Philadelphia

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I found the above picture on my camera. I took it in the gift shop at the museum where I bought my lamp. The stars were very cool too - 5 pointed and 8 pointed.

We got a fairly early start to Philadelphia from Virginia Beach. Good thing because there were major delays in Delaware due to - I guess we're not sure what because the actual cause took place in a different direction from where we finally got to go. But it easily added an hour or more to our trip. We arrived in Philadelphia around 4:00, by the time we got to our room at the Marriott. And look! Triple towel origami!

We walked down to the Reading Terminal Market just to get the lay of the land, because it closed at 6:00. Very cool place - a big ol' hustly bustly farmers market. The majority of vendors were food vendors. Based on what I'd read about it, I was hoping for more craft type vendors but I still enjoyed it.

We then went to the Field House for a refreshing beverage. That would be cranberry juice for me and light beer for Steve. We're wild like that.

We intended to go back there for dinner but after vegetating in our room for a bit, decided to eat dinner downstairs in the hotel restaurant. We just wanted to be still and relax.

We each ordered the classic Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich. When in Philly, right? I even took a photo of mine with my camera phone but I'm such a doofus, I rarely use the thing, so I neglected to save it. Duh. So this one is courtesy Google Images. (Our sandwiches weren't as big as this one appears to be!) I also took a photo of the little tiny tray of little tiny hermetically sealed condiments. Two each: ketchup, mayo and Grey Poupon. Perhaps not the best idea, environmentally speaking (too much packaging), but really, cute as hell. (Again, didn't save the photo.)

Our room was fantastic in this grand old hotel. Mom asked me recently if I really liked staying in hotels. Absolutely! And I really like staying in nice hotels, historic if possible.

These photos were taken through our window so they are really quite crummy but maybe you can see some of the architecture of some of these buildings. Great stuff!

We woke up around 7:00, showered, got dressed and packed and hit the road. Our original intention was to go back to the Reading Terminal Market to spend more time there but it didn't open until 9:00. I decided that I'd seen enough yesterday to satisfy my curiosity. Besides the Pennsylvania Dutch wouldn't be there on Sunday and if anything, I wanted to buy some of their baked goods, for our breakfast maybe. We were both eager to get home to our furry friends so like I said, we hit the road. We arrived home today around 2:00.

If you can take your eyes off those glaringly white gams for a while (yes, I just spent a week at a beach, yay for sunscreen) - please note 2 cats and a dog, all sitting near me on the couch.
Yeah, they missed us.

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Friday

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I'm so happy! I bought a Tord Boontje lamp today!! For my new gallery. It's made of Tyvek - you know, that tear-resistant stuff envelopes are made of. I looked at one of these 8 years ago when I was putting together my original studio. That was when we first moved into the house and I didn't want to spend more money. I guess I didn't mind spending $65 today. I love it. (Ask me if I still love it after I've spent time shaping it just so. It comes in a flat box.)

Can you imagine anything more perfect in a gallery filled with paper art?? I'll need more lighting of course, this is mostly for ambiance. I love ambiance!

But I'm ahead of myself. Today promised to be a scorcher so we opted to skip the beach. Which reminds me of a conversation I meant to share with you. This is from the other day, as I looked around at all the sweet young things lying on their colorful beach towels, (begging to get skin cancer, but I digress).

"You know, Steve, there was a time when my breasts stayed put, on top of my body. I'm sorry you missed that. I think it was a Thursday."

Ba-rum-bump.

So today. We opted to gather our favorite fast food breakfast items and eat at a local park. (We ate in the car with the windows rolled down, it was already hot.) I'm happy to report a Virginia strawberry banana smoothie tastes just as good as a New York strawberry banana smoothie. My friend Lynn says "chains are stains" because she much prefers independent restaurants but I say there's a lot to be said for consistency and fulfilled expectations.

Then we went to the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia which is very near our hotel. Because we passed it so many times, I had looked it up online and it seemed like a place I'd like. It was free, which was good, because it's not very big. I believe the woman working there meant the exhibition hall is closed while they prepare for the next exhibit - but I got to see the Liz Miller installation, which was pretty cool. And there was a room filled with area teachers art which was so-so. And I bought my lamp in the gift shop.

So that's 2 art museums we've visited this vacation. But we evened things up in Steve's direction by then going to an ultra violent movie, Wanted. I don't even really know if "ultra" is correct but it was very violent. Full of cool special effects and some humor and I enjoy Morgan Freeman and Angelina Jolie. Steve enjoyed it quite a bit. I didn't hate it. (Which is probably what he would say about the 2 art museums.)

What we both agreed on is that this was the best movie theater we've ever been to. The seats were sooo darn comfortable, lots of leg room, lots of elevation. (And I love a bathroom that sports self-flushing toilets and motion sensitive faucets. Never have to touch a thing.)

We got back to the room around 3:00 and have been just hanging out since. A thunder and lightning storm kicked up but we noticed a little too late to enjoy the scurry of the lifeguards getting the people out of the ocean and off the beach. But we sat on the balcony and watched the cabana boys run around locking up the chairs & umbrellas, etc. Then it poured, for a very short while. We saw another very brief storm come in a few days ago - and got to watch the lifeguards in action, whistles blowing, arms flailing. Kinda fun. (Cause we were comfy and dry.) Otherwise, it's been nice and dry this week.

Sharon - I don't know if you saw the questions I asked you in yesterday's comments section but as my resident Virginia expert, I have a few questions:

1. What's the purpose of the red & white striped crossing gates on the entrance and exit ramps of the highways? My guess is they have something to do with hurricane evacuation routes.

2. Why do I smell smoke outside all the time? I tried to Google the answer to that one but didn't find any definitive answers. Haven't read a paper all week. Are there raging forest fires nearby that I don't know about?

We're trying to decide if we want to walk to the hotel next door's restaurant or maybe order in subs from Papa John's or something. Then we plan to get to bed early and wake up early to get an early start towards Philadelphia so we have most of the day to spend wandering around there. Then we want to get an early start home Sunday morning since we both have to work Monday. Usually we build in a buffer day but guess we decided not to this time.

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Virginia Beach Vacation

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Just a couple of days left in Virginia Beach. I put some (15) photos in a set on my Flickr account.

Yesterday we spent most of the day driving around looking at stuff. We had a fantastic breakfast at IHOP - I can't go there without getting that Stuffed French Toast.

We headed towards Williamsburg, about an hour away. There was a time in my life when I used to love that working historical village stuff, but not anymore. I know this is a super nice one, but it feels been there, done that, to me. And I know Steve would have been bored to tears. I wouldn't have minded going in some of the little shops, except I guess it didn't thrill me enough to actually do it. Just not a shopper, no matter what, I guess.

We thought about Busch Gardens, but only for the animal exhibits, not the amusement park stuff. Nah, we weren't feeling it.

I was feeling kinda guilty about wasting the gas and our time. But then what actually saved the day was the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, which Steve really wanted to see. It links Virginia Beach/Norfolk with Virginia's Eastern Shore. It's the largest bridge-tunnel complex in the world. It's 17.6 miles shore to shore - made up of 12 miles of trestled roadway, 2 mile-long tunnels, 2 bridges, 4 man made islands, 2 miles of causeway and 5-1/2 miles of approach roads. So actually, including all that, it's 23 miles. It cost $450 million to build and not a dime of local, state or federal tax money was used.

I'm afraid of water, but have conditioned myself over the years to be less so. Bridges like these don't bother me - I just don't let Bad Mind take over. Steve mentioned it would be cool if the tunnels were made of glass. There would not be enough money in the universe to get me into one of them if that were the case. (Besides, it would be dark, dingy water - not bright and fishy like he'd like.)

This kills me - this bridge-tunnel has a snack bar and gift shop in the middle.

So we (I) drove over that monster. Twice - had to get back. The only part that seriously freaked me out, like I-couldn't-look-at-it-freaked-out - was where the bridge part circled around to the right a little bit. You could see where the bridge stopped, nothing but water showing where the tunnel part is, then the bridge picked up again a mile later. So it looked like we were going to drive off the bridge into the water. Ewwww. Avert eyes! Avert eyes! I literally couldn't look at that part.

It doesn't bother me to drive in a tunnel under a mountain. So apparently the possibility of millions of tons of rock crushing me to death is a walk in the park, compared to water doing the same. (Yes, I go in the ocean, but just to cool off, not very far in. It's one of the universe's cruelest tricks, pairing me up with Steve, who loves the water. But he's patient with me, bless his heart.)

Back in the room, we chilled out, read, slept a wee bit - and then decided to order in pizza and wings for dinner. A bed picnic! The pizza came from Papa John's - delish. The wings were chipotle BBQ - good flavor but not crispy. I only ate one. Even on a good day, the caloric investment is too high in terms of flavorful reward, for me. Steve's a wing man, but he didn't care for these either.

We're staying in an Econolodge. It's about the only hotel on the beach that offers free wireless internet in the guest rooms, which is why it worked for us. Otherwise, the hotel is adequate, clean, just fine. But we are kind of spoiled because of the nicer places we stay - that have more seating, for one thing. I can't get comfortable sitting on the bed working on a laptop or even stitching. There's one comfy chair and one desk chair, so we make do. It's funny, I've read a lot of hotel reviews over the last few years - and for every single one you can find good and bad reviews for the exact same hotel around the same time. Depends on the person's expectations I guess. I mean, in this room, the furniture is dinged and the AC is louder than hell. But that doesn't bother me. Someone else could find that abhorrent, I suppose. (I see the loud AC as a good thing. We could be next to the Screamin' Baby Room for all I know. It's like white noise that makes me feel we have no neighbors.) :-)

That's it for now. The rest is on my Flickr page which is pretty much a blog entry in itself.

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Charm City Cakes

.Another good thing that Gretchen turned me on to is the Food Network's Ace of Cakes. I love this show, love the people. It's filmed at Charm City Cakes in Baltimore so I got it in my head that I wanted to do a drive-by of the bakery, just to see it. I didn't really expect to find their address on their website because I know they don't want to be found because tourists and fans would be a pain in their neck. It's a working bakery with people doing their jobs, in a clean environment, no less. The minimum price for their cakes is $500 (!) so if I'm paying that much for a cake, I want the employees paying attention to their work and don't want a bunch of goober tourists sneezing all over my cake. You're welcome for that visual.

A month or two ago I found what I thought was their address somewhere but neglected to write it down. By the time it was time to leave for our trip, I was hoping our new GPS could find it. (Also need to note here that the Hyatt does not offer free wireless anywhere in the hotel or I would have looked it up again while in Baltimore.)

We'd had a long day on Sunday and it was time to leave Baltimore to head to Virginia Beach. The only thing our GPS could find was Charm City Catering. I called Mom & Dad to look up the address of the bakery online for me. Bless their hearts, they looked high and low for the address.

Finally Dad came up with something, which turned out to be a private residence. I think he just said any ol' thing to get me off the phone. :-) We decided to give Charm City Catering a try, then we were outta there. Nope, that wasn't it either.

My dream was shattered. But we did enjoy a lovely tour of some interesting neighborhoods in Baltimore. Stuff we would not have seen otherwise, for sure.

I know they don't really want to be found but doggone it, I thought I was special and deserved to see the place. I was just going to roll down my window and take a picture. I wasn't even planning on getting out of the car and have Steve take my picture in front of the building. Is that so wroooong??

I looked all over the site when I got online the next day and couldn't find the address either. Then I remembered I must have gone to whitepages.com and looked them up under business look-up. There it was. I think it was right because I also found this by Googling "Charm City Cakes address" - read some of the comments too. (Just before I uploaded this entry, it seems there's a problem with that page I just linked to but I'm going to leave it here, assuming they will get it fixed.)

At least I don't feel so alone in my quest to drive by a building I've seen on TV.

Oh well.
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Baltimore

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American Visionary Art Museum Entrance. That is all mosaic work made from glass and mirrors. It's stunning in person.

Steve and I left for our vacation at Virginia Beach Saturday morning, stopping to spend the night in Baltimore. We'll be stopping to spend the night in Philadelphia on our way home. Just 'cuz. We've never been to any of these places. We'd talked about visiting the Inner Harbor in Baltimore before but our vacation the last couple of years have occurred in April and it seemed to early weather-wise, for Baltimore.

I put all the photos (just 13) in my Flickr account, but I'll mention some highlights here.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Gretchen for turning us onto the American Visionary Art Museum! I had looked at their website when you first mentioned it to me a few months ago but it really doesn't do the museum justice. So talking about it again the night before we left made me want to visit.

It's hard to describe but the museum has been called, "A treasure house full of the most outstanding creations born of intuition and self-styled imagination." It's offbeat. It's disturbing. I loved it.

One of my favorite exhibits is found here: PostSecret.com The artist requested people send him postcards sharing a secret - that was true and had never been shared with anyone else. These postcards are mounted behind a wave of Plexiglas that goes up the staircases of the museum. I didn't read them all but I read a lot. In researching this just now, I see there are books of the postcards available. I just read some more postcards on the website and some of the follow-up stories. As a lover of biographies and autobiographies, I'm 100% addicted to this project now.

There was one exhibit that brought me to tears, I have to say. When I told Steve that, he said it was his favorite piece too. (But that was before we saw the (10' long?) ship made entirely of toothpicks.) I don't know what it was made of or the story behind it because I could barely look at it. It was a life sized child on a bike, I don't know, burned, skeletal, but bright red. The child was holding a sign that said "Every soldier was once a child."

I just researched this piece some more and for some reason can't upload the photo to this blog, but you can see the piece I'm talking about here.

From there we spent the afternoon at the Aquarium. Unfortunately for us, it was a Sunday so there were many families with kids there. It was hard to see the exhibits because the displays were not very big and there were sooo many kids. That part was a little disappointing. We're sort of jaded, having seen a very cool shark exhibit in Las Vegas last year, right in our hotel. One walked through a glass tunnel so fish were swimming all around you. That would be the difference - in Las Vegas, money is no object. The Baltimore Aquarium is supported by memberships and donations.

But the dolphin show was a lot of fun. I'd never seen one and Steve said he last saw one 36 years ago. We also stayed for the 15 minute 4-D video which was very cool. I hope I don't spoil this for anyone who gets to experience it but the seats are rigged with special effects. Throughout the piece at appropriate places, you felt a blast of air on the back of your neck, water sprayed in your face, "snakes" tickling your legs and a sharp poke in the back. Oh, and the seat vibrated, like when the swarm of bees was on the screen. We all yelped EVERY single time, even when you could figure it was coming. I'm soooo glad we didn't know about it in advance because, while I generally don't like surprises and don't like being "scared" - this was totally fun. Sorry to have spoiled it for anyone heading there - but you'll still be surprised, guaranteed.

The thing is, in retrospect, we realized how they pull this off. The theater is a bit dark when we arrived and there was already a related video playing so we were totally distracted and didn't notice the box on the back of the seat in front of us. It was all very well done. It had been a long day so we considered skipping this but I'm so glad we didn't.

This entry is long enough - more to come later.

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Copper, with Star

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This is another graduation card for Paul. See - again, no flowers!

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Lots of Circles

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This is one of the cards I made for my nephew, Paul, who is graduating from high school this year. We all know I struggle with masculine cards because I tend to slap daisy shapes on every thing. I don't even think of them as flowers - just symmetrical design elements. But a guy at a craft show asked me if I had any Sticky Notes without flowers. I didn't.

I used to try to make graduation cards look like graduation cards. Now I just go with my strengths.

Lime green is one of my new favorite colors. My next car shall be lime green, I've decided. Unless, by the time I'm ready for a new car, lime green isn't available. Who knows what color I'll be into then.

The smallest of those circles above were punched with a set of punches I bought recently from a crafter on one of the lists I belong to, who was thinning her stash of punches. I wasn't sure how cleanly they'd punch, being so small - but they were cheap so I figured I didn't have much to lose. I love them, it turns out.

Blogger has a fairly new feature now where you can schedule blog posts to publish at specific times. So I'm setting up a couple in advance because Saturday, Steve and I hit the road for our vacation destination. More about that later.

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Hilari Ford

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This was in a treasury today on Etsy! (That link will only work until Sunday morning, 6/22.) It's all turquoise stuff from Hilari Ford's "vast archive of favorite sellers".

I've told this story before but Hilari is the one that turned me on to Etsy when it was starting up a few years ago. I thought harumph, it will be filled with all sellers and no buyers. Boy, is my face red. I certainly didn't foresee it turning into the well trafficked high class joint it is today.

And the reason I knew Hilari at all is because she wrote a column for the now-defunct Expressions magazine. Her column was my favorite part of that magazine. One column particularly hit a note with me so I emailed the magazine a note that I asked them to forward to Hilari. Never happened but sometime later a friend of hers Googled her name and my blog popped up, where I had written about this article. So she emailed me and now we're online friends. I Googled Hilari Ford just now and lots of hits showed up. Makes me wonder how hard I tried to find her that first time. Of course that was then and this is now. She has a day job but she teaches her craftiness at stamp stores, she's been on DIY's Craft Lab, stuff like that. And she's funny as hell.

I love the Internet.

(And look how many times I used her name in this post! Wait until her friend Googles her again!!)
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Paper Punch

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We've had no Internet at home for a couple of days now. Steve worked with Time Warner on the phone last night troubleshooting and the conclusion is the same one Steve came to on his own - the cable modem is shot. I'm taking it to Time Warner at lunch today to switch it for a new one. Bet it fixes the problem.

It's times like these I'm grateful for a day job - with Internet access! If it had to happen, now isn't a bad time, Pine Tree Designs-wise. So between that and putting in extra hours at work this week in an attempt to get (kinda sorta) caught up before going on vacation next week, today's post includes another photo from istockphoto.com. I started out searching for a photo of buttons but even though I checked Sewing Buttons, the result still brought up every kind of button you can imagine, in thousands of photos. I found the above photo by searching for cardstock. Only 4 pages of photos tagged with cardstock.

Enjoy your day!

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Colorful Thread

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You know how I love the thread photos I find at istockphoto.com.

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Porch Sittin'

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Here's my set-up for yesterday's event. It was warm & sticky but not totally unbearable. There was a very slight breeze every once in a while. Heather was the manager on duty yesterday, a very nice woman I enjoyed talking to. Suzanne stopped by with her husband. She took pictures of me stitching away in my set-up and seemed pleased. She was also happy to accept one of my acrylic racks on which to display the Sticky Notes - yay! I went to high school with her husband's brother so we chatted about him for a bit.

My good friend Linda stopped by for a bit - she lives in town. She's one of the women I go to Geva Theatre with 6 times/year.

My dear friend Nancy stopped by and stayed close to an hour maybe - so now we're totally caught up. There weren't that many customers so we had plenty of time to talk. That was lots of fun. I love my friends.

My massage therapist stopped by with her husband and has promised to hook me up with the owner of a coffee shop in her town that displays art. That's the type of venue I meant to look into at one time but it had escaped my memory so I was very glad she brought it up.

I sold a few things. Like I've been saying, this was to be a good PR gig for me, more than anything. Suzanne has a multi-page brochure she passes out. And she's involved with the local tourist bureau which is big because of The Finger Lakes. School isn't out around here until the end of June so that's when the summer season kicks in, in earnest, and the lake cottage traffic picks up. Fall is a big season in that area too - with all the area wineries and beautiful scenery.

You can see my free drawing in the front there - that I posted about yesterday. I took it down about 30 minutes into the event because I realized this was the wrong place for it. Meaning, the value of the art being given away ($15) far exceeds the value of any names I'd be able to add to my mailing list. It's good for craft shows, the bigger the better, but not something this small. I'm just glad I came to my senses before anyone entered the drawing!

I took my black shutters that I'd had at Enchanted Rose Garden, instead of my larger double black screen. And after a bit I moved my Pine Tree Designs sign from the back of the table (middle picture) to this red bench - much better visibility.

I actually didn't get that much stitching done, with all the socializing I got to do. After I packed up the car to come home, I treated myself to a small dish of Triple Chocolate ice cream at Huntone's Cones on the edge of town. Love an ice cream stand with a drive-thru window! Along with an ice cold bottle of water, I felt very refreshed. (I took water with me but it had gotten warm over the course the afternoon.)

So that's over.

I'm carpooling with Steve this week and going to put mega hours into my day job, to get as much done as I can before we leave for vacation next Saturday.

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Ready, Set, Go!

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Whenever I do a show I offer a free drawing for something. There's an optional space to fill out one's address if they want to be on the mailing list - which most people do opt for. This is what I offered at the last show and what I'll offer at today's artist event at Artizanns. At $15, it's about double the price of what I usually offer, but goshdarnit, I just love this little set. That's a 5"x5" card, Sticky Notes and pin. (Available for sale in my Etsy shop too, for $13.)

So I think I'm all ready. It's almost 7:00 and I'm up, showered and organized in my head. I still need to punch out some designs so I have something to work on while I'm there. That's funny I've left that part until the last minute when that's really the whole point of today's event - to see an Artist in Action.

Naples, NY is about an hour away so I don't have to leave until around 10:30. It won't take me long to set up on the porch - I'm taking my framed art, gift tags and a bunch of greeting cards I made yesterday - and a few pins I have. But because Suzanne sells my Sticky Notes in her store, I'm just taking her order to her, not my big display. I'm hoping to display her Sticky Notes on my table though so I'm taking 2 small Plexiglas units. She has them lined up in a basket in her store, not the best way to view them. I'll see if she wants to keep these Plexiglas units to use in the store.

I've kept my eye on the weather forecast all week. A week ago, today was supposed to be 73 degrees - perfect! Gradually, the forecast has shifted so now we're looking for a high of 82 degrees. Still beats the 90s we've been experiencing lately. And no rain is the big key! My biggest dilemma has been whether I should wear my hair up in a ponytail or down. I think it looks better down but feels better up. I'm all about comfort these days - I've even been wearing my hair in a ponytail to work this past week, something I've never done before. (Every time I wear my hair differently - without my usual headband or in a ponytail, people tell me I look younger. What a bunch of suck-ups. I like that about them.)

My roadie (Steve) is still asleep but no doubt he'll be up soon. I'll twist his arm to make a run to Dunkin Donuts for our sandwich & smoothie breakfast. Then he can load his vehicle for me to take - he's a master at that now.

Simon is having some car problems lately so he's without vehicle. He did borrow my car last night to go visit his dad for an early Father's Day dinner so rather than drive him home, I told him to drive my car home but be back here at 10:00. It works out perfectly that I can drop him at work for his 10:30 start, because it's right on the way. And off I go.

All week I've had to keep reminding myself that this is just a 3-hour event, not a full blown day long craft show. I don't know if it being Father's Day is a good thing or not. My goals are to make a couple of sales, snag some new customers, show Suzanne what else I can do - and visit with 2 friends who live in Naples and have promised to stop by. Should be a very nice day.

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

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My First Treasury!

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This 5" x 5" Framed Mandala, $22, was featured in a treasury.

A treasury is a group of 12 photos of products being sold on Etsy that are related by a theme. They are created by Etsy members and automatically expire in 2 or 3 days, I think. (Which is why I didn't link to it.) It's considered spam if the curator emails (or convos, in Etsy-speak) the sellers to let them know they appear in their treasury but I guess people do because that's how I learned about this one. Otherwise, one has to scroll through the list of 333 treasuries, looking for a gold star indicating that you have an item in that treasury.

They are pretty cool to look at it - to see what themes people think up. I can imagine they get pretty addictive - looking at them and making them. The one I appeared in is all items that are pink, black and turquoise. Theoretically appearing in a treasury could boost one's sales. So far, this treasury has had 71 views but I haven't noticed a spike in my views on that item in my shop.

I wanted to post the treasury here but am having trouble figuring out how to do that. You can't right-click-save. I tried taking a screen shot. I even downloaded ScreenGrab, an add-on that Firefox offers but even though I said grab the entire screen, the only part of the image that showed is the header and the footer - not the main part of the page. If anyone can help, please do. (Paula, how did you post yours the other day?)

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Blue Quilt Pin

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Sold one of these pins yesterday to a woman in California who bought it for her mom, a quilter, to wear to quilt shows and meetings. I love when people write me a note on their orders. In fact, this was her first purchase on Etsy! I'm honored.

Remember how I said I always stress when sending out a mailing to my Pine Tree Designs customers? I have more proof I'm being ridiculous about that. I've heard from several people who just wanted to say they can't make it to Sunday's event but always like hearing what I'm up to. I heard from a woodworker who also sells his wares at Artizanns. I heard from a show promoter I work with a lot, telling me about the new venue for one of her fall shows. I heard from an aunt in Florida.

Maybe it wasn't a mistake to send the email to my entire mailing list instead of just my local list. Hmmm, happy accident? Lesson learned.

Best of all, I heard from Suzanne, the owner of Artizanns, who said, in part, "Thanks so much for your continued support and promotion. I wish everyone, including myself, had the time/talent to promote Artizanns the way you always do . . . you're wonderful."

She's not working on Sunday but promised to stop by the store to see me.

And she ordered 30 more Sticky Notes!

Life is good.

(Click on image to enlarge.)

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Minty Fresh

.I'll frame this in a 5" x 5" white frame. This light green background was a total accident. I was going to mount the circle on a lighter shade of the reddish color. The light green happened to be on my table when the circle landed on it. Hmmm, I says to myself. The stitching is one of my original designs, stitched by Mom. (Thanks Mom!)

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For some reason I'm always a wreck when I send an email to my Pine Tree Designs mailing list. Even though everyone I know assures me what I send out isn't spam, I think I worry about being intrusive. Gotta knock that off, I know that's silly.

I sent one out last night, about next Sunday's event at Artizanns, in Naples. I was already feeling a little late in sending it out. I was trying something new too - providing more information than a simple, who, what, where, when sort of thing. I really talked up the store itself, Naples, told a short funny (?) story. Was it too long? I proofed it 100 times. Plus I was trying to get it done before dinner.

So naturally I made 2 mistakes. I sent it to my entire list, not just my local list. Oh well, it's a good opportunity for increased website visits. My list is so large, I have to send the mailing in thirds. At least one mailing I forgot to blind copy the recipients - so everyone's email address was visible. Not good. Not life threatening, mind you, but I hate that I did that - looks so unprofessional.

Maybe I need a check list for sending email!

(click image to enlarge)

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Origami

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Wouldn't some of this type of origami fit nicely with my stitch work in some interesting mandalas? I found this on Quilling Xu's Flickr site. I had to look at each of her 197 photos - her work is outstanding! I have several books on origami; I have always found it fascinating. Not enough hours in the day to try everything at once.


This style is also called teabag folding, although those designs tend to be made from flowery identical pieces of paper. It started as an art form derived from folding tea bag wrappers by a woman who needed a birthday card for a relative and had no money to buy one. It started in Europe, England, Holland, etc. - depending on one's source of information.

Here's an interesting site for different types of origami.


Oh my gosh! I'm a big fan of toilet paper folding but I've never seen anything fancier than the simple point. I've got some practicing to do!


How about toilet paper wedding dresses for those on a budget with LOTS of time on their hands?



This is why I could spend my life on the Internet. One thing leads to another. Look what else I found.

Enough. I must be productive today, must be productive, must be productive.
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Hair Carving

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Look what you can get for just $10! Simon already had the fauxhawk, so the side shaving and carving was $10. He justified the $10 because one of his roommates owed him $10. That's how kids with no money justify spending money - it felt like free money to him. It was not his money, but his roommate's. With keen financial skills like this, thus the kid has no money. In his defense, he's definitely growing up and learning some tough financial lessons this year. Just not in this case. ;-) He's 20. He'll get there.

But back to the fun stuff. It was done with a straight razor (whoa!) freehand. So each side is different. He loves it. As do I. Simon and I went out to dinner at The Olive Garden last week. This was pre-carving. He was dressed all in black (required at the high end sunglasses store he works at). I was noticing how many people stared at him as we walked through the restaurant. He doesn't seem to notice, but I'm sure he does. The boy loves attention. I love that he is who he wants to be and lets his freak flag fly. I love this kid with all my heart.

He wouldn't let me take a photo from the front. Guess he figured it would end up on the Internet. Hmmmm.

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Tie Dyed Couch

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Tie Dyed Couch by Sara Woodhull.

I found her in the Dharma Trading Company newsletter. I subscribe because it has a lot of cool stuff but mostly because they always feature artists that use their products. I think their work is amazing and it allows me an opportunity to visit different artists websites. I'm always scanning for new ideas for my site and business.

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Rose of Sharon

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Sticky Notes, holds 3" square self-adhesive notepad. $4.50

Steve and I are both big online shoppers. It so happened that each of us ordered a bunch of stuff last weekend so this week has been all about "winning the day" by receiving the most packages. Here's how the week has shaped up so far:

Tuesday: Stefani 1, Steve 1
Wednesday: Stefani 4, Steve 1
Thursday: Stefani 1, Steve 2

Thus far: Stefani 6, Steve 4, but the week's not over.

The fun part is neither one of us can usually remember everything we ordered so each day is a nice surprise. One of the benefits of middle-age brain lapses.

I was just checking out ordering groceries online. I hadn't heard about it in a while so I was curious to see if it caught on. Peapod still isn't available in our area. Netgrocer ships groceries via FedEx. If I spent $100, it was cost $16.99 in shipping. Groceries would arrive in 3-7 days. It looks like they ship perishables with ice packs or dry ice, depending if it's a refrigerated item or a frozen item. Minimum order for that service is $35.

If any of my area stores offered online ordering and delivery, I just know I'd be all over it. For now, maybe I'll just add items to my next Amazon.com order. I searched for ham - and I have to admit I didn't even know Jeff Foxworthy made jerky!

Jeff Foxworthy Maple Brown Sugar Ham Jerky, 4-Ounce Packages (Pack of 6) $24.68

(Free shipping on most orders over $25 - so those sly boots priced this at $24.68. So clever.)
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Silver Spikes

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This is one of the Sticky Notes that I'm rehabbing - from the Valentown Museum Gift Shop display. Last year, I didn't realize the museum was open seasonally, May - October - so my notes sat (presumably) in the cold, dark museum all winter.

When I went to set up the new ones last month, I realized how many I had there with this stitched design. I love the design and because it's so different from the others, in that the design radiates from the center, I decided to let the stitching speak for itself and not embellish it at all.

Then I realized how plain Jane they look compared to the other notepads, heavily stitched and heavily embellished. So this is my first attempt at figuring out how to embellish it. I can't wait to see what else I come up with.

Next I want to make a bunch more quilty designs for the notepads for the Museum. I think that's a good venue for them.

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Lime Green

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4-1/4" x 5-1/2" Greeting Card, $5.00

I just finished up 20 of these for an order. My intention is to keep a ton of these in stock at all times. I've sent samples to current and future wholesale accounts, hoping they'll be interested. Seems like the right fit for someone who maybe doesn't need a Sticky Notes pad but likes the design. Suitable for framing too.

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New Turquoise Pin

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I'm so happy with this pin - I'm going to wear it to work tomorrow. It was kind of a happy accident. There were several of these elements on my work surface, in different colors, from previous projects. As I was cleaning up the surface tonight, I started fiddling about with the shapes and colors. I've made pins before with this stitched design but nothing really "special" enough. I like the double scalloped border.

Soon I'll make more and post them in my Etsy shop. My poor semi-neglected Etsy shop. Must get moving on this!

I accomplished lots this weekend. Thank goodness for weekends, is all I can say. In no particular order:

I shipped samples to the store in Florida that had inquired about wholesale prices a few weeks ago.

The new-to-me store in Corning, placed another order so I shipped that too. These shipments entailed making some cards to send along to see if the owners think they might be good fits along with the Sticky Notes.

I finished my application to the Rochester Museum and Science Center show.

I placed orders with several vendors.

Balanced my bank accounts.

Finished my filing.

Filled out the paperwork for my annual physical on Wednesday. And by annual I mean every five years.

Baked brownies for my friend Jen's birthday.

Watched a movie with Steve. Last Dance with that hunkaburnin' love, Rob Morrow.

Soaked in the hot tub last night.

Went to my friend Nancy's for lunch on Saturday with Kim & Kathy. (Homemade pizza was delish!)

Took Reggi on another long walk in our new favorite park, Ellison Park. We even let her off-leash in a field and along a path and she did great. This park is very popular with dog owners even if it's not officially a "dog park". In fact, if you are reading this and you are an animal control officer, we never let Reggi off her leash once, nosiree. Lots of owners let their dogs swim in the creek too - tossing sticks and balls. (I think it's Irondequoit Creek if I'm not mistaken.) Reggi seemed keenly interested in these swimming dogs today so we took her to a shallow "beachy" area. She walked up to the water, stuck her nose in and decided that was enough for one day.

Now I'm off to bed, ready to start my week. Hope your weekend was enjoyable as well.



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