A Giveaway to Celebrate One Year!

In celebration of one year of blogging, and a big "Thank You" to all my lovely new friends who drop by, I wanted to do a GIVEAWAY!

 Sometimes, I can't belive the changes The Red Tin has brought to my life. Aside from actually learning a little bit about computers ( and the mystery of HTML), I have met so many wonderful people through this community. So many blogs have inspired me to try new things and opened up new worlds of possiblities with art. I may not have been making art dolls, trying more mixed media and altered art, painting, have done the Sketchbook challenge, participated in all the fun challenge blogs out there, discovered the vast creativity of mail art, and explored so many new mediums this year!

For this, I am grateful!

My blog has often given me a creative push when I was feeling a little lazy or my muse got away from me. And all your comments and words of encouragement have really kept me going and made many days better! I wish I could give you all hugs through this machine...but you will just have to settle for trying to win some goodies!

To win, please leave a comment with HOW YOUR BLOG HAS CHANGED YOU...

and you could be recieving a box with...

embroidered ribbons, hand dyed fabric I made, vintage buttons and postcards, and I'm sure I'll gather a pile of fun papers and things from the stash....

fabric postcards and one of my lavendar sachets...

A great, little wooden frame that is perfect for altering,

...and I am going to round up some more fun artsy stuff to play with...and, of course, a jar of the raspberry jam I made last week.

Thanks again to everyone for all your support and kind comments! Every day you are inspiring me!

I also look forward to hearing how your blog has changed your life too!

I will pick a winner next Thursday, September 8th. 

Good luck!

Liberate Your Art- Blog Hop Time!

I had such a great time participating in the Liberate Your Art swap---so many wonderful postcards flowing into my mailbox! Here are the five I recieved.
A big THANK YOU to Kat for hosting this amazing project!!! You are awesome!

The first one is a gorgeous collage made by April Marie at aprilmariecole.blogspot.com

I love it!

This great photo is by Juju --Thank you Juju! I am still searching through the blogs to find you!

What a nice image....I always enjoy a rainy day mood.  This is by Jenny. Thank you, Jenny!

Here's a nice surreal, creative collage! Wonderful Lui!! See more at houndsinheaven.blogspot.com

Last, and certainly not least, an impressive black and white by Larissa! I do always love the b/w! You can see more at www.matthewandlarissa.com

SO MANY AMAZING ARTISTS OUT THERE! THANK YOU EVERYONE! SEE YOU ALL SOON! KEEP CREATING!

We Be Jammin'

The quest for healthy, homemade living continues...and a trip to visit my parents taught me the art of making jam! Mom and I made a batch of blackberry jam yesterday, and today I went it alone, whipping up some raspberry. Lucky for me, their neighbors have an abundance of raspberries, which we happily picked.

Yummmm!

Seven little jars ready to eat!

Also, I just realized my 1 year blog anniversary is next week. Look for a giveaway in a few days...one of the items will definately be a jar of jam! See you soon.

Quilting and the Calm

I feel like shouting from the rooftops "I'm back"! The quilting and sewing inspiration has returned. I cleared off the work table. Aside from a sketchbook and watercolors, I turned my focus back to my small quilts...and FINISHING the 5 tops I have looking at me every day. This week I pulled out the next pattern for the Jo Morton small quilt club, and the stack of Civil War reproduction fabrics, and got down to sewing those scant quarter inch seams! I liked this pattern so much, and it was realatively quick, so I made two even.

Now, maybe, just maybe, I can have them all quilted and bound by the September meeting!

Bundle materials become book page

This year I participated in the Erosion Bundle Project. If you missed the post of what I placed in mine, and the results of months in the elements,  you can see it here.

I started out with this fabric book page for my ongoing art journey with fabric. I used fabrics and felted wool, lace, metal rings, and an old postcard to my Grandma. I loved the way the feather become affixed to it, and brushed on a layer of encaustic wax to seal it in. I added some embroidery for a little more texture.

I still have more to come, just waiting on the inspiration. 

I have really enjoyed seeing what amazing things people are creating with their bundles. Go check them out! You won't be disappointed.

Thanks everyone for stopping by. I always enjoy hearing your comments. It makes my day! xo

I won't even pretend to be healthy

Last weekend, I was sitting with my friend, Jodi, at the Olympia Farmer's Market. Whenever I go there I feel a little push to eat that way more often. I'm not ready for any raw food diets or anything, but I decided to challenge myself to cut out all the junk, and try to only eat with what is available at the market. Okay, for the most part, anyway.

 I'm not about to start churning my own butter and I won't know how to begin producing flour for the bread, scones, and things I want to make! But I thought it would be fun to challenge myself to healthier eating. If you know me, you know I am the kind of person who could have M&Ms for breakfast, a slice of pizza and a Snickers for lunch, and a bowl of ice cream for dinner. I sometimes (ok, often) eat like a 12 year old left home alone. Not this month!! All those packaged, processed foods are out. Enter leafy greens and things grown locally.

My friend has decided to do the challenge along with me! We did decide coffee and tea are fair game- no restrictions. Her biggest challenge will be not going out to eat. Mine is going to be all those candies and pastries...oh, and the pizza! We did agree that pies and other sweet things were okay, but it all had to be made from scratch. This is only week one but I already feel better about moving away from all these convienent foods I seemed to eat in abundance.

Today, I headed down to the market again and had bags filled with beets, kale, swiss chard, mushrooms, tomatoes, and fresh fruit. Here's what I made for a late lunch; sauted onion, mushroom, garlic, and kale. I also used some of the filling for a stuffed portabella mushroom with some of my favorite cheese over top (Seattle's Beechers Flagship). It's a pretty delicious adventure so far.

ps. We'll see if I can keep this up all month...and maybe (fingers crossed) beyond.

I would love to hear about what YOU eat!

Mail Art Envelopes

I used my new handmade stamp for some mail art envelopes. When I colored it in with watercolor cayons I thought it had a comic book feel.