Winter in the High Desert

We did get a bit of snow.  Did I get a photo?  I did not.  But I will carry the memory of it forever, because it was Gypsy's first snow.  She's around four years old, but she grew up down in the frying pan of southern California, and spent another six months south of Phoenix, so--first snow!

She was astounded.  And delighted.  Couldn't explore it fast enough.  First, she ran around trying to figure out why the smells were so muted, and what IS this cold white stuff?  She poked at edging rocks around what had been flower beds--are those still rocks?  Yes.  She bounded THROUGH what had been flower beds, a thing she quit doing months ago because it made the humans yell.  Okay, they still yell when I run there. 

She tried to eat the snow, she pawed bare spots to check if the dirt was still under it, and it took FOREVER to get her to go pee so we could go back inside.  We walked in it, and she apparently has some sled dog in her, because our formerly well-mannered walker was suddenly pulling like a draft horse.  Finally I got her twenty foot lead and just flew her like a kite--she'd run wide arcs in front of us, back and forth. 

So our mountain snow dog got her first snow, and we know our move to the White Mountains this coming spring will make her verrrrry happy.  And since we'll have a good fenced yard there, we'll be happy too.  Ha!

Since the snow all melted (it doesn't last long at 5,000 ft elevation), we've had a mix of sun, rain, and--just recently--lovely fog.  We don't get fog up here often, so I enjoy it when I can. A view at 7:30 in the morning from our back porch--normally the sun's well up by this time, but we can't even see across the golf course!

In case I get my head stuck in the clouds or a project, I hope your holiday season--all of it, in all its aspects--is full of love, peace, and sparkle.

My Cup Runneth Over

The studio, after a week of tidying.

Last week I managed what some would consider an Heroic Effort and (mostly) cleaned my studio.  I do not consider the effort heroic, because if I'd just clean it up each day, it wouldn't take a week! 

That wide expanse of work table, clear and ready to create, is captivating, motivating, and thrilling.  You'd think I would want to keep it that way, so I can create any time I want.  Why don't I?  That's probably a question best left to the professionals.

Perhaps it's this: each time I do The Overhaul, maybe once a quarter (optimistically), I rediscover all the different crafts, materials, and creative potential in that room.  I can make so many things there! My mind spins circles with ideas. I actually dream about them at night.  And all the projects shout; "Pick ME!"  In this one 11 x 12 ft room, I have materials for;

Quilting: (I did cull a good many books, planning some basic quilts and throws for our new house.)

General sewing: (garments, house goods, pet gear, doll clothes, you name it)

Rug Hooking: (books, TWO strip cutters, hooks, background fabric and shoes boxes of worms)

Wool applique: (bins of wool, freezer paper, and four giant shoe boxes of pearl cotton)

Doll making: (of course) with bins of fabric, little hats, glasses, baskets, even limb joints I've never learned how to use.  This includes material for cloth dolls with clay heads, mohair bears and critters, rag dolls with a giant bin of cotton stuffing, and another bin of poly stuffing.  Wooden bits for jointed dolls (dowel rods and toy blocks and sticks--oh my!)  Wigs, eyes, shoes.  I even still have the cedar wood shavings my friend Sheri Farley sent me a decade ago because I loved my Sheri-made Tansy Butternut doll so much.  Husband wouldn't quit smelling it--he's a fan of cedar.

Jewelry making: (and I don't even wear jewelry--but the dolls do, and daughters/friends)

Crochet: (knitting--someday) has recently added a great deal to the chaos with bins of yarn, and more than one loom for hats, socks, cords, and some long skinny loom, but I'm not sure what it's for.

Punch Needle: (with a small box of several sizes of needles and lots of embroidery hoops).

Hand Embroidery: (along with the pearl cotton, there is a rainbow of DMC).

Felting: A whole drawer with mohair for dolls and felting.  What, exactly, am I going to felt?

Pin-cushion and Make Do supplies:  I have this vision of tiny embroidered wool pin cushions, each in its own miniature tart pan.  Yes, I have a basket of tiny tart pans.  Also washed tuna and pea cans to make little sewing caddies for my Sewing Ladies who meet once a month. What about needle cases and scissors pockets? 
 
Stencils: I usually free-hand most of my furniture painting, but I have a small collection of stencils that I am planning to use for the new house.  Nothing big or busy, but yeah--stencils.

Wood Burning:  Why?  The last time I did any wood burning was eleven years ago when I did Celtic Knot Work patterns on our new cedar mail box post.  (Drawn there, thank you, using stencils.)  The post was beautiful, but why do I still have this???

Gourd Art:  Try as I might, and I have tried, I can't get rid of the gourds.  I put them in the Going to Sell Bin.  I even put them in the Donate to Thrift bin.  And each time I stole them out and put them back.  Because the potential of them calls to me. 

Painting, Painting, Painting: I could paint anything with the paint I have.  From miniatures to houses.  Furniture, walls, floors--even art canvases.  Water color, Gouache, Oil, Acrylic, Chalk.  Do you need something painted?  Come to my house, and we'll get started.  Want a particular finish or some antiquing?  Ooh--how about glitter?

Sculpting:  Of course.  Creative paper clay has long been my favorite, so I have culled supplies down to that for sculpting.  Except for a roll of cotton so (when I get to it) I can try spun cotton sculpting.  Because, you know--sculpting!  Only one set of sculpting tools, but I have armatures--foil, styrofoam balls, paper mache cones, you name it.  Sanding materials, of course.

Clay Molds and Cookie Cutters:  Don't forget those.  Because you never know when you'll need to make an ornament. Or ten.

Stamping and card making:  I gave away half the stamps and all the scrap booking stuff at least. But stamps are just so...clever and versatile! 

I saw a bumper sticker that read; She Who Dies With The Most Fabric--Wins!  But, when I do a quarterly clean and discover purse patterns I may never use, I have to doubt this is healthy.  Seriously! I culled a good deal of material out of this room just this year!  Minimalism reigns in the rest of the house now.  But in the studio...is there such thing as Maximalism? 

My bumper sticker would read; "Hello.  My name is Jan, and I'm a craft supplies junky."

But I have a new pile after last week's overhaul.  If you know anyone who wants to buy a wood burning tool, send 'em my way--otherwise it's going to charity.  Really!

Crochet!!!

Once in a while, my brain does a complete turn about and I have to go explore something new and interesting, or at least different from what I've been working on.  In this case, I fell down the Yarn Rabbit Hole.  I have been storing up patterns for future kid-grandkid-friend presents, and have made a few things.  It's nice to find a good stitch that doesn't take too much concentration, and then sit with the spousal unit watching our shows in the evening. 

But the challenge has taken hold and...I want to learn more.  I want to learn something that I have to pay attention to, something TV won't work with.  I'm not anti-TV, I just want to make the brain cells grunt a little.  Ha!

 

So I made a poncho for the mother in law, and she liked it (I modeled it in the bathroom mirror--the time-honored selfie pose).  See, the thing is this: I've crocheted since I was a kid.  Maybe ten?  My mom was left-handed, and I'm right-handed, so that was my first challenge.  I never learned how to read or follow a pattern (I stink at recipes too), so anything I made was...um, unique. 

My first real crochet was Amigurumi--before we knew to call it that.  I was seventeen, preggers with my first kid, and had no toys for him.  (Eloping with a biker at sixteen turned out to be a bad idea.)  So I made up my own clowns and alligators, blankets and little dangely things for a red-neck mobile.  Of course, everything was eye-balled instead of counted, so limbs on animals were a little wonky, and one eyeball might be bigger than the other.  The kiddo didn't seem to mind, so that worked out. 

Then after a few more attempts and frustration--due to me not knowing more than maybe four basic stitches, or how make even edges--I put it aside for a while.  "A while" meaning a decade.  Or three. 

But I got some library books recently, and you know what?  It's amazing what you can learn from them!  So here I am, wondering if I can actually do Tunisian stitch, or even (dare I say it?) knit??? 

So while the dolls are shouting from the studio, and our time til House Listing is closing in on us, I sit here crocheting a lovely shrug in shades of blue and green, and ignoring all the "supposed to" stuff in that studio.  And trying not to buy more yarn. 

I hope your Wednesday is a fine one.  And that you get a chance to challenge your brain cells!

To keep it or not?

I'm not believing it's been since early August since last I posted here.  Well...yes I am. 

Maybe blogs are dead.  Maybe just Blogger Blogs, or the ones that don't have a million stupid pop-up ads are dead.  Maybe just craft blogs? 

Yesterday, I was looking for crochet patterns.  There were a million free patterns out there, with links you can find on Pinterest or Ravelry, etc.  But every link to every blog is so full of spam and pop-ups and cookies infecting my computer, I just quit the search.  (And maybe I'll just buy a crochet book, because it's just not worth all the spam.)  Is there a way to do a search for ad-free blogs?

Yes, my own blog has been sadly neglected.  I used to think of it as a sort of web-page hub for my folk art business.  It can still function that way, and maybe should, but it seems nobody goes to blogs anymore.  Do they?  Everyone wants to use Facebook--which is great, but have you noticed the increasing ads on Facebook?  All the "sponsored" posts that show up in the feed whether you want them or not?  Between that and the blog ads, it makes me want to avoid the computer altogether.  Pinterest is just as bad--all the silly "video" style pins that make me dizzy. 

And, the whine fest is done.   

Here's the thing...I've been trying to figure out whether to keep this blog.  I will never be one of those who allows ads on my blog, because that's just a low-class way to operate.  But unless I post regularly, there's nothing new to read here, either, right?   When I was an Air Force instructor, I used to tell my studii that not using the right tools the right way is like sweeping the floor with your hands with the broom propped in the corner.  I should take my own advice.  I've had this blog for over ten years, and it's still a viable option.  One that will remain an ad-free place for people who visit.

So here's me, coming up with a plan to write.  Daily is a bit ambitious, given that I haven't posted in almost three months.  But I can do weekly.  Even if I'm not currently making dolls, I'm always making something.  Lately, it's been floor plan design, dog training, painting, and sorting fabric for future curtains--not sure if any of that is blog-worthy, but what the hell--it's my blog, right?  The main thing is photos.  I will need to get more dedicated to before and afters, or works in progress pictures. 

For my own edification, and as a substitute for Facebook as a social outlet, I plan to find other blogs to follow--but ONLY the ones that don't allow ads on their sites.  (And maybe there's a kernel of weekly blog post ideas here--a feature of ad-free blogs!)


One ad-free blog I recommend highly is Josh Becker's "Becoming Minimalist".   I discovered it this summer, at a time when decluttering, streamlining, and simplifying my life was so necessary.  Following Mr. Becker's concept of minimalism helped me create a more calm, centered, peaceful home. (And I can clean my entire house--"nosy-company" ready--in less than three hours.)

Y'all have a lovely Wednesday, and I'll see you next week.
 

As a P.S.: Gypsy graduated from her Intermediate Level training class this last Sunday.  Our dog may be a little psycho, but she's a genius psycho.  Now, on to Advanced Level!
 

Head East

Used to be a band I listened to in high school. Ha! Now it's what we'll say tomorrow morning, after Phil gets his "morning stuff done" at work. Bags and ice chests packed, cabin rented, appointments with builders lined up. For real this time.

Last fall we went out and met w/ builders, but it was a failed mission. The reason: we didn't really know what we were asking for. There was quite a bit on our wish list that caused the resulting estimate to shock us--badly! But with some research, and revisiting certain particulars, I think we will get a much more do-able estimate. I mean--WE plan to do ALL the trim, cabinets, paint, fixtures, flooring, and build the decks ourselves.

At any rate, I'm ready to go play in the woods and see what that little acre looks like in July. They say it rains in the afternoons in the summer, just little rains. I can't wait.
Hope your summer is going well!





P.S. Sis & Brother in Law will be cat & house sitting so they can come up out of the frying pan (also known as Phoenix) and enjoy the cooler weather up here for a change.
I guess it's all a matter of perspective, isn't it? To me, getting to the trees is the vacation, to them, getting out of 117 degrees is the treat!

De-Cluttering Fever Strikes!

This usually happens to me in the autumn...so I'm not sure what is up.  I have this overwhelming urge to clear out, overhaul, cull collections, sell things to get rid of them.  It seems to get worse the older I get.  Don't get the idea that my house is anywhere near a Minimalist Retreat!  But it's a lot less cluttered than it was say, ten years ago.  Which means I had a lot of c-r-a-p back then. 

Our book shelves are lighter today by a small box of books--and we only keep reference, not fiction.  My closet is lighter by two large trash bags of clothes.  The studio is lighter by a very large box of...stuff I was going to make into other stuff. 

I have to be careful when this mood hits.  So far (knock wood) I haven't regretted any purging I've done in the past.  Okay, maybe a time or two I went looking for something and then remembered I'd given it to charity...but no bad regrets and never a need to replace anything. 

As the years go by, and this de-cluttering hits more often, and with a stronger intensity, I have discovered a corresponding restraint when shopping.  Will I really wear this?  Will I really make xyz out of it?  Will I get aggravated at having to pick this up to vacuum or dust around it?  Nowadays when thrifting, I'll put something in my cart and keep looking, but before I go to the register, I reassess what's in the cart, and usually put half of it back.  Sometimes most of it! 

I just checked out a bunch of library books on Minimalism.  I'll never be a minimalist.  I like my house cozy, and it will always be full of books, textiles, interesting boxes, and crafty stuff.  There will always be funny things on tables and window sills, and always house plants galore.  But every year I "need" less stuff sitting around, and find experiences more interesting than things. 

Lest anyone think I'm finally growing up--we'll just chalk it up to getting lazier about cleaning.  :~)  Are you a collector?  Do you go through your collections and change things out?  Do you hang on to things because they "might" someday be useful?  What about sentimental things?

I'd love to hear about it. 
Cheers!

Indiana Bound

This wee girlie is on her way to Indiana tomorrow. 

I don't often get to work with pink on a custom, so this one was a feminine treasure to dress.  The doll-mom wanted both a cloth and a straw bonnet, so that the straw one could later go with other dresses.  Reminded me how much fun they are to make!

Pupdate on Gypsy

We're not believing the change in our sweet girl after only 26 days.  (I'd say 27, but it was only about this time on the 1st that I got home with her.)

She looks a little worried in the early days. 

The first few days, she was so afraid of everything.  I guess six months on death row will do that to a girl.  If anyone approached, she hid behind me, trembling.  The slightest noise would make her startle and cower.  She pulled on the leash like monsters were after us.  Couldn't let me get up from the couch for a glass of water without coming with me.  There was more, but this pretty well sums it up. 

After some dedicated training--just basics like Sit, Down, Stay, Wait, etc.--she began to calm.  We took her everywhere with us, to all the dog-friendly places we could find.  Home Depot, Ace Hardware, Tractor Supply, as well as all the pet stores and all the parks we have nearby.  I took home-made beef jerky with us, and enlisted kind strangers to help Gypsy understand that people really are nice (and somehow magically have the same yummy stuff as Mom makes!) 

We started reading furiously about Positive Training.  Zak George, Victoria Stillwell, and others.  I learned, to my horror, that it's a miracle my poor Schultz survived such harsh training as I'd done with him--back in those days, the dominance theories were all I'd seen or heard of.  Poor guy.  It makes me cry to think of how much fun we could have had learning positively to live together.  Well, regret won't help unless I turn it around in this moment--and it's AMAZING how eager a dog is to learn when you treat her with respect!

Gypsy is enrolled (with her humans) in training at PetSmart--the whole shebang, for 18 weeks.  She'll earn her Canine Good Citizen Training when we finish.  We've only gone to two classes, but the trainer was amazed at how she'd come out of her shell just between the first and second classes.  Being unafraid with other dogs, not jumping and shivering at every noise or passing stranger...such a change.

So much reversal of all that fear--she is still a little spooked when the furnace comes on, but if the radio is on, she'll settle.  She and Tater are buds now--Willie is still hissy and afraid, but is down off the high places all the time. 

Walking on a leash is a joy because little by little, Gypsy is learning to stay close and not to pull.  The mysterious Jekyll-n-Hyde behavior of early weeks (sudden on-leash fits of leaping, lunging and play-biting) have almost extinguished entirely.  We gave up trying to find the trigger for this--we can only figure she was ignored and alone in a back yard and never taught to play without being screamed at.  So now, when she starts to jump, we silently stop, turn away from her, and ignore her completely.  No treats, no eye contact, and no scolding.  She's ready to walk normally after a minute or two of this.  It seems like a miracle, because that biting thing was scary!

Worn out from Saturday's class, long walk, and tug-of-war.  The tongue out says it all.

The last thing to add: we got her DNA test back!  So it's official: she's half Great Pyrenees, a quarter Red Heeler, and a quarter mix of terrier, herding, and guard dogs.  I believe we got the best of the mix--she never barks, she has a manageable coat, the perfect size, and an energy level and willingness to learn that guarantees we will live in harmony for many years to come.  We love her. 

Oh, if I had a hammer...

Listening to the hubs working on our front gate.  We had taken it off when Schultz passed, as it's much easier to get a wheel barrow through, and just the general bother.  But a little over a week ago, we decided to bring another dog into our lives.

Gypsy, the red heeler and who knows what mix. 
We got a DNA test and the results should arrive in a couple weeks.

To that end, I drove down to a shelter in Phoenix, intending to meet a 5 month old puppy there.  It just wasn't to be, for several reasons, and I probably should have just come on back up.  But I made the "mistake" of looking around, and I met Gypsy.  The shelter does as well as they can, given the lack of funding so many of these places work through, but they just about told me whatever I wanted to hear to get a dog out the door.  Gypsy was "good with cats, dogs, and kids" and "lived in a house her whole two years". Well, to start with, her paper work says she's three years, not two.  And she's a red heeler mix, not an aussie mix. 

Well, I did test her with a cat--unfortunately it was a mascot shelter cat who was afraid of nothing, and when Gypsy went nose to nose with him, of course he didn't run.  So she didn't chase.  Until I got her home to our two cats--who definitely run.  Enter prey drive. 

But she's smart as she can be, and in less than two weeks, she's learned (mostly) that chasing the cats is verboten, and that she need not be afraid of men.  She is potty trained--not a single accident since she came to live with us.  She sleeps peacefully in her crate by the bed each night.

So Phil and I no longer wonder what idiocy it was, me bringing her home, and we are all learning that we have a lot of fun hiking and training to do in our future.  We have lots of work to do on manners and socializing--she's still skittish at Home Depot, etc., and we've yet to test the dog park.  But our lives are full of dogness again, and we needed that so much. 

We don't even mind the dog hair.

Her Other favorite human.

Most of the time, she really is as innocent as she looks.

And when she's really tired in the evenings, the cats get all brave and join the fun.

A quarter of a century!

That's how long he's put up with me.  Hard to believe, but some people are just a little crazy, right?  He is the stereotypical Man's Man in that it doesn't occur to him that the wife wants more than the anniversary dinner out for the Big Silver, but once I suggested that his life would be a nicer one if he did plan something, he went right to work.  Ha!  Our night out was on Whiskey Row, in Downtown Prescott, AZ (just up the road), a historical town and one of the oldest in Arizona.  Wyatt Earp and his lot hung out there, stayed in the same hotels and gambled and drank along the same short stretch of the downtown, across from the courthouse.

It was funny, because despite his plans, lots of things refused to work out--mostly owing to our ridiculously early body clocks--we're up at 4:30 and asleep before 9 if we're lucky.  So the schedules of shops and galleries opening and closing threw us off a lot, and many of our plans fell through.  But somehow, we had a fabulously fun second honeymoon in spite of it--laughing and cutting up together the way we did on our first one.  Isn't it odd how a plan can come together in spite of us?

I think I'll keep him for another twenty five. 

Ode to a fine little gentleman...

Born September 5, 2005--he actually didn't have any papers, and bringing him home at 7 weeks was more like a rescue mission than a purchase.  I didn't know she was a puppy mill until I'd seen him, and then I had to save him.  He had mites, worms, and was leaky on one end, but we got him fixed up in short order. 

He spent 13 years with us, traveled a lot--good car dog once he understood thumping us on the arm w/ a paw won't make the ride shorter.  He had his own SCA Medieval Tabbard for events.  We hiked miles together, took so many walks, and he never spent one night without either the hubs or I or both.  I worked from home his whole life, so he was pretty spoiled and very loved.  One lady said, "He has a very polite tongue."  He did--he was never one to jump in your face and start licking, but he would give a hello lick to your hand. 

My son reminded me of a game we played with him early on.  As a puppy, he was meeting our small grandchildren (baby & toddler), and I told my son he wouldn't mess with the babies' toys.  To prove it, we put one of Schultz's toys at the bottom of a pile of baby toys, and Schultz dug through, got his, and lay down with it.  Smart little guy--potty trained at 10 wks because we had a bell on the door.  This worked until he figured he could get some Out Time if he rang it, pee-time or not. 

I won't wail and carry on after today, but I know you all have and love pets, so you understand.  My cats keep looking for him.  I am fairly sure I'm a better person for having loved this dog. 

It's a Mystery...

Working on this most recent Izannah doll, I used the regular Krylon matte varnish, as I have for ages. 

But I'm not sure what happened!  No unusual material/paint/coating under the varnish, so maybe it was a factor of temperature or humidity?  At any rate, there is a very slight crackle effect on the lower part of this doll's face.  As it seems not to affect the adhesion of the paint or varnish, and it is subtle enough to actually enhance the doll, I left it as it was.  (Also, I didn't want to totally repaint, since I was happy with her at that point!) 

Maybe I'll figure it out, but I doubt it. 

Guess we'll see--I've got a set of boy & girl twins to make now! 

Really? That many?

As I posted on the MAIDA forum:

I was messing around with my blog, and decided to add a couple pages as "albums" for doll photographs. The tabs above separate them into types.  They don't show all the dolls, by any stretch, but they do show a wide variety of types!

Judging by the files, I have made between 250 & 300 dolls in the last decade.  Since I know I didn't consistently average two dolls a month, there must have been some seriously busy months in there!

Not-so-lazy Monday.

Supposed to be a day off--at least the hubs has off.  I'm making Izannah dolls--cutting out fabric, planning, sketching, etc.   But when you work in your pajamas, is it really work?

Lately I've been thinking about NOT taking things for granted--health, running water & electricity, a roof & good walls.  When I'm tempted to fuss or whine, it's helped me to be thankful instead.  I have a washer & dryer that work, so who minds laundry?  If my eyes don't see as well as they used to, I DO have good glasses that help.  Sometimes it pays to just sit and appreciate feeling good.   

We've had a fine three day weekend, with enjoyable time at the dog park, the luxury of reading for hours, and plenty of food in the fridge--even if it won't arrange itself into a meal. 

So on that note, I'll go and start supper. 

I hope your weekend was lovely, with lots to be grateful for. 

Clean Sheet Day

I won't bore anyone with long sad tales of medical mayhem at the Conwell's house (and the people said, "hurrah!") so suffice it to say; I am SO very glad it's January. 

All that medical mess started last summer, and finally finished up at the end of the year.  So this month we are moving slowly, deliberately, working and choring.  And healing.

That part takes a while, and sometimes the line of progress is not straight up in a tidy line.  When you're down, lots of what you used to think of as Must Dos suddenly become When I Get To Its.  But eventually you're up, and there's sweeping and laundry, and (yay!) Clean Sheet Day.  I love clean sheet day.

In other news, I have an order for a small Izannah (15") and I'm enjoying the challenge of smaller work.  I don't seem to be able to work on the Winter wall hanging--though I'm almost ready to bat & back it for quilting.  Just that close.  See, I somehow managed to curse myself with a ZILLION pine needles in this design.  And kinda no way out.  (There will be a recommendation in the published version to use pine-needle printed fabric.  You're welcome, or Don't Say I Didn't Warn You--whichever applies.) 

So I'm guiltily thrilled to make an Izzy instead of stitching pine needles. 

Stay warm, and have a grand 2019.