How Nuttsy got his name...

You have probably seen this little character 

in this blog from time to time...

He is the original guy who posed for these....

I always sort of referred to them as the "nutties"

though I never really named them. 

***

My friend Debbie has two young granddaughters 

named Clara and Beth Nowak.

I have not met them but they sometimes see my art work.

Beth drew some inspiration ...

***

Beth started out saying "some animals called him Nutty" 

...then added an "S" in later to read "Nuttsy." 

And then she spun this story!

***

"Once upon a time there lived this little nut eating creature named Ben. Some animals called him Nuttsy.   

In Jan. he sang silly songs about songs that they sing for the new year!

In Feb. he sends silly love poems to his good friends like this...

Roses are red, violets are blue, you are my critter friends so candy for you!"

***

She didn't really know that I already called them something similar and I think it is amazing that she came up with almost the same name!  There can't be anything better than creating something and then someone else creating from what I created.  I feel honored and happy!  

Nuttsy wishes you a happy Valentine's Day

 with lots of candy...and so do I.

We are never too old to enjoy a Valentine! 

As always,

enjoy the day!

One a day...

Over the decades I have been involved with many artistic endeavors...from a sewing/jewlery business... to selling paintings... to calligraphy...even  to illustration on buttons.  (Sold several hundred to button collectors all over the world.) 

With a background in graphics and fine arts and sewing skills learned in early childhood, I like to apply my creative process to many things.  You know about the  doll making...like art dolls...

carved some Hitty dolls, made a LOT of cloth dolls,

needle felted gnomes and monkeys 

and other such creatures....

 

Collages and paper art galore...

 

 all manners of books from teeny-tiny....

...books from tags

 ...books from bags!

to full sized altered books...

The past few years I have been drawing whimsical little figures. Occasionally they show up in this blog like uninvited but welcome guests making cameo appearances!

Have notebooks filled with them going back for many years...and I have been drawing one a day for a few weeks since about November. My goal is to draw one every day this year.  If accomplished...imagine!  That would be 365 new drawings at the end of the year!I They won't all appear on line....but here is one for you today!

I don't like resolutions...preferring goals that might be attainable.  (As in "don't bite off more that you can chew!) Like getting the laundry done today...or some other chore that is do-able. It leads to a feeling of accomplishment and doesn't allow much regret if it doesn't get done!  Do you have any short term goals or projects? If you do, I love to hear about them to stay motivated.

 

As always,

enjoy the day!

Puppets and felting...oh my!

When we went to the Family Nature Day at White Memorial Conservation Center there were many creative booths with wares for sale...and demonstrations, too.

Imagine my personal delight when seeing this puppet/marionette flying through the air?  It is the work of Robin Hilary McCahill of Intuit2Arts.

And the booth was filled with wondrous felting!  There was wet felting as well as needle felting!

This female figure is a work in progress.  There will be in an airplane that she will "fly"  with this figure.  It is a tribute to her parents--both pilots.Look at that beautiful nuno felted scarf Robin felted!

Look at that gorgeous white felt dress hanging behind the display that was filled with lovely things for sale.

The amazing marionette raven is Tacu (which means "sudden gust of wind") and he is!  He is a real performer who can fly and pick up thing and he can take you by surprise! 

 

Serendipity!  Who would have expected to find such wonderful work in such a wonderful setting?  Robin is a delight to talk to  and if you are in CT, check out her website to see where you can find her!

It was an incredibly humid visit to the park and the humidity has stayed with us all week. Instead of glorious early autumn weather, we are once again plagued with humid August dog days.  We are also having the rain we didn't get last summer. 

I will leave you with this quote...

The foliage has been losing its freshness through the month of August, and here and there a yellow leaf shows itself like the first gray hair amidst the locks of a beauty who has seen one season too many. ~~Oliver Wendell Holmes

and as always, 

enjoy the day!

Silly Gnome time...

My friend and I did a challenge last week. We took a piece of wood 2 inches square and one inch tall and were going turn into some sort of little scene. The only real guideline was that one side should create a back ground "wall."

Lately I have been needle felting and incorporating wooden bases. The gnome is made from paper and is removable so she can put different character in her scene. (I drew him with pen and used watercolor pencils to color him.)

On another gnome note, my friends and I are having fun with the bedbugs you see in Martha and Jane. They are all over the world now--from Hungary to Scotland to England and many parts of the USA. Fortunately they are plush and not the real bug that makes one itchy!

Cristina from Cri Cri Studio made us all some gifts ...and surprised us! Check out this darling little gnome...and the pretty flower pin she sent! She is an AMAZING felt artist and creates wonderful wearable felt and teaches classes. She is on Facebook here.

In a world filled with serious problems and the headlines filled with news that really is not newsworthy...it is a nice escape to enjoy the things that make us happy...including the things we loved as a child...and to play. One would think sometimes that I am a frivolous person playing with dolls. In reality, I am socio-politically, financially, and culturally aware...far more serious than you might think here...with all these dolls and gnomes! But this blog is my playground where I love visiting my friends...and I am always happy to see you here!

"I also found child's play - stuff that was not considered serious, but goofy - was the stuff I liked to do, so I still do it as an adult."
---Matt Groening

The weekend is almost here!

As always,

enjoy the day...

and don't forget to play!

Time to garden...

It's time to garden. I came downstairs this morning and saw this scene out of the corner of my eye. The sun had awakened them and they were ready to go outdoors at 5:00 a.m.

'Don't have the heart to tell them we won't be gardening today. It will be 90F or more later and possibly 100F tomorrow... so I planted a few things yesterday before it the heat wave arrives without their help.

Remember the tornado is MA last week? The same weather conditions might occur in New England this week, too. (And to think summer doesn't start for a few more weeks.)

Summer time...I have been thinking about it. As a child it is one thing...as an adult is another. For those with the wherewithal, it can be a marvelous time. A/C , fans, swimming pools and pretty gardens can make for a delightful time.

But, I know that here, later today, there will be homeless people of all ages who will spend the day outdoors. In some cities there will be "cooling centers" for the elderly and/or sickly who don't have air conditioning when the temps go over 100.

Summer time heat is bothersome but I am aware of how terribly awful it can be for a lots of other people. My hope is that anyone-- in the heat wave that is rolling across the country-- that people will find the relief they need. After an extreme winter, we may be facing an extreme summer.

Stay cool

stay safe,

enjoy the day...

Hello, again....

By now you probably know that our gracious blogging host, Blogger, was out of commission for a few days. Blogger seems to be feeling better now. (I can relate. I have had a cold and/or allergies for almost a week and it is just today I can actually taste food, hear properly and breathe with my mouth closed.)

Most of the week I was sleeping or trying to sleep, but when I was up and about I worked on these things: a little needle felted bird and a new pin cushion to hold my tiny needle felting needles used for miniature work.

The little bird (purposely)

looks like the birds that I draw.

The pin cushion is
on an old sugar bowl
I bought in a shop
for a dollar a few weeks ago.

Now...leaves are out on the trees... and the pollen seems to be waning. It has been the worst pollen count on record here and everything was covered with a soft chartreuse dust. Spring really is here at last.

Can it be Friday? And it is the 13th, too! The weekend is here already...my week was sort of blurry.

Hope you have a lovely weekend,

as always,

enjoy the day!

Artisan gifts I received...

Over the holiday I received some wonderful artisan made Christmas gifts. Here are some photos with the artists who made them. Wherever I could, I have supplied links. Much talent!

Pottery Mushhroom

by Julie Whitmore

Hand carved and dressed
Snow Baby
in wood
by Hanna Hyland

Woolies
by
Valerie Weberpal

Tiny Vintage Sock Monkey
4 " seated
Maker Unknown

Hand knitted,
felted and needle felted bag
by Martha Plona

Altered recycled book
by
Carol Hawes

Felted Winnie & Piglet
by UK artist
Kim Crowley

One more thank you to the givers and the artists. I treasure every gift!

Happy weekend,

as always,

enjoy the day.

It's December first!

It's December first....and I have been busy! I am back to needle felting after a brief vacation away from it with tendinitis. Now I have a brace I can wear to prevent future problems. So far so good.

When I was mentioning some of the joys of "grandparenthood" I did not mention one important component. Whenever you go to child-oriented places in winter, you receive a cold as a free gift! The grandfather, Mr. Dollzandthingz, has it but I have escaped it so far. Can anyone TRULY escape it when you there are just two of you living in a tiny house? Doubtful! So, I am hoping for the best...


Today, our tiny Hank gets his teeth cleaned. He weighs 4.0 pounds. Last year he weighed 4.3 pounds. He is getting older. This is a tough day for me because he has to undergo anesthesia. Most Yorkies are born with teeth that will always need to be cleaned...and he is no exception. My other Yorkie (who lived to be 20!) had no teeth at all at the end of her life even though we had our annual cleaning. So it goes.

Off to the vet soon. As always,

enjoy the day!

Sinterklaas...

Recently I was involved in an online holiday ornament swap. Since I was sending mine to The Netherlands, I decided to make a Sinterklass.


Once again I was reminded that we never really know very much about other cultures except what we learned as kids or on TV.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I had associated the Sinterklass icon with children putting out shoes and other variations. The real story of Sinterklass is FAR more interesting. (I will let you find that out yourself. Click on the link.)

The Sinterklaas is about 7 inches tall and needle felted with curly wool locks added as a beard. It was hard to part with him.

My tendinitis seems to be better so I can start working again. Have lots of things I want to make and do...how about you?

If you are creative, I wish you success with what you make and much
creative joy! In any event, happy weekend and

enjoy the day!

BOO!

When black cats prowl and
pumpkins gleam,
May luck be yours on Halloween.
~Author Unknown


Stay safe...

don't eat too much candy...


enjoy the day!

Summer returns...

The crisp autumn weather has had me in the mood to needle felt. Somehow, working with wool has no appeal to me today.

Until hurricane season is over, I guess we can expect tropical weather from time to time with high humidity and temperatures as the warm air pushes north. It is an uncomfortably humid 70 plus degrees here this morning after having the furnace on for a week because it was so cold. We have already taken the a/c out of the windows and winterized the house...go figure.

On another note, the murder mystery is solved over at Martha and Jane! Who dunnit? Any guesses?

Until next time,


enjoy the day!

Acorns and haycorns and thingz...

Anyone who has read the original Winnie the Pooh, knows about "haycorns." Since I was a very young child, I cannot look at an acorn without thinking of Piglet and Tigger. This is my favorite book of all time with its wonderful line drawings by E. H. Shepard. We are not talking about that cartoon movie stuff here...but the original Pooh book.



We found these huge acorns/haycorns while hiking. Our grands were helping us pick some off the ground. Our grandson found a branch with five acorn caps on it in a cluster. I never knew that many could grow in a cluster. Did you?

Other example of multiple clusters are in the photo. These caps are large...some are the size of a quarter.

There are several things one can do with acorn caps. One of the most fun things is to make a Salley Mavor Fairy. Here is one I made many years ago from her book Felt Wee Folk. Salley has a wonderful blog that I follow and you should, too!



I am using them in other projects at the moment. No doubt you have seen the needle felted acorns that seem to be everywhere on the net these days. Here is a sneak peek of one of my projects.



The weekend flew by and today I am off to doll club. Looks like a busy week ahead. How is your week forming? Are you working on or doing anything special? Hope your weekend was good..and this week even better!

As always,

enjoy the day!