One Half Buddhist, One Half Christian, One Half Pagan

I have tomorrow off from work. I did not ask for the day off, and resent being told I have to use vacation time for it. As much as I dislike "use it or lose it" policies, I think it would annoy me less than this policy of "some people are letting too much vacation time accumulate, so everybody has to use two days worth on days that we choose."

Anyway.

My to do list for tomorrow is:
- Take Skif to the vet. He's due for some shots and a general checkup.
- Go jeans shopping. I had one pair die on me last weekend, and another is getting pretty worn out, so I need at least one new pair
- Get a haircut. My ends are looking pretty ragged, so I'm going to get an inch or two cut off.
- Get a manicure. (Second most likely to get dropped if time is short.)
- Grocery shopping. It's always a readjustment when the farm share ends and I have to start buying vegetables again.
- Finish the 2xcreative project (part 1). I just need to draw in the tree trunk on one side of the paper, and then do the embroidery.
- Pick a project or recipe from my pinterest boards and do it. (This is the one most likely to get skipped if I run out of time.)
- Make dinner

I don't have a picture to show you, but I made real progress on my 2xcreative project last night.

I got the text of the poem written out on the sheet of nice paper, and got the first of the background images (some snowflakes) stamped onto it. I also highlighted some of the snowflake stamps with iridescent glitter. The image is of dirty snowflakes falling onto a guttering forest fire, so I want to evoke both the clean iciness of the snow and the dirt and mess of the soot. I think the iridescent glitter over the stamped black images brings that up pretty well.

I need to hit the craft store after work and pick up some more red and orange colored pencils and some glitter glue in different colors.

This picture is of the scrap of paper I used to test some of the ideas I have for my 2xcreative project. I wanted to see if the markers I had would bleed or not write smoothly, and also to see how well embroidering worked on this paper. I also was checking how the colored pencils stood out against the gray and how the combination of embroidery threads I choose worked.

I think the markers will work just fine, as will the blend of solid and variegated thread. For the colored pencils, I think I need some reds and some darker oranges. Maybe some metallic gold as well.

I should be able to get started on the actual project tomorrow.

I got the paper for my project yesterday.

Unfortunately the timing didn't work out for me to actually start work, but I should be able to tonight or tomorrow.

The first step will be to cut it down to size and use the extra to try out all the different techniques I'm considering to see which ones work with this paper and which don't.

Last night I got started on one of the projects I'm working on for 2xcreative's October pairings.

My partner emailed me a poem that she wrote, and our plan is for me to use it as the center of a mixed media project. I won't be able to get the paper I want to use until Thursday, but last night I did a rough sketch of how I'll lay everything out.

The text is going to go in an arc across the page, hopefully evoking the arc of a heavy tree branch. I'll outline it and draw a few more branches coming off of it to enhance the resemblance.

I'll use colored pencils to draw in some of the images from the poem under and above the text and then I'll embroider on the paper to highlight parts of the pictures and add different types of color and texture. I might also use rubber stamps, collaged scrap-paper, and small amounts of glitter to further enhance it.

I plan on posting progress pictures once I really get moving, but I won't post the sketch unless people want. It's small, very rough, and pretty cluttered up with notes.