A present for Me

Meet Cheshire, made by Furritales. (http://www.etsy.com/shop/Furritales) He's the coolest needle felted guy I've ever seen and now he's mine. You can find some amazing needle felted work on Etsy. I've seen some wonderfully lifelike animals and ,of course, there are a lot of Waldorf inspired gnomes and fairies. After eight years of being a Waldorf Mom I was looking for something different. I'm also an anime fan so you can see why I love Furritales' style. She's only 17 and she's just gotten into RISD. Proceeds from her shop are going toward her education. How cool is that?
I'm trying to decide what to work on today. I'm having a hard time settling on something. I could go to the art supply store, paint or draft a pattern. I want to make myself some square necked mexican style peasant tops to wear this summer. Guess I'll just get moving and see where I end up.

Blue Skies

We're having one of those gray dreary spring days here. It does help that the trees are starting to leaf out but it feels like a good day to curl up with a book and a cup of something warm. Unfortunately, that won't get the groceries home so I put on my new necklace from Crafty Wings and went on my way. Honestly, I think it helped get me moving! You can check out her etsy shop here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/CraftyWings She paints beautiful cloudscapes on wooden plaques and when I first saw them I thought they were pendants. So I asked her if she would make a summer sky pendant for me and she did!

See A Penny Pick It Up

And all the day you'll have good luck. I picked up a penny this morning on the way in from delivering a painting, logged onto etsy and found, to my delight, that I had three new sales. This came at just the right time. I've been bummed out because I'm on 28 days of antibiotic to treat the nasty tick bite I got earlier this week. I'm so glad I went in and started treatment. Within hours of the first dose I started to feel sick. It isn't too bad today but I'm feeling very tired. Somehow I managed to run an outdoor summer camp for three years in a lyme disease hot spot without getting bit. But finally, my number came up. I'm not sure what to do. I don't want to give up rambling in the woods so I'll have to find more ways to protect myself.
Today's picture features some odds and ends. The yarn is from the mushroom/hickory exhaust bath. The crocheted motifs are made with the natural color and the small skein in the last post.

Scottish Beach Pottery

This is my stash of Scottish beach pottery from Rubycquins' shop on etsy. I have never found anything this cool on the beach here in Connecticut but then, we don't have a 300 year history of major pottery manufacturers in these parts. They aren't actually pieces from the china plates. They are broken stands used to stack the pottery in the kiln. At first glance they look like bones. Some will be made into jewelry, others into buttons and add ons for hats and mixed media pieces. I'm excited to use them and wishing that it was warm enough to go beach combing! The strangest thing I ever found was the forehead from a china doll. I also have three or four pieces of a brown victorian china pattern that were collected at different times and places, one of them on the Strand in Ireland. Must have been a popular pattern!

Mushrooms for Morticia

It was so much fun making this piece! I've been working on a collection of these tabletop mushroom gardens and this story suddenly popped into my head. Cousin Ophelia has opened a floral shop - kept in business mainly by Gomez's frequent stops to purchase presents for his Cara Mia. These are Amanita amourica, poison love mushrooms. Eat them and experience ecstasy and possibly die. As Gomez would say,"Either way, what bliss!" I found the footed porcelain cup in a thrift shop years ago and it was just perfect for this project. The mushrooms are sewn from felted sweater wool and even the stuffing is from a bag of thrifted fiberfill. The only parts I bought new are the ribbon and the pipe cleaners in the stems. The mushrooms can be gently bent and arranged to suit one's fancy. I find it far more interesting to design with thrifted art and craft supplies rather than running out to Michael's to get new stuff. They'd never have a cup like that!