Crafting Season is starting!

How many Craftaholics are like me and can hardly wait for winter so we can settle into a cozy corner and try out the new craft ideas we saw during the busy summer?

With company, kids, cabins and cucumbers there just is no time during July, August and September for much crafting, but in October we can start browsing through the internet or craft shops for the newest and most exciting ideas to try when things finally slow down. Slow down...hmmm.

Well it's finally November and it's time to start crafting! And if we need an excuse, we have Christmas to prepare for. That means wreaths to hot glue, mittens to knit, scarves to crochet and cards to make. Have you seen that amazing new yarn called Ruffelina by Bernat? I saw a scarf made with it this summer and it was beautiful. Mary Maxim has it in pink for a Breast Cancer fundraising campaign, item # 1406732 but I have not seen it in any of the big craft supply stores yet. I will keep looking and keep you posted.

Scrap booking started being popular a long time ago and except for a half-hearted attempt at making some memory books for my 3 kids when I wanted to clean out some boxes of photographs I have never really spent much time doing it. Now that I have become obsessed with Zentangle patterns I have started paying more attention to scrapbook paper, pens and stamps. I have to come up with a purpose for all the Tangles I create. Maybe I will sent out some Handmade Christmas Cards this year.

Lurking through the internet looking for zentangle ideas often leads me to discover new artists. The things they do are amazing. This isn't the old "sticker and ribbon" type of scrapbooking either, what they make are called Art Journal pages. The pages are beautiful works of mixed media art. It's not unheard of to find paint, ink, fabric, stencils, stamps and amazing lettering all on one page. Check out Julie Jei-Fan Balzer at http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/ . Her work is something else and she has lots of You-Tube instructions to view as well. Maybe she will inspire you to try something new, too.

So between my painting, tangling, knitting, embroidery and hopefully trying my hand at some quilting and art journal pages I think winter will be great fun and maybe even over before I know it.

Scratched one more off my Bucket List

I have always admired Georgia O'Keeffe's big paintings of flowers and hoped to see one in person some day. Well I did yesterday.

Santa Fe, New Mexico, her home from the 1940's until she died in 1986 is not too far off the route to our home in Texas so on our way south for the winter we zipped over to New Mexico and went straight to the Georgia O"Keeffe Museum.

Seeing her painting Jimson Weed up close takes your breath away but I was also impressed with her paintings of the landscape around her homes in New Mexico.

Instead of painting the view in front of her she painted the spirit and essence of the scene. She used her modernist vision to produce paintings in her own style. By doing so and being so successful as a female artist in a male dominated realm she opened the doors for more women artists to follow.