Not All Rabbit's Feet Are Lucky

This week's Creative Cue is FOOT. I thought I would post a picture of a lucky rabbit's foot, or two.

Those are Weasley's feet, proportionally the largest (and hairiest) feet in the house. The Satin shine is really glowing in this picture. I always think that he and Ginny look like they are walking on marshmallows. Anyone want to clip those nails for me?

Ginny's feet are a little less lucky, although they are at least still attached, so that counts for something. See the dark spot on the left heel?

She had to go to the vet on Monday, for a check on another one of her lumps. She thumped during the entire car ride to the vet. When I pulled her out of the carrier, there was blood all over. She had another lump on her heel, and the thumping had split it open! So, we added yet more medicine to our growing bunny apothecary, and the foot is healing up nicely.



Weasley

Weasley says since I disturbed his nap, I should at least put something in his dish. His wish is my command. But you knew that already.

Remember Creative Cues?

Well, I haven't done one of these in a long time, but this week's Creative Cue over at Three Creative Studios is the word TEXTURE, and that got me thinking. At first I thought I might just post pictures of the bunnies, but unless you are on the wrong side of the toenails, the only texture there is soft. So instead, I decided to post some photos of textures I saw on my walk this morning.

The stone wall in front of one house provided this texture.

And, the nearby tree had a very rough, flaky bark.

Of course there was the texture of the fallen leaves, which are getting dryer and crunchier everyday.

But mostly, I was looking at the textures of the trees that were still holding on to their leaves.

Isn't that a glorious color?

Briefly Caught Up On The Creative Cues

I took advantage of the hot weather to stay in the air-conditioned room and carve stamps. Creative Cue Number 21 was speak. I had a lot of difficulty with this one. I finally decided on a girl's head with lines coming out of the mouth indicating speech. When I finally sat down to do it, the words insisted on adding themselves. Of course I carved them backwards the first time....

The next word on my to-do list was Creative Cue Number 23, road. For this, I made a version of our favorite hairpin turn, on Rte. 2 out in North Adams. This is one of my favorites.

Next up was bulb, Creative Cue Number 24.

When I did this one on fabric, I had it on top of a paper towel, and the texture of the towel came through, creating an interesting effect.

When I started work on  Creative Cue Number 25, egg,  I ran into more difficulties. I really didn't like the finished product. Not wanting to waste the block, I flipped it over, and carved the negative of the image I had already carved. It was much nicer this way, and I learned that I can get two stamps on one block, if I'm careful. Here is the one I like.

And finally, this weeks word, Creative Cue Number 27, nail I was thinking about the roofing nails that I've been finding in our yard. I made this one so that it can be tiled, if I'm very careful about placement. I put some lines around the edge to help with this, but I will still have to curb my tendency to daydream when using this this way.

Whew! What a relief to be caught up! Sorry for the glare in some of the pictures. They would have been better if I had waited till morning, and taken them in daylight. But of course, a new word will be out in the morning, and I will not be caught up any longer!

Check out the links to the cues, or The Three Creative Studios Forum for other interpretations of these words.

A Return To Some Creative Cues

Yesterday I had the opportunity to spend a couple hours doing some creative work. I decided to carve some stamps for Three Creative Studios Creative Cue project. For this week, the word was drink. I was thinking iced tea, but this showed up instead.

I had some difficulty with the bubbles. I couldn't get a very round shape, and after I tried for awhile, cracks appeared, running from bubble to bubble. If anyone knows of a tool or technique to make small circles more easily and cleanly, could you give me a hint?

After this, I went back to a couple of older words that were stewing around in my head. First was market, from way back on May 30th. I should probably clean this up a little around the edges, but I actually like the way it prints, so it may stay this way.

And then, from way back on May 16th  was the word arm. I finally decided to do an arm chair. This may look like a couch to you, as it did to one of my daughters, but it really is a chair. It is based on my memory of an old chair at my parents house when I was growing up. It was wide, with these low, wide arms. It was just perfect for sitting sideways on while reading (doesn't every teenager sit like this?). I've never found another chair that was as good for this purpose.

And finally, a picture of Ginny. She isn't having the greatest day today, but she still managed to glare at me when I disturbed her examination of her evening feast. There's power in rabbit disapproval! 

Creative Cue: Mother

This week's Creative Cue over at Three Creative Studios was Mother. Here is a sketch that I made of mine when she was down on Sandbridge Beach in Virginia in October of last year. I had tailed along on a vacation that she and my father, and another couple take each year.

I'm sure she will be thrilled to see this here, especially if I tell you that the rag in her pocket is covered with squid juice from cutting bait! This crew does love to fish.

I also made another stamp, more in the earth-mother vein. It still needs some work, but here it is as it stands now.

And on a silly note, some graffiti art by my Second Daughter. She "tagged" the thawing blackberries as she left the house this morning for a Marching Band event.

She was quite happy about it. The "tagging". and the band event, both.

Some Creative Cues, And A New Box

Disclaimer: Second Daughter is playing an old Bill Cosby record at high volume, so if this post becomes incoherent at times, please excuse me.

I have been catching up on my Creative Cues. While I have been enjoying the free-motion sketches, I wanted to try something new.

I have only carved a stamp once before, and was not very successful, so I thought I would try to improve that skill. Two things I know:

1. Carve away from yourself, and
2. Turn the block, not the knife thing (not sure what it is called).

It's just hard to remember these things when you get excited about what you are doing. Luckily, my hands are intact! So, let me show you what I made.

Creative Cue 16, FULL  I decided to do the rabbit in the full moon from the old folk tale, and this version includes the cooking pot.

Creative Cue 17, POCKET  For this one, I made a stamp based on the pocket of Second Daughter's jeans. It should make an interesting border.

Creative Cue 18, BREAK  For this cue, a stamp of a breaking wave.

There are a few things I would do differently. On the Full Moon stamp, I forgot to reverse my image, so it is backwards from the actual formations as you would see them on the moon. On the Pocket, I would change the way the lines interlaced in the center, for a more balanced look. For the breaking wave, I would adjust how the wave joins the circle. But overall, I am pleased with the experience, and plan to do more.

I have a question  for anyone reading this who has carved these soft rubber blocks. The blocks tended to crumble at the edges. Is this because I was using too much pressure, or is it a directional issue, or something else altogether? If you have any tips on this, please leave me a comment.

Now, for something completely different.

This is Ginny and Weasley dissing a box that some new goodies arrived in. I can't show you what it was just yet (even though I really want to), because it might spoil the surprise for someone who reads this blog. But for a hint, check out Suzanne's beautiful work at the Flying Pig. I love her soft colors, and they are even prettier in person.

Hope all your boxes have treasures (or at least that they taste good).

Creative Cue: Side

I have gotten way behind on my Creative Cues, but I'm trying to catch up. Here is my sketch for Week 15 Creative Cue, Side.

Ginny and Weasley, side-by-side, as usual, enjoying a fresh, organic apple stick from our tree. With apologies to Nuage, we think these are the best apple sticks around. But since you can't get ours, you might try the apple sticks at Potentially Crazy. Every bunny needs apple sticks.

As for the drawing, it is another free-motion sketch, done on my sewing machine. This will be the last of these for awhile. I plan to try something else for the next couple of words. Hopefully, I won't lose a finger in the process.

Hope you are having a sunny day!

Creative Cue: Band

The Creative Cue for this week is  Band.   Since the high school marching band has been a large part of our lives for the last six years, I relied on my parade pictures for this drawing. I had to do a lot of simplifying of my photographs to make this work. It was complicated by the fact that the uniforms have many asymmetric details, which can really skew your perspective! For example, those points on the back of the marchers are not in the center of their backs.

For those of you who know my Second Daughter, this was from an early part of her marching career (middle school), when she was still playing trombone, not sousaphone. And her curls were still short. Time really flies!

Late Again On My Creative Cue

Last week's Creative Cue was "shake".  My free-motion drawing was based on a picture taken on our Good Friday trip to North Adams. Technically this is not a shake, but it is as close to one as we generally get around here. And it was being shaken as we drove over pot holes!

The word for this week is "band", which I thought would be easy, with all the marching band pictures I have taken over the last six years. But, all the drawings I came up with yesterday looked like "blobs", not bands. Back to the drawing board, no pun intended.  

(Edit:  I just checked out the other drawings for shake. I  like to look after I post my own, but this time I wish I had looked earlier. Check out Paddys Daughter's photo of her dog shaking. If I had seen that first, I might have drawn Ginny shaking her feet at me as she ran away. Of course, the meaning of that is NOT as warm and nice as a dog shaking paws!)

Creative Cue: Rich

Growing up. I had three brothers. Actually, I still have three brothers, they are just spread all over the country.


I must watch too much CSI. That last statement just sounded so wrong!

Starting over.

I have three brothers. The oldest one was known by his middle name, Richard, or usually Rich, when we were kids. Now he goes by his first name, but that is not important here. When I saw that this week's Creative Cue was rich, I immediately thought of him.

Since he obviously doesn't fit the dictionary definition, I put that idea aside. I tried to decide on another picture. But all week long, I kept coming back to a picture of him with his first daughter. He had his kids at a little later age than the rest of us, and they are his princesses. Finally, I saw what had been jumping up and down in front of me all week. When this picture was taken, he was feeling very rich.  And here they are.

You can tell that she is already making her opinions known, and he may be feeling a little overwhelmed, but he was definitely happy.

Mom, Sis, I don't know which one of you took the picture, but I hope you don't mind that I used it. Thank you.

Creative Cue: Tip

Still catching up here, so this is last week's Creative Cue. The word was tip, and these are some tips that are pretty important around here. Some are sharper than others.

"Mom, You Said We Wouldn't See Those Again For Three Months!"

The word for this week's Creative Cue was "clip". Once again, I made my drawing on the sewing machine, using a free-motion technique. 

You can just imagine the naughty words going through Weasley's mind when I brought these out for reference. If you think bunnies don't know naughty words, then you've never had one run away from you alternately flicking its feet in distaste, and thumping!

Hard to believe we have already done ten words. It's fun to come up with your own interpretation of the words. It's even more fun to see what spin others put on them, and to read the stories that go with their drawings.  If you haven't joined in yet, check out the new word when it goes up tomorrow at Three Creative Studios, and give it a try.

Creative Cue:Stem

The word for the past week's Creative Cue was "stem". Since I like working from my garden, I immediately decided to do a sketch of some dried up stems of last year's garden. But somehow, I just couldn't get started. And then all of the sudden, on Thursday, an image of a bicycle wheel popped into my head. My sketch is part of a wheel, complete with valve stem.

Like all my sketches for this series, this was done with a free-motion technique on my sewing machine, in black thread.

Yesterday was our first sunny day in I don't know how long. The buns really enjoyed it. 

They followed the sun across the room and back, all day long. Like a rabbit sun dial. Here's to another sunny day today, for us, and for you also.

Creative Cue: Cookie

This week's Creative Cue was "cookie". Here at this house, we did far too much research on the subject. As a result, the jeans are a little more snug, but I did get a nice sketch out of it.

While I like how this turned out, I do hope that next week's word has nothing to do with food!

Sometimes You Need More Than Coffee

Last week's Creative Cue was "morning". I had already done a sunrise picture for "East", so I decided to go in a different direction for this week.

After all, it's not morning without the coffee! The next word is "cookie". Guess I'll have to make some, so that I can draw them more accurately. 

We need more than coffee around here today, though. Second daughter came down with a stomache bug in the middle of the night. Luckily, she is old enough to clean up after herself, but it doen't bode well for the jazz band kids that she spent yesterday evening hanging out with. 

And on a more serious note, Ginny refused to eat this morning. It seems to be a case of wool block, which can be deadly for rabbits. Angora's can be prone to this, what with all the hair, so when they are near full coat, I try to watch them very closely. It can be hard to know exactly what is going on, as they share food dishes and litterboxes. It doesn't help that Ginny does all the grooming for both of them. Weasley rarely grooms himself. And he is very unhappy today because I have separated them. As of last night, Ginny was eating heartily, and behaving normally, so hopefully we have caught it early enough that we can work through this without too much trouble. I will keep you posted.

Tomorrow I am hoping to be able to get together with friends, to make something from this fabric.

Aren't they pretty? With any luck, I'll have good news, and a finished product to show tomorrow evening.

She's So Excited!

The Creative Cue for this week is "Tie". My drawing is of Second Daughter in her newly purchased prom dress, for her Junior Prom. It is a deep, almost navy blue, that matches her beautiful eyes. It was the first, and only, dress that she tried on. Now she just keeps saying, "I'm so excited!".

Like the other drawings, this is done in free-motion on my sewing machine.

Who Says They Have To Match?

Here is my drawing for this week's  Creative Cue. The word this week was "odd".

These would be the feet of my Second Daughter. She prefers to wear her socks mismatched. She says her day is usually better if her socks don't match.

Like my previous drawings for Creative Cue, this was free-motion stitched on my sewing machine.

There should be a new word out tomorrow. If you haven't yet, think about joining in. Its really interesting to see what other people associate with the given word, and how they go about making their drawing. Or, I guess I should say artwork, because so far the posted results have ranged from simple sketches, to photographs, collages, and even small quilted/beaded works. Jump on over to Three Creative Studios, and check it out.

Rolling

The word for this week's Creative Cue is "rolling". My free-motion sketch is of my rolling pin, working on some cookie dough.

My rolling pin was purchased on a trip to Vermont, early in my marriage. It has rolled out many pie crusts, and even more cookies. Cookies are important here.

 When First Daughter moved into her college apartment she complained about not liking the rolling pins available to her in the stores. I think she wanted mine, but that wasn't going to happen (mean mom). Eventually, I found Vermont Rolling Pins, and she got her rolling pin for Christmas. Her's is much wider and heavier than mine. Wouldn't want to get hit with it, or drop it on my foot!

I found this piece very hard to photograph. The woven plaid background did strange things to the picture, especially if I got any closer than this. I wonder if any of you have experienced this, and how you have dealt with it.

It's very cold and windy here today, so its a good day to sew. Stay warm, and have a fun weekend.

What's In My Back Yard and In My Chair

The word for Creative Cue this week is "track". My drawing shows some of the creatures that have been making tracks in my back yard recently. Probably some of them have been tracking the others. I have been following their tracks around, trying to see what they've been up to.

I made the initial drawing, copied it onto Solvy, and then stitched it free-motion style on my sewing machine. Can't you see this in an elementary school science text, maybe with some arrows showing which one is going to eat which other one?

Closer at hand, the resident wildlife spent the day in the old chair that Ginny is trying to eat, little by little. Weasley is in front.

When I started taking pictures, Ginny decided to check out what was going on.

Then, she gave me "the cold butt". That's the rabbit version of "the cold shoulder", with more disdain.

Guess she doesn't realize how lucky she is to be in here, instead of in the back yard with the coyote.

I'm going to go see what other people did for this Creative Cue. Hope you are making tracks towards something fun for the weekend.

A Good Dog

This week's Creative Cue was "heel". I used my sewing machine to do a free-motion sketch of my Dad, and his old dog Oreo. Oreo passed on not quite a year ago. He was a good dog, even if he did flunk obediance school.

"Heel"

This time, instead of tracing paper, I put my drawing on Solvy dissolvable stabilizer with a marker, and then layered it with fabric, and a heavier tear-away stabilizer. Then I free-motion stitched with black thread. It was nice not to be picking small bits of paper off the drawing with tweezers. Two things that I found to be an issue were:

1. The Solvy was sort of stretchy, so I had to be careful not to pull and distort my image.
2. It was hard to see my stitches, as they seemed to sink into the Solvy. I couldn't easily check the tension. In some places I had to go back and add more stitching after dissolving the stabilizer. This was because I discovered that I had only stitched those areas once, and I like the effect of a double or triple line of stitching.

Still, I would probably use the Solvy again, unless the drawing were a very intricate one that might be too easily distorted.

I hope you like this one, I am pleased with it. Can't wait to see what the next cue will be.