Hmmmmm . . .

create your own personalized map of the USA or check out ourCalifornia travel guide

How has it happened that I haven't posted anything in this amount of time?!

On the other hand, I did do some traveling.

Cool Map Ap!

Ok, maybe not an ap so much as a website, but cool nonetheless!


create your own personalized map of the USA

Pottery Find

We went to Door County, Wisconsin for vacation earlier this month. It was very nice to get away!

One of the things I love about Door County, besides the great beaches and scenery, is that Door County is home to so many wonderful artists and galleries!

We visited several, including the historic Hardy Gallery which was in the final days of hosting its annual juried show of local talent.

On our last day there, DH and I ventured north along the shoreline of Lake Michigan from our rental to discover the Lily Bay Pottery, home to a wonderfully talented potter, Linda Sheard. My goodness, her pieces are so wonderful! I was fortunate to be able to bring home one of them.

It was just the inspiration/motivation I needed to update my mantel! (Also, I just got the two Willow Tree figurines at an auction last Saturday. They were part of a box with a bunch of stuff tossed together which we snagged for $4 total.) The runner underneath the pieces is a hand woven piece I picked up at Market On Central last summer. I think it all comes together quite nicely!

Broadening Horizons

I'm starting a seperate blog for all things about books! If you are interested, hop on over and take a look at Book Tardis.

Looks Yummy!

Full Flake

The final flake! Still needs to be blocked and starched if it is to be used as an ornament.

Snowing in June! (or a tatting update!)

I thought I should update you on the progress I'm making with the efforts to teach myself tatting.

I am still on LARGE thread. (It's best for beginners.) Here's what I'm working on:



It's a snowflake. I have a ways to go yet in learning to seamlessly connect chains and rings. Also, I need to keep practicing making sure my picots end up the same size. But I am fairly pleased with the progress I'm making!



I have made good progress figuring out how to hook picots together and thus join motifs. I even stopped this once and picked it up a week later and was able to find my place and keep going. I've had to switch to new thread on both shuttles as well. So I'm slowly picking up some skills.

Happy Wednesday!

The Next Obsession

Little Free Library. That is my next obsession!! I must figure out a way to put one in my yard!

Don't know what a Little Free Library is? It's a movement founded by a guy in Wisconsin in 2009. He built a little one-room school house to hold books in honor of his mother who had passed away. She was a school teacher. He wanted to promote reading and improve neighborhood spirit. So he put it in his yard and invited people to take a book, leave a book. You should Google it! Here's a photo of one I swiped from the web:



If you Google images of little free libraries, you'll discover that they come in all different shapes and sizes! I'd love to see a few sprout up around town. Having worked in one of the elementary schools, I know that there are a LOT of kids in this town who have never been downtown to the public library. Wouldn't it be cool if a little library popped up right in their own neighborhood? Or in the park they go to? (Hint to the city. And Webster County DNR!!)

Also, I have plenty of books to get a few of these libraries up and running! We still have a plethora of children's books from our kids. I am getting free books/advance reader copies of new releases of adult fiction and non-fiction on occasion. I have plenty of tomes I've picked up at library book sales. Just saying . . .

It would be so great to share the books!!!

Garage Sale Bonanza!

A nearby town was having its "city-wide" garage sales this morning. So, of course, we had to go! Guess what I scored at the very first stop we made?!



It felt like a tatting shuttle bonanza! I'm excited that there were several just like my MIL's shuttle. Now I will have several bobbins I can load and have ready for a larger project. Also, since I'm on lesson 4, I've discovered that most of the time you tat with two shuttles at once.

You will also note that I found a couple of doilies that were tatted. The sale had many, many more crocheted items, so I'm glad I was able to spot and grab a couple "inspirational" pieces to keep me motivated to learn.

I came home and loaded up a couple of the new shuttles to begin working on the homework piece. This combines rings and chains, along with learning how to hook things together via the picots. Here's what I've accomplished so far:



At a sale a bit later in the route, I did find some crochet thread for 25 cents. I am using crochet thread to begin with while I get the hang of things. Then I can "graduate" to the slightly finer tatting thread.

So far, so fun!

Have a great day!

Tatting

Thanks to YouTube and a tatting instructor named Esther Leavitt, I am starting my tatting endeavor!

I spent a week learning to do the double stitch and making rings/loops.



This doesn't include several that I took out and did over! I finally thought that I was ready to move on to Lesson 2: Picots.

Here is what I got on my first attempts:


So far I am really enjoying tatting! It's fun to learn something new. I will be practicing picots for a while, learning to make different sizes and keep the sizes consistent. That is what will make for lovely larger pieces.

Have a great day!

Antique Discovery

We were out going to antique stores this weekend and I stumbled across an interesting piece in one of the bargain basements.



The piece is about 3" x 3" or so and quite heavy. I thought when I saw the doors perhaps it was going to be something with the commandments inside. I was surprised to find a crucifix and what I assume to be perhaps the four gospel writers.

I have no idea what this piece could be! Where is it from? (See the detail photos of the only writing/inscriptions.) What would it be used for? I wondered if it is Central or South American. I thought perhaps it is intended to be posted on the door to a dwelling or church. These are all speculation!

Anyone have any clues or ideas?

A Tale of Two Socks

Happy Monday! (I'm just going to throw that out there and trust that it's an actual possibility....a happy Monday.)

A long while ago, perhaps even over a year ago, I picked up some lovely Knit Picks sock yarn in a terrific fall oranges colorway. I started a pair of socks with it way back then, only to discover after nearly completing the darn thing that the sock was not going to fit anyone I knew.

So I frogged the sock. (For those of you unfamiliar with the knitting term "to frog"--it means that I had to "rip it, rip it" out. Frogging means to unravel all your knitting and take the piece back to the original yarn. It's different from "TINKing" a project. To TINK a project means you "un-knit" a few rows. TINK = "KNIT" backwards. All you lose when tinking is a small amount of time and effort.)

Every time I went into my stash room I passed by the lovely orange yarn. And then, a vision began to form in my mind.

What that color of yarn really needed to be is a pair of socks with a fall leaf motif up the outward facing side of each leg!

Last week I sat down and looked through my stitch dictionaries and found a vine/leaf pattern. Then I created a sock design to suit the yarn perfectly.

Here is the progress I made on it yesterday:

And here is a "close-up" of the leaf detail which will be running up the leg:

Since I'm using the Magic Loop method (did you notice my Signature needles? LOVE them!!), I can try the sock on as I go. And it's going to fit! Yeah!

I'll update you with a photo when the pair is complete!

Inspiration For the New Year

Hi folks! Many people start the new year with lots of ideas, plans, resolutions or goals for the days, weeks and months ahead. Just in case you are in need of some inspiration, here are a couple things I've found inspiration from in the last couple of weeks. Perhaps you'd enjoy them too!

I kind of lost my mojo for the Art Abandonment project as summer's heat zapped my energy and then school resumed. Want to know what/who has gotten me to clean off my creative space and make room for art again? It's Joanna Banana Design Originals right here on Blogspot! You MUST go check out her projects and great mixed media art!

I also think that I have failed to mention the inspiration I get from Star Gazer Creates. She has a lot of unique and varied projects going on. I think you might have a few creative ideas sparked by looking through her blog!

I am finally on Pintrest as well. You can find me HERE. I am always adding new boards. I have a Books Worth Reading board, a couple photography boards, a knitting projects board and several more (including Yummy Bites!)

If you haven't explored Pintrest yet, be forewarned: it's addicting!

In knitting news, I completed 5 scarves for co-workers for the holidays. I also did a brioche rib scarf which has turned out to be for me. And I'm working on a self-designed pair of socks in an autumn oranges varigated yarn that has begged to have embossed leaves running up the side of each leg. We'll see how they turn out. I am using my NEW Signatures needles which my DH gave me for Christmas. They are SO perfect! I love them!

Stay warm!

Actual Hat - Completed

So, I had been thinking about putting that QR code which read "Code Monkey" into a hat pattern for my son. But that was just TOO geeky for even him. He wanted to go with something from pop culture that he's into....so we decided on a Mario Brothers themed beanie.

Here is the completed hat! He liked the ghosts from the dungeons theme, so we went with it.

Since he lives away at school, I didn't have his head to actually try it on as I was knitting....so I'm hoping it will be big enough! There are currently three ghosts on the hat. There IS room to add one more if he wants me to.

I like the way it turned out! I hope he does too!

Possible Hat Pattern

QR code I could knit into a hat for my son.

Canadian Butterflies

On the Art Abandonment page of Facebook I ran across a fellow from British Columbia, Canada who made 2012 butterflies with the message "Find your freedom in 2012" on the back. They also have a magnet strip. Harry was running out of places to put out his little treasures so asked if anyone in the group wanted to help out.

Of course many of us jumped in and said we'd love to put some out there for him!

My batch of beauties arrived late last week. Today I set them free on the metal posts outside of the Trolley Center downtown.

I put them out on my way into my weekly "sit-n-knit" group. I was there a couple of hours and when I returned to my car over half of the butterflies had flown off to new homes. I am hoping the rest will have been taken by the end of the day!

Thanks for letting me part of your cool project Harry!

More Pieces

I got inspired by the art of Charley Harper I was finding on websites. I love all his stuff, but his birds struck a particular chord in me. It seemed to me that his cardinals, especially, were crying out to be captured on a bookmark using paper piecing.

Bear in mind that I haven't "grounded" them yet, so they feel a bit incomplete as they float in space. One person suggested perhaps a watercolor branch on which they might perch. That's a good idea. (It would be better if I felt any confidence in my ability to actually paint a watercolor branch under them!)

In Harper's art, the cardinals are often placed within the greenery of a conifer or on a snow covered patch of ground (onto which seeds from a bird feeder have fallen). As I walk by these guys several times each day, I'm leaning more and more toward that last one. I think I could draw some sunflower seeds and use markers to color them in. Little random specs of yellow could be crushed bits of corn.

We'll see, maybe I'll try 3 different things!

Not sure where I'll leave them. I heard that someone in the upper management of our local bookstore (from corporate offices out of state) wasn't too pleased to find the bookmark I left there. [Not sure if that makes me want to leave more....or just give up that idea. HA!]

I'm thinking perhaps one should go to the library and find its way to the section on birds. Perhaps another should perch on the shelf by the art books (especially if there's a book on Charley Harper, no?!?)

I haven't received any emails from any of the first pieces of art put out there. While I'm REALLY curious, and would LOVE to hear back....that's not the reason I'm doing it. As long as someone smiles or has a happy moment....that's all that truly matters.

Stay tuned, I'll have an update on CANADIAN BUTTERFLIES next week!!

Have a great weekend!

Pieced Together

Happy Monday everyone! What did you do over the weekend? It's been SO hot in my neck of the woods that we are trying to get all our errands and outdoor activities done before 10 am or so. We did hit a couple garage sales on Saturday.

What you see here is a little collage tag I made using one of my Saturday purchases. I found a puzzle for only a quarter, so I grabbed it knowing that puzzle pieces make nice parts for mixed media collages. (Here it is painted 1950s aqua to reflect the theme.)
I will be abandoning this one near some cookbooks I think....either at a library or perhaps a book store. Hmmmmm, we'll have to see!

Last week when I went spelunking at Goodwill I found a box of old poker chips for $1. Here's what I'm making with them:

Little fridge magnets with doodles and paint! I think they're cute and they will be fun to set free somewhere!

Let me know what creative things you've been doing!

Guilty of Abandonment

I have set free two pieces of art.

The ATC (Artist Trading Card) sized print on the right has a magnet on the back along with the note that it is free art to enjoy. My DD and I left it magnetized to one of the shelves in the Fiction section at our public library this morning!

The matted photo on the right was taken by DD on one of her road trips. There was this abandoned train out in the middle of Iowa with all these cool markings on it! She added the quote and it makes a really cool piece! We left this one on the table at the local java house where they will be having an acoustic mike night tonight.

I'm excited about leaving these out. I hope people will send an email in and let us know they took them.

Oh, and I found the two mats at the Goodwill for 50 cents each! The ATC cards were in the sale bin at Hobby Lobby--a pack of 5, self-adhesive "photo" ATCs--for $1.33. Who could pass that up?!?!

I also found a box of old poker chips at Goodwill yesterday. I'm thinking I will repurpose them into fridge magnets or necklaces for some more art to abandon.

Having a LOT of fun with this! Have a great weekend!

All About Art

The theme of this past weekend for me was "art". It started with the usual Saturday morning garage sale routine. At the first stop I found some teaching posters featuring paintings on one side and information about the artist, the painting, and the social milieu into which the piece was born. Already laminated, I think there will be countless ways to use these with students to encourage creative thinking/writing.

Later in the day I made a really fun discovery: Art Abandonment. If you'd like to read a full description you will find that HERE. In a nutshell, creative people all around the country and world are making art and abandoning their works to the wild for some random person to discover and enjoy.

(It's a bit like yarn bombing which I've participated in! But limitless in technique, size, etc.)

I thought this was such an intriguing idea...leaving works of art....be they paintings, jewelry, sculpture, mixed-media, fiber creations...anything goes!....for a random passerby to find. I love it!!

So I decided to join the Facebook group dedicated to Art Abandonment and jumped in with both feet!

I made this little 3.5"x5.5" watercolor & chalk using the stamp I hand-carved of the Cana Island Lighthouse in Door County, WI. I had a lot of fun making this simple little piece of art.

This morning my son had to have all four wisdom teeth taken out. When I was alone in the oral surgeon's waiting room, I put it into an empty slot in the rack of informational pamphlets they had displayed on an end table.

I hope someone enjoys it!