Tangled Stitch

Today I am going off the reservation once again but not too far off.  Daniel Murphy just inspires me, what can I say.  Daniel Murphy has played for the Mets since 2008.  For most of his career he has been criticized for his fielding, suffered several horrible injuries, and still maintains a great productive, inspiring career as a New York Met slugger. There is just no giving up for Daniel, two years in a row he had serious injuries to his knees, last year's being one of the most disheartening for this fan.  He has so much potential and it was just plain sad to see him out for the season the second year in a row. Thankfully this year Daniel has found his spot in the roster,  and his hitting is getting as much attention as his fielding(which I think is just fine).   Last night he drove in 5 of the Met's 9 runs and I was lucky enough to be walking in front of my television to see him hit a 3 run homer.  Just joyous.  I don't really watch televisi...

This piece is called the Light With In and it is available at the Katbird Shop, located at 425 Liberty Street in Schenectady, NY. Cheryl(who I wrote about yesterday), my friend Emily, and Kathy the owner of the Katbird Shop(who is also a friend extraordinaire) are the reasons I am still an artist today.  They believed in me when I didn't really believe in myself.  Kathy gave me a place to put whatever work I wanted out there in the world, out in the world.  Kathy has the most beautiful collection of work I have ever seen assembled in one place.  Kathy is an artist herself and she has such an eye for beauty and art and her store reflects that gift.  She also has an eye towards the past and has rooms set up for antique treasures too. Some of my favorite things at the Katbird shop are the beautiful glasswork by my friend Cheryl, the bright and shiny jewelry(I'm not really a jewelry person but if I was), handmade soaps, and bird pottery.  There are gi...

The Lady's Got Glass is my friend Cheryl Gutmaker and her adorable husband Julian or as I call him Jewels.  They are passionate about their work, about each other, and every moment spent with the two of them together is just remarkable and an example of the kind of life we all search for. They work together to make their beautiful glass work, which is mostly fused but also features some beautifully hand blown pieces too, in their garage studio and on trips to Corning where they make their beautiful blown glass pieces.  The piece featured above is an example of Cheryl's frit work which is very time consuming and makes several trips into the kiln to end up with this beautiful piece of art. Cheryl also makes bowls, cheeseboards and soap dishes which she sells through many different stores and through craft shows. Cheryl has a website called appropriately enough The Lady's Got Glass where you can read more about her process and find all the stores lucky enough to carry...

This is Anabora, she's my goddess. Yes I actually embroidered a goddess for myself.  She's not available because she's my goddess.  If you want one I'll make you one.  Just email me. So today as I sat down to hand embroider after spending a glorious hour and a half crocheting a christening gown, I realized I just wasn't passionate enough to embroider an eye glass case so  I picked up my knitting needles and let it rip.  I love to knit.  No pictures because I have 3 large projects in three different mediums going at the same time.  I've decided to pick up some of the treasures I've let slip away from my hands while I listened to the the one person who invariably comes up to your booth at a craft show and says I can do this.  All of my work will be based on the feelings that I get from it and hopefully that passion will appeal to someone else. I started another blog(yes another one) but this one is about politics which I am also passionate abo...

Somewhere over the rainbow, bluebirds fly.  This bluebird eye glass case has three lovely birds sitting in a tree and a flower on the back.    At the moment it is available privately through the blog as I am gearing up for the Albany Shaker Craft Show in a couple of weeks and I want to make sure I have some ready. As per wikipedia bluebirds are an accepted symbol of cheerfulness, happiness, prosperity, hearth and home, good health. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluebird_of_happiness).   Isn't that something we all want, a day full of cheerfulness,  prosperity, happiness or at least optimism? It was a rainy day here in Upstate New York so maybe I was looking for a rainbow too.  That made the choice of Somewhere Over the Rainbow as the song of the day an easy one.  We all know the beautiful Judy Garland sang Somewhere Over the Rainbow in the Wizard of Oz.  But this version by Ben Webster on the saxophone is just lovely(http://www.youtube....

This piece is called Prom Dress, it is available at Valley Artisans Market. I would like to give you a gift.  Put down whatever you are doing and go find some music that inspires and speaks to you and just listen, just work, or just dance. The inspiration of music can not be underrated.  Music has the ability to go deep down in our soul and find the beauty in everyday life.  I woke up in the middle of the night with Clair De Lune by Debussy swirling in my head, inspiring a poem and a row or two on  the christening outfit I am working on.  Absolutely beautiful song about the moon by the way.  Just beautiful and magical. The poem can be read at The Connections That Bind Us at this link.  http://theconnectionsbindus.blogspot.com/2012/06/light-shines.html I woke up this morning to Oh Darling by the Beatles and then I was just inspired beyond belief to embroider a piece based on The Long and Winding Road by the Beatles..  I've come to realize i...

Today I was inspired by my mother to make hand embroidered eye glass cases again.   My mother had such thick lenses in her glasses that she could only wear black plastic frames.   I hold the memory of those glasses in my own eyes as I also cannot see without my glasses with the exception of when I am hand embroidering.   The cases are priced at $20.00 and available for right now through my blog privately.  I do accept PayPal and will be putting them on Etsy in the near future.  Each case is hand illustrated and hand embroidered and are priced in a way as to not limit my creativity.  If you are interested in ordering one please send me an email at das813@hotmail.com with specifics.  My mother was an inspiration to me as an artist.   She fostered creativity and interest in everything my brother and I were interested in.   She was an artist herself and that is one of my fondest memories of her.   My mom taught me ...

American Flag Heart is a new addition to my Etsy shop. It is hand embroidery on tea stained muslin. This heart reminds me of my father who was a veteran who fought in the Korean War.  He overcame many obstacles and lived his own version of the American dream.   I do not think war is the answer still I am appreciative and grateful for all of the veterans and current unlisted servicemen serving our country.  There are many soldiers coming back today who cannot live the American dream and come back to homelessness and mental health issues.  Please donate or volunteer to welcome these men and women back to their lives and thank them for their sacrifices. A special shout out to my friends and family who have family members serving in the military.  They also sacrifice for our country and deserve our thanks.  Blessings.

The Heart is the Garden is available in my Etsy Shop. The grass and sky were hand knit. The flowers and the stems were hand embroidered in pinkish purple and green. The sun is represented by the bright and shiny beads that were hand beaded. The handle is hand crocheted. Sometimes the most beautiful flower in the garden is hidden by weeds.  God gives us our children to entrust like delicate flowers.  He expects us to water them, feed them, protect them and let them grow up to be everything he intended them to be. If our children are disappointing or misbehaving, punish them with love.  They will outgrow it.  I know from my heart that a child who knows they are loved can survive anything including a lifetime among the weeds. Blessings.

Heart of the Matter is now available at Valley Artisans Market in Cambridge, NY. Our hearts content. The only way we can live to our hearts content is to live from the heart.  To block out the words that so often clutter our minds.  The words that have been told to us for our entire lives, most of the time by very well meaning loving people. But our hearts cannot listen to well meaning people, it can only listen to itself to find contentment. To find our uniqueness that makes us who we are, not what we do.  To find the magic in our everyday life.  I have been on a journey of self discovery the last few months and bombarded by well meaning advice that has made me question my own heart, can you imagine? If you make this you will be more successful, if you sell these you will make more money and I listened.  I put others opinions before my own heart.  In my heart I am a kind and compassionate woman,  I live with love in my heart for just about eve...

Instead of a meditation this morning I chose to go outside, focus on my favorite tree and observe what gifts of nature I would find.   I saw a heart in this tree, perhaps not a perfect heart but a heart just the same.   A slight, gentle breeze would arrive every few minutes and make the leaves dance not a cha-cha but perhaps a waltz. I heard the hoot from an owl or perhaps it was two owls. Who, who, who?   I heard several beautiful song birds singing to the gently dancing leaves.   I heard a few loud chirps and maybe a few from baby birds with a tinier, more delicate chirp.   A blackbird flew by to remind me of the freedom of being a bird.   A buzzing from a bee melodic in its simplicity and it did not choose sting me which made me able to enjoy the buzz.   And there was a pesky mosquito who reminded me that it is a living thing we must show prudence some time not to destroy it. The tree was beautiful against the lovely color of a blue sk...

This is Anabora.  She is my Goddess.  I hand embroidered her two or three years ago and she sat folded up in my drawer for a couple of years until a few months ago when I framed her and hung her on my wall.  She represents the dreams I let go of while I searched for a way to express myself as a mere mortal scarred by loss. She is my goddess of the dark bringing light where ever she can. A lot of water has gone under the bridge and a lot of time has been lost. Somewhere in the last few months, Anabora has emerged from her slumber and healed the wounds of a wounded child.  It's not that the wounded child does not feel, perhaps it is that she feels too much. When you lose something as a child that you can't replace, you lose your trajectory.  You suffer such a profound loss and absorb the feelings of the adults around you.Whatever your dreams were before that day, they become lost.  And you spend the rest of your life searching for them.  One day so...

This beautiful baby is named Nicolette.  She is a beautiful teenager by now.  This was taken by her mother on her christening day and she is wearing a christening outfit that I made. We are all given God given talents.  We usually discover them in childhood because that is when our brains are open to learning and we don't have the busy day to day responsibilities or woes to get in the way.  When we are children, we are just children.  I was a child when my grandmother taught me how to crochet,knit and hand embroider.  They have been a constant companion most of my life.  It is rare to see me without a needle of one sort or another. I have the god given talent to be blessed with a gift of gab.  A compassionate and empathetic soul.  A wonderful smile and eyes that are welcoming to everyone who comes my way.  I think that makes me a magnet for people to talk to.  All of my life I have never had a problem finding people to share t...

 March 17th came into my mind today and I wondered why so I thought I would see what came up on that day and why it popped into my head.  I'm sorry to say I think it popped into my head because of the dreams and life I expressed an interest in on my blog on that day.  My art and my idea for a business. I kind of let it slide .It wasn't really that I didn't intend to follow through, but my mind wasn't quite ready for such a big dream at that time.  I had just crashed and burned in a plane that  I didn't know how to fly.  I know that I am ready for that dream now.  But I've added a few passengers. I'm going to take christening outfits with me.  I love to create them and they are inspired by the divine.  I don't use patterns, I just kind of make them up as I go along.  I made quite a few and I have pictures so I'll share one soon.  I  don't have a picture of the one I'm currently making as to be quite honest they don't look like...

 The Parrot And the Butterfly The parrot sits in her cage all day, Waiting for someone to take her away, She sits and she waits for someone to speak, Anyone everyone so she has something to say. No words of her own, they were too unimportant, Who should listen to me I have nothing to say, And then one day, much to her sur p rise, She was a butterfly when she opened her eyes. She lived in a cocoon shaped like her cage, No mirror around, never noticed her plumage, Beautiful really, in all vibrant colors, A unique thing of beauty she was in her image. She looked around and wondered what shall I  be, And she heard a sweet voice say look for the key, Where is the key she asked with a sigh, The key is your heart and with that said goodbye. She looked out the window and saw the sun, And she realized it’s put there for everyone, So she put her wings together and slid out of the cage. And flew away home, free as a bird, And tol...

I woke up with the words to Ball of Confusion in my head.  It was sung by the Temptations in the 1960's but it could have been written yesterday.  We have to join together, find our own unique qualities, put them into action and pray.  Not just to God, but to Allah, Buddha, and the universe as a whole. Our civilization is in turmoil all over the world.  We can only bring peace to the world if we bring peace to ourselves.  We must look at every child as our own child.  We must take care of our elderly, take care of our veterans, take care of our neighbors, take care of everyone.  We must band together bringing peace to our crazy world or we will perish. People don't know how to think for themselves anymore.  If you look around so many people spout beliefs that aren't even theirs.  They talk about all this nonsense while children are being abducted,  children are going hungry, our education system has become a vehicle for only certai...

As I was sitting here trying to figure out what I should do with my day, I was struck by the thought that I really don't know how to take care of myself.  I have been so inundated with the thoughts of others my whole life that I don't know how to take care of myself and how to protect myself.  I don't know how to do just about anything because I am afraid of how it will make me look to others. I know I'm a good friend, and a good mother and I was a good daughter to my parents. I'm kind, compassionate, a good listener, a pretty good artist and I love to write and tell tales.  Hence the blog. And yet  I know that somehow when I was a child I got the idea that I was never quite good enough being just me.  I had to be smarter, taller, quieter, thinner, more industrious.  In other words I just had to be somebody else or so I thought.  I've thought that same thought every single day of my life.   So instead of  trying to sugar coat my day, I've...

So many times we look at our children and think we know what's best for them.  We send them to the best schools, we try so hard to make sure they find success, The American Dream.  But what about those kids that don't follow the traditional track?  You know the ones that are not a doctor, a lawyer or an Indian Chief. There is a Michaelangelo, a Beethoven, a Grandma Moses out there just waiting to discover themselves.  But there might be a parent who wanting only the best for their child tells them but you can't make any money being an artist.  Pick a safer track.  Go to college, become a business major, you can always get a job. Yes they can always get a job and they can make lots of money at that job, but money isn't everything.  It can't buy you love, it can't buy you peace, it can't buy you security.  All it can do is buy you lots of things you don't need so you can cover up the lack the of the things you do. Meanwhile, the artist finds...

I have been searching for the missing piece of my soul most of my life.  I found it in art but I never remain focused enough to follow through on a dream of making it my life.   A few months ago I started a spiritual awakening that has consumed me. I have found other gifts that have laid dormant for decades and are now being reawakened.  I wrote about this on my other blog The Connections that Bind Us(http://theconnectionsbindus.blogspot.com/2012/06/spiritual-awakening.html) This blog post is about my ongoing spiritual awakening and gifts of universal powers and the belief that my soul has found the missing piece. I'm taking the rest of the day off the computer to work on another dream.  Happy Father's Day to my father, my grandfathers, my husband, my cousins, my uncles, my friends and everyone else who has helped to nurture and bring a fatherly influence to a child.  Sometimes we find our fathers in childhood and sometimes we are lucky enough to have...