Sewing!

I have my Bernina back from the shop, materials gathered, and LOTS of ideas!


For about a year I have been gathering wool sweaters, wool yardage, silk blouses, and other beautiful textiles to re-purpose, from estate sales and thrift stores. I am thinking about projects to work on when I am not so busy. One recent weekend I made some small gifts and had a grand time sewing! I have several dolls to finish soon and want to make more animal characters.

Life is Time (passing too fast and spent in frantic busyness it seems)
Work to eat, serve, provide for the future...
Make art, be creative, where ever and when ever!

I have a new home!

My creative thoughts have been spent on color choices and how best to arrange people and furniture in a smaller but nicer space. I have looked through every copy of HOME COMPANION and VICTORIA magazine that I have saved over the years. I focused on what I had bookmarked previously as favorites. I chose "rest-full" green, gray, neutrals in the "public"rooms. I plan to accent with colors from art and textiles which can be moved or changed easily. My bedroom/studio walls are pale pink. I don't think I have ever had a pink room. I painted the 100+ year old iron a brass bed a dark aubergine.

The house appeared in wonderful, move in condition and was painted in a nice neutral cream. My only initial plan was to paint over the dark paneling in the living room. Back in March when I first met THE HOUSE, I had a dreadful head cold and was unaware of the smell that the house had from being smoked in for 30 years. When the furniture was moved out we could see outlines on the walls where pictures had hung! I wish that I had taken pictures but the worst rooms have already been painted.

My other creative pursuit has been thrift store and estate sale shopping. I am looking for sweaters to felt and silk for a quilt. I love fabric textures and colors. Alas, it means more store. I have meanwhile found that I can clothe myself and family in in silk, linen, and cashmere "for a song"!

And the winners are........
Drum roll....
I deleted my post and one procedural one from a friend. Then I used a random number generator to get 3 numbers between 1 and 85....

bunnychicboutique

Lisa

brines

congratulations to all for the fun!

ONE World ONE Heart
More gifts! I am adding an additional two gift packets of pretty supplies. On Valentine's Day I will draw three names from you who leave comments asking to be entered!

Add these two cards to the two in my previous post to be part of the ONE World ONE Heart blog drawings. The brainchild of lisa s. oceandreamer, this is an opportunity for me to give gifts! comment on any of my post with this topic to be entered in the drawings. Surprises will also be sent to winners!

"One World-One Heart" a blog-wide giveaway event. This is a wonderful way to bring bloggers from around the world together, that under other circumstances would not have met. This event enables us to discover new and wonderful people, and at the same time have the possibility of winning a prize or or many prizes...

I will also have a DRAWING on my blog for four original collaged and stamped cards and something else in the nature of a nice surprise.
These are two of my cards to give away. The others are similar but I don't have time right now to scan them! Time to get ready for school!

Please leave a comment and request to enter the drawing.

"God gave us our memories so that we might have roses in December." - J. M. Barrie



I have just found a sweet blog featuring wildflowers in the winter. The name of the blog is Joy in the Morning. I do long to see the flowers that usually start to bloom here as early as February and continue through the fall. But it is so dry here and we have had some very hard freezes so I have not even seen a hint of spring growth yet in the pastures and on the sides of the roads. I decided to cheer myself, and maybe someone else, by looking back and posting some of my photos, paintings, and sketches from previous years.

I can't believe that the month of January is over! I have been working hard...and having fun at it; time has flown by so quickly. Here are two illustrations I have done for my Latin class students to color. These go with particular vocabulary lists: gladius, sword; nuntius, messenger; mare, sea; nāvis, ship, etc. I have had them labeling things, making sentences, and coloring the pictures. I think it has been an enjoyable change of pace for all involved. I am constantly trying to get more comprehension and retention. I really need some very very easy Latin readers similar to Dick and Jane: Marcus and Horatia, perhaps!

The very competitive and highly motivated child, the kind you hope to have in every class, is able to label over 30 Latin nouns and verbs in each picture. They were even asking for dictionaries in one class trying to see who could get the most!

This time last week I was finishing up this little darling. She is 4 inches tall and based on a pattern from the book DOLLS TO MAKE FOR FUN AND PROFIT, by Edith Flack Ackley, published in 1939. I remember checking this book out of the library as a child. I recently purchased my own copy.

Unlike the dolls in the book she is made of wool felt, not woven cotton fabric. I am very comfortable hand sewing felt. She has a wire armature so she can be posed. Her petticoat and pantaloons were made out of an old cotton handkerchief. The trim is vintage tatted lace.

Confessions and Apologies of an Occasional Sports Mom

Dear blog readers,
This week school started again so I have been very busy. Along with my teaching schedule my fourteen-year-old has basketball practice at 6:30 a.m. three mornings a week and I just go to school early on those days. I also have had an awful cold and I have not done a creative thing this week. This evening I worked the concession stand for an hour and a half, then watched my son's team play. They are the seventh grade team of a small private school playing an even smaller school's team. I have put this video on my blog for the benefit of family members unable to come to his games. My apologies to anyone uninterested in basketball.

The Tale of Two Teapots

My family is a tea drinking family. We love coffee too but I have more warm memories about tea and teapots than coffee. The song "I'm a Little Teapot, Short and Stout" brings back memories of my teen-aged aunts and me being about 3 years old. My grandmother served me tea from her yellow Hall teapot like this one when I was visiting her as a child. I remember Bigelow Constant Comment, still a favorite, and Celestial Seasonings Red Zinger, not a favorite but I loved it then!

The yellow teapot is one I found in an antique store and bought because it is just like the one my grandmother, who is 91, still uses.

This large white teapot was given to my grandmother by my great-great-aunt. My gandmother gave it to me because it is so big and she thought I could use a big one; I have 6 children and we use to have frequent "tea parties." This is a BIG teapot. It holds 1/2 gallon or 2 liters of tea and measures 7 1/2 inches tall, 12 from handle to tip of spout!

I started my children with "cambric tea" giving them a little tea with copious amounts of milk and sugar cubes. Cookies, scones, or some other sweets usually went with tea in those days and still do!

Tale of Two Tea Cozies

I was inspired by a piece of soft gray felt that I bought off a remnant rack to make a tea cozy for my large white teapot. I decided to make it fairly simple to go with the simplicity of the teapot. I had a desire to do some hand sewing but also finish a project in a day or two. Naturally one project inspires another, usually before the first is finished! I thought of making a tea cozy to send to my grandmother out of some squares I started last August. This was a nice last day of '07 and first day of '08 project - two tea-cozies finished in two days!