Tribute-ary

The month is slipping away and I’m already missing Acey’s daily collage challenge prompts (which will end this week) even as I anticipate the next step forward into creating a Texas tarot deck.

But it’s not over yet, so for today

Which is an interesting challenge as some of those around the virtual table have stayed in the shadows. So I considered those whose blogs have been in my sights …

Dee, whose use of human figures inspired me to try for myself

Joanne, whose lede page held my eye with its bold colors and lines

Grace, whose fine-leafed tree stood in for her embrace of nature

And Acey most of all, for the time she has given to this ether-real gathering (and for the frogs)

Going once again to my box of book covers, with these thoughts in mind, and finding …

This time trusting in my ability enough to glue directly into my journal rather than starting with a separate base …

The silhouetted form turned over, standing in for those who remain unseen. And for me, holding a fully loaded bag of new tricks.

Once again feeling ever so pleased with the result.

So much fun

Select a few pieces that keep catching your eye” … oh, well of course they were in the box that I put back up yesterday. But they were also well-worth getting back down …

The patchplay-like squares, the scallop shells, the needles splayed on a wanna-be nine-patch, the edge trim from a bandanna label (a gift from Don, it reads “Hell yeah” in one corner), and the waxing crescent painted with Inktense blocks and cut with my nifty circle cutter …

The last bit of RIPE-ness just called to be included, new to me though it was … its letters echoing the last four letters of “Inspire.”

The exclamation point and “ideas” serendipitously placed … really, it all just fell together … more than ready to go after waiting in the wings.

A bit of this and that

Today’s collage challenge prompt was short but sweet: use three elements to tell a story of self above/below/within.

Since creating a Texas Tarot deck is much on my mind, I had an eye out for a deer, which will eventually symbolize the Empress card. Frequent visitors to our former Hill Country home, the does (as in female deer) represent the nurturing, earth mother part of myself that I value “above” other (far less noble) aspects of my personality … the part that leads me to do everything from staying overnight in hospital rooms with family members to playing on the floor with the grandkids …

What grounds me is stitching on cloth, hence the scrap of southwestern needle-work to symbolize what’s “below.”

Last, what is hidden “within” are the myriad fibers of my being, the thousands upon thousands of moments and experiences that are my roots, the sources of what I have become.

And in case you’ve been wondering, I really have been doing more than just collaging. Yesterday I did some darning on socks I worked on three years ago which are now in need of re-mending …

Don and I have also been working on remedying the roof leak (insurance, ServPro, roofers for the exterior and finding a contractor for the interior damage) along with replacing a non-functioning water softener (ka-ching), but we squeezed in some time to visit the new art center on Main Street in downtown Buda …

Since it was a bit too crowded for pictures, this little vignette of our new hometown will suffice …

along with this picture of the roadwork underway …

Fortunately the local establishments are all open and doing a good business, including the Tavern on Main which has great live music a mere 1.2 miles from our doorstep …

Life is good …

Queso and salsa anyone?