Long Time No Post....

where has it gone...I woke up and spring had turned into summer and now summer is turning into my favorite time of year..Fall. Well, OK, not just yet. It is still "just" August 23rd, but before one can batt an eye, it will officially be fall.
I love fall..it is my favorite time of year. I hope it brings new mojo with it. I seem to be devoid of mojo lately. No quilting, very little stamping/card making.
Lots of sighing about lost mojo however. Maybe I should put my energies into trying to get creative instead of all this creative sighing?? Hummm...wonder if that will work!
It is a beautiful Saturday here in upstate NY. I've been to the farmer's market at Troy's Riverfront. Oh so yummy...big heads of red leaf lettuce, the cukes, tomatoes and red peppers at one of my favorite stands were just totally outstanding this am.
Got my grain fed beef, a lovely peach tart, 3 loaves of home made bread- the hubby eats them lickety split..even the whole wheat!
Then I treated myself to some early apples and a bouquet of wildflowers. I love these Saturday mornings. Now to enjoy the rest of the quiet...it is a good news/bad news kind of thing...the post teen-aged daughters from across the street have moved into their own apartments, the youngest of the next door family drove off in the packed mini-van with said parents to start her freshman year at college- and the neighborhood is abnormally quiet. NOT for long, I'm sure. The "Rosebuds" are moving in today, and SUNY can't be far behind...so much for the quiet neighborhood moments. We'll be bustling around here in very short order. Oh yes, let me remind myself, I truly do love the fall.

Taking Advantage of a Quiet Morning

Amazing..here we are half way through the year already. I must have blinked one too many times! But here it is -July 4th in all its glory. As I made a short grocery list, the husband hung out the flag and put up the bunting as I arranged our tall Uncle Sam (carved from wood), his folksy "Let Freedom Ring" plaque at his feet, and hug the tin star on the front siding. I was then ready to go and get the fixin's for the super simple,but simply delicious baked beans so I could put them together before heading off to celebrate with family and friends at the first real picnic of the year.

After all was accomplished, I decided to get creative until departure and worked on my 52 card technique book. Below is what came from my assigned tasks...2 down 7 more to finish. A week away sure sets a girl's schedule back some!



This first card is a "time saving technique". The journaling work was already done by whom ever wrote about (or on) a photo. I chose this one because I just think my dad was a handsome young lad and I love the family photograph with my grandparents. Since there is no evidence of his younger siblings- my twin Aunts, I would imagine he was about 4 years old so that would date the photo to 1929. Photo portraits like this were made to send to relatives in the "old country", and apparently this one was no different. On the back post card side was a note written in Bulgarian. I don't know who wrote it (my grandmother?) nor why it was never sent. The ink identification is in my mother's handwriting.

The back of the card is the technique "recipe" and I decided to embellish it to make it mimic the front. I really enjoyed this technique and will undoubtedly use it more should I find other photos like it with notations on the back.

Our second assignment was an "artful technique". We were to emboss and use acrylic paint resist.

I just loved this stamp set. Very old fashioned. My card is very, very subtle, and I could use some more practice, but all in all I do like the results. Next time, I will use more contrast in the artist card. The inked "giggle" is too close in color to the background card( and really should face the opposite way).I also need to get better at inking the stamp with the clear embossing ink so it doens't smear in in some spots. Can you tell I love to embellish! I just had to add the button and sheer ribbons. girlie--definitely girlie!

Now I should spend some time cleaning off the sewing table, get the machine out of its suitcase and get some quilting done. Maybe by Monday ?? *smile*

I need to retire and become a complete lady of leisure...there are just too many creative ideas floating around my head these days. But alas...not yet!

Off to relax with a movie...Hollywoodland. Hope it is good.

We'll hear the fireworks from downtown in about an hour...maybe the movie should wait. I can do the Boston Pops on TV...after all it is the 4th!!

Back from Vermont

Well, another year at the Quilt Festival has come and gone, and I did very little quilt related "stuff" at VQF!! Honestly, I did about "this much"...which is on par with just about none....and I had the most fabulous time!
Today I'll share just a little tease- no quilts- but a very wonderful time at the Vermont Wildflower Farm. Nature has a way of calming the soul. The slight winds, the few drops of rain,even the big old bull frogs that I swear were right under my feet at the pond,but wouldn't make any kind of appearance (they just sang their sweet songs to one another).
Here is a peek of early summer in the Meadows. Imagine what late summer (or earlier in the spring) had to offer! I did have photos tagged earlier, but the tags didn't upload. I will have to go through at a later date and add comments. I don't, however, really think Mother Nature needs much in the way of comments!



Vermont Wildflower Farm, June 2008

Vermont Quilt Festival

Well, it is finally here! Time to pack up and head for Burlington, Vermont and the Vermont Quilt Festival . I can hardly wait for the day to end so I can finish the packing (clothes, that is...the sewing machine and fabric were packed yesterday!) and go over the mental list to make sure I have what I need for my last quilting vacation for this year. St. Michael's college -my beautiful home away from home awaits...

...the quad is always so pretty! Even on a foggy morning. This year I am only taking one class- Piping Hot Piping with Susan Cleveland. Class is all day Thursday, so there will be lots of time to relax and head in and around Burlington. I think I may even search out one of Jo Morton's classes and stick my head in for a look see. I know several people who are taking her class, so I can say Hi, but not be too disruptive, or at least I hope not!

I need to track down Bonnie Blue Quilts and then go say hi to the boys from Woodstock, and I'll be happy. After Paducah, there truly isn't much I need...but Bonnie Blue has such wonderful stuff. I should remember to pull a pattern I want to collect for and then get some backgrounds etc. I just love their reproductions! Must own most, if not all of their patterns..don't want to buy a second (or third ) copy as I've been known to do!

So it is off and away tomorrow...fun, laughter, wine, a b'ay dinner for my favorite traveling companion and roommate, and who knows what else! Oh yes, QUILTS! 5 days of immersing myself into the glorious world of quilting...that should jump start my creativity once again.

Crafting and A Trip Through the Past

I've gone and done it now! I have given in to the allure of scrap booking. I've always wanted to do it, and have been doing some digital work,but now I'm taking my first technique class called 52 Card Pick Up at Big Picture Scrap booking(www.bigpicturescrapbooking.com).
Our pre-class assignment was to construct a book/deck of cards to highlight the 52 techniques we will learn over the course of the summer. Here is my first attempt at "art":


I'm very happy with how it turned out. This photo shows the cards fanned out so that you can see the insides a bit more AND my use of eyelets to keep the tabs in place. Oh how I loved using those eyelets!! I even now own a crop-a-dile !


Today is our first real assignment- the first technique card to go into our book. It uses paint, embossing ink and clear embossing powder to create a resist. Since I am trying to organize not only for the last beginner quilting classes I'm teaching tomorrow, but for my trip to the Vermont Quilt Festival from Wednesday am - Sunday pm, this week's assignments will have to be put on hold til I get home. I'm itching to get creating, but it will keep. Once I get home, I also need to finish the re-organization of my room to accommodate this newest hobby of mine. Maybe I'll find a few extra hours to put in my days?? Nah, didn't think so!

As to the Trip Through the Past part of this post...
Last night I finally got to see Across the Universe, the Julie Taymour film set against the late 60's. I had gotten mixed reviews from my two daughters: first born was a bit bored, last born loved it.."how could you not?" she asked..."it has Beatles music!".
Well, I was far from bored, and Beatles music was good- a perfect soundtrack for a film that absolutely blew me away. OK..sure... it was the typical teenage love story-boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, boy loses girl, boy and girl come back together and they live happily ever after. BUT what was amazing was that I lived that movie. Maybe that is why I was so into every frame? Every weird, wonderful moment?? It was absolutely amazing...
I WAS them...I knew too many Maxes..
I had several friends who had Daniel as their brother
There was a Jude...

I lived the war (Vietnam), the protests...Columbia University's demonstration of 68, The "May 4th Massacre" at Kent State. I watched Vietnam unfold in my living room. I cried as Jimmy's (Hendrix) guitar weeped. I experienced Janis(Joplin) from the 4th row of a very young SPAC.

SDS,the Days of Rage,The Weatherman, Chicago 7 , dog tags, leather bracelets with the name of a soldier- we wore them until our soldier (hopefully) came home....

Ken Kesey, Timothy Leary---we "turned on-tuned in-dropped out". Yes,we were either "on the bus of off the bus"...

Does today's generation truly know what it is to have traveled Across the Universe??Then again-this generation may not be as naive as we were way back when.

More sadly-- history repeats itself. This generation has Iraq. They sport rubber braclets for a cause...."Live Strong"...their music tells a different story and in a very different way...

And life moves on....the more it changes, the more it stays the same.

Back To My Regularly Scheduled Crafting

Time to get back to crafting and let the political climate here rest!
Actually, there hasn't been much time to do any sewing/quilting/crafting. I have managed to work through the ridiculously huge stash and thin it out quite a bit, but I still feel as if I could do more. The biggest change to my sewing room is a slight rearrangement of furniture and"stuff" so I could put a small desktop for my laptop and other hardware in my space. This necessitated buying storage units for the new crafting...all of a sudden there is an explosion of scrap booking and stamping items!I've decided to extend the scrap booking ideas into card making. I have time for all this, right?? Ha! Who am I kidding...but hey, a girl has to do what a girl has to do! Right now I am planning out a "Book about Me" and an altered address book. I found the chipboard book project on a sale rack and have had fun thinking up ways to put it together. It is like quilting, just with paper!
Pictures to come soon...Have to get the camera dock hooked up again!
For now, I've best get moving and get some "real work" done!

We Cannot Let This Moment Slip Away

This is why I've been proud to back Hillary Clinton:





with this speech she made me proud to be a woman, she made me proud to have supported her, and she made me proud of the fact that I tried to raise my children (especially my girls) to know they CAN be what ever they want to be...all it takes is hard work and perseverance. Sometimes we don't meet with success, but it shouldn't stop us from trying again....
so now, I'll work (to quote Hillary) to make Barrack Obama our President.
I know that declaration will make my girls happy *smile*