Declutterella

The sewing table is at least visible.















The guest room is ready, the dogs have given up worrying,
the fridge is clean and full, and the chocolate chip cookies are cooling.

Furballs

Cressy : "Frodo, I'm scared! She's....she's CLEANING! What does it mean?"
Frodo : "Huh?" 

And did I mention?

...that my million dollar views are from a property worth around 53,000 British pounds (or 100,000 US dollars)??

Wanna emigrate?

A beautiful day....

...the sort that lifts your spirits. How lucky am I to have been born in a place with scenery like this? 

Inspired, and I can make a picture of it too

Thank you all (or y'all for American readers) for your helpful comments. The sun is shining, spring is on its way, and I'm feeling quite inspired to rip into my clutter. Though I think Deb R hit the nail on the head - other people's clutter is always SO much more fun than your own. Damn.

Here's a little gem I discovered - knitPro is a web application that translates digital images into knit, crochet, needlepoint and cross-stitch patterns. Just upload jpeg, gif or png images of whatever you wish -- portraits, landscapes, logos... and it will generate the image pattern on a grid sizable for any fiber project.

How cool is that?

And in case you haven't seen enough photos of my view, here's the harbour with my neighbour's house in the foreground.

Clutterella and the four furballs of the Apocalypse

One of the blogs I read daily is Crazy Aunt Purl. She is soooooo funny and adorable, and I've stolen her blog title because I think it's so good. In fact, most of her blog entry today so applies to me that I've shamelessly pinched the whole idea. Damn! Why don't I come up with these great ideas? Maybe because I blog more about art than personal stuff, cos that's what I think my readers are interested in.

Annnnnnnyway, here's my take on clutter and cleaning - an issue that I know is dear to many an artist's heart:

Dear People Who Clean House A Lot,
Want to come over? And clean house in a new, exciting place that has interesting, exotic wildlife and many nooks and crannies?
I have wine.
Your friend, Shirley

What has happened to my house? I blame my fallen housekeeping standards on my prolonged stay of houseboundness, when everything I did and used had to be close at hand for me to reach them while I was being a flamingo and using one leg only. Maybe I could blame my mother as well, because that is always convenient! And my ex-husband, who never raised a finger around the house. So we have all the bases of blame fully covered.

My house is a mess.

Every day I blame this mess on the aforementioned issues but really it might also kind of have to do with the fact that I live in a teeny tiny cottage with a whole lot of stuff and 2 cats and 2 dogs who don't lift a finger to help me out.

A few months after I moved into Chez Clutterella, I began the long and arduous process of Sorting Out my stuff. Well, it was a necessity, really, since you couldn't move in the stockroom what with boxes stacked floor-to-ceiling and I couldn't find anything, and I worried that if anyone came to stay in my B&B guestroom that they would take one look at the living room and back out the front door with a look of desperation on their faces.

In the 10 months since I have lived in this little cottage, which is over 100 years old, and from an era when people had Nothing Much by way of consumer goods so didn't need double closets in every room to stack stuff in, plus a huge linen cupboard plus extra storage units in the bathroom, I have managed to find places to put most of my stuff. Which I had already pared down before moving here. I sent half my linen cupboard to Sri Lanka for tsunami victims. I ruthlessly disposed of clothes that I now want. And I still don't know where some things are because I just haven't found them. But although my 55 boxes of paints, dyes and other business stock have reduced, the fabric seems to have been breeding in its boxes, and I have half-finished artwork everywhere. No, really, I do. I wish I could stand still for a while without junk nibbling at my ankles.

Now my daughter Sophie and boyfriend Erlo are coming to stay again. This means I have had to look closely at my house for the first time in months. I am really busy with work and have no time to clean house plus I have had a bad cold and felt rotten for the past week, so I'm stressing myself out about the level of ick and dust and mess. Sophie is much fussier than I am. In all respects.
She also doesn't make stuff or have pets, though she's grown up with them. And is allergic. I need goals! Goals keep you moving ever forward, zenward, clutterlessward!

This Friday and Saturday I need to have an anticlutter session, to toss the huge pile of Stuff To File somewhere that isn't on the floor; to put away some of the books on the coffee table - because we often eat off it, y'know, the big table being for working on, not eating; and pretending that I don't have 237 unfinished pieces of quilting and painted fabric on the OTHER table where the sewing machines (plural) are. Ok, maybe I haven't counted them, but it LOOKS like 237.

And if you want to come over and clean, hey -- I wouldn't turn you away. Cabernet with your clutter? I can provide. Feel free to dust the exotic livestock, to paint the lawn and do anything else required.

Out of the woodwork

Awwwww, thank you all for commenting. Deb R, I guess you're right - I read your blog every day but don't always comment. I guess my comments as a proportion of blog visit numbers make me "average" then! Janet, I only look at my stats cos I can see these red spots on the Clustr map, and they intrigue me. I still don't know who all those exotic visits are from, as these people haven't revealed themselves.

And I agree with you, Pixie, about how good blogging is. Living alone, as I do, and in a town where I hardly know anyone, I have relied on my blog friends for social contact. Not that people are unfriendly here, but with 3 months of being housebound, my plans of joining clubs and groups at the beginning of the year didn't happen. I would have gone crazy alone all day (apart from the critters, but they're not great conversationists) if I hadn't been able to "talk" to others on the net.

Viva la blog!

Leaving Comments

According to my Clustrmap (down on the right-hand side, shows where the people visting my blog originate from) I have had 5460 hits since June, and yesterday there were 55 visits.

SO WHERE ARE ALL THE COMMENTS?

Please, please leave a comment when you visit my blog. OK, if you hate what I've made or find it uninteresting, that's fine, skip the comments! But if you like what I do, please say so; if I'm not reading your blog and you'd like me to cos we have things in common, let me know! Comments are the lifeblood of blogging, and what makes our bloglives so interesting. I love to hear from people in other parts of the world. New Zealand is a loooong way from everywhere else.

I am dying to know WHO is visiting my blog from Africa, from Asia, from India, from the Middle East, from South America, from the middle of the Pacific Ocean! Who are you all? Tell me!

A Turquoise Mood

Unfortunately, it's still too cold here for turquoise to come out well, and my outdoors dyeing technique doesn't help to retain depth of colour. I will have to work on refining it, as the fabric lengths I dyed today are waaaaaaay too pale. The other pieces are painted. If you go here to Vernon's blog and scroll down a bit, you'll see the digital image I was trying to interpret in paint. Vernon has Parkinson's Disease, and while this limits his life, he produces art work and expecially wonderful digital images, full of beautiful colours, that I've often wanted to reproduce in fabric. It's hard though! 

Books

I am an avid reader, and get through2 to 3 books a week. Why? Because I love them. Books have the ability to transport us to other places and times. Now, i don't usually do memes, but I saw this Book Meme one on Pixie's blog, and it came to her from Ampersand Duck (Love the name!).

1. One book that you've read more than once.

The Hobbit. I love Tolkien's work.

2. One book you would want on a desert island.

Hmm. Only one? Encyclopedia Brittanica. that's probably about 20 volumes! Good for starting fires with after you've read it. Err....and probably some other uses too.

3. One book that made you laugh.

Anything by Terry Pratchett.

4. One book that made you cry.

Desert Flower/Desert Dawn by Waris Dirie. Female genital mutilation does that to me every time.

5. One book you wish you had written.

I have to say "Harry Potter" here.

6. One book you wish had never been written.

I found Nevil Shute's "On the Beach" really shocking. I couldn't even finish it.

7. One book you're currently reading.

The Penguin History of New Zealand by Michael King, who was tragically killed in a car accident a year or 2 ago. Far more interesting than I would have ever thought.

8. One book you've been meaning to read.

Can't think of one.

9. One book that changed your life.

Selfhelp for your nerves - I can't remember the author, but I was close to having a nervous breakdown while away from home in hospital with my terminally ill daughter, and this book helped me step back from the brink.

10. Now YOU do a book meme!

Take me to Kansas

My new red boots. Eat your heart out, Deb R. 

More toilet art

Still a work in progress.... 

Toilet art

No, I'm not referring to the crude drawings you are likely to encounter in less than savoury public toilets. Those of you familiar with the wonderful lively art and architecture of Frederick Hundertwasser may not be aware that he is also famous in New Zealand for a slightly different reason, namely this. Yes, these are possibly the best and most artistic toilets in the world. And while I'm not in the same league as Hundertwasser, I too am indulging in toilet art.

When I bought my little stone cottage, the main rooms had been nicely painted. The bathroom and toilet, however, had not. And they were quite rough. A friend urged me to be arty, so I started painting flowers and suchlike on the toilet walls, but rapidly realised that this was not my forte, so I stopped. Recently, I was in a hardware store (I'm a hardware kinda gal) and saw test pots of paints at 2 for the price of 1. I bought a bunch, and today I started. Here's an initial peek - bearing in mind that this is only a part of it, and is just one coat. The designs continue on the other wall and across the back of the door, but are too difficult to photograph.

If I really don't like the end result, I'll just paint over it some more.

Full moon

The full moon over the harbour tonight. 

Random schizzle

Mending jeans, reading and gardening don't make for exciting blog topics, so photos is all I have. Here's Grizabella, one of my Manx cats, looking like a fearsome critter with her big winter ruff. The necklace of amethysts and other purple stuff was made for me by the lovely Hattie, my son's girlfriend. 

Once upon a Laurel Burch time

I know Laurel Burch designs have been done to death, but back when they were fresh and new, I made this quilt as my coffee table cover. It's a bit more purple than the photo suggests, and I made it to match my lounge suit. No prizes for guessing my favourite colour! 

Snow dogs

Hmmmmm, clearly bloggers are into obsession but not passion! Interesting........

In the absence of creative work, here are the poodles in their big winter coats - Cressy lounging on the settee (yes, they ARE allowed) and Frodo actually managing to sit on command. He is not very bright. Behind Frodey, you can see the Persian rug that my husband and I hand-hooked many many moons ago. When he was still my husband. It's 6' by 4' so you can imagine how long it took. 

It's all about passion

Bloggers - don't you love 'em? Bloggers like us, I mean. Thanks to all of you who've replied to my last post - though I think I should have said "passion" rather than "obsession". I like passion. I like people who have strong feelings about things, and are enthusiastic about what appeals to them. Passion implies that these feelings are positive and healthy, whereas obsession has moved into the realms of unhealthy.

Can you understand people whose lives involve nothing more than going to work, coming home and watching TV? Or similar? No hobbies, no interests, no passion.

As artists, we are infused with passion. We probably even have passion genes. Ok, at times our flow of passion runs thin and then we struggle to create anything. But it's still there. Viva la passion!

Today's little creation

No, I'm not becoming a megalomaniac, and of course I didn't create the sunrise. It's just that, well, I haven't exactly created anything to share with you. I'm knitting my son a pair of pirate socks (with a skull and crossbones on them) but this is a bit slow as I've never actually completed a pair of socks, and these are knit from the toes up so it's all new to me. Plus I'm just knitting in one colour down at the toes, and as a dyer, I don't find that exciting.

And then I digressed to start knitting a jersey for orphans in the Ukraine, because I saw that a local group was doing this, and hell, they need it more than I do. And at the same time, I read "The Orchid Thief" by Susan Orlean - I saw the movie of this some years ago but it was really altered around and didn't enjoy it - and got incredibly excited by orchids again. Again??? Yes.

You may not know this, dear readers, but I was a commercial orchid grower in a former life, around (gulp) 20 years ago. Of course I was married then, to some bloke who's related to my children. I walked away from the orchid business when I left him, and took nothing from it, but over the years I've acquired a few (around 20 or so) plants. Obviously my orchid passion was just simmering under the skin. Do I really need another obsession? Especially an expensive one? Of course not. But that's the nature of obsessions. They're not logical, they're not reasonable and they're not really controllable either.

Do any of you have obsessions apart from fiber? 

Soft focus

Ahhhhh, ain't digital camera technology wonderful? Here's a self-portrait in soft focus. Now if I could only work out a way to digitally enhance my entire body, then apply it................ 

Miscellany

Here are the 2 chemo caps that I've knitted this week for my friend Sue, who is undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer. First, I had to dye the wool (you didn't think I'd use ordinary commercial wool, did you?) and let it dry, which took a day or so. I've used baby wool so they'll be soft and comfortable. I may get back to the 3 garments I'm knitting for myself now.

I guess those of you who have been reading my blog for my quilting art will be disappointed by its recent absence. Truth is, I'm not sure what direction my art is taking. It seems to be wool and fibers that are exciting me at present, and I haven't worked out how to combine these with what I've done before. I've just bought a small loom and I'm keen to see what I can produce on that once I've mantled it (it came dismantled, so I must be able to mantle it). Felting also looks like an exciting possibility. And of course, I am in a dichotomy at present with my other job in mortgages and insurances, which is about as different from art and creativity as you could get. Nothing like using both sides of your brain, but not that easy to do well.

I had this tiny poem appear to me during the night, so I've turned it into a haiku. It's about memories:

A moment in time,
Dipped in sunlight, preserved now
In my memory. 

Dyers Webring and Dyeing2Design - technical hitch

I have just hooked up my old computer to the net to download some software, and found to my horror that 343 emails arrived in my mailbox. These appear to be linked to my dyeing2design email addresses, and clearly, I have made some sort of stuff-up when moving one of these (or possibly both) over to the new machine. Quel horreur! I shall attempt to remedy the problem.

So apologies to the people who have requested to join the Dyers' Webring (you have now all been contacted separately) and any other blogger who has emailed me in the past 2 months and received no reply. I shall now wade through the offers of rock hard erections, guaranteed money- making schemes, international lotteries that I've won and all the other dross to see if there are other messages I should attend to.

Elfen

I showed my son this photo of me in my earflap hat that I knitted yesterday, and he said I looked like an elf. It's made from the apple-green wool I dyed for his girlfriend's jacket (now completed - yippee!) and some other multi-coloured hand-dyed wool.

Ok, so it's mainly teens and twenties who wear these hats, but why should they have all the fun? I may be old enough to be a grandmother, but I'm not ready for a twinset and pearls yet. Actually, I probably never will be. I'm growing my hair long because when I'm old, I intend to be an eccentric old bat, and I need long hair to complete the image. Grow old disgracefully, I say! 

Location, location

Real estate agents tell us that location is the most important part of where you live. For an artist, it's important to have surroundings that you love and things around you that inspire you.

This is my bedroom. Seven, my Manx cat is asleep in the sun on the fake fur. This stops REAL fur from getting all over my pillow. Hanging up is a beaded macrame belt and an old fan.

On the other side of the bed, you can see my rimu (native black pine) dresser with some of my old crocheted gloves draped over the little mirror. My collection of antique Chinese jade pendants hang on the wall.

Another macrame beaded belt hangs by the big rimu mirror, draped with my silk scarves. My black rabbit fur scarf lies below that, and there are 2 possum skins on the rocking chair by the bookcase (also rimu). My bedroom is a lovely sunny room full of my treasures.

Here's the little corner of my living room where once the entrance was. There is a tiny leadlight window above the Scotch chest. That's my Beach Babe doll that I made sitting up there.

This is also a lovely sunny spot, and here's the early morning sun coming through above the settee.



















The last photo is my old china cabinet in another part of the living room. You can see some of my antique teapot collection in it, and my "Monet's Hexagons" quilt above. I love plants, and have them in most rooms.

Midwinter Blues (and greens and yellows and reds)

This is a collage (thanks, Picasa 2) of my fabric which I'm posting as I am completely uncreative at present (apart from knitting). I was offered a job (a REAL job, that is) which I started this week, so earning a living will be featuring rather highly in my life over the winter. I spend mornings from 8 till 12 at the office (may as well use their power and heating) and then go home (all of several minutes' drive away) to work on my business. It's working out well - the job is in financial services, which I've done for nearly 12 years now, and because it's commission-based, I can work as little or as much as I choose. I love the freedom of that, and it suits me down to the ground. After 8 months of working at home (or not working for some of it), it's taken a few days to get into the rhythm of dressing for work but I've got a routine worked out now.