things to be grateful for

-Not getting electrocuted when the CPU from work committed suicide the first time I hooked it up at home.
My telecommuting will be delayed until a replacement arrives or the resurrection, whichever comes first. 

-the Ace of Wands
-Braves sweep the Marlins.
-sweets from my sweetie.
-good sleeping weather.
-time and stuff to stitch on.

take two minutes

fall glory

With Terry's permission I've cropped and reposted her original photo because the colors make me perfectly delirious! I checked my neighbors hydrangea's and they are a nasty, spotted brown and seem to be infested with something so I won't be bringing any home tonight. And see the fan mail I get:

Of course I can Jake.

Lunatic Scrap Giveaway

Want some freebies?  

Step 1

Send me an email and let me know you want to participate..I have a LOT of stuff to give away but the amount is finite!

I have a lot of  scraps from my own cloth production, hand dyes, weird stuff, old stuff, commercial prints -you name it. When has the last time you saw hot pink holographic Lurex? There are  bits and pieces of all kinds of cloth that I will never use and just cannot throw away. Most are very small, less than 4" square, some a little more. I will stuff as much as possible of the interesting and cool stuff into one of these little free flat rate boxes from the PO so it won't be pretty when you get the box open. In fact, it will probably explode! The folks at my PO laugh at how I tape up my bundles..hey, it's their tape which they give me for free!.

2. Get a small, flat rate priority mail box from your local post office. Put your name and address and the correct amount of postage on it, leave it unfolded and send it to me in an envelope:
->>I'VE BEEN ADVISED THAT THESE BOXES ARE SOMETIMES HARD TO COME BY. IF THEY DON'T HAVE ANY BOXES JUST SEND ME THE POSTAGE STICKER AND A PRIORITY MAIL LABEL FILLED OUT WITH YOUR ADDRESS.<<-

Deb Lacativa 
140 Saratoga Drive
Lawrenceville  GA 30044 


(thanks for reminding me to add that tidbit Rosalie)


If you have preferences for a specific kind or color fabric, put in a note and I'll do my best to honor your requests and I may need a little time to pick and choose for you. Best, let me choose wildly for you!

 

Small Flat Rate Box

Domestic Rate: $4.85
International Rate: $10.88 (Mexico/Canada), $12.78 (all other countries check if available and how much)


I'VE BEEN ADVISED THAT THESE BOXES ARE SOMETIMES HARD TO COME BY. IF THEY DON'T HAVE ANY BOXES JUST SEND ME THE POSTAGE STICKER AND A PRIORITY MAIL LABEL FILLED OUT WITH YOUR ADDRESS.


3. Sit by your mailbox and wait. Email me  if you have any questions.

the Bear Story wrap up

Remember this poor unfortunate? While I was digging around in the studio I found a big bag of polyfluff and finished him off. What a great piece of procrastination that was. Here's the back story in order: one,  two,  three,  four. 

 
Here's Jack back in the game even if he looks as if he's under some influence. I decided not to dress or embellish him any further. After the third eye, what else could matter?

home office

I'm busy hanging homemade prayer flags, evil baby faces and other choice pieces for my own entertainment. A small portion of my studio is undergoing conversion to be my day job workstation. I have two design walls in the studio and I will taking over the vertical one to hang an ever changing gallery of "things to eyeball" as I've elected to not move my beloved stitching chair away from the big, east facing window since most of my scheduled working hours will be after dark anyway.

As soon as the Comcast tech can get out here to yank some wires around I can bring the equipment home and get on with the Wild World of Telecommuting and it can't come too soon. Working in the training room has been HELL.

Right now, I'm off to Fry's to price and measure  a slide out tray for my keyboard and buy a couple of my favorite Yankee Candle stinkers - sage + citrus.  If any of my readers have experience with working (for the man) from home, any and all comments and advice would be appreciated.

I've already resolved to get properly dressed each day and even put on a spot of makeup.  I imagine a lot of people envision telecommuters as legless, hairless huge jelly bags stuck to their chairs and unable to function as normal human beings. I did until I met a few. I don't want to slip any further into sloth.  More on all this as I discover it.

Needleplay at Chandler

"Serpent of the Grove" will be going to the show in Chandler, AZ. Seems like the gallery had issues with the other two pieces I submitted which were permanently mounted on canvas. go figger. I expect that I'll be running into these problems if I enter any of the mummies in fiber only venues. Oh well, there's a wider art world out there. Now I have to put a sleeve on this one.

I don't know how 9 to 5 people do it. I've been in a training class all this week and by the time I get home it's all I can do to wash and feed my face and collapse in front of an increasingly disheartening (non) performance by the Braves. Staying awake for the whole nine innings is not a problem. My body still thinks it's "ON" until well past midnight. No dreamtime at all. I think I stitched the last two doors on Ocean Homes last night but at one point I had stitched it to my night gown and had to cut it away. Help me Moon.

link love

Nothing from me but others are basking in the glow of their lives  -

Judy, so beautifully expressed.
Arlee has been churning new waters.
Deidre never lost her way at all.
Heather pleasure in purpose.

percolating

This is the first thing I see when I come in the front door and last night it got me thinking about the Next Big Thing. The long, white lines are a sheer cotton lawn that was spattered with gold metallic fabric paint. The edges and ends were turned under and the doubling of the cloth created a kind of bright glow along all the edges. During the studio dig, I came across some silk sheers and plan to experiment with it on the "devilment" fabrics. 
I also found a perfectly good Rapidograph pen and was scribbling in the dark while watching the game last night.

studio upheaval

I'm preparing to give over a portion of my studio to the day job. 40" of wall space for 15 hours per week given back to my life? More than fair trade off.

So tubs of shreds and "somedays" are making room for a small desk and chair where I will work at a computer. A long overdue deep cleaning is underway.

I'm throwing out a lot of crap and uncovering some amazing starting places. These fabrics were bundled together for some distant notion. I have SIX finished tops, all of them bedware waiting to be batted, backed and quilted. There will be a lot of giveaways in the near future.

haunted places

There was a lot of revisiting the past while I was in NY. I spent a morning with my Dad touring my first hometown, Armonk, NY.  I didn't know there was a private family cemetery for "his people" which included Useteds, Smiths, and Wrights.  Working folk all.

Then I spent a delightful afternoon lunch & tea with my former neighbor Terry as if I hadn't been gone from Carmel since '93. There is never enough time and we never run out of things to talk about.


These four pieces of cloth (which continue to taunt me) were called to mind by this shot of the water under the bridge up the street from my family's house. Layers of light and color. Reflections, memories and reality all in one place at one time.

the Wheel turns

One phone call and everything changes. While I was still in NY, my supervisor called to say that I was being considered for the next telecommuting class and was I still interested?  Being able to do my day job from my home will mean 2+ more hours of each workday coming back to me to use however I want. Could more Art be in my future? Sure as hell won't be house cleaning! And going forward this blog will be the only input I have to FB. Having given up the time vampire Lexulous, I see no need to go there. Google reader let's me know when the people I care about have updates. likewise email notices when someone posts to me in FB.  There's been a lot of background buzz about "disconnecting" and I'm paying attention.

home

I'm home from whirlwind visit to family in NY. I was expecting fall to be well underway but when I arrived I was surprised to find Summer frozen in time - the leaves all still green and in place, the sun still strong and hot. When I mentioned it everyone shushed me strongly - they are hanging on to summer tooth and nail. Given the four gorgeous days I had there, it's all understood.

What with all the visiting around there wasn't much time for stitching but I hung a few doors on "Ocean Homes" and took a lot of pictures all over two counties. Hope to get them posted somewhere for the family to share.

Here's my Monet Moment. My family lives close to the vast NYC watershed reservoir system. Large numbers of mute swans congregate on the upper reaches of the reservoirs and winter over there and then spread out to ponds and rivers in the spring and summer. Getting closer shots of these birds involves a level of risk I am no longer interested in. These fuzzy long views will have to do.