I saw this…

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great crocheted throw on the cover of Crafts magazine and thought “Hey that would be great for Maui”….just a little something to put over my legs on a chilly (yah, I know, chilly to me is way different than chilly to mainlanders) morning. So I got out my few scraps of yarn and bits of fibers friends have sent me that I brought from the mainland and set about making my little throw. Ha! Ever try to follow pattern instructions? How hard can it be? HARD! None of my little circles looked anything like the pictures! What language was that written in???? Still determined, I set out making my own circles….
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As you can see, they look nothing like the mag’s…oh well. I like them! I was going for the sea urchin look–well, they sort of look sea urchiny… Have started stitching them together and think it will be pretty cool. Will add a border when I get it to the size I like.
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We’re in Connecticut visiting Keely and Tristan right now so I am going to steal a bit of yarn from K’s stash and make some here too. Found some beautiful yarns at a local farmer’s market that we had to have…that will probably make it’s way into the throw as well.

The wool came from this sheep….
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Much prettier wool than on him now! It’s dyed beautiful shades of blues and greens and another corals and oranges–perfect for my sea circles.

And speaking of Farmer’s Markets in homesteads in rural Connecticut…….You know how some people take their dogs everywhere, walking them around on a lease in most places? Well, here, people walk their goats around!

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I even had a carrot following me around for awhile!

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Does anyone know…

what these are called and if anyone/groups are making them? Found this pic when I was cleaning out files….tucked it away ages ago and can’t remember where I got them or who made them. Thought they’d be fun for a project in one of my art groups–would like to give credit where credit is due! Thanks if you have any info.

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Summer’s just around the corner…

Hi There! Have been on the mainland almost a month now getting some medical treatments for my autoimmune disease and it’s various symptoms. All of which is going VERY well, thank goodness. So well in fact that we won’t have to be staying in Southern California through the summer as planned but will be heading back next month–woohoo! Can’t wait to get back on the paddle boards. Have lots of pics on my picture trail if you’d like to see. My favorites are the ‘Paddling with Whales’ and ‘Paddling with Honus’.

Haven’t posted much in the past few months so guess I’d better get busy! Made this ‘Summer Purse’ for daughter, Keely for her birthday last month. Was very fun to make….got a bit carried away with the goodies! Hope you enjoy looking…..

(click the image for a bigger picture…click again for an even bigger picture…use the back arrow to get back to this page)

Used a pair of little kids jeans for the purse….
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art stuff in the pockets!
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and some farm girl things of course for my farm girl

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lots of Hawaiian touristy junk attached…
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The inside has pockets and lining made from her bedroom curtains from when she was little…. :)
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Happy Charm Day…..tomorrow!

(click on the picture for a larger view, then use the back arrow to return to the page–sorry, even after all this time I still haven’t figured out this sizing thing on this web server!)

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Tatta!

Okay, so I’m a day early….. Back on the mainland for some medical treatments and have to be at UCLA Medical Center at 7:30 tomorrow morning. With L.A. traffic and time changes, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to post my charms first thing in the morning and not sure if I’ll be up to it in the afternoon either and certainly don’t want to miss out on participating so here they are…..

This is my Charm tree…I’ve posted it before when it was in my kitchen in California but this is it in our new place in Maui so it is different!

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and a close up….aren’t the Halloween ones cute? :)
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and more waiting to be added….
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and some necklaces and bracelets
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Yep, I have many, many charms….and they are ALL well loved! It is so exciting when the package arrives with all your swaps–if you haven’t ever joined a charm swap, GO FOR IT!!!

I’m official!

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Thinking you’re not suppose to post government documents online but I am so excited to be an official Kamaina! Or a newbie one anyway since I think a true Kamaina has to be on island for a long time. See that happy (hau’oli) smile on my face? Phil said “Smile–You live in Hawaii” just as the lady in the DMV office (little, two person office in the community building right next to the public pool–too cool!) was snapping the picture.

We are back in Redondo having our things ship, picking up our kitty, follow ups with my numerous doctors, and most importantly, of course, visiting our son Kyle. Back to Maui on Wednesday….with all of our things arriving it will feel more like we are there for good now–not just on an extended (working!) vacation.

Aloha Friends!

And there’s ART too!

Friend Rita is hosting a Viva La Mexico charm swap. I shrunk some Loteria cards and made slide charms for my contribution. Here they are ready to solder. Don’t have a lot of my art supplies here yet but did bring many of my jewelry tools.

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July was the 4th anniversary of our Bad Baby Art group. Lisa, or maybe it was Pam came up with the idea of ‘Row Houses’. I posted my beach houses earlier. These are the ones I received back along with a few more I made. Our little badbaby villages were so fun, we decided to make more this fall.

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Time Out for Snorkeling…..

This always WAS my favorite thing to do on Maui….still right up there but like I said in my last post, it’s been replaced by paddle surfing! We have had 3 great snorkel trips this week with Kyle….

First with the Pacific Whale Foundation to Molokini and off Wailea. They call it Turtle Town, but it seems anywhere along Wailea where they see turtles is Turtle Town!

getting there….

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Getting in….

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This one is for you Ken—Kyle snokeling in front of Tiger Wood’s house!
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Okay, maybe snorkeling IS my favorite thing to do in the world….at least when I can play with the turtles!
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see a turtle up close!
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Aren’t they pretty?
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My new favorite thing to do!

Paddle surfing!! Way too much fun!!

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We’ve finally made the move to Hawaii–Yippee!!! Have been working our butts off remodeling (yet again! can’t seem to stop) our condo since we’ve been here but son, Kyle came for a visit and we promised ourselves we wouldn’t do ANY work while he was here. We almost made it….he leaves tonight and we have some things being delivered and installed today. We just have to clear the room for them but don’t have to be doing the work anyway. But we’ve had 10 days to do FUN things and enjoy why we moved to Maui! Like Paddle Surfing!!! This is sooooooo much fun.
If you’d like to learn more about paddle surfing, check out my friend Pete’s blog–scroll down towards the bottom for one then keep going down for another….

Have some great shots of snorkeling to post too….but now my morning coffee on the beach is calling. So easy to get distracted here!

Aloha!

Fun at Zinnia’s…

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This is a picture of Chris M and I at Zinnia’s in Pasadena, CA. What a fun store–Great people and lots of goodies to use in your art and best of all fabulous classes to learn and have fun in. Here we were taking a class with Paul–embellished canvases. Had a fun class making polyclay beads with Joe the week before. You know how you always have something in the background you really want to do but never get around to it? Well, that’s how it was with Zinnia’s. I have been hearing wonderful things about the place for years and it looked like something I’d really enjoy but I just never got around to going there since it’s about an hour away from where I was in Redondo Beach–not that far by LA standards but not just around the corner either. Well, I’ve been trading art with Chris M for over a year now and she just lives on the other side of LA from me and we’ve been meaning to get together in person but have just never gotten around to it. When moving time starting coming closer I thought, ‘This is ridiculous, I HAVE to meet Chris in person before I leave town’ so I asked her if she would like to join me for a class at Zinnia’s….so for the next 4 Saturdays, we spent our days in Zinnia’s pasting and painting and just generally making a mess and having great fun! Why did we wait so long? I’ll never know! We certainly had Tamara, the owner hopping when we were registering for classes….we could never seem to get ahold of each other so we kept calling Tamara reserving spots for each other. Think she expected 12 C(h)rises to show up that first Saturday! When we met it was like we had known each other forever….she did ask us how long we have been friends and was surprised when we said ‘Oh, this is the first time we’ve met!’ So, whenever I’m back in town it’s back to Zinnia’s–have to get that tin class in with Paul sometime!

This is my canvas I made using an image of my daughter Keely in honor of her mini farm…Dancing Frog Farm (if I can figure out how to make a link here I will–or if you can’t wait until I can figure it out you can go to dancingfrogfarm.com)

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Goodbye LA!

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Well, the day has finally come….Phil retired and we’re off to Hawaii!!! Thought the day was never going to get here. We threw ourselves a Farewell Aloha Party and invited lots of friends new and old. Some of Phil’s elementary school buddies and high school rock band (The Lonely Kiss Ass Band) were on hand for the festivities along with some of my BadBaby art pals. Here I am with Cathie and Zanna. Had a great time–hope everyone else did too. Don’t feel sad about leaving good friends behind–I know you will all come visit me on Maui. The door is always open