Yawn, yawn, yawn

Yawn, I went to bed at 9 last night and woke up at midnight. Hows that for a good nights sleep. Oh don't worry, I'll go back to bed soon. But first, I'll play on my computer, crochet and maybe read a little. I'm reading the series by Stephenie Meyer starting with Twilight. There are 4 books and I'm on the third one. They're about vampires and werewolves. They're written in such a way that you don't want to put them down. The first one is called eclipse. They have made a movie out of the first one and my friend Sharon and I went to see it yesterday on opening day. I wasn't impressed. Unless you were a big fan of the series you wouldn't have understood what was going on. It was slow and devoid of any action. I pretty sure they won't make a movie of the rest of the books. I've really enjoyed the series and it has been a fast read especially for such lengthly books. All 4 books are almost 650 pages each.

It was interesting that during the movie you could tell who the fans of the series were because they laughed out loud during the appropriate funny parts and said things during the appropriate comment parts. It would seem that the books have a very large following. I visited their website the other night and there was a clock counting down the hours until the movie opened in theaters and links to a multitude of other fan sites. And to think I had never heard of them until my friend Sharon brought them over for me to read. Thank you Sharon.

My Artwork

In this posting I'll highlight some of my artwork. If you want to see more of it you can go to my website at www.wingdancerart.com. I have two kinds of artwork. My collage posters. These are a compilation of images put together in an artful way to relay a message of one sort or another. They deal with music, technology, art, society, etc. Each one is 24"x36" in size. I've also taken each image and made it into a greeting card that I sell as a set. There are 8 cards in each set for $8. I love making these collages. Each one takes hours to put together but in the end it is so rewarding to see the finished product.

The second type of artwork that I do is mixed media collage on canvas. These works deal with memory. They challenge the viewer to look inward and find memories from their childhood with which they can relate. The viewer forms an emotional bond with the work as they see pieces of their own life played out on the canvas. They also form emotional bonds with works that touch on subject matter that may deal with issues that are personal in nature but not necessarily from their own past. I will often use found objects in my pieces as in the ones pictured. In the one on the right called Happy Birthday I used silverware, wire, ribbbon, candles, tacks, and a feather. and in the one on the left called Fishing I used an antique hanky. I love making these pieces of artwork I just wish I had a studio. As it is I have to use my apartment and there just isn't the room that I need to work.

Thought I would continue yesterday's theme of toy collecting with one last photo of my PEZ toy bin. Yes that's a huge Rubbermaid tub filled with PEZ containers and other small toys. I always tell my son that when I die that will be his legacy, my toy collection. The Buzz Lightyear character on the right is a bubble blowing machine. And that's Scooby's van up at the top. Pretty cool if you ask me.

And now for a different theme I'm going to talk about my tattoos. I have six of them. Two on my upper right arm, one on my upper left arm, one on my upper left chest, one on my upper left back and one on my lower back. The one on the lower part of my left arm is the comedy-tragedy symbol. I got that to symbolize how I feel about my bipolar disorder, happy and one minute and down and depressed the next. The skull on the top right shoulder is for death. I think about death a lot and contemplate suicide especially when I'm depressed. The cross and the image of Christ are for hope that one day everything will be ok and I'll finally be happy. The Celtic symbol on my chest matches one on my friend Lisa's chest, we got matching tattoos because we're best friends. And last but not least the feather on my lower back goes along with my nickname Wingdancer. I've always wished I could fly so I've adopted the feather as a symbol of my desire to be free in this life and to fly away from all my troubles.

I really enjoy getting tattoos, the pain never really bothers me. It's almost soothing in a way. I want to get more of them but I have to save up the money because they're so expensive. My tattoo/piercing guy is really good. He's done all my ink and piercings. I have 9 piercings. Three stretched ones in my ears, one in my eyebrow, one in my nose, and one in my bellybutton. I had two in my mouth and one in my tongue but I took them out. I'm thinking of having the mouth ones put back in, I miss them. The tongue one I'll never have done again and if anyone ever asked me I'd tell them not to get one. It will ruin your teeth. You bite it all the time and it cracks your teeth.

Well that's my tattoos. Hope you liked them.

collectables

Today I'm going to talk about my toy collection. I collect kinetic toys. I love them because of their whimsical qualities. Some of them you wind up, some of them you just push a button and they whir into motion. I have pooping reindeer and Halloween cats. I have bobbleheads. Some walk, some shimmy, some roll, some jiggle - the thing is they all do something.

I've been collecting these toys for years, I actually had a rather large impressive collection a few years ago but had to let it go when I moved due to space restrictions. I'm starting to build it back up again. Some of my favorite catogories are: Toy Story, Mr. Potato Head, PEZ Dispensers ( I have hundreds of these) MacDonalds Happy Meal toy sets, Sponge Bob Square Pants, Scooby Doo, and the list goes on.

Right now I don't have any place to display my PEZ dispensers so they are stored in a Rubbermaid container under a table. Every time a new series comes out I purchase it and put it inside. I have to admit to eating the candy so most of them aren't in their original packages but that's ok I'm not in it for the money I just like collecting them. Maybe one day I'll have a house and the space to display all of my TOYS. Until then they just sit around my house. A lot of them are on my computer desk and I play with them while I work on my computer. I'm sure a lot of people would see my hobby as immature but to me it's just fun and interesting. It takes a lot of imagination to create these toys and I can appreciate that creativity.

Cold Days

The days are getting colder here in the mountains of VA. I'm still resisting turning on my heat. I have a heat pump and my electric bill is always so high in the winter time. I try to stay warm by sitting in the bed watching tv and crocheting. I'm still working on Christmas presents. As I said in my previous post I started a sweater for my brother and it's coming along nicely. The yarn is alpaca and it's so soft. But I think I'm going to need more than I bought even though I figured it up based on yardage. It's working up a lot faster than I anticipated. I still haven't started my other nieces sweater yet. She may get a picture of it for christmas with an IOU.

I just ordered the book Cool Crochet and it should be here within 10 days. I ordered it from Amazon. I had seen the patterns on Ravelry.com and liked what I saw and the book was only $3.70 plus tax so I figured why not.

Trouble with new stitch

OK, OK, I may not be the smartest grape in the bunch but up til now I've never met a crochet stitch I couldn't do. Well yesterday I met my match. it was the back post double crochet. Try as I might I couldn't do this stitch. I looked it up on google for examples and photos of how to to it and ended up forgging my work at least 3 times before the yarn knotted up and I had to actually throw away about four rows when I had to break off the yarn and start over. If anyone out there has done this stitch successfully please let me know. I ended up just doing a front post double crochet followed by a regular crochet instead of the back post double crochet. It looks ok, not as pronounced as the effect they were going for but it will do. I also had to imjprovise the pattern when they told me to do two rows of front post double drochet one right after the other. You have to have a row of double crochet to work the front post double crochet into so I improvised that because I couldn't work a row of front post double crochet ingo a row aof front psot double crochet which is what the pattern was telling me to do. Any way I got it done in my own sort of way. Now it's just double crochet the rest of the way up the front.

As far as Angie's teal sweater goes, I'm about 1/2 way through the front panel. I've finished the back panel. I still have the sleeves to go. This one is taking a long time to do. I work on it while I watch tv so the time goes faster and I don't get bored. But my back and butt get tired of sitting for so long. I feel like I need to get up and go for a walk or something.

I looked at the thrift store yesterday for sweaters I could frog for yarn but I didn't find anything. I was disappointed. I thought for sure there would be something, they used to have such a large suupply of sweaters but now they don't. I may go to the other ones today to check and see if they have anyting. If for no othe reason than to get me out of the house.

This is the sweater pattern that I'm using for my brother for Christmas. It's from the book "The Crochet Dude's Designs For Guys". I'm crocheting it in Bernat Alpaca natural blends grey. It's a bulky yarn No. 5. The stitch is new to me, it's a front post double crochet. I've never done this stitch. And I'm not sure whether to make him an extra large or just an extra large. I'm thinking an extra extra large probably. This next one is the pattern for my niece's sweater. It's from Crochet Magazine, March 2007. It involves an intricate floral stitch edging. I'm not making the purse to go with it, just the bolero. It's got button holes and I've never made those before so both patterns will be a challenge.

Bears

Today's blog is about my bears. I sew bears as a hobby. This one at the right is a sample. He's done in short brown fur. The cloths are made from scraps of other cloths that friends have given me. I have made shirts from antique table napkins that were absolutely beautiful. They don't make this particular bear pattern any more so I guard it with my life. They don't make any good patterns any more. You have to resort to buying books on bear making to get any kind of patterns these days. The cloths to the right are another set I made for the bear. There is a set of shorts and a pair of PJ's. I display the bear using an antique doll trunk as a backdrop. I used to sell the bears at craft shows but it became too labor intensive and I couldn't make enough money to justify the time. Each one takes hours and hours to make.