Want to Wreak Havoc??

Probably no one knows what that means..."to wreak havoc", since we do not use the same language any more that our parents used. So find a dictionary! Or....find 10 puppies....we have 9 of them now, as "Hunter" went yesterday to his new parents. I figured I was in great shape for being 65, but these guys have worn me down some. I can only hope that we can find GOOD CARING HOMES for each one of them! This was a "planned pregnancy" since my DH, the OUTDOORSMAN, decided he wanted the perfect bird dog. These pups have lineage that hunt and retrieve waterfowl and also grouse and pheasants. They are VERY loving and social, but they do make a mess! The sire is a Llewellyn Setter...the ORIGINAL English Setter, and the dam is a Black Lab. Patch (sire) has lineage of Hank the TV hunting dog fame and he is working out quite well now at age 3. IVY (dam) has always been an eager-to-please-playful-retrieving girl. She goes EVERYWHERE with Dave....at least she did before puppy-time.  It's hard to get good pictures of anything black, which is the color these guys are fond of; sporting a bit of white blaze on their chests. They are 6 weeks now and just full of fun wreaking havoc everywhere they go!

Cara-Mello: Naughty Bear #2

This bear was created from an imported mohair that was HAND woven and HAND dyed. The mohair nap is stiff. He is fully jointed and contains armature which helps him to stand and also to make the arms more pose-able. I used fabric marking pens to distinguish his facial features. Cara in Italian means "dear, or dear one" according to Lucille; it also denotes his coloring.

Naughty Bears! Or I will NOT Be Thwarted!

Laying in bed last night...er, early am....listening to my poor Patch cough from a partially collapsed trachea and suffering from heart burn myself, I began thinking about this next blog. I had finished two bears this past week, both of which were NOT COOPERATING with their creation! I can remember my mother saying, "I will NOT be thwarted!" any time any one of us balked at what she expected us to do in any situation. Mostly it was because she EXPECTED us to perform at church, in PUBLIC, of all things, and we children were not wanting to display our lack of talents to everyone. Not to be "thwarted" mother would insist. (Her will be done and our will be damned!) I don't know if the thwarting issue came about because she was the ONLY girl in her family and also the YOUNGEST. I've found from my humble experience that the YOUNGEST child carries a lot of weight in any family with his/her demands being met ASAP, while the OLDEST has to acquiesce to these demands. It happens to me still at the old age of 65! (Politicians should be THWARTED, but they aren't any more. It's an interesting word....look it up!)

Anyway, in my desire to create and not to be THWARTED by any inanimate ole bear, you can see the results in the picture below (above?). All I need to create for this ole guy (besides a name) is an old leather book for him to place open on his lap. My other bear creation has not been photoed yet; he needs a name, too.

I must admit to being partial to "art bears" as I call my creations. I never get the faces to look exactly the same on any bear I create, and I have found that if I don't like the face, I need to embellish it to "fix it" until I AM satisfied with the piece. So, I tell myself that people do not look exactly alike (even twins) so why should bears all look exactly alike? So this is where the One-Of-A-Kind comes in. After all, by the time I'm finished with each piece, I am tired (of it) and am moved to go on to something else.

Just a Little "Catsup"....

Today is bright and shiny: February 1, 2010 (2-01-2010). An interesting number to write. I had to write it a few times this morning, as I had fasting blood work, a bone density test, and a mammogram. I figured I might as well get it ALL done in one day! In an hour or so, I'm off to the lawyer's to see about finishing up my duties as Eleanor Button executor. We also have 10 new puppies which came over early Sunday morning....aren't all babies born in the early hours between 12:30 am and 5 am.? Mother and babies are doing fine; a noisy bunch! Well, they can't see or hear, so life is very dependent upon a mother.

I've been finishing up some projects that have been around for several YEARS! Gulp....bears; a bear pincushion.... Getting primed for the bigger stuff: new dolls for the Rome Art Center show in June, and TBAI bear show in August. Since no one else is reading this but me, I'm recording some ideas I'm "toying" with.....Oh! a great PUN! These are for the adult collector and not for children to play with. (1) I Meet Myself Coming and Going(doll) (2) Looking at the World Through Rose Colored Glasses(doll) (3) CNYDAG challenge fairy doll (4) Where the Wild Things Are(bears) (5) I'm a Little Jazz BEARd (Bird), a Gershwin tune complete with saxophone...open mouthed bear....and (6) some smaller Bendi cloth dolls decorated with fibers and beads. Now that it's all down here, one can hope that I don't forget....to check this page for my list. LOL....age, y'know.

Tomorrow the woodchuck sees his shadow and we have 6 more months of winter. That's par for Central New York. I'm trying to think of Sunny Florida and pretend winter's not happening here!

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.