Collaboration

These are the wooden hoops my grandmother gave me when I was five.

There is no Try.

It was good light for stitching. The Winter Chair has been cleared of clean laundry so when I have time to sit there and stitch, I will. 

Thanks to everyone for the words of encouragement. There will be no more whining.  Nothing is impossible.  I gave the chaos of the studio fifteen minutes and put these four pieces back in storage, for now. Looking at them closely, handling them - I can say without a shred of embarrassment, they are fucking fabulous. Getting them exposure is on me.

 Top to bottom these are  Los Dados Encantada,  Consolation , Jazz Takes Over,  and Karma I . I am not going to let all this passion evaporate.

The first direction I got today, and I can't tell you where I heard it or read it, was "Do what you love". I must have repeated that ten times and decided I sounded senile.

It's a lovely sentiment when it's not set in a framework of  reality, like available hours. Still, there are minutes to be claimed and I'll claim them.

I love what I am doing except for the paying job. How hilarious is that? I found out the other day that my boss and my immediate supervisor have both "moved on". All I have to do is figure out how to replace about 1200.00 a month from some other source and I can catch the same train they did.

We are having a bit of Indian summer here in Georgia so I took the time to tend the temple this morning and got in  a mile in at the park, my knee feeling better for it rather than worse is a good sign. And while I was out there on the trail, a major rough patch in the writing resolved itself.  All of this bounty and tonight, the final game of the world series. Since I have no horse in this race, I'll be watching with one eye and doing something creative with the other.

And for those of you who stop by for the eye candy, here's a treat. Yoda stopped by. He said
                              "Do. Or do not. There is no try."

the saturday stitch

I'm going to be optimistic and take this with me today. There might be a little time for stitching and I'm loving my own hand dyed floss.

I gave half a thought to shutting this blog down last night, but, then I thought, just because the things that are going on in my life now won't interest people, and the last thing I have to do is write about tedium, this doesn't mean that there is no longer room in my life for beautiful things. No matter who made them.

So, from time to time, I'll make the time.  Seasons change, So will circumstances.


PS...there are still some damn fine people in this world. Thank you all.

the Creatives

Nothing yak or picture worthy from me here, but I know some talented folks.

I know a lot of my readers are into the Day of the Dead or they have grandchildren, either way,

 this design from Pug- Mother Bamboota is time sensitive and will sell like hotcakes!

(That price was only good for one day...still it's a nice design)

And now for your ears and your brain, the latest from #1 son Colin.

 "Starlight Abyss"  promises a different kind of meditation. There is another movie score in the works as well!

And one more maker for today - a smile maker! This little Hambone has been perfecting his charms.

Was he laughing at Nana's jokes? Nope. He was laughing at the baby in the phone!

Gardens come in

I got quite carried away with the houseplant rescue thing this year. I buy the "nearly dead" at the local nurseries for pennies, bring them home and give them a dose of TLC and a sunny place to rest.

Now I have more healthy patients than I know what to do with. Two pots of lavender that need wheels, several tropical plants of unknown species that are now over four feet tall.  This little Swedish Ivy was a gift from my sister Kitty. It's a descendant of a plant at Bill W's place in Katonah.

It's getting nippy at night so I'll have to move some furniture around to  accommodate everyone.

And you can be sure that no matter how carefully I inspect everything, there will be at least one lizard or tree frog coming along for the ride. Never fails.

Wishful thinking

I brought this with me today and remembered to find my spare sewing glasses. Notice there's almost no stitching on this, just some hasty basting.

That's how it is and I remember it well.

Thankfully for Jake and Missy, Charlie is figuring out that sleeping through the night, or at least a good chunk of it, is the civilized way to go.

Of course, this means that while the sun is shining he's looking to interact with his world and me. Today we read aloud from John Sandford's latest crime novel, listened to a bunch of good music. No stitching.


Charlie flung a bunch of bodily fluids around, tried to eat a stuffed frog and worked hard at turning over. He  likes Ben Webster and Frank Sinatra. He's almost eleven weeks old and he is planning on stealing my earrings any day now. I better switch these hoops for posts.

These thoughts founded the day.

the odd day

Anyone taking selfies will tell you that you have to take more to get a good one as you get older. Looks like my phone camera has some kind of built in sensor to pop on a lovely filter when the person using it turns sixty-five. Or maybe I need to clean the lens.

We've been having monsoon like rain all day and it was somber inside and out today, but lightened by a visit from Jake,  and Colin returned home from being in NY for a week.

I spent the morning focusing on a dreaded editing/rewriting task - you may have heard the writing expression "kill your darlings"? Well, there was figurative blood all over the place this morning, but it was needful.

I did go over  and look in the river basket was too distracted to sit with the stitch today. restless. Having lost something.  Someone.

I just remembered. The very first birthday gift Jimmy every gave me was a sewing machine. Sear Kenmore Free-Arm. Innovative in its day and a workhorse for over twenty-five years. The man knew what I was all about.

sleeper

A cloth sketch, not even a work in progress yet, just a little something to hang on to.

Charlie doesn't sleep all day anymore, but he is starting to nap pretty predictably.

Hands free time..maybe.

Course correction

Today was shaping up to be a rocky one, emotionally. They still come, unannounced. I have chosen to surrender from time to time, but nothing is accomplished, no purpose seems to be served. I prefer to be the architect of my own emotional state, thanks, so today I thought I'd try some cloth and stitch, put up my own sails. But you can't always get what you want.

Dumping out and restocking the river basket had to come first, fresh palette and all. I sat in the late day light in my winter stitching chair and started a new vigil cloth.  

Looks like it's been a year since I've started something that was non-functional. This is just a sketch for the moment, but that's where I always start. 

Congratulations to all the stalwarts who have been called to Quilt National...a hard row to hoe.

Will work for smiles

I had the  amazing blessing of seeing Charlie's first smile today.  A real smile, not that gas nonsense.

 He was propped up in his little doughnut, calmly surveying his realm when I  came around to  the opposite side of the crib.

He looked at me,  made eye contact and smiled.  I laughed and said
"Are you smiling at me?"

To reward me for being so smart, he gave me another one, broader this time.
I did not capture the moment electronically..I soaked it into my very soul. This picture was taken a moment later and I think a good caption would be. "Well, that worked just the way I planned it. She's mine now."


Back in July of 1980 I scored another first smile from Colin (Jake saved his for his Dad) ...this time Jimmy grabbed the moment.

feels like Sunday

It's amazing just how vulnerable I am to external influences like the weather and the new big one - baby love.

It's a super perfect late summer day.  I got to put in a hot mile at the park and came back with some very strong revisions for the novel and a better wrap up. Oh! the Violence!

There was food shopping, housework, time  for a nap even !! There is still an eight hour shift coming up for the day job, but now that my commitment to watching Charlie has doubled (due to another family member's inability to participate) days like this one become even more precious.
Tomorrow Charlie and I will be discovering Miles Davis and I wouldn't have it any other way. The job is too important!