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1000 visits since november 20th
hi you all

milk maid butter dish

from anthropologie

blanket

with all the things i make from shrunken felted sweaters it is fun to use the small bits as well
this is all hand stitched together with an embroidery stitch i call the "jack" stitch "cause he taught me it

7 crows in situ

sold last night yay

kitchen window

leaf nest

some leaves and wasps nests and other organic bits
some medium
and a small bowl for a mold

new holiday ornament

"A long time ago, the raven looked down from the sky and saw that the people of the world were living in darkness. The ball of light was kept hidden by a selfish old chief. So the raven turned itself into a spruce needle and floated on the river where the chief's daughter came for water. She drank the spruce needle. She became pregnant and gave birth to a boy, which was the raven in disguise. The baby cried and cried until the chief gave him the ball of light to play with. As soon as he had the light, the raven turned back into himself and carried the light into the sky. From then on, we no longer lived in darkness."

result

so this is the result of the rusty pins
just a few days soaked and left in the air to rust and the pins carefully pulled out

oh and the other photo .......back side pins still in

pins and rust

stole this idea from somewhere
not sure where
it doesnt work with stainless steel pins
so first pin a design with old fashioned pins that will rust
and then a little salty water in a dish
i take it in and out of the water as i am not sure what works faster and leave it outside either way
the first photo that has been "rusted" was outside for only about 3 days and the pins were place in a different way
and i will show you how the other pics work in a couple of days
it should be more interesting as it has a more complicated design

in process

crow hanging
textiles dyed with leaves and teas
button crow
some metallic stitching
more to do

blanket

made from all the small leftover pieces of lightweight felted sweaters

niagara grocery

some matchbox holiday ornaments
made for niagara grocery up the road
still to be assembled

shibori

stitched up this crow with a running stitch and put it in the dye pot
my shibori maybe
i laugh

b

thinkin about you in a sexual way
the way it was easy
when it was easy
that way
with us

where the wild things are

i liked the movie
quite alot
but
wild things dont have names

i am tired of living alone
i would like to be wrapped up and with and around with someone this stormy night
rather that than at this keyboard
and
someone that makes dinner sometimes
or eats a bowl of cereal with me instead
ok yeah and someone who pays half the rent
or reaching higher
as my son says low expectations arent attractive
help pay the mortgage

so in new age terms everything i just wrote will bring me more of wanting likely

but then
someone to do a garden with would be better too

and fuck a good fight with some make up sex might even be ok
i laugh

that big cat of mine is a perfect cat for an old lady (i am not one yet)
and he likes to sit on the window sill beside the door
sometimes ready to go out
lately we are having west coast rain
not that cold out
but a southwester tonight
that rain forest west coast rain is so fucking wet
and he doesnt and just cant like it
so the second time i open the door for him
he looks out
and not at me
or at anyone but the rain itself
he hisses

she was so cute in her white outfit
that big smile and the little toque
kid asked her to sign his shirt
an autograph
walking that 300 meters people on the side of that sunny road applauding
applauding something
some feeling of importance
of belonging
oh she played her part so beautifully

his words
his poems
made me fall in love with him
and held such promise

and i enjoy watching his words
with others about others
and
another another falling again again

one day i hope he will love again a real woman
not a shadow woman
a shadow woman
a shadow woman

sexual impotence is what i have?
i dunno maybe its the right phrase
please tell me if i am wrong
the question is i think
can a woman do more than be available
enjoy
participate
well and yes instigate... no no that may not be the word
i am trying to say
i am pretty old ... 57...
and the number of GREAT sexual experiences are just not that many
i mean there have been a couple of great lovers
one long term and one less so
and some other great nights
its seems that is always up to the man
how many times... even if its more than once
or the intensity
or duration
my words here just arent cutting it tho
i will say this
if it was me
if i had the power ... or the touch ... or just the what to do
i would make love so much and so long and so intensely and so often
i would touch them the best i knew how they liked and look in their eyes and move so slowly and just the way they liked
and i would do it again with a different feel and tempo
and then again and again
and if i was a man
after we would walk
and that woman would be filled with me
and we would both eat so greedily
needing the calories and with our fingers
even greasy meat and fries and fruit and wine
and touch each other again
fall into a daze and
sleep so deep
except she would wake just a tiny bit and move her hips
and his hand would graze her nipple
just enough
and i would/ he would slide into her
again

an ambitious project collaspsing

I love love love this blog
but dont know how to describe it
all about textiles it seems in their most humble or interesting
just have a look here

more shoes from alanna

november on the west coast

I have a new roomate and she is decorating

plenty and crows

Trevor posted this on the "Plenty" blog about my window and me,
he is a lovely guy with a great shop that i have talked about here before
and
Northern Exposure is one of my all time favorite TV shows


One of the wonderful things about Plenty is that I get to surround myself with great food and goods that delight me. And these seem to attract people that delight me as well.

One of those people is Gillian Gravenor, a fantastic textile artist, seamstress, and creator of extraordinary things. She came into the store asking for a fair quantity of whole star anise and I imagined that she was making up a batch of something quite exotic. Gillian was using it in collages she was creating on cards. Soon we were selling those cards and I feel so grateful for everything Gillian brings in from her studio. We have some of her curio boxes in the store - whimsical match boxes filled with curated urban detritus - they are little palm sized galleries. We also have some of her tea cozies made with repurposed sweaters and in a month we’ll be bringing back her Christmas stockings (made from sweaters that are now fantastic as stockings but may have been a bit garish in their earlier form). Gillian has also brought in vintage aprons that she’s collected and aprons that she’d made from vintage tablecloths and repurposed fabric. Last Fall we featured a display of felted sculptures that are difficult to adequately describe but gathered together they looked to me like whimsically coloured sea squirts or perhaps a garden of fantastical squash.

Recently Gillian brought in an incredible wall hanging (pictured above) that features a crow made from shiny black buttons. It is currently featured in one of the display windows at the front of the store with some fabric crows, some incredible crow tea cozies, and some of Gillian’s aprons.

The wall hanging reminds me of one of my favourite Northern Exposure episodes that features a Raven Festival where Cicily was decorated with ravens instead of Christmas ornaments and Marilyn (Elaine Miles) shared a legend about ravens:

A long time ago, the raven looked down from the sky and saw that the people of the world were living in darkness.
The ball of light was kept hidden by a selfish old chief.
So the raven turned himself into a spruce needle and floated on the river where the chief’s daughter came for water.
She drank the spruce needle.
She became pregnant and gave birth to a boy, who was the raven in disguise.
The baby cried and cried until the chief gave him the ball of light to play with.
As soon as he had the light, the raven turned back into himself.
The raven carried the light into the sky.
From then on, we no longer lived in darkness.

I’m a fan of crows and ravens - intelligent and enigmatic and I think generally they’ve been given a bad wrap. Crows were recently the focus of a Nature of Things episode. The episode demonstrated that some crows are adept at using tools, they have complex social lives, and they can recognize the facial features of individual people. Of course, historically in many cultures they’ve been thought of not so much as bringers of light but more as harbingers of darkness, death, and doom. That’s my lead-in to mention a Halloween event that’s happening along Fort Street this Friday and Saturday:

Packing for the Future: Instructions

Take the thickest socks.

Wherever you’re going

you’ll have to walk



There may be water.

There may be stones.

There may be high places

you cannot go without

the hope socks bring you,

they way they hold you

to the earth.



At least one pair must be new,

must be blue as a wish

hand-knit by your mother

in her sleep.



*



Take a leather satchel,

a velvet bag and an old tin box –

a salamander painted on the lid.



This is to carry that small thing

you cannot leave. Perhaps the key

you’ve kept though it doesn’t fit

any lock you know,

the photograph that keeps you sane,

a ball of sting to lead you out

though you can’t walk back

into that light.

In your bag leave room for sadness,

leave room for another language.



There my be doors nailed shut.

There may be painted windows.

There maybe signs that warn you

to be gone. Take the dream

you’ve been having since

you were a child, the one

with open fields and the wind

sounding.



*



Mistrust no one who offers you

water from a well, a songbird’s feather,

something that’s been mended twice.

Always travel lighter
than the heart.


Lorna Crozier

window at plenty

everyone loves a heart shaped rock

crow hanging so far

wow the colours are so wonky thru the cameras eye

treasures

hard choices

its hard to choose sometimes
to take the chance
by being true to myself
chance that a friendship will end

or act another way just to keep the status quo
to be able to even see the person

i made a hard choice
i dont think my friend even understands
and i know i have to be prepared to loose them entirely
i like myself better
i like myself rather than dont


i remember the 4 days of agony before i ended it with "the boy"
the pain of the choice
the clarity of the only answer
the sadness of choosing the end

and even today
he wont speak or acknowledge me
i understand
and have to accept it
have peace

loneliness

i dont know why i am so embarrassed to admit my loneliness..... i am very lonely at times
it likely isnt good that i work at home either.
today downtown i ran into a lover .... not a boyfriend ... a lover
he was glad to see me and we chatted and he hugged me warmly
i told him that i had to move and he was sad
he has a girlfriend now... i asked about her.... shouldnt have
when we said goodbye
i was overcome with sadness
we dont feel that way about each other...so i dont know the reason for my sadness
later a couple of native guys said hello
one pointed to his friend telling me he was up for adoption
did i want to adopt him?
the other guy says dont
and they wander off
magee said once
some qoute maybe the buddha?
"we are all just trying too get thru"
aint that the truth

status update oct 9

had lunch with b
he looked and was so sad
that i had tears too
and later in the car we had a deep talk and i really cried

stolen

totally stolen from ken
button crows
the red one has a bit of a steampunk look

boiling up

inspired by india
and not having a clue as to what i was doing
i boiled up a pot of lavender and something that looks like eucalyptus
stems and everything
added these bits of fabric
the wool is the most interesting
and it has moth holes (i like that)
these bits will be used in the textile collages i have been doing so moth holes only add to the the charm
i do imagine that boiling it up in some coffee with give the same colour
but not the same kind of magic

in progress

i have been feeling bad about not writing
the truth is i have been sewing like a fiend
so better to show you the in progress
soon enough i will show finished products
keep in mind this is preparation for christmas sales

at work

passion

oh she was a seer now, a fortune teller, a prophetess, and a witch. had not every second sighted woman since medea been hopelessly in love with a man who could not see the light all aroud them? who had on his mind something else-- for example, the sea; for example , the mountain; for example, the finish line. hopelesness was something every seer paid in order to see, and not voluntarily, either. no one in her right mind would want to see any of this at all.

jane smiley

the tibetan book of thoroubred training

1. do not pay attention or investigate; leave your mind in its own sphere
2. do not see any fault anywhere
3. do not take anything to heart
4. do not hanker after any signs of progress
5. although this may be called inattention, do not fall prey to laziness
6. be in a state of constant inspection

from the book horse heaven by jane smiley

Fat Is Not a Fairy Tale

I am thinking of a fairy tale,
Cinder Elephant,
Sleeping Tubby,
Snow Weight,
where the princess is not
anorexic, wasp-waisted,
flinging herself down the stairs.

I am thinking of a fairy tale,
Hansel and Great,
Repoundsel,
Bounty and the Beast,
where the beauty
has a pillowed breast,
and fingers plump as sausage.

I am thinking of a fairy tale
that is not yet written,
for a teller not yet born,
for a listener not yet conceived,
for a world not yet won,
where everything round is good:
the sun, wheels, cookies, and the princess.

Jane Yolen

"The true man wants two things: danger and play. For that reason he wants woman, as the most dangerous plaything."

Friedrich Neitzsche

home today

lace vulvas in progress

lenore tawney

you all must know how i love colour
and
then there is the beauty of the natural and the monochrome
i love this photo of lenore tawney's studio
an art installation in itself
and in a way that is how i want to be in my home
like its a bit of an installation
always changing a work in progress
i am not going to post a link as there is a fair amount online about lenore
so just google

he says

he says women usually fall in love with him
his ego annoys me
tho
i think about why that may be so (the woman part)
he isnt handsome
he is actually unusual looking
but he is
maybe acessable...his looks good but not too good to get
and he acts like he is ready to fall in love
he loves women or does he?

he is a great lover and gives his all
yet seems to choose women who dont want as much sex as he

i like how he dresses
how long his legs look in jeans
and the 50 year old faux suede jacket that he has owned 20 years and is repaired inside by the hem

and i guess his playing guitar and singing badly makes him very vulnerable seeming

he is intelligent and self searching
and amusingly self deprecating
and likes to talk ....discuss... examine
yes we women love that

and after i have spent time with him
i am always surprised i dont hear from him the next day as it feels as we have become so close

china plates

trying to get the feel of china
but i am not too happy
too literal is always a problem
but
i guess its cool enough