consider yourself invited. tall cool glasses of refreshing beverages have been poured. the day was actually sunny and warm (for the whole (!) day) and i was able to take myself outside into the warm and enjoy~!~

yesterday i received the newest issue of one of my favorite magazines, "Cloth, Paper, Scissors". so i took some time to see what might be interesting to read about and ponder for future art activity. i think the thing that ended up popping out at me the most was a newer feature that they're calling "homework". i ended up thinking about how much i could use the ideas, tips and prompts . . . if i were really smart, i would set up a simple daily art prompt for myself . . . hmmmm . . . is there anyone else who has thought that they might benefit from such a practice? have you tried it? and if so to what level of success? i really need a twenty to thirty minute art activity for daily creative growth. i might not be able to do it every single day but i could certainly attempt to make it a habit. art is a spiritually creative activity. why don't i treat it as if it's important in my life~!!~?~!!~ instead, i allow daily chores and other "stuff" to get in the way of making time to explore creatively and i shouldn't continue to do this. i know better~!~

but then again; i have almost completed a commitment to a 365 daily photo discipline and so i suppose have begun paving the way for continuing an art practice of some sort when i've finished with that goal . . . i guess i'm not a complete failure when it comes to a daily creative practice . . . i really have a lot to think about . . . and would welcome any thoughts on how other creative minds handle this issue within their daily life.

speaking of practicing art; my daughter and i continue to make progress on the Christmas fabric/paper postcards. i don't have any idea why i decided that we needed approximately a half yard piece of this medium. now it seems like it's going to produce more cards than we will probably need . . .

the first cut i made into it was a six inch wide strip. from that i have proceeded to cut four inch slices to produce the necessary six by four inch "base" from which to create the individual cards.

so here are a couple of those base pieces with a machined basting stitch completely around the outside edges.

i am considering various options for adding embellishments, text, etc to each individual card . . . if i'm not careful i will "over consider" and be faced with a creative block . . .

i need to just jump in and try doing some random embroidery stitches on them and see where that takes me . . .

i will attempt to post progress of this Christmas card project as i move along.

since i do have so much of the fabric/paper collage piece, i was even considering trying out an ATC or two . . . we'll see . . . there may be some small bits left over that would work out well for that.

here is another shot of the pinks(?) for Love Stitching Red. they do look like a relative of the carnation family . . . and i really appreciate your help in identifying them~!~