dolin bliss

Pom Pom Fringe, Wooden Spools and Knitting Needles...

Just a little hint of the many crazy things that are on my mind and don't make a whole lot of sense all together.  Well, I guess they do all have the crafting thing in common.  Oh yeah crafting, what is that?  So sorry it has been a bit uninspiring around these parts lately.  I am in a crafting slump and don't know what to do with myself to get out of it.  I have quite a few projects that I do want to finish, but when it comes time to pick them up and work on them, I just don't get that far.  Ugh, it is driving me crazy!  I know that my new Etsy shop has been taking up a lot of my time, but not all of it. 

-How my brain feels!  I recently found a big ol' bag of pom pom fringe at a thrift store for only $2.  This is only half of it.

I also need to figure out the direction I want to take this here blog.  I don't want it just to be all about my new store (which it has been lately), but I do want to share things that are exciting to me (my store included).  To let you in on the big picture... This is all stemming from my sort of indecision on what direction I want to focus my creative energy on, which was the original focus of this blog.  I tend to dabble in all sorts of crafty stuff, but never for too long, 'cause I get bored.  But I feel like if I want to get serious about where this creative energy will take me and hopefully be able to make a living on it, I need to get serious with something.  I am just blathering on now and sorry if it is boring.  I am sure there will be a bit more of this "sortin' my stuff out", in the coming weeks or months, but I will try and keep it to a minimum.

A few images of me playing around with my camera in my studio (read between the lines here... PROCRASTINATING!):

-Some of the many wooden thread spools I have collected over the years.  What to do with them all?  Any ideas?

- I love my vintage Bauer Pot that holds my mixed collection of old and new knitting needles.  My dad gave me this pot, he called me one day saying he thought I would like this pot he found...  Yes, I said that "he found".  Someone had thrown this beauty in the trash.   

- Oh pretty pom pom rainbow!  Fooling around with my bag o' pom pom fringe.  

Here is a new site/blog I just discovered Colette Patterns.  I have been reading her other blog for a while now and found out through there, that she is starting her own pattern company.  I can't wait to see what she will have to offer.  She has great personal style, so I am sure her patterns will reflect that.

New Artwork!

Friday night we went to my best friend Olivias' art opening at Issues in Oakland.  She painted these amazing pictures of vintage signs from all around Oakland.  

This is the first wall.

And here is the second wall of her petite paintings.  

There were so many that I wanted, but could only afford to buy one.  My first choice was Geo Kaye's on the first wall, my last and favorite apartment in Oakland was one building away from this bar, so that sign had some meaning to me.  I arrived 20 minutes after the opening began and my top five choices had all been bought, by one man!  Good for her.  My next choice was Rhea's Salon of Beauty, but I knew that Karen and Lynn both wanted that one, I couldn't buy it out from under them.  So I choose the fabulous Ideal Cleaners painting (the one above Rhea's).  I love it, and wish I could have had them all.

Here we are... Me next to the Artist.

Boy, the show was a big success and all but one of the paintings were sold...  Congrats Olivia!  

Where does the time go?

I have been happily working away at getting inventory up on my Etsy store, while also trying to get everything organized here.  I just had no clue as to how much stuff I have accumulated for my new store and what it takes to get it ready to post.  I want to offer high quality inventory, so that means checking all items over to make sure that I catch any flaws or wear that would need to be mentioned in my post.  I also try to make sure all fabric items are cleaned and repaired so they are in good condition when purchased.  

I have made a few sales and really enjoy knowing that those treasures are going to good homes.  

A little peak at a fantastic scarf that was just posted yesterday.  Oh so mod!

Tomorrow I will be posting a bunch of housewares.  So if you are interested in vintage Pyrex and vintage table linens, check out my shop tomorrow evening!  

Sorry for being so quiet but...

Lots of big things have been happening here at Lulubliss headquarters.  

- I have filed all the paperwork so now I am finally a legit business!  Easy to do, but just time consuming.  Honestly, I don't know what took me so long.

- I took a really great workshop, Breakthrough:Strategies for Artistic Growth, at the San Jose Musuem of Quilts and Texitiles last friday, .  In it we explored different ways to tap into your creativity.  It was an eye opening day and I really discovered somethings about my creative process.  My main hurdle to work through is that I am to rigid and I want things to be perfect.  So I rarely just let loose and create something, I have to plan and mull it over for a while, before even doing it.  And I am a master creativity procrastinator, always finding other things to do, like the dishes or laundry.  I definitely got some food for thought out of the day, on top of being surrounded by many friendly and creative ladies.

- The most exciting new is that I am setting up my Etsy shop!  I will be selling vintage finds that I have collected over the years, due to my thrift store habit.  There are going to be a lot of goodies (clothing, scarves, sewing patterns, shoes, housewares, ect).  I should have a few things posted tomorrow, but there will be MANY more to follow in the coming weeks.  I didn't realize how much stuff I had to sell and how time consuming it is to take photos of it all. I will let you know once it is up and running.  

Here is a little fabric eye candy:  PINK MUSHROOMS!

This will not be going in my shop, I am keeping this treasure.  I found it over the weekend, it is actually a big smock type thing, but I bought it just for the fabric.  

First Casualties from Domino

Boy, it is a good thing he is so cute and cuddly...

Because this is what he did to two of my favorite cashmere sweaters over the weekend:

Both ruined... My favorite turquoise and black cardigans!  I have to admit I was really upset, but you can't stay mad at such a cutie.  I can't wear them as they are and need some ideas on what I can do with them.  I almost threw them in the trash, but thought I could make something else with the fabric that isn't chewed up.  Any ideas?

Some recent thrifting finds

Not a whole lot of crafting going on, but I have found some fun things recently while thrifting.  

I had not heard of this girl detective series before and the book title "The Clue in the Patchwork Quilt" was what caught my eye.  So I bought both of them and looked up Margaret Sutton when I got home and was pleasantly surprised with my finds.  The fabric the books are on was also found at the same store, it is two drapery panels that are in great condition.  I will probably take them apart and use the fabric for something else.  

Such a fun book, I only found Volume 3 of four and will have to look out for the others.

I love this find... this is the inside cover of "The Complete Book of Home Modernizing", published in 1953.  There are so many great pictures and drawings in this book, I have just leafed through it and took a couple of pictures of what this treasure has to offer.

Jealous of these modern interiors!

And I have to leave you with two pictures of our dogs on Halloween.  I know, you are probably sick of dog pictures already, but I couldn't help myself.

The hats didn't last long on either of the dogs, we were hoping they would wear them for the tricker treaters, but no go.  

Happy Halloween!

I love Halloween, but didn't do much of anything for it this year.  We do get a lot of tricker treaters, so that is always fun.  

Sorry I have been so quiet lately.  There are a couple of reasons why...

1. I had some freelance work the last couple of weeks, that had some tight deadlines.  Well, the last of it was completed on Monday.  

2. I wish I could say that I have been filling my days with crafting, but that really hasn't happen because of this:

-This was the day we got him, he was meeting his big brother at the park.

Yes, that is right we adopted a little puppy on Tuesday!  He is about a 6 months old (that means he was born around my birthday) wire hair terrier mix (maybe part Jack Russell and rat terrier).  We got him from a local shelter and boy is he cute!  We haven't named him yet, can't seem to find the right one.  I have been calling him Domino, but Matthew likes Panda too.  Take a look at him and let me know if any of you have a good idea for a cute name.  

-Relaxing in his new bed.

As a lot of you know we have another dog, Mikey.  He was also adopted about 4 years ago.  When Matthew brought him home he was a very social guy.  Now he just doesn't quite know how to act around other dogs, which is our fault, so we have been working on doggie socialization with him.  He is doing great with the new puppy, but we are still keeping very close eye and short leash on both of them. 

-Looking out the window.

I never knew how much work a puppy is... they take a lot of attention and work.  He is getting into everything and trying to chew on anything he can get his paws on.  From what I understand, this little guy is pretty easy.  At the shelter, they didn't know much about him and said he was a stray.  I thought that we would have to do a lot of work house-training him, crate training him, teaching how to walk on a leash.  But he knows all of this already!  So we totally lucked out.  The first day we brought him home he was using the doggy door and doing his business in the backyard.  

Pacific International Quilt Festival or PIQF

Geez, is it Thursday already?!  Where has this week gone?  I have been meaning to post about this since last Friday, but some freelance gigs have had to take first priority.  So here goes...Last week Santa Clara, CA hosted 17th annual (I think) PIQF from October 16th-19th.  I have never been to a quilt show or festival and decided that I would volunteer to man the San Jose Quilt and Textile Museum table on Friday morning and spend the afternoon wandering around the show.  Since this was the second day of the show, it was pretty busy all morning and we talked with a lot of people about our museum and during the slower periods we got to do some people watching.  Let me tell you these folks are very serious about quilting and all the accoutrements.  You would have never guessed there was a recession going on looking at the vendor sections of the show, people were of course buying fabric, but also big ticket items like super fancy sewing machines.  I got a kick seeing the glazed over happy face of many a person when they walked out with their new baby (insert fancy sewing machine).  I think we all have had a moment like this and I still remember the day I brought my Bernina home.

- I have a thing for peacocks and loved the colors used in this quilt.  Unfortunately, I totally forgot to write down any information about this beauty.

I didn't spend a whole lot of time looking at the vendors, it was way to crowded and I wanted to see the handy work of these quilters.  I took a quick stroll through the quilts, noting which ones I wanted to come back and look at closer.  There were all sorts of quilts there, from the very traditional (following older designs with historically correct fabric and made entirely by hand) to the very modern art quilt (original designs with all sorts of different types of fabrics/treatments and made with machine).  I was so very impressed with all the work that went into the quilts and wearable art that were on display, so I wanted to share a few of my favorites with you (there are more images on my Flickr set).  

-My Flower by Michiko Takakuwa, Japan.  Sorry for the chain in the picture and not being able to get the entire quilt in the frame, it was a big one 98" by 102".  The flower border that you see on the bottom was around all four sides of the quilt.

Well, my photography skills don't do this amazing quilt any justice.  It was entirely made of of 1/4" hexagons, there was a total of 182,172 pieces used to make this quilt!  It was hand pieced and hand quilted, such an amazing feat.  The 72 year old quilter that made this quilt lives on a farm in northern Japan and only quilts in the winter, when their farm is covered in snow.  This quilt took two winters to complete and this will be their last quilt made with such miniature piecing, because of weakening eyesight.  

- Close-up of My Flower, remember each of those pieces is only 1/4".

- Oppose by Marion Manson, New Zealand, 46 1/2" by 46 1/2".

I liked this one for the colors and fabrics used, and it playful design.  But once I read about it, I liked it even more, "This quilt explores the concept of opposites.  Yesterdays fabrics, rescued from Op Shops, in today's decorator colour scheme and retro style."  A quilter after my own heart, using thrift store fabric in some of my favorite colors!

- Close-up of Oppose.  All of the centers of the circles had sayings and poem stamped on them.

Here is my absolute favorite quilt and again my photography skills leave much to be desired (I also wish I had gotten the entire quilt in the frame).  

- Finale of Fireworks by Etsuko Iitaka, Japan, 83" by 78".

This quilter used antique kimono fabrics for this quilt and it was just gorgeous.  It did look like the finale of fireworks and wish I had gotten a better picture of it.  

I was very inspired to start quilting after seeing this show, but my quilting bug will have to be put on hold until I have some more time and less unfinished projects.  

It has been busy around here!

The past week and a half has been non-stop for me, in a very good way.  I posted not to long ago, how I wanted to renovate my studio and had the color inspiration from a vintage scarf.  So, last Monday (9/29) I moved everything out of my studio and started to prep it for painting.  I tore down all the picture molding, normally I would keep picture molding up because I like it and it is original to the house.  But, in this small room it just broke up the lines of the wall and it was crooked (well, I guess the whole room is a bit crooked).  I took out the old dirty blinds, which were just a dingy as the rest of the paint in the room.  There was also this bad crack in one corner of the room that needed to be fixed.  So I had my work cut out for me.  Here are some before images of my dingy studio:

The crack in the corner:

The cracked corner without the picture molding and with the tape on it, before I plastered it.

The newly plastered corner, looking so much better.

I know, not very exciting pictures, but it is worthwhile once you see the finished product.  I had to get everything finished before Saturday 10/4, because we were having a few friends over for a BBQ and couldn't have all my studio stuff filling up the living room.   So late Friday afternoon, I finally finished painting!  

My new happy and bright studio:

The colors look totally different in each of the pictures, it was pretty cloudy by the time I finished so the lighting wasn't great.  The actual color of the studio is a lot closer to the first image.  I really love it!  Friday night I quickly put everything back into the studio, but I still have a few things I want to do the the space.  I need to get some window coverings up, asap, it gets hot in here.  Then on the wall opposite of the wall that the table is against (in the first picture), I want to put in shelves.  I haven't decided on the shelves yet, but need to make a decision soon, so I can get this place completely set up.  I will continue to post pictures of the studio, so you can see the progress.  

A quick weekend trip...

to the 104 temp of Modesto, CA!  Not my first choice of a weekend trip, but we had a wedding reception to go to.  One of Matthews ex-co-workers got married in August in Buffalo, New York.  Her family is from Modesto, so they had a wedding reception out here this past weekend.  It was a nice evening and a pretty early night.  So the next day we decided to hit the Modesto thrift stores!  There were some treasures to be had, here are some of them:

This is a gem, it is a paper craft book for kids, published in 1944.  I love the illustrations inside.  Take a look at the inside cover:

I found a great covered pyrex divided casserole dish.  I am not sure if I am going to keep this one, but is sure is cute:

Then what thrift store trip would be complete without some vintage linens:

A fun set of 4 orange flower print napkins, that I will be selling and a fabulous turquoise/green sheet.

And this unopened orange/gold Vera sheet.  

I also found a ton of vintage patterns that I need to go through and decide which ones I am going to keep and sell the rest.  I have way to many vintage patterns but I can't seem to stop buying them.  So I have decided that I need to weed through the entire collection and sell the ones I don't love or have repeats of.  

We had a wonderful day together.