Winter Rules...

Hello Friends, Winter still rules here in the frozen North lands, and has since November. Several feet of fluffy white blanket everything. Especially lovely are the tall Spruce trees. We are blessed to have electricity and heat, while many thousands across the country are presently suffering power outages. I can still remember the challenges and deprivations of Ice Storm 1998 when the farmhouse was without power for about a month.
Today I saw nine (9) PAIRS of cardinals. WOW! I was overwhelmed. The males flash such a lovely deep scarlet near their olive brown mates. I thought I would get one post in for the first month of the new year anyway... Photo's of recent projects to follow soon. Hugs!

December Musings

Wednesday was a productive day. I canned "Soybean Casserole," a large batch of Crabapple Jelly with its lovely pink-red claret color, and decanted and canned North Country Maple Syrup.
I also worked on the annual Christmas newsletter and baked a batch of yummy Pumpkin Chip Cookies.
Earlier in the week I put out birdseed for the first time in several years. It took a while for the winged creatures to discover the treasure. For some time now I had been disheartened, extremely discouraged about a particular on-going life situation. Sending up one of those "arrow prayers," I asked for a sign (whether I should keep hope, or abandon it).
Several times I looked out and saw only sparrows and junkos at the feeder, but later in the day as I wandered by the window, I spotted a darling brown cardinal hunkered down against the cold wind, followed shortly thereafter by her bright crimson mate. Call it juvenile or simplistic, but I accepted the sightings as a reminder that one must never give up hope. I have seen cardinals in the front yard each day since.
I'm so glad creation wears many colors. Just think: all the fruits and vegetables could have been gray- yuck!

Found Objects

Several months ago I signed up for a "Found Objects" fabric postcard exchange. Always a scavenger, as I rode my bicycle almost every day, many things caught my attention: bolts, bottle caps, windshield wipers, discarded CD's, etc. The collection began to mount.

Then one day I walked through a riverside park and saw a flock of snow geese on the lawn. When I returned they were gone, but the grass was covered with white feathers. I collected some, thinking I could work them into my "Found Objects" theme. Unfortunately, the feathers were too curly to lie flat. Another idea came to mind after I found a stack of orange plastic squares, stapled together. These markers for use on road repair sites, were easy to sew through and with the addition of beads, I ended up with this rather unusual design.

Greetings From Tyvekistan

In October I was honored to host a Tyvek Trade for one of my online postcard groups. A friend in the home construction business gifted me with an armload of house wrap scraps from one of the sites where her husband works. I have been wanting to purchase some Jacquard Lumiere paints with their shimmers of gold, but figured out how to 'make my own' by laying down one acrylic color, letting it dry, then applying a wash of gold acrylic paint over that. Carefully melting Tyvek cut-outs layered between Teflon sheets with a hot iron yields unpredictable results.

To me the shapes suggest "New Hampshire Map," "Funnel," "Flying Pig," and "Twister." The pieces I received in exchange are all uniquely textured. This was definitely lots of fun!!! Having a great time in Tyvekistan, wish you were here!!!

Dotee Fun Has Begun

Salt & Pepper Sally was my first Dotee doll. I had fun ironing on the star decals, and putting black and beige hair on top of her body, shaped like those wooden spoons for the ice cream Dixie cups we had as children. She's so cute, even a bad-hair day is a good day. When she left for Northampton, England I hated to let her go, but she must be happy there because I haven't heard much except that she arrived safely.

My second Dotee doll actually has pink and orange hair which started out as a closely cropped frizz, but soon required a weave. She flew to Puerto Rico right before Thanksgiving and hasn't returned.

Rainbow QTC's, Summer Glitz QTC's

I enjoyed working on this series of Quilter's Trading Cards, like half-size postcards (2+1/2" x 3+1/2") made of fabrics and embellishments. I made anywhere from 6 to 11 of each color. For the backs, I designed a label with lines for name, date, to whom it was going, etc. with Print Shop program. Next are the Landscape QTC's, and possibly a private 1:1 swap using only white, and one using only black. After that, it may be time to move on to something else!

Blue Autumn

The sky has been vivid, bright blue for two days now. Not hot, but the sun on my shoulders feels intense. I have been riding my favorite biking path, drinking in the colors of the foliage: golden yellows, coppery oranges, fiery reds. Just before dusk the sunshine makes the tree tops glow and I am just stunned by the beauty. I gathered still-green leaves to preserve with glycerine water for freezing; in winter I will be able to make leaf prints with paint. I also gathered peach, burgundy, and tangerine-colored leaves to pound as I have with flower heads. The previous time I tried this technique I promised myself I would never do it again. It takes tremendous effort to force the pigment from the petals and leaves into the white muslin. Hammering with such intensity hurts my thumb. I guess it's not worth it, but I just had to do it one more time. Soon I hope to post more autumn pictures of my favorite riverside trail.

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The picture above was autumn leaves I picked, scanned in, saved as a bitmap, opened in Paint program... then I selected "invert colors" under the Image menu at the top of the screen. Since blue is my favorite color... And now, what they really looked like: