Molly Bee's Attic

I am SO EXCITED. I have been working on this sweater for over two years now. Poor Scott has been waiting patiently as I knitted and ripped the thing a million times. I finally finished it in time for his birthday. I wasn't there when he opened it, but he posted this pic (which I have shamelessly stolen) on FB and it looks like it fits great! He looks like a male model! Not bad for only my third sweater and my first real foray into cables!!  I made some grody Halloween treats this afternoon. These are bloody Band aids. They didn't come out so great but folks will get the idea.  These came out great but are so gross! Dirty Qtips! (Mini marshmallows on either end of a lolly pop stick, dipped in melted peanut butter chips.  I loaded them up with lots of 'ear wax'. On both ends! Ewwww!!! Happy Halloween Tomorrow! 

This weekend just felt really odd and surreal for some reason. For one, I didn't follow my little Rain Man schedules and routines, so time and chores were all out of whack and I saw some of the oddest things... I covered a barn shift that I don't usually on Saturday. The volunteer who had been keeping Rosie at her home while her boo-boo foot mended brought her back to the barn. We were awfully glad to see her and her ducky friends were ecstatic. They all huddled and talked over her absence before going out in the yard to go over any changes that had occurred in her absence. Saturday afternoon I went to Last Saturday Knitting with the Knit Chicks. although I swore I wouldn't do it, I started another secret project and ended up knitting iCord all afternoon.  My Knit Sisters made it more than tolerable! When I got home I put the finishing touches on my entry for the Decorate a Paper Pumpkin contest my dept is having at work. Sunday morning it was gorgeous b...

This week's Diva Challenge was a fun one for me.  The challenge was to use only stripes as your foundation 'string'.  I made my stripes into a sort of a 'log cabin' string.  You quilters know what I mean. It looks like this:  Then I filled it in with new patterns from Genevieve Crabe's weekly roundup last week . There are some really cool ones (as usual). I love the flower border at the top, the coral, the water, the buttons, the coffee beans, the Celtic knot, the bow ties. the olives the one on the left I messed up and created my own tangle.......Uh...oops! That's all of them! Great work you tangle designers! You rock! After my Zentangle Retreat a couple of weekends ago, I decided to set down and do a piece that incorporated the techniques that we had learned so I'd have a record. The most valuable lessons for me were on shading although you can't tell that here because the scanner really makes a mess of it. The other thing I wanted to t...

Last night's endeavor.

I spent the weekend in beautiful Mineral Point, WI at a Zentangle weekend retreat. The teacher was Diane Knaff from Madison. I encourage you to go over to her website and take a look at the beautiful things she's done. It was a wicked rainy weekend so it was perfect weather to snuggle into a little studio at Shake Rag Alley School of the Arts  and doodle away. I have pics of Mineral Point itself but will save them for another post. For today, I'll just show you the work we did over the two days worth of classes. The morning of day one was a Beginners class where we learned the basics or tiles and strings and some different tangle patterns. In the afternoon we learned shading techniquest to make the tangles pop. The last part of the afternoon concentrated on drawing with white ink and charcole on black tiles. I love the way the jelly pen feels when it glides over the black paper. On Sunday morning we learned how to 'deconstruct' the patte...

 I have been so excited about my upcoming art retreat, that I haven't been able to simmah down all week, Deah!. I have a lot of work stuff, and home stuff to do and doodling doesn't really fit into my schedule this week but it's all I can think about.  So I set aside 30 minutes (5:15-5:45) each morning this week to doodle. The rules are that there be only one doodle and that it be finished quickly.  If I finish in 10 mins, I'm still done... no fine details-just get it out of my system for the day. Here is Tues, Wed and Thurs' endeavors: SNAKZ VINEZ HAPPY HALLOWEEN I've got my tote bag packed with more stuff than I'll be able to use in a month; sketch pads, cards, pen, pencils, books...I'll only be there one night but am looking forward to being in a place where there are no chores or distractions    and no TV...just focused,  unadulterated, self-indulgent doodle time! Squee! It's good to be me!

Two posts in one day! I did the this week's   Diva's Challenge at lunch today. The challenge was to use a specific string-String # 001- that looks like this: And 'tangle it! Like this: This was a quicky for me. I used a sharpie pen which is a little larger than the micro ones I usually use and scribbled it out on my lunch hour so there's not a lot of detail but it provided a much needed stress break. Thanks again, Diva, for a wonderful challenge! 

I had a lot to do last night; laundry, dishes, vacuuming. Yep. Lots of stuff on my list. I got home, fed Ben and took him on a 30 min walk, came back, ate a bowl of soup and got started. Then there was a knock at the door. It was a handsome police detective that wanted to go over the details of a (non-dangerous) incident I witnessed in my building last Monday. He stayed about 20 minutes and by the time he left I was flustered and had lost my mojo.  I dithered around trying to pick up where I left off to no avail, so I did what anyone would do in such circumstances. I sat down and doodled on a pumpkin.  That's what you'd do, right? Right?! I quickly discovered that my 'perfect, beautiful, pumpkin' was shaped more like a Charlie Brown pumpkin once I got started.  But I kept going anyway. And by bedtime, I had finished.... I closed up shop and went to bed only to discover that there was no bedding. The sheets were still in the dryer! Doh! So de...

Each autumn, I take one Saturday in October and hit several places that I love. It's my own personal little tradition. Even though I felt like crap on a cracker due to a sinus and ear infection on Saturday, I realized that this one was the only weekend all month that I didn't have stuff planned for, so it was now or never.  I decided to go to the Mt. Horeb Fall Festival and then decide after that if I'd go further or not based on how I felt. It was really cold and overcast and so the art fair wasn't as big as it has been in past years but it was still  nice.  One of my favorite parts is the pumpkin decorating contest. There are always the most creative ideas! I like the Dr. Seuss one in the middle! This kid went all out and made a pumpkin totem pole.  Notice Nemo swimming in the foreground! The coolest thing was the men building this.  Usually there is an artist carving trolls out of logs in this spot.  It's a Scandinavian thing, the trol...

Autumn is my favorite season; the colors, the crisp air, the smell  of fallen leaves, apples and wood smoke. I took some time after my barn shift to just sit out with the sheep, goats and Lola and absorb some sun and fall vibes. Colors in the pasture  Bert, Frances and either Maude or April...plus a great shot of the manure pile. Sheesh!  Teddy (left) Bert (right) Bert was my buddy.  I sat on the ground in the pasture and he came over and laid right beside me and stayed for about a half an hour.  Crystal and colors Finally, taking their cue from Lola, everyone snuggled in for their afternoon naps so I went home and made sure Ben didn't miss out ongorgeous weather. Just before I snapped this pic, he was asleep with his head on his turtle.  He always hears the camera and looks! What a ham! Hope you all had a nice autumn weekend as well!