Santa Ynez Birthday celebration

Tasted as good as it looks!

the front door..

Had so much fun over in the Santa Ynez Valley celebrating Susan H. (and MIA Barbara)'s birthdays. A beautiful spring drive passing by Lake Cachuma and green mountain meadows and on the way home saw about 2o deer feeding in a pasture of tasty alfalfa.

We had a delicious lunch and incredible dessert from Susan's Solvang Bakery! Lots of photos of her delightful home, presents, food and artgirls....many handmade presents...What a wonderful day!

Here, kitty, kitty...

Cat is sewn, stuffed and finished!

This and that....Betz White pin cushions!

Art girls birthday party tomorrow! I made a couple of things...pretty sure thay are not Blog readers...one is a chenille pin cushion and the other is a little felted purse or cell phone holder that I needle felted. I also ordered 2 items from Betz White...a "cup o' Joe" and a cupcake. I love them! Had to take a photo before they get wrapped up!

New kitty cat and other things...

Here is the latest cat that I hooked over the weekend....I will try and sew him up tonight. And also a photo of some of the smaller felted purses that I worked on last week at the Studio. I had fun using rock art images that I've always loved. When I had my own wearable art business, it was called Painted Cave Designs. We live near an ancient Chumash cave that is painted inside with wonderful images. We have a little community up here on top of the mountain called "Painted Cave". I carved rubber stamps of cave paintings and petroglyphs and stamped them on my hand painted silk clothing, scarves and ties. I sold these and my handwoven items at shows in the Los Angeles area....one of the highlights for me was to have some of my ties used on the TV show "Thirty something"....of course this was back before I had my 2 boys. After the boys were born I did only local shows and changed from weaving and silk painting to hand painted wooden clocks! Now I am happily back to what I love most....Fiber art of all kinds!

Also ... more bags that have the appliqued pockets with embroidery that I made a few years ago and didn't know what to do with them....Wo found a good use and sewed them onto denim bags of various sizes. These will go in the new little retail store that is almost open in Ojai.

Happy Earth Day!

Here is my favorite Earth Day tee shirt from Blue Fish....as you can see it is from the year 2000!It is getting pretty faded, but I still love it. It is raining today so the Earth Day festivities at our Courthouse will be a bit dampened. I may just have to stay home and do some hookin' with my recycled wool!

When I came home the other day there was a Blue Jay sitting on the loft railing! No doors were open, no one else home....all I can figure out is that he came in through the cat door...or the cat brought him in. I had to catch him as he tried to fly through the glass window and set him free.

Spent a busy week working on needle felting at the Fibre ARts Design Studio ..... setting up a retail store soon. I needle felted hats and journal covers. Then worked at the Hardware store

where I scan Blogs in between customers. That's the fun part.

I've got two new hooking projects that I am working on....a sitting cat and a sign for vendor night. Want to make more dolls, birds, and how about a hooked heart garland?

Hooked House Blessing Charms

These are samples for the class I will be teaching at Art and Soul Retreat in Portland in October later this year....

hooked cat and heart...

worked on this kitty cat and heart that will have a "door" soon....got the cat finished. It looks a little like our cat, Tiger....

Journal covers.....

These are the needle felted journal covers that I made on Friday...still need to be sewed up...these are samples for a weekend workshop that we are teaching on April 28 and 29..

Needle felted purses...

Here are 3 of the needle felted purses that I designed for the Studio...WO sewed them up and I worked yesterday and made 2 journal covers and 2 more bags....

Owls and squirrel finished!

finished sewing up the owls and squirrel last night....

Hooked houses with door that "open"

These hooked wall pieces are samples for a class that I am teaching at ArtFiberFest in Oct. The little doors actually open and you can put a little photo or picture in there.

Squirrel and owls...

I've been working of these woodland creatures for the past week...mostly at night when things quiet down....

Hope to sew them up today and stuff them and then start on something new~ or finish up the little heart pins that I started a few weeks ago.

ATC group meets tomorrow at the Good Cup Cafe and then Thurs. the Art Clinic has it's ARt Day.

On Monday I worked at the Fibre ARts Design Studio on 3 needle felted purses...samples for an upcoming class later this month. Today I needed an "at home" day...working on organizing all my wool by colors and type...I have wool for rug hooking and felted sweater wool for other projects...and they have begun to take over the living room.

Happy Easter to Everyone!

We had our little Easter egg hunt with Justin....had to show you some of our best hiding places...

Little nest...

a little nest I made with felted eggs.....

Baskets....

Here are some of the baskets I've made....we have a great basket making teacher here in Santa Barbara, Cathy Molholm, who brings in native plants for us to experiment with.

Getting ready for Easter...

I finally went up into our attic and brought the Easter box down. I made lots of baskets a few years back and decided to put them to good use. My boys still want an Easter basket this year so there is work to be done. And Justin, 13, says he still wants to go on our Easter egg hunt...so I will be hiding eggs in our yard on Sunday with the help of Dennis. I have to count the eggs to be sure that they are all found because we get pretty creative with our hiding places....up in trees, hiding in boulders and tucked in honeysuckle and jasmine vines. Some of the Easter goodies in the top basket I found at Maxine's near Seattle on last years trip to Artfest. The other eggs I have been collecting since the boys were young.I'm sure that I have more rabbits around the house somewhere, just have to round them up!

Still recuperating from our trip....am finishing up an owl that I started hooking before I left...will post when I finish his face and feet.

Home again!!!

Leaving Miami...

Katie and Jason..

Ever been hugged by a tree?

Looking up at the stained glass ceiling on the ship..

Our ship off of Costa Maya..

Dinner in the Pacific dining room...

Jamaican photo stop...

Pyramid at Chochoban, Mexico...

Justin at Chochoban...

Jason and macaw...

"Mary St."..on Grand Cayman...had Justin take this...

Coral and beach glass...Grand Cayman

Arrived back home from our cruise and Miami last night. Good to be home again! I"ve posted some of our trip highlights and then will get back into my fiber art mode once again. We had a fun cruise and got to go to 3 different ports and tried to get in as much as possible. We visited the Mayan pyramids of Chochoban, went on an undersea adventure in the Grand Cayman Islands, and took a tour of Jamaica with a sweet lady tour guide who showed us the Fern Gully, Dunn's River Falls, and the homes of Mick Jagger and Whoppie Goldberg. On the cruise ship Justin and I spent the evenings in the Adriatic Lounge listening to Karaoke, some good, some not so good! The hightlight for the boys was the 24 hr. Pizzeria! I had fun trying out all the desserts after dinner.

We all got sunburned and spent time in the on deck salt water pool playing catch and listening to loud music. One night we played miniature golf on deck with a couple of boys we met in the pool. Justin's favorite time was swimming in the warm Jamaican waters...84 degrees..much warmer than our Santa Barbara ocean! I think my favorite was collecting coral, beach glass and shell fragments on Grand Cayman and seeing the shipwrecks on our underwater sea adventure. We also visited a yummy English bakery there and got to play with two giant macaws. And I got to see the wonderful movie "Miss Potter" on the plane ride back from Miami for the second time....see it if you get a chance...if you love Beatrix Potter's art and books as much as I do!