misk misk

This recently arrived at my doorstep. I bought it from a potter on ETSY. Since changes to the structure on ebay made it more difficult for small sellers, like artists with limited production, many have found other sites to market their good. Etsy is one of those other sites.

This mug is from
Jewel Pottery and it's beautiful. I bought it as a gift, but I may have to think of another girt for that person! Jewel Pottery also has a website.

Joseph has his ticket for the Middle School Halloween dance tonight. He is pretty excited. It goes from 6pm to 8pm. Dave and I can have dinner alone! We have lost our knack for conversing without interruption, but we will try. Or maybe just sit in silence.

I am wrapping up my Primitive Sweatshirt production. I have four more to photo and then put on my website. Four are currently on etsy.

These are two of those. To see the others, you can look on previous blog posts of click on the brown wolf link on the right. Or here: etsy


We had a county inspector at the mountain property Thursday to approve well sites. We have two approved sites. The driller will choose between them, based more on accesiblity for his equipment than on the possibility of finding water.

The City and the Horses

I almost got a lot done this weekend. There were some snags, but it was pretty good.

I got all my pictures saved onto disc so I could delete Photoshop and reload it. It was having problems uploading new photos. After I got all the photos out of it, I tested it and it was fine. Must have been something in one of the photos.

As some of you know, I share my sewing room with Mary Shelley and Whiskers litter box. The litter box cleaning is Dave's job. If I do it even once, it will become my job, so I can't do it. If it gets gross, I don't say anything. I don't nag. If it gets gross, whiskers poops somewhere else. If I clean it up, it isnt a problem when the litter box gets gross. If Dave cleans it up, litter box maintenance gets vigorously renewed. This is the system.

So there was a stink in there. And...there was poop under the table. I ignored the poop. Dave came in to see what I was working on(bug me). He said it was stinky in here. I replied:
"Yeah, I kind of noticed."
He said: "There's poop under the table."
"That would explain the smell."
"What's it doing under there?" Dumb question.
"Sitting there emitting odor." Well, you asked.

I got an email from a musician in NY. He was asking if he could uses my quilt images in his CD cover. He said he couldn't pay me because it wasn't a "paying gig" but that he would credit me and send me a copy of the CD. I said it was OK. His band is called The City And The Horses.

Here is the sweatshirt I made for Lauren. Don't forget you can click on the picture for the McGoo Veiw.


And here is the Rescue Me bunny in progress. I'm not totally happy with it, I may redo some of it. But it may get better as I work on it. This one is taking way longer than any other!

I've got it attached the the shirt already, so taking it off totally is not possible. I put these things on to STAY!

Is this more interesting?

So Dave had another birthday. I wont tell you his age because I can't remember and don't feel like figuring it out. He got the gift he wanted from his parents-in-law. They are great! He even got to try it out before Joseph took up residence. But I know what Dave's sister-in-law is getting Joseph for Christmas. Joseph will get to see it briefly before Dave says: "It's my turn."

This past summer,(yes, summer IS past!)my son and I visited my parents in another state. My Mother had decided to take up quilting and she made a mystery quilt which was in the binding stage of Almost Done. There are many stages of Almost Done. Binding is almost the last.

I was anxious to see her quilt. She said "Don't laugh, it has a lot of mistakes. I'm going to give it to charity." Then she showed me a wonderful quilt!

So my question for the week was how to manipulate her into giving me this quilt. After 47 years, I have learned that the worst way to get what you want is to ask for it. You have to set up a situation where she thinks of it herself.

So........

I helped sew the binding on.....

On the last day of our visit, I went to her quilting group and took many of my quilts to show. It was fun. I saw a lot of theirs. Then Mom brought out hers. Everyone admired it. Someone asked what she was going to do with it. Well, she had already decided, but I told her friends that I wanted it because, I said: "Every quilter should have a quilt her mother made."

Nope! Too close to asking! She was going to give it to someone else.

About a week after I returned home, a box arrived in the mail. I knew what it was! Bright and happy yellow, better even than I remembered it.

I really wanted to take it to the Show And Tell at the quilt guild meeting and blog about that, with a photo of me showing the quilt. The last TWO meetings have not worked out. Boy Scouts is a lot of work for the scout, but just as much for the parents!

So, this is me with the quilt, and Mary Shelley. She looks exasperated in this picture, but that's her normal face.

Enough already!

I'm still having trouble with this one. I take lots of pictures when I'm not sure, because seeing the little picture on the screen of the camera helps me see it as a whole.
When it is on my table, I am not even seeing it straight on, it is at an angle. Each of these pictures is different from the one before!

So I got it how I wanted except for making the rabbit. I decided to make the rabbit alone, then sew it on. I cut out a piece of brown paper to the right shape and size, then selected the fabrics that I might use. Then put those by my machine and folded up the rest of the shirt with everything pinned in place.


So then I had a blank area of my table so I started another one. After a little bit, I had a different idea, and started all over. That one is different.


After only about an hour, I am sewing parts on.

If you thought I just sewed random stuff on any old way, think again!

This last picture is how it will be except for the rabbit.

I have more interesting things to post later today. This morning, however, I am out of time!

What color is the rabbit supposed to be?

Where should I put the rabbit and what color should it be? Not a dutch belted, to challenging! White seemed to eastery, black too dark. I got out all my browns. This is the lightest.

It is too dark. Maybe grey? I got a piece of rag wool sweater. No. too dull, blends it too much. Well, I could use a variegated grey and sandwich it in with white, and make chenille.

I could select parts of the grey that I want for different parts of the rabbit, depending on value, and sandwich that into the chenille! Great idea! No, lint lint lint, and lots of work. So the rabbit will be white.

It's supposed to have a bunny

1 I can't figure out what I should do with this. It's very light pastel, which is nurturing and OK, but I don't want it to fade together and blur. The primcess has dark hair.

2 3 4 6
5

browband bling

LiquidSabre, an online acquaintance showed me this bracelet she made. I remarked that is was nice, it would be really nice on a browband. She asked "What (the heck) is a browband?" I could have used the old line: "It's a dressage thing, you wouldn't understand."

Instead, I took pictures of mine and added some explanation to the pictures. I posted them here for her to see.



And that will help you understand why I took all these pictures of my hairy horse wearing his dirty bridle!

If your monitor is showing the pictures too small to read the text, and you are really interested, you can click on the pictures for the McGoo View.
Liquidsabre's blog

I did this

This one is finished. I took another picture because last ones were no good.

I put the finishing touches on this one. Now it is ready for it's final laundering. I'll probably wait so it doesnt have to go alone.
I got started on this one,

and put the last wax and dye on this. Now it needs rinsing and was removal.

I have been reading Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet. Wow. I'm on page 700 and something. It's a good read.

Then I saw Fierce Creatures with John Cleese, Michael Palin, Kevin Kline and Jamie Lee Curtis. That was silly. It's a good thing I didn't make Joseph watch it.

I am watching Battlestar Galactica on DVD. I am having a good time with that. I had thought I wanted to see Sex and the City. We don't get any cable TV, so I have never even had a chance to see it. It was so popular I thought it must be good. I watched the whole first DVD, 6 episodes. It was boring.

After that, I decided to watch House, so I got the first 6 episodes on DVD. Much more enjoyable. I liked it, except that it made me remember how hard it can be to get medical care when you get lost in the medical insurance game. I don't know if I want to watch more of it. It's a good show, but it gives me Brain Itch.

When the season of Battlestar is finished, I will watch another season of Smallville. I'm starting to mis Clark Kent and John Glover. And I want to see what will happen with Arthur Curry. With a name like that, I thought he would re-appear more often with more significance. Was there a comic book character by that name? I thought it was the name of the boot camp that Johnny Rico went to in Heinlein's Starship Troopers.

So how can I get so much done and still read enormous tomes and watch TV? Simple. Insomnia.

Cat Patrol

The Cat Patrol inspects all new products.

Here they are, hard at work.

This is a new Primitive Sweatshrit receiving the Essence of Cat Stamp of Approval.

This zebra print yardage is a fabric I like too much to actually use(!?) but it makes a nice background, I think.




=

Birthday Present.

Dave's Birthday is tomorrow. The cards and gifts have been arriving in the mail. My sister sent something perishable and tasty. It arrived packed in dry ice. The way these guys handle it, the dry ice is a big part of the present!
Joseph still has his Scout uniform on in these pictures. He was at the supermarket selling popcorn for his troop. Friday Night is a good night for popcorn sales. Two scouts did $300 in 3 hours!

I finished up two sweatshirts. I have to photoshop the pictures. I took many, with different levels of flash and different close-ups. Now I have to pick out the best ones and crop them. The last shirt is done with dying, I hope, and is rinsing now. If I don't like it, I may dye it again.

Baby in a Fish Bowl

This is Silver in her sling. The sling has really changed her! I don't know what kind of life she had in her 1-3 years of life before the animal shelter. She had been held, but she didn't like it and was very hard to pick up and hold. Except at the vet, where she got as close as possible to me and was quiet.

The sling was custom made for her by Theresa of BabyinaFishBowl. She makes custom baby slings, but was willing to make one for a rabbit. We emailed back and forth a lot to make sure it was good for Silver. After that, it only took about a week to arrive in CA from NY.
Silver decided the sling was hideous and fought like crazy for about 45 seconds. Then she decided the sling was cozy and settled down for a long (for her) sling rest.

It feels totally different to hold a rabbit who is relaxed and rests her head on your arm, compared to one who is tense and rigid.

The amazing thing is that with only a few sling rests, she has become much easier to handle, even for nail clipping. She is willing to sit on people briefly without the sling, and yesterday, came out of the sling and snooped around a bit before coming back to me to get back in the sling. The sling has totally changed this bun.

Well, not totally, she still bothers the cats.

wasted time

Today I wasted time playing with photoshop. I made Janow's but even bigger, and while I was at it, I made me skinny.

Then I thought "What if I made Janow really long, like a limo?" and after I did that, I figured I would make my butt fit the saddle. That was pretty crazy, so I made Janow's eye bigger in shock.


I'm not very good at this, but I bet I could be if I wasted a whole bunch more time!