Who's House is this?

Currently under construction is Petal Pusher's new abode. Petal Pusher (PP) has often been seen, or rather her work has been seen, in the late fall and late winter when the leaves of the bulbs push up through the ground though it is not the season for them to appear as of yet.
Here we have the garden path. The grass is wool with a purple velvet binding. I chose a paisley shape so there would be a dimension of wandering off into a horizon.


The "Yellow Brick Road" is of butter raw silk which has been trimmed with a white cotton lace (picket fence feel) that I hand dyed to mimic the color theme. Lining the path are pale green pearls with earrings that have been "planted" in the drilled hole. Beginning with smaller single blossoms and ending next to the house doorway are the full upright flowers.











A visitor is tapping on PP's roof. Thrum is her name. A beautiful hummingbird (button) with her beak in the center of a purple flower (napkin ring) atop a roof of mossy softness (hairy yarn couched on wool felt) with crystal leaves peaking out.







The last of the construction is the house itself. Made of pale yellow wool felt it has quilted stitching of stems. Felted windows and door frame with a lucious purple roving.








Hand embrodiered vines growing over the doorway and blossoming jeweled (earrings) flowers scattered around.



Toward the back you can see the rose bramble growing up the wall, here butterflies and toads casually enjoy the peace of PP's garden.


It is the contractors hope to finish Petal Pushers abode by this Saturday so she may move into it and be protected from the winter winds. Surrounded by her dazzeling and sparkling jeweled blooms she invites you to visit and smell the roses of her Posy Palace.

This structure is the 6th of hopefully many. My goal is to create four by next summer AND NOT GIVE THEM AWAY, but use them to see if I can sell them at the Fairy Festival.

Soupy Season

Mother Earth has been calling me. . .alot. . .lately. I want to bake. . .cook. . .sew.
I cut up my pumpkins this year and actually roasted them and puree’d them to make pumpkin bread. Yes I know they aren’t the same but that doesn’t mean the vegetable is not eatable. It just means it tastes different.
I got a strange “squash/pumpkin” from the food bank when I picked up Cameron’s bundle. I knew she would never have the time to mess with it. So instead of roasting it I boiled it and made a squash soup. It actually isn’t bad. It is a different sweet taste but not like sugar. I made it with sage and thyme from the garden. Saute’d carrots & onions & Celery first. Put in the boiled squash, a bit of cinnamon & nutmeg. I wished I had some cumin but I couldn’t find it this time. End results was good.

Got a commissioned work. The pink bunny suit from A Christmas Story. And this is for an 18 year old boy. Interesting. The customer bought the material. Not fleece but a neat knit for Baby Sleepers. I just need my serger to be freed from the shop. The ransom note was for $130. Ouch. But that makes the Christmas presents easier when I get to them. Ha ha ha.
I'll post the project as it goes along. I have a desire to sneak in my trademark remarks. I like to embroider into the fabric in unseen areas, quotes from the movies or something that inspires the costume. so for this one I definately want to do "I double dog dare you!", and "You will shoot someone's eye out with that". I'm thinking of putting them around the wrist area where the mittens are.

Back to the soup. . . next I am going to try a cream of mushroom soup. Using Shitake and other dried shrooms. Heard it tastes wonderful with dried ones. Very musky flavor. Yum.

Behind the patch

Costumes are the rage. . .now that it is October.
I had high ambitions to create costumes for the horde as we planned to attend the Portland Pirate Festival (see my travel blog). And I think I was successful.
The Civil War corset was the hardest to construct. But the skirts with all those ruffles was the most time consuming.
Here is Mine and Cameron's skirts. Hers has umpteen ruffles down the back only. I was inspired to create this from a foto I found on the net. the fabric was originally pink heavy cotton gauze. After dying it Green which came out mint green, I then tried brown dye. And finally Grey. This created a wonderful "dirty" effect. Perfect for the pirate skirt. Cameron's coat was a thrift store find. She adores the ruffle on the peplum in the back. I took out the shoulder pads and the sleeves and now it fits her like a glove.

My skirt has a built in story for my character. Every place I land, I find a new material to add to my skirt. Thus the different ruffles. Lace, silk, velvet. I hate ruffles. . .did I mention that? I like to wear ruffles, but making them is a pain.

I now have on my plate a paid costume. . . the pink bunny pajama suit from "A Christmas Story" for an 18 year old boy. Can you believe that?
I also have the Corpse Bride gown to make for a 9 year old. That one will be easy.

Tinkerbell & Friends

my my my, it has been a while since I wrote here. 35 days and a lot has happened.
On the family side we had Joy's first birthday. What a great time that was. She is soooo cute.


















On the sewing side. . .I completed the boy's pirate costumes. Even was lucky enough to find a Disney store Captain hook coat Kentucky's size at goodwill for only $4. SCORE!!
Chrystal and I have started our corsets.



I started Cameron's skirt without any measurements. . . .completed it to the point of needing waist closure and hem. Did the fitting yesterday on her. ..and. . .it fit. the waist was only 1/2 inch off and the hem was spot on. SCORE!!! wow, I love it when I can do that. not only did it fit, but she loves it. For being such a hippy she is still a girly girl. She loves the ruffles. In fact her comment was. . .you don't get these (ruffles) in the SCA. How true that is.
So tonight I will work on the corset and the Halloween invitations.
My plan is to have my corset done by this weekend as well as Cameron's skirt and my skirt I need to start.


Hmm. . .. . . how much midnight oil do I have in the lamp. . . ???

Tuesday Summer tip #4

Being a Word Nerd
I love my Ipod. I don’t work on a Macintosh, I am not an Apple Geek. But I think Steve Jobs was a genius to create the Ipod, and re-create it and re-create it. Nothing wrong with improving the design and functionality of an invention.
As I have mentioned before I grew up listening to my mother’s talking books. As an adult she would loan them to me and the specialized listening devise so I could read unabridged books. These recordings could not be listened to on normal cassette machines. Talking books are recorded at very slow speeds, the speaking voice does not need the Hi-fidelity that music does. The talking book takes a normal cassette and records 4 tracks so you flip the tape 3 times to listen to all 4 tracks. A normal unabridged book could take up to 15 tapes. Thus a special devise had to be used to listen to the hordes of books for the blind that the National Library of Congress had in their halls.
In the 1990’s a new wave of book readers were evolving. People were stuck in traffic and wanted to use the time wisely. So the everyday person started looking into talking books or as they are called now Audible books. Don Katz founded Audible.Com in 1997 and thus brought digital audio books to the masses. Easily played on your computer. In 2002 Audible.com created the digital format to be played on the new Ipod. Shortly afterwards I became a member of Audible and an owner of my first Ipod. Now I no longer had to raid my mother’s bookshelf for my talking book fix.
Slowly, during this same period of time, podcasts were being developed. First, as if often the case, it was a secret world for geeks and radio snobs. But now we find podcasts in ever form including video casts (Vidcasts). These also play on my Ipod. In fact I am a podcast junkie. The percentage of Podcasts and audible books on my Ipod are disproportionate to the music on it.
Where is this leading. . .to the Word Nerds. Three teachers in the Virginia area have a podcasts which takes a family of words and discusses them. They teach middle school kids so they are very aware of possible crude content and place warnings on their podcasts. This program would have been a favorite of my mother’s if she were still with us. She loved the word. . . .any word. She was also a prolific writer. I have published poetry she wrote in the 1st grade up till her death. Words were her way of seeing the world since her eyes could not.
During the hot summers Mom let us kids learn about her Word World. My brother didn’t appreciate it as much as my sister and I. I think my brother was dyslexic, but we didn’t know it back then.
Each week she would have us take out the big Webster dictionary, shelved alongside the Collier encyclopedia set. And had us open and point. We were to pick out 5 words and during that week learn the meaning and use them.
To this day I can vividly remember learning what Filigree and binnacle were and can use them.
So. . . this summer, help your kids become word nerds. Listen to talking books with them. Listen to Podcasts. Find new words in the dictionary. You will make a teacher happy this fall, and you could help your child open the world of words that can carry them well into adulthood.

Lunatic

Several years ago I created a mask. I must say it was and is one of my favorites. It has gone to Scotland and back. Many people in europe say it looks like it belongs in Venice at a Carnivale.

The plain plastic mask was not a good surface to glue non-porous items (sequins/beads) so I covered it in muslin first with modge podge glue. then started the arduous task of gluing every sequin on individually.
The design lead me to Luna..So everything was based on Moon and Moonbeams and tidal action.
I hand beaded the fringe on a loom then took it to the mask.

The Crown or headpiece was made of a foam base. I wanted it to work seperately so you could wear the mask or the crown and both could convey the Luna idea. Thus the moon phases appear on the crown.

Since creating it I have made 3 gowns to go with it. The first one was totally a dash job. I hated it the moment it was finished.
the second was good and it was what went with me to Scotland.
But this past weekend I made a 3rd gown. It is a "duster" of sorts that goes over a simple white cotton gauze princess line dress. So far I like it. Just have to figure out how to do sleeves that will not get in the way.
Angel sleeves will be too long. I want to make something dramtic in the chest area like a necklace cascade, but that is still locked in my brain somewhere. The clasp for the top dress? is already in place, it is a large round mirror with all kinds of simple chains dangling from it, like moonbeams

I want to wear this at the Fairy Festival in Eugene on 8/2. I know I can get it done by then. . .just don't know if I will wear it. yet.

Tuesday Summer Tip #3

You can educate without them knowing.
It is a sad thought that printed materials are slowly being replaced with electronic equivalents. With mom being blind there were always braille books & Magazines around the house. And in the 1960's started the onslot of Audio books put on records and then tapes. Reading both print and Audio books were second nature to us kids. To this day I am a veracious reader. I have a book in the bedroom, dining room table and several on my Ipod. (I love my Ipod for books rather than music).
I'm drifting from my topic sorry.


During the summer the Sears Winter & Toy Wishbook would arrive in the mail. My brother & sister and I would practically tear it apart to get at it first. Mom's solution was great.
She would "pretend" give us each $200. Of that $200 30% could be spent on ourselves and the other 70% had to be spent on family member gifts. We would take our piece of paper and start "shopping", writing down page #'s and costs and descriptions. doing the math long hand on another piece of paper. No calculators back then.
then when our hour of shopping was done we would go to mom and read her our list.
This activity provided several benefits.
First - We had to consider our family members and their likes & dislikes to choose the right gift for them.
Second - The math skills of course. Learning percentages and money handling.
Third - Referencing skills, being able to write down the information needed to go back and find the item easily.
Fourth - By our reading our list and the catalog descriptions outloud to our mom, she got the "High points" of the catalog and a good idea of what we wanted for Christmas.
Sears still produces catalogs. And I am sure all of you will soon be receiving the multitudes of Christimas Catalogs in the mail. Everything from Garden catalogs (could be used to decide how to decorate the yard) to Lillian Vernon catalogs. Don't toss them.
Make up your own variation of this game. Take the money part out and give a limited number of items to the young ones who don't know how to do money yet.
For those with older kids. . .consider contacting the Commission for the Blind and volunteering to be a reader. There is always a need for someone to read printed material to a student or an adult. I know some people that made extra $ in college reading to fellow blind students.
Take advantage of printed material while it is still prevalent in our world. By your grandchildren's time. . .Books could be obsolete.

Tuesday Summer Tip #2

Tuesday Summer Tip #2
I have yet to meet a kid that doesn’t like playing with food in some form. We play Restaurant. This provides skills on many levels. I like using this game on days we are going to have leftovers for dinner.
Phase 1: Creating your menu
Construction paper
Old magazines
Pens/crayons
Glue stick or photo tabs (the double stick squares you mount photos with)
Go to the refridgerator and have the kids see what is POSSIBLE to be on the menu. They can then cut from the magazines or draw the food as menu item in the construction paper menu.
Make sure to include a discussion on what to name the restaurant. Also. . .try tearing the pictures out of the magazine. This is a skill many people forget to help a child learn. Tearing paper is safer than cutting and when you don’t’ have enough safety scissors to go around it is a good alternative.

Phase 2: Assign Duties in Restaurant & attire
Depending on how many kids you have. . .you can have
Wait Staff – Apron with pockets, small notepad & pencil
Cook – Apron with some kind of hat, Toque is good but a bandana can work as well or backwards baseball cap.
Busboy – The sell on this position is. . .they don’t have to work till the meal is done. They get to sit back and watch.

The Wait staff needs to set the table, complete with table cloth, napkins (can work on different napkin folds) salt & pepper etc.

The Cook has to be prepared to make the food when they get the order. Help with the Microwave is necessary but pays off in the end. The child learns safety and good judgement on when food is cooked or burnt.

Everyone gets to be a Patron at the Restaurant and order their food.

You can flow from this point to make your restaurant a success. Remember these tips.
1. I don’t have magazines laying around so I do a google search and snag photos off the internet and print them.
2. The child will gain great interest in going to restaurants with you. Allow them to gather ideas at the Real Restaurant and incorporate them in their play Restaurant.
3. Try a Dessert menu tray, like a real one, but put cookies, fruit ect.
4. My grandsons do not know how to read or write at this point, but they love this game and when friends come over they want to make them the patrons and show off their restaurant.
5. Older kids can learn to handle money in this scenario

Bon Appetite

The Joy of Sewing

NOT.
This weekend I had plans to finish the pirate vests for the grandsons. And get a chunk of the embroidery done on my SeaSerpent bodice. But like many Nana's out there I said yes. . . .to watch my granddaughter Joy while Mommy and boys go camping. Granted Joy would not be a good camp pal right now. At 10 months she crawls and eats dirt.

Besides who could say no to this sweet face.
So this weekend I have had Joy glued to my hip. She is a very active and vocal 10 month old. And when she finally walks and talks. . .she will out run her older brothers. But this is the longest she has been away from mommy and brothers and it is apparent. She seems to get upset everytime I leave the room.
Wait. . . yes nap time is over. Pause. . . . . .
Ok. . .back to my blog. I have had to wait till Monday to complete what I started on Saturday. So this is written in hindsight.
My sewing was put to the wayside this weekend, which means tonight I need to catch up. But it is all worth it. The scene that played out last night, though not caught on film or digital chips is burned into my memory.
Hubby and I took Joy to a Pub where a old friend was playing in his band. the seating was outdoors and the weather was absolutely lovely. Mommy was on her way back from camping and knew she was to meet us at the pub to pick up Joy.
It was about 6:30pm when we saw her van drive up and park. Racing out of the van came Big Brother Kentucky followed closely by Middle Brother Korban. When Joy saw Kentucky running up to us (she was on my lap), She lurched forward and grabbed Kentucky's head in her arms. This puts Kentucky's face at her belly button. Joy hugged his head with a huge grin and was open mouth kissing his hair. It was so obvious that she knew her brother and was very happy to see him. When Korban came up Joy tried to hug him too, but being 2 years old Korban didn't understand and stepped back. Joy started pounding? no that isn't the word. . .slapping? no that isn't either. Joy took her open hands and was hitting Kentucky & Korban's heads, on the top. This is a natural baby's action when they are excited about a new toy or something. They hit it with an open hand. this is accompanied with the stiffening of the legs so the body bounces up and down.

I am so backlogged in my sewing now, but seeing the reunion of Joy and her brothers was so worth the missed sewing schedule I had planned this weekend.
The Needle calls. . . .

Tuesday Summer Tip

My contribution to Bottles, Barbies & Boys Tuesday Summer Tips.

I am a second generation Nana. . . .”What’s that?” you say. Well my mother was known as Nana to my children, she has now passed on so I took up the crown/harness of being Nana to my grandchildren. Don’t get me wrong. I take it on with pride.
You see my mother was totally blind, yet college educated and very VERY inventive. Her imagination was amazing, it had to be. She found wonderful things for us to do in the long summer weeks when most kids said. . .”I’m bored, there’s nothin’ to do around here.”
I recycled some of those activities with my children as I became a Girl Scout Leader and then. . . .in a separate group when I was a Children’s activities coordinator (aka Pied Piper).
The best part of this chain of inherited creativity is that I now see my own daughter adapting these activities to fit her modern day situations. I am so pleased to see her carry on for the 3rd generation.
Johnina of Bottles, Barbies & Boys has asked those of her readers to contribute on Tuesdays any Summer tips and tricks to keep kids happy and healthy. It is with pleasure that I join her and all the other moms on the blog list. I just give you forwarning. Some of these tips/tricks will sound old fashioned. . .but feel free to adapt, I did.

Mom (my mom), would get tired of the “I’m Bored” chant us 3 kids would start at about June 4th every year. So she started a rule. She would come up with 3 things we could do, not all of them were work (clean your room, rake the garden) she made sure it was a mixture of fun, educational and housework. But after giving us 3 choices. . .if we didn’t want to do any of them. . .then we had to come up with our own activity. And we weren’t allowed to say “I’m bored” that day. This made us responsible for our own entertainment.

JourneyScope;
Materials – 1 paper towel tube
1 aluminum pot pie tin (or something like it)
1 globe or map of the world
1 encyclopedia (adapted to modern day would be the internet)
1 blanket
We would make the journey scope which was a Sci Fi version of a telescope. Time was spent decorating it and in some case many were made so each of us kids had one. When we looked into it we could “wish” ourselves to someplace.
We sat on the blanket and one of us kids would spin the globe and another would point. When the globe stopped we would see what place we were going to journey too. Then we would search in the encyclopedia to find that place and learn about it. If possible we would make a meal or find the music for this place. The whole afternoon would develop into a live travel show. We often would share our journey with Dad when he got home.

Adaptation of JourneyScope:
Every Friday night is Family night at my daughter Cameron’s house. She has 3 kids ages 4,2 & 10months. They take all extra furniture out of the living room and put down sleeping bags. They make a dinner that is typical Campout food. They play card games (a version of Fish they call the Camping game) and tell camp stories. When it is time to settle down. . .they put on the TV a travel DVD or a previously taped travel show. The kids have been to the Sahara, Yellowstone, Arkansas diamond fields, Grand Canyon, Alaska just to name a few. They use Netflix a lot.

As they grow she is bringing in more parts of this travel, dude ranch films, cave hunting. They only watch documentaries on “Campout” night. The 4 & 2 year old have a favorite show. . ..the Blop Blops of Yellowstone. They love the mud pools as they bubble. Needless to say this sets up the family vacations for the future. Just like my mother’s JourneyScope did for me. Where she could not travel, I have. . .and I bring back all the stories that expand the encyclopedia descriptions we read years ago.
Now my grandsons look forward to the day the family has saved money for these trips. They will be well prepared and educated. And all in the guise of fun on a Friday night.

Nana Go
Aka
Mary

Pirate treasures in fabric

In the past few months I have had to wear my Nana hat/apron a lot. There are 6 of them at the moment. Those Cherubic faces that come with busy hands, wailing voices and endless energy called grandchildren. 4 of them are still infants all under one year old. . .till two weeks from now.
But there are 2 that demand conversation. Korban is 2 1/2 and Kentucky is 4 1/2.
There are plenty of reasons for me to sew conventional clothing. . .but nooooooo I can't do that. I really am turned off by making something that is "normal". It is lucky that there are plenty of reasons for me to make clothing and design it for the "abnormal". . .or what I call the "creative"side of me and people in general.
Kentucky & Korban love pirates. And lucky for me. . .they love playing dress up.. Boys who play dress up. Often I see Kentucky take his store bought HULK costume and pair it with his mother's first communion veil and finish it with a pair of red plastic high heels. Now that makes a statement, wouldn't you say?
During this summer there are several Pirate/Renaissance Faire events they will be attending. I will be there with them. But we need to dress them appropriately. So here is Kentucky in his first CUSTOM made pirate garb. His vest is still in the works. Kentucky took an active part in designing it and helped iron the seams and he loves to stand still while we do the fittings. It is the only time you get this 4 1/2 year old to stand still.




Korban's is also in the works. Pictures to be published this weekend. Until then he is my chef

And my point is. . on the end of a Needle

Fortunes have been made in such a short time with the onslot of technology. Yet the simple tools of eons are where I feel my fortunes should be made.
Needle & thread, fibre & color take me to the ZONE.
And yet I must use this technology to share it with more than the family under my roof.
Don't get me wrong, technology pays the bills and has for many many years. I have been a Computer based worker since 1981. Be it working in the Software industry or training upon the computer or even Hardware repair. The silicon wafer has been the unseen gremlin/goblin/brownie/fairy in our house that has provided hours of work, play and FRUSTRATION.
But the meager, mild and unassuming needle can only work when touched by human hands and that is where I enjoy my time to be spent.
Today begins a Blog to trace, share and explore my needleworks, ambitions and visions. Whether it will still exist in a year's time is anyone's guess.