...and the winners are!

Tristan, studio lolo, and Ann. These are the order that I picked them out of the bowl. I'll be contacting you and will get these into the mails right away. Thanks so much to all of you for taking the time to comment. Creative hugs to everyone, Norma

A sweet sad goodbye to the roses

They lasted 3 days in a glorious riot. Now they are on their way to thy rest. I've cut a wee robin who is singing them out with gusto!

Yellow Roses

Earlier today my neighbour popped by to give me yellow roses from her garden. I put them on my work table and as night falls they are slowly opening. How can something so beautiful looking also smell as beautiful as it looks. One of the marvels of life.

Beautiful Books

This beautiful magazine came in my mail yesterday. It's packed with inspirational pieces and already I want to get back to making my stuffed dolls. Thanks to Kim for her blog giveaway which I won!

This book was sitting on the shelf of my local 2nd hand store waiting for me to find it. I've long been a fan of Denyse Schmidt and have spent more hours than I can admit just lusting over her creations on her site. Now I can make my own. So thrilling...and I know what I am making this year to give to family and friends at Christmas time. Time to get out the sewing machine oil.

Hope you are all having a splendid creative day. Talk soon, hugs from Norma

Studio Clean Up and Celebration

GIVEAWAY

Hello to each and every one of you - my friends, acquaintances, neighbors, fellow artists, muses, garden birds ... I've been missing you and have been thinking lately that it is time to get back into the swing of life. I fell into a rabbit hole I think. Something happened anyway and a year has passed. It happened in the blink of an eye it seems.

So I pried open the door of the studio and gosh you should see the spider webs around here. Oh the dust! I'm airing it out with the door and windows wide open; I've found the dust rags and mop and rolled up my sleeves and am getting to work. I want it spotless for when I make biscotti and a pot of tea to serve to you when you come visit.

In honor of creative spirit and friendship, I made 3 little scherenschnitte cuttings for a give away. Just leave a comment on this post and I'll put your name into the bowl, give it a stir and draw 3 names at the end of the month. You can suggest your preferences if you like. The choices are a floral spray, a robin on the wing and a sparrow on a branch.

The paper used is black Fabriano fine artist paper and is acid-free and color fast. Good luck and we'll talk soon! Creative hugs to you from Norma

Playing with scissors...

...and grosgrain ribbon...and grommets...and rickrack...and...and
My birds are wee lumps of polished cotton ticking and scraps of disgarded fabric and lay partly stuffed waiting to realize some sort of life. I learned that they need to be much larger as the smaller size is unwieldly for construction engineering.
But wouldn't you know it. The muse stepped in! You know when you have something in your hands that you are working on and the hands start to fashion something entirely different? Well I have learned to go with the flow and once I did, I couldn't stop until the thing was fully realized (in prototype form) and had a definitive direction. It is not a bird. It is a 'beribboned and begrommeted journal de idees' (working title), and will be my personal journal to catch all of the ideas that will make up the journal itself. I have begun to design a journal! The first that could be said is that it is based on an altered book. Journal sections are tied into the spine with ribbon threaded through grommets attached to grosgrain ribbon. My (working) journal is tied with a scrap of pink ribbon that had been wrapped around french milled soap that my swap partner sent to me recently in a very vintage valentine swap. So the journal smells like french lavender.
Don't you love the notion of reusing ribbon. Of saving ribbon in one special spot. And of ironing the ribbon and maybe tying up your hair, or a special gift for a loved one? I do!
I am going to use my journal as a place to catch things that I need to hold on to. To address. To claim. To face.
The tea pot is steeping and it's time for a cup of chai. With chocolate today! Talk to you soon, Norma.

Thinking about the birds!

I'm dreaming about birds. I saw a fabric bird with wire feet in a local outlet this past Sunday, and I just about had a bird myself it was so cute. I simply must figure out how to make my own. I don't want to copy as that is not nice, and not original either. So I am going to play with fabric and scissors today. Maybe I'll check in later to have a wee chat and a cup of chai. Toodles! Norma