Good Advice

I seem to collect lots of paper, lots of paper. In going through a file called "Things I don't Know What to do With" I came across this little card from a fun restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina called Hyman's Seafood. These little cards with their motto (and lots of other sage of sage advice) are displayed everywhere so you can take them with you. The card even says we hire our staff based on this motto.

So I'm sharing these words of wisdom written by someone named Chuck Swindol:

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company...a church...a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we embrace for that day. We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play the one string we have, and that is our attitude...I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you...we are in charge of our ATTITUDES.

Playing With Fabric

During the last month I completed my beginning clothing class, started the beginning quilting class, and ... dyed 82 pieces of fabric as you see here pinned up on the wall to passively set. Some were scraps left over from sewing trial pieces of clothing from white muslin before I attempted the real thing. Pattern sizing is an art, most definitely not a science!
I experimented with several different kinds of surface design using Pebeo and Jacquard dyes: gelatin mono prints, snow and ice dyeing (since we had plenty of both), solar dyeing, foam plate prints, and thermofax prints. Many didn't come out as expected - some in a good way, a lot leave room for improvement. Right now I see them all as a good beginning that need more layers to make them truly interesting. But I definitely had fun playing outside!

Gardeners

With all the "snow days" we've had recently I've been going through old family papers and clutter and found this quote that my Mother had printed out on a piece of paper. She was a passionate gardener so this obviously struck a chord because usually I couldn't read her scribbles. Even under a layer of ice and snow in the dead of winter we can still appreciate the beauty of the garden and of nature.

"Everything we have the earth gives us - we take it for granted. Don't let yourself miss this.
Gardening is the best therapy in the world. You can put so much into it and get so much back. Love is everything - how lucky we are to live on this beautiful earth. You can bring beauty to yourselves through gardening. Your garden will help you realize and appreciate how truly exquisite nature is!"

C.Z. Guest
"Templeton"
Old Westbury, L.I., New York
from First Garden by C.Z. Guest

Food for Thought

Frozen Fabric

No - not that kind! Last week when the evening temperatures were in the teens I experimented with putting some dyed fabric outdoors to freeze.
The last time we had weather like this the fabric ended up with beautiful "Jack Frost" designs which I had never been able to replicate. I decided to try layers of fabric set outside on metal cookie sheets to see if that would repeat the crystalline structures. My thinking was that the dry cold would make the fabric freeze faster. It didn't, but I learned something else.
All three of these were made with 100% cotton muslin and Dyna-flow dye. The first one is the underside of the top piece of fabric. Sandwiched in-between were pressed fern leaves. The next two pieces are the bottom layer of fabric, first the topside then the underside. I actually like the look of these much more. When the weather turns cold again, after all it is only January, I'll experiment again.

Brrrrrr......

We woke up this morning to no heat and outside temperature of 24 degrees! Apparently the repair company had over 100 calls before ours so won't be able to be here until Monday. On the plus side we do have a 2-zone system so the upstairs bedroom is still warm. And we have a roof over our heads, food in the fridge, the suns shining, and just now the loan of two space heaters from a good friend! Oh yeah!

Peace to All!

Wishing you all the gentle joys of the season and lasting peace in the New Year!