Saying goodbye to 2011

For me, saying goodbye to 2011 is a mixed bag. The year started off great. I was in the throws of organizing 5 days of workshops with Colleen Babcock and for a doll maker it doesn’t get much better than that. What a great experience it was for me and by all accounts for everyone who attended. A small glitch in the first minutes by someone with bad manners, but quickly erased by 5 days of intense but so satisfying doll making and chatter. The silly factor played a big role in class but we composed ourselves now and then, kept our heads on and got through it all…

Not long after Colleen left and for the next few months, things just went crazy. To sum it up, hubby had an opportunity to go to a new job. He retired from the military and prepared for the new job, but unfortunately that didn’t play out as planned. No matter, it obviously wasn’t meant to be.

Also during the time between June and September, not one, but both of his brothers passed away making for two trips home for funerals. While away for the second one, the reno’s got underway and that concluded a few short weeks ago. The house was upside down for many weeks, but the end result was all worth it and our guys were amazing and so is their work. In this day and age it’s very hard to find people to do work that well, so we feel very fortunate to have made this connection with Guy and Luc.

In October after Ute Vasina had been here, I decided to leave the doll club. Among other things I felt that I was losing myself as far as my creative journey. I could feel things piling up on me, and between dealing with “people” who are ill mannered and my duties with the club, I seemed to be out of focus where my doll making and other interests are concerned, so I pulled the plug and left.

I’m more than ever convinced that is was the right thing for me to do and that being a solitary crafter works far better for me. I can have my quiet time, my thoughts are more organized and I get so much more accomplished. I can get more done in 1/2 hr. of focused time, than if I plan a whole day. It’s finding or at least, realizing what it is that makes you your best, I have now gone back to that.

While cleaning up my computer (as one of my projects for getting back to being organized), I found some very funny moments in time. I made this doll years ago in an online class with Allison Marano and true to form I found a way to share the moment when I was working on Henley. He’s been living in Oz and from all accounts, very happy.

I will be carrying on with my finishing up of UFO’s and have already been organizing my schedule for the year. Not that it’s set in stone, but it’s working schedule and it’s open to change. My Hope to Do List is on the wall, I’ve been working on my website, and the Christmas decorations are put away for another year so that I can start off on a clean slate and clear mind.

So it’s been a crazy mixed up year, some very good moments to start off the year, and some very sad ones in between and ended on a happy note with the the house being brought closer to the year 2012 with the updates. Hopefully those will continue in the New Year with some updates to the kitchen and a new floor in our bedroom, but time (and money of course) will tell the tale.

We don’t  go out for New Years, but for those who do, be careful and be safe, but have fun. Apparently drinking a glass a water in between alcohol drinks helps ward off hangovers. Heard that on Dr. Oz.

2012 you’re just about here and I can’t wait for you. To all my followers and readers, I wish you nothing but the best for 2012. A clear mind, happy days and whatever you wish for that would make your life or someone’s close to you, that much better. All the best, Romona

A stitch closer

I’m busy working away on the needlework UFO I showed you a few days ago. I did start working with the Cashel linen, but found that I didn’t like the feel of it and I don’t like how this particular linen has such an uneven weave. I changed to Lugana and am enjoying it much more.

The Lugana is a combination of cotton/linen, and is a more even weave making it easier to stitch on. I’ve finished one band and have started the second one, so here’s hoping I can at least get that one done by the end of the week so I can put the whole project together and check off the first UFO for the New Year.

This is where I’m at…. First a little close up, then the full size. The finished band is approx. 12” long by about 1 1/2” wide. (the stitched area). The threads are #12 DMC cotton, and Kreinik #4 fine braid as well as small white bugle beads and gold petite seed beads.

Merry Christmas

Wishing all my followers and readers a very festive and happy season.  Did you remember to buy yourself something for Christmas??? I always do because I think it’s important to treat yourself to something for all the hard work you do all year, think of it as your own reward system.

I went to pick up the turkey yesterday and was about to leave. I was sitting in the car and had such a terrible headache I decided to stay where I was and just walk around the shops a little while to see if the fresh air would help before I got back in the car and on to the highway to go home.

It’s a nice little marketplace, Matticks Farm,  in a somewhat rural area and you can just walk around outside  and peek into all the store windows. Something caught my eye and I just had to go and see what it was. I love snow globes and have wanted one for ages. I also have an extreme love of Jesters. They are such complex characters. I now have the best of both worlds.

Here was this beautiful snow globe just waiting there for me to come and pick it up and it was half price, so I really got lucky. When you turn the musical part on, it causes glitter to swirl around while the mask rotates. The music piece is called Masquerade, how perfect.  It’s so beautiful. So perhaps the walk wasn’t just to try and walk off the headache, but to draw my attention to my Christmas present for this year…. Happy Holidays….

Reviving the past

I’ve been having the urge to get back to my needlework as it is my first love in my creative journey. I’m not sure where the urge is coming from, but perhaps this year has been so hectic in so many ways, I feel like I need some low key and quiet time. Needlework is so therapeutic, you kind of lose yourself in the stitching. It forces you to concentrate and count stitches and before you know it, you’re oblivious to what’s going on around you. I will still be playing with dolls to, but my needlework is definitely going to play a big role.

I also decided I was tired of UFO’s and some of those are my needlework projects. 2011 is almost out the door and 2012 is waiting to come in and I plan to welcome it in by working on unfinished things more than new ones. One of things that can slow down our creative leanings is to have half finished things laying around and this year is going to be spent fixing that. The first UFO is out and ready to be worked on. If you asked me when I started this, I wouldn’t be able to tell you, it’s really been years tucked away and begging to be finished. Can you guess what it’s going to be????

….and just for added measure, I’ve signed up on Sharon Boggon’s blog, to take the TAST (Take a Stitch Tuesday) challenge for 2012. The general idea is the starting Jan.3rd 2012, and Tuesday’s thereafter, a stitch will be posted and we are to stitch that into whatever form we like, be it a band sampler or fiber book or what have you. Probably just the motivation I’ve been looking for, so thank you Sharon for hosting this. Please follow both links on the sidebar to either the challenge itself for the full information, and to Sharon’s “stitchin fingers” site to see what’s going on there. This is one busy lady in the Needlework realm, very worthwhile spending some time exploring all that’s going on.

Let’s get started on the first UFO shall we…………..

Little Sparkles

The other things I finished this morning, finally…..are these ornaments. I made these because people kept asking Janet if the one in her store was for sale and she had to keep telling them “No” that it was hers. I made the one for Janet about 3 years ago and she just leaves it up all year long.

Hopefully these little ladies will all go to new homes in time for Christmas. This is an adaption of Michelle Munzone’s  “Merry Maubles”. I won’t do these often because they are more work than the cloth body in Michelle’s pattern. The baubles are a bit bigger than a tennis ball.

I had to use fabri tac glue for the bottoms and hold them until the glue set enough to be able to turn the ornaments upside down and set them aside and go on to the next one. I had to be careful to not get glue on the bauble itself because it would take the finish off….and ask how I know that. I had to wrap them in either paper or those netted foam covers that are used on certain kinds of fruit in the grocery store. Those are great and I can see how useful they could be in other ways.

I really enjoyed making these and they look amazing on a tree, but I think I’ll stick to make the cloth bodies, so much easier.

Tinsel and Wishes

I finally got the last of my Christmas goodies finished for the shop. This is Tinsel and Wishes from a class with Cindee Moyer. Cindee’s doll was made with green fabric under the tinsel, but I didn’t have a green fabric that I liked with it. I went through my velvets and found this very nice shade of red and thought that would make a statement and I think it does.

This is another of Cindee’s very simple but very sweet designs. I was happy about that because I was so behind in my projects that this was quick to do.

 

The condensed version

Our reno’s are done in time for Christmas. No more dust and hammering and stuff piled up everywhere, it’s all done and gorgeous. Believe it or not, I actually miss the activity and watching the guys work. I learned a lot and asked a lot of questions. They were so professional and very particular about their work. Wonderful  work, can’t speak highly enough about them. If you want to see more of their work beyond what they did for us, follow this link.  Allard Renovation

Here is a short version of what they did for us. The whole project consisted of rebuilding the front entry way specifically to take out a half wall that served no purpose. Change the floors in the living and dining room to hard wood and the stairs. We added the upstairs hallway and closets after they were underway.

We replaced the two closet doors upstairs to white ones, the rest we can do later. The trim is off the bay window in the living room the window frames are now white. We have new railings next to the stairs and a fantastic focal point at the top of the stairs in the living room with the hardware on the railings to match.

There are now porcelain tiles in front of the woodstove and we painted out the entrance and closet, the living/dining rooms and upstairs hallway and closets. I also had a number of small wooden frames with store bought pictures in them, country themed and I painted those the lighter of the two colours from the entrance, and painted the wall behind them, the darker of the two colours and replaced the pictures with those of cats we’ve known and loved and still have as visitors.

From start to finish and I’ll make this quick and painless because it’s probably only interesting if you’re doing reno’s to… ;o~ Just a quick before and after of the highlights…. The very last thing to do and it’s minor, is the electrician is coming to disconnect the wiring for the three baseboards we had removed from the front entrance, living room and dining room. We had a heat pump put in last fall, so baseboards aren’t needed and I hated them so much. They never got used anyway because we always used the wood stove until last fall….

Little Baubles and things

Most of my ornaments are done this year. A few more this week and on to thinking about next years…..I even hated hearing myself say that…. ;o~

The tree at the tea shop is decorated  and looks great. Janet wanted some Santa Hats as well to use for decorating. She was going around plunking them on tea pots and anything else she could find. So this is what I made for her and how the tree looked. Will post the other ornaments later this week…

Mini Tea Sets for Tea Shop Ladies

My intention in the New Year is to make a limited edition doll for the tea shop here in Sidney. I found a number of little chairs (mini ones) at the dollar store, and took all they had because you know how that goes. You go away and think about it and when you decide you want whatever it is, you go back to get it and it’s gone. So I swooped them all up and now will have to make the dolls to sit in them. They are just the most perfect little chairs.

Then Janet asked me one day, if I have a use for miniature tea cups and saucers. She had some that she was going to put for sale in the store, they came from her sister, but thought I might have a use for them. So yes I do. Thank goodness, now I don’t have to keep searching for those or egads, make them out of clay, not something I wanted to spend time doing. My plan is to put a cup in the hands of each tea shop ladies. 

This afternoon I’ve been sorting them out, because they are all different sizes and styles of tea cups and extras. They range in size from  just a little over 1/2” across the top of the cup to 1 1/2”. The size isn’t even a problem because there are tons of other pieces to the sets that I can use if the cup is to big…. Thank you Janet….;o)