Fabrics

Two things to share on the fabric front... First, I wanted to note this Laurel Burch mermaid panel:




My friend Phyllis had sent me two or three of the companion fabrics, but they weren't even in my mind when I attended the Cleveland Sewing Expo. I found a booth of fabulous fabrics (the seller called them "strong flavored" fabrics) and one of the things included was this Laurel Burch mermaid. By purchasing 5/8 yard, you receive two full panels, rather like a wide border print. So...I bought 1 1/4 yard and have a total of four of these panels. Don't ask me why, I just knew I needed it.


I've also been looking for a jacket to replace my lightweight purple wool flannel that I gave to that woman at the bus stop. I haven't found anything like it, and when you consider that I bought it at least five years ago, that's not a surprise. I decided to make my own...and bought some yardage of wool felt online.




It wasn't enough to find just the right purple, I had to get a beautiful soft green, and some rose and some peach, just to be safe. Don't ask me safe from what. I see a new, boxy, flannel throw on in my future -- maybe two! The fabrics you see here are after prewashing and drying, thus the textural appearance. And the purple, being purple, looks a little bluer here than it really is. Even with my good light cube, I couldn't get the color quite right.


Incidentally, Phyllis and I have our own private little monthly "squishie swap," in which we share with the other bits of fabrics, doo-dads and embellishments. I'm sure she'll be getting one of the mermaid panels, but I don't know when. I already have her envelope packed for this month, and none of it is related to what you see here!

New jacket

My new sewing machine has triggered a lot of sewing, especially with the unfinished dolls I have lingering about...and they are all still unfinished. It's also renewed my interest in sewing clothing and bags for myself. I have stacks and stacks of coordinating fabrics that I keep switching around, hanging from the door, and other auditioning techniques.

So...I finished this jacket, made with a piece of upholstery material, and a piece of decor fabric that is fabulous! It's ultrasuede, embroidered with holographic sequins, and in my favorite aqua color.

This first photo is what Gerry calls my "dork pose." Isn't he sweet? Note the greenness around me...it's before the big Easter snow.



This shot of the back gives you a better idea of the embroidery and sequins on the ultrasuede. Too bad you can't see how glittery the sequins really are. I wore the jacket to work the other day, and was throwing rainbows and spots of light all around the office!

I love these colors...and you can see them in the banner above. The banner was done for me by my online friend, Linda Fleming. It's me! You can see more and order one for yourself, here:

http://customblogheadersandbanners.blogspot.com/

Happy Birthday, Daddy

If my father were still alive, he would turn 81 years old today. Amazing.

One of those unsung, silent, "Greatest Generation" people that Brokaw writes about, Daddy was at times challenging, at times unreasonable, but a father and grandfather who loved me and mine unconditionally. In retrospect, if I had lost both legs above the knee at the age of 19, in a war that didn't really end all wars after all, I would be far more unreasonable.

One of the images of him that stays most clearly in my mind is of him sitting in the yard in his wheelchair, watching the horses run in the pasture, no longer able to ride. He would shift and lean in his chair, and I know he was dreaming of the years he rode. Horses had been his passion since he was a young boy.

On Saturday mornings, he would wheel around the kitchen, heating coffee, whistling and singing, while my mother slept in. I loved lying in bed on those mornings, and listening to the soft noises filtering up from the kitchen. He was a lark, as am I.

Oh, how he loved his grandchildren. Each one was the most beautiful baby in the world to him, and he would tell me that their soft breath upon his neck was the most wonderful feeling ever. He was always eager to hold a baby, to cradle a toddler grandchild on his lap, or to sit on the floor with them as they clambered over his shoulders. I can still see him, talking to his sister on the telephone, and rhapsodizing about his grandchildren -- surely none had been as beautiful or accomplished.

This June will mark the 25th anniversary of his crossing over. I still miss him.

Donald James Kraemer
April 4, 1926 - June 5, 1982

Mushrooms

I want to tell a long story (surprise, surprise) that will end with the reason this post is titled "Mushrooms." I'm one of those people who has to give a whole lot of detail to get to the punchline, and I *will* get sidetracked.

My family loves to cook...and eat, of course.

I've been reminiscing lately about the amount of cooking that was done, by almost all members of the family, and how it extended down, through the lines, so to speak.

My parents were both from very large families, especially by today's standards. My mother was second to the eldest of 10 children, and my father was second to the youngest of 16! I have 50 first cousins. Even though I have just one brother, and he's six years younger than I, it seemed like we had a huge family, because so many of my mother's brothers and sisters came to visit every weekend. My youngest aunts and my uncle really feel more like older siblings than aunts and uncles.

Now, for you to really understand the story, I should be going into lots and lots of detail about the personalities of said uncle, aunts and cousins, and I should tell you that my mother cooked for everyone but cooked by the book, and dad was picky and didn't want his food to be combined or to touch, and I really need to explain that my uncle is some sort of cross between a master gardener and St. Francis of Assisi. He could identify any plant, tree or rock in nature, and he could talk to the animals. He could also fly his bed around the room, but that's also a story for another time.

And so then anyway (as daddy always said), this interesting uncle of mine could identify everything in nature, and he took us on nature walks, and we gathered and identified, and enjoyed every bit of it. We didn't go bowling on Saturday afternoons, we went to the gravel pit and found agates.

One of the things this uncle could do was identify wild mushrooms. He knew which ones were safe to eat. He doesn't live nearby any more and I wouldn't dare pick mushrooms on my own, so as I was braising those white (but fresh!) slices I bought at the grocery store the other day, I got to thinking about the fabulous batches of mushrooms we would pick, and how...as a young mother...I was occasionally lucky enough to take a batch home with me. I would braise them in butter and eat them all, all by myself, my entire lunch, while the babies were napping. Those mushrooms were delicious. Absolutely delicious.

Someday, I'll tell you about the aunt who can bake anything, and can recreate the long-lost family recipes, and repair the ones that people "share" but leave out crucial ingredients. I'll tell you about all the others, too, especially the cousin with the sophisticated palate and another aunt who reads cookbooks as though they are novels.

For now, I'll be grateful for the relatives who grew up with me, and for the relatives who cook, and for an appreciation of the simple things like wild mushrooms from the woods. But like all good baby boomers, this long-drawn out story will end...to be continued....

Shower Progress

This weekend, Gerry put the shower back together. He's been working slowly and steadily on the tiles, including sealing, highlighting, and taking great care with grout and caulk. Today he was finally able to put the shower doors back on, put the shower head, faucet and handle in place, and took a few pix. Bear in mind that this is just the shower area. We still have to paint the walls and ceiling, put the tiles on the floor, and put wainscot on the walls. It's hard to photograph with the glass doors on, but it still looks terrific.

Ahh...blessed Spring!

I've waited so long for spring. When Sunday dawned, clear and bright and warm, I just couldn't resist spending some time on the deck, feeling the sunshine on my face. A couple members of my peaceable kingdom appreciated the beautiful day, too.

Of course, one can't rest forever, and I decided that as much dog hair as possible ought to be left OUTSIDE. Maybe some of the birds will appreciate some soft nesting material. Murphy certainly seems to have plenty to spare. I'm not sure why Cosmo thought he should be in the midst of all those clumps. Believe it or not, that was just the beginning of culling Murphy's undercoat.


The ducks enjoyed the beautiful day, too. Aren't they pretty? I love when they get into the pond and tip their little bottoms up in the air, looking for goodies in the bottom of the pond.



This is the vision that first lured me outdoors. This little cluster of miniature crocus blooms right below the gas meter (an odd contrast -- the ugly and bulky gas meter and the beautiful little cluster of flowers). They looked so cheerful outside the kitchen door, I just had to grab a shot...and one thing led to another, and now I have about 40 shots of the yard and pond, and nothing has been planted yet! The iris and the daylilies have poked their hopeful first leaves through the surface, and there are actually buds visible on the hyacinth.Spring, my favorite season. To me, Spring is the epitomy of hope. That's probably the reason I'm a morning person -- all that possibility in front of you, all those new beginnings.

ATD (Artist Trading Dolls)

Sherry Goshon has started a new group called Artist Trading Dolls. It's a great idea...similar to paper dolls, but mixed media. Anything goes. We're starting out with a swap a month or so, and this month we had the option of two different templates. I chose a one-on-one swap, using the unusually shaped template that Sherry provided.

I already have a wonderful doll from my swap partner, Debb, but I'm not sure which of these will go to her.

Here's the first one. I've titled her: "Surgeon General's Warning: Excessive Self-Reinvention May Cause Enlarged Belly Button."



And this next one is called: "Jewels Fell From Her Lips, But She Had Chocolate in Her Heart."

Aren't these fun?

At least it's not a stork...

What's out on the chimney?

Did you put that up there?



Look, it moved! It's alive!


Yes, you are seeing what I saw around dinner time this evening. Gerry glanced out the deck door and thought the chimney didn't look right. As you can see through the blinds, there was something unusual going on atop the chimney.

We opened the blinds...and that's not a statue, it is live and real.

About a week ago, this pair of Canada geese showed up on the new pond. Gerry has named them Abigail & Rufus (Rufus built our house, which is a Century home), and they have made themselves quite at home! Here they are in a more "natural" setting:

Small Fun Figures

These three ladies are the small fun figures I'm submitting for the swap on the CPS list. I happen to be hosting this swap, so the ones made by the other 5 or 6 people will also come to me, and then I get to swap them out, and keep that post office busy once again.

The fun figures had to be no more that 5" long, and could be made of anything. I did mine with modeling compound on cardboard, painted with Lumiere, and embellished with beads, charms, and some molded faces. They were a lot of fun to do, but right now that new Viking sewing machine is calling my name, and I'm going back to sewing a jacket just for me!

Herbal Soap Swap

I am hosting an Herbal Soap Swap on the Soapnuts list. I've been a member there for nearly nine years, and am honored to be among some of the finest soapers in the country. For this swap, participants sent in increments of 6, up to 24 bars of soap. I ended up with 29 participants, plus myself. It is time to redistribute the soaps and ship them out to the participants, along with a booklet with information on the creators and the recipe for the soap they contributed.

My intention was to post a photo of all the soaps that came in to me, but it was just too overwhelming a task, and I was afraid I would disrupt my distribution shuffle, so....for the curious, here's a picture of all the boxes of soap, instead.

I will post later a photo of the soaps I kept myself, but it will only be 23 soaps, so it won't represent everyone in the swap, unfortunately. This was an absolutely amazing array of soaps, and my house smells heavenly!

Blog not Forgotten!

I'm here, I swear it. I've been feeling extra busy, extra pressured at work, so that doesn't help the creative time, plus I've had a flurry of special orders for soaps, gift baskets, custom labeled lotions, and so on. It's nice to be busy, but it does cut into the creative time.

A few days ago, Gerry began the upgrade of my computer to Windows Vista, which hasn't helped a thing. I'm hosting a soap swap, and while I've been trying to edit the booklet that gets sent to the participants, we've also been upgrading my video card, and trying to get all kinds of settings right to make our home network operate the way it used to. I was so frustrated Friday night, I went to bed with my computer discombobulated. Considering it has become my right arm AND my left, that's saying a lot about my frustration level.

Swap soaps have been coming in at a lively clip. What in the world did we do in the bad old days, before priority flat rate boxes? Do you know what a box of 24 soaps can weigh? Oh, how I wish we had scratch and sniff computer monitors...you should see and SMELL the glorious array of soaps passing through my hands.

We spent yesterday morning doing grout on the shower walls. We had lunch about 1:30, took Murphy for a medicated bath around 4:00, and never quite made it back to the bathroom. Gerry is out now, buying a new float for the grout. We more or less exhausted ourselves, and never quite made it back to finish OR clean up. Anyone who knows Gerry knows how out of character this is for him. True to form, doing a project in one small room has the ENTIRE house upset, and any housework appears to be for naught.

I like to post pix every time I post, but I don't have anything to share right now. That's a good indication of the distraction level around here, when I don't have any recent pix. Well, I do, but they are of snow, and I don't know about you, but I am SICK of snow and winter. I think the sun shines about every 17 days or so around here.

OK, enough whining! I am off to the soaproom, inspired by my glorious swappers!

Cosmo and the Light Cube

I know, I know...I've been yammering about this light tent a lot. I still have it set up in the guest bedroom, which is off the treehouse where I create. Today I was in the throes of auditioning fabrics...I have a jacket pattern I want to make for myself, but it's going to take 4 different fabrics, and I want it to be a little wild. Not a lot wild, just, well...different. Right now I have about six stacks of four fabrics laid out on the floor of the treehouse.

Cosmo likes to come upstairs when I'm in the treehouse. He thinks the peacock feathers I was given are his personal play toys. But today, as he slinked around upstairs, he spotted the light cube. He was so darn cute, I had to take his picture.

Here he is, sitting in the cube:


And here are a few more, which would be great if he could just sit still! Sorry about the cropped ears!

Late post -- completed RR

This is a picture I haven't posted here, and even though it is a round robin that completed several months ago, I think the doll merits posting. The very fact that a round robin completed and everyone in our group got our dolls back is a huge accomplishment. The last time I participated in a round robin, it was for a healing doll, and everyone in our group lost her doll...as far as we know, they are all bound and gagged in a garage in Canada.

But I digress, and I really don't want to be bitter about how that RR went, when this one was so successful. I sent the basic doll, done in that slinky, slippery, shiny peacock looking stretch fabric, made from a pattern done by Li Hertzi. Judi named her "Heart of Magic," and several other folks added on to her in the theme. I think she's absolutely glorious (although I have to admit that every so often I look at her and see John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever!) She is waiting to be suspended from the treehouse ceiling right now. You should see the traveling journal...it's magnificent, too.

Melting Snow

Lucky us! The temps hit near 40 yesterday and the snow did a lot of melting. I am so grateful for better temps and that feeling of hopefulness that comes with warmer weather.

Despite all that, this is still one of my favorite photos of Gerry with the snowblower. I'm such a Princess and the Pea person, and he's Superman. I couldn't stand to have this much snow on me, especially if any went down my neck. He just charges ahead and gets the job done. Can you tell I'm feeling very fortunate?

I have so many projects coming up! I'm hosting a "small fun figures" swap on one list, and an herbal soap swap on another. They both come to a head the same week. I'll have lots of pictures to post in March.

Last night I trimmed and polished the soaps I made for the herbal swap. It turned out a beautiful pale yellow, and I left bits of the infused geranium leaves in the base. Unfortunately, they darkened more than I would have liked. Still, the fragrance is one of my favorite personal blends...very green and sharp, with a hint of citrus. I thought my soap was cursed at first, but it turned out ok. It's a good thing I got the taxes mailed in yesterday, as I have a lot of participants in this swap, and there will be a booklet to put together and much sorting to do.

I heard from my daughter yesterday, and they've made some advances on the difficulties she was having getting Baby O to go to bed at night. I'm so pleased for the entire family, but I'm especially proud of my daughter. She is so thorough and determined about Baby O's care; I'm also pleased that they read to her all the time. She's 10 months old, and she's already turning the pages of the book when they read to her.

And in other good family news, Gerry was able to speak with his brother Sunday evening. His brother has been very ill since before Christmas, and the fact that they actually had a conversation Sunday night is a near miracle in my book. It's been a week filled with all kinds of news, most of it good!

Light Cube, part 2

Sorry to take so long to post an answer to those of you who have asked (below). We had a plow come down the street yesterday with the dump truck portion up, and it ripped out our phones and cable.

Anyway, for those who asked, the tabletop light cube set was not cheap, but it sure is a treat to have. He bought me the whole deal...a 30" light cube, a 12" light cube, two light fixtures on tripods, and an extra backdrop. You can see the set I got here:

http://store.tabletopstudio-store.com/30eztasttwol.html

This takes a lot of room. I have it set up on a card table, with the lights shining in from either side. It makes a huge difference in the way things photograph. I think I'll finally get some pictures taken of the soaps I have for sale, too. There are logs of other options at the Tabletop Studio Store. Click home and check the other things available.

It was odd to have no internet access for a couple of days. Everything that we wanted to look up, from an area code to the name of the man who built our house...it was all out there waiting and we couldn't get to it! Very strange. I did get a lot of extra housework done, though, and made a nice batch of soap in a two tone swirl. It's a new fragrance blend for me, and I'm not sure yet what I'm going to call it.

We've pretty much dug out-- we. Listen to me. Gerry has pretty much dug us out. He's a gem.