Post #27: UFO Report: A Blast From the Past (truly NOT my oldest UFO)!

It's been a long time since I've posted anything here as life has a way of occasionally rearranging priorities. That's the way life is, and one must adapt as needed to the ever-changing demand and flow of things within and around and among us. And it is quite alright.

There are many groups and people these days who seem to pride themselves on being procrastinators. As a matter of fact, there was a quilting group I was in at one time with that name. ...smile... It's taken many years for my perspective to change on this, but one thing I truly do understand: I am NOT the procrastinator. 

So occasionally I change course, head in another direction, try something else for awhile. Well, maybe more than occasionally - And my former white-hot love is all-but-forgotten, tucked away in a box, under some papers of long-ago-misunderstood meaning... And I do mean long ago.

OK, let me back up here a bit, to help quantify just how old this bit of UFOdom really is. Hmmm, let me see...if I had done what I intended when I started this blog... (hehe...the best-laid-plans-of-mice-and-men---stay tuned---that's the title of another blog-post-in-progress that my-life's-gotten-temporarily-in-the-way-of---hee hee!) and posted one UFO (un-finished object/project) each day, then this blog would run for 27.4 years!!! Well, if you've been following my blog for awhile, then you may know that that is just a teeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeensy weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeensy bit shy of one-half of my entire time on this planet in this body of mine. That's a pretty darn good long time, don't you think?



So here it is, the UFO that I found the other day from sooooooooooooooo long ago, almost finished, but not quite. A bit dulled and stained around the edges. The kit manufacturer's copyright date in the bottom corner - that's the same year I bought the kit and did all of the work on this. Yes, I know that may seem weird to some of you. And no, I don't care. I actually am finding this quite amusing, and since I've made it my goal in the last few months to make someone laugh every day (& let me proudly state here that so far I have accomplished that goal each and every day henceforth), why can't I also be one of those who gets to be laughing? LOL. LOL. LOL. Finding laughter in creativity as well as peace....smile...

LOL.

In actuality, this UFO o' mine is 33 years old!!! That's the same age that my DH's daughter will be this year. Wow.  LOL.

Coming soon to a blog near you: 

My oldest UFO and my earliest craft projects, LOL.

Finding peace in creativity,

Meryl
                   

Post # 25: Still all talked out. Craft life still nuts...that's a wonderful thing!

Some miscellaneous photos, 

some of my UFO's, 

some finished projects.

Please enjoy your day.

I've already decided to enjoy mine. 

Finding peace in creativity,

Meryl

Post #24: A picture is worth a thousand words (And I'm all talked out)!

Finding peace in creativity,

Meryl

Post #23: A dog, a tent and some pillows on Pinterest

     A while back a friend of mine turned me on to the sights, delights, and sometimes frights of Pinterest. Well, I sometimes hesitate to call her a friend, (just kidding), at least in those moments when it seems I can get nothing done because I've wasted half of a perfectly good afternoon doing absolutely nothing but perusing those very same sights, delights, and yes, even the frights, on whichever electronic doodad my hands and eyes seem to be attached to at that particular moment, provided, of course, that they are not full of fiber and beads and wire and whatnot.
     But a tirade about the ins and outs, woes and fros of the internet universe are not what I came here to share, so let me, albeit finally, get right to it. This is really about one of my 10ThousandProjects. What I stumbled upon on one of those afternoons was something that I subsequently did "Pin" to a board so I could reference it later. It was something that I am sure brought about one of those "V-8 smack-in-the-forehead moments" to many because it is soooooo simple I can hardly believe I've never thought of this myself.

     DH and I have no little ones running around, except four-legged little Alice, so the sleepover cushion idea shown in the picture was not my thing, but I could imagine how comfy they might be if you folded them to fit your needs,  to sit on the floor and lean back against the sofa, for instance. We could use these for extra floor seating while watching TV or sitting around with friends, knitting and relaxing.

     In case you are new to this blog, now's your chance to Meet Alice. 

Oh, did I mention that she likes to burrow? 

     Yes, she's in there. Under there. The truth is, we are one or two Ragg Quilts short for all the rooms in our house, so we have to keep moving them around to accommodate her. She's a riot, a regular riot, kind of like Alice Kramden from "The Honeymooners," although we're not too crazy about Ralph Kramden, because all he did was scream at everybody all the time, but that's a whole other subject; but my Alice, yes, she is a riot.  If her quilt is not on the couch at the appointed moment she will dig at the cushions to get underneath them. The only problem is the cushions are fully attached, so I am always alert and somehow manage to bring her a "blankie" right when she needs it. 

     Well, back to the pillows. So, a month or two or three go by, I really don't know how long since I saw the pillows-sewn-together-on-Pinterest. I'm still in my cleaning out phase which began in the forced winter fibernation of 2012, and I'm reaching into the back of the guest bedroom closet, waaaay in the back, all the way to the right, under and behind the clothes hanging there, faaaar out of sight, barely within reach of the pads of my fingertips, so much so that I have to go get a broom to assist or risk knocking all of the clothes off their hangers, and then, finally, (yes!), with a stretch, there, I've got it...it's a small black suitcase, and it is FULL and fully zipped up. 

     Wow! Just what was inside? This thing is pretty heavy for its size. Maybe there was something really special in here, some long-lost treasure I had forgotten about, or maybe just something small...like maybe a winning lottery ticket! Yeah, that's the ticket! (Well, a girl can dream, can't she)? Well, as it turned out, I had hit the jackpot, a HUGE jackpot, in fact! I had just hit the Pillowcase Bonanza! I must say it was really strange to find these at this time, after seeing the pillows-sewn-together-on-Pinterest so recently, since the pillowcases had been packed in that suitcase for a period of time that exceeded 6 years and had survived many moves during that time without ever once being opened. 

     So, I got out all of the pillowcases, washed and dried them, chose the ones I wanted to use, sewed them together (easiest project ever!), filled all five pillowcases with five pillows, respectively, and folded the whole thing up in the corner of the living room where it sat for a while.

   One day I was in the room designated as my "office" when Alice came in and couldn't find a place to park herself near her "mommy" so I got up to get her a quilt. Well, you know the rest...no sooner did I bring it into my office than she took permanent possession of what I now refer to as the "Pillow-Tent." This simple, silly little project turned out to be like the "Castro Convertible" of dog beds. As long as I leave it folded over itself, she now has a daybed if she lays on top, and for those times when she wants it a little darker to get a better nap, she climbs right in between the two layers of pillows. If Fido was Queen of the Pillows, then surely Alice does reign supreme as Queen of the Tents, don't you think? 

Alice is in there, comfy as can be. She's just happy to be near her mommy.

See, there she is.

The Convertible Pillow-Tent works double-duty.

Finding peace in creativity,

Meryl

Post # 22: Holly Berries for Holy Bear

     Here it is...I actually finished the collar I had promised for Holly Berry. If you're wondering about the title of my blog today, it turns out that some of the younger members of Holly Berry's extended family have trouble pronouncing her name, as is the case with young folk sometimes, so occasionally she has been called Holy Bear. Well, we met just the other day, and I've got to tell you, either adorable name suits her just fine. She is one cute wiggle-butt, and I mean that in the most endearing way! What I don't need to tell you, is that I am a self-proclaimed dog-addict. I love dogs. I always have. I always will. It is not by accident that I end up involved in groups of fiber-art type people and almost all of them either have dogs or cats, or take in foster pets, or volunteer at the Humane Society, or have farm animals like chickens, goats, llamas, alpacas, & who knows what else. They say like attracts like. Fiber. Fur. You get it. But dogs are my first love. Enough said. (Sorry DH)!
 
     As I revealed in my last post, the final collar ended up looking quite different than the way I had originally laid it out (and there must have been about fifteen other variations in-between).

On the left is her original collar.On the right is the design I began with.

I ditched the white beads and added some shells I had found at the beach that I painted with iridescent paint.

 The leaves and stems on my fig tablecloth just begged for some playtime. I guess I have a bit of an attention problem. Maybe it's more of a distraction problem. Actually, it's not a problem at all. Hmm. Smile.

 The night I started on the collar I had just hemmed another pair of jeans for DH. The pieces of denim I had cut from the bottom of each leg were sitting on my table, and once again I thought this would make a fantastic base for a dog collar. If Dear Hubby was taller I guess I would have had to come up with another solution, but I love denim for this purpose and this is simply the way it was supposed to be. I also wanted to add some leather, which I cut and braided, and I added the shells for a Florida influence. The flowers are crocheted in cotton, and it is non-mercerized, so it is not ultra-shiny, and will not wear as well as the mercerized type. It will fade and it will get fuzzy. I've tried these out on Alice and I actually like the effect that age and wear has on it. It's kind of like how it's acceptable that your favorite pair of jeans fades and breaks in and wears over time...it just makes it better, even though it makes them look older.

 I could go on and on adding things, like these size 11/0 pearl white beads, till the cows come home. Sometimes I don't know when to stop or when to stop changing my mind, but it's all part of a fun and interesting process. I've spent most of my life following directions, orders. road-maps, signs, charts, graphs, and other people and their ideas, but lately I've been breaking out of that mold and I've really been enjoying mixing things up a bit: still using all of my organized charts and graphs in the crocheted flowers and the beadwork and knitting that I so love to do, but now adding a dimension of play that I had not fully allowed myself to experience before. THIS IS FUN!

     At this point I was auditioning different crystal and bead embellishments, pinning them in place temporarily until I could make up my mind. I eventually traded out the square crystal for a Swarovski margarita. 

It seemed to me that the colors needed a bit more oomph and then it hit me...Holy Bear! Holly Berry needs some holly berries! Also, since all birds and dogs seem to love each other, I felt that Holy Bear should have a little bird sitting on her shoulder chirping away, waiting for her three eggs to hatch. See her little suede beak?

Here's Holly Berry, aka Holy Bear, posing with her mom, Deborah. 

It's not always easy to get a wiggle-butt dog to pose for the camera.  ;-)

 Isn't she cute? She's so darn cute I can blame her for my inability to decide which photos to include,

so I included almost all of them, and It's Holly Berry's Fault! 

I especially like how well her new collar coordinates with her mom's knitted jacket. 

Thanks Deborah, and thanks Holly Berry, for helping me to find my peace. I think you look beautiful in your new collar and I really enjoyed creating it.

Finding peace in creativity,

Meryl