Raappiness!

Random Happiness = Raappiness.  Don't you just love made up words with lots of double letters?

So, yesterday was supposed to be aquarium day here.  As in I show you all the cool photo's I snapped from our recent trip to a totally rad aquarium.  And instead, I got sucked into painting the next layer of my chair.  I am nearly finished with that project and really happy with how it's coming together. 

That said, I thought I would post aquarium pictures today... well, looks like that will have to wait a little bit longer -- as I don't have my camera cord with me right now.  *sigh*  Some days I am sure I would forget my head if my neck didn't hold it on.

So, I am digging through the photo's I do have handy and found these.

Nope, not some fancy yarn or fabric.  This is a close up of Katie's soft amazing fur!  Love the texture brought out in this photo!

This is a close up of Katie's tail.  Funny how it has a different look than her midsection.

Ms. Ladykins herself!  What a mischievous look here.  What did you do?

I also made up a batch of Thai Red Bean Tapioca pudding a few weeks ago.  It's not 100% what I remember, but it surely brought back a TON of childhood memories!

I followed this recipe as a base and also modified it a bit with cinnamon and cayenne pepper.  I used the colorful tapioca pearls from my local asian market and they really made this look like a bowl of fruit loops. 

Made me giggle!

Hope you are finding reasons to smile today and don't worry so much if not everything goes your way!

Creative Tuesday: Taking Flight

Mr. Toast's Creative Tuesday's assignment is here again.  (I nearly forgot to post!)

This week's theme is "Taking Flight!" *love!*

This theme conjured so many ideas in my head and I had aspirations of everything from a scaly dragon breathing fire, to a baby bird taking the first leap, to a hot air balloon.... so many choices!

Again, I wanted to stay true to how I am playing with this exercise.  I set a pad and pencil in front of me and let whatever wanted out the most to become what filled the page.

Yes, those are flying apple faeries.  Yes, I realized that's not really how apples are picked this time of year.  Yes, I realize that you probably wouldn't plant just one apple tree on a cliff.

But, dream with me for a moment and you can see how absolutely wonderful and charming this could be!

The flight patterns are a bit dizzy.  Either that or I am seeing sewing stitches in everything from the absurd amount of time I have spent with my sewing machine the last few days.

Adorable, no?

Who's in the mood for an apple pie?  I kid... I kid!  I wouldn't really try and eat a magical faerie apple. 

Promise!

Thanks for day dreaming with me!!

And won't you check out all my fellow artists here!

Quilting Rocks my World!

I know it has been all about this chair the last few days, but this is nearly the grand finale.  You guessed it.  I finished the seat!  I have put together lots of savaged bits of interesting fabrics, which turned out to be no small task as I had to decide on the desired shapes, sizes and placements. 

I used an original design for the 'pattern' and to be honest I don't think I'd be able to recreate it.  When you last saw things, I had a lot of pieces cut out and was beginning to join them.  Here is how the sewing started to shape up... 

I pinned additional pieces in place to get a feel for the size I needed to cover the seat.  I also started to get a feeling for how the painted chair and seat complimented each other.  At this point they still feel a little foreign, but I have ideas on how to tie them together.

Next step was to remove the old fabric covering and check out what the base looked like.  Can you believe I pulled out all these staples? 

I was pretty surprised to see that the fabric wasn't the original covering.  At this point, I'm not even sure if the seat and the chair started their life together.  Can you picture a pleather seat for this shape?

This is a great shot of my workspace to include my custom door-desk I originally showed you here.

I wanted to extra cushion on the seat with batting added between another layer of fabric... also, making this more of a real quilt piece. 

Once I had the batting in place and another flowing design laid on with pins I set out to again get the sewing machine humming.

And... fancy music, bells, and fireworks......

...here us the finished quilted seat in all it's glory!

A look of it on the chair...

I'm proud.

It beats my expectations for what I thought I could pull together.

Yup, proud is a good way to express this feeling!!


Tomorrow we will take a breather from all this creativity and I will share our trip to the aquarium!  Who doesn't love a good jelly fish or sleepy seal!?!

The Sneak of the Peak

Sewing machine has been humming along all day....

Yup, that's been my day.  And yup, I have a bit more completed, but not ready to unveil that till tomorrow.

Stay tuned loves!

Welcome Daydream

"Everything starts as somebody's daydream." L. Niven

So, I told you about the cool chair I am breathing new life into (for a charity auction).  Well, here is the first peek at what I have done with it so far.

Removed the original seat and sanded down the base. 

Then I began to splash color on it.  BRIGHT color!  At this point I started to scare myself, but I tossed that to the wind quickly and just kept layering.

Concern?  What concern?

Another view down the ladder rungs.

The more color that came out, the more I smiled ear to ear!

Mr. Happy got me one of his work lights, so I could continue well past sunset.  (Which... have you noticed... has gotten so darn early.  I really need to invest in a sun lamp!)

Here is Daydream looking all wild and crazy.  Just the way I like her!

Just look at that layering!

Loving how the lighting really helps change the personality of the chair.  She really goes from day to night look with ease!

And that's it.

That's all you get for now.

I still have the seat to finish reupholstering with an original quilt design.
I still have a ton of detail that I want to add on top of the color splashes.
I still have to remember to breath.  Inhale, exhale!
I have to stop thinking about whether or not someone will actually bid on this chair in the auction.
I have to finalize my artist bio.  I know!  It's getting crazy around here.  I have drafted my first artist bio!

Oh, and did I mention the head shot?  Faint!


More to follow.  Can't have you miss out on this one!

Chair Re-Do

There once was a chair...

... near a dog named Katie.

The chair had a seat....

... that smelled pretty neat.

The chair stood pretty tall...

... and that's not all...

... it was also going to get a fantastic makeover!

I have signed up to re-create a chair for a charity auction with Furniture Sharehouse.

I'm nervous.
I'm excited.
I'm energized.

I have unleashed that on the chair... and I have more pictures to share with you tomorrow, so you can see the progress!

Wish me luck!  Oh, and I tell you when my artist bio is posted too!

Whoopie! Friday!

Wheeeeee!

It's finally that time of week.  The start of our refuge from that stuff we do during the week.

FRIDAY!

 Hope you are able to live it up, sleep in late, and hug a bunch of people you love!  You deserve it!!

Creative Tuesday: Birthday

Mr. Toast's Creative Tuesday's are one of my favorite self imposed assignments.

It helps me force an artistic object or two into my paws (regularly) and just begs to find out what can come of it!

This week's theme is "Birthday!"  And this week's medium big fat scented markers!

Happy Un-Birthday to you!

This theme made me think back to my thirteenth birthday for some reason.  I was thinking about all the feelings of the moment and how hopeful I was looking to the future. 

I am still very hopeful, but more content with how things already are. 

Cheers to all your dreams coming true with every candle you blow out! 

And won't you check out all my fellow artists here!

Measuring Happiness

A thought popped into my head and I had to mark it down.

In my search for happiness I have recognized it comes in many forms.  Probably as many forms as there are types of people.

Now how does one measure this happiness?  How you can you know when you have had so much fun that your socks have been knocked off?

Well, here is the measure of today's happiness:

• A Foley mill
• Four jars of homemade canned pizza sauce

• The warmth of a wood fire fading at my feet
• Slightly sore cheeks from so much smiling
• One contently curled up pooch

• Bags full of new wardrobe items for Mr. Happy
• A rotisserie chicken and soup
• The ringing of football cheers in my ears
• One nearly finished crochet sock (now with a heel!)

Not your normal measurement form.  But an important thought I want to continue tomorrow!

How would you measure the goodness of your day?

Smile It's Friday

After an extended weekend and a short intense work week.  I'm pooped!

And stoked for the weekend!

Smile It's Friday!

Sneak Peak

The weather has been totally perfect for hiking (finally!)

Here's a preview of how gosh darn happy it makes this little Happy Family...

 

Hope you are rolling up your sleeves and digging into some grand family fun this weekend!