Art show in my favorite town, Yellow Springs, Ohio

Knit Knot Tree, down town Yellow Springs. www.jafagirls.wordpress.com This last Saturday was Art in the Park in Yellow Springs, Ohio. I wanted to have a space this year but I missed the registration deadline. So I decided I would go and see what I could find to share with all of you. So I will warn you, there are a lot of images. Hopefully you will enjoy them!

I only allowed myself to make one purchase. I had decided I would like to look for another, large mug for my iced mocha's. There were several very nice pottery mugs that were larger than the normal mug but this one stole my heart.

I just loved the retro look, and the fact it was a rougher outside and glazed inside. aren't the circles cute?

My 1st stop was here at 4 cat studio. I just loved her mixed media items. I wish I could have the vision these mixed media artist have.

Look at the photo top left. I Loved it! You can fine Simone at http://www.4catsstudio.com/

My next stop was here at Janelle's shop. I loved these cup cozies made of upcycled ties!

This was what my daughter decided to purchase today. The brown one is now hers! You can look for new items soon in her Etsy shop at http://www.jnell101.etsy.com/

I had to photograph her bag to rub my vegetarian friends the wrong way. LOL

LOVE, LOVE,LOVE This shop. These are two very talented ladies! I wish I could join them in their shop in Columbus. Actually Powell, Ohio.

I LOVE how they displayed all their items! So much eye candy!

The bags are great but look at what they did with that bike! My old rusted bike in the garden may have to get a redo to fit with my chandelier and table under the tree.

Too cute! See the pattern flowers? The fabric banners? the fabric birds are so adorable!

You can check out Karla at http://www.mybellastudio.blogspot.com/ These very talented ladies will be opening their new location soon at Bloomsbury Loft in Downtown Powell Ohio.

http://www.bloomsbutyloft.com/

OK, so I have a thing for ties! Isn't this cute?

I also love these colors!

We have a lot of barns with quilt squares on them. I liked this piece very much.

One more. Pam has a very wide range of styles that makes her very versatile. She can be found at http://www.forquiltssake.com/ I like the added 3d items on this small wall hanging.

This tea pot set really caught my eye! My image just doesn't do it justice.

I really liked her color pallet. I was very tempted to purchase one of her mugs.

I really liked this one. But alas, the retro won out. I was in a mood that day and I already have 2 in this style. If I could have made more than 1 purchase this weekend I would have had both!

You can find Carole at http://www.foxpots.etsy.com/

I really want to help other artist to succeed. I enjoyed talking to all of these great artist and wish them well. If I had all the money I needed right now I would have made a purchase at all these shops. Please stop by and visit them.

A Very Close Call!

This is my Best Bud Cooper.

He is a 6 year old Redbone Coonhound. He is my shadow. He knows where I am at all times if I am around the house. A lot of the nature photography I share is because of the walks Cooper and I take everyday.

Thursday he woke up and started throwing up lots of fluid. After the 3rd time I was very concerned. He was acting strange and breathing a bit harder than normal. I decided to take him to the vet.

Now anyone who has been following me here knows we are having a bit of a financial crisis at this moment so it was (I'm sorry to say) a big decision to go to the vet. Then I had to decide if we should do an x ray since the Doc. thought it might be a blockage.

I had to do that so I knew I was up to $100.00 at this point. After 3 hours waiting for the barium to work and the x ray to be read we found out it was an obstruction and he would need surgery.

Wow, what an emotional decision. I don't have extra cash on hand right now and I'm not sure if they will take payments.

I LOVE my dog and really do not want to loose him. I had to leave him over night and tell them I had a financial cap so they couldn't do all they could if necessary. If it involved the intestines they would just have to put him to sleep right there on the operating table and I would never see him again.

I prayed, along with many other people and they did surgery the next morning.

They were able to do a less invasive procedure to get the corn cob piece (eyes rolling) down to where he will be able to pass it on his own. He did have to be opened up so they could get to his stomach. Here are a few photos of him coming home and at home after I picked him up.

Stoned Cooper! The drive home was interesting. He would not lay down and just sat there staring and every once in awhile he would snap to it and look up like "Whoa, dude what is happening? Where am I?"


Here he is laying on his bed in the living room. Still a bit spacey.


Hello! Is anybody home in there?
It was weird, like an Alzheimer's patient. Poor guy.
I'm happy to say that today he is much better. Still moving slow. Lots of staples and stitches on his belly but he ate, and took a walk around the yard and is sleeping beside me up on the couch like old times :).
Even though he has eaten corn off the cob a bunch of times, this time he decided to eat the cob also. Needless to say this summer treat will not happen EVER again. That was a $600.00 mistake we will not repeat no mater how much he begs. I am so happy to have him home and despite the expense, I had to purchase a new collar on Etsy to celebrate!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/AddisonLogan

Very Manley and cute huh? What's another $10.00's. It was on sale ;).

We girls know, it makes you feel better to buy something new!

I'll post pic's when he gets his new adornment!

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I Have Been Busy!

Remember the Etsy craft show I was in a few weeks ago? Well I spent more than I made. Surprise!

Look at these goodies I plan on using on some future projects.

Isn't this blue ear ring beautiful?

and I love the vintage 40's style of this button.


Keys.
Not sure what I'll do with them yet but I love the scroll work on the newer key and
doesn't the other one look like an alien?



LOVE!

I had to have these watch faces! I love fonts and these were my 2 favorites faces.
I could only get two.
It was hard to pick.



At one ladies booth, she had a box full of vintage linens. I spotted the cute teal tablecloth and then digging down deeper I found the teal and yellow doilies. Hum. I think I can do something with these!

Then I remembered this pillow I had in my booth when I ran across this cutie.


See how the patterns match?
I will make a companion pillow to go with the quilted one.
I just love coming up with all kinds of creative ways to reuse and repurpose.

So this last weekend I began to put some stuff together.



Here is the 1st finished pillow.
I used the items I found in the box and then I found a vintage napkin I had so the doily would have a white background to separate it from the tablecloth.

This is the back. I couldn't leave it blank.






Can you see the cup ring stain?
I love that it was on the tablecloth, so I positioned it on the back so I could use it as an embellishment.

All of the buttons were in my Mom's collection.
I could not believe how well this one matched!
I also love it when things come together unexpectedly.
It's like it was suppose to happen.


Here is what I have so far.
Need to finish some and I have a bit more tablecloth fabric to make 1 more pillow.



This beauty was in a booth that I looked across the isle at ALL weekend.

Since I wasn't making any sales I knew I shouldn't buy any more supplies.

Plus I had already bought the small goodies.

They wanted $50.00.

On the last day I decided if it was still there I'd offer $35.00. I needed a different color pallet to offer my potential clients. Not everyone is into pink, green, teal and yellow.

Right?

Well they said $40.00.

I said

OK

I just had to have it.

I'm not sure when I'll get the inspiration to make things out of it but I am thinking on it.

So, for the time being I am going to start a personal inspirational photo, poem, thoughts journal. I have been seeing them on other blogs and with all the difficult things we have been facing I thought it might help me get my thoughts down and a crafty fun way seemed best.

I am going to try to put the pillows in a local coffee shop and some of the others in my Etsy store. If you would love to own these cuties or know someone who would, leave me a message here before I list them. Prices range from $10.00 to $15.00 for the pillows. You can see the others are on my older blog here

http://theeccentriclady.blogspot.com/2010/07/hello-is-anybody-home.html

I'm off to bed for now and looking forward to starting my journal after work tomorrow!

Some Favorites

Last night while finishing my book by Geraldine Brooks we were watching Palladia and I found a new favorite blues artist. Joe Bonamassa.
http://www.jbonamassa.com/
If you like Clapton or Stevie Ray Vaughn then you need to check this young man out. I had an ITunes card I had not used yet from my Speedy Rewards so I immediately went and down loaded his cd from the Royal Albert Hall. I will be jamming for a few days!

Now back to Geraldine. She is now one of my favorite authors.

I chose People of the Book for my Book Club last year. I knew it would give us lots to discuss. I enjoyed her style of writing so when I found March in my local used book store I decided to give it a try. Well, I was not disappointed.

Back to the used book store to see what else she might have of Geraldine's and I got The Year of Wonders. I just love the style with which she gives her characters a voice. Her style is easy to read and she includes facts that gives you the desire to find out more. I do enjoy historical fiction so these 3 books satisfy my desire to learn about things in the past while enjoying a story to go along with it.

Another artist I have just found in the folksy type genre is Peter Bradley Adams. I found him on facebook on a pop up! Take a listen to I Can Not Settle Down.
http://www.peterbradleyadams.com/

I really like Patty Griffen her lyrics give me lots to think about as I listen to her beautiful songs.

http://www.pattygriffin.com/
I suggest you listen to Heavenly Day, Up to the Mountain.

One more artist is Dar Williams. Again awesome lyrics. If you have a child leaving the nest I definitely love The One Who Knows. I put these lyrics on my daughters graduation announcement. Tear jerker!
http://www.darwilliams.com/

I hope I have given you some things to look into this week and I hope you enjoy! I am just about healed up. Feeling much better so I will be spending a lot of time editing my portraits from the last week now that I can sit at the computer again. I did a couple of really fun sessions last week. I may have to force you to look at some of my images!