Bailey Drawing

Transplanting from the North to teach in the south means a lot of unnecessary snow days.  This is how I spent my snow day today:

Bailey, oil pastel on paper, 9 x 12″, 2011.

This drawing is of a friend’s miniature Yorkie and is a (very) belated birthday present.  This has to be my favorite pet drawing to date – it captures her squirrely attitude perfectly.

Bailey sitting next to her drawing.  

Frog collage

Happy New Year!  This artwork was supposed be finished in time for Christmas for my friend, Julie, but I guess it will now be a Happy New Year artwork.  I found this fun frame at TJ Maxx at the same time I found the red frame Lauren’s Day of the Dead collage.  She is a huge fan of green so I built the artwork around the frame.  I thought she may be able to use this as art in her little boys’ bathroom.  This may be new territory I am getting into here: children’s art.

 Frog on Lily Pad, collage on paper, 5 x 7″, 2010.

Tree collage

Summer Tree, collage on paper, 8 x10″, 2010. 
I completed this tree collage for my in-laws for a Christmas present.  We had seen beautiful quilting work at an arts & crafts show in Winston-Salem, NC in November that was the inspiration for this tree collage.  I think my next step may have to be to attempt to quilt with paper on my sewing machine.  I am not sure of the outcome but it would be an interesting experiment. 

Strawberry Collage

Strawberries & Sugar, collage on paper, 2010.
One of my stronger early memories in life is of visiting my Grandparents in Billings, Montana.  The climate and weather was so different than the Midwest and the day-long drive from Minneapolis was like traveling to a different world as a young child.  When we arrived in Minneapolis my parents would often hand us over to our grandparents so they could sleep, go skiing, hike, or just catch a break.  
Some of the memories that stand out for me are watering the tomato plants and watching huge thunderstorms roll in off the not so distant mountains; watching the water rush through the irrigation ditches in the backyard; making peach ice cream with my Papa; feeding carrots to the horses across the way; visiting bluffs with petroglyphs carved in their sides; visiting a museum with a stuffed two-headed calf; chasing robins out of my grandparents’ cherry tree; visiting my grandmother at her work as a dietitian and playing with her rubber food samples; and eating strawberries dipped in sugar.  This sugar and strawberries combination was one of the more decadent things we were allowed to do in grandparents’ care.  This collage is just a small slice of those memories from Billings.  My grandmother’s birthday is Christmas Day and this is to be her birthday gift.  

New couch and new pillows

Eric and I bought a new couch from a local store called Area, about a month ago but it only showed up last week.  It is the most adult-like piece of furniture we own, also one of the few brand-new, never been used pieces of furniture.  We opted for a neutral gray/brown color that would mask animal fur.  We chose a tightly woven fabric that would hopefully deter cat claws and we chose a nice slim, modern design that would fit our small living room.  We lost a little bit of napping space but lost no sitting space. 

 See what I mean about the color?
The one downside to losing out last couch was also losing the pillows.  Yesterday I headed out to JoAnn Fabrics for their sales and found three great pillows for 50% off.  I love that they are bamboo filled – it makes them much firmer and I think they will stand up to many more naps. 

I have been sitting on some wonderful prints since my trip to Minneapolis last month.  Somehow, my innate color matching skills worked out wonderfully and the prints I chose work perfectly with the new couch’s color.  A friend of mine took me to Crafty Planet where I picked up some these unique prints. 

The first pillow I made has a flap and button closure using a piece of black ribbon.  The buttons I also found at JoAnn’s – I picked them because they are made from recycled plastic. 

 
First finished pillow.
Recycled plastic button.
Second finished pillow, bike print, front. 
Bike pillow, back, with a simple flap closure.  
Now I just need to decide what to make with the Be a Man print fabric.  Perhaps an apron?

My Annual Black Friday Boycott

Today I am celebrating National Buy Nothing Day.  A great thanks to adbusters for this image.  

Black Friday
The day when retailers move back into the black and out the red by consumers lured by cheap video games, door busters, and chintzy things that have been overpriced all year.  Black Friday, the dreaded shopping holiday in America that follows the massive eating holiday.  We may as well be on a consuming frenzy.  When my husband started working in retail five years ago I began to boycott Black Friday, although before that I had only been out once on Black Friday in the past.  What I saw was not pretty.  My sister and I ventured into the scary land of Walmart, which I will admit is something I have only done a couple times in my life.  While searching for a parking spot, we actually saw a car cut in front of a van and steal a parking spot.  People in the van spilled out, running up to the car, knocking on windows and yelling obscenities.  It was the perfect example of why not to shop on Black Friday.

Take any of these reasons to avoid the stores and malls on Black Friday:

  • 66% of consumers said they shopped for themselves on Black Friday, according to Consumer Reports.  
  • In 2009, Black Friday was the busiest shopping day of the year, but not the day with the most sales. That honor would go to the Saturday before Christmas, according to the U.S. News & World Report.
  • People are getting up earlier and earlier to shop.  
    • Stores open on Thanksgiving Day: CVS, Kmart (6 am), Michael’s, Sear’s (7 am), Walgreen’s (9 am), Gander Mountain (9 am),Toy R Us (10 pm)
    • Stores open at 12 am: Old Navy
    • Stores open at 3 am: Kohl’s
    • Stores open at 4 am: Macy’s, Target, Belk, JCPenney
    • Stores open at 5 am:  Best Buy, Cabela’s, Sam’s Club

So if the store opens at say 3 am, what time do you think the employees are there preparing for the mad rush of Black Friday?  Is this how you would want to spend the day after Thanksgiving, ringing up frantic shoppers?  Not to mention meltdowns, rude behavior, and demanding attitudes from consumers.

Consumers Behaving Poorly

  • The worst was in 2008 when an estimated throng of 2,000 Walmart shoppers in Valley Steam, N.Y. — who were waiting for such bargains as a 42-inch LCD HDTV for $598 — broke through the doors, knocked over temporary store worker Jdimytai Damour and trampled him to death just before the Long Island store’s scheduled opening time of 5 a.m. When told they had to leave because of the incident, some shoppers complained, one even saying, “I’ve been on line since yesterday morning!”  

  • Shortly after midnight on BF 2006, an estimated 15,000 shoppers jammed Fashion Place Mall in Murray, Utah. Nine fights were reported. Police arrived to find customers ransacking stores and overturning piles of clothes. Some clerks panicked at the crowds and quickly closed their stores. “It’s like a mosh pit,” a shopper told The New York Times. 

  • Eight shoppers at Gurnee Mills Mall outside Chicago were arrested on Black Friday 2009 for engaging in “mob action” and damaging kiosks. Four fights were reported between 1 and 3 a.m.  

  • A Toys R Us manager in Missouri was thrown against a window after opening his store at midnight on Black Friday 2009. “A guy punched a woman in the head,” he told the Columbia (Mo.) Daily Tribune. “He didn’t get to come in.” The woman refused medical treatment, and the man was not arrested. 

  • Late arrivals to a toy store’s event last year in Memphis tried to bum-rush the line. A fracas ensued, in which one customer emptied her can of pepper spray. A Taser was brandished. The late arrivals at the store reportedly laughed at the one police officer patrolling the scene, telling him that one policeman wouldn’t stop them.  (Nov. 15, 2010, from John Campanelli, The Plain Dealer, http://www.cleveland.com/pdq/index.ssf/2010/11/black_friday_lore_and_statisti.html)    

What to do instead of Black Friday
If you are feeling that primitive need to hunt and gather good deals, I suggest making your own gifts at home.  You don’t have to be incredibly crafty to master the homemade gift.  Baked goods are also a great gift that is relatively cheap to create.  A few great resources for making your own gifts are:

Other alternatives to buying Black Friday – donate to charities, shop local, support local artists and check out etsy.  For more information, click here for a reading on the psychology of Black Friday from Live Science.com. 

Lauren’s birthday print – Day of the Dead

 Skeleton Woman in Purple Chair, collage on paper, 2010.

My long(est) time friend, Lauren expressed interest in a Day of the Dead collage for her birthday.  This photograph is the finished product.  The frame was a perfect find – as soon as I saw it I knew that Lauren had to have it and so began to build an artwork around the frame. 

brightest free chair yet

What do you do with a broken rocking chair found by the road on trash day?  Transform it of course!

 Before.  
We removed all the rotted caning.  
First coat of paint.  
The new seat is made from blue webbing.
I used a lighter to melt the ends of the webbing.  
Eric wove the webbing for the seat.  
Finished front side of the seat.  
Back of the finished seat.
Eric testing the strength of his weaving. 
Last coat of orange paint and the seat is installed.  
The finished chair with black and blue webbing for the backing.