Freeda Gets a Name and a Friend!

Earlier this month I posted about a doll that I had started when Destree and I had a play date. I finished the doll later, but never got around to naming her. Destree also finished her doll and came over last night so our two dollies could be reunited.


Both dolls were still unnamed until last night when I had a group of ladies over to the studio (more on that soon), and Destree and I asked the ladies to suggest names for our girls. All six of us wrote a suggestion on a scrap of paper for each of the dollies.


My list of suggestions included the following:


After careful consideration, I introduce to you . . . .

Fancy Smancy Nancy Sinatra


And Little Miss Bad Self Freeda!

Take it easy! You may be in for a BIG surprise.

Last Sunday, we met up with Sam of Lil' Gypsy and her sweetie, Stewart, at one of our favorite Salem breakfast dives, er, I mean restaurants, Off Center Cafe. If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you'll know that Sam collects goodies and treasures that she can't use or sell at her fabulous vintage shop, puts them in a bag, and gives me a call or sends me a message, usually something like: I have a bag of crappola for you . . . this time, she said she had the moterlode of crappola. Was she ever right. Here we are at the restaurant waiting for our food while I peek inside my goodie bag.

Later in the week, at my studio, I unpacked and snapped a few photos. Ahhhhh . . . the best Christmas gift ever.






Well, maybe not the best Christmas gift ever, but a mighty fine one, I must admit. Now if I can only figure out what to do with one glove, one baby shoe, and one false eyelash, I'll be on my way!

Stars and Strikes!

My creative life started when I began arting up bowling pins. You can read the whole story and see more about the Alley Art part of my life at my website by clicking here. In the beginning, I decorated a lot of bowling pins. I've done custom orders, sold them at the Salem Saturday Market, did a couple of Arts and Crafts Fairs at Christmastime, and they were even juried into the Silverton Fine Arts Festival. They were on display at Willamette University, at a little restaurant in downtown Salem, and a local boutique sold them for a while. They have even been featured in a couple of our hometown newspapers. As you might guess, there isn't a huge demand for arted up bowling pins and my interests began to shift elsewhere. However, my basement has a huge inventory of completed bowling pins with dozens of different themes.

Well, my dear husband is a bowler (and I must admit, I have my own purple bowling ball and my own spiffy black and white bowling shoes), so when we snuck away a couple of weeks ago to bowl at lunchtime, I asked the guy who owns the pro shop at the bowling alley if he would consider having some of my bowling pins in his shop. Sure, he said. So today, Howard and I once again snuck away for a little noon-time bowling and along with our bowling gear, we took in 21 bowling pins. I'm selling them at the reduced price of $20 each (and Rick, the owner of Stars and Strikes Pro Shop, will get a percentage of each sale). They looked so cute in his shop and several people poked their heads in to check them out! (Oh, and I bowled a 124 and a 145 today!!)





P.S. If you're trying to find a gift for that hard to buy for person, I have lots of bowling pins in stock. The cost is $20 plus shipping and handling. Let me know what theme you want and I'll see what I have!

Goodall the Way Around

It appears the Goodall family is a talented bunch. Back in August while I was in Omaha helping my son, Scott, get settled into his new home, I stumbled upon a law office that was filled with metal sculptures and assemblages that Mark designed and built. To see some of his whimsical creations, just click here for a link to my original post. Since our initial meeting in August, we've kept in touch. When Mark found out we were coming to Omaha to visit Scott, he asked if our dance card had room for us getting together with him for a meal. Of course we did! We decided to meet at his office on Monday. Welllllll, it just so happens that Mark's sister, Teresa Goodall, is a talented and successful jewelry designer and Mark was hosting a trunk show of her jewelry in the basement (where his workshop is located) of his law office. Mark invited us to shop before we went to lunch.

It isn't often that I become verklempt, but when I walked down those wide stairs and entered the basement showroom, I was unable to speak for just a little while (Howard can attest to this).


Teresa's jewelry is beautiful, colorful, whimsical, and just a tad funky. Can you guess why I liked it so much? Mark invited me to select a piece of jewelry as a gift from him . . . and then was gracious enough to listen to me yelp, mew, sigh, and chortle as I went from necklace to necklace (the prices were really good, especially since Teresa sells primarily to little boutiques and stores in Chicago and New York).




We finally went to lunch and I made my final selections when we returned (I did buy a few gifts, too). This is one of my favorites (it is now MINE):


Here is Mark and Howard tallying up my booty (Howard kinda looks like a gangsta figuring out the books).


As we left Mark's office, I snapped a few more photos of Mark's front window. I just couldn't resist.





And since it is the holidays, Mark had a couple of nods to the season:

Recovering a Sense of Faith: The Artist's Way FINAL WEEK

A little over twelve weeks ago, a new Artist's Way Creative Cluster was formed. Based on the model I learned from my Artist's Way mentor, Gretchin Lair of Scarlet Star Studios, I have carried the tradition forward in Salem. I'm not sure how many groups I have facilitated, but over the past several years I have met and nurtured some amazing women. Final groups are always bittersweet, and last Tuesday night's group was no exception. In addition to our usual rituals, we shared a meal of Stone Soup with a loaf of Great Harvest bread.



Because we were making up a group, we met earlier than usual. After we shared our meal, the ladies got to spend some time making masks.


Our final event for the evening was sharing personal projects, what Gretchin has coined an Omega Project.





Thank you ladies, for sharing a bit of yourselves with each other for the past three months.

In case anyone who lives in the area of Salem is interested, I am offering a new class beginning in January, The Artist's Way: Walking in This World. This will be a ten-week class based on the second book in Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way trilogy. The format will be the same as my current Artist's Way series, but the weekly creative projects will be brand new! Let me know if you are interested . . .

Get On With Your Bad Self

A couple of weeks ago, I had a play date with two of my grandkids, my friend Destree, and her two kids. The kids were painting on dolls and Destree and I just couldn't resist joining in. I finally got back to my unfinished doll and wanted to share her with you. I haven't come up with a name yet, so if you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them.

When I got back to finishing up my doll, I was having a play date with another friend, Dawn. Dawn decided she would play with Paper Clay and here she is getting started.


Here is the Life Plaque that Dawn created:


I completed my doll after Dawn had left, but I kept getting tripped up on the doll's nose. I drew a line, erased it, drew a squiggle, erased it. When Destree poked her head into the studio to say hello, I asked her if she would draw the dang nose. A simple line later, and my doll was complete!


I didn't take a photo of my doll's belly (see why I need a name for her?), but stamped on it is: Get On With Your Bad Self, a phrase that Dawn shared with me. So no belly shot, but I couldn't resist this pose, taken during the creation of my NO NAME DOLL!

ras el hanoot

I have the coolest friends! One of them is Gretchin Lair, of Scarlet Star Studios. Gretchin also is the woman who guided me through The Artist's Way several years ago and became my Artist's Way mentor. Recently, Gretchin went on a several week photography adventure to Morocco and brought me back some treasures she scavenged on her trip. Holy Moley! Look what she brought me!