Whirlwind week! FIRSTFriday is December 5th!

I was so full of myself on Saturday because I uploaded three sets of photos onto the blog draft thinking I was ahead of the game for blog entries. Well, not so much in the writing department... Lots in the sewing department though! Most of the items I have been working on are Christmas gifts so I can't post photos of them yet (assuming their recipients are loyal readers!) but here are two of my hand fashioned Santas that are now gracing the front window at Stifel & Capra. I designed both of them from head to toe. I am especially pleased with Santa #1's "puffy shirt". It's a little Seinfeld-ish but it fits really well! I use to sew all of my own clothes in my younger days but this was the first time I fitted something without a pattern. He looks rather dashing don' t you think?

Tomorrow is the FIRSTFriday of the month and that means lots of happenings in Falls Church. We are doing tasting menus at the shop. On the savory side - cheese from Cabot Creamery and on the sweet side signature pie- Buttermilk Coconut Chocolate pie , brownies and blondies from King Arthur Confectioners in Annandale. This is Julie Fiorino's first event here so come try the pie and give her a thumb's up!

We will have more food and libations, sales and specials and I will be sporting my Santa hat; (mostly because I don't have time to do my roots), so come play!

food, food, and more food!

I stepped on the scale this morning and I was raw-ther impressed that I haven't SEEMED to have gained any weight since Thanksgiving Eve. I was going to start this calvacade of food shots with the dashboard snack tray we had in the Explorer as we were driving south. We were going SO slow that the grapes didn't roll off the cheese plate. Apparently my tech skills aren't good enought to transfer Bob's cel phone shot to the blog so you will have to imagine.

I am not imagining things when I tell you that Cousin Terry makes the world's best turkey and that Pat's pumpkin pie truly is scrumptious. Oh and Bob's mile high Bourbon apple pie and cranberry cherry pie were not exactly inedible.... I must say that we DID have lots of veggies along with our turkey and wine counts as a fruit, right?

As if that wasn't enough I waddled into the shop Friday and set up our 2nd annual Champagne Brunch to celebrate the 1st un-official Christmas shopping day. We had more than one person that came in for a break after being at Macy's or Best Buy since pre-dawn hours. They had more fun with us of course!

The fun doesn't end this weekend until tomorrow. Stifel & Capra is open 12 to 4pm. Stop in if you can!

Happy Thanksgiving (and Happy Cranberry!)

In one of those family "acquired taste" traditions we had our annual grinding of the cranberry relish fest last night. It's a simple recipe: one bag of fresh cranberries, one orange and one apple plus sugar to taste are the proportions. After you core the apples, you start crankin'! The kids are young enough to still fight over who gets to turn the manual crank. It tastes better than it looks on film! The relish freezes well and ROCKS on cold turkey sandwiches.

I have spent the afternoon cursing the intricacies of frame relay error messages and wondering if I will get the news out to my mailing list about Friday's Black Friday Champagne brunch. We are having mimosas and goodies to kick off the holiday shopping season so tell and friend and stop in. I'd love to see you!

A blustery day-

We had a lovely, albeit chilly, day at the shop today. The farmer's market looked posititvely naked; the wind was blowing so hard that all of the farmer's took their tents down before they blew into the next county. I was feeling bad for the farmer's as not too many folks were heading outside in the cold. Business picked up in the afternoon though, so hopefully that was true across the street as well!




My intrepid webmaster sister Robin has been busy posting art on our website http://wwww.StifelandCapra.com. If you check out the featured artist page you will see Sandi Parker's and Jane McElvaney Coonce's new listings. They are quite lovely!
For those people that wonder how my personalized photo pillows hold up over time here is one I made my husband Bob six years ago commenerating his big Cape Cod catch. The blue fabric around the photo transfer was actually the only salvagable part of his favorite fishing shirt that had literally split from the sun. As you can see it has held up VERY well!

I am working hard getting ready for our Thanksgiving Day weekend at Stifel & Capra. We have LOTS of new merchandise and art, with beautiful ornaments both vintage and overstock for MUCH less than you can find at the mall. "Black Friday" I am opening at the VERY civilized hour of 10am. I will be serving brunch snacks and mimosas so stop in and join the festivities. If you have been shopping sice 4am that morning I am guess you could use the protein! See you soon!

Meet new Artist - Sandi Parker

You meet the nicest people standing in line! While I was waiting to deliver my submissions to last month's Art League show, one of the women keeping us organized admired the vintage carpet bag I was carrying. This led to a conversation about Stifel & Capra, THAT led her to come visit with friends and make an appointment to show me her portfolio. These three photos are of the works that are in the shop today. Sandi works in oil and is known for her Provencal landscapes. Her latest venture is informal portraiture with a sports theme. Given all of the sports crazy people in Northern Virginia, I am SURE this will be a successful endeavor for her. DO contact me if you'd like to see examples of what she can do for you.
The shop is getting that happily stuffed look it gets at holiday time. We had a very busy week so it amuses me that the place is still so full. As I spent 6 + hours cleaning, tagging and labling items you'd think I would have a clue on how it came to be! Had an amusing incident occur today when my landlady came in with the Carpet Guys to scope out restretching the undulating carpet. When they proffered that uh, EVERYTHING would have to be moved "except the heavy stuff" (!?!?!?!?!?) an executive decision was made that perhaps we should wait until after Christmas, yathink?

Thank you! to the women braved the yucky weather and that joined us yesterday for our Ladies Night Out. Carolyn Quill provided a nice wine & cheese social along with her lovely silver jewelry. Now two more people can't say "Oh, I never win anything" because Linda and Mary won the door prizes!

Weatherman is not looking real encouraging for tomorrow's forecast but DO stop in and get a jump start on Christmas shopping. If you need to do some shopping for yourself all vintage coats are 20% off! See you soon!

Hail to the Mustangs!

Here are some pictures of my latest project. Three MANLY pillows, thank you gifts for the football coaches on Z's team. The idea is that the guys will sign the white side with permanent pens and the coach's can flip the pillow over to have a family shot to put in their football viewing rooms as well. I've used this ideas for teachers and Scout leaders as well.

Neat eh?

A spectacular FIRSTFriday!

Here's a lovely photo of me and Cathy Soltys before the folks came in to celebrate another fun Falls Church First Friday at Stifel & Capra. If you're wondering about the lovely tag hanging off my neck it's because I take the opportunity to model the available stock when we have a guest artist featured! Cathy outdid herself with her new line for Joie de Bead's resulting in the single highest sales for a FirstFriday evening in our history.

After inventoring and reconciling our stock Cathy will have an expanded selection for the holiday season beginning on Wednesday so come see before it sells out!
We had a special visitor on Friday: a reporter from the Washington Post! Beth was here for over 90 minutes. Long enough I am sure for folks to tell her plenty of embarassing stories. I guess I will learn what was said when the story is published! I went for my Post photo shoot today, the kind gentleman took 97 photos and we whittled it down to a dozen to present to the editor. Keith was VERY patient as I couldn't figure out how to lose 30 pounds in the 5 days notice I had before the session; he did the best he could to make me look good!

Ashleigh was in California over the weekend. Her family was being honored by the AirForce so she wasn't here to join in the festivities. A special thanks to Robin, Laurie and Bob for pitching in behind the sales desk. You all were a huge help. Thank you. And thank you to everyone who came out not knowing that there would be a reporter there. You made me look great!

Just in time creativity....

When I checked in with Debby on Monday she reminded me that Beth was headed into Old Town Alexandria to submit "our" art to this month's show the Art League is sponsoring at the Torpedo Factory Art Center. That would have been great had I actually completed my two pieces. They both needed an extra coat of embellishment and paint before they would look like what I had in my head. This wouldn't be a huge deal except for the fact that I was in Delaware at the time! Oops. When we got home last night I stayed up, watched the Redskins get annihilated by the Steelers and finished my pieces except for the wiring & labeling.


So when I woke up this morning I tagged my pieces, drove to the shop to get my wiring supplies, went to the dentist for a check-up (look ma, no cavities!), wired the paintings in the back of the Ford (!), drove to Alexandria - sweating because it was starting to rain and I didn't bring any bags for the paintings, registered my pieces for jurying, drove to my son's elementary school for his Parent Teacher conference and then swung by my local polling place where I was greeted my name and voted with no line, returned business calls on the side of the road on my cell phone so my kids couldn't interrupt me at home, picked up four pillow orders. And then I drove home and contemplated what I was taking to Beth's for the post election party. I can't wait to go over there and just sit down. But I did find out before I left that my new girls here did NOT get it this month. Well, it's painful news but at least it's quick.

Debby got one of her watercolors in though - Yay Debby!!!

Happy Monday!

Had a fun thing happen last week. I was showing a Bat Mitvah pillow I had made to one of my artisans and she said "darn, wish I could get one of those for my nephew" and I surprised her by actually getting it done within 48 hours. The pillow has "a" for adam on one side and his Bar Mitvah invitation on the other side. Mazel Tov Adam!

Took off on Saturday from the shop a bit early (THANKS PHIL!) to take some mental health time with the family on the Eastern Shore. We had a nice relaxing time with the kids discovered a new place to eat oysters (Dockside at The Jetty in Kent Island) and bought a windfall of vintage bling-y earrings from a antiques dealer's overstock that will be perfect for the holidays! Come see them this week and don't forget First Friday's Novemeber celebration is this week from 5 to 8pm.

I think Bob & George are not going to be able to ride the mower together for much longer, agree? But they DO look like they are having fun. After watching the steering lessons I don't think George will be on his own anytime soon!

Here is a not overly handsome shot of my lovely feline pumpkin! Hope you had a great Halloween!

Get out and vote on Tuesday; every vote counts!

Halloween Eve!

Finished up the faces on my ladies' portraits last night and am working on painstakingly hand sewing them to my canvas. You know there are days when I think it is to my detriment to be a glue snob....

Tonight is "carve the pumpkins" night at the Stifels. You might not be surprised to know that this is a rather large production in our home (actually EVERYTHING is a rather large production at our house!). Habitally we have one pumpkin per family member including the pets. We only have 4 this year as we lost our 19 year old cat last year. Maybe I wil carve mine in homage to Ortho the cat. HE was a pretty ornery beast; would make a good Halloween kitty!

What does "productive" mean to you?

I could have taken a photo of my clear kitchen counters, swept floor and tidy pile of laundry. Or perhaps my drycleaning ticket, or receipts from the art supply store (but I don't show those to anyone except the bookkeeper) but instead I will show you the stages 1, 2 & 3 of the 2 pieces I am working to submit to the art league next week. And yes, before you ask, I do work better with a deadline! I am feeling a little super woman-ish because it looks like I actually accomplished something today! Of course I didn't finish anything. The kitchen isn't actually clean and the laundry is in a giant pile in my bedroom! But hey, little victories....
These pieces are bigger than anything I have worked on before, the canvases are 2 feet by 3 feet. They feel like they are coming along. I am thinking through how to use my linen and hand embroidery on the faces without it becoming "sullied" by the collage glue. I THINK I have it figured out! Stay tuned!

PS Helene I will be done with your custom piece tomorrow, Susan yours is FINALLY ready and BJ, still have more to do. Will have a finish day soon.

The Saga Continues & more fun with discarded...

Guessing that most people these days feel like ripping up their stock certificates I worked this vintage financial sheet into a collage!





For those of you that asked "so what DID happen with your phone situation?" I took a big chink of time out of my studio day on Monday (21/2 hours worth in fact) and went to the "Will remain nameless" Big Mobile Phone Center Retail Outlet. I walked through the door and the charming sales guy asked if he could help me and I said "Why yes, I am COMPLETELY uninterested in how or why a phone works, I don't play games video or otherwise and I hate my new phone because I can't figure out how to make it work. Show me a phone where I can pull up and respond to my corporate email in a less cumbersome fashion than this phone and you will make a sale and I will leave happy." Well, apparently I am more clever than I thought I was because the aforementioned Big Mobile Phone Retail Outlet Helpful Sale Guy couldn't get my email up on any "device" in the store. I was showing him how my phone works.... While sympathetic and charming he spent 110 minutes with me and made NO money so I am feeling a little bad for him. I have made the Zen decision to learn to use the phone I have because it seems the best of a bad bunch. If anyone has any sugggestions on phone they just loooovvvveee I'd be happy to hear ablout them.

I got some cute Christmas trees up in the store. I am however still struggling with the "supposed to have 4 feet but two snapped off when my helpful children put them in the attic last year" tree. I felt very Becky-HomeEc-y ish this morning when I figured out that the empty coffee can that I had in my hand could be converted to a tree stand via some plaster of paris. Of course I wish that I had remembered this when I was standing in the craft store waving my 25% off everything coupon bemoaning the lack of the 2 things that I went for. Perhaps quik-krete or duct tape will solve my problem. Duct tape seems to solve most problems on the planet....





All whining aside (I try not to do it often so figured I would get it all out at once!) the Christmas stuff I do have out looks might cute. Exhibit "A" to the left are all handmade by Fellow Guild Artist Mary Ann Graham. MA sold a lot of ornaments last year so come in while the selection is still plentiful.

fun with discarded apparel

I just finished framing half a dozen collages that I have been working on them. In keeping with the "what exactly do you DO with all of that stuff you rescue? " I present Exhibit A. One mixed media piece that uses a orphan glove that I couldn't bare to toss in the trash. The cuff is from cancelled checks from the 60's and the sleeve is minutes from an early 20th century Ladies group. The music might be "Pop goes the Weasel ". I have had a lot of music tossed my way and now can't quite remember....

The shop at Stifel & Capra has a little bit of Halloween and Thanksgiving goodies left. I am wrestling my stock of winter woolies and holiday items out of storage and am STARTING to get them set up.

We had a great day on Saturday; the weather was wonderful and Beth and I sold one of her Monumental art pieces. Check out the web site at http://www.stifelandcapra.com/ and you will find Beth's pieces under the featured artists' section under her official painting name Elizabeth Geers Loftis.

Enjoy your day!