Danger Will Robinson!!

What the studio table looks like at the moment... a little gift wrapping session underway.

There are friends and foes of Christmas. I'm a friend, but even I can O.D. on all that comes with the holidays. My friend shared with me last week that she "is exhausted with people telling her how BUSY they are!" She has vowed to eliminate the word "busy" from her life. I've been thinking a lot about this and I've come to think of my situation as "never having enough time for ALL THAT I WANT TO DO!" It's a good thing, not a negative but I'm going to try and not say "wow, I'm so BUSY" but try and keep the PROCESS and JOY of everything I'm doing IN THE MOMENT. 

We'll see... HO-HO-HO! 

While shopping for Christmas presents FOR OTHER PEOPLE, I couldn't help but purchase some very fun felting embellishments! -Like I have time to MAKE MORE ART?! I couldn't help myself. I did think to myself as I have been walking through the various isles of different stores I need to invent a personal robot that would reach out and squeeze my wrist and freeze hold my Alaska Airline Visa when I pick up something I really don't need -he'd shout out to everyone around me " DANGER, DANGER CINDY SHAKE, PUT THAT CRAP DOWN!!" 

...but I didn't and look what I made! Damn you robot warning -not this time of year anyhow.

Willie and I celebrated the latest snow storm with a little help from hot Captain Morgan's with Cider and decided that a metal sculpture outside needed more Christmas lights! Gus shoveled the drive and walkways, Will and I laughed and kept the fire pit clear of snow and Daddy-O watched the craziness from the living room window!

Found this incredible book, "Born To Run" for two Christmas gifts. Tracked it down at "Grape Expectations" downtown Anchorage on 6th Avenue. A perfect gift for anyone who loves dogs.

Also bought Olive-Dog new booties for our snowy walks... think we got our money's worth out of the old pair?!

Merry Christmas countdown everyone! 

Wishing you a peaceful mind, loving heart, healthy families and always a creative outlook!

xox

“Practically The Kitchen Sink”

My favorite part is the tree topper cupcake stand
that is filled with cupcake ornaments!

Yep, that’s what I bought at  S.T.A.R.'s 17^th Annual Holiday Tea that was held at the Marriot on Saturday. I bought item #11 in the live auction that was called “Practically The Kitchen Sink!” The new kitschy aluminum tree is the perfect addition to our home for the holiday and the bonus was that the tree was LOADED with over 100 miscellaneous professional cooking items! Volunteers lovingly decorated the tree with items donated by several businesses AND included was an additional three huge boxes of goodies with a gift certificate for cooking class for 6 from Doriola’s, a Krups Espresso Machine, Krups Coffee Grinder, fresh coffee beans, cast iron grill, multiple cookbooks, stacking cooling racks, professional kitchen shears, an assortment of professional knives, an assortment of items from the Pampered Chef, stainless utensils and much, much more! My thought was while helping contribute to S.T.A.R.’s fundraising event my Christmas shopping would be almost complete by sharing all of these incredible goodies with our friends and family!  Special thanks and holiday three CHEERS to Anchorage Restaurant Supply, Natural Pantry, Doriola’s, Allen and Peterson Cooking andAppliance Center, Nina Mann, Mary Dodge, Ginger George-Smith, Celeste Dorsey and Nancy Dahlstrom who were the wonderful team responsible for our new Christmas tree and helping me with my shopping!

 The festive Holiday Tea was the perfect kick-off for the holiday season! I’ve been trying to make a few gifts including this felted moose -that can now accompany some cool kitchen gadgets!

Fitz and Felt

Mommy’s head hurt Friday morning. I surprised Daddy-O with tickets to the Fitz and the Tantrums concert at Bear Tooth Thursday night. What a rockin’ (late) night we had! Normally we would have been in bed just as the doors were opening at Bear Tooth for the concert and discovered that we’re

waaaaay out of shape for staying up past 10:00 pm –especially if you throw favorite beverages on top of a night out. Derek and I vowed to work on our “concert readiness” this year, after all we can literally walk to Bear Tooth

Theater and no DD is needed! Check out Fitz and the Tantrums, Daddy-O bird dogged this group before their trip to Anchorage and

I have to agree, these guys are going somewhere.

I’ve fed the art making need this week with more felting after seeing a post on pins by my friend Karen Tessandore who shared a link to Betz White’s tutorial on felted pins. I didn’t follow their style of making pins but wanted to make some sculptural pins after seeing some birds nests on Betz’ Blog header and loved the idea of working on a smaller scale than I’m used to. Of course, this latest fit of inspiration also required a trip to see

Pamela at Far North Fibers to stock up on more colors of Merino and Corriedale sheep wool! Spring Break started for the Anchorage School District Friday -even though it’s barely 10 degrees outside… As I made these happy little spring nests and my red “Arctic Poppy” pins it cheered me to hoping our real spring is coming. The Poppy pins were made from a beautiful red wool sweater I scored at my favorite thrift store, Bishop’s Attic. Along with pipe cleaners I use for felting for only 50 cents, look at the way cool little tin box I also found for $1!

Kristen wasn’t able to come home for Spring Break (sad sigh) because she had to finish some components of her chemical oceanography thesis at UAF before she departs on another science cruise in a couple of weeks. Fairbanks has had temps at 20 and 30 below and she has been more than ready for a break. I thought a little art making might be good for the other side of her brain. While picking up a flannel mermaid fabric, cheer-up gift for her at Quilt Tree I was surprised to see the beautiful display of my Art Quilt Patterns the store had on display!! Thank you Quilt Tree, I can see why the patterns have been selling so well!

Moose, Ravens, Dogs and Tae Kwon Do, Oh My!

On the way to meet my friend Pat F. for coffee this morning a young moose was running north along Arctic Blvd. as I had the green light. Fortunately I saw him in time –as did the other cars and he ran safely by my drivers side of the car! He ran down the street and darted off into the woods –whew! I was excited to meet Pat (a long time family friend who used to baby sit my sister and I when we were little) for coffee because she had a surprise for me. A couple of years ago we “traded” artwork, I made her some steel ravens and she was going to make me one of her famous soft sculpture art dolls. Happily for me time has gone by for our trade and since then Pat has taken up felting RAVENS!!

Look what I got –a huge, beautifully felted Raven! While we were having coffee and her latest flock was on the table, several people wanted to buy the felted sculptures. She is working on having enough to sell and will be with me at the upcoming Spenard Farmers Market which will open May 21 this season. It will be fun to have her company and her work with me at my booth.

We spent all day yesterday at the Champ Tae Kwon Do Tournament at the UAA Sports Complex. How exciting it was to see all of the talented kids and instructors from various parts of the world. Gus was on a special Tiger Demo team and did well in his forms and board breaking. The sparring was a bit tough on him but he still came home with two medals and a GIANT 4 foot tall trophy! The experience and opportunity (and the trophy!) did a lot for the boy’s self esteem. The video is of a demonstration by the Anchorage Police K9 Unit to bring awareness to the Dollars for Dogs Program and was very i

mpressive. Champ Tae Kwon Do gave a portion of the Tournament proceeds to Dollars for Dogs. Both men in the video are APD K-9 Officers and the program is funded entirely by donations. The dog’s name is “Erl” and he is a Dutch Shepherd, his handler is

Officer Frank Stanfield. An upcoming fundraising event for Dollars For Dogs will be February 19 from 11:00 – 3:00 at the ConocoPhillips Alaska Atrium, 700 G Street. A very worthy (and necessary) organization to support.

Yes, I'm blogging during the Superbowl XLV...almost sounds un-American doesn't it?! Don't worry, I pre-viewed the best commercials, I've got the chips, guac & slasa set out, the TV is on, I shoveled snow off of the deck and the BBQ is warming up for Daddy-O's favorite marinated Kalbi Ribs from New Sagya City Market. Ahhhh, another day in the frozen North!

Thanks Girls!

Right after I have an intense, frenzied art making session, I’m usually wrung out and hungry for Mexican food with a cold beer. This time after welding the trumpet sculpture and fast & furiously slinging steel, I was amped up, ready for some more art making! I’ve been wanting to use the Churro Sheep wool that my friend Marjorie sent me courtesy of her "girls." My recent felting class inspired me because I was able to compare how beautiful the Churro wool is and was inspired to learn how to wash and dry it for felting. Gus wasn’t so convinced –he thought the washed wool drying in the laundry room looked like an “old persons hair!” The washing process is not too difficult but it was intimidating because I read that too much handling or agitation tightens the

wool fibers right up. I picked out the natural debris that was in the wool before I washed it and fortunately, Daddy-O had installed a nice mop sink in the laundry room that used to be for my work in clay, just off of my studio area. The sink was perfect for the two hot water washes and clean water soaks. After the first wash the water was muddy, dark brown, so much so that I thought I would never be able to get the wool clean on my own,

but the wool washed up amazingly fast thanks to Dawn dishwater dete

rgent. The water was completely clear in the rinse after the second hot, soapy soak. I already know the miracles of Dawn from my greasy hand clean-up after welding days. Dawn really works –they even use it for cleaning up oil-soaked animals after environmental disasters. I had to keep from wanting to scrub, squeeze and wring out the wool, especially since I didn’t have any of the net laundry bags that is recommended. I gently flat-hand squished out all of the excess water and let dry in the warm laundry room and the wool would be fine to use as

soon as it dried. I finished up my little Boston Terrier (he's got little black, glass bead eyes sewn on too -it's just hard to see in the photo) I started in the felting class and with the left over black C-1 Black wool I made a sheep body to to felt the washed Churro wool to. I really like the natural ends of the sheep wool, they are beautiful for embellishment detail on a felted critter. Definitely more felting practice (including taking pictures!) is in order and I want to make some more sheep after I get some more base materials. So many mediums, so little time!

My friend Marjorie's Navajo Churro Sheep, West, Bonnie, Vera & Patsy

Dog Eat Dog Kinda Day

It’s a good thing our Giant Schnauzer, Nimbus has a soft mouth more like a retriever than that of a K-9 Police Dog that Giant Schnauzers are usually known for. Because before I knew it Nimbus had half a Boston Terrier in his mouth! My felted Boston that is. Today was the Needle Felted Dog Class with artists K.C. Wilson and Elise Strauss. What fun! Growing up we had a Boston named "Bomo"

and I thought it would be funnier (easier!) to felt a little Boston rather than a large breed dog.

All materials were provided and proceeds were to benefit the Alyeska Canine Trainers with the class being held at their Anchorage facility. Elise had warned the class that pets really LOVE the wool used

in the needle-felting sculptures and she was right! As soon as I came home Nimbus followed me everywhere sticking his nose in my bag and couldn’t get enough of my little dog-in-process. When I went to finally let him have a smell and see what was in the bag, WAUMPHH!! In his mouth it went! I was able to slowly back the Boston out with no real damage. It was really pretty funny and such a surprise causing both Gus and I to laugh so hard that Nimbus retreated to his doggie bed to pout in shame. I posted about the felted goats I fell in love with last year and even have some beautiful wool that my friend Margie sent me. Now I have the needles and some felting basics to felt some critters. Not sure you’ll ever see my animals for sale because I think I’d have to charge thousands of dollars due to just how long my little dog (which isn’t even finished) is taking me. There are several exceptional Needle Felting Artists on ETSY

that Elise gave us info on including Kay’s K9s, Motley Mutton, Morning Glory Workshop and Gfelted Designs by Gerry (here is a link to her Blog). If you do get the felting bug, some of the best and innovative supplies are offered by Dream Felt right here in Alaska! Thanks again to K.C. and Elise who both were very patient and even provided band aids and wrap for poked fingers. Here are some additional links for supplies and instructions: New England Felting Supply, Kay Petal Felt Alive, Felting Forum and Brigette Krag Hansen -the woman who is know for starting it all.

Below are some of the samples Elise and K.C. had on display at class.