beaded embroideries with trash

Now there's a lovely title ... ! But look here:

Some more photos of Asteroids.

Even a little bit of feather stitch - which I love.

I learned a couple of years ago that most of the asteroids in our solar system hang out all together in a gang that orbits between Mars and Jupiter: between the last of the rock planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars) and the start of the gas planets (Jupiter, Saturn Uranus and Neptune).

And a little bit more to show you from the piece titled "Your Name Here":

I edged that blue and like it so much better.

And tucked in these green beads here which work nicely I think.

Embroiderings

I have been sewing, and embroidering, and beading, and have one movie and one book to pass along. But before I do, let me tell you of a career milestone here:

I got an email two days ago from Gina Brown, who, with her co-author Sandra Salamony, is writing a book called 1000 Artisan Textiles for Quarry Books. Gina wanted to personally invite me to submit. Wow.

She had seen my work in the Lark book !Molas! and found me on the internet and here we are. Wow, again. Breathe. Submit - of course!

Well, let me show you a bit of stitchery:

This first one I called "asteroids" - I'm reading a book called Earth: The Biography. It is sooo interesting and amazing. So asteroids are on the brain a bit. This one will get beads for sure, but no trash as yet.

However, the next one is getting nice and chunky with all manner of plastic, card and metal refuse: see the chocolate coin wrapper? The plastic pill packaging? The fake credit card? The inventory code strip? The plastic coated wire? It keeps me entertained.

And here is the book I spoke about in the 1st paragraph: Sarah Vowell's The Wordy Shipmates. I have an audio book version. A lovely way to get a chunk of history. Hilarious. Reverent. She, Sarah Vowell, reads this audiobook, her speaking voice adding perfect layers to her written voice. (Also some other actors' voices including Dermot Mulroney's. Yum. Really. I'd be pleased to hear the man read the phone book.)

And the movie: Lost in Austin. Pride and Prejudice re-work. Not purist Jane Austin, but lovely and romantic. Heroine gets pulled into the book, chaos ensues, several happy endings. >sigh<

I am teaching a bunch of children how to sew doll clothes today. Bringing lunches, fabric, thread, buttons... Just settling in for the day.

I am bringing my own Waldorf style doll of course. (Yes, I know, she needs her hair. I need to knit, wet, and unravel some black wool to get it nice and curly for her. Thanks, Pam! Long and luxurious, Whoopie.)

But today: another dress for my dollie. Hard to tell who will have more fun: the children, me, or my doll. :)

Sew-Breathing Again

I am working on a small beaded embroidery and I feel like I am breathing again after a very long time.

I would love to show you, but I am on my new computer - cost 1/3 what my old one cost and has many more bells and whistles - but those bells and whistles are running on a Vista program and I have to go to the library to update my old scanner, printer, and camera programs in order to be photo capable. Could be a while.

So how do they do that? 1/3 the price. My phone company sold out to another and in the transition they are giving me a free new phone! How can all of this technology be getting cheaper even to the point of becoming free? I went for a prescription the other day and was charged less than $9! It was on "sale" or some such. One of the other options that my NP and I had discussed would have cost $80! (I have a stuffed, O.K. very stuffed, up nose.)

My health insurance is going up by 20% in July. When I first got out of college and started paying for my own insurance I had one of those 80% - 20% plans where they would pay for 80% of any bill until I reached my deductable. A program like that now would cost me a bit over $1700.00 per month. That is more than $20,000.00 per year.

I am thinking that $175.00 phones for free, cut prices on computers, chokingly expensive and/or "sale" drugs, and health insurance that is so high as to be either prohibitive or ironic have something in common. With AIG. With Haliburton. With boxing organic, free range eggs in clear plastic boxes.

What are we thinking?

I heard New Dimensions Radio interview Fr. John Dear. You can find him here. He was encouraging us all to follow in the non-violent teachings of Jesus. He talked about how, sure, war is violent, and so are certain other business and interpersonal practices. (He explained that Constantine was instrumental in changing to a message of justifiable force for The Church in 325 CE.) Fr. John talked a bit about practicing non-violence in our own communities (choose one action or group) and with our selves. Which brought me back to thinking about how we (children, adults, any of us) don't behave in cranky or violent ways when we are well in our worlds. That crabby or greedy behavior is a call for help in my children or my former president. Or me.

And one of the things that makes my world turn a bit more easily is when I am getting my needs met with a needle and thread. So I have been sewing again. With colors that I like. And I am breathing better these days.

A woman I know sang yesterday to benefit our childrens' school. Her gift turned into our gift. I wish us all sufficient venue to practice our gifts and meditate with the Loving Universe that made us. More abundance. More sanity. Less crabby. More peaceful.