Happy (Belated ) New Year!

Bare Tree SwitchPlate
Originally uploaded by OrganicOdysseys

I know I have been remiss about posting of late. Have you ever gotten into a fog around this time of year? Winter, all the leaves are off the trees, even on sunny days the sun is up less than it is down ( at least in the Eastern Hemisphere) and you can get into a funk. I guess that is what happened to me. After I fussed and fiddled and finagled and sighed, I got my first entry into my Guilds First Challenge of the year. Even though I spent about 10 hours on this thing, I am still not happy with it, I was rushed and did some steps backwards that couldn't be changed. I wasn't even going to enter it, but figured, it would give the other wonderful entries a better stand out! lol, Yes, I don't need bad publicity, I am my own worst critic. :)
Here it is, the Title, 'To Everything there is a Season' and I guess that's true with people too and our artistic waves that come and go. The voting opened for this on Jan 1st but I spent the day in bed , only awaking when some of my crazy neighbors decided it would be a good idea to set off some cherry bombs or what ever you call them around Midnight. At least it was cold enough to not keep them outside for too long, then I went back to sleep. I apologize to all those who entered that I didn't post about this sooner.

You can read about the challenge Here, you still have until midnight EST tonight, so go and vote and get a chance at winning some really wonderful prizes. Also note that our Challenges are now opened to anyone even if you don't belong to our guild or even have an account on etsy! As long as you follow the rules you can enter by going to our flicker challenge pool and entering your one best photo of your entry. The next challenge is for ACEO's and people are already entering, so go check it out, enter or vote, either way, participate, it is free and fun!

I will be working on my entry ( I already have many ideas in my sketchbook) and hope to get started on it soon so I won't have as much anxiety this time around because after entering the last one I just basically shut down a bit and couldn't drag myself into the studio. I had many ideas that some ended up in one of my many sketch books, but just couldn't motivate myself to actually try and tackle them.

I rearranged the whole living room, finally setting up a new fountain I designed so now have that lovely , tranquil sound of water flowing again, I even hung my wind chimes in a strategic place so the floor fan, turned on low and ever so carefully aimed will make it just barely resonate with soothing tones.

Last night I did finally force myself to go into the studio and did finish the two other pieces I was working on for the Black and White challenge. Both are Edamame leaves and I think they are pretty cool, I like how the long one took on a rusty reddish tone around the edge when I heat set the paint. I made this one into a choker necklace and the other is a brooch. These will go so well with black and white of course, but I love to see B&W next to bright colors, I think that highlights them both and brings more energy to the whole look. I especially like B&W with lime green or pink, either pastel or hot, even Caribbean sea greens and blues, but not so much red though, I think it's been overdone too much. ;)

I'm still going to work on some of the other ideas I had on my sketch board, as B&W has always been my favorite 'accents' among colors. You would get a better idea of this if you saw my house with lamps that have zebra shades, black and white checkerboards a bit here and there, white frame lace and tatting pieces on a background of black velvet, my various B&W journals, notebooks and pads, and clothing, shoes, and most especially my favorite inspiration, my Dalmatian, Jazmine. :)

Here she is our at our CSA Farm where we get our organic produce share and also have the joy of the 'U-Pick' garden which has constant offerings of things like strawberries, peas, beans, Edamame, all kinds of herbs and dozens of different kinds of flowers to cut and make your own beautiful bouquets. This picture was taken while my husband was picking me a selection of the flowers and I was gathering herbs and leaves for my art and happened to see my babydoll in the flower patch. She is so smart, she only goes in between the rows, never stomps on a flower, or bush or herb. She loves going out to the farm with us, and sometimes we picnic up by the pond on the property and she loves the open fields to run around and sniff everything that's been through there in the past century!

Most of you don't realize with all the colorful offerings I make that black and white is there on most pieces where there is room, but usually on the back of the pieces, in my simple signature cane. :)



I hope to take some pictures today of the B&W pieces I finished and will post them when I do, I promise! I have so many wonderful ideas to try and can't wait to make them to share with you all!

Please don't forget my pledge with Heifer International I wrote about last post, your purchase will not only make others aware of eating organic and the beauty that comes from that, but will also help others to live a more healthy and productive life too! I thank you in advance for your support of this.