Dixie's Dragon

trade goodies and finished projects

I received a package from Toni of Simple Sparrow this Saturday. Looky, looky what she sent - chocolate bar (which is now hidden), yummy felt, a crocheted posie all wrapped up in a terrific little bag. Thanks Toni. Toni is soon to open an on-line store so be sure to check out all of her goodies.

Apart from being the weekend prior to Halloween, this was the weekend of birthdays for my daughter's two best pals and my grandmother. We hurried and scurried from party to party so not much time was left for crafting. Delaney and I did have a girls slumber party Friday night while Shaun was at his poker game. We put the air mattress in the den in front of the fireplace and cuddled up, ate cookies, watched scary movies and finally went to sleep.

I did finish this felted bag . It has a reinforced bottom so that it doesn't lose it's shape. I have also learned to make the straps a little shorter than desired since they have a tendency to stretch over time. I don't clip or weave in my threads so that after felting I have these kooky little felted threads for use in my covered buttons. I lined it with some uber perky K. Fassett fabric with an coordinating inner pocket in  Amy Butler pocket with vintage buttons.

Here's my little helper, the cat that no one sees but me. We have had this cat, Peep (supposed to be Marlow but I call him Peep because he's always chirping and peeping) since June. He was a feral rescue and he has thus far has only warmed up to me. He comes out of his hidey-hole when everyone else is gone and follows me around like a little dog. Each day his boldness grows a speck so hopefully he will be seen and heard by others by Spring. Otherwise, I think that others may think he is totally a  pigment of my hallucination.

A reliable family salve

Has anyone tried this wonderful salve?  I have tried every type of hand creme/salve from kukui nut oil, Paula Begoun, benefit, to neutrogena and this is my favorite. To boot it's lightly rose scented has a portable container and is inexpensive. With Winter on the way, it's worth a try.

aix de les bains

This weeks clip art sampler from Dover had some interesting bits and pieces including this:

red doors

At 6 a.m. it was pitch black and the sky was so clear that I could see every constellation. I am not one of those who hates getting up in the dark, in fact I really like the dark morning walks. (especially since it means that I can wear my pajamas and  no one can tell). Then there's home to hot coffee. Here is the view from my walk in. Those are my purple bat gargoyles for Halloween framed by my cold breath.

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My dahlias have had a wonderful fall, in fact, I think they have bloomed more copiously since the weather got colder. I don't know much about dahlias, Shaun brought them home thinking they were zinnias. My sweet Delaney brought this one in for me.

tagged

I just got tagged by Toni at Simple Sparrow to list 5 women, well known or not, that inspire me creatively. Not as easy as it seems, but here they are:

1. Martha Stewart (a given)
2. My friend Rana - I am inspired by her immense confidence in herself. She's not scared of nuthin and won't let me sit around not trying.
3.My friend Nelliebell, who inspires me to be myself no matter how dorky I am. She also inspires me to pursue my interest since she pursues her every whim of an interest. She got interested in what was in the river by her house and bought herself a whole load of microscopes from eBay so that she could take a closer look.
4. My daughter whose creativity is absolutely unharnessed.
5. My fellow bloggers, collectively as a group, you know who you are...(Toni, Linda, Cassi, Mariko to name a few.)

Now I am tagging Linda at Daisy Dinosaur

catching up

It never fails that my camera goes wonky on Mondays and Tuesdays so that I miss self portrait Tuesday. Hmmm.

Okay so I know that I am not capable of Cassi's crafting feats at      Bella Dia, but I needed a pincushion so  I made this little fellow on Sunday. The edges are not quite as I desired, but I was somewhat pleased with my first attempt. I found that using tweazers to insert the stuffing as depicted in the Japanese craft mags really does work well. The coffee mug and book end are intended to distract your eyes so that you won't focus on the edges for too long.

  I also made a pretty nifty tote bag for myself. I am always schleping knitting, lunch, water, datebook, etc. when I go to the office to work and decided if I was going to schlep I was going to schlep in style. I like the zebra straps the best, the are nice and sturdy and saved me from making the straps myself. It looks a bit bulbous, but that is because it is full of knitting projects.

More ebay boo-tay

After watching several batches of Kaffe Fassett fabric sell for more than the retail price at Hancock's of P, I was surprised to find that I won four yards (one of each) of this batch for $13.00:

Whenever I have a bad cold as I do now, I wake up for several hours in the middle of the night, which makes for great uninterrupted blog-surfing, but a droopy next day. I like to solve problems, and decided that I was going to methodically go through the back tack II participants and figure out who my buddy is. I have some ideas...

Cannonsburgh

Like many other Nashville area knitters, my friend April (the craft supply packrat) and I headed out bright and early headed out to the Cannonsburgh Harvest Fest. For a very colorful account of the affair check out Angela's post at Nashville SNB . There were lots of "Krafts" like quilted casserole covers and homemade sunbonnets of some nefarious cloth, not cotton. The food concessions the profits of which benefitted the Prison ministry were very inexpensive leaving me to wonder how much actual meat was in the burgers and chili, or worse perhaps that the food came directly from the prison.   However, the wool area was divine. We wandered around for a couple of hours mesmerized by the buckets and bins of fleece and roving.

Some hand dyed yarn:

and my favorites, Angora bunnies. Aren't their ears precious?

oh gasp

When perusing    Sky Blue Pink  (all my collaging friends should check it out)  I came across a link to this fabulous website: World Wide Words . What fun!

trade trade lemonade

I was inspired by Bella Dia to purchase this wonderful book:

Somehow after buying one for myself and one for Linda, my vintage swap partner, I ended up with a third one. Anybody want to trade for it? Email if you do...

back tack out the door and Friday favorite

Yipppppeeeeeee. Back Tack II is shipping off today. I feel free and easy. Here is a sneak peek a roo.

I won some groovy metal cannisters on ebay a few days ago at a great price. Aren't they cool? I can't decide to put them in the kitchen or use them for storage in my office/craft room. Hmmmm.

In the wake of my back tack project, I have to start my vintage stocking swap project. I bought part of the materials yesterday and want to get cracking. Ms. Robyn of Daily Parcels is the host and my recipient. (another high profile swappee for me, which means I have to perform crafting feats of great creativity and design). She is a prolific blogger, and has maintained her pace while preparing for her daughter's wedding. Egads. She was blog surfing yesterday, the day before the nups.

Anyhoo, on to Friday favorites. My Friday Favorite is my husband. Like me, he is a huge nerd and game for anything, he is super intelligent, very boylike yet can braid Delaney's hair perfectly, he can fix anything and is a superb baker, plus he always makes me laugh. To boot, he is pretty darn cute.  Here he is being the good sport that he always is...

Music and Molasses Festival

A little late reporting on this, but on Saturday, the Carrigan clan all clad in Halloween t-shirts attended the Music and Molasses Festival at the Ellington Agricultural Center in Nashville. It exceeded our every expectation. There were civil war encampments set up;  complete with re-enactors and food cooking in black iron pots over campfires; an injured wildlife recovery booth with healing owls and hawks and one very noisy crow named Waldo; antiques, kettle corn (alot like carmel corn), fried pies, lemonade, real iced tea (my southern friends will know what I am talking about); bluegrass music, plant booths,and cloggers. The Ellington Ag Center includes a clearing with some ancient cabins that have been restored in and around these were "camps" of re enactors spinning, weaving, blacksmithing, candlemaking , washing (yes, washing) and soapmaking. There were wagon rides pulled by massive farm mules and herding dogs showing off their skills working sheep and ducks. I could go on and on.

Here are the cloggers, the Stone Mountain Stompers, if I recall correctly. Clogging attire is quite amusing, I think:

Here is a glorious example of love lies bleeding. The plant was seeding and the nice woman at this booth put some seeds in a baggie for me so that hopefully one day my love will lie bleeding like this:

Here is Delaney working the loom (her favorite thing, a second even to candlemaking) and working the washboard and wringer:

Here is Shaun by the camp where lye soap was being made, you will note the period appropriate clothesline in the background.

and the soap-maker himself:

Last of all, here I am holding a batch of llama yarn. The nice lady behind me taught me how to crochet while I was there:

Loads of fun. Anyhoo, I have been furiously trying to finish my backtack project and have promised myself that it will be posted tomorrow.

pumpkin time

I was reminded of a wonderful Halloween site when visiting Not Martha this morning: Extreme Pumpkins . Hilarious and ultra creative carved pumpkins. Here is my fave:

Vintage Swap Goodies

I received my HUGE Vintage Swap package on Saturday. Linda from Daisy Dinosaur was my partner. Thank you Linda. It was if she read my mind or as if she had known me for years. Here was the package prior to being torn asunder:

In this glorious package were pink gingham boxes wrapped with pale blue polka dot ribbon. Each package had a handmade vintage card with a little note. I received vintage buttons, vintage glass beads which were housed in precious little glass bottles with silver tops. A lovely pink cookbook dated 1964 entitled Spice and Savour. Knitting, stitchcraft and felted toys booklets, a beautiful round table linen, a mod dishcloth, lace hankies. A cool mod potholder, a swanky orange and brown apron and a nice huge chunk of flowered barkcloth. Let's not forget the 70's necklace, the bath yummies from l'occitane, the cool, cool, cool, plastic bag holder (I needed this soooo badly), vintage trim and ribbon. Oh and also two lovely glass pieces that I will use on my dressing table to hold jewelry. And candy (or as Linda calls it lollies) for Delaney.

This is the nicest most thoughtful gift that I have ever received, truly. The most thoughtful is the last pic posted: a vintage pin that looks like a cat or maybe a dragon. (See, I got the name for my website sitting at my computer one day and noticing that while my cat was sitting on my keyboard purring and distracting me his little stripped tail with its kinks and parts looked kind of like a dragon's tail) The photos are out of focus and I can't seem to fix it. I couldn't delay displaying these wonderful vintage treats any further. Here are the photos:

So, how lucky am I? One other thing... As a lawyer I am a rule follower, I never even speed, ever. So when the Vintage swap rule said use an 8 x 11 mailing envelope as your receptacle, I did. I collected tons of stuff, and could only cram so much into the mailing envelope. My perusal of other Vintage swap blogs leads me to believe that I was the only one who foolishly stuck to the size guidelines. Poor Linda. Never fear, I'm a gonna cheat now. Linda will be receiving the rest of her vintage boo-tay.

Forgot this pic:

old cookbooks and cupcake cups

I treated myself to a copy of Readymade magazine last night and discovered two wonderful things. The first is a delightful website Old Cookbooks that has tons of vintage cookbooks for sale. They have some vintage china and sundry cookware, but it appears to be a newish website so I have great hopes for a more abundant array of vintage goodies. Some of my faves:

I bet it tells you to great your husband when he returns from work wearing a fresh house dress with a martini in hand. Then there is this one, that puzzled me a bit. Is there really a need for students to learn the various uses of unflavored gelatin?

This one makes a bit more sense, plus the cover is really cool:

Lastly, this one wins the clever cover award. Might have to add this one to my collection:

This product is a triumph. Reusable cupcake cups - oh Joy!!! Available at Kaiser Bakeware. They are called Kaisercups and I want them.

Progress on the felted bag. This is post washing, but not yet dry. I plan to line it using some of my new Kaffe Fasset fabric stash. I'm thinking of adding feet too, mostly to help it keep its shape. And yes, I will clip that piece of yarn that you see hanging in the inside.

and my next felted bag project. All I have to do is work the I-chord handle and she's ready for felting.

Have a good weekend, we are off to a pioneer type festival...

fabric yum and friday favorite

The mail was a disappointment yesterday, but then to my surprise, the fed ex man showed up with a package of fabric. I had accidently selected fed ex as the shipping method and received these goodies before I anticipated. Just in time for weekend sewing.

 

                               

I also finished up this soon to be felted bucket bag in lovely fall colors.

Enough cats, huh, today's Friday Favorite is something that I look at every day and smile .My office walls! The walls are painted in a Martha Stewart color named Fennel Frond and the ceiling is Spring Melt.  (One of my dream jobs would be as a  paint color or nail polish color namer - Today, if I were a nail color I would be...). Anyhoo, I plastered the walls facing me with these wonderful polka dot decals from Modern Seed named "dottilicous".
Pardon the somewhat dreary picture, my camera is on the fritz and when I went to take a do-over it told me it suffered a fatal error, so this is the best I can do:

And today, if I were a fabric I would be this: What would you be?

paper dolls

I got tickled when I received my Dover design sampler this week. Kennedy clip art. For real!

if I were a fabric....

today, if I were a fabric, I would be this:

I received my Hancock's of Paducah fabric catalogue and had heart palpitations looking at it. The prices are the most favorable that I have seen on-line and the collection includes everything you could possibly desire by way of quilting and crafting fabric.

I also saw these cute little lollipops that seems to me would be great to have on hand for  this and that - potential cupcake pics perhaps? The are available at the Candy Warehouse along with some pretty intense and gross Extreme Candy

devils and fool's gold

These are fun and seasonally appropriate - Devil pics from Plum Party:

I snagged some iron pyrite at a bead show on Friday and came up with this necklace:
I couldn't resist making something out of fool's gold. The color is very intereting kind of a gold-olive and looks nice against the mother of pearl and brass vintage button clasp.

I finished the bag proper from Back Tack II. Yea! I am  very satisfied and now only lack the accoutrements.

friday favorites

Cats, all cats, big cats, small cats, orange cats, black cats, white cats, my cats and your cats. I have never met a cat that I did not like. While these are not my cats displayed below and I was not the photographer of this particular photo, I have verified that no cats were injured or annoyed during the staging of this scene.

S'posin'a ghost ran after yoo-oo-oo

Organic pop tarts are healthy, right? If they are not, don't tell me because I am enjoying my daily pop tart and coffee while blogging and think that I will continue the fine habit. When I worked full time (or super full time, actually) I used to crave an hour or maybe two just to putz around in my craft closet. Now, I feel cheated if I don't get a full day of crafting in at least once a week. My my how times have changed.

These jumbo beads arrived yesterday and I just love them. They are a bit heavy for jewelry, but I can see them as pulls for blinds or parts of tassels. Until the appropriate use arrives I think that I will put them in a silver bowl and let them be a thing of beauty unto themselves.

Halloween is a big event at our house. Preparations begin promptly on October 1. Sorting through our troves of lights, rats, bats, gravestones, skeleton parts and skulls if first. Once we have the house proper decorated, we install our graveyard in our front yard. This weekend is graveyard duty for Shaun (after the ceremonious last grass mowing of the season). My job is the inside of the house and making sure that our daughter is appropriately excited about the impending holiday. I received these dandy little clip art cards for Halloween from my Dover weekly sampler:

They are available here.  I also liked these little vintage clippies:

Grumpy Cat in my office

While waiting for new beads to arrive, I decided to start a paper project. I went to Visipix and downloaded and printed this wonderful cat print; arranged it on some lovely paper aquired at Paper Source; placed it in a picture frame that I bought for $2.50 and painted; and Voila! Instant art work. Visipix is an amazing site that has thousands and thousands of fine art and photographic images. Also, check out Meggiecat's blog entry which includes a reference to the University of Wisconsin's Library for Decorative Arts and Material Culture.Lovely!

Incarnadine

incarnadine (in-KATH-NIH-Dun) adjective

   Flesh-colored; blood-red.

I finished my back tack project, but am not satisfied with the result, so it is going to be back tack II take 2 for me. Oh well. I also finished my Vintage Swap package and posted it off to Linda in Australia. That said, my new back tack project starts today and obviously I cannot post about it.

I scored a fabulous reference book at the thrift store on Friday: Good Housekeeping: New Complete Book of Needlecraft, 1959. Updated in 1971, it includes basics and projects from sewing, knitting to hook rugs and curtains. Just love it. The reference drawings are extremely simple to understand and all for $2.50. Thank goodness they have a pattern for this jacket, because my husband has been asking for one of these for ages.

And this one, I think, I will make for myself. Hopefully wearing a big daisy tent dress will incite me to sport a come hither look just like the model. and how could I not if my husband was lurking about in his smoking jacket?

Unlike me, my daughter is not a plain white tshirt girl. I cannot seem to avoid stocking upon white tshirts for her as well as me. I made a quick attempt to transform one of her tees by embellishing it with simple posies. I cut out circles of fabric and folded them in half and used a running stitch to sew the edges together, then I simply smushed them flat and added a few beads.