early birthday party and pin cushion exchange...

It's been a busy week....I had to appear for Jury duty all week and then finally today they told us that there would be no trial and we could go home. I had fun talking to some of my fellow possible jurors and watching how lawyers work within the judicial system....took me out of my little art world. On Wed. we had a great birthday lunch at a restaurant called Opal on State St. Delicious....and we shared desserts...my favorite one was a mixed berry creme brulee...Yum!
We did our pin cushion exchange...so many wonderful creations! Hope they all show up in the photo...and Syd and I got lots of really cool fat quarters of fabric...some even from Japan!!! Great cards, too! Thanks, everyone!!! I love my art buddies.
The Blog giveaway is still on until Sunday..so sign in if you haven't already....and many thanks to those of you who have made a comment...nice to hear from you all! The cat seems to be the most popular item so far...so I might actually get my ETSY store going...I just seem to have trouble getting the photos sized properly, etc...and I sort of gave up on it...but I'll try again...I have quite a few more cats in a basket that want new homes...

Big Blog Birthday Giveaway!!!!

Item # 1 : rug hooked wool heart..made especially for the giveaway....
Item # 2 : felted wool cat softie..this is a "lucky" black cat...
Item # 3 : Flying heart pin....beaded and embroidered stuffed silk heart with tin wings...

If you would like to enter the "Giveaway" all you have to do is leave your name on a comment with the item you would like to receive. On Feb. 3 (my birthday) I will have my son Justin draw a name for each item. I will post the winners and then you can send me your address....Open to blog readers everywhere in the world! One item per visitor......but you can put your name in for more than one item if you want... OK...you have a week...GO!

Stuffed chicken

I got the chicken stuffed and photographed before the big storm that is predicted comes rolling in. Brought in more fire wood just in case we get more snow. Finally started the pin cushion for Wed....using wool felt and getting ready to start embellishing it.
Hope to get my BLOG giveaway posted tomorrow so you all will have a week to sign up for a fiber freebie.

Funky Chicken

I needed to hook something besides crows so I came up with this hen.

Little Snowperson

Justin made this snowperson yesterday and I just had to take a photo before it completely melted away.

SNOW!!!

by the mailboxes....everything getting covered in white...
our neighbor's horse....
my poor succulents by the front door, covered with snow...

A cold front came down from the North and brought snow to the Central Coast of Calif! Justin slid down a hill on his boogie board and threw a few snowballs at me. Time to build a fire and get cozy!

What I've been working on...

Tiger on his favorite perch sending love your way!
Hooked crows...
folk angel rug hooking....12" x 15"
Fiber ATC for January....

Got these 2 crows hooked up...now to cut out and sew and stuff! And I re-worked this folk angel piece because I didn't like the border. Still not sure if I am "pleased" with it...but it is from 2004 and I think I'll just call it done.
And here is a fiber ATC for January for our calendar project. I decided to do each month's ATC in kimono fabric that I got at Art From Scrap. That way they will hopefully go together when I've made all 12. I am hoping to find little images on the fabric for each month....see the snowflake?
and some recent heart pins.... couldn't resist putting in the monthly cat photo of Tiger perched on his favorite napping spot and looking out the window at the birds.

My birthday boy...

My boys..Jason (4) and Justin (10 months) ..at the zoo...Iused this photo for our Christmas card..
And here is Travis, Jason, and Kevin....he's been friends with Kevin since they were 2 years old.

Our Jason turns 18 today! We used to have these big birthday parties for him with all the kids in the neighborhood and treasure hunts and pinatas. Now... we had his two best friends up to spend the night. I made hot chocolate with whipped cream and french toast for breakfast this morning and managed to take of photo before they took off down the mountain.
This summer after graduation the plan is to spend a month in Munich, Germany with Kevin's relatives, practice their German and have fun before starting college. He has his driving test coming up next week and the plan is for him to have the use of my 1998 Volvo XC station wagon.

who flew in....?

Look who arrived yesterday...an early birthday present from the incredibly creative Tara Ross.
This is Rose....a cool painted fabric doll, who will join her bird friend, another Tara creation.

And since I have a big birthday coming up this year...one of those ending in an "O"...(60 yikes!) I will be doing one of those Blog give aways....so stay tuned...I will have 3 items to send out to you..
need to take some photos first and figure out the details. And because I'm a February girl they will most likely have hearts involved....I'm thinking a flying heart pin, maybe a hooked heart, and a felted sweater cat softie....(you will have a choice).
And Monday, Jan. 21 is my son, Jason's eighteenth birthday! He has friends coming up to spend the weekend, eat pizza and play games...so I've got to get my minimal cleaning done before they come (as if they care)...and the fabric piles in the living room need to get sorted and put away and my poor art room is a shambles....I did manage to get some cupcakes made this morning and now need to make some frosting.
Last night I worked on some fun little stuffed antique quilt hearts for our artfest girls birthday party on Jan.30.I put them in the cool wooden bowl that was my Christmas present from Dennis this year. We are also doing a pin cushion exchange- make one-take one--that will be fun...I think that a fiber lover can't have too many pin cushions! I am still deciding what kind to make....too many choices.......
well, back to the house cleaning....I've found that my standards have dropped dramatically the older I've gotten, but still need to do the basics!

Knit & Pearl

Finally got to visit this great yarn shop at 5 E. Figueroa St. in Santa Barbara. It's called Knit & Pearl and this wonderful mermaid (Purl) and her pirate friend are in the window. If I was a better knitter I might try and tackle something like this, but I need way more practice....I haven't done much knitting in the last 20 years or so. They have classes and I liked this felted slipper, but even that is too hard for me!

Hello dolly...

Finally got back to work on these hooked dolls...one with an embroidered face and one with a rubber stamped face. Adding the hair was fun. For one I just used a variety of yarns from my yarn basket and the other one got some felted locks from the end of a mohair scarf that I felted...they still need their feet or shoes...haven't figured that part out yet.

Fun at Art From Scrap

Art=happiness!
Busy at work in the upstairs workroom and gallery at Art From Scrap...
Mother and daughter from England..Sat. morning art date..
Syd helping with threading those beads...
This boy made a 4 story house with plastic CD holders and then covered it with fabric! Not everyone had to make the booklace and there was a busy table of activity over by the glue guns.
Working on her collage pages...
Pretty cool!
Love that heart!


Whew! We had 29 students at our Sat. morning "Booklace" class at ARt from Scrap and we were hopping to help everyone get their necklaces made. Kids from pre-schoolers to 12 year olds were ready to create! Somehow by 12 noon it all came together and moms, dads, and kids left with smiles and their new creations. I usually try and give a little history on where the idea came from and how we adapted it from our first workshop at Artfest with Nina Bagley, but everyone just jumped right in and started creating so I had to let that part go. It was a great experience and so fun to work with kids again.
As we were cleaning up we "discovered" an art creation that was Glued to the table! Somehow we missed that with all the hole punching and paper cutting. We left it to dry...and get removed later! And a note to ourselves to bring glue sticks...all we had to work with was Elmer's white glue which can be quite messy.
After a little "shopping" in the store downstairs we headed off to CPK for some delicious lunch and a quick peek at Imagine. Then home for a nap!

Pin cushion softie

Started this mushroom pin cushion before the holidays and just got around to finishing it up. I used some brown cotton velveteen for the top, white wool for the stem and a veined beige fabric sample for the underneath part. When I saw the fabric at ARt From Scrap I just knew I'd use it on a fabric mushroom someday...just added the "beaded" beads on top for fun.

Beautiful sunrise....beautiful wool..

I love this wool roving from Belgium that I got while in Portland, Or at Northwoods Wool Store...
I decided to do some needle felting and pulled it out of the bag and this is how it was stored ...in a big circle...love those colors..!
Here's a funny little work in progress...a fabric collage made with kimono silks...more stitching to do...
sunrise...view across the street

Up early to get the boys off to school and there was a beautiful pink and orange sunrise through the trees.....I love the silhouette of trees at dawn and dusk...
working on class proposals and making samples... a busy week...and teaching on Sat. with Syd!

a bunch of unrelated stuff....

Water color pages for Booklace # 1...cover at top..
Booklace #2...water color pages and cover at top...used painted paper towel made in traci bautista's class at artfiberfest...
Booklaces put together....one on right is a Fiber one still to be connected...
Justin's Altered Shoe...Wingtip!
Close up of the Wingtip...

Finishing up the Booklace Samples and thought I'd show you some of the little pages that I water colored....and some works in progress...
And here is a photo of my son, Justin's, Altered Shoe that he made for his art class in Jr. High. I loved that on his information sheet for the project he wrote that his inspiration for the piece came from Michael de Meng. His teacher took the time to Google Michael! And she said as he was bringing it home before Christmas..."are you sure you want to take that home?" He wrapped it up and gave it to me as a Christmas present....and I have to confess that I did help him with it...which was allowed....he raided my art room for the wings and little doll face...but he did all the painting and most of the hammering on his "Wingtip"....I'm glad he has such cool art projects at his school and such a supportive teacher. I had great art teachers in South Pasadena where I grew up. In Jr. High, Mrs. Paden had me do all the drawings for the yearbooks, two years in a row...we were the Tigers, so I had to draw lots of little Tigers doing funny things, like dancing and playing hockey ( my favorite sport.) And in High School, we had Mr. Dalton...very creative and a painter who had studied with Raoul Dufy in Paris! I don't think I appreciated this at the time but he gave us a wonderful back ground in art history and interesting art projects to do in class.
My older son is also taking Advanced Art in his senior year in high school and the funny thing is that his teacher was an art student at UCSB while I was there...I vaguely remember seeing him down in the ceramics department where the fun stuff was going on. During Open House this year we had fun reminiscing about our art days at UCSB in the late 60's and 70's. I have always loved to draw and since there was no "drawing" major I went into Printmaking where I could "draw" with an etching needle. I still got to explore other art classes, like sculpture and ceramics and painting but, alas, there was NO fiber art at all! I guess that didn't stop me because I remember doing an embroidery of an ancient Peruvian cloth for a final project in an Anthropology class with a wild teacher, Mr. Allen, who had lived in Peru with the Indians and gave us the freedom to choose what we wanted to do for a final. He was a little too radical for the school at the time and got fired soon after....which inspired more rioting and discontent. Yep! I was still in school at UCSB when they burned down the Bank of America! I actually went down to Isla Vista to check it out and it was a crazy scene....people roaming all over the place, police and National Guard arresting students...didn't stay too long...and retreated back to my little mountain cabin in the hills. Whew! Those were strange times....but there was a lot to be concerned about...the Viet Nam war for one! That same year a group of students took over the computer center of the University and demanded that a Black Studies department be set up...I guess that somehow it worked because they did set one up and one of my neighbors teaches there to this day.
Wow! I didn't mean to get on this tangent today...but oh well....what I learned was that I would protest peacefully what I felt was wrong, but did not want to be a part of any violence as a way to change things and after graduation looked for ways to make positive changes in the world around me...which led me to meditation and helping to found a spiritual community here in Santa Barbara back in 1970. More on that later.

Fiber and felt post card...

Decided to work on a fiber postcard to send in to Fiberarts Mag. for the Loveland stamp cancellation...due Jan. 15...may do a little more hand work before sending it off...for more details see Page 14 in Fiberarts Mag. Nov/Dec issue...
And what are these little fabric pieces? Well, I was supposed to be working on some sample "booklaces" for the upcoming workshop and instead of doing the paper ones I got sidetracked on making a fabric booklace...and these are some pages I am considering. They are 1 1/2" X 2" ...a fun little size and they go fast..sort of like the "inchies" that are popular right now. At least today I got going on the paper Booklace pages and did some little watercolor pages and will work on some covers later tonight....
Wishing you all a creatively wonderful New Year filled with artful adventures~!

Happy New Year...2008

My little trip embroidery...
My Aunt Dodo with her barn owl...
Justin and I in front of the Culinary Institute....an incredible stone building...a quick visit looking for Susan...a nice lady in the shop gave us extra cookies and they were delicious!
Giraffe close up...and more photos of the safari adventure.......



We could hear this Serval purring loudly as he sat in the sun....
Zebras!
A fort built out of driftwood at the beach....
girls looking for shells....
pigeons on the wharf....

We got home from our trip to Calistoga last night. We had a nice vacation and sunny weather for our Safari West adventure. Our store employees gave us a safari jeep adventure for Christmas and we picked the right day for a wild ride through 400 acres of a natural preserve filled with giraffes, zebras, gazelles, antelope, ostriches, lemurs, cheetahs, and lots of other animals that seem to enjoy their life in the rolling hills of No. Calif. (No tigers, elephants, or lions!) Then we headed back to our hotel for more hot spring soaking and Justin's birthday celebration.
I managed to get a little embroidery done on the trip and started to crochet my purse to felt.
Today I took a wonderful beach walk to start off the new year in a healthy and quiet way...joined by others taking in the day with beach combing, wave riding, and fishing on the wharf. I love being near the ocean...it clears my mind, renews my spirit and gives me new inspiration for art projects and other things I want to do.