programmable soda, a yarn ode to tori for linette

so my friend linette loves tori amos. She knows all kinds of obscure fun and silly facts about her, like who knew that she was good friends with a someone who writes graphic novels (you know, adult comic books,) and that there is speculation that a character is based on her? Another little known fact, (at least in my opinion,) that maynard of tool, a perfect circle, pucifer, etc. has sang lullabies to her over the phone. Don't get me wrong, I love me some tori but I didn't know all those little tidbits. I mean, who knows, it may just be celebrity gossip stuff but I tend to believe the obscure stuff.

Anyhow, Linette started knitting recently and when she came for a visit for a much needed creative day she noticed some fiber I had laid out to make some batts with. It just so happens that when the idea sparked for these batts, I already knew I was going to be naming them programmable soda, one of my personal favorite tori ditties. Well, as you may have guessed it was love at first sight for linette so, rather than listing them, I spun em' up for her to have some handspun goodness for her new knitting ventures. I think I may card up some more because they were such a fun combo. :D

I spun a rather chunky, slightly thick and thin single with an autowrap of purple tatting thread. The colors just scream old fashioned soda fountain. :D

i think something's wrong... and a new yarn!

Well, I was all gung ho and productive today. I finished my latest yarn (more on that in minute,) went thrift store shopping (got lots of killer art yarn ingredients all for $1 or less,) did some photographing, AND actually had 3 listings all ready to go for my etsy store. Unfortunately, when I went to upload my photographs, it wouldn't work!!! err... It keeps claiming that my photos are not the proper format (they are,) and won't upload them. I tried on firefox and safari both thinking maybe it was my browser AND made sure that nothing wrong with the uploading powers of my computer or any settings in either of my browsers (no!) I was able to upload some images onto flckr with NO problems so I have deduced that etsy is havin' some issues... so much for listing some new stuff.

BUT, exciting news! I finished a yarn that I started last night during a craft group with my aunt. It turned out sooooo great! It's got vintage buttons, lace, bits of sheet, individual black eyed susans from a lovely little trim, some beautiful multi colored tatted bits, and best of all SOME OF MY POM POMS! I really pushed the limit of the size of my orifice on my bulky flyer but i got these babies through there. I am so proud of this yarn. I was going to make a little purse out of it with some solid colored yarn to stretch the yardage, BUT I decided it would be much better as a chunky cowl.

Here it is!

YAY!!! :D

nightmare at art school?

I keep having these recurring nightmares. I've never had recurring nightmares. It is really just an overall event or them that is occuring in them though. I attended Penland School of Craft in the summer of 2007 before Joe and I found a house and it was two of the best weeks of my life. My experience there was so amazing and I have wanted to go back to Penland or to any of the other wonderful craft schools similar to it for that matter (namely Haystack, Arrowmont, Anderson Ranch, and Ox-Bow.)

At any rate, it is about this time a year that all of the funtastic mail starts rolling in, meaning I get a whole lot of course catalogs. Terribly exciting right? So after I have scoured them and found all of the possibles and decided that the only way I can even possibly think about attending is if I can manage to get a full scholarship, that night I had a dream that it all went horribly wrong. I get there but everything feels awful. I can't get home. No communication. No delicious Penland food. No class time happens. Just lots and lots of anxiety and lack of control. Prior to that night that I had that terrible dream I had had at least two others that were very similar. I don't understand it. Is it an omen that I am not meant to go?

I guess I'll ponder that while I get things around for my applications. So bizarre though really...

treasury, shop updates, and destashing!

Tuesday will be my first shop update of the new year... and a long time coming too! The sale I had going on all of my batts sets will also end that day so if you wanna snag any of my batts at 10% off now would be the time to do it. :D

The update Tuesday will include some new batts, a wacky pom pom lot, new yarn, HOPEFULLY some new jewelry, and some serious destashing of magazines. I have been trying to get all of my magazines in order and have found that it is expensive to organize and I really don't need any of these bead magazines that I accumulated so long ago.  I don't bead anymore and I can't remember the last time I referred to any of them except for a very select few which I will be keeping. Anyhow, my "loss" will in fact be a gain of space for me and a gain for someone else who wants back issues of bead and button and beadwork magazines that are in pretty darn good condition at a low price. The ones that are a bit ragged I will be selling for a $2.00 and the ones that are still in fine shape will be $3.00. I have a VERY large stash of these (about 4 years worth,) so they will be trickling into the shop.

OH, I nearly forgot. The etsy seller thegoblet was kind enough to feature some of my batts in an adorable treasure last week. Here's a screenshot that I snagged:

and now for another experiment...

For some reason I am stuck on vinyl tubing for my fiber jewelry. It has been a great vehicle for me so far with my "Candy" line so when inspiration struck the other day I went with it. I spun up a nice single of various fibers from some amazingly artist fiber friends and etsy sellers along with some of my own fiber. I love when I purchase fiber from etsy and receive little tidbits of fiber that was left on the carder or little bonuses. I have been hoarding some of these fibers from the esty seller loop, my friend Sara of Lushmommy, seller Evonnewee, along with some locks I purchased a while back from the lovely Linda of primdollie. Along with the fiber from these talented ladies, I added some of my own "carder crap." Here are the results of this fun experiment:

I wrapped the single all willy nilly with my wheel in a granny stack fashion. I'm thinking that these will make some fabulous and simple bracelets with memory wire strung through the tubing and some sort of wire wrap to hold the yarn ends. I will certainly post pix when I'm finished and maybe even will put a few up for sale in the shop.

a grand old time!

Saturday was such a lovely day. I got to sleep in first of all, which is probably one of my favorite things to do in moderation. When I finally got myself around I knew I had to not only start thinking about a party dress, but get it made and ready to go very quickly. Cheryl and Linette, two of my three college roomies and closest friends, had their last hurrah before they both move on to new living spaces, (and in Cheryl's case a new job!) It was a much anticipated ABC party. If you aren't familiar with this theme the ABC stands for "Anything But Clothes." This doesn't mean show up in the nude, just that what you wear cannot be clothing. Joe and I invited Hillary along since she was stuck in the country for a bit longer and her outfit was so fun! She is so talented as a designer, (she designed her own prom dress,) and made such a fabulous little dress out of crochet topped kitchen towels.

Here her and I are with my friend Michael in Cheryl's "photobooth" she had set up in her room to catch all the fun. I cheated a little bit with my dress and built it up from a slip dress. I scrounged through my vintage linens and sheets for a few that would go well together, wished for a dress form, didn't get one, so I settled for putting it on and pinning it to myself. In the end I only ended up using part of one sheet for the skirt portion of the dress, a pink table runner with lacy edging for the "corset" portion, and a half of a little decorative floral applique linen for the bust portion. Adele helped me pick out what to lace the back up with and also suggested using some pom pom trim for a necklace. She is such a creative wonder! While I was having my explosion of creativity in the basement, Adele was busy upstairs making me this adorable little pillow creature! I felt so special to receive such a sweet little handmade creation. All hand sewn and beautifully imperfect. I know I will treasure it always.

Knowing that I would be a bit chilly without some sort of jacket I took a pretty embroidered table runner and wove some lace through the edging for some little ties to make a little coordinating shrug. Too fun!

Joe went in a trash bag tuxedo in the style of Fred Flinstone. What a pair me made!

The party was a blast, we stayed out way too late, ate way too much food, and I was reminded once again how fortunate I am to have such great friends.

It's a new year...

I've never really been one to make resolutions or feel like the beginning of a calendar year is the start of something fresh but for some reason this year is different. I feel like I need to make the next steps in my career as an artist not the stagnant artist who works at the liquor store. I began work on my official artist website a few weeks before Christmas. I bought the domain name, (which by the way, web squatters suck so I didn't get the one I want...) and have since designed my very own site with I Web on my Mac. I haven't gone live with it yet, but you can bet I'll be announcing the pants off of that when I do. :)

Anyhow I have made a list of the things that I feel like I need to at least try to do because that ol' resume of mine isn't building itself. It is as follows:

-Get published
-5 Art Fairs/Festivals
-5 Fiber Shows/Festivals
-Apply for internships
-Look into getting my teaching certification

These goals may seem lofty but I think I can get them all covered. I am going to at least apply and research all of these things, it is not exactly in my hands as far as whether or not I get accepted.

I am going to be submitting a few of my felted pieces to the 500 Felted Objects book that Lark is currently accepting entries for. I have been waiting and hoping that they would finally get around to a 500 series book with a focus on felt and was so excited to find out that they finally did. Unfortunately, I don't know if I found out in time to make a new piece. I'm hoping to get a really fancy pants jewelry piece finished though. The felted Geodes piece pictured above will definitely be an entry though.

Hopefully, I can handle it all and the list will grow for next year. I would certainly hope that if I can manage it all that when grad. school calls my name down the line, I'll be ready for it. 

just...

"I am just a poor ugly weed trying to push her way up through the sidewalk of life."
-Peppermint Patty(?)

I'm not sure if the origin of this quote was in fact Peppermint Patty to be honest. I have always loved that character for some reason and was very sad to have lost the keychain I had that featured her. I always felt like she was misunderstood because she was so different.

Anyhow, my dear friend Claire replaced my lost keychain with another that said that quote above little Patty. I feel this way often. Life is such a struggle, my ability to see the beauty in the little things is what gets me by. Everything happens for a reason and even something so fragile as a weed still has such tremendous strength as it works its way up through the drab solid concrete, only to be crushed down by a passing child with a hatred for dandelions. Then something magical happens. It tries again, and again, and again.

Life goes on, through ugly times we become stronger. We forgive. We leave things in the past, and move forward to the good and inevitably bad times ahead. I just hope we can all survive the weight working against us, swaying us, and beating us down.