250

hey - that was my 250th post.

to celebrate i have given this old blog a little face lift and have started labeling all 250 posts.
i have the 125 most recent done and am working my way back to my first baby blog posting.

if you look in the right hand column you will see a section labeled 'party favors' - these are my post catagories. i certainly wish i had done this from the start but it's pretty cool to see all my blathering sorted by content.

those of you who know me fear my need to sort things.
am i a bit ocd? yes, and i have had the meds to prove it.

miss margaret is going to blow in to town tonight for an hour or so - she's coming with a carload of her alfred university friends to pick up another friend - we're going to take them all to dinner at john's tex mex eatery in the s'wedge (yum).



here's my art student in her halloween zombie makeup.

first snow

we saw our first snow flakes this morning while sitting in the van waiting for an estate sale to open. very fittingly i was knitting woolen socks.

i found something truly wacky and delightful today at the sale.

i think it is a candy dish?

anyway it is cast brass and wood and was made in italy. it stands about 8" tall.

i adore it.

it was not the only treasure i found - here are pics of some great costume jewelry to disasseble and reassemble with my glass beads.

ceramic beads

some with crackle and some with gold leaf.

and polished pieces of cross sectioned antlers.

my quilting friend is on her way over to go thru the 30 pounds of fabric i bought at the same sale. the homeowner had been a decorator in the 60's and 70's and her personal fabric stash was amazing.

it was a case of true sable.
(s a b l e = stash amassed beyond life expectancy).

as you can see from the lack of publishing in my blog i am not making much these days - i have a guest staying at my studio. he came for a week and has stayed and stayed for forever - through no fault of his own, it's a rather messy non-divorce. i never knew i was quite so private about working - i just can't do it with an audience and i don't want to be in his hair.

i brought some materials home from the studio to work with and have been puttering with polymer clay, acrylic paints and i started a class in image transfer quilting. of course i am knitting - it's full on knitting season. but how i miss my oil paints and boxes of pearls.

pirate's booty

when she was little my daughter thought that the garage sale regulars were pirates.

this week was a great week for finding bits of booty for reworking into my jewelry.
here's most of it piled on my kitchen table.

a trade bead and a porcelain pendant.

a wad of fresh water rice pearls, 100's of them.

some lovely mottled glazed clay beads mixed with sterling silver beads just waiting to be unstrung.

and lastly gold - what a week for gold.
don't worry - the little victorian crescent moon pin with pearls will not be taken apart.

there is also a nice little pile of religious medals that i found. they will used as dangles on this christmas' supply of mexican voodoo necklaces.

halloween post mortem

last night's chili party and candy handout fest was just what i needed to banish the funk.
as promised a snapshot of my clown shoes...

13 pumpkins were carved by j's international students - most had never knifed a pumpkin before - or celebrated halloween.

all the 'guests' were dressed to the nines.

the prognosticator of love showed up - just as he does every halloween.

trick or tree.

the mummy door man

satan and his hot date

modeling the cupcakes - pumpkin cupcakes with cider glaze & chocolate frosting.

boo

pumpkin topiary

a halloween snapshot from my kitchen.

my kitchen has muted curry orange painted walls and the blueish gray green pumpkin on the bottom looks fantastic with color.
i think i may have finally found the color for the sink countertop.
does marble, or granite, come in this color?

sorry for the long absence - just in a funk. the month long lack of a studio left me more off kilter than i expected...

but blues be gone, tonight i am breaking out my clown shoes.
yes, i have real antique clown shoes, i found them at an estate sale years ago, one of my greatest junking moments ever. pictures tomorrow.

orchestral diversions

the vegetable orchestra


the ukelele orchestra of great britian - the good the bad & the ugly


tokyo ska paradise orchestra - skaravan

plein air

yesterday was freakishly warm here for late october,
so here's where we went -
mendon ponds park in mendon, new york.

phyllis and i have been painting together since college.
where do we like to have our plein air adventures?
somewhere with picnic tables, bathrooms and nearby parking.

what a perfect way to spend the afternoon.

the finished painted sketch -
9" x 12" - acrylic on board

a close up.

when men craft

dick & jeff mancrafting.
the buddies took jalapeno peppers and handily stuffed them with cheese, then they sewed them together with toothpicks and bacon.

the stuffed peppers were smoked on the grill in a special armadillo shaped vertical rack. i wish i had a picture of them cooked, but they got eaten very, very quickly.

bacon is a particularly prized mancrafting material, it's like the pmc of mancrafting...

pumpkin chipotele

mmm...

big poppa at the end of the driveway, ready to load them into the back of the van.

individual pumpkin chipotele cakes with mexican chocolate frosting and cider glaze.

oh yeah, they were good.

dreamland faces

i am not getting anything done -
only some planning for paintings and beads.

i don't even have my bead sketchbooks with me.
just noodling on scraps of paper and stray notepads.

a new bead shape - a kind of pod with a twisted top knot.
i will try starting with a round bead (#1)
then add ridges (lobes) of a different color glass (#2)
and finally spot heating the top and giving a little twist pulling up slightly (#3)

a while ago i made this completely weird necklace with the theme of mickey and minnie mouse.
it's not really working yet - i may go all out and try making some weird sculpey mickie heads for it.

i miss dreamland faces - they used to live here and play every saturday morning at java's public market cafe. sigh.

dreamland faces

across the universe

this is the best film.

give your soul a tune-up by going to see it immediately.

red delicious

it's time for the apple harvest here on the north coast.

the orchards have such a lovely smell - all wet grass and applesauce.

look at that gracefully arched branch -
amazing how many apples are weighing it into that curve.

the sunlight may be bright this time of year - but it is alway low and slanting.
reminding you that is no longer summer and that winter is coming, soon.

beauty and abundance.

what's the story morning glory?

taking photos while waiting for a rummage sale to start.

there was a huge gray chain link fence covered in morning glories.
a lesson that anything ugly can be made beautiful when nature is urged to run amok.

a blue painting, that would be something new for me. generally i am not attracted to the color.

i love the morning glory's ornate spiral buds.

it turned out to be the best rummage sale ever.
why?
because i found an older, but in excellent working condition, paragon kiln for $50.

pmc beware.