Friday, January 22, 2010

New Year = New Projects

I've not been posting much. I'm trying to be more like Rachael of Pistachio Press, who appears to have made a resolution to post daily- which I love. Please keep it up!

I've been working though, some projects for me and some that will, I PROMISE, end up in my etsy shop. The project for me was reupholstering my kitchen table chairs. These chairs used to belong to my beloved Grammie.

Here is the before, a good chair but the brown isn't me.


Here's the after- its a gorgeous green I got on sale. Grammie loved green, I'm sure she'd approve. I can almost hear her voice telling me just that....




I was so excited when I realized I could redo these chairs- it was so easy. Just unscrew the seats...


And staple on the new fabric.


I love them, and it appears MacKenzie approves!


As some of you know I am a college teacher by trade, a lowly adjunct but it does have it's benefits. Among them, access to the screen printing area! I took advantage of the break to make some new prints that will be made into pillows, sachets and other hand stitched wonders. Some designs will be familiar to those of you who have seen my recent work, but there are a few new ones in there too...


A shot of the screen as I washed it out for those of you not familiar with screen-printing, its a messy but fun process. I started screen printing in college and have never strayed too far. In fact I'm hoping to allocate some of what I *hope* will be a good tax return to purchasing some screens and other equipment for myself... time will tell.



One last photo, of one of my favorite sights. My sweet baby-boy Oliver, or Bean as I love to call him sleeping in my bed. He'll be 10 in just a few weeks... my little guy is growing up too fast!


I hope the new year is treating all of you well. I know a few of you readers aren't blogger subscribers and I thought I had this set up so you could comment anyway, but I was told recently it didn't work... so I'm looking into it because I love to get feedback!

In the meantime please make note of my email address- found on my profile page (click my photo up top), and feel more than welcome to drop me a line. If you like I can always add you to my mailing list as well.

Much love to you all...

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Is 17 days in too late for a Happy New Year?


I don't think so. For the first time this year I went downtown to see the ball drop. It was incredibly exciting - there's something really thrilling about being in a big crowd screaming "5, 4, 3, 2 ....." and since this is a small city I was able to be in viewing distance from the outskirts of the crowd, which is good when you're me and being in the middle freaks you out!

Sadly the new year brought senseless tragedy to the streets of our little city. My mind is still reeling at the news of yesterday's shooting at Merge Restaurant.

It seems an employee turned a gun on two of his co-workers, killing one of them. Seldom few details are being released right now which I think is best for the families involved. My deepest regrets and sympathies go to the owner's Sarah and Eliza and to the family of the man who lost his life. A link has been set up on their website to take donations for the family, which I recommend doing.

I have a few new finished projects that I'll post later this week, but talking about those things feels vulgar right now, so I'll give it some time.

Until soon, friends.