My project for the Thanksgiving Day weekend was to finish this purse. Well, I fell short. This is not completed but almost.......
My garden is giving me the last promise of 2009. The last flowers are losing petals. I will miss the colors and happiness but I know that it will come again. Isn't that wonderful that we always have next Spring?
This is a new photo of my latest purse. I need to take lessons is photography. I can't seem to find the right light in my house.
This is my attempt at frivolous and fun. The long wallet fits very easily inside, as well as the cell phone and there is the pocket for keys and lipstick. It did not take to much time, once I had all the parts together. The outside is a very new design and it is cotton and rayon. The inside is dark brown Chamois. I do like the feel of leather.
Somehow throwing my iron in the refuse bin does not seem like the proper thing to do to an old friend. I purchase this iron the first week of moving to Los Angeles. I went to the May Co. and bought it. I had brought my sewing machine but a seamstress needs an iron! That year was 1967. When I say it like that, it makes life zoom by. But this iron has been a trusted friend for 42 years. My goodness! But it always worked. The steam always came out and I never had even a thought of getting a new one. "When it ain't broke, don't fix it" is sort of my motto.
This little guy is a little faded. I have had him on my desk for about five years. I had him clipped to a note holder. I just liked to look at him. A few weeks ago I brought him up to the house to use on "Light Hearted Tuesday" but not until St Patrick's Day. But........
This is the "Reticule" that I just finished. It feels good to get that out of my system and get back to normal purses. This "Reticule" has three different types of lace. I dyed the lace and now the colors all have a relationship to each other. It is lined with orange Taffeta. Like all "Reticules", it has a pull closer. One side of the "Reticule" I have adorned with Biwako (FreshWater) Pearls and the other side is adorned with Coral. I think that I have kept the feeling of "Reticules". And the funny part about it is that it does not feel new but decades old.
I made this purse about two years ago but was never happy with it. You know how sometimes you work on something and put all of your concentration on it, thinking that this is the path? Well, that is what I had did with this purse. I liked the grey and the counter point of the red underneath. But as a usable purse, it just didn't make me happy.
This about the size of the worm that invaded my computer yesterday. Not very big but VERY invasive. I received an email from someone that I had "red flags" about, but since I wanted to have good relations with, I went ahead and opened the email.
Guess what? When you get "red flags", they usually are correct. This little worm took over my computer. I completely lost control. I couldn't open the Internet, I couldn't open my word processor, and I couldn't even play a solitaire game.
Fortunately, I have Norton Symantec. I called and for a "certain" amount of money, they remotely cleaned cleaned off all the porn sites that were placed on my computer, took out all the "cookies" and supposedly made it run faster.
I am now up and running and maybe a little wiser!
I received this postcard from a customer that had bought a sound system from me. She is a singing teacher that had over used her voice and needed relief. We were able to help her and she sent this card to me as thanks.
I kept the card because of the sentiment that she expressed but also because of the drawing on this side.
I had admired this Marble topped Walnut dresser many years ago. The friend that owned the dresser was getting rid of it. Naturally I said " Oh, why don't I take it?" 
I have two works in progress. What was I thinking? I truly don't know. I just got so excited by the "Ribbon" purse that I started it and then came across a problem with the loose weave of the ribbon that I have to make a few changes. And while I was doing the changes, I decided that I needed a distraction. So I began something that I have wanted to do since I read my first Jane Austen novel at fourteen. I wanted to make a "Reticule". The dictionary definition is a lady's draw string bag. Somehow Jane Austen drew a picture of it for me with words. But I have never made one. This one is three different weaves of lace and the body is going to be taffeta. I dyed the lace and the "drawstring" so that they would all harmonize with each other. I wanted three different shades of orange. There is a lot of hand work to this but that seems natural, considering the era that I am trying to emulate. 
Years ago, when I was taking care of my father, working in the shop and shouldering life's problems, I felt overburdened. I probably was a burden to my sister, being so downhearted. Then one Saturday morning, I had gone to the local farmer's market to by strawberries. Strawberries were a favorite of my father's. I was in the kitchen rinsing and coring the strawberries. And out of the blue a very small Butterfly flew out of the basket. It was a blue Butterfly. It flew around the kitchen. As it flew, it gave me great hope that life would once again become free and happy. it showed me that I needed only to change how I looked at life to have life look better. The story of the Butterfly was so important to me that I could not delay in telling my sister about it. My sister commemorated this event in my life with this wonderful book mark.
I was reading mendofleur and I was getting very inspired to get in and organize, clean and (if necessary) discard in my studio. Then I received that huge, heavy box from my darling niece. Needless to say, I got off track and sat on the floor and played with the fabric. I do have a problem when I see wonderful fabric. I fall into imagining what I can do with this piece and that piece would be wonderful for this purpose. And I got very distracted. My studio is still in a mess because I have to finish my next project. And did I mention that I have a few more on the line?
