My (ahem)Studio

One of my most favorite rooms in my house is a room upstairs, at the end of the hallway. The farthest room from everywhere else in the house. It has a walk in closet, a built-in bookshelf and a large window overlooking my favorite "outdoor" room (which I like to call my courtyard) as well as a beautiful view. And right now, it looks like a craft bomb exploded in this room. Imagine a huge craft pinata broken open by a giant, it's contents splattered everywhere, in heaps and piles and dribbles.

This is the place where I love to escape. The men-folk of the household hesitate to set foot in this room. It's clearly my space to create, design, stitch, play...and there's only one chair, which cuts down on visitors for sure. And since I believe that "collecting" is an important part of any craft, I have collected to the point where it's become difficult to "contain". So, my (ahem)studio is undergoing a make-over.



I spent some time lately thinking about what was working in the room, and what was not (besides me!). What wasn't working was a huge outdated TV and matching huge outdated entertainment center. Those unsightly things are gone, and in their place now is a really cute re-purposed/re-painted hutch. Since you and I probably have a few things in common, I'll assume you can imagine how much fun I've been having lining up my numerous jars and baskets of buttons, ribbons and embellishments on the shelves of the hutch.




And in addition to the hutch, I've added a very cool shelf. It's vintage, it's heavy, and I sure hope it never falls off the wall! It came from one of my favorite local places to shop, Chic Antiques in downtown Lake Orion. But don't feel left out, Lori has an Etsy shop too: www.chicantiques.etsy.com. Filled with spools of ribbon now, I just love looking at this shelf!







It's only fair to give credit where credit is due, and this is the part where I have to thank my husband (commonly referred to in my internet writings as 'dcw') for painting the hutch and shelf. Especially since he HATES painting stuff. And especially since I gave him yet another project to paint - an old dresser that's been in the basement for ages. I've found a purpose for that in the (ahem)studio as well...

I'm off to a good start. Can't wait til it's all finished!

Pickles and Larry. Two friends. Their Adventures.

Pickles.



Larry.



"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh. This is the life..." thought Larry.



Spring in Michigan.

I Got a Tree in the Mail!

I grew up in a house with a big back yard. Right smack dab in the middle of that yard is a great big willow tree. That tree is the focal point of the yard, and the source of many fond memories of playing there with my three big brothers. We climbed the tree often, and for many years a tire swing hung from one of the branches. The willow withstood many storms, and survived losing branches both large and small. My oldest brother was married near that tree. And it became a "rite of passage" for our children to climb that tree. And climb, they did - in fact, sometimes, despite them all being teenagers and beyond now - they still do!

My parents still live in that house. But someday I know they will move. And what will I miss the most about the home where I grew up? The place I know as "home"? Yes, you guessed it, that wonderful old willow tree. So how could I resist when I came across this willow tree from Intres on Etsy?



Made from felt, all the way from Spain - just a tangible little reminder of one of my favorite things. It came wrapped so sweetly, with a hand-stitched and stuffed little green felt heart.



And look! Three cute teeny tiny little birds to nestle in the branches.



Now how adorable is that. Thanks, Intres!

A Look Back...

I haven't made the time to blog in a while, for several reasons. One of which is that I am certainly NOT a techno-gizzard by any stretch of the imagination and I find that doing just about anything on the 'puter often becomes a great source of frustration. I've got lots of ideas, and lots of things I want to do here in 'puter-land, but the skills are coming sloooooooowly and paaaaaaaaainfully. But I'm willing to take another stab at this bloggy thing.

I was just taking a look at Melissa's blog, pugnotes.blogspot.com (I'll bet there's a way to add a link to her blog - but for now you'll just have to do it the old-fashioned way). She lives in Colorado with some pretty cute little puggy type dogs and they've gotten lots of snow dumped on them recently. Her pictures are beautiful, and that reminded me of some pics I took back in February on a little ski vacation. So even though it's technically spring, it doesn't look like it in Colorado and we've seen no evidence of anything green yet here in Michigan - so I say it's not too late to post my own snowy pictures!

Michigan is an incredibly beautiful state and I really love having four very distinctive seasons. I took these pictures in the Habor Springs area, right along the shores of Lake Michigan. In the summer, this is a fabulous resort area where large yachts and sailboats come and people have amazing "summer homes". But in the winter, the sailboats are hoisted up for storage and the summer homes are closed for the season. It looks like some fabulous frozen-in-time abandoned town where all that's left are the woods and the wildlife. And of course, snow, frozen water, wind, and at night, the most beautiful star-filled sky...

The Adventures of Pickles and Larry

Two friends. Their adventures.

A story told in just a few words.

Pickles and Larry.

Plotting.







"C'mon, Larry, you can do it!"

Pickles had the bright idea of grabbing Larry's tail to help himself get up the stairs a little easier.




----------------------The End --------------------------------






Larry.
The serious one.
Pickles. Looks innocent.

The Gift of Opening Doors

I recently had a birthday. So I thought I'd give myself a gift. What did I want? Well, to tell you the truth, I don't really need clothes, or jewelry, or shoes, boots or purses. My husband said "absolutely no" to a puppy. So I thought, at this stage of my life, what would be symbolic and meaningful? A thought popped into my head. The kind of thought that I've learned to sit up and take notice of when they occur. And the thought was, "open doors".

AHA! That's it! The gift of opening doors! New doors, doors I've never thought of before. Doors I've never noticed before. Or doors that I've thought of, but was too afraid to open! Ooooooo, now this is something I can work with. I will give myself the gift of opening doors boldly and bravely.
For this year of my life, I will focus on doors.

Where to begin? That's easy. Right here in cyber-space. The vast unknown territory of computer-land. Since obtaining a website, and starting a shop on etsy, I've been opening new doors. Every door I've opened so far has led to new possibilities. How exciting! It's not such a big scary place afterall. I've already met some really wonderful people. Learned lots of new things that have led me to awesome places and even more wonderful people, which all encourages me to keep going, keep opening doors.

But, I must admit, not every door opens easily. Some, I can't find the keys to. Or the lock is jammed. Or I open the door, and it's very dark, or uninviting or a language is spoken which I don't understand. Or I don't know the password or the secret knock. That's ok, because I've learned that I can try a back door, a trap door or a fairy door. It's like one great big adventure, and I'm excited to see how many doors I'll open this year and what else I'll find.

The gift of opening doors. Probably the best gift I've ever given myself.

Thinking about Valentine's Day

I was thinking about Valentine's Day, and I wanted to create something really special, something really sweet, something that could be used and enjoyed over and over again. So, I did a little red Dottie Bag.

I'm so addicted to making these, I just can't stop! This one is for sale at my etsy shop, just in case you're interested!

http://www.feltonthefly.etsy.com