Rest in Peace, Beau

My younger brother, Beau, died last month. I’ve been thinking about our childhood and younger years, and sharing memories with friends and family members. I’ve had a slideshow of pictures in my mind, images mostly of Beau as a toddler and a kid. He was born a little over 6 years after me. I remember him wearing shorts and black rubber boots – even when he was napping. I remember reading Richard Scary books to him and you had to read every little word on those pages. They were very detailed. He loved firetrucks and firefighters. He banged on pots, pans and cookie tins until he got real drums. Some of my memories are of Beau as a dad with two sons. They also loved firetrucks and being read to.

My mom shared a wonderful story that illustrates the kind of musician Beau was. Forgive me if I don’t have the details quite right – I think you’ll get the gist of it: Beau was about 16 or 17 years old, and one evening a phone call came to my parents home with a request that Beau come right away to play drums for the second act of a show with Marin Civic Light Opera. The drummer for the show had fallen ill. It was intermission and they were holding the show until they could get a drummer there.

Beau, (I’m picturing him grabbing some drumsticks) agreed to go and my dad was going to drive him to the theater. Just as they were dashing out the door, Beau turned and asked my mom, “What’s the show?” “Brigadoon,” she replied. “I’ve never heard it,” Beau said as he left. Needless to say, he not only played the second act, but he played the rest of the run.

Here is Beau’s obituary.

Daniel Paul (Beau) Faw, 53, of Richmond, CA, died on February 5, 2020 at Kaiser Hospital, Richmond, after a long illness.  His loving wife Pamela was at his side.

A well-respected drummer in the Bay Area, Beau taught and inspired many. He played with The John Belushi Memorial Blues Band, White Stagg, The Black Circus, Snake Juice, Lee Presson and the Nails, Blue Beard, The Acme Swing Co, Connie Champagne and the Magnum Brutes, Danny Montana and the Bar Association, The Lost At Home Parade Drum Line and countless other projects. He was the resident drummer at Hillside Church for more than 13 years and also played at Saint Hilary Catholic Church for special occasions. Beau taught drums and percussion in after school programs. He was a glass blower at Maslach Art Glass. Most recently Beau worked as the Head of Batch Production and Batch formula Consultant at East Bay Batch and Color where he formulated new color recipes now being used by many glass artists.

Beau served as a volunteer firefighter/paramedic for six years for the town of Ross. He was an enthusiastic and knowledgeable military historian, and helped restore the USS Iowa as a volunteer.

Beau, born and raised in San Anselmo, was the youngest of six siblings. He attended Sir Francis Drake High School and College of Marin.  He was a very talented drummer from a young age. Beau was in his high school Jazz, Pep and Concert bands and played for all the musical theater productions. He played timpani in the Marin Youth Symphony, and toured with them in Australia at age 17, the same year he was awarded a scholarship from the Marin Music Chest.

Beginning in middle school, he played in the orchestra for numerous musicals at the College of Marin, the Mountain Play, Marin Civic Light Opera and other venues.

A dog lover all his life, Beau rescued, fostered, and found homes for over 44 dogs and is missed by the four dogs in his current pack: Merle, Dolly, Tugboat, Spuzzy and his cat, Gilbert.

Beau married Victoria Barsimanto in 1988 and they raised two sons, Jake and Sam, both musicians. They separated in 2009 and later divorced.  In 2017, he married Pamela Carey. He was predeceased by his father, David Faw, and is survived by his mother, Nancy Faw, his wife, Pamela Faw, his sons, Jake (Chelsea)  and Sam Faw, siblings, Michael, Pat (Valerie), Kathleen, Dianne (Rem) and Sarah, nieces, Leah, Miriam (Nick) and Caitlin, and nephew, Cooper, and many other family members and friends.

Thanks to Dr. Howard Chang of Kaiser Richmond/Oakland, Extraordinary Nurse Mila, Firefighter Burton Eubank, and Master Chief David Canfield for compassionate care given to Beau.

A Memorial Mass will take place on Saturday, March 7^th, at 11:00 am at Saint Hilary Church, 761 Hilary Drive, Tiburon, CA 94920. In lieu of flowers, the family requests you support The Sea Ranch Chapel Foundation PO Box 259 The Sea Ranch, CA 95497, music in schools’ programs or  animal rescue organizations, in his memory. There will be a Flag Raising Ceremony on the USS Battleship Iowa in Long Beach,CA on March 14th. A Celebration of Life with live musical performances is being planned for May 25^th, Beau’s Birthday, at the Marin Rod and Gun Club.

I’m going to finish with a quote from my niece, Leah Faw, because she said it so well: “… it’s so hard to understand how someone can be in the world and then, not be. If you have a little space free in your mind today, please think of my Uncle–a talented musician, funny man, complicated person who isn’t here to love and be loved today. And then go love your people, because time is short and tomorrow isn’t promised.”

Thank you for the visit.

Love People, Feed Them Tasty Food

Love People, Feed Them Tasty Food.

Suresa Dundes had that on a bumper sticker on her car and it was the basic concept for an open house celebrating her life. Suresa, my sister-in-law, died in August after an 11 year battle with cancer.

Suresa and Michael on their wedding day. Michael is the oldest of my five siblings.

Suresa with her girls; Leah and Miriam (the one with the spoon). Clearly loving people and feeding them tasty food has been a life long practice.

Suresa, Michael, Leah, and her boyfriend Robert, Miriam, and her boyfriend Nick.

Miriam and Nick’s wedding celebration, moved up so Suresa could be there.

Rest in peace, Suresa.

Photo Album: Jake & Chelsea’s Wedding

My nephew, Jake, and his bride, Chelsea, just after their wedding.

Here’s a little album from this special occasion on the first of August.

I just have to say that it really doesn’t seem that long ago that Jake was a little toddler! Here he is, all grown up,  before the ceremony.

One of Jake’s cousins, my niece, Caitlin.

My sister, and Caitlin’s mom, Sarah.

Victoria, mother-of-the-groom, with friends, Sam, and best man, Stu.

My mom, Nancy, grandmother of the groom, being escorted to her seat by Jake’s younger brother, Sam.

My brother, Beau, father-of-the-groom, with his fiancee, Pamela.

Jake escorts his mom to her seat.

Here comes the bride!

I think Jake’s got hands like my dad, his grandpa David.

The minister forgot about the rings and almost completed the ceremony without them before several people reminded him and we all had a little laugh.

Family Faw (though a few people are hiding in this picture and one brother and his family didn’t make it out from NY).

Two of my nieces, Miriam and Caitlin, look like Amazon warriors next to their uncle Beau.

I think my mom looks beautiful with her eldest grandson.  The wedding was just a few days after her 80th birthday.

My niece, Leah.

Rem and I.

My sister Kathleen with her little sister Ariel.

Card I made for Chelsea & Jake.

Although the quality of some of the photos is not great, I want to share this event with you. Thank you to Dana for allowing me to share some of her photos as well.

Thanks for the visit.  Congratulations to the newlyweds.

 

 

 

 

 

A Special Day

Art Journal: Home

This is my latest page in my Art Journal: Home.  I bought the Autumn issue of Art Journaling by Somerset Studio and was inspired by a spread I saw by Darlene Maciuba-Koppel.  This is similar to inchies but these are a little bigger – a little less than 2 inches on each side.

Maciuba-Koppel wrote

Art Journaling is a gift I give to myself.  After a few pleasurable hours of choosing images, painting, cutting scraps of paper, and pasting, I feel a sense of calm envelope me.

I feel that too.  Her houses page was about creating and pursuing your passion.  Mine is about home and what home means to me . There as a little blurring of lines here because home is usually where I create and I including “creativity” as one of the words on my page.

I probably spent as much time seeking out words in magazines and searching through my paper and scraps for just the right bits and pieces as I did actually crafting the page. I was at Sea Ranch when I did most of the work on the page and I’d brought a nice selection of supplies with me to work with.

It isn’t obvious to the casual observer, but there are bits and pieces from maps, sheet music, dictionary pages, envelopes, postage stamps, old calendars, and greeting cards.  I know there are items from at least five different friends whom I think of when I look at these little houses.

As with the inchies, I find I really enjoy the tiny canvas of each small space occupied by each little house.  I have gone back to add little details several times, adding a window here, a doorknob there, coloring in the background or sticking a slender bit of washi tape onto the page.

I’ve had a wonderful 2-week vacation and much of it was spent at home (or at home-away-from-home: Sea Ranch).  I did a lot of cooking. After using up a package of corn husks we had 28 tamales.  Today we used the rest of the almost 10 lb. bag of prepared masa to make 22 queso fresco pupusas, tamale pie and a dozen tamale muffins, using masa in the bottom of each muffin, then tamale pie filling, grated cheddar and more masa for the top.  The freezer is well stocked. Rem and I baked treats for our neighbors as well.

A minor surgery before Christmas kept me from being as active as I could have been.  I’ve really enjoyed having no schedule and maybe a few too many mornings sleeping late and lounging around in my nightshirt and slippers.  It’s been good to relax at home; I’ve done lots of of crafting, reading, some blogging, and all of the cooking.

We’ve also spent some time cleaning out drawers and cupboards in the kitchen, sorting through kitchen tools we no longer use but that have been crowding our limited storage space. Rem donated several bags of items that we hope will be useful to someone else.  We planted bulbs in two boxes, inspired by an article in Martha Stewart on layering  bulbs for blooms throughout the spring: the late bloomers go on the bottom, mid-spring blooming are in the middle layer and the earliest bloomers are on the top.  Gravel on the bottom of the planter for good drainage and we hope to have a beautiful display of crocus, daffodils, tulips and iris all spring.  Something to beautify our home.

My toe is almost fully healed now and I took walks yesterday and today.  Tomorrow: back to work.

Thanks for the visit.

Cards with Friends

In January I got together with some friends from grade school and made Valentine’s.  We had such a great time together that we’ve made it into a regular event, calling it “Craft & Flash.”  Our last get-together was about a month ago.  Ladies: we need to schedule our next gathering.

I was making a stack of birthday cards and recycling old greeting cards, maps and calendars in the process, inspired by crafting while on vacation.

I’d saved a pretty card with rows of different colored butterflies on a glittery green background.  I’ve had it for a few years and recycled it into new cards.

An old calendar from Paper Source provided artwork for a bird card.  I love the artwork on my wall all year long – they’re beautiful calendars and beautiful resources for crafting cards.

Carefully cutting out the Blue Jay and adding a little glitter plus stamping a greeting on the inside and the card was done.

My friend Shook gave me some pretty place cards she’d bought and never used. I’m delighted to be the recipient when someone gives me something they think I might use in my crafting.  The cards add a nice detail when stamped with a message and glued inside the card.

For this one I used a scrap of the glittery green birthday card and some washi tape.  Another benefit of crafting with friends is expanded your supplies.  Everyone was generous and happy to share their goodies.

We had a variety of projects happening around the table. Creativity was flowing and I enjoyed seeing projects old and new.

Besides the production of birthday cards, an Art Journal was being expanded, tags and beautiful wrappings were being created for a series of birthday gifts, jewelry was being crafted and chocolate was being consumed.

All the best crafting events include chocolate.

As usual, the table was in creative chaos.

Or was that just my mess?

Glitter was spilled.

I got to try this ballpoint glue pen from Martha Stewart.  I will pick a few up next time I’m at Michael’s.  It is very fine, great for glitter and other detail work.  Like Dianne Dots.

The last time I was at Craft Gym at Once Around in Mill Valley, my  friend Margaret gave me the gift of a little shopping spree. Amongst the goodies I came home with was a package of cute paper embellishments. This butterfly is from that package.

More glitter and an adhesive jewel, a few stamped flowers and paper from both an old textbook and an old bus schedule complete this card.

I’ve made a few of these cards with an old map and a bicycle stamp, but for this one I got a bicycle cutout from another of the Craft and Flash ladies.  I spent awhile coloring it. I love this card!

We crafted and chatted and laughed and ate.  It was lovely.

The dogs were happy sitting in the sunshine.

Phoenicia made delicious chili, another great dish without a recipe.  If I recall correctly, it had beef, pork and sausage, and it was full of different veggies.  Write it down, Phoenicia!

One last card I did that afternoon was from a 5-minute collage I’d made. A little extra embellishment and another card done.

Sitting and chatting with my friends while crafting is the best therapy in the world for me.

It has been a very tough month since then with my brother spending more time in the hospital then out.  He was in ICU but is back in the regular ward and we expect him to be discharged in the next few days.  He has started dialysis and faces a host of challenges. The support and love we have all shared and received has helped make a really difficult situation survivable.

At first, spending long, anxious hours with other family members at the the hospital, I was too worried and upset to focus on anything more than mindless games on the computer.  Long days and nights of interrupted sleep meant I missed getting to the gym and I didn’t have the energy or inspiration to craft.

With some improvement in his condition, I’m returning to some of the things that have been on hold.  A trip to the library and new reading material I’m finally able to absorb.  I was able to spend time cooking together with Rem who has been a rock, taking good care of me.  And yes, pulling out the craft supplies and crafting.  I’m finishing up some cute cards and will share them soon.

Thank you for being here.

 

 

New Valentine’s Day Cards

I was busy at my craft desk this weekend making a bunch of Valentine’s. I really love making Valentine’s and, like last year, I’m not just doing one design over and over.

On Pinterest (of course), I saw some cute card that I wanted to CASE (Copy and Selectively Edit or Copy and Steal Everything or the PC variation Copy and Share Everything).

Before I started my first card, I punched a slew of 1.25 inch squares of paper and hearts with all three sizes of heart punches I have.  Most of the cards bases are 140 lb. cold press water color paper that I bought in a pad of 9 x 12 sheets.  So I cut a batch of cards at a time, trimming each sheet to 8.5 x 11 before cutting it in half and scoring it for finished cards that measure 4.25 x 5.5.

This card was inspired by this one.  My square punch is larger and I don’t have the beautiful “LOVE” stamp, but I’m happy with it.

Here is another variation on that idea.

Here is a simple patchwork of squares.

This is another pretty card using squares and hearts.  I loved how the little scalloped squares look and treated myself to a scalloped square punch.

These bird cards were inspired by Button Bird Art from Button Bird Designs.

I’ve made multiples of each card.  Not enough that I’m tired of each design and with variations in the paper, embellishments and greetings, they’re all unique.  I especially like these birds, so I made a whole flock.

I have lots of beautiful paper.  This card shows off a piece of it.

I think I’ll try a variation with a little heart under that turned-up corner.

Some cute stamps of vintage items are featured on these cards.

I also love these two bicycle cards but I don’t have a bicycle stamp.  Yet.

I’m really happy with the color scheme I’m using this year: red, black, white and turquoise.  I’m using silver ink and silver embossing powder with a heat gun for some of the greetings.  It’s a nice, finishing touch.

After creating the are for the front of the card, I always stamp and sign the back and stamp a greeting inside the card too.

Side note: I made it through my dental appointment today and though I feel pretty tired and a bit tender, I’m not too sore.  I’ll enjoy my busy weekend with friends all the more now that is behind me!

It is very satisfying seeing the finished cards all crowded together.

I’m off to a great start for my Valentine Production of 2014!

Thank you for your visit.

Day 9: Let the Beauty You Love, Be What You Do

Day 9: Let the beauty you love, be what you do.

My desk had become crazy messy with all the crafting I’m doing. My work space was shrinking as more supplies made their way to the desktop and the layers of paper, pens, glue sticks, scissors, brushes, embellishments, rubber stamps crept into the little empty place in the center.  Before I started crafting today, I spent 30 minutes putting away tools and supplies I wasn’t using and organizing (re-stacking) stuff I planned to use today.

As I sorted through the flotsam and jetsam, collecting little scraps and interesting bits, I saw that I was halfway to getting a spread assembled. I had a quote from Rumi scribbled on an envelope, a glittery bit of trim cut off an old calendar page but saved for it’s sparkling possibilities, a heart-shaped stencil with interesting paint smears and a pretty crescent moon that my sister let me snag from her collection of images.

I decided to use these in a page and knew I’d be using the beautiful image of a purple bottle I’ve been wanting to include.  It is too tall for my book,  but I love how it looks, so just made a little fold-out flap to include it.

The butterfly and heart scraps were leftovers from previous projects and with a few more scraps from the pile, a great photo from a magazine of a painting of Mt. Tam, some paint and a few more embellishments, my spread for Day 9 was just about done.

I got everything glued in place and carefully wrote out the quote from Rumi.

I had started with a small, paper key but liked this metal one better so I switched it out and added a little sparkly dot.  A heart charm dangles down from the flap.

Dianne Dots were the finishing touch.

I also made two more birthday cards to get my mom stocked up.

The bird came from the same old calendar as the little glittery border I used in my Art Journal.  Thanks, Shook!

Both of these cards used paper and embellishments that were already out on my desk.

If I took a picture of it now you probably wouldn’t believe that I’d cleaned it up, but I know that it is much better than it was.

Last year for Day 9 of 30 Days of Creativity I made these pretty Glass Tile Pendants.

The year before that I made a pair of Pink Glass Earrings.

Thanks for coming on by.

Watercolor Heart Card for Mom

It’s May and Mother’s Day will be here before you know it – Sunday, May 12, to be specific.

Here is a beautiful card you can make for mom, that looks harder than it really is.  I was inspired by this stunning card  at oh so very pretty, complete with intricate calligraphy, but knew my version would be a little simpler.

With the right tools and tips, you can make one too!  It isn’t just for Mother’s Day either –  I’ve already done a version of this card for a retirement and a birthday and I think it would be perfect for a wedding.

Supplies:

Watercolor Paints or Watercolor Crayons like the awesome Neocolor II Water-soluble wax pastel by Caran d’Arche.  You can buy individual crayons at art supply stores.

Brushes

Watercolor Paper

White Ink Pen  – mine is the Uni-Ball White Gel Pen and the label says it is pigment ink

Colored Card Stock to complete the card

Scrap Paper for making a template

Scissors

Adhesive I like Tombow mono adhesive

Paper Trimmer (optional)

Heat Tool (optional) This makes drying time really short, but if you have more patience then me, you can still make this without a heat tool.

Directions:

Determine the size of your card.  I often use a half-sheet of 8.5 x 11 inch paper, scored and folded in half to make a 4.25 x 5.5 inch card.

I actually just started with my white watercolor paper and painted the heart then built a card using that.  But my card is not a standard size and I will need to make an envelope to match.  So it might be easier if you start with the card.

Determine the size of your watercolor paper piece for the card front.  If using a 4.25 x 5.5 inch card, a piece that is 3.5 x 4.5 will work well.

Cut a heart out of a piece of paper, creating a heart-shaped template for your card front.

I recommend painting more than one heart on separate pieces of watercolor paper, because in addition to being fun and very satisfying to make, the results are lovely and work beautifully for other occasions.

If you DO make want to paint more than one heart, it’s really a good idea to make a new template for each one.  The edges of the template get wet and painty and it is very easy to smear the edge of a second heart since your template already has paint on it.  Take it from me.

Put a few dabs of the mono adhesive around the backside of your template – I put one at the v in the center and at the point of the heart at the bottom plus a few around the edges.

Center the template on your piece of white watercolor paper, tapping gently to adhere it but don’t press too hard because you want to pull it off when you’re done.

Now use your watercolor paint or watercolor crayons and fill the heart with color.  I love the rich pigment of the watercolor crayons – it isn’t really obvious until you add some water.

You can scribble bands of different color than go back with a wet paintbrush and paint it over the crayon.

I experimented with different brushes and color combinations.

Watercolor paints work very well too – I swirl water into one color until my brush is loaded then I paint overlapping bands of different colors.  I think it looks best using analogous colors so it doesn’t end up getting muddy.

I was having so much fun, I decided to try some small hearts.  I used a heart-shaped punch for the template.

I painted a row of hearts and then cut the heavy paper into individual little cards.

But I’ve gotten off track.  These next steps are very important: when you finish painting, carefully lift off the template. If the edge of the painted heart is a little uneven, you can use a small brush and a little paint to even things out.  On the other hand, I think the raw edge of paint adds to the finished project.

Now let the paint dry.  This is really important.  If you have a heat tool, you can use that to dry the paint.  If your watercolor paper is really wet, be cautious how you aim the heat tool so you don’t end up spraying paint around.  Just keep moving the heat tool around until the paint is dry.  I found the paper started to curl so after awhile I flipped it over and heated the back.

If you don’t have a heat tool, you will need to use your patience.  If you try and write with the white pen on the heart, and your watercolor is still a bit damp, you won’t end up with white ink.  So be sure the paint is dry.

Now is a good time to rub off any bits of adhesive that were left behind from the template.  I have a little rubber square for this purpose, but a clean fingertip will do the job too.

Use the white pen to write a sentiment on the heart.  Go slow and easy.

I found that even when the paint is dry, the pen tip scratches into the watercolor and needs to be wiped off.  Having a paper towel handy made it easy to wipe the tip of the pen.  Other times I scribbled onto scratch paper which helped to keep the white ink flowing. With most of the blue paints I was happier when I wrote over the letters a second time so they looked white and not light blue.

My hand-writing isn’t the best so I referred to a sheet I printed showing a font and used that as a guide.  This is called the Vimala Alphabet and I found it in the quirky yet fascinating book Your Handwriting Can Change Your Life  by Vimala Rodgers.  That is another project that so far hasn’t really gotten off the ground for me.  If nothing else, it is an interesting font.

Let the white ink dry then trim the piece of watercolor paper to the size you want.  If desired, you can paint on “Dianne Dots” a little row of three dots.  For this I made a template using a small hole punch and painted the dots to the right of the heart.  Again, lift off the template and let the paint dry (or help it along with the heat tool) before proceeding..

Cut card stock for the card and another color for a layer and adhere the watercolor to the layer and adhere that layer to the front of the card.  Keep the watercolor theme going, and take a small brush and use paint to paint a message on the inside of the card.  I pasted a piece of white watercolor paper inside for this purpose.

Scribble with the watercolor crayons onto scratch paper to make a little palette. Swirl a wet brush through it and pick up the pigment to paint the greeting on the inside of the card.

Here is another card I made using the same technique.

I think the sentiment written in white ink looks as if the white paper is showing through the painted heart.

Even without any text, the watercolor heart is beautiful.

I don’t even know how old I was when I first put brush to paint, but my mom was almost certainly the one who washed my blue and purple fingers when I was finished.  Happy Mother’s Day, Mom, with lots of love.

Thanks for the visit.

love & hugs

I’ve been up to my eyebrows in valentines.  I no longer send Christmas cards but I do like to give out a bunch of valentines.  I make some for the women in my choir, a batch for family members, and a pile to give to colleagues at the community college where I work.  I also do a Valentine project and a card for my sweetie (2013 project photos coming soon). For all the hearts I’ve punched and beautiful greetings I’ve embossed, I am a bit red-faced that I didn’t do a better job of sharing much of that process with you!

In past years I would come up with one design and make multiple cards.

A few years ago I made heart-shaped crayons that were a part of my valentines.

It’s a good way to do lots of cards – production line style.  But sometimes by the time I made all my valentines, I was really tired of the design.

This year I did some multiples but I also did lots of variety.  I looked in my supplies and found some unused envelopes in different sizes and I also bought some small envelopes from Paper Source.  Then I started crafting different cards to fit in the different-sized envelopes. I showed some of the cards in these posts.

I made great use of my heart-shaped punches, washi tape was on many cards, I embossed greetings in gold or silver and I embellished with dots, buttons, jewels and charms. Here are a few of the valentines I made:

I also lined the envelopes for many of the cards – it’s easy to do and adds a lovely touch to the finished valentine.

Almost all of my valentines were created with pink, grey, white and turquoise paper but I did one that was completely unique: a green valentine for my friend who loves green.  Thanks for sharing this picture, Shook. 

What I didn’t do was my blog –  only one post before this for February!  So here are my belated best wishes, love & hugs to you all.