Too much awesome . . . (some winners)

What is too much awesome?

The San Francisco Giants winning the World Series is too much awesome!  You know what else?

Taking your 15 year old son to the victory parade, on a school day, with some of his friends from school and about one million other Giants fans.  Be sure to check out our friend, Chris, hamming it up between two of Henry's friends in the left backdrop. That's too much awesome!

You know what else?  The Friendship Blog Hop organized by Lizzie and Jo.  Thank you to everyone who stopped by.  I loved, loved, loved all the comments you left about my art and are friendships.  The comments were too much awesome.  You know what else?  All your blogs - I totally enjoyed stopping by each one and reading about blogging and friendships and give-aways.  You all are too much awesome!  So, to celebrate all the awesomeness, I picked a random winner of a spot in one of Shimelle's classes.  And the winner is:
Becky of Becky's Scrapbook Burblings! 
I really met Becky when I organized the House Party Blog Hop (I think), and I'm happy she's the winner.  Becky, email me at rinda1961@yahoo.com, and we'll arrange your prize.
Thanks to everyone else who stopped by.

Sewing is Not Hereditary (last call)

I am very happy to be a Guest Artist at the Gingersnap Creations challenge blog this month, but I have to confess that I was a bit scared when Ali told me that this month's theme would be "sewing and fashion." Because, as many of my blog friends know, I don't sew.  I don't own a sewing machine.  I don't stitch on layouts or use fabric.  I've tried, but it's really not my thing.  I blame 7th grade Home Economics, which I  all-but failed when I couldn't gather the yolk or put a zipper into my sewing project (a smock; it was 1973 after all).  But I've jumped in with the challenges, and I'm having a ball.  My submission for "notions" will be up on Wednesday, and it's very me.
Meanwhile, I've used this opportunity and Shimelle's prompt on using a thesaurus to reflect on the fact that it's a shame I can't stitch because sewing is definitely something that runs in my family.  I created today's art journal page about it. Here's the journaling:
"I come from a long line of seamstresses and needleworkers.  My Tia Lupe could tailor, stitch, seam and sew with the best of them, creating an endless succession of matching dresses for her nieces.  My Grandmother Ontiveros crocheted thousands of granny squares for hundreds of quilts, tatted lace doilies and embroidered multitudes of pillowcases and table cloths.  My sisters are also quite handy. Tricia made her own wedding dress; Cordelia makes quilts.  My daughter Clara even got into the act last summer, piecing a quilt and constructing pillowcases and purses. Me, not so much.  I all-but failed home economics in Jr. High because I couldn't gather the yolk or put in the zipper on my project (a smock; it was 1973, afterall). I have come to the sad conclusion that sewing is not hereditary."
Do you sew?  Did you learn from your family?  Are you passing it on?
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Last call to enter the friendship blog hop give-away! I'll be drawing the winner tonight (Sunday) at 9:00 p.m. California time and will post the winner about noon on Monday.

Friendship Blog Hop

Edited to add: Last call to enter the friendship blog hop give-away! I'll be drawing the winner tonight (Sunday) at 9:00 p.m. California time and will post the winner about noon on Monday.

The bird a nest,

the spider a web,

a man friendship.

Wm. Blake

Welcome to the Friendship blog hop!  I've been blogging for a little over a year, and I have made so many wonderful connections and friendships all over the world!  I made this art journal page to let you know how much you all mean to me.  Thank you for your friendship, stories, artwork and inspiration.  In gratitude, I am giving away a prize today.  After much thought, I've decided to give away a spot in Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas class, since Shimelle is the woman who got so many of us started in blogging.  It's also a bit of a "pay it forward" prize, since I recently won a spot in Shimelle's True Stories class and am thoroughly enjoying it.

To enter, simply leave a comment.  If you've already taken Journal Your Christmas, don't despair! You can assign the free spot to one of your friends or choose one of Shimelle's archived classes which you haven't taken or hold onto the pass for a future Shimelle class (though I ask you to use it by March 2, 2011).  
From here, you should hop on over to Liberty Cottage at this link (http://libertycottage.blogspot.com/).  Be sure to carry the following letter with you:  "O", as in Ontiveros!  How  convenient is that?

If . . .

Shimelle suggested using the phrase "If I hadn't . . . " to look at how various chain reactions lead us to certain places in our lives.  This art journal page called "Thank you Cupid" explains how I came to my real life job of being a professor:
If I hadn't fallen in love with Paul,
I wouldn't have had to move to upstate New York.
If I hadn't failed to get a clerkship in Syracuse,
I wouldn't have had to move to Ithaca.
If I hadn't opened the Cornell catalog,
I wouldn't have found Industrial and Labor Relations.
If I hadn't gotten my Masters of ILR,
I wouldn't be teaching labor law and writing
about the world of work.
So, thank you Cupid!
November, 2010
The background uses a technique called underpainting and the hinges are made using the "Industrial Grunge" technique which Linda is featuring in this week's Compendium of Curiosities challenge over at the Studio L3 blog.  The artwork is from a Diego Rivera mural in Detroit, Michigan.

A Note and A Tweet

Recently, I posted a letter I wrote to my house. That post was inspired by Shimelle's wonderful journaling class. Here's two other forms of correspondence, inspired by that same prompt.
First, a note I'd like to leave under my daughter's pillow:

If I was on twitter (which I'm not), I would tweet this to my son (who will be getting his driver's permit this week):

It reads: "Dear boy, how can you possible be old enough to drive?"
Are you more likely to write a letter, a note or a tweet?

Haute Couture

The Gingersnap Creations Challenge Blog is one of my favorite places because of the way they run their challenges.  Each month has a theme, and they start the month with a theme-based challenge.  Later in the month, they run a supply-based challenge, a color-based challenge and a random challenge.  As a Guest Artist, I will be submitting artwork for each challenge, and I invite you to join me!  Each of the challenges is open for a full month, so there's lots of times for inspiration to strike, but, with a new challenge going up weekly, it also feels like there's something fresh going on.
This month's theme is sewing, and the first theme-based challenge is "Haute Couture" or high fashion.  I made this art journal page, featuring a scraped, painted background and one of my favorite fashion images.  The journaling reads "Antlers are all the rage on the runways this year."  Do you follow fashion? I have to admit that I love the photography and model aspect of fashion more than the clothing aspect. But my biggest confession is that I love all those reality TV shows that have to do with fashion:  Project Runway; The Fashion Show; America's Next Top Model.  Through Project Runway, I discovered a very funny fashion blog run by two Gay men named Tom and Lorenzo. Their blog reviews all kinds of fashion and a fair number of TV shows.  It's definitely on my google reader.

All dressed up . . .

and ready to create!  In case you missed this announcement, I'm thrilled to let you know that I'm a Guest Artist this month at Gingersnap Creations! The theme for the month is "sewing," so get ready for lots of fashionable art from me this month.