family first

The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

an Art Day

After a rough morning on a gray day, a good time was had by all.

string theory continued

call me underwhelmed.

they feel a little stiff. I'll give them another wash and rinse and see what comes of it.

string theory

A while back I was gifted this fat skein of silk/cotton. The individual threads are very fine, a little thicker than regular sewing thread.

I hung it over the back of my office chair trying to work out how to wind it into small balls.  Lost my place in time and...the whole thing wound up caught in the base of the swivel chair. The only solution was cutting through the hank.

So now I have hundreds of single threads that are about 42 inches long. Plenty to mess with, right?

I was able to easily tease out eight or ten threads at a time, didn't count, and wound them onto these new plastic spindles, small enough to hold the lengths tight.

And now, we'll see if they like getting dyed.  This is pesky shit. Like putting decals on fly wings.

Charlie Monday

 He'll be four in a few weeks.  A force to be reckoned with.

windings

first returns.

I got a nice a range of blues. That's a color that will get away from you in a heartbeat if you let anything else near it. Blue just loves getting it on!

There'll be a bunch heathered strangeness and some greens and golds coming up, but winding these buggers is not what I want to be doing on my day off.  Soon enough. I'll post the whole lot of them in a day or so.

If you trust me to pick you a raunchy rainbow and want to pre-order in sets of four, six, eight, or go Crazy, email me.
There are still warms from the last group available if that's what warms you.

I left the image large so if you open it in a new window, prepare to be knocked off your chair.

out of the blues

A dash to the store for gloves. recalling there was no fabric soften. squeezing the boxes. sniffing the flavors.

The memory of the smell of a load of warm, dry towels he dropped in my lap opened a mile-wide chasm of missing him.

He used to watch me do this magic from the couch. Come out to see what was making me smile. Smile with me.

Tease me for purple fingers.

There's magic in memory, too.

.

July 4th

Sweetie dumped over my tray of dirty threads this morning, obliterating my (dumb) identification system.

This batch is bereft of blue/green/ and purples anyway. When I finish the batch I'm prepping now, I'll come up with another harebrained scheme for getting everyone what they want.

I have to work the day job today. It's been a long time since I've worked on a holiday. So far so good, it's been quiet. The idiots are out blowing themselves up somewhere.  Don't feel bad for me. This morning there was pool time.

Art Archives Monday

Karma IV

milestones

He told me the numbers this morning. I can't believe it. Happy Birthday, Colin. Here he is passing on the gaming gene to Charlie.

Storm light

Had a Charlie Monday that turned into quite the adventure! We went to my friends pool, had nearly two hours of serious pool time. With the help of swim belt, he's terrifyingly fearless, flinging himself into water over his head, kicking and paddling like a pro.

One minute the sun was shining, we sitting on the edge of the pool  having popsicles and I happened to stand up to see this coming at us over the pool house. Moving fast. There was no thunder, no wind.

We scrambled to gather up our stuff and put on shoes - never mind change into dry clothes! and dashed for the car. I just managed to get Charlie belted into his seat when the skies opened up. I took a back way to get him home and it was driving in a car wash. Traffic lights were out and we all had to trust that everyone would relax and take their turns, four-way stop style.                     



Charlie was a little apprehensive at first but I put on a new CD, a disc from Above the Clouds, the Glen Frey collection and we both loved it. Got us home calm and collected, if a little pruney.

Colin took the second more dramatic picture from close to our house.

Sunday

There was a brief thunderstorm midday and after it passed, the light was just so.

I brought the river basket out onto the high deck to see if the cloth had anything to say to me.

Too much.

I need to empty it out and put all these beautiful things away, out of sight for a while. I'm tempted to make a garment of some sort which will mean that no one will ever see them.

I'll give it time. They'll star another time, another place.


The heat and humidity have the gardens in glory.

Add caption

I corralled a couple dozen tadpoles. They eat lettuce and broccoli and when they get legs and leave the bowl, they'll live out here in the houseplants.

Solstice++

I know. It was a few days ago, but I've been busy. Up to my ears with Life, including family, work, and art - like everyone else!  But Summer is well and truly here. Those of you who have come around for a while know this scene well.
This summer marks the twentieth year of this magical place.

I was beginning to worry that, due to a combination of circumstances, it might not happen this year. But Colin got it done including rescuing a half-million tadpoles that had been conceived and born during the delay. Bucket by bucket, he took them down to the creek. Froggy resettlement on a huge scale.

There was an infrastructure fail that allowed about half the new water to sneak off down to the creek, but we got it fixed and refilled.  I don't want to think about the upcoming water bill, but I will be working a little overtime in the upcoming weeks - and it will be worth it!


We moved into the house and before changing anything else, Jim made this happen. There had been a small financial windfall as a result of a life-changing, on the job injury he suffered and he decided that this was the best use of a good chunk of the settlement. We never regretted that decision.

Yesterday, I went in for the first time. For fresh from the ground water, it was refreshing, not freezing.  I have to remember to bring my hat down there and am shopping for a floaty. Also have to set some time limits. Nah, that's crap!

Every time I get in, it's like church and I have Jimmy to thank for it.

going dark

The level of inhumanity on FB has reached a level of toxicity that I can't take. The problem is that it's really not about FB at all. It's the news from the so-called leadership of this country.

 I can't even call it my country anymore because I don't recognize it.  There is work to do and none of it happens on social media. You can leave word here, email or call me.

Please feel free to copy this graphic and use it any way you want.

Charlie Tuesday

a surprise Charlie Tuesday and will rerun it tomorrow until this new medication gets his ears back on track.

I need to start taking some audio because he says the most remarkable things.



I've been waking up with nightmares about what is happening in our country.

more from the 'verse

Another unexpected, wonderful gift. 

My friend spent months at her childhood home sorting the wheat from the chaff of her family's life. Knowing my predilections, she brought this back for me.

My very first typewriter was a Remington, a behemoth, not a portable like this one. I closed my eyes, placed my fingers on the keys and the touch was so familiar it was eerie.

This was the first thing that occurred to me:

spiral

Another fistful of day gone haywire. I just don't roll with the punches the way I used to, but it's not all bad stuff. Just stuff.

A few days of Charlie being off because of ear infections. (he's on the mend now)

My self off because I've allowed myself to become as sedentary as a walrus and the longer I let it go on the worse it will get.

After days of some high powered shopping, new laundry machines were delivered and installed today thanks to the generosity of a dear, kind soul who saw my need and set things right. I will be forever grateful!

The process of taking things out of the closet until all the favorite stuff is dirty is instructive. After three weeks, give or take a day, of handwashing undies in a bucket and hanging them on the line, I still have a bunch of clothes in the closet. If I haven't worn it in the past few weeks and won't wear it come winter, it's going to Goodwill which was most likely where it came from in the first place.

two simple souls from Sears

respite

It's been a hectic week. Too much going on that I had zero control over. I need to get over that.

After several weeks of dreary wet weather, we've had a string of roasters and the plant people have gone bonkers.

That pot is three feet across now sporting one mutant purslane, a couple of rescued marigolds, a lavender and one stalky grape tomato that'st going to need a stick tower soon.

My pool is still icky green and filled with polliwogs - there are only so many hours in the day, Colin tells me. But today I spent a chunk of my hours at a friends pool. Hard to believe that this place is almost always deserted. What is wrong with you people? 

Nevermind, the solitude is heavenly.

Neutral magic

These are up for grabs here

If y'all like 'em, there will be more.

Who knew all you color freaks could get so excited by some b&w, like I can from time to time!

the special days roll

It's been a very long time since I've had two consecutive days off from the Whine Mine. I'm still not used to the luxury of it. Offset that with by Friday night I'm ready to tell someone exactly where they can shove their concerns. Enough of the day job, I still have 24 hours of freedom!










Saturday was Charlie day this week. Jake's birthday was 6/2 and if it wasn't for his brother, I would have forgotten!! We went on a pilgrimage to Bass Pro Shop to further outfit Jake's tackle box. The fish have finally found him and he's having a ball. Colin pitched in to help.

June 2, 1985. We couldn't wait to get the fresh one home.

the weekend

Two new rounds of Dirty Threads were hatched out despite the weather, but it's gonna be a while before I do this again. You can grab some up here:



Everything step took twice as long as usual. Tedium is not a good creative partner.  Come some real summer weather and I'll think about doing it all again. Maybe.











I had some sleepover company Sunday night! We watched junk TV, made art, ate junk food and generally got up to no good, but a good time was had by all.

monsoon spinning

It's been a hectic week. Cooking up thread, editing/writing and dealing with house crap. We finally passed inspection for the insurance (I think) and, in response to my money-saving efforts, the Universe said "Hah!" and my old Maytag finally up and died. Colin and I conjured up some fix-it magic a year ago, but this fail sounded ominous.

The machine was a gift from my folks when we first moved here. Twenty-four hard, abusive years. Mom & Dad, I sure got your money's worth out of this one!  Time to drag it and its mismatched partner, the Dryer from Hell, to the metal scrappers. Time to start a new tip jar.

There was some innovation too!

no nests

I left this hanging outside on the high deck. Since no bird elected to call it home, I've brought it back inside. Fill it with quarters and call it a vacation fund. Should buy me gas to get to Destin and back.

Magnolia Rains - updated

I did some very different things with this latest batch of threads.

I put took them out of the sauce in small groups, six or eight at a time, ensuring they were pretty wet when the dye struck.

 The salt/sugar mix was very humid - clumpy. I chose some pretty antagonistic colors, including things that I had been avoiding, like Avocado, hot pink and Hard Red.

The neighbors magnolia trees are blooming and it was threatening to rain. Atmosphere + chemistry.

At first, I was worried that I had knuckled them too much. (just what it sounds like) and then the skies opened up after they had only been batching a few hours. I left them in the rain all night long. The first rinses were very murky, then this happened.
it's a magical batch!


More hot, wet days ahead so I'm going to take another run at getting those golds, aubergines, and limes before this batch is available.

Dye fest!

 This years table-mopper (so far). It's a big piece of what I call "spanking" cotton. The kind that snaps when you shake it right. Sturdy, not vintage. I'm going to use it all season to see what it can become.

It's going to be hot and humid today and I'm all prepped for a new batch of Dirty Threads. They will probably get the last rinse in a thunderstorm.

What colors do you crave?
Comment and let me know.

breakfast in good company

Jake and Charlie stopped by to take me to breakfast. Do I look tired? For a string of dumb, self-inflicted reasons, (I was writing) I only got about three hours of sleep last night and I'm facing a regular working Saturday. I may sleep right through Sunday.

And don't ever make one cup of iced coffee with two spoonfuls of Cafe Bustelo unless you plan on running a marathon.