Gratitude

A gift that arrived in my inbox this morning from Robert Genn's Twice Weekly Newsletter...

And one that I re-gift to you this morning.

[Note: Twice a week, I receive Robert Genn's Newsletter...self-decribed as "Robert's world-wide gift that artists love to get"...it's free. And yes, it is a gift. I've learned so much from his wisdom. You can sign up to receive it here. And don't miss the rest of his website, The Painter's Keys. I particularly enjoy his Painterly Post...a daily aggregation of events, publications and web posts that artists and creative people might find useful.]

Tote-ally Cool

My brother and his girls came over this weekend. These two showed up after being at a birthday party...

Why didn't they have parties like that when I was a kid? It sure beats "Pin the Tail on the Donkey"...

The girls came over to embellish the canvas tote bags I gave them for Christmas.

Since their parents have gotten divorced, they spend lots of time going between Mom and Dad so I thought they needed totes to keep all their important stuff ie. hair bands, games, books, pencil rolls, Cozies, iPods...

Honestly, when I first gave them to them they were thinking...."Why is Aunt Susan giving us these dorky looking canvas bags?" But their good parental training kicked in and they knew better than to say it out loud...

Well, I think I redeemed myself on Saturday when I pulled out the stash and they got to spend all day embellishing their bags.

I know I enjoyed it at least as much as they did...I love to see what they create and how their minds work while they're doing it.

I've learned a few things over the years working with the girls...

First thing....They enjoy the present so much more if they have had a hand in designing and creating it.

And second, if you happen to have a child who tends towards perfectionism and gets stuck often because of her inability to make her vision come out perfectly...

Drawing the design on paper ahead of time versus launching directly into the process works much better.

The two older girls mentioned how much they loved getting to spend the whole day making something.

See the Cozy tucked under her legs? Makes me smile...

In these days of overscheduling and busy-ness, it made me think that children might yearn for creative retreats as much as we do.

Which leads me to an idea for next year...

Inspired by Alice

Look at these beautiful buttons painted by Gerry Krueger! Aren't they fabulous??


I absolutely love them and all the work and care that went into them. If you don't know about it already, you must visit Gerry's blog -- Older Rose-- not only is she a painter but she is a needle artist and a master gardener! I always enjoy her perspective on life, her sense of humor and her amazing talent with needle and thread. To see more of her painted buttons you can go here...and Gerry said she's thinking about making some to sell on Ebay...As far as I'm concerned, she can't do it fast enough. Thank you Gerry!

Another friend, Carol-Ann Conway of Threads Across the Web, lives in Oxford -- home to Christ Church where Lewis Carroll wrote Alice in Wonderland. She recently blogged about her trip to Christ Church and what she discovered about the author and his life. You can read the post yourself here and have a look at some of the beautiful Japanese embroideries that she creates with her skilled hands while visiting her blog.

I also found these free day-of-the-week embroidery patterns courtesy of amommy22 on Flickr and found that a very talented poster De Sade's Kitten has been stitching them after first painting her muslin with watercolor pencils and then wetting it. Check them out, they are beautiful.

And I found this company, Sumptuousity, who makes a whole series of Alice brooches. Love them too!

Photograph from Sumptuosity

And last but not least is my friend from Pinks and Needles...who has created a limited edition pin set of Alice in Wonderland. I love all of her pins...she is forever coming up with something new...and they make great gifts for anyone that owns a pincushion.

Photograph from Pinks and Needles

As for me, I'm working on a tea party and painting little itty bitty cups for the table...


But I wanted to show you this close up picture of the embroidery on Alice's dress that inspired my embroidery in the last post...


And I had completely forgotten to share this picture of Mallymkin yesterday!!! Yes, you guessed it! That little dormouse performs her own version of enucleation on the Bandersnatch when she removes his eyeball with her hatpin/sword...she then carries the eyeball around in a net on her waist as a talisman throughout the movie...Isn't a bit coincidental that I performed one on Alice? hmmm....


Have a great night/morning and I'll pop in again when it's time for tea!

Shorts and Shenanigans

Every year, our extended family heads to the beach to celebrate the Fourth of July. And every year, we have created an article of wearable art that will showcase our spirit for the day.

This year, the kids decided to decorate shorts.

We used fabric spray paint over star stencils and fabric markers...a very simple technique for all ages.


We had two stages of painting and drying for the fronts and the backs of the shorts and hung them on hangers in the closet to dry...


And here's how they turned out...



One of my favorite things is to see them all together and how each one made their own creative choices. love that.

Jack didn't want to make shorts with the girls so he hung out on the sidelines and watched. That was until I pulled him into a picture and asked everybody to salute The Flag...


And they asked if I would be the photographer and try to catch them all jumping in mid-air...this was too many kids to catch them all at once...

And this was our best shot of the night...

But this froggy position of my niece, Shannon, in the middle just cracks me up. Hope it makes you smile too.

She's the same one who added dreadlocks to her hat last year...very cool...

And, though the littler ones couldn't jump like the big dogs,they could be on the top of the pyramid...

And, like all good pyramids, they must fall...

I wish I could show you more pics of the beach and other zaniness but they are locked inside my other camera and evidently my husband's laptop doesn't speak the same language.

See you next week, unless I decide to post again. No promises...because there are no plans on vacation...and it's time to play with my two favorite men since everyone else has left.

Creative Jean-ius

I've got two more pairs of pants to finish for our PPR Party tomorrow!


I'm taking a quick break to show you some highlights of the girls' designs.


As I've sewn each one, I can really see how each of the girls' personalities have come through.


Like Moe, for instance,


Moe is ten years old and our budding author.


Moe understands the power of words.


And then there's Shannon. Shannon didn't seem constrained and was able to think outside the box. This "measuring tape" was in a straight line and Shannon chose to "bend" it -- to great effect, I think.

She also took this "zipper" and made a little three dimensional "brooch" with fabric scraps -- too cute!


But, I'll never forget how we all couldn't stop giggling when Shannon decided to put fireworks on the back of her pants -- you know, like, coming out of her butt.... *giggle


This has been such a fun project, but if I ever want to create NINE of something again-- shoot me. Production is not my thing. But visions of tomorrow keep me charging forward...


Speaking of vision, I'm beginning to have vision problems...


I'm seeing Peace Signs everywhere I look...



Peace out!

Pants Pants Revolution -- Part One

Sunday was a very exciting day at my house.

Remember those nine nieces I'm always talking about? Well, I invited them all here to my house on Sunday afternoon to decorate jeans with fabric....


I called it Pants Pants Revolution which is a play on words for the very popular video game called Dance Dance Revolution...

I had no idea what to expect for this day. I put together a slideshow of ideas that I'd collected from Flickr and Etsy and showed it to them first thing. I also had blank jean templates so that they could design on paper if they wanted to.

After seeing the slideshow and all of the great fabric, the girls got right to work. The older ones, ages 8 and up, designed and decorated their jeans for over five hours. I can't wait to show you some of the creative ideas they came up with! It was inspiring for me to be around them!

Peace signs were, by far, the most popular theme and they made them in every color and size... also popular was Day-of-the-Dead sugar skulls, cupcakes, tropical hibiscus flowers, mod girl fabric, music, and big dots...

The three younger ones, came up with a plan, picked out their fabrics and went off to play. They were only good for an hour or so which is what I expected.

The older girls cut out the fabric shapes and pinned them to their pants...



I was inspired to do this party by a Sewing Stash Contest issued by Kaari Meng at French General. The main rule is that you can't buy anything new and you must use items from your stash. So all the fabric came out of my closet and exploded into piles and piles of fabric profusion!!



We made a big, beautiful mess!


I had plans on making myself a pair of jeans to enter into the contest (this will be the only pair I send in...) but then thought I would use a lot more fabric if I included all the girls. It was just beyond fun!! The contest ends on January 31 so I need to get sewing!!


The next phase of Pants Pants Revolution comes when they are all finished and we wear them out to a photo shoot and lunch together in either Ellicott City or the Mall. We're having tea again this year on Friday but, with company here, there's no way I can finish them by then so it will probably take me a few weeks.


Plus, I need to spend time with Jack this week before he goes back to school. He was a great help at the party by watching the littlest while the rest of the girls created.