Still here, still alive...

Not lots of time to blog lately, given all the up-in-the-air goings on at Chez Conwell.  But I wanted to pop in, post a couple of pictures, and then get back to my not-so-regularly scheduled program.

We had a blast at the family's house in Arizona.  It was just as good as I knew it would be--relaxing, rejuvenating, and sooooo good to catch up with Gabe and Mary Jo.  I have the very best in laws in the world.  I got to help Gabe prune the Palo Verde and Palo Blanco (blanca?), as has become our annual tradition, I think.  Phil and his parents and brother played poker while the sis-in-law and I yabbered (and I sewed unders for Izzies).  We were having such a good time, we stayed an extra day!

When they're not playing golf, they can watch it out the patio doors!

Mary Jo is kicking butt.

Sis-in-law gets, um, quite a few more phone calls than I do.  Maybe I should wonder about that.  Nah.

We arrived home in time for Phil to get to a couple more days' of realty school, and at some point later that week we headed up to see Edyth and Jo Anne for a doll party.  I got to meet Hannah, Edyth's original Izannah Walker doll, and to see her beautiful collection again.

It's a doll party! 

Then home again, home again, but not for long.  We hope.  By that I mean we love home, but it's time to move back into town, so we're changing homes.  So we have to fix it up HGTV style, packing up LOTS OF STUFF, because as creative people, we have tons of clutter.  We'll move stuff to storage to show the rooms at their roomiest.  Then we fix, patch, paint, and stage.  The doll room will get packed up--a fact which has caused me an unexpected degree of anxiety--leaving out the sewing machine and some (only some) fabric, because I have a doll show in February.  And naked tables are just sad.

Four years in the same house is a record for us.  Red walls...great color, but not exactly neutral.

This is Eve, who will be my first Izannah Walker type doll for 2013.
She already has a home...but not so far away I can't visit.

Hope everybody is having a lovely holiday season, spending more time with loved ones and less money on "stuff"...hope you are able to slow down, breathe and reflect.

And if you don't hear from me in a few weeks, send a search party to our mini storage, just in case I accidentally got packed in a moving box.  Thank you.

Two Izannah Walker dolls, almost finished.

I can't go anywhere that I don't take some handwork to sew on while I'm there.  Even take it to doctor's appts and such, because I might as well get something done while I wait, right?

Well, our lovely holiday w/ Gabe and Mary Jo is always a good time to work on Izzy dresses.  I love visiting their place because it's so peaceful.  No big agenda to accomplish, no pressure to do anything except just be.  I love that.  Mary Jo and I have been known to sit for hours in companionable silence, each engrossed in a book.  The handwork is for when we visit, with sleeping dogs at our feet (or in our laps) catching up on family and friends' news.  It's been too long, and I so look forward to our trip.

To that end, however, I needed to get these Izzies to the stage where I can make their clothes!  We'll be a little shorter on hauling space, so it's not like I can bring the Giant Box of Stuffing.  Small, portable projects are the order of the day.

These girls (I think of them as Big Sister and Little Sister) are 20" and 19.5" tall--or will be.  I wanted to create a larger Izzy than the little 16" babies I've made up til now.  I realized how well I'd achieved my goal when I picked up Joseph and felt how tiny he was!  These girls have some serious heft to them, but as I've learned from personal experience, you can never really tell from pictures how large or small a doll is.  You have to hold them.  Which is okay, since that's what they're meant for, right?

I have to stuff and paint their hands/arms, then sew those and the legs on the bodies.  A wash of Burnt Sienna will age them a little, and the painting will be done.  The Izzy Suits can wait til I get there, so between those, their unders and their dresses, I'll have more than enough handwork to occupy my digits while I enjoy the visit.

Look out Conwells!  Here we come!

Happy Thanksgiving in advance, and may you all find plenty to be thankful for!

Open House Art Sale

Years ago I met a lovely and rather willful lady at the San Antonio Herb Society.  Her name is Eileen and we're friends to this day, which is funny since we're both much alike and should butt heads but don't.  So Eileen got an idea from another herb society friend to have an Open House Art Sale in her home.  She invited some artful fellows, dug out her recipe book, and together we had a great day.

She's an artful soul, this Eileen is...sewing, beading, knitting, and creating all sorts of herbal hearth crafts--making soaps and tinctures and such.  Have I mentioned she can cook?  Oh goodness can this lady cook.  So creative and adventurous with recipes that I'm sure I won't like--until I try them.  Hatch Chiles in Peanut Brittle?  Really?  Yes.  Delicious.

Eileen and gorgeous beaded jewelry. 

Cloth bowls.  So many colors!  I got a little one w/ cabbage roses. 

There is never an event at this house without refreshments...serious gourmet treats.

There was a table of beautiful hand made greeting and gift cards--the scope of variety was incredible and I wanted them ALL.

Anisa (sorry if I'm spelling your name wrong) the Card Lady

Pick a card, any card!

The glass guys (and lady) brought hand-blown glass ornaments, jewelry, candle holders and sculptures. 

Jewelry for your Christmas Tree!

Those crazy kids.  :~)

 

And of course there were dolls.










We had a fine day of jolly chaos, people in and out, visiting, and shopping for holiday gifts.
What better way to spend a Saturday? 

27 Dresses

Okay, I can't quit with the movie titles.  Here are actually only ten dresses--for the wedding dolls.  I've gotten them all finished, and two more for the Etsy shop while I was cutting out dolls.  Working on them while I worked on the others helped alleviate the repetitive monotony.  Painting faces and creating hair is fun--they're all different.  But nine of the same dress can drag a bit.

Anyway, here are the wee dollies in white.

Dresses are made of white linen, w/ cotton eyelet trim, w/ purple satin sashes and a little crocheted flower w/ a button sewn on for decoration.  Their hair is all different colors and textures of yarn, bodies made of cotton muslin and painted.

This was fun-16th century style dress in 20th century colors and prints.

I can't tell if this is a clown suit or a PJ's Onesie, but she seems to like it well enough.

A Chorus Line

Well not really, but the picture was fun.

I've been hard at work on a doll commission.  Finished the dolls themselves, now to make their dresses.  They're wedding dolls, you see.  To be carried by the nine little girls attendant in a wedding this coming December.  They're also to serve as Church Dolls, given that the wedding is a Catholic one and the mass is lengthy and little girls might be angelic, but they're not likely angels.  :~)

I've made an extra one for the bride...her dress will be different, of course. 

In the commission deal with the groom's mom, I asked for: eye color, hair color, and a one word description of each little girl's personality.  So it was a lot of fun to paint expressions to try and reflect "shy, bold, outgoing, sweet, smart" etc.  The dresses will all be the same, but I'm hoping I hit the mark on the little girls' basic likenesses.  One more round of pictures once they're dressed.

Cheers!

What a difference a day makes.

I met some people yesterday...and today I am different because of it.  Technically, I already "knew" one of them, but up til yesterday, I'd never met Edyth in person, nor had we a chance to really visit in any substantial way.  I've enjoyed her blog, her generosity with lessons and tutorials and patterns...but knowing someone online can be pretty limiting. 

We'd been planning a visit for a while, but the stars didn't align until yesterday.  I drove up to where Edyth O'Neill lives, about an hour and a half north of me in the rugged Texas hill country.  Enjoying the autumn beauty, I would have readily conceded the drive was the highlight of a really crazy last few weeks.  But I would have been wrong.  The high light was to be my visit with Edyth and Jack.  

My first impression of their home was one of warmth, grace, and the patience of time.  Yeah, okay that might be something you'd assume when entering the home of serious antique collectors, but simply having old stuff around you doesn't necessarily cut it.  I've been in the homes of antique collectors before, and have felt afraid to come all the way into the room for fear of upsetting something.  Not at the O'Neill's.  They live in their home, well and truly.

Warm, vibrant, genuine, richly colorful but calming...balanced spaces, shapes, patterns and textures. A perfect blend of beautiful form and practical function.  That's what you get right away.  Not so surprising that the two people who created that space are warm, vibrant, genuine, and calming.  I felt welcome, and just so bloomin' happy to be there.  Generous with their time and their shared passion for history and folk art, Jack and Edyth became part of my tapestry yesterday.

Never take a day for granted...because you never know when one will change your life.

Cat-Dog Show

Our newest addition has made herself right at home.  Yesterday was her 4th visit to the vet in as many weeks, and I've gotta say I'm glad that part is done.  So now she's had all her shots, blood work, spay surgery, and lastly, the booster shots and stitches out.  She's gained almost a pound, but the vet said she's pretty much as big as she'll get.  At five lbs, she's a featherweight compared to Schultz's 22.

She and Schultz run through the house in manic games of chase (she started it!), and we've gotten accustomed to having our feet attacked any time we venture near the edge of the bed.  Schultz wants to play with her the way he does his outdoor foster-cat Waylon.  By chomping at ears and front feet.  Waylon takes this with a grain of salt, but Willie is still a little anxious about it.  She'll learn he won't actually bite...and even now she doesn't run away.

They both love Phil and will share his lap when he's on the computer.  And mine when I read.  They're like brother and sister when it comes to sharing--they'll do it, but they don't have to like it.

Life is really crazy right now, and due to some humongous changes over the next year, it doesn't look to get any saner in the near future.  Boredom has never been a problem at the Conwell house.  I'll post next week after the Austin Doll Show (Oct. 6) with how it all went.  Fingers crossed!

So they're off...like a herd of stampeding turtles.

I always crack up at that image, but with two six year olds and two cats and two cars packed to groaning with gear and clothes for several weeks, my daughter's family is on her way pretty much like that herd of turtles.

Their move to Travis AFB will take days and days, partly because it's a long way, and partly because they'll stop and visit with family in Arizona and then Southern California.  So Friday--Renee's graduation from her tech school--was a bittersweet day for me.  And of course I forgot to wear the waterproof mascara.

We went to her graduation, then to the River Walk here in San Antonio.  Got all their gear from the hotel and the cats.  Then we had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe, and took family pictures at the Alamo.

I will miss having her so close, will miss those boys with their bright smiles and their energy.

The training was tri-service, for Army, Navy, and Air Force.  Look at the row of graduates on the right of the picture:   They sit at attention for the whole ceremony.

I love this picture! 

A nice young man at the Alamo took an Everybody In shot for us.

The boys and Granny Jan.

The boys and Pa.

Back to just Granny and Pa around here now.

Something new's been added.

Gotta get the watering done early this morning, because I have to leave for a vet appointment.  But not with the Schultz, no sirry-bob.  We have a kitten.  I know.  I resisted for years...ever since I lost my Sidney back in '05.  And it's not for lack of offers--plenty of "oh, but he needs a good hooooome!" in the intervening years.  I never really felt it enough to give up the cat-hair-less, poop-scooperless freedom of life without indoor cats.

So Monday the grand-boys and I were out in the veggie garden (they think it's cool when it's empty like that) and here comes this little squeaking, ugly tortoise shell with a freakishly long tail, headed straight for us.  I thought it was the neighbor's cat, and tired of their cats pooping in the flower beds, I pegged a pebble at her to make her go home.  But she just wouldn't spook!  Schultz finally chased her up a tree--any cat besides his foster cat is fair game.  About that time, said neighbor came out.  "No," he said, "It's not ours.  We don't have any cats w/ tails."  They only have manxes.  Who poop in flower beds.  You see why it was easy to resist up til now?

This picture makes her look big, but she's a skinny wee thing...

I figure, fine.  This tiny orphan is likely to get eaten by the pit bull mixes across the street, and starve to death if she manages to escape them, so I'll put her in a crate and take her in to the animal shelter.  We live out in the county, no dog or cat catchers out here.  So I stood at the base of the tree, looked up into her big gold eyes and called to her.  She climbed down the trunk...and into my heart.

Ridiculous, demanding little thing.  Now I have cat hair.  Now I scoop poop.  But at that minute, I knew this cat was supposed to be here, and now it's too late to do anything but love her.  Her name is Willie.  (We already have a Waylon.)  She and Schultz are in the process of agreeing to live together, and it's going surprisingly well.  I'll get a picture one of these days when they finally end up sleeping in a pile on his dog-bed.  It's inevitable.

The Fall Garden...and a garden tour.

I subscribe to Texas Gardener, which helps because the weather and such here makes gardening quite a bit different than it is way north, east, or west of us.  For example...forget it in June, July, and August, at least as far south as we are.  But we can grow our cold weather stuff all winter, so there's a trade off.


I've cleaned up the veggie garden, hauled all the dead stuff and weeds to the compost pile out back.  The hub has promised me a load of compost and a load of cedar mulch for my birthday, so if I get the ground turned this week and some seeds in the ground, it will all be ready for a top dressing of compost and some nice mulch to keep the moister in and discourage weeds.

This week I'll start some pole beans, basil (you can freeze it in zip-top bags for later), a couple of gourds (experimenting w/ growing later in the year) and a couple of winter squashes.  Tomatoes for fall and more peppers are going in this week...and of course there are flower seeds to start--the marigolds, sunflowers, etc. that make such gorgeous fall color here once we really do get cooler temps.  But most of the veggies need to wait a little while longer to plant.  I have a nice tidy chart (that's about the only thing tidy in my garden) spelling out what I want to plant, when, and where.

Today I took pictures of landscaping progress, and then it surprised me to go back to when these beds were freshly dug and rather bare.  So this is a picture heavy post, just so you know.  :~)

This is the house as it was when we bought it back in January of 2009.  Tons of white gravel--6 feet out all along the front of the house.  The gravel in the foreground was what we called "the baseball diamond".  It is finally gone now too.

Sept. 5th, 2012.  I know, winter/summer comparison is not fair, but it does show how much we've changed it...

Same thing, back of the house, Jan. 2009.  They had landscape fabric UNDER the dirt.  Nothing grew there at all.

Today, Sept. 5th, 2012.  We cut in a sliding door that first winter, and built the deck, the beds, etc.

Took a year to clear out all the white gravel and dig in some new beds...but we did it.

Did I mention that those people really loved their white gravel?  Ugh.  On the bright side, who need a gym workout when you have white gravel, a shovel, and a wheelbarrow?  This is Spring 2009, in the clearing out process.

Spring of 2010...new beds along the front...

To the left of the front porch...still working on the gravel clearing detail.

These are those same beds today, along with a much bigger apple tree.  Schultz is wondering why we're out in the heat this morning...watering the beds is already done for the day, mom!

In the back, a sky vine on the garden gate, some asparagus and the Peggy Martin roses are the only things still green in the veggie garden at the moment...but that will change soon enough.

Ready to till it up and put in some seeds!

This is Charlotte, a golden orb spider and good garden friend.  She's been my real-life tutorial for my grandsons this summer, on how a spider lives, feeds, lays her eggs, and finally dies.  She is not popular with the Fed-Ex guy or the son-in-law, because this is the front porch.  :~)

Charlotte's two egg sacks...I can't wait to meet the little ones.

For the first time, we have apples!!!

Silly view from under the messy carport behind the house...a.k.a. my "potting shed".  It's where I end up after every day's gardening chores, to put away tools and materials.  Then I head out to those chairs under the live oak to drink a glass of tea with Schultz & Waylon while we enjoy the view. 

 That's the end of the garden tour for now.  Now, back to the land of dolls.