My fortune cookie said: We're all naked under our clothes!..well it didn't really but it's true!

 My good friend Cynthia (one of my partners in crime from the Frazer Valley Modern Quilt Guild) suggested this sketch book project to me. The gist of it is, you send them money, they send you a sketch book. You fill the sketch book, you send the sketch book back to them in New York, then they display it for you. "It's like a concert tour but with sketch books". I resisted at first, I had so many projects brewing, plus at the time I had no idea what I would do for it anyways.

Then I had a light bulb moment! About a month before the sketch books were due back, I was checking out the site, thinking it was such a great opportunity, when I came across the"figuring you out" theme. "Bing!" I knew exactly what I wanted to do AND it incorporated an idea I had been wanting to do since last year. This killing two birds with one stone situation could not be wasted.

I remember teaching last year and thinking, wouldn't it be great if I could do these gesture drawings with the free motion on my sewing machine! Then I had a vision of happily playing away and drawing only to look up  to a sea of students staring at me with a look of, "would you please stop all that racket!" So instead of making a racket and disrupting other people drawing,  I modified the idea and here it is, a much quieter version.

On a side note, tomorrow I start back teaching figure drawing at Ron Hedrick's painting studio ...  without my sewing machine though! 

On this one I left a few threads behind. I figured what the heck!

Happy surprise! I really loved the way the in between pages looked but decided to seal the pages so you can't see them. I thought it just took away from the flow of the book.
(Click the photo for a better look.)

The end!

Today's fortune cookie said: YOUR TALENTS WILL BE REWARDED.

Over the Christmas break I went to hang out with family in Alberta. Did you miss me? I'd forgotten how much I missed the prairies and especially the snow, it was very refreshing! Don't get me wrong, I love living in BC but there is something about where you come from that never leaves you.

This past year I moved into my new art studio, which gave me a chance to take stock of my inventory and supplies. I am completely OCD so I love organizing stuff! An old friend, who now lives in Texas, was moving into a new house and was looking for art for her walls. She told me how much she had loved my grain elevator paintings and asked if I had any prints for sale. Not only did I have prints, I knew exactly where they were now! After posting a few pictures of my prints on Facebook for her to pick from, to my surprise other people were asking to buy them too! To make things even more interesting a gallery, the Garden Gallery in Kindersley, Saskatchewan, contacted me after some of my prints were brought in for framing! Separately, like a cherry on top, I was commissioned for two large paintings, based off of my day and night prints. I hadn't painted that large in a while and forgot how much I enjoyed itl!

 Ta Da! Here they are in all there glory!

detail of the moon in "Wee Hours-Nighttime"

"Wee Hours-Nighttime"

"Wee Hours-Morning"



Sadly, you don't see any Alberta Wheat Pool grain elevators anymore (or prairie rockets as my husband called them when he was a kid). So many of them have been torn down!



Quiet morning sun.

A big thank you to everyone that has looked at my work, considered it and not called it nice or interesting ( I could always tell when my parents didn't get what I was working on when they called it nice or interesting - cringe). Everyone has been very encouraging and just as excited as I am about my ideas. Ultimately I want to make stuff and have people love it as much as I do!

My fortune cookie said : THE CURRENT YEAR WILL BRING HAPPINESS

This is me. This is me happy! A big thank you to Carol Browne for capturing my happiness, on a happy day of crafty shopping with good friends. I intend on using it for my profile photos and that makes me very happy! I have been looking for the ever elusive profile photo and finding a photo I am happy with has been quite a challenge. A good photographer makes all the difference in the world.

Speaking of happy, since the middle of December I've been reading this book: The Happiness Project and yes, it also make me happy. The author, Gretchen Rubin, gives her self monthly challenges (resolutions, tis the season) on how to make her life happier. It's been a really fun read with lots of great insights about happiness. I especially love her excitement after she discovers, what she calls, her first splendid truth about happiness:
                

To be happy I need to think about feeling good,

feeling bad and feeling right,

in an atmosphere of growth.

Perhaps reading this book will make you happy too? After all, they say happiness is contagious! Happy New Year!