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Archive for the ‘Holidays’ Category

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Getting That Holiday Spirit

Wednesday, December 14th, 2011

Some of my readers have wondered if I was OK. I have just been very busy. Last night we had a party for one of our priests from Trinity who is retiring. She has been with the cathedral for 18 years. Mr C was on the commission that worked with her. We had a sit down dinner for 20 people. Here are the plates!

Mr C and I worked very hard for a few days getting the house spiffy and decorated. I made chicken breasts stuffed with spinach and goat cheese, salad and brown rice. The rest of the food was pot luck.

Today, I had back to back meetings  — Columbia Fiberarts Guild in the morning and SAQA in the afternoon. I am just about done in tonight.

I got my Christmas present to myself yesterday — a 50 mm lens for my new Nikon camera. I am loving playing with it. It is the lens that Steph uses in her work, and I now see why she uses it so much.

Here are some photos that I have taken so far.

The pretty morning sky:

The Scooter Man:

And some of our Christmas decor.

The tree lights detail:

The tree without lights turned on.

This last photo was not taken with the new lens. It is Scooter impersonating one of Santa’s reindeer. He had a good time at the party last night and got lots of loving from every one.

Tomorrow, I am going to do a profile of one of our guild members who does felting. She has had a manifesto of no waste since the late 1990’s. I think you will enjoy hearing about her work and seeing what she produces.

Posted in Art in our home, Columbia FiberArts Guild, Holidays, House and home stuff, photography, Scooter | 5 Comments »

We Have a Winner

Thursday, December 8th, 2011

Sheila Mahanke Barnes was chosen by the random number generator. Send me your snail mail and I will send this on to you!!

It is a beautiful day in Portland, brisk and sunny with grand views of Mt. Hood. Reva and I took the bus downtown to meet up with some of our STASH group for lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant and then some art viewing. We went to the Contemporary Craft Museum where my guild has a small show in their showcase. The theme is fire and earth. I have my Scorched Earth piece there.

We had a small gift exchange. I made these bags for each one with their name stamped.

I also repurposed an old quilt that I made in 2007 and created 5 small pieces. This was made from hand-dyed silk, organza and cheese cloth. It was heavily hand stitched with perle cotton.

Here are the newpieces:


I added some beads to some of them and satin stitched the edges. I love making these little pieces.

Mr C and Scooter went out and cut down a tree while I was gone. He said it did not take as long because I was not with him. (Me: Oh, look at that one over there. Wait, I see one down there that looks perfect! Etc.)

So, guess what I will be doing this week-end!!

Posted in Art Dates, Holidays, My creations, Quilting Friends | 6 Comments »

Let’s Celebrate!

Monday, December 5th, 2011

I was going to write a deep thought blog post about how I feel that after a year of wallowing, I feel as if a fog is lifting from my life. Then, I noticed that my last post was number 1500. That number was mind boggling to me.

To celebrate, I will give the 12 x 12 quilt up there to someone who leaves me a comment. It is one of the four quilts that I did for the eggplant challenge. They were subtitled, a la Albers. This photo is not a good representation of the true colors which are very rich. It is silk and quilted with silk thread.

I am happy to say that I am feeling lighter and happier and more in control of my life. I can’t say that there is anything specific and it has probably been gradual. I hope that I can now begin to do work again that satisfies me and is worthy of my time and energy. This year has been a struggle for me. Thank goodness for the Twelve by Twelve challenges. They have kept me moving along and given me a sense of accomplishment when needed. And certainly, the Houston experience was a huge boost to our whole group.

I have been quilting Gwen’s sunshine quilt. Here it is sandwiched and ready to go.

I haven’t done much preparation for Christmas. We went out to the nursery yesterday and bought this pretty wreath made from rose hips.

I think we will get a tree at the end of this week. We are hosting a party for one of the priests from Trinity. She is retiring this month. Steve is on the commission that worked with her, and so they are having a special retirement party for her. It will be an incentive to get the house looking Christmassy. (Is that a word?)

I hope you will leave me a comment. I will do the drawing on Wednesday.

Posted in 12X12 challenge, Holidays, My creations | 23 Comments »

With Gratitude

Thursday, November 24th, 2011

 

I am full of gratitude for the life I have been given, my family and my friends.  I am happily ensconced in this house facing the Pacific Ocean in California, just across the border from Oregon. All my children and their partners, grandchildren, Scooter and Wilfredo, my granddog are here for the Thanksgiving holiday. Above is the house we are in. The top floor, where those windows are, looks out across the ocean.

We all had harrowing drives through wind and rain to meet here. Now, it seems so worth it.

Sunset last night, after the rain stopped and the skies began to clear.

We brought Scooter with us and he has been such a great traveling companion. He was very excited when his buddy, Mark, showed up.

This morning we arose to find blue skies and set out to check out the beach and the state park across the street.

 

Scooter and Wilfredo are getting along quite well. Last time, he drove Wilfredo nuts!! Here is Wilfredo chillin’ with Lisa.

We are all contributing to the holiday feast. I am doing the turkey, stuffing and cranberries. Here are Mark and Jayme chopping veggies for their veggie dishes. They also made us a delicious kale frittata for breakfast.

And, best of all, here is the baby bump!!

 

If you have made it all the way to the end, I want to thank you for checking in on my blog on a regular basis. I am grateful for you, too.

Hope you are having a happy day.

Posted in Family, Holidays, Scooter, Travels | 7 Comments »

Look! Our Book!

Monday, February 14th, 2011

I was about to give up that the UPS guy would bring my author copies today. About 5:10 pm, Scooter started barking. He hears much better than Mr C and I. Mr C went out the front door and came back in with my box of 5 author copies. Sorry for the weird photo. It was taken with my Macbook Photobooth cam.

The book is really gorgeous — just chock full of beautiful photos of our quilts and our own personal stories. If you want an autographed copy from me, I will be setting up a buy now button as soon as I have some time and know how.

The Lark blog is doing Twelve Days of Twelves. I was the featured artist today. Be sure to follow along. They may have a give away of our book at the end.

At breakfast, I found this lovely plant in a pot that Mr C knew I would love. He was right!!

I have my sage/blue/brown piece done except for sewing down the facings. Here is a sneak peek of the work in progress.

Today, I started a mini-Photoshop Elements class. I am totally self taught in Photoshop and Illustrator, meaning, I don’t know much, at all!!

Here is my first project — a cropped photo with text — color matched to the stem of the daisy!

I have to tell you that listening to Stephanie talk about her photography job in Savannah was such a thrill for me. She had fun, learned a lot and was very successful. Now, they wait for the client to make some decisions. Soon, I can tell you the name of the client.

Lisa says she can die now because she was mentioned in the NY Times magazine yesterday. Click here to read about her. My kids continue to amaze me.

I haven’t shown you a photo of the lovable, Scooter, lately. Here he is, sacked out in the tv room. He lies right at my feet. Sometimes, I forget he is there and trip over him. Such a sweetie.

Posted in 12X12 challenge, Holidays, My Brilliant Daughters, Scooter, workshop | 10 Comments »

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