Creativty drained

It is often the baine of an artist to lose the Creativty trail we may be following.
Such has been the last 3 months since coming back from Germany. My ideas are fleetings and my time is nil. I sew when I have to and veg most of the time.
It feels like a wasteland stretched out in front of me. I am forcing myself to complete small projects that have been hanging on for 2-4 years now.
like these pumpkins. Silly printed blocks that were on clearance some years back. I snagged them and started to embellised them to my style. Now I can stuff them and get stems on them.



One point of fun and pride are the grandsons. The fun of licking the beaters after cookie making. A Chocolate Emery and a Chocolate Josiah, cute memories made with little mess.





And then Kentucky and his goal of making it to his yellow belt in TaeKwando before he is 7 years old. He is almost there. Here he is taking the test for the yellow stripe. Serious and concentrating. He did very well. His natural ability to do sports is evident.




Now back to the needle.

aMAZING

This blog post is being delayed. You will see it after July 13th. I am writing it on June 6th. That is because the items shown here are going with me to Germany as gifts and I don’t want the recipients to see them till I gift them. These pillows are for two young ladies that have graduated from high school and both are very much into theater and drama.



I have a tendency to make Sybil (from the movie with Sally Fields) pillows. That would be a pillow that has two opposite sides and yet have a theme or a message to portray.

Both pillows have the Drama masks on them, these are appliquéd wool onto cotton.
With the first phrase from the Shakespeare quote created through an printable iron on transfer.
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and entrances. And one man in his time plays many parts.”





The opposite side has a hand embroidered celtic knot that is actually a maze. The material the mazes were worked on are actually linen napkins from the Captain’s mess from the US Navy decommissioned carrier USS Chicago. I have had these napkins since 1979. I knew I would find a use for them.







The mazes are then appliquéd onto wonderful printed cotton with puzzle or maze print. The trim around the edge was built up with two trims, the black is gimp and the red is very small red rick-rack woven into the gimp.



Both sides of the pillows should give the young ladies a thought provoking moment. Of how life is a maze. . .and it is a play. . .and they will play many parts in their lives.

So profound. . . don’t you think.

It happens in every family

Take 1 six year old (who should know better) add 1 four year old (who should also know better) then add 1 two year old (who doesn't know better but comes up with the idea) and leave alone in a room. Place 1 pair of safety scissors within reach aaannnndddd. . . .what do you get? A group of kids that look like they either suffer from Mange, or have had a bout of Chemo recently. Yes, it happened under the watch of the soon to be EX daycare provider. And get this. . . She even cut Joy's hair more to "trim it up" after the incident. I am so mad at her. You should leave the hair alone till the mommy can see first hand the damage and have a one on one with the child to discuss what has happened. Now when you ask Joy who cut her hair she says Kentucky, Korban and Miss Heather.

Last year she had a scar on her forehead for her 2nd birthday pictures. This year on her 3rd birthday she will have a reverse Mohawk.She has gone from this. . . .

To this.. . . .
So now we have Kentucky who won't let me take pictures of him because he knows he looks stupid (his word) with a chunk of his hair missing from the front. Korban is embarrassed also and even though he had a buzz cut just weeks ago, he now has polkadot places missing all over his head. And Joy. . .Poor Joy. . . gone are the soft blonde curls. Sigh. This will go down in the Family lore.

Music for the heart

No not sappy love songs.

Great Big Sea is releasing an album this summer and I have pre Ordered it. Of course this happens while I am in Germany. They will also be performing at the Oregon Zoo while I am gone.
Darn it all.
And I really wanted a good Celitc Music fix!

Enjoy these three songs. The last one is so funny.

Kids

Had a few interesting pictures in the past 2 weeks.

Son-In-Law David. . .in crawl space helping Jerry figure out where the new vent is going to go under the house. He sure got dirty and I appreciate his bravery to be "one" with the spiders down there. The funniest part was when he found a pair of Jerry's glasses. . . .Jerry hasn't been down there in about 4 years. You can bet the prescription level has changed since then.

And here we have Emery & Luelle enjoying the local park. He is going to be able to run with the big boys soon. Much to his mother's dismay.




Kentucky had his Kindergarten graduation and concert. Here is a part of the song "I'm a Little Teapot".




Gotta love the brother love shown here. I wonder how long this is going to last.

Imaginarium

Inspiration from a movie can be dangerous. Here I thought I knew what I was going to create for the Gypsy Carnival contest and then along comes a movie that blows that idea out of the water.
Check out these photos. This is lifesize. If you have seen the movie Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus you will know how cool this wagon is.






No I have no intentions of making it lifesize, but I am inspired to make a gypsy wagon that has a drop down stage. The room up on the top is a bedroom of sorts.
Here are the first pictures of that room in MY Wagon. Made with Wool and leather with a cardboard interior core. I scouted for scale prints for the upholstry.

Yes there is a cut out in the floor, that is for the spiral staircase to the main wagon. I don't have the roof complete yet. And even the pillows and blanket are not finshed.

This is a window made with the rings from a curtain and scrap leather. I still have miniature nailheads to put on it and trim away some of the leather. I wanted a weird portal look to it. The coolest thing will be what I use for the shutter door for this window. A gold Dubloon that pivots in the middle.

And here is the outside. I stitched less than a 1/4 inch lines to make the wood clapboard appearance. Then using leather I did the boards that overlay. I also used a gold pen to do the designs on it. If you look at the original you will see there are all kinds of mystic writings on the boards.



I have found a few items that are scale for the accessories on the wagon (lamps/mirror ect.) I still have not found a name for it nor the stage act that will be performing. Baby steps.

A Visitor

A mother's day visitor to the Herb garden.
Magical Chive blossoms made this lovely imp stay around for quit a while.