The Wolf is at my Door!

Yawn!

The wolf is knocking at my door today. So I made a box to honor him. I put it in my shop as a PIF (pay it forward) because I feel grateful to be walking around and recovering this week!


I am tired. But I set the goal of creating 100 items for myself again while I recover from my surgery.

At this moment, I have 25 separate items finished. I am about to start the remaining 75.

If I can get this wolf to stop knocking at my door. I know he'll stop knocking if I take a nap.

So maybe a nap first and then 75 items after that...

It's a plan.

How are all of you out there? Thanks for coming back after it being so long. I've missed you!

But now, I must go and dream about all my friends in the ether...

More soon.

Clouds in My Coffee

I think clouds are the theme today. The marine layer hasn't burned off yet. The layer almost looks puffy like clouds, whereas it usually looks like just a gray mass.


























Clouds make me happy. That is one thing I miss living here in southern California - clouds.



















I am feeling unfocused. My brain is cloudy.
























My vision changed yesterday so my right eye is cloudy.
























Yesterday I was a crazy painter. Today I feel like my creative focus is cloudy.
























But all these clouds will clear up soon.
























Until then, I will drink the clouds in my coffee. I don't mind clouds -- clouds make me happy. And I always appreciate the sunshine that comes later on...

Good-bye, Mr. Petey Pie

Yesterday was a hard day. We had to put Prickly Pete down. He had fractured his pelvis and his diabetes had come back in one fell swoop. It was a very hard decision. But when we saw him -- we knew it was the right one.

It was a sad day. My husband and I loved Petey like crazy. We miss him more than I could ever express.

Thanks for picking us at the shelter, Mr. Petersworth. We are so glad to have known you.

Nesting

There has been a bit of buzz around the little swallows nests made out of beads. I guess I'm always surprised when people are excited about what I'm making. I mean I get excited but it is still a great and wonderful thing when someone e-mails me and asks me about what I've made!

All I did was glue giant 1970s macrame beads together that my aunt sent me. I sanded them to look more organic. Then I glued moss that I had saved for almost 20 years into some of the little nests.

I love the swallows. Their homes are very close to mine and I see them every morning. They are my friends, whether they know it or not.
























































The ruler in this photo was from one of my grandparents' visits to Florida. I still use it after all of these years!

More soon, ether friends.

Weaving a Tony Award Winning Musical

Think of the music for There's No Business like Show Business from Annie Get Your Gun...

There's no business
Like the crafting business,
Like no business I know!
Everything about it is appealing!
Everything nimble fingers will allow!
No where could you have that happy feeling,
When you are trimming that extra dowel!

There's more in my head... but I won't get any more carried away than usual.

The musical I wanted to write after this year's Tony Awards was based on the strange feeling I have when travelling home to Ohio and then coming back to Orange County, California.

I have two songs thus far. One is about how I feel skinny in Ohio but then fat in California. The other is how when we arrive back at the airport in California, every man is a metrosexual. All are very tidy and tan and fashionably dressed and ALL have manicured facial shrubbery.

Men in Ohio look like men. Men in California look like they have stepped off magazine covers. Men in Ohio look like farmers and truck drivers and business men. Men in California look like models.

I really only experience this feeling for the first 20 minutes in the airport. Get out into Orange County and I see other types of folks. But the airport people... well that is a different sort of folks.

And speaking of weaving... since that is in the title of this post...

Santa brought me, in 1983, my very own Fisher Price loom. I got it out last week, put it together, and have been making projects on it ever since. Here is the photo record of these events:























Fisher Price was a division of the Quaker Oats Company in 1983. That fact is on the plastic pieces as well as all over the handbook. They wanted to make sure that we knew that the Quakers were selling these looms I guess.

I'm pretty psyched about this new little endeavor. I'm cutting up clothes tomorrow to make a woven rag rug. Yea!

The Art that Gave Birth to Boxing Day

I listed a copy of the art that gave birth to my shop Boxing Day this morning.

I plan to sell some prints of the art piece too at some point... but for now, a big magnet is my homemade version.

A few months ago, I was so afraid when I thought about opening my shop. I didn't trust myself. Even though all the signs were pointing to open the damn thing already, I still felt fearful and worried and all those good things we do as human animals.

So what does an artist do when things are confusing or scary? They make art! I worked in collage which is something I rarely do. And I used words which again is something I rarely do.

Explore for yourself here!

What else is going on in my world? Thank you for asking!

The usual crazy recycling insanity abounds! My dear friend Buzz gave me seventeen of these plastic containers and I am going to turn some of them into yarn homes for knitters. I think they will be awesome. Thanks, Buzz!

Listen for the tune "Goin' to the Chapel"

Eatin' a big tub of yogurt,
Givin' the container to Kelly.
Eatin' a big tub of yogurt,
Givin' the container to Kelly!

She'll turn it in to a yarn home,
Sell it on her Etsy site,
A big yarn home filled with love!

Stay tuned for the next episode where I talk about the musical I want to write every year after watching the Tony Awards!