Poor, Poor, Pitiful Me - Or Not

I wrote that last post on Sunday night during the 1 1/2 hours we were connected but just posted it now because again...no internet. It's getting frustrating. And my Sophia is sick with a cold and fever. And I've got a cold. And that's not the way to attract good things so I'm gonna shut up.

My last picture from Sunday (last post) is of my play room, a place I love to be - where I can listen to music and make art to my heart's content. 

I have two very dear friends that live in the Tampa Bay area and I miss them horribly.We got together every month (at least) (before I moved) to have a play day. 

Back before Christmas, we made crowns (we are of course, Queens) (or at least Princesses) which we started at Davida's house and finished at Trish's where her wonderful hubby, Gary, took this picture.

I like to wear my crown when I'm in the play room because it just feels good. And, it makes me think of my buds whom I miss so much. I have to admit though, that there are times I feel a little foolish wearing it - like when I go out on the balcony to hang artwork to dry and there are 14 people passing by on the sidewalks looking at me. Gringo loco. I can just hear them thinking that. Or at night, when the light is on, I was pretty sure you could look into my windows from the street and see me where I'm working  so I took this picture the other night and yes...now I know that all those people passing by can definitely see me up there. 

But, I don't CARE. Much. I will though, limit my dancing to the back of the room.

I worked some more on the wallpaper technique from Beryl Taylor's book, Mixed Media Explorations. A couple posts ago, I'd loaded a couple pictures and then realized I wasn't finished yet. (Have you noticed I'm not real good at following instructions)? The last step was to add foil, which I did and here's what the finished (for now) pieces look like...

I

I like them both - a lot - but my "Let it Be" script is pretty much gone. And, when I peeled off the foil, it brought some of the wallpaper with it which left a few white spots but I just went back and touched them up with a bit of paint. May be that if I hadn't used textured wallpaper I wouldn't have had that problem. These pages will probably sit in my 'special' bin of surface designed fabrics and papers for awhile before I figure out what to do with them.


Down in the "Create Your Life" post, I showed you a picture of this quilt...(the one hanging on the gate balcony door)...

As you can see, I cut lots of strips of fabric to make this piece. (Beryl had me in a stripping mood) (Thank goodness they couldn't see that from the street). 

Again, I got out my special fabrics and specifically, those with Wonder Under already on them. I save every little bitty piece of it and will eventually stick it somewhere. 

After I finished what I'm going to do with this quilt - for now - I had a bunch of strips of fabric left over and didn't want to mess with putting them away so I decided to make some mini pieces and challenged myself to use only the left over strips. Here's what came of that project...

Don'tcha just love them?!? I had so much fun putting these together that you can't even imagine it. They're small - the longest one being about 8 x 15 inches so you can imagine how small the pieces were that I used. I love doing that! Using up all those little scraps and bits just makes me happy. I've free motion stitched a little bit on them but am no where near finished yet. Here's what some of them looked like before I started free motion stitching -

 
The thread work makes a big difference. I worked on them awhile today but stopped when a big horrible thunder storm came over the house. It knocked the electricity out for a couple hours and when it came back on, VOILA! I have internet. It might be the modem.

So. I have to tell you about our shopping experience yesterday. Jerry and I have been saying we're going to buy Sophia a pair of shoes for a month now and when she was at our house yesterday morning, we decided that it was the day to go shopping for them. 


We waited for Hillary to get home and then went to a mall called Junico and in the first store, we found a couple really cute pairs of shoes. When the sales lady tried to put one of them on Sophia's foot, she forced it a little (it was a tennis shoe) and that was the end of shoe shopping.


We left that store and went to the next, and the next, and the next, and the next...all to NO avail. Sophia repeated "I want my pink shoes", "I want my pink shoes" "I want my pink shoes"!!!! about 2 gazillion times. Here she is, shopping for lingerie, with her pink shoes on.

She would fuss and fume and kick and scream every time we tried to put another shoe on her foot and eventually every time we even tried to show her one. I explained to her that women needed at least ten pair of shoes in their closet and that this was good training for her but she just didn't want to get with the program.


So, we went to another mall with a better food court and had some lunch...thinking that would improve her shopping experience...and ours. After looking in every shoe shop there and with only one shoe store to go, she finally, FINALLY, saw a pair of shoes that she was willing to try on. 

I'd told her earlier that if she'd get a new pair of shoes, I could take her pink shoes to my house and fix them (because they're getting a little ragged). She must have remembered me saying that (I'd forgotten) because, while in this last store, she asked me if I'd fix her pink shoes. I assured her I would and lo and behold, the sales clerk brought out a pair of tennys with princesses on them and hearts that light up with every step. We scored!

She was delighted, and allowed us to put them on her feet (me on one side, Hillary on the other) and Mommy says she hasn't hardly taken them off since she got home yesterday! 


Here is a picture of her as we were leaving the mall...

I don't even want to think about what that fist was all about.