A New "Hand Bag"

Here are pics of a bag that I recently made. It uses my favorite motif (as is you haven't noticed), the hand or handprint.

This bag was made with a variety of wool scraps left over from other projects, some craft rings, some plastic buttons, a vintage plastic button & some large glass beads.

Hope Everyone Had A Happy Valentine's Day!

Ahhhh... Valentine's Day! I know a lot of people hate it, but I really like the idea of having a day that celebrates your love! Of course, I am lucky... I am married to my best friend. It's easy to celebrate that...

Here are pics of the wallhanging that I made for my Sugar Daddy for Valentine's Day. It is made with a variety of wool (both commercially available and handspun), acrylics, bamboo, silk & cotton yarns. I hung it from a piece of bamboo. The piece also has lots of tiny glass beads (that were spun with the handspun wool).

This is funny... Plus it teaches us a valuable lesson!

Here is another YouTube find... I just looooove YouTube!

A Softie in Honor of My Aunt Elizabeth

This is a softie that I made for in honor of my Aunt Elizabeth. She is the funkiest little lady that I have ever met!

Things have changed since my last couple of posts... maybe that's why I haven't blogged in a while... I have just taken some time to sit back and evaluate what has been going on.

Right before Christmas, she fell and broke her pelvic bone . She had to spend some time in the hospital and in a nursing home... that was quite disturbing. She has recovered remarkably; and made the decision to go to an assisted living facility.

She gave me some thread, a very beautiful German embroidery hoop (wooden... and that clamps to a chair of table), all of her crocheting, knitting (she has faith that I will learn it) supplies. She also gave me 3 large garbage bags of yarn that she had around her house...
talk about a yarn stash! There were vintage yarns, full skeins, scraps, wool, acrylic... just lots of stuff!

So I wanted to make her a thank you gift. I incorporated scraps of yarn that she gave me with some recycled sari silk yarn... that I know she likes...

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I have entered this into the Softie Awards: http://softiescentral.typepad.com/softie_awards/

Here's the link to The Softie Awards group on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/69953377@N00/

I don't think I have much chance of winning anything... number 1, because the pictures don't do it justice & number 2, there is some AWESOME talent out there!
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{ Blogger is not letting me upload anymore pics now... so if you want to see other views... please click my flickr photo stream ------------------------------->>>>>> }

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Frankly, I was shocked that she was going into assisted living!
Aunt Elizabeth has lived by herself for over 25 years, since my Uncle Jay died. She is at least 94; and until her Christmas Fall, had been working a huge organic garden all by herself in her backyard. It just never occurred to me that she might not always live in her house...


But when I told her my concerns... she assured me that this was her decision & that's what she wanted to do... she is right, it's not my choice...

{ <<------ Blogger let me get one more done}

I have a lot of happy memories tied up in that little house. My Aunt & Uncle were a well-matched pair. If I had to pick a word to describe them, it would be eccentric. They would go on trips and bring you back the oddest, but coolest souvenir-- most memorable was a prescription bottle of Mount St. Helen Ash! They brought home bags of it and packaged it in prescription bottles with type-written labels!

My Aunt was, and is, one of my most encouraging supporters in my crafty development. She was always making something... Christmas stockings, sweaters, most of her own clothing.

Favorite story:

When I was in Junior High, I took Home Ec; and our sewing project was a wrap-around skirt. Now I made an A- on the skirt... which I was thrilled with. I remember showing Aunt Elizabeth my skirt with pride...And the look of utter horror on her proper little face!!! From the front, my skirt was acceptable, but the back, oh the back: my seams were all twisty... i had cut some of my notches off (it really was bad, now that i think of it).

So that summer, i took sewing lessons from Aunt Elizabeth... we remade my skirt! I ripped out every seam... and we took it from scratch... she just came from the era where workmanship was important.

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My mom just called, My aunt has been admitted to the hospital - she will have surgery Monday for a physical reason... the doctor says that he doesnt anticipate any difficulties... please offer up a prayer, positive thought, etc... for her speedy recovery. Thanks