Hey, Sherry! - I'm ready for a long winter's nap.

Sherry, this post is especially for you. ;-) More boudoir photos by Raymond.

Nedsel has discovered the joy of crawling under a blanket. Here he is ready for a nap. Unlike Princess Stinky he prefers the foot of the bed as his point of entry.






Princess Stinky has to be at the head of the bed with me. Wasn't it nice of Raymond to take this lovely photograph?







In case you missed my big greasy nose in that photo, he also took a closeup.








Chatty is a daddy's boy. Here he is on Raymond's telephone "chair". I use that term loosely. It's actually a captain's chair from a Chrysler Town and Country van that he propped up on blocks in the kitchen. I hate it. Raymond loves it because it reclines, has adjustable arms, and I feel certain he secretly feels as though he's driving while seated in it. Car seats do not make an attractive kitchen accent. Especially when someone uses my cute little quilted throw I got for our tv room as a slipcover. Gaaa. At least Chatty looks good on it.








When I was a child, my dad built a Christmas village for us. You must keep in mind this was in the early to mid sixties long before all the Department 56 and Norman Rockwell stuff. Every Tuesday afternoon we would go by the neighborhood grocery store to pick up orange crates from behind the grocery store (they restocked fruits and veggies on Tuesdays). We would take them home (all the while the interior of the '56 Chevy Bel Aire would smell like canteloupe and bananas). There Daddy would take them down to the basement and disassemble the crates. He used the resulting slats to carve out these little houses. The houses were modeled after neighborhoods he saw when he was stationed in England during WWII. He painted them what he called "Disney" colors, however. He also did the two paintings behind the village here. The Santa was modeled after Haddon Sondblom's work he did for Coca Cola. He stays out all the time.







Here's another angle. I love the castle. I think it's my favorite of all the little houses. I painted the blue house with the green roof. Imagine that! Daddy let me paint one! With oil paint! And a big person's brush! You have to keep in mind I was probably 9 years old at the time. That was exciting stuff.







Over the years we've collected a mishmash of little figures, trees and other accessories to include in the village setup. They are certainly not consistent in scale, but oh, do they hold memories. And symbolism. I'm going to be setting the village up at my mom's house tomorrow. It's always fun, but at the same time difficult as it always makes her wax melancholic about Daddy being gone and she sails into the litany of her life with Daddy. Don't get me wrong. I miss him horribly also. I'm more of a "suffer in silence" kind of gal, however. Mattie has to hold you hostage. ;-)





I am indeed very blessed to have been raised in my slightly nutty family. Dagwood, especially, was special folk.

Cool village, eh?

What do these items have to do with each other - the boudoir and a Christmas village? Well, having been raised in that sort of household, I've been conditioned to have little Christmas projects going on. I'll never create anything as lovely as the village, but I still feel the need to create. And share. And my favorite place to do a lot of my handiwork is - you guessed it - on my bed. As witnessed here:





As you can see, I have lots of little helpers, too. ;-)

Hey - it's December 6th! Do you know where your Christmas tatting is?


Anyone who knows me can tell you I drag some sort of project, usually tatting, everywhere I go. I simply cannot have idle hands while sitting. I've been known to tat in classes, in meetings at work, and on Sunday mornings in church. The key is to try to watch what's going on more than what's happening with the tatting. Of course, sometimes this can result in unpredictable results. Also, it restricts one to more simple fare as to be able to concentrate on the external rather than the tatting. This is a snowflake that came off my shuttles in church a couple of weeks ago.

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And I also promised to post my version of Ruth Perry's Celtic Snowflake which can be seen here.
Ruth, you are such a treasure for sharing your lovely designs with us. Mine looks a bit wonky here. I was scanning with Nedsel helping (he's the little imp on the left of my banner). It seems he thinks he has to "help" the scanner/printer by poking his head inside, standing on top, walking across the buttons, you get the idea.

Look who came to my house! It's the PussyTat Dolls and their little friend, BriTatney Spears (she's the one in blue)! I do send my robust apologies to Jane Eborall who started the whole TatBead wave, further perpetuated by Martha Ess. Janey, oh Janey has the original Tatbead family posted here. Martha Ess expanded the family a bit, along with Pam Myers, Jessica Kuligowski, and Elaine Law, which Jane graciously posted here. Do try some of these! They're addictive.



















Here's a doodle from a couple of weeks ago. I thought it looked like a tree. Any other opinions? I'm messing with this doodle a bit more.

Ah - as I was looking through Tatday pics, I ran across this one from 2005. What a wonderful evening that was! This is for you, Susie-Q!

Back from Tatdays! I have lots of little projects to show. I'm sticking them all in one picture, however. ;-) Lazy Erin! I had such a grand time this year. The Palmetto gals were ever the most gracious hostesses. In spite of the threat of Hannah, things proceeded in grand Palmetto fashion. As it turned out, we only had misty rain on Friday night (with rain more in earnest while we slept) and Saturday morning. By Saturday afternoon all was sunshine and smiles.

The angel in the upper right corner is Jane Eborall's pattern taught by Riet Surtel-Smeulders. The pink, blue and white angels with the dangly beads are Sharren Morgan's Abbeville Angel. The smaller half-necklace and earrings in the middle are by Nina Libin, as is the larger half necklace (the Blossom necklace from her Lace of Beads publication). I'm certain you all recognize Anne Bruvold's dragons! The dark dragon is a gift from Celticdreamweaver Sherry Townsend and the pink one was made by my dear friend Barbie. She decided to throw in some beads. Both of those threads are hand-dyed by Sherry Pence (Ladyshuttlemaker at Etsy). The colorways are Royalty and Fuchsia - both size 80 threads. I have to say I'm in love with the threads. Who wouldn't be?

The snowflake was an 'on-the-fly' project and needs blocking badly. In fact, all these items need blocking. The pattern is the first one in Lene Bjorn's _24 Snowflakes in Tatting_ book. I'm going to make another with spaces carefully measured now that I know how large the rings of rings turn out. I hope that made sense. Also, I'm going to add beads.

The sorry little bookmark is another attempt at Lobelia. I did three colors this time. I have to say I love lacing with Gutterman silk. Pretty colors and feels pretty to work with, too. I made this on my Bimboburg(tm) pillow by Mark Myers. I'm thinking next time I'll use some blue work cloths rather than pink and red. It got to be a little too much pink to look at all at once. Also, my next project will be some sort of yardage on the Sherry pillow I recovered. I'm thinking a Buckspoint edging. . . something very elementary, of course.

Sherry came to visit before Tatdays and we had a couple of days to play before we went over together. On the way down to Winnsboro, Raymond let us stop at the Giant Hobby Lobby of Spartanburg. It was large, but I was a wee bit disappointed in the bead selection. We have much more here in Knoxville. I was surprised. We did manage to find things to buy, however. Imagine that!

Fresh off the pillow! Lobelia bookmark from _The Bobbin Lace Manual_ by Geraldine Stott. There are definitely some tension issues, but hey, I'm learning. ;-)

Mark, I'm gonna have to fire up Bimboburg soon!

Okay-I haven't been here in a while so I have to post some things that have been going on behind the scenes. We went to visit Pam and Jerry in SC, and what a deeeeeelightful time we had! Much foolishness went on. Here's a pic to sum up some of the events.

Yes, that's our Sue. She's wearing Pammy's hyacinths that one of Pam's darling grandchildren made for Easter. Oh, Sue, what will we do with you? heehee!








I put this one here for Gina. I found a use for my lace heart! Just wait until Halloween!
















Sherry...this is for you. It awaits. I was about to wet my pants.














I almost forgot. Here is one of my paintings from figure painting class several weeks ago.



Uplighting. A new challenge. I'm afraid she looks a little stiff. Those shadow colors are kind of funky as I was painting in the dark. I kept telling myself, "It's all about value."

Heh.

At last! I finished it! It looks like crap, but I don't care because my pillow is free!

Look Sherry - lots and lots and lots of booboos, but I don't care! I can do something else now! I think I'll make a snake! Or a bookmark! Anything but this curvy, swervy heart!

Yay!

Okay - I haven't written much lately. I've been really busy. We are in the midst of reorganization at work (big one from the top down) - my boss of 20 years retired and all manner of chaos has followed.

Mattie's little dog, Mopsy, became terminally ill. I had to have her put down. It was tooooooo sad. Poor little dog. Poor little Mattie.

Mattie had to have another doggie, so we found her a puppy. Her name is Selly, short for Celestine. You can tell I didn't name her. My kind of pet name is more like "Listerine" rather than "Celestine". Oh, well. She's a cute little dachshund and I feel certain she'll keep Mattie off the streets for a little while. Here's her pic:



She's already trying to play fetch and hasn't pooped in the house in four days! Woohoo! She's a wonder-dog!

I've also been painting lately. Here's one of the results. Can you tell I had been feeling color deprived?



This is 18x22. Where on earth will I keep it?

Heehee! Sherry, here we are. So near and yet soooooooooooooooooooooo far.....