Painted Pages

This worked so great, clear gesso on plaster pages then scratched on detal, then paint. my favorite out of everything I tried...now for a brief interruption... cookie goodness....
First I had to share a bite of the BEST cookie EVER. We found a new little shop in Santa Monica.

Dark chocolate caramel cookie, made fresh. So good, if you ever thought paying $3 for a cookie was outrageous... Nope, best $3 I have spent in a long time!

Now on to the painted pages, I wanted to try different mediums on my pages, I'm just going for

backgrounds right now. White Gesso, no good

This is raw plaster, no good, soaked right in

Digital white ground, mixed with the paint instead of water, went on really smooth.

Little metal book

Still a work in progress...I got the backside soldered...lots of pages

The pages are dry...not sure if I want to color them before I stitch them into a book

This is how thick it will be if I choose to use ALL the pages. I might just finish it with a few pages so I will have a sample finished as a reminder...decisions decisions.

Stephanie Lee's online class

First I must share last nights beautiful sunset

Our sleeping baby, how he doesn't fall off I'll never understand.

I'm confused, I thought with blogger that the first photo you upload is the last one on the blog, did they change it? Anyway, here is the book cover I made from Stephanie Lee's class. If you haven't taken from her and you have a desire to play with a torch and solder, sign up, she's the best. I made the bezel and filled it up, then a little painting. The pages are drying, cant wait to show you

Last week at the flea Market

It was a beautiful day to go to the Long Beach Flea Market, lots of fun stuff

cute little bottles

Bottles of all colors

What color do you like??? so funny that these are now vintage.

I hid the addresses, but this is what you can do in 2 min. when it is a rush to get it to the postman.
Another lovely weekend coming up, really warm again, in the 90's
Have I mentioned lately how much I'm loving the warmth and sunshine!!

Stress

I'm not a big fan of stress, it got a hold of me this week. Not good. We fired our maintenance guy, he was angry, it is so scarey this day and age, you never know how people are going to react. We did find one guy out of 200 applicants, we hired him today.

We had a major leak in the pipe under our shower, thankfully after 2 hours it was fixed without to much damage. ugh

Stacey had another job interview, 30 min away, now we wait

Stacey and I went out to dinner when we walked in, there was a sign saying Gorden Ramsey had just done his show Kitchen Nightmares. The place was packed, the decor was great, but, there wasn't any vegetarian dishes. we had a couple of appetizers, cant wait to see it on TV, they said it could be from 3 mo to a year before it is shown.

I need to get some crafting in, its driving me crazy

Journal Page

I've slowly been working on this, enjoying the progress. How long does one work on a piece before you say DONE. I don't feel like this is done, but I will move on.
Gesso, Golden fluid acrylics, w/c crayons, oil pastel, pen and ink. I worked on this old ledger page then glued it into my journal.

No Job

Quick update...A sigh of relief. Stacey wont be moving to Novato, yes, we are glad, for a lot of reasons. He wants to hire a couple, which is the biggest issue Stacey is having.
She has an interview next Fri. in Garden Grove. Its funny, now that we thought she might be moving 8 hours away...1 hour is nothing..

Beautiful Mountains

Love going up into the trees, sitting a spell...I need to go back and sit and wait, yep, we are still waiting. No call came in today, not sure what that means.
This is a road that goes up out of Redlands. so beautiful (except for the flat tire we got!)

A Little Stitching and Glue

I didn't know which picture to show...so I'm showing both, I stitched the watercolor paper onto some scrapbook paper then glued it onto the cardboard
Today is the day...does Stacey get to move to Novato, CA or does she stay here and keep looking for an allusive job I'll let you know as soon as we hear!!. "We are just keeping busy...trip to Ikea for more hangers.

ugggg

My boss called at 3:00 today...said he had 2 more people that he promised to interview...but he would still like to make it work with TRACY. I have no idea what he's thinking...but TRACY. I told him her name was STACEY, she gave him her resume, that says STACEY. He paid for the plane ticket that said STACEY...so we laugh and hope he gets it right when he hires her...
We're still waiting, he said he would talk to her tomorrow. I hate waiting!!!

Whats in my Sketchbook

I love fall and painting pumpkins. I also love sketching over it with of bit of ink. Love this sketch pen, noodlers ink...fabulous. Added a bit of splattering.

Staceys Day in San Fransisco

Rainy day in Mill Valley, a trip to Tyler Florence's shop

Love this photo, wheres the water??

She got some great photos from her car window

Love the lines in this photo

She even found a mission

All the sailors were in


She had her job interview, does she have the job???? we wont know for a couple of days.
Does she really want the job? Not really, will she take it, yes. He said he had a couple more people to interview.
If you're new to my blog, my daughter is Stacey, she was flown to San Fransisco to interview for a job as an apartment manager....and we now wait....

Lots and Lots of Furniture

This is a piece of fabric that we got downtown LA

Looks great on the purple chair

And the freebie chair has a silver pad

Look at the sparkle...vinyl for the pad

Head board...first Hammered Iron, then sprayed on "mirror" paint

This is my favorite...this Cabinet Stacey picked up at the Flea Market...it turned out beautiful

Shes had this retro shelf for years, its really functional

We found a guy that goes to storage auctions...he knows the guy that does the "Storage Wars"
He had this in his garage, and delivered it to us for free...It got finished today, I'll show it soon

One of the drawers was made with cedar

Here is the bench that will be at the end of her bed, with the sparkly vinyl

Taking Stacey to the airport tomorrow morning...shes off to her interview and to visit the apt. complex she will be managing. Lucky her, just gets to go to Berkeley and San fran and Los Gatos, she'll fly home late Monday night. We've pretty well got her packed up. We still have no idea when she'll make the actual move. We plan to help her drive the uhaul then fly home...

another update

So busy painting and the emotions, oh my, the emotions. Staceys sweet kitties...I feel they know something is up...they have been so snuggly. The house is going to be so different not having them around. I'm thinking new kitties might be in our future.

Stacey waited and waited all day for a phone call to find out when she was she is suppose to fly off to see where her new home will be, the call never came, then came the doubts...does he really want me for the job?? We took her to dinner in our little town, a lady sitting next to us started talking...

said she was a property manager and need and assistant...what??? She kinda offered Stacey a job about a half an hour away, only thing is, she cant live on site, its for 65 plus. She is also suppose to go on an interview on Fri...when it rains it pours...

I didn't get around to taking pictures today, rent checks all came in today...lots of banking.

We got so much done!

We worked on Staceys stuff ALL day...this plant stand got another coat of silver

Sorry, its blurry, but this bench got a coat of purple

I cant wait to show you this chair tomorrow. We found it along side the road with a FREE sign

it got a coat of paint and new seat

This was a mission style bench, it got a new coat of black paint
This morning we decided she needed a bunch of fabric, foam, batting....
so...we headed downtown LA what fun. She found a great rug
all the fabric she needed. Foam is so cheap, batting $1 a yard

This is the drawer with great handle

This cabinet is so gorgeous...I'll show the finished product tomorrow

I know this is upside down, we started with hammered iron, then spray a mirror finish. beautiful

Silver and black retro table
Its all getting done!!
One more little cabinet and finish the bed frame
more pictures tomorrow!!

Busy Day

It was suppose to rain today. We woke up to sunshine and decided to go to the Pasadena Flea Market. Stacey needs a few things that she had gotten rid of when we moved down here. On this list: new bed, end tables, table and chairs, desk, etc. so that is what we were going to look for.

What started out as a leisure day, turned upside down. She found an end table which was clear on the opposite corner of the parking lot...we paid for it, ran to the car, parked in the street, put it in the trunk. We ran next door to a thrift store...found another end table, tossed it in the back seat.

On the way home we saw a "estate sale" sign...went in, found a queen "mission style" bed frame, she came way down on the price, we ran home, took out our end tables, ran back with two cars, put the headboard on the top of our roof, ran home.

We a really good deal on mattresses at Big Lots the night before

Now the fun began...ran to OSH for spray paint, we pulled all the furniture that she had a started painting...I'll have great photos to share tomorrow

Life

Oh the ups and downs of life. Just popping in to say we've been on a little roller coaster ride.

A few days ago my boss, out of the blue, offers Stacey our daughter a job. Shes been on unemployment and it ran out last week. Jobs are sooo hard to get. The only thing...its 8 hours away. way up there, above San Francisco. He is going to fly her up there, meet with her, then send her out to look at the apartment complex she will be running.Its in Novato, neat little town, close to San Fran and Berkeley. What an adventure!!