A little batty

I thought I'd take a minute to share one of my recent mail art creations, sent to my daughter at college a few weeks ago.  The picture I had of it did not contain the address, and I thought it looked way better addressed...so I digitally added an address.

I'm working on a minion costume for Halloween at the moment.  Thank goodness for Pinterest, where I got the idea.  Of course I had to have appropriate shoes, so the most time consuming part is the shoes.  I took an old pair of shoes that I absolutely love, but were scuffed up, and painted them to match.  While I forgot to take a picture of the shoes as they were originally, I'll try to remember to take a pic of them after the paint job.  It will be interesting to see how the paint holds up.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

~Cyndi

Stan Hywet - Ohio Mart - Part II

Stan Hywet Hall, Akron, Ohio

Originally spread over 3,000 acres, this estate currently sits on 70 acres of beautifully maintained grounds.  The 65-room manor house boasts a 2,200 sq. ft. music room and a pool!  The 10,929 sq. foot carriage house today houses a nice little restaurant called Molly's Cafe, which is located in what was originally the stables, and also a gift shop.  Also on the property is the Gate Lodge where Alcoholics Anonymous was founded. Tours of the property are available.

I myself have never been on a tour inside the manor house.  I have seen a couple of manor house rooms as a craft show I attended in the past was in the basement of the home, but that is as far as I have ventured.  I have been inside the carriage house gift shop, and of course, the lovely grounds!

Here are more photos from my visit to Ohio Mart at Stan Hywet Hall.

Back of the Stan Hywet Manor House.

The Birch Tree Allée, Stan Hywet Hall.

Stan Hywet Hall, Akron, OH.  Front of the manor house.

The Birch Tree Allée Vista.

The service court, Stan Hywet Hall, Akron, OH.

Stairs at the west terrace overlook, Stan Hywet Hall, Akron, OH.

If you live in the area, or are making a visit to our area, you should make it a priority to stop at Stan Hywet.   If you can possibly make it during Ohio Mart, I highly suggest making the trip then.  They offer combined tickets that include a self-guided tour of the manor house AND admission to the arts and crafts festival.

~Cyndi

Stan Hywet - Ohio Mart Part I

One nice thing about being on hiatus is that I'm not required to do anything. I guess that is why I have not blogged for a while.  It's not that I don't have a myriad of potential blog postings floating around in my head (I actually have TONS!), I just don't want the blog to become a chore.

During my blogging absence, I have been organizing my Pinterest boards.  If you follow only select boards, you may want to go over and check out the new organization.  For instance, I have broken Food down in to several subcategories.  I've also been taking Other Stuff I Like and have been doing the same.  The boards now have just a few main categories:  Art, DIY, Food, Other, and Places.  Now if only Pinterest would retain the changes I made to the boards themselves!  I have been moving the boards around (Did you know you could drag and drop them so they are in whatever order YOU choose?) and after about an hour working on them the other day, I went back in and found that the boards were back to their original positions.  Ughhh!

Last weekend I went to a wonderful local craft fair. It is called Ohio Mart and it takes place on the grounds of Stan Hywet Hall in Akron, Ohio.  Stan Hywet is a gorgeous mansion that was built by the Seiberling family around the turn of the 20th century. F.A. Seiberling was the founder of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. The home ranks 20th on the list of largest houses in the United States and is the 6th largest that is open to the public.  The grounds of this gorgeous home are breathtaking!

So, for this return to posting post, I thought I would share some pictures of the grounds of Stan Hywet Hall.

In the spring.  This image is borrowed from SeiberlingVisualHistory.org

It was a BRIGHT, sunny day.  Very hard to capture good photos with the sun in the background.  This one is mine...adjusted a little bit.

The back of the house taken from the Japanese garden.

This is the conservatory.

My arty shot of the back of the house.  I really like this one.

I think they call this the Birch Tree Allee.  Lovely. It's one of my favorite places.

I'm not sure what they call this building.  The top area looks over a beautiful vista and there is a changing area underneath...I assume for the lagoon that is nearby.

Yet another beautiful area on the grounds.  I couldn't stop snapping pictures.

This is an aerial photo of the home that I borrowed from SeiberlingVisualHistory.org.

These steps are the same ones I showed above...just a different viewpoint and more closeup.

This is the back of the home showing the lovely mums and the fountain.  Can't you just imagine a turn-of-the-century garden party here?

 I have many, MANY more pictures of the grounds of this lovely estate.  I will post more later.  Oh, and the craft show was fantastic, as well...in case you were wondering.  There were many wonderful artisans there.  There was great food, too!  It was such a beautiful day that day; we were all very blessed.

~Cyndi

Beautiful Things From Scraps

Last week my art group met.  The project we did was inspired by projects by artist Eunice Pittman that were featured in the Sommerset Studio Gallery Winter 2011 issue.

As we crafted these lovely little works of art, I was reminded of how we all have the supplies with which to create art.  Really, we do!  Look around your house. Grab up scraps of this and that.  You can put them together to make something really lovely.

For this project, we utilized scraps of lace, beads we had on-hand, wire and other embellishments.  I'm not sure where the faces I used came from, but you could use scrap images for those, or search free graphics for small faces.  We used punches to punch them out.  The circle embellishments could be bezels or even bottle caps.  We did use Glossy Accents from Ranger to make the faces look like resin, but you could try applying a thick layer of Mod Podge or clear gel tacky glue...whatever you have on-hand.

Some of my favorite artworks are those that I created from scraps.  If I'm suffering from a creative block, sometimes I will simply take a plastic bin and walk around my studio putting "stuff" into the bin.  I'll include some collage images, embellishments, fabric scraps, something I have and have been wanting to use for a while, a couple of colors of acrylic paint, a couple of adhesives, and paint brushes.  I will then take that bin and make myself create something from just those items...nothing else. 

Next time your muse seems to have flown the coop, see if forcing yourself to create from just a few items on-hand brings her back.  I think you may be pleasantly surprised.

Have a wonderful day!

~Cyndi

A Little Ramen and Another Letter

With my oldest child in college, and my source of income on hiatus, I've been pinching pennies everywhere I possibly can.  I often buy a pound of ground beef and divide it into four, and use it in four different meals.  Mac and cheese is my base for a LOT of casseroles.  I'm constantly on the lookout for inexpensive recipes, as well.

My family and I have made the following recipe for years. I'm sure I got it on the internet somewhere, but I would be hard pressed to tell you the original source.  I just now found three or four locations for nearly identical recipes. 

Anyway, in my never-ending endeavor to stretch my grocery dollars so I can bring my daughter home for Christmas, or send her a little cash (or pay one of our medical bills!), I discovered that I could feed my family of three for only $2.64!  When my older daughter was home, I used to serve this dish to all of us, but would add something else like a salad.  With just the three of us, we don't need anything extra.  There is plenty of food, and it has starch, vegetables and protein.  If I were going to add something, maybe a cut-up banana for dessert.

Ingredients:
2-3 oz.  packages of Oriental Ramen Noodles (20 cents ea.)
1/4 lb. ground beef ($1.15)
Bag of veggies ($1.09)
2.5 C water
1/4 tsp. ground ginger

Directions:

Boil the water in a large sauce pan.

Crush the ramen noodles with a can or rolling pin, etc., before opening. Remove the seasoning packets and dump the noodles from both packages into the boiling water. Cook for 3 minutes.

Turn the heat down on the noodles a little and add your bag of frozen veggies, one seasoning packet and 1/4 tsp of ground ginger. (If you do not have ginger on-hand, it will also be tasty without it.)

In a skillet, brown the ground beef and add the contents of the other seasoning packet.  When the beef is done, add it to the noodle mixture.

Serve.

Optional:  

I have changed this recipe up, depending on ingredients on-hand, by adding any or all of the following:  peanuts, water chestnuts, pea pods.  While my version of this recipe calls for 1/4 lb. of ground beef, if you have more on hand or are not needing to pinch as many pennies as I, go ahead and use more beef.  The rest of the recipe will remain the same.

*******
I got a nice little text from my college daughter today.  It simply said, "I got my mail today!"  I asked, "Brown or green?" She replied, "Both!!"  Translated that means that she got both the fall mail art envelope I shared the other day and the green one I will share now.  I would like to think she did not get both today as I sent them nearly a week apart.

Closeup of the "A".  The stamp image is from Stamper's Anonymous.

The pink flourish outline was made using Sepia Accents from Ranger.

Closeup of the flower on the back.  The flower image is from Northwoods.

Enjoy this wonderful day!

Please share my blog with your friends and pin my images to your Pinterest boards.  Thanks!

~Cyndi

 

Hosting a Halloween Art Party

My art group...  I LOVE my art group.  We have been meeting together for several years now.  Some people have come and gone, but the core group remains the same.  I blogged about them just the other day.  I wrote an article about them in the winter 2011-12 issue of Altered Arts magazine.  They mean a lot to me.

Next month I get to host the Halloween edition of our art group.  As I was thinking about it, I was reminded of Halloween art group meetings of the past.  What fun!  Even if you don't have your own art group, consider gathering like-minded, arty friends for a fun Halloween party.  It may be just what you need to get your creative juices flowing again.

Decide on a time for your gathering.  Our art group always meets during the week.  We find it works best to avoid the weekends as most people have family plans on the weekends.  Give yourself ample time for your meeting, especially if you plan to do a project.  We have found that 3 1/2 to 4 hours is about the right amount of time.  If you have any guests traveling longer than 15-20 minutes, you should plan on starting around 6:00 pm.  That way, you can probably be done around 9:30 and have them home before 10.

Determine the guest list.  This is essential.  To have a fun and creative time, make sure that you invite only arty, creative people.  We all have fun friends that do not have the least desire to make something creative with their own hands. Invite them to something else...not your art party.

In years past my art group created AWESOME Halloween bags for our gathering. Each participant would create a bag for everyone else in the group and then fill them with crafty items that were mostly already in their stash...so it wasn't a big cost burden.  It was more about the fun and creativity of it.

My gift bag creation.

 

Lorel's amazing gift bag.

  

Jane's fantastic art.

Melani's gift bag and goodies.

Gift Bags or Not?  Decide whether or not you will all create Halloween gift bags to share.  Be sure to give everyone on the invite list detailed instructions as to what to include in the bags and how to decorate them. They could be thematic: walking dead, spiders, ghosts, shades of graves, etc. Or, they could just be whatever "Halloween-y" thing that the creator desires.

Will there be a project?  Of course, since my art party was part of one of our regular art group meetings, we not only exchanged our fun and fabulous gift bags, we also worked on a project.  At the meeting I have pictured, the project was not Halloween-themed, but it could have been.  If you are hosting, you can present the project yourself or ask someone else to come up with it.  For our regularly meeting group, we each take turns presenting a project and the person presenting usually provides most of the supplies. You could, however, present the project but provide a supply list to your guests.

Determine the Bill of Fare.  I adore hosting the Halloween gathering at my house because it is so much fun getting creative with the food.  Last year I bought dry ice and had a spooky Halloween cocktail served in a cauldron.  You could be as thematic with your food as you wish.  You could also tell your guests that you will provide a main dish and ask them to bring other parts of the dinner.  Or, maybe just cocktails and hors d'ouevres are more in line with your party vision.

The fun cake Lorel made for my birthday.

Don't you just LOVE the rats crawling into and out of the cake?!

Perhaps you are interested in learning more about starting your own art group?  You can check out my article in the winter 2011-12 issue of Altered Arts magazine for more information on how my art group came to be, and how we do things.

I would love to hear about your Halloween art party.  You can share your Halloween art party pictures on my Facebook page:  www.Facebook.com/cyndiduncanarts.

Be sure to follow my blog by email so you don't miss my creative musings. 

~Cyndi

Autumn has arrived

It is a beautiful sunny autumn day as I sit here typing this.  It is the perfect day to share with you my latest piece of mail art, also sent to my daughter.  She has to have received it by now, although she has not said as much.  I think she's frustrated that I'm not sending more care packages.  I think when she said, "I want more mail," she actually meant "I want more STUFF!" At $12 a box to ship her stuff, she can count on more letters and fewer boxes.

For this piece, I used a leaf stamp from Stampland along with big and mini leaf punches. I have no idea who made the "autumn" stamp.  I created a stencil and mask with the leaf punches, and then added the cut-out pieces in her envelope like confetti. The color is from Dylusions ink sprays from Ranger as well as brown and black StazOn ink pads. And of course I had to create a piece of stationery to go with the envelope.

I'm still working on getting into the studio daily, or at least doing "something" creative.  The other day I used my creative time to decorate the house for the fall.  I put a fall leaf wreath on the door, a fall tablecloth and place mats on my table and decorated my fireplace and mantel.

I've read a  LOT of books lately.  A lot of GOOD books.  The last time I was at the library, I checked out three books that were 14 day books...usually not a smart thing for me as I wind up not being able to finish but one in that time. Well, I am on book three and I have one week left to go!  The book pictured below, "Sting of the Drone," by Richard A. Clarke, is the one I read right before picking up my newest batch of three. 

Here is the synopsis from Amazon:

In Washington, D.C., the Kill Committee gathers in the White House's Situation Room to pick the next targets for the United States drone program. At an airbase just outside Las Vegas, a team of pilots, military personnel, and intelligence officers follow through on the committee's orders, finding the men who have been deemed a threat to national security and sentenced to death.

 

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, in the mountains where the drones hunt their prey, someone has decided to fight back. And not just against the unmanned planes that circle their skies, but against the Americans at home who control them.

 

In Sting of the Drone, bestselling author Richard A. Clarke draws on his decades-long experience at the very highest levels of national security to craft a thrilling novel that has the feel of nonfiction, taking us behind closed doors to meet the men and women who protect America--and those who seek to do us harm.

Richard Clarke served in intelligence during four presidential administrations and it is fascinating, and sobering, to read his epilogue. My dad suggested this book to me, not that he had read it, but when we were at the library together, he saw it and said he thought it sounded like a good one.  He was right. 

You've probably heard the stories about how, maybe as early as next year, private companies have the go-ahead to start using unmanned drones.  Amazon had actually said, initially, that it was going to use drones to drop off packages.  I don't know about you, but I don't want little unmanned aircraft buzzing about all over the place.  Besides the sheer annoyance, the security risks of people being able to fly these little robots all around our homes is just mind-boggling...if you put your mind around it.  I think most people would rather just put their heads in the sand, or don't have time to think about the possible intrusion.  I hope that when these little flying robots start filling our skies, our right to defend our property gives us the right to shoot them down if they fly into our own airspace.  However, if they are armored like the ones in this book are, our little pea shooters won't have a chance. 

Read this book.  I highly recommend it.  It is a well-written story and a good read.  I read it very quickly - always a good sign.  Let me know if you read it and what you think.

Finally, I'll leave you with this:  We put braces on my oldest daughter's teeth.  She got them off in May of her senior year and after removing them,  the orthodontist fixed a small chip in her front tooth (that he had made during the course of treatment). Her teeth were beautiful, and they should've been;  we paid enough for them!  Right before my daughter left for college I scheduled her for a routine cleaning at the dentist office.  She hadn't been to this particular dentist since she got the braces (our other dental insurance required us to go to a chain). The hygienist made her cry...made her feel awful about her teeth.  Not only did my daughter cry for that reason, but the hygienist so fiercely chiseled away between her two front teeth that she chipped off the veneer that the orthodontist had added to fix her teeth.  I called that same day and told them about it, and asked them to try to squeeze her in before she left for college the next week.  They did.  I sent my daughter with pictures showing her teeth right after she got the braces off (just a few months prior), before the veneer, and after. Just so they would be able to tell for sure that, indeed, her teeth had been repaired and what the repair had looked like.

A couple of days ago I got THE BILL.  FOR SOMETHING THAT THEY CAUSED!!!  I am not a happy girl.  My younger daughter has an appointment next week for some fillings.  Please think of me, say a few prayers, send some positive thoughts, etc.,  as I will have to confront them about this.  I hate having to constantly fight people for things like this. I should've never seen that bill.

Have a great autumn day everyone!

~Cyndi