my creative mess & a critter tale

OK!
since Allison Aller has shown her mess & given the link to Alma Stoller, http://almastoller.typepad.com/almastoller/mastoller.typepad.com/almastoller/ .
who has challenged all of us to show our creativity storms.
I am posting pics of my own mess, which surprisingly enough isn't so messy.
Here is my room from the door looking north

the corner leading to my "Closet" looking out from the closet

the west wall with all my rulers, skiving pictures & shelf stuffmy sewing table.
I had to clean it up a bit to move it around some & make it easy for the DH to get out the window to fix the roof before we had bigger problems than a little leak in my DS's room.
not to mention replacing tiles where a raccoon was trying to get into the eaves.
pesky critter!
I was up late one night sewing to the light of my Machine & looked out the window to see this very FAT raccoon digging up tile outside the window!

so I yelled at it, & It HISSED at me!
Cheeky Bugger!
I then flapped my hands at it to shoo it off the roof,
it turned it's back on me & went back to digging up the tiles!
That's when I decided, I had enough of this sort of behavior.
Bad enough, to get that sort of thing from the DD's & DS, I was not taking it from a Raccoon!
so I threw my shoe at it.

& missed. Crap!
so I threw the other shoe at it.
Gotcha!
right in the tush! ha! take that wild kingdom!
(run around the room with hands in the air, yelling YES!)

Flora, the fearless raccoon chaser!
( hear queens-we are the champions in the background!)
any how I got rid of the critter.
we fixed the the problem & put new tiles down on the roof.


now back to that messy fun stuff,
the press by the couch, where I put all my works in progress. makes it easy to clean, just shut the lid!

one of the chests of drawers I keep my larger stash in
2nd drawer is full of "after 5" fabrics
I've also got drawers full of velvet, gauzy & meshy, eyelet & muslin, old cloths to pretty to toss or hand down.
I can't understand it, Its usually so messy I can't get into the door!
I'm sorry I've let the community down by having a mostly clean room.
I could cheat & show you the children's rooms,
but I'm afraid the board of health has condemned it today!)

well that's the grand tour. hope you enjoyed it.


MommaBear

foolin' around

I've not gotten any of the RR's, so I have been trying to work on some old projects.

But I keep getting distracted by things, like re-arraigning my sewing room .

must be under the influence of Allison Aller & her blog Allies in stitches http://alliesinstitches.blogspot.com/!

yeah, that's it! It's all allisons fault !)

but seriously folks, don't you hate the dry spell that, propels you into the room love to play in, to CLEAN?

maybe I need a new distraction, & put those old projects in the ufo file, for now.

maybe I will be inspired to them later.

Flora

YFS- I have been blessed

I have finished what I intend to do on Lori's block.
the picture is from an old childhood book of mine, I loved the picture & it fit right in with the song,& the tatting is my first attempt so be gentile !)
Ahh it's good to have a scanner again!
the old one was dieing a slow and terrible death by inches & grinding noises, so we finnally got a new one after much fussing & pricing. I must say this one while noisier , is much faster. the old one was 7 years old, so it was about time to upgrade anyway. & it does double sided copies. COOOL!

weather, or not

Well we just had one of our patented Chicago weather changes
one day its 85* & the next its 50*( brrrrr!)
we do the same thing in what passes for spring around here.
one day it'll be nasty & 35* & the next thing you know the suns out,
it's 75* & your still in a sweater & heavy socks!

we had to run around the house closing the storm windows & bleeding the radiators!
I need to get all the sweaters & fall & winter coats out of the storage space & put all the shorts away before someone thinks it still 85* out!

we all need to acclimatize some. I discovered to my dismay 3 sweaters were almost enough to keep warm!
I love this weather!
the leaves on the trees will start to change any day now, & chimneys will start to smoke.
then after Halloween, Thanksgiving is next, my absolute favorite Holiday! The whole family will get together With a few Friends & mt DH will make one or two of his marvelous cheese cakes & deep fry a few turkeys (YUM!) i'll make sweet potato crunch, green bean casserole, fresh cranberry sauce & a honey baked ham! OOOOH! I can't Wate!

now if I can just find the humidifiers, before my lips start peeling!

Ann's Oriental all done

I don't normally post this much with one project
But I had so much fun with it,that I am thinking of making one for myself!
I'm pleased with how this one came together, tho it is not in the same colorways as the other 4 blocks, it doesn't clash with them either. it does stand out! (G!)


I loved the picture of the girl brushing her hair, It's so calming. then I thought about who is this girl?
is she the wife or daughter of a well to do family ?
what things would be a part of her world?
What peaceful pieces could I incorporate into this piece.
the flowers from her garden.
the 3 trees were fun to do. the ginkgo & the bamboo were the first things I put down,
The orange tree ws last because my thread would have caught on all the oranges, & made me crazy!
the boy fabric, is he her teasing brother or her son ?
the butterfly fabric is beautiful with the butterflies & cherry blossoms & it's that "honking orange" I love to incorporate into almost all my quilts .

the koi pond is also some of my favorite fabric.
It reminds me of when we go to the Morton arboretum, they have this pond with the most Enormous koi. the children keep feeding them & every year they get bigger & bigger.
this year they look big enough to swallow small dogs!

anyway thees where some of the thoughts I had while stitching & I just thought I'd share them with you.

thanks for coming , see you again some time!

Flora

Ann's Oriental update

I thought I would give you an update on how the progress is going with the oriental block. I don't do this muck, not because I don't want you to see what I'm doing, but because I get all involved & for get to!

most of the seam treatments are laid down but not finished, I have a few beads planned, some embroidery to be named later & maby even some SRE. well have to see. I just got my next YFS block so I'll have to cogitate on it.

FLora

Ann's Oriental block

I just got my hot little hands on Ann's fabric & here is the result!

I'm planning on a whole lotta seam treatments beads , bells whistles & suff! he,he,he,!
Flora

Romance & Lucy

This is the finished romance block for Lori. I wish I could have put a few more things into it I just ran out of creative gas for this one & I wanted to get it out to the next in line by the dead line. tho I think I did ok. It's a lighter block than the previous two, I hope it pleases Lori's sense of theme.
It's just not as encrusted as I thought it should be, given Lori's example.


this is the first block in the YFSRR that I received & I enjoyed it a lot.
Lucy in the sky with diamonds is one of my moms favorite Beatles tunes so I heard it a lot growing up. I'm glad I got to be the first to embellish this one. Lesa, I hope you like my rendition of Lucy. I took the outline from an Illustration of Polychrome, the rainbows daughter, from one of L.Frank Baum's later OZ books. the seam treatments are depicting the sky with diamonds. thankyou for the song!

Christy's Kitty

Ok, Christy, here goes,

I couldn't find an other open block so I tried to work with what was left & the results are

so-so. I'm not entirely pleased but I'm not disappointed enough to rip it out & start all over again. if you have any idea's about colors that will pop on that patch everything i have tried so far has blended right in.

I'm also gonna do a bunch more seam treatments on the leftover open seams.

YFS-Romance

Here is the work so far on Lori's romance block & closeups of the corners.
I had the idea of incorporating some of my favorite love songs into the piece,
with a smattering of love stories, thrown in for good measure.


Upper left hand corner is not done.
Persuasion-by Jane Austin, is the name for this corner, she is wearing a"string of Pearls"
so far I have just added beading to the lace, the Eiffel tower for "an American In Paris" the tatted flowerlets for"April In Paris" & a few seam treatments


Lower left hand corner don't have a title for yet maybe I'll keep"She Loves you(Yeah, Yeah, Yeah)" or maybe" a tattoo for my love"

lower righthand corner is "Jane Eyre"-by Charlotte Bronte they have "Star Eyes" & "Blue Velvet' but as I said before that one seems like cheating, so far that's all I have for this one


Upper right hand corner is "When i'm 64" they are standing under "pennies from heaven" &
" stormy weather" also "three coins in the fountain"

so as you can see I've got more work to do.

new work

Just a little update to let you all see what I've done so far.

I finished piecing my block for the MFS RR. I need to do a little more sewing on it before I send it out.

good thing I have until the 1st of September, because I just got the new CYOT RR blocks, I also finished the piecing on that & need to get going on the embroidery.

I was thinking love songs, so far I've got when I'm 64,pennies from heaven, 3 coins in the fountain, & blue velvet ( that one is kind of cheating, as I just had to put a piece of blue velvet in the piece!)

I need to research more songs!

I am a bad Blogger! Bad, Momma Bear! Bad!
I'm sorry, I have not been keeping up with things the last few weeks.

I've taken some well deserved family time & gone fishing, amongst other things!

It's been so hot & humid in Chi town the last few weeks ( & having no air conditioning for the whole house ) I tend to get things done in small steps, since doing anything is sticky! tho today we had some respite from the heat it was 87* this morning! BRRR!)

time to get back to sewing.

I'm looking forward to the new RR in crazy quilting for newbies, It's the your favorite song RR.

mine is going to be "Lydia the Tattooed Lady" as sung by Groucho Marx in the Marx brothers movie " A Night at the Circus" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4zRe_wvJw8

It's the reason I named my first daughter Lydia.

It's been my favorite song, since I first saw it on the late night show, when I was a child & got to stay up late in the summer.

I haven't gotten the rest of the fabric to finish yet, so here's a picture of what I have so far

I plan to add a little more in the way of applique`& a bit more stitching. this is contingent on weather we actually do the RR or not. either way I get a cool cq piece!

CYOT RR silver group

here is the latest installment of cq for the "create your own theme" RR.

the first is janets block
The second is christy's block
& the last is mine.

sorry about the blurriness of the photos,my camera is not behaving!

my work place

this is my sewing room under the eaves. as I am right under the roof there is no head room so watch you don't bump your nut!
I do all the time & it huurts!
as you walk in from the door, we're facing north.I love my picture window! all the light I could want & no sun!

this is the east wall, & as I am in the throws of creativity ( throws being the operative word!) things tend to get a little messy! watch your step!

most of the south wall is taken up by the little alcove & the door so this is

what there is of the south wall & the other part of the west wall.
as you can see I have quite a few porcelain dolls. they were my grandmother -in-laws & I love each one of them!

this is of course, the last room that gets any attention, so my attempts at organizing it have been sporadic, to non-existent!
it's also so small (8x8) with sloping walls that storage is at a premium.

I have been peeking at some of the other storage systems from the ladies blogs in CQ4N , collecting idea's .

maybe some day I'll be able to incorporate them into mine!
but for now I have to paint the porch!)

how soon they grow!

It seems like just yesterday that this little guy was running around the house, getting into things.

now look at him!

He's 16 & going off to JROTC camp he will be away from home & for a whole week I will be "boyless".

"sigh!"

they grow up so fast!

He wants to take my best friends daughter out on a date when he gets back.

A date! EEP!

STOP! youre growing up too fast!

for me at least!

summer has arrived

well It's definitely summer now!

Chicago just started hitting the 90's consistently for the last week

( thank goodness no humidity yet!) & we finally put up the pool! there's nothing quite like the cool water of a pool to sozzle in at the end of a hot summer day!

& having somewhere to put the kiddies for part of the day isn't such a bad thing ether!

Finally! pictures of my kiddies from the sil's wedding!

don't let the picture fool you the were having fun!

.

& this handsome devil is my son with his cousin Lily

The happy family!

Driving & CQ

Oh, Goodness! I promised to let everyone see what I was doing on the trip out to Boston & I plumb forgot! bad Flora!

I thought I would get more done & I'm a little disappointed that I didn't do more!

This little bit of trimming I did driving through the first half of Indiana.

oops! sorry, the peacock is sideways I forgot to turn him. he came to me while going through the second half of Indiana I finished him halfway through Ohio.

I finished the face & sre going down hill ( no wonder the eyes are closed!)

the rest of the seam treatments I did while watching the children try to drown each other in the hotel pool in Kingston N.Y.

The seam treatments here were also done poolside while watching the water babies, cavort around around the pool like so many dolphin.

I was not feeling very creative on the way back to Chicago so I read instead.

all in all a lovely trip.

btw I don't drive my DH does!)

back from Boston

AHHH!

I'm so glad to be back Home! I missed my bed & i missed my house !

I even missed my job(OK, lets not go overboard!)

the trip wasn't bad, we left a 4:30 in the am so the children would sleep most of the way & not utter that most dreaded of family trip questions

-are we there yet?- though the minute we passed over the Appalachians it started to pore & didn't stop till Monday (the day we left, of course!)

I wish I had pictures of the kiddles, in their finery, but someone dropped the camera & broke the flash so there went any hope of indoor photo's. & taking any outside was out of the question, As god himself was coming down in liquid form. I'll just have to wait for the professional pics. Poo!

Adria's wedding was lovely even if she drove me a little bats.

You'd think no one ever got married before!

of course no one ever had a baby before Lily either!

Lilly is a lovely baby, all chubby & sweet. max is Max & as long as I don't get any late night phone calls about what a prick he is I guess he's OK too.

we did the new England thing & when to the Ocean we went to Woodman's & had lobster (yum!) & clams(eew!).

we stayed for my sil's PHD graduation. she graduated last may & this was just the ceremony. But as with everything that has to do with my sil, if she's not seen to be the happiest, smartest,put your own est here, then she is not happy! i love my sil, but everything she gets involved in has to be fussed over. & then fussed over some more!

then when we could finally escape, we went to Niagara. which was spectacular! If you ever want to feel the magnificence that this world of ours has to offer, go to Niagara. We had such a good time, we're planning on going back, so we can spend more time looking around, we only had one day there, & you really do need more than that.

We didn't get to go under the falls or in the tunnel of the winds & you need your passport to go over to the Canadian side, to see or do any of the things over there. I highly recommend going if you ever get the chance!

An how we're home now & its time to go finish the laundry & start dinner.

I've been tagged!

HElp, Help ! I've been tagged! Christy! how could You!?
what do I do?! spill of course!


lets see, 7 things about my self.... hmm...

#1) I played 2nd violin 1st chair in the orchestras of my grade & high school for 7 years & still can't read music.

#2) I have NO sense of direction, none, nada, zip.
unless I have a map or very clear directions, I will always go the wrong way. even if I second & third guess myself I'll still go the wrong way. when I have all the time in the world this can be fun, just like pooh bear, I like going on little explores.

to the bored children in the back seat however, this can be torture.
"Maommm! do you know where you're going? "
coming from my 8 year old can be cute, coming from all three can be a little aggravating.

#3) my Mom kicked me out of the house when I was 16. so to make my way in the world I had to wait tables. I did this at a variety of bars, where you can imagine they would have been quite upset if they had known I was under age!

#4) I took a year off high school to get my life straightened out. then went back & graduated 2nd in my class.(of course there were only 12 girls graduating that year!) & I do have about 12 hours in collage course work under my belt but have never gone back, I don't multi, multi task very well! 3 things at a time is my limit, more than that & I forget to pick up the kids at school.


#5) when I was 3 I stuck a fork in the kitchen light socket & gave my self a good zapping, then years later, when I was a light tech for the lighthouse theater I did it again with more voltage & gave my self about a 2000v zapping that had my ears ringing & my head & body buzzing for a good 2 hours! this could be the reason I'm a bit off!)

#6) grandmother's favorite story to tell about me is,
when I was 3 or 4 we had all the cousins over for the weekend for my birthday . the day before was the party & that morning it was gently raining.
well my favorite gift, had been a bright red pair of rain boots & hat, & a bubble umbrella. do you remember those? all clear plastic with a colored bottom so you could put it over your head to keep it dry & still see where you were going.
so seeing as it was raining, I decided to go for a walk around the block, in my new rain gear.

the story goes that my cousin tom when to tell grandma what i was doing & having a flair for the dramatic, kept the best for last.

" grandma?"

"yes "she said sleepily, not opening her eyes,

"Flora went for a walk in her new boots."

"mm, that's nice dear"

"she took her hat & her umbrella with her"

'that's good "

she said still keeping her eyes shut in hopes tom would let her sleep a little longer.

"And nothing else"

next frame is of grandma flying down the block in her bathrobe & nightie, to go get me back in the house before the neighbors saw me walking around the block in nothing but my boots, hat & umbrella!

years later when my third child was 3 I had a similar episode at a friends house. Mara felt so comfortable here she stripped out of everything, including her diaper & went to play in the pond they had in the back yard!

#7)I love that my husband has a job that he loves.
I hate that the job periodically scares me to death.

as a Chicago Firefighter my hubs mostly sits around the firehouse polishing his engine & watching TV. the house that he's in isn't a "hot"
house. but the possibility is there for disaster.

I worry when he doesn't call back that I'll be getting a visit from Father Mulchrone & a chief to be named later, to tell me he's not coming home.

I know this in a small possibility , but it is a possibility. It's not an easy job to do & he does it with style & no little competence.
the job still scares me to death.But I would NEVER tell him to quit or be one of those wives who out of fright, would be less than supportive of him.I'm very proud of him.

now who do I tagg?
how about Janet of I'm going crazy; you come, too !
&
Gerry of http://sewing-southpaw.blogspot.com !