In Cairo at Last.

Cairo is amazing at night. We got off the plane around eight and it 

took us an hour to get through customs and get our luggage and meet up
with our guide Islam Falgoul, who is a very handsome, well spoken
Egyptian.

Our hotel is in Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo and so we got to spend
45 minutes driving across Cairo at night I'm a fascinating trip. The
first thing we noticed was the horns. Customized horns are very common
in Cairo. I heard horns playing Charge, The Conga, Dixie and many
others. Of course since traffic laws are something optional these
horns get a lot of use and so it is a wonderful cacaophony of song
fragments following us down the highway.

The second thing we noticed about Cairo is that it is incredibly
varied. The area near the airport in the modern and wealthy part of
town and it looks like any modern city in America. It is well lit,
lots of steel and glass and perfect highways with beatiful paintings
of Egyptiam motifs along the edges. Then we passed through the Old
Moslem quarter which looks very much like a barely modernized medieval
city. The buildings, though ancient, are in good repair. The lighting
is more atmosphereic but still present and the roads are still
perfect. Then as we came to Giza we moved into the poor area of town.
It was like we turned a corner and were suddenly in a third world
(think post-apocolyptic) county. There was almost no lighting. Every
building looked at least half fallen down. The streets were fairly
smooth but all their curbs were broken and something that was either a
canal or open sewer runs down the center between the opposing traffic
lanes.

The brightest thing about Cairo by night is the towers of the mosques.
They light up the minarets with multicolored neon at night so they are
the tallest and brightest things in the whole city. It is bizarrely
reminescent of Vegas.

And finally we can see the Nile. As we cross the bridge over the Nile
we notice that many Egyptians have parked in the outermost lanes of
the bridge and brought their lawn furniture and picnic dinners. It is
and odd and touching glimpse into Egyptian social life.

Our hotel is lovely. Giza becomes nicer the closer you get to the
Pyramids. We are in a Bungalow and so it is like having our own
private little house with an adorable patio with outside eating area
complete with an overhanging tree. Interestingly enough the weather is
almost exactly like Austin. It was definately cool enough tonight for
a sweater and light jacket. The flowers planted all around the hotel
are also almost exactly the same as Austin. There are zinnias, African
daisies, vincas, and that lovely deep purple verbena which is native
to Austin.

Anyway, have to try and sleep now because we start at 8:00 tomorrow
for Saccara and the Pyramids there and then come back to Giza in the
afternoon for the culmination of Pyramid building.

Sent from Jen's iPhone

Hotel in Cairo

Highlights from the V&A

Jim photographing me phptographing a magnificent 19th century
altarpiece. Most of the textile pictures are on the high resolution
camera.

Weirdest English Food

We love to visit food markets in other countries and see the different
foods. This one was the funniest thing we found. Cajun squirrel
flavored chips. Wow.

Our Hotel, the Ramada in Cranford

How cute is that? The inside is very nice although their wireless is
not good.

We Made It

We are sitting in the Le Pain Quotidien outside the Victoria and
Albert Museum this morning having the most delicious hot chocolate and
waiting for it to open.

The flight to London was very nice. I have decided that I adore
British Air. The food and wine on the flight were fantatic, even the
coffee was good. The stewards were very pleasant and attentive and I
was very happy.

We got in at about 8:00 and it took us a couple of hours to find our
bus to Cranford where our hotel was located. We had hoped to go and
see Hampton Court yesterday, but I should have remebered how
incapabable we are the first day after the flight. We tried to get a
bus ticket but all the local ticket stops were out so we ended up
walking a few miles into Hounslow the nearest town with a Metro stop.
Sadly the shopkeepers didn't bother to tell us that we could buy a
ticket on the bus.

Needless to say after having a long walk in the sunny but chilly day,
jet-lagged as we were, de d'ère pretty warn out when we finally made
it to the station. We pretty much went back to the hotel around 4:00,
had some dinner and then read a bit and went to sleep.

Today is much better though. We woke up early and are full of energy.
We went to the tube station in Hounslow and there was a lovely open
air market that we had fun exploring. Looking forward to the museums
and the Globe.

More soon...

Sent from Jen's iPhone

Sitting in the Airport

Well,l we had a couple of hours in Dallas before the big flight to
London. We went to a place in the airport that was supposed to be an
Irish Pub. The good news was that they had Strongbow cider, the bad
news is that the food was very mediocre in spite of the amazing
pictures. However the manager was very attentive and when they brought
my plate back almost untouched, he came out and apologized and took it
off our bill.

I had a lot of fun watching the group of gentlemen at the next table
who I think were Englishmen because they had that look and they were
having way too much fun playing with our money. They managed to pay
almost their entire bill in change. Turns out they are on our plane so
I may be correct.

Off to the boarding. See you tommorrow from jolly old England.

Sent from Jen's iPhone

Here we go!

Well we are sitting at the gate waiting on our plane for the first leg
of our grand adventure. Jim scheduled the flight at 2:00 which let us
finish packing with only a little stress this morning. Flying in the
afternoon is very pleasant, much more so than the morning. It is
pretty fun in the airport because there are a lot of people here
associated with SXSW and so there is some really rich people watching.

We fly to Dallas and have a couple of hours there and then straight
through to London. Woohoo!

Sent from Jen's iPhone

Another Strange Day

I think that I am just unsettled because I am excited about the trip, and trying to wrap everything up so I can go. Both my emotions and creativity are all over the place. I was able to make my friend Melissa make a lovely Etsy banner and Icon for her shop.

I also got some pictures taken of the needle felted Easter card I made on Friday. I found some nice plastic sleeves for the cards, and so I think all I need now is to figure our how to mail them and I can put them up for sale.

Then I almost had a last minute audition tonight, and so I got all dressed up and printed all my resume and stuff in a hurry, but then I finally got the guy in charge on the phone and found out that I couldn't do it because I would miss the first two weeks because of Egypt. *sigh*

Anyway so now I'm all dressed up with no place to go. Ah well, maybe I can get the hubby to take me out. 

Busy Time

Well, it has been an odd few days. 

Thursday I was up really early working on Logo ideas and I kind of wiped myself out. So I spent the rest of the day taking it easy and reading a book. 

Friday was something of an Epic Fail day. Pretty much everything I tried creatively totally didn't work. I was able to help my friend Dirty finish a dress for Gulf War and fix a shirt for Iolo. I also had a fantastic voice lesson, but the only other thing I succeeded with was hemming a couple of scarves and making another needle felted card for Easter, which I'll take pictures of tomorrow in the light and put up.

Then Saturday and today my Mom and Stepfather were in, so that made for very little time to do anything but entertain them. However we were able to take them to our favorite Italian restaurant Andiamo, and then today to Chinatown for Dim Sum. It was actually a lovely visit. 

Today, was making lovely music for church, and then reading with Austin Shakespeare. I'm excited because I was invited to make music for the Shakespeare's Birthday Party. It will be a fun thing to plan and prepare for when I get back.

Making Logos

The last couple of days I have been drawn into a pro bono project for one of my favorite music groups. We are doing a concert of Negro Spirituals and they need a graphic, and so of course I volunteered. (Doh!)

Here are some of the random ideas coming out. It has been really fun doing these because I have been able to use Adobe Illustrator again and actually do a bit of illustration instead of just type design which I never really did before. My design also seems to have become a little less inhibited. For the Illustrator work I referenced a tutorial here that was really helpful to begin learning how to make an illustration. The result was the woman on the top left, and though it is still pretty rough I am quite happy over all.

Have a great day!

Art for the Day

I had a wonderful breakfast and visit today with my friend Melissa at Mandola's. It must be divine inspiration because she told me that she thought I should open an Etsy store, and I was able to tell her that I had just done so. Anyway we went over to walk through Silk Road for the wonderful textile and artistic inspiration of all the amazing fabrics.

After that I had a lovely couple of hours to practice my music. I had an epiphany this morning. I realized that I had found so much inspiration by looking at artist blogs on line, and maybe I could use the same thing to help me out of my musical slump. Well on my first search I found this blog, and some of her quotes really touched me to the heart and inspired me, particularly this one:

We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit.  

—e.e. cummings (1894-1962); poet, essayist, painter, playwright

Later, I had a little time to sit quietly and make some art. This is one of my photographs from a window in The Cloisters of New York that I altered in Photoshop to become a watercolor. At first glance it is a wintery darkness, with the cold bare branches, but there are small signs that spring is coming in the little squirrel and buds on the branches.

The Joy of a Clean House

I don't have anything creative today to post because I have spent almost the entire day finally getting my house clean. There is just nothing like a clean house to get you energized and ready for a new day. So I guess today I am going to talk a bit about cleaning.

When I decided I was going to remove all chemicals from my life, one of the first things that had to change was the way I cleaned. We use so many different chemicals for cleaning that it is amazing. So I started researching and then I completely lucked out because a friend of mine introduced me to some Microfiber Cloths that she had bought from Sweden.

Microfiber is my friend. It is truly a revolution in cleaning that few people know about. I wish I could find the original site my friend sent me to because they had a clinical trial and their results were that cleaning surfaces with just Microfiber and water was more effective than cleaning with either Bleach or Ammonia. However, I can't seem to find the link so I am posting this article from CleanLink which is pretty good and informative about why Microfiber works. Find it the article here.

So I bought some Microfiber cloths and began to experiment with them. I found an empty spray bottle and filled it with water and started cleaning. Not only did it really get the surfaces really clean, it also cut my overall cleaning time in half because I didn't have to do nearly as much scrubbing, and I didn't have to dry afterward to remove any leftover water or lint.

Over time I got a nice looking spray bottle that I could keep right next to the dishwasing detergent on my sink, and I learned to put just a little bit of lemon or lavender oil in the water to keep it from molding, and for extra cleaning power as well as that amazing clean smell to the whole house. I also learned that you could wash the cloths in the washer with normal detergent but you shouldn't use bleach in the wash because it breaks down the Microfiber. You should also never use the Microfiber cloths with any kind of harsh ammonia or acid for the same reason. It has really been amazing. My house has been cleaner than ever before. Jim and I have been getting sick a lot less, and I don't have to deal with the horrible smells of the cleaners, or the worry that I will combine them in the wrong way and poison myself (ala McGuyver Epic Fail.)

I knew I had won the cleaning battle when my friend Kay came over for lunch and the first thing out of her mouth was "Oh, it smells so clean in here!"

Oh, I did get my Etsy store opened today and the digital collage sheet listed for sale. Wow, I'm kinda official now. Now I just have to get back from Egypt and start stocking up. I did find a printer for art prints, and so I think I am going to test out printing my digital poetry paintings and if they look good go ahead and list them. I don't really know if any of it will sell, but it is so cheap to list things and so easy to maintain that it is worth a shot.

Taking the Plunge

Well, I went and did it. I started the process of setting up my shop for Etsy. I don't have any thing to sell yet because I have to set up a PayPal account tomorrow and I can't list things until I do. Here is the link to my Etsy Shop. I'm very pleased with the logo and banner that I came up with.

So the other thing I did today in between Church services and test packing for the trip was make up my first product for the store: a digital collage sheet. I saw another shop that featured them and I realized with my computer skills, artistic talent, and huge amount of art related photography that this might be perfect for me. So here is my first one made from images from Amiens and Paris.

More Beading

It is strange, I keep thinking that this spurt in creativity is going to slow down but it just keeps going. Today was mostly running around and shopping but we finally had some quiet time tonight after dinner. So as we were watching the tapes of our current favorite shows from Friday night I pulled out my beads again. I had one fleur-de-lis earring left over from a pair that I had loved so much that I kept the single for years after I lost it's mate. It seemed to work beautifully with some glass pearls and some vintage gold glass beads. I was so pleased with the necklace that I immediately had to make earrings to match.

I think I have to figure out something to wear tomorrow so that I can wear them. Hope the weather stays as nice as it was today.

Camera Love

Well, I am falling in love with the Canon Powershot S3IS camera. I call it the big camera, but it isn't really. My hubby has a Rebel with a giant lens that is really the big one. I went out to the Garden this morning and dug up a bunch more on the path project for some physical activity. The I just walked around taking pictures of the flowers, all of which are starting to bloom. This was the best of the lot of the Columbines in the front yard. I want to get a good picture of our little Pear (Brad) who has flowered in all his white glory, but it was a bit too windy with the storm moving in. More later.

Adventures in Beading

One of the good things that always happens when I finish a big project is that I have to immediately start cleaning. This always means reorganizing and  putting every thing back in the craft closet. While this is usually tedious, it can also be fun because it reminds me of other projects that I have on hold waiting for time. Today as I was putting up my bog box o' beads, I remembered that I had bought beads to make myself a bracelet to go with my favorite earrings.

So when I had a respite, out came the box and I was able to spend the afternoon making this little bracelet. I was very pleased with how well it matched the earrings, and that I remembered how to use bead pins to make pendants. By a fun coincidence one of my freinds called and invited me to go see Othello at the Velvet Rut Theatre (How's that for a name?) and so I even got to wear it tonight. I'm getting a little better with the big camera I think. This photo seemed to be much easier than the first time.

The rest of the day was pretty slow because I was feeling really tired. I did  make a little watercolor of the Pyramids as a surprise for my hubby, but I didn't take a picture because it was really bad. I kept it though and put it in a little frame for my guy. Then I tried to do one of the Sphinx and it came out looking like a noseless Groucho Marx. I actually threw it away. So basically, my non judgement phase only lasted for two paintings. Heh.

First Needle Felting

Well I spent a bit of time in an odd round-about yesterday. I had a really productive day and so I was able to take some time in the evening to work on art. I wanted to try and finish some kind of frame for the little picture of Feathers so I could give it to my friend today, but I tried a couple of times and failed miserably. The first try was felt covered with silk, and I kept cutting it wrong until I just trashed it. The second try was felt with a needle felted covering. Well I started to make the second one and then realized I really needed to try something smaller with the needle felting first, so I got out a test pice of red organza and then started applying some crimson wool to it to learn the process. In the middle of the testing somehow it started becoming a heart and so I just went with it. The needle felting is pretty amazing in that you can twist a very fine piece of wool and get some really cool detail. I haven't figured out how to get the back of the piece to look as pretty as the front yet.

I don't yet know how to use the camera well enough to show it, but the organza turned into this crinkled shiny halo around the soft flat surface of the wool heart with a little dark outline that almost looked like it was stitched. Well, I learned the technique and then tried to apply it to the frame and failed miserably. It pretty much looked like poo.

So I took a break and decided to play with my cute little heart and make it into a card, Valentines day being still fresh in the memory. In the process of figuring out how to do so, I came up with the idea of putting a gold edge on one of the layers of paper with some of my Acrylic paints. I tried it and it looked so good that my brain immediately made the leap to put it on the two little watercolors as well. It turned out to be the perfect thing to make them look finished.

The top photo shows the little Fairy as an example because Feathers got given away at lunch. Anyway, it was such a simple, easy and perfect solution, but I think it is funny that I had to go it such a different direction to finally get there.

I'm also proud that I am learning how to use the big camera and download the pictures to use here. I love my iphone pictures but they are just not high quality enough for the future endeavors.

Onward and upwards.

The Inspiration Trip

OK. All I can say is Wow. Jerry's Art-O-Rama is just amazing. I walked in the door and almost started crying because it has the smell. The smell I remember from so many years at the Art Building at UT. That smell that is tangy with chemicals, sweet with linseed oil, and liberally seasoned with plaster and dust.

And inspiring? You never saw so many different colors and types of media. I even found tools for bookbinding and resin casting, which I never expected. If I still did art in the SCA, I would be in heaven because they have the real stuff for oil painting (rabbit skin glue gesso, linen canvases, hard wood panels, and make your own pigments kind of stuff.)

Well, I did really well on the looking for inspiration but not buying until I found the section for Sumi painting and these little pearlescent water color immediately jumped out at me and insisted that I take them home. And then, of course, they insisted that I paint with them immediately regardless of my plans for the afternoon.

And I am really frightened by the fact that this painting with the pearlescent paints was so much easier than the painting yesterday. I have painted so many masks in these colors that I may be doomed to live a life in metallics and pastels. NOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooo.

Well, regardless, now I have two paintings to make frames for, plus everything else that I was supposed to do and didn't. Ok I'm off to go do it.

Touch of Blue

Today started as a garden day. The wonderful gift of this week has been the emergence of the first bluebonnets in the garden. Pictured here is the overachiever who was the first to bloom. My hubby and I always have a little contest to see who can spot the first bluebonnet of spring and it pleased him to no end when he saw the first one in our own yard.

So Gia and Jim both came over today and we were able to make a ton of progress on the giant path project. Basically I am having to dig out and replace all the rock paths and gravel areas around my house because the original landscaper just cut back the sod and put half an inch of gravel over the dirt. So we have to dig them out to 6 inches, put down a hefty layer of newspapers to kill any deep growing weeds and then backfill with decomposed granite and an inch of pea gravel on top.

I forgot to take a before picture, but here is a picture of one of the other paths that we haven't gotten to yet to give you an example of how awful it was.

And here is the current in process picture. Last week we scraped up all the gravel and went to dump it at my friends place. This week we started the digging and I was amazed by what we accomplished in just a couple of hours. We had to take two loads of dirt away to dump during the process.

So I already feeling a lot of accomplishment, which is added to the fact that the house it very close to being clean and I think I'll get it back to good condition today after the three weeks of project hell. I'm taking a bit of a break to go off to Jerry's Art-O-Rama and explore because I have never been there and I thought it would be a fun inspiration trip, and then back to cleaning and cleaning, and cleaning the house. I'm hoping I can make some progress and then finish up the last remaining project I have for the Tempest, because if I do then I can work on the fabric frame for the little watercolor I did the other day to give to my friend tomorrow. Wow, is that a sentence or what?

And one more little personal accomplishment. I finally got my little messages framed and figured out a way to mount them on my bathroom mirror. The little frames came in a set of three from Target and I had to take the hanging brad off the back and replace it with foam mounting tape. It feels very good to have them back up where I see them several times a day. 

The first just says "I love you". A lot of people talk about hearing God's voice but I never really do, I guess I am thick enough that I mostly see his impact in hindsight in my life. The only time I ever heard a voice that I thought was God, all it said was "I love you". 

The second says "Your heart is pure, your mind clear, and soul devout." which was a fortune that came to me at the end of a long dinner conversation about life direction. Whether or not it really applies to me at any moment is in doubt, but for me it's a case of "Act as if" it did, and maybe someday it will.

Brushes Part 2

Here is the second picture of my friend Hink that I painted in the van
while we were coming back from Houston.

Well the blogging by iphone is a mixed success. I figured out how to get pictures up from my phone by just using the blog email address, but I seem to only be able to do it one at a time, and it limits the text I can add. Oh well, this is a better place than I was. At least I'll be able to post some pictures from Egypt. Anyway, I'll keep looking for a better solution. 

New fun Iphone Application

Ok, I couldn't stay away. Here is my next test of mobile blogging from breakfast at Taco deli.

I have been having fun playing with a new Iphone app called Brushes by Steve Sprang. It's a bit expensive at $5.00 but the interface is really nice and the tools are very responsive. It has multiple undos and redos which is a huge plus. This is by far the best Iphone painting program I have tried.

The things I wish were slightly different are that you have to adjust the size of the brush and opacity of the brush in two different tools, which is something I always do at the same time. And eraser tool would also be very nice. It is also very interesting to paint with your finger. I wish that the program had a smudge tool like photoshop because that is what I instinctively want to do.

Off for a couple of days

Well, I may not be able to post here for the next couple of days because my little Mac Air will be in the shop getting a larger hard drive. I love my computer so much that I have finally filled it to capacity.

I'll use this as an excuse to try again with the mobile blogging and see if I can get that working. If not, have a great couple of days.

Wonderful Day

Today was really a wonderful day. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off me now that I have been able to pass the Tempest stuff on and don't have to worry about it anymore. I still have one promo thing to do, and I still have some stuff to do to support Thomas, but that's all right. 

So I spent the day practicing music, and cleaning house. I didn't get all of the house cleaned because I took the time to go over to my evil Uncle's house and beg him to help me fix my harp and I stopped at a couple of craft stores on the way and mostly just look at cool things and input into my brain beautiful colors, textures, and materials.

I got back to the house and just had time to play with the one thing that I did buy at the craft store. I found something that I had always wanted which was a good pocket watercolor set. It has been more years than I can imagine since I have painted in watercolor, but I promised myself that I wasn't going to judge or over think the process, just paint.

I decided to paint a prayer for my friend for whom a feather on the wind is a symbol for trusting God. OK so I did judge myself a little when it came out, but I didn't beat myself up about it at least.

It was pretty fun though, and tomorrow I'll finish the edges of the silk  and try sewing the image to the background fabric. We'll see how it does. The poem is from emily dickenson

Tomorrow I get to tune up the harp and play it. I'm pretty excited. Ok the eyes are closing so I think it is bedtime.

Good night.

Finished Mask Pictures

Well, here are the finished pictures of the masks taken by my sweet husband. What do you think, would anyone pay a couple of hundred dollars to support a theatre group and get one of these? Jim and I actually started taking about investing in some real photography lights if I am going to try and maybe open an Etsy shop. We found a beginning set for an amazing price. Jim and I both got kind of excited about the prospect. But, we have to wait till we get back from the Big Egypt trip to see if there is even any way we can do it. Ah well, if it is meant to be, it will happen. 

The pictures are the 4 elemental spirits (Air, Water, Fire and Earth) and the the three Goddesses (Juno, Ceres and Iris) and then individuals of each mask.