Flying Fox Studio

Just comments about my art, kids, animals and the eccentricity of it all.






Monday, December 26, 2011

Dec. 26 Boxing day

There are so many memories of Christmas past. Many more to come I hope, though things have changed so much from when the boys were little and our Christmas mornings were filled with piles of torn paper, empty boxes and Lego's everywhere.
I am looking forward to their kids, and mayhem and mess all over again.
The photo above is of my sister and brother, I am the skinny waif in the blue skirt. Brother Bill is in mid rock on the much loved horsie, he nearly wore the springs off of the thing and my sweet sister with her Mona Lisa smile.
This year has been an exceptionally odd and stress filled holiday season, just two weeks ago my sis was diagnosed with a particularly aggressive melanoma, right now she is sporting several huge incisions and multiple staples but she is, for now, and God willing always, cancer free.
Her family has had multiple trials recently but the excellent results of her cancer surgery is a great gift, one of the best any of us has ever received.
Today I am boxing up the Christmas decorations, though it is not the traditional meaning of Boxing Day, that is what I am calling it anyway. So today is for cleaning, boxing up Christmas crap as it is lovingly called and preparing for knee replacement surgery tomorrow.
I am not happy about that I must confess. The idea of bone surgery is a tad freakish.
With a little luck and some hard work, by spring I will be able to walk the dogs and work in the yard, rebuilt my fish pond and do many of the things I have not done for a couple of years now.
I am planning on taking advantage of the pain killers too, usually I don't use them but I think I will this time, happily and with abandon, to hell with the idea of toughing it out!
Somewhere some mom is missing out on her child's creation. I plucked this heavily glittered charmer out of a snow bank near the elementary school. With no name on it, and the zero likely hood of finding it's creator, I brushed the snow off and took it home, it now hangs on my office wall. Kid-art is the best art of all. I love it, wish the camera could capture the true effect of excessive glitter, it's quite nice.
And a few days ago I finished up the quilting on the bird quilt. It used up nearly 15000 yards of white thread. So it is done and put away, the photos sent off for the competition and I hope they send for it so they can see the detail in person. It would be nice to win but I never get my hopes up. Pointless waste of time. Just do it and let it go, if it is meant to be it will be.

Right now as I write this I am having an internal debate as to cleaning the laundry room and really scrubbing things down before surgery tomorrow or just sitting here on my ass and doing nothing. We do need to make a grocery store run to make sure there are supplies for the men in the house to eat and heat up since they are usually fed by yours truly, but other than that I really don't want to do much of anything, so the sitting on my ass idea is winning.
Oh and I have to tell you, another really bright spot this year, was a hand written thank you note from a three year old in the church, I adore this precocious child, she cracks me up, and the tiny toddler in red and white striped jammies who invited me into her humble house with the sweetest little "come-in, come-in" then hugged my leg even though she had never seen me before, and the kindness of friends, the notes in the mail, my family whole and healthy, sons well and all together, bright spots, good things, kindness and love......I am grateful.
May you all have a wonderful coming year, hold your dear ones close and hang on for the ride!

Saturday, December 10, 2011

sigh

I know I should be painting, but right now I cannot find the desk top. Buried. Totally buried, so I'm quilting, will show you later, what I am doing.

Oh, and I got a fantastic Norwegian sweater for my sis for Christmas, and, thank heaven, I did not have to knit it myself. Whew.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

antique couch, so close to finish!

All that is left to finish the couch, is cover the staple edges with trim and decorative nail heads.
It needs a great deal of trim, many yards of it, so I have to order the yardage.

It is a gorgeous taupe linen. I love it, it is now covered in heavy plastic and everyone has strict orders not to touch it. Woe to any animal who thinks it looks comfortable!
I will repost pics when the trim is finished.
There is new burlap straps on the bottom, new burlap over the old springs which I restrung. Then there is foam covered with many layers of cotton batting, the edge wire is also covered in heavy cotton linters and covered in burlap, as a sort of fox-edging, then over the batting is a muslin layer and then the linen.
The arm rests and the backs still contain the over 100 year old batting and horse hair.
It wa a lot of work but I love the way it looks, it was so worth it.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Christmas Knitting

Selbuvotter mittens, or the style of knitting from Selbu Norway. Very pretty mittens, they will be a present for somebody. Not sure who will get them yet.