Starting anew is always a good thing! Here is Vol. 1 of "Artful Living on the Bluff" for you to enjoy. While I am not contributing new material to this blog, please feel free to look around and then visit me at the new and (hopefully) improved "Artful Living on the Bluff" blog at artfullivingonthebluff.blogspot.com

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Tree of Life is finished!

I finished "Tree of Life" today and really like how it turned out! It's available to purchase at CindyCaraway on Etsy - let me know what you think! :)
 
 
 

Morning Coffee Quotes

Hummingbird Having Lunch - photo by Cindy Caraway


"When chasing dreams, be certain you don't have the blankets pulled over your head."
- A.F. Raud

"To profit from good advice requires more wisdom than to give it."
- Churton Collins

"Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence."
- Eric Fromm

"Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy."
- Thích Nhất Hạnh

"Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition."
- Marilyn Monroe

"Lottery: A tax on people who are bad at math."
- Ambrose Bierce

"Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"College was to teach me that I was one of life's journeymen, eager to excel but lacking the requisite gifts."
- Pat Conroy, The Prince of Tides

"Depression is the most unpleasant thing I have ever experienced. It is that absence of being able to envisage that you will ever be cheerful again. The absence of hope. That very deadened feeling, which is so very different from feeling sad. Sad hurts but it's a healthy feeling. It is a necessary thing to feel. Depression is very different."
- J.K. Rowling

"The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread."
- Mother Teresa

"Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are."
- Marianne Williamson

"Good friendships are fragile things and require as much care as any other fragile and precious things."
- Randolph Bourne

"There is only one class in the community that thinks more about money than the rich, and that is the poor."
- Oscar Wilde

"We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and then bid the geldings to be fruitful."
- C.S. Lewis

"It is not what he has, or even what he does which expresses the worth of a man, but what he is."
- Henri-Frédéric Amiel

"No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong."
- François de La Rochefoucauld

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Cool Vintage Stuff!

Some very cool vintage stuff came my way via a family member the other day. I was going to take lots of pics as I sorted and cleaned but got excited and completely forgot after the first few items... sorry.

So, here are the few photos I took to whet your appetite. I'm hoping to add some new listings to TwoDogVintage - my vintage shop on Etsy - soon!




Monday, September 16, 2013

Tree of Life - in progress...

The weaving is complete and now comes the fun part of finishing... hopefully today but, we'll see...

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Morning Coffee Quotes

Mississippi Slough - photo by Cindy Caraway
"The route you take depends a good deal upon where you want to go."
- Lewis Carroll

"It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood."
- James Madison

"Good enough isn't."
- Unknown

"The highest wisdom is kindness."
- The Talmud (Berakot)

"The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays."
- Søren Kierkegaard

"Pain makes man think. Thought makes man wise. Wisdom makes life endurable."
- John Patrick

"Hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue."
- Francois De La Rochefoucauld

"Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh."
- George Bernard Shaw

"Wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue is doing it."
- David Star Jordan

"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it."
- Sam Levenson

"Happiness is wanting what you get, not getting what you want."
- Robert A. Heinlein

"Football combines two of the worst things in American life. It is violence punctuated by committee meetings."
- George F. Will

"Cherish the questions, for the answers keep changing."
- Albert Einstein

"They will never forget you until somebody new comes along."
- The Eagles, New Kid In Town

"Wisdom consists in knowing what to do with what you know."
- Unknown

"A good scare is worth more to a man than good advice."
- E. W. Howe

"If you want happiness for an hour -- take a nap. If you want happiness for a day -- go fishing. If you want happiness for a year -- inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime -- help others."
- Unknown

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

An Unexpected Visitor

We have been enjoying watching Hummingbird Moths (also called Sphinx Moths) feeding on the hostas blooming outside our kitchen window. Tonight, as my husband's guitar students were leaving, one decided to come in for a short visit, probably attracted by the lights in the living room.

White-lined Sphinx Moth - photo by Cindy Caraway

They are really quite impressive measuring around 2" in length and resemble hummingbirds when they feed on flowers. Their wings move in the same way and they are experts at hovering.

He (or she) was gently captured and released into the night.

Tree of LIfe

There is a group exhibition coming up at a local gallery here in Dubuque. The gallery is "Outside the Lines" and the exhibition is themed "Trees" and I am working on some pieces to enter.

I just finished "Autumn Tree Twilight" and started working on a new piece that incorporates a tree of life centerpiece...
I've always been intrigued by these and finally just decided to give one a try! Pretty good for a first attempt, IMO :)

Next I drew up a pattern for a new necklace and figured out where the focal will be and planned for some leafy fringe. The pattern is warped and ready to go - I hope I'll have time to get started on it today!


Monday, September 9, 2013

Autumn Tree Twilight is Finished!

The last beaded fringe was added to "Autumn Tree Twilight" this afternoon! Here are some shots of the completed piece - I hope you like them! :)

I'll have this piece available in at CindyCaraway on Etsy later today -


Friday, September 6, 2013

Out on the Mississippi

We decided that we would make a date to go fishing one day each week. We went yesterday - the fishing was pretty terrible but the weather was perfect! Here are some pics from our trip - Enjoy :)


Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Autumn Tree Twilight

I'm starting a new pin weaving project called (for the meantime) "Autumn Tree Twilight". I started with a brass pin depicting a garden scene that features a tree and built a color scheme around it. Lots of orange, rust, gold and green...


Next, I decided to add some fall "foliage" to the pin by wiring on seed beads in rusty orange, golden brown and pretty green...

Since I need some contrast to the oranges and greens in order for the tree to stand out, I decide to do a "sunset"  backdrop using deep blue and pink to represent the evening sky...

Finally, I draw up a pattern and commence with the weaving....
 

So far, so good! I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out! :)