Month Two: check

Who'd a thunk it? I have completed 2/12ths (or 1/6th as my boys would reduce to being in 5th grade math) of my annual project. I am compelled to do something different for March -- maybe make a mark with black paint on phone book paper and shrink the image down to tile-size? Don't know yet, but here's today's. I used a Cherryade label as the tile's background but scanned it atop the Limeade label. I just love the colors.

I'll swear off the French Ladies for a while and am open to suggestions as to a theme for March -- but hurry, I'll have to make one in less than 27 hours! Post promptly please.

The Effervescent, Bubbly Wells Sisters

I found a slew of vintage soda bottle labels at Lakewood this month and the Limeade label here became the background for today's tile: The Wells Sisters - named for the soda company's mineral springs. The label image was ink jet printed on fabric and is turned upsidedown under the sisters -- can you make out the green banner at the bottom?

The sisters remind me of my nieces in California. I miss them whole bunches everyday. Don't they look like the girls on the tile -- only more adorable?

Une Grande Catastrophe et Quatre Femmes Retarde!

That's a fancy, and likely completely incorrect, way to say I made a mess and I'm late with my most recent French Lady tiles.

I can't show you what I've been furiously working on, ignoring hunger pangs and ringing phones for, leaving blogging undone, laundry unfolded, the dog unwalked and Mark eating Crispix for dinner --- but I can show you the aftermath. You'll have to wait until May to see the fruits of this disaster. I'll give you a hint.....it's a whole bunch of fabulous (OK, that part is subjective but the whole bunch is quantifiable) applications for 1.5 x1.5 Bazzill chips. Stay tuned.

Yikes. I made sure all my paints, inks, glues and dark chocolate brownies were covered and gave up. I'll have to excavate tomorrow.

In the foreground you'll see one of my most important artistic materials. You can't hear the Michael Buble, Frank Sinatra, or Mel Torme in the background, the mission-critical soundtrack to make a mess by.

This is a "work" surface. It looks like Dick Blick threw up in here.

Imagine what goodies I'll find when I put everything away. Here are the admittedly rushed tiles for the last few days as my time has been spent making myself a prime candidate for Clean Sweep. I did them, though, one a day. I didn't cheat. Really. I couldn't, despite really wanting to blow it off and make two the next day. I know, you want to be me when you grow up, write my name in on the Presidential ticket next year.

Quilt Show Attire

I had these aprons made at Cafe Press, the site that hosts Zoe's Store for me. The images are of game pieces from Sixtyopoly. The printing is great and holds up really well in the wash, but there was something missing. Oh yeah, EVERYTHING. I had to add ribbons, buttons, fibers, paint, stamping, and a vintage dress makers tape to Debbi's, with Carol's help on the sewing machine. (note to Carol: Who knew that fusible web required constant heat -- as in a whole T.H.I.R.T.Y S.E.C.O.N.D.S? It could have been defective! The iron might have been set too low. Perhaps the atmospheric conditions weren't optimal for immediate web fusing!)

The little dog tags are "z" and "g" for Zoegraph.

Debbi and I will be the height of Quilt Festival fashion this April when we teach at MIU!

Les Femmes

The French Ladies on these two tiles came on a sheet of transparent lovlies from my friend, Patricia DiBona of DiBona Designs. She has a whole line of cool products including transparencies, original rubber stamps and lots of other goodies for mixers of media.

I have been working on a project for a deadline after work and sqeezing in my daily tiles while the other stuff is drying. Let dry. The two most hated words in any project directions. Anyway, can't show you that here, but with any luck, it'll be on your newsstands this summer.

No Comment

I have heard from three folks who tried to comment yesterday but couldn't. So sorry, sounds like a Blogger issue -- what do I expect considering what I'm paying for the service?

I have reset my Comments Settings in an effort to shake the problem loose. I also changed it so that ANYONE can comment - supposedly without a Blogger account. We'll see.

I just HATE when I don't get your comments, my self-worth is tied directly to the number of visits and comments I receive daily. If you would like to email me until this whole thing is resolved, and narrowly prevent my plunging into a deep depression while binge eating Dove dark chocolates, please do so at cheryl@zoegraphdesigns.com

Here's the tile that was drying last night - it's really glossy from a liberal (is there any other kind?) coating of Diamond Glaze, but it doesn't show up so well in the scan. Ok, everyone, in unison:

OOOOooooooooo, shiny.

Birthday Gifts: Bazzill & Book

Well, it wasn't really intended as a birthday gift, but hey, who needs a reason to receive a present? When the kind and generous folks at Bazzill Basics found out about my daily resolution, they sent me nearly a two year supply of chips -- these are the little 1.5" squares I use to make my paper tiles. I am going to just focus on 2007 for now. On February. On this week.

I am so excited because this wonderful cache will allow me to supply my students with more chips than I had originally intended at MIU! Bazzill (rhymes with Dazzle) has a great line of papers and other goodies, as well as an inspirational flickr gallery with creative ideas for scrapbookers and media mixers alike. Thanks, Lisa!





Debbi Crane, my dear friend whom I've never met, co-professor at Make It University and Cover Girl emeritus of CPS issue 9, made me this gorgeous book. Can you see the binding stitches? They're braided. It's wonderfully heavy with blank pages, begging for doodles, ideas and grocery lists. AND she did it while in an arm brace. I'm tellin' ya, she can leap tall buildings in a single bound, ok? Not to mention the fact that a certain famous QB reads her blog.

Singing off for now. Today's tile is drying so it'll have to wait till tomorrow to join its brothers and sisters in blogdom.

Catching up on posting my tiles

Made of wrapping paper scraps and ribbon bits while eating birthday cake. 2-16-07

Embellished souvenir from Sia's, the restaurant where we had our anniversary dinner. World's best calamari served in a martini glass lined with gold-leafed washi paper. 2-17-07

The first tile I have made using fabric, no paper. 2-18-07

Today's tile features a vintage clothing snap. The heart's glossiness was achieved with Diamond Glaze. 2-19-07

Be sure to check out the b-day pix below, I guess Blogger only allows 5 pics per post.....I had a wonderful birthday and gained only 5 pounds!

Post-Fortieth Post

The revelers are gone and the presents have been opened.

It was a wonderful birthday.

Trumpet was feeling especially festive.

Popou, Nana, Grandma Carol, and the boys' best friend John were on hand to help us celebrate. Not pictured are Dee, Lori, Kyle and Annie.

On the menu: homemade pizza, BBQ ribs, chocolate cake, and Amstel Light (note product placement).

Singing to Mommy. I think Connor was "lip-singing."

Ready to go out to an anniversary dinner with my beloved,

who is beginning to look remarkably like Martin Sheen.

(Thanks for the dress, Mom.)

Come take my class.....

........ at the Spring International Quilt Festival -Make It University! with Cloth Paper Scissors®
Debbi Crane will be teaching her purse books, Pokey with be there too. This is going to be the hottest thing to hit town since Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicked over that lantern.

Back to baby pictures

Newly Wed 1991

Me and my Valentine for the last 16 years.

The Engagement

I haven't seen my clavicle since this photo was taken.

The Big Fat Greek Wedding.

My mom and dad called me "neefi" (bride) for a year afterward.

My parents were married in this church, my sister, brother and I were baptized there, Mark and I were married there, as well as many of my cousins and their parents, and our boys were baptized there, too. Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Church in Justice, Illinois is by far one of the most beautifully painted I have ever seen.

Today is my 40th poste

Where were we? Ahh yes.....we were following the story of our young lovers in small town Iowa set to Kenny Loggins tunes. It went like this:

Boy meets girl. Boy dumps girl. Girl flees her heartbreak in Iowa and goes back to California to graduate with her class. Boy chases girl to California months later realizing the horrible error he has made, with intentions of proposing to her after graduation. Girl pretty much dashes his hopes, still angry from said dumping. Boy gets a makeover. Girl gets ultimate revenge and marries him six years later.

Classic romantic tale.

Here's the before. Very cute, but a little Iowa with the perm and the mullet. You have to remember, this was 1985, MTV had not yet homogenized American Teen culture. We still relied on local radio stations for our musical identity. This was the era of cassette tapes, shoulder pads and car windows with cranks instead of buttons.

The After: California Casual. How adorable was he? How thin was I?! Looking back, I see the obvious foreshadowing -- I seem to be wearing white in every picture with Mark. I also see our boys in him. My mom and dad see Connor, I see more Reese.

First Date? We went to see Red Dawn.

Our story begins in 1984 when a new girl came to school.

I remember the first time I saw Mark Prater in the hallway. It was like in the movies where everything goes slow-mo and tunnel-visioned and the sound goes mute. I went home that day and told my mom that I saw the cutest boy in the whole school and I was going to find out who he was. My super-sleuthing uncovered that Mark Prater had just started at PVHS the year before after several years living in Europe. Oooh. International intrigue mixed with bad boy attitude and a super-cool car. I was done for.

We had just moved to small-town Iowa from Southern California (I had to look it up on a map -- it's not the one with the potatoes, apparently) and had spent the last 6 weeks of the summer in Greece, unsuccessfully married off at 17 despite my Yiayia's best efforts.

If you took one part Footloose and added liberal scoops of My Big Fat Greek Wedding to it, the resulting concoction would be our story. Here are some pictures from Cheryl and Mark Chapter One. Enjoy your trip.

Countdown

Well, this is it, kids. I will be 40 this week. So in honor of that milestone, what will be referred to from this day forward as "the first anniversary of my 39th birthday" and to celebrate our wedding anniversary -- 16 years on the 17th, this week's tiles will feature either me at various ages and stages, or me with Mark -- a long and colorful history which dates back to 1984 (mullet alert) and spans several eras, hairdos, shoulder pads and states.

Here's Saturday's tile, an early Valentine, but hey, all of these Hallmark holidays have a halo effect on the marketing calendar anyway. The cupid in the center is from the back of a Bicycle brand playing card. It's the front view of the cherub riding towards you on a bicycle, get it? Reese thought it was an angel with corn. I guess I can see that, but wouldn't it then be Angel Corn brand cards? The glitter and sequins don't scan well, but look very Valentimsey in real life. I will post pix of the project my students made for their Valentines using the same glitter- glue concoction as well as some Crayola Model Magic later this week. Too cute.

Here's the first of my 40th Birthday tiles. Do you love the beantooth? I traded it in for crows feet and a creeky neck. Still have pretty much the same hairdo and working on getting the double chin back. See ya tomorrow.

International Businessman

In keeping with the sewing theme

The image of the woman, who, to my eye, bares a resemblance to Angelina Jolie, was cut from a vintage McCall's Pattern Envelope. I actually used the original without scanning it first. Don't know yet if I will regret that. The background and A-line text was cut from the sewing instructions and the halo around Angie's head is from the vintage package of snaps (courtesy of Aunt Gertie) shown below.