color!

here are pantone's fall 2011 colors. wow.

with the exception of bamboo and phlox, i can see myself wearing most of them. honeysuckle - the pink shade - is the 2011 color of the year.

i've had a rocky relationship with pink since my childhood. i think we over did it in my girly girl room. so much pink that i had to take a looooong break. ironically, i am looking into several pink fabrics for the new livingroom cushion covers. still, a touch of pink, not a deluge.

inspired by ice

The last time I skated on Manchester Lake, I was surprised by the noise that the ice was making as we skated across it. I worried that the sounds were a sign of instability.

 

This time, the wind was quiet (very rare for this lake) so we could hear the ice much more clearly. I realized the sound indicated the ice flexing to accommodate us rather than a warning of an impending break.  

 

The ice music was so moving and so rich. Eeery and otherworldly. Gentle, but also tonal. It is reminiscent of whale songs. I hope to make a recording some day. When I stopped to listen, I also became enchanted and inspired by the patterns in the ice.

The textures and patterns are both random and repetitive. I imagine ice changes from day to day, depending upon the weather, as the it waxes and wanes.

Note: these photos were made with an iphone and processed using lightroom and photoshop. 

day one (art every day month)

here is the output from day one! these are bracelets that will be winging their way to a birthday girl. if you like these, you might also want to see this batch. i would love to hear about your art every day month or jewelry adventures!

fun at the farm

i devoured this book - the bucolic plague by josh kilmer-purcell - over the weekend.
it is a story of how a couple of city slickers wound up owning a mansion cum farm and figured out how to make it run. keep in mind that one of them is a martha stewart alum, so there is a healthy dose of ambition and perfectionism. the author is the other guy - the one on the right. while i enjoyed his voice, it did get a bit repetitive with certain themes - "how did a kid from Wisonsin end up owning a mansion?"

Overall, it was an enjoyable read with all of the pleasure and none of the work of getting a farm off the ground. i love the vicarious farming genre. deep down, though, i wonder if i have the stick-to-it-iveness to make it my life. with the grand prize this 1802 mansion, i bet i could keep my eye on the ball!

without giving too much away, it is the goats, the soap and the marketing savvy that pull them through. even if you don't plan to read the book, make sure to visit the goat cam!

creative every day month

today is the first day of art every day month.  look! everyone is already posting on flickr and tweeting (#aedm2010) about their stuff.

sheesh! how'd it get here so fast? seems like a long time ago that i made that promise to myself.

well, now that i am fifteen days older, i am not sure how i will fulfill this commitment. it is my biggest desire and my scariest beast all at once! i think i will just put one foot in front of the other. besides - i have already done three creative things today.

n.b. i am choosing to interpret "art" broadly! could include some crafts, some cooking, or even a really well-written blog post!

come along with me. i will photograph what i did today for tomorrow and so on.

today's eye candy comes from the halloween photos from yesterday.

scary, huh?

how about this one?

hope you had a happy halloween!