Craft Your Heart Out 2

Craft Your Heart Out 2 was a great success! I am really loving them. I had the first one in June and I hope to continue having them once a month. They are a chance to create and be with great company. It's also helpful to make you do that little project you meant to continue 3 months ago... 

At the July craft night there was fanny pack sewing, drawing, beading, coconut cracking and patching up of dresses.

Here I am drilling holes into a coconut to extract the coconut water.

Desiree brought coconuts to make coconut milk and coconut extract from an Alton Brown Coconut Cake Recipe. The extract has to ferment for 9 days. It's going to be delicious!

Jami continued a beaded necklace she'd been working on.  So cool!

I finally started back up on my chicken book titled Farmer Kim and the Feathery Ladies and sewed feathers onto a hen for page 11.

Another lovely night. See you in August? If you live in Chicago (or the surrounding area) and would like to join in, shoot me an email at kimguare@yahoo.com.

Zaftig

My work is included in the 2014 January issue of Zaftig, an online art magazine created and edited by Jacob Sanders.  This months theme is Nourishment.  Check out the zine here.

Miss Honey and Her Cow Pie

Work in Progress for page 11.

Feathery Bums in the Sun

Page 7 of my 18 x 24 inch fabric book titled Farmer Kim and The Feathery Ladies is complete!  

I recently remembered that my interest in sewing started with my Aunt Mary.  When I was 9 she sewed sleeping bags for my beenie babies and gave me the left over fabric.  I thought I'd dedicate this piece to her by using all the different patterned fabrics she gave me 15 years ago.  I know she'd have liked my chicken book!

One of the little peepers is always on her own.  The other three stick together like glue.

Turkey is never allowed to eat without being bitten by the grown chickens.  She always hesitates and she is extremely skittish due to the many bites she receives throughout the day...but little do they know that she is a brahma and she will be 2 1/2 times the size of them all and she will stomp on all of them soon enough.  Go Turkey, Go! or more like Grow Turkey, Grow!

Sewing a Miniature Me and Harvesting Chamomile!

I am almost near being finished with the first page of my book!  It has been a ton of fun working with my massive collection of fabric scraps.

Irises! So beautiful.

The Chamomile was not welcome in the hoop house so I harvested the flowers and tore out the plant. 

I am drying the flowers to make Chamomile Tea and Chamomile muffins!

We planted a whole bunch of peppers the other day.  We laid drip tape (irrigation) down the middle, then black plastic mulch on top to heat the soil for the peppers (they like it hot) and to cut down on the weeds.  We put cages on them so that they will grow upright.  18 inches apart, staggered, 2 rows.  Mmm mmm peppers!

The babes!  They have little feathers on their wings now.

And....the rooster.  I only post this image because so many wonder what he looks like.  He is a jerk and doesn't deserve to be named.

Honey and I

Honey is my favorite chicken out there.  She is super plump and golden.  I am working on sewing three chickens to go with the eggs and egg yolks.  This is the first chicken.

This is Honey and I!  Look how happy we are together!  

*Thanks Sarah for the image.

I decided to sew a white square of fabric to the back of this piece.  It was too round!  

The other day I caramelized some onions and added some spinach from the garden, noodles, salt and pepper.  Super yummy!

Mr. Daisy is no longer with us.  He was found dead two days ago.  He was a super cool bird and I am going to miss him.

Carrot Piece in the Making

A pile of watercolored carrots on paper, cut out.

I glued small pieces of jute to the backs of the carrots.

I used wheat flour glue that I made and pasted it onto the jute and then put a piece of paper over the jute.  This is the same process I used for Harvesting the Blue Potato.

I needed a way for the carrots to be pinned onto the wall, so I glued the jute to the back of the watercolor, then sewed the jute to the burlap.  This way the burlap will be pinned and not the paper. I then sew around the burlap to keep it from fraying.

Here is a completed month.  Carrots are harvested from July to November in the Midwest!  And they are super fun to harvest.  When the soil is moist it is easier.  Last summer at Green Institute I harvested some carrots.  I dug a shovel next to the greens of the carrot, then lifted the soil up and pulled out the beautiful orange carrot!  I hope I get to harvest some this summer!

I have been accepted as an Artist in Residence at Wormfarm Institute!

I found out a few days ago that I have been accepted to be an artist in residence at the Wormfarm Institute from May 20th to June 15th in Reedsburg, Wisconsin! I am so excited. I will have a month to work on a farm and create some new artwork. This will be my first time away from home for a long period of time without friends or family. The residency will be an amazing growing experience for me. I will blog about my days there too!

I started the day out right with some Mango Sticky Rice! :0 ) I have tried 2 recipes so far that weren't quite right and finally the third recipe is perfect! Here is the recipe. The only thing I did differently is add a pinch of salt to the sauce and add some mint to the plate. Also, if you never have had this before, I recommend putting the mango in a fridge, it's super yummy to eat warm rice and cold mango together!

A rock painting I finished. I wanted to study the many colors I was seeing in the rocks at Lake Michigan, the shape was less important. This is 10.5 x 13.5 inches, watercolor and acrylic.

I painted my duck eggs I bought from King's Hill Farm. I loved the pristine shape of the eggs and the varieties of colors and sizes I saw in my dozen. But the painting did not turn out as nice as thought it would. I still liked the eggs though so I cut them out and created the piece below. This piece was 11 x 14 inches, watercolor, marker.

I hand sewed the watercolored eggs onto the fabric (something I have been wanting to try for a while now) and it worked wonderfully. I can't wait to do more with paper and fabric. This is 23 x 23 inches, fabric, watercolor, marker, paper.