The Dog Ate My Homework

I tried to explain to my drawing teacher at class last night why I didn't do my homework but it's hard to explain.  In the end, I took the blame, said I just hadn't had time, was sick with a cold, busy at work, wasn't feeling motivated, etc.

In reality, it's not entirely my fault but I wasn't sure she would believe me if I said a kitten sat on my paper

Tried to steal/eat my eraser.

Stole my pencil and wouldn't get out of my face.

Maybe I should have tried telling her, "the dog ate my homework!"

Junction Flea - October

Here are some photos from the outdoor flea market held in the Junction (Keele and Dundas Street West area of Toronto) yesterday.  Luckily, the early morning rain and fog cleared up and by 10 a.m., it was just cloudy but quite mild, perfect weather for a little outdoor vintage shopping!

I was tempted by this metal picnic basket, as I'd never seen one in these colours before. Usually they are plaid or ugly brown like the one to the right in the picture.  In the end, I resisted the urge to buy it.

This woman's display was so beautiful and so summer-like!  She was selling blooms using old glass bottles for vases.

Coriander Girl

I was intrigued by this piece of folk art.  A rooster decorated with painted nails.  Hmm.

I found this inscription on the inside of a book called "Mr. Punch's History of the Great War", circa 1919.  It gave me a bit of a start to see what I thought was my last name, spelled slightly differently, although I see now it might be "Fauvettes" and not "Fawcettes", inside an old book.

There were several older typewriters available.

These pieces of glass block had been removed from the floor in the entranceway of a store in the neighbourhood. The vendor told me they were often installed in a floor to allow light into the basement level.  I was amazed by their colour, they seem to glow, don't they?

All in all, another good flea market Sunday in the Junction. I'm told they are looking for an inside venue for upcoming months, which would be great.  You can follow their blog here.

A Wedding In Italy

A friend of mine from work is being married today in Rome.  Doesn't that sound romantic?  About 65 friends and family are joining the bride and groom in the Eternal City for the festivities.

I made a little journal for her, using some of the vintage photos from my collection (click on any photo to enlarge it if you'd like a closer look at any of the pages):

The photo on the left is of a building in Rome
that is known as "the wedding cake"!

"We love because it's the only true adventure." Nikki Giovanni

Best wishes, Kathy and John, for a long and happy married life together!

A Quiet Saturday

I've had a cold all week so I've been feeling pretty weary physically after dragging my sorry a** to the office every day.  Decided I would stay home today and just have a quiet day.  Got up and had a shower as usual but then put my pyjamas back on and took things easy.  Ignored my "to do" list.  I made some art, read a book, took a nap, cuddled kittens, watched "The Shawshank Redemption".  I hadn't seen it for a few years, I love listening to Morgan Freeman's voice, loved the story as much as I did the first time I read it in a collection of short stories by Stephen King.  Seeing the movie again makes me want to read the story again, I shall have to pull that book off my shelf and at it to my "to be read next" pile.

Speaking of books, I made myself a bookmark out of a tag yesterday for volume 4 of the "A Song of Fire and Ice" series by George R. R. Martin, which is called "A Feast For Crows".  Because of the title, I wanted a crow to put on the bookmark and decided to carve a rubber stamp for myself. 

I quite like how it turned out, except that at 1.5 inches square, it ended up being too big for the tag.  Oops!  So instead I used a store bought stamp that had a flock of flying black birds on it, which worked out just fine.

Hope your Saturday was equally enjoyable!

Fall Sunrises

We've had a couple of stunning sunrises this week, did you see them?

First on Tuesday

and then again on Wednesday:

My grandmother always used to say "Red in the morning, sailor's warning. Red at night, sailor's delight."  These pink and orange mornings didn't seem to bring any weather to worry about, although it was cloudy and grey for some of the time and there was a random shower or two but nothing to constitute a "warning".  Still, they were awfully pretty!

Dressed to the Nines

Okay, I said this week's art wasn't going to be all about collage so I played with paint today as well.

Started with this page in a book I call my "Leftover Journal" - every time I have paint or spray or what have you left over, I add it to a page in this book.  So I already had a bit of a background in place when I started today's art making.

I stuck my hand in my "images" box without looking and pulled out this lady in a frame (from a free collage sheet provided by Retro Cafe Art Gallery).

I opened a magazine to a random page and found these three ladies, two of whom lost their heads when I ripped out the page.  I ended up using just the body of the one on the right and reattaching the head of the middle lady so I could use her on my journal page.

Ha ha! I see the placemat underneath this photo
makes it look like the middle lady has a paper
bag over her face!

I thought I was being quite clever when I sliced an opening at the bottom of the lady's photo to slide the red dress in under the frame - pat on the back to me for that idea!  I then smudged several colours of paint (green, gold and red, to coordinate with the colours in the border of the framed lady) around the border of the page to unify things (thank you, Judy Wise, for that idea!) as well as painting over a stencil in the middle area, both with a brush and with a paint dabber. The stenciled image isn't quite as clear as I might have liked - I wanted to have the number nine there because of the caption "dressed to the nines" - but I can live with it.  I thought I was done but then I decided to doodle a little frame around the picture on the left, to balance it with the larger, heavier frame around the woman on the right.  Here is my finished page:

Artober - Week 2

I've been making art every day this month as part of Traci Bunkers' "30 Days of Getting Your Art On" challenge and here are my results for the past week:

Thurs Oct 4 - if you didn't see this post last week, you can scroll back or click here.

Friday Oct 5 - discovered Pam Thorburn's video on YouTube as I blogged about here.

Saturday Oct 6 - another 15 minute collage page.

Sunday Oct 7 - I can't get enough of these pages!

Monday Oct 8 - yet another collage page, this time using the images on the packaging of a Julie Balzer stencil from Crafters Workshop (it was so colourful, I didn't want to throw it out!) and I also started on my journal page for the Journal Junkies meeting the next day.

 

Tuesday Oct 9 - finished my "Obsessions" journal page (see yesterday's post) and I also made a little collage using the rubber postal stamps I picked up at an antique store on the weekend.

Eight rubber stamps and two spare handles on a Standard brand holder. Score!

Wed Oct 10 - Seriously, I can't get enough of these little collaged journal pages! (Thank you again, Pam!!)  I was in a black and white mood today and craving a little George.

Check out the art Traci is making here and tune in next Wednesday to see what I make between now and then. And yes, I am going to do something artful other than collage, I promise!