New Work for me

I am going to bind this book for Bonefolder Bind-O-Rama. At first I thought, nope, mostly this must be for those who do closed spine books & mine are open Coptic & quite humble. Changed my mind & am going to use my favorite materials & if I can figure out how to get my images the right size (its still a mystery to me) I will enter the online exhibition.
Have been gone a long time.
New beginnings for me. Changes in what has been for me. New & sort of different. One big thing is the reconfiguration of my Studio South to accommodate painting. Painting for me is really hard & really dee-vine.

Painting e-course la, la, laaahhhh

I found this posting in among my google-reader. I got excited right away! I was drawn in by Flora's compositions & layers of color! Yup, I am a painter but its impossible for me to MAKE paintings right now b/c of my work. The work of painting is long for me. It takes long hours of examination, notes in a painting journal & scraping & revision. I LOVE THE PROCESS. So this class called to me to satisfy this need. Its a 5 week course. I am so looking forward to it!

The Christmas Corner

Pink Tree in the corner

This has not been a year for Christmas decorating. The Pink Tree is about it & some candles on the table. It was a sweet time staying at home & totally indulging in making things & resting. I did finish the Subway Sign & it is now in the Library where I have envisioned it for months & months.

Many steps can be found here. There are many steps & many times along the way that I wondered if this was a lot of work for unfix-able mistakes! I am very happy with the product--it has that 'made in the woods' kind of feel. These are street names in Micanopy. I love thinking of Micanopy Underground Transport System, MUTS.

Snuffily

Its finally winter Holiday & I have so many plans for making things; discoveries have also been made about my making: it sort of doesn't matter what it is I am making as long as I am excitedly engaged.

My Billboard Quilt from the quilt-along by Oh Fransson. It was great fun & very easy. Dan & I took a trip on the Florida Turnpike scouring billboards as we went. This phrase won!
ENJOY GRAPEFRUIT FROM FLORIDA.
I used all scrap & an old sheet for background. This quilt re-kindled my quilt making & I have several more in the works

Little Emmett. He was born in the Friday before Easter. He hasn't grown very much. He might just be really tiny but his bravery reminded us of Emmitt Smith...his namesake. I feel like a little girl with a puppy to call her own.

Today his name is Emmett!

The newest member of the pack. He just turned 10 weeks on Friday. His momma is an Apple-head Chihuahua & his dad is a Long-hair Chihuahua. This guy is brave enough to make friends with his 50 pound pack-sister, Sigrid & grumpy-ish pack-bro, Nicholas. I am thrilled with this pup. When I went to choose from the litter, he definitely whispered, "pick me, pick me".
Emmett walked on his little tiny halter leash for a 2 miler yesterday! He is so fun! I hope he gets lots bigger! Or not.

Sevilla One

Well, we got to Spain via Dallas. Left Dallas at 5:30 pm & arrived in Madrid at 10ish am. I am not a fan of sleeping in an airplane sitting up. But I was on the way to Spain so the excitement outweighed the discomfort. Everyone was speaking Spanish on the flight. Spain Spanish is SO different from Mexican Spanish, much softer & shushier. And of course there is the "th" replacing "s" sounds.
I am, I Don Quixote, Lord of la Mancha... my destiny calls and I go...
On the way from Madrid to Sevilla we drove right by glorious Spanish windmills reminding me of Man of la Mancha, the very first live musical I ever saw back in 1969 in Des Moines, Iowa! And there I was right in Don Quixote country. I had to sing...I love the songs from that musical.
In Sevilla we stayed in an apartment on Calle Moratin very close to Alcazar and city center. I don't think there are building codes in Spain b/c the upstairs bathroom ceiling was about 5'3". The apartment was definately a re-model making one room 2 levels. The windows were wonderfully tall. There was room for all 6 of us. We had a tiny kitchen & 2 bathrooms! Tile all around. Our home for 7 days.
Dogs everywhere! Most are not on leashes, they just follow along.
We jumped right in & left our old time zone & became Spanish...We had paella at a cafe just a block away. But, you know what, it tasted like ocean water & I couldn't eat it but it didn't matter b/c I was in Spain! I was in Sevilla with brilliant & wonderful traveling companions!

Plaza de Espana in Sevilla. OOOO... it was a hot long walk. Photo of the 3 of the 6 travelers was taken by Louis, my nephew.
This was also the site used for Naboo in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
& Laurence of Arabia. It is indeed a remarkable bit of architecture. Lots of majolica tile work and a huge arc-ing pool, no swan boats though.