Back home again

The weekend spent in Mariposa for the Mariposa Butterfly Festival was a total blast! My mom, Maralee Lowder, is one of my very best friends! And, we haven't had a weekend to hang out alone since I was pregnant with my almost 21 year old daughter, Rachel (on the very best friend list, too!) Since my business name is LaBelle Mariposa, it was the perfect place for me. Usually, I'm known as the "Butterfly Lady." That didn't come up once, in spite of the fact that I wore a ridiculous hat all weekend which was covered in flowers and had butterflies fluttering around my head on wire! (photos to follow)

I also met some amazing people from a recovery house in the area who are interested in using my book, Walk In Your Own Footsteps, to help people with their recovery. I'm so thrilled! This is exactly why I wrote the book and I'm gob-stopped to think it's actually coming to fruition. It just shows that we don't always know how things will work out.

Now that I'm home, I'm thinking of many fun projects I'd like to work on. It would be nice to take a few days and do nothing but house and art for fun. I've been very drawn to the art of "Dia De Los Muertos" lately. A couple of years ago I created an altar which I call my  "Altared Dia De Los Muertos Book." Sorry for the play on words…. I like it. :) 

I think altered books are such fun, and having a tiny day of the dead altar in my studio makes me smile. Enjoy. 

Day of the Dead "Altared" Book cover

Day of the Dead "Altared" book inside

Steps I used to create this piece:  I glued all the pages together then carved out the altar part. I then painted the whole book black and used a gold paint pen to paint the ends of the pages gold. The background is gold paper from a scrap-book store. I used pictures of contributors to an 1800’s dictionary to be my honored people. I hand-sculpted and painted all the skulls, food, and the candle. The tiny doves are from the center of a sand dollar. I took apart a crochet doily for the front rose and the pink trim around the altar. The rest is bits of crochet and some pieces of jewelry.