Artist at work, another car and victory over the software!

As I was saying the other day, we have to have some pictures of our pieces actually being created, so yesterday I took these while DH was working on a piece to fill an order.

I'm hoping one of these and the one of me will serve the purpose for future show applications.





Meantime, I completed another car.....this makes 8 done and 4 to go!

I actually wanted to post the car yesterday morning, but getting this picture was quite an adventure. I actually took this one with my camera, just to get it until I had the visit from the "Adobe Fairy" (see explanation below).

Usually I just plunk the stuff into the scanner, scan, save (in the software that came with the scanner), tweek in Adobe, then its ready to upload to blogger.....yesterday, not so simple!

It seems for some reason the software that came with my Epson scanner (its called ArcSoft Photo Impression 4.0) just quit working overnight.

Now I had experienced "glitches" with the scanner software before, so I did all my usual "fixes": create a backup disc of the photo files on the desktop, uninstall the software, defrag the hard drive, unplug the scanner, reinstall the software and try again....NOTHING! ARRRGGGHHHH!!! Major screaming!!!!

After trying all that again, I sent a note to Epson's customer service asking for assistance. They responded quickly, but just refered me to the software company, who, I now find out, doesn't even support version 4.0 of this software and wants me to shell out $$$ to upgrade.

Now I'm thinking, why should I spend that much just to have a program that will save whatever it is I scan (I know the program is supposed to do more, but I like 2 other programs to do those "more" items, and I don't want to spend $$ for something so simple as a SAVE function)!

Hello! Maybe I've just been brain dead, but it occured to me at that point that there might be other software on my desktop that would do what I need. Enter the "Adobe Fairy"!

I opened my Adobe software, clicked on "Import" and low and behold, I can upload with TWAIN!!! Oh joy! Oh happiness! See me turning cart wheels, since not only will I not have to spend any $$ for the SAVE function, this actually saves me a step (ie a moment or two per scan!) because I always "tweek" in Adobe anyway!!!

I'm happy, happy!

Today we set up for our show in the Denver El Jebel Shrine Temple....a two day affair on Friday and Saturday with a central cashier....I don't have to handle the money, credit cards, checks, etc., for this one. I'm hoping we do well.

If you are in the area, the show is located at: 4625 W. 50th Ave., Denver, CO. Hours are from 11 am to 8 pm on Friday (Nov 3) and 10 am to 5 pm on Saturday (Nov 4).

A picture to keep the mice away......

sometimes when we apply to an art show they want us to submit pictures of "the artist at work with their materials" as well as pictures of the pieces of work.

So yesterday, I had DH take some pictures of me working.....



and this one isn't bad....it does show all of the materials I'm working with and a partly finished piece.

Now today I get to take pictures of him working on his silver pieces.....

Pink & Purple Ethal Eater....

another car complete!!

Meantime the toucan is coming along too.

We spent a large chunk of yesterday shovelling out the driveway .... it was about 2 foot deep in some places .... OUCH! so this morning I've got some really sore muscles (who knew I had any!?)

Have already been busy tho', made up the bed and clean the bathroom so its all ready for my daughter when she arrives.....now I'm washing some of the throws from the family room, and still have to vacuum that room and sweep the kitchen. Right now DH is whipping up a batch of bread....yummmy! (guess I'll have to include that recipe in Hattie's cookbook!)

Time to get moving..... (ouch, ouch, ouch!)

Snow Day

Its the biggest snow storm we've seen since we moved here almost 5 years ago.

At 3 am when I looked outside, it was just beginning to snow.

By the time it was really light, there had been a lot of snow.




This is what it looked like about 7:30. There are 3 political campaign signs in my front yard, and in this picture, the one on the left can still be seen.




In this picture, taken about noon, the sign on the far left is totatlly covered with snow.

In the back yard we have a drift along one fence that is about 4 foot deep.

All this and tomorrow we're supposed to get up to about 50 degrees, so the 12 inches of snow in the street will most likely be a river down the street....we'll have to hope that there aren't too many leaves in the drain openings!

Meantime, I've gotten 2 more cars done




so I'm now half done with the cars.

We kept busy working on projects today, I finished one flamingo, worked on the feet for a second flamingo and a toucan. The toucan parts have been laid out and about 1/3 of that bird stitched together.

The house was kept warm with a lot of baking projects today too, beginning with a coffee cake for breakfast followed by a pumpkin pie, 2 loaves of banana bread and a turkey breast for dinner.

Be sure to check out Hattie's Kitchen for the recipe for the banana bread!

Socks & rocks & show review

Well, this weekend's show was MUCH better!!

Beginning on Friday with set up, we didn't have to haul everything up a flight of stairs by ourselves. Just 3 little steps outside, and lots of strong willing teenagers to help out....much better!! And we had the same great help with tear down on Sunday afternoon too.

We actually did better at the show too....maybe because we weren't so exhausted!!




I have found that I spend a lot of time at shows explaining what the pieces they are looking at are, and I have the distinct feeling sometimes that they don't really believe that I made them.

So, at 2 day shows, I try to always have something with me that I am working on, so that I can show them what I stitch through and the size of the beads, etc., etc.

So I worked on some more of the pieces for the river. This odd shaped stone is a piece of obsidian that is thin at one end and thick at the other....very interesting shape.



This nice oval piece is a real pretty blue, I just have no idea what the stone is! It is a a very thick stone, but even all around.



And this is the progress being made (not at the show) on the necklace of wood beads to match the bracelet....its coming along nicely too.....



While riding up and back to the show, I finished the first of the 3 Christmas socks I need to do this year......I think this looks really good!!

Well, its time to get moving....lots of paperwork to do today.

LTRR #2

After a trip to the "frog pond", where I removed 2 complete rows of beads, this one is now complete.

This is another of those stones that has very nice patterning in the stone itself. Actually, I've had this little piece of stone for over 30 years, so its sort of nice to be putting it into a design!

I'm about 1/3 through car number 5, and probably will spend some time soon working on the patterns for the last 6 cars. That's definately an at home during the day project.

Got to get moving, as we have to be downtown for a medical appointment by 10:30 this morning!

More progress!

This is the first stone for Let the River Run. Note the neat pattern in the stone itself.

The little white beads are supposed to represent the "white water" on the edge of the stone in the river. There really is a plan for how this will work when all of the pieces are complete.

I started on the second stone, but because of the shape of the stone and the size of the beads, the bezel just doesn't lay flat, so I will have to pick out at least one row, maybe two to get it to work properly. {sigh}



Car number 4 for the quilt is complete!!

Don't you love the flames one the side?

On to car number 5!

Tomorrow DH has a medical test to be done, so I will be doing some knitting on the sock projects then.

I have just submitted another article to the on line magazine, so we'll see if this one gets used.

Time to get busy!

New projects

Completed 3 more bracelets.

The top one is an adult size, and the alphabet beads spell "DREAM".

The bottom 2 are child size. We'll be setting up a section with "gifts for the young lady" this weekend, so I needed to make a couple of things that were smaller. We'll see how that goes.

Meantime, I'm working on the new pieces. One stone for Let the River Run has been "framed" (or bezeled, if you prefer) and it looks pretty good.

Two of the wood beads of the necklace are covered....this is going much faster than the bracelet did, I guess because I have the technique figured out now.

I have also been "setting" the stones in a new piece of Art Clay that DH did....it looks like a disco ball in silver and will have many different little (2 mm, 3 mm, 4 mm) stones in it.

Progress is being made on the Christmas sock, I'm now doing the ankle shaping decreases.

Car #4 for the car quilt is about 2/3 done too.

Today we have to go and license the van ... I'll either be pleasantly surprised or there will be a rant to follow ... stay tuned!

Show Review

This was our booth set up for this weekend's show.

The show was held in a lovely facility, indoors, nice wood floors, in a great neighborhood.

However, it comes under the catagory of "remind me again why we do this".....load in and load out was difficult....upstairs (either a long curved stairway, or a short steep one) and we were not supposed to use the "handicap only" elevator.

Needless to say, today we are both beat....

We had lots of positive comment to our newest pieces, but since we did not make expenses on this one, we will not got back....chalk it up to one more not to do.

I did manage to get about 8 inches of knitting done on the new Christmas sock I'm doing, which is good. I have 2 more socks to do after this one (one for our dog and one for my daughter's), so I'll be working in this mode for a while.

The design for "Let the River Run" is coming along, I should be able to begin stitching around the stones either today or tomorrow.

I have set up the wood beads and cord to begin working on the necklace that will go with the bracelet that I finished the other day.

Time to go finish the tax forms and bank deposit for the show, then we have to unload the van (we just couldn't face that last night!)

Something to be said about the way we work on things

is that we may go for a week or two working steadily along and it seeming that nothing has been accomplished, then in one day, we have many things finished.



This is the bracelet that I have been working on the last week or so. I used 2 different sizes of wood beads strung on to a piece of nylon cord and used size 11 seed beads (delicas) in peyote stitch to cover them.

This is one of those "did I do that" moments....because it came out even better than I anticipated.

A necklace is in the planning, where I will be using several different shapes of wood beads (this should be interesting).

Meantime, the DH has been quite busy with his own jewelry creations!








Each of these pieces is made of Art Clay Silver, a wonderful material created by a Japanese company that is reclaiming the silver in photographic negatives and making it available for other uses. The neat thing about the material is that after it is fired in the kiln, it is .999 silver, which is more silver than sterling (which is .925).

The flower has a .4 carat natural garnet in the center, and the other 2 pieces are textured with various techniques before the pieces go into the kiln.



Got a few more cab stones that came with a bulk lot of pieces that we purchased.

Last night in that "fugue" state, I came up with an idea to take a variety of this kind of stones and encircle them with beads (in the same way the 4 necklaces from earlier in the month were done), then connect them together into a necklace.

I envision using a variety of stones that basically look like river rocks and are all different colors and using the same gray/blue/silver colors to work around them and arrange them like a stream bead in the finished piece.

Working title: Let the River Roll (can you hear Carlye Simon in the background?)



Here is car number 3 for the car quilt.....and I have about half of number 4 stitched together too.

The cat quilt is complete, the blue marks washed out and it is sitting in a bag with the other completed Christmas projects.

This afternoon we will be heading up to Denver to set up for our show tomorrow. While we're in the car I plan to start on a Christmas sock for my daughter's fiance.

If you live in the Denver area, please come and visit us at the show tomorrow. The show is The Ken-Caryl Ranch Fall Arts and Crafts Fair, held in the Ranch House at 7676 S. Continental Divide Road in Littleton. Show hours are 10 am to 4 pm. Hope to see you then!

4th one done

Finished the 4th necklace yesterday. YIPEE! all of the ones I hoped to ready for this show, are complete.

The other bead project is coming along nicely too, I might even have that one done for Saturday's show.

Got my copy of the latest issue of Teddy Bear Review and discovered that they did indeed use my holiday paperdolls and the little article I wrote about them.....way cool!! Guess I'm going to have to go buy a few extra copies.

Nibbling away at the projects

Finished half of the last "chain" for the necklaces yesterday.....this one is going better, probably because I didn't string the beads so tight.

Work on the new design idea is progressing....I have successfully covered 2 1/2 of the wood beads (and the rope in between then) with the bright colored matte finish beads....I can already envision doing future projects where there are checker board or swirl or paisley patterns covering each bead....this is one of the best ideas yet, and the original plan was the DH! Yes sir, we make a great team!!



Another car complete......1/6 of them finished. These really are going MUCH faster than I thought they would....it actually took longer to create the patterns and make the fabric selections that it has to put them together.....I'm very pleased with how well these are going.

Now have 1/2 of the binding done on the cat quilt.

Today will be taken up in laundry and cleaning, and I need to rearrange the photo studio to make room for the new photo light cube that has arrived....a pain to rearrange again, but the new cube should make our photos a lot better.....

more work being done.....

Finally got the "chain" of this one finished.....the beads I had on hand to use for the core were a bit smaller than the ones I usually use, and after I got them strung on the center cord, I discovered the string was too tight to work the spiral around...the good thing about glass beads is in this situation the fix is easy....just use a pair of flat nose pliers and crush one (or more) of the core beads. (Yeah, and once I figured that out after spending a lot of time mumbling, it went much faster!)




This is the first of the cars for the car quilt....who says curved seams are evil? I still need to embroider the number 59 on the side, but I've already begun working on the next car....there are 12 of them in the quilt, so we're moving along.

I have finished 1/4 of the binding on the cat quilt.

ok, places to go, people to annoy!

Announcing Hattie's Kitchen

I have just begun a new blog titled Hattie's Kitchen (http://hattieskitchen.blogspot.com)

You are invited to check it out!

yesterday's accomplishments.....

These two pieces are now complete. I have also completed half of the "chain" for the pink shell piece, so we are on target to getting all 4 of them done for next weekend's show.

I need to lay out several of my heart bracelets too, might get to those today after the yard work is done.

Began work on the first of the cars for the car quilt....I am truly amazed at how well it is going together.....one of those "did I do that?" moments.

Got the machine stitching of the binding on the cat quilt done, now its on to the blind stitching on the top side.

time to get moving

under the heading "what I did in the car"

It takes a while to drive from our house to Dallas, so I had quite a bit of time to working on things!

These are the four afghan blocks that I was able to get done while we were gone.

I also had finished quilting 3 1/2 sides of the borders for the cat quilt. I finished the last side last night, so today I will start putting on the binding. Another project nearing completion!!

Lots of things to do today, a lot of data entry for my accounting client, some lawn work, finishing the first of the magazine articles.....time to work!!

and a good show was had by all.....

at least by all of us!

Consider that we had no customer base in Dallas to send out our usual mailings to, and we did VERY well.



Here is a picture of our table set up....yes, we did forget to put one thing in the van....the poles for the lights, so we had to make do with the "ambient" lighting, which wasn't all that great, but I've been in worse ones. (next time we'll remember as one of my "to do" list items is to revise our packing list into 2 lists, one for indoor shows and one for outdoor ones, which should help)

Our birds were hot sellers....both miniature dodos, the new flamingo and the toucan flew off to new homes!

We did observe that we were the only "on the edge" artists in the group, all of the other pieces were very traditional teddy bears of various sizes and states of dress, so we really were surprised after seeing the set up that we did so well.

In addition to the pieces that we sold, we came home with a commission to make a horse for a customer, so that will be our next "engineering" challenge.

I don't take jewelry to this kind of show, but I do usually wear a piece of my own stuff. This show I was wearing the newest one (Solar Power), and gathered a lot of compliments. I may actually get a jewelry commission as well since there was a woman there that may want me to build a piece of jewelry around a stone she already has...that would be fun too.

After a long conversation with the promoter, who also is the Editor in Chief of an online magazine, I came home with writing assignments for 3 articles and a request for another set of paperdolls.....

yes, on the whole, this was a very good show!

from deep in the heart of Texas.....

ok, I'm officially an old fart! We travelled today from our house to Dallas/Fort Worth (actually Irving) Texas for a bear show that is tomorrow.

First off, let me say that I can't make heads or tails of the way Texas marks things...you have things that are called US highways, which I get (say highway 35), then there are the county roads, which I also get, but what do you make of something called F.M. 7029? and there doesn't seem to be any order (you know, small numbers to large numbers east to west or vice versa) to these either, they are just randomly assigned as far as I can tell.

Then there is the issue of highway exits....there are 7029 FMs, but when it comes to streets in a city, the exits aren't numbered so you can't even tell if you're headed the right way.

Needless to say, it was interesting.....from the time we hit Dallas until we found our motel was an hour.....not helped by the fact that the address of the hotel (according to google maps, mapquest and AAA) doesn't even exist! We finally got here by way of persistant cell phoning....I'd call the motel, tell him where we were and he'd give me a set of instructions, then I'd call him back and get another set....

I offically don't want to go anywhere without good google maps again....the AAA TripTik has too much information where you don't need it and not enough where you do!

The fun side of all this? I can report that the research continues, and the Texas racoons don't blow up on impact either......(those of you that have been reading this blog since early May know about this, my apologies to the rest of you!)

I can also report that I have one and 1/2 afghan blocks done on this trip so far and 1/4 of the border of the cat quilt quilted.....now that's progress!!

Time to go unwind a bit so I can sleep....we'll have to be up at 5:30 a.m. to go set up!

the bears are all done!

Yes, we actually managed to finish all of those "on again, off again, on again" projects for this weekend's show, and today we will be packing up the tubs for the trip.

Here are the new "babies":

This is Peaches...

...note she has her little caterpiller friend with her






And this is the DH's second bear

cute little face I think.....

notice that she's going quite cross eyed trying to follow that butterfly!




and this is my very first open mouthed bear!

This is Bearry.....note she looks like she's been eating a lot of those berries!!




I have been busy on other projects too....have finished the edge work on 3 of the 4 stone pieces (still have to do the necklaces on those).

I'm now down to quilting the border of the Cat quilt, and I have done the prep work on 6 of the 12 cars for the car quilt.

Also started another afgan square (Christmas colors!) that is about 1/4 of the way finished.

Have spent several frustrated hours trying to figure out how to be able to access my client's accounting software from my computer and finally decided its not how the softwar is set up, its how the "network" is set up....and I may well be in over my head here as I know how to use the hardware, but not how to set it up!! We will probably have to spend some time on the phone with the software vendor to get this all figured out.....ARRGGGHHHH!! Meantime, hours and hours of input is waiting and I can't do much with it from here, so I will probably have to go spend some time in the shop as soon as we return from Texas.....NUTS!!

well, those tubs aren't going to pack themselves, so I better get to it!

Another square complete......

We had to make a trip to Denver for Costco shopping, so I was able to get another square finished.

Nice cables!

Anyway, it goes off to an assembler today.


Yesterday afternoon I finished another bear. I have 2 more to finish before we leave, but both of them are very close, so I should be able to get it done.

Pictures of those (hopefully) in the next couple of days.

Meantime I'm putting in lots of time creating a new photo flip album for the bear show....found a cute metal standup photo frame at the local discount place, and it has space inside for 50 photos. The front cover is a cute little teddy bear (it was meant for a baby's room or a grandma brag book), so it seems perfect to go on a teddy bear table! I got 20 photo pages done yesterday, but still have quite a few to print today.

Time to get to it!

Birds of 3, leave them be?

Such might be the appropriate caption for this mean looking bunch!

These are the first of the totally completed critters for our upcoming show.....our dodos have been a big hit at past shows, so we're hoping they do well in Dallas where folks have never seen our stuff.

I have 3 bears that I'm working on still, and all of them are now at the face, feet and accessorize stage, so we're doing pretty well.




I did get this 4th piece of stone done.

I'm doing this is a different style than the others (you know, I get bored doing the same thing....its a character flaw I guess).

The bigger beads at the bottom are all 4mm malachite.

Right now all 4 of the stone pieces are being glued to the backing so I can do the edges next.

And of course I've already started working on yet another piece that involves size 11 delicas, nylon cord and large wood beads.....the first attempt on that one was dubed a failure, so we have moved on to phase II....success to be determined

I have finished all of the background of the car quilt and last night started with the applique that goes over it.....this morning I printed out the base pictures that I need to convert into patterns for the rest of the appliques.....here is where I get really challenged being able to manage all those little curves and angles

I'm working on the last block of the cat quilt, then on to the borders!!

Have lots of other paperwork to get done too, so I need to get busy!

under the catagory of "I can't do one thing at a time"

even tho' I spent most of yesterday afternoon madly stuffing animals, I did manage to also get another stone piece encircled with beads.



The center stone is unikite jasper (some collectors call it "spinach on a brick" because some pieces look like those two colors), and this is a very light, pretty piece.

To me some of the pink areas in the stone look like roses.

Unlike the two pieces of shell, I decided to make this one a bit more elaborate, so I have encircled it with a row of 4 mm unikite jasper beads too.....mmmmmmm, nice!

So, now I have only more stone piece to work on, and I actually started it last night too.....

I also worked on quilts and knitting yesterday, so on the whole I was pretty productive (oh yes, 4 loads of laundry!)

For those of you who know our little family, you might want to check out my other blog for an important announcement about next August!

time to get working

We're going to Dallas.....

yup, its official, we've been accepted in a Bear Show in Dallas, TX. So, I now have less than 2 full weeks to get all those critters done.

Poor things, they've been on again off again for a while here....first we were working gungho because we were gearing up for a show the second week end of October [yeah! work on critters ;^)]...then we were told the show was cancelled [boo! put critters on back burner :^( ]....now the show is the FIRST week end of October {ACK!! can I get all these critters done? =:^O }

So, I got 3 dodos stuffed yesterday, and did the head of the newest design....since I like the way the head turned out, I'll now finish stuffing the rest of it. There's one more waiting for joints too....

ARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!

rocks in our heads?

Well, maybe!

These are the pieces of stone that I got for projects at the Gem Show (the DH got quite a few of his own for projects too!) So, this is what these are (as they appear in rows from left to right):


Jasper, Jasper, Charolite (a Russian stone), Agate


Sea Jasper, Tiger Eye, Pink Quartz, Jasper


Ammonite (petrified chambered nautalus); Ocean Jasper; Primavera


Lapis; Goldstone; Labradorite; Goldstone

And these are:

Lapis; Tiger Eye; Jasper

And a lot of variations of Agate




Here's a picture of the latest afghan block that I have completed and its on its way to an assembler.

I've started the next one which is peach colored cables and is about 1/3 done.

We have been invited to apply for a show that would be a replacement for the one that was cancelled, so we're hoping that weekend will be taken care of.

off to work I go......

and our fame spreads?

A while back I sold some of my pieces to a local bead store.

Yesterday, when we were looking through a local ad, this ad was in there.

Note the pink heart piece and the red oval piece on the white display pieces. Yup, that's my work!

I hope it draws her some business so she needs to get more stuff from me.


We went to the Gem Show yesterday and bought WAY more stuff than I thought we would, but we found some great things. It will probably take us quite a bit of this morning to get it all recorded and labeled. Yummmmy, nothing quite like the feel of brand new stones to work with!!

Some of what I was looking for was not available at the show, so I will be putting in a couple of orders for glass beads -- after all I have all these new projects to work on!!

a shopping trip....

is what we'll be doing today.

The Gem Show is going on in Denver this weekend, and its my preference to go on Thursday or Friday when it is less crowded. So, today is our day.

These are alway interesting trips. We start off with a list of what we are looking for, but sometimes we find something totally unexpected. For most of my big pieces I like to actually handle the piece of stone before I buy it since I use such big pieces, and this is the best place for me to do that.

So, an adventure to find new inspiration today!



Got the first of the beading done around the blue shell now. It too looks really good!

One of the things I will be looking for at the Gem Show today is the beads I use for the core of the necklaces on these.

I started a new project last night too.....using some nylon cord and some 16mm and 20mm wood beads as the core of a bracelet....it looks pretty cool, and I sense a whole new set of items to be made!!

Time to get going

disappointment.....

we were notified yesterday that the big show we had been gearing up for the first weekend in October has been cancelled by the promoters.

We are majorly bummed out, as this was the only show between now and next April that is a good venue for our animals and we were looking forward to getting some response to the new pieces we have been busy creating.

NUTS!

However, feeling that there must be some show out there that we can do before Oct 28, I fired off an email to another promoter to see if she has any open spaces in her shows. We'll see.


The initial beading on the pink shell piece is done. I'm now ready to put on the backing and do the chain.

I probably will go ahead and do all of this stage on the other 3 pieces before I move on to the next step tho'

time to get moving

Its finally done.....

It seemed like it was going to take forever to get the edge done all around it, but I finally got it done yesterday.



Here's a very nice close up that gives you a better view of the sun's face, and notice earth just above it on the left hand side. A lovely blue planet made of an 8mm lapis bead.



I confess that this doesn't look exactly like what I had originally seen in my mind, but I do like the way it came out.







Now this is the inside of the dark dodo I have been working on.....I didn't notice until I was "tweeking" the picture to format for blogging that I had forgotten to turn him right side to....oh well, all that will happen when I stuff him.


Yesterday afternooon I got 3 more animals cut out and pinned so I can do some of the work on the sewing machine. Since all three of them are light colors (one white dodo, one pink flamingo and one peach colored bear), I figure I can use the same light neutral thread and do a little production work to get these on the road.

The slash patches have been installed in the car quilt, and the bottom grass stitched in, now there is just the long strip of sand looking stuff to put at the very bottom. I should be able to do that while I'm whipping those animals together.

Monday is almost always laundry day at my house, so I'm 2 loads in to what looks like about 5....a bit more than usual, but I have this interesting laundry equation going on:

rainy weather + large labrador + light colored quilt on bed = extra laundry

time to get busy