Teddy Lives!!!

I hadn't realized it's nearly three weeks since I last posted. Between work full time, planning for Saturday workshops, helping my Mom with garage and house cleaning, and running my own household, I haven't had much energy. And now that it is dark and cold all I want to do is come home from work and do nearly nothing. So, my mother is getting ready to put her house up for sale. My mother is ummm, can be a pack rat. She is moving to a smaller living space so deciding" what must go", to" would like to go, but your brother would probably kill me" are the questions at hand. I tackled the inside and outside windows of three rooms in my mother's house this last Sunday. Yes, they are the kind of windows which fold inward but you have to use your imagination when you are not a 6 foot tall man. I am only 5'3 but I became pretty adept at balancing the upper and lower windows on my knee while standing on a step stool and then grunting as I hoisted the upper window to raise it to it's upper position. That sounds like nonsense but I'm sure you get what I mean. I knew my back and arms would feel this in a few hours but waking the next morning I felt like I'd been run over. Must be because I had a birthday somewhere around that time. I came home from work and daughter Liza had surprised me with wonderful birthday treats. Pretty scarf, and some jewelry. And some lovely flowers!! She made my day! I'm skipping around here. ..... In the process of helping my mother in her cleaning and sorting, I have become the recipient of some treasured items. I showed you one box of dolls already. But wait. There's another box I have yet to show you when I can lay them out and photograph them. I have inherited some very old, vintage dolls that belonged to my mother, her mother and her mother, along with the doll clothes which were hand made. I'll have to share more with you as I set up a doll hospital and begin to work on trying to repair and mend these little rag muffins. Other items like a few childhood books and things we made came home with me. But this was my favorite. Tell me this bear was not well loved.I have a thing for bears, but not just any bear. You know there are bears that have personalities and a certain warmth and character as soon as you see them. As I am writing this post I have taken a picture of him and sent it to my mother, who says she thought she had thrown him out because she thought he was in worse shape than he was. She instead put him in the box with the dolls. So it WAS her bear. Teddy lives! Give him a hug from me, she says. I will take good care of him, I say. Teddy sits for now on the hutch with the trivet I made in art class somewhere in my childhood. And because Teddy deserves the best I am putting his picture up the right way!! lol......... Thanks for visiting.

Unfinished Stuff, Works in Progress Stuff, Vintage Stuff

My studio is again looking like a disaster zone. I prided myself a couple of months ago when I did some reorganizing and cleaning about a month ago, but it's really hard to tell at this point. I cannot decide if I have two many projects going on or if I seriously don't have enough surface space in which to work, or I am just too lazy to clean up before I work on something new. Or a little of each. I looked around my studio last night. I feel really lucky to have this space because I know many people do not have this luxury. I do have a lot of things going on. A lot of unfinished projects. Perhaps I have ADD where ART is concerned. I tend to move from one thing to another. You know what happens when you give a mouse a cookie.... He asks for milk and a straw and crayons and.......... These lines strung from one window to another are good sometimes for hanging things you want to refer back to......... I have to share with you something really cool.. some new people have come to visit my house...... from another time....... These vintage dolls were passed on to me by my mother who is at 80 yrs old full of wonderful stories and memories as I help her clean out her garage and pack things up. Seriously, these dolls belonged to her and her mother. I did not have a lot of dolls as a child. I never had Barbies and don't feel I ever missed out on them. I had some rag dolls but preferred a lot of time to play with my brother's Match Box cars and "Little Kiddle" dolls. Does anyone remember those tiny little dolls? Anyway, I know my mother lovingly brought these very old dolls from Oregon years ago. I never knew of their existence. Last weekend she asked if I wanted them. I did. I think she was hoping I might give them a home instead of her giving them to a consignment shop where people might well be arguing their monetary worth. They are worn but they have been well loved. I will share more on them as time goes by. Thanks for stopping in.