Merry Christmas

May Christmas bells ring in your heart all year.

Letters Home

Letters are treasures,

like music notes floating from far away

bringing me pieces

of you.

Quiet Times

The days are quiet.

The sewing machine does not hummm.

My soul is still...

as a certain mellowness

fills the air.

Peace, be Still.

...Navy Mom...

My youngest son Levi joined the Navy. He is in boot camp over the holidays; has been there since the end of October. I've received 3 letters and finally one phone call. He had to have his wisdom teeth out on Monday which involved a lot of drilling. {{{shiver}}} ...And he is having a quite painful week now. Other than that he is doing great... acutally got a top score on a personal inspection last week - (Is that the same boy we nick named "Leave-it"?)

Blessings to all the armed forces thru the holidays!

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

We had our get together last night - the annual Thanksgiving Eve party,

aka the Pie Party. (Life is short...eat dessert first)

I am thankful.

Blue Bunnies in Love

Must be a blue bunny phase.

...and to the blue bunnies...

An 8 X 10 thread sketch... it say's, "I'm going where the blue bunnies fish".

I don't know if blue bunnies are like pink elephants...

maybe so.

Zig and Zag Orange Cats and other Thread Sketches

I just love orange cats.

I'm really a dog person... but have two cats...

one black

one calico

and no orange cats.

So... here is a tribute to the lovable orange cats out there.

...and to the barn they frequent in their dreams...

...and to the horse that really lives in the barn...

All are 8 X 10 thread sketches.

...and on etsy.

(Smiles)

And... THANK YOU to all your wonderful sweet comments!

Fender Guitar Thread Sketch

Ta da...

Guitar thread sketch update

Here is stage 2.... (stage one was getting shapes & fusing onto canvas). Stage 2 is stitching the outline and details into the guitar. Stage 3 is going to be background. I don't want plain stipple quilting, and I think wild design like on my paisley cat piece would loose the guitar. So... maybe some tan swirls with a splattering of black musical notes... drum roll.... (wish me luck).

Ahhhh Weekend!!

We are getting our first real snow storm here today. I tried to go out and get my 23 yr old son (who does not drive) and bring him over, but I only made it half way and decided with the multiple cars (including mine) struggling to get up a simple hill... that I would turn around and come back home. It is SLICK out there! (And I normally LOVE driving in this stuff).

I made some more happy mini's to list on etsy... Most of them are blue, with a couple pinkies.

And... todays project is to experiment with a fender guitar as per request. Looks okay SO FAR. But we'll have to see what the machine decides to do with it!

BTW... the Jack Pack - or at least the puppies part of it...

are THRILLED at this white stuff falling in the air and piling up to run thru.

HAPPY WEEKEND TO ALL.

Dancing Pony Thread Sketch

Bear Thread sketch

...just looking under a rock...

This was a lot of ziggie lines! He goes with the wildlife collection.

We have had a beautiful week of weather for November here. It's been shirt sleeve weather in the 60's, and even reached 74 one of the afternoons.

Happy Weekend to all!

Home Projects

Project ONE...

With the arrival of Winter we needed a warm shelter for the pups to stay in while we are at work during the day. They can't be trusted in the house yet, and it's too cold to leave them in the outside kennel - even with the igloo dog house.

Here is what we came up with: The furnace room in the basement has a window that is under the deck - on the section of patio that we made into an outdoor kennel. We put a doggie door in half the window so they can go from indoor kennel to outdoor kennel.

We then gated off 1/2 the furnace room and doggie proofed the walls with brick paneling & the floor with tile. Next we (when I say "we" it really means my sweetie) built steps for the dogs to safely access the window with.

They can speedily (white lightening) go in and out, and we can close gates on the outdoor kennel and/or indoor kennel as needed. I think they like to lay on (or probably wrestle on) the window sill and top shelf during the day, but they have plenty of floor space to play as well. We still need to paint the top walls...
Project TWO...
There is one unfinished room in the basement that I have been using for storage. We are going to finish it into a craft/sewing room. We have taped off the areas that will be cupboards and counter tops...

Hopefully I can show an update of this project before too long! Cool, huh!

Song Bird fabric collage

Okay... this is different... I'm experimenting....

it is 5x7 and has patches of fabric,

zig zag stitches,

gesso paint,

fabric paints,

machine stitching,

and tulle.

Sunflower

The sunflower turns it's face to the sun

ready to receive the warmth,

as we can turn our face to God, ready to receive the blessings.

Be blessed and have a wonderful weekend.

Check it out!

Available on Amazon...

My brother's first Novel.

Cool artwork on the cover...

and adventure inside...

Notes From The Lightning God

If you buy it/read it... let me know!

Wildlife Thread Sketches

I found these images on a royalty free site, made them into simpler line drawings, traced them onto the fabric and stitched.

Joy Wish

Joy Wish pocket quilt...

...and more...

Trying to fill up the etsy shop in time for the gift giving season!

Happy Weekend to all!

Winter Trees at Sunset Thread Sketch

Last night my sweetie and I sat outside by a fire and watched the October Orange sunset.

The colors looked like they reflected off our fire.

Winter Trees at Sunset is 8"X8".

Watercolor background.

Prayer Thread Sketch

Another Mermaid thread sketch

Always fun to try a second...

This one is on etsy.

Measures 7 1/2 X 9 1/2"

Mermaid thread sketch

I finally did get to stitch! It is so nice to have a Saturday morning.

I feel like a fabric art junkie that got her fix this morning.

My son's girlfriend found a picture of a siren on line and I simplified it into a line drawing, added a sparrow in her hand... and stitched it in thread for her.

I'd love to stay and stitch some more... but I think this is the first and last weekend for me to pick the Roma tomatoes and process them into jam...

While I'm posting though....

I'll share more pictures... I got to take the girls for a ride yesterday.

...and my sweetie is cleaning up before the snow hits. He moves everything out of the shop and then cleans and moves everything back in the shop.... The above wheeled items are not commonly used, so they got to see a little sunshine!

And check out the size of these onions!

Happy Weekend Everyone!

5th Weekend

I have NOT been stitching. I called this post 5th Weekend because this past weekend was the 5th weekend of go go go. 4 of them camping and 1 of them was the fish fry.

(Which by the way was terrific).

The above picture was taken in Wyoming on the way to Mom's.

This was some of her beautiful cone-flowers... still blooming!

And this.... is the very photogenic and curious pups.

Whiskey was checking out the bird bath.

Friends

" Friends are the flowers in the garden of life." ~anon

Fish Fry and Home Brew time

A neglected blog

and no new art

are the signs of busy times...

...

and these busy times are spent

getting ready for the Fish Fry and Home Brew party!

...

Tomorrow!

...

We are ready.

...

We have a clean house,

...

a fresh cut yard,

...

a freezer full of Halibut ready to fry

...

10 gallons of home brew,

...

2 1/2 gallons of margarita,

...

and friends on their way!

...

[wish you were here too!]

Daisy

This peace-lovin bunny is named Daisy.

Camping in the Aspens

We spent the weekend camping (again) up in the mountains on "Lightening Ridge".

We were in a wide opening surrounded by Aspen trees and some pine trees.

I practiced a little pencil sketching of the Aspens...

and added a rabbit...

The view was tremendous, and we were only about an hour's drive from home.

Annie spent much of her time looking underground.

Thanks to everyone for the comments on my cat thread sketches!

I hope everyone's weekend was wonderful.

Cat Thread Sketches

Meet Paisley...

And Martini...
Two psychedelic cats.



HAPPY WEEKEND!

The Jack Pack goes Camping

We have some friends that we used to go on motorcylce trips with... and now that we are soft seniors...well...soft mainly... 3 of us are over 50... we take motorhomes now instead of beating ourselves up on the bikes!

This is camp...soft style.

Here is Annie, when she was still clean...

bath time tonight!

And below is Jackie! She has grown since the last time I posted puppy pictures! She is much larger than Annie, and is the strongest. Annie is still maintaining Alpha dog currently though.And... Whiskey. Quiet, shy, skinny Whiskey... who has learned how to control the other 2 dogs with her brain games.

Here are the pups at play... they love to grab each others leashes and pull and tug...

...and they love to wrestle

...dance

...whisper into each others ears...
"if you pull on my leash again you are history honey."