Monday, April 30, 2007


Spent a bit of time in the garden this weekend inbetween rain drops! Things are popping up so quickly! The daffodils are beautiful and new things are crawling up from under the dirt everyday...our favorite time of year. We clip, dig, move plants, watch the frogs and fish in the pond...there is a pair of cardinals hanging around, chipmonks and squirrels running around taking care of business!


Speaking of business, my goal is to have this message finished and the newsletter out by lunch! It is 7:30 am so that gives me a fair amount of time.We have wanted to get our Pock-A-Book Kits up...the name is a Rhode Islandeeze translation of the word "pocketbook". We have included lots of goodies in the kits for your creative enjoyment. To turn it into a shoulder bag, just snip off the wool handle and add a piece of ribbon or braided trim. If you just want a bag, you can add your own goodies. It is a perfect size for your phone, money, cc's and lip balm! This is very easy sewing!! No stress involved and if you are absolutely not a stitcher, the felt can be glued onto the bag.



The first time that I saw these cones, my brain went right to our charms and I saw families of cone girlz sprouting up all around the world! Now, they are finally up on the site so that you too can start your tribe! The images shown are characters made from the goodies in the kit, but you could go wild with your own creative fingers! I meant to make a little cone bag before this moment, but will put it on the list and share it with you. The solo cones are also available without all of the goodies. Like the bags, the wool is very easy to sew thru and the projects can be finished in a couple of hours. The details on the left show the rainbow hemp strung with beads and with a simple knot holding the beads. Stay tuned for more samples!!

Onto the newsletter details and hopefully sending them out thru cyber space!

Friday, April 27, 2007




The International Quilt Festival was filled with talented, interesting women, just looking, shopping and some doing their work in the "Virtual Studio" that was set up by
Pokey Bolton the fearless leader of Cloth Paper Scissors!
An area was set up behind the Make It University section of the show and
Julaine Lofquist-Birch
Kelli Perkins
Cheryl Prater
Deb Silva
Debbi Crane
Judy Coates Perez
Lesley Riley
Virginia Spiegel
were doing there magical creative things...It was very inspiring and energizing to see their work and them working! Took me a while to do this because I had to check out all of their blogs...well worth the time!
And Kelli Perkins had the best purple hair details and after seeing her paper beads, I have been trying it out myself! Thanks for the push! My sis, who is currently on a vacation of sorts, snatched up my new pile of paper beads and took them off to Florida to include in her long list of projects....see above!
Will be sending out a newsletter next week!

Friday, April 20, 2007


Greetings! Last week, we made it into Chicago just before the snow created havoc. Had a great class at Carolina Moon in Des Plains and did a little damage at Bodacious Beads that happens to be next door. It was there that we started down the road to 5 days of bad food. We started setting up our booth on Wednesday and finished up just in time to change our clothes on Thursday evening. We had a wonderful and somewhat exhausting time...teaching, demonstating...meeting new folks, seeing repeat customers from last year. We enjoyed seeing little things that people have made with our charms. Above is a piece done by Laura Melohn, and just below is another springy girl done by her mom Jane Melohn. Thanks!
Just checked my last post to see what I put up and found a comment from someone who left this great link! Betz White made this piece with felt beads and posted it on her blog. I believe that the person that led us to Betz was trying to describe the project to me in Chicago. If you have any interest in textiles, particularly felted wool, check out the work of Betz White! It is beautiful. We went right out and bought old wool sweaters!!




Below you can see photo from in Vanessa Feuillade, owner of Crafy-Ness in Caerphilly, South Wales (UK). They did a class with tags, felt flowers and charms and sent these photos of all of their work!! It is gratifying to know that the girlz are multiplying around the world!

















Tuesday, April 10, 2007

We leave for Chicago early tomorrow morning. Getting last minute goodies together...now packing the clothes...rumor has it that it is pretty cold in Chicago right now...tomorrow...wind, rain, snow and in the 30's....














All of these wonderful images are from Sandy Bartholomew owner of Wingdoodle - Studio Workshop & Gift Gallery, 19 E. Main Street, Warner, NH 03278. Sandy had a Party at the store and participants made little dolls and felt ATC's...Jen is pictured below with her Artgirl! Thanks for the great pics!

Thursday, April 05, 2007


Catching up again...almost feeling like we can take a breath before we get on the plane to go Chicago for the International Quilt Festival next Wednesday morning...Check out the Blog at Cloth Paper Scissors...We will be doing two Make and Takes on the show floor...

Thursday night 7-8 Artgirlz Bracelet


Saturday 3:30-4:30 Rubber Stamps



We will be teaching at Carolina Moon next Wed night, 1952 River Road in Des Plaines...you can call 847.297.9622 for information. We will be making little Artgirlz rubber stamp girlzzz. We are both looking forward to seeing this well known art spot!



Just a couple of things left From our trip to England...One of the participants had made and was wearing this lovely little don't panic pin...I am on the look out for her name! She was as wonderful as this little character!




Based on a memory of a beautiful piece done by designer Erikia Ghumm we did this project with 83 folks in England at the Card Fairy...


4.3
Meanwhile back at the ranch, a Mallard duck pair that landed in our pond on Tuesday morning, seemingly looking for a place to build a nice nest, feasted on all of the fish that had made it thru the winter...

We have all been sick around here, and I am happy to say that it seems like the germ population is finally heading out of here! We are checking off tasks that have been hanging around for far too long. Just have to tackle the last phase of my email list. Looking forward to our trip to Chicago where we will see lots of old friends and will no doubt meet new creative types! There was ice on the pond this morning...looking forward to above freezing!