Playing with lace

I have been playing with some of the laces and buttons in my collections - I sewed this little piece using mostly Prima laces that I won last fall - the brooch was my grandmother's.

Don't you just love that little button with the mushroom on it? It came from a red corduroy jumper that I had as a little girl. I found the button in my mother's button box - what memories!

I have so many wonderful new toys to play with right now - I received the March Jenni Bowlin kit (purchased partly with the gift certificate that I won) and a fantastic fiber selection, hand dyed ribbons, and a stamp from Joggles (won a gift certificate from the Sketchbook Challenge), a few new Prima papers and flowers from the lss in Sarasota (all they had was Moulin rouge, which isn't my favorite but if I want to continue doing the BAPs, I needed a bit of new product), some new watercolor paints, a  Visual journal, a book from the Ringling Museum about the fantastic botanical illustration exhibit that they have going on right now, and a cool watercolor book by the Alexander brothers that I have been wanting and found for just a dollar.  Life is so abundant!  Happy happy!

I feel a bit sad to be so happy when there is so much suffering in Japan. I cannot begin to imagine how terrible life is there right now. I am sending prayers as I know all of you are also. This year has seen so much suffering and upheaval in just 3 months -

Be sure to check back tomorrow for the new These are a few of my favorite things challenge - and please send get well soon thoughts to Julie T-W, the boss of TAAFOMFT.  Both she and her sweet daughter Brookie had surgery last week.

Just 2 weeks until Christmas

I painted these portraits of Julie T-W's daughter Brookie a month or so ago but didn't want to show them - I gave one of them to Julie and she showed it on her blog so I can now reveal them. Above is sweet little Brookie in her Belle Halloween outfit.

In the photo for this one, her teeshirt had lots of printing on it but I was simplifying the picture a bit. I really enjoyed the portraiture class that I took this fall - I have to admit that I would never have attempted portraits before it but now find them a good challenge and lots of fun.

Today has been a super day with lovely warm and sunny weather. I worked at the gift shop this morning but this afternoon I have made fudge, mixed up batter for cut-out cookies (dough is in the fridge - they will get cut out tomorrow), watched Barefoot in London on FoodTV, and finished my seasonal wall piece. It is hard to get the textural feel in photos and also the gelatin sequins don't shine in the photo like they do in real life.

I hung the piece on the wall behind my tree of birds.

I have been making some plans (intentions) for 2011 - it will be the Year of Living Abundantly - a year where I appreciate and use what I already have and where I spend very little. I have found a couple of sketch book challenge blogs that I plan to follow, and I have been making notes about crafts/projects on which I want to focus. I am putting together some kits for myself - rediscovering things in boxes and bins in my studio - I guess you could call them FOUND OBJECTS - a sketching kit, a fabric work kit, paper kits, paint kits. I plan to paint even more next year and return to some of my previous loves - fabric creations (including quilting), beading, and knitting; but you will also see plenty of scrapbooking pages and altered projects. It's going to be a fun and creative year!!!!!!!

And now it's time for me to start the Chicken and Leek pot pie for dinner - I am adapting a recipe that I saw on Jamie Oliver's Holiday program that was on one night this past week. I love Jamie Oliver's style and put one of his cookbooks on my Christmas list. We'll see............

Speaking of cookbooks, what's your favorite and are there any ones you want? I love the Barefoot Contessa cookbooks and although I don't own any, I get them from the library from time to time. Another favorite is Mark Bittman's (he writes the Minimalist cooking column for the New York Times) How To Cook Everything; and I love Apples for Jam by Tessa Kiros (I have a couple more of hers on my list - it's a long list as I like to give Dan and Brian lots of choices - LOL!). The photos just make me drool! I have been thinking about adding a book list in the sidebar - maybe cookbooks, craft books, favorite novels, what I'm reading right now - what do you think?

Hope your day is as great as mine is, and thanks for reading!
ttfn
Chris

All through the house......

Today is a cold but sunny day in southeast Florida and I am so glad that I can stay at home and be warm (well, sort of) and play. I started out this morning with coffee, blurfing, yoga, and oatmeal. I was going to paint but somehow after I read http://spiritcloth.typepad.com/spirit_cloth/, my fabrics insisted that I pull them out and start playing. I sometimes wish that I could be more free and random in my art but I know that usually I feel better if there is some structure and organization. I was super inspired by Jude Hill's seasonal piece so I began to design one of my own. The above photo is of the fabrics laid out - the piece began to change a bit while I was sewing it together, and I hope to finish it tomorrow or Thursday. I think it will look pretty cool hanging behind my village. I am also thinking about doing a reindeer piece - I did a little sketch and I think it might work.
Other things that I have done today - since it is feeling like winter

played with a layout for Category Stories

brewed tea in my crazy cat teapot

baked scones - after all, what's better than tea and scones?!

made beef vegetable soup for dinner tonight - it is simmering right now, and the whole house smells yummy!

Hope you are having a great day - I am finishing yet another cup of tea and getting ready to sew some more on my Winter Forest piece - I was digging through my embellishment box and found some vintage French gelatin sequins (bought many years ago when I lived in Denver) - I think they or else some tiny vintage mother of pearl buttons would look really cool as stars in the fabric sky - who knows where this is going? It reminds me of the incredible quilts in the book Moonwise by Greer Ilene Gilman - I will have to re-read that - it would be perfect winter reading BUT right now I am re-reading The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman - love that trilogy - and also on my coffee table for reading before Christmas is my old copy of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (we watched Scrooged last week one night and I remembered how much I loved it - definitely one of my favorite Christmas movies!)

Hopefully I will be back tomorrow with progress on my Winter Forest
ttfn
Chris

Another year

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?"

    -Mary Oliver

   "The Summer Day"

I won this yard of Japanese cotton from the Sew Mama Sew blog - I selected it from their store, and the fabric feels so soft and silky that I know it will be a joy to sew. It seems that I am drawn to these colors right now as yesterday I stopped at Tuesday Morning and found a few wonderful skeins of ribbon yarn, and when I returned home, I realized that they were in the same color families. 

I made these little flowers from ultrasuede yesterday - I had gotten a wonderful book from the library, Fabric Jewelry by Teresa Searle, and plan to try quite a few of her ideas - not for jewelry but change them a bit for scrapping embellishments.

This is a layout that I made with SEI Monsterville - don't you just love those funky little monsters? You will be seeing quite a few new layouts done in the new SEI lines and the new Bella Blvd lines so stay tuned!

Hope you have a super day!

and thanks for reading!

Chris