When Claudia Meets Animoto

I just learned how to do something really cool on line and I thought I'd share it and my great friend Claudia with you. You can learn more about Claudia by going to Claudia's Blog or Claudia's Yoga on my left sidebar.

Christmas, Last Year and This, Part 1

At 8 am last year, I was laying in my bed, contemplating how long it was safe to lay there before the dogs would start bothering me, wanting to be fed, put out, played with. Lucy was brand new to my home, I was living in my condo. Alone. I rolled over, still 1/2 asleep, grabbed the TV remote, and immediately found a stupid Christmas Parade. I did the obvious thing. Rolled over, leaving the TV on to act as a sedative, and went back to sleep.

Knock! Knock! Knock! at our bedroom door this year. Miles. I started laughing, Eric not so much. "When are we going to open up our Christmas Presents?" I heard in Miles's distinctive excited gab. "Soon." I replied.

"Are you the only one up?" I asked, still in bed beside a moaning Eric who did not want to be disturbed. "No", Miles replied. "Gabby's up too." "We'll be out in a few minutes." I promised.

8:40 am.

Last year I would be stumbling to the front door to let the dogs out for 5 minutes. They would not want to stay out long. We would all stumble back into bed.

This year: Knock! Knock! Knock! Miles again. I'm glad we had the forsight to lock the bedroom door. "You said we'd open presents soon and Sunny has pooped on the floor." I burst out quietly laughing, Eric hushing me urgently. "We'll be out soon!" I called back. "In the meanwhile, Sunny's poop is your Christmas Present."

"Ew." Miles replied.

"It's your Christmas Candy!" I laughingly said. "Shut up!" Eric said to me urgently. "It's too early to get up."

"I have to go to the bathroom."

"It can wait."

Miles: "When are we going to open up presents?"

Me: "Very soon now. Who's up?"

Miles: "Gabby and Garrett."

Me: "Not Ethan?"

Miles: "Not yet."

Me: "We'll be out soon."

Miles: "Ok."


9:00 AM

Last Year I would have been just waking up and thinking about getting some breakfast for the dogs and me.

This year: Knock! Knock! Knock!

Miles: "You said you'd be out soon! Where are you?"

I whisper to Eric "I have to go to the bathroom!"

I call out to Miles: "We're almost outside now."

Eric to Miles; "We'll be out soon."

Eric to Me: "You don't have to go to the bathroom."


9:30 am

Last year: I would either have had breakfast in bed or would have quietly moved to the studio to not watch the parade and sit in a stupor.

This year: "I have to go to the bathroom bad!" I whisper to Eric.

We hear Garrett with Miles outside in the family room or somewhere not right next to our bedroom door. "You don't have to go. If you go outside, it will be all over."

"I have to go now!" I urgently reply.

"You don't have to go. You don't have to go. You don't have to go." Eric murmers, rubbing my stomach with every repeat.

"You're just making it worse!" I reply.

"Sorry." he says."

"I'm going now. Be right back." And somehow I sneak out to the bathroom and back into the bedroom without being discovered. Ah, a Christmas Miracle!


10:40 am

I have no idea what I would have been doing by this time last year, but it would have been quiet and alone.

This year: Knock! Knock! Knock! Miles again.

"You said you'd be out soon and it's 10:40 now! Where are you?"

I whisper to Eric, "How long do you want him in therapy? I could tell him that we're busy humping like bunnies." (In fact, we are humping like bunnies. My 'Christmas Present' Eric says.)

"Shut up." Eric whispers back. To Miles "We'll be out in 15 minutes. Just be patient."

I call out "Is Ethan awake yet?"

Miles: "N0!"

Me: "Go wake him up. Get him out of bed so that we can open presents together.:

Miles: "OK"

11:00 am

I am putting on my bathroom and underwear, knowing that we will have to present ourselves shortly. Eric is putting on a tee shirt and lounge pants.

Knock! Knock! Knock! Miles. "Where are you?" he cries. "You said soon!" And I open the door and step out to his delighted smile. Ethan has decided that sleeping in is more of an imperative than opening up presents. I assure Miles that we can open them up now anyway.

End of Part 1.

Share The Love: A Different Featured Artist Every Week!

Do you like to go into wilderness stores and look at all the cool chatkies as well as the gear? Do you like hiking? Do you like to pretend you like the outdoors for the benefit of your naturalist friends, even if your real vision of interacting with the wilderness is having a plant in your room at Caesar's Palace?

Well, I am truly #'s 1 and 2 although I do neither often enough, but visiting today's featured artist was truly like taking a walk in the woods with the docent-run gift shop right in the middle!

This weeks Featured Artisan is Walk in the Woods, LLC. Beautiful creations

that bring you "Back to Nature" ! You can find Walk in the Woods at:

http://www.byregion.net/cgibin/users/profiles.pl?username=walkinthewoods

http://whatrosemadetoday.blogspot.com/

http://www.facebook.com/WalkintheWoodsLLC

http://www.etsy.com/shop/walkinthewoodsllc

Merry Christmas

Stockings for All Year Round

When I first met Janel Laidman, she was attending her first meeting of GLASG (Greater Los Angeles Spinning Guild) and, upon meeting us, happily exclaimed "I've finally found my tribe!"  She was a major talent in the fiber arts - that was apparent immediately - but was still busy at her day job (well, sort of... she grew e-coli bacteria at UCLA on Friday nights which always amused me), but turned out extraordinary works of artisan delight in her spare time.

Over the years, she has gone through multiple iterations, leaving UCLA to pursue fiber arts and the fiber business in many forms.  Owning a fiber and spinning store, starting an on line spinning magazine , teaching classes, designing garments... winning awards for her work and getting a lot of public notice for it, writing books, and all-in-all, becoming one of the stars in the fiber world.   I have always admired her; indeed, I admit to a little bit of jealousy over the years as I knew that I had the creative bug too, but the execution of my own unique ideas in fiber - as hard as I tried and as unique as they were - just never matched up.  Of course, I had not found my own true calling yet...  beads, where I could not only be unique in my artistic expression but also discovered that I was as proficient or maybe even more proficient as some of the best. More exciting news on that front coming early next year and trust me, it's good stuff, but back to Janel for this post is about her.

The bottom line on Janel is that I knew a kindred spirit in creativity and she is totally amazing, not only as an artist but also as a person.  She is down to earth and grounded, knows what she is about and not afraid to pursue it.  I watched her in awe over the past many years as she knew where she was going, wasn't quite sure if she was ready to step off of that cliff to get there, than did so and flew.  (I miss her so as she moved to Eugene, Oregon as part of the process, a natural move for somebody with her bent towards fiber and a loss for us in Southern California)   Her books are waited for with great anticipation, she seems to have - at least so far - settled into sock design in an extraordinary way and is recognized, written and blogged about, and welcomed in the way that anyone would of royalty, but given the announcement in her Rustling Leaf Press, we may be lucky enough to see her branching out into a bigger forum of design.

Look at this:  A Knitting Encyclopedia!  Oh, I need to order this one  for sure.  And now, in 2011, rather than the one sock club that she usually offers, she is offering two!  The Illuminations Sock Club (formerly known as "Solemates" and "Art and Sole."

I, for one, am personally very excited about this.  As much as I love beading and am finally about to pursue it as a serious business instead of something under wraps (again, a serious discussion about this next year when everything is finalized), I miss fiber arts.  No, I am never going to be a great artist in that forum, but you don't have to be one to recognize talent when you see it and want to participate fully.  It's ok.  For myself, I have come to a point in my life where jealousy is recognized for what it is... a yearning to be a better person, and when it creeps into my psyche, I use it in the appropriate manner.  As inspiration to work hard and improve myself rather than resent the people who produce such great and wonderful items of beauty and also as an incentive to make the connections to them stronger because who, but people who are better than yourself, are the best people to know and associate with?  They make you think, they make you stretch your imagination; they set the benchmark of where you want to go in your own life.  I am fortunate enough to call Janel and many other people who I admire friends even as I wonder why they accept me into the fold.  But I'm not questioning that acceptance too closely.  I had enough of that in my former life and managed to isolate myself from a world that turns out to be wonderful and warm and full of opportunity only because of insecurity.  Now if they (and I mean not only my artistic friends, but my friends in many walks of life) will have me, I will go and join them because I can accept the possibility that they see something in me that I don't see in myself, they also have their insecurities that are not necessarily apparent to me, and as a group, we are so much stronger than we are as single individuals.

Like Janel, I have found my "tribe."  My tribe is the world.  My tribe is people and animals and all things of an artistic, ethical, humane, and beautiful nature.  I have a lot of people to thank for this turn-about in my attitude... Dr. Muti my Therapist, my amazing sister Adele, my other family members, the wonderful people I've met in my various fiber guilds and clubs over the years, Richard, The Fab Four plus others who have been so important to me who I've met through his clubhouse, and the love of my life, Eric and his children who are bringing to me a wholeness that I not only never believed that I could feel, but had no idea how all-encompassing, challenging, and rewarding it could be.  But I digress again.  Back to Janel.

With the impending separation of my beading pursuits from my home life (which if you are a regular reader of my blog or recipient of my e-mails -oy vey, poor you - you know has turned upside down over the past year, I want to take up an old and missed hobby.  Knitting.  And where am I going to start?  With socks of course.  Janel's socks.  Small, intensely beautiful, unique.

Additionally, not only will I get the benefit of Janel's amazing patterns, but since my own intention is to join one of her sock clubs in 2011, I have the option of having her send me the fiber to recreate her genius too, and that's exactly what I am going to do.  She even offers the club in different color ways... you get to choose from bright and vibrant hues, muted ones, earth-tones, or my own personal favorite, "Surprise Me!"  As the years have progressed, I like to let other people make some of my fashion and color choices for me (that's why I like designing jewelry so much for others... they come up with color combination s that I might never have considered that are wonderful!) and stretch myself beyond my personal comfort zone. 

No, Janel's clubs are not inexpensive, but you get not only the wonderful and unique experience of working up her patterns, but you get a kit of luxury fibers from small manufacturers who you might never have heard of.  Working up Janel's kits is like taking a master class in knitting using only the finest of materials.  And as our mutual friend Elena always says, "Why waste time on lousy fibers?"  If you are considering pampering yourself in any way next year and are interested in knitting, you might want to consider joining her clubs too.

As a participant in my own very first Christmas this year, I am going to buy myself one Christmas Present.  The joy of receiving two sock kits in the mail from Janel every other month for the entire year.  It's appropriate, don't you think?  Giving myself the gift of Christmas Stockings?  Something beautiful, something appropriate in a variety of fibers that can be used all year long, something that will stretch my working skills (and bring them not only back to where they were before I forsake knitting, spinning, and weaving for beading but maybe even beyond) and my talents and will give me pause for thought and likely the inspiration will be able to be applied to my own work in the form of patterns not otherwise thought of, color combinations not dreamed of, and the incentive to keep up with such a natural talent as Janel.

I am lucky in that I wrote to Janel when she first e-mailed me about her sock club, and asked for permission to write about it here and she granted me that permission.  I waited for Christmas Eve to make this post because when is there a better time to write about stockings and socks?  And with this comment, I'm going to leave you with more pictures of Janel's amazing work and wish everyone a wonderful Holiday no matter what your religious or cultural persuasion, and may all of your wishes and dreams come true.

Visit and get to know Janel Laidman at her blog, The Beebonnet Report.   The only thing wrong with her blog is that she is so busy all the time that she always leaves us wanting more...

Oh Christmas Tree....

Once upon a time, I was 100% Jewish. Not religious, mind you, but culturally Jewish. I celebrated Hanukah, I made fun of the High Holy Days, but I respected them. I loved Passover, mainly for the fried Mazoh my Father made, but I loved it.

Then I married Eric who, although he won't admit it, is also 100% Jewish to the core. But his previous wife was Christian, and the children were raised to celebrate Christmas.

There are some things that are not worth worrying about. The Christmas Tree that adorns our dining area is one of them. In fact, it's a beautiful tree, even though it is fake, and I've always admired the trees. They are used as part of the Christmas Celebration but in fact, their origins come much further back in history than the birth of Jesus, and having a pretty tree with lights and stockings and such not only doesn't bother me, but I enjoy it. The cat and dogs don't seem to be interested, and their involvement in it was the only real concern that I had.

That is until this evening. I was talking to Adele earlier this afternoon, and the Christmas Tree is one of the subjects that came up. I told her the same thing that I am saying here. This is my very first Christmas and my very first Christmas Tree. I like it.

Then, she dropped the bombshell. She thinks it would be a good idea if she gave me a very special gift. A very special ornament for our tree. One that would forever more be known as a symbol of this moment in time.

The ornament would say "Baby's First Christmas."

No Adele. No. Do not send me that ornament. I'm warning you.... lol!

Tri-o-Rama

It's amazing where my new-found jewelry skills can be put to use.

You're already aware of Miles's Urban Wildlife Report, of course. His subject? The Black Widow Spider. But of course, you don't know how much he was freaking out over the whole project. Miles is super-intelligent, scoring well into the "advanced" section of California's "Star Testing" program. In fact, despite all of his special challenges which profoundly affect his performance at school, he has been recommended to test out for the gifted program. That test will be administered next May. But back to now.

Miles hates to do reports. They require focus and concentrated attention over an extended period of time that he just doesn't have the ability to put out. As a result, his Dad and I were highly involved in helping him with his report. Dad worked with him on the written part. They had to learn all sorts of facts about the Black Widow, and in the end, Eric typed it up on the computer and inserted pictures.

I, as the artist in the family, on the other hand, chose the artistic part of the report to work with him on.

It was safe to say that by the time we were ready to get started - the day before the report was actually due, Miles had worked himself up into such a state of hysteria that I could hardly get him to sit down and try. He had seen some of the tri-o-ramas that had been brought in by kids early (stupid teacher's pets - lol!), and was particularly intimidated by the one on cockroaches. I had a chance to see it myself and yes, it is pretty impressive. So were many of the other kid's works. I have no idea how involved parents were vs. the kids; all I know is that Miles felt that he was less than the other kids and therefore refused first to participate in the project at all, then, lest he be judged as less adequate than the others at drawing skills, purposely made his backdrop pictures in pencil and awful so that he pre-judged himself. We all know how that goes.

Fortunately, though, I had a vision. Miles could not see it even as I explained it to him, but it was there all the same and I kept insisting that he needn't worry about the backdrop. It didn't matter if it was good or bad, neat or sloppy. The end result of the project was going to be very cool, and it was.

It started by me flipping through pictures by Edi on Facebook and the "It's Better Handmade" group on the same. It was there that I found this amongst her profile pictures:

This is a spider that she wire wrapped and was a custom order for one of her clients.  You should go see Edi's work, by the way.  It's absolutely amazing!  She has nothing to fear from me in the wire wrapped jewelry arena.  You can find her here on Etsy. 

Stop by and take a peek; you'll be amazed and you won't regret the time spent viewing her work, even if you aren't currently in the market for jewelry.  Who knows... you might buy a piece even while you aren't looking.  I keep thinking about doing so myself, even as I know that as a business strategy, except for my wedding ring and my watch, the only jewelry I should ever wear is my own.  That's how wonderful her work is.

Anyway, I took one look at her spider, knew that I couldn't really replicate her work (and Edi, if you're reading, I never steal other peoples ideas for profit, EVER, and also you can see that my execution of your idea doesn't quite match up - lol!, so don't worry), but I also knew that I could do a good enough job in recreating a wire wrap spider for a 3rd grade project featuring the Black Widow, and so I did.

I also knew that we needed flies in the tri-o-rama for the spider to eat...  easily wrapped up out of a tiny bit of wire for wings threaded through one fire-polished glass bead.  And we needed flora.  Lots of flora.

Black Widow living in the country.  Note the "flying" fly.  That was a special tough Miles was particularly fond of.

Miles was, as I said, absolutely hysterical.  he couldn't envision at all what I was going to help him do, even as he was delighted by the Black Widow and the flies that I had created.  But in the end, the project turned out really well, stood up against all the other kid's work (thank you again Edi; the spider was what made the difference), and when we were walking together to his class, me helping him carry in all the different accouterments that were required on this last day of school before the holiday break, a lot of the boys immediately crowded around Miles, and I could hear their exclamations of amazement at his project.  "Oh cool!"  "Wow!"  "How did you make the spider so real?"  "Are those real plants?"

This would be our meditation garden.  In the backdrop on the left, you can see Gabby and Garrett (or the backs of their heads) watching TV while sitting on the sofa.  On the right is the sliding glass door looking into our dining room.

Said the spider in the conversation balloon as Miles realized that this particular spider had hit a gold mine of bead bugs, "Three in a row.  Jackpot!"

 And when I left the room, Miles no longer needed me for security.  He had done a good job, a great job in fact, and he was, in fact, was proud of his work.

Urban Black Widow on the Left, Country Black Widow on the Right.  Flying flies in both scenarios.  Miles would not let me add dog poop to the urban scene, even as we all know that dog poop is the most certain attractor of flies.