Party Day!

Group photo with our 3D glasses on! Our lively local artfest group loves to celebrate Birthdays. Today we had 4 birthday girls, Patti, Colleen,Maren, and Cindy. Patti provided us with a delicious lunch of gourmet macaroni and a light salad topped with pomegranate seeds.
Lots of presents and wonderful party favors and ornaments for everyone! Our party theme was the 50's and we had saddle shoes, charm bracelets, blue jeans, and pony tails.Colleen made delicious peanut butter chocolate cupckes for dessert.
I love this paper angel with glittery wings on Penny's gift.


Patti's wonderful rock fireplace. She designed her art and basket filled home that is one block from the "World's Safest Beach" in Carpinteria.

Syd in her new Beatnik look!
Fun party favors!

Party girl Colleen with crown opens a present.

What I've been up to...

Over the Holiday break I managed to get a few things done. I made a little banner for my friend Maren for her birthday out of antique fabrics. I even made some yo yo's for decoration following Heather Bailey's blog directions which made them very easy! Made another hooked squirrel and a little house ornament for another birthday gift for a friend who is house hunting....now to work on a few Christmas orders that came out of Syd's show.....

Window of Lewis and Clark's...

Another view of this fun store....

Lewis and Clark...side window

The figure on the left is a sculpture and the man on the right is "real".....I thought it made kind of a cute photo!

Lewis and Clark's on State St...Santa Barbara...

Here are some photos of one of my favorite stores in downtown Santa Barbara...Lewis and Clark...they have the most magical stuff at Christmas...many wonderful ornaments and fun European things.....

New Owl and Rabbit ...

my latest hooked creatures hanging out in the garden.
If you are interested in learning how to Rug Hook there are good instructions in the Rug Hooking Magazine. Another way to go is to take a Workshop. Two of my favorite teachers are Deanne Fitzpatrick www.hookingrugs.com and Karen Kahle www.primitivespiritrugs.com and there are many other wonderful teachers out there. Next year I will be teaching a fun rug hooking project at ArtFiberFest in Washington State, check out www.teeshamoore.com in Oct. 2007. Beginners welcome!

Funky doll from Recycled sweater material

Here's the doll I made this week at the Fibre Arts Design Studio from an original design by Crispina Ffrench....I love her stuff...

Some decorations for the Thanksgiving Table

Here are a few fun things that will go on the Thanksgiving Table this year. Thrift store finds: turkey salt and pepper shakers! 4 See's candy chocolate turkeys! I used to get one for each boy and kept asking for a bite, so this year we each get our own! My new Bear shakers and a turkey candle from Pottery Barn....what else can I come up with? Maybe some red and white mushrooms, pinecones, and squash candles from last year. (And a gnome or two!)

More fun things from Target...

Every year I get my boys a new ornament for our tree...thought these birds were pretty nice and only $4.99!

Loved these little ornaments, I guess they are little smowman faces...

Chubbie bears salt and pepper shakers....

Love these little mittens! They look easy to make. Another use for my felted sweater stash!
Knitted candle holders!????


Saw these cute bear salt and pepper shakers at Anthropologie and thought I needed them for Thanksgiving! Also loved these file folders with the birds...too hard to pass up!
Lots of fun ornaments, mittens, stockings, owls, squirrels and birds and lots of things made with yarn...the knitted candle holders seemed a bit much though....

Some fun stuff from Target...

Close up of Bird card...my favorite!














Pam G.http://pamgarrison.typepad.com/
got me all worried that all the good stuff for Christmas might go fast at Target so I buzzed over there while in Ventura to take a look. They did have lots of fun stuff....not all the things that I saw on her Blog but enough to get myself into some trouble! These fun felted ornaments were only $1.oo! and I love this little set of 3 notecards.

Felted wool doll made by Emilia at the Fibre arts studio

This wooly doll came out great! We had 4 students make these fun felted sweater dolls. They took 2 hours plus another visit to complete. I still have to finish mine.

Dolls and squirrels...

Brand new Squirrel that I just finished!
This is the recycled sweater doll that we worked on in class on Thursday. We almost completed them but needed a little more time to put them all together.
Here are a few dolls on display at the Studio...2 of mine on the left and 2 of syd's on the right....

Little woven purse from Easy Weaving class

Last week I taught the Easy Weaving class. We used little cardboard looms and lots of fun yarns and fabric and ribbons to weave a small bag. This wonderful one was made by Mary who owns a yarn store.She also used some of her hand painted fabric left over from another weaving project...and I love how she finished off the top edge with a ribbon binding.
Her friend Annie, told me that she had made 4 more bags since the class last week! They really are fun and go quickly once you get the hang of it....it is woven in a "tube"...you just go around and around the carboard, over and under, over and under the warp....

Rug hooking class at the Fibre Arts Design Studio

On Tuesday I taught a workshop on rug hooking using recycled wool at the Fibre Arts Design Studio in Ojai. Here we have Susie, an art quilter, Patty, knitting teacher, Annie, doll maker, and Mary, who owns a wonderful yarn store and teaches knitting as well. A talented group of ladies and off to a good start on their hooking projects.

Owls in flight...

These 3 owls are on their way to Teesha!

Fun stuff from Syd and now in my collection!

Syd's "Bird Queen".....


and wall piece called "Goose Home"...

Queen of Arts...

Some of my hooked creatures and beaded silk heart pins....
Georganne's kimono purses and Penny' necklaces..
Syd's 3 D fabric collage pillow...
cool necklaces.. by Janet Stevenson
Mexican folk art turkeys from Coleen...


Nancy Garvin's needle felted match boxes.

Here's Syd!

Syd in front of her paintings and wall pieces...she had lots of cool stuff...books, dolls, cards, prints, paintings, collages and assemblages. She even wore her Gold crocs for the opening night party.How does she make all that stuff!!!??

More of the Queen of Arts show...

We all had a great weekend at the Queen of Arts show put on by the Queen herself, Syd McCutcheon. Many beautiful and fun things all made by local artists. We all had great sales...Friday evening being the best and busiest for shoppers. I wish that I had made twice what I had...I sold all my hooked items, except one lone hanging heart. Still have some winged heart pins and have some special orders to fill from the show....
I shared a table with my fellow hooker Penny McCall, who also makes wonderful jewelry (and bookarts, ATC's, and photographs and has the most incredible home)... Penny helped get everything set up and looking nice and even raised a few prices for me.Thanks, Penny!

I had fun shopping on Friday and Sunday, gifts for friends, relatives and ME! I got one of Syd's paintings of a funky bird lady with high heels...called Bird Queen and a little wall piece called Goose Home. I also purchased one of Georganne Alex's incredible woven Indigo silk purses...her work is so beautiful...exquisitely made and the colors subtle but sophisticated. She got one of my hooked crows and a heart pin and she promised to give me some of her silk kimono scraps to play with.
I had to have several of Coleen Darling's Mexican folk art turkeys and several of the wonderful Panamanian crocheted bags for gifts, if I can part with them. And Cindy Knight's glittery ornaments are way too hard to pass up...as well as her magical pins and Christmas decorations..I got a snowman and several glittery mushrooms. Sue had her needle felted sachets and they went fast (I have one on order) and Fran's needle felted pillows and bed runners flew out of the show on Friday...I managed to get one of her pillows...and wished I had gotten another one...
Carol Kemp had her books, collages and cards in a colorful display and I got to play with her sweet daughter, Ruth and look around the Elverhoj Museum with her....we got to eat homemade cookies together too.
Susan Halme had her collages and paintings with their great colors artfully hung by the stairs where I got to see them all during the show. She popped in on Sunday after a trip to Florida to see family and did some quick shopping. Barbara Carr made lovely muted colored silk and wool felted scarves that all but one found new homes.
There were lots more great artists and fun things....I think we had about 35 artists this year...Syd knows the facts....but this is the best art show in town!

First day of the Queen of Arts show was busy and wonderful. Many friends came by and supported their local artists. Lots of great appetizers and the setting was fun in the Elverhoj Museum, a older Danish home in Solvang. A few more quick photos....That's Shari Beaubien above with me, who came by with her very patient and sweet husband, Steve. I'm sure she will join us next year and sell her beautiful collages at the Show.

Queen of Arts Show..a few photos...

Off to Solvang for the Queen of Arts Show!

Packing the car and off we go to the first day of the Queen of Arts show...here are some of the things I am selling today.
There will lots of fun things to see and BUY! I'll try and get some photos of the cool things that are for sale...

Wed. ATC group meeting at the Good Cup Cafe..

Our lively group met this Wed. evening for our monthly ATC exchange. Always a fun gathering with new people each time. Two of the members are former art teachers from my son's elementary school.....a few of the ATC's are pictured above.

Hooked house and tea or coffee cup....

just finished these two stuffed items for this weekend in Solvang....