Progress

I am making progress on the Dancing Skeleton needle punch witches boot. It is a little hard to keep the momentum going as I have to put it aside to open the gate to let all the trucks in and out of the site. Punch a few stitches and up I go to open the gate.  This said I just have a few more stitches to punch to complete the needle punching on this design. Wanted to finish it yesterday but I finally just put it aside as a lot of trucks and rigs were leaving the site yesterday evening. The CJ crew is finished with there part now on to the Trican crew.

Can't wait for the Valdani floss to get here. I hope I like it and that the colors are true to the photos. Think I will try to get the next Witches Boot design drawn up today.

Dancing Skeleton Needlepunch

Decided I will try to do a little needle punching today between gate openings. This should be interesting as I opened the gate probably close to 150 times yesterday during my 12 hour shift. Was a very busy day. But I really want to do some art work too. This is a new witch boot design that I have had drawn up for a while. It is a skeleton dancing. A cute design.

This summer I hope to create several witches boot patterns.

Also want to make my Jack O Lantern's into a pattern with all four styles. 

 

We hope to take the summer off from working.

So I should be able to create some of my creations into pattern form.

A Weeks Worth

We now have one week of our new gate keeper job under our belt. It has been a week of getting used to this 24 hour a day job. David has had the hardest time as he has the night shift. The ringer that is supposed to go off when a vehicle approaches the gate was not working all the time. This made it hard because we had to watch the road all the time. Jamie came and fixed the bell yesterday. Yippy!!!!! 

This is very interesting learning about the process of fracing and watching all this equipment come in.  Yesterday I got bit a several times and noticed that there is a fire ant hill just outside the gate in the grass. Fire ants are something new to us. Now that I know it is there I can avoid it. 

The catering company has come in the last few days and brought us food too. Today a smoker came through the gate the guys get barbecue for lunch. That means we do too or I hope so. He said he would try to bring us some out. I do not eat meat very often but sometimes I will eat barbecue.

Another Adventure

Here I am already working my first day on the new gate keeper job. We got here last Wednesday.

We are about 80 miles or so from Corpus Christi Texas. 

This is day five and we both got a pretty good nights sleep. Adjusting to the 24/7 hours has been challenging. But we are working it out. We have been really busy here. Logging in and out about 96 vehicles on some days. Some really large trucks and lots of equipment. There is already an oil well on this location but this last week they have been working hard to get a new well up and running. 

Every job over the last year has helped us get closer to our goal of getting a new fifth wheel trailer. It is way past time to get a larger fifth wheel. We know what we want in a fifth wheel now. When we first began this life style we were not even sure we would like it. For the most part we do like this way of life. We have been able to see a lot of the Western United States over the last seven years. The hardest part for us is being away from family. Especially our children and my parents who are not getting any younger. We hope to spend our 2012 summer on our property in Colorado and get some much needed family time in. 

Once we get settled into this new job I can begin to do some artwork again. Or that is my hopes and plans.

Until next time. 

Happenings

We are now in Texas after traveling over 1000 miles to get to the gate keepers lot. We hope to be at work by next week as gate keepers. It was good to have a month off but it is time to get back to work. 

It is totally overcast here and it only got to 66 last night. We are not used to those kind of temps at night. 

Plus it is humid also something we are not used to.

 Our cat had not been feeling very well and doesn't like to travel so this was really hard on him. I felt that he was maybe suffering from digestive issues from the antibiotics given to him.  Also UT issues as he has had this off and on his whole life. After researching I found Slippery Elm Bark and how to use it for cats. After being on this for a short time he seems to be better. Getting him to eat what he normally does is challenging. He is being really really finicky about his diet. Can't seem to tolerate the normal raw diet I was feeding him. We both feel that he also may have a sore mouth. So hope to get his teeth cleaned and checked. 

Cameo Needle Punch Extra

Just ordered another Cameo Needle Punch. I have often thought it would be easier to not have to change the threads all the time. I think having another Needle Punch will help a lot. Looking forward to punching several of my witches boots. I hope to have these available in a few months

For those who purchase needle punch patterns. Do most have them have a list of the colors of floss used? 

That is the hard part as I tend to over dye my floss to make it grungy and use several different kinds of floss. Mainly what I have on hand. I am thinking this is an important part to creating these patterns. I am sure many would go ahead and create their own color palette but there are others who would use the same floss I use in my project.

I was lucky and found a great buy on some weavers cloth. So I have A LOT of weavers cloth. In fact maybe enough to last a life time.

Possibilities

Have been trying to decide what creative art I would like to do next. Sometimes the choosing of what to do keeps me from actually doing. 

Maybe I will create a needle punch Easter doll. 

Or maybe start the work needed to get my witch's boot needle punch designs out in pattern form.

Maybe I might work more on designing the memorial hooked rug of my Grandparents farm outside of Unionville MO.

Maybe I could make a wonderful large black mammy doll. 

Okay maybe I should do all then I won't have to choose. :) 

Have a great day whatever you Choose to do.

Blast from the Past

I have been going through archived photos of my art career as a doll maker and fiber artist.

Here are just a few of the photos I am falling in love with all over again. 

I used to make very large dolls but have downsized them due to living space and shipping charges for my customers. Some of these are paper mache doll sets. 

Thought you might enjoy seeing a few.

I do regret that some of the photos are not the best. 

Recooping

After a lot of hard work in distribution of Christmas trees we are in Quartzsite enjoying some much needed rest. I have read several books while we have been here. Before we left Phoenix I downloaded Kindle to my PC. I enjoy reading books on the computer but need to have regular books around too. As we both share this computer. I hope to purchase an Ebook reader like Kindle Fire or a Toshiba Thrive in 2012

Today we will head to the Rock & Gem show. I hope to find some earrings. I keep loosing one so many of my sets are singles now. Ugggghhhhh. Looks like it will be a gorgeous day for a walk around the booths. 

Hopefully my mind and hands will come together to start creating again soon. I have a skeleton witches boot design already drawn and ready to needle punch. I am perfecting the construction of these witch's boots and hope to release these as patterns this year. I have two designs already this it the third. Of course Spring is just around the corner so maybe some other things will be created for that season of joy.

Email List Updates

Email list updates.

I am having to redo my email list for my regular customers. 

If your email is from comcast or aol I had to remove you from receiving my email updates. 

Please email me if you want to be put back on my email list.