TGIT Thank God It's Tuesday!

Another week is over. I can't believe that half the year is almost gone. This has been one of the most unusual years for weather in California that I've ever been through. It's June 27th, a week away from the 4th of July and it's cold and raining. They are expecting snow fall in the mountains today too. The ski resorts are having a great year, they will be open this year for 4th of July snow skiing.
This time a week ago it was 101 degrees outside and we were all trying to get out of the heat. We had tornado warnings an thunder storms all spring up until three weeks ago. One of my favorite things to do is to watch the sky and the changing weather patterns. These are some of the pictures I took this morning before it started to rain.

I had the opportunity to talk to an astronomy/geology specialist in Starbuck's several weeks ago. She explained that our unusual weather patterns are affecting the whole country as well as the planet in general. She said that this is a permanent change because our planet is now tilted. I know that I must have looked at her in disbelief because I had not heard that before. Later, my son Googled "tilted planet" and found articles on two of the more devastating earthquakes we've had in the last several months in Japan and Chile. The whole Japanese Continent shifted 8 feet in different direction after the earthquake which literally tilted the axis of the earth.

My son jokingly said that maybe now we are getting Washington state's weather. That's something to think about.

TGIT Thank God It's Tuesday

I'm so glad to be posting again. Last week I had computer problems again. I'm so in need of something new. I'm working on it.

This week I'm back to being a doll maker. I am going to try staggering my craft project types instead of trying to do multiple project types in a week. Sometimes my creative spirit is all over the place. I get so many ideas at the same time and I want to start them immediately. I've decided to treat myself as though I am a team. I have 10 minute morning meetings with myself where I do project planning for the day and for the week. I take notes and everything. I'm going to try to "curb my enthusiasm" and focus on completing projects. New ideas will be written in my craft journal in detail and will be started with other similar and compatible projects in their designated week.

Let's see if I get more accomplished with this plan.

This week my "plan" is to finish some of my poor naked, bald headed dolls that I started weeks and weeks ago. The two 'ladies' above are Charlotte and Samantha. They are so excited to finally be designed, styled and dressed. I'm kind of excited too, I'm looking forward to getting the girls ready for the world.

Finished Project: My First Male Doll

Well, he's finally finished, my first male doll. It was a little harder than I thought'

There are different details you have to pay attention to in order to give a doll a 'masculine' look. He did tell me his name is not Keannu but Jeff. He looks a little like my son's best friend's little brother.

The challenge for me was designing clothes for him that weren't feminine and and giving him hair and facial details that were masculine. Girl dolls are a lot easier.

I will definitely do more male dolls. I have a request from a friend to do a doll of here son.

Finished Project

I've been having computer issues again so I haven't been able update my blog but I'm up again.

This is one of this week's finished projects. I'm still working on products to sell in my booth. this is the fourth purse I've done from the same design. I love the bold print in black and shades of blue, green and turquoise. I accented it with sequins in the same colors.

The Wiz

I had a relaxing finish to a hectic week. I decided to allow myself to go into 'veg-out mode'. No crafts, no art, no home based business this evening

As I was changing the channels on my TV I found a movie I haven't seen in years, "The Wiz". I remembered watching it many years ago with my sons when they were kids.

Tonight, it was the perfect fantasy escape movie. It was so good for my creative spirit to see the great costumes and hear the music. The most special thing was to see the beautiful Miss Lena Horne, who played Glinda the Good Witch sing "Believe In Yourself". It was a much needed inspirational message.

Finished Project

It's been a really busy week. I finally finished re-designing and changing my booth at The Market Place and I'm very happy with the new look. It now has a boutique look rather than a mini gallery. With this new concept I'm able to feature and sell a wider variety of my crafts as well as my art and of course, my dolls. I'll share pictures with you later this week.





My finished project this week is one of the items that I will be selling. I needed to put together something really quick that went along with my new concept but looked beautiful and would appeal to my customers. I created this really simple design for a summer purse and chose three bold fabrics to create them in and big whimsical buttons to compliment them. I also made some soft exotic printed scarves that go well with the purses.

This one is an earthy batik print in shades of latte and chocolate brown. The scarf is a sheer Asian print in turquoise and taupe.

This print reminds me of a pretty French watercolor painting.

This is my favorite one. It is a bold graphic floral print in red, yellow and black and the scarf is a red and black Indian sari pattern. All of the purses are plushy quilted cotton, lined with a coordinating cotton print, have an inside pocket and are completely washable. They are 'The Perfect Little Summer Bag' to carry your sunglasses, cell phone, keys, a bottle of water and all of your summer essentials. I will also be featuring them on Etsy. I made them and I want this purse myself.

Thank God It's Tuesday!

Another week ends, another week begins. I didn't have a chance to take pictures for this post. Last week was moving week for my retail space. It took about 2-1/2 days to break down my booth, move it and set it up again. Like housecleaning it gave me a chance to 'purge' and eliminate some of the things I've been trying to sell for almost a year. Some of my artwork is a little edgy and now that my dolls are the 'stars' of my space I made the decision to re-design my 'image' and give it a softer, friendlier look.

This coming weekend, The Market Place in Rancho Cordova California where I work is hosting an Arts and Crafts Faire in our parking lot and The Second Saturday Art Walk inside of our store. I'm working on some new pieces of my own to get ready to display and sell. The key word for me this week is "focus, focus, focus". I have five new items finished already, they were in earlier reveals on this blog site and my goal is to finish five to seven more pieces by Friday. I promise to share them here with you, lots of pictures coming soon plus pictures of my booth. It's almost 9:15 am here, so I'm off and running.

Finished Project

Just wanted to share my latest completed project in textile art. This was an experiment in batiking but instead of using traditional wax or gutta resist I used Elmer's Washable Gel School Glue. It was a little tricky at first. I think the first bottle of gel glue that I used was old and it made it hard to squeeze it out of the bottle.

On this pillow I used a sun stencil and applied the glue by dabbing it in the stencil opening on the white fabric. I dried it with a hair dryer and then measured off the center frame with a ruler and air soluble ink. I free-handed the border with red fabric paint and dried it with the hair dryer. I set the dye by ironing it with a dry iron and then painted over the red border with gel glue. I again dried the glue with the hair dryer and then painted the whole pillow cover with a sponge brush and black fabric paint. I dried it again with the hair dryer until just dry enough to pick up. I ironed it again with a hot dry iron and then put it into the dryer for 30 minutes to 'cure'.

I hand washed the piece in mild soap and warm water to remove the excess dye and the glue. It took a little soaking and scrubbing to get all of the glue out and rinsed it well. The fabric was firmer but still soft. I Ironed the wet fabric to dry it. I was anxious to see the finished piece.

This pillow pattern I kept a little more simple. All of the white areas were just covered with gel glue and left to dry. I painted all of the orange areas first. I randomly painted orange blotches in the border. when the orange dye was dry, I covered the orange blotches in the border with gel glue and let it dry. The last step was to paint the remaining areas with red dye and let it dry also. I heat set the dye with the iron again and then repeated the finishing steps above.