This summer I was selected as one of 8 artists to do a green recycling art project in Downtown Houston.  We were given a "base" and asked to construct a 6-7 ft tall woman completely out of things that could be recycled.

"Planeta Verde Now, Talento Bilingüe de Houston's green initiative arts program, invited Houston artists to design
an original Comadre fashioned out of recycled, repurposed and found materials in honor of Pachamama (the Latino equivalent to Mother Earth.)
 
​"The sculptures are designed to commemorate sustainable ideas and practices which benefit and nourish our Pachamama," curator Angel Quesada explains. "These comadres (sisters of mother earth) represent radical environmental ideas.""   -The Houston Press

Each artist designed their Comadre and gave her a history of why she was a leader in Houston's green initiative.  They were on display at Discovery Green, Houston's downtown green space for a little over a month and are currently on display at Talento Bilingue de Houston.

My Comadre:

Dona Ana Maria Ramos began a grass roots educational program teaching school children in public
schools sustainable urban farming techniques. She equipped each school with an urban garden large
enough to produce 75% ofthe schools lunch programs demands. Each garden was planted, tended to
and harvested by the students of that school with any unused produce sold at local farmer's markets
and the proceeds re-invested into the sustainable living program at that school. Ana Maria also
developed a grant program for the students to take the knowledge gained in her program back into their
communities by reclaiming empty lots and abandoned housing projects and establishing community
gardens in 80% of all Houston neighborhoods, providing all children an opportunity to eat fresh and
healthy foods.


Ana Maria Ramos  with me and the Boo Boo Chicken



Skirt Detail with Corn



Head and Torso Detail



Early on…



Now she’s one piece



Skirt pre 8 hours of final stitching



Skirt on without the hand sewn tree bustle



Top of tree bustle



Tree top with hand sewn trunk



Thanks for looking!!

My 2 year old ds and I decided to create some penguin room guardians to hang inside his door.  DS fingerpainted the backgrounds in various shades of blues and greens.  Mommy then painted on the penguins. We used the "hear no evil..." theme for the penguins.

I am thinking about going back and adding neck/bowties to the little guys for some personality... What do you think?

I have been working on this for almost a year, but I finally sat down and knocked it out this weekend in an attempt to shorten the ufo list in my house!! It is a small quilt that I am using as the valance in my 2 year old DS' room. it is made out of old batik fabrics I pilfered from other people's (and my own) fabric stashes.  There is a matching toddler bed quilt also in the works. At this rate, I should be finished with it about the time he goes to college!!





Thanks for looking!
E

My swap partner recieved her package with this so I can finally post pictures.
 I start out with a mold of the shape I want made out of plasticina on a styrofoam wig form.



I then put on several layers of plaster wrap.  Once that dries I add the fabric and other decorative pretties... and here is the final product.







I hadn't made one since college (several years ago)  and was really pleased how it come out. 

Hope you like it!
E

My cousin was to get married on a cruise leaving out of Galveston Island on October 4th.  Thanks to Hurricane Ike blowing her baker off the island(and no time to find a new baker since she lives out of town), she found herself with no grooms cakes 2 weeks before her wedding.  I worked in a cake decorating supply store in high school and college and took a handfull of cake decorating classes.  She called me and I agreed to help out.  Jen's fiance wanted poker themed cakes.  I spent 3 days baking at my boyfriends mother's house( we didn't have power at our house.) Her oven is super old and the teperature spikes so it took several tries before we managed to bake reasonable cakes.  We went through 42 eggs.... In the end Jen and Justin were both thrilled.  The "card" cake is choclate and the fondant is hand painted.  The "poker chip" cake isthree layers with parisian creme between each layer.  The bottom layer is red vevlet, the second layer in strawberrry and the third vanilla. The decoration is molded fondant.  I don't eat cake, but I have been told they yasted better than they looked. Yay!

While in college, my friends and I had a theory that the skeletons hanging in many of our science and art classrooms were actually the remains of deceased tenure track professors.  We decided that there was a secret ceremony whenever a professor first received tenure where the rod to support the skeleton was inserted.  So when one of our favorite professors was awarded his tenure, we threw him a "Rodding Ceremony" which was basically just a good old fashion Roast.  During the ceremony, I presented him with these drawings. (No professors were harmed in the making of these drawings)