In the meantime, here is what has been happening in the Oodlearium.
- A thanksgiving haiku. Something that has fallen to the back burner since I returned to school has been my daily haikus. They are like the sprint of creativity for me. I never took more than a few minutes to write one and I always focused on something positive. Here is my Gratitude haiku in celebration of Thanksgiving.
- 52frames. This week’s theme was circles. My photo this week embodies everything that being a framer means to me. A few weeks ago we had an opportunity to take some self-care time at school. My creative pal Lindsay offered to teach me the basics of cutting glass for mosaics. I was super excited to give it a try, so I put out an all-call for bowling balls. I hoped to get one and ended up with four. I gave two to Lindsay and decided one would be for a mosaic and I would do the other one with washers. That project has to wait for spring because I cannot use the adhesive inside. That means I have a huge bag of washers sitting around waiting for a theme like circles!
- Crates. I am intrigued by the idea of subscription crates. Afterall i was a child of the BMG CD subscription era. I spent my college career eagerly awaiting a new delivery of music. There are a lot of crates out there, but I have yet to find one that seems worth the money. For now I have decided to be my own subscription service. After all, Pinterest is free and I live between two different craft store. Crafting Pinterest Board
- Sewing. Every time I do a pour painting I am scrambling to find a paper town to wipe paint off my hands. Or I am halfway through mixing my paints when I realize I am still in my work clothes and god forbid I get paint on a dry clean only shirt! I need an apron! I so easily could have just bought one, but this was against everything that the Oodlearium stands for. So I picked up a yard of denim at the fabric store and decided to give it a shot. I traced an apron we had in the kitchen and adjusted it a bit. This is an Oodleapron, so I wanted it to be fun. It has been YEARS since I have had my sewing machine out and it was quite the rude awakening. I did not remember how hard it was to sew a straight line. I’m thankful that my husband convinced me to walk away for a few minutes and come back to it with fresh eyes. I have the basic seam done, but I am going to “quilt” a space bird on to it and that will involve another trip to the store and a bit of planning. Stay tuned for the rest of the story 🙂
- Drawing. I had two special cards to make this week. A friend is going through some health issues and I wanted to send her a bit of extra love. And I had a thank you card for someone who did something kind for me. I had found some fun superhero comic drawing tutorials on Pinterest which had piqued my interest. I was laying in bed when it hit me that my newest character Gertie would be perfect if I added a cape to her and put her in the superhero pose.
- Pointillism. I have read a lot about the meditative properties of pointillism. Of course Seurat’s painting Sunday in the Park is the best example of pointillism, but I had to start somewhere. So I created a Thanksgiving turkey, but I had more ideas brewing in my brain. It really is meditative!
- Cooking. Life got busy on Sunday and I didn’t make it to the grocery store. So I took a gander in our freezer and saw that we had a package of chicken andouille sausage. Perfect for a cajun pasta recipe. Pinterest to the rescue! My husband loves when I tell him that I am going to make a recipe, but that we don’t have half the ingredients. This was definitely one of those times! It’s hard to make cajun pasta without cajun seasonings…unless you make your own! I didn’t have cream, but I did have whole milk (which in reality was all this recipe needed!). And of course I had a healthier version of the sausage. This recipe is a keeper! One pot cajun pasta. And over Christmas break…I am going to learn how to make homemade cheese!
- Oodle doodle family portrait. A lot of people have been posting family portraits as they get ready to make their Christmas cards. That got me thinking that I need to update the Oodle Doodle family portrait header for Facebook. Stay tuned!
- Pour paintings. I wanted to thank someone for doing something kind for me. While it would have been easy to buy a bag of chocolate or a Starbucks gift card, I wanted to do something more meaningful. He is a big Koby Bryant fan and I know how devastated he was after Koby’s tragic helicopter crash earlier this year. So I decided to create a painting inspired by the Lakers colors. I had hoped for it to be more yellow/gold, but it turned out fun regardless and he loved it. Mission accomplished.
- Crocheting. I found a new fall coat that I am absolutely in love with. It was cheap, fun and simple…which meant that I could make a fun scarf to go with it in my all time favorite color. I had a great pattern from a few years ago that I used when I was making sets for the Elgin homeless population. I had forgotten how easy and fun the pattern was. Way back in January or so, I had reached out to Phyllis from The Liam Foundation to tell her that I was going to donate two homemade hats in PRIDE colors to her to auction off in order to help her raise funds for her new non-profit organization (insert link). Then of course we got locked down and any chance of a traditional fundraiser was not in the cards. I showed the hats to our gay-straight alliance sponsor at school and he loved them. I promised him I would make him one for his birthday. The next week he returned from a long weekend to say that his fiancé was jealous that he did not have one. I finally had a free minute to sit down and make another one. Now they have matching hats and it’s ridiculously sweet!
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