream. I want to be able to flow along with it and let certain things go in order to embrace what may be in store for me in the future. I've held on to people, organizations and things that may have been formerly good too long because I felt I had I had invested so much. No more!

"Do it now!" I've started this one already and it's amazing how this little act has made such a great impact. I don't go to bed with nagging thoughts.

"Do what ought to be done."  I am a great procrastinator. I will do things that I need to be done, just not what I should be doing. 


"Spend out." I was stuck by a friend who found an unopened bottle of expensive perfume sitting on her dead mother's dresser. What am I waiting for! I'm using my beautiful journals. I'm cutting up all those rare and wonderful fabrics I've bought.  There may not be a tomorrow.


I will probably spend the rest of my life cleaning out, simplifying and organizing. I understand that life is about process and I know I enjoy process more than the end product.


Finding a word for the year has been a popular past time. It took me a couple of days and when it finally popped into my mind, I was so happy.  My word is "fearless." 


I think 2011 is going to be an incredible year! I know because I am going to make it so. Happy New Year!

Winter

The cold and bitter winter weather has me thinking about  lines in a poem by Dobby Gibson that stuck with me.  They are from a poem called Upon Discovering My Entire Solution to the Attainment of Immortality Erased from the Blackboard Except for the Word "Save."  It's interesting how these things happen.  I cannot remember more of it so I must go off and find it so my memory is refreshed.

And if you have looked
at a winter garden
and seen not a winter garden
but a meditation on shape,
then you know why
this season is not
known for its words,
the cold too much
about the slowing of matter,
not enough about the making of it.

Newest Obsession

It seems every Christmas I have a new project that I just can't stop making. They become my potato chips or or as Abby on NCIS says "pistachios."  Last year it was tote bags and this year it's clutch purses. I was only going to make four and you see how well that worked out. I once again have my friend Barbara to (lovingly) blame. She saw a small picture of a clutch in a magazine. I definitely think ours are better than the ones for sale at $78 a pop. I put pockets inside mine. Used fusible Velcro (love the stuff!) so they stay closed. And of course, I used dipioni silk on all but the black and white one which has over-dyed wool felt. I hope these are as big a hit as my tote bags were last year. These were certainly more fun to make. Enjoy!