color glorious color

All lined up in front of me today.

a collaboration

 

A wee collaboration between Kit Lane and me, a few of her fabulous 'Bobs given some stitchy love from me.  She'll be unveiling these in her shop this afternoon.

Both the pale yellow guy at the top and the pink one behind him were needled by Kit as we sat and chatted together one snowy weekend in April.  I had given her some wool that I had dyed, the yellow with strawberry leaves (I think) and the pink from lobster mushrooms, and she was trying it out on my visit.  When they were finished I tucked them in my suitcase along with memories of amazing conversation, bites of forbidden cheesecake, and San Pellegrino fizzy water, and brought them home to stitch. (the white one was hers to keep)

The yellow one was encrusted with knots and stitches, all of dyed by me with materials from my woods.  The pink one seemed to long for something a little more quirky.

Kit does wonderful work from these squee-inspiring Jacabobs to her sculptural pieces (and Jabba, we can't forget Jabba) and has a dedicated following.  I'm thrilled to have been able to collaborate with her.

If you're interested in owning one of these pieces, keep your eye on her shop.  They should be there some time this afternoon.

Thanks everyone!

a quick road trip

 

A quick road trip for me today.  A lunch with a friend for me and a reunion for these little guys with their maker.

I'm looking forward to some good chatter, the kind that happens when you sit down with someone who gets you, and to the rolling hills and farmland views.  And my favorite effusive welcome sign from one of the towns I drive through that says "Welcome to our area".   So generic, it always makes me laugh.

What are you looking forward to today?

working on some stones for the Art-o-mat

 

I'm feeling stitchy.

Working on the next batch of stones to send to Art-o-mat.

 I can't wait to find out where this next batch lands.  On my last stub from them it looked like stones had shown up at the Smithsonian, the Visual Arts Center in Richmond VA, the Whitney, the Cosmopolitan, here in Minnesota - in St. Cloud, and a Whole Foods in Texas.

I wish I could travel along with them and see the sights.

the landscapes are heading out

 

Thank you to everyone who stopped by my shop update yesterday, all of my new landscapes have found new homes.

And to those of you that receive my blog post via email, there was a delay yesterday and I'm not sure why.  Sorry for that.  Hopefully there won't be any more of those glitches, especially on shop update days.

The birds?

Well, their persistent parents started building a nest in my bird feeder this spring.  I thwarted their attempts three times before finally giving in and letting them build their nest.  Their first batch of babies has now fledged and mama robin has been back in the nest cleaning it out for what I imagine to be round two.  I've resigned myself to the fact that I will feed the birds over on a stump in the yard for now.  You kind of can't blame them though, what a choice spot.  Roof over their heads, feed below.  Location, location, location.

Happy Saturday, all.

new landscape brooches in the shop today

These new landscape brooches will be in the shop this morning at 10am central daylight time.

Sorry for the short notice.

They're here in my shop already for viewing.

They're making me crave a road trip.  Can you write off a road trip as a business expense if it's to gather inspiration?  hmm...

Thanks everyone!  Hope you have a great day.

the funk has moved on

 The little funk I was experiencing seems to have moved on.  I felt it starting to loosen its grip a bit the other day when I signed up to be a felting demonstrator at this year's Celtic Fest and by Sunday when we drove past an especially verdant field, I felt it let go completely.

Yesterday morning I headed down to my workroom to capture the feeling of that field and ended up making two more brooches after that.

 

 

Thank you, funk, for moving on, and to the sun for shining.  And to each of you that offered support in your comments here and on facebook and twitter.  It's rough when you're not feeling quite yourself but it was nice to know that many of you knew exactly what I was going through.

Hope your week is sunny and bright.

flew the coop

 It happens from time to time.  I'm not sure if it's because of the change in energy in the house, the added responsibility of having 6 bodies in the house all day instead of just two, or what but my focus, my art "mojo" has flown the coop.

When it happens it causes me great stress.  Not only is creating what keeps me whole and reasonably sane, but I have deadlines to meet, commitments to keep, and my income (as modest as it may be) contributes directly to keeping our household fed.  There is no good time for me to be unable to create, but yet here we are.

 

I've been down this road enough times to know that the best thing for me to do is set down the fiber and do something else non-art related, even if that seems counter-intuitive.

So for the next few days (or however long it takes) I'll be re-potting some geraniums, weeding the garden, tending to the sick guinea in the barn, maybe go out looking for some mushrooms, but I won't be working until this brain of mine decides to cooperate.  With lots of luck it will return with a flourish and I'll be right back in the middle of all these stones.  Or something new.  Who knows.

Have a great weekend, everyone.  See you soon.

campfire cooking with the kids

 

My kids are now on summer vacation which lends a different energy to the house.  Or rather, LOTS of energy to the house.  Since spending lots of time outside is what makes them happiest (and the tiredest at the end of the day) I thought we'd take our meal-making outdoors too.

 

We gathered up our ingredients for a hobo stew,

 

put them in foil,

 

seasoned well,

 

and headed out to the fire with our foil packets and bannock bread wrapped on sticks.  Declaring oneself "King Bread Stick", optional. (dressing yourself in multiple patterns also optional)

 

I nestled the foil packets down into the hot coals with a set of tongs while the kids baked their biscuits until they were golden brown and cooked through.

 

About 10 minutes later they ate their hearty stew and biscuit in the grass.

 

 They loved being able to make their own lunch and made dinner too (panfish, asparagus, and sweet potatoes, yum!).  I knew we were on to something good when one of them exclaimed "I can't wait to do this with broccoli!"

I imagine we'll be cooking on the fire at every given opportunity.  We'll be the family that constantly smells of woodsmoke but that's okay, I think we're gaining much more than an aroma from this.

Happy Wednesday, all.  I hope today is memorable.