Dec Has Flown By!!

If I sneak in a quick blog post, I will have managed to say something this fine month of December! Loved that it was soo warm here in the Northeast!!!

The Studio Sale was great with visits from friends and new faces, sharing holiday goodies with the locals! With that big event over, Sue and I headed for Florida to visit the Stilwell sisters...all four together for the first time in eight years!! Took lots of presents to pass around!

Midge and Al have been working on their Florida gardens, shifting the plantings to local shrubs and flowers. It was remarkable to see the number of butterflies that danced around their front yard enjoying the plantings. It was like a little paradise with the butterflies, caterpillars and chrysalis doing their respective jobs. We had been watching the chrysalis pictured below, hanging onto a twig outside of the front door...and voila!! there is miss monarch!

 

It was great to see everyone and I helped Midge and Allison with a few jobs as they prepare for their March show at the Jeanine Taylor Folk Art Gallery. Opening March 17th if you are in the Orlando area!!
Also made a pile of screens that I am happy to say are all taped and ready to use!

Back in Little Rhody Sue was dealing with a chicken slaughter....

something got one of our new girlz, and the following morning the five older girlz were dead. The night I got home from Florida a possum got the second bunny. Thank goodness things have calmed down and the girlz are out eating bugs.

 Helped our buddy Rick move into his new house.

The holidays have come and gone in a rather relaxing manner for us!

Visited with friends.

Chowed with the family. Did I take one picture? No.....

 

Working in the studio...getting samples together for our Jan workshop.

Happy New Year to all and hope that folks can find serenity from day to day!

Studio Sale!!

Still Stitching Away...organizing...cleaning...

Getting Ready For You!!!

California!

 

It seems so far away already, but in September Linda Willis and I took a great trip to Petaluma, California for the premier of the West Coast version of Art is You and couple of added on days for visiting old friends! The venue (Sheraton) was great and of course the fact that we got to meet new peeps and see some long lost buddies was the best! Among an inspiring array:

Ricë Freeman-Zachery and her amazing husband Earl!

Laurie Mika

 Katherine England

Amy Powers

Keith LoBue

Leighanna Light

Albie Smith

Was feeling inspired by the work that was flying around the hotel. Loved Petaluma and thank you Julie Panusis for taking us around town!!!

Got to visit friends in Joan and Pietro Parravano in Half Moon Bay (where I spent many years). The weather was unusually warm for the northern coast of California and I loved the Giants game, picnic on the beach, relaxing sauna, the most excellent food and the time to just chat! Thank you!!

 

And Leo, Great to see you!

Finished up the journey with MT Silvia, former girlfriend and maker of the film "Atomic Mom"! We had a wonderful dinner with her best girlz some of whom I hadn't seen in 25 years. A talented and very funny group of women!! Got to sleep under the quilt I made her in 1985!

On my to the airport in Oakland, I check out the Institute Of Mosaic Art. (Thanks for the tip Katherine) It is a building in a mixed use part of Oakland that is filled with wonderful finished pieces and many ongoing works, such as the bathrooms. As you can see the outside of the building beautifully reflects the good works.

I missed my baby and was glad to get back to the East coast to see Sue and prepare for the Danbury Art Is!!

Time Flying By on the Farm!

My last post was in August and now way into October! We have harvested 5 kinds of potatoes, dry beans, squash, eggplant, peppers, grapes (made juice), froze bags and bags of roasted tomatoes, spun out honey, got eggs from the new chickens, planted garlic and clover, scored two loads of alpaca manure..

We were very grateful to have made it thru Hurricane Irene with minor damage. Sue picked good tomatoes just before the storm. Happy to say we still had garden goodies after the event!

 We had a lovely surprise one day with the arrival of a new baby for the garden. George rescued her from horrible fate! Thanks George...she is very happy in her new ferny area! And as you can see, she always uses her seat belt!!

 

With the veggie gardens in good shape for the winter the pressure is off somewhat. Now raking leaves, cutting back perennials and planting bulbs...

Last weekend we inoculated a bunch of logs with mushroom spawn. With oak as a base, we drilled holes, pounded little plugs into the holes, covered the plug holes and ends of logs with bees wax.  We all enjoyed a great meal of pizza from George and Cathy's outside oven!! Thanks again as always.

So with proper care, we will all have a log of mushrooms blooming in the next 6-18 months. Time will tell on that one!

New Girl in the Works!

Working on some new dolls!

She is very happy to be coming into her own!

Fabulous Creative Fling - III

Go Figure - Mixed Media Dolls

January 2012

Friday 27th - Afternoon

Saturday 28th - All Day

Sunday 29th - Morning

Charlestown, Rhode Island, 02813

Join us for a weekend of relaxing, creating, sharing...threads, food, ideas...

Friday Afternoon: Making Faces...all kinds

Saturday: Making Bodies to go with Face

Sunday: Studio Time and The Ever Popular Surprise Collaborative Project

Schedule with Tracy and Linda

Fri

1-4 Class

Dinner

Sat

Breakfast

9-12 work

Lunch

1-4 work

Dinner

Sun

Breakfast

9-12 work

Snack and Go Home

Unbelievable Delicious Meals - Home grown and GOOD!

$400.00 * 2 Teachers * 5 Great Meals * Endless Inspiration!

Local Beds for Rent:

Surfside Motel, Charlestown, RI

General Stanton Inn, Charlestown, RI

LaQuinta - Stonington, CT

You can check Westerly and Charlestown area for other choices!

It's really really fun!!

xx

So Much Happened in July!

July was so busy. My sis Allison and girlfriend Midge arrived, having driven from Florida with boxes of mangoes from their yard and a thermo fax machine! We were thrilled to see them and consumed bowls filled with mangoes as we caught up on life. 

We had to get right on the first two day task of helping to setting up tables, chairs, dishes etc and making pizza dough for 100 folks that would be attending a fund raiser for the Salt Ponds Coalition  that was happening at George and Cathy's beautiful home and farm. All went well and then it was right onto Al's Birthday Celebration that went on for a couple of days with family, friends and a fancy brunch at the Ocean House.

Looming in the background was the list of preparations that needed to be done for our big creative weekend with the brave women heading this way from NY and NJ!!! Finishing name tags, food, supply piles, presents, cleaning, weeding....The day arrived, the girlz arrived with all of their goodies, and off we went...

The overall idea for the weekend was to create an 18 inch pillow. To that end, the first project was fabric painting outside. To survive the 100+ degrees, we quickly watered down fabric and each other, sprayed and splattered paint and retreated to the very cool basement to carve stamps! It is the space that saved the weekend!! So we over came fears of drawing, so so attitudes about carving and with a bit of urging, developed amazing stamps!

Somewhere in there we ate, snacked, drank large volumes to liquid to help with the survival of the 100+ degrees and who knows about the humidity!!! We then moved all of the screen printing materials from the garage down to the cool basement. After a brief demo and discussion we went to work on our painted fabric with silk and thermo fax screens. My sis was developing her new themo fax screen empire as we worked. "Do not let the screens dry out" was the mantra of the afternoon.

Saturday was printing with rubber stamps and sewing day. The afternoon was broken up a bit for some by shopping at a Folk Art Quilts, Wakefield and chowing the best ice cream on the planet! 

 

By the end of Sunday everyone had survived the heat and each other, had a great project done or almost done, a hand made "friendship" book constructed from painted and stamped papers that were worked on over the weekend and shared with everyone, presents from everyone, a fat quarter trade stash, hand made rubber stamps, and a pile of painted, stamped and screened fabric.

And of course the whole thing was made possible because Miss Linda Willis keeps coming to my house and bringing things to eat and projects to make. Thanks Linder (rhodeislandeese)

And thanks to the creative women keep driving here to use my dried up paints and glues...They keep showing up and have advised that they will continue to do so as long as possible!

Thanks also to Midge, Allison and Sue for all of their work in the very very hot kitchen!!! Very much appreciated by all I'm sure!

Details for the next Rhody event coming soon. Save the end of January!!!

Then there is the garden and the chickens and bees...

and

MT's movie "Atomic Mom" in Providence August 12th

try to get there and please tell your friends!!

and

Art is You California in September

Art is You Danbury in October

See you soon somewhere!

Art Is You Coupon! Check It Out!

 

 4th of July Special...Art is You is offering...

Today only, $50 off coupon...code: JULY 4

For a great time in Danbury, Ct....in October!

Tell your friends and loved ones, pass it on through your magical, electronic pathways...

So much to learn and even better are those new best friends just waiting to weave you into their lives!

Pic a teacher, any teacher and you will be happy and inspired!! What is better than that!

Have a great day and will get back here with tales from the farm and studio!!

Don't Miss This!

A New Pillow!

Worked in the studio this week! It felt great!!!

Made another pillow. Direct paint on fabric. Machine and hand embroidered. 

Front...

Back...

Spent this rainy day organizing and cleaning. I'm quite sure that I upset many many spiders. Well, upset is a nice word.

Paris and the New Chicken Coop, Quilting Arts and Squam!!!

My new computer has finally arrived!!! So I can proceed!!!

It has been quite a month. Almost no sun, but things are growing like crazy! Things are clearly alive and thriving in the cloudy, rainy, foggy atmosphere! Carrots, beets, lettuces, potatoes, onions, eggplant (well, something is dining on the leaves), peppers, spinach, asparagus (yummy, our first year) all doing well so far! Just had our first strawberries....

Went to Paris in May with my former husband Ed Booth (of Newport BioDiesel) to meet up with son Donald Booth.  Don has been traveling and working for a year through a website called Help Exchange. The site matches up folks looking for help with projects with adventurers looking for work in exchange for a bed and food!

The boys having a toast in Montmartre....

Hot Chocolate from Angelina's below....it was really unbelievable....

We had a great time being super tourists, eating and drinking lots of chocolate, consuming baguetts, croissants, checking out the sights and sounds with thousands of others! And unlike my New England neighbors, we had beautiful weather!

 The Paris markets were filled with beautiful and abundant items like these organic eggs!!

Meanwhile, back in the USA, our chicks continue to grow from little fluff balls into miniature chickens with wings and tails. They are in their new digs and the garage seems so lifeless and quiet. They have adjusted to the outside world and are doing their chicken thing in their new area! Thanks to my offspring Pete and Don they have a nice new home!!!

Quilting Arts Article! 

 I was pleased to have some of my work published in Quilting Arts this month. It is an article about gelatin printing and doll making. Check it out and give it a try! The magazine is filled with amazing work that will inspire your creative selves!!

Last week I was lucky enough to head out again and landed at Squam Lake in NH for the Squam Art Workshops! It was a wonderful time working with saws, drills, crochet hooks and a yoga mat! Saw old friends and met more good women!

There were beautiful faces and busy hands, good food and laughs, music, and a bit of cold windy weather. Follow the links on the Squam site for images of the event. I took my camera and left it in the bag....

Back home and back at it.  Cleaned up in the studio this morning and hope to get some work done. I am so grateful for my life and am sending good wishes out to the world!

April 22...

The warm mornings of Cocoa Beach did not fly along with me on my return to Rhode Island! It was 29 degrees this morning...quickly up to 49.

Since my return I have raked millions of leaves

son Pete has been building our new chicken coop inside existing shed

working on getting our bees in order

planted peas and just got our onion and potato starts yesterday

working on some pillows

playing angry birds...somebody help me!!!

May 5th...

I have been trying to get to this for some time now. After installing new op system and new iLife, my iphoto is soooo slow and driving me nuts...so prepping pics was annoying!!! But onward.

We have been celebrating Sue's birthday (peeking out of the new chicken door) for days with wonderful company and food! The real day was yesterday and she has the next 5 days off! Yea!!

The chicks arrived  a week ago. They grow so quickly it is unbelievable.

Bees are settled

Chicken coop for new peepers is coming along

Spied frog eggs in the pond...

Potatoes, onions, shallots, spinach, lettuce, peas in...beets, carrots, more lettuce, leeks going in and plant sales this weekend. Look out, danger...

Leaving for Paris in 6 days...

The garden is just erupting, some of the daffys need dead heading already...

While I was in Coca Beach, we went to visit the

Jeanine Taylor Folk Art Gallery

and we bought this painting by Theresa Disney! Have been looking for something and was thrilled to see her work in person! Such good color and attitude. We love it!

So yoga and walk this morning and then back here to plant seeds, build a chicken yard, deal with daffys, new garden area, check on the chicks, enjoy my girl, maybe relax a bit!!