Whoa! Thanksgiving is This Week!

Howdy Faithful Readers!

I have been gratefully working on some new crepe "forced bulb" creations and plugging away at the annual Pre Tree Cleaning Spree. I made applesauce from great local apples, finished a couple of orders for the Iron Dog and

I find myself  still in denial about the the rapidly winding down Fall!

I'm going to do a little catch up on my gratitude list:

4: Yummy fall produce. Winter Squash and greens, apples, beets, leeks, potatoes, clementines... I just love them all.
5: Hiking the steep muddy trail with my dog and friend. This makes the pie possible and just last week we even helped a lost, shirtless, shoeless guy (8 AM, in the 40's temp wise) find a friendly ranger. Good deed before breakfast.
6: Good Thrift. Oh My Goodness! 2 great lengths of vintage holiday print  for  $3.50.
7: Bleach. I know it's evil. But it saved the awesome fabric mentioned above.

 

8: Creative time. I am so lucky to get as much as I do.

9: My Pets. I spend time every morning in a big pile of my fur friends, enjoying my first cup of coffee.

10: Coffee. Can you be grateful and addicted at the same time? I say YES!

11: All my sisters. Blood and otherwise. You know who you are and without you I'd be lost. LOST!

12:  Casey and Rae at the Iron Dog. Seriously, with out you, my creativity would lack an outlet! Thanks for your support and encouragement.

 13: I am grateful for the motivation of a deadline. I hope it makes me into a wildly productive and jolly person for the next few weeks. I have lots of fun tucked in and am excited to be spending Thanksgiving with my wonderful Grandma and Baby Linnea (and the rest of my family too!)

A little "No Thanks" for my dead computer, but hey.. with a little miracle I'll get what I need off of the hard drive and keep moving forward.

Thanks for Reading!!

Betty

Don't Worry, It's Not Serious.

Lately I have been playing with paper, getting ready for spring.

I really like the optimistic cutesy cuteness of these kinds of exuberant novelties.

Perhaps it's shows my deep seated silliness,

but, I assert to you now:

Frivolity Rocks!

Tis' The Season

 

Well, here's what has been haunting the studio lately.

All sorts of happy faces getting ready to celebrate the Mexican Day of The Dead.

Dia De Los Muertos.

 

Some calavera charms ... 

The charms are hoping to get into the Etsy shop today.

Do you think they stand a chance?

Look how optimistic they are.

 

And finally,

WIP picture of the alter I made for the show 

at the MichaelAngelo gallery on November 5th.

Anyone in the area should come by. 

The Reception starts at 6:00 

and the show is going to be great.

I got a peek at some of the other pieces that will be in the show

and I was in awe.

The thing I love about the idea behind Dia De Los Muertos

is that our loved ones never leave us.

They are still ours, to love, to visit, and bring gifts to once a year.

The Wonders And Woes of Ambition

" Do you ever get up in the morning, feed your family,
drive the youngsters to school and then come home,
look at your cluttered kitchen and untidy bedrooms and think
"Well, I really ought to clean the house top to bottom but I just
Haven't the ambition."

The ambition you are referring to is the worthy kind,
the one shorn of it's destructiveness. It's altogether desirable.
Without it we would be living in a world of dirty homes and discomfort.

But have you ever known someone who had her heart set on becoming
president of  a club, member of a sorority, writer of a bestseller,
or social leader of her community? Or perhaps, a popular craft blogger?
This is the other kind of Ambition, The harmful kind."

Everywoman's Magazine August 1954


( Okay I totally added the craft blogger thing myself.. but it just Fit So Well.)

I wondered!
I have the wrong kind of Ambition!
I blame the internet. Oh, the cursed wonderful Internet!

But look where my Harmful Ambition has taken me now:

Welcome to Bitter Betty's Dilettante Atelier

Harmful ambition, my sweet patootie! 

My living room is clean. 

My craft junk looks way more delectable in the light of day,  

I've already got a piece of art in the show
at the gallery downstairs  from the studio

and this week I found out one of my dresses will be in an

Honest To God Fashion Show  in September. 

Was it hard to pony up the rent at first? Yes. It was scary. 

I didn't feel like my efforts deserved it. 

I had a hard time justifying it. It felt selfish. But now? 

It feels perfect.

My home is better, my work is better, 

I'm part of a community of creative people

and Ican't wait to see what will happen next. 

Every day something new seems to happen and

my creative life feels like it just finally came out of it's cave.

I'm still struggling with the "clean the whole house" ambition, 

but at least I don't have to shuffle all the craft junk into a corner to do it anymore.