Super Duper Estate Sale

This Estate is being demolished and a Hampton Inn will be built in its place. Go visit before it is gone. The house/church is bigger than it looks, and there are three out buildings, and all the contents are for sale, including gorgeous doors, windows and fixtures.

It is at 280 Clay Road off Jefferson Road in Henrietta

(right behind the Bugaboo Creek Steak House).

12/27/2011 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM (Tuesday)
12/28/2011 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM (Wednesday)
12/29/2011 9:30 AM to 12:00 PM (Thursday)

This is a hand built cement fountain, it cries and the water gets sucked back into the mouth...

only $300 if you can get it off the property!

She Can Draw

Kitchen Wallpaper

It only took 3 hours!

Red Deer not Red Drum

The Holiday window at Thread looks spectacular. I made the lampshades and I covered this wire form deer with felted, wool, red sweaters. Mike spray painted the branches and Sandy made snow falling from the sky. I great collaboration if I do say so myself.

Sale Tomorrow!

Shop Local and Handmade at the

Holiday HeART Bazaar

Sunday, November 27th

12:00 - 5:00

at Starry Nites Cafe

696 University Avenue

missing making art

I have a thousand plans for when I get home. I am helping out as a secretary at my brother's office, mostly answering the phone and talking to people about my dad. But I am surfing the web a lot too. I love this piece by Yellena James.

Dad

My dad died on Sunday. I feel so empty, tired, actually I don't really feel anything at all.

He was beyond amazing. A musician, an athlete, an artist, a scientist and healer (he practiced dentistry for 50 years). A patient today told me, "you know you expect your doctor to take care of you, but he went far beyond that." He was a leader for the Boy Scout Troop, a regular church goer, he raised money and gave money to so many charitable organizations (too many to list), he was a world traveler and naturalist (he insisted on being the first on the water on his 47 canoe trips to Algonquin park, because he wanted to see the wildlife before they got spooked by the rest of the scouts). He just loved to help people, he loved everything about life.

don't lose today

Today I have been reading old posts of this blog. I am having a hard time believing I wrote any of those words.

In a birthday reflection in 2009 I posted this quote -

“If you dread tomorrow, it’s

because you don’t know how to build the present, and when you don’t know how to build the present, you tell yourself you can deal with it tomorrow, and it’s lost because tomorrow always ends up becoming today.”

The Elegance of the

Hedgehog p. 128

I have been living in the present moment as much as it is possible these days, simultaneously wishing I could just jump ahead to a future where healing has already taken place. So what am I doing reading posts I wrote in 2009? And to confuse you more, here is a picture of my wonderful family from 1970.

Happy Halloween

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Kitchen changes

First I have to explain a 2008 installation piece by Zoe Leonard. (Detail pictured below.)
The Leonard work consists of thousands of vintage postcards depicting Niagara Falls, arranged in several groupings of cards that are printed with exactly the same image. The identical picture is repeated, over and over again, but with the subtle gradations of tone as a major subject: the ink is sometimes yellowed, due to age and wear and tear, or due to press differences. Now I know who was bidding against me on postcards of Niagara, a place I visited to make pictures a few years ago. I learned that the Falls are a man-made tourist destination, not really a true "natural wonder" at all anymore, due to our efforts in harnessing of the water's power for electricity. The Falls get turned "off" over the winter, and we were there when the flip got switched to get it flowing again, just in time for the thaw and upcoming tourist season. Read more about the manufactured sublime in Ginger Strand's book, "Inventing Niagara," and see some of her own postcard collection here: http://www.gingerstrand.com/niagara_lost.htm Leonard's work explores the idea of mass-market tourism and the shaping of a location for that purpose and the idea of the souvenir and the photographic landscape tradition. Her postcards span the half-century from 1900-1950, and, according to the exhibition's curator: "... there is little evidence in Leonard’s ensemble of the far-reaching physical changes that the site underwent during this same period: inter alia, the amount of water flowing over the falls was reduced and regulated daily; certain outcroppings of rock, deemed dangerous, were blasted away; and erosion radically redrew the profile of the Horseshoe Falls. While the icon requires constancy to maintain its status as icon, the suppression in these reproductions of the site’s physical permutations contributes to the elision of the icon into cliché."

So in an attempt to re-decorate the kitchen wall, Allen and I started our own installation of vintage architectural postcards. Nothing theoretical here - we just like the look of them.

But on Sunday we purchased this amazing vintage yellow table and chairs for the kitchen - Now I am thinking about a wall paper I purchased on sale at Anthropologie for the wall. I hung the roll up and photoshopped the rest of the wall in...

I think I love it, but I am nervous that my family will not. I will update after everyone returns home.

vintage items

Check out my Etsy shop if you want to own any of these amazing vintage items!

6 large television tubes (pictured above)

8 small television tubes (below)

velveteen baby slippers

and

leather boy's school/work shoes

Repurposed wool sweater pumpkins

I have two more shows coming up- The Victor Craft Show on Saturday and The Syracuse Salt City Market the following Saturday. I have been collecting orange sweaters all year to make these fun pumpkins. I only have 9 of them (as orange sweaters are not so easy to come by), so come early or contact me if you want one.

Fiber Festival

Last Saturday I went to Fiber Festival in Hemlock. I bought twelve skeins of hand spun yarn that I can't wait to get my needles in. I also took lots of pics.

Classes

This Fall, I will be teaching needle felting and embroidering felted wool.

Please consider registering for one of my classes at

The Weaver’s Guild of Rochester

located in Piano Works Mall, East Rochester

Studio 1940
349 W. Commercial St.

585-377-2955

http://www.weaversguildofrochester.org

Artful Fiber Gifts

Make numerous simple gifts for Holiday gift giving! You will create unique greeting cards using embroidery and felting techniques and make small felted ornaments, jewelry (pins, hair clips, earrings), and various art objects. No prior experience required. AGE: 13 and up. MATERIALS FEE: $8.00 paid to instructor for blank cards, embroidery thread, felt, roving and tools for use during class.

Instructor Nancy Topolski

1367

Tuesday, 10/4

6:00-8:30 PM

$35

or

1368

Friday, 12/2,

10:00-12:30

$35

Creative Needle Felting & Embroidery

Learn a variety of needle felting and embroidery techniques. Wet and dry wool felting techniques will be covered: needle felting on recycled wool, Nepal wool felt and 3-D projects using roving. Embroidery is a lovely complement to felted wool designs, and you will practice some basic stitches. Information on how to proceed independently will be available. No experience required. AGE: 13 and up. MATERIALS FEE: $7 paid to instructor for 1 felting needle, unlimited felted sweater pieces, 1 piece Nepal felt, foam piece & roving.

Instructor Nancy Topolski

1370

Friday, 10/21

10:00-12:30

$35

or

1371

Tuesday, 11/8

6:00-8:30 PM

$35

New work

Busy Weekend

Started out Saturday morning going to the Public Market to have our weekly tacos only to be told that the mexican restaurant is closing; next week is their last week. I am devastated. I love this small family business that makes the freshest, tastiest most wonderful tacos in the entire world. They moved locations once before - so I am hope the Market will embrace this amazing vendor and find them a new space.

Saturday afternoon, Donna and Michael flew into Canandaigua airport on/in their new Cessna to have lunch at the Rio Tomatlan for a late Mexican lunch. Yes, Allen's sister's husband has his own airplane and he also has spontaneity. They left Selinsgrove, PA at noon, had lunch in Canandaigua, and and arrived home by 7:00.

I am still learning my new i-phone and I took many videos before I was told by Aster that I was taking videos not photos...

Today is a full day too... I feel overwhelmed by the amount of work that is not getting accomplished. But I know I will enjoy the fun day ahead.