Almost Winter!

 I looked at the calendar this morning and realized we're 2 short weeks away from Winter!  This year has just flown by for me... so many projects, cranking out the dyes and bowls, selling my socks off!  And we still have a few weeks left of 2023... looking forward to maybe having a little "down time" to rest and recouperate!

Two things of note:  After almost 3 years, my friend Cinde and I have decided to pull out of Sedona Artist Market.  Cinde has done very well there this past year, me not so much.  But having to schedule one day each month to head down, restock and tidy our booths, has become a little more than we want to commit to.  We are leaving on good terms, and may at some time decide to return, but for now, it's a relief to know we don't have to make the trip down unless it's for a hike on our favorite trail, or because we just feel like it!

The other thing that has happened this year is that I've added a few new items to my inventory!  Late last year I started offering zip up hoodies, but didn't really know the best way to dye them, but this year I've become a little more adept at tying the "Geode" pattern, which for me is a diagonal stripe rather than the more irregular circular version many dyers create.  

And I just added Rayon/spandex open front cardigans to my inventory, as shown in the above photo on the right.  They dye up beautifully!  And the one in the photo got snatched up by one of my fellow artists the day I put it on display!  Got another one I'm getting ready to dye for Cinde as soon as I take delivery of one of the dye colors needed.  And of course, there are the aprons - what can I say?

I wasn't sure how these would dye, let alone if anyone would buy them, but they've turned out to be one of my best sellers for the year!

Oh, and one more item I added that I think I posted about last month:  my "Peeper Keepers".  Not great sales yet, but I get the feeling they will grow on people in time!

So with just a few weeks left of the year, (Holiday shopping time!  I'm going to be jamming

at Arts Connection!) I want to wish you all a very Happy Holiday and hope the coming year

will be your best yet! 

Bowls and cards

 Good grief, October is almost gone already!  Time really flies these days...

It's been a month of making bowls, moving my booth in Sedona Artist Market, and preserving autumn leaves along with using some.

Here's my "show and tell":

Here's my first attempt at a bowl with a braided rim - definitely something I hope to do more of!

Haven't done a bowl with a lid for awhile, and this one just seemed to be a good one for a lid - slightly different shape than my usual ones.

And it's been awhile since I made a ribbon bowl!

I picked up this fabric on a day trip to Phoenix last week - love the warm, autumn colors!

I have been collecting leaves to preserve for some of my cards, and made a few nice ones while I was learning about methods that worked best for preserving the leaves.  Here are a few:

I pressed the leaves in a book covered by other books to preserve them, then lightly sponged on some metallic paints before gluing them to a botanical print card.  I'm glad I finally took the time to try this - I love autumn leaves, and love that I can incorporate them into my creative pursuits!

My lovely new booth at Sedona Artist Market!  Much larger than my old one, and I got a larger clothing rack so I could expand my inventory.  Can't wait to see how my sales went this month!

On the home front, I got our heater vents cleaned out, got some work done in the yard, and did a little ice dyeing:

Time to start thinking about what to do in November - hard to believe Christmas is just around

the corner!  Stay tuned....

Things are getting out of hand around here!

 Everything was going along so nicely, then BAM!  A small brush fire turned into a huge one, very quickly, and we were forced to evacuate on short notice April 14!  No pictures... we were busy trying to gather things we would need and get on down the road while firefighters were coming in to try and keep our neighborhood safe.  Many neighbors have livestock, and it was very tense for all of us, trying to make our way out onto the highway and away from the fire.  In all, it has burned over 19k acres, at least 130 homes were destroyed, but thankfully, no deaths were reported.  My friend Cinde invited us to stay in her guest room, which was so much nicer than having to be in a motel.

This is a photo I took from the internet - looks very much like the remains of a neighbor's home just 2 blocks from us.  Fortunately, his was the only home in our immediate area that was lost, but there were several others up the main road further west that were lost.

Our winds have been fierce, and that was what really caused this fire to grow so quickly.  And they are still blowing 25-35 miles per hour, with gusts up to 50-65 miles per hour, for days now!  Hopefully, they will die down later this week,

Fortunately, we were able to return home the last Sunday in April - electricity had been restored, and our gas was restored that afternoon.  Food had to be tossed and replaced, but that was the worst that we had to deal with, so we were blessed.

Once we got settled back in, I got back in the studio, and was working on a project that required some of my yarns.  I pulled down a bin, opened it up, pulled out a skein and uncovered a mama mouse and her babies - oh, joy!  Snatched some bags up and started pulling them out, then promptly put down mouse traps in the studio... one of the things Shrekkie used to take care of, but now it's on me!  I've since found another one, and realized I need to do a better job of storing yarns and fabric scraps in tightly lidded containers, so I'm working on that now.  I also ordered some sonic mouse repellants that plug in, so I'll give those a try along with the traps.  

On a high note, Cinde and I attended this month's First Friday event at Sedona Artist Market, and spent a couple of hours demonstrating some projects, visiting with shoppers and meeting some of our fellow artists.  

We have both had good sales there, and enjoy our monthly visits to refresh our inventory and browse the lovely artwork there.

Oh, and two items of interest - I have a Pinterest account, and often post my work there as well as browse for inspiration and ideas.  I had uploaded a photo awhile back of my rag doll spirit dolls:

I got a message from someone in the valley, wanting to know if she was for sale!  Since I still had her, I replied yes and she is now living down near Tucson!  

The other happy news is I got a call Friday after I returned from Sedona from a gal who had bought one of my cotton shells, loved it, and wanted to know when I would have more in her size!

  I am waiting for an order with more blanks, then will dye some up and let her know when they will be in Sedona.  So May is turning out to be a good month so far, and once the winds die down, I'll ba a happy camper!  Stay tuned...

Time has flown the coop!

 Wow, I can't believe it's been over a month since my last post... time does fly, that's the truth!  I just looked back at my last posts, and see that I can update you on at least 2 WIP's I mentioned earlier:

Here is "Bright Maiden", finished and hung at Sedona Artists' Market:

I added a tulle overdress, beads and yarn streamers plus a Hamsa charm, and called her done.

Another WIP shown in that same post was a piece of bark I had cleaned and sealed, then I mounted a polymer clay face on it.  Then it languished, waiting for me to decide what more to do, until yesterday.  I pulled out a bag of feathers, auditioned some and glued a few down... that took care of that!

On the non-creative front, my hubby Bruce had to have emergency hernia surgery after Thanksgiving, and once he got through that, there were still follow-up doctor visits from his mini-strokes to keep us busy.  They discovered he has afib, so changed his blood thinners to handle that.  But all the doctor visits, etc., took us away from our regular visits to the gym to exercise.  After 2 months of inactivity, I started getting on the treadmill at home to try and get back into a routine.  Last week, I was working to increase my speed, and also wanted to give my arms a workout so I was pumping on the "walking stick" feature... that night, I laid on the floor to watch TV and got a super strong, sharp pain in my right shoulder!  I should mention that my right shoulder has given me problems in the  past, but it had been feeling just fine for quite awhile, so I must have forgotten to be careful.  At any rate, I got xrays done Tuesday, and I start physical therapy today to see what can be done to get me back to "normal"!  Guess I'm not as young as I used to be, lol!

But I'm not letting it slow me down too much - I recently finished making another crochet rope bowl:

I used several yarns, including some interesting yarn I picked up at a thrift store, then added a piece of bark that I glued feathers to, along with a small copper colored bead.  Yep, bark and feathers - my new obsession!

And I'm busy dyeing some cotton jersey shells to bring to Sedona Artist Market next month:

I'm sure I've forgotten to mention other things I've been doing this past month, but I guess this will have to do for now.   I'm looking forward to our next trip to Sedona, and sometime in the future, my friend Joyce and I will be taking a day trip to the valley to enjoy the warmer temps, shop and browse - an annual trip we make when it starts to warm up down there!

Hope you are all having a good January - stay warm!

2021 Comes to a close...

 And what a year it has been!  My friend Cinde and I became contributing artists at Sedona Artist Market

Which led to a return for me to creating Spirit Dolls

And lots of tie-dye as well as some bowls

All in all, Sedona has been a great place to sell, and Cinde and I have enjoyed our monthly trips down to restock our booths, hike when the weather permitted, and enjoy a nice lunch together!

At Arts Connection, I stepped down early this year as co-manager and focused on keeping my booth there stocked with tie-dye, bowls, and recently some freeform weavings:

This year, we were able to resume our annual Flagstaff Open Studios tour, and although we were not sure if people would be ready to come out in gatherings due to the pandemic, we were pleasantly surprised to have a good turnout, and good sales!

On the personal front, we did have a couple of health scares - in October, Bruce had a couple of "mini strokes" which landed him in the hospital, with a myriad of follow up doctor appointments and tests.  They finally determined he has atrial fibrillation, and have modified some medications to fight blood clots.  And he has lost about 20 pounds, which is all good.  He also had to have emergency hernia surgery a few weeks back, but has healed nicely from that.  He just celebrated his 79th birthday, and we're hoping the coming year will find him in better health!

One bit of very good news - our Son Joe returned stateside after a year long deployment in Kuwait, and he and his wife Dawn will be moving from PA to TX soon, and will be coming for a visit after the first of the year.  It will be awesome to see them, and good to know they are located closer to us so maybe we can see them more often!

So as the year comes to a close, my thoughts are focused on what I want to do in 2022... right now, my creative juices are low, and I'm taking it easy, just concentrating on what I need to do, but also giving thought to what new directions I want to take creatively.  I recently bought a couple of books that I hope will get me started:

I'm always looking for hand stitching projects I can work on, especially when I work shifts at Arts Connection which is pretty much every Monday now.  And the clay book will be helpful as I strive to learn how to make my own clay faces for my Spirit Dolls.  I have another book coming soon:

I saw this in a blog post as I was admiring the blog author's freeform crochet vessels... right up my alley!  

So that's the plan so far for 2022... meanwhile, I want to wish you all a  Happy Holiday season, and a New Year of Peace, Good Health and Dreams fulfilled!

Summer: heat, rain and FOS preparations +++

 I swear, someone has set the clock and calendar ahead again... the time just whizzes by before I know it!  My last post was in May.... what happened to June?  And here we are nearing mid-July already!  I just re-read my last post... seems the pace has not slowed since then, but part of the reason is:  my Spirit Dolls have been selling at the Sedona Artist Market, woo-hoo!  I sold one in May, and I think 2 or 3 in June, and at least one so far this month!  So you  know I'm cranking more out as quickly as I can, especially since we are planning to resume our annual Flagstaff Open Studios Tour the end of August!  So there's that to get ready for, and keeping inventory ready to put in both galleries.  I think I will try to take a day or two off in September, lol!

In the garden, I have some basil, parsley, chives and tomatoes growing, and some nasturtiums are sprouting in planters on the deck.  My 2 geranium cuttings are doing well.  I had hoped to do a lot more planting this year, but it's still really hot most days... monsoons in the forecast for next week which will lower the temps, but it might be too late to get much going, so I think I'll focus on cleanup and maybe get a handyman to come do some maintenance work to spruce things up.

I promise to do better about posting more often, honest!  But for now, the housework needs to start, and I'm in production mode at least for the next month.  Stay cool, and I hope you enjoy the summer!

What's new?

 Last Friday, my friend Cinde and I headed to Sedona - first for a lovely morning hike along Crescent Moon trail, following Oak Creek.  I only got one photo (which I can't find!) and a short video:

After we worked up an appetite, we headed to The Coffee Pot and feasted on some yummy mexican food for lunch, then headed over to Sedona Artist Market to replenish our inventory and tidy up.

My Spirit Dolls nestled into their new (hopefully temporary) home, waiting to be adopted.  A few bowls also filled some empty spots on the baker's rack:

Cinde also had some empty spots to fill with some of her new Tree Spirits.

I love the wall piece with the marvelous face in the second photo!

Then on Sunday, we were at Arts Connection at Flagstaff Mall, busy helping to put a fresh coat of paint on the walls!  

Co-manager Carol, painting the wall behind the counter

Cinde, with our other co-manager Catherine - Terre's Glass bird feeders hung in the background

A view from the front door... painting almost complete!

Artwork almost completely restored... 

My bowl display and wall art

And my clothing rack, along with mannequin display and my "Swirl" wall art.

To say I was tired yesterday after several hours back in the gallery to set up would be an understatement... we all were!  But I'm so glad we were able to get the job done, and look forward to spending time there in the coming months, admiring our handiwork and how much it enhances the art there!

Time flies!

Good grief, it's been over a month since my last post!  Time does indeed fly, and I've been keeping busy getting ready to put some of my work in Sedona Artist Market Gallery, preparing to roll off as co-manager at Arts Connection, doing my income taxes (for the first time in over 30 years!), working up some crochet rope bowls and more.

Here is my booth at Sedona Artist Market Gallery:

And my friend Cinde's display - we actually now have 4 of the Arts Connection artists there!

Cinde does extraordinary beadwork, and my faves are the "Tree Spirits".  Each one has a name, and they combine dead wood with her lovely beading and molded faces she has made which give them wonderful personalities.  I left this photo in the original size to show off the details of her work... it still doesn't do them justice, but at least you can get an idea of what she does.

The crocheted rope bowls are at Arts connection going through the jurying process to see if they are accepted to come in to the gallery.  I've completed 4 so far, and love how they are coming out, but decided to see what the jury committee think before I go any further.  Here's the latest:

Oh, and one more very important thing I have to report since my last post: my husband and I

have received both of our Covid-19 vaccines!  The second one laid me flat for part of Friday, but I

expected it, so was prepared to just rest, nap and act like a sloth... today, I feel great!  And now that we are close to 95% immunity, I'm looking forward to being able to do some things I haven't done for close to a year, woo-hoo!

In closing, I am going to share a meme I saw online that I think is very inspirational:

Let's all embrace the sentiment!  See you next time...