Christmas is Finally Over....

...just in time for spring. Finished Sparky's Christmas present the other day, just in time for her birthday. Sad, really, that it took me 3 months to get them all done, but I seem to lack the mental resources to plan ahead. That's because I'm always scrambling at the last minute to finish the stuff that should have been done already. It's what Sparky calls a vicious cycle. But it's not even noon yet, and I'm still on my first cup of tea so I'm not going to delve too deeply into my brain right now.

Since I last posted, I seem to have created a monster where my husband used to be. Because all the women in my family and some of the men were doing it (and yes, I probably would jump off the bridge), I signed on to Facebook. I found it to be a pretty cool thing, and so I suggested to Preston that he sign up. And since he did, he's spent way, WAY more time on there than I have. All his relatives from Virginia and also the ones up here are contacting him, as well as old friends and the children of friends he hasn't seen in 30 years. They're all posting old pictures and home movies to share, and I'm getting to see people I have only heard about. It's nice to finally be able to connect faces to the names! Maybe that's why they call it Facebook.

Reinventing the wheel......

...well, they LOOK like wheels anyway. Spokes and all. I realize that this has most likely all been done before, but I didn't look them up on Etsy or anywhere else, I instead looked at the orange I had for lunch. I figure if I didn't see somebody else do it (or explain to me how they did), it is, for the most part, original.
Inspired in part by the aforementioned JooJoos, and in part by the misery of the accursed winter wonderland in my back yard, the voices in my head (oh yeah, I said that. Don't act like you don't have them too.) have been whispering of fresh strawberries and summery citrus fruits. So in spite of the fact that I really DO have more important things to do (and if they just happen to be YOUR things, I'm really sorry but after all, it WAS my day off!), I dragged the old pasta machine out of its dusty hiding place in the camper-where-few-dare-to-tread and steel-wooled it in anticipation of spending the evening playing with my polymer clay. Earrings? Maybe buttons? Probably both. I definitely need to make some buttons to go with the dress that I have planned!

Since I finished the strawberry dress, the next thing in my mind was one with orange, lemon, and/or lime slices. I swear I saw some really cute, bright fabric with little slices on it at some point, but when I went back to the fabric store, nothing of the kind was there. Maybe I dreamed it. Which is ok, because the more I think about it, the more I think it needs to be a white dress with applique' fruits on it. And matching buttons. I am trying to make my stuff as different as possible from anybody else's.

The Happiest Place on Earth.....

...is not Disney. Sorry. It's Etsy.com. I could go there every day, if I had the time, and spend hours just in awe of all the creativity of the people who have Etsy stores. The first place you have to go, and here's the link, is to Joo Joo Land.These tiny little creations are just amazing, especially if you've worked with polymer clay and you know how hard it is (ok, maybe it's just me) to work with itty bitty little pieces. Another of my favorites is Creation Cottage. Ok, I know I'm supposed to promote my OWN work, and I do have an Etsy store too. But really, sometimes you get tired of looking at your own stuff and everyone else's just seems so much better!

Well in case you didn't notice, it's still winter. Sunny here in RI, but cold and windy and I'm trying very hard to appreciate the seasons, all of them, but does this one have to be so LONG?? One of my customers in the shop the other day was regaling me with tales of Arizona, just to torture me. Trying to convince his wife to move there, and she does love it there but she says she'd miss the seasons. On days like today, I feel pretty strongly that the seasons are overrated. At least THIS one is. Here's how I think it should be; After spring and summer, which are ok, we should have fall for 4-1/2 months. Then 6 weeks of winter, when we get all the snow and ice and freezing rain that we're going to get for the year. At the end of that we have Christmas, then we move right into spring. None of this messing around with ice and mud and will-it-snow-one-more-time baloney. It's 20, then it's 60, then it snows, then it's 60 again....one day I've got my doors and windows open, the next day I'm huddled next to the wood stove.

Maybe I should move to Joo Joo Land.

Are your eyes bleeding yet, from the pinkness?....

....Perhaps not. If not, then you need to adjust the settings on your monitor, because this is probably the pinkest fabric there is. Impossibly, ridiculously pink. Painful pink. And I have decided to make capris and a top out of it. No, not for me, for some unsuspecting little girl. It'll work, trust me. Have I ever lied to you?

Tonight I will reveal an embarrasing truth about myself: I am way too invested in American Idol. We have been watching since, I think, season 3. This season, however, there are more truly talented people on there than ever. It's going to be hard to see some of them not make it through to the next round. But during Hollywood Week I picked out Danny Gokey as this year's winner. Probably not a good thing to do, because there are so many people whom I haven't even seen yet. Usually Preston picks the winner when they get to the top 12, and he's almost always right. There's something really likeable about Danny though, as a talented singer among talented singers, he seems really geniune. Kind of like David Archuleta last season, only not as dorky. Don't get me wrong, I liked David. He was my pick early on in the season. But the "golly gosh" stuff wore a little thin by the time we were done. Anyway, I like Danny this year, but there's also the dude who plays dueling piano...can't remember his name. He's really good too. See? I told you I was too invested.

The Power of Subliminal Messaging....

...is undeniable, although sometimes I don't think it has the intended effect. Case in point:This little purse I just finished today. It's just a simple little bag, crocheted, with a red flannel heart hand-applique'd on the front. It's lined with the same red flannel. I had this idea weeks ago, it was something that just kind of popped into my head one day. So simple. So I've been working on it in between other stuff, and the thought was that maybe I'd have it done before Valentines' Day so I could display it in the store with whatever other Valentine-related stuff I had. Anyway, of COURSE it wasn't done, but that's beside the point. The point, and I do have one, is that the other day I was watching TV and suddenly found out where the idea came from. I didn't even remember seeing it. But there was this commercial, and this lady is in a little store shopping for hugs and laughs and good wishes, or whatever...maybe you've seen it. I don't remember what they were selling, but some part of my brain saw the little rectangular white things with red hearts on them sitting on the shelf and said "hey, we could make that at home". I think I was supposed to take away from that commercial some sort of meaning, but I don't think I got the one the advertisers wanted me to get. So much for my originality.

Anyway, still working on overdue Christmas stuff but I managed to finish my brother's shirt and the two shirts for Eleanor. Now all I have to do is Sparky's chickadee shirt and I'll be done with Christmas--just in time to start planning for the next one. No, I'm just kidding. I don't start planning for Christmas until, like, December 15. Could you tell? In the meantime I have Carol's shirt that needs a makeover. She's only been waiting since....ah....last April. I don't think these things should be rushed.

Christmas ain't over....

....until the fat lady has finished making all the presents.One down, two to go! This one I made for Preston using my favorite technique, a combination of applique and fabric paint. It's on the back of a denim jacket. Now I just have to finish the shirt I'm doing for my brother, and the one I'm making for Sparky. Christmas just snuck up on me and I ran out of time. Oh yes, also I have to finish two shirts for Eleanor, who ordered a whole bunch of stuff from me for her family and had to settle for just MOST of the order. I did manage to get these done on time:So all was not lost. And Eleanor is very patient and understanding, thank goodness! OK, back to work.

So I'm Reading this Book...

...called "Buyology". It's actually nonfiction, which is quite a departure for me. Can't remember the last time I read something based in reality; usually I get enough reality in my real life and try to avoid it in my off hours. But I heard about this and it intrigued me; it's all about how the advertising industry is, using MRI-related technology, studying the very basic psychological reasons why we buy what we buy, in the hope that they can tailor their already obvious advertising strategies toward getting us to purchase more stuff we don't need. They're looking at which areas of our brain light up when we see certain images as opposed to other images that don't light us up as much. It's fascinating.

I wonder which areas of my brain light up when I go into the fabric store? I'm guessing all of them, because I can't seem to come out of there without lots of stuff I don't need. Like this piece that called to me from the pile of hundreds of flatfolds:The bees are very tiny. Bees light my brain up anyway, I think they're pretty much the coolest things going, and so when I saw these little cartoon-y bees I just had to have them. So this is the beginning of my spring line of baby/kids' clothes; I cut it out last night, a little onepiece suit with a sunhat. I'll have to figure out how to make a little stuffed bee or something to go with it. Next I have a piece of fabric that is this outrageous shade of pink with an allover dragonfly pattern in a lighter shade of pink, and I already have that earmarked for something.
In other news, my band has spent the last few weeks recording a CD so we can actually go out and book some shows. I'm pretty stoked about it, not just the playing of the shows but the whole recording process. I've done this in the shed in the back yard and I've done it in a studio, and I've got to say I prefer the shed in the back yard. The CD we made at home ended up sounding way better than the one we did in the studio that cost mucho money (how much money I don't know because I didn't pay for it, but it was a lot at $40 an hour). Joe's got all the recording equipment, and he seems to enjoy playing producer. I only wish PJ's band Decorus Mens was still together, I would have loved to get them in there and record their stuff, some of which was really, really good and now people will never get to hear it--a fact that seems to frustrate me WAY more than it does PJ for some reason.