Archive for July, 2009

Ripe for the pickin’

Published
by
robayre
on July 29, 2009
in General Update and life
. 5 Comments


I think this tomato has a date with some fresh mozzarella for a caprese salad in my tummy very soon.

This snap pea needs some friends. When I started planting seeds for all of my garden plants this spring I said I would be happy and it would be a success if I got just ONE single zucchini, tomato, pumpkin, pea pod, etc.). I think my garden is kind of holding me to that.

Here is a pumpkin, isn’t it cute? And next to it, the world’s oldest cell phone still in use, isn’t it sad?

Now, I’m off to the porch swing where I will be working on my latest yoyo project.

I hope you can read my chicken scratch

Published
by
robayre
on July 24, 2009
in General Update
. 2 Comments

Lettuce Entertain You

Published
by
robayre
on July 22, 2009
in General Update, etsy and life
. 2 Comments

So my container garden is growing splendidly.

I only have the two tomatoes still and they are just starting to head towards orange. My lettuce, well, they look like lettuce. They taste like poison, but they look like lettuce. My sister in law warned me about this, apparently they get bitter once it gets warm. Note taken. My zucchini is looking and tasting like zucchini. In a proud triumph, I made zucchini bread from my own hand grown zucchini (grown from seed, mind you) and it tasted yumm, to umm. Lastly, pictured above…it is what I assume to be one of my first potential pumpkins. They are vining out of their containers and onto the patio.

My hibiscus has been blooming like crazy for the last month as well. It just rained when I went out to take these pictures so everything is a bit dewy looking.

And because I love dying hibiscus just about as much as I love blooming hibiscus, here is this beauty for you.


And, if you love the wilting hibiscus blossom as much as I do, you might like a copy of this image hanging in your home, available in my etsy shop.

Thank you Bumblesea

Published
by
robayre
on July 20, 2009
in Artists, Cool Links, Coverage, General Update and Projects
. 1 Comment

Have you seen the breathtaking jewelry of Bumblesea? I know I’ve spent time gazing longingly at Jennifer’s work, dreaming of rewarding myself (for who knows what) by purchasing one of her lovely pieces.

Then, can you imagine my surprise and delight when I discovered the other day that she featured my work on her own personal blog. I was absolutely thrilled. I think she must be a kindred spirit as she said she has wanted a room with fake plastic grass (rather than carpeting) since she was a child, and she apparently hates Metallica (according to her bio blurb). Well, Jennifer, I’ve never had a fake grass carpeted room, but I incorporated the stuff into almost every art class I took in college. And as for Metallica, well, I went to a music festival once where they headlined and I made sure to exit well before they came on because I loathe them sooooo much.

Not only did she feature me, but then the next day she used one of my paintings to illustrate her post. I feel loved.

Thank you so much Jennifer, you made my day!

And since she asked about my ecosphere. It’s still going well. I think most of the tiny water flea-like things have perished, but the snails, and the brine shrimp-like creatures are thriving. I don’t know if it is just me, but the plant’s roots seem to have grown deeper as well.

The thing that is so cool about the ecosphere is that, although it is just a jar, each and every time I sit down and begin gazing long enough I discover new life. For example, just now I discovered an almost microscopic, white creature, with what looked like it had a shell, but was swimming around freely. How cool, huh?

Daily Artwork Project

Published
by
robayre
on July 19, 2009
in General Update, My Artwork, Projects, etsy and goals
. 8 Comments

It’s over halfway through the year now and I’m looking at my 2009 list and trying to make sure that I continue to cross things off and stay on track. One big project that has been dangling in front of me, has been my desire to do a month long project. Meaning, I would do a new piece every day for a month and post it to my etsy shop.

Last year I was so inspired by artists who can make a living by creating a piece every single day. Whether it be a painting, a drawing, a collage or print, etc., I love the idea that someone can be so prolific and dedicated, thus offering a variety of amazing original pieces at affordable prices. I wish I had the stick-to-it-ivness to do something every day for a whole year, but I’m not there yet, as noted by my failure in follow through of the page a day book of 2008.

Today I am declaring that August will be my Piece-A-Day Month. The piece at the top of this post was me trying to feel out my plans with the media and materials. Right now the plan is that the pieces will be similar to my page-a-day pieces, examples seen below.

In other words they will be quick (meaning created daily), impromptu, mixed media pieces. Instead of being a page in a book, each piece will be created on a 9″x9″ 140 lb. coldpress watercolor paper, with the image area being 5×5. Tada! Perfect to fit into an Ikea ribba frame with matte :) I work a full time job, so I am going to limit the project to Monday through Friday. Everyone needs a weekend right? Each piece will then be added to my etsy shop and offered at a very  affordable cost. If you are feeling inspired, I would love to invite others to join in and also do a piece every day in August.  Let me know, I’d love to follow your month as well.

white on white framed yo-yo set

Published
by
robayre
on July 13, 2009
in General Update and etsy
. 2 Comments

I’ve finally finished this yo-yo set that I’ve been working on for an eternity. If you recall, I got the idea after finding two of these charming, pre-loved white frames at the secondhand shop. Naturally, I thought of making one set from entirely white fabric.

It’s a lot larger than the normal framed yo-yo sets, and is now available in my shop. 9×9=81 whole yo-yos, hand-sewn by yours truly.

I love, love, love home decor that uses mostly white, with the sparse and purposeful splash of bright colors. When I made this piece I guess I was inspired by that kind of a home.

Ecosphere

Published
by
robayre
on July 11, 2009
in General Update
. 3 Comments

Yesterday started out raining with predictions via weather channel that it would stay that way all day. In the afternoon it started clearing up and by early evening it was perfect outside.

I decided it would be a great day to visit my secret place and to even mark off one more thing on my 2009 List. I grabbed some books (reading and sketchbook), an IKEA jar and my camera. Once I got there the water was pretty high and I couldn’t clearly see the bottom, probably due to the rain earlier in the day.. After spending some time enjoying my surroundings and then reading, I got my jar out. I gathered a little bit of water from here and there.

Last winter I was very inspired to create my own ecosphere after doing some research online here and there. When I went back to reread some of the same information I was sad to see that most of the articles had been removed.

I DID NOT PLAN the song that is playing in the background! When I watched the video the first time I was cracking up that first lyrics you hear just happen to be “I am an american aquarium drinker”. That was not planned, but how perfect? Let me just state clearly that I am not an american aquarium drinker nor do I encourage such behavior, lol.When I gathered the water, I wanted to get a lot of life, so I scooped real deep and still found the water to be mostly clear. It took a few attempts of gathering some here and there.

When I had my final collection I was a bit dissapointed, thinking that it didn’t seem like I would have much of a chance of finding life in my jar. Upon closer examination I was quite surprised. I have at least 3 snails, at least one little brine shrimp-like creature, some worm-like swimmers, and plenty of little bugs that are probably water fleas.

This morning when I woke up and looked at the jar more, I saw a snail has laid eggs on the side of the jar. I immediately recognized from my own old fishtanks.

Now I need to do research again to figure out where I should keep this (full, partial or no sunlight), if I should empty out more water (there doesn’t seem to be lots of air space at the top) and if I should make sure to keep it closed permanently (as long as it’s still going) or if occasionally opening it will do no harm.

Still alive

Published
by
robayre
on July 9, 2009
in General Update and life
. 3 Comments

Yes, I’m still alive and kicking.

Some things I’ve been up to:
-reading, reading, reading (blogs, books, etc.)
-going to lots of different functions (family reunion, wedding, 4th of july, etc.)
-matt’s birthday was last Friday, so we went out to eat several times, and we’re going out with his family tonight
-doing a little bit of playful sketching, and ink drawing on a larger secret project
-plenty of lying around (partially because of the hot summer and partially because of the sprained ankle)

Really, I didn’t have anything really important to share, just thought I’d drop by to say “hey”. Please check my twitter for more frequent tiny updates and linky goodness :)

Until next time…

* edit* after posting this I noticed that the address had a “2″ after the title, which led me to find this earlier post from a few years ago. I especially enjoy the quote from Matt about drinks needing to be drinkie not eatie. AND uh-oh, probably the first mention of making my art themed geocache. Good thing I put it on my list of things to get done this year, otherwise who knows how many years later I’d still be talking about doing it.