Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

Happy Memorial Day!

It was a really great weekend for us. First, we did get the garage cleaned and now have a van-load of stuff to take to the Salvation Army. The boxes on the left are trash, so that entire corner will be empty after Thursday - what a difference - you can actually see wall behind the shelves!



We rewarded ourselves for "a job well done" by going to see Ironman - we really enjoyed it - I give it 4.5 stars out of 5 - I hope Robert Downey, Jr. keeps his act together - he has such talent.

Sunday we went to see the Indiana Jones movie - 3 stars (he really is too old for that sort of thing and the real Indiana would never have gotten married...) - it felt far more contrived than any of the others...and I have to admit a certain prejudice against Karen Allen - I just never thought she was that good of an actress...

Dave says he got everything on his list done so it was a productive weekend for him.

And I managed to finish a few things. I designed a centerpiece for the Department picnic (a Mardi Gras theme). It's hard to see in the picture, but the "vase" is a top hat (plastic) that's been covered in gold glitter...sure glad it only has to last the one day of the picnic!



And I was able to finish another Serenity piece - this one is called "Pieces of Serenity". It's a little longer and slightly narrower than the previous pieces. It does use scraps from the other Serenity pieces...heaven forbid I throw away anything in the studio!



I was also able to finish a piece for our "Art Trade" tomorrow night at the DAFA potluck. I was going to make another journal size piece but thought someone might enjoy something usable - so I turned it into this fiber bound book. Since the signatures are just tied in with ribbon, it should be fairly easy to replace them when they are full. I enjoyed making it, so I might make up a few more.



Hope everyone has had a good weekend and has a great week!

Hugs - Jo.

Brain on Dye...

So - how very COOL is this?!?!?!

One of the most interesting things about working at a research institution is that you can volunteer for really interesting studies - this morning I participated in an MRI Brain Scan study - my scans will be used to study bloodflow in the brain - and they gave me a bunch of the images from the MRI on a DVD! I can hardly wait to turn some of them into fiber art! This view is from the front (I think....) or maybe the top... I went to eAnatomy and created an account so I can figure out what it is I'm looking at on all of the pictures- but I think it's cool that in this slice of the scan it looks like I have a butterfly in my head and that (from this angle) it looks like an animal of some kind...I mean, really....how COOL!!!! Hugs - Jo

Sunday's Outing

Ok - that's me on the far left front in the large grey t-shirt -

working hard at the etsyDallas Make-and-Take-It booth - working on a "pocket shrine" for Dia de los Muertos - there were some pretty cool artists at the little event - etsy.com is an interesting place to find handmade stuff and I hope to get my spirit dolls put up there this summer. And maybe a few other things that have been hanging out in the studio - had some cool ideas while I was there - I saw several items in booths that I wanted but knew I could make for less - the one thing I bought I knew I wouldn't make was a fused glass pendant that had the Chinese characters for "Serenity" on it - since it was black and white and it meant the same thing as the series I've been working on in B&W, I couldn't resist. I'm looking forward to the long weekend - especially now that Dave has decided we need to clean out the garage! Wooo-Hooo...maybe we can make enough room to walk to the car without injuring ourselves! Other than that we have no big plans for the holiday- maybe a movie - and I plan to spend time in my studio and Dave will work in his office. If I don't post before-hand, have a safe and happy Holiday weekend! Hugs - Jo

Symposium and Some Art

Yesterday was the Molecular Biophysics Research Symposium - we had 108 registered and 106 showed up...so, all in all, a good turnout but a lot of work for me. This year the symposium was held at the American Airlines Museum (C.R. Smith) in Fort Worth. It's all about American Airlines. It was fun using the PA system at the desk in front of the auditorium!

Did find some wonderful fake antique luggage stickers in the gift shop which I will have to try and find something to do with. There were some art pieces in the museum but mostly it was the history of the airline. I did like the flag quilt and the eagle statue - both 9/11 tributes -



and the bronze eagle in the front of the museum was also very beautiful.




There was a small bronze of a buffalo which appears to be another memorial of some sort but I couldn't find an explanation.




On the walls, there were some beautiful photographs of movie stars as they related to American Airlines - John Wayne, Paul Newmon, Ginger Rogers, Humphrey Bogart and more...my first thought was that most of the students in the auditorium wouldn't even know who these people were since the attendees were mostly under the age of 30!




I was also able to take a short ride in the flight simulator! John (the volunteer who let me in the simulator) was a pilot beginning in 1948 and flew mostly navy jets and - trust me - he did all the flying while we were in that thing - I"m pretty sure I would have ended up in downtown San Francisco if left to my own devices!




Today, Dave and I joined the Kelleys and we went to see the lastest Narnia movie. I give it 3 stars out of 5.

Tomorrow, Valerie and I are going to the etsyDallas street fair where there will be a Make-and-Take Booth, so we are both looking forward to seeing what they have. I'll try and report back on Sunday evening - who knows? we might learn something fun or useful!

Hugs - Jo

Another Wedding and More Art

Last weekend Dave and I went to the wedding of one of the students in my graduate program - Matthew and Amanda were so cute - and with a dinner reception, it was a very nice evening out with friends and coworkers. Here are pictures of the Bride&Groom (Matthew is the student); Dave & I; and me with Lisa (another student in the program).

Also got the pictures done of more small art pieces - where does the time go?...meant to get these posted the next day! These are small 5"x5" - I was doing the one with stars for the Quilting Arts Green Challenge (it was done completely out of scraps and leftovers..in fact, they all were) but I decided the $15 entry fee was too steep for such a small piece - I am thinking about putting them all together in a fiber book...or maybe use them on the front of blank journals...will have to think about it some more...Hugs - Jo.