Veteran's Day - Remembrance Day

REMEMBER the past and those who gave their lives.

You can support the troops by sending packages. Become a volunteer with/or donate to Booksforsoldiers.com

Photo image from Flickr by E12DeepBlue

Autumn views

Here are some autumn views from a recent stroll with my geriatric "pup." The Gingko is one that is odor free thankgoodness!

The view down my street shows how the trees are changing color, and the interesting pumpkin display is on the next block.

I'm waiting for the rest of the leaves to fall off the tree in our back garden.

Notice our nice carpeting of leaves so far, and this is after I've done some raking.

Fritzi, new mitts

I finished knitting several pairs of finger-less gloves, mitts, using a lovely hand-dyed wool from Plain and Fancy. I've put them in Fritzi, my Etsy shop. I love the way they look and feel. The way the yarn is dyed makes each mitt look different. It's so interesting to see how these turn out. Now, I'm starting to use the merino-cashmere mix. I've never used such good (think: expensive) yarn before. I really like the way it feels and knits up. I wish there was a word like "yummy" to describe this yarn. Maybe that IS the word!

ThinkSmall 5 and me

Here are the images of the item I entered into this year's ThinkSmall5 exhibit. It's my first tooth shrine, entitled "Cabinet de Dentiste." I've been planning to create these to enshrine my detached teeth. (I can't say lost teeth since I have them and they are NOT lost, obviously. ha ha ha) The other image is of my piece that was in the Book Art invitational at ArtSpace, which just closed. In the background is C's piece. I just heard that my TS5 piece is in our local free newspaper, STYLE, which is exciting! I'm going to leave now...off to find a copy of the paper.

Random autumn images

The weather is cool, the rain brought down lots more leaves. There is a carpet of them in my yard; the clouds were captured over the bridge in Manchester on Saturday, when we went to deliver our work for the ThinkSmall5 exhibit.
The on-line catalog will eventually include all of the works in the show. I'll post my own images of my work once it's been posted on the official site. Oh yes, this is a teaser.

Yarn-y goodness

I was having an azul kinda day on Thursday, so I stopped at The Yarn Lounge on my way home from visiting my shut-in friend. I went from feeling azul to feeling very sunny!! It's all of this yarn-y goodness that perked up my mood.

I got some Pagewood Farm Merino/cashmere hand-dyed yarn, with the color name : maple leaf. It's sock yarn but I'll use it for finger-less gloves/mitts.
I, also, got two different yarns from Plain & Fancy Sheep & Wool Co. of Henderson, TX. Hand-dyed variegated wool. One is called "confetti" and the other is "autumn leaves." They have no web presence it seems, but a search will get you their phone number & address.

They yarns feel so soft and the colors are just so scrumptious. The finished products will go into Fritzi, my Etsy shop. Come see me there when you have time.

Paper

I love paper. I love paper as stationery, as scraps for collages, as maps, as book pages, I just love paper! That said: I want to tell you about an organization that makes paper.

When I read about this organization last week, I knew I had to 1) post it on my Facebook page and 2) blog about it.
The organization was started by Drew Cameron, read about it here.
"Through papermaking workshops veterans use their uniforms worn in combat to create cathartic works of art. The uniforms are cut up, beat and formed into sheets of paper. Veterans use the transformative process of papermaking to reclaim their uniform as art and begin to embrace their experiences as a soldier in war."

Is this not an amazing and wonderful project? The web site offers ways to support this endeavor. Please check it out and pass the information to everyone you know, or blog about it on your blog!

This past week.....

This is an image of my little teapot, which has been in use non-stop all week. I've been drinking herbal teas for bronchial health, green tea, white tea, black tea, with honey all week. I'm hoping that this new week will find me cough free. It's been a week of coughing ever since I returned from Los Angeles. The good thing about this is that I decided to stay in, except for an occasional walk around the block with the dog, and one run to the grocery store. Not only has this helped me to heal, but it's allowed me to blog, get my photos on Flickr, and finish some knitting and get the new items on Etsy. So tomorrow, I'll get up early, get to the post office, visit my shut-in friend, buy more groceries, mindful of not doing too much and have a set back. It's a plan.

My Shop - Fritzi

I'd been knitting my mittens the past couple months while watching Dr. Who episodes. Since it's chilly and damp, I decided not to go outdoors today; instead, I photographed and posted some mittens on Etsy. My shop is looking good! Oh, yes, and I even sold a pair already. Take a look...use the link on the left sidebar.

New Collages

These small collages were made using the scraps from the collage I did for a book cover. The book, Shifting Sands, will be published Spring of 2010. These three will be mounted and framed together. I was going to enter them into an invitational exhibit, but my honey likes them so much he wants to have them and hang them in our home. Sweet! Now to do something else for the invitational.