A Day at the Beach --- from Arizona

I've had such fun painting over the past several days.  I decided I wanted to do a misty memory painting of the California Coastline.  I might be the only person who sees it as such, but that's okay.  It makes me happy to look at it.

   

 

Naturally I'll still be glossing it after it's dry.  But I wanted to grab a couple of photographs before I do that.  I can't wait to gloss it though.  It's so pretty in subtle ways.  I keep spraying water on it just to see how it'll look once I've varnished it.

And of course.. since I had the camera out.. Poco decided it was imperative that he take that very moment to amble over to the easel and sniff around my palette.  I'm onto you Poke!

 

 

On the knitting front, I'm still all about the yarn.   I dropped over to Goodwill the other day to look for more old quilts for our Miss Maggie to lay on.  That ol' gal is all about the beds.  I found two nice cushy crib quilts for her, and then decided to see what the rest of the store might hold as far as recyclable yarn.  To my delight, I found a partially crocheted afghan that someone had started and given up on.  For $2.99, I decided to take it home, run it through the wash, and then see about frogging out all that yarn.  Well, it took me about 4 days before I got it all wound, but I ended up with 13 big balls of a very nice washable acrylic yarn!  It's an off white with specks of brown and black in it.  I like it!

 

I'm not sure what I'll make out of it, but I have plenty to play with.  Neat, huh!

Mixed Feelings

I haven't written in this blog for quite awhile, as you can see. I've been having mixed feelings on whether or not to continue with it. It just feels like one more thing to do, and I'm sort of scaling back. Or thinking about scaling back.

If you're looking for me.. I'm experimenting with Facebook. I hadn't planned on joining it, but did when I found out it could link into my Etsy Shop (and my ebay too, it turns out). The best part of Facebook is that I found out that the entire population of the Planet Earth seems to be hanging out there. I immediately found old friends whom I have been looking for for many years. Who needs Oprah to reunite us when we have Facebook?

But of course, I figure that Facebook, and Twitter, are simply the latest fad. For a long time everyone was hanging out on Myspace. I did that too, but got burnt out pretty fast. Teach kids to play with HTML, and you create a monster. Nothing loads slower than a young girl's Myspace page. Unless it's a Heavy Metal page (HINT HINT... You know who you are!)

So anyhoo.. here we have the Tradional BLOG. Sounds ancient, doesn't it? Heck, it's a dinosaur in the world of the net. In a blog you can blather on to your hearts content. Kinda like I'm doing now.

But in Facebook, (and Twitter, I assume), if you don't want to say a whole lot, you can just post a short bit so everyone knows you're still alive and breathing. And honestly, that's not a bad thing.

So anyhoo... I'm still painting every day. I'm still knitting every night. I'm still reading and cooking and cleaning and grocery shopping.. and doing all those things that are vital to life on Planet Earth. And speaking of that, I need to go load the washing machine.

Green Shopping, Green Pirates, and uh... some other stuff... heh

I finally did it!  I had my first completely GREEN shopping trip!

Remember these market bags I'm crocheting?  Here's three of them.  I also have the first one that was kind of too skinny, but cool.  I'm working on another one, and have enough cotton yarn for two more after that.  But today I had errands to run, and I brought all the finished ones along.

  

At Bed Bath & Beyond, I filled the yellow and green one with packages of Tassimo coffee.   The lady at the checkout was mightily impressed and wants to make some for herself now too.  Then I hopped next door to Petsmart, and filled the long skinny one with doggie diapers for our aging standard poodle, plus a big box of dog cookies for Poco.  Again the bag stretched to take everything we wanted to cram into it.

After that I drove over to AJ's Market where I love to buy all my meats (Kobe Beef, yum!) and chicken.  (I'm fully paranoid about the hormones and other surprises they put in our food nowadays and it's worth the trip and the price to get the best I can find.)  I  also knew that I wanted to pick up a couple of their particular market bags.  I'd scoped them out in the past and was satisfied that they were made in the good ol' USA (New Jersey, to be exact).  These bags are cool because they are insulated and will keep foods cold or hot, as needed.  With all the things I pick up from the AJ's butcher, I definitely needed those supplement my cotton bags. 

So it all worked out perfectly!  I put all the meat and chicken into the new insulated bags from AJ's, and also the turkey sandwiches I picked up for our dinner tonight.  The last few things went into my last handmade cotton bag, and it was time to head home.  I feel so proud and happy!  I went to three stores and didn't use a single plastic bag!  YAY EARTH!

Continuing along the needlework front.. I finished a practice version of the pirate skull hat I'm planning to knit for my grandson Rylen.  It was a blast to make!  I'll probably give this one to my son, because as soon as he saw what I was doing, he wanted one too!

And for those of you who don't know what Fair Isle knitting looks like from the inside, here is the inside of this hat.  Nicely woven with no long loops to catch and snag on things.  It's also cozy warm and thick.

Next we have my latest hat for the charity bag.  This began as a knockoff of the hat worn by young Scotty in the new Star Trek movie.  But, me being me, I had to play with it as it went along.  I just randomly changed textures and patterns and even needle sizes as I moved up the hat.  Loads of fun!  This resulted in such a soft cozy hat!  The vertical ribbing along the bottom created natural ear warmers, and the whole thing is just amazingly soft and comfy.  This is going to be a wonderful hat for someone!

In the meantime, I've been getting to see more of my son as he's doing some remodeling work in the bedroom for us.

which was only momentarily interrupted when I discovered that my office had been FLOODED and was under several inches of water!  I went into Rescue Mode, and hauled out paintings that were being stored in there.  I lost a lot of original work, mainly graphite drawings and pastels, and framed pastel paintings.  It was horrible.  But it looks like my oils and acrylics are okay, as are the paintings that were stored on higher shelves.  The living room was rapidly filled with rescued artwork.  Yes, you can see them, even though the air was blue from my horrified mutterings...

After moving paintings, and using the shop vac to suck out all the water (oooo, my aching back!), I decided to move my shelves into the studio and store all the artwork out there.  My son helped me with that heavy moving.  But of course, first he had to play with the dog.  Poco is completely weirded out by this tall man and had no idea how to react to being hoisted up into the air!

hahaha.. that last photo just cracks me up.

The Pleasures of Giving Back

You always hear people talking about how good it feels to give back to the community.  I always thought it would be pretty great to be one of those people who go build houses for people or hand out food in the food lines.  Something like that.  But I never found my perfect fit until I started knitting & crocheting for charity.  I'm a pretty solitary person and enjoy just spending time in quiet tasks.  (maybe I'm just getting old, but this way it sounds better.)  So I like doing needlework in the evenings when the house is quiet and all clients have gone home. 

But you can only make so many things for your family and friends before they begin to feel inundated!  Therefore, since I like the actual making of the items, I've been putting together piles of things to go to charity.  Mostly hats, because I do enjoy making them and they are fairly quick. 

This morning I got a note from Cyberseams (Hi!) asking about where I'm donating my little hats.  Well.... that's still sort of something I'm working out.  I'm kind of feeling my way as far as where to donate them right now.  I sent a bunch of them off with a friend who goes up north to take clothing to the Indian Reservation up there.  She told me that the Indians up there are so poor that they are very grateful for anything they can get.  As soon as she told me that, I piled her arms full of the hats I'd made and waved her off.  (She had a bit of a bemused look on her face, not sure what had just happened, I suspect.)

Right now I'm adding my hats to a bag which will eventually go "someplace".  I have a vague idea of donating them to the local hospitals or something.  I haven't got the "giving" part figured out yet, but am making the hats and adding them to a bag I've set aside for that purpose.   When I get about a dozen finished, then I'll decide what to do with them.  I kind of think that God might just send someone along like He did before and I'll know where to donate them.  Otherwise, I might wander over to the local hospital and see what's involved in donating them to the oncology unit or something like that.  hah, I'm not much help here, am I?  The needles are willing, but I'm still learning.  I want them to go to the right place, and not just dump them on somebody who doesn't really want them. 

In the meantime, you guys might want to drop over to Cyberseams and check out all the great information up there!   That's the place where I found a great pattern for  Knitted Baby Booties  that I use for the Crisis Pregnancy Center here in Phoenix.  They are a terrific organization and love to get all the booties they can to give to the young mommies-to-be.   Oh goody, they've got a pattern for simple socks up there right now!  Yippee!  I just bought a skein of real, honest to goodness SOCK YARN and am planning to give sock knitting one last try before I hang up my DPNs and give up on ever owning any handmade socks.  Simple Socks, here I come!

In the meantime, I'll catch you guys up on things here.  I finished the blanket for my grandson Maddox.  It came out so bright and cheerful!

Sort of a pretend American Indian feel to it.  If I can hold off, I'll send it to him for his 4th birthday in September.  But knowing me, I doubt I'll be able to stand waiting that long to give it to him!

I'm also happily crocheting market bags to use at the store instead of their uggy plastic bags.  I don't know why I didn't do this years ago!  I've always hated those darned plastic bags, and grumbled about them every time I shopped.  I guess it took the new marketing go-green strategies to get me off my duff and actually make some bags to use.  I see the new "green" shopping bags which all the stores seem to be offering.  Some are priced decently and others are outrageousy overpriced.  I like the "idea".  But I took the time to check the tags and I am seriously pissed about these bags.  Not only are they not "natural".... they are MADE IN CHINA!  Are you kidding me????   What is wrong with these people?  With a slight nod towards being "green", they buy loads of these "recycled" bags made out of some mystery plasticky feeling stuff that is made in CHINA!  But hey, they have nice LOGOS on them so everyone can walk around giving them free advertising while they are at it! 

I'm sorry, but this just makes me so angry.  They take a real good idea.  Save on plastic.  Stop making all these awful plastic bags that are killing animals by the thousands, and will never, ever decompose.  Teach people to bring their own bags.  They take that idea and turn it into an advertising opportunity AND they outsource the work to another country!  Who cares about all the people in America who badly need work, right?  Get it as cheap as you can and make sure you make money on it at the same time! 

Grr.

So, I'm making market bags now. 

Out of American cotton.

So there.

Here is the first one I finished. 

And the one I'm working on now:  (I love the teeny bits of color in this yarn)

Just finished the bottom and am starting the climb up the sides.

This pattern rocks!  It's easy as can be, and makes a nice big bag with a large opening which will be easy to fill with things at the store.  Here is the pattern for you!

Free Crochet Pattern Market Bag

I love the wide strap.  Feels really nice and strong.  I'm planning to make several of these to use when I go to the grocery store.

Well, the clock is ticking and I need to go paint.  Here's a few miniatures I did in the past few days for ebay.  I have more on the easel waiting for my attention and better get to work.   Cashews later!

Pure Excitement

Not much to say just now, but I wanted to share this photo of our Maddox when we rode The Ducks in Branson.  The picture says it all.

Playing in the Ozarks

I took a week out of my usual schedule of life in Arizona to hop on a plane and visit my daughter and her family in the beautiful Ozarks. I've never been to Missouri before, or anyplace west of the Arizona desert, (unless you count a brief trip across Canada back in the 70s in which I dipped my toe into a very mosquito ridden Wyoming, and dashed back across Montana and Idaho to the Washington coastline. I don't really count that much since it was way up there at the top of the country and we were traveling awfully fast in my boyfriend's Porsche.)

Now I found myself in Missouri for the first time. I hadn't been on a plane since my honeymoon in 1993, so I happily gaped out the window the entire trip. From up there, very high in the sky, it looked like there is a whole lot of ugly in between Arizona and Missouri. I'm sure it looked better down on the ground. It has to. Or nobody would live there. Not that I saw much in the way of cities and towns. But I did spy a building or two immersed in the vast wasteland. Honestly, it was very interesting. I could easily imagine how the earth was once covered in water. It looked like what you might see if the oceans were drained. Fascinating! Anyhoo, eventually the land turned to GREEN and suddenly we were descending into the prettiest farmland I had ever seen. Lovely!

My family met me at the airport with huge grins and an even bigger "Welcome To Missouri" sign that just made my heart break with happiness. Oh my gosh, to have those kids run to me and surround me with their love... you have no idea what it meant to me. Even now, as I type, it makes me weepy. How I have missed them.

But to make a long story short... I spent a week there. Maddox gave me his room, and told me every day that I was "going to sleep in MY room! You are going to stay here a WHOLE WEEK!" I had a blast. The kids took such good care of me, and we did everything that I hoped to do. We drove everywhere and I got to see all the places that make up my family's world. It is so pretty there that I couldn't even take too many photos of it. I knew that my pictures would never do it justice. The Ozarks are simply beautiful! I ate it up with my eyes, and I tried to commit it to memory.

Before I go, I just want to share a few of my favorite pictures from the week.....

Maddox and Liz had planted bulbs just before I came, and the week was spent checking on them every day to see how they had grown. Maddox is so proud of his flowers!

This is Liz and Sammy as we all rode The Ducks in Branson, MO. So much fun! We toured the whole area, and then drove right into the lake to putt around on the water. The boys got to drive the amphibian WWII vehicle we were in and they were so excited!

I snapped this picture of Rylen one morning and loved it so much, he's now the wallpaper on my cellphone. Rylen, I look at you every day!

Of course, the trip would not have been complete without a lot of games! Maddox greeted me every morning with "Grandma Nutt, Grandma Nutt! Let's play a GAME!" hahaha.. that boy is so darned cute, and he never runs out of energy! This pictures Madd, Ry, and me in a wild game of Candyland.

Almost forgot to include The Mystery Photo! Can you guess why this woman is making this face?

I'm not telling! hahahaha!

At the end of the week, I think we were all ready to just spend time at home. Jimmy started to clear the land for the vegetable garden that the Easter Bunny had instigated with gifts of seeds for the boys. I loved watching the family working together to make a nice family garden. Touched me deeply. This is not a common sight in my Phoenix neighborhood, I'll tell you that.

Before I left Missouri, I managed to finish knitting a hat I was making for Liz's friend, Angie. I liked it, except this was the first time I've used Fair Isle techniques in a hat. While it came out cute, it ended up tightening up much more than I'd planned. I'd heard that stranded knitting could do that, but this was the first time I'd seen it happen. Ah well, I always learn everything the hard way! Since I wanted a photo of the hat before I left it for Angie, Maddox let me take pictures of him wearing it.

So that's about it before I got home again! My husband greeted me with pizza, and that was pretty darned good!

I got right back to painting and did these little ones....

and also did a couple of new hats this week, which will go to charity...

Photos, Phood, Phlowers, and a Blanket

I sat down at my desk, planning to get the bookwork done that's piled up all week. But naturally, this is that rare sort of Procrastination Opportunity that I cherish and nurture any time I can. I downloaded photos from my camera and from my cell phone, and thought it was about time to get them up on the ol' bloggeroo...

My daughter sent me new 8x10 photos of the boys, so I finally got out my hammer and nails and put my Beloveds up on the wall. I love photos of my family. I never, ever get tired of looking at them.

Going clockwise from the upper left, we have handsome Rylen looking much older than his 10 years! Then a little photo of Sammy doing his Edward G Robinson impression. Then sparkly Maddox taken in the car last year. Below the intercom thingy, is my favorite photo of Richard and me. Continuing to the left now, we see a sweet picture of granddaughter Dawn, then Sammy again, right under Ry. And in the center, we've got Maddox looking so big!

Last week we had take out fried chicken from the new cafe down at the bowling alley. Sister's Homestyle Cafe might not look like much, but boy oh boy do they know how to make fried chicken. Yum!

And while I wait for the food to get ready, I can look out over the Scary Bowling Alley.

Admit it, doesn't that place look SPOOKY at night?

On Saturday we had to head over to the lab to get bloodwork done for my hubby. Everyone wants to come on Saturday and it's first come, first serve. As you can see, we arrived early enough to get a real jump on the crowds!

Maybe not. But there were pretty flowers to look at..

And the line actually did move very quickly. I was rather amazed.

To celebrate a successful Bloodletting (and end the Fast that preceded it)... Richard and I decided to splurge on iHop. Once the food arrived, I put my camera away, but I did take a shot of the Iced Mocha we started out with. It was delicious!

Well, I'd better jump in on that bookwork. so I'll leave you with a few views of the colorful blanket I'm making for Maddox. He's the Rainbow Boy, so he gets a blanket as colorful as I can make it!

Trees in the Daytime, Hats at night

Paintings:

I would have had another painting ready to show you, but I was experimenting with some Golden Open Acrylics in today's painting.  They don't dry fast like the regular ones.  Unfortunately, it dries SO slowly that I'll have to wait until tomorrow before I can scan it.  I would tell you how much I didn't like the Open Acrylics, except that Golden was kind enough to give me samples to play with.  Because of that I won't tell you about how I don't like the Elmer's Glue feeling they have, and simply point out that they DO stay wet for an amazing amount of time!

Golden really does make beautiful paint.  I adore the Fluid Acrylics, and the Heavy Body Acrylics are superfine too!

 

Hats:

This is a knitted cap I kind of made up as I went along.  It has a basket weave pattern around the sides, and then I added a couple of ridges of garter stitch before heading into the decreases. 

 

 

In this hat, I kind of fiddled around with an infant pattern I've done before, and managed to work up a Toddler sized cap.  Sorry, nothing good to photograph it on since my Scary Manikin Head is too big for a toddler hat.  I need a Scary Toddler to model for me.  This is actually pretty cute, and I think if I do it in brighter colors, it would be great. 

 

Both hats promptly went into my charity bag.   Not sure where they'll go, but time will tell!  My last batch of charity hats are heading up to the Reservations up north.

Robert's Blanket is growing in leaps and bounds

   This blanket is so much fun to work on.  I can hardly keep my hands off of it!  It keeps me wanting to see how it's going to look with the next row, and the next, and the next.  It's becoming so very beautiful, yet still in tones that should please my son.  Too fun!

And yet, I continue to paint.  I have several on the easel, but here is one I finished the other day...

Don't Touch My Desk

What is it with people?  My desk might look a little scary, but I know where everything is!  DON'T TOUCH IT!

grr.

I just came in from the studio to find the the housekeeper had ignored my express wishes and decided to tidy up my desk.  ARGHHHHHHHHHHH

Right now, along with four receipts, one electric bill, various tax information, and a take out menu from my favorite pizza place... I have NINE paintings on my desk.  I have them organized in various shallow boxes and trays so that I can keep track of what's happening with them.  Some are Sold.  Some are Drying. Some are Waiting, while others are about to Finish being sold.  I have my methods.  I have my own system of organization.

Do I go to other people's homes and TIDY UP their desks?  Nope.

grr again.

Anyhoo, after telling the maid, once again, to leave my desk alone.. no matter how messy she thinks it is.... I FINALLY found all the paintings again.  Got them organized again.  I got scared for a few bad moments when I really thought one of the sold paintings was gone forever. 

grr trois.

Oh well.  deep breath. 

Just came over here to show you the latest paintings available for peanuts on ebay.  They have survived their journey through TidyVille and are happily back in their little organizer boxes.  Next stop.... someone else's nice tidy house.