New Worlds

This photo, taken 17 years ago, shows my daughter Em looking at me after she realized for the first time, just how big and really magical this world we live in could be. Being able to share with her something as wonderous as seeing the ocean for the first time was precious. I have been blessed to share in the daily discoverings of both her life and her sister's life, and I am so deeply grateful for the privilage.

Tomorrow Em leaves for college, and for the first time I will not be a part of her daily life, to see her sweet smile as she comes through the door, hear her laughter at the dinner table, or feel her arms around me as she gives me a goodnight hug. I will miss her deeply.

My wish for Em is that her future be as deep and wide and wonderous as the ocean, and that she may find all of the treasures buried within. And to always know that where ever she goes in this world she will always be in my heart.

Prized Fabric Finally Used

Another new pincushion! This one features a retro head on top of a wooded game piece. Looks like one of those bobbing head figures! Now that would be cool, a bobbing head pincushion! I'll have to work on that one. The fabric on this little cutie-pie is from my prized Junko Onishi prints. (It has taken me a long time to bring myself to cut into it!) I love this fabric. It features multiple prints including birds, shamrocks, checkerboard, diamond flowers, gourds, and polka dots!

I think I shall name this pincusion person Penelope. Look for her in my etsy shop sometime this week, along with a couple of other pincushions made from this wonderful fabric!

Pure Joy!!

I was deliriously happy when my dear friend Maggie surprised me with these two absolutely delightful additions to my plastic clothespin family! I was delighted to receive the green grannie, as I previously only had one grannie, which I wound up altering and making into a little art doll. I like my grannie angel doll, yet always regretted that I no longer had a "pure" and unaltered grannie, but now I do!!!

I just about went bonkers over the blue dog!!! I knew there was a dog as part of this series, as I saw it once in a book or on the web somewhere, but I had never seen one in any of my flea market searches. And the fact that it is blue! A new color to add to the group! Yippee!!!!

Thanks Maggie! I LOVE my two new old clothespins!!!

Below is a pic of my grannie clothespin doll, and below it is one I made from one of the girl clothspins.

Boondoggling

This morning while playing a game of Scrabble with my girls, I was double checking the spelling of a word in my very worn out, falling apart Merriam-Webster, which I have had since the fourth grade, (I am a horrible speller and am constantly looking up words) when I came across my new favorite. "Boondoggling" a noun meaning a trivial, useless, or wasteful activity. Well I'll be hog-tied! Not only did I find a new favorite word, it actually stands for something that I am well experienced in!

Gramps and Junior

This past Friday was the artists reception for "The Dog Days of Summer" show. We had a great turnout and it was a fun time for everyone! Pictured here is one of my little quilts that is in the show. I call it "Gramps and Junior". It features vintage fabrics and hand embroidery. The inspiration for "Gramps", (pictured on the left) came from an image of some silly looking dogs on an old 1930's Snap card. (Snap is an old kids card game.) Little "Junior" was inspired by an itty-bitty pen and ink cross-hatch illustration, no bigger then a half of an inch, that I found in an old 1880's paperback Mother Goose book that I have.

Roxie the Redhead

Here's another pincushion. What can I say? It's like eating potato chips, you just can't stop at one!

Pincushions Rock!

Well, I do believe I am completely smitten with pincushions! They are extemely satisfing to make, aesthetically pleasing, and functional to boot! What more could a girl ask for? I dig 'em! I made this one up today. The neat thing with this design is that it has a mini " baby" pincushion riding piggy-back. I think the smaller pincushion would be great to stick my really thin, small needles into, and use the larger pincushion for regular needles, embroidery needles, and pins of course! I posted this one in my etsy shop, and plan on making more of these as well as the cute ones with the heads.

This is the underside of the pincushion. I wanted to put some type of "BooDilly" lable on it. I have been fooling around with home made ones this last week, and really like how simple this one was to make. I simply printed up my lable info in printshop using a lable template and then flipped it so the words were reversed. Then I printed out a sheet of these backward lables onto t-shirt transfer paper. Next step was to cut one out and iron it onto a strip of satin ribbon that was a little more then twice the lenght of the lable. Let it cool, peel off the paper backing, fold the ribbon in half, and stitch the lable into place!

Heads Up

I found these great vintage heads about half a year ago at a local junk shop. They are the type that were used to make those sweet little Christmas angel/caroler decorations, you know the ones with the pipe cleaner arms. Well, I fell head over heels for them and knew that they would be great for something! Promptly went home, and put them in my ever expanding "these will be great for something!" stash, and pretty much forgot all about the poor little things. But Ta Da!! I was right, (as usual!) and they are great for something! They make great little toppers for pincushions!

(I had pin cushions on my mind as a friend of mine who has her own gallery asked me the other week if I would be interested in participating in an upcoming pin cushion themed exhibit she was thinking about doing. Doesn't that sound like a fun show!?)
I have just made this one so far but think that I will be making these exclusively for the next week or so as I have close to 30 of these little heads, and they all desperately want a body!
For the hands down best pin cushions I have seen in a long time check out this etsy seller's site Bethsbagz.etsy.com, or click on the link to "my etsy store" and go into my "favorites" to link to her site. She has some great colorful pincushions with amazing vintage toppers on them! I don't know her personally, but I think her work is lovely!

Reflections of Home

Be sure to check out the newest issue of Somerset Home, (available at Barnes and Noble or Border book stores, or go to www.stampington.com) to see and read all about the beautiful ideas and inspirations for creating and decorating your home with amazing artwork and craft projects. Please be sure to look for my artwork and article entitled "Reflections of Home" that feature house shaped wall hangings. The focal point of each house is a small collage peeking through an altered round glass mirror. I scrubbed most of the reflective paint off of the mirrors, leaving just a bit remaining, to create a deamy, aged look.


These pieces were inspired by memories of my YaiYai's home. (YaiYai is greek for grandmother. My actual greek grandmother sadly passed away before I was born, but I was blessed to have a Great Great Aunt whom everyone called YaiYai, despite the fact that she herself never had any children of her own).

YaiYai's home was cozy, yet full of magical mystery to me, with it's icons, and the smell of incense mixing with the heavenly scent of freshly baked greek pastries. And even though YaiYai died many years ago, and her lovely home with the beautiful rose bushes was eventually tore down in the mistaken name of progress, I will always have fond memories of YaiYai and her home.