Cher

Here is another new doll that I made based on the class that Patti Culea taught at Think Pink. I was going around calling her Dead Cher or Zombie Cher as she is green, but thought I better not do that. Don't' want to get into trouble. The face & hands are from Patti's pattern, but I decided to do the stump doll. The fabric is batik that Cyn sent me & I used a layer of organza to give it a richer look. Then I used rose trims that I bought at Joann's & sequins from Bead World in NYC. I stepped back & thought to myself..."wow. My Grandma had a dress that looked like that. At the conference after I finished painting the green face on "Cher", I couldn't decide on the hair. Patti had folks making hair out of fancy yarn, but it didn't see to fit. So I got out a bunch of wool and Tibetan lamb wool. I tried several pieces & had others in the class giving me suggestions. Then out of a whim, I pulled the black lamb wool out, plopped it on her head & instantly she became Cher! The boa she has is from a shop in NYC that was having a moving sale & I got that beautiful fringe trim for a quarter. Lucky me!

After I had Cher all done, Chris & I were at a garage sell & we found several Sonny & Cher albums. He wanted me to photograph her in front of the Greatest hits, but when he showed me that scratched up 45 of "I got you Babe" I know it had to be part of her permanently. So, I've got to mount her on that record.

This is Chloe

I LOVE This doll! She is so adorable that all I want to do is to hug her. I made her face during a class with Karen Shifton at DollGatherer's "Think Pink:It's a Girl Thing". The stump pattern is Karen's Water Lily doll. I wanted to do a squirrel who has taken time out in her busy life to offer something from her stash to the hungry in this world. I'm going to enter her in a group on Yahoo which is making dolls with the theme "there's a hole in the World, tonight"...let's find a way to fill it. Yes, it is from the Eagle's song. I believe that if each of us just gave one small thing, we'd be on our way to help heal this World. Chloe has beaded eyes and the blobs on her skirt are those glass blobs that you can buy to put in your fish tanks. Chloe also has a real squirrel tail. I bought that at Cabellas on Cyn & my way to NYC last month. I hope you enjoy Chloe, and take her advice to share just something small. She is giving away one acorn and a hand full of seeds. What small thing can you do to help fill that hole in our World?

TAGGED! OH NO!

i got double tagged by Mary T & Lora . I'm going to try this to see if my brain can function. I was called into work last night and could not refuse the 4 extra hours on top of my regular 10 when they dangled time/&half plus $2.00 an hour. I drank enough coffee to keep an elephant awake for 3 days, but didn't get to me too much. Have I mentioned that I drink tons of coffee. Night shift does that to a person. Okay, but back to being tagged:

What was I doing 10 years ago

Cross stitch projects that were HUGE. I have them still on my walls.

Same job as now except at a different hospital. I'm a Medical Technologist working 3rd shift.

Scotties! I was really into anything to do with Scotties back then. I owned a small business selling Scottie dog related items. I was also looking into becoming a member of the STCA (Scottish Terrier Club of America) so I could either show a Scottie or become a breeder. Also, I was very big into collecting Scottie dog antiques. (Still have them all)

I was healthier back then, and smaller! I was taking herbal supplements to keep my weight down & not until I had a 3 week Vertigo attack did I realize they had ephedra.

What are 5 things on my to-do list for today?

Finish the article I'm working on for Doll Crafter and Costuming

Finish my instructions for the class I'm teaching Saturday

Call my niece to get her to watch the hoard next Tuesday when I got to Detroit to see Robert Plant & Allison Kraus in Detroit

Finally, get ready for work. I've got another 10 hours shift

Snacks I enjoy….

I binge eat, so I try not to eat too many snacks. But some of my favorites are #1 DONUTS! Any kind is delicious to me. #2 Nacho Cheese Doritos

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

NOT WORK! REALLY! I can't figure out the people who win the lottery & want to work. If I won millions I'd have scorch marks on my fingers from dialing my Director & tell her NO MORE!

I'd move. Definitely. Love my family, but don't like Ohio weather. I'd probably move out West to Southern Utah.

I'd support local artist by having a gallery where they wouldn't have to pay me the whopping 50 percent rip off price that most galleries here in Columbus charge. I would do this so they could sell more art pieces without jacking up their prices to pay ME & also so other folks could buy more art without having to pay the outrageous prices the gallery want.

Places I have lived:

Ohio. Southern Ohio & Columbus Ohio
Los Angeles California back in the 50s & 60s when I was a kid. Yes, it was a big culture shock to move from LA to a small town on the Ohio River back in 1967. Imagine watching American Bandstand on rabbit ears with so much static you it made your eyes water & seeing two classmates of yours dancing on television. I still have a hard time forgiving my parents from moving from LA to Portsmouth when I was in high school. But I survived.

Jobs I have had:

I'll start from the beginning:
Baby Sitter
House cleaner
Shoe factory line worker
Research assistant (I was only there as window dressing as I was 20 & the only female)
Egg plant line worker (Oh I smelled so bad & couldn't eat eggs for years)
McDonalds (hated this! almost as bad as the egg plant, but at least I smelled different)
Bar Tender
Pharmacy Technician
Medical Laboratory Technician
Medical Laboratory Technologist
Owner of small Scottie Dog related business
Artist! This is my favorite.

I read a book by Natalie Goldburg/or Goldman many years ago, that you WORK is what you'd do no matter if you got paid for it or not. Your JOB is what you do to pay for your WORK. Very few of us are blessed enough to have their WORK be their JOB. There is always hope!

Great Stork Factory-Pink Divison

WOW! I just got the lastest edition of Doll Crafter & Costuming in my mailbox & was so surprised to see not one, not two, but three Guilded Lilies inside the pages. First off, the front cover is of Linda Apple's doll. There is a fantastic article about Linda & how she created her sweet dolls. Then there is an article written by Judy Skeel about mohair. I was thumbing through it & saw one of her dolls & was admiring it before I saw she actually wrote the article. Way to go Judy even though she's up in Canada right now & won't get any congrat messages from me for a week. Then my Great Stork Factory-Pink Division is in the gallery. Okay, I don't think I shared with many, but here is the thing about this doll. It won the People's Choice award at Think Pink-It's a Girl Thing. SHOCKED ME! There were so many wonderful dolls there so I was sort of snoozing when they called out the winner. Cyn had to poke me awake & told me I won. Pam was shaking me. I truly was shocked. You can scroll down to see my Pink Doll. Pam also sent a picture of her, myself & Barbara Willis at the conference. She allowed me to share it with you all so you can see that I really do have a face. I'm the one in the middle clutching my stash!

May BJP

I'm done. This is the last leaf for the year long project. Well, I'm done with the monthly leaves. Now I've got to finish the wall hanging they all will be on. Plus, I want to rescan them all so I can have them put on the Bead Journal Artist website.

Back to May. My May leaf was to commemorate the 50th birthday trip of my friend, Cynthia. We went to NYC for three days, then to Akron to visit our friend Sharon, and then on the "Think Pink-It's a Girl Thing" dollmaking conference in Aurora Ohio. We had a blast. I tried to add everything into the leaf that we did on our trip. Everything from the pink sequins we bought at Bead World in Manhatten, to the crystals we bought from Sharon, to the the taxi cab charm we bought at a junk shop on Time Square during a vicious rain storm. I left our troll girls bare foot as I couldn't figure out how to do the shoes that we bought at Lucky Shoes in Akron. Also, left out is the laughter, the smear of pizza sauce from Ray's Pizza, and the sweet icing from the birthday cake that the Doll Gatherers gave Cyn. We had the best time filled with fun, laughter, and wild times. I think we've got enough stories from our trip to keep us laughing for a couple years.

FANTASTIC NEWS

This weekend our doll group in Columbus along with a Quilting Guild opened our show called "Fiber Optics" at the High Road Gallery in Worthington Ohio. ( http://www.highroadgallery.com/ ). We do this show usually every other year. Imagine my surprise when I found out Saturday morning at our Guild meeting that I'd sold three pieces before the show even opened. Sunday I went to the artist reception & was pulled aside by the gallery owner to tell me that I'd sold 9 pieces total. WOW! She also asked me to do the Holiday Show in November. I'm so excited. Now some of what I put in the show was jewelry, but I did sell a lot of my dolls. I even sold the altered barbie called Winged Death. THAT was a big surprise! Most of the pieces at the show are older. I think the newest piece was 9 months old. I just needed space to create more. I'm happy to not be bringing back more things to my house & will be very happy when I get the money. It is going to mean that I can stay in the nicer hotel when I go out to Albuquerque next month! Woohoo, no HoJos for me!