Oh, well, la-la...

Monchromatic

2011-11-27T11:27:00.012-06:00

How strange. All the colors of my life are so similar. Except that editor thang...

Find the colors of your life.

What I'm working on today

2011-08-09T16:38:00.009-05:00

Rockin giveaway

2010-09-17T09:31:00.002-05:00

Holy cow! Check out this giveaway on The Last Piece!

Recently...

2010-08-29T12:34:00.004-05:00

I finished this a while ago, but I couldn't show it until it arrived safely at its destination. Here's a photo of Polly's house and, below it, a photo of her birthday present. The hoop is about 6" in diameter -- tiny. So much fun to make.

What I'm working on today

2010-08-08T12:29:00.001-05:00

What I'm working on today

2010-07-11T12:26:00.002-05:00

Mary's out of the house

2010-07-08T19:28:00.001-05:00

I delivered Stacie's Mary to her today. She looks like this:

Almost done

2010-07-03T23:23:00.003-05:00

Baby Eli's blankie is ready for a final wash, dry, and trim. I was trying to match the green and brown (froggy) nursery theme without producing something that looked like camo. I think this works.

What I'm working on today...

2010-06-27T12:25:00.004-05:00

A soft blankie for baby Eli:

And a new Mary:

Winding it up...

2010-06-25T15:56:00.002-05:00

Here are my last 25 goals for 2010. I can get all this done by December 31. Of course I can!

It's only June...

2010-06-22T15:58:00.004-05:00

The year is only about seven-twefths over. There's still time for me to go for a few more goals. Like these...

I feel so accomplished...

2010-06-21T16:29:00.005-05:00

I decided to give my blog a second of my attention -- new template, bla bla. My lists of things to do this year immediately caught my eye. Surprise of surprises, even though I have totally and miserably failed at my goal to blog regularly, I have actually accomplished some of the things on my first list of 50.

Yea! Maybe tomorrow I'll get around to finishing the list...

The next 25

2010-01-15T16:21:00.002-06:00

Okay, here's a continuation of my to-do list. I've decided to jot randomly without looking back at what I've already posted. If something shows up several times, I'll take it as a sign that I really need to do that thing.

[Note to Annie: I'm trying to be more irresponsible, here.]

100 things to do in 2010

2010-01-14T13:04:00.006-06:00

How have I already busted my resolution for this year? Wait...maybe I meant I'll post an average of once a week. Yeah, that's the ticket. So if I post two more times this week, I'll be all up to date and everything.

With my broken resolution in mind, what I'm about to do will no doubt seem utterly crazy. But I saw that some blogger was listing 100 things to do in 2010. What a good idea! Here are the first 25 things I want to do this year, in totally random order:

If you are mentioned in one of these items, feel free to prod! I'll be back with more random lists before year end.

Resolved...

2009-12-31T08:47:00.000-06:00

In 2010, I will post to my personal blog at least once a week. Really. I mean it.

Happy Father's Day to me!

2009-06-21T10:40:00.004-05:00

This photo of my stepdad and me was taken at my daughter's wedding. I don't know what was so hilarious, but clearly we were having a good time.

I didn't have a "daddy" till I was nearly 40. Then I received an enormous blessing: my mom married Joe Ammons. For the first time, I experienced unconditional love, approval, and support from a man in my life. He has stood up for me through incredibly tough times. He's always available with any assistance I need, from shopping for a used car for my kids to a cup of coffee and a good laugh. I could never give him a fraction of what he has given me. Thank you for 20 years of kindness, warmth, and joy. I hope we have at least 20 more together. I love you, Dad!

Phew!

2009-04-21T11:02:00.002-05:00

The big day is over, the guests have gone, my youngest daughter is a married woman. The day was wonderful and made so much easier in every way by my precious friends, who are loving wonder-women. Most of the problems were good ones. We originally planned on 20 to 25 people. Just before the big day, the number expanded to close to 40 -- a big crowd for my tiny house. In the end, there were something more than 50 guests. We had people standing in the bathrooms. Really. It was so crowded that people could hardly move. They were drinking soft drinks with no ice because they couldn't see the ice chest two feet away. They couldn't circulate to get food or cake, so friends started grabbing platters and passing out snacks. And after the crowd left, we found the basket of favors, untouched, on a low table. They were overlooked amid the crush.

So I don't think we can say that the event was comfortable for our wonderful guests. But all of us were touched and honored by the outpouring of love for Codie and Corey.

There are so many stories to be told. And as soon as I have a nap or two, I'll start telling them.

Thank you to everyone who helped make this day so memorable through their presence, their prayers, and their wishes. I'm so proud.

Big, wonderful changes

2009-04-12T09:48:00.003-05:00

Codie and Corey attended Codie's big brother's wedding yesterday, and big, wonderful changes came out of that event. The issues that led to the extended-family-drama associated with the original wedding plans were resolved. So, with the wedding seven days away, Codie called me on her way home yesterday to say that her dad and stepmother and siblings and spouses will be attending Codie's wedding after all. Furthermore, her dad will walk her down the aisle, her brother will stand up with Corey, and her sister Rachel will be her maid of honor.

Codie started listing the changes that are needed. More corsages, more boutonnieres, another bouquet. Oh, and she loved the punch at her brother's wedding, so could we have that? This call came as I was cleaning carpets and feeling like there's just not enough time to get everything done. I think I held it together okay, though.

Luckily, the florist made Codie a "tossing bouquet" -- same flowers as her bouquet but slightly smaller. It will be perfect for Rachel to carry. Flowers for the men should be no problem at all. And I'm thinking I can pick up a few plain white corsages in case we don't have enough of the florist-made ones. Since Corey's grandmothers may not be able to come, we may have plenty anyway.

As for punch and food...well, those plans are already in place and we'll just go ahead with them. It's a bit late in the day to change the menu. But I think it will be fine.

The best bit of news: Codie said Rachel would like to take part in decorating the house on Friday. Then she said, "Mom, if it wouldn't make you too uncomfortable, Rachel was wondering whether she could just spend the night here on Friday so she can help me on my wedding day." I nearly burst into tears. My older daughter has avoided all contact with me since she was 13. She's 21 now. I cannot think of anything more wonderful than having her here to share her little sister's wedding. I have to be careful how I react, though, because of all the sensitivities in the family. I don't want to take a chance on scaring her off.

I told Codie that Rachel is welcome to participate in everything we're doing. Would she like to get her nails done with us on Friday? And get her hair done by Joy on Saturday morning? Rachel decided to do her own hair, but she will go with us for manicures and pedicures. This makes my heart sing. I don't know whether she'll want to interact with me at all, but I'll have the chance to be near her for the first time in 8 years. I can hardly believe it.

The irony is that we had planned to have the wedding at the Maumelle community center. But when Codie's other family decided not to come, Codie cancelled those plans, moved the wedding date up by three months, and decided to have just a tiny little ceremony in my living room. It looks as if she's going to have her big wedding, after all -- in a very small venue, but still.

My only prayer is that it is a happy day for Codie and Corey in every way. If I can make that happen, then it will have been a Mom-job well done.

Why didn't I think of this before?

2009-03-27T10:04:00.003-05:00

Many months ago, I ordered a huge boxful of chipboard shadowboxes. Annie alerted me that they were on sale really cheap somewhere on line, and I jumped on them. I've used them up gradually for my mini- and micro-quilts. This weekend, I was down to the last three, and I got this brainstorm. What if I didn't paint them? What if I covered them in quilting cottons that coordinated with the mini-quilts?

I dragged them outside and sprayed them with adhesive. Then I wrapped them like packages in pretty fat quarters. LOVE them. Dang it. Why didn't I think of this months ago. I wish I'd done them all this way.

Some of the pieces with painted frames have already sold. Those that linger are probably going to get taken apart and wrapped in fabric.

The project

2009-03-15T10:44:00.007-05:00

Corey came home yesterday. Thank goodness!! He was several hours late, however, and his Cricket phone was out of range. So by the time he got to Clinton and called Codie, she was already convinced that he was dead. (I was starting to worry, myself.) He was just caught behind a semi accident near Branson that turned the freeway into a parking lot. We were real glad to see him home safe.

Here's the project Codie created while he was gone. Well, I should say "Codie and I." She got right up to the sewing machine, and then she lost her nerve. So the design and embroidery are hers, but the stitching is Mama's. Blame me for the quality of the photos, too. I just can't hold the camera still.

Am I a goddess or what?

2009-03-12T14:44:00.004-05:00

Yesterday, after I took Codie for the final fitting of her wedding gown, I took her down to Kohl's to find her a dress for her big brother's wedding. (He's getting married a week before Codie.) As we checked out, Codie pointed to a line on my receipt: "Senior Citizen Discount." I blinked. Hard. I couldn't protest; that would be like saying, "No, I want to pay more money for this dress!" As we got outside, Codie laughed outright and I moped. "Geh. Do I look especially bad or tired or something today?"

Then, even though it was only 4:00 p.m., I suggested dinner. We'd both skipped lunch. "The only course of action in this situation," I said, "is to go for the Early Bird dinner at IHOP." Codie cracked up. Neither Corey nor my friend Jonathan will eat at IHOP because "it's just for old people." Codie and I love it. So with Corey out of town, this was our shot. We were the first people to arrive for the evening meal, so we got lots of service. When we finished our meal, the waitress brought the check, and I put my debit card in the folder. Codie pointed to one of the signs hanging from the ceiling - showing attractive, active seniors having their discount dinner at IHOP between 3:00 and 6:00 p.m. - and she says, "Hope you get your discount, Mom." Just then, our waitress returned and she said, "Is something the matter." (I imagine I looked a tiny bit disgrunted.) I said, "Oh, she's making fun of me for being a senior." And the waitress says, "I'm so sorry! I'll correct your check!" And when she came back with my card and receipt, she had sure enough given us the Early Bird Two-for-One Special. I almost burst into tears. Codie laughed so hard she got the hiccups.

I think this was all payback karma for telling Codie the alterations ladies in David's thought she was pregnant.

So today, since it's rainy and miserable, Jonathan and I went to one of the restaurants in our building for lunch: Bosco's. We decided to be daring and try something besides our "usuals." He got the black bean and goat cheese tamale. I ordered the muffaletta. I devoted some of our lunch chat to pondering the meaning of getting two senior discounts in one day. When our waitress returned with our check at the end of the meal, she looked at me and said, "Did you eat that whole sandwich?" And I said, "Sure." I mean, dang! I paid for it; I'm eating it! And she says, "Ohmygawd. No one has ever eaten the whole thing before!"

I'm not just old. I'm an old hog. When we got back to our office, Jonathan thoughtfully sent me this link: http://www.ifoce.com/records.php

Tough week ahead

2009-03-09T08:36:00.004-05:00

Poor Codie is really down in the dumps. Corey left yesterday for a week of training in Springfield, MO. He got promoted to manager at PetSmart, and they knew this training was coming along soon. In fact, they expected it to be several weeks; but because of his experience, he was able to test out of everything except the mandatory part. Codie had hoped to go with him; but he found out that he'll be rooming with another trainee, so that wasn't possible.

You have never seen such an agonized good-bye. I don't think I cried that much when my boyfriend went to boot camp for three months. (Well, of course, we weren't engaged; but still.) There was no cheering this kid up. I let her wallow in it for a few hours, and when she seemed a little calmer, I said, "Have you decided on a project to do while Corey's gone?" She'd mentioned wanting to do something to keep herself occupied and to surprise him when he gets home. We batted around ideas, and she settled on making some wild and funky monogrammed pillow cases for their future home. I finally got to see the light in her eyes when we hauled out my fat-quarter stash for her to pick through. The chick has a great eye. She went straight for the designer fabrics -- Valori Wells, mostly. Then she drew up a design for the funky monogram. (She's enjoying the fact that she and Corey will have the same initials after the wedding.)

She's scared to do the actual sewing herself. It's the power-tool thing. She's afraid of sewing her fingers to the project. I refrained from pointing out to her that 5-year-old Olivia managed to sew an entire doll quilt on her mama's Bernina. I'm planning to coax and trick her into sewing a few straight seams. I think she'll get hooked, and then we'll be fussing over sharing the sewing machine the way we used to fuss over sharing the computer.

She's supposed to be embroidering the monograms on separate fabric to keep herself entertained during the day while I'm at work. We'll applique them on later. It will be interesting to see whether she makes progress today or spends the day in lonely moping. Poor baby.

A bright spot in the weekend: Carol finished their wedding flowers, and we picked them up Saturday afternoon. They are spectacular. Codie and Carol worked together to pick really lovely flowers and ribbons, and Carol is such an artist in putting them together. Codie's bouquet is gorgeous; the corsages and Corey's boutonniere are beautiful, too. Carol loved the idea of doing a nosegay for Claire (the flower girl) so much that she took a chance on surprising us with a couple of her original ideas, and I'm so glad. She incorporated a little white dove into Claire's bouquet. And because there won't be a ring bearer, Carol added a ribbon to tie the rings to the nosegay. It looks as if the dove is holding the bow in its beak, and the streamers of the bow have little silver heart charms tied to them. So sweet! Evidently, we had picked more flowers than Carol needed, because there was also a "throwing bouquet" tucked in the box with a note that said, "Our gift to you. Wishing you many happy years." So...if you've got a wedding in your future and you're thinking of doing silk flowers, call me and get Carol's number. She totally rocks.

This evening, I need to put a package together for Corey's mom. It looks as if she and Corey's stepdad are not going to be able to make it down here from Colorado for the wedding. So my plan is to send her corsage to her so she can wear it on their wedding day. And I'll call her when the ceremony starts and put her on speaker so she can hear them take their vows. I'm going to tuck a copy of the CD of engagement photos in there, too. She and Corey are so close - talk to each other by phone every day - that I know it is killing her to miss this.

A few new mini-quilts are in my Etsy shop. I'm hoping to get some more finished and photographed this week.

Engagement photos

2009-03-01T11:20:00.015-06:00

I have to show you a few of Codie and Corey's engagement photos. I say "a few" because they have dozens of equally incredible shots - well over 100. I'm overwhelmed by the artistry of the photography and the story the photos tell. Lest you think that I've gone insane and hired one of those $1,000-a-day wedding "photojournalists," I have to share this tidbit: These photos are a wedding gift from the photographer - my friend and fellow YaYa, Janna Jennings. And, no, this isn't how Janna makes her living. She's a pediatrician. Photography is one of her hobbies. I am unbelievably lucky to have such a talented and generous friend. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Janna.

I know this is too many photos for one post. I can't help it. I just couldn't weed down any farther. In fact, I may have to post a whole series of Janna's beautiful, meaningful portraits. Just look:

Trying to be a quilter

2009-02-27T09:49:00.004-06:00

I've been working up my courage to attempt a bed-size quilt for...oh...30 years or so. Now that I've got some experience with small pieces under my belt, I'm closer than ever to doing a "real" quilt. But what do I want to do?

I totally love the bright, modern, scrappy, improvisational quilts sashed in white that are popping up all over the web these days, such as this one from Melly & Me blog.

But I also love the geometry and order of traditional quilt patterns. Double Irish Chain has always been one of my favorites.

So this morning it hit me: What if I use the edgy colors and sashing with a traditional pattern? Oh, yeah. Gotta try it. Who knows how many years it will take me to complete it, so try to imagine the scrappiness and colors from the first example in the pattern of the second example.

I'll definitely have to wait till after the wedding to start sewing. That much continuous machine time is going to require setting up in front of a TV somewhere. (No TV in my studio, dangit.) But maybe I can start cutting my scraps.

Now I'm excited.

Unfortunately...

2009-02-20T15:06:00.003-06:00

Okay, I found this game on JennyB's allsorts blog: "Do a Google search of the phrase 'unfortunately, _______' but put your first name in the blank." Here are my results.

Unfortunately, Denise has no sense of direction
Unfortunately, Denise was haunted by poor compulsory figures during her amateur career
Unfortunately, Denise has brought her sleazy boyfriend Jonathan with her
Unfortunately, Denise went a little overboard and got this funky leopard print version
Unfortunately, Denise is presenting at CAL05 conference in Bristol from 4 – 6 April inclusive
Unfortunately, Denise is at the mercy of a *very* busy hospital, and has to be taken/have things done at odd times
Unfortunately Denise has developed some weakness in her left arm and some tremors in her left hand when attempting fine motor control
Unfortunately Denise is away on a modeling job in Mexico

Finally! One I like!

NOT bridezilla

2009-02-16T11:27:00.008-06:00

Here's a photo of my beautiful (and tired) little girl from the day she found her perfect wedding gown. I don't want to give too much away, so I'm not showing the whole dress. But it's gorgeous, and it's perfect for her.

She is so not bridezilla. She has been fun and considerate and very dollar-conscious through everything, so far.

Last Saturday, we went back to the bridal store for the first fitting of her gown. She put on her Cinderella shoes and I buttoned her up, and she stepped onto the platform to receive the attentions of the alterations lady. About halfway through the hem-pinning, she looked over at me and mouthed, "I'm so hot." Her face had gone ghost-white, her lips were colorless, her eyes had deep purple circles. "Stop, stop, stop!" she said. "I'm going to pass out."

They sat her down in a chair and got her a cold cloth. After a little rest, her color came back and she tried it again. Mommy stood with her and held her hand. She lasted about two minutes before she had to sit and put her head between her knees.

It took four tries to get through the whole fitting, and I have to wonder how accurate the hem is going to be considering all the stops and starts. Poor Codie looked so sick! But we got through it.

Back in the dressing room, she stepped out of her shoes and then said, "Whoa! I feel fine now. I think it's my shoes." I said, "You think your shoes are pinching your brain?"

Outside the store, I burst into laughter. "What's funny?" Codie said. I told her, "Now all the old ladies in there think you're pregnant!" Codie screamed in horror. It was the best laugh I had all day.

I think we're going to have to assign a team on her wedding day to stand by to hold her up, if necessary.

Crazy crazy crazy

2009-02-05T08:22:00.002-06:00

Have mercy!

I don't have too many issues going on, myself, but my youngest daughter is attracting them like a magnet. First, we were focused on finding her a job. Then that excitement kind of got overridden by her engagement and the start of wedding plans. And then that excitement got swamped by the sudden necessity to replace her car.

The car issue was settled yesterday. With abundant help from my adorable dad, the kids found a 2007 Dodge Caliber SXT with just 37,700 miles on it, and they swung a deal for $2,500 under the blue book retail value. WooHOOO! We had such wonderful support from so many people. Elizabeth's husband, Jason, who is a mechanic for a Dodge dealership, inspected the car before we bought it, giving us a lot more confidence. My credit union came through without a hitch. When everything falls into place like this, I feel like it was meant to be. Thank you, thank you to everyone who helped!

So, of course, the second the transportation issue was settled, the wedding issue got full focus again. There's been a good deal of extended-family-related trauma and drama already, so Codie and Corey have been rethinking their plans. Last night, they decided they'd rather have a tiny at-home wedding and spend the rest of their budget on a honeymoon trip to Disney World. (Aren't they smart? I'm so proud of them.) It looks as if the wedding date will be moved up to April 18. The down side is that Polly may not be able to come - changing her schedule takes quite a bit of lead time right now. But somehow we will find a way to include Polly and Claire, nevertheless. The decorations we bought for the reception and then abandoned (due to the extended-family-related trauma and drama explosion) will now be used to decorate my little living room and dining room. Codie will still get to wear her lovely dress, and the couple will be surrounded by love and joy. And they'll leave their celebration to go get on a plane and fly to Orlando and whoop it up for a few days.

So heads-up, crafty girlfriends! Janna, I'll be calling you any minute about the engagement photos. Looks like we're going to need them sooner than expected. YaYas: Prepare to decorate! Annie, stand by to help me figure out how to make a tutu for a cat. (I know. Really.) Joy, the bride says she can be happy only if her hair and make-up are done by you. Grandma, get out your cookbooks and start looking for quick and easy hors d'oerves. We can do this!

Crafting up a storm

2009-01-07T12:29:00.006-06:00

While I was on Internet hiatus, I not only got my studio and garage under control, but I also got quite a bit of crafting done. This was mostly due to the generosity of Corey, Codie's fiance, who has a massive collection of videos. Since I couldn't blog or play with my Webkinz, I pretty much sat on the couch, watching videos and stitching. Here are some of the results.

I got a start on my first canvas-sized art quilt. The background will be the turquoise dot fabric in the photo background. The color calibration is a bit off. It's a vivid greenish blue. To the background, I'm going to embroider dozens (hundreds?) of 1" and 1/2" yoyos. I got a couple of those Clover yoyo makers, and they are the coolest tool of the year. Yoyos are so easy! No more marking, trimming, ironing, fretting. They just slam together, and they turn out perfectly every time. It may not be obvious from the photo, because I just dumped the yoyos out in a pile, but they all are predominantly orange and/or lime and/or cream. I'm excited about the color scheme. The quilt will be a wall piece, literally slipcovered over a canvas. I'll post more as I make more progress.

I also cranked out a few miniquilts. The one on the far left is my first adventure with yoyos. I'm not sure if I like the green beads. I'm living with it for a while before I frame it. Some of the others still lack focal doodads, but they're all close to being finished. The frames are chipboard shadowboxes. You can see them in the studio clean-up post, sanded and primed and ready to be painted. (Speaking of the studio clean-up, when I looked back at the photos this morning, I realized that the after pictures don't look much better than the befores. You'll just have to trust me on this: It's a lot easier to get in there and work now.)

Finally, I got a start on valentines. These micro quilties are made from a gorgeous bit of fabric that Annie brought back to me from her vacation. I used only half of the 50 motifs. I haven't yet decided what I'm going to do with the other half. I just couldn't bring myself to part with the whole swatch. The photo is my usual iffy quality, so let me point out that I embellished each 3"x3" motif with some silk-ribbon roses and faux pearls. Then I bonded the fabric to quilt batting, pinked out the motifs, and quilted them here and there with gold metallic thread. I think I'm going to stamp valentine greetings on the offcuts and then machine sew the motifs and greetings to cards. That's today's plan, anyway. We'll see how these actually turn out.

I've started posting some framed micro quilts in my Etsy shop. You can see them in the right sidebar. Just click on the images to go see the full-size listings. I like how these are going. It makes me wish I'd bought a few more of the little double shadowboxes. Oh, well, la-la.

By the way, my Women on Quilts interview has been moved to April. Thank goodness. Hopefully, I'll be a little better prepared by then.

Sharing my shame

2009-01-06T17:01:00.018-06:00

I'm back. It's true. I have Internet at home again. It will probably take me six months to catch up on everything I've missed, but I'm just so happy to be here.

Speaking of catching up...Back in April, Annie issued a challenge for a studio clean-up. At the time, the idea completely overwhelmed me. My studio was such a disaster! Could it ever be cleaned up? Dunes of craft supplies and partially finished projects filled every crack and crannie and every inch of floor space. It felt hopeless.

But somewhere in the past month or so, my daughter and her fiance helped me haul everything out of there. I scoured the floor and installed new shelving and moved everything back. And we moved the old shelving to the garage. The piles of normal garage stuff are now neatly organized and shelved. And all my frames and other large, awkward art components have a shelf of their own. It's pure heaven.

Here is the documentation of my shame and my recovery.

Before:

After:

Wanna bet?

2008-12-31T09:51:00.002-06:00

Does anybody think I got TV and Internet service installed today? Anybody? Nehhhhhh. It didn't happen. What a surprise.

I managed to refrain from a tantrum this time. Unlike last week, today's phone rep did not act like I'm a drooling idiot put on earth solely to torture him. In fact, when he told me my installation order for today had been cancelled, and I calmly explained the history of this situation, he not only placed a new order with an expedited date (next Monday), but also committed to following up personally on Friday and Monday to make sure nothing else goes wrong, gave me the first month of service free, and applied every promotional discount available for the next year.

Okay. That works.

Actually, he offered to have an installer work OT to do my installation on Saturday. But that would have meant cancelling a hair appointment plus my Christmas weekend with the Newsoms. If I cancelled the trip and they didn't show up, I would surely have had an exploding aneurism. So I opted for Monday, when I'm planning to be off work and home anyway.

I'm not even going to bother posting an update on CG. I don't want to make any more promises I can't keep. Cross your fingers that, sometime next Monday, I'll be able to post that I'm back.

Still waiting sigh

2008-12-26T08:58:00.002-06:00

I had a biggo temper tantrum last Tuesday when the TV/Internet installer failed to show up again. Well, the tantrum actually came when I called in to find out where the guy was and was told that my installation appointment is December 31, that it was always December 31, that there was no record I had ever had an appointment for December 23. (Really? Um...then why did I get that automated confirmation call for December 23?)

I'm calmer now, but I'm afraid to say I'll be fully back on line next week. Let's just say that I may be back to my regular posting schedule beginning New Year's Day. If the weather cooperates, the planets align, and the technology gods smile on me.

*sigh..............heavy sigh*

Stupid, stupid weather

2008-12-17T12:44:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was supposed to be the day. I was supposed to get my new, improved TV service and high-class, wi-fi Internet. But we had a sleet storm the night before; and, though he tried valiantly and called me repeatedly to report his status, the installation tech wasn't able to get down the icy roads to my house. The next available installation appointment is December 23, so I'll be off line for another week. That means my posts will still be scanty and irregular; but I will be back as soon as I have a reliable connection.

Portrait of Polly

2008-12-02T20:16:00.018-06:00

I'm warning you: This is long.

Polly and I have been through so much together over the past 20 years. Jobs, marriages, births of babies, divorces, freelancing, teaching, buying houses, making art. Polly is one of the few people on earth who I feel deeply knows, understands, and accepts me. So it gave me great pleasure to create a portrait of her that attempts to express how I feel about her.

Portrait of Polly is a series of collages that show different aspects of Polly's personality. There's a story behind everything, and I'll share part of the details. The Reader's Digest version. (Polly, you know the whole story.)

Miniature rooms seemed perfect because dollhouses and miniatures are loves that we have in common. Chairs seemed necessary because chairs follow Polly home and lodge themselves in her basement, demanding to be refurbished. Quilts are the backgrounds because quilts are a part of Polly's heritage and something we both cherish. You'll see...Polly has just walked out of each of these rooms.

Polly is a mom. The most important person in her life, without doubt, is beautiful, red-haired Claire.

Polly loves her home, and it shows. Her personality shines from its charming rooms. And she's always cleaning something. Last time we talked on the phone, she was skating around her basement on rags, stripping the wax off the floors.

And she's always got some kind of household project going. She's not just handy; she has her own power tools!

Polly is an executive. Even when she's not at work, her laptop isn't far away. Neither is her Blackberry. I can't remember the last time our conversation didn't include her words, "I brought some work home with me..." Under all that high-powered stuff, she's still a writer. (Thus all the quilts are bound with a handwriting print.)

Polly is a creative soul. She knits. She collages. She writes poetry. She crafts. And she's a remarkable photographer.

And, like all of her family, Polly is musical. I have a vivid memory of sitting in the living room of her apartment in a Civil-War-era house in Morrilton, listening to her sing and play the guitar. And see those shoes? If they played the right music at BJ's Star Studded Honky Tonk, we got to see Polly break into clogging. She's good. It's that heritage thing, again.

Because Polly is from South Carolina. Near Clemson, where her dad was an ag professor. Near Anderson, where she saw her first library (which made her burst into tears because she'd never be able to read all those books). Right near Pendleton. She grew up on Dogwood Hill Dairy Farm, the home of the annual Fall Ball and Marriage Prevention Seminar. And the equally popular annual Spring Fling and Hot-Water Dance Off. The meeting place of the Young On-TROP-a-noors. She might have sat in the yard in a chair like this, sipping a cup of coffee. Those are porcelain dogwoods in the background. Miss Martha Nell, Polly's mom, was a florist.

Polly had her own dairy herd, which included Holsteins. Even in our Winrock days, if Polly got in a financial pinch, she would consider calling her dad and asking him to sell one of her cows. She would never really upholster a chair seat with the hide, though. It's just a metaphor. And her cats - Long Kitty and Tia - don't really look like those kitties. They're metaphors, too.

The red adirondack chair was built by Kevin when they lived in their first apartment in St. Louis Park. Actually, I think he built two of them. She got one in the divorce. It's in the perfect spot in her shady yard. I love to sit in it. And I don't mind if there's a margarita resting on the chair arm.
There's so much more to tell. But a portrait doesn't show everything. Just an impression.

I've lost the little note that was supposed to remind me how I intended for the rooms to go together. But I think it's something like this.
Isn't my sister pretty?

Thankful

2008-11-27T12:35:00.003-06:00

I rose this morning and logged on to find that the first set of double mini-quilts I listed on Etsy has sold! (The aqua set with the Nicki Lee lace.) Yea! What a great start to the day.

Codie and Corey are coming here for supper, so I puttered around the kitchen making brownies and cheesy-turkey-noodle casserole. We'll also have green salad with oranges and pineapple and cheesy-garlic biscuits. It was a real challenge to come up with a meal that my picky girl would enjoy, but I think I've pulled it off.

While I was cooking, I got a call from Polly and Claire who made me belly-laugh with their turkey impersonations. How joyful it made me to spend a few minutes of this holiday with Polly.

Then I straightened the house a bit and got myself cleaned up and ready for the big Thanksgiving dinner at Mom's house this afternoon. I had planned supper with Codie and Corey because Codie was scheduled to work. Then she ended up with the day off, so they are headed to Corey's grandmother's for an early lunch, to Mom and Joe's for a late lunch, and to my house for supper. A full day for them! Anyway, Codie and Mom have been out of touch since Codie moved in with my sister last year. When Codie called yesterday and asked if she and Corey could join me at Mom's, it gave me a stab of joy. I called Mom to let her know and see if I could bring food to make up for the extra people, and the news made her so happy, she burst into tears. Not an ordinary response from my mother. This little reunion is making us both so happy.

So while I have a few quiet minutes before the serial banqueting begins, I must express how grateful I am. I'm a very lucky woman. I'm thankful for dear, precious friends who make my life so rich. I'm thankful for my family - those I can share this holiday with, those departed, and those who are estranged but still intensely valued - my daughter Rachel and my sister Tanya. I'm thankful for a life of plenty - not just of the necessities but of comfort, not just of the privilege of work but of meaningful vocation, not just of affection and support but of love.

Special salutes to the Art YaYas, the AREtsies, and the Sunday Covenant group. I am so fortunate to have all of you in my life.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's a peek

2008-11-22T17:43:00.009-06:00

I shipped Portrait of Polly this morning. It won't arrive until December 1. I can hardly stand the wait. I still don't want to post the whole work until Polly has had a chance to see it in person. But here are some glimpses.

And here are the double mini quilts. I thought each frame had two 4"x4" shadowboxes. When I dug them out of the dune in the garage, I found that they have one long shadowbox each. So I had to come up with a new way of displaying the mini quilts.

Next: micro quilts!

Blogger's block

2008-11-21T07:41:00.002-06:00

I just this second realized that I've been avoiding posting on my blog because I haven't had time to edit images to include. What? When did I start being unable to post without photos? It must be an artifact of my CraftGossip routine. I do have to have an image for each of those posts. Evidently, it's now a habit.

I have lots of photos, I just haven't uploaded them yet. I have new miniquilts. I'll take them by the Cox Center on Monday. If I have any left over after Alex makes his selections, I'll post them on my Etsy shop. I'll try to get those photos onto my blog over the weekend.

I've also finished the Polly collages, and they're wrapped and boxed for shipping. I'm planning to drop them at the PO on my way to Conway in the morning to get my hair cut. I don't want to post the whole work until Polly has had a chance to see them in person. But maybe I can come up with a little hint.

I have good news and bad news with no photos for either.

The good news: Kim Wulfert invited me to be a guest on her interview show, Women On Quilts. It's a free-subscription thing - you can listen by phone conference or webcast. The invitation freaked me out so bad, it took me two days to answer. Her other guests so far have been famous in the quilting community. I'm so not. And do I really want to talk about myself in public for an hour? Will I sound like a boastful jackass? Will I stutter and lose words and sound like a mentally impaired non-native speaker of English? Ultimately, I said yes. I mean, really! How could I pass this up! But I'll probably have a few nightmares between now and the January 19 live-broadcast date. I'll let you know more as the date approaches.

The bad news: My Uncle Dwaine died yesterday. Dwaine Arnold Miller was my mom's big brother, third of seven children and the next older to my mom. I haven't seen him since my grandmother's funeral 20 years ago, but I have vivid memories of him throughout my childhood and up till then. He and Aunt Mary lived across the street from Grandma and Grandpa and were a daily presence in their lives to the end. I've learned from Mom's stories that Dwaine and Mary have had a happy retirement, surrounded by loving kids, grandkids, and greats. Uncle Dwaine, like the other two siblings who beat him to the Promised Land -- Rosie and Zennon -- had a fierce battle with cancer. His children reported that he was ready to go, and it was time. But it still makes me very sad, indeed. Please surround my mom and my Uncle Dwaine's family with prayers and loving thoughts.

Busy, busy procrastination

2008-11-10T11:22:00.005-06:00

I'm so lucky. Tomorrow is a holiday at my workplace, and I still had a couple of vacation days left for the year. So I took today off and created a four-day crafting weekend for myself. It has been glorious.

You may have noticed that I had started several dozen projects and finished none lately. My goal for this long weekend was to finish as much as possible and, in particular, get stuff ready to show to the shops next week.

So I

painted frames--lots of frames
finished three collages that have been in the works
finished the quilted Christmas ornaments
finished the acrylic angel Christmas ornaments
finished several mini-quilts and prepared them for mounting
finished most of the Polly series of collages

I'm feeling really productive. I even got a couple of mini-quilts finished and photographed and got one of them posted on Etsy. But I kept looking at them on my bookshelf and thinking...they're just not done. They're dull somehow. I think I'm going to do some stamping on the frames and then reshoot them. Anyway, here's how they look so far. The quilts did some funny kind of squidgy things when I washed and dried them. I love the distortion caused by the shrinkage. I hope buyers feel the same way.

I slept in this morning, put some time in on my CraftGossip blog, and now I'm heading to the studio to turn Christmas ornaments into greeting cards. I still have stuff in stages (drying paint and/or drying glue) all over my kitchen, dining room, and bedroom. I'm hoping to get all that under control today, too.

So how am I procrastinating? I need to review a video for my blog. The publisher sent it to me free, and it rocks, and I need to get the word out. But it's going to take some thought, so I'm putting it off. I also need to edit a half-dozen resumes for a proposal before I get back to work on Wednesday. (No good deed goes unpunished.) I'll do those things tomorrow. Today, I get one more day to wallow in craftiness.

Hoarding alert

2008-11-02T10:35:00.018-06:00

You know how so many bloggers - especially needlework bloggers - are always posting their latest purchases on their blogs. As if any of us care what they bought this week. I always think, "Don't make me look at your stash, you silly thing. Show me what you're doing with your stash." But, you know, stuff has been kind of piling up around here during the weeks that I've been working on proposals and living with houseguests. So I can't believe I'm doing this, but look what I got.

I won a gift certificate to The Fabric Square Shop through True Up's half anniversary giveaway. I never win anything! Really! I can't believe I was so lucky. These are jelly rolls in Moda's Woodland Blooms and Flutterby. So delicious.

So then (as a lucky fringe benefit of my research on behalf of my CraftGossip blog), I found out about an incredible sale over on Jojo's Gift Shoppe. I got these jelly rolls and charm packs for 1/3 to 1/2 off. They're Moda's Urban Couture, Charisma, Completely Kids, Recipe for Friendship, and Pumpkins Gone Wild.

I got these awesome dot prints on eBay for a song.
This yummy batch of fat quarters came from an Etsy shop I've just discovered, adele hartlip. Gorgeous fabrics, great prices, fast shipping.
These fat quarters came from one of my favorite AREtsy sellers, downshadowlane. The first set is Jewel Mobile and Starling from Alexander Henry in several colorways. The second is (yes, I admit it) every single colorway she had of Sweet Jasmine from Amy Butler.

Okay, so what am I doing with all this stuff? For the most part, I'm waiting for them to speak to me. I'll have the time to listen to them soon.

But I was motivated by Annie's purchase of a new Sizzix die to start a couple of new things. (When Annie gets a new craft toy, it's about 98% the same as if I'd gotten it myself.) She got a 4" circle die for her Big Kick. So I cut and pieced some of the Woodland Blooms strips into sheets about 4.5" wide. Then I showed up at Annie's last night and ran them through the diecutter. These will get sewed together into ornaments for this year's Christmas cards. I'm thinking I'll add a little embroidery, some beads, a grommet and ribbon, a bit of stuffing...
I also took along some sheets of acetate stamped with swirlies in white Staz-On. These 4" circles will get folded into angel dresses for another set of Christmas card ornaments. Annie's fertile brain came up with brilliant diecut wings - made from Hello Kitty's bloomers. Yeah. Bloomers.

I've worked on a few more miniquilts. I like how the one with green bugle beads is turning out. And the one with the big star was great fun. I saw a similar design on the web during my blog wanderings and had to try it. Lots of French knots and beads. I'm hoping it's as cool when finished as I've imagined.

In case you've been wondering, Codie has moved to Benton, but the itteh bitteh kitteh is still with me. She may move eventually; but since Codie's intended is violently allergic, I suspect Avalon will be my companion for the long term. She still has some health issues, left over from her rough start as a foundling. But she's getting big and strong and wildly curious and mischievous. Right now, we're both learning hard lessons about playful biting. Geh.
So, I've procrastinated long enough this morning. It's time to get started on what I hope is my last day of proposal writing. On weekends, anyway. It will be so good to have this behind me.

Playing tag

2008-10-31T09:56:00.002-05:00

Erin (Idyll Hands) tagged me over on her rockin blog. This is fun - I haven't been tagged in ages. Here are the rulettes:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself. (See below)
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them. (See further below...)
5. Let each person know they've been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Random Denise-ness:

I have sewed all my life. (Well, since I was about 10.) But I used to be completely puzzled by Anne and Scarlett's fabric fetishes. Why would anyone want to hoard random small bits of pretty fabric? You buy the yardage you need for your project, you make your project, you throw away the leftovers that are too small to be useful for other projects. Done. Then these evil women took me to a quilt store. And suddenly I saw all the possibilities for pieced projects and collage backgrounds and and and... And I overnight I became a fabric addict. It is the only area in my life where a designer name is of any importance. I follow fabric designers like other women follow couturiers. If there were rehab for crafters, my family would probably stage an intervention.
My relationships with men have been...um...troubled and temporary, for the most part. But my long-term relationships with women give me joy and comfort my soul. I have been so lucky to be kin to women with whom I would want to be friends even if we weren't related. My mom and my sister are freakin amazing women. And I'm also lucky to have discovered sisters of my soul all along my life's path. Some of those friends have been in my life for more than 20 years, such as Polly and Rhonda. Some friends are newer but deeply treasured, such as Annie. The women in my life have made it bearable in the hard times and satisfying in the good times. The sisterhood means everything to me.
Motherhood is not what I imagined. But I am so grateful for the experience, and so proud of my beautiful daughters.
I came to art late in life. As I tried to support my children's artistic interests and talents, I discovered my own artistic drive. Now I feel I must hurry to express everything I've got in me. I have only so many years left!
My house is decorated with souvenirs from all over the world. They're all gifts from my Winrock days. I've crossed over into Canada a couple of times. Otherwise, I've never even left the country.
I will not eat liver or boiled okra. The thought has precisely the same effect on me as imagining eating poo and snot. Same thing. *shuddering*

Well! TMI, huh?

I'm passing this opportunity along to

Janna
Debbie
Stacie
Lisa
Amanda
Marisa

You're it!

Joy, joy, joy!

2008-10-30T09:09:00.002-05:00

I had so much fun last night. Laurie Marshall (punkinhead), Erin Jepson (Idyll Hands), Laurie Ament (Isinglass Beads), Annie (casserole), and I met up at Pei Wei for dinner. The circumstances aren't that great. Laurie M and Erin are sisters who live in northwestern Arkansas. They're in town because their mom needed to come to UAMS for brain surgery. I wish they could have come down just to play. But since they were here, how could we not take advantage of the opportunity to meet at last.

All of these chicks (including me) are members of AREtsy, the Arkansas Etsy street team. That's how we connected with one another a year or so ago. Since then, we've become regular online buds, following one another's lives through our blogs, buying from and selling to each other, bantering on the AREtsy chat thread. In fact, Erin has now taken over the leadership of the AREtsy team - a huge commitment of time and energy.

So, anyway, I already thought of these ladies as my friends. It was strange and wonderful to walk up to Pei Wei and realize I recognized them, even though we'd never met. And though we spent a couple of hours together over dinner, the conversation never flagged and the time was too short to cover everything we might have talked about together.

So are punkinhead and Idyll Hands really as cute and funny and smart and creative as their online personas? Oh, yeah. And then some. Ten years ago, these friendships couldn't have happened, at least not in this way. Hurray for the Internet!

I'm still here

2008-10-26T19:48:00.007-05:00

I knew I was pausing too long between posts when Annie called me and challenged me to show what I've been working on before the end of this weekend. But then when my mom called to check on me - she said she was afraid I was sick because it had been so long since I posted - I knew I had to get on it!

So here's what's been going on at my house in between proposal hecticness.

The Polly collages are taking their final shape. I'm close to being able to arrange the little scenes in the boxes. I just need to paint a few things yet. (Like the taps on her clogging shoes.)

I've stitched backgrounds for several collages, and the frames are in the last stages of being painted now. So these should go together in the next week or so.

I've stitched several mini quilts - a new framed series that I'm going to offer to the shops for the holidays. They have lots of sparkly metallic threads and beads - even Swarovski crystals. And I'm painting the box frames with jewel-tone metallics. I think they're going to be pretty.

I still haven't got the fluffy-flower-ornament cards put together. I haven't even started on the angel cards. And the fluffy-knit-Christmas-tree experiment was a complete failure. I've got a long way to go before November 15! Cross your fingers for me.

Thank you, Rachel!

2008-10-14T08:31:00.003-05:00

It's a sure sign that I'm juggling too many balls this week: I can't believe I forgot to tell you that Rachel Biel Taibi graciously invited me to do a guest article for her awesome blog, Rayela's Fiber Focus. My little story ran on Sunday, but you can still see it. The title she put on it made me feel like Miss America, for sure. In fact, I'm wearing my plastic tiara at work today! (Just kidding.) Thank you so much for sharing your readers with me, Rachel! And thanks, also, to Jon Yusoff and Allie Aller for allowing me to use their names in vain.

Dreamscape

2008-10-05T00:20:00.002-05:00

Every night
in my dreams
I go back to Tulsa.
Why?

Just looking for a photo of Tulsa on the web makes my heart pound painfully.
Why?

Something to tell your kids

2008-09-30T22:40:00.003-05:00

Stacy Pickell once said to me, "It's as if your brain is a warehouse full of buckets. Most of the buckets have at least a little knowledge in them. But kids have a way of asking questions that go straight to whichever bucket happens to be empty."

When my daughter Rachel lost her first tooth, her daddy told her most seriously that she must remember to put it under her pillow so the Tooth Fairy would find it and leave her a reward.

"Why does she want my teeth?" Rachel said. "What does she do with them?"

Daddy sat there stunned. His bucket was totally empty.

"Well, duh!" I said. "She makes pearl necklaces out of them! Daddy, how could you forget that?"

Today, I was cruising the craft blogs, looking for fodder for my CraftGossip gig, and I stumbled across a post by Becky Stern of Craftzine.com pointing to this find in the mag's flickr pool. It looks as if the Tooth Fairy is branching out!

Good and iffy

2008-09-30T18:15:00.006-05:00

Good: The tiny background quilts for the Polly series of collages, all ready for binding. (By tiny, I mean 4.25" x 7.5".)

Iffy: The Christmas ornaments. Cotton just doesn't want to fluff. I'm going with them anyway, but next time I'll use knits. Does that mean I now have to make Addie a knit wardrobe? Maybe I'll hit the remnant table instead.

Clipping along...

2008-09-28T08:07:00.002-05:00

Clipped, stitched, and buttoned. Now all I have to do is toss them in the wash. Cross your fingers with me that they fluff up into flowers. Otherwise, I'm back to square one, trying to come up with ornaments that will fit on greeting cards.

Christmas is looking really bright

2008-09-25T20:55:00.003-05:00

A couple of nights ago, I realized that I need to have Christmas stuff in the shops next month. Yikes! I fiddled around with several ideas for my annual ornament cards. As usual, my plans started out elaborate, difficult, and expensive. And I worked my way down to simple, easy, and cheap.

The best part of all: These ornaments are made from the scraps left over from my summer sewing for pretty little Addison. The bright colors that went into her outfits are perfect for this project.

Here are this year's ornaments so far. You can't tell much, yet, except that they're going to be really colorful. Yea!

Let me show you something...

2008-09-22T19:13:00.008-05:00

I got so spoiled on my birthday. Really. I was treated so well that I'm a bit embarrassed to enumerate the loot. But I've just got to show you one thing. Look what Annie found for me at an estate sale. Yeah, that's 51 30-yard skeins of crewel yarn. Vintage. Still in the original wrappers. Holy jumping cats.

Oh, and speaking of cats, look who has come to hang out with me for a month or so while Codie is waiting to move to a new place. Her name is Avalon. I'm so in love with her, Codie may have to pry her out of my hands.

Progress and something new

2008-09-09T19:32:00.004-05:00

I'm working on the backgrounds for the Polly collage, bit by bit. I've embroidered the nine pieces, washed and ironed them, and fused them to quilt batting. Now I'm quilting the prints with metallic gold thread. These two pieces show how that's going. I'm not satisfied. I'm going to have to work some beads and sequins in there somewhere. Maybe everywhere!

The new thing is this freakin awesome phone.

As a birthday gift for Codie, I agreed to get her out of her expensive cell phone contract and set her up on a plan she can better afford. We both had AT&T phones, so Sunday we went over to what we thought was an AT&T store to see what we could do. Little did we know...the storefront over on Chenal Parkway is actually the mouth of hell. After an agonizing two hours standing at the desk (not including the time we spent waiting for our turn), we found that it simply was not possible to do what we wanted to do. I don't have the words or the gumption to write all that we went through, and nobody should have to read that, anyway. Let me just say: Think of the most ridiculous, insane adventure you ever had trying to register for college classes. Now multiply that by five.

So yesterday, Codie and I met at the Cricket store. We both got fab new phones. We got unlimited everything - minutes, long distance, text, video, Internet - for substantially less than we had been paying for limited service. And we have no contracts. So, if it turns out that we don't like Cricket, we're out only the cost of the phones. No termination fees. No penalties. No surcharges. No transfer fees. And we never again have to walk into the mouth of hell. I'm so happy.

Jonathan and Heather laughed out loud when they saw my new, snazzy, lime-green metallic slider phone. I've never sent a text message in my life. In fact, I had trouble just answering my old phone without dropping it or accidentally putting the caller on hold or something. But I'm ready for the new millennium, baby. Okay, I'm nearly 9 years late, but I'm getting there. My phone rocks.

A wonderful birthday

2008-09-04T18:37:00.008-05:00

This year, my personal holiday stretched to more than a week. My birthday was Tuesday.

On Saturday, I had a long phone visit with Polly (on her birthday; I really miss the days when we lived near enough to one another to celebrate our birthdays together). Then my parents dropped by - with a Black Forest cake from Silvek's, OMG - and shared some laughs around my dining table. They also spoiled me with a handy gift and a card with a personal note that gave me tears and made me so proud.

On Sunday, my youngest daughter and her boyfriend made dinner for me and watched home movies with me. Let me tell you, that boy can cook! And the time we spent together did my heart a lot of good.

Monday, having lost track of the date, Annie called early to be the first to offer good wishes. That made my heart sing, too, and I was so glad to have a chance to catch up with her a bit.

Tuesday, my work buddies treated me to lunch at The Flying Fish, one of my all-time favorite spots. I used up 42 Weight Watchers points, and I enjoyed every single one of them.

I got e-mail greetings from an auntie, and a sweet card from a cousin, and a handmade work-of-art card from YaYa Lisa, and a silly card from my sister. And this coming weekend, there's a YaYa get-together at Lisa's house to celebrate three YaYa birthdays: Kimberly's, Leigh's, and mine. Birthdays just don't get better (or longer) than this.

But I know all of the people who so kindly spoiled me and made me feel like a queen will understand when I say the very best gift of all was a handmade card my daughter left for me to find on Tuesday. It's beautiful, of course. She's an artist. But what it says made me sit down and have a happy cry.

Thank you for doing so much for me. I don't know what I'd do without you. You're a wonderful mom. I just needed to grow up to see it! I love you, mom.

Victory!

2008-08-25T19:44:00.002-05:00

I know Charlisa only a bit. She's a friend of my friend Stacie, and she is an astonishing artist. I got to spend a little time with her one Saturday - Codie and I took a class in wet felting, led by Charlisa at Stacie's home. It so rocked. Char is one of those natural teachers.

She doesn't live here or we already would have arm-twisted her into the YaYa thing. But we get news of her through Stacie, of course. When Char opened an Etsy shop, Remarkably Red, I celebrated. (You mean, you can actually buy Char's stuff? Woohooo!) And then recently Stacie reported that Charlisa had started a blog. Of course, I had to run over and look immediately and add her to my blog reader.

I knew that she had gotten married. At least, I think I knew that. But as I was cruising through her blog this evening (last Saturday's post - I'm a bit behind), I noticed for the first time that her husband is a minister. She shared on her blog a video that he was going to include in his sermon the next day. I clicked on the video to be courteous, but I was a bit nervous about what I might see and hear.

Oh, my goodness. You have to go see the video in the upper-right corner of Char's page. I mean it. Don't ask. Just go now.

Weekend mojo

2008-08-24T19:03:00.004-05:00

I thought I was going to spend this weekend editing a proposal. Neh. That didn't work out. So now it looks as if I'll be spending my Labor Day/birthday weekend editing. *sigh* Oh, well, la-la. I'm disappointed that I could have spent this weekend in Eureka Springs at a writing workshop with Scarlett. That would have so rocked.

But since I was home with nothing urgent on the agenda except a haircut (Thanks, Joy!), I got a boatload of catching up done. Some of it had to do with the paperwork side of my art sideline - not interesting to anyone but me. But I also got more than 50 cards finished and packaged and ready to go to the stores. I got the latest series of collages finished, fitted with hardware, and labeled for delivery. I got a little surprise for Erin - which has been languishing for, like, two weeks - finished and ready to ship. I wrote three days' worth of posts for CraftGossip and caught up the e-mail that goes with that gig. I got the backgrounds for Polly's collages planned and cut out. And I got a good start on the embroidery, too. Not a bad weekend's work. And I did it all with just two minor injuries (a record for me): a cut on my palm where my skin got in the way of the scissors tips, and a minor stab injury from a screwdriver in my thigh.

I'm still not sure how I'm going to finish the backgrounds. I tested my new needlepunch tools on a scrap, thinking that might be a nice touch. But the fabric is too loose-woven to hold the thread loops securely. (Maybe home-dec-weight fabric would work?) So I'm sticking to embroidery, beading, and quilting. Here's my progress so far:

Polly looked at the fabrics on line one night while we were talking on the phone, and she burst out a few words of excitement about the one on the far right - the one with the red roses. Since I have seven fabrics and nine boxes to fill, I decided to use her favorite on three of them. That is, one background in each of the three rows of collages will use this fabric. I'm thinking I'll use a little different treatment on each one, though. We'll see.

Back to my hoop and needle...

Farewell, sweet girlfriend

2008-08-19T09:01:00.004-05:00

I got the unspeakably sad news this morning from our AREtsy team leader: Our friend Julie Anne Stillwell passed away yesterday.

Julie Anne was known on Etsy as Diamondmeenuh. Remember my remarks about the adorable "bird lady" who sewed her products totally by hand and donated handmade games to the Art YaYas' Jennifer Project? Who wrote epic novels from the point of view of her five bird "children"? Who was always upbeat and cheerful and the first to offer help to AREtsy newbies or anyone else who needed a boost?

Julie Anne dealt with a cascade of health problems with optimism and determination, but pneumonia got her anyway. I can't say everything I want to say here this morning. I'm profoundly sad, and the words won't come. Maybe I'll be able to say more later. Or maybe you could take a look at Julie Anne's site and see just how remarkable she was. (The link to her blog is in the right-hand column of this page.)

So long, precious Julie Anne. Today, you're out of that damn wheelchair, running and laughing and breathing deep. Today, you're flying like the birds you love so much. Godspeed.

Linky love (continued)

2008-08-14T17:17:00.004-05:00

I knew I had more stuff I wanted to share. Thank goodness I found it. Here are some more tidbits.

That's all for now. I think.

Linky love

2008-08-14T10:55:00.004-05:00

One reason I'm falling behind on my personal blog is that I do a lot of reasearch for my CraftGossip gig. I subscribe to about 650 blogs now. Really. (Thank goodness they don't all post every day!)

As I'm cruising for news I can use in the needlework world, I can't help noticing a thing here or there of personal interest. I've been saving up some links, meaning to get back to them. This morning I realized I might not be the only one who wants free stuff or plays on the web while I wait for work. So I'm sharing.If you've got time to surf today, you may want to check out these links.

Sorry, the list was longer. But when I went to confirm each of the links, I found out that a couple had expired and another returned a 404. Grrr. But I'm bound to bump into more as I go through my daily blog-reading binge. If I find something juicy, I'll blab.

More craft joy

2008-08-08T16:12:00.003-05:00

I bought something else. I couldn't help it.

Last Saturday, I was over at Stacie's house for a charity project. We made ceramic platters, with Centers for Youth and Families benefiting. Everybody wins. CYF gets some additional funding, we get a lovely day together crafting, and we don't even have to feel guilty about spending a few bucks to participate.

All of the designs rocked - there were several real, live designers in the group - and all were so different! I can't wait to see how they turned out after they were fired. I slopped on a thin coat of green, stuck down a Heidi Swapp mask, and hit it with several coats of purple. The mask didn't stick very well to the green glaze, though. When I pulled it off, I found that glaze had seeped under the edges in spots.

I turned to Stacie and said the silliest thing. In my mind, I was picturing an orange stick or some other manicure implement. So I said, "Do you have something I could use to scrape some of this glaze off with?" She disappeared into her studio and re-emerged with a complete set of antique dental tools. Oh. My. Gawd. And they were just as fun as they looked. Beautifully balanced. Sharp. Tips in every shape you can imagine. I was in heaven.

So the next day, I was out on eBay shopping for my own set. Here's what I got. They aren't super-cool antique real dental tools like Stacie's. But they'll do. I want to go home and scrape something.

Yikes! I'm so far behind!

2008-08-07T13:17:00.011-05:00

I've been living on Planet Distraction lately. I just realized that I'm only thinking my blog posts, not writing them, so I've got some catching up to do. I'm back in Proposal Land for the next month. (That's on the southern continent of Planet Distraction. Near the equator. Where it's hot as hell.) So my posts will probably still have some slippage for a while.

Anyway, check out the shots of the ring-bearer pillow in action! Thank you so much for sharing the photos, Ashley and Rhonda. I had so much fun at the wedding, I'm still rockin.

And prepare to be jealous because this is what I've gotten in the mail this week. First, backgrounds for the Polly series of collages--fabrics from Heather Bailey's Pop Garden line. If you want some, go to fabricworm's Etsy site.

And I ordered these just because I can. They're from the Etsy shop of downshadlowlane, one of my AREtsy sisters.

You wish you were me. You know you do.

Bye-bye, Nelda!

2008-07-30T10:33:00.002-05:00

Nelda, aka improving my mind, left today to live with basketsue in Illinois. I'm so proud. Hope she has a safe trip.

"Nelda always heard that 'men don't make passes at girls who wear glasses.' So she special-ordered a pair that were sure to do the job."

The happy couple

2008-07-23T14:32:00.001-05:00

Look what the bride's mama just sent me. Aren't they the sweetest couple ever? Elizabeth and Jason:

7.5 more seconds of fame

2008-07-23T12:51:00.002-05:00

Mary Corbet is a goddess of needlework. Her blog is read by needleworkers all over the world and is the definitive source of stitch tutorials on the web. I steal everything I can from her blog for my CraftGossip gig--she practically keeps me in business.

Imagine my surprise when I checked her blog this morning (on the lookout for more good stuff to steal) and found that she used today's post to review my blog. WoooHOOO. And Oh. My. Gawd. I am so freakin famous.

Go look.

Finished!

2008-07-22T20:15:00.004-05:00

With some silk-ribbon embroidery

2008-07-22T07:24:00.002-05:00

Almost finished. Just a bit of beading on the SRE wreaths left to go.

With beads

2008-07-19T23:56:00.002-05:00

A start on the pillow

2008-07-19T14:05:00.003-05:00

Here's how the pillow started. 12x12, which will be pretty small when it's stuffed with a pillow form. Embroidery. Venise lace. Over night I've beaded the lace, and it's looking pretty good. (Though not symetrical. I just don't seem to be able to master symetrical, no matter how many rulers, marking pens, and pins I use.) Neither Michaels nor Hobby Lobby has white silk ribbon, so I tried doing some rosettes with organza ribbon. I don't like them. So I'm picking up Annie and Olivia in a few minutes, and we're going on a silk ribbon and Mexican food hunt. Not that we expect to find both at the same place.

Art supplies from Claudine!

2008-07-18T09:34:00.002-05:00

Claudine Hellmuth's new product line from Ranger is out at last! And, OMG, I love it so hard. (Where's my credit card?) See the cool stuff over on Claudine's blog.

Crazy Bethany

2008-07-17T11:10:00.006-05:00

My friend Bethany is engaged and will be married on Columbus Day. Since this is a remarriage for her, she's chosen a totally delicious-sounding gown of chocolate brown for her big day. (I can't wait to see it.) And, she discovered, she is not particularly sentimental any more about her first wedding gown.

She put gown #1 up for sale in our office newsletter some time ago. It didn't get many nibbles. (It's a size 2, for Pete's sake!!!) But the other day someone showed some interest, so Bethany brought it in for a try out. It didn't fit. So, while I was absent Tuesday, she decided on a whim--she gets whims quite a bit--that the dress was art supplies. And she asked Jonathan to take out his pocket knife and split it down the middle so she could give half to Stacie and half to me, to be remade into art objects.

I was astonished to arrive at work yesterday and discover a wedding gown in my chair. I was even more astonished when I picked it up and found that it was half a wedding gown. It took me 3 or 4 seconds to get used to the idea that Bethany actually wanted us to destroy and reincarnate it. And then the wheels started turning.

The first thing I'm making is a ring-bearer pillow for Elizabeth's wedding. Last night, I cut a big chunk of the gorgeous peau de soie and embroidered the bride and groom's names and wedding date in silver in the center. Then I studied the lace appliques to see if they could be salvaged. Because of the way they're made and the tininess (is that a word?) of the bodice sections, I tossed out that idea and scrounged in my stash for some antique venise lace. I'm thinking I'll attach the venise in a square enclosing the embroidered names. I think I can salvage the gorgeous pearl-finish glass beads from the bodice and use them to embroider the venise. If it goes quickly enough, I may add a bit of silk-ribbon embroidery, too. We'll see. We leave for the wedding a week from today, so I'm running out of time.

There's something fitting to me about remaking a symbol of disappointment into a new symbol of joy and hope--an heirloom for a new family. I hope Elizabeth likes her keepsake. And I hope Bethany approves of how I've used my "art supplies."

Elizabeth's flowers

2008-07-14T18:59:00.014-05:00

I had the privilege of selecting flowers for Elizabeth Newsom's wedding. I can't wait to show her how they turned out, so I'm posting them here. If you don't know Elizabeth or you don't care much about weddings, please excuse this post. And if you happen to be going to the wedding...try to act surprised.

Rhonda and Elizabeth! Look! The floral designer is freakin psychic. She didn't use some of the things we picked and substituted others, and when I saw the flowers, my mouth fell open.

Here are the boutonnieres. On the left are the "regular" ones. Can you tell that the roses have little dew drops on them? On the right is Jason's, which is made out of flowers from Elizabeth's bouquet.

Here are the corsages for moms, grandma, and Ashley. If you look hard, you can see that, on a whim, the designer worked in some sprigs of glass beads. Some are pale green. Some (OMG) are like the beads at the neckline of Gracie's dress! Spooky.

Here is Gracie's bouquet. The designer is a genius. She figured out how to make the wrapped stems look like a fresh bouquet instead of silk. The streamers of sheer green ribbon were a surprise to me, but I think they're lovely. I tried to give you several angles here. The last one is looking straight down into the bouquet.

And here is Elizabeth's bouquet. I'm not sure if you can tell, but tucked in here and there are the little orchids and purple roses. And the streamers are edged with pearls.

Elizabeth, I hope these match what you imagined for your flowers. I'm so excited, now, I'm ready to head to Tennessee today!

OMG! I'm famous!

2008-07-11T15:11:00.002-05:00

I think I just got 7.5 seconds of my allotted 15 seconds of fame. (Or is it 15 minutes? I hope so.) Niamh at Urban Threads put Addie's little green dress on her blog. WoooHOOO! Check it out. And check out the precious blonde boy wearing her Runs with Scissors design.

I'm going to post pretty soon...I promise

2008-07-10T08:27:00.004-05:00

I'm a little behind in posting, but I'm charging ahead with creating. Right now, I'm having a mini-collage frenzy. I've got six of them going at the same time. My shop is looking so empty, I thought I'd better crank things up a bit. I'll be winding them up and listing them in the next few days.

I ended up turning down the Heifer job. Too much red tape, too much repetitive work, not enough income. So I'll be turning those designs into cards for my shops. I'm hoping to mass-produce some this weekend to get caught up.

Then it will be time to get moving on Polly's collage set. OMG! Her birthday is almost here! I need to shake it!

And then there are the hundreds of ideas that burst from Annie constantly. And I want to play with every single one of them. I hope she's been capturing the river of brilliance in an idea notebook. If we somehow suddenly became rich enough to spend all of our time crafting, I still wouldn't have time in this lifetime to work through all the ideas Annie has generated. But I would give it one heck of a try. (With no hope of ever catching up because she spills forth new genius every single day.)

And there's something else cooking right now that has me really excited: A group venture that is just beginning to emerge and take shape. You know you'll hear more about that as it develops.

In the meantime, perhaps I'd better go earn a living...

Heads-up: Marimekko sale

2008-07-06T08:56:00.001-05:00

There's a huge Marimekko sale through July 15. Go check it out!

Finale: Addie in green

2008-07-06T07:45:00.007-05:00

I've come to the end of my summer stitching for Miss Addison. Here's the final installment in green gingham plisse.

I found the embroidery motif on the Urban Threads site. I love her stuff.

Now it's time to get caught up on collages and mini quilts and screen printing and cards. And, meanwhile, I can start daydreaming about a Christmas outfit for pretty Miss Littlebit.

Addie actually IN blue

2008-07-03T08:50:00.002-05:00

Here's Miss Addie wearing an Aunt Neese original. OMG, she's so adorable! Thank you for the photo, Heather!

Cosmo Cricket giveaway

2008-07-01T12:26:00.003-05:00

I stumbled on another great giveaway, this time from Cosmo Cricket. Here's what the blog says:

Anyway, beginning tomorrow we will be playing Let's See Some Paper, a Kitchen Counter production. If you would like to be part of our game and win a fabulous prize, please post a comment telling us which box would be your final choice (1, 2 or 3) by tomorrow morning. We will pull one name from the posters and Jodi will represent this person on the debut showing of Let's See Some Paper which will air sometime tomorrow afternoon. Get posting and cross your fingers!

To get in the running, go comment on this blog post.

Win free stuff from CraftGossip

2008-06-30T09:29:00.003-05:00

Check out this announcement from CraftGossip blog network. And get yourself into the running for $400 worth of free craft supplies!

We have a super duper, rolley polley blog roll competition.
We all know Word Of Mouth is the best form of advertising and to get a few tongues wagging we are launching our very own Blog Roll Tongue Wagging Competition.
How Do You Enter? To enter you must add http://www.Craftgossip.com to your Blog Roll or Favorite Links page.
What Do You Win ? You win a mystery box of assorted Craft supplies including craft books we have reviewed, Product samples we have been sent and even an assortment of finished crafty creations for your very own crafty self valued at over $400.00
How do we know you have linked to us ? Well our site statistics will track all new incoming links which means no blogger will go un-noticed.
If you want to add our banner to your site thats cool too.
Entry : WorldWide
Closes: 1st of August.
Winner will be notified via their blog or website.
Goodluck!!

Lisa blogs!

2008-06-30T09:24:00.000-05:00

YaYa Lisa has started a rockin blog. Check her out!

The dress that wouldn't be

2008-06-27T08:27:00.008-05:00

Just after I started sewing for Addie, her mom Heather sent me an image of a precious dress she'd found on Etsy. It was a simple pattern--A-line with a few big tucks in the front--and was made up in a sweet red-white-and-blue fabric. She said, "I think I've found Addison's Fourth of July dress." And I said, "Hey! I can make that!"

I happened to have a nearly identical pattern. And when I got on line to look for the fabric, I stumbled onto a great eBay bargain--a vintage knit in navy with red and white apples and a red striped border. Gorgeous. Of course I ordered it.

And then the saga began.

When I placed the tuck-front pattern on the fabric, I discovered that the skirt curved up on the sides. It wouldn't work with the border. So I unpinned everything and switched to the pattern I used for the little yellow-gingham-and-strawberry sundress. It has a perfectly rectangular skirt. I'd make a different dress for Addie from the pattern Heather loved.

When I tried to cut out the pieces, I had to recut several times because the fabric was so incredibly slippery. I couldn't get a straight, accurate cut to save my life, even with my best shears and a rotary cutter.

When I tried to sew the pieces together, they curled and shifted and wiggled and squirmed. The little hat, which has dozens of tiny, short 1/4" seams, challenged me for a couple of hours. Then it went into the trash. "Addie doesn't have to have a hat with this one."

The bloomers went a bit better. I used spray sizing and my iron to tame the raw edges. I stitched seams open so the elastic would slip easily through the waist casing. I practiced attaching elastic with a zigzag stitch on scrap fabric to perfect my technique. All went well until I tried to zigzag the real elastic onto the real bloomer legs. The 10-1/2" strip of elastic would not stretch enough to take up the full length of the leg opening. What? I carefully seam-ripped it back off, remeasured, recut, resewed. Same result. Started seam-ripping the elastic back off, studying in my head how to overcome this problem. Maybe I should just turn up the leg hems and make casings. And then...I cut a hole in the fabric of the bloomers with the seam ripper. "Addie doesn't have to have boomers with this one." The bloomers went into the trash, too.

I'd acquired some skill at making straight seams on this crazy fabric, so the skirt parts and the bodice parts of the dress went together fairly easily. It took a while, because I had to match up the border perfectly. But what with the spray sizing and the ironing and the pinning and the basting, I ended up with a set of workable components. Then I gathered the skirt, pinned it to the bodice, and attached it. Disaster. No matter how carefully I pinned or how many pins I used, stray bits of the bodice fabric would sneak under the needle. I ripped and pinned again. Nope. I ripped and hand basted. Nope. Finally, I sewed about 2 inches, stopped, ripped out any squirrelly stitches, repinned, sewed 2 more inches. Repeat, repeat, repeat. It took three evenings to get the little skirt attached correctly. I was starting to hate this dress.

Ultimately, I got all the pieces together, hand sewed the hem and the bodice lining. Put in the buttonholes (a triumph on this fabric), attached the buttons, and held the little dress up to admire.

One of the straps was twisted. How did that happen? Holy carp. The only way to fix it was to completely disassemble the bodice.

So, I photographed the little dress, just so I could share it with you. And then--that's right--I put the whole thing in the trash. No Fourth of July dress for Addie. Grrrrr.

But just to end this post with a smile, take a look at this precious picture of beautiful Addison Savannah and her equally beautiful mom, Heather.

Tag, you're it!

2008-06-22T10:20:00.004-05:00

Annie (casserole) tagged me to reveal six unimportant things about myself. I am so up to that challenge. Let's see...

1. If I don't have to show up at my office, I seldom get out of my pajamas. I'm wearing pajamas right now. If they get too gross, I'll change to clean pajamas.

2. I don't shave my legs. I have psoriasis all over my legs, and shaving aggravates it big time. Because of the ugly psoriasis, I wear only pants or long skirts, so it's not like anyone is going to see that my legs aren't shaven. And as I get older, my hair is pretty sparse, anyway. But every once in a while, if I'm sitting in a beam of sunlight, I'll notice that a long, blonde hair has crept through the fabric of my pants and is waving around, begging to be noticed. I always hope that, if anyone else does notice it, they think it's a stray, detached pubic hair. That would be less embarrassing.

3. My next-door neighbor is crazy, OCD, yard-Nazi man. I have just ordered this garden gnome to adorn the end of my flower bed closest to his house.

4. Perfumes that contain musk make me violently ill.

5. I was born in Las Vegas, Nevada.

6. I'm a late bloomer. I was 31 when I graduated from college and 38 when I gave birth for the first (and last) time.

Annie already tagged the folks I'm dying to see post this. So y'all just consider yourselves double-tagged.

Addie in yellow

2008-06-19T19:20:00.004-05:00

Despite the proposal hoorah, I've managed to sneak in a few tidbits of therapeutic sewing the past two nights. These little dresses for Addison were almost finished--they just needed bows, buttonholes, and buttons. And the little hat needed its lining. (The dresses share the hat and panties.) I guess finishing them made me feel like my life was a tiny bit less chaotic. Anyway, I'm getting close to the last installments. I've still got a July 4th outfit and a little green number to wind up, and then my contributions to Miss Addie's summer wardrobe will be complete.

Tim is giving it away again

2008-06-18T14:33:00.003-05:00

Boy, I really have been on another planet for the past month. (Planet Proposal. It's right over there next to Boldlygo.) Tim Holtz is having a huge giveaway of Ranger products all this week. I can't believe I missed Monday and Tuesday's giveaways, but better late than never. If you want to join in, too, just comment on each of his blog posts this week.

I have a newsletter!

2008-06-17T09:27:00.004-05:00

I find out something new every day. Yesterday, I got another note from Shellie at CraftGossip that mentioned my newsletter. It turns out that CG set up and manages a newsletter for each of its network blogs. And mine already has 45 readers! WooHOOO!

I've definitely got to get out of this proposal cave pretty soon and dig around on the CG site. The newsletter link is right out there for anyone to see, but I never noticed it before. I think the newsletter is kind of a digest of my blog for a month. (I'm not sure--I haven't seen one yet.) If that interests you, go sign up. Heck! Sign up for all of the CG newsletters! You can't have too much crafting news.

Some CG editors are famous!

2008-06-16T14:13:00.003-05:00

I had a moment of mixed pride and dejection when I received an e-mail this morning from Shellie Wilson, the site owner of CraftGossip Blog Network. Her upbeat note welcomed several new editors to the network:

Jennifer Perkins, owner of the Naughty Secretary Club web site, author of the book by the same name, and host of DIY Network's Craft Lab.

Vicki Howell, knitting guru, host of DIY Network's Knitty Gritty, and featured artist on Lifetime's Crafted web series.

Denise Felton, "who I am sure is going to be lot's of great posts and interesting articles to the blog."

I think the bar just got raised a bit. When this proposal is put to bed, I'm going to have to focus some serious attention on my CraftGossip gig. Oh, speaking of that, go check out who is featured on my needlework blog today! Here's a hint:

A hydrangea wreath

2008-06-13T16:24:00.003-05:00

I love this toy!

2008-06-12T13:11:00.002-05:00

I was cruising around the web this morning while I waited for new documents to come in, and I stumbled across this post on craftstylish about zefrank's magical flower generator. This toy is so much fun, I can't stop playing with it. Go check it out. And if you can think of a practical craft application for it, I'd love to hear it.

Addie in pink

2008-06-10T19:54:00.004-05:00

Codie is so sick! She got sent home from work last weekend with a fever, headache, sick stomach, and sore throat. We gave it a few days to run its course; but when I got home from work last night, she'd been sent home again (same reasons), she had a fever of 103, and she looked and acted horribly sick. I got the flashlight and looked into her throat, and what I saw scared me. So I called in this morning and said I would be late to work, and I took Codie to a walk-in clinic. We waited for hours and got an inconclusive report. Looks like strep throat, but it might be mono. By the time we were through at the clinic and pharmacy, it was noon, and I wasn't comfortable leaving her in that shape. So I called in and cancelled the proposal phone conference that was scheduled for this afternoon. I know we're in good shape on the proposal and everything I'd planned to do today can be done tomorrow. But I was still anxious all afternoon. I haven't been in this kind of bind between work and child since Codie was small.

Anyway, I wasn't comfortable letting her out of my sight, but I also wasn't comfortable just sitting on the couch doing nothing but watching her. So I finished up the handwork on the latest outfit for Addison. This is the one I made using the pattern from hell. I might repeat the little dress, but the hat and panties are going to be one of a kind. There are so many easier and better patterns in the world.

A couple of things about the dress that aren't clear in the photo: The back ties together with a big sash bow. The pattern kind of blends in photo, but trust me: There's a big honkin bow back there. And the front is embellished with sequins around the neckline--one little clear, irridescent sequin and clear seed beed at the center of each circle in the fabric pattern. So girly.

The bad news: I have a screeching headache and a sort throat. I hope it's just sympathy pains. I've got a lot of work to do in the next few days.

Addie in blue

2008-06-09T20:19:00.002-05:00

For me, the hardest part of sewing is all the pinning and cutting. I can put it off forever. Realizing that, I spent this past Saturday cutting out all of the Addie outfits I've planned. It feels great! Now I can just zip them up in my odd hours--before Addie outgrows them.

This weekend, I finished this little blue ensemble. In real life, it's not aqua. It really is blue. I didn't realize the photo was so off, and I went ahead and delivered the outfit to Addie's mom, Heather, so I can't retake the shot.

I've almost finished a little pink number, too. It will be the only one of its kind. As I told Heather, "Simplicity is not simple." What a dreadful pattern. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the resulting outfit will be wearable.

My posts may be sparse this week. I'm still in proposal hell. Only two weeks to go!

I'm having so much fun

2008-06-06T13:40:00.004-05:00

I stopped in the River Market this morning, as usual, for a cup of coffee to go. And there I bumped into old friend Linda Van Blaricom and her biker crew. (Bikes, not motorcycles. You know, tight shorts and stuff.) Since I was en route to my office, I could stop only for a few minutes; so I talked really, really fast, trying to catch her up on the stuff going on in my life. I had a collage under my arm, so I showed her that, explaining that I was delivering it to a coworker as a donation to a silent auction for Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Faulkner County. And I have work at the Box Turtle and the Cox Center. And I have an Etsy shop. And I'm editing Needlework News at the Craft Gossip blog network. And I've made my way back to church by joining a Sunday night covenant group. And and and...

When I headed toward my office, I felt a little embarrassed. Why didn't I just offer a warm greeting and be done? But I noticed another feeling, too. I was so freakin happy. I am having such a good time. My life is fun right now. And I've just been surfing that little wave for the rest of the day. Yea.

Snappy is famous!

2008-06-04T08:54:00.004-05:00

AREtsy buddy Jacqueline Asher, aka Snappy Bibs, is making a big splash with her blog. Snappy works hard for Etsy and the Arkansas street team. She's always coming up with promotional ideas and efforts. And now she's publishing tutes that rock. Her drawstring-bag tutorial got picked up this week by Craftzine blog. WoooHOOO! Go, Snappy!

Etsy artist: artandartifacts

2008-06-01T12:28:00.011-05:00

Susan McSherry likes to stay busy. To say the least.

Her Etsy shop, artandartifacts, is a treasure trove of gorgeous, upcycled, practical art objects. She creates these works, and the many others displayed on her blog and flickr site, in her "spare time."

“I split my residence between southern Illinois and northwest Arkansas,” Susan says. “In late 1999, I purchased property in Newton County, Arkansas, to explore my long-time dream of developing a green, vernacular, ecologically sensitive, historically accurate vacation rental business in an awesome remote spot. A variety of factors conspired to interrupt that process, but it finally got off the ground in 2005. (This stuff isn't as easy as it looks.) The result was Buffalo River Retreat—a totally different piece of property in a more accessible area.”

Susan found that she had to spend a lot of time waiting—for visitors to show up, for calls to be returned, and so on.

“I started piddling around with making things out of all the extra junk I had lying around,” she says. “Art and Artifacts was born. Stuff made from other stuff. Glass stuff. Recycled stuff. This was a good way to clean out the barn!”

In fact, the barn was the jumping-off place for all this activity.

“It began innocently enough,” Susan says, “decorating my barn with bottle caps and all manner of metal debris; decorating my yard with bowling balls. As people noticed my choice of media, they began making donations. People began to just stop by and drop off bowling balls, bags of blue bottles, rusty metal thingamados. You name it.”

"Art and Artifacts has been so totally encompassing,” she says, “it has now absorbed most of my time. The vacation rental is now secondary.”

Susan’s sense of humor is as captivating as her art.

“I have always been frugal and admired the vernacular art of the rural folks,” she says. “I like to think I have generated my own genre of Naive Outsider Tramp/Trash art (N.O.T. art). As a matter of fact, when I took some of my things to a local small-town gallery, that is exactly what they said: ‘That's N.O.T. art!’ Wow. I was already famous. Whadda ya know.”

Despite her humor and modesty about it, Susan’s work is being more and more widely recognized. She just won first place in Amateur Fine Craft at Herrinfesta Italiana for Chaos Theory. (“No,” she says, “it’s not my autobiography.”) She also just sold her first 3D assemblage/sculpture, Flower Hat Lady.

Susan’s haiku about her approach to art:

Fine. Fun. Funky. Functional.
Art.
It's what I do.

Susan is an active member of AREtsy, the Arkansas Etsy street team. You can see more of her work on her web site and her flickr site, and you can follow her art adventures on her blog.

Happy dancing on Craft Gossip

2008-05-30T08:18:00.007-05:00

I am live on Craft Gossip! Wow. You can see my bio at http://craftgossip.com/meet-your-editors/. My blog will be here: http://needlework.craftgossip.com/. Please add me to your blog reader so you get all the latest needlework gossip. Oh.......and it would be good if you'd send me needlework gossip to share, too. You can write me at needleworknews@craftgossip.com, in addition to any e-mail addresses you may already have for me.

This week has been a bit hectic. We're in proposal overdrive at my day job. And my dad has been in the hospital for the past couple of days for heart treatment. (He's doing great and is expecting to go home this afternoon.) So I haven't been able to jump right in and crank out blog posts. That is, even though (as you know) I could write on and on with no provocation, I haven't yet had a chance to get my site set up so I can start posting. I'm planning to get my first post up this weekend. Watch for it! And please be liberal with your feedback.

Visit Claudine TODAY

2008-05-29T09:40:00.007-05:00

Be sure to check Claudine Hellmuth's blog today. She's Hero Arts' guest blogger, so she's showing an awesome collage that she created on their theme of circles. AND she's sharing the biggo stash of supplies that Hero gave her. There will be six supply giveaways, so keep an eye on her site throughout the day.

Julie Anne rocks

2008-05-28T10:28:00.007-05:00

AREtsy Julie Anne Stillwell, aka Diamondmeeah Creations, hosted a street team get-together at her home in northwest Arkansas recently. Julie Anne is now in the midst of a move to Washington state, and she wanted a last fling (so to speak) with her Arkie buds. I wasn't able to make it up to her part of the state that day, and I was pretty disgruntled about it.

Julie Anne had made not only lots of food but also lots of handmade favors for her guests. A few days after the event, I got a box in the mail with Julie Anne's return address. I hadn't ordered anything that week, so what was up? The box contained two favor bags from the party--a consolation to Anne and me for having to miss it.

Here's what she sent. They are too adorable. Each favor consists of a handmade paper gift bag with Julie Anne's business logo on the front. Inside is a handmade game board, a paper "cootie catcher," two origami dice, and six origami jumping frogs. And accompanying these tidbits is a set of darling instructions for making up your own game.

I immediately sent Julie Anne a convo, thanking her for the fab present and asking for her permission to copy her idea for the Jennifer Project. Wouldn't the kids in Arkansas Children's Hospital have fun making up their own games with these components!

Well, you know Julie Anne--always ready to jump in and help. As it turned out, she had made quite a few too many goodie bags for her get-together and she had more leftovers. So she boxed them up, and I had them in hand in just a day or two. Julie Anne originals, all ready to go for the Jennifer Project.

Thank you, thank you, girlfriend for this precious and generous donation to lifting the spirits of our state's young cystic fibrosis patients. As always, you rock!

Puzzle cards

2008-05-27T12:21:00.002-05:00

Saturday, Anne and I took a class at ACAC in Japanese stab binding. Cool class, great teacher, good times. We drove home from downtown via Cantrell Road so we could stop by Dollar Tree to check for inexpensive gallery canvases. No luck. But as we were leaving, Anne spotted some packs of pill puzzles. You know those little puzzles with a few tiny beads inside--you shake them around and try to get all of the beads to settle into holes at the same time?

Not too long ago, Anne had come across a tip: Take these puzzles apart and rebuild them with your own sentiment or image inside. I think she got the idea from a blog. I, of course, got the idea from her, the Idea Goddess. Anyway, we both started jumping up and down a little at this find. Anne decided she wasn't ready for a full-scale experiment yet, so I grabbed all three packs of four that Dollar Tree had on hand. Back in the car, Anne had the package open and one of the puzzles popped apart in about ten seconds.

Sunday, I ran over to Michaels and grabbed some Krylon Fusion in a gunmetal metallic color. And a 2-inch circle punch. I took all of the puzzles apart, painted the bottom halves (which originally were neon colors), and put together some cards. The results were so exciting. These may be the cutest cards I've ever made.

The concept works for all kinds of themes. Birthday, get well soon, Father's Day, missing you. Codie was my test case. I said, "Look what I made." And she immediately grabbed one and started playing with the puzzle. And she said the words I long for and so seldom hear: "These are so cool!"

Anne checked out the Dollar Tree near her house for additional stock; I ran by the store in North Little Rock yesterday. We netted only a few more puzzles. But then I ran by Party City and found packs of 48 pill puzzles--an assortment of sizes and styles. These will keep me happy all summer.

WooooHOOOOO!!!

2008-05-27T11:30:00.003-05:00

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the kind thoughts and positive vibrations. I received an e-mail this morning offering me the spot as editor of Craft Gossip's needlework blog. I am so excited! And a little nervous, which is a good thing--motivating. I'll fax my signed contract in later today. Craft Gossip is based in Australia, so it may be a few days before things are settled and I know when I'm starting and what I'm supposed to do. In the meantime, if you have any info about needlework groups, blogs, vendors, whatever that might help me get rolling in this new spot, please share! Wow. Yea!

Cross your fingers for me!

2008-05-21T09:09:00.005-05:00

Yesterday, I was cruising one of my favorite daily blog spots, Craft Gossip, and I saw a notice that they're looking for several section editors. OMG! And what's more, the needlework sub-blog is available! You know me: I threw myself on it immediately. I got the official application e-mail today, and I've already responded. So please hold positive vibrations in your mind that they'll want me and that this will be as fun as it looks.

Oh, and I just got this tidbit from Cyndi's (Twisted Purl's) blog: Dogwoodlane has started a blog. She's one of my favorite Etsy crafters and a goddess of the AREtsy street team. Go check it out.

Another Addie outfit

2008-05-17T09:06:00.006-05:00

It's been a busy week, but bit by bit I've gotten another little outfit finished for Addie. And along the way, I've discovered that my new el-cheapo sewing machine totally rocks. I bought it mainly to do paper projects, and up until recently that's all I'd used it for. Our drunken bunkin' projects forced me to get out the manual and figure out the dials so I could set it up for fabric projects. (The machine itself is neither labeled nor intuitive. I think it must be Korean or something.) And, while it is definitely light duty, it sews like crazy! I was a bit nervous about putting buttonholes in this outfit. My previous, much-better-quality machine was a nightmare on buttonholes. This one zips them out so easily and with such beautiful results, I'll probably be sticking buttons everywhere on the rest of Addie's stuff.

I've got a busy weekend ahead, and my spare hours have to be devoted to cranking out summer greeting cards. But I hope I'll have another ensemble finished by next weekend.

That man is naked

2008-05-14T10:18:00.005-05:00

I was reading a post on one of the blogs where I like to lurk while I drink my morning coffee. She noted that, when the weather warms a bit and men start going shirtless, her 3-and-a-half-year-old points and shouts, "Look, that man is naked!"

Reminded me of a horrifying incident from yesterday.

The taller building in this photo is the small hotel across the street from our office. We are on the fourth floor of our building. The BreastCare unit is on the side of the office facing the hotel. And Heather--Addie's mom--works in BreastCare. So I walked over to Heather's office to drop off Addie's new outfit. I'm strolling down the aisles of the cuberhood, minding my own business. The main aisle leading to BreastCare deadends at a window. And perfectly framed in that space is a male hotel guest, talking on his phone and looking out at the street below. Naked. Rubbing his hairy belly.

I screamed. I didn't mean to, but I couldn't help it.

Yes, I've seen a naked man before. (I'm sure I have...it's been so long, the memory is a bit dim.) But this guy was not my naked man. Or a movie star. (For sure.) And, unbeknownst to him, he was in my freakin office!

The windows of the hotel are deeply tinted. I can only surmise that the hotel guest thought it was one-way glass. Thank God the window sill came up nearly to his waist.

When I screamed, the BreastCare staff members looked up and then went, "Oh, yeah. Happens all the time. That's why we keep our blinds closed."

If I worked on that side of the building, I would have to make myself a poster on a stick and keep it under my desk. And whenever the occasion arose, I would hold it up in the window: "We can see you."

Today, I'm really enjoying my river view.

Last weekend

2008-05-13T11:00:00.004-05:00

Well, I'm just running around like a headless chicken and getting nothing posted. So here's some catch-up.

Anne and I went to the second (last) session of our screen printing class last Saturday. There were some challenges: The photo bulb burned out, and the impromptu replacement (a heat lamp bulb) behaved a bit unpredictably. As a result, Anne had trouble getting her screen to rinse. She ended up going ninja on it with a high-pressure hose, soaking her clothes and her hair along the way. It was worth the effort, though. Her design rocked! I learned some tough lessons about how easy it is to smear an inkjet transparency; but my design ended up turning out okay, too. I printed up some focals for Father's Day cards with metallic acrylic paints. I like them!

Screen printing has opened up a whole new world for us. Last night, we were brainstorming on the phone about applications. And one of our favorite topics: alternative supplies. Would embroidery hoops work for small pieces? What fabrics would make good screens? A big, new addition to our bags of tricks.

I also got started on Addie's duds. So far, I've completed this outfit.

The little hat and I fought for two days. I said swear words that baby clothes should never be exposed to. When I started cutting another hat last night for a different outfit, I noticed what I did wrong. The crown pieces have only a 1/4" seam allowance. I used the usual 5/8" and the pieces went together perfectly. But that's why they didn't want to fit onto the brim. The next hat should be much easier. And it should fit better.

On to the next thing--a wrap dress from the ricracky-looking print...with polka-dot bloomers. This is so fun.

P.S. My first set of mini art quilts is posted in my Etsy shop. Go see!

My day so far

2008-05-09T08:48:00.002-05:00

When I woke up this morning, I realized I'd forgotten to make a pie I'd promised for a department potluck. So I jumped out of bed and whipped together a Weight Watcher ice box pie and slipped it into the fridge to chill while I showered and dressed. That made me a little later than usual for work, so I jumped in my car and hopped onto the freeway. And about halfway to the office I realized...the pie was still in the fridge. So I turned around and drove back to Maumelle, nabbed the pie, headed to Little Rock again. Pulled up in front of the building and parked in the loading zone. Ran upstairs with my now melty-looking pie. Dashed to our department. No banquet table. So I went to Freda, who always knows everything that's going on, and said, "Where's the food?" And she said, "What food?" And I said, "The potluck." And she said, "That's next Friday."

Addie's attire

2008-05-09T07:30:00.002-05:00

I am so excited to have a bitty one to sew for again.

My friend Heather mentioned having found some sweet pillowcase dresses for her daughter, Addison, who is almost four months old. But the prices were outrageous. I thought I knew what she was talking about, but I hit the Web to make sure. Oh, yeah. I can do that. So I sent Heather an e-mail and said, "Let me make Addie some pillowcase dresses!"

Then, as usual, I got carried away. Annie gave me some patterns. I hit the 99-cent drawer at Hobby Lobby. I now have a bundle of classic baby patterns that I can't wait to use. And the fabric I ordered just arrived. Just look!

It's all cotton plisse from the Tutti Fruiti line. I'm not making Addie that many outfits. (Yet.) The prints are in pairs--one for the dress, another for the trim and bloomers. And I've got a piece of vintage fabric coming in to do a July 4th dress for her. Candy!

This is definitely going to be a sewing weekend.

What I'll do if they start up that drill again

2008-05-08T08:31:00.002-05:00

Oh, well, la-la...

Monchromatic

What I'm working on today

Rockin giveaway

Recently...

What I'm working on today

What I'm working on today

Mary's out of the house

Almost done

What I'm working on today...

Winding it up...

It's only June...

I feel so accomplished...

The next 25

100 things to do in 2010

Resolved...

Happy Father's Day to me!

Phew!

Big, wonderful changes

Why didn't I think of this before?

The project

Am I a goddess or what?

Tough week ahead

Engagement photos

Trying to be a quilter

Unfortunately...

NOT bridezilla

Crazy crazy crazy

Crafting up a storm

Sharing my shame

Wanna bet?

Still waiting *sigh*

Stupid, stupid weather

Portrait of Polly

Thankful

Here's a peek

Blogger's block

Busy, busy procrastination

Hoarding alert

Playing tag

Joy, joy, joy!

I'm still here

Thank you, Rachel!

Dreamscape

Something to tell your kids

Good and iffy

Clipping along...

Christmas is looking really bright

Let me show you something...

Progress and something new

A wonderful birthday

Victory!

Weekend mojo

Farewell, sweet girlfriend

Linky love (continued)

Linky love

More craft joy

Yikes! I'm so far behind!

Bye-bye, Nelda!

The happy couple

7.5 more seconds of fame

Finished!

With some silk-ribbon embroidery

With beads

A start on the pillow

Art supplies from Claudine!

Crazy Bethany

Elizabeth's flowers

OMG! I'm famous!

I'm going to post pretty soon...I promise

Heads-up: Marimekko sale

Finale: Addie in green

Addie actually IN blue

Cosmo Cricket giveaway

Win free stuff from CraftGossip

Lisa blogs!

The dress that wouldn't be

Tag, you're it!

Addie in yellow

Tim is giving it away again

Still waiting sigh