A very good day

We got our keys today so we are even more official, and we'll be moving in this weekend, right on the lake! That's me on the left and my friend Kathy on the right, happy as can be. Question for all you artists reading this. For awhile now I've been contemplating writing either an e-book or a series of blog posts on starting an artist's coop. Would this be helpful information for you? Having been through the process twice, and having been part of a co-op for 2 full years, I feel like I have oodles to share and would imagine other artists could benefit. Send me an email or comment here on your thoughts. It's not a difficult process, but there are countless details to consider and the few websites I've found on the topic don't cover nearly half of them, or else neglect to go into detail about some of the major things to consider.

Gallery 54 - new gallery in Skaneateles, NY

We're opening soon! I can finally break the news as it's official now. Gallery 54, an artist-owned and operated gallery by 13 local artists is opening right on beautiful Skaneateles Lake in Skaneateles, NY. If you're in the area, do stop by and check us out in a week or two when we open. We'll have artwork by the 13 of us in a wide variety of mediums as well as consignment art by many, many Central NY artists.

Name this image

Wow. Every now and then you take a photo that makes you say, "WOW!" (or, "got lucky"!) Can you name what's in the image above? I went outside just now at 8:00 pm after a 5:00 downpour that made the skies as black as 9:00 pm, fortunately no hail, then the sun came out and just glistened on the rain drops in the pic above on this plant in our shade garden. Pretty cool if I say so myself!

A great sketching blog!

What a great blog. You can get lost here for hours - Urban Sketchers. To quote their bio, "Urban Sketchers is a network of artists around the world who draw the cities where they live and travel to."

More late spring garden photos

Pretty little viola

Yellow yarrow

Red honeysuckle - from 12" plant to 20' tall in a year!

Poppy pod

Poppies and lupine - love the orange/purple combo

More lupine - this would make a great watercolor painting

Jacob's ladder and irises

Pond visitor - green frog

"Fourth of July" rose

Bean's birthday, unique display rack, and Plungerhead wine???

What on earth is Plungerhead wine?! Hubby found this at the local wine store. Cracked us up. The label on the back implies that it's named after an employee at Don Sebastiani and Sons, Napa, CA, whose name is Edgar Plongerheid. Great sense of humor for a vineyard! Reminds me of a Monty Python skit. They have other wines bottled under other names as well, but nothing as silly as that. What a great illustration.

The pics above are going to become a display unit for my scarves at the gallery! A potter I know gave me 6 sections of an antique crib that were really dirty from being stored for years, but thanks to the wonders of the Magic Eraser (so versatile and useful!), they cleaned up almost like brand new, sort of "shabby chic" in spots. If you don't know about Magic Erasers, you HAVE to buy some. They are mildy abrasive dense sponges, like seat cushion foam. They clean off bathtub scum in a second, work great on sinks. I'm going to have hubby join the 4 panels in the first shot vertically and then hinge them together to make a folding "screen" sort of thing, about 7-8' tall. Stay tuned for some exciting news. Can't say much now. Hopefully Monday or Tuesday I can post something definitive about new gallery action!

And last, can't believe it but next Wednesday our dear little feral kitten-bottle fed since 5 days old-Bean kitty turns ONE YEAR OLD! Yay, Bean! Chessie, our tuxedo cat, is planning a party for her complete with hundreds of packages (well, okay, ONE) of their favorite Chex Party Mix for cats. Bean is in the doghouse these days because after we let her onto the 2nd story living room deck the other night, she wants to go O-U-T. She jumped onto the railing out there because she has no fear of heights like humans do! She's been climbing screens and getting squirted with the squirt bottle. She learns quickly. Last night we were watching Con Air and I was lying there with the bottle aimed and after 2 squirts all I had to do was yell, "BEAN!" and she'd look at me and the bottle in my hand, and TEAR out of the room, full speed ahead. She's also been entirely consumed with watching chickadees raise their babies in a really cool birdhouse we built and painted years ago that sits right outside our front door (see pic above -birdhouse is on white post on right). She and the other 2 kat monsters can sit on our 3-season front porch and watch them from literally 2' away. I think it drives them mad, watching the parents flit in and out every minute with a little green worm in their mouth, yelling DEE-DEE-DEE at the cats from the clematis trellis. Or maybe they are saying "BEAN - BEAN - BEAN!" When they sing, "Phoebe," like chickadees do, I tell her they are singing, "BEA-NIE!" Bean is an angel. She is still very petite but as strong as an ox. She could pass for a 6-9 month old cat even though she's just about a year old, but healthy, loving and is our little gray squirrel kitty who loves to "ride" on her daddy's back when he comes home from work. She literally jumps on his back and smooshes her faces against his head and even seems like she wants to sleep there.

Pictured above - Brunnera (Syberian Bugloss) with its delicate teeny tiny forget-me-not-like flowers dancing atop almost invisible stems in spring with great variegated foliage, with bleeding heart in background and clematis.Here are Bean and her best buddy Noodle melted in the sun.

Dinner out and a good but strange butter

Hubby and I went out to eat tonight to a new place (for us) in Auburn, NY, called Dauts. Auburn is known for its high-security prison and men's homes (not exactly a tourist attraction), and is a mix of really amazing upscale old mansions and poverty and everything else in-between, with a not-so-happening main street anymore, which is a shame. Dauts is on the main street and is very dark inside, large bar and 2 seating areas. Kind of looks like something out of the 1960s. A good menu of everything from burgers and sandwiches to pizza and amazing entrees. Paul had a prime rib special with wings, homemade garlic smashed potatoes and a great side of veggies with baby corn, and I had an amazing shrimp and bowtie pasta dish over spring mix with mushrooms and artichokes and garlic and roasted red peppers. YUM. Also great wine and beer. We will be back! Mom, if you're reading, we will take you and Dad! For some reason it reminds me of a place in Philly I used to go to, but I can't put my finger on where.

At Daut's, the bread they bring with the entrees is served with a wonderfully light, whipped butter that both of us swore was maple syrup and walnut flavor. I mean, we SWORE that was what it was. Then I thought that was odd because with everyone's allergies these days, there was no warning about the nuts, so I asked the waitress. She said we were wrong! It was bourbon and blue cheese! Excuse me? So then I tasted it again. I could sort of taste the blue cheese but bourbon? Isn't that strong and bitter? How come it tasted like maple? Maybe there are different kinds of bourbon. It was amazing. I'd put it on a pancake *any day.*

Spring ferns

Aren't these ferns so pretty and delicate looking, with the morning sunlight glowing through the leaves? I wish we had more shady spots in the yard because these are hidden out front, and you only see them for a brief moment each day if you even look in that direction when leaving the house.

Camouflaged goldfinches!

Where do you keep your camera? Are you someone who wears it on your belt at all times? Perhaps you keep one in your car? Is it tucked away in the "proper case" in a closet or easily accessible? Because I do most of my computer work in the kitchen these days, and because the kitchen is our central hub to the house, both of my digital cameras are easily accessible in a kitchen "junk" drawer and I love having them that handy. I put the hummingbird feeder out today, because this great hummingbird migration map showed me that they've already been spotted up here... so I've been peeking out the window as often as I can as last year, the day we put the feeder out, within 10 minutes we saw a hummer on it. Today, no hummingbirds yet, but instead I just spotted three (!) male goldfinches and one female pecking around in a mass of blooming dandelions. This shot only captured 2 of the males and is a little blurry because it was taken through a double-paned window zoomed to the max, but I love it. Dandelions are definitely their cheerful camouflage!

Welcome spring!

Some sort of wild groundcover. Flower is teeny tiny - about 1/4"

Wood ducks enjoying the pond
(pic is blurry as it was taken from the kitchen through double-pane windows, zoomed to the max)

Mountain phlox

Brunnera

Spring is a bit early this year for some things, considering we had such a long, cold winter. Tulips are open and don't usually open until May, for example. Enjoy the pics!

Convertible wristlets!

One of my bridal clutches with beaded trim for sale at Skaneateles Artisans, next to a necklace and earrings made by Nancy Powell.

Gorgeous Kaffe Fassett fabric - this is the back above:

The front of the Kaffe bag. I think I need to buy more and make a summer quilt for the couch, or maybe a cheerful tablecloth for the patio table.

Sherbet! I made one for me and everyone loves it. It's some sort of heavyweight home dec fabric and I quilted around the flowers.

Ginkgo leaves are hot on fabric.

This is a Lonni Rossi line of fabric. Love the unusual colors. I made some scarves with the dark gray and another bold orange fabric in the same line and they sold quickly in the fall.

An Amy Butler fabric.

Bold! Wow!

This shiny wristlet using some satin-like asian fabric would be great for a summer wedding.

I LOVE this mannequin! I went back to Hobby Lobby to get another one for my studio, because this one is now at Skaneateles Artisans to display my bags, but they didn't have any more!



I've been busy in my spare time making these 9" wide x 6" high "convertible wristlets." Attach the lobster clasp to the d-ring at the base of the strap and you have a wristlet, or attach it to the d-ring on the opposite side and you can carry it on your arm, or run it through your belt loops, attach to a stroller handle, etc. They're fully lined with a zipper opening to keep everything inside safe and secure. Not all shown match this model. Some are my early experiments and only have one d-ring, and a few are bridal bags I made for the shop.

It only took me 2 weeks of research online to figure out the best way to attach the zipper. There are many ways to do it, but I really hate the little angled "non-square" corners you get with some of those methods, so I finally settled on adding tabs at each end of the zipper. The tabs get sewn into the side seams, not the zipper, so the tops are nice and square. Whew. I'm going to post a tutorial on how to do this because I only found ONE online! 250 tutorials on how to do zipper tops the other way, and ONE on how to do it this way! (I've seen and bookmarked them all...) Enjoy the pics. These are fun bags. I'm also going to make some slightly larger, about 11" wide x 14" high with 44" long straps so you can wear them across your body. Good for traveling, with outside big pocket to slide your maps and brochures into.

Spring visitor to the pond

The great blue herons are back! Occasionally we see one on the pond in the early morning hours throughout spring and summer. This one is in his/her full breeding plumage, and is probably wondering why he flew north if it's still snowing up here on April 8...

sewing narrow straps

Do any of you know ... I am going to be making some tiny "gadget" bags to hold cell phones, digital cameras, or a wallet and keys. The straps will be narrow - about 3/4" at the widest. Because the sewing machine's feed dogs are widely spaced, it's often tricky to feed something that narrow through as only one feed dog catches the fabric and it's hard to guide it, even when I move the needle all the way to the right, and I like the topstitching to be as close to the open edge as possible. I don't want to sew these right sides together and turn them right sides out. I prefer folding them up and topstitching, the same way I create my wider straps for larger bags. Are there any special sewing machine feet that can help act as guides? I've Googled it (I have a Bernina 153) and can't find anything. My walking foot has a guide, but the foot is way too huge and bulky to try to sew such a narrow strap with - you can't see what you're doing.

Yup, I'm up here, and what are you gonna do about it?

Sigh.

Innocent (not)

Aren't I cute? I'm just sitting behind the lace curtains minding my own P's and Q's.

Oh right. These are the bedroom curtains. The ones I dash behind each morning when the sun comes up, as I try to get behind the insulated blinds that are behind the lace. They always make a clanking noise when I succeed and the metal bar at the bottom comes dislodged from the windowsill and clangs against the wall, waking mom and dad up. Then I bat at the lace and sometimes DASH through it, getting it stuck in my claws as I try to fly through it. If there's a fly near the window, watch out. Then I jump on top of the headboard cuz the moulding up top is 3" wide and I can balance up there. Mom has to put the pillow over her head so I don't land on her head.

But aren't I cute? I am so innocent. Mom yelled today because I knocked a THIRD quilt off the wall. One day I knocked one corner of a HUGE cow quilt off the wall. Yesterday I completely took off a small abstract water scene from the upstairs hallway wall, and the day before I knocked off another small abstract water scene from the wall above the mantel. Mom found it on the floor behind the wood stove today, so now she knows what that crashing noise was the other day. I'm not telling her how I did it. I think a ladybug was involved. Prior to that I had just removed the paper price tag that was safety-pinned to the back of that last quilt. Mom isn't even sure how I knew it was there as it was on the back of the quilt, but I know everything (Magic Bean). And oh yes, I ripped the purple tulle on her Quimby quilt that was stitched on to simulate a shadow, but she said she can fix that easily. Funny, she took all of these into her studio and won't hang them back up. She said, "Bean, I guess we can only have art under GLASS until you get old, fat and lazy!" What does "lazy" mean?

Here are the 3 of us trying to get something that is making noise in the crawlspace. We didn't succeed.