Last Day of February

For my Loyal Readers who’ve been asking, here is the Dreams rug in place over our bed. Now you see why I chose that particular colour palette. Notice the handwoven coverlet — the one that I’m totally tired of after about 15 years — with its handspun and dyed wool pattern weft. There's another handwoven blanket that you can’t see underneath this one, not handspun though. The bed itself was built in the 1970’s by T-Man out of cheap particle board when we were too poor to afford a “real” bed. It's really low to the ground because I can't understand why your bed should be so high you're in danger of breaking an arm if you fall out. Besides on mine there's box sides that keep you snug so it's really hard to fall out. The mattress has changed a few times but it’s still foam not springs. (Very comfy. Probably why I sleep about 9 hours a night.) Notice the flannelette sheets the exact colour of Bryce Canyon sandstone formations. (Love those.) Notice also the absence of cats. Usually they are on my bed when they aren’t in their own fleecy beds in the basement. I got this photo before they were allowed upstairs. (Yes, I’m that mean!)

Now for the persimmon paintings that I also promised. Due to physical restrictions I couldn’t get farther back from the nook wall nor could I get it in decent daylight. The flash made the turmeric-coloured walls a bit more orange than they really are and even Paint Shop Pro couldn’t fix I without distorting everything else. But trust me when I say I love my paintings! They go absolutely perfectly in my kitchen. I’m so happy!

And lastly my mermaid doll who is benefiting by a deadline where her in-progress picture has to be posted to the Beaded Art Dolls Yahoo Group website by March 1st. Yes, I know she doesn’t have many beads on her yet, but trust me when I say that what she does have took me many hours of work! The next deadline for her totally finished state isn’t until May 1st and I’m thinking we can make that ok. What I’m liking best about this process is that doll beading is very freeform. You can have an idea about what you want to do, but by the time the beads are being chosen and stitched on it starts to take on a life of its own and you kind of lose whatever real control you thought you had. It just kind of happens. My theory is that the doll is influencing you all the way into what she wants to be. It’s not really up to you. You kind of surrender yourself to the materials and she (or it could be “he” but it’s more often “she”) appears out of the chaos complete. Right. I’ve been working too hard on it, haven’t I?