tattooed lady and snow

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More snow today. It isn’t suppose to add up to much, but it is making it hard to get decent photos.

I’d gotten discouraged with this lady. I was questioning all of the choices I’d made when I sewed her together- color combinations, head shape, blah, blah, blah… these are the type of choices where there is no going back. Probably part of the feeling was due to starting up again in January, after the enthusiasm and forward motion of the fall had stalled. Anyway, I plugged away, going back and forth with other dolls and I am very happy with how she’s turned out! Hurray for perseverance!

numbers and ice

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I’ve been trying to organize my various numbers to figure out taxes. Ben (husband) has been having fun with those numbers- he’s that kind of guy. Below is a map of all the places in the US that I have sold something on Etsy, total. I opened my Etsy shop in March 2006. Ben collected the zip codes, son Julian made the map. Thanks guys!

And I’ve sold to 24 countries-

Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States.

He made me up some other charts like the curve of my Etsy sales but I won’t bore you!

Today is a messy weather day. We started out with pouring rain last night. It changed to snow in the night. We woke up to an instantly recognizable pinging sound on the windows- sleet.

We call this slop. It is heavy and messy to shovel.

tattooed lady

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Here she is in the sun so you can see her figure (boobs) a little better-

I love this orange fabric. I am going to be very sad when I run out.

She is 20 1/2″ tall. I am trying to finish up a few more dolls this weekend and I hope to get them on Etsy, early next week.

studio work

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I’ve been working away at some dolls and also my studio. I am see some progress in getting the studio feeling right. Here are a few peaks-

When I decided to move my studio downstairs, I knew I wanted to do this-

wall

I think of this as my internet connections altar and I posted a fully annotated version here on Flickr. These are all things that I have bought, traded, or been given, from people that I have “met” through the internet. Some of them I have also met in real life. It is a tangible display of the richness that the craft blog world has brought into my life. Sorry- gushing!

This is the pin-up board over my desk-

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So many goodies, including a sweet little monster by Elsita. Yep, right next to one of my Peewee toys.

Today, I hung my ornament dolls from my display shelf. They are now flying over my desk.

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And, some ladies in progress. I thought I’d get one of these finished today but instead got distracted by the organizing/puttering.

faces

meet-up and first doll of 2010

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The first (of many, I hope) meet-up was this morning. It was fantastic!

coffee

There were 6 of us. Liz, Louise, Betsy, Kerry, Crystal, and me. It was exactly what I’d hoped for- we yakked away about google stats, changes at Etsy, shows in the area, blogging and Twittering… the kind of talk that has a very limited audience in my life.  And after 1 1/2 hours of talking, we all trooped down to the Goodwill and did some thrift store shopping.  It was so much fun! Next meet-up, Feb. 10. Everyone is welcome. If you feel funny about coming into a group of people who know each other, email me and we can have a pre-meet-up meet-up or just get acquainted by email.

baby

And, the first doll of 2010. How apt is it that it is a baby? This little one was all ready to be appliqued- all the pieces cut out and pinned on, but I never got to it before Christmas.

baby3

owl

side

baby2

buttons

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buttons

We had an afternoon of buttons at doll club yesterday. I learned so much! One thing I learned was about old celluloid button and how they deteriorate and damage other buttons in their vicinity. I saw examples of what a deteriorating button looks like. I came home and went through all my buttons again. I have now separated out the bad buttons and will decide if I can bring myself to just throw them away. An afternoon of button talk couldn’t have come at a better time for me- since I’d just organized all of mine.

Thanks for all the advise about having my quilt done- I stopped at a local quilt shop yesterday and got the names of several people to call. I’m excited about it!

I actually spent a little time on a doll today. I want to finish my December, before changing to Christmas present mode, dolls. There are a few cut out and even 3 that are stuffed and ready to finish. It would be so easy to leave them and get started on something new but then they haunt me. I know I will feel better if I finish them up.

*Update* photos of those BAD buttons–

the celluloids-

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I hope this is clear enough. I will also post them to flickr, where you can look at them very big. Do you see all the little cracks? They get bigger and bigger and then the buttons crumble.

the metals-

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Funny thing is, I was looking for this kind of green corrosion when I was making this robot.

I understand that both of these types of deterioration are “contagious” and affected buttons should be removed from the rest of your collection.

the quilt

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I’m working on the quilt- see resolutions here.

top2

The quilt has a Japanese motif. I gave Peter several choices for what kind of quilt he’d like- the only 2 I can remember are wool or choosing fabrics from my collection of Japanese cloths. I have a lot of Japanese cloth. Some of it come from my Mom’s collection, some I have collected over the years. There are the fabrics for gift wrapping and loosely woven fabric “towels”. (I know they have official Japanese names, but I don’t know what they are.) There was a roll of cotton fabric that my Mom bought on one of her visits to Japan.

Peter picked out what he liked and I added some other fabrics (with his approval) for color and connecting. We worked on arranging them on the floor of the attic. Then he left and I got to work on other things… all fall. I think the hardest part of making the quilt is me getting started on it!

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I am not set up to work on something this scale. I am making a full size quilt- approx 6ft x 7ft.  I was okay with the center panel- I made myself enough studio floor space that I could look at it. But this morning, when I need to expand out from the center, I spread out on my bed. That green in the upper right-hand corner is my blanket and not part of the quilt.

top1

The one fabric that Peter choose that is not Japanese is that circle fish fabric. It is a batik that my Mom bought for me when I was in High School- so probably 1970 or so? I loved it so much that I never made anything out of it. I hung it on the wall for a while in college. I think I might finally be getting over that craziness of not using my favorite things- seems silly now.

The top is now finished. I am very nervous about the next step. I am considering having someone else do the quilting because I am worried about making a big mess of it. And, frankly, I don’t think I’d enjoy doing it. I know I don’t want to hand quilt, so I’m talking about machine quilting. Any thoughts on this?

January love

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buttons

I am coming to love January. Consciously. In the same way that many people loved September when they were kids. It is the beginning of new things, a time to contemplate the hopes for the year ahead, think about the year past. For me it is also a time to clean up the mess in my studio from the (minimum) 6 weeks of madness that always seems to precede Christmas.

I am sorting through piles, putting things in their places or finding a new place for them. This involves collecting all the pattern pieces that seem to be scattered everywhere and getting them back into their folder and file drawer. Sorting through fabric that is everywhere into- too small to keep, the right size for applique decorations, big enough to cut a doll part out of. Also the very important”what-was-I-thinking, I’ve-got-to-get rid-of-this” pile and the”how-could-I-have-forgotten-this-treasure” pile. Putting the various threads back into their drawers- embroidery floss, sewing machine threads, embroidery wools. It so inspiring to go through and touch all my materials.

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I have been working on the buttons. When I moved my studio, I knew I had a button problem. They were everywhere and what happened was there were the buttons I used and the buttons I’d forgotten about. I have buttons from my mom, from friends, from Yard Sales, from all the clothes I disassemble. Way too many. It has been fun and relaxing to sort through them all. My goal is to end up with one drawer. Everything together. I now have a big bag of buttons that need a new home. As I sort through the buttons, I keep asking myself, would I ever use this? On Anything? The good ones engender visions of dolls with coats and sweaters, earrings, shoes, hats. And there are the good ones that I  love just for their color, design or how they feel in my hand. You see why I am having so much fun?

I am also refolding all the cotton fabrics that somehow spilled out of their bins during December. It makes me wish I had twice as many hours in my day to work with all these beautiful colors, patterns, and memories.

cottons

btw- I was never one of those kids that loved September. There might have been a day or two at the beginning of each school year when I hoped that some magic would make the year a good one. It never happened and I grew up and discovered that life isn’t school- Thank God! Label that as confessions of a creative, ADD, artistic, school failure.

next tiny world class

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More January planning! (I love this kind of cotton ball snow)

snow

The next Tiny World class will be Saturday, Feb. 27  in Arlington, MA. Most of the info-

Make your own Tiny World! Saturday, February 27, 10am to 4pm at my house. (Boston area) $60 includes everything but the teacup- you can bring your own. Limited to 8 people. More info.

Email me at mimik@pobox.com to sign up or if you have questions.

first meet-up

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What is that expression- “start as you mean to go on”- that is it, right? So the first thing to work on is my biggest goal- making more real life connections. I am inviting Boston area crafty business people to meet-up with me in Davis Square. The first meet-up will be Wednesday, Jan. 13 at Starbucks at 10am. If you can’t make it but would like to be notified about future meet-ups, send me an email (mimik(at)pobox.com). At some point I will start a google group or Facebook page or something. I need to come up with a catchy name- any ideas?

We had our first cardinal at the bird feeder- so pretty in the snow!

bird1

bird2

bird3