snowy friday musings and doings ~ or ~ of plants, art, and cats

  Hello friends, and happy Friday from snowy Illinois.

I am so sick of winter...the gray skies, the cold, the snow.  Seems never-ending

at times. I was supposed to leave this morning for Des Moines, Iowa with my friend,

but our road trip is delayed because of the snow storm that hit the Midwest yesterday.

We'll be leaving tomorrow morning instead. My friend's son attends college in

Des Moines and is performing in the musical, Next to Normal. That's the main reason

behind the road trip. We'll be staying overnight and coming home Sunday evening.

The puttering and creating around Comfy House continues. I've always loved plants

and in just the past couple of years, have had a fondness for succulents. From articles

and photos I've seen in magazines and on Pinterest, terrariums are once

again in style, too. Last time I was at Goodwill, I found a couple of glass bowls

for only $1.99 each, and I thought they'd make great terrarium containers. I obviously

have a long way to go with creativity in creating terrariums, but it's a start.

 This one needs major help. The Christmas cactus plant is simply way too tall

for a shallow planter. I'll need to dig it up and put it in its own taller container and find

a shorter succulent to plant in its place.

There's just something about a grouping of plants in front of a window that's

so beautiful...

 or even clustered together on a dresser top in a spare bedroom. The Poinsettia from

Christmas is still doing pretty well!

 Speaking of creating, I tried my hand at a couple of other new art projects.

A couple of weeks ago in a blog post, I showed this simple paper art page
 that I made. I went to Hobby Lobby to look for a mat and frame, but no luck.
This page was 6x6 and it seems impossible to find a pre-cut mat and simple frame
 that fits this size of paper.

So I went to Plan B. I'd never worked with Mod Podge before, but couldn't hurt to

try, right? I took a piece of canvas and spray-painted it blue, then glued the paper

to the canvas and added some letter stickers. Then I used Mod Podge over the whole thing.

Learned the hard way that you don't want to use Mod Podge on anything that
 is raised - such as the hearts on this paper! So now the hearts look rather flat
 and funky, but I'm slowly learning that things don't have to be perfect.
 Pretty good is good enough. At least the process was fun. :-)

And the two white squares with black ink designs leaning against the books?

Those are Zentangle drawings. Have you heard of Zentangle? Here's a great

explanation from tanglepatterns.com:

Zentangles are miniature pieces of unplanned, abstract, black and white art
 created in a very structured method from an ensemble of repetitive patterns
 on a 3.5-inch (89 mm) square paper tile. They are not only exquisitely beautiful,
they are fun and relaxing to create.The process of creating a Zentangle® is a
 form of “artistic meditation” as one becomes completely engrossed in making
 each pattern, deliberately focusing on “one stroke at a time”®.
The creativity options and pattern combinations are boundless.
And anyone can do it!

 I took a class the other night on basic Zentangle. There is so much to learn

and it obviously takes a lot of practice! The tile on the left was my first one - I did

that in the class. The tile on the right is the one I worked on at home the other night

until 1 a.m.! I've been looking at various web sites and youtube tutorials to learn

more and practice more patterns.

I have a "bad tummy" today. I think it's because of the slight anxiety I have

about going away tomorrow. So while the laundry is going and I'm watching the

snowflakes falling gently out the window, I think I'll make like Monkey and Zippo

before continuing on with some housework. I usually don't indulge in lying around

and reading until right before bed, but I need that little bit of rest today.

 Just in case you were wondering where Clementine was...