A HAPPY "MISTAKE" & HOW YOU CAN MAKE IT, TOO

I've been working on cuff bracelets lately, and are mostly pleased with them, but because I work with recycled fabric samples, some of the faux leather and suede I have is rather blah, nondescript beiges, to be precise. I've been wondering how to dress up those less lovely shades.

The thought I had was to do simple collages, and then laminate them, and sew them to the cuffs. Fun. So I did the collages, and then the laminating.

Well, bummer. Once the collages were laminated, they wouldn't bend. If you can't curve a piece around your wrist, it sure ain't gonna work as a bracelet.

But they make great bookmarks!

What I've used are scraps of fabric and lace, and pictures and/or text cut from magazines, with the addition of the occasional piece of ribbon or colorful sticker. Just lightly tack everything together with a dot of glue or short strip of double-sided tape, slip into a lamination envelope, and put it through the laminating machine. (If you don't have one, clear Contac paper works almost as well. Just cover both sides of your collage with it, and you're good to go.)

Because I thought I was making something that woud be sewn to a cuff, I didn't put any backing on the first few I made. Didn't think the back was going to show, you know.

But for bookmarks, you'll want to use a backing of whatever attractive paper you have. I have scads of old music, so that's what I used.

And here are a bunch of the bookmarks. (I plan to put a bit of ribbon and/or cord through a hole at the top of each of them later.) Note: Because the clear laminate didn't really show anyway, in the scan, I've gone ahead and cropped the photos down to the collage itself.

FELICITY'S TIDE (MUSIC & SLIDE SHOW)

This is another of the pieces of music Paul and I wrote and performed together, Felicity's Tide. I wrote the lyrics after dreaming the story, and Paul wrote the music, including my flute part. You'll hear him singing and playing bazouki, and me singing and playing flute. I'm sorry to say I've forgot the name of the man who stepped in with the fiddle. Our album, by the way, was produced by Steve Einhorn of Artichoke Music.

WALTZING IN THE WOOD (SLIDESHOW & MUSIC)

My niece, genius that she is, has shown me how I can, finally, put my music online. I put one tune on in an earlier entry, but it has odd clicking noises in it from my camera. This is perfect--combine a slide show of my photography with a cut from the Cd Paul and I recorded together, Waltz of the Wood, which was also the name of our two-person "group".

In this piece, you'll hear Paul on vocals and guitar, and me on flute, with a snippet of vocals thrown in. The photos I took on a rafting trip down the wild portion of the Rogue River in Oregon, which I adore.

FROM MY KITCHEN WINDOW

I'm so glad most kitchen sinks have a window over them! I've spent a lot of time at kitchen sinks over the years, and don't want to imagine what it would be like to have to stare at a wall while I was there.

This past few weeks, the weather has been changeable, to say the very least, and quite by accident, I have taken pictures from the window over the sink, and specifically of the top of the birdbath under the rose arbor. (The deck railing interferes with the lower part, as you'll see from the second week's photo.)

Week one, and I thought, What are you doing here, Robin Redbreast? It's too early for spring to come!



Week two: I was right!


Week three: Squirrel Nutkin eats rose hips that hung around over the winter. Things like this make me glad I'm not a conscientious dead header.


Like I said, the weather has been changeable.
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