today i……

1. mowed both the front and back yard in the wonderful South Carolina summer heat. . I somehow manged to get a big icky gash in my left foot. There are these weeds that grow in the back yard that have such thick woody stems that they make hard “stumps” when you mow over them…my foot slipped off the side of my fipflop and landed right on one. Much blood and owwiness followed. Now i am hobbling around like a granny. Grand.
2. Finished gnome curtains for back door. They were too short so i had to make them “tab top” curtains. I hate them. I am concidering giving up sewing because i obviously cannot sew even the SIMPLEST of projects without screwing up in some way. And i now remember WHY i was so happy to move the craft stuff to the upstairs room….trying to be creative with my insane kids swarming me is pretty much impossible, and completely crazy making. I am happy that Raven is home, but i miss my “studio space”. The things we sacrifice for our children…….i still have to finish up things for the apron swap and i dread not being able to do it in the solitude and peace of the craft room upstairs.
3. Made a “mini apron” for the little beast…he likes to “cook” with Big Daddy, and he asked for a McGyver apron just like his. I made a “prototype” out for some fun fabric i got thrifting ages ago, in order to figure out the right size and all. It’s cute, but he hates it, so i wasted all that time making it FOR NOTHING. Again, i think maybe i should just step away from the sewing machine.

4. Did various housework type activities, such as laundry, kitchen maintenence, picking up the 1000 toys that are everywhere.  Yet the house still looks horrid. Eric and Charlie are coming tomorrow and everything is a disaster. If only they could have been here last weekend when the house was sparkling and lovely.

So it was a busy day and i am so tired i could crawl in bed right now. But i must hobble around some more and try to make the place presentable for company. I know once they get here none of it will matter…but for now i am exhausted and cranky and ready to kick someone butt if they annoy me.

Being a housewife is FUN!

If you are ever looking to be overwhelmingly inspired, look not further than the blog of Ulla!

http://ullam.typepad.com/ullabenulla/

I am constantly amazed by the beauty i find there, and she is actually responsible for planting the notion of theatre dolls in my little head. She teaches a class called “Figural Paper Theatre”, and if i was not on the wrong coast, i would jump on a chance to learn from this amazingly talented woman!
Anyway, a while back, she had a picture posted on her blog that i fell in love with.

http://ullam.typepad.com/ullabenulla/2006/05/life_on_a_tight.html

Kind of like the Naughty Faeries, it moved me. I had to do something with it, so i used it for the forth and final doll for Bambi’s paperdoll swap. Meet Mary Poppins, Wild and Free…

Mary is another “theatre doll”. I am very happy with how she’s turned out. She is paper, lace, and pearls, and her skirt is a part of a thriftstore prom dress and starry ribbons from years ago when Big Daddy and i were handfasted. Her parasol is a cocktail parasol that my best friends brought back from a cruise they took…i painted it and embellished it with pearls.

Inside, she is ready to take flight! It’s her secret wish…
This will be one of the hardest dolls to let go of. Each one i make, i become more and more attached to! But i think it is better to let them go. When she flies away, I hope wherever she lands she’s loved very much.

it’s all gloomy outside today, drizzling rain and so hot and humid and nasty. A good day to do inside sort of activities like finally beginning to sew the gnome curtains for the kitchen….

I decided to bring the machine downstairs and work on the dining room table, because the warm yellow is so inspiring! I am really winging it with these curtains, they are really just fabric rectangles with unsewn tops where the rod-pocket-ish thing will go! And i realized that i have NO rods to hang the bloody things! So i stopped messing with them for now. I don’t want to finish the tops until i have rods so i can judge the length just right! Darn it. Craftus Interuptus! LOL! But it was great fun for a while…I was able to listen to alot of the new Ulrich Schnauss stuff that Beau hooked me up with (and is AMAZINGLY beautiful music!!! i love love love it!) …the little beast painted some great pictures while i sewed!

It’s not so bad, for a gloomy day!

I so wish my sad little camera took nicer photos, because i long to capture the way my newly-redone kitchen GLOWS! Especially in the morning…it’s just amazing!!! This is an area in our house that has been pretty much “dead space” for a VERY long time! And now is it completely alive, big bright and lively!

We are now actually EATING in the dining room! This morning was so lovely, with the little beast having his pancakes nad sausages for breakfast while i hung about with my coffee….such a simple every-day thing was the nicest part of my entire otherwise yucky day. I love the new space so much, and i feel very peaceful and happy being in it. It’s great therapy. The walls are very slowly getting stuff hung, and it’s looking so pretty. I REALLY should have taken “BEFORE” shots so ya’ll could see how VAST the difference is! It’s unreal! I just want to constantly be puttering around in there, baking and making my herbal-y concoctions!

I just have to say that Big Daddy is the greatest, most awesome-est cat in the world for doing so much hard and tedious work to re-vive that poor unloved space in our home. He really *IS* my own private MacGyver! My man is such a handy man! Ha ha ha ha ha!!!

Whoever said a good man is hard to find

Positively absolutely sure was blind
I’ve found the best man there ever was
Here’s just some of the things that my man does

Why he shakes my ashes, greases my grittle
Chimes my butter and he strokes my fiddle
My man is such a handy man (oh yes he is)

He threads my needle, creams my wheat
Heats my heater and he chops my meat
My man is such a handy man

Now I don’t care if you believe it or not
He’s so good to have around
And when my furnace gets too hot
He’s right there and turns my damper down

Why for everything he’s got a scheme
You oughta see that new stuff he uses on my machine
That man is such a handy man (he’s God’s gift girls)

Why he flaps my flapjacks, cleans off my table
Feeds my horses out in my stable
That man is such a handy man, mmm yeah

Sometimes he’s up long before the dawn
Busy trimmin’ the rough edges off my front lawn
Yeah that man is such a handy man

Why you know he never has a single word to say
No not while he’s working hard
And I wished that you could see the way
He handles my front yard

Yeah you know my ice don’t get a chance to melt away
Cause he sees that I get that fresh piece every day
My man, my man is such a handy man
And I ain’t kiddin’!

(Handy Man by Helen Humes)

Today just bites.

My best pals from Savannah set out this morning to come up for a belated birthday visit, but they ran into such terrible storming that they decided to turn around and go home rather than drive in those awful conditions. I don’t blame them! I would much rather they stay home and be safe!!! But, it’s always a serious bummer when something you look forward to so much falls through. I think Nature hates me today! The house is all tidy and prettied-up, i made a big batch of lemonade cookies, have mojitos ready to be sipped and meat marinating for a very yummy dinner…so i have that “all dressed up with nowhere to go” feeling. And i am bored!!! Boredom is not a usual occurance for me and i don’t like it!!!! It’s all rainy and gross outside and i am moping like a big old cry-baby. Blah.

But, enough of my whining!

Last night, i finished the third doll for the paper-doll swap…Naughty Faeries rear thier silly heads YET AGAIN!

She did not turn out exactly as i have imagined, because i had some problem
with the execution of the idea. I wanted her to be a ” Naughty Faerie
Theatre”, with her skirts as a kind of curtain framing the bad
faeriegirls underneath..

..the idea was to have a nice demure lady with
some serious cheekiness hidden inside! I think idea did sort of come
across, but not so much as i wanted. I fiddled with skirt/curtain
forever, and just could not get it “just so”. So, i finally just let
it go, and i AM happy with her for the most part, but i still have
that mildly disastified feeling that comes when you can’t get a piece
to look EXACTLY how you’d planned. Oh well. Learning to let go is a GOOD thing, right?

Another good thing is that yesterday, big daddy painted the little hanging shelf-thingie that i got a million years ago from the thrift store. It was baby blue, but now it’s pretty jade-ite green! He hung it in the kitchen and i put some of my teacups and teapots on it, and hung some vintage arons on it too. The yellow floral apron belonged my great-grandma, according to my mother, and the patchwork one was my grandma’s. I love them! My little apron collection just grows and grows

It occurs to me as i look a at this picture that it seems rather crooked…i assure you, it was the PHOTOGRAPHER’S error, NOT the hanger of the shelf. The shelf it perfectly level, very much UNLIKE said photographer! LOL!

So i have this long quiet sunday ahead and i am not too sure what to do with myself….i am not used to having everything DONE like this! No dishes to wash, no laundry to fold…. whatever shall i do???

I don’t know what it is is about the “naughty faerie’ antique postcard image that i love so much. But it has inspired me to make so many things with it over the past year! I guess those old nudie things must be muses of a sort. There’s a purse, soap, bath milk, and a fabric collage, and now, there’s potpourri!
i was comissioned to make some potpourri the other day. Can i just say how EXCITING that is??? To be COMSSIONED to do something that you love to do already? Wow! A certain someone had a thrifted dresser that perhaps had an infestation of stink-goblins residing in it, which is never, ever good. It was now my job to banish the stinkiness! Hurray! I live for this kind of thing!
So i had to take my agoraphobic, anti-social booty OUT of the house to shop for supplies. Which turned out to be a great day, for the most part, in spite of getting very stressed out about driving in Columbia. On a total whim, i stopped by my old friend Mia’s house to drop off a back-log of gifts that i have had piling up for her and her little girl. It was nice to see her, and fortunately she did not kill me for showing up unannounced, which is totally unlike me. (HA! SHOWING UP at ALL is unlike me! LOL) She had just inherited a bunch of ribbons and lace and stuff from her hub’s grandma, and she gave me a TON of ribbony-lacey goodness to play with. Thank you SO MUCH, Mia! You know it will all go to good use!
So then i got to pretend like my life is actuallly happening on the set of Practical Magic! I love that movie….that house….the garden….making all the wonderful herbal goodies and being all eccentric and kitchen-witchy…that is the life for me!!!!

I mixed up a big bowl of rosebuds and petals, chamomile, patchouli and lavender….added a few drops of rose oil, lavender-lemon verbena oil, rose geranium, violet and honeysuckle….and VIOLA, the Naughty Faeries have inspired me yet again. Naughty Faerie potpourri is born! It was so fun to make, from the VERY EMPOWERING drive into Columbia to get supplies (go ME! I CAN DRIVE in town! And i did not turn into a pillar of salt!) to the stirring of a big bowl of fragrant petals with my hands, filling the house with that grand garden-y scent that really sends me. I really really really hope the amazing Shanna enjoys it, and all the other Naughty Faerie goodies that are being sent her way. Itwas an absolute pleasure to make every single bit of it.

As for the rest of the weekend i need to buckle down and get my house shaped up…two of my very “BEST GAYS” (LOL) are coming up from sultry Savannah to see us sunday…wish they could have been here last wekend when Beau was here (and i MISS him terribly) but i am happy for the two of them to be here any time. I plan a nice long day of eating, drinking, laughing and merry-making in general….maybe i can even coax them into making some art wth me. I am working on the third doll for Bambi’s paper doll swap…since i am on the Naughty Faerie roll, this doll is actaully a tiny little “theatre” for the faeries. I am not 100% sure how to get the affect i invision, but i will post pictures as soon as i get her done.

i hope everyone has a fantastic and magical saturday, full of Naughty Faeries and NO stink-goblins! LOL!

I was up far, far too late last night, wrapping and tagging the new batches of soap…and i have STILL not finished! I had forgotten how time consuming that process was, and i have never made so much at once before. So i spent my entire evening in a pile of paper, ribbon, lace and buttons, playing dress-up with bars of soap, and i m STILL not done packaing them all!!!
The soap making process is one of my FAVORITES. I get an idea for a concept and it just grows and grows! I love standing over the stove, adding all the wonderful scents and herbs….i feel so kitchen witchy during that stage! I try to imagine that i am stirring in all kinds of fantastic magical properties, making a potion. I love how it makes the kitchen smell! Then the wrapping and embellishing. It’s kind of silly to spend so much time on something that is going to be torn off eventually, i guess. But it’s all part of the “enchantment” of the end product for me. I want it to look beautiful and smell wonderful and to make whoever gets it feel special and amazing and magical every time they use it. I guess in a way it *IS* kitchen witchery

Well, Beau has left and Big Daddy has gone back to work after a wonderful long weekend of eating, drinking and making VERY merry. The house seems so empty today! I hate that all my best friends live sooo far away, because i miss them so much all the time…but i guess if we could all hang out every day, it would not be FUN CONCENTRATE like it is when we get together for our semi-annual visits.

It was a very decandent weekend, tho’….i got a manicure and a pedicure for the first time. It was great fun! However, i was shocked that my sister, Beau and i suddenly turned into the Steel Magnolias as soon as we entered the nail salon! Is there something in the air of those joints that just FORCES a southern girl to gossip that way? If you don’t have anything nice to say, come sit by me! Sheesh. And i am not QUITE sure how i allowed myself to be talked into the DISGUSTING shade of hot pink polish that i find myself with today. Ugh. I love pink, but this shade borders on obscene.
Anyway, we did the ubiquitous home facial thing…

This time i added gardenias to the herbs, and it smelled AMAZING. Orange mint, lemon thyme, rosemary, pineapple sage, mallow, pansies, rose petals, lavender, pink yarrow and lemon verbena. My garden is great for this type of thing this year! I am so proud of my herbs!

Pretty much NO crafting happened over the weekend, just the making of Big Daddy’s father’s day present. He’s a big MacGyver fan, so he got the first season of “MacGyver” on DVD. I also made him an apron to match. Freezer paper stencils are the bomb!

Please NOTICE the super job of SPELLING i managed on this project. Sigh. I was so sure there was a “U” in MacGyver. I was wrong. OH well….it does lend that good old screwed up special touch of wonkiness that seems to plague all my crafts. Big Daddy seems to like it…in fact, he made another version of it to give to his OWN dad. LOL! All hail St. MacGyver! Needless to say, when Big Daddy made a MacGyver apron, he SPELLED it correctly.

Anyway!
I also have to show off the lovely goodie i recieved from the wonderful Shanna of Pink Rocket!

It’s a REALLY cute and VERY old ad for cookware, and i LOVE it! It is going up in the kitchen as soon as i get a good frame of it. It is so cute! thank you SO much for the thoughtful gift, Shanna! You are the coolest!:)

Today i have been trying to catch up on the huge laundry backlog, and i also have been making some soap. I just popped the first batch of Dirty Stayr soap out of the molds, and i am getting ready to whip up a batch of Naughty Faerie next. I love making soap…the whole kitchen smells like a garden right now! It is helping me not mope so much about everyone being gone today except me and the little beast. Also, my other best pals are coming up on Sunday, so i get one more fun day to look forward to! A guess a few days of quiet will be ok.

sigh.

Right now, we are right in the middle of our semi-annual Beau visit! Beau is one of my very very best friends, and used to be a roomate a few years back. He now lives far away in Georgia, so we don’t get to see each other as much as we’d like. Our birthdays are about a week apart,this time every year, we always get together for an extended vistit. I am so happy to have him here!

Traditionally, we always give him silly handmade gifts. This year, he recieved a parachute drop of “Dharma Products. We are all terrible LOST geeks. Beau got us addicted to LOST, so we thought ti would be funny to give him a Lost themed gift. We made a teeshirt and two pillowcases using freezer paper stencils, and printed labels for various other food items. We put it in a cooler and attached a Dharma “parachute”. Of course, much laugher was had.

We are having a grand old time, watching bad horror movies and Venture Bros., drinking too much wine and eating too much food. I have gotten very little crafting done, other than Big daddy’s Father’s day present, which i will post about tomorrow I have so much i need to be working on, but i am really enjoying this down time!

Now, back to the wine-drinking! I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

This has to be some of the TINIEST handstitiching i have ever seen. It’s worked onto a pillowcase that was in the box of my grandma’s stuff i got last week. The cross stiching is ONE THREAD! And it is just perfect on the back side too. I am amazed by these perfect, tiny little stitches. The pillowcase is pretty much ruined, but thankfully, the GOOD part is unstained. I willl most likely cut it off and frame it.

Here’s another example of her needlework! This embroidered tea towel is just about cutest thing i have ever seen!!!! I am going to hang it in our nice new YELLOW kitchen.