CactushillAZ: 2009

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Dec 30

Here is the picture of the mannequin dressed for New Year's eve. She is definietly having fun.

She livens up the corner where she stands. She is wearing leopard print unmentionables, skirt, belt and headband, with knee high leopard print boots, black satin blouse, gold sequin gauntlets and gold hat. People poke their heads in the door just to see her new outfit. It does not take much to amuse us in our small town.

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Story of Yule Dudes

These are a few of the Yule Dude Dolls that I have made. I need to learn how to use the new camera and how to stage the dolls. These are displayed on my tall oak display staircase. I ran out of time and have not finished attaching and painting the shelves that it leads up to. It is more fun to play than to work on the house

YULE DUDES
These characters are from Icelandic Folk Lore. Icelanders have not one but thirteen Yule Lads. They are not related to Santa Claus. They are descendants of trolls and were originally used to scare children to behave. These boys were so bad that the parents would threaten their children with these Yule Dudes to make them behave or Gryla’s Black Cat would eat them.
These lads are very mischievious and have retained their unique characteristics to today. They live in the mountains with their parents, Gryla and Leppaluodi a Troll.
Gryla was an excellent cook, but she was greedy and gluttonous. She would lock the boys out while she and her black cat ate sumptuous feasts. The poor boys had to fend for themselves. Finding rags to make into clothes and food wherever they could.
As they got older they came off the mountain top to a village where people were making Yule preparations. The boys thought what fun and free food for the taking. They agreed to come down one by one, so the Villagers would not get suspicious or irate.
They start on Dec 12th and the last one on Dec 24th. They hang out for the Christmas Celebrations .
The first one down Dec 12th is Stiff Leg (Stekkjastaur Sheepfold Stick) He likes to steal the ewe’s milk, but cannot bend his knees.
The second one down was Gully Gawk. Giijaguar would sneak into the barn and steal the cow’s milk in the pails.
Shorty (Stufaar) was the third Yule Dude to leave the mountain. He used a sled. Because he was so short, all he could find were the burnt pans left to soak on the floor.
The fourth one was Spoon Licker bvorusleikir would wait for the cook to put the spoon in the bowl and steal the spoon to lick it clean. There was always something good in the bowl.
The fifth one one down was Pot Scraper Pottasleikir would arrive late at night on the 16th of December. He would knock on the front door and run to the back door and sneak into the scullery and take all of the posts and scrape them clean. The people in bed thought he was a ghost.
The sixth one down was Bowl Licker Askasleiikir would sneak into the house and hide under the furniture and steal the bowls that were set out for the cats.
Door Slammer was the seventh one down. He loved noise, so he went round the village slamming doors to disturb all of the Villagers.
Skyr Gobbler Skyrgamur would wander into the village and find the barrel of Yogurt that was being prepared. He would break the lid and gobble all of the Yogurt. He ate the whole thing.
On Dec 20th Sausage Swiper Bjugnakaraekir would go up to the rafters and steal the sausages that were being smoked up there.
Window Peeper Gluggagaegir would show up poking his face right up to the windows to see what he could find that looked good to eat Dec 21st
On Dec 22nd, a large fellow with a big nose would appear He was Door Sniffer Gattabefur. He sniffed out all of the goodies in the house. He especially like thel ace cookies made special for the Yule Feast.
On Dec 23rd, Meat Hooker Ketkrokur would arrive on St Thorlak’s Day He knew the villagers would be celebrating their Patron Saint. He would steal all of thesmoked meats and hamsin the attic.
On December 24th the last one Candle Beggar Kertasnikir would try and steal the children’s candles. Candles were very precious to the children, because at Yule Tide it is dark all day.
On Christmas day all of the Yule Dudes were worn out and all they could do was stare at the Christmas Lights. Then one by one they trotted back to their mountain.
On January 6th, Twelfth Night, the last one left the village.
from Icelandic Traditions.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Dec 22

Our little town does things a bit differently. We have a couple of very large garage metal buildings that are totally decorated inside and outside. I mean like 22 trees and animated figures and lights etc. It is like all of the downtown windows in one building. We have mules with sleigh bells that drive wagons around town and one that pulls a stagecoach. Of course the people sing Christmas carols all the way. There are numerous RV parks with every trailer decorated Lots of lights and decordations to see Too fun.

Arizona Wonderland
Gone away is the blizzard,
Here to stay is the lizard,
A warm sunny day, we like it that way,
Livin' in an Arizona wonderland.
In the desert we will have a picnic,
Cactus, sand and rattlesnakes and sun.
Christmas dinner is an old tradition,
It's pinto beans and tacos by the ton.
Later on we'll perspire,
Temperatures rise even higher,
A warm sunny day, we like it that way,
Livin' in an Arizona wonderland.

This was in a forwarded email, have no idea of original author.
I am still learning my camera ,
have lots of pictures of the rest of my Yule Dudes to tweak will post them as soon as I can.

Monday, December 14, 2009

December new camera

I am having fun dressing a full size mannequin for our local bar and grill. I need to come up with different props for her. For Christmas I have her dressed in a white and red skater outfit, with tall boots that I recovered with Christmas fabric and a sequinned Santa hat, white sheer cape with marabou. . Bought a new camera and will post pictures after I load into computer and learn how to use it.

Here is the first Yule Dude comes down on

Dec 12th, Stiff Leg Loves to steal Ewes milk, but can't bend knees.
These are some of the dolls that I have made based on Icelandic tradition.
here is the website with more information
http://www.simnet.is/gardarj/yule5.htm
Labels: mannequin, yule dudes draft

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Working on the remodeling again

I am working on the remodeling again, I am finishing up the dining room. I had the drywall in place, all taped and ready to finish. I decided to just texture and paint it. Too much sanding for smooth walls. In the meantime, I got a corner booth with a smaller table. I found a buyer for my big square oak table. It had enough leaves to seat twenty. I really don't need that much company. I found this really tall oak staircase to display my dolls, and that gave me the push to get busy. I plan on putting a shelf up high on the wall with the staircase leading up to it. It is amazing what ideas you can get and then reject when there is no time limit on projects. I am not showing any pictures of the work in progress. It will show what a mess a lady on a mission can acomplish. Since I am doing most of the work myself, I just moved everything to the center of the room and am working around it. Somewhere in one of those boxes is my camera . It was on the table. Oh well I will hopefully get finished in a few days.

Friday, October 23, 2009

CIFI Scholarship Dolls

To help raise monies for a scholarship to CIFI Doll Conference in May 2010, www.creationsinfiber.com/index I made these two dolls, that will be auctioned at www.uncommonfolk.com/ Mary Tressler designed the pattern to be made into a dessert. No directions for a costume, she left that up to the dollmaker. I came up with one that is a three berry pie. She sits in the middle of the pie and her skirt covers the pincushion, made of individual berries. She is holding a strawberry embellished with seed beads.

The other one is a Blackbird Pie. She sits in the middle of Four and Twenty Blackbirds. Lift her off the pie and the birds are finger puppets. There are recipies for Blackbird Pie that I found on the internet. Don't know that I will try any though. This little gal ought to be a fun treasure for Grandma to keep for when Little Ones come to visit.

I am working on the front yard, trying to get my cacti organized. will take pictures a bit later.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Fall is here

The days have gotten shorter and cooler. Life just got in the way of keeping up with postings. I made a few dolls, did some art work, and loafed away the summer. I entered a doll in Treasures of Gypsy Challenge in Houston. Her name is Irisha Pennie meaning Rainbow Weaver.
She is my original pattern. Irisha Pennie was enchanted by her God Mothers with Happiness and Happy Thoughts and Pearls of Wisdom. Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself.
When Irisha followed the family tradition of weaving cloth, she put a happy thought and pearls of wisdom with a sprinkle of that perfume with each piece of fabric she made.

I have been changing things around in the yard. Nothing major, just repotting cactus, and rearranging containers., deciding what to do with all of the stuff I had been collecting for projects. I did make a shade structure for some of the babies. I had this old wooden reel that the boys used as a flat surface in the garage. All it did was collect stuff. I cleared out the garage and rolled it outside. I needed help to load it into the truck to take to the dump, so it just sat. I decided that it would make a nice place for my plants. I made a roof for it using shadecloth so the rain water the babies. I had baskets of broken china for doing a someday project. I mosaiced a couple of table tops for outside use. Will post pictures later.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

more desert blooms

Pictures of some of the desert blooms . This cactus is very hard to find. It looks like a dead stick most of the time. I water this one about once a week, so it is nice and plump. The dogs have a water container on the other side of the tree. the wildife drink from it too. I just put water jugs in my backpack and fill the containers as I get to them.

This is a night blooming cereus in the wild. It is at the bottom of an ironwood tree. The little fuzzy bumps are the flower buds. It should be in bloom in a couple of weeks.

different ironwood in bloom. I cant get too close because of all the bees.

closeup of ironwood in bloom.

desert daisy . they also are in shades of yellow.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

hedgehog cactus in the wild. the animals have been eaating this one. The lower stems are gone.

Prickley Pear Cactus in bloom Front yard. directly behind prickley pear is the boxer cactus., and barrel cacti, jumping cactus, so called because it jumps onto yu if yu get too close.

out walking to see spring blooms

Here are some pictures that I took while walking the dogs. One is a prickley pear in bloom and the other one is a hedgehog in bloom. . They are almost the same intencse cerise color. The flower shapes are a bit different. They have a slight perfume to them. The bees have a great time gathering the pollen from them. You have to be careful when you look down into the flower, because there usually is a bee in the center. They only bloom for a few days.

I was surfing and came to this fun thing. It creates a word picture for creating anything you want to say. This is great for making Birthday Cards. I used the name, birthplace important events etc. I printed it out. I did not publish it to the internet to keep the child safe, because it had personal information. (some of the published ones are X rated, so be cautious if you have kids.) This is the one that I did create for public viewing.

If you use a screen-capture or other image representation of the Wordle on this page, you must attribute the image to http://www.wordle.net/. Images of Wordles are licensed
FPRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=Creative Commons License"

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Two Dragonfly Art Dolls Finished

COPPERFYRE AND VIRIDIANA,

I finally finished the art dolls from an online class by Sherry Goshen through Doll Street Dreamers. There were a lot of new techniques for me to learn. Layering colors by sponging, How to use Apoxie Sculpt, Spectrum sculpt and paper clay. How to make a fancy base . I painted the bodies by dry brushing on gold metallic acrylics over flesh color. I used gold, purple, green, blue, copper metallics to dry sponge on the colors. I wanted lots of subtle colors. These art dolls are really glitzy.

I finally decided on the wings for these dolls. I did them in stained glass. The younger Copperfyre wanted hers in fire colors, after I had made a set in the colors of the pond water. Viridiana (Italian "green") was perfectly happy with her wings in teal and blue water colors.

Copperfyre really likes to go hunting for treasures of the pond. She is giving Viridiana some of her treasures. She found tumbled and shiny rocks in the water and desert roses above the banks of the pond, while she was drying off in the desert sand.

This was a fun class. I am happy with how my projects turned out. I cannot wait until CIFI Conference at the end of May to meet up with Sherry and to see what new things I will learn there.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Conference Information

Doll Classes in Albuquerque

I am going to the Creations in Fiber Conference in Albuquerque, at the end of May. When you register, you have to decide what classes you want to take. The choices are amazing. I really had a hard time deciding. I just wish I did not have to decide I am still wishy washy wanting to take all of the classes. Here are the links showing what the choices are:
There is a camel by Nancy Gawron, and his sidekick, Biddy Bird
http://web.mac.com/pattipage/CreationsInFiberInc/Nancy_Gawron_.html
http://web.mac.com/pattipage/CreationsInFiberInc/Nancy_Gawron__2.html

Mary Tresslers wonderful film characters, Carmen Jones, Moulin Rouge, Westside Story,
http://web.mac.com/pattipage/CreationsInFiberInc/Mary_Tressler.html

Sherry Goshen and Jean Bernard creation
http://web.mac.com/pattipage/CreationsInFiberInc/Jean_Bernard_and_Sherry_Goshon.html

This is the class that I chose, because it has a lot of new stuff for me to play with,
Click on the link for a picture of their creation. I hope to learn a lot from them.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Two Dragonflies Libelle

I did two dragonflies. one is thicker. She is the Matriarch of the pond. Here they are in their unpainted state. They are in front of one of my stained glass pieces.
Here is another stained glass piece. It is a blue rose window.

Middle of January

It is gorgeous in Arizona Southwest. I have been out walking a couple of miles everyday. I take my dog and pick up a couple of the neighbors' dogs. We go out on BLM land. The spring flowers are starting to pop out. These are what we call Belly Flowers; in that you have to lay on your belly to see them. They are so tiny and close to the ground.
The creosote bushes and Palo Verde trees are also starting to bloom. The snakes are also on the move. I saw a couple of rattlesnakes, A Diamondback and a Mojave Green. They were just laying in the sun enjoying the warmth. I startled them as much as they startled me. It is really too early for them to be moving around, but the weather has really been strange all over the country.
I have been taking an online doll class from Sherry Goshen, through DollstreeetDreamers. Her name is Libelle, meaning Dragonfly. This is a new style of doll. It involves molding a face and wrapping an armature and sculpting with clay. Then it needs painting and making a wonderful base. She is at a standstill right now, I just cannot get myself to stay inside. Here is a picture of MIZZ Libelle in her unfinished state.

CactushillAZ