A Garden walk of creativity

The Annual Minooka Garden walk was yesterday, I go each year with my mom. Just the two of us. It’s fantastic to walk among some one else’s garden. To get to see what they create and labor over. To chat with gardeners, to really get a feel for how they love their yards.

So the first house has this in the front yard. My heart is happy already.

Then I see that they have these empty stations set up all over the yard, under pine trees and then tables with women painting in the garden! I chat with them for a few minutes, finding out that on Thursday nights at the local library they have open night. It’s free, you can sketch, paint, and do what every creative art you are in the mood for. Now I love to go and scrapbook but as of this year I am pretty set on cropping at home. I have a HUGE space for it. And cropping is a bit involved when it comes to the packing process (I have to take EVERYTHING!)

But painting and drawing? Simple. Sketch pad, paints, pencils, WAY less supplies. I could do this. AND make new friends? For free? Down the street? THEN they asked me to join them… right now! And paint!

So I did. OMG it was so much fun. We chatted and painted, I stayed for 40 minutes, and my wonderful mom, stood and watched. Thanks mom. She knew how much that meant to me.

 

I did what I do best, and that was a tree. I picked ONE color, and with watercolors the amount of water you use changes the darkness of the paint. It was fantastic. And this was just house #1 of seven!!

 Oh AND they had a canvas under a tree, and it was for anyone who came through to paint on. They wanted it to be the Garden Walk painting. So mom and I added a little ourselves.

The next house was just whimsical, and random, SO my way of gardening.

Lots of shade, lots of art too. She had paintings

from a local artist, plates hanging on the fence and half in her dirt. She had shown me her label maker, and her tags, she labels EVERY plant in her yard.

And old wooden play set is now a bird/squirrel feeder, she had a pond. BUT not for fish, for birds. Very shallow and clean.

 

Then there is this house… this is a combination of my mother and I. Both cute, a dash of country, but again the random whimsy look I love.

I mean WHO nails ALL these signs to their house?! I was in love!

And the details! Look at these mini lanterns! LOVED it!

 

And below check out the sink! How cute is that? NOW I know not every yard could pull that off, there a close line between cute as hell and hillbilly heaven

 

Oh and there are these all over this yard! They were glass bottles tied to stakes, with a note in each, usually about where the flowers came from, or what they mean to the family. This one was sweet. And they had a HUGE section of beautiful daisies.

So this shot did exactly the opposite of what I wanted, (Still getting the hang of my dad’s SLR) and I wanted to get the cupcake. It had a violet on top, and I ate it. (most flowers are edible) the cupcake too was amazing, and the home owners daughter was starting a baking company, and who better to try it out on?

So I was freaking excited on the front porch and even MORE excited when I started to notice the name of the home owner. OMG it’s THE preschool everyone talks about.

Sure enough, there is THIS one preschool that is RAVED about, by everyone in town. And you have to know some one to get her info, she is not on the internet, or in the phone book. AND there is a two year waiting list. SO MAYBE I could check it out because NOW I have her info! Wee!

Right so, there was so much to see, the yard, the play area, ALL of it was amazing, AND they let you go through the house to leave! Very cool.

And THIS was just house #3… well house #4 was a repeat from last year, and well it was about 95 in the shade, so we skipped it, then houses #5-#7 were cute, but nothing like the first three houses.

SO much fun, SO inspired, hoping for all this rain to make my garden happy, then make my dirt soft, and Wednesday it should cool down and I can go out and garden! Till then it’s house work and hoping for some art room time! Happy creating!

JCat McGack

Dreams of art.

How ironic is it that this was a Mary Englebright calendar tear off page, for the weekend of my Mom’s birthday a few years ago.

The one person who taught me since I was big enough to hold a crayon, that art is fun. She would sew, and I would sit next to her with my Sesame Street magazines, cutting out pictures of my favorite characters with my safety scissors.

I spent my life so far creating. Anything I can try I do.

My youth was crafts, popsicle sticks, glue, markers, paper, and fabric.

I took drawing classes when ever I could. And once in High School my first priority was to schedule art classes. All 4 years, with Mrs. Henize. Not always liking the lessons, still life drawing was horrible (I still have those duck drawings though) but I took the lessons, and worked with them.

I have collages, from magazines. The watercolors, metal embossing, painting, cartooning, clay, paper mache, and our weekly drawing assignments.

After high school, not sure why I didn’t take art at the Junior College I attended… but art still lived on. My mom and I had found rubber stamping when I was about 12. When I was 23 we found a company called Stampin’ Up! and for 6 years I was a independent demonstrator for them. (hosting classes on how to stamp and create cards, and scrapbook pages)

I just left Stampin’ Up! 6 months ago. And it was a great thing in my life, but now I’m enjoying the freedom of creating more for myself. Ugly Sock Monsters are a new thing. Sewing is becoming a good habit and I know my mother is elated (that it only took 32 years to get me really into sewing. Now if only my bobbin agreed with me, I would do it more often!)

Our little ‘Gack and Gigi’s’ booth, is a dabble in the fact that we have space. To first off clean out our houses, but create and possible sell a few things.

I would like to create, and have an Etsy store filled with all the fun things I make.

The big dream?

To have a store. “JCat McGack’s” where I sell scrapbook supplies, fabric, tools and supplies for all art kinds. That is the first floor. THEN the second loft floor, is for tables. BIG tables. That people can ‘rent’ by the hour, to create right there.

I would have sewing machines, die cut machines, a kiln. ALL for them to create with.  The second floor would also have a back porch for sitting. To just read, drink coffee, or visit with friends.

I would have a kids area. (I’ve learned I am good with kids and art work, I have patience there with them)

Well it’s a dream. One I hope to see come true, but that magical thing called money that doesn’t exist, is what stops me… a girl can dream right?

JCat.

Pool time, poop time and hot peppers up your nose

Hello! I have to share a few pages I just finished up over the weekend.

I got this awesome glitterly, shiney paper (glitter gets no justice in pictures!!) and I thought it would look better if it was sideways!!

We celebrated the 4th of July at our house this year, having everyone over for nummy food, and some pool time. I still have one more page still being finished to add to this lay out.

But here's some other ones that I did too...

Click to zoom, and if you look at my dad's nose, he has two hot pepper stuck up there!! He thought it was funny, to bad it burned like hell when he took them out!

So this page is mostly information, but it's like a crime report. Don't mind the red paper strips, that is covering our address and phone number (a bit too much info to give out)

So the crime report was on the repeat offender, Alexander. And his poo vandalism!

(sorry bout the flash on his forhead!)

Hope you enjoyed the pages, as much as I did creating!

Jacki