Playing with Fiber

If you read or follow both of my blogs you will be seeing double!  This post fits the creative blog and the boys blog so I'm using it on both.  I've never done that, but as they say there's always a first time!

The boys were sheared in April and I have three bags full of their blanket fiber, plus two smaller bags from their legs and neck.  I just love saying three bags full - makes me think of that sweet nursery rhyme,  Baa Baa Black Sheep have you any wool,  but I digress.   On the third day of classes in Bend we will learn to assist our shearer, to sort, clean,to card,  and even needle felt some of the fiber. I don't want to get there and say I have three bags full but I've never touched it except to sort and put in bags, so today was the day to put my hands on it.

I pulled out some of the blanket fiber from Lefty's bag.  Pretty and white, but with lots of vegetative matter aka vm.  So I started by just pulling it a part with my hands, making it light and fluffy and pulling out little pieces of dried grass and twigs.

Starting fiber

Next, I used my hand carders.  They also make hand crank ones and electric ones (very, very expensive), but, for once, I decided to see if I liked doing the fiber myself or would I choose to send it to a mill for processing before I jump up in cost. I had so much fun today and saw how slow this process would be - fine for a little, but I see a hand crank carder in my future!

Hand Carders

 It took about 10-20 passes with the carders to get out vm I wanted out and even with that there are a few specks, but for the most part it's clean.

Trash after carding

When I was finished I had two small pieces of roving. This can now be used to spin directly from the roving or use for needle felting or other crafty things.   Pictures show how much I started with, how much vm came out of it, the carders and the finished product.  And it took about an hour or maybe more!

Roving - ready to spin or felt

And then there's what I have left of Lefty's blanket and remember I have two more bags from the other boys, plus all of the legs and neck bags and so you see why there is a hand crank carder in my future!

Lefty's blanket fiber left to card. This  does not
include the legs or neck!

The boys had lots of visitors this week and so more about that coming soon, with some fun pictures.  And I leave for Bend tomorrow!  Exciting time for me - haven't been away from home for 6 days in a long, long time!  I'll miss all of my boys and Bill will be doing alpaca duty while I'm gone!  The hottest week of the year!  Keep him in your prayers!

                           

Sunflower

I love to do so many things!  I love to sew, quilt, stamp, scrapbook, felt (needle not wet) the list just keeps on going and growing, but drawing/painting is still my first love.  I know I've said it many times that I just simply feel God's presence when I have a brush or a pencil in my hand. While I enjoy the other creative areas I do not have that same feeling.

This weekend I painted a sunflower, while a week or so ago it was a cupcake.  I used acrylic paint and watercolors on both on watercolor paper and they're small, probably only about 4x6" or less.  Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever paint on a large canvas,  not exactly a question because I have, but I love these little pieces and it's so enjoyable doing them.  It's a time and concentration thing too!  Much faster than a big piece. At the end I emailed a picture to my friend Becky and she gave me encouragement and  some suggestions and it was then soon completed to my satisfaction.

I used to send out my originals and sometimes I still do, but a friend (thanks Jennifer) suggested that I scan them and make note cards that way not just one person got to enjoy them, but many.  So that's what I've been doing with the ones I like the most.

Some of these have already gone out - I find that when I have the cards printed and ready to go I'm better at sending cards.  Some I use as note cards and I leave the inside blank, others that are birthday or thinking of you etc. I leave blank and then pull out my stamps for a sentiment. No reason to let those stamps sit idle!  Adding some paper layers makes them a little more handmade, without painting each one individually.  And, then . . .

I got busy Saturday, maybe Sunday and listed some of my stepping stones on Etsy - they will sell or they won't, but at least I'm being proactive.  It seems crazy to just keep painting and not do something with them.  I have a friend that has requested two bluebonnet stones and two sunflower stones and I will be starting them soon.  Special lady, so they must be special stones, but she's not in a rush so that's good.

This week I've been busy with visitors, packing for my trip to Oregon (it's summer and the nights are still in the high 30's - yes 30's) and getting my supplies ready for a new class.  I've signed up for Junelle Jacobson's newest sketching/mixed media class.  I took the Art of Wild Abandonment a couple of years ago and learned to loosen up some in my art.  It's an online class, but she makes you feel like you're sitting in the room.  She will ask a question and you will find yourself answering her, only to realize she's not there!  Fits right in with my craziness, no let's change that word and use eccentric.  I like it sooooo  much better.  This one is "Wild Art Summer Studio - Wildflowers" and I already know it will be fun.  We get a sneak peak into the studio this Saturday ( I will be in Oregon learning to be a great alpaca mom ) and the class starts the next week.  It will be for six fun filled weeks, but it's available for a year in case life gets in the way.  Last time we started with radishes can't wait to see what she surprises us with this time.

If you think you might be interested in checking out this class click on the link above and you'll find out all about it.  And you'll also have a chance to see some of her sheep photographs and get links to her Etsy shop and more.  She is an interesting, talented, sheep and God loving young woman - a pleasure to know.

My SMASH Book

I'm writing this morning because I need to be organizing my studio! I just talked about this on FB  recently and I still don't have it done!  And so, the way my brain works is this - do something else to make me feel like I'm accomplishing something whether it needs to be done or not - so here's my delay for today!

I don't do a lot of advertising on my blog, but I'm enjoying my SMASH book so much I just have to share.  I got mine at Archivers in Katy a year or more ago and it took me a little while to start using it.  I was attracted to it by the wording on the out side - something about a drawer that you stick all of your little memories in.  I immediately knew the drawer they were talking about, except I have several of them.

 How do you cover this  face?

I think most of you probably throw away the things I keep and yet perhaps I'm wrong or why would these books be such great sellers. So like me you, too, may keep odd things so that's why I'm sharing the joys of the SMASH book!

I still have the ticket stub for the rodeo cutting horse show in February 1984 - when and where Bill and I had our first date!  (Not in this book, but somewhere) I have the pit passes from auto races, the beach vehicle sticker from Surfside Beach when the kids and I went to the beach last summer.  Not to mention my favorite fortunes from my favorite Pei Wei!  Now that you know I'm a keeper you will know why I love this book.

It comes with it's own pen (to write notes) and glue stick all in one and fun papers in a spiral book.  Do you have something you want to keep?  Don't stuff it in a drawer, stuff it in your book.  I know why it took me  long time to start  - I love the paper!  Same reason I'm not a good scrapbooker - I love the paper so much I don't want to cut or cover it up!  But that's another story all together, so let's head back to my book.  I keep it on my kitchen counter and I've actually gotten really good at sticking stuff in it.

It has also taught me to cover up cool paper! Well, almost - there are some pages I just can't or at least haven't yet been able to cover! It's also a place to keep cards from my little grand-daughter in Austin or other friends in the back even too big to glue in and oh by the way, I started a small book, but they come in a larger size and I think I'll start adding my cards to that one.  


But don't think that they stopped with just a cool book,  no they have washi tape, stickers, all sorts of things to add in (guessing this is for people who don't keep as much as I do) and best of all - a giant rubber band to hold the book together as it gets fatter and fatter.  And a blank cover for your own decorating! Can't believe that's still a blank canvas in my house!

This one encourages you to write!

This is a page!

Hope this might help some of you empty a drawer and fill up a book!  Like I said I got mine at Archiver's (they're also on line) but I'm sure these fun books are in many different scrapbook stores.


To me this is a win win!  Unlike a drawer that has to be cleaned out when it's full and you have to make decisions all over again about keeping or tossing, when the book is full you have a completed scrapbook without work and you start a new one! As the book says on the back "for the MOMENTS and MUSINGS that STICK!"

Restoration

I began painting in 2006 and I began with garden stepping stones.  If you have ever looked at my blog Obedience Stones, you know that when asking God what on earth I was to do with all of my photographs of flowers He clearly said, "Paint a Stone."  And I did!  No I'm not always that obedient, but that was too clear to ignore and I had always wanted to paint, so my journey began.

My first stone was a very sad sunflower, but you could tell that's what it was.  It's still in my yard.  I soon turned toward hibiscus and they became my favorite flower to paint, but at the request of friends I branched out to many other flowers.

But as I said that was 2006 and although I have given away and sold many stones, I have kept a lot too and some have seen their better day!  But after all what did I expect?  Few garden items really last more than a few years in our heat and a weed-eater plays havoc, so I'm surprised they look as good as they do, after seven years and so I decided to do some restoration.  Wish I could offer this to everyone I've gifted, but unless they bring them to me, well I digress!  On to my restorations!

This first one was a pink and yellow hibiscus in it's first life - two colors that fade the fastest in the sun! And so this time I kept the shape, but totally changed the color - all new and fresh for the yard, well, as soon as I finish the stamen!

The second one is refreshed in just about it's original colors, but now it's a bright show piece for the yard.

I have several more to bring in for restoration and I'm so glad I can do this.
So fun to be back painting stones - the joy of obedience never goes away!

Little Surprises

We have company coming this week and I am so excited!  We have known this couple, Chuck and Becky, for longer than I can remember and Becky and I are sisters at heart!  We knew it the moment we met and yet we've lived in far apart cities.  Becky lives outside Chicago and as you know I'm outside Houston. We used to get together more often for business events usually in Chicago or Indianapolis (Indy 500 - fitting to talk about today) but those events have become less and less frequent and last year after many years of not seeing each other we were together twice!

Last year Bill, Jack and I took a road trip to Illinois for a Corvette thing and we were close enough to get to have dinner with them.  It was such a treat - she's an artist and I play like an artist and we had so much fun catching up on children and grandchildren and just our lives in general.  Then just a month or so later we both attended an racing event in PA and had a whole weekend together.  It was during this trip that we convinced our husbands we needed a get together in Texas.

Years ago when I had my potpourri business, Becky worked with me at the Chicago Mart and I even stayed at their home once.  I remember it as being a beautiful home filled with Becky's special touch and now they're coming here - Thursday!

So I want things to be special for them here.  I must admit that we moved in I set up furniture and hung pictures, primarily because I needed somewhere to put them and called it done.  So I decided to take a look at our downstairs guest room.  First I had to clean out all of the paper from a "civic" position I hold and that was very satisfying.  I hate when I allow something to take over my life and it had - now it's all in it's place and I have my room back.  But now to the little surprises:  We have a book shelf in there that I haven't looked at in probably a year or more.  I opened the door and pulled a book off the shelf.  A note my mom had written me about 12 years ago fell out and what a nice surprise - she started it off with just a "little surprise note" from your mom!  Yes it was! I read it, thought of her and how much we were enjoying each other at that stage of our lives and put it back in the book and back on the shelf.  Pulled another book of the shelf and opened it to find the nicest note written on the inside of the front cover from a friend I haven't seen or talked to in over three years. Once again, a little but very pleasant surprise.  I thought how strange with all these books and I pull out two that have notes in them and you guessed it.  I pulled out one more to find a card fall out from my longtime friend Deb!  I sat and thought of the 40 years we have been friends and closed the door.  Three surprises in one night are enough.  I had just enjoyed time with my mom and two of my friends and never had to leave my spot on the floor!  God is so good to encourage us with little surprises.

And so now I anxiously await our friends arrival, scurrying around, trying to make our home ready to welcome them in and give us good memories for years to come.