Just in time for Xmas and Chanukah

Remember A Clockwork Orange?

I drove by a store yesterday and I HAD TO go back this morning to take a photo.

Yes - its legs, arms and BREASTS!

Then I got really curious and had to go back with a friend to see if it had a head. We peeked into the side window but only saw a red fingernail. So into the store we went - The owner was at the rear moving boxes around and as we came in we said we wanted to know if it had a head. In a monotone voice he answered, "No head, wipe your feet."

Excuse me - I wasn't out mucking the stalls or plowing the lower 40 - and who the fuck puts white carpeting in a retail shop?

And more importantly wouldn't you think that someone who put this in their window would have a sense of humor?

I wonder what it costs?

Red Shoe Ramblings blog moved

Just want to mention this in case any of you are wondering where Deb went off to! I think this might be the beginning of a trend! Visit Deb's new blog at http://debrichardson.com/blog/

Invitation to a beading class TONIGHT!

This was posted over on The Lone Beader - I thought some of you might be interested - I know I am - her work is incredible!

EBSQ Live!

Adventures in Bead Embroidery

Date:Monday, December 11, 2006

Time:Eastern 9 pmCentral 8 pmMountain 7 pmPacific 6 pm

Please join me in another adventure as I demonstrate the basics of bead embroidery on this month's EBSQ Live. My presentation will take place in the EBSQ Chat Room. If you would like to participate, all you need to do is get there a few minutes early, log in with a user name, and enter the room. Presentations usually last between 15- 30 minutes. You can stick around to ask questions, or you can just watch and learn. EBSQ Live workshops are open to both members and non-members, so I hope you'll remember to stop by:)

Productive weekend & added excitement!

This is the weekend I wanted to get ready to put up our Xmas tree - not that I am actually going to get the tree up by Sunday evening, but I needed to do the deep house cleaning that needs to be done before bringing the tree in. Stuff like moving furniture, vacuuming under the rugs and washing the wood floors - icky dirty stuff. The living room looks good, and yesterday the kitchen looked pretty good too! Today the kitchen is still clean but there are piles of things not yet baked or cooked, and because I will be doing these things in the next 3 or 4 days, its silly to put it all away. So what else did Morgan and I get finished this weekend?

1. We made 7.5 pounds of fudge
2. 6 dozen oatmeal raisin cookies
3. 5 dozen double-chocolate crescent cookies
4. Morgan made chocolate peanut butter candy with her Aunt
5. All the laundry is washed, folded and put away
6. I finished 2 books on tape - Entombed by Linda Fairstein and Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris. I'm getting ready to listen to The Kills also by Linda Fairstein
7. Half of the gifts I've bought - are now wrapped
8. The refrigerator is cleaned out and washed

Now for the excitement - While I was washing dishes I heard an explosion. I looked out the window and saw smoke and flames across the highway near the train tracks. by the time I grabbed the phone to call 911 - the fire had spread to about 10 feet wide and within 3 or 4 minutes it was probably 80 to 100 feet wide. The good news is that there isn't too much brush to fuel a fire and the fire department arrived very quickly. Of course I grabbed my camera and took a bunch of shots - I even got photo credit for the one featured on WestportNow . Here are a few others

Do You Deserve Your HS Diploma?

I saw this over on Kristen's blog. She is much younger than I am and does not suffer from as many senior moments as I do. She also probably studied.

You paid attention during 80% of high school!

68-84% Pretty good, you know that there are libraries and newspapers, and you remember what you've read. You were a child that wasn't left behind! Do you deserve your high school diploma? Create a Quiz

Quilting post

Belated Happy Thanksgiving - I had a post all ready to write for Thanksgiving and I fell behind in things I needed to do. So I will publish that post later this week. I think it is always appropriate to say Thank You, and there are special Thanks needed to be said.... So that being postponed.... Here is my quilting post (no photos) I have a few deadlines, recently past and looming and this weekend I went to work and made a pretty big dent. I started off making 15 Fiber Artist Trading Cards - most are for a swap with other Artists, but I made a few extra's to tuck into holiday cards. I'm always amazed that even with doing this assembly-line style they take so long to make! How is is possible that a small business card sized piece each take 20 minutes or more? Well I'm sure that there is a reason and I'm glad that I multi-task when I sew. No my multi-tasking isn't causing me to delay (unless said task is checking email or IMing with friends). Mostly my task of choice is listening to audio books - I'm almost through with my 2nd book of the weekend - this one is pretty good - Cross by James Patterson. Before that I read New Orleans Mourning by Julie Smith - also a pretty good book. Back to quilting... After I finished the sewing on my cards I really wanted to find snowflake confetti or sequins which i was sure I had. I know I could just go out and buy some - but I am trying to use up my stuff - not just go out and buy more... Of course because it was a fiber card, I could also sew or bead but I had already put on the back and truth be told, I really wanted the sequins - so late last night I found large (quarter-sized) silver snowflake confetti in the bottom of a drawer, dug out the E600 and attached them. The cards look pretty good. My next project was making 2 heart blocks for a friend - I'm slightly behind in sending these out but they are going this morning so I'm pretty sure they can still be used. I hope she likes them My last task for the evening was to cut up large (14") squares of Christmas fabric and cut them into triangles. I cut enough to make four 60" square quilts. I will be pleased if I can make 1 or 2 holiday throws for family members, but maybe I'll be ambitious and make all 4! Hey a girl can dream can't she? My goal tonight is to sew all the triangle halves into squares and do some layouts - I had a plan, but not quite enough primarily white Holiday fabric, so I think I will adapt the blocks I have into another design. Again not wanting to buy more fabric and with a goal of using up as much of the stuff I already own. Time to get ready for work - I hope you all enjoyed the long Thanksgiving weekend and got at least some of (if not all) of what you wanted to accomplish done! I DID!

Bright Spots in week from Hell Part1

Last week was the week of our largest and most important meeting at work (day job). This year was filled with technical hurdles which we should have been able to jump easily, but unfortunately a subcontracted failed miserably (IMHO). I'm not going to say anything else about the meeting. However, I was treated wonderfully by the hotel where the meeting was held, if you ever have a chance to stay at The Millennium Broadway (feet from Times Square) Jump and say yes! The rooms are richly appointed, the staff was superior and everything was beyond my expectations. Special thanks go to Eunice and Lynda for making our meeting and stay wonderful! This was the view from my room - I was a little down from Time Square and was treated to a view of this oasis, can you see the glider complete with plush pillows on that rooftop? I took a quick stop to meet a business acquaintance that I've been doing business with for more than 10 years! Robert is the catering director of The Warwick and he treated me to a quick tour of the facilities, and gifted me with a very special bottle of champagne! Walking back I wanted to take photos of the Rockefeller tree which was covered in scaffolding, the tree once belonged to a friend of Julie (who I work with), and came from Ridgefield, CT. Here is a photo from the front - showing the size in comparison with the skaters. Walking down the street I saw a window that reminds me of Laume. She often uses quotes from Le Petit Prince as her tagline. They were working on the windows across the street and here is a pciture of somone under the draping - people were trying to peek in. I guess I'll have to go back to see the windows after they've been uncovered! Blogger is being a pain - I'll finish this in the next post!

Bright Spots -Part2

More views Broadway at Night & Rent Strawberries replacing my Zen Rock Garden Reflections Cartier wrapped up for Christmas

Artshare MeMe

Artshare Meme I saw this on Emmy Schoonbeek's blog (and she saw it on Arlee's... who saw it on Skybell's ...) So if you want to play along read this and you wil get a piece of art from me , but you must follow the instruction. The first five people to respond to this in the comments section will receive a piece of artwork. BUT, in addition to the comments you have to post this to your blog too and continue sharing the art. What will you get? It will be a surprise, but you will have it before the end of November!.......

Fall on My Face

Fall on My Face was suggested as a name for the pins, by my friend Susan, she has a couple of other suggestions, but I can't remember what they were - they were good though! LOL Finished up one pin last night and beaded the face of the 2nd one. I'm planning on veining the 2nd pin with thread instead of beads.

2 Fall leaf pins

These are 2 pins I started last night. The face on the left with the beading is one that I purchased several years ago. The one on the right was one I made this week - its painted with Lumiere paint. Both are glued to Ultra Suede and are pretty easy to bead through. Once I finish beading the rust-colored leaf, I'll add a stiffener and backing. Should be done tonight.

My mind is scattered like Autumn leaves

I have an idea for a small doll using shaker pegs and polymer faces. I think I got the idea because I have 200 or 300 pegs - one of my earliest eBay purchases, and not one I've ever used! Yesterday I asked Tom where my Dremel was - he wanted to know why I wanted it - well DUH - its mine... As I got the box and attachments out and started to bring it up to my studio - he told me not to go too far with it - HELLO - its MINE - the Dremel is now in MY STUDIO and hopefully it will stay there for a while. When I bought it - I learned that I should get a good one - a powerful plug in, and I even got the one with the flexible shaft attachments and the small rotary saw attachment. I've had it 3 years and the only thing that I ever used it for was to have TOM drill a hole in a dozen dominos. I used it to sand off the knob from a few shaker pegs. Then I was thinking how to attach some purchased faces I had - well I have about 8 lbs of Sculpty, so I decided to make my own faces and embed screws into them. The only real problem is you can't use torque to turn the screw - so I had to use a pair of pliers - I learned this when one of the heads exploded! The small doll isn't right yet, but I think I know what direction to take her in, and I really liked making the faces - I think I may use the large round one on a bendie doll - it is the perfect size for the face.... Great another PROJECT! LOL

Vote Early - VOTE OFTEN

AND VOTE FOR ME! AQS International Online Quilt Contest Voting NOW OPEN View all the great quilt entries and vote for your favorite quilt (MINE # 1001 on page 20). here is a quick link to page 20 - My quilt Deirdre of the Sorrows is on the top of the page. http://tinyurl.com/yga9az I will continue to annoy you with Blatant requests for votes until the voting is over! Only your votes decide the winners. The top 15 quilts selected by the voters will be included in a special quilt exhibition at the 2007 Quilt Show in Paducah, Kentucky. And you, the Voters will be automatically entered in a random drawing for spectacular quilt prizes, which includes a trip to the 23rd Annual AQS Quilt Show and Contest in Paducah. Voting ends November 10, 2006. REMEMBER - VOTE EARLY, VOTE OFTEN AND VOTE FOR #1001! (page 20) http://tinyurl.com/yga9az Photo in previous post

Vote for #1001 ... please

Blogger is being a pain - so I'm posting the main text separately. The general message is... My blatant request for votes: Vote for quilt 1001 (page 20) http://tinyurl.com/yga9az

QuiltedFamilyTree Website updated

My sister asked me for a donation for their school to be used for an auction. I donated a QuiltedFamilyTree quilt and it was used as the grand prize! I understand the auction was a huge success and made Huber Street School lots of MONEY! Way to go Ardath! I decided I had to get my head out of my butt and updated the QuiltedFamilyTree website. I have a few more things to update, like the FAQ and how to order. But right now these quilts may be ordered in time for the holiday!

We opened an Etsy Store

Morgan and I made a few rings today, so we decided to try our luck selling them on Etsy. I really love the way the rings came out - we would make more but I want to see about getting a rod with sizes on them, right now we are estimating the exact sizes. The pinky ring is approximately a size 5 and the ring-finger is size 6. Both are available for $5/each plus shipping. Please visit our shop on Etsy the link is http://dabbotts.etsy.com

Halloween Costumes

For the entire month of October I wear my large collection of brightly colored Halloween Socks! They almost never fail to get a comment or 2, or 10! However, try as I might, I can't get Morgan to participate in this annual ritual. There was a time when she loved to dress up as a dinosaur, puppy or other strange Halloween visitor, even when it wasn't Halloween. I was thinking of that today when I saw this costume online at I suggested to Laume that she make this PINK costume for her darling Granddaughter on a group we belong to - Laume's reply to me was that I should make one for Morgan, "Her cute little face scowling evilly above the pink petals". Just to show how Cute Morgan's little face was - here she is in her Seasonal Festive Costume. I'm pretty sure her Glazed-Stare is from watching BARNEY, BABY BOP and friends on TV!

Y is for...

To find out more about WordPlay and the nut that started this insanity! My personal dictionary continues with the Letter Y

• Yellow - I wear lots of yellow - because my husband thinks it looks good on me. The real reason is because I don't like washing yellow items with anything else or I think they look dingy - so I have to wear lots of them so I have enough for a whole load!
• YURT - I want a YURT - don't you want a YURT too?
• Yell - my inside voice
• Yankee - my husband and kids are Yankees (not Yankee fans - they both like Boston), I however think of myself as someone from Joursey (NJ)
• Yesterday - I don't know what yesterday will bring because I'm writing this several weeks early - so right now my yesterday is really tomorrows
• Yoga - I loved doing yoga - now it just seems like starting would be WORK
• Yodel - something I can't do and shouldn't try to do
• Yield - interesting concept, something that might be good to teach again in driver's ed classes
• Yawn - Damn - just typing the word made me do it.

Center of the Swamp

Here are the center 6 panels. Next weekend I'll quilt this section, then add the side panels. I have a lot of extra pieces cut out - maybe I'll make shams - NAH - that won't be happening! Dust ruffle?

Swamp Quilt Update

I figured out that I need a quilt 9' x 9' for my bed - this size would lay flat with enough on the sides to drape to the spot I want. This would not count any extra to wrap around the pillows, etc. My block units will be 3' square so basically I need 9 blocks for the bed. I've also decided that I want to make a small throw quilt 9'x3' to go over the pillows we stack on the bed. Currently there are 4 pillows sometimes there are 6, sometimes less). This will require 3 block unit, so I will need a total of an even dozen. I've made enough pieces to make 12 units (I have 3 completed and not in these photos. I also have decided that basically I will quilt this in a 6 foot section (the middle) then after I will add an additional 18" to each edge - this will make it easier for me to quilt - even on the HQ - as I'm limited to 8 feet with the current set up. If you look at these photos taken from floor level and from the loft - the first chair is right above the 3rd unit - its amazing that this doesn't look like it is basically 9 feet from the bottom to the chair but it is. The cat and dog have been moved to a bedroom, so I can try and assemble the sections, then I will get the actual layout figured out. I think the final draft will be easier on my bed.