1st Cloisonne' Egg

Well, duh....

Do you think they really mean it when they put in the instructions that you should wait "at least" 24 hours before firing in the oven.... hummm...

In my own defense here.... the gold outline had been drying for 24 hours, but I guess it was too thickly applied and didn't dry completely. Perhaps this is where the magic words "at least" come in...

This kind of finish for the eggs will take much longer to do. But I think once I get it figured out, they will be much prettier and the finish will be permanently fired and will be top rack dishwasher safe. That pleases me. It will take several throw-away eggs to perfect the technique though... and my supplier only had 3 (that's 3...three!) eggs ... so will have a wait for more to arrive.

Halloween Hangman

This came in my email today from Carol and Tony... Too funny..

1st Place In 7 Categories!

Don't ask me what they all are...grin John was so tickled that he called me as soon as they got home on Saturday. I know Tomomi won 1st Place in the Completely Hand Quilted category. She was going to send me a picture with the ribbon on the quilt, but the blue ribbon disappears in the blue of the quilt!

Snowflake Monday (on Wednesday!)

Is It a Cloche?

I was crocheting along a few weeks ago with no idea what I even wanted to make when this little cloche happened. (Still trying to get rid of that Homespun yarn...sigh) Now that I have it, I have no earthly idea what I will do with it because I look totally idiotic in any hat other than a wide brim Southern Belle type hat... and who wants to wear one of those these days...

Well, it's almost 2 months of no smoking. The desire for a cigarette is still here ... but not as bad as it was a month ago. Maybe it will continue to fade.. we can only hope.

We have had a couple of wonderful days of rain. The sound of it on the roof and the smell in the air were glorious.

If you are looking for a wonderful Christmas gift... easy to make and can be made of recycled materials... here it is... I really like this site called tiny happy.com.

I Think I Remember Now...

why I have never really taken up knitting... If I put it down, I can never tell by looking at the stitches on the needles where I am.. It's not that I can't do the stitches, it's that I get so frustrated and always just start over... after a while the whole piece just gets put down and forgotten. Which is a real shame... I love knitted work... the way it looks and the way it feels. This swatch was done a couple of days ago to see if I could keep up with the pattern that has been put on firefly's blog for her knit-along. It's a very easy pattern and I have enjoyed knitting it. Then I tried it using a larger yarn and longer cast-on and the moment I put it down mid-row to talk to my DH... that was the moment it ended... I could not recognize the stitches to tell where I had stopped. Any words of wisdom?? tips?? advise??

What's Your Element?

I found this little ditty on Pat Winter's site and had to try it...grin

Your Element Is Water

A bit of a contradiction, you can seem both lighthearted and serious. That's because you're good at going with the flow - but you also are deep. Highly intuitive, you tune in to people's emotions and moods easily. You are able to tap into deep emotional connections and connect with others. You prefer a smooth, harmonious life - but you can navigate your way around waves. You have a knack for getting people to get along and making life a little more peaceful.

What's Your Element?

October....already

We went to breakfast yesterday. There was a man standing in the front door and as we walked past him my first instinct was to say "Excuse me!" .... and then I realized he was a Wal-Mart full size figure of a dread pirate holding a plate of candy! As we came on inside, the edges of the ceiling were hung with spiders; there was a severed hand moving itself all around the floor; the pumpkin in the corner had Dracula rising every couple of minutes..... where has the year gone? Halloween is around the corner....

I have to admit that this is the first year in a long time that I am quite happy to be done with. I feel like I have spent all year with restricted activity due to illness of one kind or another and I am so very ready for all that to pass on to another dimension (or whatever!)

These are the last two of the painted eggs until I get to the feed store to buy more. It looks like the cloisonne' pen will have to be ordered since the art store here does not carry them. The owner said he could order them for me, but I have to check and see if Dick Blick is less expensive.

Doll #1 (as in First Try!)

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to try to make my own doll. (I don't know why..) So I took a pencil and drew off what I thought looked like one on a piece of muslin. I folded the muslin, pinned it so it wouldn't slide around and sewed around the doll outline. By gently pulling the front forward and the back backwards, I sewed a dart from the chin to the top of the belly on the front side. Then I cut a slit in the back and turned the doll inside out (... which is harder than it looks as the arms and legs are very small!) I stuffed the arms and legs individually, sewing across the groin and armpit area as each one was stuffed. Then I stuffed the head and body, closing the open slit by handsewing it using a slip stitch. Here is another example of trying to get rid of that Homespun yarn... By pulling out the cotton thread that keeps the Homespun together, I found that it makes a very soft fluff that is great for the hair. After a couple of false starts (sounds better than "have no idea what I am doing") , I found that by combing out lengths of the yarn, it would hold together and could be sewn onto the head. Now... I looked at it for a while and could not find any inspiration to continue. So I crocheted the little dress to fit it. Something was still not right. The face I painted on it was awful. Then I decided to paint it white... the whole doll. (Should be done before the hair... just so you know!) So today, I decided to try another face... then I decided to paint on clothes...the clothes looked funny against the white...so I painted the body again.. pink this time... So here we are... having to wait for the paint to dry... Will update in a day or so... (grin...fun project)

My New Favorite Book

I found this book on a half price table at the local used book store. It just reached out and grabbed me, so of course I bought it... and as they say, the rest is history. I have done a search online and find that Amazon.com.uk has a list of 38 books written by Mary Jo Hiney and they are all like this...

The ideas inside are so lovely I just want to lock myself in my workroom and stay until I do them all. Each piece has complete instructions and patterns showing exactly how to make the article. But... they are not quite as easy as they look and some of them are quite time consuming.

I finished this little girl ornament yesterday but it has had a few modifications from the pattern. That's the beauty of these patterns...they lend themselves to whatever you personally want to do with them. I will be making more...