dust yourself off, and start all over again……

abunnystale

i have spent the last couple of days in THE craft room, what i call.. putzin around.

i thought i would try and share with you some of the sights in there and where i hope to go from here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i havent been in the craft room much in the last couple of years, as some of you may know.But the same motivation that got me crafting before has sprung up again….and i find myself increasingly taking refuse in there.  of course, this summer with texas hitting record high temps, i havent been so tempted  to venture into my gal  cave.

Now, this is the hall way leading into the craft room. some would say that my “stuff” has started to spill out of the craftroom and even into the house.(more about this at another time).i of course dont really agree wth…

View original post 40 more words

you might live the cottage life if…

acottagelife.wordpress.com

well, i have read all the magazines, searched the how to books, and it seems there is no clear image of what a cottage is. so i suppose i can establish my own idea of a cottage, and the cottage life. i think i have earned this right, having lived the last 20 years on the side of the road in a dwelling that is less than 1000square feet and was never meant to be a primary residence.

the purpose of this blog is to share the joys and sometimes hardships of living in a true cottage.

my first post will be to establish what i believe are some signs that you might just live in a cottage.

1.if your dwelling started its life as a “poker house” in the woods

2.if you have any rooms that used to be porch space

3.if one of your bathrooms is outside.(okay for…

View original post 70 more words

following your bliss…….

sometimes i like to plan my days or weeks and make long list of things to do. more often than not, i misplace my list, and so i have led a life full of unplanned events. i dont recommend it, but its what i know.

some people may call this “following your bliss”. i prefer to think of it more as a stalking the wild cactus existence.

recently, the cactus in our area put on quite a display, and i finally got it all together enough to stalk the wild cactus and follow my bliss. i made cactus jelly. something i have been talking about doing for the last 20 years….sometimes following your bliss can take a few detours.

 

three chicks

just ready for easter

pics for blogging 057

craftin for roundtop

i have a girlfriend of 30+years who is just a crafter extraordinairre! she will soon be departing to go to roundtop and will bring her great  crafts(beautiful hats and jackets).she sells in roundtop , new mexico, virginia and also san angelo, texas.

 bc(before cancer) i used to go on some of her craft trips with her and sell my crafts as well.  a good time was had by all!!!!

 

now  i stay home, and hope for the day when i will again “hit the trail” and hang out with my friend , reid, but since i have started to craft again she usually offers to take some of my wares with her, like the  domestic goddes aprons that i have pictured above.

if you are going to roundtop, be sure and check out the folks at “gone to texas”. they are a fun group with wonderful items. my friend , reid will be there amongst them:hats, jackets, from recycled vintage wools and linens.

dust yourself off, and start all over again……

i have spent the last couple of days in THE craft room, what i call.. putzin around.

i thought i would try and share with you some of the sights in there and where i hope to go from here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i havent been in the craft room much in the last couple of years, as some of you may know.But the same motivation that got me crafting before has sprung up again….and i find myself increasingly taking refuse in there.  of course, this summer with texas hitting record high temps, i havent been so tempted  to venture into my gal  cave.

Now, this is the hall way leading into the craft room. some would say that my “stuff” has started to spill out of the craftroom and even into the house.(more about this at another time).i of course dont really agree wth this belief.

 the house.  so the first order of the day was to dust, dust, dust, and see if there could be a starting point here.

now if i can just find my.........

 old crafts, journals, pin cushions and bunnies

hand crafted journals

and new ideas and new friends:

i think i can ……..

what a shock, you can stay away from your post for over a year, and then like a good friend just pick up where you left off.

this blog has always been about the bunnies, but now it will have to serve as a posting site for all thinkgs omie…..the farm, the crafts, the kids and their kids and the farm animals.

alot has happened in the last year,,,and surprisingly not much has really changed.

but over the next few days and weeks i hope we can catch up and i can get back on this bike and ride.

recrafting a quilt……..

i love this quilt. i bought it in round top from a great dealer named harol hollis. it was really the first time i had ever met harold and he gave me a wonderful deal on this piece. the first of many great deals.

so when the quilt after much use and love started to fray, i decided i would have to tackle the task of the repair myself. the price i paid was so minimal that maybe in my eyes this piece wasnt worth paying to have the repairs done, but i love this quilt and to me it is priceless, so maybe i just wanted to repair it myself.                      

There are so many things i love about this quilt. the colors are dramatic. the pattern is big , bordering on huge ,and the fabric is a cool crepe, not the typical cotton fabric that we usually imagine with quilts. there are some cotton pieces in the quilt but they are almost homespun in their roughness and surprisingly they are the pieces that must be replaced as if they finally decided to revolt and get away from this rebellious piece.  even the back of the quilt looks amazing and the fabric is as contemporary in its boldness as it is quant in its subject matter.

it could easily be seen in an anthropologie cataloque today. 

i would guess this quilt was made at least in the 50’s, but i lean a little more towards the 30-40’s.

this makes me wonder about the creator of the quilt. i think i must know her .

she had to be a dreamer, a young woman who thought out of the box. but her box may have been the 1950s, when the box for women was a tad more confining than it is today.

and somehow this quilt brought to mind a picture of my mom with her graduating class. she is the one looking off  tothe left.

i think about how she would often take the road less travelled in her opinions and then would “VOICE” them. what a journey she made. what changes she saw.

but i know she is not the only woman i have known that had an amazing story and a dream that if not fufilled by them, might one day be dreamed by a daughter or granddaughter.

i wonder sometimes where my stories come from , and my love for telling them. my mom was a woman of direct communication. she had romantic notions and loved to read, but she was not a story teller. when i asked about her past and the stories of her family she would complain to me that those things were not important, or that she just simply did not know the answers. after all, her mom grew up in a tenement house in new york, helping to raise her siblings who were without parents, orphaned at an early age. she died in a sanitarium for tuberculosis in san angelo, texas in the early 20’s. maybe these were stories that she would rather not remember.

so i had other women in my life, storytellers and dreamers who could see beauty and create it and had a life or maybe just a soul that inspired it in others.  i think of them as angels of mychildhood, who helped me remain an optomist. encouraged me with their humor and storytelling to believe in beauty and myself.

simone garcia was one of these angels, and tiny stepchinski was the other.

these ladies would encourage me, that i Could have long hair if i wanted it, and i could sing like a bird and that life could be fun,,,,,,and that storytelling is an art.

i think they would love my quilt.

i know my mom would.

it’s raining at the farm!

 isabella, the farmdog, was quite perplexed when she heard the strange sound of the rumbling thunder.   she literally had to run out on the porch to check out this sound which she had never heard, and her being a new mom, but not quite an ‘ole lady, as olivia would say, she just didnt have a clue what that rumblin sound meant.

but i did. i stopped my housecleaning and stared outside in complete amazement.

i was just putting the kitchen tablecloth on when i heard the strange sounds myself. the day was already determined for me. i was going to spend the morning cleaning house and the afternoon crafting. a perfect combination. i had just wondered if i should remove a few layers from the west windows.  this summer was so hot and dry that i had stored my tablecloths on the west windows to block some of the sun, aka heat from the kitchen which gets hot enough in the evening when you cook. 

besides i just like looking at all the vintage tablecloths and believe it diverts the eye from my “exposed” ceilings.  a little sharecropper chic decorating, there.

but as i was adding my layers of table cloth curtains, i heard the pounding of rain on the window and well, i had to go outside with little isabella and introduce her to rain.

ps. she says she likes it.