Mending in Camel & Black

After spending DAYS over New Year's clearing up and out by office and studio spaces my mission for 2015 is to simply start.  Take one piece, project, inspiration piece what have you and work on it until it is done.  In the past I have worked in assembly line fashion, paint 20 backgrounds, cut out 20 pillows, embroider 20 things and what it has left me with is LOTS of half finished things and no inventory to sell or art to present when an exhibition opportunity arises.  I was crushed and flummoxed when I was invited to do a show at the end of last year and I literally had nothing new to present,  Ugh.

 Am determined to leap between art, craft, writing and business development and simply do.  In this case replace a velvet waist band that had dryrotted on a lovely wool felt circle skirt from the 50's.

 A simple matter of cutting off the old waistband, measuring a slice of black velvet (donated to me by buddy Nire Nah when she made the command decision to quit pretending SHE was going to do something with this lovely black velvet (!) drape!).

 Pinning the waist band on- while wondering WHY I picked a project that when finished will fit on a person with a 25 inch waist.  Who IS this woman and do I even want to know her?

 After recognizing I really didn't have a beef against folks with slim waists although I have never had one even when I weighed 50 pounds less I pinned

 and seamed and clipped threads...

 and hand hemmed the edge under to make a pretty facing.

 Ta Da! The Finished project- ready for sale. $90 at Stifel & Capra

 Loving all of the details with the appliques and the cording.  Quite the fancy home sewn project by some svelte lady way back when! Imagine how tiny that 25 inch waist would look with crinolines?

 Next up? Cute wool sweater with moth holes...

 snazzed up with some crocheted appliques!

Pardon the boots- my computer is fighting me & I didn't want to torture myself trying to find the edited version of this shot!!!! Super cute I think, What say you?

Nothing says "Happy New Year" like fresh paint.

January first. New Year's day. Stereotypically a time of new beginnings.  We woke up after a fairly sedate New Year's eve of Family Movie Night with the teenagers (Guardians of the Galaxy) and faced the fact that one of my favorite people and long time vendor and tenant has given notice so she can concentrate more on shows and less on day to day retail. So faced with an empty room ( and ghosts of fabulous sewing and lovely jewelry) I picked

 not surprisingly the color of spring seas to cover the walls. Theory being we are turning the space into a self contained Gourmet Market to showcase our food & wine artisans and the bulk of their packaging is black white and red. What better color to make those shine than S&C Aqua?

 Started at 9:45. By 2pm with the help of Charming Husband and Reluctant Except I am Paying Him Son the "new" Gourmet Shop was taking place. I am actually VERY impressed with how much we got done.

 Also impressed with myself I didn't make the family do the Do It Now Death March to do ALL of the moves I am visualizing for the shop right NOW instead of rolling it out over the next couple of months...

Reworking the coffee station (pot is too crazy big) so one can buy a cup of coffee in Falls Church that is roasted by a local guy and not by a big chain. More soon.

Think about your life - Pippin

THINK ABOUT YOUR LIFE, PIPPIN
THINK ABOUT THE DREAMS YOU PLANNED
THINK ABOUT THE MOMENT
THAT'S SO CLOSE AT HAND
WHEN THE POWER AND THE GLORY
ARE THERE AT YOUR COMMAND
PIPPIN
THINK ABOUT YOUR LIFE...

Ok so, that is the END of the play, not the beginning but with one in high school and one in college it was the chorus that stuck in my head when I dragged um, chose my family to accompany me to the revival of "Pippin" as my (rather) big Christmas gift this year. They really are in their glory days, after all.  When they are not ebing tortured by teenaged angst of course!

Amusingly a whole lot of folks on Facebook reminded me that our High school drama department did "Pippin" while I was there.  Frighteningly I did not actually remember this (although I remember all my friends in "The Sound of Music" ) so I guess that is why I know ALL the words to ALL the songs over thirty years later!

waiting for the curtain to go up at the National

Seeing the amazingly cast and staged show did provoke a lot of dialogue after the play about heros and anti-heros and how in real life sometimes the heroic thing is just showing up everyday. And how in real life death is not reversible, although miracles happenand people live and death is never the end. And how eating right and regular work-outs might get you on The Right Track (another Pippin song) to having arms like 63 year old Lucie Arnaz!

Lucie Arnaz as Berthe aka Granny in "Pippin"

My muse for the 2015. Lucie sang, dance, swung from a circus ring and looked fabulous the entire time!

Best. Christmas. Present. Ever.

my snappy home mantel for 2014

My favorite Stifel cousin Terry M was blindsided by a terrible headache and was looking for relief from her symptoms.  She decided to query her Facebook friends where upon reviewing her symptoms her friends informed her that her pain didn't sound like a migraine and suggested she go to the hospital.  Long story short, Terry was successfully operated on for a brain aneurysm and after 7 days, miracle of miracles, was released Christmas Eve. The normal CCU stay is 10 to 14 days after a surgery like this.

Scenic Connecticut snow traveling to Stifel family reunion

She is weak in body but strong in spirit and buoyant in gratitude for still being on the earth.
Best Christmas present ever.  Peace, health and happiness are my wish for you- today and always.

Book and Art Supply Give Away! - Lesley Riley's TAP

 Toot my own horn time!One of my favorite TAP (Transfer Artist Paper) projects got featured in Lesley Riley's new book.  Creative Image Transfer features a wide range of projects sure to spark your imagination on how to use this versatile product.

For those that aren't familiar with TAP it is a polmer sheet that can be printed,  drawn or painted on and then transferred to almost any surface.  From metal to fabric to chalk & clay paint, it makes a lovely transparent layer to add to your art work.

"Fiona" here ( and instructions on how to make her ) was featured in the book and (I say proudly!) on the intro page too! I blew up an old 60's newspaper fashion ad and used TAP to make a pixelated transfer of the outline of Fiona. On "Copper Fantasy"  I transferred and vintage image of a bird onto copper.  I love how you can see the glow of the metal coming through!

 

To celebrate the book launch Lesley is giving away copies of the book AND packages of TAP.  The Giveaway dates are  August 6-10. To find out more check out Lesley's blog.YOu can sneak over there right NOW   http://www.LesleyRiley.com/weblog And let me know if you win!

FIELD TRIP! McKay's Used Books

 As summer reaches it's zenith, I have grown tired of listening to my son cursing his computer battling not so ancient virtual, digital foes.  Yeah, yeah, I know he is interacting with his friends, and yes, yes, they are problem solving and creating brave new worlds.  But screen time makes the teenagers in my house slack jawed and belligerent. A fascinating contrast and it was time to break the spell.

 So I dragged both of my charming offspring to McKay's Books in Manassas. I love this place.  It's not fancy but it is as big as a Target store and filled with aisles after aisle of blessed books.  I picked up a stack of creativity and art books (plus 3 PD James mystery hardbacks for 3 bucks apiece). I gave them $30 apiece to spend and they both walked out with a stack of books 2 feet tall.

And when we got home? My son headed straight to the hammock with his paper treasures, disregarding the siren call of the screen.  Makes me happy.

Happy Birthday to me!

 The only advantage to working on one's birthday is that (if you are lucky) the house is reasonable clean.

 Dinner (and the world's best chocolate cake) are on the table and

all hyped up on sugar everyone in the family is game to show me some teeth along with the birthday love! xo

c'est fini

 Thought you would enjoy seeing the boys complete!

 Even more fun?  You can slide a favorite photo into the threads that are holding the photo down and make yourself or a loved one the centerpiece of the collage!

cool, eh?

works in progress - take 87

 Last Friday the lovely Lolita and I got together for side by side work along (if her name sounds familiar Lolita's previous session was the one I had to scratch because I flipped off the porch and mangled my foot.)

 We had fun, talked a lot as we went along (normal!) about styles, personal sticking points and procrastinations.

 On this lovely Easter Monday, my mission is to finish some of the 15 half done things I have (see previous post).

 start some more and get some laundry done!  We had 18 at table for supper yesterday.

 Blessings indeed.

handsome fellows that deserve to be showcased, don't you think?

Putting yourself in position

The good thing about my studio?  I have a beautiful dedicated space to make art. With more "found" collage materials than I will EVER use in my lifetime.

The bad news? It's on a separate floor so it's easy not to get "down there"and actually work on the many half done projects I have cooking.  I have had a rough week/month to the point that multiple friends have chastised me and asked me if I have actually MADE anything this month.  Answer no?

Tried an old trick today.  Set the timer. Half an hour on email, half an hour on work, half an hour on art. Repeat cycle.  Actually got some work done, 3 loads of laundry and an hour of "arting" in when I got a call from an out of town friend asking if I was free for lunch.

 

Because I wasn't over booked (for a change!) we got to sit outside and Judy treated me to a crab cake sandwich sitting on the new outside patio at Dogwood Tavern. A welcome respite.

Even better, tomorrow is my make up class from a couple weeks ago when I cancelled after falling down my steps, so get to play tomorrow too!  Wish me luck actually loading my truck...

Best Recommendation

I was standing behind the shop counter yesterday checking my email AND texting a customer when a client walked in the door.  After a hearty greeting and an inquiry as to whether they needed my assistance I went back to my communication after laughing at the fact I looked like one of my teenagers (except that I didn't have earphones in!).

It really is sort of astounding today how many ways of communicating there are.  When I open the shop in the morning, I turn on the open sign, tie balloons to the sandwich board, and prop open the front door.   I ALSO check my email, answering machine, and social media feeds.

On the outgoing front, we send newsletters, make phone calls on land lines and mobile phones, send emails.
The shop also networks with community organizations, contributes to worthy causes, and sponsors student art shows.  We pray for press coverage to reach people we are not connected to spread the word so we can stay in business!

Did you know Stifel and Capra also has a Pinterest Page, Facebook Page, Website, and Twitter feed and an Etsy site?  Although all of these methods are fun and creative and introduce us to amazing people guess which one of these has the highest retention rate the experts say?  Still, hands down?  Recommendation of a friend.

Sometimes the old fashioned things are the best-

Thank you.

Cowabunga!

When I was a team leader in my past life (as a corporate recruiter) I would occasionally have to sit down with a colleague and help them focus.  "What's the problem?" I'd ask? "Oh my gosh, I have a million phone calls to return, 2 million things to set up, I'm not sure which of my candidates is going to get an offer, so and so is mad at me, and I feel like my head is going to explode." she said.
"So, what's the problem?" say I.  Deafening silence and incredulous look from said colleague.

I reminded them if you feel like you are skiing down the mountain with no poles, it's probably because you are about to take a big leap forward. 

Today I am 

Tagging and inventorying 162 items I took out of a house on a house call

Trying to make plans to actually watch the NCAA tourney

Putting a second coat of finish on a table top

Needing a better way to organize our Client Wish List

Working the numbers for a corporate art deal

Being sad for me & happy for her that Cathy is retiring from her jewelry business

Still cleaning up after the Food & Beverage Show for Bob's Best

Regretting NOT working on my art +sigh+

Sneaking breaks to read Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point"

Trying to book consignors

Needing to thank Anna for painting that table

Wondering if it is going to snow again

Wondering if I need to go back to the doctor after falling down the stairs

Stacking up bills to pay

Not calling my mother back

Not cleaning the shop

Trying to slog through my email

Dragging the laundry downstairs wondering why it is not cleaning itself

Wishing I could repave the parking lot (the winter has been brutal!)

Excited that I have leads to call for Bob

Wondering what are in those bins in the shop basement

Wondering what are in those bins in my studio

Wishing I was rearranging the furniture

Loving that I am never bored

Changing Hats

 Yesterday I took off my gallery owner/consignment shop manager/occasional artist hat and put on my supportive spouse hat.  I tied on an apron and went to be the "Booth Babe" or in my case the "Stifel who can stick to the point and not tell just tell stories" with Bob at the 2014 Virgnia Food and Beverage Expo.

 We were pretty happy with our booth set-up.  And with the smell of Bob's famous Pork BBQ and Apple Pie filling the air (happily we were next to people who were not cooking!), we were very popular in the "smellavison" category as well! .

 Folks were really intrigued by all of the applications Bob's Best has.  Everything from meat to veggies to dips to dessert was covered and covered well.

 The Easy as Pie mix was a big winner because no one had seen a product like it before!  What was surprising to us was the fact that we wasn't just retailers that were interested in it but caterers and institutions too. Easy -as-Pie coming to a school near you?  We even had a query from a gentleman that wanted to know how fast we could drop ship him 500 pies.  When I explained that we were only selling the pie MIX ans not the pie, he was visibly disappointed.

Maybe something to look into... Time to go write my follow-up letters.