Enjoying the Holidays

  My fingers have been very busy this season.  Thank you to all of you that have purchased some of my work.  I have enjoyed all that Ellie and I have been making. 

I enjoy watching people when I shop.  Christmas brings everybody out of the wood work.
I find dads very interesting to watch.  Dads definitely shop differently than moms.  I saw a dad running with his kids up the down escalator at the mall, another was throwing coins off the second story mezzanine, into the wishing pond,  and another was throwing Pillow Pets across at there kids. Well, you wont catch a mom doing this, but I will have to say it looked like fun.

I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday.  Peace, Love, Happiness all though this next year.

Roller Coaster Ride with a Twelve Year Old

Twelve is such a weird age.  One minute your kid makes you so proud, and the next you would like to string them up.  I am so lucky that my daughter, at this point, has more good moments than bad. Space is the big issue at this age.  How much space do you give them?  Creative space is always a safe bet for her.  She can create anything, she amazes me.  I went in her room the other day and on her sewing table was some recycled containers, and she had decorated them with fabric yo-yos.  They are so cute!
Social space is scary!!!!! Do you let them on face book, they want to go shopping with there friends, you leave them at home for a little bit and come home to a trashed house, (creative people tend to trash things), they spend the night at a friends house and come home so tired that they make your life miserable the next day.
Emotional space is exhausting!  One minute they want you around the next they don't.  The other day she was in tears, I asked why and she didn't really know why.  She just needed a hug and ice cream.  She said, "mom you always know what to do, you are the best mom ever".  Once, she wrote that in a card, I have it on the refrigerator.  The next day she got mad at me and said, "you never understand and your the worst mom ever".  I told her,"no I am not, I have proof, on the refrigerator"
Call out to all MOMS.  How do you do it, without going crazy?

Crazy Chris

Some of you know how I love to carry fun, crazy purses.  Well, I went to a Art fair here in Louisville, it is one of the biggest Art Fairs in the US.  It is called St.James Art Fair.  Set up at the fair was this fun spirited artist who wanted my purse.  She asked me if I wanted to trade, and I said sure.  So, I dumped everything in my purse in a shopping bag and traded for some beautiful hand spun wool and fiber for me to use in my knitting.  Everyone around us thought we were crazy.  We laughed and hugged, and we were both tickled with our trade.  Artist are the best people in the world and they give the best hugs.

Life is Great

I have been so busy lately.  Ellie and I took a break and had a fire outside and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows.  What a great smell.....Hot dogs......burnt marshmallows.......and a beautiful fire.   Time is nothing without memories.  People say time flies.  Well, if time is going to fly by, I at least want to remember it.
This little old man came in to the salon the other day.  His wife was getting her hair done.  I put rollers in his wife's hair and put her under the dryer.  The little Old Man started talking to me, in the back of my mind I thought I sure have a lot to do, but I needed, he need me to sit and listen to him for awhile.  What a joy he was.  I listened to a man tell of the days of prohibition, the war, and how he met the love of his life.  He is 91 years young.  He has Parkinson disease and had his car taken away from him, he was not happy about that.  I found out he is a fellow artist and has made furniture, shoes, and plans on bringing me a tin man that he has made.  I can't wait to see it.  Well, I listened with great interest and amazement as to how full his life has been.  He created so many wonderful memories.  I am glad I took some of my time to share in some of his.  As he left the salon, he said, " this has been the best day he has had in a long time".  Can  you imagine, just a few moments of my time made someone have the best day in a long time.  The little Old Mans wife is coming in for a perm next week and the little Old Man would like a hair cut and will be visiting for two hours.  He asked how much are the hair cuts and I said they are the price of one tin man, he seemed to be happy about that.

Creating Memories

Time seems to fly by, but memories linger.  The kids are back in school, and all we are left with are memories of a summer gone by.  Ellie and I had a busy summer. We did alot of fishing, movie watching, reading, swimming, crafting and creating. 

  Last year I started a journal out of and old ledger that I garbage picked.  The pages are full of records of hand made furniture dated during the sixties.  I LOVE MY JOURNAL!!  At first I didn't know what to put is the journal.  I just started collecting pictures of things that inspired me and writing short thoughts, wishes, fears, dreams.  Before you no it, my journal was filling up.  Now it has drawings, paintings, fabric and pretty much anything I wish to throw in there. I think having a journal is helping me capture memories.  I look back and can see how busy I have been, I can see that I have lived. 

New Art for Indianapolis

I love my journals that I have been making.



 If you don't journal, take a moment to try it.  Its takes awhile to get started but I promise you will love it.
I suggest starting with cutting out magazine picture of thing that make you feel good, or things you would like to create or have.  Just have fun.

Bunnies

Well the bunnies are really growing and about ready for home, just one more week.  I think that Ruby is going to miss them.  They just climb on her all the time.

Our summer is hot hot hot!!!  I am getting kind of sick of it and the summer has barely started.  Northern woods sound really good right now.  Cool breezes and the sweet smell of evergreens.  Maybe next year we can head north. 
Ellie and I are still working hard on stuff to sell at the rug hooking convention in Indianapolis in September.  We will have pictures of what we are working on soon.
Everybody stay healthy, happy, sassy, and cool.

Creative Summer

Ellie and I are having a creative summer.  Ellie decided to make a manikin of herself out of duct tape.  It is sooo cool.  Her are some pictures.

Bunny Pictures

Bunnies at two weeks

Bunnies at three weeks

Ellie with the babies

Ruby had her babies

We have learned a lot about raising bunnies.  Ruby had six babies the day before Easter, but three didn't make it and now it is safe to say we have three fat, round, white baby bunnies.  They are so cute and Ruby like most moms has a lot of patience.  One of the babies likes to poop in the food bowl, one hates his nose touched, and one is smaller and always busy. I think we have takers for all the babies.  "Will I do this again?"
"NO"!  well maybe.

The word 'NO'

When my daughter was little, she had the hardest time with the word 'NO'.  She still dos'nt like it much, but at least she knows what it means.  She used to think 'NO' meant she just hasn't asked enough, or that 'NO' meant yes as long as she didn't get caught.  I know some kids think 'NO' from mom means go ask dad.  It's a small powerful word that seems to get misunderstood a lot. 
Lately I have had a hard time saying 'NO'.  I want to be able to help everyone, anytime.  I don't want to let anyone down, but sometimes I just have to say 'NO'.
Someone, once told me that the word 'NO' is by itself a complete sentence.  I love that and think I need it on a bumper sticker.  I figure I could say yes to ten things and do them just OK, or I could say 'NO' to five of those things and do the other five thing 'WELL', or say 'NO' to seven of those thing and do the three things I have left 'GREAT'.  'GREAT sound better to me.

FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS

My hardest part about being an artist is focusing on one project at a time.  I have so many ideas and only so much time.  Thank goodness for lists or I would never get things done.  I have been journaling alot more this year which has helped me to stay on track.  It has also helped to inspire me the few time that I did not have a prodject going on. 

My Cool Kid

I am amazed at how very cool my daughter is.  We were riding in the car and she said to me,  "Mom I like how you always notice the little things in life."  I said, "That's funny because I like how you see the little things in life."   Then she asked me, "Do you think everyone sees what we see?"  I said, "They could if they slowed down and opened their eyes." 
 Take the time to find something small and insignificant and describe it in your journal.  Sometimes the small things in life can make the biggest differences.

SPRING IS HERE!!

Thank God for Spring!  It has been a long cold winter.
My daughter and I took our bunny Ruby over to Mr. Rays to meet Mr. Rays bunny Bentley.

Ruby at Christmas with Santa.

What a learning experience.  Ruby basically took a nap while Bentley wore himself out.  All in all Bentley succeeded and Ruby will be having babies in about 31 days.  They are Florida White rabbits and very cute. 

What is Crazy

I think there is different kinds of CRAZY.  Good and not so good.  I like being a little crazy, you get to live in a bigger box.  There is more room for change when you can accept  that things aren't always going to run the same way.  Some days are going to be crazy ones and some poeple are not going to walk in straight lines.  Sometimes the road can be very colorful.  I hope you all have a colorful day and take time to embrace CRAZY.

A creative Birthday

Well,  Feb. 20th was my birthday, and I had a creative day.  I spent the day making a Memory Jug.  I got these great jugs at a thrift store and decided to decorate them.  Memory Jugs used to be left on graves of African Americans down south, many years ago.  These jugs have shells, button, and little memory items stuck to them.  Laurie Beth Zuckerman is one of the best artist of memory jugs.  Her work is out of this world.  My jug has a face on it and glass button, keys, old jewelry, all things I love.

This Rug is on Etsy at Pennies from heaven art.

I am just starting on Etsy.  We will see how it goes. 

Looking for the good Stuff

I went to Scottsburg Indiana yesterday.  I had a great day.  My daughter was at camp this past week-end so I was on my own for the day.  I love going into little antique store and junk shops.  I seem to gravitate to buttons, old pictures, keys, china, a little bit of this and that.
  I met two new friends along the way.  Gals with the same ideas. 
Good day!

Crazy Salon Talk

I have a salon called Cottage Salon.  We have a crazy bunch of ladies that come in.  They are a big inspiration to me and my art work. 
  The other day I was singing the blues about my daughter going on her first youth witness trip with church.  It was a two night deal.  I have never had her gone for that long of a period of time.  You would think I would be thrilled.  Well, a customer came in and she was crying about her daughter who is twenty two years old going to Australia for six months.  She was about to loose her mind.  We cried the blues together and within the next hour we had everybody in the salon telling us about there crazy mom stories.  I couldn't believe all the women that had felt the same way I did.  There was woman of all ages and we were all in the same sister hood of joys and heart ships.  I love this group of moms.  It was a good day.

Well this is the first blog of many.  I am a creative mom, with a creative daughter.  I am thankful for the day.
I am starting this blog to help me with my writting skills and to share thoughts about being a working single mom and the constant need to create.