Graduation!

 

Kim Mason is now a graduate of Cornish College of the Arts, with a Bachelor Degree of Fine Arts, Magna Cum Laude.

Friday evening was the opening of the Art Show of all the graduating Seniors.

People admiring Kim’s work.  It was an impressive show, but very hot and crowded.  The work really needed to be viewed when you could get up close and read all the fine print about the process that went into it. 

Cheesy smile shot.  The short description of her thesis :  “Based on language derived from found objects, four typographic illustrations examine how a contextual shift can alter or deepen the meaning of the message.  All type included in the work is custom, and all printed pieces were screen printed by hand with love in Seattle, WA”

Speaking of Cheese, while Kim was rehearsing for the ceremony, we toured Pikes Place Market where they were having a Cheese Festival.

The Stage at Benaroya Hall, home of the Seattle Symphony.

My attempt at a picture of Kim receiving her diploma from the College President, maxed out telephoto.     

Happy and proud family.

 

I can get pretty good picture in inanimate objects like flowers and quilts, but taking people pictures is just not my thing.

Brief Vacation Report

We have to go to the local Safeway to get internet, so this will just be a quick post with a few pictures of today's adventure, kayaking on Sparks lake.

Here's the view across the lake of Mt. Bachelor
Randy and Phil in motion.
Dave and the Klepper.

Having a good time, wish you were here.

Sunday Roundup

Yesterday Matt graduated (with honors) from high school. That weird yellow thing in the picture is an arrow I added to show you where he is. Luckily he was sitting next to a very tall boy, so every time I lost him, I was able to orient on his neighbor. Click on the picture to see it bigger.

Happy kids.

This is an in progress disappearing 9-patch. Each of the What Knot's members made me a 9 patch block in yellow and red. I still have to make my block, but I like this arrangement. Each month a different member gives their preferences and we each make a block. The finished quilts will be donated to the local cancer center, part of the Bonnie's Team Project.
Peonies, Lilacs and blue sky. These are the first of my Peonies to open. The lilacs are almost done, they smell so heavenly.
Bee on a pink lupine (lower right hand corner if you can't find him)
Field of Buttercups. I subscribe to a blog where people post pictures of plants they can't identify. One man posted a buttercup, describing it as something that just came up, but he loves. They are so invasive in my yard. I root them out of the flower beds, but in the area beyond where we mow they are everywhere.

Sunday Roundup

While the snow drifts down (it’s melting immediately)… Yesterday we went to Seattle to spend the day with Kim and celebrate Dave’s birthday.

Such happy??? faces

Look, I’ve got seedlings! Milo is about to get a squirt from the water bottle. They are in the laundry room and this year I am keeping the room a little warmer which I think helped the quick germination. I have to keep the door closed to keep the cats out and the loads of wash help keep it nice and humid in there.

This is the new Gemma Beret I’m working on, and yes Milo is helping here too, he was all over everything I was doing this morning, now he’s hiding somewhere sleeping it off.

Current status of the baby sweater. The back is complete and I’ve knit a few inches of the front.

Kim Visit

Kim came home this weekend for a visit.
She tried out the Wii and pronounced it good. Look at her nice yoga posture.
She made lovely pizza, one vegan, one with real cheese.

And she showed me some of her school work. This is a doodle from her philosophy class. She claims it really is notes for the class, just nicely designed.

Strange Happenings

I came home from work on Thursday and found Matt at the sink washing dishes. Now, he's a very helpful son, does chores without grumbling, but you have to give him direction. If he sees you working he'll offer to help, but a pile of dirty dishes has never spoken to him before.

After he finished, he went upstairs and brought down loads of trash. He then vacuumed.

Thursday was his last day of high school classes. He doesn't graduate until June, but for the second semester he is taking all his classes at the local Technical College (computer stuff). To graduate from high school he just needs to complete and present his culminating project and then he is ready to walk. Cap and gown have been ordered.

The above picture is his "official" Senior Picture, the one below another good one taken on the photo shoot, photographer: Kim.

When I came home from work on Friday, the dishes were all washed. What does this mean???

Sledding Fun

Snow, snow, and more snow, so Dave made our road into a sled run by driving the car up and down to pack the snow. He even went above our house to the garden area, so the run is probably 1/4 mile long.
We have a great old metal sled that is perfect for these conditions. Of course they didn't hike back up, they drove the car. Dave took these pictures as I was bundled up inside during all this.

New Hat

I wanted to make a hat that Matt would like, so I decided to just wing it with crochet and add ear flaps.
It's a success, he likes it! Dave wants one too. I think the ear flaps are a little big, but it's still wearable. My timing is good, as it's been cold and snowy this week.

My handsome boy!

Tuesday Tidbits

Not original, but it's Tuesday again and I have a bit of this and that.

This was one of those projects I was determined to finish, even if it didn't work as planned. The Caturday image is embroidered and then embellished with Shiva paintsticks. I do love the other fabrics I used.
This is the back of the pillow, it's a larger print, but same as the one on the front of the pillow.
Kim was home for the weekend, I was able to document this hair cut moment.
Earlier in the week I stopped by Bakerview Nursery for some more plant stakes and look what followed me home. The one on the left is an annual, but for $5 I figured I'd get my money's worth of enjoyment.
A little cat interaction in the sunshine.

Review of the 4th

What??? It's already the 6th??? After a busy couple of days yesterday was a complete write off, I spent most of the day on the couch watching TV and napping.

But, here's a quick review of the 4th.

The day started early with a sale at my LYS (local yarn store) Apple yarns. They opened at 8 am and I was there not long afterward. The store was brimming with knitters but the mood was festive, lots of chatting and enabling.

Here's what came home with me, lots of projects ahead.

The following pictures were taken by my talented daughter Kim and are from her Flickr account.

Festive Table


Food porn as she calls it - Vegan Potato Salad


Plate full of goodies.

And then we have the fireworks, yes we shot these off in our yard.





Jessie Dog totally freaked out with the fireworks so I ended up in the house with her trying to keep her half way calm. All in all a very successful celebration.

Adventures with Paintsticks

What??? These aren't Paintsticks, no they are Peony buds.

Look how many are on one plant, it will be wild if it ever blooms. I do have a tomato cage around the plant so hopefully the flowers will not fall over. I decided to pick one bud and bring it inside to see if it will open up.
I don't think I've shown you my front porch pots, I'm quite proud of what I did. I usually forget to water these pots, they are not in my usual path, so this year I decided to plant succulents, hopefully they will survive better on limited water.
Fun combinations of colors and textures, poor little branches are leaning towards the light.
Now here's where I played with the Shiva Paintsticks. All my "designs" are rubbing, either off the Cedar Canyon Rubbing plates, some texture sheets I used with polymer clay or rubber stamps. The pink one was a rubbing that I colored in.
I used different colors in different sections on this one, still rubbing.
Some texture sheets and rubber stamps. I really wanted to try using them with a stencil but I couldn't remember where I'd stashed mine. I recently bought a clearance flower stencil that I finally found this morning, I had put it in the box with the other Paintstick supplies I've been gathering.

Here's Kim's latest tattoo. Really neat artwork. That's all I'm going to say.

Duck Book by Kim

My very talented daughter has just finished her sophmore year of college, studying graphic design. OK, the correct name is Visual Communication something something but most people don't understand that unless you tell them it's graphic design.

spread 3
Originally uploaded by kim mason

She has posted some of her work to her Flickr site and I am just thrilled with her Duck Book, the story of our visiting ducks Agnes and Alfred. You can click on the picture to go to her site and see the other pages. She's coming home next week, I can't wait to see it in person.