"Hey, if I had somewhere to go, I certainly wouldn't be in Cleve-Land." -Howard the Duck

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

I swapped with a Texas Cowgirl...

This is the mini fabric collage I created for my swap partner, Nancy.  Nancy lives in Texas...near Austin...and is a member of The Paper Cowgirls.  So after reading her blog & getting to know her favorite colors & all through a bunch of emails, I decided I'd use this image of me back around 1956 or so...all dressed up as a cowgirl.  Well, almost all dressed up as a cowgirl...I never did get the cowgirl boots, so Mary Janes it was.  I always wanted to be a cowgirl...or an artist...but being a cowgirl was my secret dream.  Don't you LOVE that I was allowed to play with a rope to lasso critters?  Gotta love the 1950s in suburbia.

I got my love for cowgirls & cowboys from hours spent watching Westerns on TV with my Grandma.  She lived with us and I adored her.  Now the story goes that she had a record player in her room & that I would spend hours dancing in front of her full length mirror singing along to "The Yellow Rose of Texas".   When Phil & I moved to Dallas, he came home one of our first days there with a yellow rose for me.  I guess for 2 years I was a Yellow Rose of Texas at last.

So Nancy's collage has fabrics from the 1970s or 80s in pink & turquoise...two of her very favorite colors.  There's a row of yellow roses, of course...and lots of buttons to frame the image.  I decided to add the hanger so she could display her piece right away if she wanted to.
And this is the back of her collage.  Nancy also loves red as an accent to turquoise & pink...and I had just enough of the pink & red fabric to make a little quilted heart & add a heart charm.  There is a thin batting sandwiched inside the front & back of the collage, so it's almost like a little quilt.

Nancy has a wonderful blog called My Crafty Little Page.  You should visit her when you have some time.  She also posted the wonderful fabric collage she gifted to me here in her "California Girl" post.  It's a great piece of bright Hippie, Dia de los Muertos & CA artwork that hangs in my studio, right across from my work surface so I can see it as I create.  Thanks again, Nancy...I adore my collage!

Of course, in the spirit of "rules were made to be broken", I also made Nancy a little necklace with another of her favorite things...a bluebird.
Had to wrap it in a little matchbox giftbox, too...just because I could.
Thanks to Linda for her excellent idea to swap mini fabric collages & for organizing another great Swap for All Seasons...be sure to check out that blog to see links to other fabulous collages created for lots of happy swappers.  I can't wait for the Spring swap...it gets announced on March 20...the first day of SPRING!!!  



Monday, February 14, 2011

Happy Valentine's Day !

With LOVE to all on this Valentine's Day.  I hope your day is special...and don't forget to hug your furry 4-legged friends, too. 

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Crying into their Terrible Towels...

OK...so we weren't crying...don't even like Pittsburgh here in Clevetown...but The Super Bowl is a good reason to party with fun little appetizer type foods.  And it turned out to be a good game.  And it's a lot less stressful when you really don't care who wins.

But this post isn't really about football at all.  This post is about the yummy little morsels pictured above.  I took a pic immediately out of the oven because soon there would be little evidence these even existed.

EVIDENCE:  Bacon Wrapped Jalapeño Thingies, courtesy of the recipe from The Pioneer Woman Cooks.

So my fingers burned for the entire game because while jalapeños usually don't bother me, there were some powerfully hot & stubborn veins in these.  It was worth the pain, however...as the end result was soooooooooooooo good. 

I suffer for my art & my food!

The game is over...The Green Bay Packers won...and all of these little yummies are now just a fond memory.  We also had some great chicken wings with Panda Express Orange Chicken sauce glazing them...thank you for the sauce, Kimber!  Oh and beer...gotta have BEER!  But the little bacon wrapped cream cheezy bits of peppery goodness were definitely the star of the show.  The good news is that there are jalapeños, bacon & cream cheese left in the fridge...as well as some uncooked wings...so we can have another evening of grazing soon. 

My sympathies to my on-line friends Bev & Joy...Steeler fans for sure.  Y'all will get over it...and it could be worse...your hometown team could be the Cleveland Clowns...or Browns...nope...definitely Clowns!



Thursday, February 3, 2011

Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy New Year!  It's the start of the Lunar New Year and this year is the Year of the Rabbit.  From what I have read, Rabbit years are usually calm, creative & positive, which is a welcome thing for all of us, I think.

My sweetie,  Phil & one of my best friends, Dianne, are both Rabbits.  Rabbits are said to be private & a bit reserved, but also enjoy the company of good friends.  They do need their private space.  They are usually quite calm and avoid confrontation.  That is Phil for sure!  I'm the confrontational Dragon...so I guess we're Yin & Yang there.  Rabbits are also talented & artistic, which describes both Phil & Di. 

I know my rabbit image in the card above is really a Japanese rabbit...but I've taken artistic license since I do adore that image.  It is from Hero Arts back in 2000 & is called Haiku Bunny.  The Chinese zodiac charm is from SkyBluePink, one of my favorite websites for great embellishments & unusual supplies at great prices.  Tell Queen Xina that Lady Debbie sent you!  The charm actually has Dragons on the other side, so I need to get some more to use next year in my Year of the Dragon artwork.

Here's to a happy & prosperous & extremely creative Year of the Rabbit to all!