today my mother retired.

today was my mother's last day as a first grade teacher. i'm not sure exactly how many years she taught (she took some time off to raise my brother and me) but she loved her job and was very sad to leave. she worked every day from at least 730 until 530 and loved (almost) every minute of it.

since she's so sad about leaving i wanted to do something nice for her (other than the gift certificate the family got her) so i picked up a bottle of wine. there's a joke in the family that when she's had a good day she has a glass of wine with 2 ice cubes in it, when it was a bad day 1 ice cube and when it was a HORRIBLE day she had no ice at all. so considering she no longer has to get up at 530 in the morning to go to school, i made her a very special label for her bottle of wine:

the label is made with crumpled decoracorative paper and rub-on letters.

and this is the card i made her:

it is made with various decorative paper, antique mother of pearl (on the front) and stamps.

some belated father's day cards

a father's day card for william's step father...a big golfer. the text says "say ted, does this stance make my butt look big?"
b&w print on sage green plaid background.

inside a (badly...at w's request) photoshopped gary head on a guy who won the masters (? you know, the golf thingy) and information about his present: a round of golf at the local country club.

molly's card: artwork by molly (crayon on paper) set in cutout of polka dot paper

interior: "happy papa day! i love you!"

anyway, it was a shame we couldn't see his face when he got them, but i figured i'd record them for posterity.

well, it's official: i have made my first sale at my etsy shop (www.mrtweeds.etsy.com, in case you don't know). tukeela mockingbird is finally on her way to north dakota, hopefully to find a happy new home. i must admit i was a bit sad, boxing her up, since i didn't originally make her to sell, but i'm sure she's up for a grand adventure.

since it's been given....

the present: wax, acrylic and antique book page on cotton canvas
the card: paper, ink and pastel
inside: stamped textured paper

i thought i'd share the anniversary present i made for the magowans....it was their 2nd anniversary and the traditional gift is cotton (i think...god, i hope so, at this point...) so i painted a church on a lovely little canvas (thus the cotton aspect of the gift).

i think it turned out pretty well...i was happy with it for the most part, anyway. i didn't realize it while i was doing it, but i like how the clouds turned out to look like wings. they were a bit of an experiment, actually, because i didn't use any paint in them, i just used the build up of wax.

i know the texture etc doesn't come across in photos, but i do like the look/feel of the wax. it adds a very translucent quality to it.

it was kind of weird to give it to them since it's the first time i've ever given a piece of art art to someone other than william. william doesn't count...i'm basically the grown up spouse equivilant of molly: he has to like it because i made it. signs and stuff are one thing because i know whether or not i made the lettering well, but something that's much more subjective than this makes me nervous and less sure of myself.

anyway, that is the magowan anniversary present...i must admit i chuckeled a little bit when we thought up that this could be their "cotton" because now they have to find wall space to hang one more thing! o well...i wish them luck with that. i'm still looking for a good spot to hang the one i did for william, never mind a frame!

pretty flowers...what to do?

these are some photos from my garden (as if you couldn't figure that out on your own...). i've become interested in close-up images of flowers lately. i'm not sure what i'm going to do with them. of course i had the idea of just putting them in a series of frames, which i think would be pretty but in the end is kind of expected and boring.

i really like the photo of the leaf...the light and shadow is neat. it needs to be cropped a little bit, but wouldn't that be cool all blown up into a huge photo? the resolution of my camera isn't that good, but sometimes i actually prefer the graininess.

anyway, those are some things i'm thinking about today. blow them up and use them as background for a scrapbook page? cover a book (garden journal)? repeat the images and paste them on a plain wooden box, use them as a wallpaper border? or...just let them rest in my pictures folder for eternity...

happy anniversary to k_bo and the magowan man!

well, i've been fiddling around a bit more on the blog and i'm getting it closer to where i want it to be.

i've decided that i need to start a list of projects that i'd like to complete (ideally) while i'm on summer break. one big one is a scrapbook for the past year, especially considering i haven't scrapped a single page for anything that's happened since molly's birthday. whoops. but i have to order photos first, then (considering how many supplies i have) i should be able to at least make a dent.

after that, who knows? i'd like to continue to get some painting done, as well as some random crafting...i like some of the stuff i've been doing, but i need to find motivation/time to get some more accomplished. i've decided that i need to make all that more of a priority.

that's about all i have to say at the moment...i'm going to try to post a picture of something i worked on over the weekend, but not tonight.