Tangled Stitch

Well today felt a little bit more like winter, manageable but snowy. I can't really complain about the snow too much though it is the end of January and we usually have a heck of a lot more then this dusting so far. I thought a bird was a great piece to share on this cold, cold, day. So here you have my little goldfinch, she brings a little bit of heat, a little bit of cheery yellow and a little bit of bird love when there are far too few birds to be seen. I hope whereever you are you have a little spring in your step and I'll see you soon!

This piece is called Moody Blues. It currently resides at Valley Artisans Market in beautiful Cambridge, NY. I was fortunate enough to work there today. I really love being there, from the drive through the countryside, to the view of the mountains, to the beautiful energy of the other artists and Hubbard Hall, to all the beautiful work I get to look at and the lovely artistic patrons. And I toned down my enthusiasm a little. Today was no exception. Being so soon after the holidays it was a little slow but I had several lovely customers and browsers. One of the people I met today was a lovely young painter who was thankfully killing some time and making my day a little less quiet. She was taking a painting class but arrived early so as not to be late so we had a lovely conversation about art. I told her we are always looking for artists but her husband is in construction and she moves around a lot. Her next destination is Ireland, which to be honest is a destination I have nev...

Well maybe not San Francisco, but I have been sooooo busy making hearts for all the wonderful shop owners I am fortunate enough to make them for. I have some brand new designs, some new color combinations, and some new outlets. It's been so much fun coming up with all this newness year round and of course visiting all the wonderful shop owners too. But now I'm ready to hunker down and really get down to the business that makes my heart sing. My real heart not the little fabric ones. It has been a really artistic time and somewhere in the last year I finally made that shift to being a working artist, so now it is time to work. I love to work and I have set some goals for myself and for that work and so far so good. I keep waiting for the moment that I wake up from this dream and so far it just is not happening. I am still embroidering more than I'm not. I am still listening to my mood changing Black Keys(really heartbreak is so much more attractive with a beat to it...

Sometimes in life an opportunity comes along that makes you look at what you want or what you need that requires a risk or maybe a leap of faith. As I'm sure anybody who has read my blog since the beginning knows that I had a couple of setbacks in my artistic life. I shared those setbacks until I stopped sharing them and then thankfully a few really great buds got me to thinking about what my hand embroidery means in a different way. Emily who got me to realize that it's really about my love of the stitch not so much what happens after the stitchery. It's not about the price tag it's about the stitch. She knows me so well, I guess we're kind of sisters of Panerahood where we meet every Tuesday morning. Doing something because you love it not because you can make money at it really makes all the difference. The saying about doing what you love and the money will come is really kind of true. Kathy who got me to look at everything I do, right down to the littles...

This beautiful little heart is available at Samantha's Cafe in Glens Falls. I went up there yesterday to bring some brand new Valentine Hearts for the Valentine season. This heart is a wreath with pretty bunches of various purple french knots. I love purple and love french knots so it was loads of fun and fancy to make. Baby I'm a Want You is a song from my childhood by the band Bread. Now I know you are asking yourself what the heck does this have to do with Valentine hearts. Well it was a song about love and it is a great segway for the most sublime bread pudding I have ever tasted. Now mind you I had never eaten bread pudding before going up to Samanthas, but that is irrelevant when it comes to sublime bread pudding. And they make their own bread which goes into this deliciousness. Lately, I find myself saying that I love what I do and I love where I do it, but it really seems to all come together in this wonderful little cafe. Make art, sell art, eat delicious foo...

Hope , a photo by DebraAnn813 on Flickr. Where exactly is the land of Hopes and Dreams? New Jersey. Really, New Jersey. This is the title of a song by Bruce Springsteen one of our more famous residents. But he's not really alone. The list is endless including Frank Sinatra, Tom Cruise, Sharon Stone, Bon Jovi, and Samuel Alito, a current supreme court judge. It is amazing just how many famous people call the Garden State home(and as far as those current Jersey residents I think only one or two of them actually grew up there). Maybe it's the gardens, maybe it's the stick to itness or perhaps it's just that we have to try so much harder to rise above all the stereotypes. Being so close to NY it was really a wonderful place to grow up, I mean how many people can hop in a car and within 45 minutes be looking down on the world from the Empire State Building. There are beautiful beaches, lots of sports venues, zillions of restaurants and really good pizza. That bei...

Oscar Night is a perfect example of my life at the present moment. I would have never made a piece like this a couple of years ago. I was kind of mired primitive or totally experimental. Nothing in the middle because even though I had hand embroidery artist on my business cards, I really didn't think I was an artist at heart. To be honest I really felt insecure about making real things. Motorcycles, birds, gowns are all things you can find looking right out your door and I was afraid the comparison would not end up favorably. But I have been lucky to have many wonderful friends, family, fellow artists and store owners who obviously saw something I wasn't ready to see myself. I became an artist last year, fully and completely. Everything about me is an artist now. I look at life so much differently. We are an interesting bunch because for the most part we march to a different drummer, a unique drummer. OK enough psycho babble, lets talk about Oscar Night. She was resi...

It's cold and dreary on this day and I can't really think of anything insightful to say, so I will leave you with this happy little colorful bird. It is called Whackadoodle and it is in Valley Artisans Market if you would like to visit him or perhaps bring him to a nice warm home. Just a Little Heat is a song by the Black Keys. It's on Magic Potion. It's a great song and it brings just a little heat on this cold,cold day.

The name of this piece is Sunshine Heart! I picked the title from the Kinks song aptly named Sunny Afternoon. The video for this song features the Kinks singing from a snow filled whatever about a sunny afternoon in the summer. It is morning, it is winter, it is darn cold and it is kind of bleakish at the moment. I felt a strange kinship with the Kinks about this particular song this morning. I love the Kinks. Have since I'm a little girl. My favorite song of all time is You Really Got Me. I love all the remakes, including Van Halen, who I don't really like to be honest. I used to love to dance to this song . But there are dozens of songs made by them that I adore. Lola(but of course), All Day and All Night, Celluloid Heroes, Come Dancing, well I won't bore you with my Kinks musical favorites, you can go to Youtube and listen for yourself or come up with one of your own. Although I'm sure many people have heard of the Kinks so it's easier to remind you to ...

Have Love Will Travel!! And boy have my little love hearts traveled all over upstate NY and beyond! I mentioned yesterday that my hearts have become an "overnight" success. Not really so overnight, but whatever. Now they are carried at Katbird Shop in Schenectady, Desolation Road in Altamont, Valley Artisans Market in Cambridge, Samantha's Cafe in Glens Falls and Seven Sisters Gift Shop in North Creek. Maybe you are unfamiliar with the beautiful capital region and Adirondacks up here in upstate NY but the closest location to my house is Schenectady and that is a half hour away. I usually go with my artistic friend Cheryl so don't feel too sorry for me. We travel, chat, eat and make art. Life is good. I also forgot to mention Albany Shaker which has closed after the Christmas season. I sold so many hearts there that I'm sure some of them traveled to places more exotic but not necessarily more beautiful then upstate NY. If you happened to get one and you ...

Really, take a little piece of my heart. I haven't spoken about process lately so hear we go. I have been making hearts a long time, a really long time, but it took a spin at being an artist to really make them sing. I've tried making stars and squares and crosses but in the end I have sold or given away more hearts than anything else. One of my favorite verses in the bible is "for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also". Never has that bible verse been more relevant. I get tremendous joy out of embroidering hearts. I try out new stitches, new designs, and am inspired to just keep making them one after another. I start out with a little cardboard heart shape. I trace the heart with pencil on the wrong side. I use a contrasting thread and make a basting stitch around the heart. I use the air erasable markers to draw every single one. I don't like templates and if there is a dud it is one dud and not twenty or thirty of them. Most of the ti...

In my opinion resolutions are too specific as is my blog, but that is neither here nor there. My resolutions are: 1. Work more! 2. Work hard! 3. Work happy! 4. Love more! 5. Love hard! 6. Love happy! 7. See art more! 8. Listen to music hard(or soft depending on the mood) 9. Read more! 10. Share more art, mine and others! 11. Blog more than once a week! 12. Make art not war! 13. Have love will travel anywhere the universe wants me to go! and 14.Be healthier and that should be easier with the first 13! Don't worry, be happy and have a happy, prosperous, artistic new year!