Look What I Won!

I entered the Threads Magazine (website) book giveaway last month and I was one of two winners!  Now I can't say I never win anything.

Stitch-Opedia looks like it will be a great reference tool.  They also have some projects you can do.

 I was hoping to get some ideas and also (new to me) techniques to apply to the jacket I'm embellishing.  I've only done a little bit of embroidery before so this should help me allot!  I only have one other embroidery book and it's been packed away.  Right now I'm almost done with the blanket stitches around the edges and collar.  I wanted to embellish the pockets, too with some type of flower design.

Here's the content page:

They include some history of the different techniques included in the book.  Throughout the ages they sure did some beautiful work!

I always liked stumpwork (padded applique) but I didn't know that that is what it's called until I got this book.  I did a wall hanging in high school where I batik dyed the fabric and did some embroidery and stumpwork on it.  Wish I still had it; I probably sold it at a garage sale!

This pic isn't in focus, sorry.  Wow, such tedious tiny stitches.

Amazing what artisans do with fabric, a needle and some thread!

That's all for now...

My DHL Birthday Day

Gosh, I've been busy!  It was my b-day last week and it was nice turning 29 again.  Actually the age I liked was about 35 or so really.  No aches or pains, energy at the end of the day, still had more than half my life to  live!  No more diapers, the kids old enough to talk in full sentences, able to get some food on their own and I just had to tell 'em to, "grab a sweatshirt, use the bathroom and grab a snack if you want" before going someplace.  No more carrying around everything except the kitchen sink!  Remember cutting up your kids meat?  Keeping their food separate and not touching each other?  Those days are over but there is always challenges in young adulthood and you never really "outgrow" your need to connect with your parents at any age.  When they are no longer "earthbound" we connect with them through our memories of 'em. 

I didn't do anything special as far as b-days go, a regular workday except we did go to a DHL (international shipping company) open house at the Los Angeles airport DHL terminal in the morning.  It was like continuing education really.  US Customs spoke about the fake trademarked merchandise that they stop from illegally coming into our country.  They look for obvious things like the name spelled wrong for instance.  They showed us a fake Louis Vuitton purse that had this thin layer of brown plastic with little designs similar to the trademark but not close enough to keep from coming in but when they did a closer inspection, the layer could easily be removed to show the counterfeit real looking LV purse underneath.  Those clever bad guys!

We got to go into one of their cargo planes a Boeing 767 and see the sort facility, all their offices; boy, it sure takes allot of people to move goods around our spinning ball we live on.

A knowledgable DHL staff member told us that this is the historic building they used as the set for the airport (in Cuba) for the movie Casablanca.

They even fed us lunch and gave us a goody bag!


















Just what I needed, a new truck and airplane!

I use DHL exclusively for international shipments.  They're good, fast and have been doing it longer than either UPS or FEDEX.  They also have a larger fleet and are better known in other countries, kinda like we think of UPS and FEDEX here in the US.

Thanks for stoppin' by!

A Girl Her Dog and Her Wagon

If you click on it you can see a bigger picture!

Here is a collage of a collage that I made back in college.  It was supposed to be a piece using ink and pencil and only done in black, white and mid-tones (gray).  We were to find things in life we liked, loved or had affinity for.  We were also to include a silhouette of ourselves somewhere in the picture.  We were to write about what was happening in our life at the time we were making the piece (writing is at the bottom).

When I got this out of storage and read the writings it totally brought me back to that time in my life; it was a mini diary of snapshot in time.  I had gone back to school after getting divorced from my children's father.  Yes, I was a starving student and had a starving artist boyfriend, too.  It is amazing what you can do without much money really.  Museums usually have one free day a month to visit and the student ID helped, too.  There was the library and parks; picnic lunches or cheap fast food.  With not much help from the ex there was bitterness and resentment.  What balanced it was to create art.  My escape from the cruel economics of life.

The pen and ink outlines are taken from a vintage photo of a girl, dog and wagon that overturned spilling out flowers.  Then I added a rose, a songbird and an outline of a winter barren tree, 3 things I love.  The photo I chose reminded me of both my younger sis and my daughter when they were little with our family dogs.  What kid doesn't have fond memories of their dog & wagon? 

We never lived together but the boyfriend was talented, funny and romantic and we had a great time doing artsy-fartsy stuff together.  We went to art gallery openings, traveled up the pacific coast to draw and paint; he lived in San Luis Obispo for awhile, I'd go to visit and almost moved up there with my kids but after a couple of years or so I figured he was never going to settle down or ever have a pot to ....you know...#$!@ in.  I had two kids whose needs grew, like $ for college soon, etc.  The relationship took it's course and he took it harder than me but we moved on. 

More art from my "Bohemian" past life in the days to come!
Hope you're enjoying today.

New Crochet Book

I decided that I needed to decide on a border for my afghan or it will never get finished.  So I got this book, Around the Corner Crochet Borders and... I got lured in by the pretty cover.  Yes, there really are 150 different borders in it, (unlike some crochet books that say there is allot of patterns but then you find the only bit of difference is using different colors together).  It also has the corners all figured out so your blanket will lie flat.  I think that every crocheted creation needs to have a complimentary border be it simple or extravagant depending on what it is.  Ya know, so it's finished looking.  This book had great reviews so I went and got it.  It's just what I needed.  I've had fun with this book, practicing a few borders.  Originally, I just wanted to use white but now I may use some color in the border as well.

I like these two.   The one above, the row with the pink almost looks like rosebuds.  There are quite a few in the book that would go great on the edge of the 'ghan but I don't want to do too many rows or it may seem like it will never be done.

This one is just so "cutsie cute" but I love it because I'm such a flower freak.  I think I'm going to make something just so I can use this border.  It won't look right on the blanket though.  First I have to finish the scarf then the hat, then while working on the blanket I can start another project, one that is smaller and portable.

Guess I'd better head on home since I found a little critter trying to make his way into my shop this morning and he must be hungry by now.  Why he was there in a parking lot with no foliage around he must've been lost!

Then I got my watering can and scooped him up and I told him he wouldn't find any food in my shop and that I was going to take him home and put him in my new garden.  He hasn't eaten all day, poor guy.  He looks big in the pic but he is only 2 1/2" or so to the end of his tiny tail.  If you grew up with 5 brothers then you wouldn't be afraid of lizards.  I never liked their pet snakes though.  Lizards and frogs, ok.  Lizards will eat lotsa bugs in your garden, nature at her finest.

Hope you are having a wonderful Friday night!

Punchinello Says Hello

I made this hand puppet several years ago for my sculpture project in college.  I hand sculpted his head and hands out of paper mache and then painted him with acrylic paint.  I hand made his gold beads; designed and sewed his costume.  From the top of his hat to the bottom of his clothing is about 18".  His poor collar is very distorted from being packed away in storage.  It was made with gold wired edged fabric ribbon.  Awhile back when I was re-packing items getting prepared for moving, I took pictures of some art I created to send to my pen-pal in Nova Scotia, Canada.  These pix were taken quickly before packing them away again.

Remember Punch and Judy?  How Punch had a stick and wailed on Judy or threatened her?  Well, he was a modern version of this old Italian clown.

A bit of history for ya: 
Pulcinella, often called Punch or Punchinello in English, Polichinelle in French, is a classical character that originated in the Commedia dell'arte of the 17th century in Italy and became a stock character in puppetry. His main characteristic, from which he acquired his name, is his extremely long nose, which resembles a beak. In Latin, this was a pullus gallinaceus, which led to the word "Pulliciniello" and "Pulcinella", related to the Italian pulcino or chick.  End of history lesson!

He used to have a big box that was his stage that I made out of a cardboard box and covered with striped purple and lavender wallpaper and made fabric side curtains.  That is long gone and I don't have a picture of it, sorry.  He looked rather cute hanging out in his box/stage.

My son who was young and in grade school at the time thought he was scary.

I think I got an "A" grade on it.

Thanks for stopping by!

Guess What This Is!

Hi, Can you guess what this is or what it's for?

Hint: It turns something on...

Yup, it's a knob.  But, what does it turn on?

Guess what it is yet?  Hint: It cools you off...

Try to guess...















Scroll down a bit more to see what it is...

IT'S MY FAN!

Many moons ago I purchased 2 of these.  One for home and one for the shop.  Last year while bringing the shop fan home the knob got lost (I think it is somewhere in the old van).  So instead of getting rid of it or using a pliers to turn it on on and off I made a knob out of polymer clay.  I used the German brand called Fimo.  I got the kind with sparkles in it just for fun.  I molded it by hand and made sure it fit in the metal shaft and then baked it in the oven until hard.  The cool thing about this clay is that it doesn't really shrink.  Years ago I made jewelry with this type of clay and so was familiar enough with it to make a utilitarian object out of it.  It works really well.

Now, I think my knob is cuter than the original that looked like this:

         What do you think?

OK, I'm off to plant these in the side yard where it's shady and empty since I stole the plants from there to go in the front garden because they needed more sun. BUT before I do that I need to pick up a few yummies from the market.

To leave you with a little pretty, here is a pic of my new Geranium plant I got for myself on Mother's Day.

ENJOY!

Desk Chair Arm Covers

I started these a few months ago.  I got a remnant piece of fabric, a patterned cotton denim to make covers for my poor desk chair at work.  Lord knows that I sit too much in the darn thing and I'm wearing it out.  I finally finished 'em the other day.  Just have so many projects to finish up it felt good to get this one outta the way!

It's amazing what light does to picture taking.  The fabric is more true to it's color taken in the first and second photos above.  The last pic is taken in florescent light.  It isn't that bright blue and there isn't as much contrast to the chair fabric in the last pic, weird.

I wrapped up a few wedding gifts for a customer yesterday.  Mickey Mouse popcorn maker, how cute!  I hand make almost all the bows here at my shop.

I haven't made that much progress on my crochet scarf with all the garden and refinishing love that's been going on in my free time.

If you wanta see a cute crocheted cozy go to the crochet along here.  It's amazing what people can do with yarn.  Hope you're having a sunny warm (not hot) summer day, enjoy!