Happy Halloween!

                                                                   

                                                                   " This one?"

A card, hand drawn and colored by my talented friend Elaine!

Hope everyone has a happy Halloween!!

Weekly Word

          F is for...

Flowers!

"Where flowers bloom, so does hope."

                                  Lady Bird Johnson

Have a great weekend!

Weekly Word

E is for...

Enjoy!!

It's the little things that make life sweet!

Have a lovely weekend!

  

Last Blooms of Summer

The weatherman is predicting heavy rain for tomorrow,

so I went out today and rescued the very last hydrangeas from my garden.

This little bud stood out in the middle of older, faded blooms,

and two new bushes decided to put out their very first blossoms

just as the season ended!

So many small miracles all around in nature -

new life springing up in unexpected places!

Creative Ways of Giving

It's Monday morning and Rosie and Angus say hello!

Saturday was a great day, sunny and breezy, perfect for a yard sale with my friend Debbie. Lately I've been going through my fabric stash, which is enormous - evaluating, paring down and even eliminating fabrics which I know I'll never use. I knew it would be painful to let these many rolled up pieces of fabric go, so I put them out with this sign and an empty vase:

It was gratifying to make some money for a good cause, and people enjoyed rummaging through the fabric and leaving a donation!

Then this morning I read about an fundraising event on my friend Sharon's blog, which I thought was a great idea - a church near her in Wisconsin had an Empty Bowl event to help feed the hungry. Local potters had donated hand thrown bowls, which attendees could purchase, fill with soup and sit down to a delicious dinner for a good cause. Read more about it on Sharon's blog or here.

And, finally, my friend Karen first alerted me to something called the Winter Warmth Project on her blog in September, after Hurricane Irene caused such devastating flooding in Vermont. This project is collecting quilts and fabrics for quilts for the families in Vermont who lost so much in the floods. You can read more about it here.

Oh, and I nearly forgot - I recently bought this book, which is a treasure chest of opportunities for making items to improve the lives of people around the world. There are suggestions, patterns and addresses throughout the book to make giving easy - coupled with the joy of making something useful for someone in need! 

I hope everyone who reads this is enjoying a beautiful Monday!!

Weekly Word

D is for...

A Beautiful Day for a 'Paint Out'!

Saturday was a beautiful day for the our town's last farmers market of the season.

It was also a day when local painters set up their easels in the park by the lake and had a "paint out".

My friend Pam, a wonderful artist, was one of the organizers and painters in the event.

As I walked along the lake, it was easy to spot most of the artists because of the red balloons tied to their easels. It was a pleasure to watch them paint, ask questions and find out more about each one.

Paintings by various artists were also displayed in shop windows along Main Street.

We're so fortunate to have such a lovely park by the lake in our town,

and it was great to see our talented local artists at work!

The committee who arranged this event did a wonderful job bringing attention

 to the arts in our community.

It was a beautiful morning!

Weekly Word

C is for...

Have a creative day!!

Uncle!!

Sometimes you just have to throw in the towel and turn your attention to something new!

The saga of this fabric picture pretty much parallels a situation I've been dealing with in my life and I now know it's time to back off and leave well enough alone.

"The Saddest Rose" by Judy H.

I was frustrated with someone I care about who will not accept help, although it is sorely needed.

(This is a person I've never mentioned here and who does not read my blog.)

In my frustration, I went to my fabric painting studio, aka my laundry room, and freely painted a "doodle" of a rose. I used Pebeo transparent fabric paint with water, looking for a "watercolor" effect. The watery paint created blurred edges as the color seeped into the absorbent fabric. I then ironed the fabric to set the color and outlined the shapes with a black fabric pen. I fused the piece to a thin craft batting and went over the black outlines with black machine stitching. The background needed something, so I used the black pen to make a dotted design. I then added more paint and the result was pretty bright, so I toned down the color when editing the photo on my computer. All of this work took place over several days. I am totally ugged (I just made up that word!) with the finished result and it will find its way to the bottom of a pile somewhere! 

I know I can't give up on people, but I'm finding out that, as with creative work, sometimes my efforts and persistent nudgings are just not helpful. The caring can continue, but I have to step back and accept that I can't control everything and everybody.

And so it goes...!

Thanks for reading. I'll be back on a brighter note tomorrow!

Just a thought!

Facing a challenging afternoon,

so I'm taping this photo to the dashboard of my car,

to remind myself of something I should remember

every day of my life!

Have a great Monday!!