Category Archives: personal

thinking about the old year

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This is the disaster that is my studio on December 31, probably every single year! December is always crazy and it takes January to get everything back in order. Actually, I’ve already started. I can see the top of the ironing board and that was not true a few days ago.

One of the best parts of blogging (for me) is the written record of what has happened over the year. And, being able to go back to other end-of-the-year posts and think about where I was in my head. 2010 has been a good year in many ways. In my “real” life, things are better and more secure. Two of my kids have finished degrees and that is exciting. Over here in crafty blog land, I’ve moved forward in a quieter way then 2009. No big public wow events- like the Etsy Handmade portrait or my PurlSoho pattern.

Instead,  I think the most wonderful thing that has happened this year is my crafty biz meet-up. It has been a success and I am going to do a post just about that in the next few days. The other highlights have to be Sage– my wonderful intern of last summer.  And, Brooklyn Renegade– which is a show that all others will have to live up to!

Once again this year, I was lucky enough to travel and meet up with other crafters in far away places- in Minneapolis, I met up with Kristen, Erika, Susan and Hannah. In Paris, I met Catherine and Laure- and that was the highlight of my Paris trip! So, this year, the best was all about the people I connected with and I can’t think of anything better then that!

Happy New Years Eve! I can’t wait to see what 2011 will bring- it is always interesting!

the handmade gift

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well, actually, I only have one more handmade gift to post. The other ones I gave were this owl and lots of homemade cookies.

Yoga mat bag-

drawstring closure, pocket, non-adjustable strap. I looked at some free tutorials on-line and then made it. Very easy.

Big snow in the forecast so our trip to Connecticut is canceled- which is why I am relaxing on the sofa and writing this post right now! Also, daughter is here for 2 extra days because of canceled flights! And, this is the year that I received some homemade gifts from my family. Eleanor gave us some of her homemade preserves-  peach salsa and also some pear pickles which we had with our ham last night- wow and Yum!

thinking about…

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Honestly, I am not sure why it has taken so long to sink in, but YIKES! I need to get some serious work done for my holiday season sales. It is probably noticing that the calendar now says November that did it. So, I am going to put aside any thoughts of finishing up a pattern for the owl or anything else right now. I’m sorry to disappoint, but I just haven’t been able to concentrate on it. And now it is November. I will go back to it when things settle down- probably in January.

I am putting together a fantasy trip in my head. Go to San Francisco next summer for the Renegade Craft Market and maybe teach a class while I am out there. Wouldn’t that be fun? Hmm, how can I make that happen? I am open to any ideas. My SIL lives in Santa Cruz and visiting there would be part of this fantasy.

I am suffering a tea cup shortage; especially ones suitable for snow scenes. You just can’t put a snow scene in a flowered cup. I’m going to have to go out hunting. And toile for my tattooed people. Finding the right fabric is a real challenge. The challenges and hardships of my art- yup!

And, btw, I should be getting those latest tiny worlds up on Etsy this weekend.

more from Chicago

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I arrived in Chicago on Thursday afternoon and my daughter and I went to a taping of Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me. It was really funny and I always love seeing the side of things that doesn’t show in the finished product. Like the retakes. And the snarky off-tape remarks.

Here we are- Eleanor showed me how to take the standard Facebook photo… hmm, how tired do I look?

On Friday, we had a car and spent the day doing errands. One errand was to stop in at the Renegade Handmade shop to give them some paper work. What a fantastic shop! I saw artwork by some of my favorite artists- Kate Savage of feltidermy fame, who also stopped by my booth on Saturday. Great to meet you in person Kate!  Cotton Monster, and paper puppets by Pin Pals.  I was very tempted by this one and probably would have bought it if I had been there on Monday instead of Friday- wasn’t thinking too clearly at the time!

Look at all the beautiful Renegade Market posters-

I had a chance to check out the Hoot! show, although it wasn’t completely set up yet when I was there. I was very impressed by all the entries that I saw and very happy to be included in the group. It is a great show- go see it  if you have a chance.

And, there was a wine company doing their marketing at Renegade Market on Saturday. They had some guys dressed up for the part. I made these 2 fellows pose for me.

Love the Stripes!

august updates

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It has been a crazy busy week. All kinds of things going on.

Today is the last day to enter the birthday giveaway. If you want to join in the fun, add your comment to the birthday post.

5 weeks until Renegade Chicago- Yikes! I am feeling the push. It is actually less then 5 weeks because I have to send out the work beforehand. This is my first travel-by-plane show. It will be interesting to see how it all goes. I am thinking a lot about the booth and how to set it up with the minimum of props.

I am going to be teaching in October. I will be doing a Tiny World class at my house on Saturday, Oct. 30. More info here. Email me if you’d like to join the fun. It looks like I will also be teaching a Fresh Fish class- more details on that coming soon.

And now a technical question- I KNOW that Bloglines is lame and all the cool kids are over on Google Reader, but, I started on Bloglines and moving everything seems like a big chore. I subscribe to several feeds for my own blog so that I can see how they look and when the new posts get published. About a month ago, one of my Doll feeds showed up with an exclamation point next to it. That one feed has stopped working- and of course, that is the feed with the most subscribers. Arg! I figured it would fix itself, but not so far. I checked out several other blogs in my list that also had the exclamation point- Yikes! Some of them hadn’t been working for many months! Does anybody know haw to fix this? It is making me sad.

Now, back to regularly scheduled programming… it turns out that mid-summer is a great time for thrifting after all. Well, this year it is anyway. I went to my favorite places on two Wednesdays in a row. I now have enough gorgeous wooliness to get me through the fall and beyond. I shouldn’t go back until January at the soonest. Right, shouldn’t, shouldn’t, shouldn’t.

And lastly, I am actually going to be participating in a few shows * in galleries*  this fall. WooHoo! More news on that soon, once I have some links for you.

The months ahead are beginning to look very busy. Full steam ahead!

it’s my birthday

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and I’m celebrating with a giveaway!

It is a celebratory bunting- at least 10 ft… maybe closer to 12. Not sure.  All wool scrap circles.  Anyway, what better giveaway for a birthday then a party decoration? Just leave a happy birthday greeting in the comments on THIS post. The giveaway will close at midnight edt on Friday, Aug. 6. I will pick one winner on Saturday by random number generator. I am happy to send it out anywhere so don’t hold back if you are international. Jump in and help me have a wonderful birthday!

that tower

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I do love it.

The Tuilleries-

From the top of the Musee les Arts Decoratifs-

At a random bus stop-

The top of LaFayette department store, in the rain-

and a few other things. I love the car with the trailer-

Tour de France in a toy store window-

and really, this made me laugh-

connections

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Probably the best thing about having a blog is the people I have met because of it. Traveling is so much more fun when I meet up with people who actually live in the place I’m going to be. I was able to connect with 2 people in Paris.

Catherine invited me to her doll-making gathering. Her website is here.

The dollmakers meet at a store that repairs dolls, music boxes and mechanical toys and is part of the Le Viaduc des Arts (which is under the Promenade Plantee from the roofs post). It was a beautiful day and they were sitting out on the sidewalk in the sunshine, working on dolls. Wonderful!

She showed me many dolls she has made. The Purl girl in the photo above was made by her 12 yo daughter! And, aren’t these clothes pin dolls amazing? I love the ribbon joints.

Another day, I met up with Laure for lunch and a drive out of town to see her family’s country house. Paris was terribly hot and it was a treat to get out among fields and trees. The house and grounds were lovely.

A structure in the woods- a Folly maybe?

And inside the house- what a beautiful chandelier.

Old walls and the road.

I actually spent some time in the studio yesterday. Hopefully I will have some finished work to show by next week.

roofs

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I’ve got loads to show and tell about Paris and I want to do a complete report about the craft/sewing shops I visited. But, I’m jet-lagged and need to process it all and so this will be a picture post.

Lafayette department store–

the dome inside the store-

Up on the roof-

And some other roof we saw during a walk along the Promenade Plantee.

knitting nostalgia

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and some crochet.

I was putting all the winter blankets away today and decided to pull everything out of the blanket box to have a look. And give the box a once over with the vacuum before putting everything back, away for the summer. At the bottom were all the kid knits. Sigh.

Baby hats and a pair of mittens-

2 knit hats, 2 crochet hats.

Baby sweaters- Eleanor wore both of these and the boys probably did too.

and another- this one was Peter’s coat-

A little guernsey sweater (maybe size 4 yrs?) with  an orange stain and some wool pants- all 3 wore these.

I made this skirt for Eleanor while she and Julian were sick with Chicken pox. I knew I’d be stuck at home with them so I wanted a fun project. Eleanor wore this skirt a lot.

2 vests. Peter was the only one who would wear them.

and 4 granny square blankets. The one on the left was Julian’s baby blanket. The other 3 were made by my husband’s grandmother (I think) who I never met. They are doll blankets- one is a rectangle, 2 are squares. The smallest one, on top, is about 16″ square. I always loved the old ones.

And lastly, out came an old vest of mine. I wore this a lot and really liked it. I am not sure why I saved it though- it is full of holes. I am going to try felting it to see if it is worth trying to use for something else.

I don’t knit much anymore. It makes my hands sore. On to other adventures. Sorry about the bad photos- I was snapping them on the bed so little bits of floor and quilt seemed impossible to keep out of the photos.