Heartfelt Project

I made this yesterday. I had card stock with a heart shaped tiny opening and I enlarged the viewing space with a VERY sharp X-acto knife. No blood was spilled. I got the idea from a Swedish website and then spent about an hour this morning trying to find it again so I could "link" you to it. Now this is cave woman linking but it's gonna be worth it.

http://www.ihanna.nu/blog/?p=744

These are extra ones and I do not have any card stock to surround them. I plan to mount them on stiff paper and do some thread work and then slip them into a Mary Engelbreit envelopes (which I have a whole stack of because I save the cards and never send them to anyone). I only had card "frames" for four Valentines and five envelopes. I was hard pressed to think of even four people to send them to anyway. So the top picture is of number four which still has no where to go. They are so darned cute that I wanted them to be appreciated when they arrived in the mail. My friends and family circle is limited in "art appreciation".

The background is some of my homemade hand painted bleached muslin (white fabric). I use simple cheap acrylic craft paints on dry washed fabric. I tried painting on damp fabric and didn't like it. I use a $1 plastic kid's tablecover to paint on and perhaps if I used a padded fabric surface the paint would not spread as much on the damp fabric. I have noticed fabric padded table surfaces in all the other painted fabric blogs that I read. And I have noticed the stained fabric padding being used as the quilt surface in many an art quilt. Because the stuff we don't plan to make is always better than the stuff we plan to make.

Yesterday I broke a needle while trying to darn the dog's bed. And then spent a really long time trying to find all the broken bits of needle in the bobbin case. Then tried to re-install the bobbin case, the bobbin case assembly, the throat plate (after removing all the lint and dust bunnies), replacing the needle with a fresh new needle (and spending considerable time trying to get the needle container OPEN) and then I needed a DRINK! But no calories allotted for drinking. I may need to have "emergency" calories saved just for drinking.

Today is a "new day". I'm going down to the "workhouse" and do some stuff. I think I will be carrying all five Sterlite sorted containers of fabric upstairs to my new work area (someday). The absence of these large containers should make it roomier downstairs. And if G ever starts cleaning off the closet shelves upstairs-- I can take a stack or two of fabric up there and start getting the fabric closet empty. In the meantime, I have three more empty containers to fill with sorted fabric. All the solid colors. All the clothing to be used in quilts. And all the containers of paper collage ephemera. I should just throw it all away. But then I will mourn it's loss and need to drink. By tomorrow I should have decided. Tomorrow is trash pick up day and if I toss all the paper--it will be gone by morning and nothing I can do or say will bring it back and I don't need all of that crap anyway as I never make anything using any of it.

What's Good Today: Eleven am, still in my robe and slippers, pup at daycare. Found a bag of cheap brown lentils at the grocery yesterday in the Latino section and didn't have to buy the "organic" ones at twice the price. There were no lentils in the bean section. There never are any. Always "out of stock" as are the black beans and split peas. Another economic indicator? Hard times call for cheap soup on the table?

What May Not Be: Promised to make Chicken Marsala with Portobella Mushrooms for G's supper tonight. Never made this before. His favorite restaurant meal. I'm plenty nervous.