Charms...

I love all these charms from Thomas Mann! He makes the coolest jewelry....

A day at Sally's

On Wednesday my friend Sally, who I've known since 1970, gathered a group of women to her wonderful home on an avocado ranch for lunch and to catch up on each others lives. We all lived together in the 1970's on farms and ranches in an ecological-spiritual-organic community and many of us still live in the Santa Barbara area. With everyone's busy lives it's hard to get to see each other often enough, so it's a special time to catch up, share a delightful meal, a walk around the farm and just enjoy each others company for a bit. There is so much to see on the farm...goats, bees, dogs, cats, beautiful old roses and flower beds, one of the largest live oak trees in California shades a barn and farm house, and the jacarandas are in bloom. It's so nice to be together, laugh and talk and share each others lives as if time stood still. When the community we lived in was in its prime we had a bakery, natural food stores, dairies with cows and goats, horses, herd dogs,chickens,carrier pigeons, a juice factory, restaurants, a craft gallery, an apple orchard, farms and ranches, domes, teepees, yurts, and adobe houses. We grew most of our own food organically, made our own clothes, shoes, quilts, and gifts for one another. We had meditation time in the morning and every evening with lots of music. We composted, gave up our individual cars and cared for one another. We had our own clinic and dentist and Calif. approved private schools. We ate communally in our big dining halls with fresh food picked from our gardens and prepared with love.We lived a clean natural life without drugs or alcohol. Still somehow things got off course and many of us had to leave our ideal lifestyle. Luckily the bonds of friendship remain and we are close as ever and even more fun to be with. We all brought dishes to share for lunch and I made another Lemon tart, this time with strawberries on top...a tiny bit overcooked...I think I got distracted looking at blogs while it was cooking...everything was delicious...and Sally made homemade goat cheese for us in 3 different flavors...the best you ever tasted! What a fun day and over too soon.

Fairy House

I had so much fun making this little "fairy house" yesterday! I got to use my Embellisher on the wool felt house and roof. The door opens and so does the roof top. I used a cardboard toilet paper roll for the inner structure and cut out a space for the door. In August I will be teaching a class for kids on Fairy Houses at the Art Clinic so I thought I'd better make some samples. I think I may use an Oatmeal container for a bigger one next. I also want to try to make "real" windows by cutting out the felt with an exacto knife...best done on the larger one, I think!

New Heart

Just finished this new hooked heart, a gift for Jason to take to Germany for the nice couple who are loaning them an apartment in Munich. He's flying off tomorrow with his 2 best friends for 5 weeks! I'm sure he will have some fun adventures to share with us when he returns.
Here is the back of the heart.....
The back before stitching...hiding the opening with a felt stem...
The back of the heart....after stitching all the way around, I cut a slit in the back and turned it inside out, stuffed it, put in a little lavender and sewed it up. This gives you a nice clean and sturdy edge. Sometimes I leave an opening about 3 " wide on one side of the heart and turn and then stitch up the side...but lately I've been having fun with the back. Another fun thing to do is to put a little pocket on the back with a secret message tucked in.
Here's the heart, hooked and waiting to be sewn up and stuffed.

What I've been up to....

This is Harold...a softie with a flat top....
close up of the felt disc and beaded fiber bead necklace that I've been experimenting with...
another close up...some of the discs are just circles cut from felted sweater wool and some are doubled over discs..sort of shaped like a peanut or figure eight...and folded in two...an idea I got from somewhere online.....
The necklace so far...would be fun to make a bracelet too...and also to use round felt beads in between the felt circles or regular glass beads....endless possibilities...!
this is my Fiber ATC for June...felt like using the circle and cross symbols this month...all from recycled kimono silks...
And here are the kitties....getting bigger and even more rambunctious!

Penny's Birthday Party

here's the invitation to Penny's....
The delicious giant cupcake birthday cake and Penny making a wish. Hi Maren~!
One of Penny's wonderful gifts...a special handmade crown by Susan B.
And these are the sock dolls we made from Syd's great directions...
One of Penny's baby dolls...she lets me snoop around and take as many pictures as I want. I always find new things to share with you.
these two mannequins are cooling off in the bedroom.
Syd's sock doll samples...she brought socks and stuffing for us all. Love the faces!
More of Penny's cool stuff...
Most of these dolls belonged to Penny's mother.....I just love looking at all of her treasures...
More sewing trinkets from Penny's mother...see the tiny spools of thread for arms on the left? And the center piece has a hidden thimble underneath.
A cool art piece on the living room wall....

We all had such fun at Penny's Birthday party. We all agreed that we are so lucky to have such a great group of art friends to celebrate and make stuff with. It's always fun to be at Penny's very fun art filled home. I could easily fill up my camera in one afternoon just poking around every nook and corner!
We had a delightful lunch of curried chicken salad with cranberries on panini or turkey on whole wheat bread accompanied by a colorful assortment of fruit flavored fizzling drinks. Barbara made the most delicious cupcake birthday cake..lemony and light and just perfect on a hot summer day. We all made crazy sock dolls and Penny opened her presents..lots of cool fat quarters from everyone and other neat stuff. We shared what was going on in each of our lives at the moment and other items of interest like new books, art shows, grandchildren and the teenagers in our lives...before we knew it, it was 5 pm and time to get back to those families of ours. Thanks to everyone for making such a fun day for us all.

Party at Penny's Playhouse...

Non-edible cupcakes at Penny's....the Queen of Cupcakes...we had a wonderful birthday party yesterday at her art filled house complete with sock doll making led by Syd. More to come...I'm off to do errands right now..back soon...

Party cat and Ancient symbols

this is the fiber exchange post card with some stitching...I think it's done...but might do a little more work on it tonight....
and this is my Party Cat softie that I made on Sunday....taking a flying lesson...

Lemon tart...

I love to bake....and this Lemon Tart from the new Joy of Cooking is delicious and fairly easy to make. If I have plenty of time I make the shortbread crust and if not I will use one of those refrigerated pastry crusts...both taste yummy! I made this for a graduation celebration for the boys at his friends' Barbeque last night. And for Father's Day I think we will have fresh organic strawberry shortcake for dessert....the boys can do the barbequeing tonight....and maybe some fresh corn...one of my favorites. Hope you all have a great Sunday.....I hope to get in a walk, do a little gardening, work on one of my many art projects...watch the Lakers with the boys and do some hooking in the evening....

Off to Australia...

Little heart and Party Bird flew off to Australia in a fiber swap with the incredible felt artist, Elizabeth Armstrong. Sometime next week my package will arrive. I got a sneak peek on her flickr site and I can't wait to see it in person. She dyes her wool in the most beautiful colors and teaches workshops to kids and adults. She has a blog, website and etsy store.... I will add a link when I can get some help from my son...

Graduation day times two....

Travis, Kevin and Jason at San Marcos High School Graduation...
We have many Jacaranda trees here in Santa Barbara that always bloom this time of year. This one is in the Palm Court at the Jr. High where we gathered with hundreds of other parents and family members for the 8th grade graduation. All went well...Justin reluctantly goes on to high school next year. After the ceremony Justin requested a pizza lunch at Giovanni's...then back up the mountain for a quick nap and then to help Jason get ready for his High School Graduation at 5pm. Another large group, like 600 students walked by with their red and blue robes on while family members hooted, cheered and tooted those air horns. Speeches by the Board of Education, the principal who is retiring, class president and of course the school band played for us. Then the reading of 600 names. Afterwards we all went onto the football field to find our offspring, give them a hug and take photos. Above, the "Three Amigos"..Travis, Kevin, and our Jason, who immediately took off his robe..."too uncomfortable..." A few hours later and they were off on buses to Disneyland for Grad night. He will come home sometime this morning and most likely sleep all day...and in two weeks the three pals will be off to Germany for 5 weeks!
Justin and mom.
Oh...and here is the price of gas in Santa Barbara...for some reason we almost always pay the highest prices in the nation...why? I have no idea!

Mosaic mirrors..

Back when I was making my mosaic path to my studio I thought it would be fun to do a few mirrors as well. I have these all hanging in our white bathroom for a little color. Mostly made with broken pottery from thrift stores and the little hearts and moons from the craft store.