Category: Uncategorized

  • Sunday Weaver\’s Journal

    Sunday Weaver\’s Journal

    Today is weaving class. I am attaching the new warp to the old warp so I don\’t need to re-thread the heddles.




  • Sunday Weaver\’s Journal

    Sunday Weaver\’s Journal

    Today is weaving class. I am attaching the new warp to the old warp so I don\’t need to re-thread the heddles.




  • Sunday Box Talk: Hope and Etiquette

    It was the best of times,
    It was the worst of times,
    It was the age of wisdom,
    It was the age of foolishness,
    It was the epoch of belief,
    It was the epoch of incredulity,
    It was the season of light,
    It was the season of darkness,
    It was the spring of hope,
    It was the winter of despair,
    We had everything before us,
    We had nothing before us,
    We were all going direct to heaven,
    We were all going direct the other way…

    ~ Charles Dickens (1812-1870), A Tale of Two Cities

    As I embark on my journey of the next stage of my career, one of my companions is Richard Nelson Bolles and his book, What Color Is Your Parachute.  In it, his first argument is that the most important, and primary, thing to cultivate as a job searcher – and, really, a human being – is hope.  With hope, we have everything; without it, we have nothing and nowhere to go.

    One way to build it within ourselves is to remember that in any situation, there is always something, some part of it, over which we can exert control and assert our own power.  Doing so can restore our belief that we are the Captains of our own ships.
    I couldn\’t agree more.  After all, isn\’t this what we\’ve learnt in all our travels on the Artist\’s Way?  In fact, the theme for these essays, Sunday Box Talk, comes from Mr. Bolles\’ book The Three Boxes of Life, in which he proposes that we figure out what we have control over and rethink how we exercise that control. 
    It\’s a lesson many of us, myself included, must continue learning over and over.  But I am grateful to Mr. Bolles for his willingness to share of himself and his knowledge.  He has changed the world for millions of people and the world is a better place because of him.
    On the subject of Etiquette, I had the opportunity to work with another author recently.  They came on an emailing list I\’m part of and asked to appear on others\’ blogs in a blog tour promoting their book.  I emailed them and offered my blog, asking if we could do an exchange since I, too, have a book release coming up.
    To my startled eyes, I received an email reply:  \”I don\’t do blog posts anymore.\”
    Then why on earth would you ask for a blog post on another\’s blog, someone who does continue the effort to develop interesting content for readers and maintain a site for them to enjoy?
    Apparently, common sense isn\’t, so I\’ll say this for those of you out there who need to hear it (though, sadly, the ones who need to hear it probably aren\’t reading my humble words):  if you are out there looking for promotion, be prepared to return the favor.  The world is your oyster, my dear, but you must also give back to the sea.
    After all, we\’re all in this together.
    Happy Sunday, Dear Reader, and may you find Hope within your heart today and remember: you are loved.

  • A Writer In Her Library – Rainy Day Saturday

    It\’s a rainy day today, so I can\’t go in the garden and dig up the side plot to plan my broccoli, beans and cucumber.  ~pout~

    Instead, I thought I\’d share my three newest book acquisition (because, clearly, I need more books).  Two of them are related to job search, and the third is a craft book.

    The first one is What Color Is Your Parachute? A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers, 2013 Edition, by Richard Nelson Bolles.  It\’s an amazing book and I\’ve used it for years whenever I needed to tweak my career path.  I own a couple older version but I decided to get the new one because it\’s a complete revamping of the process, taking into account the new reality of social media and the internet.  I am rethinking my entire approach to this endeavor and we\’ll see what the next few months bring.

    The next one is The Artist\’s Way at Work: Riding the Dragon – Twelve Weeks to Creative Freedom, by Mark Bryan with Julia Cameron and Catherine Allen.  I\’ve wanted to play with this one for a while, since I\’ve worked with Cameron\’s other Artist\’s Way books.  I\’m excited to give this one a try.

    The final one is by Suzen Millodot and is a companion to one I already own, about Celtic Knots.  This one is Chinese Knots for Beaded Jewellery.  I used to do macrame and like the idea of getting back into it; I think it would be fun to experiment with some of the knots in this book either with jewelry or with contemporary patterns for plant hangers and bottle covers but with Chinese knots.

    What have you bought recently?

  • Round Like a Triangle

    Round Like a Triangle

    I decided to try a triangular box, with more or less successful results.  A couple challenges presented themselves:

    • 3\” triangles
    • the grid on the triangles themselves
    • getting the rectangles to match up with the triangles
    • edge stitch

    Taking them in order, the first issue is that the largest triangles I could find are 3\” on a side.  I checked the internet but that\’s the largest one available that I could see.

    I tried cutting the rectangular grids into a triangle, but the hypotenuse isn\’t supported enough and it\’s not straight.  It\’s like cutting a diagonal line across a piece of graph paper.

    Because the base is 3\”, the box is only 3\” in size.  I decided to start with the lid and make it small. It worked well, as you can see, but then I got the idea to make the base very tall as an experiment:

    I made the base much taller and I like how the base came out.  Unlike the square box, I made the base with the \”right\” side facing out, since the inside is so narrow.
    The next problem from a design standpoint is that the grid on the triangular pieces isn\’t square, it\’s successive triangles.  
    I decided to use a simple tent stitch on it, but it wasn\’t easy to make it even and cover the plastic evenly.

    The last two problems are part of each other.  The first was getting the rectangles I used for the sides to match up with the triangles.  It worked, sort of, but will take practice.  The second is what to use for the edges.  I used the edge stitching for the top of the box, pictured above.  For the bottom, I used simple overcast stitching.  The overcast stitching, which not as pretty, is much better to use for the project.

    In all, it\’s a successful experiment but I\’m not as happy with the box as I want to be.  I\’ll have to try it again and see what works better.

  • Sunday Box Talk: DON\’T THINK OF A PINK ELEPHANT!

    I had an epiphany.  You know that old children\’s fable, don\’t think of a pink elephant?  The first thing that pops into your mind is a pink elephant, right?  Don\’t think about it!  Don\’t think about that elephant.  Not possible, right?

    My name is Noony and I am a workaholic.  It\’s something I\’ve struggled with since a very young age.  I won\’t bore you with all the particulars, but I will say it\’s an incredibly socially-acceptable behavior because we appear to be so high functioning.  On a bender, people say, \”Wow, what a hard worker!  Did you know she was here when I left the office last night, and she was here before me this morning? Does she sleep under her desk?\”  Folks laugh and business goes on.  But work-life balance isn\’t just a feel-good phrase, it\’s a real issue.  And it\’s easy, remarkably easy, to get out of balance.

    There\’s hope for us, though.  As I struggle out of a down-cycle, I am reminded of the elephant.  It\’s not possible to not think of a pink elephant, right?

    The converse of that statement is also true:  THINK of a pink elephant.  The way to change what you\’re focusing on is to focus on something else.  If you cannot pull your mind out of something, simply focus on something different.  In my case, for example, I can set a timer and focus on my writing for 30 minutes.  I don\’t have to not think of a pink elephant.  In fact, my pink elephant can sit on my desk with me while I do it.

    Next time your pink elephant is trying to sit on your lap, why not make friends with her?  Elephants are long-lived, loyal, and smart.  They take care of their families and visit their dead.  They are ferocious with enemies but tender with their children.  Just point her at what you want to focus on and see if she\’ll help you.

  • Sunday Box Talk: DON\’T THINK OF A PINK ELEPHANT!

    I had an epiphany.  You know that old children\’s fable, don\’t think of a pink elephant?  The first thing that pops into your mind is a pink elephant, right?  Don\’t think about it!  Don\’t think about that elephant.  Not possible, right?

    My name is Noony and I am a workaholic.  It\’s something I\’ve struggled with since a very young age.  I won\’t bore you with all the particulars, but I will say it\’s an incredibly socially-acceptable behavior because we appear to be so high functioning.  On a bender, people say, \”Wow, what a hard worker!  Did you know she was here when I left the office last night, and she was here before me this morning? Does she sleep under her desk?\”  Folks laugh and business goes on.  But work-life balance isn\’t just a feel-good phrase, it\’s a real issue.  And it\’s easy, remarkably easy, to get out of balance.

    There\’s hope for us, though.  As I struggle out of a down-cycle, I am reminded of the elephant.  It\’s not possible to not think of a pink elephant, right?

    The converse of that statement is also true:  THINK of a pink elephant.  The way to change what you\’re focusing on is to focus on something else.  If you cannot pull your mind out of something, simply focus on something different.  In my case, for example, I can set a timer and focus on my writing for 30 minutes.  I don\’t have to not think of a pink elephant.  In fact, my pink elephant can sit on my desk with me while I do it.

    Next time your pink elephant is trying to sit on your lap, why not make friends with her?  Elephants are long-lived, loyal, and smart.  They take care of their families and visit their dead.  They are ferocious with enemies but tender with their children.  Just point her at what you want to focus on and see if she\’ll help you.

  • Saturday Stroll

    Michael and I ant to Tom Thumb today to pick up some airplane dope for his balsa model. I tried to find some crewel thread but they didn\’t have any. I did find a book on Temari by Barbara B. Suess. I also pick up some plastic triangles and hexagons to make boxes with and some new Origami paper.

    What are you doing this weekend?

  • Saturday Check-In

    It\’s official!  Rachel and I got the final approved copy for TIGER TIGER.  It is available for pre-order at the Samhain bookstore.  I\’m very excited.  The official release date is July 23rd.

    Rachel and I are both Tauruses, and our birthdays were a couple weeks ago.  We had a lot of fun and are working on a new story together.  It\’s a novel called BOUND and we\’re almost done; we\’ll submit it at the end of this month so stay tuned and keep your fingers cross.

    Next up is EMERALD KEEP, the sequel to EMERALD FIRE.  Our Persis universe is dear to our hearts and we\’re having a lot of fun with this one.  KEEP is full of intrigue and politics and we get to meet some more Shiners.  We also plan to submit a short to this year\’s charity call.  The theme is men in uniform so we decided to try a short with one of the Seekers, the law men on Persis.  We\’ll see what they say.

    I hope your Saturday is going well and that you get to enjoy some of this lovely Spring weather.  We planted the gardens at the Beehive and will be putting in more plants today.  We found out that mint is a rat repellant so we have more mint to put in the main bed, in addition to the tea garden.  I\’m very excited.

    We decided to go round this year and put the flowers in the circular containers.  I have more flowers to plant so the rectangle still may get some use, but I like this look for the flowers.  I may have to move the crate, though, since I usually put the head of the hammock there.

    This is the main raised bed.  For those of you who haven\’t been following my Gardens at the Beehive posts, this is a ten foot by five foot raised bed, twelve inches deep.  I built it about 10 years ago with 4×6 treated wood and a 2 inch bedding of gravel on the bottom on top of a plastic sheet.  We had 9 tons of dirt and compost delivered and each year I add about 3 cubic feet of new material to bolster the nutrients.

    When we plant, we cordon off square feet with kitchen twine so we can apportion the plants well.  Each of the tomatoes take about 3 to 4 square feet, though we put smaller plants around their feet – marigolds and lovage, this year.  The lovage grows tall so that\’s the center seedling in the foreground.

    This year, we planted tomatoes, chocolate pepper, several species of basil and have chard and mint still to go in.

    This is our corner flower garden.  We didn\’t find snapdragons this year, sadly, but have many johnnie-jump-ups and pansies.  I have more flowers to plant and rearrange before I\’m done, but this is a start.

    What Spring projects are you working on?

  • The Return of the Rug

    The Return of the Rug

    No, silly, not THAT kind of rug!  A latch hook rug!

    Wild Wings, from Herrschners.  They have an incredible selection of kits and supplies for crafters, including some fantastic latch hook rugs that aren\’t cheesy ridiculousities.  This lovely piece was my birthday present this year and I\’m having a ball working it.  It\’s huge!

    My kid is tall, all six feet of him, and it nearly stretches to his knees!  I can\’t wait til this beauty is done.

    One of the things that impressed me is that the project comes in its own plastic zipper case, like one you\’d buy a pillow or feather comforter in.  Each of the colors are in their own pouch, clearly marked with the colors.  The yarn is acrylic and very soft.  Makes me want to walk on it in bare feet.

    The kits do not come with a latch hook; however, you can easily purchase one from Herrschners.  I, however, found my original one from 25 years ago, made by Brunswick in England.  I love it; it\’s good quality and feels good in the hand.

    I can\’t wait to report my progress.  I\’ve got about 2 inches done so far.  This will be a fun summer project, especially when it gets too warm to knit.

  • Round Is the New Square

    Round Is the New Square

    Chapter Two in the Great Box Experiment is underway with… drum roll please… a round box!

    The first challenge is to find round plastic disks to work with.  Fortunately for me, I\’ve used them many times before.

    But, apparently, I didn\’t read the instructions ver well because the first disk I made is an inch and a half bigger than the pattern.  Uhps!

    The round box is a lot of fun to make because has a liner inside the box and under the lid.  I used an edge stitch around the lid, but the directions call for overcasting but I used an edge stitch, which is prettier but bulkier.  This means the lid is a little too big.

    Maybe I should try reading the instructions, eh?

    I took a picture of the box but it\’s hard to see how small it is; here\’s another shot next to my ballpoint pen so you can see it.

    If you set the lid on top, you can\’t really tell that it\’s too big, but the inside lip of the lid doesn\’t really fit inside the piece below it.  I think there\’s two problems at work here:  first, I used a 4.5 inch diameter disc and cut it down to 3 inches; and second, the stitching is too thick for the lid.  In the next attempt, I\’ll make a new base for this lid and a new lid for this box.

    The underside of the lid is pretty too; this is a second piece embroidered and then attached to the top.

    Here\’s the piece with the lining removed so you can see all the parts.

    And finally, a close-up of the lining back inside the box.

    I had a lot of fun with this one.  My inner critic is jumping up and down because it doesn\’t fit correctly, but that\’s okay.  My inner critic doesn\’t get a vote.

    What do you want to make next?

  • Needlepoint Box

    Needlepoint Box

    I have written before about fabric boxes.  If you\’re curious, there are four other articles here:  One, Two, Three, and Four.  I am enthralled by boxes, be they polymer clay, needlepoint, or wood.  Recently I decided to revisit the boxes of Meg Evans, which I\’ve made before.  This time I decided to play with her exact design.  And therein started the problems.

    Hand-Stitched Boxes:  Plastic Canvas, Cross Stitch, Embroidery, Patchwork, by Meg Evans

    Ms. Evans\’ book is a delight.  She has instructions for many different types of boxes, including some fun ones that fall open in a sort of puzzle-like fashion that I\’m dying to make.  They\’re above my skills, and then it hit me: practice!

    I bought supplies to make all the easy boxes with the exception of the kleenex box covers, since I\’m not  a huge fan of them.  I started with the square box since I\’ve made it before.  How hard could it be, right?

    This is the beginning of the design.  It uses crewel wool and pearl cotton, held double.  I had fun working out the cover and then started doing the central diamond.

    Only one problem: I misread the instructions and was supposed to do a square 30 bars wide, but I cut it 30 squares wide.  By the time I caught it, it was too late to fix it without taking the entire thing apart.  

    I figured, to heck with it, I\’d just finish the top.  In the image below, the top is along the top row, on the right.

    Then I started working the bottom piece.  This time, I added two extra lines of ivory squares to make up for the mistake in cutting the boxes too large.
    I finished the design and realized that I\’d forgotten to put in the center squares on two of the parts of the diamond.

    I worked the walls of the bottom piece last and laid them out so you can see the design.

    It sewed up fairly quickly.  Here it is with the first wall up.

    As I finished the rest of the sides, I realized something.  You can see it in the image below.  There\’s a little face!

    I showed this to a friend of mine and she said it looks like a little cat face.  I think it looks like a little robot.

    I used the dark blue to finish the top of the bottom part of the box as well as the edging along the top.  It came out quite striking, especially when you see both pieces side-by-side.

    This is the completed box put together.  
    I learned a lot from this project, but nothing I expected.  I don\’t really have a better idea of how to put the complicated boxes together, but I learned to accept my mistakes and keep going.  The only part I took out was the one side I put on too tightly; the rest of it, I let stand because it made the box unique.
    See, here\’s the thing:  I do this to relax, not to make perfect boxes.  I don\’t need to do make a box exactly like the instructions, I can play around with it.