More goodies



Here's a pile of wool fabrics I dyed with natural dyes about two years ago. The green piece is about a half yard in length, I can't wait to put it to good use. It makes me think "my what pretty green eyes you have". Whence I get the wet studio cleaned I have plans to clean the closet in my design studio - translation organize all of the fabics on their respective shelves. Most of it will be cut up and used to art dolls, atc's and postcards as I'm really not into the commercial fabrics anymore. I may overdye, paint or rust them but since most of them are dark colors I'm not sure if this is an option without removing the color first. Could be interesting.

Taking Time Off

Note if you placed an order before January 3rd it's getting shipped this week, now that I'm recovered from the flu and feel like standing in public again. If you are waiting for a backordered item it will be shipped as soon as it arrives here.

If you placed an order after January 3rd it'll get filled, eventually, I'm taking the month of January off, so it may come at the end of the month, it may come sooner.

Now on with life...

I've decided to take some time off, the month of January to be precise. And if I don't get everything done then I'll take February off as well. I'm using this time to get caught up on things, like book work, inventory, taxes, and back orders. I'm also refilming - and editing - all of my online classes. And if that wasn't enough I decided to clean my surface design studio this afternoon. That'll take the rest of the week as I want to put things where I can actually get to them so that they are easy to get to, clear as mud??? In a nutshell I'm tired of wading through piles and stacks to get to something.

Normally I'm quite organized but when I'm pushing a deadline I start piling and stacking. So it's time to clean. The upside is I'm finding all sorts of beautiful fabrics, and papers, that I have composted, rusted, or otherwise surfaced.

Anyway, I would have had a headstart on all of this cleaning but I ended up helping hubby organize his studio on Monday. Tis ok I now have more space to put my stuff
;-) He just doesn't know that yet. We cut down the wood for making more encaustic boxes, I just have to find a wall in this house to hang them on now.

Newfoundland

Someone left me a comment, but I can't find it now, asking if I was from Newfoundland??? Actually my mother was from Cape St. George, Newfoundland Canada. She still has siblings that live there.

I lived there for a very brief time in the late 70's when my mother got a wild hair to leave my dad and moved back home. That didn't last long though, she went back because she missed my brother, who had chosen to stay in the states, and quite fiercely.

What I remember of it was the land was really rugged and lots of fog. My greatest experience was watching the whales with my aunt, and that the water was too cold to swim in, hey what did a little kid from Illinios know???

Would love to go back there someday. The closest thing that resembles NFLD here in this part of the country is the western shore of Lake Superior up nearest the Canadian border, lots of cliffs, rocks, water that is too cold to swim in and fog! Oh and did I mention pine trees?

Sugar and Spice



And Tabby Cats with Mice.

Barley, aka the old man of the woods, woke me up at 5:11 this morning, actually Angel was the one that woke me up with her incessant barking. At first I thought someone was in the house but it turns out that Barley had a mouse cornered, and Angel - being the sheltie she is - was giving the warning sound that danger was eminent, for the mouse that is. Needless to say Barley ate the mouse as I was unable to get it away from him, he ate it head first of course so he was walking around with a mouse tail sticking out of his mouth, like it was a toothpick - that's my redneck cat. It's amazing how fast he can move for a 14 year old cat, I was pretty amazed, and considering he has no front claws he caught that mouse with no problems.

Backing Fabric


I found the perfect piece of fabric for my Green Quartzite piece, it's indigo dyed and looks as if there is a face on the fabric so I will probably be quilting it from the back side ;-) This will be a first for me, but hey there's a first time for everything.

In the spirit of keeping my sanity, I've given myself permission to quilt and stitch like a madd woman. I've come to the conclusion that working 16 hour days is not getting me anywhere in life, except older and with more regrets - so I am returning to my studio, even if it is only for a week.

One sick kitty



Hopefully the vet will be available tomorrow morning. Aside from cleaning his ears I have yet to figure out what it is that's making Pepper so sick. He was fine yesterday, after I cleaned his ears. One of the perks of his being ill is he is very affectionate right now, but I have to admit I miss his spit fire spunkiness.

This is one siamese that came dressed as a tabby cat. As a general rule I don't like siamese cats, have had way too many bad experiences with them, so I tell everyone that God pulled one over on me when He gave me Pepper because he's a siamese dressed as a tabby! His mother was full siamese, and if you look at him in the correct light you can see his seal points. When he was a kitten I kept trying to wash the dirt off of his face, he was a farm cat rescue, turns out chocoalte seal points don't wash off but they have faded, and considerably so, over the past five years now.

He's definately a daddy's boy ;-) Here he is about half asleep, and purring very loudly, in John's arms.

Mark Making with Nature


Mark Making with Nature

Now $49.00 Reduced from $75.00
Now through December 31st, 2006

Over 2 hours of video workshop material on 4 discs.

Included is an additional CDROM with a 53-page book describing the techniques used in the video. This book is jam packed with color images demonstrated in the video.

Create unique marks on cloth using nature as your tool and inspiration.

Learn how to use Natural Dyes for:
Screenprinting
Monoprinting
Compost Dyeing
Dye Painting
Bound Resists and much, much more.