I crack myself up!

Egomania got the best of me tonight! this is my first time seeing this on a news stand! Sarah snapped this photo with her phone... I think I need to take the good camera in and take one more shot before its off the stands :)

when I received my preview magazine... I looked at it and said "ok... I did that" but it never really hit me till last night that I could walk into just about any book store in north america and see something that I did on the news stand and see a little peek of what I created on the cover no less :)

sacred gift

It looks like spring but its almost summer! (my kids just have 7 more days of school left!) as you walk to my front door you are greeted to the most intoxicating smell of these sweet peas!

I received my bird swap goodies from Tammie Moore! She treated me to so many Bird treasures!

I was totally delighted! her hand made parts where a fun bird purse and earrings! I am not so great at collecting so many delightful goodies so I was very over joyed with my package :)

(Bird gifts from Tammie!)

This was my care package that I sent her... I came in late to this swap so I did not have time to shop around and buy bird themed treats, so I had to create them all my self...

so I pulled out my trusty bird stamps and went to work! I made her the banner with her name on it and a bird themed cone along with bird earrings in a bird earring holder, a vintage bird book, a nest and some bird ephemera. with some hand stamped bird images that I made from my stamps are in the little brown bag.
I felt like I was a short change partner because I did not have time to shop around and BUY bird goodies we were supposed to spend $20, but its funny how we perceive are gifts that we give and make opposed to the gifts we receive.
(you can read what tammie thought about
her gift here)


I spent a hard uninspired day in my studio yesterday...
I like a crazy woman, told my self that I was going to walk into my studio and in one day create 6 amazing things for a new article that I am working on...

well the joke was on me because not a lot happened!
my dye colors were all wrong!
the one good thing that did come out of it was a near miss hap!
( I burnt some of the fabric that I had in my oven! but it looks really cool! see the brown bit under my beloved aunt Mary's sheers... she was a marvellous dress maker!)

but as luck has it today looks a lot brighter and the lay outs that I did yesterday just need a little tweaking :)

(its a misty morning so I required the Caramel Macchiato Venti,
with a side of gardenia!
please click on the image to read )

I did learn a lesion yesterday, and this is to never take for granted the good days when the creativity flows so easily as if each steep we take is perfect.

creativity is surely a sacred gift that I will respect more!

Albert Einstein:

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.

Birds are flyin'

I cooked more food this weekend then I have in the last 4 months combined!
but I took a little break yesterday to create my first ever banner :) I am happy how it turned out, I was going to make a departure from my own style and try something new but I gave myself a 2 hour time limit to make this so I had to stick to what I know.
This is for a bird them swap hosted by Tammie Moore and Mrs Moore her self is my partner :)

Felt and altered fibers along with hidden elements and papers along with machine quilting comprise this banner,
I really want one for myself!
I hope Tammie likes it :)
now I am off to make some jewelry for the book "A Charming Exchange"... its so hard to believe that I only 8 weeks to get 40 pieces of jewelry completed for this project! I am a dreamer at heart and a procrastinator till the end! but I always get my work done by my dead lines! so its off to work I go! :)

Weird-Bird by Shel Silverstein

Birds are flyin' south for winter.
Here's the Weird-Bird headin' north,
Wings a-flappin', beak a-chatterin',
Cold head bobbin' back 'n' forth.
He says, "It's not that I like ice
Or freezin' winds and snowy ground.
It's just sometimes it's kind of nice
To be the only bird in town."

enchant your life

So what do you do when you have a dead line but also want to play?
well you take your work pool side of course and take a dip and bask in the sun!
This is the beauty of jewelry once your past your design stage it is totally portable :)
This is the out side of the jewelry holder that I made to put it in.

This is the holder open.

This is my trusty assistant Bruizer :)

"Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart." — Kahlil Gibran

2 AM

when the muse comes we have no choice other then to embrace her! :)

(atc)

I did not sleep a wink Thursday night I tossed and turned from 2am to 4am, I have two upcoming magazine articles that I had to write and I am not a "real" writer so this is the part that I stress about more then anything! there were pages in my head all full of words, really good words and full sentence! I really needed to go to the computer and type it all down! but it was 2am and I really did not want to get out of bed so I turned on my bed side light and took my journal and I wrote down a few things thinking that this would free my mind... but this only made room for more words! at 4am I gave up and got out of bed! but I am happy to report that I got both finished by 7am so all in all it was worth the insomnia!

Art Girl :)

Sharon Wisely
and I were in this Round Robbin altered calender group last year and when she
read my sew charming article in Cloth Paper Scissors she thought that these word stamps from Her shop Red Lead
would be to my liking! (you must go to her shop she has some amazing stamps and oh so many wonderful things!)

oh my! was I ever inspired! thank you Sharon! I only just started to play with them but here are a few peeks of what they look like stamped on fabric :)

(these cones are for sale on etsy)

I am over my head busy right now with so many projects and I have found that the more I HAVE to do, and the more SERIOUS the projects the more likely I am to PLAY!

cure of soul

When I look back over my work from last year I can see the roots from where I have grown...

(life, My hands)

I want to stretch more with fiber art, I find myself at a crossroads with my skills and I am starting to become limited and I believe that I can not go forward with out steeping back and truly understand the foundations of sewing, so a few classes my be in order.

Dear wonderful Sara in Austria has suggested that maybe next summer I could come and spend some time with her in her studio and we could create together! Now this is just a dream right now but it is one that I hope to make come true! Sara inspires me so completely! I love how her work is constantly evolving and growing! and her sewing skills are so vast it's amazing! I would love to be her appearance!

cure of soul(doors closed)

(close up of door details)

So here you have it, my 9 x 12 Fabric secret door project, this is my last swap for a while, its time for me to go deep into a hole and create jewelry for my book "A charming exchange" Kelly and I have been working on the lay outs and I must say that the art we have to work with is truly amazing! I am a little confused as how I will blog from here out... I am not sure how many sneak peeks any one can handle!

(doors open)


(close up of inside details and heart pocket with secret inside)

So why do I use such a limited color pallet?

I guess in part its because when I create with fabric its come from more of a dream state deep from inside of myself... the textures and layers and all the hidden elements are things found inside my dreams... when I work on a piece things are always being shifted and moved until it seams as if it where something I had seen before. so for now I am lost in sepia tones.
but I promise I will try to steep out of the box soon!
(you can see more close up's of "cure of soul" here)


"There's too much beauty upon this earth for lonely men to bear."
— Richard Le Gallienne