Winnings, birthday present, and update

Because I was one of the first 25 people to register for the virtual studio tour through the Quilting Arts magazine, I won a door prize. I got a package of espresso coloured clothes pegs (which will be great to hang things on my studio clothesline) and a package of braided rope, which I can either use as another clothesline or maybe I'll try doing a small fabric bowl. Thank you Quilting Arts for the goodies and for organizing such a fun tour!

Below is how I spent my gift certificate from the local bookstore (which I got for my birthday in July). It's taken me awhile to decide which one from my HUGE wish list I would order. I had read about this book on one of the blogs and, out of curiosity, had it brought in to our library. I coveted it immediately, so the decision was made. It's taken awhile to come in but now it has, and I know exactly what I'll be doing tonight!!
Update on Odin (for those who are interested)...today seems to be about the same as yesterday, despite the meds. At least the situation isn't getting any worse, so we're hopeful. Last time it took over a week to become critical, so we are cautiously optimisitc.

AND....just to make life really complete (hah)...this morning a HUGE (gigantic, enormous, cavernous...well, you get the idea) filling fell out of my tooth at the breakfast table. Hmm. Well then. It wasn't the one I've been expecting to fall out. Hmmmm.

Never rains but it pours!

Sometimes life just plain sucks

We have had a rotten day - totally. Those of you who have been reading this blog for awhile might remember what we went through with our dog Odin last January, when he ended up having one eye removed because of glaucoma. At the time, the specialist felt that the disease was the result of some sort of infection. Odin was so good about the whole ordeal and has been getting along quite nicely with only one eye.

This morning, we got up and noticed he was having problems with his good eye. Over a thousand dollars later and rushing him to yet another specialist over two hours away, he now has four medications he has to take/be given for a week at which time an assessment will be made. The specialist isn't holding out a whole lot of hope, but at this point we will try and do what we can.

After a week we will know whether the treatment has worked. If is hasn't, we will have to put him to sleep. We are well aware that blind dogs get along quite well - however, we have stairs which can be a danger and also my 88 year old dad who uses a walker to consider. Also two cats that wouldn't have a whole lot of understanding and would be quite likely to claw him if he stumbled into them.

As I said, sometimes life just plain sucks.

Ancestors

Here is another picture of some of my ancestors. I think the man sitting in the front row has a very interesting beard! Of course there was no year recorded on the picture, but at least some of the names are there. The lady in the front row on the left is my great grandmother and beside her are her parents. They all look so somber, don't they.

I'm progressing with 'the book' and typed page 187 today. From eyeballing the original book, I would say I'm approaching being half done. At this point in the book, my gr gr grandfather is pretty much writing along with very few notes in the margins. As I progress further, he resumes the margin notes (on a pretty-much daily basis) and that will mean I have to rotate the original with each entry in order to be able to read and transcribe them. That will slow me down considerably!

That was then......

and this is now. Yikes!!! Obviously cleaning my studio for the cyber tour didn't last.
I'm back working at my coat which explains the piles of denim lying about. It's funny that, although I really want this coat, I keep putting it off to do other things that seem to somehow be more important. It's not just procrastination - I think more likely it's downright fear of mucking it up somehow.

I have a complete and total phobia about making clothes stemming back to high school. Every girl at that time was required to take home economics, which included half a year of cooking and half a year of sewing. I'm 5'9" and the sewing teacher was about 4 foot nothing in high heels, and for some reason she had a dislike going on for me. At the end of the term everyone was to create something which then had to be modeled in a public show. All the other girls were allowed to choose fairly simple pieces, but when it came to me...well, nothing would 'do' in her mind unless I did a tailored 2-piece skirt & jacket set for my project. My parents were struggling to make ends meet and purchasing that amount of fabric in the proper weight was not something they were happy about doing.

I struggled my way through making the outfit (with my mother's help) and made the skirt in a length I was comfortable wearing (not the minis that were the current style). I was 99 lbs and had REALLY skinny legs and knobby knees and there was no way I would ever wear a mini. At the dress rehearsal for the show I put my outfit on, the teacher took one look, and promptly hacked off my skirt to the length SHE felt was proper.

Well, I wore it, because I wanted the 50% of my mark, and was utterly mortified. When I got home that night, my mother (who never threw ANYTHING out) told me to take it off and she mutely held the lid of the garbage open so I could throw it out.

Needless to say, clothing is not something high on my list of items to make! I have managed to create a bunch of recycled denim jackets, but I seem to be able to justify doing those by saying they are a 'craft' and by using a crazy quilt method. This new coat is something I have wanted for a long time and I really am determined to finish it. If it doesn't work out, there won't be any pictures to show because it will end up the same place as that cursed 2-piece suit!!!!

Look who's visiting!!

This is Yvonne's doll from the Art Doll Coolaberation 2009 who is visiting me right now. She is a work of art already and it's going to be SO much fun to create something new for her.
Isn't her face absolutely gorgeous? This is real red clay and I think she has glass eyes. I love it!! Her hair style is beyond wonderful...with real bones AND her braids are made with real horse hair (from Gails horse).

The back of her head, showing the intricate detail of her hair style.

I already have an idea for what I'd like to make for her...now just have to translate it into fact!!

A flock? of spiders.....

I don't know the proper term for more than one spider...I'm quite sure it's not a flock, but you get the idea! These are the little creatures we made at our last CQTeers meeting.

Apparently there is a story out there that spiders are lucky to have on your Christmas tree and having a spider web on a piece of crazy quilting is something that is traditional. These are a little large to put on a CQ I think, but using smaller beads and wire would make them suitable.

EDITED TO ADD: Here is the story of the Christmas spiders...thanks Yvonne!

Studio Cat

First of all, I want to thank all the people who toured my studio over the weekend, and especially those who left such wonderful and supportive comments! I had a total blast visiting the over one hundred studios that were open on the virtual tour and, by the sounds of things, so did everyone else. Special thanks to Cate and all the team at Quilting Arts for spearheading such a great cyber tour!! (btw...if you missed touring on the weekend, check out the post below where you will find a link to the tour and you can see what everybody is raving about!).

Several people on the tour had included pictures of their studio animals and I neglected to. So...here is sleepy Cosmo, my studio buddy. He was named after the Kramer character in the Seinfeld TV series. Remember how Kramer used to make an 'entrance' into the room? Well our Cosmo does the same...usually at full tilt and via the shortest route possible. If you happen to be in the way, look out! We have another cat too (Mitzy), but she rarely graces my studio with her presence.

Welcome to my Studio Tour!

As you step in my door and look to your right, this is what you see. The table is what I use as my cutting table (it's an old metal topped table. The metal was rusting, so I covered it with peel and stick tiles). The drawer holds my cutting wheels and some of the smaller cutting boards. Underneath you can see the water bowl for the cat! Below are are couple photos in more detail...
This is an old chest of drawers which holds my crazy quilting fabrics, loosely sorted according to colour. You can see little coloured dots on each drawer that tell me what colours are inside. I use the space on top for a display area for some of the dolls I've made. You can see a clock a friend scrounged from a thrift store that has a sewing theme and is perfect for my space. The plastic cabinet holds my wool and some trims.
Beside that is my large storage unit which holds my stash of recycled denims, my quilting bats and stuffing and a shelf of odds & sods that don't seem to fit anywhere else. On top is the cat bed, but he wouldn't cooperate and sit there to pose (of course he's curled up there now, after I've taken the picture!).
Around the corner is my dehumidifier which I need because this is a basement room and it does get damp. There's a storage cabinet that I keep odds & ends in. On top I have a heat proof mat for ironing little things. The regular ironing board gets little use because I don't iron clothes! Above that is a recycled x-ray reading machine that gets used as a light box. You can just see the edge of a door that leads into our cold cellar.
This is just beside the cold cellar door and is my work table and display area. The table folds and also moves quite easily into the middle of the floor should I have a group working on a project together. There is a shelf above which holds some handmade treasures, mostly made by friends, although there are a few things of mine there too. Right underneath the shelf I have a strip of cork so I can pin things up. Just below the ceiling I have a clothesline where I hang more pieces of art.
This shows the other corner of my worktable. I found this little corner shelf unit which fits perfectly and holds things I use regularly so that they're handy. You can see more art pinned up and on the shelf above.
This is around the corner and a continuation of my workspace. I have two thread holders, which are within easy reach. The cork continues around the corner too, so there is more display space. To the left of this picture there is another door which leads into our furnace room, and there are more shelves in there where I have my magazines and patterns stored.

This is to the left of the door and is a book shelf from Ikea that pretty much holds all my crafting books kept in categories, sort of! There's one of my recycled denim totes hanging on the door. And do you see the little shoebox on the bottom shelf? Inside that are all the baby cards from when I was born...over 50 years ago!
This is my computer corner. My desk is really small so I put another small table on top of it in the corner to hold more display and things I use while at my desk. Continuing on.....
To the left of my desk there is another small three drawer cabinet which holds my paper supplies and more of my computer equipment. Beside that is another scrounged piece where I store all my beads. You can see that the top shelf holds a number of metal cases which in turn hold small metal cans with glass lids where I store my beads by colour. To the upper right you can see what looks like shutters? Well, they are, but they actually cover in yet another doorway. There are narrow shelves inside there that hold my paints and glues, etc. All the shelves are easily removable should the doorway be needed again in the future.

And finally, to the left of that is another storage unit with labelled plastic containers from the dollar store which primarily hold things for embroidery and embellishing. Now you're back at the door where you came in!

I hope you've enjoyed your tour and I'm really looking forward to having a peek into your studio over the weekend! Please leave a comment and let me know you've visited.
Thank you to Quilting Arts for facilitating a fun tour!!
oh, and p.s. All the pictures are clickable if you'd like a better look.

Question answered

I was wondering what I would post about today and while reading the latest from one of my doll groups I came across a very interesting article about criticism and our insecurities about our art which I felt I should pass on to you. We all seem to have pretty thin skins when it comes to dealing with outspoken critics of our work,especially when the criticism isn't of the constructive sort. Check out today's post at Glo von Gesslein's blog here.

I know I've posted pictures of sunflowers before, but this one is rather odd...see the petals growing out of the middle of the flower?

Hunter/Gatherer and labels

I do hope this isn't the last rose of summer because we have lots of buds left!

I've been spending the afternoon doing a 'hunter/gatherer' stint. Hunting for something I can't find and gathering 'stuff' into piles so I might be able to find other things when I undertake to look for them. I absolutely KNOW I printed off directions to make roses using duct tape...bought the tape...can't find the darned directions. Argh! They're in here....somewhere......but where???

The 'label' part of this post is arising because of my post from yesterday. I am reminded as I go through all the old photos of how very important it is to label each and every one thoroughly as to who they are and date them if possible. Simply labeling a photo with an 'Uncle Bob' or 'Aunt Jane' does nothing to help historians and genealogists because, chances are, there are several Uncle Bobs and Aunt Janes in the family tree! Believe me, I know this, because there is a John, William and Robert in every one of four generations in my line. I have a number of photos labeled 'Uncle Bill', but that really doesn't tell me anything that will identify a picture definitively. When the name was written onto the photo of course everybody in the family knew who 'Uncle Bill' was, but future generations won't. So, here's my hint (rant?) of the day....label ALL your pictures with proper names (William John Smith....not Bill, or Uncle Bill) and date them. Your descendants will thank you!

Treasure trove!!

These are all pictures of my ancestors! My cousin visited today and brought me two albums full of photos, plus a small heap of cabinet cards (only a few of which are shown above). I have happily spent the afternoon scanning and photocopying what I might be able to use in 'the book' or in the next one (written by the original's son). There were also a number of family photos from my dads life (some of him when he was a young man) and some from my generation. To say I'm thrilled is the understatement of the year!!

Dumb and Dumber (and just plain stupid)

Sorry folks, no picture today because I haven't had a chance to do anything other than work on 'the book'.

However, this was on the front page of the Toronto Star newspaper this morning and it falls under the category of how STUPID people can be....under the headline "Shoplifters pay for TV confession"....."Even by the confessional standards of the Dr. Phil television show, it was a whopper of an admission. The nicely dressed couple said they had roamed several states as shoplifters, stealing mostly toys, selling them on the Internet and making as much as $1 million (US) over seven years"....."I'm no lawyer or a cop," said show host Phil McGraw, incredulously, "but isn't that a federal crime?".

The article then goes on to say that a federal grand jury in San Diego handed down an indictment against Mathew Allen Eaton, 34 and his wife, Laura, 26 and are using a transcript of the show as evidence.

Ummmmm......DUH????

Hodge podge of things...

Edited to add the above photo....of the spindles referred to later in the post.....
2nd 'edit' to add this...thanks Irene for noticing that the part of my post referring to the spindles was awol! The spindles were picked up at the antique market referred to below for $1 each. I don't think they're really classed as 'antique' because there were too many of them and they were pretty cheap. No matter tho, because I liked them and can envision a doll coming out of them at some point.
Sorry about the lack of post yesterday, but the above picture sort of says it all. This was part of the venue for the outdoor wedding we attended yesterday. It was lovely and the weather was perfect.

While we were there, we had some time to kill, so we made the *mistake* of visiting a combination antique/curio mall and you can see that I was rather bad and added some more books to my already overflowing collection. I haven't had a real chance to read any of them, but the pictures in the gourd book are spectacular.

chickens???

Well, actually it's only  one chicken! Before you ask, no I don't collect chickens, but I fell in love with this pottery one while poking through one of the antique/curio shops we were in yesterday. I have several small open shelves in my kitchen and she fits perfectly. My kitchen is primarily blue so she looks quite at home.

Winnings!

Remember a little while ago when I said I'd won a drawing on Planet Purl for 16 balls of yarn? It came today, and I'm so thrilled with it! The colour is perfect and it feel divine. It will make a lovely short sleeve top once I find a nice pattern I like.

The yarn is 'Linarte' by Lana Grossa (from Italy)...40% Rayon, 30% Cotton, 20% Linen, and 10% Polyamide and calls for either 4 or 4.5 needles. I will have to research to see if that's in mm, but I expect it is. Unfortunately the band doesn't have the universal # that would help to narrow down the pattern choices.

I must remind you though, that my "speedy" knitting won't result in a completed sweater for at least three years, so don't hold your breath waiting to see it!
Thank you Planet Purl...you rock!!

Backhoe needed

Another garden picture, because obviously nothing creative is being done. The bee on the sunflower is accomplishing more than I seem to be!

However, in my defense, 'the book' is coming along. I'm approaching a third done (127 pages typed...one of my typed pages is pretty much equaling 5 of the original diary). I try to do two or three pages per day, but that doesn't always happen.

So...after I did my daily pages today...I parceled up Bravura (the latest Art Doll in the collaberation) ready to mail. Then I started to shovel out my studio so that I could change gears and work on another project for awhile. I signed up to swap a 4" Halloween doll so that might be my next project...or...gasp.....I might go back to work on my coat!! Decisions, decisions.

Flowers

Today has been one of spinning my wheels and accomplishing nothing of interest to anybody (including me). So...for your viewing pleasure, two more garden pictures. Above is the neighbours sneaky morning glory that is blooming beautifully on OUR side of the fence, but on hers, not so much. Our side of the fence gets the morning sun which morning glories seem to like.

Below is the pink-tinged sedum we have in the front garden. It is just starting to turn colour and will get much redder than this in a couple of weeks. It's a plant I particularly like because it has rather interesting foliage AND turns the most lovely colour in the fall. It's also a simple plant to look after...stick it in the ground and watch it do it's thing! Perfect plant.

Journal pages for Bravura

Here are the four journal pages I completed to go along with Bravura. Her 'story' is that she is a real heart breaker and leaves many men behind. I decided that the reason she did this was because "It all comes down to who does the dishes". Obviously she has yet to meet a man who does this dishes!

I used various techniques to do these pages. The 'dishes' page was simply a photocopy of the material I used for her cape, with the addition of some glitter in the sealant. The tears are flat-backed 'beads' meant for scrapbooking I think.

Page two (the pic of Bravura)...I laid down a piece of aluminum foil. Over that a single layer of paper napkin. Painted all over with black folk art paint. After it dried, I lightly brushed over it with Twinkling H2O's. Let dry and carefully peel away from foil. After I added the quote and the picture of Bravura, I sealed with a coat of water based varnish.

PAge three (bottom left) has watercolour paper, moistened on both sides. Drops and 'spluges' of H2O's with some salt sprinkled on top. There are five tags inside the pocket.

Page four (bottom right) began with a piece of watercolour paper, moistened well on both sides. I painted it with purple folk art paint and let it dry. Stencil it using gold paint and sequin waste. Circles were stamped using the bottom of a bottle dipped in paint. The 'trim' along the side is fine glass beads, to represent tears.