No Regrets

Forgive me a moment's motherly pride, but most mothers never get to say these words:  "My son's first album was released this month".  Ok, there'll be more than just a moment of motherly pride.  You can check it out at www.velvetgoldminerock.com if you like.

Not only was it released, but it is dedicated to my Dad.  I quote:  "This record is especially dedicated to the memory of Charles Bachelder for being the punkest Grandfather ever and showing me what it means to live with no regrets".

Papa was the poster child for thinking outside the box.  If you told him it couldn't be done, he would make it his life's mission to GET it done, just because you told him it wasn't possible.  He was forever coming up with new and better ways to do stuff in ways that were unconventional but effective.  Just because nobody had ever done it that way meant nothing to him; he saw no reason why it wouldn't work, and he would keep at it like a dog with a bone until it DID work.

I'd like to think I inherited some of that from him.  While I do procrastinate from time to time (okay, a lot of the time), I can also be singleminded and relentless when I need to be.  I certainly inherited the tendency toward the unconventional. When all the other girls in band were playing flutes and clarinets, I was hauling my electric bass onto the school bus. There are lots of female bass players now, but back then it was pretty rare.  I didn't do it to be different (well maybe a little), it just called to me.  Still does.  On a local level, it's still kind of unusual for a woman to play bass, and I admit I enjoy being a novelty.  That's the Papa in me, for sure.

When our son announced that he was moving to LA to pursue his career, because that was where he felt he needed to be, nobody was a bigger fan of the idea than my Dad.  He always was in full favor of a grand adventure.  He had lots and lots and LOTS of stories, and of course you can't have lots of stories if you stay stuck in one place forever, especially this place. He also lived by the principle that if you want to get anywhere in life, you have to put yourself out there.  Nothing good ever happened to anybody who hung back and waited. 

Papa has been gone for two years now.  I miss him a lot, but like him, I have no regrets.  There was nothing left unsaid, no unfinished business, no harsh words that can never be taken back.  I can't begin to tell you how important that is.  I only wish he could have been around for his grandson's album release.  I know he would have been so proud!

Of Ladybugs and Snowshovels

 Greetings, my little snowbirds!  It's been a long time.  So what happened was, in December my laptop decided to take early retirement.  As some of you can relate, that threw my little world into a complete uproar.  And even though I got a new laptop, I could not locate my photo editing software.  I feel like if I publish a blog post without photos, it's just me going blah blah blah, and nobody wants that.  I did find my disk, but it won't install so I'm using my phone photos just as they came off the phone.  I'm sure I could edit them, but I'd have to actually take the time to learn how.

My store is overrun with ladybugs!!  While other people are complaining of stink bug infestations, I have these little guys (and girls) busily investigating everything in my shop.  So that's fun.

K.G. Ranch Road two days after the blizzard.  Treacherous driving, not a great plow job.  OUR street was pretty clear by Saturday afternoon; the perks of living on the same street where there's a state garage.

 What's not fun is our weather.  Snow does not make me happy, unlike some of my friends.  "So why do you live in New England"? I can hear you asking.  Well, I was born here.  I didn't choose it.  Believe me, it wouldn't take much to make me move to a warmer climate.  While my friends are thinking snow angels and beautiful white winter wonderland and snow days, I'm thinking bone-chilling cold, power outages, and lost wages.  Wah, wah, wah.  Ok, I'm done bitching. For now.

 To cheer myself up and keep my mind off the situation outside, I have been throwing myself wholeheartedly into my craft.  Valentines Day, St. Patricks' Day, Fourth of July, even Christmas stuff that didn't get finished last year is all fair game.  So productive.

Loren Spears comes in and makes my store beautiful!  She does such a good job.  If I had a payroll, she'd be on it.

Also, I've been poring over my bead stash and coming up with some pretty cool jewelry.  This necklace and earring set was actually inspired by the blizzard we had a week ago; I found these clear glass beads which have no particular shape, and since some of them have tiny bubbles inside resulting from the manufacturing process, they reminded me of ice chunks.  And the midnight blue would represent the way my house looked when the power went out and I could no longer see the beads.  THAT was tragic.  But we were only without power for a few days, and while I'm grateful for that and realize that other people fared way worse than we did, that was more than long enough. 

And finally, you know you've had enough winter when you start taking pictures of the local news stations' mistakes and posting them on their facebook page with snarky comments.  Yeah, that happened.  I need spring, I need to have weather warm enough for me to clear the fallen branches out of my yard without my hands and feet going numb.  I need to see the buds growing on the trees, I need to hear the insects singing in the evening, I need to get out in my garden and play in the dirt.

Oh yeah, I said I was done bitching, didn't I?  Sorry. Kathy and I spotted the first robin of the year outside my store the other day, though, so that was encouraging.  That sight might get me through till spring.  That, and visiting the hardware store and fondling the seed packets.

It's Beginning to Smell a Lot Like Christmas

It's not over till the tree is down!  This year, for the first time in several years, we had a real tree.  And by sheer luck, it ended up being a balsam!  I don't know if anybody else even cares what kind of tree they have, but my mini-vacation here has been four days of balsam-scented heaven.  I don't plan to throw this tree out until nothing remains but a stick.

It's been a great Christmas for me, spent with my two favorite men.  Other than spending Christmas Eve with Sparky, we didn't do anything special, in fact we didn't do anything at all, but getting to see our son is a rare and precious thing.  We never know when we'll get to see him again, and tomorrow he flies back to that wild and foreign land known as California.  This time we got a bonus, and actually got to spend a little time with Kaela as well so that was pretty awesome.

So now the Christmassing is over, except for the tree of course, and I'm looking forward to 2013.  The reason I never get post-holiday depression is that I have already started planning my projects for the spring.  I have lots of plans for this year for the shop and the Etsy shop, and I have already started on some of them. 

By the way, I am disabling the Anonymous comments feature from this blog; if you want to leave a comment you will have to leave your name.  I am hoping that this will result in fewer porn posts in my mailbox.

End Of The World Suite In G Major

   Well, we're still here.  Can't say I'm surprised really, after all every couple of years the end of the world comes and goes pretty much without notice by most people except those who read the tabloids.  Wicked weather this morning DID almost spell the end of the world for Preston's truck; the top half of a huge pine tree snapped off and fell, missing the side of the truck by literally three inches. It could have been totaled. So I'd say this was a pretty lucky day at our house.

     Anyway, here I sit watching The Santa Clause once again, if only because everytime I watch it I have the same thought, which is that I would really like to move in to Santa's place.  The sets for Santa's workshop are so beautiful and detailed and cheerful!
     So in between watching TV I was finishing up some Christmas presents and hemming some pants that I'd promised for tomorrow.   Also I was commissioned to put some wording on a big Jolly Roger flag that some lucky pirate is getting for Christmas.  Never a dull moment in my world, seriously.

Straight Outta Who-ville

Cause that's how I roll...with beads and glitter.

Like many other things, I didn't really have a plan when I started these; I was making Santa ornaments, and the shape I had in my hand looked kind of tree-like.  And since I've had nontraditional colors in my brain this Christmas, I went with the cotton batting.  To make them stand up, I used those wooden circles (which are actually pieces I scavenged from some game I can't remember that got thrown away years ago) and little shaker pegs with the tenons cut off.  The tallest tree is about 6 or so inches high.  But that's as far as the idea went, the rest was just getting out the beads and glitter and waiting to see what happened.  I do like the one in the front with the bead garland, and the one at the back on the right which has little green plastic leaf beads hanging off of it.  I generally am a bead snob and avoid the plastic ones, but these were really cute and I thought SOMEday I would come up with a use for them!  The other trees I''m not too excited about.  So unless I get slapped with some sort of glittery epiphany, I probably won't make any more.  I asked Preston, "so are these cute and funky, or just weird and wrong?" and he said they look like something out of Dr. Seuss.  Which is kind of what I was going for, so I win!!!

The Holly and the Chaos

It has been brought to my attention that I'm always posting about stuff I'm working on, but never stuff I've completed.  The question was, "Do you EVER finish anything?"  Well, yes and no.  In the case of the nativity barn in the previous post, that project is kind of in a holding pattern as I percolate over how to do the people and animals.  Sometimes it takes me a long time for things to work themselves from the depths of my brain into reality.

Case in point:  I have a tote full of twig wreaths that I bought years ago.  Small ones, around 6 - 8", kind of too small to hang on your door and too big to hang on your tree.  I don't know what I thought I was going to do with them, I didn't really have a plan, but they were on sale and well made, not junky, so I grabbed them. I had some vague idea involving beads and wire, but although I've mulled  THAT over for a long long time, I couldn't ever formulate any kind of design.  Last year, I bought these neat berries at Hack and Livery (and if you've not been there, you need to go.  I have to go in every once in a while and just take it all in.  It's magical.)

They have been sitting on my desk here for about a year now, looking pretty and defying me to come up with a purpose for them.  Then at some point a few weeks ago, the hand of inspiration reached out and slapped me.  I needed to combine those berries, those wreaths, papier mache birds (which I'd been meaning to make also since last year) and handmade holly leaves.  Birds I can do, I've worked with papier mache before many times.  But holly leaves?  How to do that?  Of course I could BUY some and stick them on there and call it handmade, but that just wasn't going to work for me.  If I didn't already have the berries, I'd find a way to make those too.  But the leaves were enough of a challenge.  How to make leaves that are 3 dimensional (as much as leaves are), had a shape, would HOLD that shape, and look as realistic as possible, not cartoony?  Percolated about that for the last couple of weeks.

Then, while digging through my Little Shop of Chaos for something else, as is frequently the case, I came across some really stiff felt pieces that someone gave me.  Didn't think I'd ever have a use for them, but you never know, so I stashed them in there (which is why it's chaos. My dad would approve wholeheartedly.) and the fact that I didn't have any green didn't bother me in the least, as I wanted them painted anyway.  So then I had to figure out how to give them shape.  Gathering thread down the center just made them frilly, and that wasn't what I was going for.  BUT, after playing around with one for a while, I discovered that if I folded them in half and made a seam down the back and then gathered THAT, it made them curve in just the right way!  Looks like this.

So next I've got to get them all painted and then figure out how big to make the birds.  Cardinals? Bluebirds? Goldfinches? Chickadees?  Some of each?  I've got a lot of wreaths, and a limitless number of leaves.  But only one spray of berries.  Maybe I'll have to figure out how to make berries after all. And back into the Little Shop of Chaos I go!

Old Moss Woman's Nativity Barn

I'd like to address all those people, whoever you are, who commented (and then deleted them) on my last post; these people said all sorts of nice things like "you've given me lots to think about" and what a "thought-provoking post" that was.  If you read my last post, you'll no doubt agree that none of those descriptions apply.  So I'd just like to say, don't bother commenting and then deleting your comment, just so I get the email; I'm not clicking on your links because I'm not stupid enough to fall for whatever phishing scam this is.   ANYway.....

...hope all our east coast peoples are all prepared for Sandy!  The wind is picking up outside already even though she's not supposed to hit until tomorrow night.  I need to go to the store sometime today and get some last minute stuff but right now I'm trapped in my house.  Preston is really sick (head/chest cold) and literally didn't sleep all last night so he's sleeping now.  While that sounds like a good time for me not to be here, I can't even get dressed because if I do my dog gets all excited and starts talking to me and she doesn't know how to use her inside voice.  Plus she starts running around the house and making general dog noise so I'm just sitting here enjoying my third cup of tea and trying to figure out what kind of figures I want to make to go with this nativity barn I put together.  I was thinking something that resembled Matreshka dolls, and so far looking at how the barn came out, that's still the plan.  Kind of making it up as I go along. It makes me think of a picture from Old Moss Woman's Secret Garden. I've had the stick barn for years not knowing exactly what direction to go with it,  but apparently this is the year I actually make it happen. It called to me from the depths of my stockpile of raw materials. So today I glued green stuff from a model train tree kit and this viney thing to it.  So far so good.