Tag: Crafts

Cee’s Share Your World – 2016 Week 42

Share Your World – 2016 Week 42

This is my first time sharing my world. Does this mean I have to make up for the whole 42 weeks I missed??

Anyway, here are the questions we are to answer.

If you wanted to de-clutter where you live, what room / space would you start with?  (And why, if you’re feel like admitting to it.)

I’d start with the “living room”. It used to be the only guaranteed “clean” room in the house…my pretty blue and white oriental rug, all my Cobalt glass, nice furniture to sit on for guests. But now, with our packed household (son, two grandsons, two men renting rooms, and 3 indoor cats who have had their cavorting space dramatically reduced), James pretty much has his “office” and sports/TV viewing area in our living room…and all that cat hair drives me crazy!

If you want to remember something important, how do you do it (sticky note on the fridge, string around your finger, etc.), and does it work?

I keep running lists, in categories like errands, phone calls, sessions, books and music to remember, etc. (still on paper because if I write it down it helps kinesthetically, better than a phone app or computer calendar!) But the absolutely Must Remember things go on a sticky note in the center of my computer screen.

If you could create a one room retreat just for yourself, what would be the most important sense to emphasize:  sight (bright natural light, dim light, etc.), hearing (silence, music, fountain, etc.), smell (candles, incense, etc), touch (wood, stone, soft fabrics, etc.), or taste (herbal tea, fresh fruit, etc.)?

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My current sanctuary…my office/group room. It has all the above listed elements. I wrote about it here in a post called

Details #2-Balancing testoterone

If you could interview one of your great-great-great grandparents, who would it be (if you know their name) and what would you ask?

Her last name was “Young”, as in Brigham Young, but I can never remember what her wife-number was. She was one of 16 or 26 or 55 wives, depending on where you read about Latter Day Saints history. I was NOT raised Mormon so my information is mostly from Google, but one story I heard from older relatives was that she was married to Mr. Young, after he married her sister, and I believe their name was Decker. If I could speak to her, I wouldn’t ask her about polygamy because I think I mostly understand the beliefs they held at the time, but I am definitely curious about actual sisters (not “sister wives”) being married to the same man.

And I would ask if she could tell me anything about all the lace doilies and hankies I have used in the decorating of my room (referred to above)…if she made any of them herself…

Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up? 

I am surprisingly grateful for all these great men I live with, especially my number one guy! (Michael and James, you can duke it out to decide who you think that is! This is really just a test to see if you actually read my blog!)

I enjoyed their passion yesterday over the bizarre ending to the Seahawks football game.

But that was also a LOT of angry yelling and testosterone in my precious blue and white living room…I think I may need to smudge with some sage today…

This week I am blank as to looking forward. The here and now is really pulling at me.

(Photo at the top is of our hand-made Sock Monkeys that James and I take turns positioning to demonstrate our current experience of our relationship. They live in the Living Room, amongst all the blue and white…and I had to train the cats to not stalk them as prey!)

 

Frame for WPC

 

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With Zen Bead Embroidery, there is a ton of fairly relaxing (if you do it right) work, but it can sometimes leave you with just a pile of confusing colors and patterns.

Often, the “Frame” is what turns it into a piece of art…

I have to say that I loved doing the embroidery above but when it came to framing, I was clueless and had to go to professionals for help.

I was really happy with how they framed my pieces. (Please forgive the photography. That was definitely NOT professional.)

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Frame

“Last Detail” by ChosenPerspectives

Details

When my son was about 20, he picked up an old Porsche to rebuild. He worked on it for years, including finally finishing major parts of the body work while it was parked in his grandmother’s driveway. She forgot it was there, drove into her driveway late one night and totalled the car. He is 43 now and has hauled it around with him to every place he has lived…Nebraska, Arizona, and several places in Washington state.

At one point, in support of his project, I told him that though I didn’t much want to work on the car with him, I had a supportive parallel project going that was just about as time consuming, so I challenged him….a race to the finish line.

I won and I gave him MY project a few years ago.

That car now lives HERE at my home, along with my son and his two sons. He plans on the three of them finishing it together. I really hope so as now it has become a symbolic “principle” of the whole thing.

But I am thinking maybe I start a new parallel project and re-challenge him. What do you think?

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Made with beads and my son’s great-grandmother’s mostly glass buttons.

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I Live with SIX MEN!! Among them they have NINE CARS, two motorcycles, and five bicycles. There are piles and rooms and sections of my house and property that are filled with house-painting equipment, construction and carpentry tools, classic cars “projects” and giant workout equipment. This is how they would spend every weekend…

I don’t consider myself a sexist (in favor of either gender) but I cannot think of a female equivalent to the HUGE Mustang (Ford) Car Show I attended this last weekend, at least nothing with comparable sound effects! (I mean really! I needed EARPLUGS!! Every open hood meant these competitive THUNDEROUS revs! Would you need earplugs for a Quilting Show??)

So recently, to do some hormone balancing in my home (this is different than feng shui) I went into the only room in the house that is still completely MINE, my Group Therapy room and office.

I’ve had to do a lot of downsizing to make room for the newest male arrivals to my home (my son and his two sons), and in my culling, have come across a lot of saved bits and pieces from my Mom, Aunt, Great Aunts, Grandmother and Great Grandmother. So I took old lace tablecloths and made a backdrop to which I attached (with tiny white painted safety pins) all that feminine energy!

I can now sit in my pink swivel chair and look at the history of the women in my family through their hats, their hankies, their doilies, aprons, and their fabric, lace and ribbons.

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Still another series for WPC Abstract

Sometimes I think I’m so “artsy”, but then I think I’m pretty funny too, so I may not be the best judge. But you can be. Tell me what you think of these shots of a rotating shadow  on my Group Room wall.

 

Here’s the explanation, Abstract in its own way. This is a gift from a client about “removing her mask” in therapy…..cool, huh?

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Abstract

 

Time for WPC (anyone else hear the Chambers Brothers?)

Time

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I inherited this amazing treasure a few years back and all I could think about is how much TIME it must have taken for someone to carve the “thousand faces of Buddha” into this walnut shell. The patience…the dedication…the talent…what an amazing person he or she must have been!

And then, I woke up this morning red-faced, realizing I am also that person.

In the last 20 years, for my closest 5 people, I made a “once-in-a-lifetime, just-because-I-love-you” hand-crafted gift. Each craft project took me a lot of TIME.

Here are some samples:

For my best friend-who loves giraffes and is an official Giraffe Project Hero, I made this. It took me about 3 years. It is made with Zen Beaded Embroidery and contains turquoise, copper, shells, assorted beads and several of my grandmother’s old glass buttons.

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Next, my “adopted” sister, Lenore’s mother died leaving her these old jewelry boxes with lots of broken bits and pieces from her Mom’s life. Nothing wearable or worth repairing but Lenore didn’t want to let them go. So she gave them to me to play with.

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I grabbed the Tacky Glue and did this. Now they sit on the Lenore’s bookshelf as reminders of her Mom.

 

And this one took the longest. My son has been restoring a classic Porsche…for 20 years! It went to college with him. It has lived, in process, at his Dad’s, my house, his house, his grandmother’s house, etc.

One time, he had almost finished it and someone actually crashed into it in the driveway, leaving it virtually totaled.

It’s a matter of principal now. He is determined to complete this endless project.

So to support him (I’m no good with a wrench) I made this. It took me about as long as he’s been working on the car and is made entirely of my grandmother’s glass and shell buttons, and my old Hippie Beads. It is all stitched except for the white background buttons. In an effort to finish in my lifetime, I finally cheated and grabbed that Tacky glue again.

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Time…I wouldn’t trade a minute of it!

Help! Someone stop me! Vibrant for WPC

 

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Vibrant

My Grandsons, now 10 and 12, have always loved Treasure Hunts and Treasure Chests!

So for Christmas a few years back, I made them each a Memory Treasure Box. Every single charm, scrap of paper, toy, figurine, button, patch, and trinket symbolized something we had all done together or something special about each of them. Even the Popsicle sticks and gum wrappers were theirs. (Wow, that sounds a bit creepy now as I write it, but at the time, since they are generally not allowed any sugar treats, these bits represented special occasions.)

I strung the extra charms on chains that they could wear or hang up.

In each box I put a tiny notepad, with a tiny pencil, and a Treasure Map type instructions.

“Write down in your tiny tablet, everything in and on your box that you know the meaning of, to earn points toward the next Big Adventure.”

(I’m thinking I’m so cagey, you know, giving them spelling and handwriting practice, right?) Of course, they saw right through that and wanted to “tell” me each thing.

I relented because really, is there anything more special than holding your grandchild in your lap while you reminisce about your lives together?

sigh.

Too many Choices for VIBRANT!

Vibrant

So I’m going to do them all at once…maybe.

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A gift from a trusted friend (trusted because she knows my “bead addiction”)

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Happy segment of Beach Break Cafe bathroom wall, Oceanside, CA!

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Gaudy colored (or maybe I should say vibrant) cards/envelopes I used for this year’s

gift-packs of homemade cards (my photos).

More to follow…this is clearly one of my favorite topics EVER!

Weekly Photo Challenge-Alphabet

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I’ve already posted several times for this topic but after reading

Musings of an eccentric mind

this morning I was reminded of a long held treasure of my own right here on the couch.

A dear friend spent a whole year stitching me this lovely pillow cover. I mess with beads but this stitching stuff is a mystery to me. I can’t imagine what it took to do this piece. No one in my family is allowed to use it, and the cat that caused the tiny snag on the lower left edge was nearly banished for his treachery!