the end of an era

taking a little trip down memory lane this morning

all the way back to the early 1980's when I decided that if I was going to do a dozen in home boutiques (remember those?) every fall, that it would be a good idea to run it like a business

so I did all the business stuff --- registered a fictitious name, got a sales tax permit, kept records and reported the income and expenses on Schedule C of my taxes every year

when I first started I was making the usual home boutique crafty stuff -- Christmas ornaments, hot pads, place mat -- and I started making soft dolls

during the Cabbage Patch craze I made and sold as many outfits as I could squeeze in between working a full time job and taking care of a toddler

along the way I started making bears

but not toys

these bears were made out of mohair pile fabric that came from England or Germany -- and these bears were for adults

I made bears for just over 25 years and did a lot of shows


but markets change, and bears were not so profitable anymore

and about the time I retired from that day job and the now grown up toddler went off to college, I started making jewelry

 at first it was simple stuff -- strings of stone beads, earrings and bracelets

then I rediscovered seed beads and started doing bead embroidery and bead weaving to make those necklaces and bracelets

and that took me all over the country doing summer art fairs for several years

but like I said, markets change, and it was not so easy any more to do the physical part of setting up tents and working for several days in a row in the heat



and about that time Etsy came along, and I opened an Etsy store to sell some of the stuff I still had that was not jewelry

and then I opened a shop that I put my jewelry in

along the way there I made a quilted piece

and then I made a few more

which took me into a whole new adventure


every year I still did that Schedule C tax thing --- but Uncle Sam has certain rules about what you can call a business and what they decide is actually just a hobby that you are trying to write off the expenses for

one of those rules has to do with showing a profit a certain number of years

and that brings us to the end of the era -- the past few years the business has not shown a profit --

and so this year I will not be filing that Schedule C --- I no longer have a business

but I don't consider this just a hobby either

I am still serious about making art

I will still keep those receipts and price my work as if it was a business, but until I sell enough to make a profit, there will be no more tax schedules

it feels odd

just one more twist in the journey

Creeping along

so what else would you expect of a turtle?

I have knit several of these, but they were on larger needles

there is a lot of difference between knitting on size 5s and knitting on size 2s

but it is a nice tight knit

now that the body and head are done I can move on to legs


then there are all of these guys

in preparation to put our house on the market, I'm trying to downsize our collections

which means some of the goodies are going out on eBay

these are bears that Gund did exclusively for Land's End, and I have all of the original boxes too

there is one more in this series which I am trying to locate in the pile so I can list all of them at once -- hopefully I get this done by Sunday which is when I like to start auctions for this kind of thing

Gone a bit "pottie"

Sometimes coming up with a way to do something without spending any money is as challenging and fun and the end results of the project!

If you've been reading along with the flower cart project, you might remember that I wanted to dip the pots in glaze, just like you might with real pottery -- and I didn't want to put my fingers in the stuff.

Here is my solution!

I took Tinkertoys and built a frame. Then I cut little pieces off of a bamboo skewer, tied thread around them and threaded it through the holes in the bottoms of the pots with the skewer piece inside the pot. Next I tied the other end of the thread to the top beam of the Tinkertoy frame. Dip each pot in the can of glaze/sealer --- and there ya go!

Here are the first batch of pots drying over a few sheets of newspaper. Makes the whole thing look like a little swing set sitting there on the table.


This picture should give you an idea of why this little bear is the "chosen one" to go with the flower cart.

After all, the bear is fairly small, so it doesn't over power the cart.






This picture of just the bear helps show why I will be doing some serious reworking on the bear before this project is over.

Here is my list of "faults" for this critter: 1) one leg is longer than the other; 2) the eyes are uneven; 3) the nose and mouth are crooked and 4)there are no ears!

This bear was part of an edition in progress back in the days (oh, about 10 years ago) when I did editions of bears, and has been sitting in a plastic storage container (along with several other bears) for a long time. (Last year I actually scrapped out a number of these "in progress" bears and recycled the materials into other projects.)

So, the plan is to fix the problems, and use needlefelting to change the face (and probably add ears). This fabric is one of the few pieces of wool pile I've ever used, so felting to it should be easy.

Let the make over begin!



It's Spring!

See the tulip?

This is the first of three that are planned to go with the gray rabbit. They are deliberately oversized, because I like the sort of comedic contrast that gives.

I'm planning to do a yellow one and a sort of purple-y one.

And while I was fiddling with the needle felting, I did the core of the bird that I'm planning for the next birdhouse --- this one will be a robin, so it is a slightly different shape (and I forgot to take a picture before I put it away last night) Pictures soon, I promise!

another piece of beach glass

Another piece of Rocky Mountain Beach Glass jewelry complete!

This was a piece of brown glass, and because the shape had more "gentle" angles, I was able to use the netting technique around it.

The DH has dubbed this one "rootbeer float" --- as the beads I used are mostly rootbeer or frosted rootbeer color.

The next piece of glass that I'm going to tackle is a deep red with patterning in the glass --- I'll probably be starting on that one this afternoon.




A Victim of Multi Tasking?

Quite a while ago I started this mixed media piece

The box is about an 8 inch cube, and the critter is a bear (well, it has a bear's head) and is intented to be dressed (that's why only the head and the paws are fur)

This thing has been through several variations already --- originally we were aiming at trying to make him actually spring out of the box (you know, jack in the box style), but the inability to get the mechanics of that brought us to this stage

Trouble is, I don't remember what I was thinking about dressing him --- at one time it was a sort of wizard idea, but that just doesn't fit with the box

So now I'm thinking about going clown

hmmmmmmm, guess this is why he fell out of the multi-tasking rotation ----- more thinking required

About now I should be packing for a venture to my daughter's house for the weekend --- the trouble is, even though it's mid-April, it's SNOWING!!! And between us and our daughter's house, there is a little thing called Monument Pass, on which it has been snowing for most of the night and there is down to the roadway fog. Oh yes, it's supposed to continue snowing for most of today and into tomorrow afternoon.

We'd been hearing all week that this storm was coming, but sometimes they forecast it and it misses us entirely --- not so this time

nuts! --- I guess we'll be shifting the plans to next weekend instead

guess I'll console myself by working on projects

Golden Beach Glass

Finished this piece yesterday.

This is the first piece of the gold glass that I've worked into a piece of jewelry. Notice the texture in the glass? I love the way that looks.

The piece of glass is about 1.25 inches across and 1 inch up and down, and it is slightly curved (since it was a piece of a drinking glass).

The "bezel", bail, chain and clasp are all made of gold colored seed beads, so there is no metal in this entire piece.

Today I'm going to start working on another piece of beach glass -- this one was originally clear glass, and now looks kind of frosted as a result of the tumbling. I'm going to use red beads with it, and try a new technique for the "chain" -- the right angle weave I used on the last few is really nice, but variety is cool too!

Zebra knitting and both quilt projects are progressing too.

Remember Cupcake?

Yesterday I put her out on my Etsy shop, so if you would like her to come and live at your house, use this link to check out how to make that happen.





There is less than a week left to enter my give away for this year's One World One Heart gypsy caravan.

Use this link to go to my announcement post and enter.

EVERYONE is welcome to enter, just make sure I can contact you when I do the drawing next Thursday morning!

Time to get back to those pesky tax forms

Meet Cupcake

and aren't we cute?

no, that's not dirt on her nose -- it's "sugar" from the cupcake!

this bear was completed for a challenge over at Mohair Divas, and I'm pretty pleased with how she looks.

Cupcake is 13 inches tall. She is made of white mohair that has a dark gray backing. Fully jointed, she has glass eyes and is stuffed with polyfil.

Her footpads, nose and inside of her mouth are made of a very nice upholstery velour and I used needlefelting to give her the chubby cheeks and the fat tummy (one of the cool things about needlefelting is I could even give her a belly button).

Her "cupcake" is also needlefelted then put into a foil fluted candy paper so it looks like a cupcake with sparkly sugar on top -- I used very fine iridescent glitter for the sugar on top of the cupcake and on the bear's face.

What do you think?

Playing with the Christmas present

As you may recall, I got the fleece of a Jacob Sheep for Christmas --

Actually, when the box arrived, not only was there the fleece I had discussed with the lady, as promised, but another entire fleece and a small bundle of prepared roving from a mix of other sheep as well. To say I was extremely pleased and surprised would be an understatement.

If you are ever in the market for fleece, I highly recommend Moose Mtn. Ranch!

I decided that this little guy just needed "something" -- I've not been really happy with him, and even though I had redone his feet back in September, and I like the look of the feet now, I still just didn't like the finished product.

As I mentioned, one of the things in the package with the fleece was a package of roving, a sort of soft, heather-y gray tone (a blend of several of the Moose Mtn Ranch's sheep)

The roving was the same color as the backing of the fabric I used to make this bear --- an idea was forming! After some discussion with the DH, getting his ideas too, he did a drawing for me and I was ready to begin.


A while later, after shaving all of the white mohair pile off his tummy and spending about an hour and a half with the felting needle, he has a whole new tummy look

While you can't really tell from this picture, he even has a belly button!

Now I'm thinking about doing some other things to spruce up his face (I hate the look of that seam right above his right eye) and maybe create some other accessories to go with him

Considering the fact that I had for several years resisted the whole idea of needle felting, I'm learning to like it --- probably because I'm discovering I can actually do it (I guess I just wasn't sure I could).

Meantime, yesterday I spent some time working on a piece of Rocky Mountain Beach Glass jewelry (one of the pieces of purple glass being made into a necklace) and some time doing embroidery on one of the angel panels.

Pretty much a low stress, laid back day all around.

Today we're back to what mascarades as normal here --- laundry, mending, projects --- life in the "fast lane" no doubt!

a few more things

the last of the making for the giving tree

cute little sweater vest has bear fronts and bear backs on the yoke

Now we can wrap up the presents and take them over to the store where we picked up the tag



play apron for another child

this one has embroidery and button accents on the front (I'm having a lot of fun with the sewing machine!)









Picked up this cute item at Pier One for a dollar

image a cute little polar bear wearing this

you get the idea!






I'm not feeling all that great this morning, so I'm planning to lay low today --

Doing something worth while

This is a Good Bear

We're not talking about character here (although I'm sure that applies too)

no, this is an official teddy bear from a great organization named Good Bears of the World (you can read all about them and their work here)

We have been lifetime members of this group for a long time

When we did the Kansas City Jubilee back in September, we came home with 2 cases of these bears to give to the local hospital that just opened (that's 96 bears!!)

These bears are the whole point of the Jubilee auction that we donate a piece to each year. In 2007 the auction raised about $6,000 to buy these -- this year we raised just over $9,000 -- MORE BEARS!!!!

On Thursday morning we took the bears to them.

They were pleased to get them

We could tell that they are not used to someone just giving them anything -- they were worried that they needed to consult with their marketing department before they let us take any pictures.

We convinced them that we're not selling anything here -- except good works maybe

Some of the bears will go to the emergency room and some will go directly to the Pediatric ward of the new hospital

It's a Good Thing!!

not all that great, thanks

he whispered to me that his name is Charlie

I'm glad he told me, because when I was working on him I was calling him "lumpy", which he obviously didn't like

ah well






Yesterday we made the 45 minute drive to the place that hopefully can repair my sewing machine

My Viking Designer I has been out of commission (unless you need to just sew a straight seam -- or prop a door open) for a while now -- the "touch screen" that controls all of the stitches and functions was not responding -- no amount of sweet talk, resetting or swearing were of use, and I had decided that I was just going to have to live without it until I could save up what it would cost to have it repaired (and figured that would happen next summer -- maybe)

My darling brother-in-law, however, would like me to embroider some shirts for him (a job that will take about 2 or 3 hours once the machine is working), and doesn't trust anyone else for the job, so he volunteered to pay for the repair

I'm once again humbled by his generosity (and my sister's too)

So now begins the impatient waiting for the shop to call and tell me about the machine (why is it that I had been resigned to being without the machine for another 6 or 8 months before it went to the shop, and now I want it back RIGHT NOW?!)

When we got back from our trip to the shop I was just not feeling that great, so aside from one more purple bead medallion and what knitting I did in the car, I just didn't get anything done yesterday (there was even some laundry that didn't get folded until this morning, and it hasn't been put away yet)

this morning I'm still feeling under the weather -- sort of like I was in the way of a large truck that went speeding by

I will be moving slowly today

the nameless

I finished him yesterday

he's wearing a hand knit wool hat and (a first for me) mittens

After I did his face, I thought the feet needed something too, so the foot pads are needlefelted too (not the toe pads though, too small to be able to hold them down and use the needle on them without danger of bleeding on him!)

he has his very own black plaid travel sack

I'm waiting now for him to tell me who he is so I can get him listed on the Etsy shop

And speaking of Etsy, I did put some stuff out there yesterday. This was my first try at setting up "departments" in my store, and it worked pretty well. More stuff to be added soon

Yesterday's experiment with the purple bead project was a success. I have finished 3 of the medallions for the necklace, and I'm hoping to get about 3 a day done until I get it finished

This morning I received a confirmation on one of the two school shows I had applied for. Details on that will follow soon too.

time to go get to the laundry!

half a dozen or so

the DH has given me another "project"

This is a very nice, gently worn Levi jacket, circa 1970s that he no longer wears

It has a nice sort of tapered shape (which, he says, is the problem, it doesn't fit him well anymore)

So now there are two "recycle" pieces on the back burner -- the one that "speaks" to me first will get done first -- a theme is required before I start in on these things


two pair of earrings complete!

the purple ones have a snowflake obsidian bead in the center

the black ones are all glass

I'll be moving on to the purple necklace of these medallions next -- haven't figured out how to put that all together or how to put a clasp on it yet, but I can think about that as I work on the medallions




Here is my second version of the Mason Dixon Knitting sunflower wash rag

only one row of petals on this one, but I did a 2 color diagonal stripe for the center

I like it!

Now on to the idea of making this into a hotpad!!





Yesterday afternoon I took some time to play with the newly acquired materials for doing needle felting

Ta Da!

My first piece of work

yellow apple

this really was a lot easier than I thought it would be to do




So, you're thinking "why am I seeing another one of those "lab animals"?"

Well, one of the main reasons I wanted to play with the needle felting, was to see what I could use it for on bears and other critters

this is the before picture








and this is the after

can you belief this is the same bear!!!!!?????

I can suddenly see a lot of possibilities for doing things that I haven't been able to figure out how to do in other ways

(and this was definately one of those "Did I do that?" moments as well)

can't wait to try some more stuff!!

some done, some begun

At last, success in creating a wand

I used a piece of a very narrow dowel rod and a glass bead that I made at the torch

The glass is a sort of gray/green with swirls of gold glitter in it, and after I tapered the end, I painted the dowel with gold glitter nail polish

So now the little wizard is ready to go into his box (which I did NOT have to go out and hunt for, I used the one that my sister had sent me something in a while back -- it's a perfect fit!).




Another necklace complete.

This is the fifth one made out of parts of the original beaded collar.

I'm experimenting with working a bead net around a facetted lab created citrine -- the stone is rectangular, which makes for some interesting challenges in creating a net. Pictures to follow if I like the results and finish the piece.


Finished the first of the Christmas knitting last night, and added another 25 pieces to the quilt block







Last weekend at the show we did I accepted a restoration project from the promoter of the show.

This is a Steiff giraffe, circa 1950s

This is a a photo of what the face is SUPPOSED to look like

At some point someone's child (or pet) did a lot of "french kissing" with this poor little critter, and someone else tried to repair it -- and used (ACK!) GLUE --- shudder

I will be "re-creating" his mouth and taking a stitch here and there where seams are popping

Then I'll contact his owner and set up the billing and shipping

This is actually the second vintage Steiff I've repaired, and I feel sure that the restoration will work out just fine.

when we went into the Walgreen's to pick up some things yesterday, I found these priced at 2 for $1.00

This allows me the flexibility to experiment with a beading project I've been designing for a competition ---- think Mardi Gras!

and so the projects continue!