Yay! The Shoes Are Back - and Do They Have Stories!

MY black Dansko clogs are back home where they belong and Katrina's shoes are with her. At yoga tonight we exchanged stories of where they had been.
My shoes went on MAX light rail to her house - a journey they didn't expect - where they waited patiently while she cared for her cat that had just been spayed. (They must have felt honored to be in the company of such a responsible pet owner.)
Then the shoes kept her company as she started a new book, "The Wicked Lover." I read the first page on Amazon - and my, oh, my! Sounds like a great bodice ripper to me. If only my shoes could read. Well, one thing at a time.
During yoga the shoes must be placed in a rack outside the room since the floors are soft, cushiony jigsaw puzzle pieces made only for walking barefoot and laying on. So I'm sure Katrina's clogs and my clogs had a good chat. I'm not sure my clogs care for cats, but I didn't mention that to her.
Her clogs may not have cared for the restroom in the Chinese restaurant, where I took them. Oh, well! Cest la vie. It's good to have your own shoes back - ones that fit just right. Katrina said mine were a little too tight. I found her left foot is bigger than the right - or the shoe is, anyway. We both agreed, however, they are comfortable shoes.
Here is something I found today while trying to round up some order in our home office. It's a strip of self-portrait photos I took in about 1988. I scanned them in from a contact sheet that I made when I was doing a lot of photography and had my own enlarger and darkroom, aka my bathroom. Enjoy - femminismo

How Did I Miss Yesterday?

SATURDAY slipped through my grasp without a post! What must my legions of fans have thought? Sorry about that. I'll try not to do it again. But I was busy knitting - I've finished the scarf I'm giving away on January 5. Check posts below for more information or respond to this one with a comment if you'd like to have a chance to win it.
I've started a new altered book art journal. It is a huge, huge, huge book on Beethoven. Did I mention the book is BIG? I will have to glue many pages together because if I attach something to every page I will need power equipment to lift it when it's finished. This book may last me through spring. (This page is my attempt at a portrait. I am not skilled at this. It ended up looking like Beethoven!! Maybe the hair is a bit shorter than his was. But it's also a self-portrait of me. I added more curls and then Catherine Zeta Jones' mouth. She has nice teeth, doesn't she? Also included is the Christmas/New Year card I received from Candace, my pal in Athens, Ga. Thanks, pal!)
I've also been doing a lot of "window blogging," going through other people's blog lists or following people who've commented on others' blogs. That's always a great way to kill an afternoon or evening - or both! I found the most beautiful tree on someone's site, and copied it. - confession time - I think it will relate beautifully to Valentine's Day, which I am so looking forward to.
Today I will do something I am not looking forward to. I think I am going to crawl under our house. The Mister can not do this because of his knee surgery in November. It is dark and dirty under there. He has teased me that I can carry bread crumbs with me to tame the animals who live down under there. All of this is because of heating problems. We need to check the heating ducts and we seem to be a "do-it-yourself" sort of a couple. (Or one of us is, anyway.) Wish me luck - femminismo

What Was I Saying About Regular Posting?

YES, what was that, anyway?
Okay, okay, here I am. It's after 10 p.m. and I've got dried gesso on my fingertips, but I'll tell you what's been going on.
Work, art, cooking and admiring the moon - and some other stuff.
I left a copy of "The Lovely Bones," by Alice Sebold, in JoAnn's inbox on Tuesday. I hope she gets a chance to read it. A book with the words "I was fourteen when I was murdered" in the first paragraph doesn't sound promising or credible, but if you've read it you'll know why I've recommended it to my friend. We both loooooovvve books of all sorts and I've been busy cleaning up my library shelves and going through lots of old memories. Some of the books took me back in time and I could remember the exact year I read them - where I was and what I was doing. Amazing!
On Wednesday, Sandi (a coworker) invited a few of us over to her house for lunch. She has a cozy home and is such a gracious hostess. Her house is all decorated for Christmas and I had to share this picture of her Christmas village, with its own very special touch, care of her son, Sam. (Those teenagers! He's got a good sense of humor don'cha think?)
Tonight was grocery shopping night for me and I went into some kind of holiday frenzy and bought up anything that had high levels of either fat, sugar or both. Some of these ingredients will be in the same homemade product - cookie or candy. Choose yer pizzen. (I've been re-reading "Lonesome Dove" by Larry McMurtry.)
I want to make fudge, I want to make shortbread, I want to make chocolate drizzled cookies. I even bought (gasp!) lard to make bizcochitos, a traditional New Mexico cookie flavored with anise seed. Yes, it's true, I've officially gone crazy. Will I have time for all this? Who knows. But I can try. I took the picture of the moon - I didn't even see the plane - on my way home from shopping.
In between dinner and posting I worked in my altered book journal. I have been trying layers of tissue paper, gesso, a doily, some paper collage and this is what I came up with. I didn't touch the page on the left, but the lady with the terrifically original word, "dream," is all mine. I like the little pyramid, cut from a book, at the bottom.
I think the Chinese characters say "rubbish," but I'm not sure. What I would like them to say is, "Bachelor No. 1, which do you think I would rather have rubbed on my back: lavender scented oil or melted chocolate?" Can you guess, dear reader? - femminismo

Twinchies and Journal Pages.

WORDS (Nanowrimo words) fall by the wayside as I concentrate on housework, "twinchies" (2-inch squares) for SoulJournal and altering a book on the Greeks so it can become my latest journal.
Actually I have about 12,000 words for Nanowrimo, so I'm feeling good about that. Good about the word count, but not the story quality. : ( Right now, however, it's the word count that counts.
For those who would like the encouragement of working on journal pages with others - and thereby actually getting something done because of peer pressure - go to www.collagediva. com and join the Yahoo group. You'll soon be up to your elbows in glue, paint and glitter, I'll bet.
Our SoulJournal group is making 2-inch square collaged bits that will become what you see when you open up a "door" a day on an Advent calendar. I've never made one before. Someone in the group had the idea we put little sliding matchboxes behind the calendar so they could be opened and have a treat inside. The picture would be on the outside of the matchbox cover. This is a wonderful idea. A small piece of chocolate every night will help me prevail and not eat all of the cookies I plan to bake and freeze.
I like the journal page quote above, from what a wandering Greek sage (traditionally the great Athenian lawgiver, Solon) allegedly told Croesus, who was then said to be the richest man on earth. Wealth and power can disappear overnight - "and the sum of a man's good fortune can never be known until his days have ended."
Here is a photo of my two twinchies, which represent "the present" and "relationship." And here is a photo I took on Saturday, when it poured like there was no tomorrow. I guess this sunset was trying to make up for our drippy trees and torrential rainfall - femminismo
p.s. I was so glad to see Judy Wise posted something. I forgot she was going to Mexico and I got worried about her. It's not like her to go so long between posts. It looks like she had a wonderful time!

It's A Dizzy Day ... But It Will End.

VERTIGO, thy name is "Irritating"!
Eye Candy (Candace) had a good question: Where am I going with those last two pages I posted? I didn't know until I came home from work today with an episode of vertigo. (The vertigo began at work around 2 p.m. I don't know what brought it on. I was fine earlier, but then I almost ran into a door frame. I was walking fairly straight, but it felt as if my body was veering left - a very odd sensation to walk in one direction but feel as if you're moving in another!)
So I came home and got out my altered book journal. Those little blobs of paint on my two gooped-up journal pages gave me something to concentrate on so as to ignore the whirling sensations.
As I started catching up on my journal entries and then came to the two pages of blobs, I just let doodling take over. Now I know how Eric Carle got his inspiration for "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." My little blobs looked more like space men - and a few bugs.
The next page I kept on with the free association wondering what would happen - what would come out of my brain.
Turned out if was pretty empty, so I wrote that down. (Grasping at straws here.)

The next pages I got more ambitious, but I didn't take photos of those. I first wanted to post something today before I forget and also let anyone who'd like to join me know that I'm taking a Nepalese batik painting workshop from Lark Brandt on Saturday, Sept. 27. We will use handmade Nepalese daphne paper and use wax, water-based paints and ink for "vivid effects." These works can be framed under glass or encased in fiberglass to make transparent weatherproof garden and window hangings or privacy screens. The workshop is 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and costs $60 for Valley Art members; $75 non-members. You get most supplies. For beginning or advanced students - over 17 (that's me).
Here is an example of Lark's technique (painted by Sue Orlaske, a La Grande, Ore., artist).. It sounds like fun and it looks like the kind of art where mistakes can be part of the greatness of the work. Please let me know if you can join our class in Forest Grove - femminismo