The Falling Leaves....Drift By My Window....

The falling leaves of red and gold. Another old song! Another birthday in October....66! We're getting to "Never-Never Land" quickly. We've had an active October already: DH had 3 more stents put in his heart; I left my purse in the Oneonta shop and had to make a run down there to get it. An hour and a half each way. I have been doing some creative stuff...standing pincushions with bear heads a-top...using old candle holders for their bases. I sold some of these in Clayton, NY in August. I've just loved creating these and using up my vintage stuff; making beaded stick pins to place in them. (I don't have any new pics yet). Life is moving on at its' fast pace.


Went to Women of Faith last Saturday and so loved it; great speakers and music. The Lord is continuing to bless us here. Psalm 121....my favorite!

Where The Wild Things Are!!

 

This is our art gallery creation for the Teddy Bear Artists Invitational upcoming this weekend, the 14th of August. This show is a classy, fun show, with collectors coming from all over the United States. Generally, this is the only teddy show that I do any more since I've gotten older. Binghamton, NY is only an hour from where I live. I am trying another teddy show in November at Hunt Valley in Maryland. I've never been to this show, but I've heard good things about it; my travel "partner" Lucille, has been wanting to go to this for some time, so we're trying it out this year!

Where The Wild Things Are is a neat fantasy book for kids that can inspire lots of fun doll like creations, but I started too late to get my wild things to look the way my brain wanted them to look. Anyone who creates these things, knows that art bears and art dolls usually take on a life of their own, often times not the way we pictured them.

July News Notes.....

Well, I just posted my items to the wrong post. I guess they'll delete it if it's not considered "proper". So, here's what I basically wrote and published to the other site. We're having a wonderful heat wave here in NYS....I'm pretty susceptible to hot/humid, so I try to take it easy. My DH worries about me in this weather, since Hot/Humid and Crohn's seem to go hand-in-hand sometimes. I'm posting some new items here that I'll be showing at TBAI in August (Teddy Bear Artists' Invitational, Binghamton, NY). This is a premiere show that I just love being a part of, even as I grow older and do not get as much creative work completed as I'd like. I still have an abundance of ideas, but have other demands upon my time which seem to interfere with play time. These items are smaller, and so less expensive, but these are created from antique fabrics....a rayon (mohair texture) child's coat, and woolen carriage robes.

June Notes....

I'm going to have to do another photo shoot, since I do have some neat PINCUSHIONS that I've created for my up and coming sales in August. No...I haven't started the TBAI gallery piece yet....I'm STILL thinking about it! But, maybe today, I'll get my "monster patterns" out and start a more specific thought process. I'm with my dear Kathy Jensen....I'm beginning to hate deadlines! I always have good intentions, but I remember what Mom used to say about "good intentions". Ahem...for those of you (who MIGHT read this, LOL...) HELL is paved with good intentions!! Think of it--someday I'm going to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and I'll accept His salvation. Not today but someday.....

It seems like summer has been with us for quite sometime now. I wrote on Facebook, that I remembered when my summer started when school was out. It seemed, THEN, that the days would stretch out for such a long time; now they fly away! It's almost 7 am. here now and soon, another day will be gone. (And, what did I do?) I'm trying to fight age-ing by keeping the imagination going. While I was in Potsdam last week, I bought a couple of items that are going to make really COOL art doll/bear creations! One such item was a wooden fish that is brightly colored; a mermaid idea came along with that. I'm also taking an online class on automata, which is a system of gears that cause movement in doll or animal forms. I've wanted to learn to do this for a long time.

Here's one pincushion already for Teddy Bear Artists' Invitational at Binghamton, NY August 14 sale.

Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May

To The Virgins, to Make Much of Time
by Robbert Herrick
1591-1674

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morroe will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he's a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he's to setting.

The age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.
 
Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry:
For having lost but once your prime,
You may forever tarry.

The Not-So-Merry Month of May

Well, at 5 am. today our puppy dog Ruby went to doggie heaven. I KNOW there is no such thing, but it does help me grieve better.....She's buried out in our own Pet Cemetery down near the garden. We bought a Rose-of-Sharon tree on Friday to place down there to mark Jazz & Briar, never thinking that we'd see another dog go there. She was 5 months old. She was a happy pup; very quick, aggressive, and enjoyed a good run. She found a short tail shrew which she decided to eat and that was her undoing. Our neighbor looked up this shrew on the internet because Dave felt that the pup had been poisoned. The SHREW emits a venom that paralyzes its' victims and then the venom works on the muscles and nervous systems of said victims. It can cause a great deal of pain to humans, too, if they decide to handle the animal. Though Ruby was quite a bit larger than the SHREW, and had regurgitated the meal, the damage was done. Symptoms showed up later and she got to the vet's too late.

Ruby was the "runt" of our past litter. I had decided to keep her because she seemed like such a "lonesome girl" in that she didn't relate to the other nine so quickly. But as the pups went to their new homes, she came out of her "shell" and began to harass the other pups and adult dogs. She was FEARLESS! We are missing her......

The Merry Month of May

Here we are half way through May 2010! The days move along rather quickly. I've been doing some reading: The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes, The Body of Death by Elizabeth George, and now Preaching to a Postmodern World by Graham Johnston. This last book is a definitive expose' of our world as we live it now; no absolute truth, your truth is for you and not for me. Hard to tell others of Jesus saving Grace in this type of world. However, I am only in the FIRST chapter of this reading, so there is more to come, I can see.

Mother's Day has come and gone; I do not need to celebrate the parents' days now, I guess, but of course, I did pause and think about both Mom & Dad and the TRUE legacy that they left us the siblings. I have come to realize that it is a different legacy for each one of us. It seems that even though all five of us lived in the same house, under the same set of parents, our experiences have had different outlooks as to what really transpired. And my dear Mother told me one time that SHE didn't remember the stuff I talked about, so it didn't happen and I was making it all up! (The key view to postmodern philosophy...denial!) WOW! That set me back for a bit as I protested that these things most certainly happened....I find the things my Father taught me to be the core of my life's beliefs. My Dad was really pretty tolerant of Mother except when she'd tell him ethnic jokes that she'd learned at Syracuse China. Then he didn't want us to hear these and form prejudicial ideas about various peoples; God had created us all and we were to take that into account.

I now wonder what other people are learning in their homes in today's world and what will they take away from their parents that will help them to successfully live/cope with their lives? Our families are being destroyed by the world's views and the pull to "be like everyone else" is very strong in all people. The Jews of Israel wanted to be "like all the nations" instead of being separate and God's chosen people, and look at the heartache and problems they incurred over the centuries because of their choices! So some knowledge of history is necessary if we are to NOT REPEAT the same mistakes that others have made before us.

Well, I need to digress and finish my chores; they are ever with me. LOL....