Luna's Baublebilities

Bead Fail!

It was supposed to look like a sea urchin.  Instead it looks like a lumpy pile of badly stitched beads.

Bah.

But these are cool.  I made them with a cubic right angle weave pattern called "Cactus Drops" by Heather Collin from DreamWeaversStudio.  She sells lots of patterns in her ArtFire shop.  I found this one to be well written and illustrated.  I did a few different things with the embellishments on my little spikes (I never like to do things the way I am told!) - the design is ripe for variations!



I'm having significant trouble getting good photos in my studio lately.  (see how gray and shadowy these are?  yuck!  and that's after tweaking the contrast, highlights and fill light)  The angle of the sun just isn't as good at this time of year and it turns out that I spend the best hour of sunlight with Svenya in the barn every morning.    Attempts to adjust milking time always seem to fail so I've ordered some special studio spotlights so that I can (hopefully) take photos whenever I want or need to.  They should be in this week.

Halloween is coming on waaaay too fast.  Maxx wants to be a Barbary Corsair this year.  I need to make a pair of Sarouelle pants, a long tunic, a turban and a shiny cloak. Nothing too hard but lots of straight seams and hems to sew.  I was worried about cost but then I went through my bins and found a bunch of fabric that was originally supposed to become a quilt for him when he joined our family.  It is all in brick reds and golds and will be perfect paired with the scraps from Molly's golden Zombie Prom prom scene dress.  And I don't have to spend a dime!

Yay.

Wish me luck.  Maxx very firmly instructed me that I was to start working on it this afternoon just as soon as I return from shopping today.  We had to discuss the chain of command a bit this morning!

I got a last minute Holiday Commission to make a hand beaded, hand dyed velvet scarf in sage green with rose accents. 

I wasn't really sure how it would come out, I don't usually work in "subdued", you know. 

But, Wow.  I hated to send it away so fast. 




















 . . . . .

What a year.


Here's where I was in January. 

We've come a long way since then.  We are in our new house.  My new studio is functional when it is clean - though a bit chilly this time of year.  The rest of the house is coming together and every project we finish in the rest of the house frees up time & space in my studio.  (You can read more about our project on the house over at The Beorningstead.)   I've developed some new product lines and I'm slowly learning how to manage my studio time better.


I still haven't gotten to finishing those tee shirts yet but I keep playing with screen printing design possibilities and I'm feeling almost brave enough to actually get one started.


Maxx is doing much better. Fewer fits, more friends at school, generally healthier.  He is learning how to read - though it is a real struggle, especially compared with Molly who was reading almost straight out of the womb.  His math skills are excellent.  He is happier at Church and more likely to interact in lessons and pay attention and process information well.  As much as I worry about some of the pitfalls of public education, I know that Maxx is really benefiting from the environment and services he enjoys in his classroom.  His teacher this year is incredible!

Molly is doing well at school.  She is admittedly bored and frustrated with the History/Social Studies and Literature classes.  She loves many of her teachers, is doing surprisingly well in Math and thrives in Music class.  You should hear her incredible voice.  Her range has expanded and she is quite a chamelion - she can sing in a very mature, sophisticated, operatic style or she can jazz it down quite a bit.  She had callbacks for the musical last night - we'll find out this afternoon what part she gets.

Bry has a job he likes - though it is over an hour away from home.  We're struggling with how long he is gone every day.  Luckily, his supervisor is very understanding and has encouraged him to take his time and be wise about traveling on the bad roads this winter.  His assistant lives 5 minutes from the school so if the roads are awful or impassible out our way, he can take some extra time getting in.  He has reached a level of frustration with the house because he has so few hours to work each day.  We're really looking forward to some holiday time to work on the house and relax this week.

I am healthy-ish.  What a pleasant surprise that has been.  Last fall, I was beginning to think that I would rather just die and get it over with than continue to suffer with so many viral illnesses and subsequent sinus (or ear) infections over and over again.  Why am I healthy all of a sudden?  I think there are several factors:  Maxx's immunity is a bit stronger than it was so he's sick less often and not mixing up as many mutations for me.  Using Progest has had a profound effect on my entire body.  I am entirely convinced that my endocrine system was completely off kilter and estrogen dominant for most of my life (WHY couldn't doctors have figured that out 20 years ago???) and the Progest has given me a balance that I've been needing for decades.  Everything is better.  Except maybe my weight - that is proving to be a bit difficult but I have established an equilibrium in the last couple of months and hopefully that means I'll be able to start bringing it down instead of watching it continue to creep up. 

I have left Etsy.  I cannot begin to tell you what a tremendous relief that is.  My cash flow has taken a painful hit but I'm no longer playing the re-newing game and spending dozens of dollars each week just to keep my items in a search.  Want to read more about Etsy Fail?  Look here.  I'm not going to talk about it anymore. 

Now I'm examining my business plan again - or still.  There are several issues that I need to resolve in the coming weeks and I'm looking forward to taking a few days this holiday to contemplate my business goals and personal goals and how I will get them to mesh comfortably this year.  Mostly, I want to be a healthier, less-stressed mom and create more.  I really want to get back to writing and Complex Cloth.  Most of my dyeing in the past several years have been targeted for mainstream sales - which is great.  We all love having those glorious silks floating around on rinse days.  I also want to experiment with some more in-depth surface design techniques.  Hopefully I can make time and space for that in my life next year.

















. . . .

O.K.  so this is a stretch for our budget.  More than a stretch.  I've owned cars that cost less than this - but it is worth every penny.  I would LOVE to someday own something beautiful from Dryad Studio and this would look so wonderful in my new house.

Another shop that Molly and I have been looking at for alternative Class Rings is Billy Reb's Manufacturing.

Billy specializes in Medieval, Gothic, Skull and Biker Jewelry.  He has an ArtFire shop and a website.  It looks like his website contains items that he produces regularly and the ArtFire shop is for more one of a kind pieces. 

Some of you may find it strange that Molly and I have been considering asking a guy who makes biker jewelry to make a graduation ring for her.

You know, I do have a faux biker jacket.  I bought it because

- I was the last one in the family without a pleather jacket
- it was the right length and fit nicely
- it was on sale
- and it says "Somewhere inside this soft, middle aged LDS woman with a braid and progressive bi-focals is a rebellious soul who won't listen to any of your conformist crap."

(did you find the irony?)

Anyway - we liked the look of several of his Medieval rings including the one with the Orange CZ and the Green Crusader ring and we suspect that with his background, he might be a good bet to custom make a graduation ring for Molly Bryn.  He's got very strong design skills, decades of experience and his jewelry is bold and very well crafted.

And I sure wouldn't mind finding something like this in my stocking:

We attended Conference at the Chapel this weekend.  Sometimes, we watch the Saturday sessions at home but this spring, we knew it would be too much of a temptation to go over and work on the Beorningstead in the beautiful weather - 89 degrees.  (That's just wrong, by the way.  That's mid-July weather, not April.)

So I worked on some embroidery.

Remember this post?  I've gotten this far.  I'm making grape leaves for a multi-dimensional embroidery piece that I will probably finish sometime in 2050.  I got as far as tacking the wire down and whip-stitching the middle vein down.  The edges require some sort of buttonhole variation and I wasn't up to trying to parse the instructions for that stitch while also trying to hear what was happening in conference.  (Lots and lots of discussion about the importance of teaching children and strengthening our families.)

I have a sort of half-baked plan for this piece that is marginally related to the Beorningstead and Burnett Hollow.  The further I take it, the less pleased I am. It is a bit too iconic.  It started as a non-trad Asissi work piece.  I guess it's working as far as that goes.  The sky and ground are covered with hand dyed variegated cotton thread.  More embellishment is planned, I just need some bravery and a bit more time.  Maybe in October.  ;)   (Edit - May 3, 2010 - This weeks TAST 2 stitch is Cloud Filling.  I haven't had time for TAST the last few weeks but I was tickled to find that this week's challenge stitch is something I'm already familiar with!  I used Cloud Filling on the Peacock above - the green ground area is mostly that stitch.  You can find out more about TAST 2010 and see how to do Could Filling yourself at Pin Tangle.  Sharon is one of my fiber heroes.)

And I had a chance to try Portuguese Border Stitch from TAST 2.


I removed the unfortunate border I had here earlier and replaced it with  Portuguese Border with teeny seed beads tucked into the openings.    I'm not sure that it might not be a bit heavy-handed for this piece right here?















Maxx played ball between sessions and had fun playing with pattern blocks with Melanie.  He's convinced that he will marry her someday - just like all the other older girls who are nice to him.  (he's got good taste, though, all of his "girlfriends" are very sweet, intelligent and good with younger kids.)

Conference rarely falls on Easter.  To make the day more special, the branch had a Ham dinner with potluck between sessions.  Then we visited Meemo in the evening.  The Easter Bunny has agreed to visit over Spring Break for a Spring Holiday event over at the grandparents.  More about that next week.  
     




. . . . .

Maxx was totally thrilled with the fact that Santa found some "granola bars" that he can actually eat.  He enjoyed opening up his stocking and all of this other gifts but the stash of the new Chex Mix bars that DO NOT contain any tree nuts and are not manufactured in a facility that processes tree nuts brought the most enthusiastic response.  He exclaimed "Santa is AWESOME!" and insisted on eating one right there, for breakfast.

Maxx is a picky eater and does not enjoy many foods.  He loves granola bars and, until recently, he could have the Quaker brand snack bars.  They were the only brand on the market that were safe.  The last time I went to stock up on these favorites, the company had either moved their production to a new facility or introduced a new product to the old facility because suddenly tree nuts appeared in the allergy warning label.  No more easy granola bars for Maxx.   We've all been sad about that and I started looking for reasonable home made granola bar recipes without much success.  (If you have a good recipe - please share!)

The whole Christmas Holiday season has been a bummer in terms of goodies and treats for Maxx.  He was given several diferent fancy wrapped novelty chocolates that I had to take away from him because of tree nut contents.  (Did you know that ALL of the little foil wrapped Santas and reindeer and polar bears and large Santas and even all flavors of LINDOR BALLS are potentially deadly for a person with nut allergies?) Lots of people gave us cookies  - some with nuts, some without and because we do not know which were produced where or whether or not there was any cross contamination, Maxx was not allowed to eat any.  Christmas Eve was an especially big bummer for Maxx because all but one of the chocolate containing treats available at Gramma's snack spread that night had tree nuts in them or were contaminated with tree nuts.  Gramma had very carefully made a fudge especially for Maxx to enjoy but it acidentally was cut into pieces After the same knife was used to cut the fudge containing walnuts. 

"Is that really a big deal?" some of you may ask.  Maybe, maybe not.  If there's any tree nut pieces or tree nut oil in a product, yes, it is a big deal.  Trace amounts may not cause a full blown reaction including anaphylactic  shock, but those small doses can contribute to his general respratory irritation levels and that could result in an asthma attack hours or even days later.  In fact, I'd almost rather have someone come up to my kid and stick a walnut in his mouth than give him something with small traces of nuts in it.  He'll spit that walnut out immediately, scream, cry, foam at the mouth and start to swell up.  I know how to deal with that and I feel pretty confident that between the epi-pen, Benadryl and rescue squad he would have a pretty darn good chance of survival.  But an asthma attack in the midle of the night while the rest of us are sound asleep brought on by trace levels of tree nuts that he ate hours or days earlier really could be deadly.

Sometimes I feel like Thetis trying to convince the local school master that Achilles really does have to wear those brass sneakers in gym.  People who haven't seen or experienced an anaphylactic reaction or a near death asthma attack just don't get it.

So discovering 4 boxes of granola bar-like things that he could actually put in his mouth on Christmas morning was a wonderful Gift - for both of us.   Thanks Santa!

Oh - and if any of you out there find a case of these - buy 'em and send them to me.  I'll pay you back!

So - Etsy is running a short poll on St. Patrick's Day themed items. Winners of the poll will have their item featured in two special advertising slots on Etsy for St. Patty's day. This will drive more traffic to these sellers' stores and potentially increase their revenue for March.

My fellow Etsy blogger, 3RexesJewelry, has this gorgeous pair of earrings in the running. If you follow this link, you can see all of the beautiful things the Etsy community has created for this celebration & vote for your favorite

http://www.etsy.com/voter_list.php?ref=voter&room_id=34

If you are buying gifts for St. Patricks Day - buy handmade and support an indie artist! Check out Etsy or your local Arts Council gift gallery. It's so much more fun to buy and give gifts that are made by a real human being that you can actually communicate with. With Etsy, you can even find an artist that lives near you with the Shop Local tool. It is soo cool! Just scroll down the main page and look in the margin - you'll find it.

I'm working up to posting about our favorite Christmas traditions - including a recipe for our favorite Christmas Eve Clam Chowder - but i don't have time today. Suffice it to say that our family loves to play games - and we particularly love word games. One of my favorite holiday memories is that of a killer round of The Minister's Cat with my Brother-in-Law. He and I beat everyone else but we couldn't beat each other.

That was years ago before motherhood co-opted most of my vocabulary synapses. I now have a hundred ways of saying "Stop that right now!" but it takes me longer to think of interesting adjectives to apply to said minister's feline.

Consternation is more my speed. This is a slow game - played over several days.

One player takes the Boggle game out and spells a word, preferably a very long word, and places it in the game board. The more convoluted the layout of the word, the better. And make sure that the letters face in different directions or you'll give yourself away before the game even starts. (The word in the photo above is consternation.)

The game board is left in a central location - dining room table is good, or next to the hearth, with a pad of paper. Other family members look at the board throughout the day and write down the words they find within the board. The game is won when someone finds the original word. The winner gets to put their own long winded word in and the game starts over. There is no timer, no rush and makes good use of time huddled near the fireplace or while chewing Peanut Butter and Jelly. It is a great vocabulary builder for older homeschoolers and a good spelling exercise. It is like a traditional word find but more social and competitive.

Just in case you didn't know already, the Etsy Bloggers Street Team is sponsoring a Holiday Sale. Over 50 Etsy Sellers on our team are offering discounts and/or shipping deals on orders placed between this Friday and December 1st.

I am offering 10% off all orders at Lunasbaublebilities plus free shipping on all orders over $45.00. At GoblinsMarket, all orders get free shipping.

Plenty of other stores will be offering similar specials so check them out. You can see all of the Etsy Bloggers Team sales by clicking on the announcement. You'll find handmade everything from Soap and Scarves to Chainmalle and Childrens' clothes. People who make and sell Fine art (including Photography) and art and crafting supplies are also particiating.

Buying on handmade Etsy may seem a little strange, but it is a truly revolutionary way to shop. Everything on Etsy (excluding supplies and vintage goods) has been handmade by one individual artist/craftsperson or a by small cooperative of two or three artists sharing resources. The money you pay for your items minus a small listing fee and any PayPal fees (usually about 10% total) goes directly into that artist's pocket. The artist earns what he or she has decided is a reasonable & fair wage for their labor and goes on to make more beautiful things. You recieve something unique, carefully crafted and valuable.

No frantic bidding. No major corporations and greedy middlemen. No child labor. No sweatshops or human rights abuses. No mass produced junk. No shopping malls or giant retail stores. Just you, the artist and something beautiful that comes to your home in time for the Holidays. You can even do a search for artists and craftspeople who live in your little corner of the world so that you can buy local and well as handmade.

Go check it out!

First let me make a ritual apology for my pitiful offering of Halloween photos.

I only have three from Halloween because of the stupid Energizer Bunny. I'm not sure if it was the batch of new Energizer batteries I had or if my charger had gone awry or what, but I was only able to take two to three photos at a time with both of my sets of batteries before they would die. I totally missed getting photos of Molly's great Gypsy(?) costume that she created. It was a strange hybrid of Tia Dalma, Captain Jack Sparrow and the traditional Gypsy thing. She looked prety wild and she decorated the back entry way with draped silk, candles, incense and sundry small eclectica to make the place look a little mysterious. We hung a sign out front that said "Treats, Fortunes, Destiny" with an arrow pointing to the back door. It sort of freaked out her 5 trick-or-treaters, which is what she was trying for.

After Halloween, Bry went out and bought me some Duracell rechargeables and a new charger so I'm happily back to getting hundreds of shots in before the juice runs out. Hooray!

So - here are photos of Maxx scooping out his pumpkin and in his Halloween costume. He would not communicate with me about what he wanted to dress up as this year so when I was out shopping, I picked up a Robin Hood costume. It looked quick, easy, cheap and involved a sword. I got home, made the costume and he refused to wear it. "I want to be a Pirate!" he said. Great time to tell me, kid. You can be a Pirate next year.

As you can see from the photos, he was sullen about the whole thing until after the third or fourth house when he realized that the costume magically enabled him to get candy from all the neighbors. Unfortunately, I was unable to get a photo of the big smiles upon his return home. Curse you, Energizer Bunny!









Here are photos of the classroom at the Arts Council where I set out my wares for Studio Tour. Another ritual apology here - it is pretty durn tricky to get a good photo of all these satin and velvet scarves. The photos just can't convey how lovely these scarves are. I love it when people walk into my "booth" and say "Oooooh! How beautiful!" or "Wow! This is so colorful!" It makes the backache from dyeing, washing, detangling and ironing completely worthwhile.











This is my favorite scarf of the season. The photo can only give a hint to how incredible these colors are together on velvet! It was a bit of a longshot to put these colors together because browns are often very chancy on silk.

Since these fiber reactive dyes are created for use on cellulite fibers, the ultimate outcome of any given color on silk, a proitein fiber, is unknown. Browns are created using some mix of at least three primaries so they tend to shift much more than a primary or secondary color will and the shifts are more unpredictable. Most browns I have used end up looking muddy or sallow and not beautiful at all.

But Molly and I desperately wanted to try a Peacock color scheme for this pattern. We debated for a few days, studying peacock feathers in various lights and we agreed that the most important thing was to get a good, rich brown with at least two shimmering purples and a brilliant teal/blue. Peacock feathers actually have a predominant green flash but I didn't want to risk putting brown, green, purple and blue all in the same scarf. Plus, scarves that are predominantly green simply do not sell. I decided to try 4 colors - a brown, a purple, a specially mixed pale orchid and a specially mixed blue/teal. It was an astounding success. I'm ordering more of this design today so I can make a few more of them for Etsy and my other galleries. And, I'll be honest, one for myself.

Now I have to run and get some long neglected housework and budgeting chores done. Velvet silk painting tutorial coming toorrow or Wednesday!

My amazing Sister-in-Law, Molly, has opened a Christmas themed blog for the holidays. You really should go check it out. Gingerbread and Candy Canes is full of recipes and descriptions of our family's holiday traditions.

Molly really does do all of these things she describes on her blog, but I'm not sure how she manages it. She has 5 children ranging in age from 9 to 1 and she is on the go all the time - exercise classes for her, dance classes for the girls, pre-K for her 4 year old, two little ones at home, doctors appts. Church activities, etc .. etc . . . and she still finds time to decorate to the 9s for holidays, run two interesting blogs and cook up all these great treats and traditions. To top it all off, she's skinny and fit!

Here's a photo of our 4 year olds atop Mt. Azure this summer. Don't they look like they belong in an Indie rock band together?

When I start feeling down on myself for not having the same amazing Holiday festivities for my kids that she does for hers, I remind myself that Molly doesn't have her holidays season filled with freshly dyed silk dripping from every possible hanging surface in the house. :) My kids get Christmas presents only because Mom has silk dripping and beads spilling from every corner of every room for the whole of October and November!

I probably won't have to feel too badly about this for long. I think my homeschooler might be ready to take on some of these recipes herself this year. Good thing she's got an Aunt Molly to inspire her.



Speaking of dripping silk - expect a tutorial on using Procion fiber reactive dyes to paint silk velvet & satin devore (burn out pattern) scarves in a few days. I will also be offering a workshop on painting silk scarves as a holiday benefit for the St. Lawrence County Arts Council on December 6th. This will be an excellent opportunity for people to try the process without having to buy all of their own supplies. The basic participation fee will be $15.00 and goes straight to the Arts Council. Supplies will cost $12.00 per scarf, participants may dye up to 3 scarves. Registration deadline is November 18th.

I really shouldn't tell people this but - this workshop is a great opportunity to make awesome holiday gifts for friends and family at a very low cost. If you do all three scarves, each one will only cost $17.00. If you buy them from me, these scarves would cost $35 to $40 each. Keep your eyes open for my tutorial if you want to know what you're paying me for when you buy a scarf!