Downward Dog & Devil's Food

Yoga and Cupcakes ... these are a few of my favorite things...

A few weeks back you may remember the Petaluma Craft Mafia meeting and cupcake swap in which we at the Petaluma Craft Mafia baked cupcakes and swapped 'em. I thought it might be a great ice breaker for new members and I hastily put together some purple and pastel cupcakes some adorned with tiny dancers, cause really, what grown girl, aka woman still doesn't harbor memories of ballerina dancers? Whether you dance or not isn't the point.

I enjoy blogs, but have been a bad blogger of late. Shame on me. There isn't always as much time as I'd like to write my own blogs or read other's blogs. Lawd knows just how many awesome blogs I'm missing out there!

The mere thought hurts me a little, ya know?

When I do get a chance to read, I read for information and education, and others are pure candy ...I just really enjoy seeing what a few handful of my fellow bloggers are up to, and enjoy the voyeuristic peek into their lives. Some just make me laugh and make me happy.

Blogs are pretty voyeuristic by nature. You never really know who is reading your blog. Of course this can have potential for good and bad.

Some of my favorite blogs I stumbled upon by accident such as "Eat like a Girl," and "Naughty Secretary" who I discovered like a gazillion years ago totally by accident and also fell in love with her jewels. Or maybe I fell for the jewels first, anyway. Blogs have a re-bound effect, you tell one person about them and next thing you know others are also visiting the site. One of our favorite family stories is when my mom tried to hunt down Jen Perkin's site for a horse brooch for my niece one day while at the office. I had told her about the site months before. She called me one day while I was heading out the door and asked me for the URL. I stressed to her to use the world "Club" in the URL. My mother had a habit of hearing half of what a person is saying.

Using her own secretary's computer who happened to be away at lunch and who's office is very visible, she entered the URL "Naughty Secretary" omitting the world "Club." Very important not to leave out the word "club." Well you can guess the sites that sprang up and my very down to earth but modest mom who was not very internet saavy, couldn't close them down fast enough. She was concerned what her secretary Elaine, must have thought once she got back from lunch and found the pages still looming on the desk top. Hillarious.

I discovered this evening a blog called "Cupcakes and Yoga." This is a delightful blog about,well, yoga and cupcakes! No hidden gimmicks or funny business or read between the lines irony here! Marilyn, a native New Yorker writes about her blog's namesake. The cupcakes she posts from various cupcake arteests and cakey connoisseurs are absolute works of art. And she has a gazillion links to various cupcakedy folks to inspire awe. Of course she also talks about her other passions as well such as design and yoga!

Marilyn obsesses about cupcakes and makes me want to make a batch now! Check it out y'all, Marilyn will have you wanting to make a batch in no-time. Who says cake can't be crafty?

Butterflies are Free to Fly

November 16, 1944 - February 22, 2007

I miss you everyday mom.

Squirrelly Love

Felt has been on my crafty "to-do" list forever. Besides actually wanting to "felt" wool, which I understand is incredibly simple, I've been wanting to make something out of felt as well. Where to start? I decided Moxieville's mascot, 'Mr. Squirrel' would be perfection.

So one rainy evening about a month ago, I dove in and drew a quick squirrel pattern, and made use of some felt I had purchased at Michael's. Now for these kind of projects, you really ought to use a better quality felt that can be purchased at Fabric stores, but as I was dying of impatience to try my hand at sewing a softie creature, I used what I had. When you use a lower grade felt such as what you find at most craft stores, you'll find the felt is really too thin and transparent to make a very sound softie that is durable and will hold stuffing or the threaded stitches. On my Mr. Squirrel, I stuffed him with lentils to make him stand up. Due to the fragile nature of this particular felt, Mr. Squirrel leaked a few lentils!

Let me tell you, there is nothing worse than when your squirrel leaks lentils! Whats a girl to do? So some repair work was in order,and I tightened the stitch level on my sewing machine. I haven't sewn in forever,so going around those corners was tight! But remember I'm the Cal-Expo sewing gold medal winner, so I was up for the challenge!

Now I'm inspired to make a few more creatures, but I'd really like to get into felting wool.

If you've been reading my Petaluma Craft Mafia posts over on the PCM blog, you'll note we have a new member,Tami Lovett-Brumfield, aka "Felt Baron", who specializes in felted fruits, veggies, and even a Neopolitan ice cream sandwich as well! I am delighted to have her as part of our crafty famiglia. I think she may have this felty craft stuff down better than I do. I told her about Mr. Squirrel a few weeks ago over coffee, and she gave me some great tips. Most of all, buy good felt! Life is much easier that way!

Happy Valentine's Day to all my dear hearts and Happy Birthday to all the Aquarians in the house!

Gouache B'gosh

So I sort of committed myself to the "First Love" exhibit at my favorite store in Petalumsky, which is of course the Boomerang Gallery at Heebe Jeebe. Why oh why do I commit to things when I haven't the time? Why? I truly am my mother's daughter. My sister and I used to bemoan my mother who was the queen of volunteering herself to this and that, sometimes at the expense to herself. I guess the women in my family are slightly kooky, it's the Irish and Scottish genes duking it out with the French ones. Or, perhaps we simply like challenges.

Then Drew, the proprietress extraordinare let me know last week that it's going to be a "kid's show" as a lot of kids are in it. Now I can compete with anybody, or at least I'll try, but kids?
Jeesh! The pressure. It should be fun even if they do show us adults up.

So, two days before my project is due, I decide to finally make something. Not only did I procrastinate, but I also chose a medium I've never used before; gouache! Now I have never been a big fan of watercolor and watercolor is much like gouache I am told. I find the medium wishy-washy and lacking in life and character. Most watercolor paintings I've seen look like bad hotel art to me. Plus, living in Sonoma County, it seems most watercolor amateurs as well as professionals go for that 'uber So-Co look' of the stale and tame bunch of water-color grapes.

Yawn.

My favorite paintings are acrylic and oils, and I may still go over this for some depth with acrylic. I have no idea how acrylics will behave with the gouache. I cannot think it will be an incompatible mixture.

Hence, my ambivalence and disrespect for watercolor. However, I have seen a few paintings I've liked, one from my aunt who actually does watercolors that make me change my mind about this medium. I'm told watercolor behaves much like gouache, but more opaque and dries quite chalky. Boy, is that the truth.

So, I started on a painting in a medium that is a bit of a learning curve as I absolutely do not know how to tame this gouache and get it to go and stay where I put it. This medium moves all around and flows into places you don't want it to go. It's layer upon layer. And you have to be careful or you can build up layers where you don't want them. Also, I'm not so sure I was supposed to have used canvas, I think a good piece of Arches watercolor paper would have worked out much more seamless with this medium, particularly with my delicate brushes which would whisk the paper much more smoothly and not lift -off as nubbier canvas does.

My original concept was to paint a fantastical stack of books, as books were my "First Love" so to speak. Instead I painted what I love to paint best, wistful looking gals. She looks completely bereft about something. A lost first love perhaps? But this is what came out instead of this funky book concept I originally started with.

Sighh. So here I sit with a half-finished painting. The clock is ticking. Can this rebellious water-color artist finish or will she smash it against the wall and start over?