Some great books

I am not one of those people who can't pass up a great shoe buy and I could care less about designer clothes (Hello! I live on Maui) but I do have a slight book "problem". Yes I love books. I check out tons from the library and I think I must be a highly regarding customer at Amazon.

So here are some of my recent favorites:

1. After a long wait I just got Felting Fashion in the mail. Lizzie Houghton is a fabulous felt artist and I can't wait to try creating some felted apparel.



2.Silk Unraveled had mixed reviews on Amazon but I took a chance on it and I am so glad I did. The projects are really beautiful and fairly easy to do. I am taking on a duvet for my bed from ideas in this book.









3.In an effort to be a more hands-on mom, I am trying to make my own bread. However, the thought of hours of kneading, rising,etc did not appeal to me. This book is awesome. With their basic recipe you can have your batch of dough available anytime to make a delicious loaf.

My family gives the bread and pizza dough I made 6 thumbs up.

4. So onward with the homemade theme I have just begun reading Made From Scratch which is a great account of how the author, Jenna Woglarich, went from cubicle-working, convenience food eating American to a small time farmer on her rented property, raising chickens, honey bees, and veggies while still keeping a full-time job. Very interesting so far.

Some other work in progress

These are some wet felted pieces I am working on. I am going to hand embroider on them at some point.

Felted picture

I finally finished my current felted picture. I have been on a house theme and wet felted all the elements house,tree, garden, cat. Then I added the family, moon as well as stitching on flowers, beads, words and other embellishments. The words say, "What a wonderful night for a moondance."

Felt Pins

I took an online class with Susan Sorrel who is a very talented artist called Felt Pins. Susan is a beading expert and I this class gave me the chance to explore beading on fabric. Here are some that I made.
Susan's website is www.creativechick.com

Fourth of July Fun!

This Fourth of July, Niko and Sean rode their unicycles in the Makawao Parade with the Maui Unicycling club. They were the last group (and of course the highlight of the day!). The parade was one of the biggest and best attended we have seen.

Later we went to the Westin Kaanapali Resort and stayed a night. It too was crowded with visitors and kamaaina alike and we ran into the Futch family (Dave, Andrea, and Sabrina). Dave talked Pete into borrowing his helmet for our upcoming trip to Tavarua. I think the waves are going to be a bit gnarly for Pete.

Anyway we had a blast playing in the pool and we sat on the beach at night and watched the fireworks from Lahaina. Later we found a great band called Night Shift playing at the Hyatt and we stayed for dessert and dancing.

It was such fun that we may wrangle up some other friends to join us next year and make it an annual event.

Passing of the King of Pop

Like most people I was shocked and saddened by the passing of Michael Jackson 2 days ago. He seemed immortal, as most icons do, and such a part of my childhood.
I saw the Jackson Five in concert when I was 9 at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. I was a big fan and my mom says I ran up to the stage when they came on. We would watch the Jackson 5 tv show and play their albums and dance around the house. In the 80s everone was wild about Thriller,etc and who didn't try to moonwalk?

I always thought he was a rare and fragile human being and I wish him peace.

Earthquake!

Last night at 8:29 pm we had a small but strong earthquake. The boys and I were all crowded into our small office/sewing room. I was working on a blanket I am sewing for our bed, Niko was practicing the violin, Pete was paying bills, and Sean was patiently waiting for Niko to finish so he could hear the next installment of The Hobbit. We all jumped up and then realized we didn't know what to do.



I think we decided in the future to head outside and under the pine tree. I have never trusted the ol' stand under the doorway advice. After all have you ever seen a earthquake destroyed house with the doorways standing up? When I was a baby in San Francisco, my mom said she took my brother and me up to the park and sat under the trees because the roots would withstand the quake. Sounds good to me.

Holy crap I have a blog!

I am excited to have taken the leap into the blogosphere. I love to read other people's blogs, especially those of fiber artists. But because I don't feel that I can call myself an artist yet, I am just using this as a place to put my memories and to share them with whomever is interested.