Flames

I finally got my new all-in-one printer/scanner installed. I gave up on waiting for Simon. Between work and enjoying his break before school starts up again today, it just wasn't going to happen, even for money.

This Epson is wireless and I got it connected to our network okay but I haven't been able to open the scanner software so I can scan from my laptop. I can scan from the control panel of the Epson but I can't adjust any settings there. In that case, it takes 3 minutes to scan one card - in super high resolution, which I don't need or want for most stuff.

I've downloaded the latest drivers, software, uninstalled, reinstalled, rebooted, etc. The messages I'm getting are that the laptop and scanner can't find each other, but clearly they can. I'll ask Steve or Simon to take a look - maybe fresh eyes will find the problem. To scan the above card, I plugged in the USB cord and then all is well.

I can tell why this Epson was only $150 - it's definitely cheaper than my other one. The plastic parts are pretty flimsy, for one. But it serves it's purpose and I won't feel bad when it gets worn out. Hopefully it will last at least a couple of years. The quality of items I've printed, copied and scanned all seem good - prints photos beautifully.

Garland of Ringlets

Somehow this December 2009 project by Jeff Rudell escaped me! I love the tediousness of his projects. And that he uses the same tiny glue bottle I use. He's a paper craft rock star. (Click on his name in the linked article for his other projects, many of which I've posted in this blog from time to time.)

Steve and I made no attempt to stay up until midnight. I turned off my light when I was done reading in bed at 11:00. We got up around 7:00 and went in the hot tub for a bit. I made blueberry bread for breakfast and we started our year quite leisurely, hanging out on the couch, reading until almost noon. Nice way to ring in the new year.

Best wishes to all my family and friends for a happy and healthy 2010!

Merry Christmas Eve Eve

I was so crabby yesterday! As I walked out to my car after work, I asked myself, "Self? You have to fix this. What would make you happy?"

So I reviewed why I was grumpy.

My perception, completely overblown, of a bit of rudeness the previous day at work. (Stef, get over it already.)

I hate the commercialization of the holiday season. I worry, yes worry, about people spending money they can't afford to spend. (Stef, worry about yourself.)

I was annoyed by hearing parents talk about their smarty-pants kids being home from college, when I would just be happy if my smarty-pants college kid would remember to keep his cell phone charged. (Stef - those other kids have plenty of foibles too; the parents just don't talk about those.)

I realized I really had nothing to be grumpy about. So I stopped. Wow, that was easy.

Then I had a wonderful massage.

Steve brought home dinner.

Life is good again.

~ ~ ~

Here's a note to future boarders about one of the quality services offered here at Chez TaCo. (Tadio Comstock - get it??)

If your car runs out of gas on the way to work, not to worry. We will give you a ride to work, then go to where your car is, call AAA to bring gas, drive said car to the gas station to fill 'er up and then deliver the car to you at work.

Yep, that's my boy I'm talking about. He was closer to work than home when he ran out of gas so he was going to walk to work since he was already late. He was unable to call me because his cell phone was out of juice (see note above). A nice woman stopped, let him use her phone, and then drove him to my office, where he wanted to take my car to work.

Steve was working late that night or I would have let Simon take my car - but instead, I left work to drive him to work, for which he was an hour late.

After work, I went to his car (which was safely off the road on a quiet back street, flashers flashing) and did what I said above.

My only regret is that I wasn't able to wash his vehicle and detail it properly. Maybe next time.

My email to Steve about this was titled: "Hi. My name is Stefani and I'm an enabler."

I really was prepared to let Simon deal with his car himself but he wasn't going to get out of work until 11:00 that night and I worried about his car sitting there for hours into the night. As it was, the AAA guy had to jump it too.

I did all this with the help of DJ, our other tenant. As he drove me back to my car, there was a tag tied to the door handle. I thought for sure it was a ticket - that Simon would have to pay, of course, but it was just an "abandoned vehicle" tag left by the police. I guess they do that so people know it has been reported. There was nothing I was required to do about it. Whew!

Oh - the other thing that annoyed me at work was how cheerful and social people were being while I was trying to work, dammit. How dare they?? Even at our office-wide Monday Morning Meeting, people were in an unusually good mood. That was another thing that snapped me out of my misery - I can't let all the good times pass me by while I'm pouting about nothing.

Woo-hoo - here's to a brand new day!

Happy Holidays Monday!

Ann Martin

I know I've written about my friend Ann's blog before, All Things Paper, but it deserves another mention. I was watching a Tivoed episode of That's Clever last night - and there's Ann making quilled Christmas cards! She did a great job. I'm so proud of her!

She makes quilling look effortless but I swear, it takes a lot of practice. You think I'd be a natural, right? Me too. Maybe I'll try it again some day and put in the time it takes to get better, but for now I'm sticking with what I know.

Please check out Ann's blog. She has tons of tutorials on cool paper stuff but also introduces the reader to some incredible paper artists. :-)

A Great Start!

Christmas Tree Card, $4.50

I took yesterday off to set up the Brighton show in the morning and work my shift in the afternoon. I usually just take the morning off and then work an after-work shift but I decided to kill 2 birds in one day. It worked out much better I think. Plus I had a few hours in the middle of the day in my studio too.

When I went back to work my afternoon shift, they asked me if I had more Sticky Notes because I'd sold a lot. I hadn't told anyone under which table I'd stashed my extras because I knew I'd be returning in a few hours. I walked over to my rack and saw at least 2 full rows missing, which is 18 Sticky Notes. Plus I sold my latest framed piece! {Crap. I just looked for a jpg of it to post here - maybe I never scanned it. Darn - I loved that piece. Can always make another. :-) }

I replenished my Sticky Notes rack, leaving only a dozen or so extras. The thing is, just before I left for the show, the owner of Artizanns in Naples called to order 30 Sticky Notes. She said a customer had just wiped her out. She said they were having an Open House on Saturday so if I was able to ship the order Friday, she'd probably have them in time for that.

So after the show last night at 7:00, I came home, ate dinner quickly with Steve and got busy in my studio. I had a big box of Sticky Notes ready to be embellished so I finished up 30 and packed them up to mail on my way to work today.

If you're local, I recommend stopping by this show - it's really good. It's called Not Your Usual Craft Show because instead of each artist having their own booth, our stuff is all mixed in together, attractively displayed. There's Christmas music playing - it's a very nice experience.

There's another paper artist there, Lori Kibler, whose work I really like - very clean and neat. We worked for a short while together yesterday - we bonded. :-)

There are some gorgeous mittens, some beautiful fabric bags - purses and tote bags by Kat's Kustom Karry-Alls. Lisa Cupery is a new artist I'd not met before - she makes pop-art pillows and garlands. Kristin Curley is there with her outstanding mosaic pieces. Ellie Shulman has her beautiful jewelry, including some chain maille pieces, which I love.

So yeah, the season is in full swing! I'm going to get busy again so I can drop off more Sticky Notes at the show first thing tomorrow morning.

Thursday, November 12, 1:00-7:00

Friday, November 13, 10:00-7:00

Saturday, November 14, 10:00-4:00

Not Your Usual Craft Sale

Brighton Town Park, Carmen Clark Lodge

777 Westfall Road, Rochester, NY 14620

Little Angel

Hand Stitched Angel Christmas Card, $4.50.

Sorry folks, I had to change the blog comments to require word verification. I've been getting 1-2 spam comments per day lately. Boo-hiss.

~ ~ ~

I follow Yoko on Twitter - and was led to this on her Imagine Peace website. Cool!

(I always find ages interesting: Yoko is 76, Olivia is 61 and Barbara is 62 and has been married to Ringo for 28 years.)

Yoko Ono, widow of Beatle John Lennon, Olivia Harrison, widow of Beatle George Harrison and Barbara Starkey, wife of Beatles drummer Ringo Starr, introduce designer Stella McCartney, daughter of Beatle Paul McCartney, as one of Glamour magazine’s 2009 Women of the Year at an awards ceremony at Carnegie Hall in New York, Monday, Nov. 9, 2009.

Wearing a purple mini-dress she designed herself, the mother-of-three was honored for her fashion label and her commitment to animal rights.

The 38-year-old was stunned when the widows and wife of her father Sir Paul McCartney’s Beatles bandmates came on stage to present her with the award.

All three of us came together with a deep feeling of love and joy for Stella’s accomplishment. Stella is family. I remember her from when she was a baby. Never thought that this baby would grow into such a magical person. Her creativity shows her free soul. And with that, she is giving a lot to the world. I love her. All three of us do. It was a very sweet day for us. yoko

November 12, 13, 14

Not Your Usual Craft Sale

Brighton Town Park, Carmen Clark Lodge

777 Westfall Road, Rochester, NY 14620

Happy 80th Birthday, Dad!

Dad - I know now that you're on Facebook, you no longer Twitter, but still, you need to correct your Twitter description, age-wise and girth-wise from this:

79,retired,bald,fat,ugly,sassy,lazy,mean as a snake; otherwise, nearly perfect

Happy Birthday!!!

It's been in the high 50s outside but it's snowing inside my studio!

This hand stitched wintery blue greeting card has been left blank inside for your personal message. $4.50

I know I've been a slacking blogger lately, but when 2 people email me to see if I'm okay, I know I need to get back here pronto. As expected, I've been really busy with wholesale orders and I have back to back shows the next couple of weekends.

But mainly I've been determined that whenever I post a finished piece here, I want it to be available in my Etsy shop. Plus I'm setting up a shop at 1000 Markets. It's a juried shop so once I have a minimum of 6 items listed I can submit it for approval. I haven't fully decided if I'll maintain both shops. It's really not much extra work, as it turns out, because I copy and paste the description from one to the other. I use the same scanned images of course. The cost is minimal. Neither one has rules about not appearing at a competitors, that I know of.

I was ready to post these new cards in the Etsy shop today but another motivating factor is that my blog stats have been unusually high the last two days. I did receive 2 new comments on that stupid Bruce Jenner entry so I figured he must have been in the news again and people are Googling him.

Sure enough - I just found this review of their latest quest for publicity. I cannot begin to tell you how sick I am of these infamously famous people like those 2 who shall remain nameless with all those kids. I watch the Today Show from 7:00 to 7:30 and every time they have an interview with some faux celeb, I found myself launching into the "Really?!" bit from SNL. Really?? Is this news?! Really.

But mostly I found lots of hits for cards - quilled and pop-ups seem to be the popular choices. Shame I don't make either - but I've posted about them. T'is the season - people are beginning their card making.

November 12, 13, 14

Not Your Usual Craft Sale

Brighton Town Park, Carmen Clark Lodge

777 Westfall Road, Rochester, NY 14620

Thank Goodness It's Friday

Steve and I have both had busier and more stressful weeks than usual. It's everyone at our respective work places, not just us. He's been working late and I've been going into work early so on the phone yesterday I told him I'd have my people call his people and arrange a date for us sometime this weekend.

Thursday, November 12 - 1:00 PM-7:00 PM

Friday, November 13 - 10:00 AM-7:00 PM

Saturday, November 14 - 10:00 AM-4:00 PM

Not Your Usual Craft Sale

Brighton Town Park, Carmen Clark Lodge

777 Westfall Road, Rochester, NY 14620

(between South Clinton Avenue and East Henrietta Road)

Yulia Brodskaya

See more of Yulia Brodskaya's outstanding work here. Blows my mind!

I found her through a new-to-me-blog, Epheriell Designs.

The always lovely and talented Willa sent me the link to the quilling - thank you so much, Willa!!

On the way home from the craft show Saturday, I stopped at DiBella's to pick up subs for dinner. When I came out of the restaurant, there was a red Prius parked right next to my red Prius. I laughed out loud. If the person who parked their car next to mine did that to make me smile, it worked! I almost put a note on their car, "Thanks for the smile!". Wish I had.

I was thinking the other day that next month, Gretchen and I will have had our Priuses 1 year. That seems weird to me because off the top of my head, it feels like it's been 4 months or so. It's still my 'new car'.

~ ~ ~

I did something shocking this past weekend. I did not buy Springsteen tickets for his November show in Buffalo (an hour away). I decided it was not meant to be because:

1. Tickets went on sale while I was at the craft show.
2. The show is on a Sunday night.
3. The show is on a night where I will have done a 3-day craft show until 5:00 that day.
4. Expensive tickets are not in my budget right now.

Still. Bummer! I've been listening to Magic in my car a lot lately to make up for it. :-(

~ ~ ~

Here's a word you haven't heard me mention in a while: auditor. We start a New York Sales Tax audit this morning. We were audited by the state a few years ago so of course that puts you on their watch list for a while. Last time was fairly painless. The guy came to the office every once in a while to review stuff but so much can be done electronically, it's not the process it once was.

We're still undergoing the Illinois sales tax audit but that guy hasn't been around for a while.

Welcome to one of the least fulfilling parts of my job.

~ ~ ~

Let's end on a happy note, though. This is one of the numerous pieces I stitched at the craft show last Saturday.

Blue Flowers

Someone just added this 2006 card of mine as a favorite on Flickr a few minutes ago as I was looking for something to post here today. Do you know how fast I could make this today with my blazin' hot new KNK Groove??

I say that as I sit here eating breakfast, blogging away, cutting out 19 ladybug backs at a clip. Bang, zoom, done.

~ ~ ~

I've had some issues with deep pockets in my gums over the years - had bone grafts done a bunch of years ago. So I have my teeth cleaned 4 times a year between my regular dentist and my periodontist so we can make sure everything remains in good shape. Yesterday my favorite hygienist, Tracy, did some deep scaling - cleaning below the gum line. She told me I could have it done with or without Novocaine. I chose without. I had some hesitation in the beginning but decided to tough it out and I'm glad I did. She and I usually chat while she works, as best as one can chat during a cleaning, that is. But yesterday I listened to my iPod, closed my eyes and zoned out. I'm so glad I did. I hate getting Novocaine shots and I hate the after-effects. My gums were a little sore a few hours later so I took an Advil and I'm good as new this morning.

Why did I think you'd find that interesting? I have no idea. Just wanted to brag about the lack of Novocaine I guess. ::: grunts, pounds chest :::

~ ~ ~

In yesterday's comments, Leslie asked about the status of my Etsy shop. Good freakin' question. The status is it's embarrassing. So much for my 2009 goal for having 200 items in it at all times. I also swore that anytime I posted something new in this blog, I'd have it for sale in the shop. I even decided to forgo photographing each item and would just scan them from different angles where possible because it takes much less time.

I've been eyeing 1000 Markets a little bit, thinking I might want a change. Except I'd be in the same boat there - not able to keep it as fully stocked as I'd like. Etsy isn't the problem, it's me. I've considered closing the Etsy shop altogether to take that off my plate, but I really like having an online store. And I do get occasional sales, when I have product in there, that is.

I'm open to any advice or experience that anyone else has had, though I think the solution to my problem is Just Do It.

Saturday - September 12, 10:00-4:00

Valentown Museum

Family Heritage Fall Festival

7370 Valentown Square

Victor, NY 14564

With Sympathy

One of our employees and his wife lost their baby over the weekend. She was due next month. It's so sad, I can hardly bear to think about it. This card is for all of us to sign today.

These two designs are by Erica Fortgens that I stitched way back when. That dark color is a dark teal. I tried to adjust it once scanned but I wasn't very successful.

~ ~ ~

Saturday - September 12, 10:00-4:00

Valentown Museum

Family Heritage Fall Festival

7370 Valentown Square

Victor, NY 14564

Riesling Festival Countdown

I'm so glad I took Thursday and today off to do all the final prep. I want to finish up product today and make sure all my printed material and supplies are in order. I'm feeling the usual frenticism, in a good way. I'm also feeling the usual I-can't-wait-until-the-show-is-over-so-I-can-clean-up-my-studio. Then, it's on to the KNK Groove - I can't wait to get started with learning that software. It will be life-changing, I know.

Steve took today off too so I think I want to set up earlier rather than later. The set-up time is 5:00-7:00. I don't know if this is true but I always figure people without day jobs want to set up earlier rather than later so we usually go towards the end of the time frame. We usually just drop everything off then I set it up the next morning. Of course that's been indoor shows. Tonight we'll set up the tent and all the furniture inside. We'll basically set up everything but the product which I'll take and set up tomorrow morning.

Saturday: 10-5, Sunday 9-5

Picture perfect weather is expected. It will be hot but I'm hoping for a nice GENTLE lake breeze. Hope to see you there. Seriously, check out the festival website - there will be lots of food and music and stuff for kids.

New Letterpress Equipment

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I love the look of letterpressed paper. I used to follow a blog of a young woman who was given a free old letterpress machine - she just had to move it to her home. It was the size of a piano!

Now Lifestyle Crafts, a division of QuicKutz, offers a small home version. The website says it will be in stores this fall. I didn't see any pricing. I honestly don't have any desire to buy this, but I think it's really cool. (Never say never, right?) Seems like such a natural extension of the die cut machines, doesn't it?

Yay! YouTube comes through again.

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Time to Get Busy in My Favorite Way

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You could probably feel my palpable joy yesterday at 3:40 pm. For the first time since I returned to work from vacation, 1-1/2 weeks ago, I've felt relief at passing all my recent deadlines. Deep breath . . . exhale. Whew!

I returned from vacation to jump right into a 4-day audit. That was quickly followed up by filing 8 sales tax returns and yesterday at 3:40 concluded the conference call with The Bully and others reviewing their Accounts Receivable. (I hadn't spoken with The Bully in weeks because he stood me up on the last two scheduled calls, which was fine of course. But I was surprised at my reaction yesterday, "Oh yeah, this guy." I'd forgotten how he behaves. But he doesn't bother me in the least anymore.)

I was so happy to free up my brain, I had a little Facebook Party at my desk. Meaning, I poked around Facebook aimlessly, brainlessly, on company time. Par-tay.

Now I feel like I can really bear down on Pine Tree Designs work. I have a new shipment of paper coming in Monday. I have to order more notepads and glue this morning, but mostly I have to assemble a ton of stuff I have ready to go. I don't want to be the kind of person who works better with deadlines, but I suppose it's human nature a bit.

I finally received official confirmation that I've been accepted into this new show, The Finger Lakes Riesling Festival. I'd seen my name on their list of vendors on their website but it was still good to get their phone call and email yesterday.

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Trio Giveaway

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You know how I frequently ask you guys for a second opinion? I don't need no stinkin' second opinion on this one - I love how this turned out! How freakin' sweet is this with the hearts, flowers and happy dots??

I wanted to make something special for my free giveaway for this weekend's craft show. (Also known as my cheap ploy to gather names for my mailing list. I state this on the drawing slip - omitting the words cheap ploy.) I also needed something of around $10 value to give to the organizers as part of their fund raiser shop hop raffle. So I made two of these sets - greeting card, Sticky Notes and magnet.

Naturally, they turned out so adorable that I wish I had lots more. That's a rubber stamp from Outlines Rubber Stamps, my most favoritest stamp company in the whole wide world. So last night while watching TV, I cut out a stack of stamped pieces. I've stitched the center element in other colors too, but I'm so in love with navy, green and white these days, it's hard to get away from it. I wonder if that means I'm officially out of my turquoise phase?

~ ~ ~

I got lots done yesterday but have a few more things to finish up this morning. One of the things I worked on yesterday was to try painting some 8" x 10" frames I'd gotten from a fellow Freecycler a few years ago. They were natural wood and I wanted them white, so I could fit them with the pieces of sheet metal Simon kindly cut for me, to display my magnets. My intention is to hang them on my black shutter bifold door. One side is for framed art (I framed 4 new paper quilts yesterday) and the other side will be for magnets.

I sanded the varnish off the frames and spray painted them with a white primer. I have spray paint of every color under the sun - except white, it turns out. But I had ivory, which is close enough. The wood grain was still showing through, even the ivory. I could have sprayed another coat of primer, I guess. But I decided I didn't want to deal with it any more and possibly still not be happy so I ended up going to Target and buying some inexpensive frames.

I was so proud of myself for my "free" solution with the Freecycled frames and the paint I already had - but I knew if I had to sit there for 2-1/2 days looking at grainy-not-what-I-wanted frames, it would drive me batty.

Target only had 4 frames of the kind I wanted, not 5, but good enough for now. I was going to throw the Freecycled frames out, but now that I think about adding another coat of primer first, I may give them another shot after all.

~ ~ ~

Simon will be going with me this morning to help me load stuff into my booth. Then he can leave and I'll stay to set up. I figure I should be home noonish, then leave to go back around 4:00. The venue is at Rochester Institute of Technology, 29 minutes away according to Mapquest.

(See Gretchen? I've got my own personal day laborer too!)

~ ~ ~

I still haven't figured out the solution to fixing my camera. But I had a brilliant thought in the shower this morning. Steve's printer is fairly new, an all-in-one type, so it probably has a memory card slot that's the right size for my camera's memory card. Turns out - no, it doesn't. But I plugged my camera directly into his laptop - and voila, my photos are retrievable! So that will be my work-around until I can figure out a more permanent solution.

I've been thinking that I wanted to get my camera fixed before vacation in July, but then I realized I want to take pictures today too. I'm still puzzled as to the problem, but happy to have a workable solution.

And I'm off to do some last minute printing.

Friday, June 5, 5:00-8:00

Saturday, June 6, 10:00-8:00

Sunday, June 7, 10:00-5:00

Genesee Valley Quilt Club's Garden of Quilts

RIT Gordon Field House

One Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623-5603

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Sparkling Clean

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This is a good-bye card for employees to sign for a man who was laid off a few months ago. He's a veteran so I hope he enjoys the red, white & blue theme.

I don't know the particulars but when he was laid off, it was decided he could stay on until the end of May and we'd see if sales improved and he could stay. I guess? At first I thought that was good financially for him but bad in a mindset kind of way, you know? Should I look for job or not? That seems tortuous to me. He's 63 but he wasn't sure if he could afford to retire. This "stay of execution" has given him time to get his affairs in order and now he is retiring! He's totally at peace with the decision and is very excited about retirement. I'm very happy for him that it all worked out - and insanely jealous.

~ ~ ~

I hired a house cleaning service last week and yesterday was her first day. She'll come every 2 weeks. We tried this once before, having a woman come once/month, mainly because I was too cheap to have her come more often and honestly, I still struggled with my thinking, "I should be doing this myself, working harder, trying harder, I should be able to do it all." Even though I knew intellectually that was stupid thinking, I still felt very conflicted about it. In the interest of full disclosure, Simon and Steve do stuff too but, for all my strong thoughts of equality and men/women roles, etc. I found myself still feeling the burden of the traditional "housewife" role. I think that's really weird of me. Really weird.

This time around? I'm totally at peace with it - in fact I'm ecstatic about it. In the time that's elapsed since our last hiring of a house cleaner, I've embraced the fact that I don't like cleaning. At all. Love to declutter, organize, purge. Hate to clean. I've learned, from women at work, that there are some people who enjoy cleaning. Foreign concept, but whatever.

This way, we're stimulating the economy and Kerri and I both get to do work we enjoy. This isn't a luxury, it's a necessity if I want Pine Tree Designs to continue to grow. I put around 30 hours/week into PTD, on top of a full-time job. Not that I'm justifying or anything. Okay, maybe a little, because really, it is a luxury and I'm extremely grateful.

The house is so clean, poor Reggi wouldn't even sit in her favorite recliner, Simon told me. Guess it didn't smell like her anymore! Simon had to coax her back into "her chair". That cracks me up. I had left a dog treat for Kerri to feed Reggi when she got here in order to make friends with her faster. She said Reggi never barked or even came to the door. Reggi turned her head and glanced at her when she arrived but that's it. Reggi had met Kerri last week, but still, I think Reggi was hip to why Kerri was there and she didn't want to discourage her in any way. :-)

Kerri says next time she'll work on the walls, baseboards and the tops of the doors. Huh? Those things are supposed to be cleaned?? Who knew? I still can't get over the blinding sparkliness of the chrome in the shower this morning.

It's all good.

Friday, June 5, 5:00-8:00

Saturday, June 6, 10:00-8:00

Sunday, June 7, 10:00-5:00

Genesee Valley Quilt Club's Garden of Quilts

RIT Gordon Field House

One Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623-5603

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Lime & Navy Quilt

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8" x 8" Framed Paper Quilt

~ ~ ~

Dude. The hate mail on the original Bruce Jenner post just keeps rollin' in. I'm resisting the temptation to reply.

Anonymous:
I think your all ASSHOLES for saying dumb shit like this! the man prob accomplished more in his life then you will ever...... to all you people who talk shit like you do KARMA IS A BITCH you'll be old,fat. and ugly one day you watch .. HAHAHAHAHAH

My witty retort:
Me? Old, fat & ugly? Honey, that ship has already sailed.


(Don't worry, I don't really feel that way about myself.)

~ ~ ~

Friday, June 5, 5:00-8:00

Saturday, June 6, 10:00-8:00

Sunday, June 7, 10:00-5:00

Genesee Valley Quilt Club's Garden of Quilts

RIT Gordon Field House

One Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623-5603

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Paper Quilt

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I made this 8" x 8" piece for Pam for her birthday. She's a quilter so she loved it. I also made her a matching gift tag and magnet but I didn't scan those and for now, they are one of a kind. This looks better in person - the stitched squares show up better. Now I'm working on a lime green & navy quilt.

I worked on my new hand stitched quilt series all weekend and I'm so excited about it, I literally can't sleep. I couldn't turn my brain off to fall asleep last night when I wanted to. Then I woke up 20 minutes too early this morning so I reset the alarm to sleep a bit later. Again, I couldn't stop seeing paper quilts in my head so I didn't think I ever fell back asleep. But the alarm woke me up so clearly I did.

~ ~ ~

My stupid pinky toe still hurts and the swelling has not gone down so I called the doctor's office on Friday. When the nice woman who called me back told me everything I already knew, I told her I just wanted to hear it from a professional. And then she told me something that made me slap my forehead, "Duh!" Take ibuprofen for the pain. I swear, I never considered that once in the 2 weeks since I banged it up. My defense is that it just hurts a little, but it does hurt almost all the time. Anyway, I started taking ibuprofen this weekend and it feels better. And I'm told it will take weeks to heal and feel better.

~ ~ ~

Bruce Jenner does look better after his plastic surgery touch-up. Hard to tell since this isn't as close up as the first one but altogether, it's definitely a more flattering photo. Maybe he needs a different hairstyle. Heck, what do I know?

To save you some clicking (and artificially inflate my stats - ha!), here's the before.

And here's the way before. Wonder what he would have looked like had he aged naturally and gracefully like the rest of us?

~ ~ ~

Friday, June 5, 5:00-8:00

Saturday, June 6, 10:00-8:00

Sunday, June 7, 10:00-5:00

Genesee Valley Quilt Club's Garden of Quilts

RIT Gordon Field House

One Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623-5603

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Collage? Me?

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The other day one of the guys at work was cleaning out a desk of a former colleague and found this card in an envelope and gave it to me. I made it in a class years ago! I have no idea how it ended up in this desk. The only remotely plausible explanation is that I sold it to him. If so, now that I have it back, I can resell it. Wonder how much money I can make off of this one card, over and over?

Seriously, I'm not going to sell it, but I do recall one time I offered for sale at work a bunch of stuff I didn't want anymore and this was probably among those things. I've generally kept all the stuff I made in classes over the years, unless I was in one of my purging moods. Since discovering that my brain flat out refuses to do collage, I probably figured I had no need for this.

Now I'm happy I have it, to prove that I actually did true collage once. Although I can guarantee this is probably an exact replica of the teacher's card. I remember taking a journaling class from her once and we were collaging a page. My stuff was so lined up and organized, it left her literally speechless. It still makes me laugh because I didn't realize I was doing it until I saw the look on her face.

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All Things Paper

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My new friend Ann Martin wrote such nice stuff about me and my work - check it out! You really should become a regular reader of her blog, btw - she truly loves paper and posts a lot of neat stuff. Obviously she has exquisite taste. ;-)

Here's a funny related story. I noticed that my blog stats for yesterday shot up 5 times their usual number. Holy crap, I didn't know Ann had such a large readership! So I went to Sitemeter.com to check it out - turns out Bruce Jenner had another face life to correct the previous one. People are Googling him and up pops this page. Figures, the only mean thing I've ever posted and that's the entry that gets the most comments and most hits.

Friday, June 5, 5:00-8:00

Saturday, June 6, 10:00-8:00

Sunday, June 7, 10:00-5:00

Genesee Valley Quilt Club's Garden of Quilts

RIT Gordon Field House

One Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623-5603

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Quillery Bakery Upcycled Cereal Box

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I found this over at Craft Stylish, by KraftinQT. Upcycling means recycling something into better than it was before. She made this from a Quaker Oaks box with some help from a Wheatbix box. I love the subtle colors.

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Mom and I finished my 2nd (and last one ever, Mom tells me!) custom fit tablecloth for my craft show table.

I finished my taxes, which I'd started in February.

I worked on a large order for the Jr League of Buffalo boutique.

I killed my nephew's fish. (I'm taking care of Gretchen's cat and Paul's fish while Gretchen is in Florida on business and Paul lives with his brother for the school semester. There are a number of factors that could have caused the fish to die, but bottom line is they died on my watch. I feel bad.)

We took Reggi for a long walk in Ellison Park.

That was my weekend. The end.

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April 25 - May 17

Jr League of Buffalo 15th Decorators' Show House

EB Green's Wallace Estate

697 LeBrun Road, Eggertsville, NY

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Tiny Heart

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Tonight is set up at the craft show directly after work so I need to get my gear "staged" so Steve can load up his vehicle for me. (I'll miss my little Prius today!) I'll be one of the last people to set up since most people set up during the day. It's good because it will be less crowded and I can park closer to the door. It's not so good because this show doesn't have marked off booth areas and I always feel like my two neighbors encroach towards my space a little bit. Maybe they don't at all, but I always want more space - who doesn't? This is always a bit of an abbreviated set up for me so at least I now know what to bring.

April 2, 3, 4 - 10:00-6:00 & April 5 - 10:00-4:00

26th Annual Signs of Spring

Powers Farm Market

161 Marsh Road, Pittsford, NY

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Another Dragonfly

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April 2, 3, 4 - 10:00-6:00 & April 5 - 10:00-4:00

26th Annual Signs of Spring

Powers Farm Market

161 Marsh Road, Pittsford, NY

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Dragonfly Card & No Voice

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I couldn't face going into work early yesterday so I made this instead, for a work friend in another office. Much more fun than stooopid work.

I felt the return of a little cold a few days ago and then I lost my voice the last couple of days, off and on. I never knew if sound would come out when I opened my mouth. It was one of those things where I sounded way worse than I felt. The novelty of it wore off yesterday - it was very annoying. I felt like I was a little sleep deprived, a little dehydrated maybe, pooped from a busy week at work and now no voice?? Not fair. Thank God it was Friday, is all I could say.

I stopped to pick up dinner at the new Salvatore's near us - their calzone (I always choose ham & pineapple for my filling) has turned into one of my favorite comfort foods. Steve and I watched a little TV and when he switched over to the Syracuse basketball game, I really started to fade. I managed to hang in there until 8:00, then went to bed. I admit I watched craft videos on my iTouch for a little while but I was still asleep by 9:00.

Naturally I woke up early this morning, Saturday, feeling almost right-as-rain. My voice has returned - still a little froggy, but much better. It will be a 3-day craft-focused weekend for me and being a morning person, I love getting an early start. I'm off to meet Pam for breakfast at 8:30, stop by Mom & Dad's for a minute, then back to my studio.

April 2, 3, 4 - 10:00-6:00 & April 5 - 10:00-4:00

26th Annual Signs of Spring

Powers Farm Market

161 Marsh Road, Pittsford, NY

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New Pattern

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This started out as a variation on the overlapping layered spikes I've done before. When I don't overlap them though, I'm not happy with the bare space between. So I tried filling it in with stitching, which you can see more clearly (the white) on the bottom one. I tried more stitching but it became too cluttered so I backed it off to what you see here.

I did the top one on my lunch hour yesterday - you know I love my variegated thread. It's okay but not distinct enough. So this morning I stitched the bottom one. I'm definitely on the right path but I'm not sure the dark pink thread was a good idea.

I'll give this another go, probably on lighter paper so I have more thread choices until I get the pattern worked out. And what I love happened again - another happy accident. On the bottom one I stitched the white "bottom" layer first - and my brain started thinking up ways to keep going with that. I love when that happens! What starts out as a new pattern could end up being 2 or 3 new patterns.

Little Reggi is fine. The vet will have the lab results later this week, for the growth he removed yesterday but he felt good about it - cut out a wide margin he said, so he was sure to get it all. He cut out that other cyst that kept refilling - said it was like a water balloon. (Hope you're not eating when reading this!) I spared you seeing her incision - it must be 6"-8" long, poor thing. She was pretty wiped out last night, as you can see. She's definitely doing better this morning, though not 100% yet. Sweet girl. I love her.

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So yeah. I turned 53 today. So far so good. :-)

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Little Stitches

I can't stop stitching these little cuties! They are 2-1/4" diameter and I make them into little gift tags that come with a transluscent vellum envelope. I always start out with the intention of stitching an entire batch identically to make assembly with other parts more efficient, but as soon as I start stitching, I start fiddling, "What if I stitched it in this color?" In the the long run, it's more interesting for me and more importantly, my customers to vary the colors. At shows, I tell people that I can almost say no two are alike. Even if I stitch pieces in the same colors, invariably I end up embellishing them differently.

This one is supposed to put one in the mind of a flower. Get it? Pink flower with a green stem? Kinda? Doesn't matter, the colors look nice together anyway.

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The other day I saw an email come through the Fold-It Yahoo Group list with the writer mentioning the Finger Lakes, a region near us. I emailed her, offering her my blog address, thinking she might be interested in seeing some more paper art. Turns out she lives in Fairport. A few days later she mentioned some people are putting together a new group, the Book and Paper Arts Guild, and maybe I'd like to consider coming to the meeting.

I glanced at the email and went on auto-pilot in my head, too busy, thanks anyway - when I put the brakes on. What?? A group of paper artists right here in Rochester? I'm in! I especially love getting in on the ground floor of something. This has Stefani written all over it. I'm usually kind of a lone wolf, but this is definitely worth checking out.

I asked Marie if I could post the invitation here in case any of my vast local paper-loving readership :-) is interested.

You are invited to attend the inaugural meeting of Book and Paper Arts Guild of Rochester on Tuesday, March 10^th , to be held at the Genesee Center for Arts and Education (old Genesee Co-op), 713 Monroe Avenue, from 7 to 9pm. We hope you will consider joining our group of experienced and novice book and paper artists. During this organization meeting we will share our ideas for learning, sharing and programming.

Please bring your ideas and enthusiasm, meet new friends and enjoy a simple project with you.

If you want more information please contact Diane Chichelli at bookarts@rochester.rr.com or Marie Warda at mwarda111@gmail.com

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Paper Quilt Greeting Card

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Hand Pieced Paper Quilt Greeting Card, $7.00

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