A New Pledge: Create at least one piece of art everyday

art Everyday!

     So here I am, heading towards the middle of the summer and I have hardly created any art, outside of artful food! I admit, I have spent many hours on Facebook and Netflix, but in my defense, I had a lot of catching up to do. But as the summer is coming into full swing, I am feeling the loss of art-making time. Sooo...I have decided that I need to prioritize and move "creating art" to the upper echelons, where it belongs! I have also decided that any medium is allowed here, including food, but only in a pinch, or as a bonus. My goal is to take a photo of each piece of work and post it here. I am hoping that this declaration on my blog, for all the world to see, will further cement my personal commitment to creating art everyday. (But I really don't need that, do I?)
    I will have to sacrifice some other, not-as-important things, like facebook time and TV time, but I'm ready to do that. My first piece today is the "art Everyday!" image above. Created with Photoshop CS4 using

gradients, filters and brushes. And, I did make strawberry freezer jam today, which is a form of foodie art to me. If I get my new projects done soon, I can add them to the day they are completed, or is that cheating? Anyway, I feel like I might be on a roll here...

Wednesday Fab Finds

Franco Farms Berries

     Welcome to the first Wednesday Fab Finds! Wednesday posts will be about anything I find during the week that I think is fabulous in some way, shape or form. I love to go to flea markets, estate sales, garage/yard sales, thrift stores and resale shops. I also love to take back roads and try new restaurants. And I have a thing for books, novels, historical, sci-fi/fantasy and culinary. Anyway, I feel like I am finding wonderful things all the time and want to share my treasures with you.
Starting with today, we found a new place to pick strawberries not too far from home. We normally love to pick at Gunzvillers in Elk Rapids, but that is a 45 minute drive. We took a risk and went to "Franco's," which is about 5 miles out of Traverse City heading south on US 31. Great berries, beautiful flavor and sweet! Check out the Taste the Local Difference website for places in MI to pick.

Perseus Jackson "PJ" our new Lion Head bunny

     The next find is our new Lion Head bunny, Perseus Jackson, or PJ for short. We found him at the Pet Supplies Plus store thanks to a family we met at the TC Balloon Classic two weeks ago. They brought their Lion Head bunny to the open space and we just happened to sit down behind them. We fell in love with their little bunny, so fluffy and social. Also, weighed less than 2.5 lbs, the size of bunny we have been looking for. Anyway, we are all madly in love with our new pet!
     Find numero tres (3) is something I found at Cali's, a local shop in downtown TC. "Haikubes," a box of dice that have words on each side that you use to create haikus. I love these, they are so cool!!! Now I just have to find a

Haikubes

really sweet transparent container to keep them in and also on display in the living room so anyone can just dump them out, have some fun and easily put them away.
And just so you know, I paid $25 for my set, should have known I could find a better deal online! At least I did support a locally owned business that I am very fond of, that is a good thing.

Tri Oreshki Dlya Zollushki

     My last find this week is a movie on YouTube, "Tri Oreshki Dlya Zollushki," or "Three Nuts for Cinderella," or "Three Gifts for Cinderella." I saw this movie on a PBS station, I think, a long, long time ago, and loved it. I finally found it on YouTube and enjoyed it all over again with my daughter. It is a Czech film that I think was very well done for the time it was produced, over 30 years ago at least. Click here to watch the six part film.
     Hope you are finding wonderful treasures of your own like a perfect peach, an old photo or a new china cup and saucer for your collection!

Oil Spill and Graduation

Here are two more visual journal pages I've been working on lately. One about my daughter's high school graduation, full of happiness and celebration. I used her photo for the face too. She faced a lot of struggles over the last few years and overcame issues with depression and anxiety to finish high school, we are so proud of her.

The other page is about the horrendous oil gushing out into the Gulf of Mexico. It makes me ill to think about how much of the ocean's ecosystem is being destroyed by carelessness and the worship of the almighty dollar by a few in a position to make decisions that can affect all of us. I called this page "Yuck!"

Finally, we made our Strawberry Dessert Pizza last night. It was a team effort. My son made the sugar cookie dough from scratch(instead of using the refrigerated roll from the market), I spread it out into the cookie sheet and pressed it in well and baked it. My husband made the topping and also washed and sliced all the strawberries we had picked. Then my youngest daughter helped him to cover the whole thing nicely with the sliced up berries. It was absolutely delicious and everyone enjoyed it and had seconds!

Strawberry Patch

Here is my new Summertime Strawberries patch created with Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. Just a little fun to keep me from losing my Illustrator beginner skills. Processed lots of strawberries and made 12 jars of freezer jam. The kitchen smelled heavenly, full of that fresh summer strawberry fragrance. All  but one jar in the freezer now, can't wait to try it tomorrow morning. Up later than I should be, caffeine is always a mistake for me, what was I thinking? That I had developed immunity? Ha, lol...still keeps me up. Catching up on blogs I like to read...wheee!

Strawberries

    
     Started the day off early with a trip to the pool. Sixteen laps later I was ready to get the kids and head out to pick our first strawberries of the season. We went out to Guntzvillers, a wonderful U-pick farm in Elk Rapids. We go every year for strawberries, raspberries(red, black and white) and blackberries. Local June strawberries always taste like summer to me, if summer had a flavor. They are sweet and the flavor is so much more intense than anything available frozen or imported from out of the area. Next up is some strawberry freezer jam and strawberry dessert pizza. The dessert pizza is simply a sugar cookie crust, you can use store bought, but I'm making homemade, spread out on a jelly roll pan or pizza pan, baked, cooled and then you mix some marshmallow fluff, vanilla and cream cheese till smooth and spread onto the baked cookie "crust." Finally you spread sliced strawberries all over the topping and viola!  I guess I need to make a Strawberry patch/badge very soon.

I also picked up a new train case to upcycle for more art supply storage. This one is a Samsonite, longer than the blue one and an unattractive shade of brown. I like brown, but for an art supply case, it just doesn't work for me. I need some color, fun and sparkly stuff!!! Photos later, after the blue case is finished. Did I mention I'm jazzing up an old pair of Dansko shoes too? Photos of those later as well. Ok, time to go make something...what are You doing?