What's new at Sleepy Cat Studio

This seems like it must be a milestone of some sort, and I should come up with something deep and philosophical to say about my journey as an artist. Hmmmm.... Not sure what that would be. Mostly it's been fun, sometimes it's been tough. It's been two and a half years since I quit my full time, with benefits job, and it was a big jump for me. But instead of crashing to the ground, I grew wings (albeit shaky ones) and have managed to keep aloft.

Now spring is coming and I'm looking forward to another season of art fairs, to another growing season both in the garden and in my art. As my experience grows, so does the knowledge that I'm doing what I was meant to do.

While I look forward to spring and all that comes with it- the green grass, sunshine, flowers- I don't want to discard winter too casually. After a long, hot summer and the riotous colors of fall and the flurry of activity at the holidays, I long for the quiet stillness of winter. The subtle colors of grey and gold, and hazy purple. The wonder of snow and frost. Watching birds at the feeders, and breathing cold, crisp air. Cozy sweaters, cozy cats, hot tea and a good book. All these are good things, but I'm getting restless, ready to get out in the garden, ready smell that dirt and shed some of these winter layers.

I've been so busy all winter making new things, I can't wait to get out there and say "See what I've made?" New fiber things- lots of felted wool, new mini paintings, new larger paintings, new jewelry, new blank books, new painted glassware. I may need a bigger truck to haul it in! Wouldn't that be nice.

Posted by Monique Cagle at 09:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today is a bright, bright sunshiny day! Signs of spring are popping up all over. I've spotted robins and sand hill cranes, and some of the daffodils are testing the air with green tips. A few of the seeds I started are coming up! Perhaps there's hope for my green thumb after all. The zinnias look the best, the cosmos not so good. The warmth of the sun has brought the Asian ladybugs crawling out of our walls like crazy- is there no way to be free of these things? That doesn't involve poison?

Our orange cat Oscar managed to get outside Monday and I can't catch him. I've tried setting the live trap- and so far have caught a stray cat (Oscar's dad, I suspect) a raccoon, and three possums (or the same one, three times). I've left food and water out for him in a couple spots, but he's pretty scared and the few times I've glimpsed him he runs off. When he was inside, he was Mr. Mellow, outside, he freaks out. Makes me very sad and frustrated. Right now I can see him outside my window, sunning himself and washing his face. But as soon as I go out there, he scoots under the front porch and won't come out.

In my art world, I'm gearing up for the Brown County Artful Gala dinner- making things for the guests at the table I'm decorating. Only two weeks to go! I can't decide if I should include a miniature painting for each place setting along with the other things I'm doing- I'd like to have things that reflect most of the various things I do. So I painted wine glasses and candleholders with floral motif in greens and blues, with a touch of orange. I'm doing some sweet little blank journals too and felted oak leaf key chains. The centerpiece, which people can bid on in the silent auction, will be a jewelry set.

The Women in Art Market at the Eiteljorg is coming up soon too, in three weeks. I was happily surprised that they used my image of two of my felted wool bags with one of my scarves for their promotional posters and cards! Glad I spent part of the winter building up my supply of those bags. You can see photos of some of them on the Sleepy Cat Studio page on Facebook, along with other new stuff.

My muse is cracking her whip- back to work if I'm going to get all these projects done!

Posted by Monique Cagle at 09:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday was grey, chilly and damp, much like today. I am so impatient for spring to get here, and when it does I know it will fly by and we'll be in the hot, humid summertime before we know it. Some of my bulbs are sending up green shoots, sort of testing the air, so I know they want spring to come too.

I'm getting pretty excited about the table I'm decorating for the Brown County Artful Dining Gala! I have so many ideas, I could probably do three tables. Hard to exercise control. We had to run into town to do some errands, so I picked up some decorative rocks and moss, and some green and blue place mats. Later at home I painted six glass votive holders and will paint wineglasses to match. The whole table will be in fresh greens and blues, with a touch of orange here and there. I don't want to give too much away yet, but I think it will be pretty neat looking. Whoever ends up sitting there will have lots of goodies made by me to take home, and the cost of their tickets will go to fund mini grants for local arts organizations.

I crocheted more—a few oak leaves to be felted and turned into key chain fobs, and a pair of baby booties to felt also—which I'm not sure how those will turn out since the shrinkage is tricky to guage. If they turn out, they'll be more like slippers than booties, I think.

We stopped at the local feed store and ordered the rest of our chicks! They'll arrive early April, about 2-3 weeks before the mail order ones, so I may have to brood them separately until they're closer in size. I ordered another Dekalb Amber Link rooster (Wooster Two) and I hope he turns out as nice as Wooster One. All in all, we have 25 new chicks coming. Twenty-five different kinds, so our barnyard and egg basket should be very colorful. I'd like to get a couple geese, just not sure where we'd put them right now. People keep telling me geese are mean, but I've read some breeds are gentler, and besides, if they'll chase dogs away I'd be okay with that. I also remember a story about people (in India, maybe?) wearing masks on the backs of their heads to keep tigers from attacking from behind- maybe I should paint big faces on the backs of my chickens to ward off hawks and owls? Maybe not. They probably wouldn't hold still for it, and I know the neighbors think we're a little odd already....

So that's a week of my life—not too thrilling, I know. But I keep busy and at the end of the week, I feel I have something to show for it. Next week I hope to do some painting and get the house cleaned up a bit—won't bore you with a week of that! I'll back off of the blogging so much, but please do become a fan of my Facebook page (Sleepy Cat Studio) where I'll post pics of what I've been making lately.

Posted by Monique Cagle at 02:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The week is winding down. What a beautiful day it was- blue sky and sunshine all day. I saw three robins in our yard, hopping along listening for worms. Later in the day I'm pretty sure I heard a redwing black bird, though it may have been a starling just teasing me. Still, I'll take it as a sign of spring! I checked the seeds I started, nothing coming up yet! Yes, I know it's early, but I'm impatient! Nothing rotting yet, either, which is good.

Eric took the day off and got a lot of progress made on my new Website, shouldn't be too much longer before it can go live. I didn't realize I'd painted so many paintings until he started asking me which ones I still had. I think I've sold around fifty, which may not seem like that many, but it surprised me!

I worked on more hand painted wineglasses, felted a few wool things, more laundry, filled the bird feeders again, and worked on my wool coaster project. Experimented with needle felting (you jab wool roving with a special barbed needle that meshes the fibers together) but I think I must have the wrong kind of needles because it didn't mesh together very well. Later I worked on compositions for a couple of pear still life paintings that I hope to work on next week.

We took the dogs for a nice long run down to the pond and back. It was a bit nippy with the wind blowing, but it was good to get outside and be in the sunshine! Rudi and Molly had a great time sniffing everything and chasing each other around. Rudi actually thought it would be fun to go swimming in the pond, but quickly backed out when he felt how cold the water was.

I had hoped to get to the feed store to order the rest of our new chicks, but had to run more errands in the opposite direction instead. There's still time though, perhaps I'll get it done next week...

Posted by Monique Cagle at 09:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thursday the sun was out and melted more of the snow, now there's only small patches in shadowy areas here and there. This was a "go to town and run errands" day. Hours spent waiting in doctors' offices for routine eye and teeth check-ups, and of course actual time with the doctor maybe five minutes in the case of the eye doctor. And some people are happy with the way health care is? Someone suggested that health care coverage should be suspended for the politicians in Washington until they could come up with a plan that they agree on, and I say"right on!" Wish they'd stop complaining and scheming and get something done- aren't they working for us? Okay, enough of the political rant, this is a nice blog about art and life on the farm...

While in town, I bought a plastic tray to start seeds in, the kind with the expandable peat plugs and a clear top to cover them with. I don't have a very green thumb, not like my mom—mine is maybe pale green. When I've started seeds in the past, they either rot, whither, or don't come up at all. But I have this table to decorate at the Artful Dining gala (in three weeks) and thought wouldn't it be nice to have a little potted seedling at each place for the folks to take home? So I planted zinnias and cosmos, and also some grass seed to use in a centerpiece if it gets tall enough. If not, maybe I'll get cat grass at the pet store. If it actually works, I'll try starting some seeds for the flower garden. At the store I nearly drooled over the spring bulbs that are out, in particular a blue dahlia (it can't really be that blue, can it?) but knew better than to buy any now when spring is still so far away.

At home I worked some more on the felted wool coaster thing—Eric voted for sets of four, so that's what I'll go for. I picked out colors and patterns and got a few started.

Today (Friday) is sunny, nothing but gorgeous blue sky and I refuse to stay chained to the computer, so I'm signing off!

Posted by Monique Cagle at 09:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)