Working Hard - Getting Ready

I've been hard at work - and working my kids hard to get ready for our trip. We are going for a month and when we get back home, it will be straight into school. I'm bound and determined not to come home to a messy house so I've been driving everyone crazy with the purging and cleaning. Hard to believe, when I look around - I don't see that much of a difference! Argh,, it seems no sooner do the kids get their room half done that they go and take everything out again and I feel like I'm back to square one.

So I've run most of my errands. Now I have to plan a menu for shopping for the first few days of camping and do the shopping tomorrow. Thursday is packing and Friday we are doing our weekly clean of the house. Saturday morning we are on the road!

For projects, I've decided to bring some atc fabric blanks that need beading; a circle piece that I started for the trailer and haven't finished yet; my crazy quilt doll; and two eye glass cases that need beading as a sample for a class I'm going to be beading. They shouldn't take me long - they are already sewn up, just need some beads for decoration. I figure it will be a fun way to teach bead embroidery.




Here is a picture of my pink and orange pages. Long story - I used to play Othello when I was a kid. It has different names but it's where you are colour and your opponent is the reverse and you have to flip over the tiles when you make a line. Well when I saw this pink and orange chubby book, it reminded me of the game so I decided to make the board as my page. As you can see, that really didn't happen - it didn't look good. But I did have some fun putting these pages together so they are going in the mail tomorrow. Also going in the mail are two more dolls from our Bead Art Round Robin.

See ya!

Fabric ATC blanks

I've created these atc crazy quilting atc's to embellish for a swap that I'm in and also to swap with some friends that I know from the store Quilty Pleasures. I don't know if they have begun or have thought about it - perhaps I should light a fire under their beads?
So I'm really looking forward to embellishing these and all kinds of ideas keep swimming around in my mind. Fibers and beads and faces and embroidery floss! I don't know if I'll have time to put all of that on each card but I'll keep you posted!
I've booked a class at Dragons Lair Beads Remember that gorgeous blue bracelet that Genevieve Crabe created? Well, I'll be teaching that one. I"m also booked to teach bead embroidery at Micheals at the Pinecrest Mall here in Ottawa. More bookings to come!

On one more note - we are getting ready for our big trip out west. We are contacting people and practicing getting out of bed, making our beds and getting dressed - first! That means we don't come downstairs and lounge around watching cartoons and playing computer games. That, I swear it is harder to teach this to the girls then all the other preparations I've been working on! Less than two weeks!
Cheers, Denise

Don't look Ellen!

I picked up this lighthouse form years ago. I really like lighthouses and always wanted to do something with it - there were six originally I think. Anyway, I sent one to my friend in Washington State and we agreed to trade them when I get out there in August. So Ellen, here is mine - all beaded! I'm not sure if I'm going to add anything else to it, but I sure had fun beading it and it really didn't take very long. So now I'm showing it off, and Ellen - don't look!!!

Cooke Family Go Karting Day

We had such a fun time! Here are a few pictures of the day with a few of us - me driving, my daughters, my niece and her boyfriend. Check out the awesome family t's! They were a great surprise by my brother and father. There may be more pictures coming, I have to go through them. I of course, forgot the camera back in Ottawa and didn't get any shots. Silly me.
We had a wonderful dinner with the 22 of us. Lots of laughing and giggling. The kids were great - it was wonderful to see my cousin Anne again and meet her boys. My Aunt was there and she went out on the track too. It was very cool!
We were all getting together to have fun and play. It hasn't happened in a long time and it was great for us to see and be together. It also happened to be on my father's birthday! We had great enjoyment celebrating his day and making the whole thing that much more special.
The next day we went to my Mom's. We had a good time there too but I do have to apologize because we were all a little sleepy. Still, a short visit was better than none at all!

On Friday I came home to teach! It was a great class - the students were enthusiastic and fun! I love teaching bead embroidery! I teach at Quilty Pleasures - it's a wonderful store here in Ottawa.
The staff are the best and it's where I've been taking my quilting classes. I'm not teaching there anymore this summer but look for more classes in the fall! I'd love to create a scissor case class or a needle case class. It would be great to work on projects and see how creative people can be!
Cheers, Denise

Here in Toronto

Hi all!
I'm here in Milton - just outside of Toronto, with my sister and her family. We are having a great family event tomorrow where a bunch of us Cookes! Will get together for some laughs and gokarting! Way cool - the kids are really excited and it will be great to see some of my relatives.
Then off for dinner with the same bunch. My brother was absolutely great to arrange all of this! Thanks STEVE!!!!
On Wednesday we are off to see my Mom and hang at the beach if it's beach hanging weather. I'm hoping! My Mom lives in Cottage country and it's a great town. I really like driving to and from that area because we take the back roads which are turn and roll and are very scenic. And on Thursday we will be doing just that - home.
We had a good drive yesterday. Haley did a triathon in the morning and then we were off. We couldn't get the computer to play a DVD so we talked and laughed and read ghost stories in the car. It was good.
Cheers, Everyone!
Denise

Chores

Weeds grow so fast! Pools get so dirty after a storm! Arghhhh - yesterday they called for high winds, hurricane like weather, and hail so I rushed outside with my daughter to close the trailer quickly. The storm passed us. Not like the day before, when it hit us full force and put the electricity out. Then, the trailer was up and everything stayed dry. This morning, I opened it up and all kinds of things are soaked - because we closed it in the rain! Note to self - leave it up!
So the weeds are mowed, the pool is clean, the kids are doing chores and I'm ready to watch them by the pool. Of course, the dishes aren't done, the art room is a mess and I still have to rake, but lemonade by the pool just sounds so darn good!
Cheers, Denise

Isn't it beautiful?!

I had the priviledge of teaching the caterpillar class the other night and one of my students - Genvieve Crabe - sent me a picture of her completed bracelet. And it is just beautiful! I love the caterpillar bracelet! It's so luscious and tactile and bold! Thanks Genevieve for allowing me to show off your gorgeous work!

On another note - tomorrow is the last day of school for the summer for my girls. So I get to have them at home for two months to play and swim and smile and create! If you hear less of art and more of motherhood, don't be surprized! It's me doing what I love - being with my family!
Cheers, Denise

What The He## Do I Do?

I was curious. So I went on line and started goofing around with the colours on my blog. I wanted to figure out how to make and put a banner in. Well I sorta figured it out. It's kinda cool how much mischief I managed to get into isn't it? I was tempted a few times to just reset the whole template because it was looking so weird. I'm not happy with my side bar, but I know it's because of those maps. Setting margins seems to be tricky so I'm working on that. I am having fun though. I haven't figured out how to make the banner bigger though. I made it into a picture, uploaded it to the blog so it would be made into a picture but it's the large size and I haven't figured out how to change it's size. If anyone wants to rescue me in the HTML Sea of Confusion, please feel free!
Cheers, Denise

Art Dolls

I thought while I was working on my current projects, I'd show you some art dolls that I made quite awhile ago. The Garden Doll is mine and I think she is fabulous. She feels so good in my hands and I used my favourite beads and flowers on her.





This doll was made for my very first swap and is owned by a friend. She turned out beautifully with that full rainbow of beads around her head. She came from a form pattern from Ronda Kivett. It's a hard form to sew and get all the points to line up but I like beading it because the point are fun!



I made a bracelet today. I'll take pictures tomorrow and show it to you. My friend Calinda came over and we worked on them most of the morning. I finished it this evening while watching a movie with my youngest. The rest of my family has gone away for the weekend so it's just me and my baby hanging out! She wants to go play in the artroom tomorrow so expect some great art!
Cheers, Denise

Where Have I Been?

I found this map site from another blog and thought it would be fun to play!
So here is where I have been in Canada:



create your own personalized map of Canada
or check out ourVancouver travel guide

And here is where I have been in Europe:




create your personalized map of europe
or check out our Barcelona travel guide

And here is where I have been in the States. Of course, I think it is - we've driven through them a couple of times and I can't exactly remember all the states I've been in.


create your own personalized map of the USA
or check out ourCalifornia travel guide

I've also been to the Dominican Republic, which wasn't on the list. My darling Husband is really a world traveller and has been to many more places than I. We both hope to continue our travels as we go - Even the kids like to travel!

So Where have you been?
Cheers, Denise

I got bitten!

By the crazy quilt bug. So when someone on one of the forums I belong to shared a link to a crazy quilt doll, I had to do it. Now the one that she shared with us didn't have any arms or legs and while I can live with no legs - it looks like a skirt, I have a hard time with that armless thing. Just a personal preference. So here she is in all her glory. Not beaded yet but that is next. I am so totally thrilled with her! It was sure cool to make her and where you may see something that looks not quite right, that's because it isn't and I can bead there and no one will see anything they aren't supposed to see.






And while we are at it - I'm including the finished beaded crazy quilt needle case. I had actually finished it but I posted the before picture because that's all I had. I took a picture of the finished needle case when I took a picture of the doll. So here it is. Good to have things to practice on eh?


Cheers, Denise

What am I working on?

I'm working on my needle case. I took a crazy quilt class to learn the technique and I made my patch into a needle case. What have I learned? There is a reason for people like me in class to be made an example of - what not to do! By the end of the class people were saying - "Oops I did a Denise!" Good thing I knew many of these women! They won't soon be forgetting me either!
Another thing I learned is that there is a quarter inch seam allowance for a reason! And now you know that while on the surface, it may look okay, in reality, there were a couple of seams that didn't take - because I made them too thin. I'll remember for next time. Not a whole lot of good reasons for doing all that work just to have the seam pop.
One other thing. I need to practice the tension on my embroidery. I've pulled too much and the material is buckling. Practice. We all just love to practice don't we?
So, without further ado, here is the needle book - not finished but a work in progress. I love the colours!!!

I'm being very brave

I'm showing you where I create. I don't call it a studio, I call it the art room. I'm happy there, it's messy and it's not very organized and it's full and I've got work to do on it but it's my space and I can find things and it's fun to go down there. I like hanging things up, painting on the walls and keeping the tv on for noise while I work. I use the desk for homework sometimes and there is a daybed in there for sitting on and relaxing. I sleep down there in the really hot nights when upstairs is just too hot.




This is a workbench that I use for an art desk. I like to stand at it which is good because I move around a lot but if I need to sit, I can grab a stool from the kitchen.
My desk. It's so messy right now. I do want to clean it off. I like doing homework here too.

Originally this was a library. I had this loaded with books and now some of these books are redundant and I need to clear more room for more of my art supplies. It's a work in progress.

I have some of my atc's here and chubby books. This is fun for me.

More later. Dinner now!
Cheers, Denise

My dog Springer

My family wasn't too happy to see that I had a great picture of Cole on the blog and poor Springer was stuck in the screen room. So here is a good picture of the boy, lying on his bed. He loves his bed. It is quite funny to see how much he really does love it, he needed to be coaxed onto it for the first month before he finally decided it was a good thing. When we were camping in the trailer for the first time, we were all sitting at the table inside and he wouldn't settle. He sat beside the table looking up at us. I looked at him and said outloud "look at how well I know our dog."
I got up, took a towel and folded it in half. I put it down by the door. Springer got up, went over to the towel, stepped on it and circled around the way dogs do and then tucked himself down onto the towel. He was so cute!
So here he is, in all his cuteness!

Summer Celebration and Stuff

It went well. Summer Celebration was fun. It was a cold day and cold days make people eat! We sold all our hamburgers and hotdogs and had lots of drinks left over. Much easier to store drinks than left over burgers and dogs! The new popcorn machine was a hit too and the young kids at the candy floss machine made mixed colours of floss - I thought that was cool!

A few people were showing off their blog lists so I thought I'd show you all a few that I love to read and follow. Some of them because they are friends, some because of their art, some because they are just plain interesting!

http://www.boobyfish.blogspot.com/ - Heather is a great Californian Friend that was instrumental in my obsession for mixed media! I met her in Washington and we communicate and play on a yahoo group together.

http://www.astitchintime.blogspot.com/ I've never met Debra but she makes me laugh, gets me curious and has great talent. We've conversed and she's great at posting nearly every day. I'm impressed with that.

http://textilegoddess.blogspot.com/ Helen Cowans was the subject of an article in Quilting Arts. I love the texture she brings to her work and the elements of colour and design. She has had studio built on her property and is a very inspiring woman. I like watching things come together, including her studio.

Two more:
http://artsymama.blogspot.com/
http://tryittuesdays.wordpress.com/

I have these two under techniques because they are teaching me tons! I'll be said when the book of dreams is done but my book isn't done so I'll have lots to create.

There are many more blogs that I visit regularly but that's enough for now.

Cheers, Denise

Paint

I love paint. I love to paint. I love all the colours and how it glides on and I don't even mind the smell. I love the colour and my house has lots of colour! You really are only a coat of paint away from a new colour, a new look.
The problem? Paint and I don't get along. I'm a terrible painter. I'm messy, I streak, I can't get an even coat to save my life. I get put into closets. My friends have taken pity on me and painted my house. I'm constantly amazed at how bad of a painter I am!
So when I agreed to make a 4foot by 4foot ball toss, I don't know - I mean really don't know what I was thinking! I'd have to paint it! I just can't believe I said - volunteered to do it! What was I thinking?

Here it is - my ball toss game. I designed it, my dh cut out the holes and then I painted it! Me! All by myself! This is a major accomplishment! I'm so impressed with myself! I can't believe how well it turned out - I mean paint and I just don't get along.

So if you have any compliments on how wonderful I did, I could sure use the praise! I'm sure praising myself!

What have I been doing?

Tickets?

This one is my youngest daughter's favourite.

There were eleven all together.

These are for our schools summer celebration. They needed their ticket boxes decorated. I hope they like them! I'm hoping they will last more than one year. I'm modge podged out for awhile!
My other two projects are to paint a bean bag toss. I'll show you the picture when it's done. I also took the old cans that we knock down and repainted them but they are simple - spray paint red, yellow and blue.
Last weekend, I was at my last mom and me camp with my youngest daughter. I have gone to mom and me camp 5 times! I'm so experienced, it's not funny! It was a good time and I wasn't really needed my youngest who is now a brownie!
When summer celebrations is over this Saturday - I'm with food! - I'll work on my art quilt. It's the class that I took. I'll tell you more about that later. Gotta go paint!

I'm very a very cool trekkie!!!

Your results:
You are Will Riker

Will Riker 80% Deanna Troi 80% James T. Kirk (Captain) 70% Chekov 55% Beverly Crusher 55% Geordi LaForge 55% Uhura 45% Jean-Luc Picard 45% Spock 37% Mr. Scott 35% Mr. Sulu 30% Worf 25% Leonard McCoy (Bones) 15% Data 15% An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 15%

At times you are self-centered but you have many friends. You love many women, but the right woman could get you to settle down.

Click here to take the Star Trek Personality Quiz



Now that was fun and in case you are wondering, I just changed the woman thing to man and the right man did get me to settle down!
That man just did the Ottawa Marathon in 3 hours and 44 mins!!! I'm so proud of him!! He's a great athelite! I wonder what kind of trekkie he is? Probably the engineer - since that is what he is in real life too!
Cheers, Denise

Camping on the Weekend

We had such a great time!! It was cold and we had hail and we didn't care! Why? Because we were in our brand new trailer!!!




We had such a great time. We went to Bon Echo and the park is lovely. It's fully treed and has a great history. It was donated to National Parks by The Denison Family and they had run an inn on the property. This inn was a retreat area for the "avant garde" - artists, poet's etc in the 1920's. It was fantastic! We will definitely be going back.

Here is a picture of my old Dog Cole. He loves camping. In one of the camper pictures you can see Springer. Springer is a young dog - 2 and a bit. The two of them had a great time. Cole is stiff now and older but he is very loyal and devoted to his kids.
I can't wait to go camping again. We had fun figuring out all the stuff we needed to know about the camper. Like filling the water tank - before you go to your campsite and set up! Filling it afterwards with a two gallon bag just made it all rustic!
I've been camping since I was about 10 and it has always been in tents. I had told my family that if we wanted to continue camping, we were going to get a trailer. I'd had enough of tents, the mess, the rummaging for dishes in bins and the wetness when it rains. Getting this trailer will prolong my camping life for years to come!
Cheers, Denise

A Great Mailing Day!

I've pulled together a bunch of things to mail. I love receiving mail and know that in order to receive it, I need to send out goodies and let others enjoy too! So I'm sending out a fabric atc, 2 4x4 art pages in the theme of water for a group at yahoo, a RAK 4x4 page for a book that someone is putting together for another group member that needs cheering, a 4x4 page called Bloom for an all originals swap over at chubbyville and a birthday card with some yummy beads in it for a Beads For Birthday Club over at Delphi!
Now I have received my two water pages and I am waiting on a gorgeous ATC from another blogger, Deb H - The Cold Foot Quilter http://akquilter1.blogspot.com/2006_04_01_akquilter1_archive.html
I will get beads on my birthday so sending out beads now is good and fun and easy to do!
The RAK makes me smile. I'm the type who buys a coffee in the drive through line up for the person behind me when I'm feeling like I need a smile. I love to imagine what it feels like to receive a gift from a stranger - how they go "Oh Wow, Cool!"
Once, I did it and the lady at the cash told me that the last time I did it, 6 people in a row bought for the person behind them! How cool is that!!
So today is a great mail day, because I'm giving!!!
Cheers,Denise