Mandy's Quilt

I can finally post the photo of the quilt Mandy made as a present for her sister-in-law! She used fabrics from sample books from Penney's where she works that were discontinued and added the brown trim and backing. I'll post more photos of the finished work later! And all this with hardly any sewing experience esp. in quilt making! It makes me want to finish my log cabin quilt and make more!

Christmas is almost here!

Christmas is almost here! See Toby
on the couch!

More handmade ornaments from my kids!

My painted ornament from 198?

The snowflake is tatting that is hand made and the santa is from my family's ornaments

I love the ornaments my kids made in school or preschool!

Thanksgiving Festivities at my sisters in N. Carolina

Mom, Betsy, and Kaleigh in the kitchen

Waiting to play Tabu!

Holiday Decorations at the Center

This is the Christmas tree in the Lodge
at the Center in Palos Park. It's
decorated with over 500
pressed Queen Anne's Lace
flowers! This is just the top of the
very tall tree. This part of the lodge
is two stories tall.

Enjoying the holiday decorations at the Center
where our classes are held in a log cabin.

Serenity Prayer

I've been wanting to do another calligraphy

piece of the Serenity Prayer, as the old one

just isn't what I like anymore. Someone

wanted it done, so it pushed me to finish it.

Art show at the Center

Sunday was the Art Show at the place where I take classes in collage and watercolor and teach calligraphy. It was built in the 1930's and has a wonderful lodge where we have an art show with all the classes showing and selling their work. I just took one photo and then forgot to take more. Maybe I can remember to take a photo of their wonderful Christmas tree later all decorated with pressed Queen Anne's Lace flowers!

Project to finish!

This project has taken over my art time even though I have so many other things I want to work on. it's a commission that has been needing to get done!

Baltimore Oriole Nest?

Mick found this nest -must have blown down from the tree. It was hard to photograph -it is kind of a droopy bowl shape like a Baltimore Oriole which we see sometimes in early summer. It's made with seeds of the cottonwood tree deep down in the bottom. The sad thing is to see some of the other things used in the building of the nest- the green strips which I don't know what they are and some fishing line!

Sleepy Toby

I feel like my daughter's little doxy- kind of sleepy and un-productive. But I found a good book that I can't put down -The Kitchen House. Kind of similar to The Help, and yet different- in the 1800's with a child from Ireland who comes to the south to live.

I'm still organizing the studio, a never ending project.

A Monotype workshop with Ingrid Albrecht

I have several photos of the group who attended the workshop (mostly members of the Midwest collage society) and the printing process. This took place in her gallery in Ravenswood in Chicago and was an all day workshop. We all came out with lots of prints and more knowledge about monotype prints.

Three photos of a freestyle pring Ingrid demonstrated. The plexiglass she's working on is sprayed with water first and then the acrylic paints are "poured" on. The paints blend and bleed into each other. Then the paper she prints on, like rice paper, is laid on top and the print is pulled.

Ingrid working on one of her freestyle prints.

These are two of my prints

Butterfly Festival at Lake Katherine

I couldn't stop taking photos of the Monarchs at the festival! Got only one of the Painted Lady. The sun was only out in the beginning of the day so thank heavens I went early! The colors of the fall flowers were beautiful with the rust colored Monarchs!

Coptic Book Workshop

This Monday I'm teaching another coptic book workshop at the Center. The last one went very well and this time we'll try a larger version.

Lots of Hummingbirds

I've never seen so many Hummingbirds! They are so cute as they dive bomb and swoop after each other!

Katydid

Cute little Katydid. Ha- Mick thought i made up the word!!

Trip to N. Carolina

The deck looking out on the golf course. What a beautiful view it was. We'll miss this home but so glad it sold and no more worries about that. I'll miss the Rufus sided Towhee and his "cup-of-teeee" call. And the smell of the White pines surrounding the house. We won't miss the 5-7 minute drive all the way around the golf course to get to the house. Mom's in a wonderful independant living center with lots of friends and activities that she enjoys so much!

Mom's house sold! We may look like we were relaxing, but it was a busy time getting everything cleaned out of the rooms that were left. We'd worked quite a bit in the last year, but there was still more to finish up.

Dining room front window with the living room on the left. I had to take a few photos even without the furniture.

The boxes are slides from many trips. Still have to view some of them to see which ones we'll keep.

Trip to Grand Rapids

Marsh and Emily's new house. Went to help out on the retaining wall in back yard. Emily has eight Aunts, three of which came to visit with her Mom on one day.