after accomplishing "some" order, sorting through art supplies, paints, fabrics, laces, trims, buttons and embellishments, the creative itch kicked in stronger than ever.  

but the tidying continues.  as a matter of fact top dog has kicked into full gear putting order into closets (getting rid of lots), garage, filing cabinets, hard drives, photo albums, email messages and the piles and piles of paperwork that tends to accumulate on the dining room table. i am also trying to start lists again to make sense of where everything is going and sketching ideas rather than being all over the map creatively.

 so much seems to be going on of late.  invitations, travel plans, a soon to be move to a new home, the opportunity to garden again, an interview in the works and all the upcoming holiday preparations for which we finally bought and old time chu chu train.

mary stanley of art spirit had invited me to visit one of her shows up in santa barbara

which lead me to sign up for a weeklong workshop taking place in oaxaca come february.  10 women will travel to one of my favorite cities to share at casa colonial our idiosyncratic selves. i couldn't be more excited since i pick my workshops very carefully, having attended only three in my artistic life, one with susan tuttle , one with nina bagley and now one mary.  one remains....a lynne hoppe if and when she has one.  

these workshops are more about meeting kindred spirits, making new friends and creating human bonds as in the case of my deep deep regard for nina bagley whom i have come to love on so many levels.
above, is a portrait of her springer spaniel, the now famous walter that i recently painted as a christmas gift for her.

paint brushes used to paint walter

another recent friend encountered thanks to a common thread is 
lynn holland who has introduced me a whole new playfullness with fabrics and stitching

 as is the case with these long strips of mixed fabrics which roll up on a large wooden spool.

  or this bunny doll i made for a customer from australia living in saudi arabia.

my love of fabric is endless and i have recently delved into a little altered couture

over the top, i know, but so romantic yet boho, like me.

my latest sacred hearts, beaded and appliqued onto purple velvet

 i have also begun to play with beads and embellishments, especially in my religious fabric work which always seems to pick up at hslloween and for the day of the dead celebrations all through christmas.  the sacred heart, as you know, is one of my favorite subjects to work with.

 but my faces keep popping up and i scribble and doodle them and make them into brooches

i had intended this to be a longer post, with all the ins and outs of the goings on around here, but i am becoming more and more frustrated with the limitations of a new windows operating system, an ipad that is not good with blogger.  today, as i uploaded some photographs from my camera chip, a german photo program took it upon itself to do the job.just too weird.  i used to be able to blog in ten to fifteen minutes when i had a simple tower computer. 

one program i do love though on my ipad is snapseed.  for those of you who have one, i highly recommend it as a photo editing tool.  

as thursday approaches and the house prepares itself i leave you with a little clip from a great lettering book by jenny doh which sums it all up

Tristeza

Una semana devastadora para Estados Unidos. Una tragedia tras otra, muy muy doloroso ver las imagenes, mas doloroso preguntarse por que, para que? rabia para quienes lo han permitido o perpetrado.
He estado pegada a la tele. Pr. imero fue el dolor por la Argentina, tantas amigas a quienes adoro por alla. Y casi al mismo tiempo la muerte de un gran companero de curso a los 57. Ahora Aquí, cerquita donde mi papa fue professor de socilologia en Boston. A que hemos llegado, Dios mio?
Asi que una semana de mucha reflexion e introspeccion.
Y dentro de mi metro cuadrado, una que otra criatura que reemplaza a los idos

the silver lining with a touch of pink

tengo tanto que contar, me pasan cosas a diario que no tienen explicacion logica

como por ejemplo, el despertar de hoy con unas ansias de mover las cosas en mi pieza, darles nueva vida y significado, sacarlas a relucir, aprender de ellas.

 como les he contado anteriormente, casi todo lo que tengo es de segunda, incluyendo mi colleccion de medallas de plata que he ido comprando en chile y argentina cuando voy, ya van como cincuenta y las atesoro

siempre tengo algo natural en mi entorno, si no son las flores frescas, es algo de la playa
y hace tiempo que collecciono prendedores antiguos y reproducciones
nos los uso, salvo el ruso en forma de corazon, pero me
hacen sentir un no se que?

 a ver si adivinan cual es mi favorito.  no, no es el camafeo

 este paraguas de encaje lo encontre en el barrio rosas de santiago, hermoso.  no lo dejo abierto porque herede la supersticion de mi mami que traen mala suerte los paraguas abiertos dentro de la casa

 y va tan bien con este pendiente con pajarito esmaltado

 lo caro, lo herede de mi madre como esta cartera y la etiqueta para ron de plata fina

a ellas nunca las muevo por lo delicadas y fragiles

encaje siempre por dondequiera en  mi casa

mas medallas religiosas, estas en bronce y con mas color en una cajita encontrada en esa tienda de segunda

y de tanto objeto encontrado, me puse a hacer otra de mis munecas en asamblaje montada en madera ya que mi inspiracion creativa ha estado medio dormida ultimamente con tanto esfuerzo en mi tienda virtual y otros malabarismos que he tenido que hacer para mantener el buque a flote ahora que soy libre otra vez.

mientras hago mis piruetas, me acuerdo de mis amigas lucia y marcela y erika con tantos cambios en sus vidas y me uno a ellas de alguna forma dentro de la implacable distancia.

y manana a dedicarle un poco al piso de abajo donde el romanticismo da lugar a lo ecelectico

every cloud has a silver lining Interjection

no hay mal que por bien no venga, a fuerza de ir todo mal comienza por ir todo bien, la mayor oscuridad viene antes del amanecer; Synonyms: a blessing in disguise, it might turn out for the best, it's an ill wind that blows nobody good, pitch darkness is followed by dawn, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel, things happen for a good reason, when everything is going wrong try to do everything right

need i say more, that is my reality and i face it one day at a time

Feedsack art dolls and those of the Past

Feedsack art doll
Originally uploaded by peregrine blue

Staying busy with my hands. Made Quiche for lunch today and settled back into my craft room to create this art doll inspired by the latest Selvedge Magazine. I had picked up an old feedsack quilt years ago at a Thrift Store that needed tons of mending and then decided against it, awaiting the right time to disassemble and give new life to the squares. Hopefully she will begin to come alive and I will give birth to a family. I just love how she turned out.

Also continuing with the Real Estate venture in the Carolinas and possibly Northern California.