Weekend Social

The Curvy Lady is hosting a Weekend Social, and the first one is this weekend!  The theme is "Something Sweet".  So I give you my little family!  

First, my goofy furchildren, Pepperbeanieweenie..... "Qwit takin pitchers, mama!"

And her baby bubba Sagieboopala!  "Mama?  Be a dear and getz me a snax!  K Mama? I can has? Iz too comfy ta getz up."  What's the magic word, BooBoo?  "Oh, sowwy....Pwease to getz me a snax?" 

And the sweetest most loving & affectionate man in the universe, and the love of my life, my Bear.  (photo taken in March, 2011)

"Life may be sweeter for this, I don't know

Feels like it might be alright

While lady lullaby sings plainly for you

Love still rings true...."  

Grateful Dead "Crazy Fingers"

A Sneak Peak at "The Project That Ate My Brain"

A few weeks ago, I featured my first foray into a bead embroidery fusion.  A few people asked me what I was gonna do with it. I said I wasn't sure, since it was just stitched onto some plain cotton fabric.

I've decided how I am going to use this, but of course that meant the need to stitch a whole bunch more patterns for this ambitious project.  

Here's a set of 2 smaller designs.

Close up of the green one.

I have fallen madly in love with varigated thread and floss!!!!

So I went out to Michael's in Wareham to buy some more cool threads & flosses.

The Asian letters were the hardest part of this design.

I had to shoot a couple of pictures of the virgin crochet thread before diving into it.  Ooooo PURTY!!!!

Rainbow!!!!!

As soon as I transferred this design I knew how it was going to be stitched, hence the need for all that rainbow thread.  I also tried to use Kreinik blending filament, a beautiful sparkly thread that comes in a variety of colours, but it's very difficult.  It breaks and tangles extremely easily, even when I used thread conditioner and also paused after every stitch to let the needle unwind.  I used it for the 5 hearts, and planned on using it in the butterflies.  I want to use it more often but the frustration level with it is quite high.  I'd also planned to use coloured floss to fill in the main design but my friend Sheila suggested I use black and I readily agreed.  

The black really made the coloured outline pop.  I hobbled through more sparkled thread tangles for 2 of the 3 butterflies.  I was going to add gold to the green butterfly, but by that point I just wanted to finish!!

This design was not as easy as I thought it would be.  I delusioned myself into thinking this would take one afternoon.  It took 2 days.  I was so sick of green, hence the hot pink.

Scary, innit?

Oh and then, I found a small bead stash I totally forgot I had and so of course I had to incorporate those beads into the next paisley design, instead of exclusively using Delicas like in the prior pieces shown above.

It was at this point that I began to suffer some fatigue on this project.  I got a brainwave for a mixed media project, centered around a silver Grateful Dead dancing bear pin that I had.  I removed the pin back to create a little scene with felt, buttons, sequins and embroidery.  This represents a line in the song, "Scarlet Begonias", that says, "The wind in the willows playing tea for two, the sky was yellow and the sun was blue..."  I am resisting the urge to festoon the sky with more stuff, but I'm not gonna rule it out.

The silver bear is inlaid with turquoise. I outlined him in rainbow thread.  

Since there was a pile of sequins on my table, I couldn't resist taking a shot.

And one out of focus so as to emphasize the sparklies.

Old and In the Way

My dear friend and fellow blogger, Daisy Deadhead, posted this tshirt pic on Facebook.   I was glad I wasn't drinking any beverage at the time or else my computer would have been sprayed with it when I saw this. The actual lyrics are "What in the world ever became of sweet Jane?  She lost her sparkle you know she isn't the same. Livin' on Reds, Vitamin C and Cocaine, all a friend can say is ain't it a shame".  If there is one Grateful Dead song that everyone seems to know the best, it's "Truckin'".  It was recorded in the fall of 1970, when the band was still in their 20's.  And now we see a new lyric, tailor made for us old hippie Deadheads.

Deady Bears!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Looky what I got from Pernicious Panda!!  She had a collection of Grateful Dead Beanie Bears and rather than donate them to Goodwill, she asked if I'd like to give them a new home instead!  I was more than happy to!  Aren't they cute?  The Dancing Bear design has always been my fave of all the Dead logos.

Each bear is named after a Dead song.

Back row, left to right:   Tennessee Jed, Cassidy, Althea, Delilah and Sugaree
Front row, left to right:   Bertha, Samson, St. Stephen, Stagger Lee, Jack Straw and Cosmic Charlie
(Although "Samson" and "Delilah" are separate bears, the song is called "Samson & Delilah")

Thanks so much PP!!!!  I appreciate it!

One Step Closer...

amber & cream cathedral glass with swarovski crystal pendant

It's Labor Day weekend here in North America. A few years back I blogged that I thought it should be New Years Day because the school year is new, the clothing lines are new, the TV season starts again. The holidays are kicking off. The NFL and college football start their seasons. So, Happy New Year.

green cathedral glass beads with 4mm faceted czech champagne crystal with key pendant

I was off on Friday for my last long weekend until Thanksgiving, unless I decide to throw caution to the wind and go up to Hope, BC in October, when my boss is at a conference in "the other Washington" (DC). I decided to finally suck it up and go to the bank and open up my business checking and savings accounts, and apply for a biz credit card. Took about an hour, but it's finally all ready to go. Later that day, I talked w/ my friend Josh, who I've known since Emerson. He and his wife sell their homemade soap on Etsy and I picked his brain on how to do it. Seems easy enough.....but the prospect of putting my stuff out there for sale is still overwhelming. And intimidating. I just hate selling my stuff. I'd much rather give it away. If one of my friends says, "I love that one", they will, more than likely, receive it in the mail. I just can't say, "well it's yours for the low, low price of $19.95! BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!!"

crackle glass cubes

crackle glass cubes with 4mm faceted czech amber crystal

Maybe it's that "Deadhead Tape Trading" mentality that I can't shake. The band gave away their music at the shows, and if you wanted to bring recording equipment to the shows, great. They even sold special "Tapers' Section" tickets. Their only caveat was after you record it, you make copies for free, for trading purposes. I've never had to rely on my jewelry for income, so I've gotten used to giving it away. I like to make people smile.

red glass with 4mm rose quartz

Now I have to spend the time organizing the jewelry I want to list and then uploading all the pics and info to Etsy. Because I am still dipping my toe in retail waters, I didn't do that this weekend and I know I should have. I just need to take baby steps right now and I will get the stuff listed. It's just, I have everything in baggies in a shoe box. There has to be a more efficient way to set this up and I'm still kicking around a few ideas on the best way to do it. My biggest stumbling block is also how to do shipping. Josh told me that's been the hardest part for them too. Normally I just put the jewelry into a white jewelry box w/ cotton inside, put that in a padded envelope, and then mail it. Costs about .95 or so. But should I use priority mail with confirmation notification for my business shipping? Then I'd have to charge my customers like $6.00 on top of the cost of the jewelry. Times are tough as it is, so should I take the less expensive route and hope that the US Post Office can get it from Point A to Point B without fucking it up? Let's face it, that's always a crap shoot. If anyone out there has any ideas and suggestions, I am completely open to them.

So I'm gonna go back to mulling over some more ideas for efficient organization, over at my craft table. Can you tell I like to work in blues? :o)

blue cathedral glass with metal dragonfly pendant

swarovski glass pearls & small pale blue cathedral beads with celestial pendant

millefiori cane glass with 4mm faceted garnet

blue cane glass with czech crystal

I Simply Must Make One of These!!!

This is Ramona Moon's "Turkey Toyota", a fixture at all Fairfax Festivals, Parades and Farmers Markets. Fairfax is a very funky, arsty, hippie, tree hugging town in West Marin County, at least it was when we lived for 6 years before moving to Washington. It was stuff like this that made us decide to live there. It's a 1967 Toyota Corona. I googled her name and the car and it looks like she lives in Ohio now, and had the car shipped there. I shot these photos about 15 years ago.

I really, really want to do one of my own. I have looked at this one up close on many occasions and the stuff she's stuck to the car is just soooo cool. Plastic jewelry, toys and dolls. Magic Markers form a rainbow on the doors. Action figures. Pez Dispensers. Stickers. It's awesome.

I figure the whole thing would be about a $2,000 investment for a beater car that runs OK, all the special adhesive and whatever I decided to stick onto the car. Oh the possibilities are ENDLESS! I could actually BEAD the car. I'd have a whole part devoted to a celestial theme too. Tie Dye of course. Bits of glass. Prisms. As the Grateful Dead song goes, "Too much of everything is just enough".

Too bad I don't have any disposable income. But someday, if and when I do have the disposable income.....Do I dare? >:P

America's Birthday

The only thing that would have made this cartoon funnier is if they'd spelled it "Chowdahead".

July 4th doesn't seem to mean the same thing on the west coast as it does on the east coast. If you were born and raised in one of "The Colonies", like Brian and I were, July 4th is not only a day of fun and games, but also a time to celebrate the birth of our country. There are revolutionary war themed parades back east. However, the west coast is way, way younger, and very far removed from important historical places like Philadelphia and Boston. So out here, July 4th is more about a day off to drink to excess, eat to excess and then blow shit up. The whole Declaration of Independence thing is an after thought.

Sandwich in the 1970's was a different place in time. It was still a small town, where everyone knew everyone for the most part. There was a "horribles parade" in the early morning, that started and ended at the elementary school, doing the loop through town. From Wikipedia: "Parade of horribles" originally referred to a literal parade of people wearing comic and grotesque costumes, rather like the Philadelphia Mummers Parade. It was a traditional feature of Fourth of July parades in parts of the United States in the nineteenth century, and "Horribles Parades" continue to be part of the Independence Day celebration in several New England communities."

Kids decorated their bikes with streamers and stuff woven in their spokes. There were people dressed up. Classic cars, the school bands. Civic leaders, a few floats. Then after the parade it was off to the elementary school to watch, or enter, the 3-legged race, potato sack race and other "old fashioned" games from a simpler time. All the homes that ringed the school had parties so you just walked around, visiting with everyone. A fave event was The Firemen's Muster which was always good for a laugh as the fire departments for the villages of Sandwich, East Sandwich and Forestdale would compete against each other and inevitably, the firehose would get turned on and people would be drenched and screaming w/ laughter. All of the old homes in the Village were decorated with red, white & blue bunting and the effect on the white painted homes was striking.

In 1975, there was a huge parade to kick off the Bicentennial year celebration. My dad was in the Lion's Club float that depicted Washington Crossing the Delaware. He was one of the oarsmen, and my Uncle Dick was standing behind the guy who played Washington. My mom and Aunt Eve made their costumes, which costumes passed immediately into the hands of Diane and I on July 6th and boy did we have a blast that summer with our tri-cornered hats, vests, pouches and fake rifles that my dad made from wood & pipe (and I still have mine in the closet). We have home movies of the parade. When I see it I just cannot believe how little Diane, Sharon and I were, at ages 10, 12 and 10 respectively.

After the morning's activities, it was always home for lunch. After my aunt and uncle had their pool built in 1973, that's where we'd be for the rest of the afternoon. I'm not sure what we did before the pool was built, but possibly we went swimming at the beach or at Snake Pond in Forestdale, where I took swimming lessons.

Dinner would be a family barbecue with the picnic table outside at Aunt Eve and Uncle Dick's. Sometimes we were taken downtown for the fireworks, but when we were very young, we would light the sparklers that Diane & Sharon's dad, Hal, would buy on his many business trips to the south. He would get sparklers mostly, maybe a couple of other small things, but nothing major and it was enough to satisfy our need for fireworks. But when we got older, we would go back to downtown Sandwich at dusk, coated with bug spray. We'd get an Italian Ice from the ice cream truck and find a spot on the ground at Shawme Pond.

Once we staked our place, we'd listen to the band that was playing on the wooden bandstand, which is to the far left of the above photo, next to the tree. It was also decorated with red white & blue bunting, like the homes around the pond. As it started to get dark, the lighted boat parade would start from the other side of the pond. People decorated their row boats with tons of Chinese lanterns and would row past the crowd, each boat trying to outdo the other, as best as one could in a tiny row boat. Everyone would clap appreciatively, and they were all within shouting distance of the shore so there were a few loud wise cracks from those who recognized the people in the boats.

The fire department would shoot the fireworks from the point at the old cemetery, across the pond.

It was a lot of fun. In the late 70's, they stopped the fireworks b/c the cemetery was just too fragile, and the drunk people were using the yards of historic old homes as toilets. There was still the parade and events, and in high school I'd always go downtown for the day to hang out with my friends, but we didn't bother fighting the traffic to go to Falmouth or Hyannis for the fireworks. I remember a few times being with Marybeth, having walked all over town during the day, and then at night so many people, adult and children, would be at their house and people showed up with some roman candles, catherine wheels and firecrackers.

In 1986, I was lucky enough to see the Boston fireworks, which were incredible. I will never forget it. My bff Charlene had an apartment near Copley Place, behind the Pru. So I crashed at her place after we went to the Esplanade. I remember we had to climb a 6' chain link fence barrier that divided Storrow Drive so that we could get to the other side. Oh the things I was able to do in my youth! There were speakers so even though we were behind the Hatch Shell and unable to see the Boston Pops, we could hear the music. The fireworks were amazing.

In 1987, my friend Jack, cousin Diane and I went to the annual Mashpee Pow Wow on the Cape. That was fun. Then that night I went to the fireworks in Hyannis, at Kalmus Beach, with my then boyfriend Howard. We were sitting so close to where they were launching them, that all the shells broke directly over us. We were laying on our backs on the blanket looking up thinking what a great view we had. Then the flaming debris started hitting the beach all around us. We sprang up, grabbed our shit and fled down the beach, laughing maniacly at the situation, with flaming shells still raining down on our heads.

In 1988, I was in Maine for the July 2 & 3 Dead shows with Michelle. On July 4th, we drove from Freeport, Maine, over into New Hampshire and all the way to the top of Mt. Washington, the highest point in all of New England. It was so hot and hazy. When we got back to North Conway, we had dinner and stayed for their fireworks, before making the 2 hour trip back to Freeport.

In 1989, we were at a Dead show in Buffalo on July 4th. Brian and I were on the radio at a local Buffalo rock station, because it was our honeymoon and our friend Jef knew the on air talent from Massachusetts. When he told her that it was his friends' honeymoon tour, they decided to talk to us.

After we moved to California, July 4th was kind of a let down. There were no fireworks near by enough to bother with the traffic jam. Half the time San Francisco was socked in with fog so the fireworks couldn't even be seen. We would sometimes have friends over for grilling and good times. But overall, it was just another day off. No bunting. No parades. No town festivals held to coincide with the holiday.

Then we moved here and discovered that fireworks are, more or less, legal. The Indian reservations make windfall profits from the fireworks stands. Technically you aren't supposed to leave the res with the good stuff, and sometimes there is a State Patrol car sitting at the entrance and exit so then you take your chances. But overall, you can go, blow tons of money on heavy duty mortars, and get home w/o being stopped by the cops. Our neighborhood goes a bit nuts, and so did we, especially in 2002. I saved $20 a week for months and months, for "The Boomie Fund" so by the end of June, we could go nuts. And go nuts we did.

Now that we have Pepper and Sagan, we don't buy them anymore. It was fun but man, what a mess they made in the driveway. One year we were finding parachutes on the roof and trees for weeks. And it really is a waste of money on something that's going to explode, but we had the disposable income for it back then. Not so much anymore.

But I do sometimes long for those July 4ths in the 70s, in Sandwich.