Luna's Baublebilities

So - I don't usually do this sort of thing, but today I was over at Magdeline Jewels because she is the lucky proprietress of the Etsy Mini-Monday shop for this week and her blog has this nifty link to a Tarot widget.

I know next to nothing about the Tarot besides finding the cards beautiful and fascinating. On this website there's a quick set of questions and answers for you to select before it hands you your card. It's quick and nifty. Here's mine:

You are The Star

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Star is one of the great cards of faith, dreams realised

The Star is a card that looks to the future. It does not predict any immediate or powerful change, but it does predict hope and healing. This card suggests clarity of vision, spiritual insight. And, most importantly, that unexpected help will be coming, with water to quench your thirst, with a guiding light to the future. They might say you're a dreamer, but you're not the only one.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

If you want to see other amazingly cool stuff online today - check out some of Bioephemera's recent posts. She finds the most amazing stuff and I love seeing the many ways that art and science collide.

Now, I really have to go wash some dishes. Enough procrastination.

It must be that my home is becoming known as a safe house for dog. Whenever the neighbor's dogs get out, they come to see me. They know that I will let them inside to get warm by the fire & have a little snack while they wait for their family to come and get them. I do this because

1 - I love dogs
2 - The other neighbor shoots dogs &
3 - We get some irresponsible traffic on our road.

This morning, I noticed an unfamiliar pooch wandering around behind the neighbor's houses. When Maxx and I went out to meet the bus, this fellow dashed across the road and greeted us joyfully, bestowing kisses and happy noises. Maxx got on the bus and Lost here trotted right up into the house.

He smelled around, didn't pee on anything, ddn't jump on the furniture, sniffed Ziggy's bed and left it alone and then settled in in front of the fire. He is exhausted and needs a home.

So - check with all your Hopkinton area friends to see if they are missing a dog. The animal control fellow will be picking him up here early this afternoon to take him to the pound. Happily, our shelter does not regularly euthanise animals. They will care for him until he gets a good home.

Lost behaves as if he has lived in a house with people who cared for him but he has no collar nor any sign of a collar. He is scrawny but won't eat out of Ziggy's dish. He did happily accept a couple of hot dogs from me as bribery to get him into the bathroom so we could bring Ziggy back inside and upstairs. His legs were very pink when he came in but are returning to a normal color and he has a few spots where he looks bruised from running in the snow. He has some matted fur on his hindquarters.

He looks fairly young, apparently likes kids (seemed excited about the school bus & gave Maxx a very enthusiastic greeting) and is relatively calm. He is exhausted - keeps laying down and trying to sleep but hopping up whenever we walk across the room or when a car goes by.

He's so sweet - Molly wants to keep him. If he is abandoned, I'd like to punch his former owner in the nose.

If you know who he is, give me a shout or call the Potsdam Animal Shelter where he will be going later today. If you don't know who he is but are looking for a largeish, friendly dog, stop by the Posdam Humane Society to meet this guy. He comes highly recommended.


UPDATE - Lost is on his way to the Shelter. Mr. Phillips just picked him up. Lost greeted him very happily and hopped right up into the truck. Good luck, Lost!

Finally some photos! Here are pics of three scarves I painted this weekend.


I had a deadline getting them out and my house was full of static this weekend so I didn't get a chance to get big shots of them - but here are some details.

The first 3 photos are of two blossom scarves in blue - a very pale blue with subtle ripple lines for one and a slightly bolder palette for the second. these were pleasant and peaceful to paint. Very simple, no complicated blends or fussy resists. The blossoms have been accented with a pearlescent white textile paint on one side to add some texture and extra shimmer to the silk










The next 5 photos are of a Color Theory scarf - probably the best one of my career so far. I love to blend colors on silk and the Color Theory scarves allow me to really play with that process.





I start with a blank white scarf, doodle on some swirley lines, including lots of spirals, and a few circles and other closed shapes. I fill my palette with bright primary and secondary colors and start painting. Using lots of sumi brushes (one for oranges, one for purples, one for greens, one for just yellow - you get the pictue) to avoid mud, I begin at one end and apply pure washes of color along the resist lines that shift from one hue to the next, following the full spectrum of my dyes.

I have to pay attention to the curves, spirals and open spaces around the area I am painting so that I can plan to have a complimetary color on the other side of the resist line.








Spirals are really excellent as the color blend happens so beautifully and naturally within the curve. A sumi brush already loaded with magenta, dipped into yellow and brushed along the curve of a spiral will lay out a gorgeous blend beginning with pure yellow, becoming yellow orange - orange and then finaly a bright, warm magenta. It's like magic.


















Finally, Molly has been bitten by the Chicken Scratch bug. She worked up a few samples that really impressed me. She's so cool - she was able to take fairly rigid stitch structure and morph it into something that is still recognizeable as Chicken Scratch but is also new and inventive.