Intervention

I guess I need someone to intervene...I can't seem to stop making little dotee dolls.  My sister's birthday is tomorrow, and in addition to her "regular" gift I had to make her a dotee of her own, representing her February birthday.  I named her Dottie Mae (my sister will know why), and dressed her in lavenders and purples to represent February's flower, which is violet, and gem, which is amethyst.  Dottie Mae is wearing the tiniest amethyst crystal teardrop earrings...it was a challenge to wire wrap something that tiny!  Here's Dottie Mae:

Oh no...we can't see her earrings in this picture...maybe a closeup:

Well, there's one of them, anyway.  Trust me, she is symmetrical.  She is wearing two earrings.

And to make things even better, this is what I saw for the first time when I meandered into the "office" (defies description...suffice it to say that there is a computer in this room):

I think I feel better already!  Pink and white bells on the pieris japonica, which is on the north side of my house.  If this is what's happening in the north, I can't wait to see what I haven't noticed on the west side, which is the front yard.  Going there right now...





Friday!

I remember how much Fridays used to mean to me...two blessed days of sleeping in after five days of arising before the sun was up (strike that...it's February in the Pacific Northwest, and although day may break, it would be wrong to give the impression that the sun is visible.  Except for today, when we had the most amazing morning, full of sunshine.)  I had errands to run, hair to be cut, and it was fabulous to be moving around in the bright sunshine.  This afternoon all became gray, and as I write this it is a dark and rainy evening.  A GREAT evening to hang out in The Room and string beads and so forth.

And tomorrow is a special day for me; it's my day with one of my favorite people in the world, Emma Elizabeth, who is almost nine.  Emma is an extremely busy young lady, and very helpful to Grandma.  She has definite ideas regarding the placement of decorative items, and how to organize rooms.  Organization is very important, you know.  (Grandma falls short in this arena, being a "stacker".)  Here's a little sample of they way things are by the end of the day:

Emma likes to create jewelry for herself and for Baby Coco (Cocopuff is the only kitty who allows herself to be captured and loved by Young People; the Young People have learned the hard way that Bella is not tolerant this way), and they cuddle together until Coco manages to escape.  Emma and her mom and dad raise puppies for Guide Dogs for the Blind, and Emma has had a hard time coming to terms with the difference between cat personalities and dog personalities.

I think she's catching on, though.  And although Coco is about the sweetest kitty I've ever known, when she'd done...she's done, and even the Young People have learned to respect that.

But for now, I'm off to The Room to put together some earrings for ladies at the salon.  My favorite kind of evening!

Slacking...

I'm a terrible blogger.  I get so involved in reading all the other blogs I love so much that I seldom think of  adding posts to my own blog.  I usually only activate the mental blogging button when I'm involved in a challenge or blog hop of some kind.  But really, that's not all I like to read about.  I love to check in with my favorites daily, to see what they've been up to...not just creatively, but I like to read about their families and pets and projects.  I need to make a better attempt to keep a daily log of sorts.  Now that I'm retired, the days kind of run together...I'm always busy with something, but it never seems like I'm really DOING anything.  So, for my own peace of mind, I need to document the things that make each day special. 

Starting with today, I guess.  Today I'm needing to visit the post office to mail seven of these:



They are for a charm swap...I send seven, and I will receive seven, one each from seven different jewelery-making ladies such as myself.  I used raw wooden "tiles" that I painted, decoupaged, distressed, and then rubbed and buffed after applying a low-gloss finish to make them water-resistant.  I glued them (and in some cases, wrapped them) with filigree "frames" from various sources.  I can't WAIT to see what I get in return!

My newest craze, thanks to a swap partner and like-minded crafter named Sheryl, is something called dotee dolls.  They're little (anywhere from three inches to probably six inches) stuffed dolly-like creatures with a hanger and a "tail" (usually made with beads, from what I see online).  Usually armless, but not always.  I've seen them talked about (on Swap-bot), but never thought they'd be something I should investigate, make, and swap.  Until now.  When Sheryl suggested that we swap dotee dolls, I thought...Why not?  And, given my unfortunate addictive personality, now I'm hooked!  I didn't think to take pictures of my first dotee, named Megan, before I sent her to Arkansas to live with Sheryl.  However, here's my second dotee, made for someone I don't know...the theme is "March".

Her face is embroidered onto felt and whip-stitched onto the head part of her funky little one-piece body.  She is wearing a frosty glass heart necklace, and her "tail" is a bunch of glass beads from my stash.  I really need to work on my hairdressing skills...I'm using Fun Fur yarn, and it is veeeeery difficult to work with!  This little lady has a serious case of bed-head. 

So that's the fun I've been having.  In addition, I continue to create yo-yos like there's no tomorrow, and to make and then rip out granny squares because they aren't quite pleasing to the eye.  Actually, I spent a fortune buying every color available of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran yarn (eBay), and although it's heaven to the touch, I am so disappointed in the colors.  They're kind of...well, the word "muddy" comes to mind.  You should see the heathery lavender...it looks like what happens if you mix all your paint colors together.  Soooo not pretty, and I have, unfortunately, four balls of it.  Once again, I'm reminded of the perils of being an impulse shopper.  Poverty and disappointment follow these events.

Signing off now, trying to forget about the poverty and disappointment, and to focus on the charms and the dotees!