Thank You!

Thank you, friends! I didn't know that anyone came over here after finding the door shut so many times! Your sweet notes were a beautiful surprise this morning. I'm so happy to be back!

I'm enjoying a rare quiet morning. Well, weekend actually. Last night Earl went fishing with a friend, my boys had a sleepover somewhere else, and Carmen was busy with a new drawing on her computer. I watched HGTV and worked on the strangest little doll I've ever made! I'm not ready to show her just yet, but here is my inspiration:
I told you she is unlike anything I've ever made! She is the Venus of Willendorf and she is about 25,000 years old. She is only 4 1/2" inches tall and she is carved of stone. My version is felt. If you enjoy the study of (wo)man, here is a great website that gives a lot of information about the Venus' culture. As I'm sure you have figured out, this has something to do with the Art History class I am taking. This sculpture was actually the first image we looked at and part of why I love it is because it is a dolly of sorts! Speaking of dolls, I found this amazing image while looking up reference photos:The artist on this piece is Amy Archer and it's a print called "Venus of Willendorf and Barbie." Copies of the print are for sale here. It's an interesting look at the female form!

I've also been working on something new for the lovely Cissette. That's been going a little slowly, but it is pretty! I found this gorgeous gray wool shot with silver in the remnant bin and had an intant image in my head of what it needed to be. Here it is so far:

I didn't have just the *right* fabric for the bodice so I created it by sewing three lengths of a beautiful white lace onto an organdy backing. Then I cut my pattern pieces from that. I think there may be a little jacket to wear with this dress in Cissette's future as well. This is all my own design too. It's really satisfying to hold an image in my head and then to recreate it in actuality! After so many years of not having a lot of success with pattern design, this is very exciting! So what gem do we need to complete this ensemble, girls? Pearls or diamonds?

Anyway, that will do it for me for now. Except for one more thing. This week I discovered the music of Michael Franti and Spearhead. This link will take you to their website. On their right side menu is a Listen option. All the songs are great, but Hey Now Now is really fun to start with. They are a band with a conscious and every September they put together a free music festival in San Francisco, their home base, to benefit all kinds of cool causes. Their sound is a cool mix of different types of music and it just has so much heart. I hope you like it!

Hugs to all! Big, big hugs. Big, happy hugs! xoxoxoxo