gallery of growth:the packrat life

i would crave a minimalistic windowsill wonderland but my head is overflowing and my heart loves the littlest treasures. i am a packrat. it occured to me this morning that i lead my internet life much is the same way that i do my real world life. i collect favorites like they're going out of style. in the course of an eight hour day i've probably perused a hundred blogs, shops, and forums. maybe not as carefully as peruse though. and yet there is always something i'll save, to pick up later. today is one of those days, you know them because you're lulled out, played out of nothing to show for the creative motions your making. i have finished my last piece, numbro ten for the clothesline show. my digicam is in the hands of another creative soul. and so i have nothing to show of progress.

instead i'm here to share: last week i became distressed, searching, grasping at straws, looking for more than one farm in the area. chattanooga no longer has a "real" down to earth, farmer's market, we've gotta make room for the eight hundred plus homeless. thankfully we've got the chattanooga market, but when you go to the website and click on agriculture to look for local farms there are NONE! which is fine, right? you've gotta be kidding me. there is moonshadow, an opportunity to learn how to grow at the sequatchie valley institute. *might we put some of the homeless to work on a local urban farm-coop-the earthisimportant program-mayor littlefield? have any of you been to rise n shine in chickamauga? here are your other options. that or spread a patch out behind your three gas burning car garage and grow something, anything to absorb some of that carbon dioxide.

***jen over at scissors paper glue has come up with a special sort of inspiration stash.

***i know atlanta recently got a trader joe's, though i haven't been since living in templeton CA, found via one of the best blogs out there: shelterrific, via dhome, enter the offical trader joe's caption contest!!! woohoo:)

***also found between the cracks, or maybe i've fallen between the cracks and i'm just now digging myself out: swissmiss features the best all around stuff this side of the sphere has see, even though...we didn't necessarily grow her here. check out the prettiest cards you may ever see. winter garden thank you sm.

***for those of you who'd die without color i found via the purl bee, PROJECT SPECTRUM; it maybe too late to get involved or participate this year but i'm sure it's worth a look, just incase, there maybe pockets of inspiration.

lucky for you, that's all i've got for today. i'm burnt.

the quilt of my

"crunch" begins and ends with dazed and crazed. i know i don't feel as overwhelmed as say, kate in all of her moving, working, making and mothering. i am not sure what is going to happen. i mean all but one collage has been completed, my cards are packed and ready, but i still haven't got a clue as to how or when i am going to have the paper quilts framed or wrapped or well, presentable. i went to hobby lobby and had a rather unpleasant experience, instead of finding frames worthy i found canvas worthy. it is times like these that make for memories, excitement and blessing, mostly learning. these tight corners, empty pockets, smaller margains are just apart of this cat's life. matter of factly, frankly speaking i am happier in the midst of a rush, the crush and crash of projects, obligations and artworks.

i am thinking now of how to prioritize: yesterday i found in my box the paper quilt project envelope and felt a choke approaching fast. don't get me wrong i am really happy about this community effort, the honor of being invited is super great and i can't wait to find that buried treasure of inspiration. i also have got to get my five senses together enough to swap them with anastasia. and i feel i must acknowledge the sweet tammy as well. i actually sat and had what i'd call a light moment:brainstorming the five senses and have come up with a few unique ideas. the first of which; thought:"opening the package with ones eyes shut!!!" unga.

then there are all these underlying things: how am i going to pay my bills? april was such a tight month and i am feeling the tightness a little less but i have very little breathing room. buying canvas is a total justified thing because fitness together is demanding more work today!!! i'd also like to be really open to commission work too but inorder to do it i've gotta have it-right?

there's also the cleanliness of my life right now. i am still smoking, no more no less than usual but it is the dirtiest, nastiest habit and i'm reminded of how disgusting it is on a daily basis. if it's not my phlegm, it is a lung cancer patient's phlegm i hear in the hallways at work here at uoha. my curtains in my apartment are black, my floors need to be mopped, my car is a pile of ash and the hair. i know i know i'm really about to gag!!! truly isn't it all a reflection of what is apart of my insides. the heart that yearns for beauty but is stuck in ugly. i hope my paper quilts aren't as ugly as the quilt of my life.

then there is joy, in two weeks and little sam and liam will be here. my nephews. my first nephews and what breath can be breathed without thinking of their little lives. there is clothesline and community and being bold enough, having guts enough to invite people from my church that i barely know to come and see this community of women artist. there is mother's day and bringing my siblings together to honor my mom again in this new year. there is this new book in my life; hannah coulter by wendell berry and how it brings tears of joy and sorrow, relative to my life's quilt in so many ways and not really but so good. shall i stop?

{coral castles}***

i just decided to sort of experiment for a minute...this past weekend i had the chance:offered or asked to take photos of the band {coral castles} my brother aaron is in. frankly, i was excited about the opportunity and am even more interested to see how the photos are utilized by the band. i thought that sense the photos already seem to be mingling:on the circulation, i'd play for a day and give this great group of guys a shout out. for one, i had a really nice afternoon and thought of the many great photographers before me, those men and women out there shooting up a storm, capturing mind boggling images, and my attempts, the past, present and future. coral castles needed a shoot for posterity, the record will be important. check out more in my coral castles set.

hot cereal:laundry:enron

my exhaustion has no excuse other than the fact that at midnight last evening i was up folding laundry, organizing dresser drawers, contemplating hunger and hot oat bran cereal with soy, stamping cards, and becoming more and more of a skeptic, a "debbie downer", a hermitess of the mind, a cynic and worst of all an independent thinker. awgh. what's more i only have five, count them on one hand, five television channels. all it takes is pbs. i have no cspan, no cnn, no mtv, no hgtv, or bravo. i should say of course that it goes without saying, in every case there are two sides of every story. but my word!!! if it is midnight where you sit, grab a bowl of warm cereal. contemplate with me.

independent lens

enron: the smartest guys in the room: i wouldn't know how to go about convincing you that you should see this film. it is impossible for me to express myself when my adrenline has peaked and the passionate feelings rise to a high of confusion, anger and betrayal. or rather apathy. i know seeing and acknowledging new ideas, new forms of thinking are really important to me.

for instance i just finished reading barbara kingsolvers small wonder. like wendell berry's a gift of the good land and c.s. lewis' mere christianity i wanted to somehow escape and stay simultaneously in the middle of their words. to say i felt overwhelmed by the language, provoked by poignant fields of thought or humbled is an understatement. after completing these books and after watching enron i am beginning to think that questions aren't proactive and if you think doubting or worrying is enough you are most likely deceived. don't get me wrong though i'm usually pretty disgusted and terribly afraid of protests {verbal warfare:gang debating terror} and protesters in the midst of protesting. in my retrospective i see that i have been mindfully swayed by berry, lewis and kingsolvers thoughts on protest, war, television, and politics. my enron independent lens experience of knowledge has grown expedient. i'll leave it at that.

check out: black gold
see it now: still life with animated dogs

and look what my mom found: warm biscuit

by the way: i wasn't a button design winner, maybe next time. have a really nice day my friends.

busy beaver:button design competition

a while back i was doing some button making shopping and discovered a great little website called busy beaver. then one day i was surfing the www and found a link to a button design competition and it just so happened to be sponsered by the cool peeps at busy beaver. i tried to download the template but was unsuccessful, so i submitted my design in a square format thinking myself a royal dork. okay so a little earlier today i was checking my junkmail and found and email about the competition and wahlah!!! my button design appears on their site as an entry!!! neato, right? unfortunately i missed the voting and have to wait one whole day until judges picks are announced. there are some really cute ideas:designs and there will be twenty lucky winners and five honorable mentions. if i happen to win by chance, which would be really cool, i would win 200 FREE buttons with my design on them. this kind of thing would absolutely make my day!!! say a little prayer or whatever you do and i'll update tomorrow. check em: soandso WOOHOO!!!