More postcards from the road...

In or near the Museums in Springfield, MA. Dr. Seuss was born in Springfield and the wonderful bronze figures were added after he passed away. Click on the photos to make them larger to see the details. Do you recognize Horton, Thidwicke, and Thing 1 and Thing 2? There are many other figures there, too!

More postcards from the road....

The bridge of flowers looks quite different in the winter. It is lighted with Christmas lights at night--so charming. The town of Florida had quite a bit of snow and a cute sign. The Berkshire Mountains are breathtaking. The falls in Shelburne were so loud and thunderous that I could hear them from my vantage point high a hill above them. All in all a wonderful winter day.

Hope you are having a great weekend!

Postcards from the road, Thanksgiving....

A sign for our times, a peacock chair, an an abandoned factory and a road less traveled... random shots along the way, more to follow. Click on photos for larger views.

Another page...

Although, Sketchbook Wednesday with Mrs. Staggs in Merryville has ended, I have decided to continue on and fill a few more pages. As you can see in the bottom photo, it is a good thing that the journal has ties attached or it would never stay closed! (Don't forget to click on the photos to see them larger.)

I made another paper doll from a photo of a doll I actually made from cloth recently. Then I added embellishments. It is mounted on a commercial paper with a Thanksgiving scene. Those acorns I cut from felt, but the leaves are made of leaves from silk flowers.

What will you be doing for Thanksgiving? Although I like the concept of Thanksgiving, it always makes me nervous to eat so much when I know so much of the world goes hungry. If you can, I hope that you donate to a food bank. As for giving thanks, I am guessing most of us do that every day....or at least I hope so.

We have varied plans for the weekend. Hopefully, I will remember to take photos.

Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate it! Enjoy the day!

All in a day.....from the sublime to the ridiculous

Wintry conditions prevailed over the weekend. The wind was brisk and the wind chill was in the 20's. The leaves are completely off the trees and the geography takes on a subtle look which I love. The shades of wheat, teal, gray and combined with silver skies can be striking and restful and one can see much which cannot be observed in other seasons.

Imagine coming out of the woods and seeing life sized dinosaurs dressed for Christmas? There is an amazing dinosaur themed park out in the country. The big guy in the parking lot wears shades and carries a cola can in other seasons. Kids love him of course!

Everywhere one looks there are stone walls in New England. You can find them miles out in the woods. I wonder about the people who carried the stones and created the walls. All traces of their lives are gone but the beautiful walls remain.

The large waterfall is at Devil's Hopyard. This was a fave of mine in childhood. Why the name? You can read about it here. The smaller waterfall with the wall is just one of many ruins of mills that are abundant out on country roads which parallel running water.

And how about a tree that looks like a fireplace? It is the size of a fireplace, too. Or a rock that someone has painted a colonial flag upon?

So, there you have it! Enjoy your day!

Leaving you a post card of antique dolls for the weekend. Aren't they lovely? They are all French dolls and were part of a program I attended earlier this week at my doll club. I am always amazed by the beauty of these dolls and that they are were able to remain so lovely for a hundred years or more. These all belong to one member of the club and represent a small portion of her collection.

I am writing from my laptop propped up in bed. I have another hideous cold--second of the season. I had a totally different post in mind today, but I think that taking another nap seems more appealing at this time.

Enjoy your weekend--and try to stay well!

"Making Do" for Mrs. Staggs...

I think today is the last day for sketchbook Wednesday with Mrs. Staggs. Her prompt was "makin'do." You can click on the photo to make it larger.

As it turns out, a very sweet person (CLF ) and I were having a correspondence about this subject after a recent post of mine. She reminded me of the expression on the page above and I thought it was perfect to use on the page.

For 20 years I didn't own a dryer. I chose to hang clothes outside or in a very large basement where we had clothes lines. This was personal choice based on a really short lived idea from the 70's. I would be "saving energy." Imagine that?

I canned or froze vegetables that I grew in a large garden, made my kids clothes and my own, made and sold shopping bags and aprons,, had a string of part-time jobs so I could stay home with my kids and create things, too.

Doesn't that seem that quaint? We never went to Disney World because I thought we should see the real world as my parents had thought for me. We played board games, I cooked from scratch, we "made do."

It is a different world now, but I still live the same way as I always have. I have a dryer though, still recycle everything, avoid "fast food", etc. I never used paper diapers on real babies, but everybody does now. And, yes, I still have a clothesline.

I am not afraid of the future with its economic instability on the horizon. My late mother was a child during the Depression. Making Do in New England is a way of life passed down through generations, probably from the time of the Pilgrims. There are plenty of other people like me in New England. We don't live quite like Tasha Tudor (whom I adored) but I think many people live quite simply here.

On the other hand, I traveled extensively in and out of the country, showed art in galleries, wrote rock and restaurant reviews for an entertainment newspaper, and had an interesting journey in life despite "makin'do." I think a lot about entropy and that has changed the way I make do in some respects.

I have a few pages left in my sketchbook, so I think I will continue on with it. I am very excited that I met deadlines and that I stayed with it! There were a few times I was stumped and other times where I was frustrated.

What I did: I painted the borders, scanned it, added text and printed it. The ribbon is velvet and the button is chipboard.

Enjoy your day! If you "make do" just once today, you will have make a small impact on the world.

Monday again...

It's Monday again. Where did that weekend go?

On Saturday it was a tropical 70 degrees and stormy here. This week the high temperatures will be in the 40's with low temperatures in the 30's. Abrupt change!

Have a very busy day ahead, so will keep this post short. I did want to show how things I make look when they actually go on the road. My daughter is a jewlery designer and some of my things went to a show with her. Don't they look grand in this setting?

I am off and running. Enjoy the day!

Nostalgic aprons

I am a confirmed apron wearer and have had literally dozens of aprons over my lifetime. I am a careful cook but a short one. No spatter escapes me!

Occasionally, I buy old aprons either to wear or cut up to use the fabric doll clothes. The aprons above don't make " the cut " literally or figuratively. I don't wear them and I won't cut them up.

The apron with the bib was in a box at a rummage sale marked "free." I think it is a home made apron judging by the workmanship and stitching. I tried to imagine someone making this apron with so much detail. A few weeks ago, there was a gorgeous print from this era in Eileen's blog. The graphic design of these prints is so charming.

The other apron is just a bold pattern with bold graphics. I like that curve above the waistband and its long ties.

There is a modern apron maker whose work I really love--Malphi. Her aprons are like works of art and so is her photography. She has raised the apron to higher standard while using some of the basic design concepts of aprons of yore. Some of her aprons are like wrap dresses and are truly exquisite.

Aprons seem to be making a comeback, at least on the Internet. I wonder if anyone wears them? I usually wear chef's aprons when I cook and have many sturdy aprons here.

On a final note, my late best friend, Ellen, and I made and sold aprons and tote bags from 1978-1982. We sold in shops and at shows under the name of "Aprons, Etc." We never made the same apron twice and sold hundreds over the years. I drafted the basic pattern and we used Waverly fabrics and outrageous trims on them.

We also made a line of cloth folding shopping bags and suitcases, since we were two dinosaurs who actually recycled, mulched & composted, recycled papers, and took our bags with us shopping right through the 90's when she died. I miss Ellen. She was a published poet, a quilter, a seamstress, a great mother and a woman ahead of her time. We met in college where we both returned to pursue different degrees than ones we had started out with earlier in life.

Have a great weekend. Above all, enjoy your day.

Edith Ackley Baby pattern holiday dolls

decorated birdhouses

a doll repair

bottle cap pin cushions
(original design by Very Big Jen)

This and that...

This is what I have been working on lately. As always, I am trying my best to keep up with the mundane stuff like housework and laundry.

I made the Edith Ackley pattern doll as a Santa. Then decided I needed an angel.

The birdhouses have multiplied so quickly that I didn't keep up with photos. Have made at least a dozen more since I took this photo. I am selling them at Christmas boutique trunk shows around here. They seem to be getting more lavish all the time. I have recently started making them decorated for Christmas.

See a little lady card behind the St. Anthony card? That is a card by Christine LeFever. She is featured in a magazine with these cards and you can read about it here. My friend gave me the St. Anthony card recently. It is from Italy and beautifully printed with gold embossing on it.

Of course, I am working on Christmas cards, holiday ATC cards which I include in my Christmas cards, Mrs. Staggs' sketchbook assignments, and other surprise stuff I cannot show here because my family checks this blog from time to time!

Johnny Appleseed was an apple head doll whose head had deteriorated leaving only his hat! A fellow doll club member needed someone to replace the head with a cloth head. After making and adding the head, I repaired the doll and added some props. He is kind of cute!

The bottle cap pin cushions are very popular on the Internet. They were originally designed by Big Jen. They are featured in a really nice book as well as a super fun tutorial. I notice that people who sell these on line don't always give credit where it is due.

What have you been up to? Anybody out there making hand made gifts this year? Considering the economy, I think hand made is a better idea than ever. But, in actuality, I have always made gifts by hand. It is a family tradition. Families who lived through the Great Depression passed this down through generations and it is not a new concept in my neck of the woods. Yankee thriftiness is alive and well in New England!

Many thanks to the readers who comment in my blog and to those who send me nice e-mails about my blog. I suppose I should comment within the comments area, but I always forget. I really love hearing from people.

Enjoy your day!

Larger than life....










I took these photos in the town of Kent, CT, this past weekend. They are quite striking aren't they? I believe they are the work of Peter Woytuk who seems to be represented by the Morrison Gallery. You can click on the photos to see them larger.

They are so amazing in person--beautifully conceived and executed. My feeble attempts at digital photography do not do these magnificent sculptures justice.

You can see many fine examples of his work online by using his name in a search engine. The gallery was not open or I would have gone in and seen some really fabulous art that I could see through the window.

Many towns in New England have wonderful contemporary art on their greens and it is a true joy for the public to see. This was an especailly wonderful opportunity for me as I am a huge fan of large scale work.

Usually there are plenty of memorials and statues of Revolutionary War figures on these town greens as well, so it makes for a wonderful mix of new and old. We are so very lucky in New England to be exposed to art and history everywhere we look. I can never see enough and there are new discoveries around every corner.

Happy Monday. Enjoy your day. As usual, I have much to do about nothing!

Paper Arts

As I mentioned a few times before, a friend and I exchange paper art almost every week. We find that it keeps us challenged and we both have original art to display in our homes. We have been exchanging art and dolls for years and years.

This week the challenge was to make a small wall hanging use one color and the addition of black and/or white. That is mine above. It is basically paper I cut or tore and glued to chipboard with cheap Elmer's glue.

Last week we exchanged Thanksgiving paper dolls. I made a cloth doll a few weeks ago so I used a photo that doll for my paper doll. Have decided to make more of these for Thanksgiving cards. I like using the dolls I make in my art work.

Have created many other things this week but they didn't make it to the blog. We live in a small house that is one hundred years old and the lighting is not always the best for photos. We live in one of those old, old neighborhoods where you can practically shake hands through the windows with the neighbors. The houses on either side block the light. Right now I am working on items I will sell at a few small invitational boutique shows around here--and I also have insomnia!

It is very warm and rain here and feels like summer rather than November. No furnace on, which is super!

Enjoy your Friday and happy weekend!

Sketchbook Wednesday with Mrs. Staggs...

Bet you think I forgot about Sketchbook Wednesday... but I didn't!

Mrs. Staggs prompted with " The wind blows. The rain falls." It has been such a lovely fall here that I decided to go with lighter theme than I might have if we had gloomy or stormy weather lately.

What I used: sketches of a character I have been drawing a few years and also a print of a page I used for an earlier page. I used glitter and foil paper, too. I anchored the page to the journal with little cardboard buttons covered with glitter. (Yes, I made a mess with the glitter and had to drag out the vacuum.)

What I did: I cut windows to show the little characters and attached the drawings underneath.

I have to admit I had a hard time coming up with this one, but I like the way it turned out. Can't wait to see what others did.

A bright new day....

Feeling sleepy here after staying up way to late. It is a really beautiful morning here and I am feeling extremely hopeful today.

Over the weekend, I went to a doll show and picked up two cloth dolls. One of them I haven't photographed yet, but the other is a cute little EFA pattern doll. She is a vintage doll with very nicely made shoes.

I seem to find at least one at every doll show. Unlike the Internet and eBay, they are not expensive at shows. There must have been tens of thousands of these dolls made from the 1930's until present. Many little girls must have played with them when times were simpler. Edith Flack Ackley designed a cute little doll with lots of appeal.....a happy doll for sure.

Have a spectacular day today!

Good morning, Monday!

It was lovely weekend in New England and especially nice near the shoreline. The tourists are gone, summer cottages are closed, and the beaches are free and easy to park by. Here are some photos I took of Long Island Sound and some of the magical Thimble Islands. It is still autumn here and you can see there are still leaves on some of the trees. The fall colors continue to be pretty although the maples have peaked. Now we will see lots of browns and yellows. It has been a balmy fall.

Lots to do today but I will be thinking of these beautiful scenes for days to come.

Enjoy the day!