10 on the 10th: Ten Things for 2024

Answering 10 questions! This is a fun monthly thing instigated by Marsha In the Middle.

For January, Marsha wants us to make plans:

1. Continue to sketch pastel landscapes. A 100 Day challenge started 11/17/23

See them all here

2. Relocate bags of scraps from the living room to the art closet. This means I have to find a home for everything in the art closet.

3. Do an art fair. stARTup Dallas? Other Fair LA? Superfine SF?

4. Drive across the southern edge of Canada en route to my 50th high school reunion in Troy, NY.

5. Get road trip maps collaged into a blank book BEFORE the trip. No repeat of 2014 and 2019.
Journal it in real time this time. (Finished the 2014 book on 5/26/22)

6. Become a certified Feng Shui consultant! (Ha. You didn't expect THAT one, did you!)

7. Apply to at least one juried art show and one grant every month.

8. On that note, make "Bloom" art for "Bloom" exhibition, application due 1/19.

9. 26 Fluevog sketches and patterns for the annual A-Z Blogging challenge in April.
Upload to Redbubble.

10. 100 more subscribers to my art email. WHAT? You're not on the A-list? Join here!

Be sure to check out Marsha’s post and her link party for more responses!

Linking up with

Marsha's 10 on the 10th
Shelbee's On the Edge

10 on the 10th on the 14th

Answering 10 questions! This is a fun monthly thing instigated by Marsha In the Middle.

I officially join next month and my February post will be on the 10th.

1. Would you rather make resolutions, select a word of the year, or make bucket lists?

Hello word of the year!

2. Would you rather make memories on vacations or save for a big occasion?

I'd rather make memories every day!

3. Would you rather buy all the things on sale or shop your closet?

Gotta shop my closet. I already have A LOT!

4. Would you rather shed weight through fad dieting and do it quickly or eat differently and lose      slowly?

Slow and steady. But don't take away The Sugar. I'd rather be plump.

5. Would you rather undergo some type of facial treatment or update a room in your home?

First, I must get the rooms tidy.

6. Would you rather watch Paul Hollywood or RuPaul?

RuPaul 4eva

7. Would you rather have to wear the same color all year long or not wear that color at all?

The color is beige. It can be banished. I won't miss it.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

8. Would you rather wear a designer look or a designer knockoff?

Just give me the Fluevogs. Support independent designers and small businesses. Avoid Fast Fashion.

9. Would you rather be overdressed or underdressed at an occasion?

As long as I'm dressed...

2016

10. Would you rather have only neutral clothing or extremely colorful clothing?
Give me ALL the colors (except beige, haha).

Be sure to check out Marsha’s post and her link party for more responses

Linking up with

Shelbee's Spread the Kindness on the Edge

Marsha's 10 on the 10th

Rena's Fine-Whatever

#SecondHandSeptember Decluttering Methods

Who out there is neat and tidy?

I fully admit that I am not.

Some might call it a "creative mess".
I know, in my soul, it's simply a mess.
I even put it as a disclaimer on my Instagram bio:

Let's talk Instagram decluttering.

You've probably seen an ad in your feed for making your Instagram "cleaner".
[I can't show you the actual ad because I ticked "See it too often" and now that I want to utilize it, it's not appearing. Watch, it'll return after I publish this post. Will add after I next see it].
Anyway, it shows example #1, a chaotic feed that looks much like this:

Next is example #2, a feed with a consistent color story and alternating images and blocks of text, like this (blurred to protect the innocent. I'm not dissing the IGer, I'm dissing the layout):

Personally, example #2 looks bland and boring and I don't want to read all that text.

[9/10] - here's the IG ad

I do agree that example #1 looks like my brain and is a bit scary. Here's another glimpse:

My personal solution (and let's all agree, it's YOUR feed, and you can post whatever and however you want) is to be more mindful and restrain myself to three posts a day. This then lines up like with like in the IG grid of three:

This I find especially difficult on the weekends because I'm usually not taking outfit photos and I'm doing fun stuff that I want to share! [See bottom row above].
So, I'm letting it all hang out on the weekends and reining myself back in during the work week.

We won't discuss the state of my house. It's not digital and less easily controlled.

Ha! Check out my 9/9 post -- the flat files got magically cleaned up!
Today (9/10), it looks even worse than above.
I got a new-to-me piece of furniture and chaos ensued.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Linking up with
Shelbee's Spread the Kindness
Catherine's #shareAllLinkup

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Remember doing those summer vacation reports in grade school? Me neither.

I'm doing this more for me than for you. I'll be writing more detailed posts on my various blogs. This is functioning as my Table of Contents and link center (adding links as posts are written). You're welcome to come along for the ride!

LAX - BOS
I mended (until I dropped my seam ripper under my seat) and sketched.

Getting from Boston to Providence was an adventure. More on that later.

Providence
A short and wonderful visit with Patucci and Mark, including perusing the Repair and Design Futures at the RISD Museum [museum link] (closes 6/30/19)
My long post about it link.

View this post on Instagram

RISD Museum: Repair and Design Futures through 6/30/19 This is text from the exhibition. #mendingmatters #slowsewing #slowstitching #mending #mendingasmetaphor

A post shared by anne m bray (@annembray) on Jun 13, 2019 at 1:57am PDT

A few tense moments chasing the box of art, which I picked up at the Post Office as I was leaving town:

Vermont
Rendezvoused with Annie at her sweet cabin.

Finished customizing the tiaras for our 45th high school reunion parade.
Covered a random princess (on Annie) and Hello Kitty (on me) with our school's founder, Emma Willard

Got the art out of the box and affixed to foam core for display at the reunion.
More on the art on the On the Edge blog.

Troy, NY
As mentioned, 45th reunion. A small, yet mighty gathering of the class of '74

Ready for the Parade of Classes [photo by Liz Westbrook '75]

Severo showed up Saturday night and he joined us for the Class Dinner:

Barneveld, NY
A few days at Mom's, plus museum visits.

Meetup with Shelbee and Sons at The Adirondack Experience!
Writeup link here.

Tiffany exhibit at the Munson Williams Proctor Institute (through September 8, 2019)

It seemed that every time we were in transit, it rained. The drive from Barneveld to Newark was especially harrowing -- Severo almost hit a deer on US17, a six lane highway.

NYC
William Greenberg Desserts, the Met, shopping -- an ideal day in the city.

Met Camp exhibition (through September 8, 2019) for her:

Richard Quinn AW18-19

Met Play It Loud exhibition (through October 1, 2019) for him:

Posing with Lennon's Rickenbacker

Gluttony East link
Dessert Gluttony link

EWR-LAX
Aerial views and Procreate patterns:

Have a vacation planned? Summer at home? Link!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Linking up with
Patti's Visible Monday
Shelbee's Spread the Kindness
Catherine's #ShareAllLinkup
Ageless Style Linkup

Summer Fun: August Update

It's time to check in with my goals for the summer.
How am I doing?
Um...

Weekly Goals:

Sew and/or repair at least one garment. 3/4
I went to a Mending Workshop, which got the needle (slowly) moving.

7/23 Chaotic Stitching at CAFAM

7/25 sewed a button on, got shirt all bloody.
[Shout out to +Suzanne Carillo for recommending OXO Brite to remove the stains]

8/12 stitching up side seams on my Ketzali Ruana at Lisa and Tim's.
This was item #1 for my Meet and Mend event in Seattle, which didn't happen.

List at least one garment on Poshmark 6/4

Vintage Asian Print Top

High Top Sneaker Print Socks

Dr Scholl's Silver Fast Flats

Kashi Kicks Pattern Mix Sneakers

90's Stretch Corduroy Swim Shorts

Vintage Mexican Handwoven Belt

and one on Trendlistr [if I can ever get back into the site, that is].
Officially putting that on the back burner for now.

Upload new art to Redbubble. 3/4

ABC-123

Quilted Clouds

Fluevog Enthusiast Black/Pink

Summer Goals:

Get taxes done.
Made minor progress, had to file state sales tax return which required adding up gross business receipts.

DeClutter the living room.
Sorted both Repair Mountain and the Resale Foothills thematically.
It's a tiny bit better, though still colossal.
The current state of the clutter magnet coffee table:

Laser-eye Lou says: You will do my bidding and feed me more treats.

Get sewing machine repaired.
Not yet.

Here are progress reports from fellow Summer Challenge participants:

An InLinkz Link-up

Summer Fun: July Update

So about that list I posted June 21st:

Weekly Goals: 

Sew and/or repair at least one garment. 1/4 [1 = item count, 4 = weeks]

My Redbubble #dailytruck dress was uncomfortable at the armholes -- it was finished with bias tape.

[Probably should have gone up another size].

I cut off the binding, overlocked the edges, then turned it under and hand sewed.

Repair made so could wear dress at art reception. 
Garment fixes for specific events usually happen, unlike all the other repairs lurking in Repair Mountain.

List at least one garment on Poshmark 5/4 [links go to items for sale. You need to sign up to see content]

Severo's Jeans

Vintage Jantzen Swim Trunks

Dotty Keds (so sad they don't fit)

Stripy Keds (I'm so over my brief sneaker insanity) 

Vintage Carpenter Shorts (how can the 90s be twenty years ago? How?)

and one on Trendlistr [if I can ever get back into the site, that is]. NOPE, didn't even try.

Upload new art to Redbubble. 1/4
Not any of the Fluevog prints, sad to say (that was my goal).
However, used Redbubble for my #dailytruck x 313 wall hanging and wanted a matching dress for the reception! (As mentioned above).

Summer Goals:

Get taxes done. NOT YET STARTED

DeClutter the living room (again). STARTED. 
Was looking for art (not yet found) and the 52 Blogger book (found). In addition, Mr Lou barfed on the table, which "inspired" me to clear it off FAST.

"I got her to get stuff off the table. I will now nap."

Get sewing machine repaired. NOT YET

Funny how going over a list like this inspires some last minute chore activity!
How are your summer projects going?
Here are progress reports from fellow Summer Challenge participants:

An InLinkz Link-up