I hate to do this......

If you know me personally, you know that I am just about one of the nicest people on the planet! (Those of you out there snickering......I know where you live!)

Anyway.....where was I?....oh, yes!....I'm a regular sweetheart.

I hate to brag, but I'm just an all around nice chick! And because of that, I hate to make waves. But when a gross injustice has been portioned out, well I just have to speak out!

Below you will see a WANTED poster for a CROC thief!

Sure, she looks nice and all, but let me tell you she is a bundle of danger! If I had all day, oh, the stories I could tell you! But, I'm not like that! Suffice it to say, this woman is in possession of PURPLE CROCS that are rightfully mine.....I did not buy them, but I am talking about on a cosmic level here people.

So if you see her, take the shoes, return them to me and there will be a reward involved.

If you need proof of her guilt:

Click here

Like I said, I hate to do this, but we all have to suffer for fashion every now and then.....

Since my camera died......

I have been working on bears all week....and just as I was about to take some pictures of them I discovered that my camera died.

"If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all....Gloom, despair and agony on me!"

LOL!

Okay, things aren't THAT bad....I just like that song from HEE HAW! (If you are saying,"WHAT?".....you're probably
too young to remember that show or spent your formative years in more productive ventures than in front of the
television!)

Anyhoo....since I have no pictures!!!!....here is a cool site that will, tantalize, inform and give you insight into one of the greater mysteries of this computer age.

Have you ever wondered how the small arrow in the screen of the computer work when we move the mouse?

Now, through the miracle of the high technology, we can see how it is done.

With the aid of a screen magnifying lens the mechanism becomes apparent.

Click on the link below-it will take a few seconds to load. Then run your mouse over the circle. If you stop, watch what happens. Also look what happens when you click on the circle.....

http://tinyurl.com/ytxcr3

The tall one in back......

This is a mermaid that I finished just a bit ago.....but because of her looooong length, I've never
gotten a good picture of her. I've tried. It just doesn't work! If I manage to get all of her in the picture, there
is so much empty space on the sides......that it looks rather pathetic. So I'll have to ask you kind viewer, to sort of visualize what she would look like all together.



She's cloth with a needle sculpted face. Her features are "painted" on using colored and watercolor pencils. Notice her smile....it's because she is tall!






When I was a kid, it was my dream to be tall! I have no idea what I planned to do with all my dreamed of height, but tall I was going to be!

By 8th grade, I was well on my way to my goal. I was always the kid that had to
stand at the back of pictures so that my great height would not obscure my height-disadvantaged peers.

Poor little things!

I would proudly stand in the back....careful not to look too smug, meanwhile exchanging
knowing looks with my teacher....who, due to high heels, was quite tall herself. But it wasn't going to be high heels for me! No, all my height was going to be natural. The product of the gathering of all the tall genes in my family coming together to propel me into the company of the naturally tall and lanky.

Alas! 8th grade I was 5'4" and I haven't grown an inch since.

I'm still waiting.

I have read that some people don't experience growth spurts till odd times in their lives. So, in years to come, if you visit me in the nursing home.....I'll be the tall one...in back.

...and it makes great coffee too!

This is a doll that I finished this past week. I had come up with the pattern for her a while back. I had wanted to do a fugure that was "ample" and looked as if she were dancing! I made her out of cotton and then painted her entire body with acrylic paints. The paints took forever to dry, but I really like the way they stiffen up the fabric, making
it seem more like a canvas. She was supposed to have been an "altered doll".....complete with words and various collage elements. No matter what I tried, it just never felt right. Then last week, my daughters and I were dying coffee filters of all things. (You take Crayola or similar brand markers and color on a coffee filter. Then wet it and allow the colors to run where they will. I usually blow dry the filters so that they stiffen.) Well, we were getting such cool colors on the filters.....and really had no plans for what we were going to use them for...that I toyed around with the idea of making this dolls clothes out of layers of filters! Her clothes are all filters and ribbon. I wish it was as easy to come up with a new wardrobe for myself!


Close-up of her face and coffee filter skirts!

Bears with attitude and head xeroxes!

Before I make a bear or a doll for that matter, I usually will sketch.

These are 3 little bears that I can see so clearly in my head....but when I try...and I have tried several times....to put them on paper, they always come out looking like bears with a LOT of attitude! They stare at me from the paper with their, "yeah, just try to call me cute!" sorta look.

If I could invent anything, it would be the head xerox.

You'd get a great idea...connect yourself to your computer (this is the tricky part) and woohoo!!! Instant great idea on your screen!! It would change the world...it would radically reduce the frustrations of artists worldwide. The world would become a kinder, gentler place because artists would no longer stew in a "I-knew-I-should-have-become-an-accountant" haze when ideas go bad. Instant xeroxing would radically reduce the hours ideas stay in your head, thereby alleviating any undue rottage! Instead we as artists would take to the streets, handing out chocolate and planting flowers! It would be beautiful!!!

I can see it in my head soooo clearly......if only I could figure out that "head-computer" connection thingy.....hmmm.

Crazy people....?

I am such a people watcher! I love to just sit back and watch people interact. Especially people that are really emotive, and use a lot of gestures when they talk.

One of my favorite places is at the post office. Most people, when the line is really long, sort of zombie out. They look like they are almost in a hypnotic state.....trying to "peace out" and find that happy spot, so that they don't go "postal" while waiting for their turn at the window...their turn to talk to that government employee who is even unhappier than they are at the moment.

Occasionally, there will be one or two in this crowd that must be so sanguine that they can't hold it in. You've seen them....they are the ones that talk to anyone and everyone...and use big sweeping gestures and laugh long and hard at their own insights. They are the few, the proud...the ones you are afraid to sit next to on a plane. But standing in line at the post office they are great. They help to pass the time....sort of like a low level stand up comedian.

Today, standing in line at the post office, with my kids no less....there was one of these individuals two people ahead of us. She was so expressive...it was almost like a dance. She had my 12 year-old son enthralled. The best part of it was that she wasn't actually talking to anyone in line, even though the man in front of her kept turning around to her, just to be sure. She had long hair that hid what I hope was a headset to a phone. But part of me thinks that maybe she was just passing time....talking to someone that obviously was highly entertained by her...but that the rest of us just couldn't see.

When I was a teenager I used to get to ride the bus "downtown" on Saturdays to go to the library. And every Saturday, rain or shine, there was this woman that sat in the back all by herself, holding court with an unseen crowd. She would talk, laugh, gesticulate and once I even saw her cry. I remember telling a friend that I thought that the next Saturday I saw her I would go sit by her and talk to her. My friend told me that she was probably "crazy" and that was why she sat alone and that I would be crazy to go talk to her.

I never did get up the nerve to go and talk to her. Wish I had. I may have discovered that maybe she wasn't all that crazy. Maybe she was just having a good time....practicing for her next time in line at the post office....

Aster

This is ASTER, named for what is probably one of my favorite flowers. I did a partial picture of her on a previous post, but then I found this picture on my computer and wanted to add it. I next want to make a bear for a DAHLIA and then one for a RANUNCULUS, both gorgeous flowers that we are going to try to grow in planters this year.

A window with a view.....

It was such a beautiful day here that I took an extra long walk with my kids today. All four of them chattering about totally different things, not caring that because they are all talking about different things that I can't understand any of it.....they were just happy to be able to share their thoughts with the wind.

Conversation turned a little ugly from my 4 year-old when she saw a fire ant hill. She has an enormous fear...phobia...of fire ants after inadvertently sitting on one of their mounds last year.

She fell to her knees and yelled that she couldn't walk anymore till someone moved all the fire ants. It's a shame you can't do that as an adult. Right in the middle of the mall, "I can't walk anymore....till someone brings me a mocha...with a scone!"

One thing that was especially wonderful about the walk was all the flowers that were beginning to bloom. Of course they and the newly budding trees make me sneeze and feel like my head is full of cotton.....but beauty has it's price!

So in honor of my walk today, here is an art quilt that is titled "A Window with a View". It's for all that have bad allergies or humongous fears of fire ants.....sometimes it might seem tempting to watch the world from a window, but it's always better outside!