Paintings: Labrador, Horses, Goat, German Shepherd

Here are some favorites from this week. I feel really back in the painting groove now and they are coming together fabulously.

my newsletter

If you look in my links over on the right, I added one for my weekly newsletter. It downloads in pdf form and shows off all the paintings I painted the previous week.

I don’t always get a chance to put it together every week but this year I will give it a good try!

thinking about knitting

I am searching online for free patterns for childrens socks (if you know of any please let me know!) and saw the beautiful cover project this month at knitty.com. I am using their pretty photo.

I can sure see making this one sometime this year! Using maybe a slightly lighter yarn with more movement…. As well as knitting a few pairs of socks….

memory lane

I had my mother bring my old doll clothes with her when she came for Christmas visit, so I could pass the clothes on to daughter. What is remarkable about these clothes is that my own grandmother made them, and now daughter is playing with clothes made by her great grandmother! It is also remarkable that someone took the time to sew each of these pieces and there is great variety to them. The clothes speak to their day, and the fabrics and styles are so dated and so much fun Shall we take a closer look?

I remember this was my favorite outfit. The fringe on the bottom of the blouse, the color purple of the polyester pants. I so wished I had fringe on my blouses.

I must have always had a love for coats, too, because this set was my favorite. (Is this where my love came from???) A long coat and matching hat. How classic and elegant!

I should have started with this photo, I guess, to show the doll size. This velvet evening dress was SEWN by my grandmother. Each of these pieces is held closed with snaps. Every piece has one or two snaps on it. Each sewn on by hand. Who DOES this anymore? Well I am sure I will one day….

This one I remember was never a favorite and may have actually belonged in my sister’s collection (so there were WAY more clothes than I am showing!), but I include it to show the great variety. Every scrap of cloth had the possibility to become something for a doll. And boots hat and purse? She thought of everything.

This was a favorite too. Something about the cape just finished it all off perfectly. Put on those tall boots and you are dressed to take on the world! Well maybe without the hat….

And just so dolly is covered day to night there is of course a bathrobe and a nightie. Was that bathrobe once a hand towel or a wash cloth? Grandma is not here to ask anymore but it sure would be fun to talk clothes.

And not just sewn doll clothes either. She KNITTED.

I saved the best for last. Does this not speak volumes? Did I not want to be an Angel? Well we were not allowed to watch that show but I knew they wore pant suits so but of course!

painting: elk

I am still busy painting and getting quite a lot done. I had some frames left over from my thrifting last year and have been hard at work thinking of appropriate scenes for each one. I like that it almost seems easier to paint a scene to fit a frame rather than find a frame that looks right with a finished painting!

The background is what the hills look like where I live.

holiday cooking

I made shortbread this year using this recipe at recipesource. I did not make any changes to it. I did roll out the dough to half an inch thick and then used a mini cookie cutter. I used one piece of red sugar for each eye. Cute, no?

I also made lime curd which turned out excellent. I used this recipe and the only thing I changed (except using limes instead of lemons) was I used egg yolks only and no whites. The resulting consistency is just like pudding. I made two batches; one batch makes just enough to fill the larger jar. Next year I would buy more of the smaller jars and give those away. That one large jar is a full stick of butter!

I almost forgot I also made rocky road with homemade marshmallows! I dipped them in melted chocolate and sprinkled with crushed cashews Very yummy!

small town life

We went to see the light display the city puts on every Christmas.

Usually theres a long waiting list for the carriage ride through the display but we got there early and were first in line.

If you look past the shoulder of the driver you will see two black horses. I really had to feel for the one in the left because her partner spent the whole ride trying to nudge her, and kept biting at her while she tried to avoid him but of course could not because they were both harnessed together. It seemed a little bit like having to work with the jerk at work (because theres always one), or else like a married couple who bickers endlessly and enjoys the routine. But I really felt some sympathy for the horse because she exuded disdain for her partner while he poke poke poked at her. It made the carriage ride extra jerky because she would start to run (to get away from him) while he would not and the driver had to keep them tightly reigned.

I am not sure how to use the night photo dial on my camera so could not speed up the light intake and all the lights did a bit of a dance because I was snapping photos while in motion.

And then I took more photos of the horses and is not that ghosty lady to the left kind of neat?

What is interesting about this photo is that everything seems to be in motion EXCEPT the horses.

paintings: tiger

I was so excited while looking through my old zoo photos to find this excellent pose of a tiger. I took the photo in 2004 at the San Francisco zoo, so I did a little sleuthing and imagine my disappointment to find this is not the (in)famous Tatiana, but her boyfriend Tony. Oh well. He’s still a beautiful tiger.

He’s in my etsy store now.

1-day-projects: tote bag

This is from a pdf pattern you can download from artsycraftybabe, I left off the button closure and wish I would have put it on. I had no interfacing remnants around, so I used quilt batting to give it a little bit of structure. And it will be able to go through the washer with no problem. Very cute, and took only a morning! Thanks, Janine, for the super cute bunny fabric!

1-day-projects: knit hat

I’ve been making hats in advance of Christmas, even though everyone I ask says no more hats are needed. I thrifted some lovely wool yarn that’s just enough for a hat, so I’m making hats regardless. The pattern is from knittingdaily.com. You have to sign up for their newsletter before they’ll let you see their free patterns, but I’ve been signed up for at least 6 months now and it seems pretty painless. They send a newsletter every day, with knitting tips and encouraging you to subscribe to their magazines–and I’m very tempted to subscribe, after seeing all the pretty things inside each issue. I haven’t done so yet, though.

I like this pattern because it’s reversible — both sides of the scarf look the same, and the hat can be turned inside out. The hat really is a 1-day-project, it takes most of a morning, but the scarf took me several mornings. I added the flower doodad to the hat (thanks, Lori, for doing the crochet) to dress it up a little, it’s not part of the downloadable pattern.

Very pretty on. Really, no one needs any hats????