Mandalas

Process

  Repetition.

 Hammering.

Quiet.

Peace.

Bookish

I learned Japanese book binding! The workshop was brilliant, easy to follow and Diana Arvanties is an amazing teacher.

Thank you Women Centered Arts!

I began making more covers the very next night.  Not that I'm excited or anything...

Misty mornings

Speaking of surprises

Some may rescue dogs & cats, but today, today I rescued flowers.

The weather has been unseasonably balmy, and these poor daffodils thought it was spring! When I spotted their yellow flags out of the kitchen window, I was compelled to bring them indoors, lest the now cooler temperatures withered their glow.

Now my work bench doubles as a green houses. I don't mind sharing at all.

Suprise Flowers

When I went to yoga teacher training, I expected freezing temperatures and a biting wind. These were found instead.

Present project

A gift of supple, soft leather has become a lovely clutch, this time, for me.

Though I think I hear some lovely dove grey suede calling out for the same treatment...

Bits of Asheville

On my walk to the studio there are beautiful things, like kitties, twig fences and the wonder of the sky...

Alchemy

I'm in Asheville this weekend, for our fourth (!) installment of yoga teacher training. I've brought this rugged, old wool to keep me company in the evening. I know I'll be felting this, so I'm just knitting squarish panels on big needles.  Nice and easy, perfect for after getting my brain filled with new, wonderful things.

The plan is to incorporate these Canadian beauties with leather to make a bag of some sort.  I'm not sure at all what it will look like, but I'm sure it'll be a fun bag to make! My aunt gave me the yarn years ago from her stash, and I'm happy to finally use some of it again.  It became a felted, all wool bag a few years ago, but I still have a few skeins to work through.

xo!

Mending

One of my goals this year is to finish project, to include my horrendously massive mending pile.  Last night, I took on a tear in one of my favorite skirts. It was  nice feeling, stitching the torn fabric back together. I had forgotten how good mending can be.

Fidgit helped, of course.

On squirreling away

My studio is nearly painted, and right now it is very clean and even organized! While all the shuffling of things and shelves happened, something came to light. I've noticed that when I begin a new technique or craft a certain urge comes over me. I keep every. last. bit. of whatever the material may be.  Let's go through some things I found while cleaning out...

Bits of yarn stuffed in to bags? 

Check! 

Are they too small to do anything with?

I don't know what you mean by this.   In English, please.

A drawer full of leather pieces?

Check! 

The little skinny strips MUST be good for something, right? 

I can always use the itty bitty squares and shapes to make pendents, right?

...right?

BAGS of embroidery floss

I'll get to them someday, really! It's quite handy to have around!

Fabric scraps

Let's not talk about those...

OK?

Oh! Don't forget the paper collection!

And the beads!

And the everything elses! 

It felt good to go through these collections of mine, thin them out, get realistic about what can be used, what needs to get tossed.  

This box, for instance, is only mostly full now!

I went through everything, tossing the crumbs and putting things into craft bags for friends. It felt good, lightening the load.

Well, everything except the embroidery floss. That's supposed to be in small bits, and you need every color, and in triplicate.  Am I right, or am I right?!?

The life of a Fidgit

Wake up the people

Drink water from the sink

Snack

Chase the lady

Snuggle the man

Snack

Sleep 

Clean toes

Sleep

Sleep

Snack

Snuggle the people

Chase the people

Attack the feathers

Snuggle on a sweater and sleep some more

Such a life.

Rolling in the new year

Light pushes out the dark, one roll at a time. 

I've been painting my studio, and finally, bit by bit, it's starting to become finished. As finished as a studio can be.  I don't have enough room to pull everything out form the walls at once, so I'm doing this in sections.  A little more each day, until my hand can't take it any more. Then let it dry, push the furniture back almost to the wall, pull another piece out, clear the wall, trim and paint. Repeat. I'm over half way done, and fingers crossed, the end of the week will see the end of the nasty grey walls!  I'll do the trim in the spring, when I can open windows, since the trim has all been painted with oil based paints (SMELLY PANTS!)

It feels better already.

Meet the Manatee

This purse was a super special order for one awesome girl! Its safe to say this was the most fun project I had all year! 

Also, I sang Mr. Manatee this song every day I worked on him.