Great Stuff

Great Stuff by Paul is an amazing shop chockablocka full of an eclectic mix of vintage and antique pieces from France, China and England. It's always a fun trip making one's way through the maze of old wooden items, baskets, buckets and benches, birdcages and whatever else Paul has brought in from over the oceans.


Goods are strewn about sometimes in a bit of disarray and sometimes quite orderly. But it's all an artful eyeful and really fun to look about even in this helter skelter way of showcasing.


Baskets are a specialty. Paul has very unusual ones that were actually used for various purposes like egg collecting or seaweed rinsing or rice weighing. And I just use them for storing yarn, how boring! But if I need to rinse some seaweed I know which basket to use!




These would be perfect for carrying a little babe to the fields to plant seeds for spring. I had one similar that I would put Forrest into and take him out to the garden while I toiled away in the soil.


I just loved these red luggage things, decoratively painted in flowers.


and these would be great as end tables.


A mish mash of old Chinese classroom stools. Ann and I sat on one briefly and I couldn't imagine sitting on these hard seats for hours and hours.


My favorite were these red painted wooden buckets.


Birdcages dangled from a pipe near the ceiling.


I can just see a snake slowly coming up out of an urn, being charmed by a snake charmer.







I really wanted to get some of these vintage wooden fold up chairs, one of every color.


I'm glad calculators were invented as I'm not sure I'd be too swift on an abacus.


Old rifle handles


Hay rakes


and in case you need an old rusty lock, there's a bin of 'em!

"Cheer up!"

I joined a group of small indie dyers and small cottage crafters that have stores on etsy.com. Jessie at Phat Fiber started the group in January, asking for 20 sample submissions from us that she would compile in a box to be sold one time a month on etsy. Each month will have a different theme, February's being "Romance and Chocolate". The first boxes sold out in just 20 minutes with a long waiting list of folks wanting more. February's box will go on sale tomorrow, February 16. Here is the link if you are interested, Phat Fiber. Jessie did a YouTube video on the blog and I was featured first!

I sent 20 little goodie bags of 30 yards of my Salsa yarn in "Cheer Up" colorway. I also added a bonus fused glass button that matches the yarn.


Lined up for thier turn to be put in the box.



Ready for shipment. Hopefully they will "Cheep Up" some customers!

Happy Valentine's Day

This is a store window in Frederick. Love what they've done with tissue. I'm about to have dinner and champagne so gotta go!

Wool, Soap, and Friction

I taught a felt purse class last Saturday. Eight women who had never felted before got down to it and each one made a fabulous piece. Above is the sample I used to show the elements that we used. The bag is made with the wet felting process, using a resist in the middle so the two sides don't felt together. The handle is rolled into a 'rope', similar to how we rolled Play Doh as kids. The balls are needle felted, then lightly wet felted into a tight ball. Seed beads are then sewn around them.


They picked out their colors from my massive amount of dyed wool and mohair roving, wool locks and bits of silk. We used cookie sheets so the water wouldn't drip everywhere.



We finished the wet felting, put them on the radiator to dry, had lunch and got right back to work, embellishing with more wool bits, beads, baubles and buttons.


After just a few hours work, they finished their masterpieces.


Even though they all started out similar, they all ended up very different, with their own flair and bling. They're all ready to be packed with a wallet and lipstick and taken shopping!

Snow & Ice & Lunch

Ann and I paid our friend, Peg, a visit last week on the day it snowed. We hadn't seen her in a long while so suggested we bring her lunch and we could sit and chat. I brought Brunswick stew and just baked peanut butter cookies. Ann brought a delicious greens salad with grapefruit, feta, and sugared pecans. We also had grainy bread and coffee. We sat in Peg's warm kitchen with her little wood stove heating up the room to a comfy 70 something, watching the snow gently falling out the large kitchen windows.


After lunch I grabbed my camera and made my way just a bit to her cabin/studio/bed & breakfast place. The cabin was built in the mid-1700's I believe and Peg runs it as a B&B from April until November. She makes a huge full breakfast that she walks down in a basket.


The cabin is surrounded by fields, woods and a beautiful pond. Three sheep graze the fields and a canoe awaits one for a paddle to the little island. The snow made the cabin look so peaceful.


If it was a warmer day, I could picture myself sitting on the porch, rocking the day away. But instead we got to have a wonderful wintery day shared with good friends.

Pastels

Three of my girlfriends and I took a pastel paint workshop for three days in Chestertown, Maryland. The four of us needed a refresher on pastel painting before taking the class, so my neighbor, Susan, had a mini-workshop a few days beforehand. Above is one of her paintings.





Susan has been an artist for decades and works in many different medium. Her pastels are very used.





Not like mine, which are brand new. I almost don't want to use them, they're all so perfect. But these particular pastels go on like 'buttah' and are just luscious. Love them! And I should love them as they cost a small fortune! But just look at all those colors lined up in their varying shades of yummyness! As a child, I loved a new box of crayons, especially the big tiered box of over a hundred that they don't even sell anymore. I had my favorites, like Magenta. I noticed that 'Flesh' was renamed 'Peach' in 1962. Good for them since flesh comes in so many colors.


All the pretty pastels, ready to use.


This class was learning to paint from a photograph as some days (months) it's too cold to paint 'Plein Air'. Mary Pritchard was our instructor and had us do a value study first, to find out where the lights and darks should be. The photo I used is a barn in Barnesville with Sugarloaf in the background.




These are a couple of Penny's outbuildings.


and this is a barn in Maine. What captured me about Mary's art is her love of barns. The Chestertown area is agricultural (along with fishing) so there are many barns around. And of course we have a lot of barns in Barnesville!


Penny has a second home about a mile outside of Chestertown right on the Chester River so we had a great place to stay. We painted from 10 - 4, then drank wine and ate fabulous meals at night. This is her new dock and new boat. She always has ducks around and they were always sitting on her boat, messing it up. So she named her boat, "Duck Off!"
Her house is just feet from the river and the upper floor bedroom where I was staying overlooks this view. It was a full moon while we were there so the we went to sleep with the moon glow on us and awoke with the bright pink sun coming up over the horizon.

These were some scenes walking around Chestertown. I think this will be my next pastel subject.




Chestertown was founded in 1706 and boasts the second most 18th century houses (Annapolis is first). The houses are very well maintained and cared for. When it's a bit warmer I want to just ride around town looking at the arcitecture.


We had lunch in a small cafe that bakes their own bread. The temperature outside was about 8 or 9 degrees, and when we opened the door, a warm wave of air smelling of hot, yeasty bread hit us. Yea, we'll stay!
It was sad for it all to be over but we were all so enthused that we've ordered more pastels and paper and have started a pastel group that will meet once a month. I guess I'll just sleep less.

Obama-rama

Houston and I went down for Obama's inauguration. We had a place to stay within walking distance so we could avoid all mass transit. We walked down to the mall around 9:00 and arrived at the Washington Monument around 10:15 where we posted up for the swearing in.


We had these wonderful views of the monuments and the capitol before we crossed the bridge.


This was the GW Parkway, which was closed to traffic except for buses and taxis. It was pretty eery really.


The day was clear and crispy cold, around 18 degrees. The Potomac was frozen and peaceful.


This stark white sycamore stood out in sharp contrast.


Walking across the Arlington Memorial Bridge, was a sea of people, all being drawn to the day's festivities.


Folks were taking over the World War 2 Memorial to get a view of the Jumbotron. There were hundreds of volunteers around welcoming us to the mall. The spirits of all the people were so high and everyone was excited.


We ended up at the base of the Washington Monument. It's as close as we could get and was just fine by me because we had plenty of breathing room, a good view of one of the 20 jumbotrons and the crowd was so happy, cheerful and friendly.


Looking up, many jets were flying over, leaving trails behind creating circles all around.


It really wasn't too crowded where we stood. I had room to move around, stomp my feet when they got cold and throw my arms up in the air whenever Obama showed up on the jumbotron.


The sound system was great. That's one of the speakers hanging from the crane on the left. National Guard guys were on the viewing stands overlooking the crowd. Obama's speech was well received and I could not believe how quiet 2 million people could be. A reverent hush came over the crowd and as I looked around, all eyes were on Obama and all faces showed a content smile.


Leaving the celebration was when it really got crowded. We were herded to just one exit onto Constitution. But first we hit a wall (like maybe 50) portapotties. Some younger folks were climbing over them or walking along the tops of them. Us old folks just had to slowly make our way around them.


People in trees held up signs that read "Hope".


This is the crowd leaving. In the background is the wall of buses that we couldn't get around without walking even further down Constitution.


The National Guard were blocking most of the roads around the parade route and the White House.


and some folks just wanted to pose with the guards.


The parade was a blur.






Ghost riders. At the end of it all, we walked back to our condo for the night, exuberant and feeling that we are now on a path to recovery and better world standing. We are all putting so much faith in our new president and I believe that he is the man for the job. Best of luck to or new leader.