April Showers

Ice Stick Tulips

I love April for so many reasons.  Warmer temperatures, the first flowers in the garden blooming, the birds who start singing at 4 am, pussy willow, mud puddles, and coming home at the end of the day with the sun still in the sky, just to name a few.

While I have spent much of April physically sick with a host of icky illnesses, my enthusiasm at the world around me was also catching, and I excitedly worked on several projects this month.  First was to put together an Easter basket for a friend, because no one ever thinks of us Mom's at Easter, and it just isn't fair that our kids get all the Easter fun.  This basket couldn't be any cute Easter basket; no.  It needed to be an Easter basket without any bunny rabbits, because my dear friend is afraid of rabbits.  I worked so very hard at putting this basket together, it took my breath away. Literally.  I blew 18 fresh eggs (so I had a few extra just in case I broke some), and blowing eggs just isn't as easy as I remember it being when I did it last as a child.  I also didn't do my lungs a favour when I baked all those eggs with a layer of Translucent Liquid Sculpy.  Wow does that stuff stink!  I really do suggest opening a window when baking TLS.  These minor trials aside, I spent 16 days (so, yes, the Easter basket was delivered after Easter) creating a dozen polymer clay covered eggs and enjoyed every minute of it.  This activity truly brought fun to my Easter holiday this year.  The making of the nest for the eggs to sit in was a bit of a failed experiment.  The nests at the craft store were pretty ugly, so I figured I'd make my own.  Well, mine is pretty ugly too, but it's functional.  How do birds do it?!

I continue to move forward on my coffee doll sculpture.  I gathered all the fabrics I thought I wanted to use on her, then had a better idea, went shopping for fabrics all over again, and have finally started to dress her.  Regardless of how she turns out in the end.  I'm thrilled with this sculpt.  She's definitely a SHE!  I've literally sculpted (mostly faces) every day since last June and I think it's finally starting to pay off!  She's a SHE, pretty and delicate and graceful!  Woo-hoo!  Even her mini side-kick is rather endearing.

Finally, the last project I did was this months Creative Explorers Club  challenge.  How will my life look in 12 months time?  I almost didn't do this, because my answer was simply, "I don't know".  I don't what do be here, but I don't know where I'd rather be.  How are you supposed to make a vision card out of that answer?  Well, I did, thanks to Lewis Carroll who in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland wrote, "Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.
"I don’t much care where--" said Alice.
"Then it doesn’t matter which way you go," said the Cat.
"--so long as I get SOMEWHERE," Alice added as an explanation.
"Oh, you’re sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."

And so, with a strip-pieced background, sheer fabric overlay, Cheshire cat drawn with Inktense pencils and free motion stitching, my vision card was born. I might not have a clue where I'm going, but I'm happily taking a journey down an unknown path to get there.