Snow Artist

The sun was perfect this morning to capture my dog's "angel" art. Almost every day he rolls in the snow and I think he likes the way it amuses me.

Warped

After hours of study, trial and error, I finally got the little loom warped. It involved several battles with tangled piles of string and/or yarn on the floor, and memories of my mom and dad concentrating hard on warping her large, four (I think) harness loom. I learned a lot about what I don't know about. And because of that the weaving is wonky. But I'm telling myself "this is how we learn."

Quote from The Friendly Persuasion

Forced to rest my arms and hands. My shoulder joints are crying from I'm not sure what. Hunching them up too much in the cold weather? Too much knitting? Too much gazing at the computer screen and/or typing? Fibromyalgia? Even reading can make my body hurt. Hard to find a balance between rest and activity.

This 1940's Quaker quote from The Friendly Persuasion by Jessamyn West, made me smile:

"Spring's a various season ... no two years the same: comes in with rains, mud deep enough to swallow horse and rider; comes in cold, snow falling so fast it weaves a web; comes in with a warm wind blowing about thy ears and bringing a smell of something flowering, not here, but southaways, across the Ohio, maybe in Kentucky. Nothing here now but a smell of melting snow - which is no smell at all but a kind of prickle in the nose like a bygone sneeze. Comes in so various, winter put by and always so welcome."

For me, the bright clear song of a cardinal in the very tip-top of a bare tree on a Februrary morning says winter is about to move on.

Rabbit Art

Yesterday was a sweatshirt day with sun and fresh breezes. I decided to take the opporutunity to photograph the rabbit head sculptures in the Haymarket district of Council Bluffs IA. Created by Deborah Masouka who lives in Omaha NE are 8 feet tall and made of bronze, but her usual medium is clay. Masouka says of her work, "My personal style tends to be direct and honest, and I like to make things that have a simple shape and multiple meanings."

Black Bird

Just when I was getting into cleaning up the table, I ran into the black bird stamp. . . and out came all the stuff again. . .and what fun I had.

Arthitis Tx

Here is my Handsome Dog, giving himself an arthritis treatment, I think, following his daily exercise. After resting for a time, he will roll over and create a doggy angel in the snow and perhaps freshen up his coat for the day. I couldn't get a picture of the angel.

Ready Art Journal

First I made a cover out of previously crafted fabric paper. Then I added some stamps and a woven pocket for some tidbits, along with a title page made of elephant dung. Then I tore, painted, stamped and glued to some pages and sewed the whole thing together with a string and a button around it. Now it is waiting for the story. What story shall I tell it?

Junco

On the table on the porch just outside my window the birds have found the seeds I placed there for them. Hello there. Are you as happy for the sun as I am?

Sun

Sun, glorious sun!