NOT A SINGLE SPARK

I didn’t give up my sorting and cleaning after my last post like I had planned on doing. I’d told you the heap blocking the closet door wasn’t a concern but I fibbed. I was just tired of cleaning and thought that since that heap wasn’t in the center of the room I could live with it for a while longer but once I’d acknowledged its existence I found myself becoming obsessed with it. I couldn’t get my mind off of it. That’s what happens to me sometimes. I become obsessed with things. So the mountain went from this

to this.

You’d be amazed by how much lighter it is in here now that the window isn’t being blocked.  

I can actually stand in front of the closet and open the doors which I haven’t been able to do in a very long time. Once I was able to open the doors there was a closet behind them that was begging to be organized and I knew that I wasn’t going to be happy until I did something about bringing order to the ciaos. I even made that trip to drop of all of the junk donations I have been gathering together for the thrift store. I have to admit that I nearly dislocated my shoulder patting myself on the back for finally taking care of that mess.  I’m now way ahead on my spring cleaning.

After all of the work I found myself completely lacking any spark of creativity or desire to do anything artistic. Not even the slightest flicker of inspiration. Nothing, Nada, zilch!!   The whole brain had become one big dead zone! The pile of doll parts didn’t cry out for my attention. The stack of canvases wasn’t calling my name. I’d thought about starting a quilt but couldn’t make up my mind on pattern or fabric. I gave up the quilt idea after spending one whole day cutting up fabric and then deciding I wasn’t feeling in a quilting mood after all.

My next thought was I could start making those beaded ornament covers that I want to decorate my tree with next Christmas and give to some of those special friends but since that would mean a trip to the craft store for supplies I nixed that idea for the time being. One of my goals for the new year is to use up some of the supplies I have on hand before buying anything more. Let's see how long I can do that, shall we?  

Then I considered working on some ACEOs hoping that I would start feeling creative. Even a little spark would be welcome right about now and since they are so small  it wouldn't even have to be that big a spark. Once that was decided I got out the boxes with my pens, pencils, paints and papers and actually managed to do two before deciding that I wasn't feeling it so that was the end of that!

The little bear cub looks a lot like I feel lately. Ho hum....

I guess I’m suffering Christmas withdrawals or maybe it’s just the January blues. Whatever it is, I’m in a slump. To try to get myself out of this slump I told myself I had to pick one thing to work on and then keep working on that thing until I felt like I have gained a mastery of whatever I chose to do.  Sounded like a plan to me but that’s as far as it went until yesterday morning when I talked myself into working on making some of these

 

I know that this makes little or no sense since I have no need for any more heads rolling around waiting for bodies and clothes. Could it be I like working on faces more than I like sewing clothes? Probably. I figure that if I make a head a day by this time next month I’ll have had my fill of them and then I can move on to making something else. I find that working with colored pencils on fabric to be quite challenging and I have no idea why it's taken me this long to discover how well the two work together. Who says old bags can't learn new tricks?

Now that I think about it, last year at this time I was sculpting heads using paper mache clay and didn't get tired of making them until I had about 2 dozen of the darn things. (Five of them still waiting for bodies.) Here I am doing the same thing only now I'm sculpting with fabric.

Am I the only one who is going through a dry spell? Are you feeling creative or are you like me and in need of a little spark? When you get in a slump what do you do to get out of it? I've always said that I never get bored because I never can find enough time to do all of the things I like to do. Maybe this is what it feels like to be bored. Maybe I've got to find something to do that I haven't got around to trying yet just as long as it doesn't require supplies I don't already have.

Take care and be creative if you can and as always, thanks for stopping by.

I'VE GOT MAIL

This was a great week for mail at my house. As some of you know I won the magic wand that the Angry Gnome and his very talented crew created for the Celebrate Oz event that was held on July 19th. Our mail carrier delivered it to the door on Wednesday. It was inside this humongous box marked very fragile and when I carefully cut open the top flaps I found  a piece of paper with a warning that said,

"Careful opening the wand. I hope you don't hear any sound of broken glass! I have bubble wrap and taped all around & the top paper part is fragile, as well as the glass bowl. Oh heck- maybe you better not even touch it! Just leave it wrapped in the box!"

Well, that didn't sound like any fun at all so I threw caution to the wind and dug right in. Talk about bubble wrap. There were three kinds of bubble wrap and then there were the Styrofoam peanuts and all of the tape and then more bubble wrap. I've got enough packaging materials now I won't have to buy any for years to come. It took forever to get to the wand but when I finally did I was so excited I nearly dropped it. I've got to have a display stand built for it but for now I have it stuck in a vase full of sea shells.

Isn't it beautiful?!? There is so much detail to this piece that I can't even begin to tell you about it all. I was going to take more pictures but as fate would have it, the camera battery went dead. I had taken other photos with it earlier this morning so I managed to get a pic of what came in yesterday's mail as well.

I've just added another photo trying to show the detail in the globe of the wand but this is as good as it's going to get. I'm getting a reflection off of the glass so you really can't see the witch and the flying monkey or see how the poppies and everything fits together so magically.

You remember Dillywink my Munchkin from the Oz posts? That was his name here but his new momma gave him a nickname, Dilly Boy and now that's what he prefers to be called.  He's so happy at his new home so he asked his new momma if he could send me something as a thank you for sending him to live with his new family and she told him he could send me anything his little heart desired so he chose to send me these:

Aren't they wonderful?? It's a  set of 18 of the most delightful Oz ACEO cards and I was flabbergasted when I opened the package and saw them. It wasn't the first time that I'd seen them they were on the July 19th Celebrate Oz blog party post on Ireland Brady's site. I'd never visited this site before and hadn't seen any of the work created by Karen Anne but once I did see it I wanted to see more. I took my daughter blog hoping to see what everyone else had posted for the Oz celebration and she fell in love with the artwork on this site too. Karen Anne is not only a talented artist but also one of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet. That is one of the wonderful things about blogging. You meet some of the nicest people. I am so happy I took part in the Oz celebration and am thankful for the new friends I've made by doing so. Thank you so much April and Karen Anne and you too Linda for bringing so much joy by being the lovely people that you are.

Remember the pale Santa in the last of my Oz posts? I finally got him painted and took a few photos of him. I've named him "2 B & a D" (two bears and a doll).

I have one more Santa to finish and that will take care of those three Santa heads that played "What's my Line" awhile ago.

Wishing you a happy weekend. Thanks for stopping by.