Friends and Sisters

A piece created for my "sister" and long standing friend, Joan Blake. ....her Christmas present, as it were. One doll was created from heart embroidered denim; the other doll created from floral embroidered linen. The denim-ed peacock is me; the more sophisticated linen represents Joan. We have had many years of wonderful friendship and sisterhood! About 45 years, I think. The seed beads were hand sewn on each doll; the pins are vintage pieces found and added. Coral and turquoise beads were added to provide stability for the standing dolls. Vintage lace was formed over a wooden block using a "porcelain" treatment product.

Contemplating the Year's End......

I have no idea if I have any words of wisdom for this entry. I've been finishing up projects and making a list of up-coming projects for 2010. A NEW decade; everyone is proclaiming! I wonder where this past decade went. LOL....I am retired for ten years now and the passage of time just seems so innocuous. I've tried to make great strides lately to recall parts of my life as to what ages I did what things, and what do I really remember? My husband is so great at remembering stuff; I just sit there and think, "No, I don't really remember that." "That really happened? When?" and I do not have dementia yet either. I've tried to control my emotions I guess, and not mark the things in life that I had no control over. I do have plenty of sad/bad things that I remember doing...sins that I committed that only God and I know about. Maybe that's why I don't remember the other stuff! I remember my old life and compare it to myself (sometimes) with this my new and happier life. I do know that I don't want the old life back!!

Another of the Old Guard died on Christmas Eve Day: Elva Buck. She was a LADY! I can only hope that her family truly appreciated her. She was one of my mother's friends....a great organist and piano-ist who played for my mother when she sang her "hard" songs that no one sings any more. This lady was always so gracious and made you think that you were the most important person in the world to her when you talked to her. I don't think I have that gift. My husband says that we are becoming the "Old Guard" now. Anyway, heaven is richer for this lady.

My friend posing up above is a jester piece that I created quite some time ago. I really need a great name for this bear! I'm going to post it on http//www.bearpile.com. I tried to keep it simple and have the attention go to the face area. The hat is created from vintage upholstery fabrics, decorated with glass pearls, and a vintage clip of wooden pearlized beads. The mohair is a soft orange color; the bear is fully jointed and filled with glass beads and fiberfill stuffing. Maybe she needs a friend to go with her??

A Title?? It's a Cold One Here Today.....

You know, as Winter stretches out before me, I always think I'm going to use my time wisely and get so many creative projects done. What happens actually, is that the darkness of winter over takes me and I "rest" like some of God's other critters. I have a couple of deadlines coming up June/August where I've committed to complex creations, so I have to determine not to succumb to the Winter "Blues". I miss Florida; it would energize me so during this time of year.

My favorite Christmas gift from my husband, has been the gift card from Barnes & Noble. I do enjoy reading; it exercises my imagination, and also I get to travel to places that I have not been to before. One book that had a few statements that impacted me was SUITE FRANCAISE by Irene Nemirovsky. I read this one LAST winter, but there were a couple of lines that made me sit up and notice. This book is about the occupation of France in the early 1940's, and how a small French town had to learn to live with the occupiers--German soldiers. Pages 177 and 178 contain a discussion by a couple whose fortunes have fallen on hard times because of the storm of this war.

"You mean you still don't understand that nobody cares about anybody?"
She looked at him. "You're strange, Maurice. You've seen people at their most cynical, their most disillusioned, and at the same time you're not unhappy, I mean, not really unhappy inside! Am I wrong?"
"No."
"So what makes it all right, then?"
"My certainty that deep down I'm a free man," he said, after thinking for a moment. "It's a constant, precious possession, and whether I keep it or lose it is up to me and no one else. I desperately want the insanity we're living through to end. I desperately want what has begun to finish. In a word, I desperately want this tragedy to be over and for us to try to survive it, that's all. What's important is to live:.....One day at a time. To survive, to wait, to hope."

There's another line that I believe goes along with this: "You shall know the truth, and the TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE." Truth is hard to come by, I think. My hope is for anyone reading this, (HAH!) that you are learning the TRUTH.....Truth is rather tenuous now days.