Ok at long last I am getting back to creating.  Here is another bowl.  Hey, I have a lot of fabric to get rid of .   This one goes to another friend.   Ants on the outside, green on the inside.

wow it has been two months since I posted!  Because I haven't made anything.  Finally I tried some fabric bowls for my friend Denise.

They are reversible!!

I made some colorful October postcards for my autumn exchange.  I like them but they seem too -- something.

Hooray I was able to upload it correctly (the second time).  I used another autumn fabric for the backs.

I finally finished the red dragonfly tote.  I lined it with pseudo brick suede, and used a zipper I already had - the right size but OLD and metal.  Oh well.  It looks pretty good but the handles could be better.  I ran out of fabric and used plain matching shantung upholstery fabric for those and it was difficult to work with.

Learning something new every day

I still am not sure why I had so much space below every post or within it. But I did get it fixed by deleting those posts! Also Thanks to katya in the help files for telling me how to rotate the photos - that worked!

I posted two other msgs today that got lost somehow but I don't care. Have to create something and get outside today!!

Well I have been reading the help files and apparently the photo orientation problem has to do that the photos were taken with a Canon! I always pull them up in CorelPhotopaint to save them at a lower res, and it still does it. Some people mention rotating while inserting but I don't see that as an option anywhere. Oh well, something to do this morning.

Autumn finally here

Well I have not posted in a while. Creative juices stalled. I had to finish some projects that were due or half-done. I did some Halloween cards and some tote bags. I will try to post. I guess I am going to need help to figure out why photos usually/always post in the wrong direction.

Well well I successfully uploaded one with the correct orientation. This is for the postcard swap titled "Cats, lions and tigers, oh my!" I call it kitty toy or Ebony's dream. I am still in love with the art deco fabric and I still haven't even made the deco postcards I need to send. I used rhinestones here for the eyes.

I can't get this card for Keely to upload in a horizontal position again. I used a remnant from my tote bag. Isn't this a cool fabric?

I finished my art deco bag today. I love the fabric - bought it in Santa Cruz when we were there for Keely's birthday. It turned out great.

 Here is my newest. Hair is floss from gold satin fabric. Still not satisfied. I used fine green net over the whole thing. I do like the tail fabric.

Yippee! I got her in landscape position by using "none" as the choice for placement. Let's see if I can do the other one.

I just cannot seem to get the other one to do it though.

Saturday. I'm going to try to upload my mermaids from Picasa directly to see if I can get them to be landscape orientation. Plus I have a new one now that I kinda like.

Friday August 21

Friday August 21

Well I think I lost my first draft - for some reason it put my photos in sideways. Here goes again. A few more mermaid cards but I faked it since I can't draw people - these are "vain abut shy" maids that dive in as we approach.

Friday already. I got a few more mermaids done but I am not satisfied with them. Since I can't draw faces (or people) I decided to do "vain but shy" mermaids that dive in the water as they are approached. Needs some improvement.

Okay I'm figuring out how not to combine text with photos. I made my first (of 7) mermaid cards and I love it! Sending off today to Illinois and I'll get on the others soon.

Rileys postcards

  

Riley loves train cars so some train buttons are hidden in some of his cards.  One has a pineapple button.

Tuesday already

I cleaned up my office / craft room yesterday - all day. so no projects progress. I removed the white lattice from the railings. After 8 years of grandchildren protection, my daughter says they can come down. I will need to make some kind of curtain for the upstairs part to conceal my work spaces and wires, etc. And i am getting rid of my bulky old map rack too - I put it on Craigslist and hope to get some bucks out of that.

Today I plan to make several postcards - two for my grandson Riley, with an octopus and planes. One for Peggy, and replacement ones for my sister Pattie and Debbie L, and several for my postcard exchange group with mermaids on them. Yikes! That's ten right there! I'll post photos of those I actually get done.

It's Sunday. First day of school tomorrow for kids here. Finally last night I tackled the coral seahorse tote again and finished it this morning! I just need to tack down the lining. The coral print fabric is so lovely. I used black plastic netting over black satin for the seahorse texture. It was difficult because of course I didn't think of it until I had the pocketed lining in! Then I sewed coral bead necklaces on the seahorses but it wasn't a happenin' look so I removed them. Still . . . might need something more - black bead waves? Hmm.

Here's a detail of the seahorses. I traced them from a photo I took of a magnificent gate at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Happy Saturday! I never got around to the tote bags because I had forgotten I "owed" landscape photos to my fabric postcard exchange group. So I got busy and did them and got them mailed off in time. I liked them - all different but on the same theme - "desert night." Here is one of them:

Well it's Friday already. Novel Approaches (my book club) meets tonight. We read Bridge of Sighs by Russo and I expect a rousing discussion.

My granddaughter Keely starts back to school Monday so I made her this card. I guess this is nostalgia because of course todays second graders don't have a clue about the apple or the sharp pencils. They will be making back to school for their grandkids with laptops and iphones as the nostalgic motifs, right?

I hope to restart on tote bags today, as I finally figured out the instructions and got the right webbing. I am struggling with figuring out how to put on a silhouette applique and what color it should be. Also trying to ignore my husband who is home on a furlough Friday and probably wishes I would help him do fixit chores around the house. Hiding out here in my office/sewing loft.

(blip??) for my daughter. I call it Button Garden. I like doing fabric postcards and mailing them out to friends and family.

Day two of blogging. Still don't know what I'm doing. Can't seem to change the font or anything else. And yesterday's entry is missing. Hmmm.

Lately, I am feeling the need to create something every day. Here is a photo of a postcard I made for my daughter Julia yesterday. Wow it worked!