Something a little different today.

So this week has been a struggle for this little family. And yet, through all the frustration and insanity there have been amazing little bright spots. I would like to point them out. The day I bought the buttons the woman I bought them from gave the girls crafting supplies. She was very nice. Yesterday, while I was waiting to pick up LittleBit ( I won't call her stinky if I can help it, per request) a mom offered us a bag of barbies that are no longer played with in her house. LittleBit was thrilled and played with them all afternoon and most of this afternoon as well. And today,when I was out hitting the thrift stores, one of my cashiers gave us 10% off. Out of the goodness of her heart. So, I want to thank all of the people who in some small way renewed my faith that there are could people out there.

The geese were on a busy intersection. Just standing there honking at the cars going by. Crazy.
The pagoda is in my front yard. I had taken the photo while I was on the phone. I wasn't happy with the result so I tweaked it with a brush application in my photo editing software. I love the result. I will definatly be printing this and putting it in the office/studio.

Have a wonderful weekend and remember that without knowing it you touch peoples lives.

K

This is what I did in an hour and a half

I had thought that I would be working all day. Stinky wound up staying home from school, due to a very stuffy nose. So I thought I would catch up on laundry and spend the day at my desk working. Naturally, it didn't work out that way. A friend stopped by and we had coffee and talked for three hours.

What I did get done was make a set of cards, and start the birthday cards of a set of triplets that I adore. I really need to get those done, because their birthday is just around the corner. So the photo above is of my collected works of the day. As uninspiring as that may seem, I figure I was working and that should count for something.

Last night I sorted through the buttons and can't wait to use them on nearly everything. Great bone and stone and shell. A giant blue thing that is stunning. My inspiration may be coming back!

Sissy had a concert tonight. I love that girls energy and enthusiasm. She cracks me up!

K

Well, it may be stupid to you....

But I just bought 5,000 buttons. Seriously. I got them for $5.00 from a great gal. Now, I will admit I like buttons. And I think they are versatile enough for most of my projects. With 5,000 in addition to the ones I already had, I may actually run out of projects to put buttons on. That sounds like a challenge to me.

Most of what I have been doing the last couple of days is looking for paid work. But I did make some pages. And I am starting a line of cards. Let me rephrase that. I am working on a line of cards. Or cards to sell, at any rate.

I am recovering from an injury and have not been very active. So here's to healing.

K

I need to add....

I have been doing alot of writing lately. And I am trying to determine how best to promote that. I would love for what readers I have to visit the opensourcepunknamedatabase blog. I sumbit there and, frankly it is some on my best work. Also, again check out raincoat flashers. The writers there have a wonderfully quirlky pov and I am inspired each time I read it. And that is your shameless plug for the night.

K

I've got a brand new pair of rollerskates...

Do you have a brand new key? I have been singing that song for two days now. My Genie took me to a new thrift store where I found a pair of old school quad skates. I was very excited, because this means that all of the girls have a pair of wheels. The following pictures are from todays outing. I fell once, but couldn't seem to get my feet. Oh well, I will after some time. The girls can get going pretty well though.

I would love to post something creative that I have worked on lately. I don't have any pictures though. Actually, not entirely true. I have pictures of some items that are on their way out. So when they are gone I will post so that they can still be a surprise.

K

Feb 18th

The sun was shining and I think that spring might be here. But part of me is hoping that it was a fluke and we are still in winter. Anyway, the girls and Matt and I went to the park to walk a bit. Brother stayed home, because, well he is 14 and cannot possibly be seen in public with us.

The following photos are from today.

I would love to tell you that I have been brilliantly creative. But, no such luck. I am finding it hard to to be clever right now. I did start a couple of scrap pages, but I didn't finish them. I have some work to do on Tuesday and then hopefully, I will be able to start making some great things.

Peace
K

Very Stressful Time

I just want to let you know that the future of Mumbo Jumbo is currently up in the air. Things are very complicated and stessful right now and we are all feeling the strain. As much as I don't want to, it seems I will be trying to find work. I am not oppossed to work, I work here everyday, probably harder than I have at anyjob. But I had really wanted this to work.



I expect that I will continue blogging, and posting what I am working on. But as far as the rest of it... I don't know. That is the frustrating part, the not knowing. Well, that and and few other things that I can't share here.

These pics are some I took today of the kids.

K

There is so much I should be doing...

So, of course, I am procrastinating. In my defense, I would like to point out that I did something to my back and/or my hip and am having trouble with pain. I can't seem to sit for long periods of time, or stand for that matter. Makes any of the work I do hard to do.
I did sketch some the last couple of days. And I have to say I am very pleased with one of them. If I manage to finish it I will post it. I have the very last things to finish up on the girls Valentines.

I have written a couple of things in the last couple of days. I seem to go in cycles. I am either writing like a mad woman, or painting or sewing. I have been working on a novel for several years. I refer to it as my literary vomit. When I am really stressed, out will come huge chunks of the book. When I am not writing at it, I am fiddling with character notes, timelines, and the like. I doubt this novel will ever see the light of day. But I do intend to finish it. I will find a realy great line, or paragragh or idea hiding in my head. And those usually turn out to be the changing pieces. Pieces that make the other pieces make sense. My poetry is a lot like that as well. I collect visual images in my head and in my memory and store them until I find a use for them. Sometimes that use is in another visual medium, and sometimes it is in writing.

On a Sunset:

fire night sky

from parapet spied

lights thoughts afire

flame up fast, bright, hot

then fade, deepen to night sky

Kristen Fadich

I wrote this at the change of the seasons, between summer and fall. Not really sure why it struck me at that time. But that is the way my work is. I am inspired by something. I get a random IDEA and from there I either need to see if I can reproduce on my own what I have seen, or get the idea out of my head.

I spoke to a friend on my this week and we are both of the attitude that we are searching for who we. And we both feel like we are looking at the world with a somewhat fractured world view. I would really like to hear your descriptions of a fractured world view. Please leave them in the comments section.

Peace

K

Sunny Saturday

It was a truly beautiful day here. I woke up late to the sun streaming into my room. I didn't really feel like jumping up and getting to work. So I took the girls for a walk. I don't have any work to post, so instead I will post pics of our walk. Enjoy!

How to kill a morning

You leave the house with no actual agenda, a full tank of gas, and a friend that can be just as random as you. We left early with the idea that we would find some of the smaller towns around here and explore those. What actually happened was we drove by an old cemetary outside of Harrisburg. We got out to take pictures. Then, after my hands had frozen to my camera, we got back into the van and decided to go see some other cemetaries. We found one on the back road to Veneta and then one outside of Noti.

I love old cemetaries. Some of the very old graves had relatively fresh flowers placed at them. I was particularly touch by this one:

This little girl passed away over fifty years ago and someone still brings her toys.

But I was equally touched by the graves that were little more that a plastic marker. THere were several graves that were a simple marker with the name of the person. It seems easy to make up stories in a cemetary.

Here in the Willamette Valley, moss grows on everything that is not moving. There was wonderful moss on the markers and headstones. I love this stone. I had been concerned that I wouldn't have a suitable replacement for the random Santa segment of this blog. But I have enough photos of the grave markers that I think I may use those for a while.

The area surrounding Eugene is truly beautiful. I have a hard time leaving the house and not finding something that strikes me. What I am discovering is that, I could leave the house every morning and drive in any direction and be amused for hours on end. My dear friend and I can get in the car and yap, yap, yap. That makes the exploring so much more fun.

I think that I will leave it at that right now.

K

P.S. If , in the course of posting the markers, I post one of a family member or friend of a reader, I hope that I don't offend you. I photographed the ones that I found interesting or that touched me.

Post and Run

I hate to post and run...but.... I am behind, as usual. I just wanted to let you know of some changes. Well, one change. I changed the comments section to allow for any body to comment.

I did this to be certain to hear from you all. I would love to hear what you all think of my work. Or what ever. Tell me what you think of art, in gerneral. Whatever, just tell me what you think.



Finally, here are some photos of stuff I have been working on.





The cards and the bookmark I made for a friend of the girls.
K