Friday, July 14, 2006

All tied up



It's been a frustrating week. The first part of the week was focused with getting my son cleared for takeoff after his surgery. He has to keep the sling on another 3 weeks and can start physical therapy when he returns. One good thing ,if you can call it that was that I had to take him to the airport extra early to get him an aisle seat because he wouldn't be able to crawl over people to get in and out. As we are heading to the airport we find out that the new tunnel to the airport has been closed because the night before a giant piece of concrete fell off and killed someone. Needless to say instead of arriving 90 minutes early ( we left at 5:30 AM for a 7:30 flight) we got there 45 minutes early. If we had left at the usual time we would have missed the flight. So that was lucky Huh ?
The next day I spent sewing a custom order( very s l o w l y so as not to tax my machine.) Yesterday I cleaned up my sewing space and prepared to sew one of my cargo bags with a tutorial for this months whiplash!
I get it all figured out and lay out the first shot. My camera starts acting up. It will only take pictures in blazing sunlight and only if it feels like it . I arrange and rearrange the lights, the shot, try a tripod, and take 20 different shots of the materials neatly laid out and not one comes into focus, not one! So I'm not doing this months competition which really makes me sad because it has the best prizes! Now I not only need a new sewing machine, but a new camera as well.
This morning decided I needed some shopping therapy and I headed out to my favorite thrift shops and hit the jackpot! Someone who was very dapper back in the 70's cleaned out his closet and I scored some beautiful ties. If I hadn't have set myself a spending limit I would have come home with 30. There were so many beautiful ones. Silk, polyester and even corduroy. I also found an old damn troll doll dated 1977 which I need like I need a hole in my head but she was just 99 cents and perfect and she went well with all the 70's ties. I came home and took them all outside and managed to get shots of most of them but there were a few that no mater how many times I moved things or adjusted them they just wouldn't come out so you won't be able to see them all,but I've posted most of them on flicker. I love ties. My husband is an electronic engineer so he doesn't wear them to work. When my son made the High School Hockey team I was overjoyed since they wear ties on all game days. He enjoys it too and definitely has the best ties on the team. Now,with his injury it's doubtful he'll play this year. Even so I did find him one beautiful tie in the school colors today. I started collecting ties just because they were affordable and the fabrics are so beautiful. I started making small bags, wallets and ipod cases from them and selling them online. A while back I received a letter from a tie collector asking me not to cut up "perfectly good ties" I understand his argument. I still cut some up, but I try to look for ones that are snagged or stained. Some I hold for a while and then let go to good homes. It will take me a while to figure what will become of the rest . For now it makes me happy just to look at them.

Monday, July 10, 2006

Stress reducer


It might have worked, had my neighbors not gone away for the weekend and left their dog locked in the house to bark and howl for 45 minutes out of every hour. Their insensitivity towards their neighbors is only exceeded by their cruelty towards their dog. Since this is supposed to be my craft blog not my bitch and moan one, I will tell you that this reminds me of one of my first craft projects, a plaque I made for a local animal shelter I volunteered at as a teenager. It was made from a cross cut of fir and I burned into it this quote..... The more I see of dogs, the less I think of men.