Momz Toyz

A Rooster and a bunny with a flower

Bear with heart sweater

A curly lamb and a bear in a skeleton costume

Bear with hoody

kitty with a beret

Look who's on the TV!

tiny Schnauzer pup

Poodle dog and Polar bear

Lamb

Bear, Dog, Owl

Monkey with necklace

Penguin, Lady Bug & Armadillo

Bear and Monkey, both make sounds

I've decided to capture all of Mom's stuffed toys. I have a couple more to photograph before I head home. She loves all of these little guys/gals.

More Ikea Fabric and some whine.

I couldn't resist buying more fabric while at Ikea. Oh, I forgot! I have to pack it and carry it back to the east coast in my nylon duffle carry-on. (I check nothing.) I used up all of the orange bird fabric and all of the black and white butterfly fabric so am happy to have more of it. The graphic design one was on sale for only $1.99 a yard (0.914 m) which is a very good deal. My older sister came by today and brought me a bag of buttons (heavy!) and some knitted stuff that she wants me to make into bags for her. Yikes! (more weight for me to haul home) whine whine whine. I brought books and some other items to be left here so my duffle probably won't be too heavy. I'll stop my whining now. I'm happy to get more buttons and happy to be able to make something for my sister.

Vietnamese yumminess

My sister and I took Mom for a pedicure this morning. While we were at the salon, a man came in to deliver some lunch to the staff. We were able to buy some items from him, too.  We got 2 packages, leaf wrapped sweet rice filled with bean and mushrooms. He also had tiny shrimp egg rolls that we needed to fry. So here's what they looked like when we got them, while frying and after. They were sooo delicious. We ate them with a sweet hot pepper sauce. The sweet rice was also good. This food was made by his mother and he delivered to the nail salons every three weeks. Guess his Mom was busy cooking for all the time.

Back in L.A.#2

Because I returned to spent time with Mom, giving my sister a chance to help her daughter, a new mom, I'm inside with limited view of the world. Here's what my first day looked like. Very sunny and hot!

Mom is still reading a lot. I brought her several new paperback mystery novels. She sits in her chair and reads and reads. Look at the books lined up for her. Notice her knitting needles and a completed scarf on top of the books. When she's not reading, she's knitting scarves. What a gal!

Here are a few of her stuffed animals. She has a large collection of these little items and loves them all. I think the one that's looking straight out at me is an aardvark!

Paloma

My sister's first grandbaby is only 2 weeks old. I was able to get a break last night and visit with her. What a cutie! Check out all that dark hair!

Pens and Pencils

Some of us are really fond of pens, especially fountain pens. I, also, like pencils. I have several mechanical pencils, some vintage, some new. Go here to read about a special pencil that has a lot of fans. Here's a link to see some of  my pens and pencils. What got me started on this topic, well, the article about the pencil on BoingBoing and reading A year of Letters blog this morning. Check it out here.

Back in L.A. Cake, Nail Polish and some Art

I'm back in Los Angeles, arrived last night, but still on Eastern Daylight Time, so I"m three hours off, which means that this post will be off, too. hmmm. Anyway, it's very hot outside, I poked my head out awhile ago, but I'm staying in with the A/C on. Mom is busy reading. I brought her a few new paperback books to read and she has already dived into one of them. I have no new photos from this trip yet, as they'll all look pretty much like the ones from last April. However, tonight I get to meet my new great-niece, Paloma. I'm pretty excited about that. I may even posted a photo of her. In the meantime, here's a photo of my chocolate cake, using a recipe shared by Paula. You can find her book and recipe blog here.

I got some new nail polish, you know how much fun I have with that. This color is a pale green that's sparkly and holographic!
I hope that you can see how flashy it is.

I'd been working on a series of collages for a book project in Spain. 18 pieces were required for an edition of books of all original pieces. We were asked to make an original and then do 18 copies, then make each of the copies a bit different. This is one of the 18 pages I sent off before I left home to come to California. I was pleased with the results of the series and look forward to receiving my copy of the book in the fall. I'll post images of it.

My pup

A week ago Monday, my pup, Smitty, got his monthly grooming. Doesn't he look a bit "shell-shocked" in this photo? The fur on his head is standing up all fluffy and light.  A few minutes after the first photo, he moved over and fell fast asleep in this position. He was exhausted from the experience. Smitty, to remind you, is very old. We got him from the city pound 15 years ago. It was thought that he was over a year old or more. He's very thin now and sleeps a lot. He has doggy dementia but still recognizes his people.

This past Sunday, he went out onto the porch to get some fresh air. I put those upturned pots there so he won't fall off the edge of the porch.

Mail Art

MidWest Parrot

MidWest Deer

These two pieces are going into the mail today. MidWest Parrot is headed east across the Atlantic to the U.K. MidWest Deer is headed west to Texas, USA. I used parts of an old Geographic Survey map of Illinois for the background on both of these pieces. Most of the old maps I have a topographics but I did get a few of these early photographic ones. In this day of web satellite maps of the earth, these maps seem so quaint. Black and white, low resolution, and yet so interesting to me. They are pre-interstate highway system for one thing, and the towns are so small for another. I'm fascinated by them but they must be used not just stacked in a pile under my studio table.

If I could I would! Art envy.

I love the work by this artist and wish that I made these. Check it out here.

Her name is Jacquelin Rush Lee. I love her work.

A very cool idea! Papergirl San Francisco!

This is a very cool idea! Check out their web site here.  I'm going to send them something or things, I'm not sure what, but I have to do it cause it's such a cool idea. Right?  But what to submit, hmmmm. Any ideas for me?

What happened?

 I forgot to put these images on yesterday's post! I mentioned them in the title, but then forgot about them. I was so taken by the little "Oh, No" face, I guess.



I've been enjoying my tuned-up sewing machine sooo much. I can't stop making Pockets! Here are 2 more from the Panda fabric, the last of it. One of these is going to L.A. for one of my nieces.



These black and white Pockets are made from a heavy weight Ikea fabric. One of these will make the trip to L.A. for another of my nieces. I have more of this fabric, which is fun to work with because of the way the print is laid out. I get different placement on each pocket so no two are alike. I like it that way!

Some pool pix and more Pockets

How peaceful the pool looked this morning. There was no one there when we arrived, as usual, at 7h50 in the morning. The water actually felt cool for a change.

Once we got into the pool, the water made these lovely patterns. They remind me of the impressionist painters.

I had to take another photo of the little "Oh, no!" face for you to see. Cute, huh?

Sewing machine joy

I own a very old sewing machine. I've been using it a lot lately, as you know, and finally it was not working properly. The stitches were getting jammed up, thread was breaking, and finally, the needle broke by hitting the metal bobbin assembly. Fortunately, this happened after my big push to get items finished for the street festival. I wasn't able to readjust what needed realignment, and the final thread guide before the needle, dropped off and disappeared into some crevice in my studio. OH NO! I took the machine, all bazillion pounds of it (it's "portable?") to a repair place and it got a tune-up. They told me that it can't break, it's all metal (thus the weight of it) and that I shouldn't ever get rid of it. Woohoo, I liked hearing that. I stitches forwards and back and zigs and zags and also has a little drop in cam option to make fancy stitches (which I never do.) I'm so happy because it now sews smoothly and silently. I had no idea how noisy it was until I got it back yesterday. Wow! Sewing Machine Joy. I'm off to sew something. See you later!

Cooling off and Andrea Mail

I headed this "cooling off" but being in the pool is not quite like that. The water is tepid due to our hot weather. It's refreshing though because it's salt water and recently was treated with Vitamin C to clear the algae. Very healthy water.  The pool is located near our major north-south interstate highway, which goes from Florida to Maine. You can see an exit sign just beyond the sound barrier wall. We can hear the rush of traffic sounding like the ocean, except when an emergency vehicle goes past and then you KNOW it's a highway. We go almost every morning, early, to exercise. It's just us and our son and usually no one else, like a pool in our own backyard. Lucky us!

My nail polish "Iris" matches buttons!

Yesterday, I got a lovely package in the mail from Andrea. She sent very cool African print fabric and terrific buttons. Her note was on the reverse of one of her water colour sample cards. Read about Andrea here. She does wonderful water color paintings.

JonnyZ Fest and the panda fabric

Panda Pocket #2

Here I am, all set up for the day of sales at the street fair in my neighborhood, the 3rd annual JonnyZ Fest. I was really pleased with my booth and my spot on the shady side of the street. I was also pleased with the reception to my various Pockets and Tote bags. So in my previous post I had images of the panda fabric bag. My nearly daughter-in-law saw it posted, showed it to my son, and he recognized it as the fabric I used to cover his sleep mat in pre-school!! Wow! I'd forgotten about it. My NDIL came over and bought the bag, so I quickly made another for the JFest.   Cute, right?

View to left of my booth

The festival was lively. Bands played through out the day, my friend Shelly, whose house is behind me, brought me iced coffee and "faux-ccacio." I sold!! I'm putting items that didn't sell into my Etsy shop. Check it out here.http://mim4art.etsy.com