I could be making soap . . .

This week my studio carpet has been the recipient of many gifts from above. It’s inevitable I suppose. Making stuff seems to be one of those things that result in an accumulation of debris that collects at the lowest level due to gravity. Try as I might, the bits and pieces just can’t be contained.

Layer One – Excelsior. Something I break out of storage every now and again, until I have had enough and then it gets put away again.

Layer Two – Feathers. I use them so infrequently that I forget . . . the fluffy and floaty bits that drift so silently like snow to the ground, only it doesn’t melt. It just mingles with the excelsior from previous gravitational exercises.

Layer Three – Glitter. Yes we all know about glitter but sometimes it’s just more convenient to forget that you know. Yes, I know tomorrow people will look at me and see a speck of glitter here and there and think to themselves “She has a speck of glitter.” And they might think that I don’t know, but I do. I know there is glitter on me – here, there, and everywhere. Now it is also on the excelsior and the feathers on my carpet.

So, trying to be a diligently neat and clean creative sort of person, I ponder getting the vacuum and wonder what other occupation I could have chosen that might be easier to clean up.  Soap maker perhaps?

I did not actually vacuum, I just pondered getting it. Maybe tomorrow.

It’s a bit early for Christmas cards, eh?

I had been in this business for just a few short years when I came to realize that in addition to the new people I was meeting at shows, I was also seeing some collectors quite frequently. I became friends with quite a few of them. When the Christmas season rolled around, I decided I wanted to send them a card. It seemed like a fun thing to do, but I wanted to make one using a photo of some of the bears I had made. I don’t remember how many I sent that year but it wasn’t a lot. Then a year or two must have passed before I decided I really needed to send out cards again. It was my way of acknowledging how much I appreciated their support and friendship.

I received such a positive response that it became a tradition of sorts. Some years I have had the whole family pitching in to help me get them mailed. Other years, I have done most of it myself, though without my husband’s computer help, it would have taken me ages and ages – all those addresses, you know. Nowadays, it’s much better for my sanity if I start thinking cards early. (I said ‘better’ not a cure. If only . . .)

In a way, the cards are snapshots of progress and trends in my work over time, each with a Christmas theme. Sometimes the inside and the outside went together, but most of the time, the photo of the bears was just that, a photo and the inside text was something altogether different. I won’t post all of the Christmas card photos. I mean it would be like looking at pictures of my vacation. I have already done that you say? Oh. Well, still, I won’t post all of them, just a few of my favorites between now and December 25th.

Here's the photo on the very first Christmas card I sent out.

My work has changed just a bit since then.

I Seam, Therefore I Am

This is a glimpse of what you would find on my desk at the moment as well as a few other things.

I really must tidy up a bit so I have a place to sew.

View from a Waiting Room

This was my view for quite a while today waiting for Mr. Computer Guy who caught a virus that punching a few buttons and running some programs would not fix. We had to find someone skilled in a different kind of problem solving. Hopefully, now that a remedy is in place, he will be up and running in a few days. A few days that might bring an improvement in the weather here. After last week’s rain from the hurricane remnants, I was thinking of going in search of a rowboat and some oars! Maybe, just maybe, we might get a little sunshine. I hope you all are well and healthy in your neck of the woods.

My Bears’ Mischievous Streak

If you have read here for any length of time, you know that my bears have a bit of a mischievous streak. (Evidence provided here, here and here.) They come by it honestly.

When my husband and I were visiting our daughter over the weekend, we went out for breakfast one day. Previously we had a bit of difficulty checking email by cell phone so I opened up the netbook we had taken with us.

Most of the time, I can navigate smoothly through most of the steps but when I come to something I am not familiar with, I hand it over to Mr. Computer Guy and let him drive.

It was because of just that type of situation that I had handed him the computer so he could navigate through the various computer thingys. He was totally engrossed in his task while using the touchpad to control the cursor.

Unbeknownst to him, I had taken out the wireless mouse that I like to use. I got my daughter’s attention and mouthed to her, “watch this” as I nodded to the mouse in my hand. I waited for just the right time and began to manipulate the cursor with the wireless mouse.

There were only a few seconds where my ever patient husband looked totally confused by the rogue cursor but being savvy like he is, he quickly figured out my plot. In the meantime, our daughter was doubled over in laughter and that was what made it entirely worth it.

It’s Not Too Late for Tea

Last year at this time, a blog was something barely on the periphery of my existence. Yeah, yeah – blog. Then during a holiday visit with my son, he told me it was easy - fairly simple to set up and nothing terribly technical about posting.

Since then, I have discovered heretofore unknown things about writing a blog. Merely by typing on a keyboard, I can connect with others who are either:

a) in search of someone they can relate to

b) looking for someone who will make them feel sane

OR

c)killing time until the coffee is brewed and ready for consumption

I feel there might be other options, but it is kind of late and I would most likely misspell something as I have often done in this space.

Nevertheless -

I have learned a lot these last few months. And I am certain there is more yet to discover. I can be a nut in the privacy of my own home, but really, being a nut in public does add a bit of precariousness to a fairly safe (if not sane) existence.

Alas, there is no going back for me.

Nope, no going back. Only forward. Forward – into the future. The future filled with who knows what or who knows when, but it awaits.

Oh - but I do know what and when.

And it does await.

And it is not too late.

The Christmas Tea for All the Toys blog party is coming on December 5th. We would love to have you join in. There are already quite a few creative bloggers, including several delightful bear artists, who will be tea-partying on that date. You can see the list on my sidebar. I can hardly wait. But wait I must - for there are tea party invitations to send, plans to be made, delights to be sorted, and miles to go before I steep.

And miles to go before I steep.
(My sincerest apologies to Robert Frost who really had to be much saner than I.)

I-40 Westward

There is a highway labeled I-40 here in the USA that runs from one coast to the other. On our end, it begins at the North Carolina coast and goes all the way to the mountains before it hits Tennessee and takes travelers west. We got on that road over the weekend to visit our daughter in the mountains. We always see something new no matter how many times we make the trip.

And as you probably know, my husband is very accommodating when I say, “Can you turn around at the next street so I can get out and take a photo back there?” I think there are probably places very picturesque almost everywhere, but in my day-to-day, I am usually sewing and not travelling. My camera goes with me almost all the time, but it is especially wonderful to have it when you come across scenes like this: