During my not-so-serious quest to clean up the Treehouse during my stay-at-home time I've uncovered a few, I mean a really big collection of, old projects that I never finished. I'm trying not to fret. I know I'm not unlike a lot of other creative folks whose imaginations crank out ideas much faster than their hands can keep up.
Sometimes I think of my craft room as an archeological site.
Here's what made it to the surface over the weekend:
It's my collection of fabric patches that I had planned to use to make a bag (http://www.teeshamoore.com/portfolio/fabric-art/). At some point I ran out of steam. This happened after I realized just how many patches a bag would require. I very quickly came to my senses and stashed the patches in the Treehouse closet---destined to become part of the strata.
Recently I excavated them. I've decided to stitch them together into a wallhanging. I have more patches to add, and more patches in mind to make, so it may forever remain a work-in-progress. A perpetual personal totem as it were.
Another relic from the site is my bag o' scraps.
Some of those have now become a placemat.
I guess you could say I also suffer from chronic hoarditis...
The elves and I went for an outing to the sock store. The three of them chose stripes, as you can see, and now they're anxious to get back up on the ladder. But they'll have to wait until the final accessorizing is complete. They've decided to wait in the pub.
On Saturday Mr. Gadget and I drove to Brooklyn to see Big City Girl. We had decided it might be nice to take her a few things, and we hadn't seen her since Christmas. Parents can always talk to their children on the phone, I mean by text messages--in skimpy little bursts of abbreviations-- but now and then we need to do an eyeball check. Fortunately she passed and all is well. She's been busily working from home and managing quite well during these difficult times. She seemed genuinely excited to receive our hand-me-down rechargeable vacuum.
After we made our delivery we all took a walk to Prospect Park and sat on a bench in front of the lake. From our vantage point there was no evidence that we were in the middle of large besieged city. There were geese and sparrows and red-winged blackbirds flitting all around, and even people on horses taking a leisurely meander. I'm happy BCG has a refuge. She goes often to sit on the grass and read.
We returned to Connecticut in traffic that belied a lockdown, and immediately perched on our deck chairs to recuperate from activity overload. I'm happy to say, though not so much for the elves, that sock season has officially ended.
Maybe he finds them more comfortable than regular elf pants. I'll speak to him about that. He needs to dress more properly.
So, this is the elf at the bottom of the ladder...the one who schleps the goods from the truck. He's sort of pinned together for the photo op and needs more work, but you can get a sense of where I'm going with this art installation.
I had planned on smaller ornaments, but then I decided it might be more whimsical to make them bigger to give the elves more of a challenge. My vision is to have the ladder stand on the floor and lean up against a regular Christmas tree. And...here's how my mind works...nearby would be a little U-Haul truck filled with more ornaments. But I'm not going there.
I'm also working on the other two elves. My curiosity about the finished project has propelled me along and makes me forget all of the housework that needs doing and the many other distasteful chores. Mr. Gadget has been very kind to do the grocery shopping and I have to say he's done a remarkably good job...except for the celery. He goes early on Sunday mornings during senior hours, and worries about waking me up with our noisy garage door. I'm a lucky woman and I'm certainly smart enough to know not to make a fuss about rotten celery.
…..is really unusual, don't you think?
So a week ago Mr. Gadget went down to the basement to his quilting studio, I mean his wood shop. For several days I heard the sounds of the table saw, the music of the shop vac, and smelled the familiar aroma of urethane wafting up the stairs. I didn't dare go down to investigate. I knew I would get the big reveal when the time was right. That was this morning.
Here is his quilted piece, I mean hardwood trivet, displayed next to my quilted iPad cover. You can see that his is much more precise than mine, but I get some credit for using interesting designs. His is made from oak, walnut, maple and cherry, and mine is circles, moons, and a hint of giraffe. It's amazing what a retired couple can produce with a lockdown and a buffer zone.
