Oh My! A Dooney Tale

I hardly know what to say or who to tell.

If you know me, you know that I am a Dooney girl and always have been. When I got my first really good job, I started noticing the handbags that all these corporate women were carrying and how attractive they were. They just looked like fabulous handbags. I had to have one. I'd know that I was successful if I carried a bag like that.

So when I got my first performance bonus, I went straight to Parisian and bought a Dooney & Bourke Medium Essex bag (above). It weighs 17 pounds empty because it is really thick All-Weather Leather. It's waterproof. These purses can hold water inside, though you'd never want to. The drop on the strap is realllly long, so it is hard to keep on your shoulder when you go shopping. I wanted a smaller bag just for shopping and going to conventions and conferences. A bag that would hold the essentials but not be in my way. I wanted a red Kilty bag but when I went to purchase one, they didn't have red. I ended up with another bag entirely, the Duck bag in Fir green AWL.

This bag became my everyday companion. I carried it while the Essex bag sat in my closet. Weighing something down, no doubt. For years, I was happy with just this bag. I went on to be more successful and to make a lot more money, but I never felt the need to replace this bag.

Until I inherited some money. I bought a Coach bag. I hated it. In fact, I still hate it. I switched to a purple D&B wristlet I'd bought. For a long time, I carried a purse that was smaller than many people's wallets. Then I found a cute little pink patent leather Guess bag in a shop in Paris in Las Vegas. I loved it and carried it for about a year.

On my next trip to Las Vegas, I found the Dooney store in the Canal Shoppes at the Venetian. Oh bliss! So every time we went to Las Vegas from then on, I HAD to go to the Dooney store. The best bag I ever bought there was the day after I'd won $375 in half an hour playing blackjack. I went in and bought three bags for just under $1000. My mother was horrified. (Handbags that cost more than $10 just seem too expensive to her.) She doesn't get it. So I took one back! What was left was the Crimson Croco Medium Hobo bag. I still love this bag. I bought the matching zip-around to go with it and to use when we go gambling in Las Vegas. It's still my gambling purse since it's so easy to hook onto my belt loop or to loop over my wrist. It doesn't really fit into the Medium Hobo though, so I don't use it as a wallet. I have a small croco change purse they gave me when I made the big purchase and I use it all the time for actually holding change when I have some. But the Crimson Hobo is my very favorite handbag. The leather smells divine!

For the spring, I bought a pink and white cloth bag. Love the bag but I just cannot keep it clean. I cleaned it per their instructions, then didn't even take it outside and it still got dirty! I'm more careful with my D&B Giant Anniversary Sac. It goes out a lot and is often used as a briefcase or luggage, but being black and white, it doesn't collect the dirt that the pink bag does.

On the next visit, I bought a French leather collection bag in dark green to go with the MINI Cooper S Sidewalk cabrio I intended to buy. I was saving the bag to use when I actually had the car. Life sort of intervened, so I still have not used it!

On another visit, I bought the pink medium Luna bag and a matching wristlet. I needed a larger bag because I needed to carry more stuff around once my mom came to live with us. I hate this bag. Right away, some of the stitching started to come out. It smells like the tire department at Walmart (read: the worst possible smell you can put up with every day, really not pleasing to the senses). It did when I bought it though among all the leather bags, I couldn't smell it. Once I started to use it, I noticed it. Dooney's response was to send it back and if they couldn't fix it, they'd give me a new bag for half price. This WAS a new bag! Morons.

I'm still using it. Oh sure, I have plenty of others included the beloved and rare Crimson Croco Medium Hobo bag, a navy Calvary bag I bought on Ebay, a pink bucket bag also from Ebay, and even the green French Leather bag that has never been used while it waits for the matching British Racing Green Sidewalk to appear. But I'm stuck in a rut with that pink Luna bag.

Or I was.

Today, I got an email from D&B announcing a new sale. Since I've been so ticked off about the pink Luna, I've not even been reading or even opening their emails. If my old friend, D&B, could treat me that way, why should I even give them an opening? I don't even know why I opened it.

The little black Scotties on a red background were on sale. OK, I'll look. I looked at a few and decided to look at all of the handbags. Commemorative All-Weather Leather Collection?

Suddenly, I felt a renewal of my spirit. Maybe I CAN still be a Dooney girl! There in all it's wondrous glory is that icon of Dooneyness, the Duck Bag in Fir Green!

Be still my heart! Life will go on! I'm off to put everything back in my Duck bag and get back to the real me!

Here's My Big 2009 Holiday Project

Here's the smaller file, if you don't have the bandwidth or time to wait for the bigger file to load or if you're viewing on your iPhone or Droid!

I'm working on a way to share the large file. It's 62 MB, but you can see the pages really well.

For the last month or so, I've spent a bit of my creative time working on getting this recipe book together for members of my favorite Yahoo art group, TreasureArtTrends. This is a slide show set to music of the pages inside it that were done by me and ten of my online friends. (I did the covers. They're digital collage with elements bought from Designer Digitals and put together with PhotoShop Elements 7.0, then hand-embellished.) I assembled the book with a spiral binding. This is done with a special punching machine.

Each includes a favorite recipe for the holidays. In one case, I requested a recipe, the one for pavlova, a signature Australian desert, done by an Australian member. The pages were to be 5" high and 7" wide, the theme is Christmas, and they had to include at least one recipe. Many of the recipes ended up being tucked into pockets or cards while some are on the backs of the pages. Just a warning: in these photos, you can't always see the recipes.

The music is Trans-Siberian Orchestra's Wizards in Winter from their The Lost Christmas Eve album. This music is a favorite with me all year 'round. The Sports Fan and I always start our holiday season by attending TSO's concert here in Phoenix, which we did two weeks ago.

I think that every style of Christmas decor is included in this small, but very chunky book.

Enjoy! And Merry Christmas!

Spinning Books

Amy King fibers spun and unspun by me!

You know, I've been looking at the list of spinning books published by Interweave Press in just this last year and there are a lot! I don't remember any one year when so many books about spinning were published. I've bought and read most of these new books.


I had to buy Judith McCuin MacKenzie's Intentional Spinner because I can't decide whether I like her or not. Do I think I don't like her just because she learned all this stuff at the same time I did and she's famous while I'm not? Do I think I don't like her because she seems to be a know-it-all? Plenty of people think that I am a know-it-all. (Though in reality I am simply one who likes to know and then tell other people so that they will know too. Yes, there's a difference. I'm happy to be corrected because I want to know the truth. Know-it-all's really think that they DO know it all and you can't tell them anything.) And I say "think I don't like her" because I don't know if I do or not but I think I don't. Maybe. I did like her book and that makes me suspect that I would like her if I had ever met her. Whatever, her book, though full of good information, had nothing new to offer that led me to a greater understanding of spinning. It didn't provide me with any ah-ha moments.



So on to Amy King and her Spin Control. I was sure that this would be the book. I very nearly held my breath til it finally came out and I got my copy. Now I'm glad I didn't. I was pretty certain that I liked Amy. I'd been a subscriber to her fiber of the month club until I had two big baskets full and had to acknowledge that I'd never catch up, let alone keep up, so I had to un-subscribe. :( But then I had her book. No ah-has here either. :( I didn't get better control of my spinning after reading it.



What am I looking for? After 30 years of spinning (the anniversary was uncelebrated this year, in fact, I just now realized it has been thirty years when I started typing this paragraph!), I still feel out of control as a spinner. I don't aim for tightly controlled, exactly-the-same-as-millspun regular regulated yarn. I can buy that! But I want to think I've got some conscious choice about my yarn despite having learned over the years that if Mable couldn't instill this in me, nobody would. And even if someone had, what I really cherish about handpsun yarn is its difference, it's innate funkiness.



So why do I look for a book that embodies the Holy Grail of spinning? I've already rejected the yarn it produces. I don't want to be the sort of person who laboriously washes, picks, cards, and spins wool to make a perfectly uniform yarn with which to knit the perfect, classic sweater for some toddler to puke on.



Maybe I just want the knowledge, even though it's only use to me is to not do it that way. And all of this to say that I cannot decide if I want Abby Franquemont's Respect the Spindle or not. General spinning books that have slightly disappointed are bad enough. Finally, someone has written a book on spindle spinning (and had the raw nerve not to be me!) and I don't know if I can stand to be disappointed by it or not. I'll be disgusted if she doesn't know as much as I do about the subject. (Mostly disgusted with myself for not having written a book first, not disgusted with her.) I'll be disappointed not to learn anything new. And I've pretty much given up on finding a book that can affect my spinning more than Paula Simmons' Spinning for Softness and Speed did when it came out nearly 30 years ago. Paula taught me more in one small $8 paperback book than I've learned in all the other much more costly books on spinning I've bought since then. And I've got quite an extensive library of books on all sorts of topics.



I can't believe that I'm deciding to wait for this one to come to a bookstore near me so that I can read some of it before I decide to get it.



Maybe it's time to sit down and write my own book!

Breaking News! Blog in Death Throes!

OK, I do have to acknowledge that maybe my blog is dying. I seem to post once a month.

I really just have been doing mundane things or things that I haven't taken photos of, just getting on with life. I miss my drawing class now that it's over. Only three of us showed up at the last session. We started out with about a dozen people, had about eight there consistently through the sessions, then just three of us at the end. Why do people spend $300 for classes and then not show up? Bizarre! If only I could hang out and take their place when that happens! They're offering some free classes in December, on Fridays I think. I can't find the email about it and I'm not sure I'm free any of the Fridays anyway.

The current big project is the TreasureArtTrends Yahoo group's 2009 Holiday Recipe Book. I'm binding the pages right now and it's turning out to be a really sweet book. I'll show photos in my next post. And it won't be a month from now, I hope!

Drawing Class Report

I've been taking a class on basic drawing from Craig Birch at The Scottsdale Artist's School for the past month. The teacher is really good and he happens to be focusing on what I really need to practise. Yes, I went to art school before reality cracked me upside of the head and I got a business degree. Yes, I knew this stuff was important. But somehow, I never managed to pull myself together long enough to do what I needed to do to improve my paintings. No wonder I'm rarely inspired to paint!

Good choices in relative values lie at the heart of every successful painting. There is even a technique wherein the painter first makes a drawing, paints it in grey-scale values only and then when that is right, applies the colors.

I did this apple in the first class. I thought it sucked but others liked it. It does pretty much look like an apple. By the way, these scans suck because my scanner only goes up to 8.75 x 14 inches and my paper is 14 x 17 inches. Here's the homework I did that week. Weak is the word!
So the next week, we had a vase and a ceramic bottle to draw. I did better on those. I was getting into it. When I figure out which drawing pad that one is in, I'll scan it. It's large so it might not fit on the scanner bed. I had bought a different paper from the one specified in the supply list and went out and got the proper one at another art supply store. (Yes, it killed me to go to a bigger, better store and buy art supplies. I'm surprised that my debit card survived!)

So, being inspired by the ceramics we had drawn in class, I found my favorite teapot at home and drew this.
You may have noticed that this is only the left half of the teapot and that it appears that I drew right up to the edge of the paper. I didn't. It's a pity because I think it's my best drawing so far. It was too large for the scanner bed and the two sides didn't scan in with the same values so combining the two in Photoshop Elements was a waste of time. The differences are too distracting to give a good view of it. Maybe later when I set up to photograph these. My favorite camera for doing still lifes and set shots (Sony S-145) is being temperamental, so I don't know when that will happen.

For the next class, Craig set up a still life with a white onion, a green pear, and a red onion. Three values to show together in one drawing.

When I stopped to grocery shop on the way home (I like being there after 10 PM when I have the store all to myself!), I was inspired to buy some pomegranates to use for my drawing practise. I set these all up on a tray table about 4 feet away from me with an Ott light focused on them from the side.
The first drawing took a couple of hours and I was fairly pleased with it. For this second one, I just couldn't get into it and spent only about 15 minutes. Still, I like it. It shows most of the important stuff, the mid-tones, shadow, cast shadow, and reflected shadow are all there and fairly accurately.

We're using graphite and charcoal pencils (that I've never liked and now loathe!) and playing with values and light and shapes. Now, everything I look at is evaluated in terms of shadow shapes and highlights. I even caught myself doing it at the grocery store after class last night!

I am in LOVE with these Cretacolor Monolith Graphite Sticks! I bought 5 more of the 9B sticks yesterday so I'll always have one. I can't wait to try applying watercolor over a value drawing done with graphite. I bought the set because I love boxes and can rarely resist one. I'm glad I did though because I love the pencil sharpener and eraser that came with it. I've been playing with the varying hardnesses, too. It starts at HB and goes down to 9B. The middle value, 4B, is a different color outside. One of the things I like about the graphite sticks is that you don't have paint from a pencil smearing onto your paper and it lets you have a really long point on your drawing tool.

I've begun to like the process of sorting out and evaluating all the shapes and their relationships spatially as well as their values. In the past, I've been really impatient. I don't paint because I don't want to bother to set up a scene to paint. I don't paint because I don't want to do all the preliminaries such as figuring out the values and other relationships between the shapes that describe the objects. So now maybe my impatience is re-focused.

I just can't wait for Monday nights these days, even if it does include grocery shopping!

Dead Blog Tales

The reports that my blog is dead have been exaggerated just a little. That old life thing has been leaving its mark on me again. I've been traveling, had a really bad cold that I'm just now getting over and that had me spend nearly a week in bed, and I've actually been making some art. I'd really rather make art than blog, sorry. The good news is that I have a bunch of photos to process (crop, resize, etc.) that are the step by steps for a fun project.

So if anyone is still reading, I'm out here. Hope you are having a happy autumn, my favorite season.

Pocket Divas

Finally, two projects in a row done on time and sent out in time. I feel quite virtuous and empowered by having actually accomplished something in the timeframe intended for it without having to rush! I did have to rush on the last one because I'd confused the due dates for the Poetry Birds (see last post) with that for the Trimmed Tags (no photo because they never paused near a camera long enough to be photographed!).

This makes three projects in a row where I've just been able to truly enjoy the creative process and the production process. These are two different and distinct pleasures for me. What they have in common is the problem-solving process, of course. I like the feeling of having figured out what sort of design fulfills the thematic needs of the project as well as feeding my own need to be creative, feel creative as I'm doing it, do something unique, and hopefully come up with a design that also pleases others. Then once the design is done, I have the very satisfying pleasure of figuring out how to produce it, often in multiples! A couple of years ago, I took advantage of a slightly unpleasant situation in one of my online art groups on Yahoo to disengage from a large group and put most of my efforts into a smaller group of people with whom I am mostly very familiar. I'm happy with that decision and very happy with this group, though I hope having said that doesn't jinx it somehow. Making the opportunity to actually use some of the STUFF I've bought or otherwise acquired for my artistic stash opens up another pleasure. And of course, rooting through everything just to find what I want is again fun.

I really prefer ATCs that are sturdy cards. Therefore, I always use a thin book board for my base. Whenever I have scraps from book projects, I cut up the extra into 2.5" x 3.5" rectangles to keep handy for ATC projects. I rarely sign up for these far in advance, so they're nearly always done on a whim. Such small pieces of art, when not taken seriously, really open up my creativity. I don't have a lot invested, so I don't care if I fail or succeed. It's easy to take a chance and try something out.

I love my Xyrons and have an embarrassing number of them, one of which lives in my portable art case, and another that I don't use unless it is the only one with any stickum left in it. I cut all of the papers to size, then Xyron any that need it, do the stamping or whatever, and try to make sure that nothing dimensional gets in the way of stamping, drawing, or using my wooden brayer to make sure everything is adhered. The brayer is one of those tools without which I can't work! It makes sure that everything is in perfect contact. Another secret to making ATCs is to cut everything just a tiny bit larger and then trim it to size when it's assembled so that you have perfect edges.

On this set, I cut everything the right size and then trimmed the card, leaving the pocket slightly wider. This allowed a slight gap so that the tags would slide right in. The pockets were stamped, then hand embellished with a pen.

I love tags. It's just so darn easy to spray or paint them with some Tattered Angels Glimmer Mists or other sprays. I hang them on my improvised clotheline over my work table to dry. I can hit them all with the heat gun if I'm impatient that day. I'll dig through my drawers of stamps to find a few that strike my fancy and might end up using only one of ten or five of five. I never know.

The last thing I really love is this pinky red velvet ribbon I bought at a paper arts store. I only have a few yards left and will have to go find more or fall in love with another ribbon! Or is it having made something I really like a LOT?

OK, I lied. The last thing about it that I love is getting a project in the mail On Time!!!

Actual Creativity = Enjoyment

I did it! I was finally creative again. OK, so I didn't do something original out of my own imagination, but I didn't follow the directions in the magazine. So it counts as being creative.

The TreasureArtTrends Yahoo group decided to do the Poetry Birds that were featured in the current issue of Sew Somerset. It's a 2 for 2 swap, so I made 3 in order to have one of my own birds. Mine was the experiemental one where I tried out what I thought I wanted to do. The quilting stitching isn't nice on the back because my tension was off. I adjusted it before working on the others.

I used Pelmet Vilene as a base and cut a front and a back of each piece so that it is sort of two-sided. For the pattern, I just sketched the bird shape out on a piece of deli-wrap paper. Once cut, I sprayed the vilene with 505 spray to hold the fronts and backs on until I could stitch them on the machine. The fabric is all from the remnant bin at JoAnn's.

No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings. - William Blake

I Love This Place!

I do.

I love this place! MINIs in the Mountains has been fun, despite me not feeling well (which is a totally different topic I'm not going into on the net!). Today, we're planning our run home, going to go on a little fun run for ourselves, and I get to see one of my dearest friends on earth.

How could you top that?

OK, not having to go home would top it because this sure feels like home! (Let's see if Blogger ever decides to show my photos!)

Too Hot!

I've been up to very little due to the heat here. While the sight of - or even the hope of - one snowflake energizes me, once the heat goes over 110 degrees Fahrenheit, I am totally sapped. No energy. I've got zero desire to so much as lift my head from the pillows. I'd much prefer to sleep through the summer's heat. So considering that I live in The Hot Place where it is over 100 much of the year and over 110 for far too long, that isn't practical or even practicable. Not to mention it not being fair to the man who pays for the air conditioning I'd be wallowing in.

So I'm trying to choose to do the right things in the right room and not expend enough energy to make myself any warmer. There's a nice trick when a sudden hot flash can have me par-boiling in my own skin in a heartbeat and for goodness only knows how long! Ted Williams, move over! I want to join you in your cryogenic chamber!

One of the things I've been doing is to spend afternoons in the coolest room in the house (Nana's room, formerly known as the art studio), punching pages for spiral binding. I'm hosting an artist's chunky book with the theme, 50 States. It has become 50 States, the possessions, and the federal district. This is a project of the TreasureArtTrends group with 12 participants, each doing 5 states (or other dominion). Just over 60% of the pages are in and while they are all nice, some are just incredible!

Note to self: when it becomes difficult to punch the page, check to make sure that the little hopper is not completely full of punched out holes!

And I'm wondering what particular bit of pack-rat-dom makes me save the punch-outs.

I've Done It Again

It seems like all I ever do here anymore is apologize for not posting. :( Since the accident, life has gone into full speed somehow and my time is not my own. I have no idea how or when I lost control. If you've got a clue about it, please leave a comment and fill me in!
Two weeks ago, The Sports Fan got his two remaining casts off in the morning and that evening, we took delivery of a 2009 Horizon Blue MINI Cooper S. Everyone asks us if we like it better than our old car, CoopahS. The truth is that they are quite different and hard to compare. The new car is very smooth and doesn't have that feeling of the car and road that you feel through the steering wheel of a true sports car. The Sports Fan definitely likes it and is loving the great mileage it gets! And the bottom line is that we adored CoopahS. The little guy was very special to us and this car isn't taking his place in our hearts, just in our garage.

We lost no time going on a road trip, surprising some other DMC members by showing up at Cougie's in Malibu, CA for breakfast on the 4th of July. We did a run with them over the Angeles Crest Highway, but decided to go back to West Hollywood for the night because one object of the trip was to get away from the heat. Why stay in Palm Springs where it was just as hot as in Phoenix? That idea struck us as we drove through Palm Springs on the way to LA. So when we checked in, we booked in for an extra night then canceled our other reservation. Going back to LA enabled us to find a wonderful restaurant in Beverly Hills called Il Fornaio (through the good offices of the hotel concierge). They have other locations but we highly recommend this one in Beverly Hills for a great location (one street over from Rodeo Drive) in the heart of eye candy land! We'd already gone to Venice Beach on Friday night for some Baby Blues BBQ. Now we are pleased to have three must-visit restaurants in LA.

The grilled salmon with roasted potatoes and veggies was incredibly tasty!

I had the spaghetti alla pescadora minus the shrimp. The sauce was light and the whole thing was fabulous. I adored the bruschetta, which just burst with flavors.We got to see an electric MINI while we were at Cougie's which is where the SoCal MINI Maniacs meet up for breakfast on the first Saturday of the month. What a cool car! This one is all solar as it's owner has a great solar array just to charge it. Check it out here.

And stay tuned for more news (though, knowing me, it would be silly to hold your breath!). I started a watercolor class last Saturday, so maybe I'll actually produce something I like again!

Trying Not to Slack Off Here...

I really am NOT ignoring my blog. I'm sure all my lovelies are off reading much more interesting and more frequently updated blogs. I'm still here and still trying to cope with a much different schedule that really isn't mine.

Because I now have to make two trips across town every day, I have given myself the treat of driving through a very pretty section (pretty as you find it in the not-too-watered desert) of Phoenix with some amazing houses. As soon as I figure out how to take some photos without being picked up by the cops, I'll post something. It's that sort of neighborhood. I figure that since they now see me twice a day, they just figure that I work there.

For now, it's just me and Jeepy's taxi service!

I'm a Winner! YAY!!!

It's all in the way you look at things. But there's also the day when you get an email or a letter telling you that you're a winner. So what if somebody in SD won that $222 million dollar PowerBall lottery prize, right? I'm a winner!

A couple of weeks ago we were all feeling pretty low here in the House of All Sports, All the Time because The Sports Fan is laden with casts to help his body heal and that the worst of his injuries cannot be put into a cast and because our beloved little car is no more. We've had enough from this year. First our Chance got sick, then The Senior Sports Fan died, then Chance died, Chicster had to move back home, and I didn't even dare to think about what else could go wrong because fate is clearly a really creative bastard. Then I got the call from The Sports Fan that he'd been in a car accident and was going to the hospital. He'd call when he knew which one.

So Nana and I got ready to leave the house when we got the call. I knew it couldn't be less than a half hour so I decided to get some things on my to-do list taken care of. C&T Publishing was having a monthly challenge. All I had to do was to submit some of my work in a certain theme to be eligible to win. I had the work done and I already had photos. So I wrote an email and put in links to the work in question that were already on my Flickr page. Then the hospital called and we were off, the contest and everything else forgotten while we went to see how badly The Sports Fan was injured.

These are pages from Keri's Pet Project, 101 Uses for a Dog, starring Tia and Bailey.

To my surprise, the very next day I got an email from one of C&T's editors suggesting that I upload those photos to their Flickr group for the challenge. I did it right away because once again, I was waiting for something to happen so that I could go see my Sports Fan in the hospital. That waiting on contingencies is what I really hate. So it's important to me to find stuff to do.

The next day, another email came. I'd won their random drawing and could I send my snail mail address and a better JPG of the winner.

The winning photo is my page from JoAnn White's book, featuring her cat, Punky.

6 ATCs for a swap on TreasureArtTrends, featuring Keri's Tia and Bailey, and Tammy's Clarice. The outlines were traced to make them easy to reproduce then each line was gone over with a fine Pitt pen and colored in with watercolor.

Then two weeks later, I got an ominous-looking letter in the mail. It looked like it was from a lawyer's office! It turned out to be from a marketing firm that was running a contest for Safeway. I'd won 3rd prize in a contest and would receive a $100 gift card for Safeway!

Oh sure, it isn't the $222 million from Wednesday's Powerball Lottery. But when it comes to feeling like a winner, all you need is to be TOLD that you're a winner to feel like 222 million bucks!

On Being Perfect

I was reading Knitting Daily this morning and it brought back a really special memory. The editor of PieceWork was talking about Galina Khlemeva and Orenburg Lace Shawls and it brought back a really special memory of when I met Galina for the first time and took a spinning and knitting workshop from Galina and her mentor, Olga Alexandrovna Fedorova.

I thought I'd share with you all the comment I left for the author.

I remember that 1996 trip to the US well. My spinning group was so excited to be having a special session to welcome Galina, George, and Olga to Dayton, Ohio where they would be conducting a workshop. They were the last to arrive at my friend Cay's home, and we all were anxious to meet them. When I saw Olga for the first time, it struck me that she looked much like the older women in my family, who were of Eastern European descent.

I sat at her feet that evening and showed her all my spindles and how I used them. We didn't speak the same spoken language but we clearly understood each other. It was my honor to be their chauffeur while they were in Dayton and I spent most of the day with them for three days, going to class to learn to spin and knit in the style of the Orenburg shawls, learning a few words of Russian as we worked, and attending evening activities with the Dayton Knitters Guild and the Weavers Guild of Miami
Valley.

My knitting has always been more enthusiastic than anything else. Many times during our three days, Olga would say, "Nyet!" then take the needles out of my hands, rip out my stitches, then painstakingly hold my hands in hers as she attempted to make me the knitter she wanted me to be. The only thing I could do to make her smile was to prepare the down and spin it. She was a tolerant teacher, a perfectionist in her work, completely unpretentious though I'm sure she knew that she was the greatest shawl knitter alive. She was a really sweet woman who seemed to enjoy sharing her knowledge, expertise, and love of her craft with a new generation of knitters.

The day they left, as I dropped them at their host's home for the last time, Galina told me that Olga had something to say to me. I expected to hear that Olga thought I should give away my knitting needles. Instead, Galina translated as Olga spoke, "From the moment we met, I knew you were the special one!" We hugged and I cried. I knew I probably would not see her again. She left me with the knowledge that you should always strive to make your work the very best it can be.

It has been thirteen years, but she still has a special place in my heart. When I look at the Orenburg shawls I own, see an article by Galina, or just see my own Russian spindles among my collection, I remember the days spent with three new friends, and that I should always strive for excellence even if I can't be perfect!

One Step at a Time

Whew! Everyone here is still in one piece. I'm a bit frazzled though. This has been a crazy two weeks and not in the best way. It's really starting to sink in how lucky I am to still have my Sports Fan alive and relatively normal.

The Sports Fan's recovery is going well, though it is slow. It is a process. One that takes months and months and months. It's unbelievable that someone else can impact our lives so seriously for so many months. Our hearts are heavy and not just because this is a long, slow process. Not only because we're losing precious months, maybe a year of our lives because of someone else's uncaring moments of inattention while (not) in control of their potentially lethal vehicle.

There's an ache where our CoopahS used to be. :( We're no longer MINI owners, at least for the time being. We've begun to discuss what the new one should look like, what color it should be, what features it should have... and for me, the all-important question of what the wheels should be. And in our hearts, the answers are always CoopahS. Therein lies the trouble. We can't have another R53 because now they make R56s instead. It's a different car with a different engine, etc.

The person who ran that red light took something very precious from us. We'd never lost the excitement for CoopahS that we felt the very first time we got into him at the Moritz showroom in Dallas. Every month or so, we'd pack our little guy full of stuff, folding chairs, luggage, art supplies and knitting, cooler, cameras, etc. and go on another Motoring adventure. We did that for four years, always with the thought in mind that someday he would retire to the garage and become strictly an autocross car that got trailered to the track once a month while a newer MINI of some sort became the Sports Fan's everyday driver. Then we'd never lose the excitement of our first MINI.

Was it squished in that accident two weeks ago or did it evaporate in that intersection with the spirit of our little guy? Or maybe it was killed. Could a small flame still burn in our hearts for motoring adventure in another MINI? It remains to be seen. I want it to be there, but I guess I won't know until another MINI arrives in our garage.

CoopahS in the Moritz showroom, ready for our first motoring adventure!

I just want to resurrect a little of that enthusiasm so we can start to feel normal again.

Things That SUCK!

This is very near the top of the list. What doesn't suck is that the driver - while he is not exactly OK - was not hurt worse than he was. Of course, he was hurt as badly as you can be and still be walking. It also means that we are buying a new car for just about the crappiest reason possible. (I don't know if it would be worse, if we would feel more violated, if CoopahS had been stolen.) We do feel violated, both of us. The Sports Fan has five broken bones and has temporarily lost the use of three of his limbs. He does his very best to do as much as he can for himself and to still help with Nana. The man is covered in technicolor bruises that make me heartsick. And I'm sitting here crying over the demise of the car that we loved and enjoyed so much. We got our personal stuff out of it today and I cried the whole time. It hurt to see him sitting in that sad lot full of crunched cars and motorcycles, covered in dust, and knowing that even if we could bring him home, that nobody would lovingly wash him.

Another thing on my list of things that SUCK is people who don't pay attention, speed through a red light and cause an accident like this, and the innocent victims (no, I wasn't in the car, but if you think I wasn't a victim, think again!) have to pay with not only pain and suffering from losing their beloved car, enduring grievous injuries with long recovery times, but basically have their lives completely upset because of someone else's negligence! We can't even enjoy our lives because of this. Every little bump hurts him. He has only one leg to stand on and no hands to use. What he does have is me. And I'm going to make damned sure that nobody else hurts him!

I wish I could do the same for CoopahS. The insurance company totaled him.

CoopahS

2005 MINI Cooper S

June 10, 2005 to May 4, 2009

109,000 miles of joyous Motoring

Time

As if it didn't go fast enough! But if you need a mental vacation, here ya go!

One year in 40 seconds from Eirik Solheim on Vimeo.

Broken

Thank goodness that it was just our MINI that was broken. It could have been much worse! It could have been devastating. Thank goodness that the MINI Cooper S is a very well-built car!

The Sports Fan was in the hospital for four days and has casts on three limbs. We couldn't count all the cuts, bruises, abrasions, and contusions. They can't put a cast on his sternum. Well, I guess that they could but it wouldn't help it heal any faster and it would just make him even more miserable.

We haven't seen the car yet. I want to but I dread it. I dread getting a new MINI when we loved that one so much. So right now our newest car is my 11 year old Jeepy. In honor of becoming the main family vehicle, Jeepy had his passenger door lock remote and window fixed as well as his air conditioning.

The next four to six weeks might be a challenge. I hope I'm up to it! Keep your fingers crossed for me and send me some good karma, would you?

Looking for My Mind...

If you see it, please email me regarding its whereabouts. Or send it back, postage guaranteed.

I don't know why I haven't posted. I think I spend the month of April more or less in limbo. Every year. I can't get anything done. Well, I spin and knit but aside from that, I'm not motivated. I need a catalyst. I'm bummed out.

Blue, green, and white BFL and some Halloween superwash merino,
both from Amy King of Spunky Eclectic. Both spindle-spun and the BFL is a Navajo 3-ply.

My dog won't behave. He keeps chewing my stuff, including a handspun, handknit sock which thankfully has no holes in it. We must have come home JUST as he dragged it out through the dog door to the patio. The back yard is an overgrown symphony of stuff with ragged edges and dog tooth marks adorning the remainder. We're going to AZGRC's SwimFest tomorrow and I looked at my blog post of it from last year. Watching Chance made me cry. :(

My best pal moved back home to live with her mom due to her lack of employment. :(

I need a mountain to climb, so to speak.

Blogger won't upload my photos. :( But that's not the mountain I want to climb. (OK, it finally did after an hour! #$*^%^@@)

I hope May is more productive. I'll let you know.

Eventually.

On the BEAT!

Who put that Lotus Elise in with our MINI Coopers???

And this one isn't even the "Shaguar" which is the personalized license plate of the Jag belonging to the BEAT's organizer's, Mike and Janice.

A perfectly gorgeous Bentley.

OK, I did drool near this one. it's owner said he lost the badge on the way up from Tucson on Friday. I can't imagine cleaning those wire wheels though I'd like to give it a shot if I could own one of these!

We just loved looking at this one, except when it was in front of us during the Twelve Miles of Terror part of the run. Stately cars just don't have a place on such a twisty, roller coaster track of a road that's better left to the Lotuses and Mini Coopers that know how to take the twisties!

I tried not to drool too much. My dad would have loved this event and especially this gorgeous 1955 Jaguar XK140 with the perfect red paint. Everyone details their classic cars to perfection for this road trip.

This 1950 Austin beauty was on the BEAT for the first time. It lived for years in a garage in Jerome, AZ, and was recently bought and restored. The perfect navy blue leather interior is original though the paint (English White) is not. It was originally baby blue. A lot of the older British cars have three headlamps.

CoopahS wouldn't miss the BEAT! It has taken place on the Saturday and Sunday following Tax day for the past 12 years now. Phoenix to Wickenburg to Prescott, then through Jerome to Clarkdale, and on through Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon to Flagstaff where we stay overnight at the Little America hotel. After a breakfast buffet and some raffle prizes, everyone takes off at their leisure for the trip back to Phoenix via Payson. The prize for the car coming the farthest went to a car from British Columbia! The event is now limited to 125 cars. This year, 15 were MiNis, including one classic Mini.

The Sports Fan, CoopahS, and I can't wait for next year!

Another Excuse!

Top Ten Reasons I Haven't Posted in Two Weeks

10. My little sister swallowed my mouse.
9. Our electricity was off.
8. I left my HTML book in my locker and I can't remember the combination.
7. Strange gnomes appear on my screen and erase the posts faster than I can write them.
6. I've been busy working on art projects.
5. I fell down and broke all of my fingers and could not type.
4. I was caught up in a whirlwind and just now broke free.
3. My dog ate my drafts.
2. I was abducted by aliens and just got back from an intergalactic adventure.
1. I ran out of black pixels.

Or some other lame excuse!

Stuff That Ticks Me Off... As If You Cared!

Stuff that really just pisses me off:

1. People who let their kids misbehave and inconvenience or annoy me.
2. People who misbehave and inconvenience or annoy me themselves!
3. When people post to groups telling everyone to go read their blog. I don't know anyone who has good traffic who does this. It's like begging to be popular or trying to be cool. If you have to beg, order, plead, ask, or try to be, you aren't. It's that simple. Note that it is different to discuss something in an email group and then mention that you have more about it on your blog then put the address in your sig. Or to just always have the address in your sig.
4. When people post to their groups ONLY to say that they've updated their blog. There are at least half a dozen different ways for people who care to find this out. Instead of taking advantage of your group to advertise, try posting something interesting and having your blog address in your sig. Like be an interesting member of the group if you want people to be interested in you. Sheesh.

I think that's it for now. Sure, lots of things piss me off and annoy me. But these are the big ones at the moment. I'll be back to normal now that I've got this off my chest.

Thanks for sticking with me, my lovelies. ;-))

Road Trip, Day 3

This slide show tells it all.


BTW: Yesterday's photos are coming soon. I can't upload them from here.

Road Trip, Day 2

Coming soon!

Road Trip, Day 1

We LOVE Road trips, especially this destination. It's a place where you can just forget everything and RELAX!

Road Trips

We LOVE road trips! (These photos are from our last road trip with the Rat Pack to the Salt River Canyon in February.)

Ricë Freeman-Zachery got me thinking about this with one of her blog posts today. In the comments there, I started discoursing on this. Here's the rest:

Dream trip #2 is to rent a MINI in England and drive all around the countryside, just stopping when and where we want without making any plans. Somehow, we mysteriously end up in Germany with our own wonderfully modified CoopahS and we get to drive the Nürburgring as fast as we possibly can. Then there's a route through the Alps we'd like to take...

Or we'd be happy to just take the back roads up to Prescott for lunch or dinner. Surprise road trips, when The Sports Fan comes home from work early and just says "Let's go for a ride", are THE BEST!

We always try out local restaurants, not chains. The list from Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives (Triple D) is a good place to start. Just thinking about it has my mouth watering for the best mac n cheese I ever had at Baby Blues BBQ in Venice, CA.

Once, as we wandered the streets of San Francisco (does that sound like a TV show to you???), we were hungry and I noticed we were in front of a restaurant. We went in and had some of the best seafood ever at John's Grill and discovered that Dashiel Hammett had written part of the Maltese Falcon there.

On another trip, this time to historic Charleston, SC, we found a little place on a jetty sticking out into the harbour close to the old Custom's House near the docks. It is called Fleet Landing and we discovered that it used to be a Navy debarkation area for soldiers during WWII. It had outlived that use and was sold to the Port of Charleston and used for storage. It became vacant for nearly 20 years until eventually it was converted into a really cool restaurant where you can get a fried whole flounder! Later, my brother told us that it was the new IN place to eat in Charleston. So much for new discoveries!

We are MORE than ready for another road trip. And gee, we just happen to have one planned!

For Maggie

It just never seems to be fair when a younger animal comes into the home and takes over it's owner's blog, not to mention everyone's attention, the toys, the food dishes, water bowl, and all the best places in which to have a nice snooze. So when Mr. Smudge appeared Chez Grey, I wasn't a bit surprised when poor old Cat Stevens went into a decline and was feeling poorly for quite a while. Maggie wondered what Smudge would look like in my crazy colors and here he is. But I had to be fair to Stevens and do her portrait too. So Stevens is above with the blue background and here's that naughty, indefatigable Mr. Smudge below. You'll notice he has a purple aura and it's complement sort of shimmers around him as he eats some flowers. He's always into something. Maggie is good about keeping us up to date with his latest exploits here. Oops. Typos are hell, especially when you don't notice them at first. I must have had the cursor over this one when I was saving everything. I think I'll blame it on the lateness/earliness of the hour! I hope Maggie enjoys these portraits of her cats.

Questions

First, my lovelies, let me say that I'm sorry I haven't kept to my promise to myself of blogging once a week. Life really hit us hard in January with the death of The Senior Sports Fan and then the brief illness and death of the younger of our two Goldens, Chance. I'm going to try to just forgive myself for that and pick up and start over, an idea from Jessica Wesolek, who had vowed to post every day in March, then got the flu. I'm glad she's feeling better and I'm even more glad to pick up her idea of not dropping the ball just because of a glitch, no matter how major or minor. So on with the post.

My question to you is:

What tools do you most cherish, need, have to have in your art-making?

I love my Tim Holtz scissors, my Tonic paper cutters, my wooden brayers, the Making Memories tweezers, to name just a few.

Have you ever bought a tool and wondered if maybe it was a foolish purchase, a waste of money, only to find that you constantly reached for it, time after time?

All of the above were just that to me! Is it that way for you too?

It's just something I was thinking about. I've wanted a craft cutter for a long time and have never been able to decide between a Silhouette, a Wishblade, and a Pazzles. It didn't take a long time to discover that the Silhouette, the Craft ROBO, and the Wishblade were exactly the same cutter, all made by Graphtec, a company that makes industrial plotters and cutters. The difference is in the software that comes with it. If you have Adobe Illustrator, it makes sense to buy the Silhouette so that you can use designs from it to cut original designs instead of being dependent on the designs sold by the company that sold the machine.

I've been round and round on which one to get and even if I should get one at all. The nearly $400 price tag was holding me back. How could I justify paying that much when I didn't know how much I'd use it.So about ten days ago, I came across a huge sale and got a Silhouette for $99! (Google and you'll find it.) I'm learning to use it and was just tickled silly with the first two pages I cut. Between ordering it and receiving it, I had my doubts about whether I should have bought it. But when I took that first piece of paper out of it, I thought that it just might become one of those tools I want to use all the time!

Stay tuned to find out!

A New Direction

Today would have been Chance's 4th birthday. We really miss him. You don't know how much life a being puts into your own life until it isn't there any more. He was lively, almost more than I could physically handle at times. But when I pulled a leash out of it's hiding place in the back cushions of my chair yesterday, Cody only went half insane with delight. It seems way too quiet around here. We're missing our live wire.

One of the things I've always wanted to be able to do is to draw animals. I've long admired Roz Stendahl's Daily Dots, the daily drawings she'd done of her Malamute, Dot, for years. I admire lots about Roz but her Daily Dots were my introduction to her work. I can draw. I know that the more I draw, the better I'll be and that the only way to learn to draw animals was to go Nike and Just Do It! (To see Roz's Daily Dots, go to her blog and then to her website. I really enjoy her blog as much for what she's been drawing as for her thorough, methodical, and logical technical reviews of art materials.)

I'd watch Chance and Cody, sleeping on the floor near me and wonder why I didn't pick up a pencil and my sketchbook and get to work. Because if I'd moved so much as a little toe to go get the pencil and sketchbook, Chance would have been there wagging his tail wanting to know where we were going to go now. So when we got the indescribably horrible news that he had cancer and that there was nothing they could do for him, aside from making him comfortable, I decided that I'd better get busy. So I put a sketchbook and pencil under my laptop table where I could reach them without moving!

The first picture in the last post shows a typically Chance pose. He adored that blue bone The Sports Fan brought home for him from the pet shop where he buys the dog food. He just knew that Chance would love it. He did. He was on his second one when he died, having torn the first one to bits. At the end, it was the only toy he played with and he enjoyed sleeping with it. Using my Pitt Pens with a brush (B) tip, I tried to get close to realistic on colors.

I decided to try working from photos which I normally enjoy. In one of my groups, we're doing a round robin deco called the Pet Project. When my friend, Keri, saw the ATC sized drawings I'd done of Chance, Cody, and her dog, Tia, she wanted me to do one of her black lab, Bailey. I was flush with my first success at drawing animals in a way that pleased me, despite it not being absolute realism. But I was daunted at the prospect of drawing a black dog because of the negative space, shadows, and light. I sat down with a picture of her bad baby Bailey on my screen and drew. I erased a lot at first but by about the third drawing, I was happy with what I had.

Journal page from my 2009 Personal Journal.

You can see I'm having fun doing these because I even enjoyed drawing two of JoAnn's cats, Kitty and Punky. Since I don't have cats, I'm not that familiar with their features and the structure of their skulls. This was a really enjoyable learning experience for me as I tried to get these drawings to not only look like real cats but to resemble Punky and Kitty as well as to show their personalities as portrayed in the photos JoAnn had posted.

It's a new direction for me.

In Tribute: Chance, March 2, 2005 to February 19, 2009

Chance was such a special boy.

We got them from the Arizona Golden Retriever Connection rescue. He and his father, Cody, had been in foster with Al and Onzie for at least nine months. They had become attached to the boys and it was really hard to give them up, but they could see how much we loved them right from the start. They didn’t know that I’d been looking at the photos on the AZGRC website that entire time. But our old dog, Jasper preferred not to share with other dogs. A few months after he crossed the rainbow bridge, the boys came to live with us.

They settled into a calm routine, following me around the house, playing with toys, leading the neighborhood bark-a-thons every morning and afternoon, and destroying any foreign objects that came into our back yard whether it was a pile of landscaping cloth with rocks on it or a volleyball. Chance played tug every morning with Nana and was always gentle with her because of her years. He played tug with me on and off throughout the day. It was his favorite thing to do, whether he played with one of his people or with his Golden dad, Cody. Sometimes they’d lie on their backs on a dog bed and play tug, growling and pulling, sounding fierce but looking lazy. Once in a while they would start in the house and both try to fit through the dog door at one time so that neither would have to let go. Usually this was done at a dead run. We called them the Bozo Boys because they were such clowns.

Chance loved Crunchy Cheetos and popcorn, but was not averse to cadging some bits of pretzel from his Nana. He liked to lie on the bed between mommy and daddy and push mommy off the bed with his three strong legs. (Obviously, he had daddy's sense of humor!) His very favorite part of the day was at the end when he could get up and lay all over Dan as he lounged on the couch. Chance would get in all sorts of bizarre positions so that his large body was draped over Dan’s lap and chest. Then they would start making noises at each other until it turned into a wrestling match. He loved to wrassle on the floor with anyone who was brave enough to get down there and endure body slams by a 90 pound Golden. They also loved to lie together on one dog bed or in a pile near my chair. Once, on a visit to a nursing home, Chance carefully crawled under one lady’s chair to try to take the tennis ball off the leg of another woman’s walker!

It used to make me sad sometimes to look at Chance while he slept peacefully next to me, seeing the smooth area where another giant leg and paw should have been. I always wished he could have had all his legs and that he had never known pain. He was so sweet and eager to please, so loving to everyone. It wasn’t fair. When I looked at him sleeping next to me the weekend before Christmas, it seemed like his leg was miraculously growing back! But on each of the next two days, the lump was larger and rounder, clearly not the regenerated miracle leg he deserved. On Monday, he went to see Dr. Val, one of his favorite people. She called Christmas Eve with the good news that it didn’t seem to be cancerous. But after New Year’s it was much larger. We went back and she recommended an ultrasound. I wondered why she kept talking about cancer. We thought it was the result of trying to force two 90 pound dog bodies and a chew toy through a one-dog-wide door. It had to be a blood blister or some bruise from all of the very rough play he and Cody did. He came back from the ultrasound with half of one side shaved, but just as much energy as usual. A day later, Dr. Val called to say it was cancer. He had one visit with the canine oncologist who said she could only make him comfortable, there was nothing she could do to save our big, beautiful puppy who wasn’t even four years old. Dan and I decided right away that we were not going to let him suffer. He’d done enough suffering already. But no matter what happened to him, he retained his goofy ways, his loving heart, and his great Golden spirit. He never allowed only having three legs limit him or define him. He did everything other dogs did, except give you his paw. Instead he would stand up and put his paw on your chest and get nose to nose with you, his favorite greeting.

On Wednesday, February 18th, Chance started to have problems getting up and moving around. His remaining shoulder had looked strained for a week and he had appointments the next week with Dr. Val for that and with Dr. Hershey to see what more she could do for the tumor that was now nearly as wide as he was. I helped him move around the house that day. That night, he got outside and couldn’t get back in. Dan went to help him. We lay with him on the floor of the living room, both knowing that it was time. Even at the emergency vet clinic near our home, he was his usual happy self, as long as he didn’t have to move himself. He stayed still while Dan carried him and enjoyed his first ride in the front seat of the Jeep, a big no-no in our family. But he’d been eating people food and that was a no-no too as was lying on the couch uninvited. He’d been getting away with those for nearly a month. He died peacefully in our arms, twelve days before his fourth birthday, while being told how very much he was loved. Two years of his company was not nearly long enough.

Happy Valentine Day aka Happy Friday the Thirteenth

Or Valentines and Puffy Hearts...
Before I start, I wanted to say sorry for not posting for a week. We had to attend a few events to celebrate the life of The Senior Sports Fan, who left us a few weeks ago. Some of these events were in Oregon which as you know is not where we live right now. Traveling makes it hard to get your swaps done, let alone to update your blog with clever reportage and cool photos, though I had all of the equipment with me. The mood just wasn't there.

I'm sure you understand.

Now let's start talking about the photos for today. First up are the Valentine Post Cards for the swap of the same name on the TreasureArtTrends Yahoo Group. OK, so it was my idea. A bunch of us signed up to send Valentine Post Cards to three others in the group.

You might notice that I've got photos of four post cards here. I just had to make one for The Sports Fan's mom, Stamper Mom.

When I started playing around in the paper arts, she enabled me big time by letting me play in her studio, using up all the paper and other supplies I wanted to use. Wow, that was so incredibly generous, wasn't it? I honestly doubt that I could do that. I've got too many treasures hidden away that I can't even bear to use myself! Yes, I'm a brat. ;-))

So what enabled these cards was a Valentine kit I bought from my pal Keri's shop, TreasureArtTrends. Yes, it is connected to the group as the shop owners own the group too, though I don't think that they mention their shop enough on the group. This was a wonderful assortment of coordinated Basic Grey papers and embellishments in cardstock and chipboard, buttons and brads, plus rub-ons, ribbons, and trims. I chose to use a different ribbon that I found at The Creative Quest here in Glendale, AZ. I added some pink jewels from my stash as well as some pink polyester flowers I bought on Ebay. I love it when I get to use my Crop-A-Dile Big Bite. I got to use both size holes, the 3/16" for the ribbon and the 1/8" for the brads. The basis of the cards was thin book board with coordinating papers from a 6" square paper block Xyroned onto each side. I make the fronts first when I make postcards so that I can cover up the backs of any brads or stuff that I might use that would look ugly on the other side.

Making the cards was like being in a playground just having fun.

Another project that recently shipped out was puffy hearts that were inspired by an article in Cloth, Paper, Scissors. But really, all of the major mixed media mags have had puffy hearts in them. Knowing that I had bunches of beads and some grey velveteen on hand, I dove into making hearts. I cut them out freehand from the velveteen and then used them as the pattern to cut the backs from a dark red satin lining remnant.

Putting the beads on was the fun part. I used some silk embroidery thread and some Gutterman #30 or #40 embroidery thread doubled. I also tried using some heavy rayon embroidery thread that was nice and slippery. The big thing was to make sure that the needle went through the beads I wanted to use, of course. I used some scraps of the lining fabric to cut small rectangles on which to place larger pearlized beads. This is probably my least favorite.

I really like the ones with the assorted beads. I just used whatever came out as long as it was not exactly the same as one of the nearby beads. Then I stitched the hearts together and stuffed them with snipped up leftovers of batting that were sitting around. I like the ones with embroidery thread around the edges on the bottom of the photo. The larger of the two (on the right, below) has an embellishment of twisted pink silky net fabric.

Journal Spank for February 5th

Oh that Ricë. She is a prolific blogger and I really admire that. There are plenty of things I like about this woman I've never met and one of them is that she has orange hair. I wish I had pink hair. I nearly did once when my hairdresser didn't get that I was joking. But aside from that, one of the other things I like about her is that she provides plenty of prompts for journaling, both serious and light-hearted.

Here's the entry for today: a syringe she conned out of her doctor's receptionist the other day, and a binder clip. I used a drawing pencil to render them but switched to a red brush point Pitt Pen for the page itself. I wish that all these lovely colors came in other points. I like the Fine, Medium, and Broad nibs in addition to the brush points. But do I want to pay $12 for a set of four of each color? And yes, you just know that I'd have to have all four of every single color! It's one of the things we princesses do.


And I had to include this photo of Cody. The other day, Chance bolted through the dog door with his favorite blue bone in his mouth. (This is the second one of these he's had. The first one was totally destroyed. So far, this one is faring better.) After playing tug with Nana, with me, and with Cody, he guarded it for a little while. Then he dropped it on Cody's feet and went back outside. "Guard this for me, dad!"

And Cody did for about an hour.

Too Organized?

I'm sick of being the victim of circumstance. So I decided to take control of this year instead of letting this year control me. It was off to a really awful start and it seemed that the time was ripe for a change in control.

So now I've got so many things on my schedule that I'm exhausted looking at it!

And I still don't get what happened to the good old days when you had all the time in the world if you didn't have a school or office to go to. The only place that happens now is at the spa and even then, you have to resign yourself to missing half of the day.

*sigh*

Journal Nazis, Leave Me Alone!

I've decided that my journal is not a visual journal so much as a journal where I write, sometimes draw, often use color and photos (now that I've got my Polaroid PoGo), and just might once in a while do some art. I've got my 2009 Personal Journal and it's companion to do more arty things in, but I'm not thinking that I HAVE to make art in my journals or to conform to Journal Nazi Theory of Page Layout.

So Journal Nazi comments are not welcome here. If I share, it's going to be because I feel that the page has something to offer or something to say. If you don't like it, then you are welcome not to like it. Okay?

Good. Glad we got that one settled. ;-))

Freedom to Be

One of the truly great things about life in my country, the USA, is that everyone has the right to be themselves. Yes, that right isn't supposed to infringe on the right of others to be themselves or to offend others (which mostly turns out to be the religious right who most often offend me by pushing their so-called "Christian Values" at me totally forgetting that what gives them the right to do that is what gives me the right to tell them to shut the fuck up about how I should be like them and espouse their values, eschewing my own, because they naively think that the only reason that I don't think exactly like they do is that I've not given it the proper consideration! And while I'm on a side rant, just WTF is not thinking for themselves in this case?!?!???).

We all have the right to be ourselves and to think what we want to think in this country. Many, many people come here, risking their lives to get here, by the way, leaving what may be in many ways a comfortable life, an extended family, friends, their support groups, to come here to be free. People are dying to get here and some do actually die trying. It happens every day on the Mexican border and in the sea between Cuba and Florida. I knew one man who was a doctor in his country and who came here, ending up working as a lab technician because his English wasn't good enough to help him pass the test to be a doctor here. (University degrees are not automatically universally acknowledged everywhere.)

The point is that those who live in the USA are entitled to be themselves, pretty much as long as doing that doesn't involve restricting the rights of someone else in which case, some sort of compromise needs to be reached. This is a really basic right and one of the most important tenets in The Constitution of the United States of America. To carry this idea down to the nitty gritty of everyday American life as an artist, let's think about what we as artists do or don't do in our sketchbooks and journals.

I've kept a sketchbook on and off since I went to art school in the 70s. At times, I've gone through them and ripped out any pages that were plebian enough to have only a list or address, etc. At various times in my life, especially my business life, I've kept a "planner." It started because my employer sent me to a class about time management (and where the hell did that skill go???) where I was given this Franklin Planner to help me organize my work life and encouraged to use it to make the rest of my life more organized so that I'd have more time to do stuff I wanna do! Things such as, kill time playing with art - which at the time to me was spinning, dyeing, and weaving. I like looking at the old planners and am sad that they've been replaced with a smaller, more convenient, less archival electronic version. Versions really as my Pocket PC shares with Outlook on my computers. But I digress.

I've subscribed to and bought bunches of back issues of Teesha Moore's zines. And I love reading them and looking at the eye candy. But maybe the one important thing that art school did for me was to tell me that developing your own style is really, really important if you think of yourself as an artist! Do you want to copy Monet or Degas your whole life? Do you want to be called "that chick who copies Degas"??? Or would you rather be yourself? I can appreciate Teesha's style and the styles of others. That is, after all, what draws us to them as artists and why they have readerships for their zines, blogs, articles, and attendees for their workshops. I don't think that their object is to make hordes of followers who do things exactly the way they do them. If it is, then that's another matter that might be better discussed at www.getoveryourself.com.

I think the thing we're supposed to do, as I've learned it and accepted it is to participate in the art world through communication with other artists. This involves looking at their work and showing them our work. It's Visual Communication.

Our sketchbooks and journals are about US, not about some other artist. Making our pages look like theirs is wrong and I feel it is actually insulting to them. If you copy the style of Monet or Degas or Klimt to the degree that your work might be judged to BE theirs, aren't you trying to steal a bit of them, their persona, their acclaim, or their revenue? Yeah, they're dead but most of them have estates that collect royalties on their works and the use of their names. There was a big thing about it when people making commercials started using motion picture images of dead stars taken out of context to sell their products. You shouldn't make money or gain acclaim or some other self-satisfying thing through the work of others. Just as you wouldn't copy someone's journal pages and paste a print into your journal as your own page (and if you would then that's just sick!), so you should look at their work, take an idea like maybe a color combination or how they combine texture and color with text and try it on. See how it fits into YOUR style. Take the class and learn how they do it. Then make it work for you in your own way. You can make it your's!

I once had a workshop teacher's jaw dropping because she told me that an element belonged in another place, just as she had placed it on the class sample. I explained to her that this was my version of it and that I preferred it here instead of there. You could see her stop to process this and then she stopped and said, "Oh!" The lightbulb had gone on! Yes, being yourself is A Good Thing!

Showing your stuff is an important part of being an artist. Having it appreciated by others is icing on the cake. And while it is a compliment to have others try to emulate your work, it would be a nightmare to have someone copy it to the extent that their work is then mistaken for your's. Thank goodness for the Copyright Office, eh? (And yeah, I won't go on about how all those magazine images are covered by copyright. If you're using them for your own enjoyment and not to sell or show as your original work, then it's a minor infringement, though by all rights, you should acknowlege them somewhere so that posterity doesn't make you look like a thief.)

Of course, there is the other side of the coin. I've often felt that there's no place on this earth to put your foot down where nobody else has stepped before. One famous mixed media artist and blogger agonizes in her blog over how others copy her work. She's complained that people teach how to do a particular element that some of her students named for her and this has made her feel that she owns the rights to the technique. What's funny about this is that I had just read about it but had not seen the element in question. One day while playing with materials, I discovered what I later found was this very technique. I thought I was putting my foot down in undiscovered territory but nope, others had been there before me. Oh well. I feel bad for this gal, but if she really doesn't want to be copied, then maybe she shouldn't teach. Maybe she shouldn't sell. Maybe she shouldn't show her work so that others won't copy it. As artists we put ourselves out there and sometimes that has unhappy side effects. We all have to get a grip about this.

Maybe we all need to get real about what is and isn't ours. And maybe we all need to say WTF (shorthand for 'What/Who/Where The Fuck' for those who use the phrase often enough to need a shorthand for it!) sometimes and get over ourselves. Maybe we all need to worry more about being ourselves and less about some junior high school notion that we all have to be exactly like everyone else. What The Fuck boring kind of world would THAT be, people???? My friend, Kathie, has a theory that it is okay to teach what someone else teaches if you a) change three things, b) write the instructions yourself with your own examples, and c) give your inspiration credit for the idea and cite them as a source.

And that gets me back to my Constitutional right to be me. And your right to be you. And let's do hope that the twain does meet somewhere. By all means, let's have a meeting of minds, a mutual appreciation for our work, and enjoy the similarities as much as the differences that make my work mine and your's your's.

But do let's NOT have the Journal Nazis judging whether or not we're doing it right! (So as not to rant even further, please see the perfectly wonderful rants by two artists I admire, Kelly Kilmer, and Ricë Freeman-Zachery in their blogs. Bookmark them while you're there if you don't have them saved already.) Right on, Kelly and Ricë!

Let us share ideas and information, sources, and inspirations. We can share prompts (or even spanks in Ricë's case). And let's share this too. Let's all stop worrying about Doing It Right and Just Be Ourselves! Do your own thing in your sketchbook, journal or planner. Let's feel free to rant and rave, be artistic or not, make our grocery lists and things to do lists in our journals and stop worrying about Doing It Right. Just Do It You! We all have that basic right to be us. American soldiers have spent more than 200 years fighting all over the world to guarantee that right to anyone who wants it. They lay their lives on the line so that we can be us. My goodness, people, don't we owe it to them to do that?

So feel free to leave a comment about anything that you see in my blog or on my pitiful not-updated website. I'm not Teesha Moore or anyone else who journals, not even my friend, Toni, who does the most beautiful pages that I love looking at, in her very own style. I'm just be and that's all I aspire to be, though I do want to be the best me I can.

Just don't tell me that I'm doing it wrong!

Spanked Again!

Ricë has done it again. She spanked us for Saturday, probably flush with her success yesterday with Spank #4. You've gotta watch her. She cracks me up on a regular basis, therefore I am addicted to her! She is Not Speaking to Me at the moment, however because I posted about the PoGo yesterday and made her want one. I told you that the woman is a riot! ;-))

So, having been challenged to make tabs for my journal. And having noticed the blue sheet you have to load into your PoGo with the pile of little papers it uses which it immediately spits out. I decided to use it for my tabs!

I measured and actually used a ruler to see where to cut it in half and where to score and fold it. I tried it against the little 1 1/2" Xyron, but it was too small. The 2 1/2" Xyron was jusssst right!

So I ran it through there and rolled it with my beloved wooden brayer to make sure that the adhesive was thoroughly adhered.

Then I trimmed it in half with my beloved Tonic paper trimmer, scored and folded it, and punched a 1/4" hole in it because I like to put ribbons on my tabs. I don't like corners that are too sharp either, so I trimmed them off with my beloved Tim Holtz scissors. I cut some pretty ribbon from my stash to decorate them.

Then I noticed all the little pieces of leftover paper that had already been Xyroned and were already the right
size for tabs. They were everywhere on my worktable! The ones that weren't Xyroned were quickly run through the 1 1/2" one (and the cheapest one to use!).

It took no time at all to go from this (see photo on far left).

To this (see photo to immediate left).

To this! See all the tabs and wannabee tabs?

It is all Ricë's fault! The question is, did she do me a favor or did she start a possible new obsession? She was born to be a trouble-maker, don't you think? You should go immediately read her blog and see what trouble she's stirring up now! Then you'll be addicted too and before you know it, you'll be as spanked as I am!

I've Been Spanked!

OK, so not actually spanked in the sense that my bottom is red and sore from someone striking me. What Ricë did was to shake us up, give us a virtual spanking. She told us to stand up, close our eyes, turn around, and then point to something on our worktable and sketch it.

It took me 10 minutes to sketch my cellphone, a couple of hours to charge my new printer so I could print out the photo I took to accompany the sketch in my sketchbook/journal, and several more hours to get through the other intervening events in my life, as nice as they were. Finally, it's the next morning and I'm posting it!

I loved using my new Panasonic Zumix camera that The Sports Fan bought me for Christmas to take it's photo. I propped the phone up on a fat, squishy nail file on my laptop's keyboard and took several photos, trying to get rid of the flash from the flash. So I settled for one that had it in a less obtrusive way. Interestingly old Sony S-145 might have been better at this. The new camera is way better at people pictures than the S-145.

The really cool thing, in my opinion, was finally using my Polaroid PoGo printer to print out the photo. (I blogged about it here. And how cool is this? You can actually get it with a digital camera inside now!) It connects to my laptop and cellphone via Bluetooth and to the Zumix via a cable. I couldn't find the cable and had forgotten and downloaded all the photos to my laptop anyway, so I used the Bluetooth connection to print. It's pretty easy if the printer has its special paper loaded and is charged up and turned on. Just make sure that your laptop's Bluetooth is turned on and that you've previously paired the two devices (that's a Bluetooth thing), select the photo you want to print in Windows Explorer (not Internet Explorer), right click, and select "to Bluetooth" then the device. it took way longer to type how to do it than it does to actually do it! When the photo pops out, you just peel the stick-um off the back and stick the little 2" x 3" Zink paper (Zero Ink) into your journal.

I just wish my camera had Bluetooth so I could eliminate the cable or downloading to the computer!

When It Rains, It Pours

It's been a really tough week here at the House of All Sports, All the Time. Our really good friend, Chicster, might have to move away and that makes us sad. I never get tired of her great sense of humor or her keen sympathy when Life kicks me in the teeth. I appreciate her help in negotiating the slings and arrows of everyday living. The Sports Fan will miss their conversations about football and having one more Donkey fan to taunt. Nana will miss her company and their outings to local restaurants. And the boys will miss their favorite auntie. The one who somehow thinks they are gentlemen instead of the heathen Golden Retrievers they are. That was the Sunday/Monday revelation.

On Tuesday, we found out that our younger dog, Chance, has cancer.

On Wednesday morning, very early, the Senior Sports Fan died. I can't even say how much we loved him and will miss him. He was a great guy and we're pretty sorry for ourselves that he isn't going to be an active element of our lives anymore.

Then later on Wednesday, the canine oncologist's office called and explained that there's nothing they can do about this particular cancer except make our sweet boy comfortable while it sucks the life out of his body. He's still strong, goofy, and playful and the same loving boy we've had for two years. He's outside as I type, participating in the neighborhood bark-a-thon. I don't know how I'm going to deal with it when he starts to lose his energy and starts to become a cancer dog. Isn't that awful? That's what they call dogs who have cancer. I read these websites about "caring for your cancer dog," "cooking for your cancer dog." He isn't a cancer dog. He's my dog! He's my puppy and he's sick and I can't do anything to help him except make him comfortable and not let him suffer. Isn't it bad enough that he had to go through losing a leg because his first owners didn't get him the vet care he needed? He should have had a good ten or twelve years of being spoiled rotten to look forward to. Not being called a cancer dog. Not having his body ravaged by a horrible disease. Not dying at four years old (always supposing that he makes it to his birthday in March) from a disease that we should know how to cure by now!

Sometimes what life hands you just sucks. And sometimes it sucks in spades. This is one of those times. (Don't feel the need to comment. It's really hard to think of anything to say, I know.)

Postcard # 248!

Here's my entry in Susan Lenz's CYBER FYBER Exhibit which will be on from January 8 - 20th at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios, 808 Lady Street in downtown Columbia, South Carolina from 11 to 5 each day. Mine is just one of 225 fiber postcards from all over the world. I see several of my friends there as well as acquaintances from art and fiber groups on Yahoo groups and Ning. And I can't help it. I think my photo shows the true colors better. But I just had one to photograph; Susan had 225 plus all the ATCs and other stuff. So I'm not complaining.

I think it's pretty exciting. The embroidery/fiber world has been buzzing about this for nearly a year and now it is finally about to open. I do really wish that I could go see it in person. A huge thank you to Susan for putting this together and therefore, pulling the world of embroiderers together!

Happy Merry Christmas!

After opening presents amongst ourselves here at The House of All Sports, All the Time, The Sports Fan and I loaded up the centerpiece, the boys, Nana and her walker, our friend Chicster, and some more presents and went to his dad's house for Christmas Dinner.

The house was decorated beautifully as usual, but with lots of added elements for the holiday. This photo shows their beautiful tree in the living room where Nana was chatting with a neighbor.

The table looked wonderful too, even though The Decorator (his step-mom) had had to add a small table onto the end for "the kids" (aka us). It is amazing how some gold bows and red chargers add pizzazz to a room, even when it isn't finished! (They were remodeling the house when The Senior Sports Fan became ill.)

Can you see the lemons, tangerines, and oranges on the trees through the window? Palm trees? No? Well, take my word for it that they are there!

The most popular present of the year was the one little Benny was sniffing at under the tree all day. It contained 4 of the tiny tennis balls he plays with constantly. It was the only package in which he showed any interest. Naturally, when it was opened, he was right. Tennis balls! He's trying to herd them here.

And here's Chance wondering what happened to his Kong.

"Mom!!! Who shrunk my Kong?????"

He wasn't any happier later when Cody discovered that this was one toy Chance couldn't steal from him. It fits into his mouth whole and doesn't stick out on the sides like it does in Benny's mouth.

Whatever you were celebrating and wherever you did it, I hope you had a lovely holiday, my lovelies!

Bean for Presidential Puppy!

Send Bean to the White House!

If you know someone who might know someone, please let them know that Bean wants to be the new Presidential Puppy and is available to travel to Washington, DC at the convenience of the new First Family. You can reach her at Bernie Berlin's A Place to Bark.

From Whence It Comes

Three ATCs I made for the people (left to right: Barbara, Beverly, Keri) who sent me bottles in the TreasureArtTrends Message in a Bottle Swap, using items from their bottles. LOVED that swap, even if it was my idea!

Someone in one of my Yahoo groups said this in response to another person's post and a discussion in which I was taking part, "It can only be 'art' when its ripped your heart out and therefore part of you." I need to take issue with that. I think it would be more accurate to say that might be so for some personality types. Don't you just love it when people are so intensely into themselves and their own processes that they assume everyone is just like they are? Actually, I read somewhere (who knows where, I read all sorts of things, pretty much everything that stands still long enough to be read!) that everyone assumes that they are the norm.

Interesting.

I don't want to be the norm. I just want to be me. And I would appreciate it if everyone else would not lump me in with them. So do not assume that my processes are like yours. The art I make isn't wrenched from my gut or torn from my heart. Sheesh, the intensity of that is exhausting to contemplate. I don't need to be that busy or that intense. I don't need to focus in on my internal issues. In fact, I need to not do that. If I don't focus in on myself and what I'm thinking and feeling, I can enjoy thinking and feeling it more and anguish about it less. I've learned that the resulting art will be less forced and more genuine and better in ways that others can see as well as I can see it.

I'm not saying that I won't look at a piece of work and analyze it to figure out what it needs. I'm just saying that making art is not a brutal, gut-wrenching, soul-searching conscious process for me. I assimilate what I learn into what I do. Making art cannot be a conscious process for me. It isn't deliberate. I'm not even sure how I end up with the desired results, but I know I cannot force it.

Please, people! Don't try to fit my polygonal shape into your round or square holes. Let's just agree to all be ourselves and try to appreciate where each of us is coming from and going to.

Just Finished... Or Is It?

I started this landscape quilt in Jane LaFazio's Art Quilt 2 class at Art Unraveled in August, 2008. I finally finished it last week, or I think I have, bar the backing and binding. I used my collection of Princess Mirah Batiks (collected from the fat quarter 4 packs at Joggles) and based it on a design in an Alison Holt machine embroidery video. I used a crazy quilt stitch book to 'remind' me of stitches and stitch combinations to use. I just chose ones that appealed or that I thought would fit the piece. Edges are raw. Some are torn and others are cut. I had the little beaded doodad that I'd started for something else and not used. It fit here great. The threads are Caron Watercolours or a similar variegated embroidery thread. I tried to choose thread colors that would show up but not take over.

The details here show the tree and bush as well as the start of the hedge on the left and the sky and sun on the right. The green and orange fabric is the top of the hedge.

This may or may not be finished. I do think it needs more of a focal point, so it may get more embroidery in the form of flowers in the field part in front.

The ridges of hills you can see in mountainous or hilly regions just fascinate me. So I see more of these in my future. It could be a huge boon for my local embroidery shop!

Gesso, Anyone?

November's GPP Street Team Challenge was to work with gesso as a resist. I just had to try this out before the month ended. I've had a number of projects on the go and gesso used in this way really did not fit into any of the designs. But when finishing some pages last night, I needed a way to tone down a background paper. So I added a light coat of gesso, buffed it a bit, spritzed with water, let it sit for a few seconds, and wiped it off. I like how it left water spots. I'll have to play with it more when time permits.

The front was stamped with a wreath set. It is several stamps on dowels. You choose the colors and how many times you want to use each. It's nice because you can make the wreath any size you like and can vary the elements and their orientation. The grapes and the pinecone were bought to add to the set. The ribbon is a strip of batik cotton. It comes in 1/2" width but I split that to fit this project.

This Was Good

I made up this recipe last night. I wanted some veggies to go with the turkey leftovers and hadn't used my green bean casserole supplies because I had no room in the oven. Yesterday, I didn't want to turn the oven on and make it too warm in the house. So I made a microwaved green bean casserole and it turned out great!

1 can Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 2.8 ounce can of French's Onion Rings
A 1 pound bag of green beans, I used Trader Joe's

Put the green beans in a microwave safe casserole, cover and cook for 8 minutes on your veggie setting or according to the instructions on the bag. Put the contents of the soup can into a microwave safe bowl without watering it down. When the beans come out, nuke the soup on high for 2 minutes. (My microwave is about 1100 watts, so this could vary depending on your microwave.) While that is in the oven, add half of the fried onion rings to the green beans and mix. When the soup comes out, pour it into the green beans and mix. Sprinkle the rest of the onion rings on top of the green bean and soup mixture. Cook for 3 minutes on high, uncovered. if you cook this covered, the onion rings will get soggy and won't brown up from the heat. Serves about 6.

The thinking was that it's the milk that takes forever to cook in the casserole. Why water down the soup with milk and then have to cook it a long time to thicken it up again? Here's another recipe that served as my inspiration.

Kraft Macaroni and Cheese - The Right Way!

1 box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese mix
3 - 4 Tbsp. Butter

Boil water, add macaroni when it is boiling and cook on Med-High heat for 7 minutes or until it is done to your liking. Turn the heat off. Dump the macaroni into a colander, shake it once or twice, and dump it back into the still-hot pan without rinsing. Put it back on the hot burner and add the butter, cut up into pieces or slices to help it melt faster. Stir til the butter is melted and coats the macaroni. Open the cheese packet and sprinkle over the macaroni, stirring til well mixed and no longer lumpy. You can let it sit with the lid on until you're ready to serve it.

THIS is nice and cheesy macaroni and cheese, not that wimpy, milky stuff you end up with if you follow the package directions! It, in turn, was inspired by how I make Campbell's Tomato soup, maybe my favorite all time soup. When I was a kid, it was the cheapest soup there was and I suspect that's why my mom gave it to us for lunch so often. Plus, it really warmed you up after a hard morning of building snow forts and snowball battles!

How do I make Campbell's soup? Only add half the water. And use that half a can to make sure you get all the soup out of the can. I hate leaving half of it stuck to the walls of the can! You'd just have to rinse it out before you stuck it in the recycle bin anyway.

Hope you American readers had a Happy Turkey Day! And kind regards to everyone else, too!

100 Things

I saw this on someone else's blog and thought it looked fun. I adore those lists you get from friends that have stuff about them like whether they like bacon bits or chives on their baked potato and what their favorite color is. So this is perfect for me! There are 100 things and I bolded the ones I've already done.

1. Started my own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland - no but I stayed next door to it in Anaheim this year!
8. Climbed a mountain - not from the very bottom though and I lived on one
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo - it's how I got the nickname, Aw shit Marilyn in college - I forgot the words in the middle
11. Bungee jumped - not happening!!!
12. Visited Paris - not yet!
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning - the day before my good friend's birthday
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty - the stairs were closed when we were there but I've walked to the top of the Washington Monument!
18. Grown your own vegetables - tomatoes, hot peppers, and onions, even cotton!
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France - not yet!
20. Slept on an overnight train - not yet!
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked - if it counts that we waved down people we knew as kids - but never with strangers!
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping - no photos of this!!!
27. Run a Marathon - not happening!
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice - not yet! and not even at the Venetian in Las Vegas
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run - I'm more of a bleacher's advisor ;-))
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person - not yet!
39. Gone rock climbing - but when I did it as a kid we didn't call it that, we just did it ;-))
40. Seen Michelangelo's David - not yet!
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight - on St. Simon's Island, GA with a blond surfer guy I'd met while on vacation when I was 17 - Doesn't get much more romantic than that!!!
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted - yes and the artist signed my HS yearbook as the guy who "immortalized [my] grippable thighs" because I complained that he made my thighs look enormous!
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person - not yet!
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris - not yet!
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling - but I want to!
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies - I used to sell cartons of them when I was a kid
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason - for myself as well as from The Sports Fan
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma - I keep trying but I'm always too anemic
65. Gone sky diving - this one won't be happening unless I die in a plane and they toss my body out to lighten the load!
66. Visited a (former) Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square - when I was 8
74. Toured the Everglades - been there but haven't toured them
75. Been fired from a job - sort of!
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London - I don't know how I missed this one!
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle - and no plans to though there is one in our garage!
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book - I used to do this for my work!
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car and Jeepy is in my driveway right now!
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating - ICK!!! No!
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous - I must have but I can't think who!
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby - nope and no plans to!
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit - nope
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day - I've read three in a day!

I copied this from someone else's blog so feel free to copy this from here and post yur own answers on your blog! And if you do, please be sure to leave ne a comment so that I can go see your answers. ;-))

What's Up!

OK, first off, I can't believe that I have not posted in ten whole days! I mean, OMG! Sorry, my lovelies!

And there goes a whole lifetime supply of exclamation points. :(

Second, how about this goofy dog? It is bad enough that he's supposed to be a Golden, they of the friendly fun personalities and the gentle disposition of the late, lamented Mr. Jaspy. (And who can believe that it has been two years? I found two of his dog hairs painted onto the door of the hall bathroom. I wonder what the Sports Fan will say if we move and I want to take the bathroom door with me?) Back to Chance. OK, so he's a tripod and more of a Ruby Roo than a Mr. Jaspy-style Golden. He's really a big old sweetie pie. His father, Cody is sweet too but he's stubborn and not so anxious to please as this boy is.

Next up is what I've been up to. Quite a lot. Here's one of my two pages for the Treasure Art Trends Yahoo group's Christmas Chunky. I'd been diligently working on my idea for page No. 1 when page No. 2 pops into my head nearly full-blown. I had a couple of minor things to work out, but wowsers this one just happened and I'm pleased with it!

I stamped Versamark watermark ink on a piece (3 1/4") of pine green card stock and dusted it with Aztec Gold Perfect Pearls. Then I edged the card by dipping it in my fave Sunset Gold Lumiere. Once dried (laying on waxed paper), I ran it through the Xyron. Not good! I had to touch up most of them as the cellophane layer from the Xyron attracted the powder and there were some spots. The next time, I will Xyron first! I Xyroned a slightly bigger piece (3 1/2") of basic red card stock. Next, I worked on the backs. Finally, I added a tiny (1/16") gold-edged green reflective dot in each corner that you do not see here because I forgot to take the photo of one that already had the dots on it.Here's the back. I bought this star stamp almost without thinking. Certainly without any idea in mind. It has come to be one of those stamps you pick up time and again, particularly at Christmastime. The backs are 4" pieces of white card stock. I stamped my star in three colors of Marvy Matchables, red, blue, and pine green. Then I dotted Christmas Red Stickles randomly around the stars and signed it with a red gel pen. I love Stickles!

I also did 35 or so 4 x 4 pages for the Art Unraveled 2008 Technique Chunky book. More on those in another post. I'm happy with them but I'm not.

Finally, here's a big project that will be ongoing. I'm taking a class from Maggie Grey online. The class is free to those who purchase her latest book, Textile Translations: Mixed Media, from her new publishing company, D4Daisy Books. Maggie has asked us not to reveal the steps on our blogs. This is the cover for a book made of pelmet vilene, which is a really heavy Pellon. The decoration is a paper cast of a shell I had hanging around here. Thanks to Michelle Ward and the Street Team Challenges for getting me started on those!

Here's a shot of the entire book cover, opened out. I may add more embroidery and will almost certainly add more beads.

The Last 2008 Calendar Journal

Here's the last calendar journal of 2008 for the Yahoo group, CalendarGirlz Engagement Calendar project. This is Lisa's "Under the Tuscan Sun" calendar. I always get stumped with each and every journal I receive. I've done this one before because someone else chose it too. That was a different month though, so there were other photos. It's generally the photos that prompt me as to what to write.

I always use the same stamps to put the number of the month on the last page. So this is the last month of the project, except for doing the month of November in my own Calendar Journal which at the moment seems to be lost. I don't know if it has even been mailed! What I don't get is why I'm not upset about it. All along, everyone has said how fabulous it is. I don't think I've ever seen any photos or scans of it!

Tag Happy!

My watercolor rendering of a copy of Barbara Roth's drawing of Monet's home at Giverny. I took a class from her at Art Unraveled in August, 2008. This is what I did in class.

My pal Julee tagged me so now I have to come up with 6 secrets about myself. Do I have any secrets? If I did, I certainly wouldn't be telling, now would I? Oh. Well, yes, that is the object of this exercise.

1. Inside my head somewhere, I am 5"8" and 135 pounds. I wear skinny jeans and cashmere sweaters with high heeled boots and handknit wool socks every day, except for when I'm skiing. I live in the mountains and don't have to work. We have lots of dogs, most of them ridiculously large or ridiculously small.


2. In my garages, you can find: a green 2006 MINI Cooper S Sidewalk Convertible, a yellow Mercedes SLK Convertible, a red Jeep Wrangler, a green 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee Ltd., a midnite blue 2007 Jeep Commander, and a yellow Lambo Gaillardo. It's a Lambo. Who cares what year it is? These are just my personal cars. The Sports Fan has his own.


3. My house is of post and beam log construction with field stone. It has lots of windows and many rooms, often with just one purpose such as a sewing room, an art room where I paint watercolors, a print room where I do bookbinding and different types of art printing, and an exercise room.


4. I have been blonde since birth.


5. I am happiest when I am making something or when I'm just spending time with the Sports Fan and our dogs.


6. Two Golden Retreivers follow me around all day.

I decided not to name anyone to do the 7 secrets post because people are still mad at me for making them do the last one. Same goes for this. I'll do the posts but not make my friends do it, okay?