Full-Speed Ahead

The last several weeks have been quite challenging. First there was the week-long trip to Florida. Then, the realization that I only had two weeks left before I have to return to work (now down to less than a week—yikes!) from an 18-month medical leave (talk about scary; it’s like starting a new job!).

I have SO many projects I want to finish/start/work on before my time will once again be sucked up by my job. Plus, I’m still not completely recovered physically, so I’m trying to make sure I’m eating, resting, sleeping, and not pushing myself too hard (and with limited time and too many projects in the queue, that is REALLY difficult to do).

At any rate, I can check one item off the to-do list: this is my latest submission for the Fast Friday Fabric Challenge. I call it “After the Storm”:

You can read more about it on the Fast Friday blog.

Ok, now on to breakfast and another project . . . those minutes are ticking away!

Giveaway!

Pumpkin Patch Primitives Quilt Shoppe is having a great giveaway--27 (YES! 27!) fat quarters of fabric. In order to enter, you have to both leave a comment and post a notice on your blog. Here's the notice on my blog, and now I'm off to leave my comment for my chance to win. Good luck to you if you enter, and if you don't, cross your fingers for me to win!

Performance Art

By now, most of us have seen those videos of people making what I guess is called "sand art." This is one of the most amazing ones I've seen, though.

Vacation! Woo Hoo!

I've been on vacation for the first time in 3 years, and has it ever been fun! We've been in West Palm Beach, Florida, and the weather was unseasonably warm--90s during the day. The weather turned cool yesterday (high in the 70s), so I guess the timing is perfect, since we’re flying home today.

We got in some beach time, some pool time, and some snorkeling. Plus, we visited Butterfly World, where we saw lots of gorgeous butterflies, flowers, and birds.

It's going to take a while to sort through and edit all my photos, but I have a few to post now. These are butterflies and moths from Butterfly World:

And some plants & a waterfall:

And a cute little guy who was hanging out at Sailfish Marina:

I took a waterproof camera snorkeling, but unfortunately, the water was murky and I don’t know whether the pics can be photoshopped. After we took a break for a lunch then went back to snorkeling, the water had cleared up and we saw some beautiful parrotfish, trumpet fish, and lots of other lovely sea creatures. Of course, I had used up all my film :-(

After a full week of sleeping late, lazing by the ocean, and mingling with nature, I’m not looking forward to the routines of home, but I sure do miss my pups and my bed!

She’s a Doll!

I may have mentioned before that I’m an adventurous gal. I’ll try anything once (ok, not ANYTHING—I do have enough fear and restraint to check me in healthy check). When it comes to crafts, though, I’ll try just about anything (except scrapbooking: I absolutely refuse, for reasons I won’t go into. Oh, and PMC silver clay. Not because I don’t want to try it, but because I’m scared of getting hooked into another expensive craft).

So when I strolled over to Joggles to see what those folks were up to and happened to see a class called “Lyric and Laurel” with Carol Murphy, and when I realized that those cute little dolls were made from wine bottles, and when I thought about all the wine bottles I have lying around (not because I drink wine, but because my friends, who drink a LOT of wine, donated all their bottles to me back when I was making those wine-bottle cheese trays), I thought, “aha! A way to use up more of my stuff!” Plus, I like to do something a little different now and then as a sort of mini-vacation from my regular arts & crafts pursuits.

Here, then, is my wine-bottle-doll, whose name is Grace:

I happened to run across this quote about grace, and I thought it worked well with my “girl,” so I wrote the message on a piece of parchment paper and included it in the bottle:

Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you'll reach out and take it. Maybe being able to reach out and take it is a gift too. – Carl Frederick Beuchner

Here’s a close-up of her face:

And of her bird:

I had a good time with this and now have a lovely muse for my craft room, and a reminder about the importance of being able to accept the gifts (of grace and other things) that the universe sends us—and sometimes, of the importance of reaching out and taking those gifts.

Addendum: When I added the label "art dolls" to this post, I thought I would take a little trip down memory lane and read my posts on the two fabric art dolls I've created. When I clicked the "art dolls" label, however, I was only able to find ONE of the fabric art dolls I've made. I've looked everywhere, and I can't find any mention of my other girl. I can't believe I've never posted her pics here! So, here she is, in all her glory. I hope she can forgive me for not debuting her to the world sooner:

Felting Fun

Well, I’m having a blast with the “new” felting machine, and since I realized I needed to lower the foam so that the fabric wouldn’t drag, it works like a dream.

I posted a pic the other day of a piece of felt I had started playing with. I added a little stitching on the sewing machine and turned it into a journal, and here are the results:

Ok, it's not exactly a journal yet, since I need to sew the signatures in (which I intended to do tonight, but I got sucked into the web and so didn’t actually get ANYTHING productive done, and now it’s time to clean the kitchen and go to bed).

Last night I ran across my Quilting Arts magazine article index, so I had to drag out all the back issues and peruse the articles on felting. I’m looking forward to a lot more fun with the felting machine!