Tag - You're It!

I've been tagged by Any Smith!!!

If you've been tagged, copy and paste the questions and post your answers in your own blog. Be sure to let your chosen tagged peeps know they've been tagged.

So... here we go.... the questions are:

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?

• My twins were one year old & just beginning to teeth -- finally! Wow, they used to nap back then -- and I napped right alongside them. Now if I nap, they head for the Wii or the computer.

2. 5 things on today's to-do list:

• start the week's laundry
• head to the grocery store (or wait until tomorrow?)
• finish some overdue fiberart postcards
• play with my kids
• figure out who's cooking supper (me or one of my 11-year-olds!)

3. Snacks I enjoy:

• fresh fruit -- especially strawberries, peaches, crisp apples
• dark chocolate -- yum!
• cheddar cheese, especially with an apple
• nachos -- with cheese, guacamole, and more.
• popcorn, easy on the salt.
• but my favorite would be ice cream! Bluebell Homemade Vanilla or Starbucks Java Chip .... mmmm, scrumptious - especially with fresh baked chocolate chip cookies -- oh my!

4. Things I'd do if I were a billionaire!

• Renovate my kitchen and put a bathroom in my upstairs studio.
• Hire a chef to prepare healthy tasty meals everyday for my family and me (or move my Stepmom next door so she can teach us to love cooking like she does)
• Buy a home in a beautiful location and share it with my family and friends.
• Travel, travel, travel, and oh, did I mention travel?
• Buy an iPhone or two or four (one for each of us!)

5. . Places I have lived:

• Sacramento, California -- then Riverside, CA (so I am a California girl, right?)
• Loring Air Force Base, Maine (my Dad was in the Air Force.)
• Omaha, Nebraska (where I learned to read, "Look" was the first word.)
• back to Loring AFB (missing a huge snowstorm while we were away. My siblings and I were so disappointed to see the photos of what we had missed, but my parents didn't mind, at all.)
• Tuscaloosa, Alabama
• Santa Rosa, California
• Austin, Texas (the longest place my family lived until we kids headed out the door to colleges and started our own families.)
• San Antonio, Texas (followed the man I love... & earned my teaching certificate while here.)
• Wheaton, Maryland (1st teaching job at All Saints HS in Washington, DC)
• Brownsville, Texas (more HS & Jr High teaching in Los Fresnos, TX)
• Houston, Texas (where all three boys were born, my husband and my twins.)
• --- will I move again? My Aunt is ever hopeful that California will lure me back one day ... or to Austin ... or to another cozy place .... in my dreams, at least!

6. People I'd like to know more about:

• Mary Ann Littlejohn
• Linda Minton
• Carol Tina Taylor
• Margaret Roberts
• Alis Clair
• Barb Forrister

More bowls

I wanted to share a few of the other bowls donated by my Beyond the Borders (BTB) friends to Empty Bowls last month, which raised over $40,000. The bowls that guests take home are concrete reminders of the empty bowls in the world, especially at mealtimes.

This fiber art bowl was created by Connie Fahrion. My photo does not show the cute little frog (button or bead) stitched to the inside of the bowl. I love the button and fiber trim along the rim.

Linda T. Minton made this wonderful tiny bowl by adding decorative beading over a miniature glass bowl. This view is from overhead looking down onto the bowl. She didn't complete it in time for this year's Empty Bowls -- so be sure to come early to next year's event!

Liz Broussard wove her bowl with strips made from paper bags that had been stitched and painted -- quite fun, unique and very delicate. Thoughtful Liz made a fiber box for her bowl to travel in too.

Here are the two bowls that I brought home. As you can see, neither is a fiber art bowl, but I love them dearly. A local potter, J. Calder, made both of my bowls.

I recently learned that Volunteers at this event are paid with a ticket (for lunch -- a bowl of soup, and your choice of a bowl) so I plan to volunteer next year, especially if my friends Scott and Tammy remind me! Look for an Empty Bowls event coming to your area.

The Queen of E & Under the Sea

The Queen of E, as in "the Queen of Everything," is my 8th of 12 Bead Journal Projects (BJP). As a faithful Behinder slowly catching up in this yearlong commitment that ended last month, I'm plugging away steadily ... just think ... I only have 4 more to go ...


I finished this piece faster than all the others that I've worked so far, and it has the most beads on it, too. How is that possible? Perhaps because I merely embellished someone else's artwork. Thank you, Mary Engelbreit! This BJP is made from my last piece of Mary Engelbreit "Queen" fabrics which I had been saving for eons. Such a perfect way to use it. Don't you agree that all Queenly adornments should be sparkly with jewels and beading?

I am also behind (hmm, a familiar tendency of mine) in an ongoing Arch Swap with my friends in Carol Taylor's Textile Challenges Yahoo group. This is "Lyn's Under the Sea" April arch -- soon on its way to a new home in Florida.

This arch has a lovely batik blue for the water; a corduroy/upholstery beach; silk and rayon fiber seaweeds and grasses; beaded fish, bubbles, shells; two brass charms; and my favorite: two odd looking sea creatures (squid? jelly fish?) made from a curious artificial flower petal. The sparkle is from the shimmery tulle overlaid on top to keep the sea grasses under control.


"Under the Sea" is my 9th Bead Journal Project, hurray! It is made of the same ingredients listed above in Lyn's arch and was quite fun to put together.

Now I have only 3 more BJPs to finish up for the 2007 BJP year! It looks as if I really might finish all my 2007 pieces before the 2008 BJP begins in September. Hosted by Robin Atkins, this will be another fun adventure with lots of new friends on the horizon just waiting to meet and share their stories! Click here for more information on how to register.

Mermaids

Did you know that even a mermaid will enjoy an afternoon of quiet solitude away from the hustle and bustle of abundant sea life?This is "Solitary Mermaid," my March arch for my Textile Challenge group's Arch Swap.

My friendly mermaid (see, she's waving "hello!") is made from buttons, beads, hot glue (that has cooled in the shade of the palm tree), candy wrappers, voile, knit fabric and wild fiber hair. The palm tree has a corduroy trunk and embroidered rayon leaves. The beach is an upholstery sample, with a batik ocean and calm cotton skies above.

Why make one mermaid when you have material for two? Please meet "Mermaid with Friends."
She is made from the same ingredients as "Solitary Mermaid" above, with the addition of two friends, seahorse charms tethered with a golden cord. Notice how they are swimming in the ocean -- a bit of shimmery voile adds this dimension.

"Mermaid with Friends" is my 7th Bead Journal piece, a 4"x6" postcard, for the 2007 Bead Journal Project (BJP) which ended in May. I'm a faithful "Behinder" who is working hard to complete her promise of 12 BJPs for the year before the new 2008 Bead Journal Project begins this September. If you're interested in a year-long adventure of beading, sharing, and fun: click here for information and registration details.

Empty Bowls

May -- a quiet month for my blogging, but only because regular life kept me too busy to post anything.

One May activity was my Beyond the Borders (BTB) group's participation in the 4th annual "Empty Bowls Houston."  For those who've never heard of Empty Bowls, it is a grassroots effort by artists and craftspeople across the country to feed the hungry in their communities.  For a $25.00 donation, you receive a simple lunch of soup, bread and water, and can then select a bowl from hundreds of one-of-a-kind, handcrafted bowls donated by Houston area ceramists and craft artists, including my BTB Art Quilt group. This is our first year to participate.

Our guidelines were simple: create a bowl using any medium desired. There were suggested dimensions given, but bowls of all shapes and sizes were accepted. The bowls themselves need not be usable as soup bowls either.

I wanted to create an original bowl, not following any set pattern, and was inspired by a pair of my son's jeans that were in need of patch repair on the knee (again!).

Needless to say, the jeans are now shorts!


My bowl will not hold liquids without developing a slow leak and may be the only collapsible bowl this year at Empty Bowls. My one goof: I forgot to sign it ... oops. It went to a new home that day -- so perhaps the new owner will happen across my blog and say "hello" .... it's possible, right?

Cooler Days Ahead

"Cooler Days Ahead" is my 6th Bead Journal Project piece for 2007. In Houston during the month of November we are still longing for the cooler days of Autumn that other USA locations already enjoy.

The base fabric for this piece is one I made with a gelatin mono-printing technique using ivy leaves to create the imprinted design. I toyed with several ideas of how to bead the leaves, but un-beaded these early attempts. The leaf beads inside the leaf images are loose, attached only at the stem. I like how they flop around, so I added a beaded fringe to add more movement.

Deep in the Art of Texas

I am excited to share the news that my piece "Texas" is featured on the invitation and brochure cover of "Deep in the Art of Texas", a Fiber Arts Exhibit in the Texas State Capitol - Extension. This juried show, sponsored by the Texas Museum of Fiber Arts, runs the weekend of May 24, 25, and 26, 2008.

Nancy Dickey, one of my Beyond the Borders friends, will be giving the first lecture at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday titled "Creating a Winning Quilt: the process and the promise of design." Her piece "Bloomin' Hatboxes" is in the exhibit.

Another wonderful piece titled "Geometrics 101" is created by my friend, Rex Watson, another member of our Beyond the Borders group. Here is the program listing all the featured artists.
I can hardly wait to see "Deep in the Art of Texas". If you are in the area, be sure to come and meet me at the Capitol!