Fresh Air

I've been trying to spend an hour outside working in my garden/yard each day. Slowly but surely we are beating back the dead dried brush and raking up all of the leaves around this place. Tomorrow we start the ardous task of removing all of the junk on the property, and it's amazing how much we have collected. A lot of it came from the old deck/wheelchair ramp we tore down, and then my loving husband salvaged a bunch of arts and crafts style windows from a dumpster, yada yada yada.

Whatever right.

Well the yard is starting to look really nice. I've even decided, and normally I woudn't do this, to kill off the creeping charlie and replant grass in the yard. I said I wouldn't normally do this but I've come up allergic to the stuff, so it must go, along with that new wasp nest I found today - that I'm deathly allergic to.

I'll have to take pics tomorrow, of the yard. While it'll never make the pages of Country Gardens or Fine Gardening, for me it's lookin real good. I am slowly building my flower seed stores back up, after hubby left mine outside for two weeks last summer - it seems it rained that whole two weeks as well - and am now planting perinneals. Mainly I'm going for the native type flowers as they ususally need very little watering. And then there's the herbs and the medicinal plants - which usually just look really nice - like foxglove for instance.

Exercise Hell

I went shopping, my first mistake, for exercise clothes. I've come to the conclusion that obesity in America is a myth that needs to be perpetuated so that we can have someone to discriminate against.

If it were truly at epidemic proportions as the news claims it is, then there would be more in the way of exercise clothes for fat people. That's right I used that word, FAT!!!

I'm fat, and I can't find a lick of exercise clothing that'll fit me, and by standards of fat I'm not as fat as some, but more fat than others. In order to wear the exercise gear I'm finding at Target, and the sports stores in town, I'd have to loose a hundred pounds, but by then I wouldn't be fat anymore, I'd be what is considered normal wieght for my height and age.

From what I looked at today only skinny people have the right to have comfortable clothes when exercising.

I'm wondering are these companies embarrassed by fat people?

Do they believe that only skinny people have the rights to feel good when exercising???

Personally I'm tired of wearing my jeans to work out in, it's still too cool in central Iowa to wear shorts outside.

So I'm proposing a campaign here: I want all the fat people who read this to write the various sports clothing producers and complain.

And I really mean complain.

Tell them you want exercise clothing in your size that fits correctly. Maybe there wouldn't be an obesity epidemic if we had incentives to lose weight, starting with proper fitting clothes and shoes! And if they don't see a problem then maybe it really is a myth after all and I'm sol on finding exercise clothes that fit.

Signed - your local fat quilter who doesn't want to be as fat anymore

Exercise Hell

I went shopping, my first mistake, for exercise clothes. I've come to the conclusion that obesity in America is a myth that needs to be perpetuated so that we can have someone to discriminate against.

If it were truly at epidemic proportions as the news claims it is, then there would be more in the way of exercise clothes for fat people. That's right I used that word, FAT!!!

I'm fat, and I can't find a lick of exercise clothing that'll fit me, and by standards of fat I'm not as fat as some, but more fat than others. In order to wear the exercise gear I'm finding at Target, and the sports stores in town, I'd have to loose a hundred pounds, but by then I wouldn't be fat anymore, I'd be what is considered normal wieght for my height and age.

From what I looked at today only skinny people have the right to have comfortable clothes when exercising.

I'm wondering are these companies embarrassed by fat people?

Do they believe that only skinny people have the rights to feel good when exercising???

Personally I'm tired of wearing my jeans to work out in, it's still too cool in central Iowa to wear shorts outside.

So I'm proposing a campaign here: I want all the fat people who read this to write the various sports clothing producers and complain.

And I really mean complain.

Tell them you want exercise clothing in your size that fits correctly. Maybe there wouldn't be an obesity epidemic if we had incentives to lose weight, starting with proper fitting clothes and shoes! And if they don't see a problem then maybe it really is a myth after all and I'm sol on finding exercise clothes that fit.

Signed - your local fat quilter who doesn't want to be as fat anymore.

Old Love New Passion



An old love came to town recently - drawing, color, pattern, art. I went about the house today and started photographing every conceivable element I could think of, haven't been to the bathroom yet though.

And you know I have to say I have a very beautiful house!

Lots of architectural elements, even the old furniture, that I don't notice much except when it's dusty, has all sorts of floral motifs, not to mention the tapestry like fabrics of these pieces. Dressers are by far the most interesting. Seems that that every flat surface, and even a few corners, have been carved with some sort of relief. I've decided that the china and knick knacks are next in line for photographing, we have lots of odds and ends mismatched stuff, procured mainly for the beautiful motif or colors.

Blog Changes

Ok I'd really like to know how to change the color of my blog! After that I'd love to add a header image up at the top of the blog, and for the Up and Coming section I'd like to add images for my upcoming online classes, and images for the books I have written that are now available or will soon be available. When we are done with that I'd also like a chunk of the moon ;-)

Frustration


The bitter taste of frustration is so well... frustratiting. I've been trying to get video to upload to my teaching forum for over a week now. And while it's finally doing so tonight my dsl has decided to move at a snails pace! I don't know if uploading at 3 am instead would have helped or not.

And I've carved all of these wonderful stamps out of this speedball speedycut rubber stamp carving material and the stamps are literally falling apart before eyes. I should have known something was up the stuff was pretty flimsy feeling when I bought it but it was the only chunk left on the shelf! What a waste of time an money! The Speedball Speedy Stamp stuff, it's pink, is a lot firmer, but good luck finding it locally. I have a really large chunk fo the speedy cut rubber. So I guess I'll chock it up to one time use only.

Here's what I've been doing while I've been waiting for my video to upload. I decided to go back into my journal and decorate a page.

March's Lion


Looks like March is going to go out like a lion here, I wonder what that means for April? I used to know the anwser to that question.

It pays to go outside for five minutes each day. Today I discovered what crocus the rabbits did not eat are now in bloom. I'm hoping this pic will upload, there's a haze on it as I seem to have gotten my thumb on the lense again. I'd go outside and retake the pic but a storm is about to unleash here you can smell the rain in the air it's so heavy with moisture.

In a month I'll have lots of lovelies to photograph. The first blossoms of the year always make winter worth having! The birds are back, I can hear Robins and Cardinals calling, haven't seen any nest building activity yet though.

Mark Making with Nature



Mark Making with Nature begins on April 12th. I'm really excited about my newest classes I'm going to be teaching. I love suface design, it's my passion and I finally get to teach what I love best!!! :-) The best part is the video that is accompanying the class, I have finally figured out how to tape what I'm doing so those taking the class can see what I'm talking about. Now to get the live stream from the studio figured out in the next few weeks.

I have to admit that having it all on paper leads to a dull class, video creates dialouge and interaction with my students, this is what I set out to do in the first place. Technology however, can be stubborn at times, we're so on the verge of the George Jetson world but yet so so far away!

For more information about classes I am teaching go to: The Prairie Fibers Company

Studio Clean Up

I started cleaning the wet studio again today, I have to clean an area so I can actually dye fabric. And there's nothing like being down for a couple of weeks to make you realize how bad the "stack and pile" can really get. I have stuff sitting everywhere! What really gripes me is the fact that I've lost a piece of fabric I dyed, lavender Silk Crepe de Chine with natural dyes. I've looked every where for it and still don't know where I put the stuff. It's for a new series that I'm now chomping at the bit to get underway.

I've had some time to think about life, the business, the state of my studio, school. I've come to the conclusion that I do want to finish my degree, so one I have if I need it someday, and two it just looks good on paper, and third I've come this far it'd be stupid to not finish them off at this point. Studio it is my love my passion, now to make it profitable in a way so that I'm not just another monkey grinding a cheap tune on my organ.

I've been watching cooking shows while I was down for the count, and I'm learning a lot! Like for instance it's really hard to smile, tell people what you are doing all while your doing a certain task. Maybe some people are born naturals in front of a camera, but I would appear to be coming across as hostile, when in fact I am not. We will see what my students think of this this week. It has been suggested that I do the taping without sound and then do a voice over later, I may have to do just that, taping involves too many things that I'm not up to at this point. Practice practice practice! That's what those old nuns used to drill into our heads. Practice leads to perfection.

Now to find that fabric.

screen printing table

You may be wondering why the shiny surface? It's clear vinyl. It serves a multitude of purposes but mainly when dye painting, printing or stamping with natural dyes it keeps them from penetrating the fabric surface below. I can wipe the vinyl down when I'm done, and if need be if I really need a cloth surface I can put the grey felt on top of the vinyl.

Now you may wonder WHY I am doing this? Well I don't want the natural dyes seeping into the canvas and foam surface below. Natural dyes need heat and mordants to be set, if they bleed into the surface below they will continue to bleed color onto any wet fabric or fibers that is used on the table there on. Hence the vinyl barrier.

Now why would I use vinyl instead of regular heavy plastic? It's easier to get creases and wrinkles out of vinyl than out of heavy plastic. I can use a hair dryer to gently coax wrinkles and the like out of the vinyl, not so with heavy plastic.