Wednesday, October 28, 2009

White Wednesday BOO!

It is 11:19 and this is the first moment I have had to sit down at the computer in three days. I've been organizing/designing another luscious studio and as always having a hoot! This client is an incredible bead and quilt artist, sweet as can be, and she even feeds me fabulous food. Am I blessed or what?

I will be showing a WHITE and black Halloween advent tomorrow morning. I'll tuck it in at the end of this post. Please forgive my tardiness, and I hope you'll come back to see it. My pattern was published last year in a local magazine "polished". The advent is for sale. Sorry, local pick-up only.

Hope everyone enjoyed all the WW blogs. Golly there are a passel of em' now. It'll take me all weekend to catch up. Cannot wait till my Holiday decorating is done, I'll have loads of white to share.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Pie Me Oh My

Pie
Pie
Me oh my
Nothing tastes sweet, wet, salty and dry
all at once o well it's pie
Apple!
Pumpkin!
Minced
an' wet bottom.
Come to your place everyday if you've got em'
Pie
Me o my
I love pie

Sue treated me to Marie Callendars for dinner and you guessed it...PIE! 2 full pies.( On sale right now- hurry)Lemon Cheesecake Pie and Kahlua Cheesecake Pie. We switched 1/2 pie each and I just had my first slices of a little of both. Oh Lordie! I also had my first fried green beans with a chipotle dip. My new favorite thing!

Sue and I spent a lovely day working on a Christmas Advent for her home and it came out just fabulous...all glitter and creams in a lovely silver frame. Soon as she has all the tags attached I'll show a pic.

I have had some inquiries about my large advent and I guess I failed to mention, it is indeed for sale. I am planning on taking it to a Holiday Show but if someone would like to purchase it before the show just email me. You will need a large space to hang but what a show stopper!

It is a joy to be talking about the end of Sue's chemo treatment and the great test results coming in. We talked about Holiday parties we were planning and road trips and just about everything else in between here and there and around. What a nice way to spend a crisp fall day, sharing ideas, crafting and gabbing. Perfect. oh, and pie.

In case you are thinking "I've heard that ditty before", Andie McDowell sings it in the movie Michael. "Oh yeah.....I remember now"

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

A wee WW



So I did end up taking a photo of a friend's White. This is a beautiful framed piece in a lovely living room in a beautiful home. Suzie tells me that these were all everyday dresses, even the longer center one. The long dress belonged to Suzie's Mom, the other four were hers. I have always thought this was a lovely piece made all the more special because of the memories. Thank you to Suzie for letting me "borrow" her White.

Please visit all the other WW bloggers by clicking on the White Wednesday link over there
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*Oh, and I had the sweetest comment from this gal under the Studios Garages and Bedrooms Oh My! on 10/18

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Studios, Garages and Bedrooms, OH MY!

I am having way too much fun. I have said it before, doing what you love to do is a blessing, and I am blessed. I am very busy working with some great women and having a blast. We are organizing ourselves into a tizzy and staying very busy.

When the organizing is finished the Holiday decorating begins! Many of you are unaware I used to decorate Christmas trees as a full time job. 75 different themed trees each season. One of the trees was three stories high through holes cut into the barn floors. In order to decorate between floors I used to hang upside down through the hole with someone holding my legs. This was long before OSHA. Can you imagine? The stupidity of youth, but I LOVED it.

I have several clients already booking in November and I only have limited days available in December, so if you're thinking about some help.....and yes, I'm still at reduced rates until 2010.

I want to relate some very good news. My dear friend Sue is doing very well, nearly completed with chemo and her latest PET scan shows no sign of cancer. She has been amazing through all of this, brave and strong and we are all thrilled and relieved. Sue has some radiation still to go, but then she can start preparing for her trip this summer to Russia! You go girl!

I will try to get a White Wednesday in, but I make no promises. Clients come first. Maybe I can photograph white at their houses! hmmmmm better go pack the camera in the car.

61 days till darling daughter comes home for winter break. sigh

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Oh my Stars!

Wouldn't you know it? Wednesday snuck up on me AGAIN! Just this minute at 9:00pm I remembered it was Tuesday, even though I lived through all day today...A Tuesday. I offer pathetic excuses for my lack of white - two wonderful client visits today, a yummy lunch with friends and three long distance chats this evening. The landscapers arrive in the early am to do my lawn overhaul and well...I've got nothing, except this rather sad little story about a bunch of 4' glitter stars that I made.

How I meant them to look:



How some of them ended up, after gallons of stiffener: OOPS



Are you laughing? Hey, cut that out! They're just a little stiffy challenged...ahem

and this counts....they ARE white!

Sunday, October 11, 2009

It's Official

I bought my first Christmas Ornament (Actually 3) this weekend! Currently we are practicing an austere program around here, but I figured I could spring for the $18.00. I passed on numerous other items that in the past would have found their way into my basket and not just for a "ride in the cart."

To those who do not understand that personal philosophy: I have found that if I put things into my cart on first whim and then proceed through the store enjoying the shopping experience, that by the end of the last aisle I have convinced myself that I really do not need this item or that item and I am quite content to return them to their appropriate shelf. Leaving the store with few and now quite often, no items, gives me a non-shopping high that is nearly equal to it's opposite.

Of course this entails returning all items back to their rightful place, otherwise said high is dampened by guilt of causing store employees additional work. Now, some of you will find this system does not work for you because you are not so easily fooled by your own mind, but giving treasures a "ride in my cart" works for this fool.

Sharing the experience this weekend was my friend Sarah. We had spent weeks together readying for the huge garage sale and I felt we deserved a fun day out and about, even on restricted budgets. Chipotle was involved, and lots of gab, all in all a nice break on a glorious fall day. The highlight being Sarah patiently guiding me through the agonizing decision of a new, delicious, clearance priced, butter yellow, leather purse to replace my beloved Michael Kors flaming orange ranger bag. My first Makowski. We'll see...After all, it is a "rebound" purse after a two year love affair.



On my way home I stopped at Home Depot and grabbed some great faded yellow ( must have been the purse influence) pots and plants that will be waiting for their new home in the yard after the de-lawning ceremony on Wednesday. Yes, I surrender to the "PC no grass", less water waste of desert living. Only took 32 years. Constant sprinkler repair and old lawn syndrome were weighing heavily in the decision process, but I am taking a leap of faith, and quite nervously forging ahead. I figure if I throw enough old wheelbarrows and galvanized tubs around it will end up OK. Major pruning to be done. I have to remove the top half of my beloved banks roses because they have broken through 2 wooden trellis that I am replacing with metal. My roses will look scalped until spring, and I just realized they are yellow!. It's official then, a mellow yellow weekend. I hope you are enjoying yours.



Tuesday, October 6, 2009

White Wednesday Advent

As promised, here are the first pics of the advent I have been working on for a show. This baby is 48"x 40". The pics aren't the best, I was in the garage with bad lighting, and I only took 2 closeups, but you get the idea.

I love doing these, I've been putting them together for several years and even taught a Gathering around an advent one summer. Note to those of you who have STILL not finished yours. If I can do one this size, you can easily complete your 11x16! Shall I name names - hmmm? When I saw the frame at a garage sale, I just had to have it. Too bad this one is too large for me to keep, but it will find a happy home somewhere. I'm just happy I finished it in time for WW! woo-hoo







Monday, October 5, 2009

Boo Garland from Gathering


I hope to have time to make a SPOOKY one too.
Black tulle- As a child I always wanted to take dance lessons and wear a tutu, just because of the tulle. Who knew years later I would use tulle to cover things beside a child's fanny? Tulle is named for a French town TULLE where it originated. "Learn something new every day", she says nodding her head...... I WILL have White Wednesday this week. I'm going to try to be a better WW blogger.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

OCTOBER at LAST

It's not just the weather, it's not just the 1 year anniversary of the passing of sweet Viola, it's not just the end of a courageous journey for dear friend Sue, or even the conclusion of the last major job assignment. It is the windows flung open and the sound and smell of freshly mowed lawns. It is the house being cool enough now to simmer soups on the stove top and bake brownies, and burn my favorite cookie crunch candles all day long.

It is the end of the summer heat that I have always disliked, OK, I out and out HATE the heat here. It is not the sweet gentle warmth on your skin that I remember as a child. Here it is the blistering, breath sucking, melt your mascara heat that causes me to hibernate for three months, this year, nearly four.

I want to sew and bake and garden and do all the things that I am too heat-weary to do all summer long. I was meant to live in the cold, like Rhoda, I figure I would keep better.
October is the beginning of all my favorite things, gourds and pumpkins, Thanksgiving leftovers and Holiday Sparkle and Glitter. Woo-Hoo October at last.