Spring Fever?

My window Geranium in bud. I keep geraniums and flowering cactus blooming in my kitchen window all year round. About this time of year, I snip cuttings from the geranium and pot them up for outdoor use. My darkest fushia geranium *bit the dust* last year so I will be looking to replace it this season.

After my exuberant post of yesterday---- my dizziness became nausea and then chills and then I had to cancel a planned dinner with a delightful friend and I spent the evening sleeping/ eating frozen juice bars/ drinking liquids/ in case I was dehydrated. I woke with almost normal equilibrium but tired. I don't think I will go to the library to shelve books, lest I fall over, with eyes spinning in my head. Spring fever?

Today is even nicer than yesterday. Instead of a ride in the car, top down, --I think I will sit on the back porch, in the sun and close my eyes and recharge my internal batteries. I am tired.

Wednesday! Died And Gone To Heaven Day!

It's March and this is Maine! There is no snow on the ground and things are blooming in my yard. I could have gotten a better picture, if I had laid down on the ground--but I won't do that.

I drove with the top down and the sun on my face and the wind blowing through my new and very nice haircut. It's March! It's Maine! I never get to put the top down until late April, and that's a good year. This is a FABULOUS YEAR! It's 60 degrees or more!

I LOVE driving with the top down. I LOVE that car which is almost 8 years old. I LOVE the red nail color on my nails--Kennebunkport. I love TJ Maxx where I found wonderful SOCKS today and two new linen shirts. Beige (at least it's not white) and a pretty blue. Would have been perfect if it had been an aqua blue. And a neat picture of Cherries. Not my usual *Bowl of Cherries* picture but it's real pretty. I also bought some London Cuppa tea bags and they are LOADED with caffeine---can you tell??? I don't usually have any caffeine and the inside of my head is swirling.

I'm going to open windows and air out the house and while it's airing, I'm going to lay down till the caffeine stops swirling. Tomorrow is going to be nice. I'll be driving. See you when it clouds up. I'm SO happy!!!!

Finally, Some Work!

Mercury is no longer in retrograde and I will be able to do some work again. Mercury rules my sign Virgo and things get a bit weird during this retrograde thing. I have JUST noticed that my picture is blurry. It wasn't when I took it but some buttons got pushed on the camera and I must have done something to distort it. Darn! As you can (almost) see--the contast control in my brain still is not functioning correctly. Still having trouble with the lights and darks but no trouble picking out mediums.

Close up of in focus tulips. These are NEVER a problem for me to make--and today I had many moments of hesitation. I did get the piece done, quilted and ready to be---well, not ready to be anything. I could use it as my *bowl of the month* for March. I'll try and get a better picture installed tomorrow. I love that ring fabric in the background. Wonder where it came from? Notice the fabric from "orange" in the bowl? That's the last of it--- "orange" you glad?

House Before Heart

"The moments of greatest frustration, signal breakthroughs in learning and seeing. It's important to stay with it--not abandon the work--but to keep pushing through." This is what I am going through and why my posts contain no new art. I am pushing through. It is hard work.

"Also, we have the importance of making a mess in order to do anything well--we must be willing to do it poorly." For a Virgo, who lives a life of "perfection", this is some of the hardest work of all. Doing something poorly. I usually avoid doing anything I have done poorly. Math. The sewing of clothing. Cutting my own hair. Driving.

Today I am "pushing my house through" and cleaning all the floors and bathrooms, turning the mattress, putting on clean sheets and putting away any piles of things I find. Tomorrow,-- my heart.

Every Wall Has A Gate

Last week I took Keri Smith's advice and turned a Mason Jar into my very own Wish Jar. After making the jar, I had to write dreams and wishes on slips of paper and slide them into the jar. Keri says they will come true. One already did. I wished I had red shoes. I went to the store to buy the brown Dansk clogs advertised in the paper. And when I got there--they had red ones. Now I have red ones.

When in doubt as to how to continue--iron. I ironed all my most favorite shirts this afternoon. Can you see a color trend? White and pale pink. The last shirt to the right is periwinkle. Lovely.

New toys. Water soluable oil pastels, watercolors and watercolor pencils. I won't show you my first work with these items. It's awful. I was going to do stuff in my new wire bound journal with these materials but have changed my mind. I like writing on smooth silky paper so I will continue with the big plain blank books I get at Border's books for $7.99. They used to come in a variety of cover colors but now they are only in black. The spine is bound just like a book. Make sure you don't get one with lines! The paper is smooth and white and 8.5 by 11 inches.

I discovered the drawing and painting function on the Mac was hidden in Appleworks. I thought that was only word processing and spreadsheets but you can draw and paint also. Instead of having just red shoes--I ended up with a red page. I didn't have time to fix it--library work again! Three times this week and next week--four times. Ugh! I'm training three new volunteers next week. As a volunteer myself. I'm such a good person. A tired, good person.

Pictures Without Flash!

My morning space. Where I write in my journal, eat my breakfast, read the mail, make collages and this morning learn how to get the camera to take pictures without the flash. Notice the tiny garbage can? My husband brought that home for me. Notice all the piles of stuff? there are more over to the right. Thank goodness I don't have panorama. Notice the journal---almost to the last pages.

Two of my favorite tools on my workroom table. Also no flash. This is such a memorable moment.

See how dark it really is. No bounce back light making the blue all light denim. I got home from the library yesterday feeling like an "old woman". My hip hurt. My head hurt. I was so tired. I climbed into bed and just lay there till I felt more human. Then I got up and made dinner and watched tv and read a book.

Here's orange without a flash. With two auditioning borders and a big white dot. Dot is not staying but I wanted to see what it looked like with a BIG focal point. I'm happier with the color of these pictures.

I am SO happy I don't own, use or want to use WU! What you all are going through with this crappy product is beyond belief. I will stick (ha) with my bottle of white glue.

One Thing At A Time

I investigated my limited iphoto tools. I can go to black and white, do brightness and contrast and red-eye. No neat photoshop elements like posterization or vectorization.

This is the orange quilt in black and white. If you click on it, you can see that there actually is a depth of field to the painted surface and the new lines with dark dots has in fact made a difference. The white painted circles (this was actually a circle stamp) still dominate rather than help. I like the piece and hope that I will think of some small inprovement that will "do the trick" and bring it around.

The other, planetary quilt, will be having some of the borders removed--replaced?? Don't know yet and the planets will be stitched down. I am quite interested in the timtex shaped border on the edge a la Sonji. I do have to enter the library once again to shelve non-fiction for 3 hours but as soon as that is done---I will return to my studio and work, work, work.

I also plan to learn how to turn the flash off when I photograph my work. The flash is distorting the color and I'm giving you bad photos to look at and consider. I had not even thought about turning it off. Sometimes. I. Wonder. About. My. Thinking. Processes.

It took me a while to learn how to delete. To download to the computer. To upload to the blog. I am a pencil and paper girl. No techno whiz. I still think I'll get a written letter in the mail. Geez!

In Progress- Failure Ahead

The work I mentioned doing yesterday. Now I have pieced (ugh) the whole thing and cut the painted planets out and placed them on the surface. I don't particularly like the border on the far left. Will take it off. I guess I have to replace it with something so the whole thing doesn't pitch to the right. I think the top border will look better when the left one is darker. Now that the center planet is larger the composition works better. I may or may not repaint the planet on a new piece of muslin. This whole thing is much darker than the photo shows as the flash lightens everything with the bounce back light. I've almost come to the conclusion that anything I make this month will be a failure. Mercury in retrograde. Please stop!

I Crossed My Fingers--And It Worked!!!

Another collage exercise from my workshop. We took two postcards and cut them up--I sliced again because I like that effect--and then reassembled. I use this technique with fabric. I lay two pieces right side up and cut and then reassemble. Sometimes I add a third and fourth fabric and cut the opposite way. Makes wonderful backgrounds. Very complicated looking, lots of depth. And it's piecing. Something I try not to do much of.

I went to the sketchbook for help with the Planetary Motion II project. This a a watercolor sketch I made instead of doing my morning journal page. That was hours ago and since then I have pieced a new background and borders from commercial cotton and cut the painted planets out and appliqued them to this new surface. I still have some problems with one border ( doesn't go with everything else) and with the size of the center planet. I also don't know if I want to add the fourth small red starburst planet. Not being able to upload my pictures was so frustrating that I just started cutting and sewing to calm down and maybe that was a good thing?

I have been writing in my journal everyday between 10 am and noon. The writing has been going smoothly and it seems to clear my head for the day. I had read other blogger's comments that the "morning pages" sometimes were mostly whining. I have been lucky in that I have been writing about how to solve problems I have with my work. Just laying out the problem in words, not trying for an answer, has taken away a lot of the pressure I was feeling. I haven't been very productive this month in any medium other than shopping. Books, paints, aluminum tape and journals.

Oddly, the writing of the morning page (only one) in my journal has curtailed my obsessive need (it seems) to post to my blog. Not that I would ever stop posting. I love connecting with people who are so creative, funny and real. But it's not my only method of communicating now. Writing in my journal, doodling or collaging always makes me smile. Reading your blogs can make me LOL. Not bad.

The Document Contains No Data

I have two sort of nice pictures that I wanted to upload but Blogger is having growing pains again and doesn't want to do it. I will try again later.

Pages From The "Missing" Journal

Last March, I took a collage weekend workshop with Natasha Kempers-Cullen. I purchased a new journal for the class with a wire spine--so it would open flat and be good for paper collage. And then I lost it. Here it is again. And I just purchased a new one to replace it. Funny how that happens. Lost, then found. For the above collage, we took two postcards and were to do whatever we wanted to make one of them "disappear".

This collage used five colors--yes, there are five---in a collage. This is fun to do. Go through a magazine and rip out things in your pre-selected color palette. You could even have baggies with pieces of the same color grouped together. A bag of orange "good stuff", one of red, etc.

This last one--I don't remember making. All eyes. I chose to post this one because a comment I made about contestants on television shows not knowing how to do what they signed on to do. Chef wannabe's not knowing more than technique--and the food doesn't taste good or look good as an example. Made me remember my very first job--at 16. Sales clerk at a big department store.

I worked one or two evenings and on Saturday. They had strict child-labor laws then. Each evening when I reported for work I would be assigned a different department. The first time I was embarrassed to be myself was when I was assigned to the glove counter. ( How many of you even remember a time when they had a "glove counter") I had a customer ask for black kid gloves. I tried to send her to the children's department. She stared at me like I'd just fallen off the turnip wagon. It goes without saying, that we had no back-up or training.

The next time was when they assigned me to the window shade and paint department. I patiently told everyone who came by asking to have shades trimmed to size or paint mixed and shaken---"the machines are broken". I hadn't even been shown how to do the jobs.

The next most memorable "day at work" was when they placed me in the "Foundation" department. Girdles. A woman came in wanting me to sell her a Playtex girdle. I had actually had some girdle experience so this was a good start. We found exactly what she wanted but there was no price on the box. Or any other Playtex box. Or on any sign. My calls for assistance were ignored. All sales were made in each department. No computers--just a "punch the numbers in" cash register. This woman was desperate to purchase that girdle. So I looked around and found a girdle with similar features and announced the price.

My customer looked at me. Her mouth made a sort of "O" shape. She was taking shallow breaths. Finally, just as I thought she was going to pass out, she gasped, "I'll take two!" And I knew. The price was WAY TOO LOW. But a deal is a deal. I sold her two. She sped away. From that moment on, I sold almost every Playtex girdle I had in stock. I was VERY busy until closing time. My customer must have run to the first handy pay phone and called everyone she knew. I have no memory of any department store manager EVER asking me about this evening's sales.

The last but very best experience was in the Men's Department. I was real nice looking. I didn't think so at the time, but I have pictures and now, I know the truth. I was sort of Ava Gardner looking. I did very well in the Men's Department. Not with guys my age. With Men.
In fact, once I got to the Men's Department--they sent me there all the time. There was one tiny problem. The Men's Department was very close to the place where "athletic support" equipment was sold. The hapless teen age boy who had to ask ME! for help finding "his size" has probably NEVER recovered. It was memorable.

Journal Pages

I made these two tiny paper items last night. I had trimmed edges from pages ripped from a decorating book--nice heavy paper--and then absent-mindedly started folding them. They looked cute so then I wrapped and tied some left over perle cotton around them. I'm thinking of mounting them on some nice old-fashioned fabric with grommets.

These tiny pieces have got me thinking. I am creatively challenged more by waste than by full yardage of any material. I should be collecting my art materials from wastebaskets, dumpsters and trash heaps. Perhaps the recycling truck?

Wednesday Schmensday. Channeling Claudine Hellmuth. This was fun and I changed it around and used a collaged paper dress and drew the head on.

Now this was more fun. I had a copy of the magazine "Lucky" and clipped body-free clothes. These 80's Granny sweaters with the slip dresses and high heel shoes---what a "look"!!! A Granny Hooker. I think I just shipped the last of these ghastly sweaters to Goodwill.

Having worked two days at the library--and had my teeth cleaned---I'm going to just rest and play around with stuff today. Maybe even drive to Target. And Wendy's for a Taco Salad. So that's the plan.

The Cooking Show on Bravo was interesting. Again, we have people who don't seem to be able
to do the task in the show title. On Runway, they couldn't sew. On Top Chef, they don't seem to know how to cook. On Survivor, they don't have survival skills. I'm spotting a "trend".

Planetary Motion II- In progress

I painted the second planetary piece yesterday with Pebo fabric paints. The transparent ones good for light colored fabrics. I purchased 10 small jars in my usual color range. Not much paint in those jars. The blue looks much more vibrant in the picture than it does in person. I don't have enough paint to do the whole surface in undiluted Pebo. This is very diluted. While I was at work today, I got a chance to check out the first planetary quilt and there is a very deep blue--a navy--on that one. Some of the colors in the two are similar and some of the shapes. I did hand applique in the green areas last night. You can click on image to get a bigger view.

I did like the Pebo colors and the "hand" of the finished piece. The colors give the illusion of a dye painted surface--the white of the fabric shines through the transparent colors. So if I were to use it again I would need a large quantity of paint. Or I could just use it on smaller pieces. I have selected fabrics to border the painted piece. This will be larger than the first quilt but not more than 45 inches wide and about 60 inches long. I guess I should have posted a picture of the first one--but other than subject matter, they are nothing alike.

Deborah likes to see the journal pages. This is what I wrote this morning. I will do better with the posting tomorrow. Blogger wouldn't do more than say "This file has no data" this morning. Dentist tomorrow. Ugh.

How Long Do You Perform CPR?

I've been fiddling with this piece since midnight last night. It's been painted, covered with tulle, stitched, painted some more, had pieces removed, auditioned with buttons, had the sides cut off and now it has this black dotted fabric pinned to it and I am in "time out".

How long do you try to "save" it before declaring it "DEAD". Up close, it has some nice bits. Far way, it is oatmeal. Mushy. I'm having a bit of yogurt and fruit to give me strength to go back in and "do what needs doing".

I started with a low opinion. See what that gets you? Start with positive thoughts and things go much better. What about positive thoughts that happen midway? Can they do the job? I'm one of those people who believe that you can actually make a silk purse out of a pig's ear. It'll still smell like pig but it'll look pretty nice from far away.

This is when I wish you--yes, you reading this-- were nearby, and I could say-"get over here and look at this and tell the truth". I used to tell the truth all the time. But that can limit the number of social activities one gets invited to, so now I hedge my bets. A speck of truth with alot of nothing if my opinion is required by someone "touchy". "My, that's interesting!" is my favorite. So don't say that to me---I know *exactly* what it means!! " You made this?" is another but you have to get the verbal inflection just right. "Oh, my!" has been used to great success, also. LOL My family gets the plain, unvarnished truth. (Hi, Sam!)

Speaking of Sam. She and I had dinner last night and then went over to TJMaxx and looked at the most god-awful clothing we had ever seen there. We had time on our hands so we started "making outfits" and saying "Oh, this is nice together". LOL And then--- a customer walked by in a black net skirt with red shorts under it ( all peek-a-boo) and a purse that looked like a small pony saddle---no, really, it was shaped exactly like a saddle. She had on black tights under the red shorts and shiny red patent big clunky shoes. Her hair was dyed black and in ringlets and she had on red lipstick. The new fashion buyer for TJ Maxx???? Sam and I were mesmerized. I wanted to follow her around the store to see what she liked and bought. "Nice outfit!" Geez! But wherever she was--the aisle was crowded.

Reading Out Loud

Been altering photographs with sandpaper and paint (not photoshop) and having fun. I read two of my collage books. Alphabetica was okay but the layers of colors (paint) stamps, glued on stuff was just "too much". Looked like junk. The parts I liked were plainer--just one technique--calmer to the eye. There were some ideas to chase.

Keri Smith's book was fast. There are things I'd like to try. Not much meat on that book, though. That surprised me since her blog is very thought provoking.

Claudine Hellmuth's second book had good instructions for techniques and Claudine is one of those people who write and speak exactly the same. I have listened to her three podcasts and reading the book is like listening to her talk. I wonder if she records them and then has them typed up? Claudine's style is way too easy to copy and I must look away and not be tempted.

Danny Gregory's book will be returned to Amazon. Don't like it and don't want to have it around. That surprised me. I like to read his blog sometimes and expected - I don't know what, but didn't get it.

I made a shopping list after reading the first three books.
----I need to try inkjet printer transparencies to do image transfers.

----Adhesive aluminum duct tape. An old fashioned pattern transfer wheel to make interesting edge treatments on the aluminum tape.

----Sanding block for sanding photographs

----A few ink stamp pads. I have a permanent ink one. So my fingers are permanently inked. I need washable.

----Water-soluable oil pastels. I have chalk and oil (not water-friendly) pastels already and really don't like having to buy one more kind. And I may not. I'm not getting watercolor pencils either.

I guess I also need to start looking for flea markets to get good collage stuff. Old magazines, advertisements, photographs, doll house furniture, small toys.

I have a big bag of maps and travel books, a box of keys, cigar boxes, beads, earrings, a few marbles, some rubber bugs. I also have transisters and other parts from radios and clocks. Lots of wire, washers and stuff in my husband's workroom upstairs. I just have to remember to ask first. We've had "issues".

I am also asking myself if this interest in collage is a side street in Avoidance. I have work to do in fabric. I. Do. Not. Want. To. Do. It. I tried to con myself into doing a little "wastebasket" fabric piece today. Not happening. I did finish a lot of work this winter and shouldn't feel this much pressure. I do need a new quilt for the library and I guess that's what is bothering me. No pictures to show today. Maybe later.

Altered Pictures and Loot!!!

I have no idea who took this photo or why---so it was the perfect candidate for altering. I dipped it into lukewarm water, dabbed it dry and then sanded, rinsed and dried. I used my all purpose scrap of sandpaper from my "handygirl" drawer. I think I need to get one of those sanding blocks to use for this. Then I tried all sorts of things to color the picture and finally decided to read the instructions again. Watercolors. Worked great.

This a photo of my husband--remember I wrote about the cold Vermont Lake? This turned out really nice. I like all the colors in the background and the way the rowboat looks all sanded and lightly painted. I have a whole stack of strange photos to work on now. You'll be seeing them on Journal Pages.

Loot! A library patron brought these back from a visit to China. For Me!!!! Four dozen little, about the size of bottle caps, pictures of Mao. The edge of each is very sparkly gold. Last time this patron went to China he gave me some Chinese currency with Mao's picture. Now I really have to start getting my Mao quilt finished. Though------ I would love to sew these button/caps to a denim jacket and maybe applique a big picture of Mao to the back of the jacket embellished with lots of gold and glitter. Decisions.

More Loot! This was on the front porch when I got home from work. From Amazon! I ordered all this on Saturday afternoon and now it's here and I'm in HEAVEN!!! Collage with Claudine Hellmuth, Artist's Journals, Alphabetica, Danny Gregory's Creative License and Keri Smith's Living Out Loud. Where to start? Talk among yourselves, I'll be busy for awhile.

I Have Big Plans

Now that the Macaroni/Bowl is done I have decided on the second "bowl" project. These bowls are going to be a *play on words* type of thing. We had dinner Saturday at my husband's favorite restaurant. They have paper on the tables and each table gets a handful of crayons for doodling . So we started drawing "bowls". The waiter even got in on it with a fantastic idea- Skorpion Bowl. My college age children loved to have a skorpion bowl or two before a night of dancing. I think they may have outgrown it???

I love this Journal Page. I had a quilt and asked "what do I do" and got all sorts of help. Sonji was the best. She kept giving me ideas and then she would write "now I'll shut up". Then more ideas would come and "I'll really shut up now". Then more ideas. It was so much fun!!! I wrote it all down off the emails onto this journal page so I can always have it to remember. Thank you, Sonji!

So, now we come to the "Big Plans". I was re-reading my Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazines and found this article by Karen Michel on transforming photos. I've spent a good part of the day looking for candidate photos for alteration. I love what Karen did with a plain jane picture of a dog and I have this photo of my dear departed cat, Buzzer, to make into something "fab". The second candidate is a picture of my husband sitting in a rowboat on a cold lake in Vermont. Later that day the rowboat would get loose and he would have to actually get in the water and swim out to retrieve it. COLD! But he's still smiling and warm here. I have a handful of really bad photos to practice on. I hope it's fun. Anyone else try it already???

.....let's call it Macaroni!

My Macaroni/Bowl quilt is finished. I painted some bleached muslin or maybe PFD--it was just sitting there waiting for me to do something--and then cut it out into an elbow macaroni shape. Click for a bigger image and see the "delightful, hand embroidery" that "enhances" the macaroni-ness of the shape. I had fun making this and have TONS of ideas for more bowl quilts. I can't imagine anyone wanting to buy these--so I guess they will serve to amuse me. For those interested, this is 20 by 22 inches.

Our new Target opened this week. I may have already mentioned it. It's like all anyone can talk about in town. See how boring life could be? I've already been twice. My husband says the only good thing about the Target now being 5 minutes away and not 50 minutes, is that I can return stuff--by myself.

Polka dot sheets. Don't you just LOVE them? I love the colors and the shape of the dots. The sheets were made in Pakistan. All the cotton mills here in Maine are closed. Of course, Mainers want to be paid more than five dollars a week to make cloth.

Deborah always likes a nice "desk shot" to see what I'm really doing all day. I bought these little kid's art frames (Target) for a dollar each (China). They are cardboard wrapped in brown butcher paper. Very clean lines. I had some torn magazine images piled up waiting for me to carry them down to the big Sterlite box where the get sorted ( yah, right). So I trimmed some to fit in the frames. One of them is a photo of my own charming self, toddling around. The tiny white bowl is for tea bag disposal. I'm thinking I need to go get more little frames. Guess where?

An Email to Share--Enjoy

Where To Live After Retirement

As we all know, sometimes we come face to face with the fact that it may be time to relocate. The big question is: where to? Here are some tips.

You can live in Phoenix, Arizona where.....

1. You are willing to park 3 blocks away because you found shade.
2. You've experienced condensation on your butt from the hot water in the toilet bowl.
3. You can drive for 4 hours in one direction and never leave town.
4. You have over 100 recipes for Mexican food.
5. You know that "dry heat" is comparable to what hits you in the face when you open your oven door.
6. The 4 seasons are: tolerable, hot, really hot, and ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!!

You can Live in California where...

1. You make over $250,000 and you still can't afford to buy a house.
2. The fastest part of your commute is going down your driveway.
3. You know how to eat an artichoke.
4. You drive your rented Mercedes to your neighborhood block party.
5. When someone asks you how far something is, you tell them how long it will take to get there rather than how many miles away it is.

You can Live in New York City where...

1. You say "the city" and expect everyone to know you mean Manhattan.
2. You can get into a four-hour argument about how to get from Columbus Circle to Battery Park, but can't find Wisconsin on a map.
3.You think Central Park is "nature,"
4. You believe that being able to swear at ! people in their own language makes you multi-lingual.
5. You've worn out a car horn.
6. You think eye contact is an act of aggression.

You can Live in Maine where...

1. You only have four spices: salt, pepper, ketchup, and Tabasco.
2. Halloween costumes fit over parkas.
3. You can't get there from here is the most common answer when you ask for directions.
4. Sexy lingerie is anything flannel with less than eight buttons.
5. The four seasons are: winter, mud season, black flies, and road construction.

You can Live in the Deep South where...

1. You can rent a movie and buy bait in the same store.
2. "y'all" is singular and "all y'all" is plural.
3. "He needed killin' " is a valid defense.
4. Everyone has 2 first names: Billy Bob, Jimmy Bob, Mary Sue, Betty Jean, MARY BETH, etc.

You can live in Colorado where...

1. You carry your $3,000 mountain bike atop your $500 car.
2. You tell your husband to pick up Granola on his way home and he stops at the day care center.
3. A pass does not involve a football or dating.
4. The top of your head is bald, but you still have a pony tail.

You can live in the Midwest where...

1. You've never met any celebrities, but the mayor knows your name.
2. Your idea of a traffic jam is ten cars waiting to pass a tractor.
3. You have had to switch from "heat" to "A/C" on the same day.
4. You end sentences with a preposition: "Where's my coat at?"
5. When asked how your trip was to any exotic place, you say, "It was different!"

AND You can live in Florida where..

1. You eat dinner at 3:15 in the afternoon.
2. All purchases include a coupon of some kind -- even houses and cars.
3. Everyone can recommend an excellent dermatologist.
4. Road construction never ends anywhere in the state.
5. Cars in front of you are often driven by headless people.
6. The 4 seasons are: tolerable, hot, really hot, and snowbirds

The Not So Good Visit

Remember, a few months ago I mentioned painting an Angel for a friend at the library who was retiring? I never got a picture of said angel. It just so happened that SJ didn't like the rustic frame my husband made for the Angel and she returned the painting this week so we could remove the frame. I showed the Angel to the two art quilt ladies who visited yesterday. "A" did NOT like the "brown stuff" painted around the angel. Well. The angel has a drifty, misty look and I think that is how angels should look. The "brown" bits are parts of her wings, wrapped around her. Anyone else what to critique?

This little group of art quilters have been supportive to my work --in the past. One of them "B", the one who likes to try anything---liked the painted fabric. The other, "A" asked "do you plan to show us all of these?"---clearly not even wanting to have seen what I had already shown. "A" also has no fondness for "blogs". The quote marks don't do justice to the tone of her voice when she says "blogs". EEEw!

After all the cleaning and prep work I had done preparing for their visit--I was rather depressed when they left. Not the leaving. That they had been here. "A" made my interest in the blogs seem ridiculous and a waste of time. "A" even suggested that all my recent work had been made specifically to "feed" the blog. That really made me feel terrible.

"A" had recreated my mother's way of putting me down and demeaning everything I did as a child and young adult. No wonder I was depressed.

Today I plan on working on my Macaroni Dish quilt. I want to paint a large elbow macaroni and then cut it out and applique it *hovering* over the bowl on the quilt. Do some seed stitches along the edge. Can you just see "A"'s face when I described this?

Art Tour of My House

The framed "Christmas" Turnip ( remember, my husband got that for me for Christmas because he was tired of me painting the red pear). The Red Pear and below the two of them the tropical fruit of some kind. Don't they look nice?

An experiment in framing. This is my favorite tulip--14 inches square. Hard to sell. the potential art buyer doesn't know what to do with a piece of fabric that small. Potholder? Placemat? So, I had my framer mount the piece between two pieces of plexiglas. The wall color shows through as a matt of sorts. The back is clear so details of the quilting are available to the eye of the beholder. The double plexiglas also allows the viewer to see the depth of the quilted fabric. I think next time I'll have the clear *matt* be wider. Not cheap.

The fraternal twin pear watercolors looking very nice indeed even with the flash glare right between them. Below a watercolor, wet in wet, of two apples I did on a ski week vacation when we lived in Europe. Everyone in the family skied but me--and when they came home (to hotel) from the slopes each afternoon--it was into the shower and then a nap before dinner. I painted.

Sorry about the glare on the left side. This is the acrylic of the neighborhood with a McD's in it's midst. I like the way it turned out. There are penciled in details all round the houses and cars which are really quite nice. I painted the walls--a faux treatment.

Two of my wastebasket pieces in Pottery Barn hinged boxes. The boxes have padded backs so I can pin quilted pieces in --enjoy them a while and then change them out. These are in my bedroom. You could also make a collage type thing with photos and three dimensional stuff for holidays and anniversaries. May do that. Wastebasket pieces because I make them from selvages and scraps in my fabric wastebasket under my work table. I really enjoy making something from "waste".

And that concludes today's tour.