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Thursday, January 31, 2008
flyway
And here is video with the sound of birds taken in the shopping center near my house. So loud they drown out the roar of the freeway and the croaking of toads.
I obviously shouldn't breathe when I take videos....since I must breathe, I bought one of those tiny three legged tripods to carry around.
10:10 Posted in photography | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
practicing
This will be cut into ATCs, the edges painted and some beads added. I rusted the lightest fabric last fall at Art Camp and then realized I had some great coordinating fabrics in my stash. I have some of all of these left and will make a small art quilt that will have more interesting elements - some day soon. In the meantime, I'm practicing quilting and keeping busy and finishing cards for birthday RAKs.
07:18 Posted in ATCs , sewing | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
all plans no action
I planned to stitch up a storm last night, but instead I watched the SofU speech. Monday morning, I fused some rusted fabric and other fabrics in ripped strips onto Peltex. It's going to be ATCs once I get it all quilted to death.
Last weekend was shorter than usual. We spent some time looking at dining sets. I want to replace our old one, it's falling apart and we can't seem to find what we want for the secret budget that the grill king has in mind. I would love a set of old library chairs. I think we should hit the flea markets next. We did see a wonderful granite table on powder coated aluminum at Sam's. It's an outdoor set - the chairs are comfortable but too huge for my dining room and our outdoor area doesn't require anything that fancy. So if we bought that for outside, I would be stuck with the old stuff in the house and you can't eat outside that many times during the year. It wouldn't be worth it. The table is way too heavy and would be impossible to move if it was in the dining room when we need more room for the holiday tree or whatever. Rats, I hate shopping.
Then the kids came over for grilled burgers and general messing about on Sunday. Grandkids are growing up too fast - I must take photos next time.
07:25 Posted in CPS stuff , sewing , the grill king , unmentionables | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
Friday, January 25, 2008
on time and under budget
The design challenge is finished. The subject was someone we looked up to and/or a color palette. I chose to combine them and created this small Valentine from items on hand. The heart is one of several polymer clay hearts I made several years ago from scraps of other clay projects. The cheesecloth was painted for a swap of ATCs.
My grandma was a make-do kind of person. She always wore an apron with pockets full of things she picked up as she was cleaning around the house. There were always pins and needles in the shoulder area, handy for when she did the mending. She was a gentle woman, quiet in face of a tyrant and steadfast in her love of babies and children. She had no time for vanity, rolled her stockings down to her ankle if she felt like it, and let us kids comb and style her hair any which we wanted while she took an afternoon nap. So many happy hours spent with her. She taught me to crochet before I was old enough to be trusted with such a pointy metal object. Her crocheting consisted mostly of huge granny square tablecloths of cotton cord done with a size 7 needle. Simple and done with the garish multicolored DMC crochet cotton. She crocheted in the evening and I swear she ripped as much as she stitched some nights. Finishing wasn't always important, I think she just liked to keep busy.
I was fiddling around and sewing and ripping and realized that this piece could also be part of a Valentine swap. This amazing realization allowed me to finish this easily, grabbing things out of the scraps jar and moving forward quickly. I didn't have to make this the ONE perfect piece and two others. It's just number one in the year long Take it Further challenge and it's just number one in the mini beaded squares and it's going to be swapped. Three projects at once. My life is going pretty darn smooth this month.
On top of that, I am going to print the photo and use it as a Valentine's day card to family members along with the Christmas letter that I didn't have time to mail out last month. All is good.
Thanks to Sharon for suggesting the themes - looking forward to the next challenge.
07:00 Posted in Take It Further | Permalink | Comments (4) | Email this
with Santa's hat
A gift from this year - an enameled frog wearing a Santa's hat.
05:30 Posted in Frogs On Friday | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this
Monday, January 21, 2008
aaarrrgh!
My pirate name is:
Dirty Anne Vane
You're the pirate everyone else wants to throw in the ocean -- not to get rid of you, you understand; just to get rid of the smell. You tend to blend into the background occasionally, but that's okay, because it's much easier to sneak up on people. Arr!
Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network
13:05 Posted in fun | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this
Sunday, January 20, 2008
january
uh-huh, those are purple frogs, ma'am. Like this one..
And here's the dress I made from this fabric back in the day....
Never throw your favorite stuff away. You can make new stuff with it.
19:30 Posted in ATCs , CPS stuff | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this
the pecan wars
The squirrels were on alert with tails waving and squaking loudly when the grill king and I returned from having steaks (yea - meat grilled by others!) at the local Roadhouse.
This large raptor posed for a few closeups and then decided to look for his dinner elsewhere. He sailed towards the east keeping the fading sunlight behind him.
The squirrels settled down quickly. But not one of them promised to leave the pecans alone in return for saving their fluffy little tails.
We just saw Charlie Wilson's War and I'm thinking about keeping a list of favors owed.
17:45 Posted in gardening , photography , the grill king | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this
Friday, January 18, 2008
jeweled frog
A box that opens - a gift from my sister from a Christmas a few years ago.
06:15 Posted in Frogs On Friday | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
so now it's raining
The grass is getting a slow soak. The traffic is a mess or so NPR says. The glue is not drying upstairs. My new shoes are suede. Rain is only welcome once in a while. This looks like the start of another monsoon.
07:01 Posted in weather report | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this