Father's Day 2013

Bittersweet is the first Father's day without the man who loved you longest of all.

Jimmy and I  announced our engagement on  Christmas day in '76. I was 26 and Jimmy was only 20 and both of our families were mildly freaked out about it.

At some point during the day, my Dad asked me if I knew what the hell  I was doing.  I assured him that I did and he paused and then replied with a grin
"Jeez, I didn't think I'd ever get rid of you."  I laughed then and can laugh now. I did know - back into time and deep into the future.

My Men of Steel spent a fun day together while I dipped out for the day at a friend's house but got home in time to finally get a decent steak off the grill for us.

one minute to next

I snipped those little test stars out of the base and set them in around the Creatives. They are now either food or toys. Looks like home; everyone is busy.

The summer rhythm is paying off.  I finished the top this morning but I want to face it with another piece of white cloth and then hand quilt it just to keep the layers in order, give it a little substance.

I am reading a couple of  "how-to" books about writing. Who am I to sneer or giggle at the thought of learning something from a book, even if the title is "This Year You Write Your Novel"  by Walter Mosley. More inspiration than instruction, I also return over and over to Anne Lamott and Stephen King. It helps to have your own personal rah-rah club when you are writing. Today I read one page, put it down and then wrote four pages of spectacle - spontaneous human combustion is rarely spontaneous. Four pages is a good day.

a peach

Last night the whole state suffered a rash of violent storms with trees downed and power outages everywhere. We here in the holler escaped with some ugly skies and a little rain. Today everyone reaped the reward of a perfect weather day, so rare in Georgia they should be named like hurricanes.

I did spend the entire morning in the studio but not a minute in the stitching chair. I was cutting up and packaging prints to send up to market in NY.

My dear Goodman (on his birthday yet) gave me an idea, the kind where you slap yourself on the forehead and realize that the rock in the path that  you've been tripping over every day is actually a big fat diamond. Time to get out the polishing cloth.

summer patterns

The days fall into the comfortable rhythms of summer.

No matter how late I'm up, I try to get up early before it gets too hot out, and take advantage of the light in the studio for some hand stitching.

Some chores, some errands and then, it's pool time. I clean it, swim and then read until lunch, then I have to nap for an hour and then, the day job until one in the morning. There's lots of time for doing but precious little for thinking.

I had to forsake the studio this morning and spend two hours at the Honda dealership while they did something to the passenger side airbag so it wouldn't kill the passenger.

They  have a big fancy waiting room which was filled with people poking at and mesmerized by their devices or sitting stricken and slack jawed while the gizmos sucked juice from the outlets lining the walls.

I brought the river basket with me and starting working on the Creatives and, although the adults in the room eyeballed me like I was throwing the bones or some other form of voodoo, three little girls lined up very politely and quietly in front of me. No questions, just big eyes in faces full of wonder and giggles when I popped it out of the hoop to show them the whole thing. I have a nice project for this piece that I'm excited to move on asap.

There are lots of stars yet to be hung in the sky and the blue horse waits patiently.

more critters

Sometimes the best things just fall from the sky, or in this case, the shelf.

Sweetie has decided that the back corner of my stash closet is a better option than under our bed for the duration of a thunderstorm.
She climbed up there and made herself some room by pushing a small, forgotten basket of snips out into space.  As I picked everything up, this half dollar sized piece of old cloth said "use me or suffer the consequences" and I had to drum up a body to go with it - in fact there are three new additions to the Creatives.

Another piece is probably in order.

Before I was a telecommuter I used to take stitching with me to the office where it was allowed as long as it didn't interfere with the business at hand. I used to use my cubicle wall as a design wall. I got a LOT of things done there but almost none since I started working from home even though  the work computer is in the studio. The light and ergonomics for hand work is all wrong but that will be remedied soon.

We will be giving the spare bedroom a makeover, boxing up a lot of CRAP and then moving the workstation in. With a few changes to the layout, I should be able to resume the nasty habit of doing three things at once while becoming the night shift neighborhood busybody and some clear purpose will be established in the studio.

work on Firmament

I finally had to put the AC unit in the north window ousting Sweetie from her observation perch. She's migrated to the east facing window co-opting the right arm of my sewing chair.

There's room for both of us, I just have to remember to not put any needles or pins along the right side anymore.

So far, so good, but a long way and many stars to go - most of them half as small as these - to give some sense of scale and depth.

blue horse changing

Before.....








...and after.  I know it won't be this dark after it's been rinsed and dried but a big step in the right direction.

blue horse headway

Pictures first, words later. Right now some pool time before the skies reopen.
**********


And open they did. There was just enough time to swamp out the tree fall trash and brush down the walls but we are going to need a bottle of Black Death (for algae). no sun and chills set in. 


**********
This one has been alternately bothering me and languishing for some time and today it jumped out at me that the background of the lower two thirds is insipid to deadly boring. There will be paint or dye or something vigorous to balance the energy of the rest of it. I'll do some digital play before it gets too messy.

I took some to time to do a little goal setting today..interesting that entering shows and making deadlines did not get on the list. There may be a few but I think I'd rather gamble in a casino. Details as they firm up.

the Legal Anniversary

I cleaned and restocked my project basket and am settling in to put the stars in the sky, one at a time.

This is the second day that Jimmy and I celebrate our anniversary. This is the date that's on the books. We had the wedding June 4, 1977 at our house in Mohegan Lake, NY and the judge arrived late.

 Just before the ceremony he took us aside and told us that, once he found the address, he realized he was out of his jurisdiction but would conduct the wedding "for show" but that we had to report to the town hall in Yorktown the next morning at eight for the real deal. He was a handsome  devil but none of the female guests could convince him to stay for the party.

After throwing out the last guests well past midnight, we got a few hours rest, redressed in our tired and rumpled wedding finery and met the judge at the courthouse. He was wearing a baseball uniform, cleats and all, gave us the thirty second version of the wedding ceremony, with a pause advised Jimmy that he could still change his mind and then pronounced us legally wed.

Happy Anniversary my darlin'

At our wedding, 36 years ago today, we handed out disposable cameras and cans of 35mm film to our guests. I imagine I still have not seen all the images from the day. Many of mine are on deteriorating Polaroids.

Given the camera angle, I think this one may have been taken by Jims little brother Chris or my nephew Jimmy, both of them about six at the time.


It's a bittersweet day -  I was brought up short by the memory that it's been a year today that Mom passed away. She liked my husband right from the start.

star testing

After the storms passed last night I settled in for the season opener of  AMC's
"The Killing" followed by the latest episode of "Madmen". Over three hours I split my attention but conjured up these ideas for the stars I will be placing in/on the Firmament. 

I worked these on a table mopper stained from the last dye session but I know that they will do just as well against the blue/green/lavender.







It's a good thing that I enjoy freeforming with snips and hand building complex thread.

Based on the planned size of the finished piece, the final "host" of the firmament  could number fifty or sixty which will be worked directly on it.

"The Killing" did not disappoint but there may just be a KILLING over the commercials!

 Yesterday I put off reading an article in the NY Times about the resurrection of the show -I didn't want to run into any spoilers and I won't print any here.  The article had tasty bits about the actual writing of the story. Much to think about for my own writing.

I've self-identified as what's called a "spontaneous" writer. A scene here, a character sketch there adding up to a whole pile of (very) loosely related fragments. Picture a cow shitting it's way across a broad pasture, wandering, circling and stepping in it's old crap. It's become frustrating, pointless and messy.

I won't call it a plot but I need to make a map for myself with the things I like about a good story, well told.  A Start, a Middle and a Resolution - with plenty of wandering, woolgathering and time shifts and character exploration worked in along the way - just respecting those time honored markers in the long run.

play it again..

A Sunday tradition here at the House of Lacativa - Settling in with the  NY times and a Braves game on TV only to be awakened by the kind of thunder I call "high, wide and handsome"..in a moment the overcast became deep gloom and the skies split open.

I just had time to snatch the crop off the line on the upper deck. Everything just as I hoped it would be...now to put on a pot of hot water for the spaghetti.

Colin went to Turner field last night to see the post game concert- Run DMC. The concert is held down on the field and he had the presence of mind to stop and pick up a handful of dirt from around third base.

 I brought the paper bowl of coarse grains upstairs to the studio and before I could put them in safekeeping, Sweetie stepped into the bowl as if it was her personal toilet. I caught her just in time...

back from gone?

 I was dumping files off one of the digital cameras and chanced on this and was disturbed that I had dismantled it and since dismembered most of the elements. There was too much wrong with it but parts that I wish I had saved.

I know I won't be able to recreate it but the vibrance and the energy of these B&W shapes appeals to me right now. Even in the middle  of a color blizzard I needed more of them. Spent the morning cooking up a batch of what I hope will be a neutral black..there are hides all over the deck drying in the sun.

And since I was already out there and making a mess, I refilled the jars with what I hope will be a gentler round of colors (despite appearances here)