bag giveaway

I've been feeling awfully thankful lately, for a lot of reasons. We've been blessed, so blessed, in our family and our friends, our church, our neighborhood, the kids' schools and work situations...I could go on at length. Anyway, I want to pass on the thankful theme by giving away a few things, among them the bag I made for the fiber workshop.

This is the photo I posted when I blogged about the workshop. The bag as pictured is not completed. The finished product has a tidier strap and more embellishment, including beads and other goodies. It's not large, probably 10 inches up and down and 8 across or so. It is lined and there's a little pocket inside, and it snaps closed with one big snap.

I'm also going to give away a hand dyed silk scarf in fuchsia red and tangerine, and one of my little silk velvet painted/stamped art pillows which can be used for a pincushion I suppose, or just for a cute decoration.

All of this giveaway will occur one week from today, Tuesday November 11, Veteran's Day here in the US, which reminds me of another thing I'm grateful for--my cousin who was fighting house-to-house in Baghdad not too long ago has returned safely home and was recently married.

If you want your name included in the drawing, please leave me a blog post specifically saying so and I'll put your name in the hat.

On a more somber note, my mother has had a recurrence of breast cancer and must undergo a mastectomy in a few days, followed by 4 months of chemotherapy. The earlier cancer was 10 years ago so this was a bit of a jolt. She's doing well though and just wants to get the treatment behind her. My sister, a nurse, will be here to care for Mom post-op, which is another thing to be really, really grateful for, as is the excellent medical facility and physicians involved in the treatment. We'd all appreciate your prayers and positive thoughts in our direction.

Hope you're all doing well today.

witchie-poo

Ta-daaaaa!
As promised, Halloween pictures. I was certainly colorful, that's for sure.

This was my favorite part of the costume, although they were NOT comfortable. I took my crocs along because I knew I'd want to change. I was right.

My fellow costumed ghoul here is my workmate, Rob, who is dressed as the Grim Reaper. I actually made his costume, out of a black bedsheet. Looked good, though.

We had lots of little goblins at our door on Halloween night. My oldest son took my youngest and his little friend out trick-or-treating while my second son manned the candy bowl and answered the door. Both of my older boys still like to dress up--Adam went in full military kit (he's a big WWII history buff) and Chris put on a black t-shirt with fake tattoo sleeves up and down his arms. By that time I had changed into real clothes and was nursing my poor fingernails from their assault by the long purple glue on nails I'd worn all day.

All in all, quite a fun day.

happy halloween

Here's a fun little seasonal time waster. Don't blame me if you can't quit.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

thanks, genie

Genie has graciously given me the above blog award, which carries with it the following stipulations:

Pass this award to five people, four dedicated followers plus one new follower to your blog who lives in another part of the world. Please link back to the person who gave you this award.

I've linked back to Genie already, which is the easy part.

Here are my four dedicated followers:

Jules

Julie

Robin

Maureen

As for an new follower from a different part of the world, I'm choosing Jennifer who lives in Texas. Technically not from a different part of the world, but Texans are usually the first to admit that their state is a world apart.

Thanks, Genie, for the honor. I am flattered and pleased.

autumn in the country

Last Saturday evening, after a wonderful day teaching fiber arts, my family joined several other families we're friends with on a hay ride and cookout potluck at the farm belonging to one of the families. It was a lovely evening, especially for this late in October--not too cool, no wind, clear skies. Here are some folks gathering around the fire with their camp chairs.


Doug had made a great fire pit, lined with rocks (slate, I think) from the nearby river. He had previously cut down some dying trees on his place, ash and oak, which made a wonderful fire.


This is really rustic, al fresco dining! I think that's part of a painting scaffold serving as a buffet table.

The sun about to go down behind the rock wall facing the fire pit area.

The kids played hide-and-seek in the dusk, we could hear coyotes and owls in the (not too far off) distance, and the grownups sat around the fire chatting and laughing until long after dark. It was a wonderful evening.

Hope you're all having a super Wednesday.

fiber arts workshop

The fiber arts workshop I taught was held last Saturday. It was a lot of fun, and EXHAUSTING! Here are my students and their sewing machines.


I brought along a significant portion of my fiber stash and invited the ladies to use anything they wanted for their projects. They had fun choosing their own colorways and just playing with the different elements.

We learned several techniques, including making cords, working with solvy, hot fix angelina, layering, burning/distressing, and needlefelting by hand and with an embellisher. This is Donna getting with the needlefelting tool.

I suggested using their newly-learned techniques to either make a small bag or a piece of hanging art. This is the front of Ann's little bag, showing her needlefelting.

Donna made a larger bag with the help of the embellisher. You may remember that I retooled my old sewing machine to become an embellisher because I'm too cheap to spring for a "real" embellisher, although I must say it works really well.

This is Lizzie's piece. She was the youngest participant and kept things fresh and lively. I like her color choices, shapes, and composition here.

This is my version of the small bag we made. It's not quite finished (note the pins at the top of the bag where I have yet to stitch it closed) but it's a cute pattern that I modified from here. It has a gussetted bottom that makes it seem roomier.

Teaching this workshop was a very good experience for me. The class size (5 students) seemed about right to present all the techniques I wanted the participants to learn. It was a lot of stuff packed into the five hour time frame, but everything I wanted to do got done. All of the ladies really seemed to enjoy themselves and were able to work with materials and methods they had never seen or tried before. I was asked by a couple of the women if I would be teaching another workshop at some point, which made me feel good. And the answer to that question is YES!!

Believe it or not, after this wonderful but very tiring day, I went with my family on a hay ride and cookout at a friend's farm. But that's the post for tomorrow!

Hope you are all having a great week.

overboard again

I just can't help it. I love to dress up. When I came across an old black crushed velour dress in my closet that sealed the deal on my Halloween costume. We are allowed to dress up at work, and since Halloween is on a Friday this year I decided to go all out. In addition to the aforementioned dress I will be clad in the following:


This will be festooned with purple and black netting.

I'm obviously not this dishy.

Took me a long time to find these.

Wow.

And finally, the coup de grace:

Are these cool or what?!?!

And yes, I will take pictures.