Thimbles up!

Thumbs or thimbles up to making some progress.  Last Friday, my day off I finished two bags.  You may think, why not more?  I am not sure how to admit this to you and myself, but I get frequently distracted, and I walk away from my projects to assist someone else, be that a child, a husband, a dad, a call from a friend or a relative.  I wished I could be a bit different, and ignore all distractions, and that's what I am working on to achieve.  Focus, and ignore the rest for a short while.

  

I decided to use a larger pattern from some wallets I made some time ago.  I also decided to use kitchen linens, instead of store bought fabric.  I have a box of kitchen linens, that came from an estate sale of a retirement home.  There is a dozen Australian themed linens, from someone's travels to Australia.  This is what I like about vintage fabrics.  I like to think about and imagine the person that owned it, what were they like, what were they doing with the linens, fabrics.  Did they buy it, or did they get it as a gift?  What was the occasion?  I am not sure why these thoughts bring me inspiration and comfort, and it helps me focus.  I guess it doesn't matter, as long as I enjoy the experience.

I got some discarded matt boards, from old photographs.  And I thought I'd give it a try to make pseudo ATC.  They are not the right size, I just cut them to something small but inconsistent, 3"x3", or 3.25"x3"... This birdman stamp I got recently has intrigued me, so I played with it a little bit.

 

Then I am trying to finish up some projects, such as these bags I was making out of old button shirts and fabric remnants.  

 

In between all that, I hang out with my kids, or in this picture my daughter.  The two of us were waiting for my son during his weekend pottery class.

 

And then I also had a visitor, my Bulgarian friend Lora, and her newest addition to her family, her third daughter.  

 

And, I also got my eyes checked, and got new glasses.  So here I am....a 'selfie' for you.

You probably think I have fallen off the face of the Earth.  I have been busy.  First of all my son turned 7.  I can hardly believe that I am a mother of a 7 years old boy.  Very proud of the little man.  He was on school break on his birthday,  so when he went back to school he invited some friends and wanted to have a party.  We had a little gathering in the park 10 days later.

 

On the crafty side, I have been making and giving away hair pins.  And selling some too.  Here are some samples. 

 

Then last Sunday, I also went to church.  It's been a decade since I last went.  It was a nice experience.  Reminded me when I used to sing in the church choir, when I lived in Omaha.   

 

I have also been rummaging through thrift shops, antique stores, and my own stash of items from many years ago.  I found an old atlas at the library bookstore.  It was a real treasure to me for $3. 

 

And then the thrift store across the street from my home had a bag of buttons for a $1.  Ohh how could I resist those flower buttons, and all the rest.  For a buck.  What a deal!! 

 

And Altered Couture magazine came in the mail yesterday.  And I have work in it.  I altered some old t-shirts into skirts.  This is the first time for me in Altered Couture.  A good feeling.   

 

And, last...I've been going through my personal stash of old linens, I've inherited from relatives, or found in thrift stores.  I am cleaning them and getting them ready to re-purpose.

 

Ah and yes, I've been trying to make some cards. 

Arcosanti

I've been under a little stress lately, with work, family and probably the big city life style.  In times like this I seek nature.  It's how I ground myself and attempt to get balanced.  Last week we went to the Boyce Thompson Arboretum.  This week Arcosanti.  It's been a while since I've been to Arcosanti, an urban laboratory about 1.5hr drive from Phoenix, just outside of Cordes Junction on I-17 North.  Being thousand of miles and an ocean away from home, Arcosanti is the only place I know that feels like home to me.  It's the raw nature, it reminds me of a home my grandparents own in Macedonia.  Outside of town, with just nature and hills, and dirt and rocks and weeds.  No fancy landscaping, just nature the way it was created originally.  You can live there, in Arcosanti, and if it was entirely up to me, I'd be moving there tomorrow.  But there are others to consider and for now I am back home in our house on North Jay Street. 

Walkabout

I needed to destress, to get away for a moment from the everyday and a trip to the Boyce Thompson Arboretum, just east of town was well suited. 

Jewelry Affaire

A first time for me, having my work in Jewelry Affaire. Feeling excited!!

Christmas sneaked up this year

I am a little bit behind schedule with the holidays this year and still haven't mailed a single Christmas card.  I started making the cards over a week ago, and today I made a little more progress.  

No snow here, ever

My mom tells me they got snow in the midwest. Ah, snow that white beautiful stuff, I sort of miss it. I miss seeing it fall.  I don't miss shoveling it, or being cold.

In the mean time, here in Arizona, we are free to play in the park, with no jackets, gloves, scarves....

I took a picture of the cottony sky with a fisheye camera, and it's the closest to a snow ball I am going to get.  Stay warm, if you are in cold weather. 

 

Arizona Craft Rave

Tomorrow I am participating at a local crafting event called Arizona Craft Rave.  It's a marathon of crafting, where visitors can learn a quick craft, and make gifts to take home.  I am teaching how to use shrinky dink plastic and draw zen doodle motives to make different items.  Here are my samples.

Buttons.

 

Rings

 

Hair pins

Goofing around with the kids

The plan was to go to watch the birds at the Gilbert Riparian.  These two wanted to run and have me chase them in the play area.  I snapped a few pictures of them running, hiding and being happy kids.

 

The Christmas tree is up

I had to work on Thanksgiving Day.  I usually work, unless it happens to be my day off.  The kids wanted to put up the Christmas tree before I went to work.  So we did. 
And today, Black Friday, I am glad to have it off and be home with the kids.  They are playing in their room and I am gearing up to work on my display/tutorials for next week's Craft Rave.

Ornaments

Today there are so many choices of pretty fabrics, or you can even go to Spoonflower and design your own.  Yet, for some reason, I prefer stamping on muslin and creating my own that way.  This time I used a butterfly stamp I've had for some time, and a stamp I bough from Stampington, designed by Colette Copeland.  It's a stamp of a girl.  Perhaps it reminds me of my daughter, or myself and that's why I like it. In any case, here are some ornaments I stamped, stitched and stuffed.   

 

A date to the theater

The library by our house had a Culture Pass to the Tempe Arts Center Theater.  The play:  The Velveteen Rabbit.  Who could pass two free tickets to it?  So I took Maggie to see it.  Her first play and she enjoyed herself.  I think I found my theater date.  We are planning to go next month again to see The Cat in the Hat.  

I used to go to the theater a whole lot more before I was married.  About every couple of months.  But I don't think my husband enjoys going, so somehow I've gotten away from going too.  

Maggie and I had a great time together.  It was a cloudy and rainy day and after the play we ran (or rather she ran, I chased her) around Tempe Beach Park.  Here are some photos of that.

   

Neck ties coin purses

Some time ago I got a sweet deal at the thrift shop by my house: two grocery bags full of ties for only a few dollars.  I couldn't really see how many, or all of the designs that were inside the bags, but I took my chance. I washed them and some of them got distorted, which was even better.  I like imperfect things, the more imperfect, the better.  And last week I ripped them apart and started making little coin purses.    

On a side note, the tomatoes I planted last May, that produced nothing during the hot summer heat, are finally making tomatoes.  These are the little cherry tomatoes.  My favorite.  Like eating candy, pop them in your mouth and squeeze the juice.  Mmmm!!

The school playground

The two little favorite humans I have!

You can't please everyone

The hardest lesson for me to learn: You can't please everyone, so you gotta please yourself.
I keep on practicing this lesson, and it gets easier, it's sinking in a tiny bit at a time.  The guilt I used to feel when I tried to make everyone happy, and it wasn't good enough for them, that guilt is not nearly the size it used to be.  In a nutshell, the last few weeks, it seems that the only thing that my family members have in common is me.  And displeased with each other, they all turn to me, as if I have to take a side.  A terrible place for me to be in, leaving everyone maybe more displeased than they were before.  What's a girl, a wife, a mother, a daughter to do?
Well....I just breathe, deep, and exhale loud, as if I were making wind and sweeping all the troubles away.  And I do wish I could find a place to hide and cry, but instead I get up, I show up, I am there, doing the only thing I can do: doing my best one minute at a time.
And I also wished I was a bird, or had wings to fly up to these beautiful blue skies and look at the world below and whisper: it's gonna be OK.

Birdies

I went to a vintage show/market yesterday, called Junk in the Trunk.  My friend Karen had a display there, and an extra ticket that she was generous to share.  Lots of neat things, that had I had more money I'd probably overspend. 
When I got back, inspired by the experience, I made these bird ornaments.  I used one of my favorite stamps, by Colette Copeland, then stamped, cut, stitched and stuffed these little creatures.  Added seam binding to be able to hang them.

Crescent moons

I made these as a practice exercise to stitch curvy lines.  The volunteer position to teach refugee women to sew was the reason behind it.  I heard that they are uneasy about sewing on paper.  The idea was to have them practice sewing curvy lines on paper because it's easier and also less costly (no destruction of fabric).  But, they are not comfortable with sewing on paper.  I can sort of understand, because my Eastern European family doesn't always quite get when I sew on paper.  I think it's because sewing is supposed to be a practical and useful skill.  Making garments, that's productive.  While sewing on paper is 'destructive'.  There is no purpose.  Except in art making. 
Anyway.....I though if I have them make greeting cards with crescent moons, which are cutouts from reject black and white paper, will go a bit easier.  I haven't introduced the idea to them yet.  So we'll see.

Time to return to work

My two weeks vacation is coming to an end.  Back to my job tomorrow.  It seems that I was off more than two weeks.  It was time well spent, time off to recoup, regroup, to not have to worry about having to be at any place at a particular time.  I did some crafting, I went to NYC with my husband and kids, I drove to Prescott, AZ with my husband and visited some galleries and co-ops, I got a volunteer job to teach refugee women to sew, I took my kids to Halloween parties, I did not sleep in, as I wanted to make the most of my days, I helped my dad search for a job, I watered my plants with no rush, I enjoyed my time off without feeling guilty spending it without a particular plan.  It felt great.
Here are a couple of pictures of the pine forest near Prescott.


I tried to practice some collaging.  It's new to me, I picked up a book at the library and got inspired to work on some house shaped collages. 


And some smaller ATC size ones too.  I hand stitched this time, fabric on paper.