Happy Samhain!!!!!

Oh a wonderful holiday full of spirits and new beginnings. Tonight is the night to welcome all those who have left the world as we know it. Welcome them and feast with them, ask them to guide you for the rest of the year and keep you on your path. For they can see more and further than you. Tomorrow begins the decend into the cold days of winter, time to go in, quiet time, time for reflection.

We had our little feast tonight - pumpkin raviolis and onion gravy, some roasted chestnuts (Yum!) and the Bee's best cookie recipe yet - cocoa nib cookies. That's raw cocoa beans all chopped up, before it's made into chocolate. They're very bitter when eaten alone but when mixed with right ingredients they're delicious. I promise, I will post these recipes... One day......

Studio Sketch

click to see details

I found this today in the Bee's sketchbook. I'm not sure if I've ever seen before now, if I did I didn't pay much attention... Today it really struck me. I love it, I love having a sketch of my current studio situation, stuffed into the corner of our living/bedroom. This is all about to change in the next three months. All slowly getting packed away, shipped and eventually arriving in it's next home. Hummm... I wonder what that will be like, what will it look like, how will it smell? I think about this almost all the time. I'm forever dreaming about what my new home willl be like. Anyway this sketch is very, very much like the real thing. He's pretty talented, huh? Try convincing him that.......

And Other Skirt

This one was the first one I made. So... There are a lot mistakes. With this one, because I was learning, I did it the "traditional "way. All the patterns I found used the same method - over lapping the crotch. After making this skirt though I discovered my own way of doing it and I think it's better. So if ya look closely you'll see..... Oh and the red froggy patch there on the crotch area, that was actually a hole in the pants, originally. Thankfully I had the foresight to use the beat-up pants for the first skirt.

real quick

I'm posting real quick before I settle into making pumpkin raviolis. This is a house special here and only happens this time of the year. We slaughtered one pumpkin yesterday, made way too much pumpkin soup and the rest is for ravies. This is a vegan dish but it's a major hit with anyone, meat eater or not. I usually make it with a butter, sage, mushroom sauce but this year Andrew's making his yummy onion gravy that's out of this world and substituting the water for pumpkin juice. Yeah baby...... I'm happy to say we're sharing this yummy festive meal with our pals Dorie and Kevin.

I also wanted to introduce Miss Molly. She doesn't have a face yet.. hum... Well I'm kind a scared of making faces. I don't know, I always worry at this point. I'm not very goood at it. My softies don't usually tell me their names until after I make their face but not Miss Molly. She's got a ton of character. She's my little Humboldt hippy with orangie rainbow dreadlocks, made from old wool socks that I barely got a chance to wear before they felted. Her shirt and pants are made for two of my old favorite shirts. Gotta love that recycling!

Happy Pumpkin Ravies to everyone!!!!

Another Skirt

Front


back

This one's my favorite. I got a compliment on it this weekend, at the farmer's market. She said it was 'sick'. I thought that sounded good. Anyways I love these little birds, they're going to be the subject of a new little animated movie that were making called City Birds. It'll be while before it's finished but it's in the works, along with a thousand other things. Sigh...... This shirt is made from a pair of corduroys that never fit Andrew and since somehow we wear the same size pants, they don't fit me either. But it works as a skirt, just a little big. And yup, that's leg warmers I'm wearing, love my leg warmers!

Before & After

Before


after - see the zipper

My new found love is altering clothing... I'm going crazy with it, anything that doesn't fit just right, watch out!! You see, I have some clothes that I love and have had for years and I love them for there fabric but there too big. From the days when I wore all my clothes too big. So.... I'm taking the 'knife' to 'em. It's a little scarey at first, there's always a little hush just before I make the first cut because there's no turning back after that. I always kind a hold my breath and think wait, do I really know what I'm doing. Most of the time the answer is no, but it's a hell of a lot better than just donating that favorite shirt I've had for years. Fortunately so far, my 'winging it' has been working. You know, this means endless possiblities.

This Sqrl's got new shoes!

Yup, that's right brand new shoes and girly ones at that and even two pairs, I splurged. I haven't had girly shoes since I was a kid, not a real girly kind a girl, I guess. Makes wearing a skirt kind of interesting. Anyway, these shoes are totally vegan, this is an experiment with alternative shoe material. I'm still not sure exactly how I feel about leather shoes. We're not vegan but we don't buy leather unless by accident. But (good) leather shoes seem to last longer and that's the thing - buy less leather shoes because they last longer or shoes made from alternative materials like canvas or polyurethane that don't last as long so therefore you must buy more, which means more are produced and therefore defeating the purpose. For us it's all about the smallest foot print. Leather is not so good because the treatment and over production of cows. I'm not too sure about the alternative materials, that really depends on the company and how responsible they are. That's most important. What I need to find is leather that comes from happily raised cows, I guess. And of course the processing of leather also needs to be responsible, and of course no sweat shops. And we wonder why I don't buy shoes often.
These shoes though are made in Spain, it's a Brittish company - Vegetarian Shoe Company.
I think I made a pretty good choice, but still not sure about the leather issue. Hummm.........

Walkin'

Andrew's first attempt at hand-animating. Taken from Edward Muybridge.

BioShield

Ok, so in my last post I ment to talk about the kind of pigments I was using to make my paint. I got distracted in the middle of posting last night and totally forgot, darn it. All our pigments are BioShield pigments, this is a great company to know about.
In the beginning of our eternal quest to find responsible companies, we were searching for a way to make paints that did the least harm to the planet. We learned about making our own linseed oil by buying organic flax oil and oxidzing it , it a very time consumming ordeal and quite expensive. But it makes beautiful paint and worth it, especially good for the conscious. We also learned that you don't need turp to clean your brushes, just some clean oil and time. This is also better for your bushes, they last longer because the oil act as conditioner, good bushes are actually made of hair, ya know. So than we needed pigments. Anyone knows that good pigments are toxic and many of them as horrible to the Earth because of mining and processing. Well, we did our homework and found BioShield. They sell pigments, paints, stains and cleaners primarily from naturally-derived raw materials. We took it a step farther and only bought the pigments that were kiln fired and all made from magensium and alluminum. This means that they are essentially neutral, unlike the usual mineral used to make these colors like cobalt and cadmium that are very toxic to breathe and toxic to the planet. Please, check it out, this is a grat company.

Studio

A bird close up

Here I am in my wee studio. I'm about to mix up some paints, my least favorite job, I wouldn't make a good chemist. See those birds there, that's what I'm mixing the paint for. These fancy birds will eventually become a mobile, a birthday gift for my Mother-in-law. It's a belated gift of course, always belated. I have to keep my reputation, ya know. The studio is going on a field trip tomorrow - my work. I always have some project there, sewing or graphic but I've never taken it as far as being paints and paraphernalia. You see, currently I have no online access at work... Can I say AAAHHHHHHAAAHHHHAAAHHH!!!!!? And I'm sure it will probably take them years to figure out how to fix the problem. So I must spend my evenings blogging, emailing and catching up, I rather do all this work when I've got time to kill. So instead I'm crafting anything I can at work, that is, whatever I can manage to schlep with me. Filling my time, because I cannot just sit there a stair at the wall, right?

Self Portrait Challenge - Imperfections

I'm so bummed I miss last weeks SPC. The weather was icky all week so I kept putting it off waiting for better light. And than it was too late. So I'm doing it early this week. The sun finally broke through so I took these in the last rays of light this evening hense the washed out look, which I kind a like.
So anyway this one all about my hair. Anyone knows me would say "WHAT!! Your hair is beautiful, how could say it's an imperfection". This is because everyone loves my hair and I'm being narcissistic here. My Grandmom would always say "people would pay good money to have your hair." I swear it's the only thing people rememeber me by, my only redeemable quality.
I was born with the usual baby curls that eventually turned straight. I had straight hair until I was about 11 when I hit puberty. I had very short hair and was trying to grow it out. I remember telling my Mom when I hair grows out I want a perm. Well... We went to salon asking for a perm and once my hair was washed and waiting to be done the hair dresser looked at me like I was crazy and I remember her saying' Oh honey you don't need a perm, you do need to stop brushing your hair and look you have perfectly curly hair."
That was it, the next 10 years of my life and my Mom's was hell. I hated my hair I mean really hated it. I tried every product, tried straighting perms. Anything to control my hair, it was (still is) thick and frizzy and curly and all I wanted is what everyone else had - easy straight hair. I drove my poor Mother insane. When we first did the straighting perm she would spend hours blow drying my hair straight, she was good to me....
Well, I've learned to handle this rats nest, as my Mom loves to call it. No more products anymore, no more straightening perms. Just natural oils, a mix very lusious oils acutally, that I call Greek hair oil. I originally got the mix in Greece on Santorini from this amazing man who owns a pharmacy there and distills his own essential oils and he made this mixture especially for my hair, he went to him home and made it himself. It was very special I'll never forget it. Anyway it's still not easy though, every other night I apply jojba oil to my scalp so when I wash my hair the next morning it will run through my hair and protect it from the soap. I can only use the super fatty soap that we make to wash it, no conditioner, apple cider vinegar treatment once and week. You see, it still rules my world. When it's a bad mood, so am I. It is very finicky.

But it is me, without it would be a much different person, when my hairs up and put away I feel different, not quite all the way me. It's kind of like what they say about a mans beard and how it's like a mask, well that's my hair, it's so much a part of my character.

I have been making stuff

I swear, I have..... For some reason I'm just not taking pictures of all the things I've working on over the last like months. Three quilts and I think three skirts and a bunch of other things later here I am. Anyway here is one of the shirts.. It's made from two pairs of the Bee's old corduroys. I had a whole stack of them waiting to be made into another corduroy quilt but one day I got an idea into my head and than procceeded to turn all those old corduroys into skirts , yes new skirts for me!! You know, how you turn an old pair of jeans into a skirt, the patterns are everywhere, well that all I did. One pair is different, I'll have to show it off 'cause it's my favorite. But this one is my least fav. out of them all, just because being that it is old corduroy, you can really tell with this skirt. But hey people would probably pay for such a thing in a store, so what am I complaining out... I do love the little applique owls though, I think they're just darling. I decided too that if the skirt does fall apart I can always remove the owls and use on something else, just incase, right?

Also I have finally joined a swap, yea!! The hostess with the mostess is Miss Hoping for Happy Accidents..... This is a new blog that been checking into, another creative kindred spirit. It is a beautiful useful object swap. Perfect for me since I love useful things. So much so that ,back when I was still in LA, I spent almost every evening in a ceramic studio and I was always struggling with making just art there was a huge part of me that needed to make eveything useful. I'm just too darn practical for my own use.

Adventures in a Pumpkin Patch!

I haven't done this in so long.... And I have no idea why, 'cause I love it... What is it about a pumpkin?? I love Pumpkins!!!!! They're so orange and cheery and smooth and round and each one has it's own character, it's own personality. So on the way home from work on Friday I saw sign that said pumpkin patch this way -->. So I said to the boy well if the weathers nice we're rifing our bikes to the pumpkin patch and getting ourselves a pumpkin or two... Well I was figuring the weather would be it's usual self and be gloomy, cold and windy especially it the farms where it's extra blustery... You see, if you say out loud I want to do this today if it's sunny or I'm going to do laundry today - meaning hang it on the line... Than sun goes away, it's a very spiteful sun around here, or am I just a superstitious Sqrl? Anyway, we had a delightful time in our pumpkin patch as you can see. We will be sacrificing one of them, for a feast on Samhain (Halloween).
Happy Autumn!

SPC - Imperfections

My tummy..... All my life I have struggled with this part of my body. It is one of the few things I hide. I've been hinding it so long that it's natural. My Mom used to always say, as I was crying over it, that one day I'd grow taller and lose my stomach... Well I believe I haven't grown an inch since 6th grade so there went that theory. It's only lately that I'm starting to except my body for what it is. I'm actually starting the love my self a lot more and I blame most of that on the Bee, by showing me that beauty is not just in super skinny. There was time when voluptuous women were considered beautiful. They were the subject of art. They were the ones being painted.

I wish that voluptuous could be beautiful again.

SPC

photo enhancing

Before

After - I really like this one, I was really able to punch up the color.

Before

After - way too painted
This is a new thing that I'm learning. I'm really going for the luminous landscape look. But I need the right picture to start. So as I was looking for the right picture in our photo library of something like 8,000 pictures I found Brooke's wedding pictures. They good but lacking... They were taking with our old camera so much room for adjusting. And it was so crazy and busy you gotta get the picutres when ya can, specially since both of us were in the party.

Contests

Design contests are a new thing for me... I discovered this concept when I stumbled across Design 21 They were doing a logo competition at the time and I had found it early enough to come up with something and enter. I did enter, but stupidly (long story, I was very mad at myself, I'm over it now) entered late, so I know I won't win. Still though, can't wait to see what they pick as the winner - winner gets $5,000 and they use their logo for the company. I have to say honestly I was more excited about them using my logo than the money, that was just and added bonus. So now I'm on to a new one for Fossil - you know the watch company, it seems they make clothing now too. They go for a vintage look, I had SO many ideas. That was probably the hardest part, picking which idea to go with. So I went for the dirty white t-shrits, rolled up blue jeans, greasy hand, tools and engines and of course a vintage tattoo. Here's a taste of what I'm entering. Oh it's for a tin design and deadlines in two days.