Sunny Skies

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Sunny Skies. That's the name of this Sticky Note. I've decided to do a better job of naming my pieces on the Pine Tree Designs website. It's been a process over time. I've always struggled with what to call things - my brain just isn't wired creatively that way. I tend to just name the colors but when I beefed up the site a while back, I quickly ran out of ideas. So over time I started naming the new stuff better, starting with the Southwest stuff, which I mostly named after cities in New Mexico and Arizona.

It's mostly been working. When I get an order I always have to look up what was ordered because I find myself thinking, " Bisbee Blue? What the heck is a Bisbee Blue?"

The other day I received an order for a card called Mohave. I couldn't find it on the website to save my soul. The order came in the very morning I was updating the site. I added some new stuff and removed some older items. So I thought it must be something I deleted. Because I hadn't renamed the designs on my hard drive, I couldn't find it there. I even checked the website server because I didn't remember deleting any files from there. Nope.

It wasn't until writing this entry that I remembered that I even have a page devoted to Southwest colors. You could probably see the lightbulb over my head from where you're sitting. Duh! Mohave. There it is! I'm such a dork sometimes.

Meanwhile, like I said, I had decided to become more consistent in naming my designs. It's a good thing.

St. Valentine's Day Fine Arts & Craft Show

Schroeder High School
Saturday, February 9, 10-4
875 Ridge Road
Webster, NY 145480

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Set it Free

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Not my favorite design to stitch so I'll probably be phasing this one out.

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I bought a potter's wheel years ago - like before Simon was born now that I think about it, so it's well over 20 years old now. I bought a small kiln from a private person, pretty inexpensive. When Simon arrived, I used it less and less but I always held on to it. My plan was to use it in my "golden years". This week I decided it's time to let the dream go. My art life has taken me in new directions. It's time to set the wheel and kiln free to be enjoyed by someone else.

I posted them both on Rochester NY ReUse It (formerly our local Freecycle chapter). I knew it was a good deal for someone but I was blown away by the number of responses - 23. The people ranged from retirees to kids, people who wanted to learn and people who wanted to return to something they loved. I ended up giving it to a woman who is giving it to her high school in a small town about an hour away from here. She graduated from this school 4 years ago but loved the pottery class she took there and wanted more kids to have the opportunity she did. She's picking up the wheel, kiln and accoutrement this week. Her parents are visiting her Saturday, and they will drive the stuff back to their hometown and deliver it to the high school. Pretty nice folks to do all that.

Steve, who usually isn't very cynical, joked (I think) that she just wrote that story to tug at my heartstrings, which it did. I believe her and I'm happy multiple people will be able to use the equipment. I don't even care if she claims this donation on her taxes. I trust that everything will work out fine - however it's supposed to.

It took me a long time to make this decision and it feels good. It was part of my recent basement reorg - and now that side of the basement looks great. I bought two pegboards to put up on the wall near where the wheel & kiln resided. Steve has a little work to do on that side of the basement and a lot to do on the other side (his old office) but he's been busy with other projects. So it's not quite done but it sure looks better down there.

I love to purge possessions!

St. Valentine's Day Fine Arts & Craft Show

Schroeder High School
Saturday, February 9, 10-4
875 Ridge Road
Webster, NY 145480

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The Lennons

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Sean Lennon on the left today, John Lennon on the right back in the day. Freaky, huh? In a good way, of course. (Here's a fun fact for you. Both John & Sean share Steve's birthday, October 9.)

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Color is the Word for 2008

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St. Valentine's Day Fine Arts & Craft Show

Schroeder High School
Saturday, February 9, 10-4
875 Ridge Road
Webster, NY 145480

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Tiny Notecards

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I'm not 100% happy with the second-from-the-outside green. It blends too much with the background, looking like the dark green is a ring. Easily fixable. But a good prototype - I've got the right idea.

This sunflower is made with one of the dies I bought with my new machine a few weeks ago and I've been playing around with leaves ever since. On a whim, today I tried that two-tone leaf, which is a punch (the light green part). I'd sort of stopped using it because it never punched particularly cleanly and I found it annoying. Today - not so bad. I just glued it to the dark green piece and cut around the light green. The inside areas still require a little bit of clean-up but it's usable. Next time I make this, I'll spread these six leaves out a little bit but I think I've finally found a leaf arrangement I'm happy with.

February 9, Saturday, 10-4
2nd Annual St. Valentine's Day
Fine Art & Craft Show
Schroeder High School
875 Ridge Road
Webster, NY 14580

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Poinsettias in January

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Does this resemble a poinsettia at all?
I guess the colors would put one in the mind of Christmas anyway.

I came up with the poinsettia pin last night when assembling Sticky Notes. I love the layeredness of this center so I started playing with a pin idea. I wanted thread on the pin, but now that I look at this center again, I think I like it better. Looks more like a chrysanthemum though. Oooh - imagine the color combinations possible! Could offer both. Always thinking and plotting . . .

I'm shipping another order to Artizanns this morning. I noticed I'm making the Sticky Notes much more contrasty this year. I originally started working monochromatically and slowly ventured into a few contrasty ones and noticed that people liked them. Sometimes, with this variegated thread I love to use, I sit down to make the notepad and wonder how in the heck am I going to make that work. Then I fiddle about and it really grows on me. I'll post some here tomorrow to show you what I mean. It's going to make one colorful display in stores and in my craft fair booth, for sure.

St. Valentine's Day Fine Arts & Craft Show

Schroeder High School
Saturday, February 9, 10-4
875 Ridge Road
Webster, NY 145480

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Mommy Makes Roses

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Beautiful rose, right? Read on!

Each and every one of Mommy Makes Roses paper flowers is made to order and hand-crafted by artist Cassie Mae Chappell. Cassie Mae worked for nearly three years to develop and perfect her process for making the roses.

The rose petals are handcut from coffee filters and carefully formed into a rose. The paper blooms are then handpainted using high quality watercolors, to resemble a variety of tea roses. The stems are created using floral stems and wire and the leaves are cut from handmade textured paper. The sizes vary, from miniature blooms that are 1 1/2" in diameter, to an extra double full bloom which is between 8" and 9" in diameter.

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Tiny Translucent

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Want to see my next big thing? Gift tags or notecards in translucent vellum envelopes! I bought 50 vellum and 50 white envelopes to see how they go over. The envelopes are 3-1/8" square so I made this 3" x 3" card the other day. I'm glad I only made one because I need to make it a hair smaller. This one is a very snug fit in the envelope.

I did a little research at Hallmark the other night. I wanted to see how much they sell little cards this size - about 60+ cents each. And those are as plain as can be. The biggest thing I discovered and I swear, I would never have thought of this in 100 years - is they offer larger "machinable" envelopes in which their square enveloped cards fit. The post office charges a 17 cent surcharge for "non-machinable" envelopes. So stick the square envelope in a slightly larger rectangular envelope. Bam - 41 cents!

I forgot to see how much they are selling the larger envelopes for - or do they come with a square card if you want one? (Helpful readers: does anyone know?) At first I thought one would put the square card directly in a rectangular envelope which offends my sensibilities. But I'm perfectly okay with putting a square card in a square envelope inside a rectangular envelope. And it won't add enough weight to cost more than 41 cents.

I think that's brilliant. I can't believe I hadn't thought of it. At this point, I'm not going to offer the larger envelopes but I'll be able to suggest it to my customers. Maybe eventually I will have the larger envelopes available. To tell the truth, the 5" square greeting cards are the thing of which I sell the least. The Sticky Notes, gift tags and paper jewelry are the biggest sellers.

St. Valentine's Day Fine Arts & Craft Show

Schroeder High School
Saturday, February 9, 10-4
875 Ridge Road
Webster, NY 145480

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Tiny Boxes

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These little boxes were on the clearance page of my Premier Packaging catalog so I bought 100 of these yellow ones and 100 navy blue ones. They are 2" x 2" x 2" and advertised as holding one single truffle. I'll use them as a little gift box for the pins I sell. Aren't they the cutest?

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The woman in Steve's office liked the same framed quilt we all liked - the one with the flower centers. So I put flower centers in the other 4 quilts. One has tiny blue hearts in the center which is cute too. Steve said she is considering buying another one so she can have one in her office and one at home. I'm glad she's happy with her order.

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St. Valentine's Day Fine Arts & Craft Show

Schroeder High School
Saturday, February 9, 10-4
875 Ridge Road
Webster, NY 145480

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Quilt Blocks with Flowered Centers

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This is the other framed quilt I'm sending in to work with Steve for his co-worker to choose from. I like this one better. In my world, more is better. Plus I like the darker blue background.

This is the one I posted yesterday, for comparison. I'll have both at my next craft show. I'll have to see which one the quilt purists go for. I do get asked a lot if I'm a quilter. "In one of my previous craft lives," I say. Crafters always nod their head knowingly.

St. Valentine's Day Fine Arts & Craft Show

Schroeder High School
Saturday, February 9, 10-4
875 Ridge Road
Webster, NY 145480

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Blue & Burgundy

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This is a 5" x 5" framed paper quilt I made for an order. While I was making the pieces for this, I made a bunch more and will have 5 others very similar to this. I'll post another one tomorrow as soon as the frame is dry. I added a little something to the center of the stars and mounted it on a darker blue background. The order is for a woman in Steve's office so I'm going to send both versions in with him so she can choose.

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Feedjit

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Look over on the sidebar - I totally copied my new friend Rosie - it's a Feedjit, a Live Feed Widget. Cool stuff. (Thanks Rosie.)

My blog stats went way up over the December holidays. I figured they'd go back to normal afterwards but they've remained high (for me). I use Sitemeter for my stats for this blog and whenever I check them, about 90% of the hits are from Google Images. Sometimes I can tell what was Googled to get there, sometimes I can't.

I use Sitemeter for Pine Tree Designs too and my hits have been higher than normal there too. Same thing, I figured people were searching for holiday cards and pine tree related things so the hits would drop in January too. They haven't really. They aren't sky-high but I told Steve if I received one order from each hit, I could retire from the day job and focus on my paper passion.

Alas, not quite yet.

I'm off in a few minutes to join my friend Nantz for breakfast. We're meeting at IHOP. I've only been there once, quite a few years ago so I'm looking forward to it - and her of course! I might stop by AC Moore afterwards. That craft store chain is relatively new to this area. This store in Henrietta has been open a year, maybe two or more - and I've never been! I'm as shocked as you. I'm hardly ever out that way and between the Michael's near work, JoAnn's near home and the Internet, I just haven't had a strong enough desire to drive there. I do scan their ad every Sunday.

St. Valentine's Day Fine Arts & Craft Show

Schroeder High School
Saturday, February 9, 10-4
875 Ridge Road
Webster, NY 145480

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Rosie's Quilling

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Check out Rosie's work. To me, there's a fine line between quilling and perfect quilling. Rosie's is perfect! I was perusing her site for just the right photo to post here and saw these pieces that include Spirelli - the "string art" you've seen me do. Then I read the caption:

These are memo block holders that I am doing for the farmers market on Nov 15th. Would never have thought of this if it wasn't for Stefani Tadio. She did some for her fair and when I saw these thick blocks in our local newsagents that I thought they would be good for the market and to fill my stall up a bit.

I love seeing my name in lights! Thanks Rosie. We all inspire each other. Such fun.

She does lots with hearts, my favorite shape.


And my other favorite motif - lined up flowers, each one different. I think this is fantastic.

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My trip to Buffalo yesterday went very well. The meeting was interesting, the new service we'll be using is perfect for us. Lunch with my friends was great. I enjoyed the drive. I got back to the office around 3:30.

But I felt out of sorts last night. I didn't even stitch, just laid on the couch watching TV. I guess it was all that extra mental alertness and out-of-routine thing. Sheesh, what a lightweight I am. I wanted to beg off exercising this morning but I didn't. Steve and I have been using the treadmill and elliptical every morning since December 3 (the Monday after my last craft show).

All I can say is TGIF. I look forward to recharging this weekend and getting lots done, starting with sorting through my new paper and frames orders that arrived this week.
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Large Centers

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Each of these circles is about 4-1/2" in diameter. The bottom one is for a custom order I'm working on now. The top one uses my most favoritest thread ever. The thread on the bottom one shows up better on this paper though.

This is the aforementioned thread I've been drooling over.

My latest paper order arrived from Bazzill Basics Paper yesterday. I probably won't open it until Saturday. You know how I love to savor sorting through all that luscious cardstock. Arrange, rearrange.

I'm shuffling off to Buffalo today, about an hour away. I have a morning meeting in our office there, then it's out to lunch with some friends from that office. I've been joking that I'm going there to have lunch and will try to squeeze in a meeting if I have time. The meeting is to see a demo by a company we'll be working with to utilize their online invoicing and secure credit card processing. I'm pretty excited about it actually. You know how easily we geeky accounting types are entertained.

St. Valentine's Day Fine Arts & Craft Show

Schroeder High School
Saturday, February 9, 10-4
875 Ridge Road
Webster, NY 145480

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Spray Booth

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When I cleaned up the basement a few weeks ago I used one of Steve's daughter's old computer desks to make myself this spray booth. I spray paint frames in the garage in the warmer months and then I was using the workbench in the basement. Now I have my own permanent set up - much better. I used box tops to make the cardboard surround with a plastic garbage bag to cover the top part. And I can see my paint much better than in the box I used to keep it in. Works pretty good!

St. Valentine's Day Fine Arts & Craft Show

Schroeder High School
Saturday, February 9, 10-4
875 Ridge Road
Webster, NY 145480

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Button Flowers

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In looking for a card to post here today I came across the button flower cards I made. I'd forgotten about them. I don't have any more so I must have sold out. Must make more, I think they're cute. Good for spring.

.St. Valentine's Day Fine Arts & Craft Show

Schroeder High School
Saturday, February 9, 10-4
875 Ridge Road
Webster, NY 145480
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Blue & Burgundy Quilt Blocks

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This past weekend was supposed to be all about assembling Sticky Notes, which I did do most of Saturday. I took a Florida framed piece to The Enchanted Rose Garden and a bunch of similarly themed Sticky Notes too, and spruced up my display there. Sunday, I remembered I had an order to fill for one of Steve's co-workers. One of the pieces she ordered is a framed quilt so I made a bunch of quilt blocks yesterday. I'll assemble at least 3 framed pieces out of these, plus some Sticky Notes I think.

I also have 2 custom orders, each is a 12" x 12" framed piece that I'll work on next. I ordered the frames last week, they should be here today or tomorrow. I had told those customers I would make them in January so I best get to it!

St. Valentine's Day Fine Arts & Craft Show

Schroeder High School
Saturday, February 9, 10-4
875 Ridge Road
Webster, NY 145480

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The Gratitude Campaign

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The Gratitude Campaign
I watched this video 3 times and teared up each time. Check it out.

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It's Friday!

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A rerun from 2006 while I'm working on a new Valentine's Day pin.

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Check out Gretchen's hilarious blog entry, particularly if you've ever had a colonoscopy.

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Oh Deer

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I wish I could say I took this at my house but it's a photo circulated to me by a friend recently.

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Got Coffee?

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I'm How Old?

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I like my dental hygienist a lot. She's funny and interesting and gets the job done in good time. She's also young. Which I forget. Until she brought up her recent wedding pictures on her computer to show me.

Stefani: Oh my gosh, he's so good looking!

Tracy: Um, that's my dad.

Turns out her dad is my age, which is of course why I found him so good looking and relatable.

Oh dear. I'm about to turn 52. I keep forgetting.

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Jill's Mandala

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About 5" x 5", made for my niece Jill for Christmas. She's here visiting Gretchen this weekend and we're going to lunch today so I can give it to her in person since I didn't get it made in time for Christmas. I should have scanned the mandala separate from the frame because the mandala is a little out of focus. But you get the idea. I love that frame, can't remember where I bought it. I'm always on the lookout for square frames.
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New Thread

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(If you're into thread, click on the photos for closeups.)

I woke up all grumpy this morning because it was 8-freakin'-thirty - the day is half-shot! What's the point of even getting up now? But when I went out to get the paper, I spied my padded envelope of beautiful new threads that UPS delivered while we were eating dinner last night I guess. Suddenly, the world was wonderful again. I can't wait to take some of them for a spin tonight.

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The reason I slept so late is because I went to bed around midnight (gasp!) last night because we were watching a movie I highly recommend, An Unfinished Life. I must have put this in our Netflix queue during my Robert Redford phase. The scenery was beautiful (set in Wyoming, shot in British Columbia), nice story, teared up a number of times - all important elements of a Stefani Movie. I wish they'd cast someone other than Jennifer Lopez - her acting is kind of flat.

A movie we watched on HBO on Demand on New Year's Eve that I don't recommend is Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets. I'd never seen it before and I knew it was violent but it's a "classic" so I relented. It was very cool seeing Robert DeNiro and Harvey Keitel so young (30 and 34 respectively) but oy, the acting! It was like a Saturday Night Live sketch after a while with all the Italian "heeeyyy" and chin flicking going on. I couldn't wait for it to end. I kept watching Steve to see if he was falling asleep (which he'll never admit to even though I catch him numerous times) so I could convince him to turn it off and let's go to bed for cryin' out loud. (We did get to bed at 10:30 - no midnight for us.)

Some old movies hold up - like Rainman which we watched last week. Dustin Hoffman is genius in that movie! I wish I could go back to the days when I liked Tom Cruise because now unfortunately I think he's kind of goofy. He's still a good actor but I can't forget I'm watching goofball Tom Cruise. It's sort of the same with Tom Hanks, but not the goofy part. I absolutely love everything he does. I watched him throughout Charlie Wilson's War recently, half watching the movie, half thinking, "He's perfect in this." His accent, barely moving his lips, his look - all just right for the role.

Tonight we'll watch The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio. You think Netflix and the like are doing great business because of the writers strike??

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3 Centers

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My 7 new punches from Scrappily Ever After arrived on Wednesday. I'd forgotten about a couple of the punches I ordered - one being that middle daisy above. They have things categorized by size (mini, small, medium, large, super giant, mega and mega giant) but not all punches have sizes listed individually. And some that do list sizes are metric so I have to whip out my ruler to convert that into inches.

Buying that middle daisy above was definitely a pig in a poke. I figured whatever size it turned out to be I could definitely use it, even if it's just to replace a punch I own, because I do wear them out. I'm ecstatic that it fits so perfectly between the two daisy punches I already own.

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Snowflakes

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I think I posted this 2005 card here recently but I post it again to bring this Flickr page to your attention. I just slapped a couple of die cuts together for this card. Her original handcut work is amazing!

This talented artist is the admin of a Flickr group, "Snowflakes" and she invited me to post that card in that group. She gives instructions here.

I found this book in the Amazon.com box on her page.

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Here We Go

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I'm always stitching, every free moment I have. Yet I'm always amazed when I see the accumulation of pieces ready to be assembled into Sticky Notes. This is just part of the accumulation.

I spent yesterday on Pine Tree Designs paperwork and ordering new supplies (thread! punches!). I'm full of new ideas.

New Year's Day is my favorite holiday I have to say because it always feels like such a fresh start, a clean slate. I always feel extra organizational - you should see (half of) our basement!

Life is good.

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Happy New Year!

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iStockphoto.com

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