Finally

The Highland Lakes Lawn and Garden show ended yesterday. It also began yesterday, except for me and the rest of the committee; we've been working on it since last October.  In my biased opinion, it was spectacular, though I only managed to stay half a day. My job was arranging speakers so yesterday my main job was announcing them. I also felt I should stay through each presentation, first, because they were interesting and, second, because I thought doing otherwise would be rude. In addition, I helped set up and take down so I hardly had time to do much else. But, as an insulin-dependent diabetic, I had to work lunch in there somewhere. To this end, the committee chair agreed to announce the 1p speaker. Which meant I had nothing left to do the rest of the day. Sure, I could have returned and listened to the last speaker's presentation, which did promise to be interesting, but I'd already had to leave once to pick up something from the grocery store for our second speaker, and I didn't relish the in/out of the parking lot again--parking spaces were at a premium. So I com-ed on home. (I'm like the old gray mare--point me in the direction of home and get out of my way!)

Now, I've justified myself to y'all who probably wouldn't judge me anyway. Am I justifying myself to myself? Most likely, and I probably will do for yet a while.

I know many of you are button lovers as am I. Well, here's a lovely shop I'd like for y'all to check out. Letter Perfect Designs offers wonderful button creations, such as this one:

And this:

And this, which is a particular fave of mine. 
'S a matter of fact, I've started one similar to the red one. We'll see how mine turns out. Plus my sis is collecting red buttons to make one for her youngest daughter. Do y'all ever do that, see a design, say I can do that and make one for yourself? I'd never ever offer it on Etsy, or anwhere else for that matter. This lady is so good she deserves to hold top position in this design. But is it awful I'm making my own? 

This is another favorite, though it's already sold. Isn't she clever?

Well, Sunday morning means breakfast at home for the hub, so I'm off to take care of that. Have a great day, y'all.

Here I go again

I have no idea how I held down a job for most of my life. It seems the least project any more can eat up my time and mental energy. Lately I've been discombobulated over several things: Max, mainly, and how he's doing. For a while it seemed he was starving--have I talked of this? I can't remember. I read online that a cat should get 20 calories a day per pound of ideal weight. Max should be about 16 pounds--he's lost three; down to 19 now. So that's 320 calories a day. We started out giving him two 3 oz. cans of Fancy Feast, but the flavors he prefers are in the 70-75 calorie range. Not good. (I know Fancy Feast is far from being the best food for cats, but it's all he'll eat right now, and I'm more concerned with him actually eating than whether or not he's eating the most nutritional food.) Anyway, we upped his intake to three cans; that still doesn't give him the proper calorie count, and he was waking me at 4 a.m., demanding food. (By demanding, I mean biting whatever bits of me happened to stick out from under the covers. And when nothing does, he's even tried biting me through the covers. That's after head-bumping and pawing gets no response.) So-o-o, after I realized I was exhausted from not getting enough sleep--and emotional; did I mention emotional? I'm crying at the drop of a hat. And no, I won't shut him out of the room--I upped his food to 3 1/2 cans. Even at 85 calories a can, and there are a few that he likes in that area, he still doesn't make 320 calories. But it satisfies him, and I no longer feel like a bad parent. 

The next thing that's kept me occupied is the Highland Lakes Lawn and Garden Show, and next week that'll be over. Yay! I got volunteered for the committee. (Actually, the truth is that I was complicit in that. I can't put it all off on Sammye. And she has totally worked her butt off on this show. This is me, being honest, y'all. So appreciate, hear?) 

Since I had no idea how time-consuming it was gonna be, I won't apologize for my complicity, but it won't happen again. And honestly my fellow committee-members have put in far more time than I have, so I shouldn't complain. The last thing I have to do--until the actual show, that is--is make a poster announcing the speakers. I worked on it a while yesterday, but my studio is so messy I couldn't even get to my cutting table, which honestly I often use as a work surface. But I did find some cool pics online and got permission to use them. 

Yuccas near Marble Falls, TX

Indian Blankets and Black-eyed Susans

Indian Blanket

The artist is Mary Saxton Griffin. Great photos, and they'll look terrific interspersed with my speaker info.

So today I work in the yard. I've got bushes to cut back, seeds to plant, and weeds to kill. And Tom's building a bottle tree. I've had everyone saving wine bottles for me--if I depended on our wine consumption we'd never have enough. Here's a pic of one that's near where we used to live. 

And finally I have done a few felted things. Nothing I've listed in the shop yet, but I thought I'd show them here. These are simple to do, yet I make them difficult. First because my vision is much larger than the actual, and I do try to realize my vision. When I speak of larger than, I mean actually larger than--my vision, I mean. The project's so much smaller. I  wanted to put flowers on the soles of the flip flops, but when I tried, they looked like blobs of color rather than flowers cuz the medium was so small. Anyway sometimes the vision doesn't become actual, so you have to go with what you've got.

The flower on the toe of this flip flop is a bead I had in my stash. And the coloration at the toe on the one below was my attempt at adding a wee circle of actual felt (rather than roving). It was so small, it almost disintegrated. Oh, well, live and learn. 

This next one I'll probably lose money on. The button cost almost two and a half bucks and the hair pin's probably not worth more than two.  

And the last one. Not my fave. What can I say? I fiddled and fiddled and fiddled with it and am still not satisfied, but it'll have to do.
And that's it. Gotta date for breakfast with the hub, so I'll see you guys later.

Ta.

Cards, tags, etc

My new best friend Dian commented on the cards I used for backing on my bobby pins so I thought I'd explain how I made those. First, I used card stock from Wally World, the onliest place here in the boondocks to buy craft supplies. The pack had a plethora of colors, but I used those in the beige range, cutting them down to 8.5 x 11 to fit my printer. Then, I went here and downloaded the earthtone tags shown below, though I only printed the first page. I've done some of the others as well but not for this purpose.

I also used some pinky paper to print the second page of the tags below. It didn't turn out as pretty, IMO, but I clipped some red and pink flowered hair pins to those tags.

For the print at the bottom, I simply played with a layout until I had it aligned--yunno, print a page, hold it and the cardstock up to a light, guess how much needs to be realigned, then do it again. When I had it where I wanted it, I put the already printed tags--uncut--back into the printer and added the logo. Easy peasy. I used an office-style paper cutter for the straight edges, cuticle scissors for the curves.

I used the same process to make promo bookmarks, adding tassels and braids and beads. I have no pics of those; I used them in a promo swap and was hustling at the end to get them in the mail. 

My sis Daisy told me about the Scrapbook Scrapbook site where I found these. I think she's used the pages/papers in a much more creative way--her Etsy banner, for one,

Cool, innit? But then Daisy's more creative--hands down--than I am. All I've figured out how to do so far are my tags, so I'm sticking with that for the time being.

Except...oh, except. I picked up a papermaking kit at Walworld the other week. I know, most people don't need a kit, which may be why this one was in the clearance section. But yunno, I put obstacles in my way so much of the time, and I did with paper-making...to the degree that I've never done it. Don't want to use the kitchen blender, but don't have another. Don' wanna get Tom to make a screen for me--though he would, I just never got around to asking. So there it was, all packaged in a box for $10, a hand-turn blender, screens, everything. So today I think I might make some paper. Wonder how the tags would look printed on handmade paper? Can I make something thick enough to be cardstock-y?

Hmm. More to come.

Roadtest

I've been doing a number of different things lately just cause. Just cause I wanted to do some samples for my Etsy team samplers, just cause I needed some promo items, just cause it turned out to be fun. For the samplers, I made a bunch of bobby pins, most of which have already been sent to the team leader. But I made enough to give a couple to my great niece and one to my niece, and enough to offer some in my shop. 

This is my own personal fave. Don't know why I like it better than the others, I just do.

Okay, this is another favorite. If my hair were long enough, I swear I'd wear both of these myself.
But I like this 'un too, though it seems to be more little girl appropriate.

And this one--it's just a couple of stacked buttons atop a circle of boiled wool, but I like it too. Guess that's why I kept these instead of shipping them off with the others.

Lastly, this is another felted bag I made from an old wool sweater. I needle felted the spray of leaves on the front and, though you can't see it here, a spray all along the handle. The innards are from a wonderful metallic silk remnant I found and the belt buckle on front is, of course, vintage. It was in a box of buttons and such an elderly neighbor gave me that once belonged to her grandmother.
And lastly, the road test part, I made some cell charm tassels I'd like someone to try for me. My cell is older and doesn't have anything to which I can secure a charm, but I want to know how this will hold up. I'm thinking my tassel charm mightn't be the best idea. I may wind up using them as ceiling fan tassels. But I'd love someone to try for me, free of charge. Just leave a comment including how to contact you and I'll let a number generator choose for me.

P.S. If anyone's interested, Max is in remission. Don' know how it hoppened--well, yes, I do; we changed his food--but I'm so glad! And so's he.

Tablescapes

This has been a week of distraction. My apologies for not being around. And today company's coming. All week I've been thinking spring but have done nothing yet to springify. Still, spring's a comin' whether I'm ready or not. Outside my mountain laurel's blooming, as well as a bush I've forgotten the name of. (It'll come to me someday.) 

One thing I did though was rearrange the top of a lawyer's bookcase in my living room. This is the best before pic I can find.

After reading a Nester post about tablescapes,  I decided to try it. Here's the after 

And a closer image:

Okay, my behind pic should be taller, but I used what I have. (Actually I have taller pics in storage but not quickly available.) The behind picture came from a calendar I got in Washington state several years ago, a photo of a painting done by a local artist. The vase is one of my collected McCoy's. The box I got as a gift a few years back: it's copper with upholstery tacks. The front pic is a thrift store find, a cool illustration from an old book. The candlesticks are a couple I thrifted when I was doing garden totems, and the middle bit is another glass candlestick with a crystal ball perched on top. I picked up the ball at an antique store the year we went to east Texas for our sister's weekend.

And here is the Nester's tablescape. Pretty darn cool, innit? 

The next tablescape is atop the chest in my guest bedroom. I love the individual pieces: the copper lamp I picked up in a junk shop in Mesquite, stripped of all her wiring, shade, etc. The cedar box was a gift from a friend, one of those cool old boxes people used to buy as travel souvenirs. This one has an image on  top with a Russian-esque feel. In the two depression glass dishes I have 1) potpourri my sis Daisy made and 2) some potpourri crystals a friend gave me with another little something I picked up in Washington, some kind of seed or something, you actually think I can remember? And the bowl, well, that's a banana split bowl from the Baker hotel in Mineral Wells, Texas where my mother met my stepfather. I've filled it with old doorknobs, which I dearly love. Oh, and the painting, that I got back in the mid '80s from a flea market kinda place in Dallas. 

Now the after. All I did was add my hub's grandparent's wedding photo and a pic of his father's grade school graduation. It by no means follows the rules Nester laid out (borrowed from The Home Book's tutorial, as inspired by designer David Jimenez). But I like it. So there!

 
Now, I'm off to make beds and pick up clutter. And maybe I'll change the pine cones in the bowl on the bar to lemons. Yeah, that sounds good.

When the whole world seems smarter'n you...!

Jean of Lilac Lane Livery tagged me, and I'm not sure I understand what I'm s'posed to do! She says:

1) Find the fourth picture in your photo file and post it. (Well, um, which file? My photos are in folders tagged either by date or label so I chose the file that's at the top and the fourth photo in that file. Does that work?)

2) Tell us a bit about your photo.

3.) Tag a few friends to do the same. 

So here's mine:

Each year my sisters and I try to get away together for a weekend. We started this about 12 years ago when we were all much younger, and we've made some great memories. The picture above is from 2005 when we went to East Texas. At the time my brother-in-law was in charge of investments for a Texas oilman and through his contacts found this place for us to stay. Isn't it gorgeous? Would you believe it's a building development? There's a lodge, where we stayed, and a clubhouse for home owners. The body of water close up in the above photo is the swimming pool between the lodge and clubhouse, and the one in the distance is a nice little community lake, also shown in the shot below.

This next one is a home under construction while we were there. It was mahvelous!

Now, I'm supposed to tag people. Seems I always tag the same people, and I prolly will this time as well: let's try Claudia at Cloud 9 Creations, Jen at Random Ramblings, my sis Daisy at Little Sassy Sews, and Dusti at Okies at Heart.

Now I gotta wind down for the evening. Ta.