Happy New Year!

I've put this and the last of the stuffed cusspots up for sale in the Random Acts of Dyeness store - I cranked this one out last night between customers and, for the first time, had an inkling of what carpal tunnel feels like. I can do without crocheting for good while!

There are new books to be read and I don't anticipate a busy evening although holidays have a way of bringing the wackos out of the woodwork. Since I'm working until midnight anyway, I've offered up my services as a designated driver so I may be out and about after dark this New Year! A first in many.

sometimes you just must

Gallery Updating

The studio lies fallow, but that's ok - it's that time of year for me. There are things on the design wall, in the sketchbook and the back brain burner that will all come into being in their own good time.

Until then it seemed prudent to review so I spent the morning updating the main gallery and being so bold as to post prices again instead of half-hearted and hopeful messages of negotiation or barter.

Here is my work. I am well satisfied.

Sweetie's first snow

Sweetie has been acting so strange since it started snowing last night, running around the house (she sounds like a herd of ponies) and going around with her hair all up.

Then I remembered that this was probably her first snow. She joined our family last year and spent a good three months sequestered  upstairs, recuperating from being a feral waif, a minor surgery and keeping her from the rest of the crew. I'm sure she missed the brief snowfall we had last winter.

It was hard to get a good shot because she was doing that foot shaking dance cats do when they step in something they don't like.

Merry Christmas!

A lovely day. Everyone got gifts both unexpected and welcome. Jake and Missy are here, Colin had to go serve the movie going public and we are hunkered down waiting on the first Christmas snow in the ATL since 17 years. The real worry is the potential for ice.


Yes, the pie tasted every bit as good as it looks and the lasagna will be at it's best tomorrow.

quiet time

The quiet time took me be surprise last night. I was prepared to be inundated with the complaints of every inept malcontent and miscreant up and walking  last night only to have long minutes of blessed silence between brief, businesslike "let's get it done" calls.

My scrap basket was just within reach so, with my eyes closed, I felt out the pieces of cotton that had the same soft weave and started hand piecing them just for something to do. This is only about 3"x5". Maybe I'll grow it a little more later on. Hand piecing is not a favorite pastime as I seem to stick my self often ...some of those red spots around the edges are NOT dye.

Looney Eclipse

When will I learn that the time to learn about  proper camera settings is not as you stand on the deck in your slippers and nightwear shivering? The moon was dead overhead so I reckoned that putting the camera on 10 second delay and laying it on it's back on the picnic table would be a good thing to try. Then the cloud cover started racing by. You can even see Venus I think.

The clouds parted for just a second and this shot came out pretty good.  No, that's not my finger...I threw those shots out with the other forty odd that I took.  I even sat up in bed reading the manual for a while. Better than a glass of wine or a pill.....


the one below is my favorite. who knows what the camera settings were?

The creatures were celebrating in their own fashion - I took three dog bite  reports over the course of the evening!

"Taken By the Night" finished

"Taken By the Night"

2010


It was nice to get something completed before the year ran out. It's charmed and puzzled me every step of the way but last night it really felt finished and this morning I faced it with a piece of even sky colored cotton and called it good.

It finished out at 11.5"x13.5" and is ready to frame. $290.00 includes shipping inside the US and if I get off Priority Mail tomorrow, it should arrive in time for holiday gift giving.

go here for a clickable close up. email me if you are interested.

Lavanderia completed

Update - I just had to paint over that yellow canvas background - it annoyed me every time I walked into the rooom

"Lavanderia" was a long time in the works. I used it in the mummy making tutorial   but did not complete the process by sealing the front with acrylic medium. There was just too many fiber effects that I knew would be lost - the sheen of the damask, the definition of all those tiny french knots - so this one looks and feels like cloth but is permanently mounted to a stretched canvas.

Cusspots explained.....

Melly has posted about her recent acquisition of some of my stuffed cusspots, and the questions are rolling in.

 The name "cusspot" came to me out of the blue (like all my titles do) when I was thinking about how to name these little containers that I started crocheting at work rather compulsively. When I made the first one, I put it on my desk and put a few coins inside with the notion that the nickle and three pennies might breed like hangars in the closet tend to. Didn't happen.

Then I remembered how some offices and families have a Swear Jar that you have to put money into if you swear out loud, as a kind of punishment or deterrent to bad language. Where I grew up you got five upside the eyes for anything past "Hell" or "Damn" (and those got you the very evil eye). Of course, we swore like sailors when Mom or Dad were not within earshot.

I swear a LOT on my job, violently and elaborately, but inside my head, at my customers. I curse them all, need it or not. It keeps me from burnout. My  little crocheted container would never serve to hold a day's worth of swearing fines, they were not big enough to be real Swear Jars, they were merely CUSSPOTS.

I started poking thread ends into it instead of letting the bits fall where ever and getting more evil eyes from the vacuum cleaner guy late in the evening. The threads stuck to the office carpet like crazy and he had to spend extra NOISY ANGRY minutes around my desk once a week. In the spring, I pulled all the thread bits out and left them in the shrubs around the office for birds to make nests with.

What will you do with a cusspot? Melly is cooking hers!

Last Chance for Holiday Fiber!

I'm almost done "shop keeping" for this year....

I think tomorrow is the last day before Christmas that I could promise a package arriving in time for holiday gift giving (US) .  If you buy one at the regular price any additional bundles will be 10$ off  and I'll get them out to you by Priority Mail, lickety split. (Note: Dont use those PayPal buttons for this sale..email me for an invoice so I can work in your discount! )

WOO WOO!
Cloth for Christmas!

See the inventory at Random Acts of Dyeness (remember, ignore those PayPal buttons if you want that discount! Email me for an invoice)