We're home from a week in warm sun and warmer breezes. Florida is truly beautiful this time of year, though it may be my northern eyes in cold April that make it so. It was a TREAT I tell you, a TREAT to leave jackets, mittens, and hats home and to walk in the early morning in nothing but a tank top and shorts. It will be that way here, SOON.
One day we went kayaking in the gulf off of Boca Grande and found a little island to have lunch.
Just a taste of what's to come in Maine. And speaking of taste, this picture is one reason why my pants are a bit on the tight side these days, (the other would be cocktail hour every night). Fresh scones and LOTS of great food and drink for a whole week. Lovely.

It's been a while since I posted last and I can't tell you what I've been doing, exactly, except to say that since I've stopped working I've found time. You know, that thing you always say, "I can't seem to find the time", to do that, get there, finish this. You get the picture. I love it, all this time and I do count myself as one very lucky girl. So, I finally 'found the time' to reupholster the chair with the fabric I bought 6 months ago. It's not the best job I've ever done, but it'll work since the chair itself is a bit on the broken side (I think it must have fallen off a truck at some point in it's life and broke a leg, not to mention an arm so that amputation was necessary). Not bad for $5 at a yard sale.

We're off to Florida for a week of warm sunshine and fresh fruit. And when we return, we'll be that much closer to spring and sun in Maine.

Spring in Maine!

Finally. The sun has just come up and it's promising to be a beautiful day, one for cleaning up the detritus of winter and not freezing your butt off. Amazing, the power of the sun. It makes these buds come to life as well as the human kind. And my felted vase is just perfect for them. Nice. Happiness.

March Birthdays, two of the 6...

A while back I posted about an activity I did with some 3rd graders: making funny faces out of pre-fused fabrics. It was a lot of fun and my niece, Bridget, decided it would be a perfect project for her 9th birthday party. So, I became the entertainment. Me and my trusty pile of pre-fused.
There were 12 girls, all around 9 or 10, (well, Katherine is six and I need to put that in or she will correct me, I'm sure). I talked for a few minutes just to give them some direction and then I let them go. I've never been to a birthday party with 12 KIDS where complete silence reigned for at least 15 minutes, then the patience of waiting for theirs to be ironed and stuffed and sewn up. Amazing. And the results, as you can see, were great. Birthday girl, Bridget is in the center of the bottom row.

Keilly, Ella and Katherine.
And two of the birthday guests...Bridget, 9 and Papa 79. My dad is on oxygen now nearly constantly, so he doesn't leave home without it. We thought it best to move the tank when he blew out his candles.

A New Spring Bag

And all because of the beautiful glass button. It deserved to grace something special. Something blue, of course.

Whiling the Winter day's away

And by spring I should have a nice rug. My friend Kate showed me how to do this with strips of fabric and some sort of tool, (she uses a toothbrush) to pull the fabric through the loops and into knots. And true to my old boss's mantra, "see one, do one, teach one", that's just what my intent is. I love to see how the colors work with each other and am always anxious to move onto the next fabric. (Have I STILL not learned about just being in the moment? ) I'll be teaching this workshop at the library next month.

It's quite beautiful here this morning. The (my) world is covered in new white snow, which makes Laddie look, not so much like a white horse, but one that's been dipped in a cafe latte. More shoveling later, as well as some snowshoeing perhaps. I'm also planning on getting into my studio to work on a page for Sarah's book, 'aphrodisiacs', and I'm planning on basing it around this:

Interesting.

Valentine's Day

I very happily spent time 'in the moment' yesterday and made up a basket of hearts from some of my favorite fabric scraps. Each one is different and all make me happy just to look at them. It's not a Martha thing that made me do it, but a way to bring a little festivity into our all too long winter. And since our kids are grown up and not making beautiful decorations to adorn our walls anymore, and I'm always forgetting to ask our grandkids (who are very artistic I might add) to paint or draw anything for us, it's up to me. So, fabric, buttons, floss, felt and several cups of coffee (love that button!) later, I have a centerpiece for our island.

Harold

Harold is coming to take pictures of the inside of our house today. Harold is the new man in my life. He's the one that's responsible for finding a family who will love and care for our house the way we have for the last 30 years. And do it in a way that leaves us with enough money to build our next house without ending up with a mortgage. Now that we've actually really, truly started this process, I find myself sighing a lot. Such a HUGE thing, to leave a place and start new somewhere else when there isn't any other reason but the idea of doing something DIFFERENT. Spice things up. A new adventure. I sigh, and then I get excited. I'm mostly excited.

Anyway, our house has never looked so good. Clean and tidy. And all the projects that never got done when we built this place 30 years ago: done! Closet doors in my studio: done! Molding here and there: done!

I may freak out when I actually see the "for sale" sign in front of our house for the first time, but I'll get over it. We all need to move on.

More wet felting

Mushrooms!

What I'm doing today:

1. Trying to make online State Park Reservations, with no success. Today is the first day to get the park, site, and date you'd like to camp this summer. System errors. So to the phone. Busy. Redial for going on 3 hours now.

2. Finishing my tea cozy. This is made from felt I made and embroidered. I'm liking the texture and feel, colors and versatility of this material.




Yesterday when I went out for my walk I saw a pair of snow buntings, a bird I've never seen here in Maine.

It doesn't look like the little bird on my cozy, but was certainly the inspiration.

3. Making something called Toasted Monkey's Delight that I saw on Jenny Doh's blog for a special dessert, because it will be a cause for celebration, or a reason to buy a lottery ticket, if I EVER get through to make my reservations!

Matryoshka Dolls (nesting dolls)

Charlotte will be 4 in a couple of days and she will be getting these nesting dolls. I made them after wet felting (my first try) some wool roving. Each one really does fit inside the other, though my initial thought was to have 6, going from cool to warm, but by the time I got to the green one it was already so small. Next time I start with small and go to big. The idea is not my own, (check out the work of Sara Lechner), but the handwork is all mine, well, you might recognize some of Deborah's 'y' flowers on the middle lass.

detail

Symbols

I started out to write a post about learning and this symbol...but the "we learn something every day" sounded so banal and unimaginative I deleted it. I wanted to say something about the way some really new interesting things just bump into us in the course of the day, and wouldn't it be interesting to keep track, just for one day, how many new things we learn. So, this symbol:

This is what I learned yesterday during our book group discussion of Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. It means good and kind woman. It was used during the depression by those looking for food as a signal that the woman of the house would feed you. Simple communication. I think I may use it in some of my artwork.

Beautiful

For nearly 25 days my New Years resolution to be in the moment has served me well. Until I saw these beautiful tulips in the store. This happens every year. Come the end of January I find I'm ready for some warm weather. It's called SPRING. And it's been hard these last few weeks with the temps hovering around 10 or sometimes way below that. This morning I thought the thermometer said 17, but looking closer it was really -17. Walking has been a chore instead of the joy it usually is. Some days I don't even venture out. BUT! We're heading in the right direction on this side of the world...spring WILL come and while we're waiting we can continue to enjoy casual dinners in front of the fire, and warm chocolate chip cookies right out of the oven on those snowstorm days.

Nearly a Series...

I seem to be stuck on birds these days. I absolutely love watching them at my feeder when I happen to be standing at the window. The day before the temperature dropped to 25 below, the chickadees and nuthatches were voracious. Guess they needed to be.



So, I've done realistic warblers and a chickadee. These are the other end of the spectrum. Fun. I made them from a pattern I downloaded from the web from Spool . I added legs of formed wire and some wings, along with beads on the crown of the head. They kind of bounce when you bump up against them. These are nice, but check out my friend Hannah's blog and see her little bird.

Moon versus Sun

I think people just like to grumble. It doesn't matter that Obama hasn't even begun his term yet. A man behind me in the market line, complaining about how things are NOT going to work the way he thinks. He says, "They promise you the moon, and then (with a shake of his head) give you the sun." I'm still scratching my head and saying, "Huh?" Is there something wrong with the sun? Except when it's cloudy or nighttime, isn't it there all the time, unlike the moon which only shows up 1/2 the time? And come on people, no matter WHO you voted for, give the guy a CHANCE!!! There. I feel better.

Cleaning up 2008

Done.
detail

Done.

Do you block your pieces? Makes a huge difference.


Done.

detail

Moving into 2009 with a clean slate...well, almost. I think everyone will always have some unfinished projects packed away.

Hungry?

...just making sure it gets done correctly.

One Last Time

My last cup of hot chocolate before I put my favorite christmas mug away till next year. Thank you again, Deborah.

Random thoughts.

Christmas is over. It was a good one, full of family and good food. And for the first time I can say I did not overindulge. I also never got out to walk as much as I would have liked either, but New Year's Resolutions are right around the corner and they will include something about exercising. Not that I'm big on resolutions, but it is nice to start the new year with some sort of direction.

I've also been cleaning like crazy because of the unexpected phone call from a neighbor who heard our house was going on the market in the spring and would like to come see it. I am not getting my hopes up that all this (selling in a bad market, making our house look it's best, etc) could be taken care of by the first person that expresses an interest, but how nice would that be. We have a long road ahead of us, one we haven't traveled in nearly 30 years, which means 30 years of accumulated "stuff". Oh well, baby steps.

Tonight is Rigatoni in a Creamy Mushroom Sauce. Yummy. And today, visiting my dad in the hospital. He went in Christmas Eve Day, into Intensive Care Christmas morning, with breathing problems. He's still there, but seems to be doing much better. It was NOT FUN to get that phone call Christmas morning.

Sun's up. Time to start my day. Have a good one!

Happy Christmas everyone. It's coming down to the wire, but all is in place here, even the beautiful new foot of snow. It's beautiful because:
A. someone has plowed us out, and
B. we didn't lose our power.

Simple things.

I found these old buttons when I was cleaning out my studio, packing away a few things I won't need for the next year or so. (two LARGE plastic tubs and 8 boxes). And I am NOT a packrat. But, of course, as soon as I packed these wool scraps in one of the boxes, I had a need for them. Fortunately, not too much time had passed and I remembered, sort of, where they might be.

Frayed Edges met last week, here. You can read about it on Sarah's blog. I seem to have lost the rest of the week not feeling well...and looking for a recipe for our favorite christmas cookies to share with all of you. Which I never found, but requested from my daughter-in-law, and proceeded to misplace again. Maybe next year the stars will align and I'll have the picture (which is beautiful, I might add) AND the recipe in the same place at the same time! In the meanwhile, have a wonderful holiday with your own loved ones.

Enjoying Christmas

We took the Polar Express to the North Pole the other night. It was a beautiful clear cold night and the Narrow Gauge Railroad and station were done up for Christmas. Katherin, Charlie, Ella, Carey and Charlotte all wore pajamas, just like in the story and just like in the story had hot chocolate and cookies during the trip. Charlotte was VERY CAREFUL not to get the "sticky frosting" on her fingers. She was also very careful to stay AS FAR AWAY from Santa as she could get. Therefore, no pictures of Santa's Workshop with elves everywhere, making things, and doing the "elf dance".

The project was sponsored by the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad and Museum.
And I'm not sure, but I think the elves and this wonderfully happy, young, hot chocolate server was part of the Maine Stage Company. It was a great experience and fun for every age.

Today I plan to tackle some unfinished projects. I counted 5 last night when I couldn't sleep. Most only have a little this and a little that left to complete them, so there's really nothing so overwhelming to hold me back. Binding. A few embroidery stitches. No excuse to leave them undone. Oh yeah, and I should vacuum.

Waiting for the Cloves

What's New...

Getting ready for the holidays. Decorations are going up slowly and for the first time in a long time I HAVE time. To enjoy the process. Our fireplace is the heart of our home so the mantle is always a focal point for artistic expression. This year:

The Last One!

Declan is the last little kid in our family. I don't think there'll be any more after him. So, because he's old enough now to know what's going on at Christmastime, and because his big sister Bridget has one, I made the last Advent Calendar. Ever. As with anything you do over and over, the first is always the most ornate, and as you get toward the end, well, simplicity rules. This will be my 11th, starting two or three years ago. Every year we send 25 little goodies for mom and dad to stash in the pockets and that's our gift to them. The kids seem to really love it, which is the only reason I still do it.

This year's booty. I think it's all about the UNwrapping. So my sister says.

This is Declan.

This is Charlotte's from last year:

and if you're interested you can go to my November 2005 archive to see the rest.

Snowpeople

Can you believe how cute these are? These are the results of the workshop I held at our local library tonight. Needlefelting is so cool.

I'm Around.

I'm busy with this and that. Just stuff. But I have been working on the challenge piece for our group.

Black and White and One Other Color.

Detail:

For Family,

who missed the great Halloween Creepover, here are a few of the very creative costumes wandering around.
Some of you will recognize this Joker...his hat says something like, "Caution, gas leak below."

We had a football player (sorry, can't remember which one Charlie), a rock star, tiger, Indiana Jones, the soccer playing chicken, a great witch, Jason,

a salty lobsterman, though it could be the Old Man From the Sea,

and a very shy kitty. Only shy at the beginning. It didn't take her long to get into the action. And for dessert, this creepy cheesecake, complete with spider:

Happy Halloween!