A new house!

We bought another house to fix up and rent.  Well, the hubs says we'll try to flip it, and I won't stand in the way if we can make a pretty good deal on it.  Buuuutttt, I want it.  To live in.

This house was built in 1955, and has a laundry list of things wrong with it.  Starting with around 6K in foundation work.  The owners have almost doubled the square footage, adding a big family room, converting the original one-car garage, and adding a giant two car on the back of the house w/ alley access.  A plain but private, comfy guest suite through the garage.  The backyard is an exercise in compromise, since the add-on cuts it in half.  The front yard has tall trees--one of them has a cactus growing out of it.

It's really a mess, but I have fallen in love.  Wood floors through the living room, hall and bedrooms.  Tons of space for storage, workrooms, an office.  Original 50's kitchen!

We used to believe we needed to be out in the country.  Strike that.  We used to NEED to be out in the country.  But over the last several years, we've discovered things change, people change (I promise not to break into song here) and what used to fit just doesn't anymore.  Sooooo...Phil and I have talked about renting the house after we fix it up, and then in a year...maybe moving back to town.

I'm working hard not to get my heart set on the place, but it might be too late.  We'll sign contracts and close by mid-September, then the rehab begins.  After the foundation lift, there will be lots to fix, new tile, drywall repairs, some demo of parts that need to go away (godawful fake fireplace in the family room) and lots of landscape cleanup.  New appliances, paint, etc.  We're looking at around 32K in rehab costs--if there are no ugly surprises.

Have I mentioned the original 50's kitchen?
Ahem, where was I?

Well, anyway, if I seem a little distracted from this weekend's show, from making dolls, from cooking dinner...it's because I am.  This silly old house.  Pictures as we proceed.

I'm missing the Pumpkin Party!

It can't be helped, but it still bums me out. 
But just so YOU don't miss the party, here are the details:

PAFA (Primitive and Folk Artists Etsy Team) is celebrating the arrival of Autumn with a celebration!  "Strolling Through The Pumpkin Patch With PAFA" is the result of lots of hard work on these artists' part and some lucky winners and shoppers will definitely benefit.
   

There are lots of incredible Autumn Artworks on Etsy from PAFA members, made and listed especially for this celebration.  Just click on the picture link above to shop this mini fair.  (Or if you get lost, just search STTPP in the Etsy tags). The PAFA Blog has a monster giveaway going on as well!  Sixteen (at last count) items donated from the various team artists.  So click on the link below and go sign up!

  

Multiple Personality Disorder?

Nah, just too many dolls waiting for clothes.

I finished two more today.  Five more to have ready...and yet the dog, the cat, and the husband still insist on getting fed.  The nerve of some people's children.

I posted pictures of the finished two on the selling (adoption?) blog, because I'd like to start posting new dolls there, separate. No general news or info there...just dolls and nothin' but the dolls.  If you'd like to see new ones when they come out, please follow that one?

At first I was hesitant to ask that, and then it occurred to me that I follow several "connected blogs", and don't mind it a bit.  In fact, sometimes it makes life simpler: we yabber and blabber on this one, we oooh and aaah on that one. 

For now, I am going to consume
a largish quantity of caffeine,
get back into gear and
finish what I started.  

August Beer Summit

The hubs and I have this long standing tradition--well, since around 2003 or so--that we've dubbed The Beer Summit.  It begins as we sit of an evening in lawn chairs, watching Cat Dog show play out at our feet and listening to the hummingbird aerobatics overhead around the feeders.

Not a beer summit pic, I just like this one of the hubs.

Then one of us (these are not planned events) brings up something that's been bugging, niggling, bothering.  Not a relationship issue, more like a life issue that needs solving.  Sometimes it's an idea that's inserted itself and can't be got rid of.  Usually, a Beer Summit results in a major, life-changing decision.  We've moved across the country, begun or left jobs, started businesses after one of these sudsy conflabs. 

This most recent Beer Summit took place as we leaned against the kitchen counter after he'd come home from work.  The kitchen, instead of the back yard, because it's too danged hot to be outside lately: 45 days of over 100 degree temps.  The cold Miller Light, because this was spontaneous and we had no Shiner in the house.  But there was at least cold beer.  Summit protocol and all that.

The topic of our Summit?  Change.  In and of itself, really, but mostly Clearing Out.  Lightening the load, getting rid of the deadwood, whatever cliche you want to give it.

But what was really funny was that we discovered about five minutes into our talk that we'd both been pestered, plagued and perplexed by a simultaneous need--desperation--to do this.  Independent of one another, we'd both been feeling a drive to purge our life, household, and closets of all that STUFF that has gathered up over the years.  The list of things/activities/plans we plan to ditch was downright amazing, for packrats of our combined ability.  Here's another cliche: I felt a weight roll off me as we discussed the details for this Clearing Out goal. 

If you were to clean out your closet--literally or figuratively--what would you get rid of?

Survey: Mailing Lists...love 'em or hate 'em?

I'm working to set up a selling blog for JDConwell Folkart Dolls...I may or may not set up another for Phil's leather...remains to be seen.  But I'm curious how people feel about mailing lists, what they like, don't like, whether they subscribe to any and if so, why.

I checked out Mail Chimp...seems pretty easy, but very ugly, and I have this fear that using them (for free) enables them to use info that passes through their site.  I will NOT be party to that, so I'm wondering how it would work if I simply requested folks contact me with their email address if they'd like to be informed of updates, new dolls or doll news...

Please feel free to weigh in.  I need some feedback from the people who count!
Hope your Wednesday is fabulous.

Tuesday's Treasury

In the nine months or so I've had an Etsy shop, I've only made one other treasury.  But I was really new then, and they didn't have the cool feature that told all those people who'd been included THAT they'd been included.  So you had a lot of extra work to do, letting everyone in on the secret.  Not so these days.  SOOO to that end, I made another one.  Partly because I have been enjoying the recent introduction to a lot of primitive folk artists, and partly because I'm fed up with summer and jonesing for Fall, big time.

The other day, I noticed the tiniest bit of autumn scenting the early morning air, and told the hubs "Fall is on its way!"  He looked at me with that way he has; "Um, dear, the thermostat says it's 80 degrees out at 5:30 in the morning.  What makes you think Fall is going to arrive soon?" 

And I could only fall back on the reply I used to give my kids when I could think of nothing better: "Because I said so!"  Enjoy the folkart, and if you find something you really like, share the love!  (I personally plan to buy some candles...soon.)

Because I said so!

Road Trip!

Well, sort of.  The first weekend of September is the show we're doing nearby in Bandera TX (sidebar has a link) and it'll be all about Phil's leather.  But we'll be staying in an RV park, and I really miss that.

When Phil first retired from the Air Force, we did a LOT of time in that little trailer.  It's not miniscule, but at 22 feet, it's not exactly a luxury suit, either.  We lived in it for 3 months!  It was during the transition from his retiring in Florida (Eglin AFB) and our move to the land we bought in Las Cruces NM.  We were waiting to set up our homestead there, and so...with all our household goods in storage, we lived at the RV site on White Sands NM--an Army Post and missile test site.  Very tiny post, out in the middle of nowhere, right at the foot of the Organ mountains.  Beautiful hiking, but the winds got pretty scary there. 

Here's a few pics, just for nostalgia's sake.

The land we bought...not exactly ocean-front.

Phil and a Soap Tree Yucca--state tree of NM.

Me at the kitchen table.  To my left is the bathroom door, and the kitchen counter, and the stove.  Verrry tiny.

Phil at the other side of the kitchen table, with the bedroom behind him.

The guys are napping.  Yes, he actually sleeps like this with his legs crossed.

The RV and Phil's truck, and the view of the mountains.

This is where we went hiking sometimes....

Three months in a tiny trailer was a test of our marriage I'm proud to say we passed.  It was a fun time, with some stress and some really great memories.  But since we moved back here, we haven't done much traveling, and I really miss it.  So a weekend in Bandera may not be "traveling" per se, but it is up in the TX hill country instead of our sandy Post Oak savannah, and I will enjoy the change of scenery all the same. 

Works in Progress

I keep forgetting to call them DIPs...dolls in progress.  Oh well.  I haven't thought of names for any of them yet...they already have personalities, and that will defintitely play out in what fabric I choose for their clothing.  In fact, one of the Greiner sisters practically dared me to use the cloth I was considering for her.  (She's definitely an Isabella.  :~) 

(Double click to zoom.)

Heads and torsos, need sculpted hair and lots more paint.

This is what my coffee table looked like for a day or two.

Yesterday's push to get body parts finished enough for assembling the dolls...they are all quite indignant about this particular photo.

These two little ones below come from the worm living in my brain who resolutely refuses to follow a pattern.  I have no idea how to sew clothes for them, so I hope that worm gets busy.  The larger one I think will be "Eva", but the other seems to defy me on the naming thing right now.

The girls...Eva and...?

Lady, you need to dust your house.

Suggestions for a name are welcome!

Leatherwork designs...

Phil's been working on a new idea--tooled leather panels in frames.  He can offer them for less because there's no hand sewing involved like there is with the bags and notebook covers... 

Framed Leather Art--Celtic Cross

But the messenger bag he'd made, tooled with (my favorite) Triple Horse knotwork pattern, sold on Artfire this last week and is on its way to West Virginia now.  He'll make another one, and has several purses in the works for the upcoming "Celebrate Bandera" event in early September.  I nagged him into it--he does have a full time job already, poor guy--because I know how well his purses sell.  They are tough, good looking, and sit up by themselves when you put them down by your feet.  :~)

Double click the photo to see the tooling details.  My guy is awesome.  Of course, I may be biased.

Messenger Bag

Purse

Triple Horse Celtic Knotwork

Focus, revisited.

The other day I posted about Focus, or my perennial lack of same.

But it got me thinking about the topic, as I have been finishing up seven dolls' worth of bodies, arms, and legs.  My coffee table is covered in body parts, and the husband cracks up every time he sees them.  I am currently VERY focused, because I have a doll show coming up in two weeks and I'm determined to get these particular dolls finished.

Why these particular ones?  Because they do represent having found a particular focus--maybe "direction" is a better word--in my dolls.  For the last six months, I've been drawn more and more to the cloth and clay doll, in its many incarnations.  Antique dolls such as Izannah Walkers, the Greiner maches, Kathe Kruse babies, and the old ragdolls such as Alabama babies and Presbyterians...they inspire me like none of the modern art dolls have been able to do.

Antique Izannah Walker Dolls, having a Reunion Christmas Party.

Don't misunderstand--what modern doll artists make is incredible and I can spend hours pouring over their miracles of workmanship.  But the tactile, sensory, creative part of me is drawn to these old cloth-bodied dolls in a way I didn't expect.  Hell--I myself started with gourds.  A great intro into paper clay for me, but not so cuddly.  :~)

So I asked myself how I found this direction.  Did I seek it out?  I don't think I sat one day and said "I shall make Antique Inspired Cloth and Clay Dolls!"  No...but my love of certain things has apparently been a big part of this development, this "something settled in my heart" feeling.

How can you make this work for you?

Take a look at what's in your room, right now, where you sit.  The colors, the patterns, the "look" you live with in your home.  Aside from just the decor choices (because mine are all over the place), you tend to bring things home that give you pleasure.  Go look in your art space/craft room/studio...what do you have there?  I specifically mean those things you buy/bring home that you have NO IDEA what you plan to do with...things you just had to have with no good reason why.

I have fabric.  Obscene amounts of it.  Yes, there are lots of other doo-dads, among them a seriously silly number of boxes in one form or another, but mostly...fabric.  How can I NOT make cloth dolls?  I need to touch this stuff, to make yards of skirt for something to luxuriate in.  (I'd make this kind of skirt for myself but a trip to the dentist in floor length prairie skirts might raise a brow or two, and it's not practical garb for bathing the dog.  Besides, it's 103 here right now.)

I have noticed that over the years of collecting this fabric, I have leaned toward certain patterns and colors: vintage cabbage roses, ticking stripes, toile, homespun plaids.  So many of these are perfect for the type of doll I have fallen in love with.  Combine these with my absolute physical need to sculpt in paperclay, and: viola!  Here is my direction, my focus.

My point is this: your love of certain textures, patterns, shapes and colors will give you clues as to what you will be good at making.  Your passion is what makes it beautiful, what makes you do it well, because you're too busy enjoying the making of it to worry if it's 'art' or not.

Cheers.  :~)