A Taste of the January 2010 TNNA show!

OMG...Turkey Dressing...oh YUM

When did you last have something wonderful to eat....when did we start to accept that stove top stuffing was just as good as when you stuff the bird yourself.....I guess you forget what stuffing was suppose to taste like.....so good that my husband and I made a meal of it....usually my husband eats some stuffing leaving much of it on his plate when I serve stove top stuffing.....ok...to stuff the bird is messy and time consuming as supposed to just adding the mix to boiling water....now if you haven't stuffed a turkey , Cornish hen or chicken in awhile...then please do...you will just go crazy over the results if you are a fan of stuffing.....what a surprise and such a treat....what a hoot that something so simple , was soooooooooo much fun and satisfying....

long since I have lost interest in cooking...like most women, what started out as an adventure , has long ago become mundane and just a chore.....maybe too many short cuts...do you think....???

well , I am sure we will always stuff the bird here in Squiggeeland from now on....All I can say is oh yum...........!!!!!!!!!...and we will be ready this Christmas...stuffing the bird !

Thought the canvas I designed years ago was so on the mark for this blog entry....lol

Count Down to Turkey Day.... aka Big Bird Day !

OK....we have the bird defrosting in the frig...a free bird from the local market, because we had enough bonus points , based on the amount of groceries we have bought the last two months....we actually redeemed our bird, instead of losing our receipt and or forgetting to do so....
since we are on a roll...we thought we would throw caution to the wind and actually stuff the bird, instead of stove top stuffing...a walk on the wild side...how said is that...a true measure that you are aging.....we figured that we grew up eating stuffing out of the left over bird that was in the frig...until we got the last morsel of stuffing and the carcass was only good for my mother's terrible turkey soup....this is where I draw the line...I hate turkey soup....mind you, I am not a big soup person..won ton soup or chicken and rice is my speed...and broth is my favorite....my mother's turkey soup was loaded with peas, celery, onion and potatoes.....thick with stuff...not my thing...my measure of a good soup , you can see the bottom of the bowl... if you filled a swimming pool with the soup, and drove a car into the pool...if you can't see the car , then the soup is not for me...
anyway....we are living dangerously with the stuffing....green beans, cranberry sauce and gravy round off the meal....we are getting old and this seems like an enormous meal to us...they dogs will keep guard all day tomorrow while the bird is cooking...they can literally east their weight in Turkey...the Boston does however have Turkey..Fa..rts..but that just makes it seem more festive in dog terms....
we had unexpected guests drop in this morning , when we were making our final grocery store list...I was in my kimono, and my husband was in his sweat pants getting ready to take a shower...he did manage to put on his jacket and slippers , and see who was driving up the driveway....the house was is in disarray.....very lived in looking....but when people you love and haven't seen in awhile arrive, it really doesn't matter....the girls are getting so big...Whitney will be in high school next year with her sister Sydney not far behind...I have let my hair go silver, and my friend Marcelle is graying also...we laughed and had such a great visit, that you wonder why you let time go by when clearly you enjoy seeing them...it was a very special treat......and I am sure it made for laughs on their ride to Ohio for a family Thanksgiving...they also brought us wonderful treats...real bagels and croissants from the city...they don't have anything like out here..frozen ...please...hockey pucks....
we will have tea today , me a bagel and Ken a croissant( not a crescent roll that they have out here... wienie and in a tube)....so all in all our holiday is off to a great start...I love the unexpected...Happy Thanksgiving to all from us here in Squiggeeland...
fyi....these are the only Thanksgiving needlepoint designs I have....

Baby Booties

I just heard from a friend that she had received the custom order I painted...a pair of baby booties in needlepoint.....somehow this must have slipped by my radar....needlepoint baby booties....this actually makes sense to me, because they are strictly for show and to keep the little babies feet warm...but since no walking is involved then then the finisher can keep the cost down..( no leather work required)..frankly needlepoint shoes are the most uncomfortable shoes going....like wearing bullet proof vests on your feet...very little give and the finishing is so expensive ...to me, why bother....no matter how pretty the shoe, if it is not comfortable then it is a no go......but these little booties would make such a personal sweet gift...my friend sent me the pattern...the big plus ...after the baby has made a splash and is on to other things and walking..these little booties make a great treasure to be passed on to another child in the family , like my families old lace Christening dress.....I will see if I can convince my Friend to send a picture of the finished booties....

Miss Squiggee-Buns Hendrix..her b-day

Today our little Squiggee is 9 years old....

it is hard to remember what life was like without dogs...our first Woof Woof, was a mix of Irish Terrier and Poodle....we had only been married three years and were living in a garden apartment..... it was a big deal to get permission from the landlady, Silva Goucher, to have a pet. We had to fill out papers and , we were charged an extra fee of 10.00 a month for the dog and also a pet deposit of 100.00, in case the dog ate the apartment. We didn't have much money, but this was important to me. I had started my freelance design company Festival Designs and was home working , so I could train a puppy.

We lived in a small town outside of Frederick Maryland, and I had formed a real attachment for a dog named Dagney, that lived in apartments. Dagney was a poodle mix and home all day alone. I ended up having Dagney with me all day, for company. We would walk all around the small town and became fast friends. It was my first relationship with a dog, and I decided that I would never be without a dog. I was hooked on dogs.

When Dagney's parents moved , I was upset, I missed our walks and the company. Painting all day without the company of my dog friend was terrible.

This is how we came to have our first dog. Our house will never be without a dog/child....and we enjoy having two..the most we have ever had at one time is three. Jake was a stray that had been dumped at the next farm with his litter and was the only puppy that was not found a home. When we moved to PA, Woofie was getting on in years and adopted Jake. Jake was left tied to a tree in the farmer's yard with a little dog house and a plastic bowl for food...he was so dirty, but so sweet...Woofie would visit him daily and eventually we adopted Jake as our own .... washed , Jake looked like a new dog and within one day Woofie had house trained him...When Woofie died , it was Jake that eased our pain, just by being with us. When you lose a dog , the whole dynamics of the house change. Since this time we have made a point of adding a puppy to the mix when we lose a dog. It helps the whole family......you are so busy couping with all that a puppy does..poo, pee, and general destruction, that it makes you not just zero in on how sad you are that you have lost your trusted friend..it seems to make it easier....so that is how Squiggee came to us.... our little Fox terrier Pookie, had been run over after she escaped and ran out into the road, Jake was getting so old and Bubbles, a young dog (Springer Spaniel Mix w/lab) was missing Pookie so much....

Squiggee is the most stubborn of dogs, smart and with an agenda of her own.....it is a funny house now...Bubbles will be 13 in March and my husband, Bubbles, myself and Squiggee are all getting so gray...it is too funny...Woofie, was a strawberry colored dog and was just two months shy of his 14th birthday when he died, but he never showed any gray...Pookie died young, just two, and Jake was such a mixture of Beagle, Blue tick and who knows how many breeds that his gray was always part of his coat, so when he died and was just 13, his gray just mixed in.....but now we are really seeing the gray on our two pooches.... we are like a poster add for AARP+ the pooch version...

Squiggee will have roast beef tonight and a birthday cake...the same cake that all our dogs have always had...Pepperidge Farm white cake with /coconut icing...it is tradition....and a quick version of Happy Birthday to you !.....it is a special treat ...and no ....we don't serve the dogs cake daily...they are dogs........FYI..we also love coconut!!..surprise ..surprise...

FYI...our landlady Silva, always sends a Christmas card and loves receiving our annual Doggy Christmas card....

Mr. Squiggee plugged In !!!

Things have been so busy around here for the last six months...that I have forgotten to mention that ...Mr. Squiggee, my husband has started his own blog.....I set it up for him because , for some reason , of the two, I have become the web-master...lol...that is just too funny for words....
I did set-up my own web page and my blog...but it took forever...it was just trial and error, along with some really creative swearing...like a sailor...
My husband has become an important part of the Squiggee/GCH design team....without his help these last months, I would have never gotten a hot meal, clean clothes and errands run ..forget it...
he checks my messages and does whatever I ask to make my day smoother..he is now my personal assistant/manger... he is doing a great job..... it has become a joke that I fire him daily sometimes , as much as three times in one day...I pay him nothing right now, and he is worth every penny...lol...just kidding...
he is an amazing master cabinet maker and when his cabinet shop was bought last year, the new owner decided he would take the shop in a different direction.... woodworking was to be phased out...my husband was moth balled ...aka phased out ..let go...whatever...shit canned if you want the earthier term!!! Ken has done work on many historical buildings in DC, the capital to name one, and many in New York....talent like his is becoming a lost art.....for the first time in our 31 years of marriage , he was out of a job and none to be had..he just turned 61 this summer......so we decided that he join forces with my business and we would become a team....it is not what we planned, a forced retirement.... although he has always been supportive of my design company...never did we think he would become part of it....
and has he !!!!...he talks to shop owners ,takes custom orders , answers questions by the car load.... checks and answers all my emails, and makes me answer the ones I need to ....without his talent, I would not be able to push the boat out a little with the Squiggee models....he is always up for any project that I need help.....Ken ..(or as people in my business have started to refer to him..Mr. Squiggee!!! )has bar-b-qued in his time, but cooking was strictly my area...he took over the kitchen... he learned to cook...he is a natural, and actually pays attention...he uses the timer and the double sided towel/hot mitten thingy I bought from Rachael Ray...which I never got the hang of...he now does the laundry and has become an expert at sorting and now he even folds the stuff...too cool...
house cleaning is hit and miss... we share it ......although he is great on big jobs....like the kitchen floor....
he does all my shipping and keeps track of all the packages making sure they arrive....
now you ask...what do i do ?...the painting/designing ...what I am good at...I hate housework and the kitchen lost it's charm years ago..Mr. S also does all the grocery shopping and knows all the girls at the market...he could get a job as a personal shopper....we make a list , and he actually takes it with him, I use to leave it home, and just wander up and down the aisles...waiting for something to just remind me of what I needed...
truly without his support and help, this last year would have been a thousand times worse than it has been.....we are working like a well oiled team these days...and he deserves a bonus...lol...
there is a link to his blog...he is a music buff and has a vast collection of old LP's ..jazz ,folk,classical, and blues....so check out his blog...but he has orders to not divulge to much about me......and I in turn will keep his secrets in Squiggland secure....lol...if only ... we are all about the business these days...but we are lucky that business is good ...funny how sometimes you just have to roll with it.....I like being the boss also..most women do......lol...a big joke ...Mr. S will shake his figure at me and say...I am off the clock.......he works from (9:00 am to 6:00 pm)...overtime must be approved....lol..
our big treat is our DVD collection and netflix...we share a love of movies and especially all the great things that come out of the UK...we even bought a DVD player that plays all DVDs...so we could buy from the UK....TV...well let's put it this way ...when they changed over to Digital..we bought the box and have plugged it in maybe five times..TV is not for us...not the big fan of bad news and reality TV......oh that reminds me...Mr. S gives me my news updates from the computer...lol...I feel just like a rock star with a staff...

Inflatable Holy Gifts?

We have been fairly catalog free for the last six months...then all of a sudden the last few weeks we have been literally besieged with catalogs..obviously to order your Christmas gifts and goodies...everything from amazing steaks that are more than a car payment to strange gadgets that you only hope your crazy sisters don't see and decide to surprise you...

we are at that age that clearly we have all the stuff that you could ever need ..a large part packed away , so you don't have to polish it or make sure it is all sparkling clean in the curio cabinet...

all this fuss and bother loses it's charm after so many years........

anyway...I came across the most amazing thing in a catalog...I literally laughed out loud...

Inflatable Holy gifts....way too funny...they are blow up Myrrh, Gold and Frankincense.....

and because they are strange and blown up ..what they are is clearly printed on them ...or you would never know..!!!...there was also a picture of the three wise men dressed and holding them......this just tickles me and it is all I can do to restrain myself from ordering some for my sisters.....they specialize in giving some of the strangest gifts you can imagine.......it would be just too funny to send them some...but sadly they would think it was wildly creative of me....because as an artist such behavior is expected...

I love discovering something

so funny.....at least to me...i can't remember the catalog...but it was full of absurd plastic things for the holidays.......life just doesn't get better than this....I love the unexpected, especially when it is so silly...

This time of year please!!!!!!!

I don't know about everyone else but when you are bound by the TNNA trade shows, that frankly come at the most inconvenient time of year...when your life outside the studio , is making so many demands on your time....it is the middle of November and frankly I haven't even given the holidays a thought....this January's TNNA show is a big deal this year because the Squiggee line will be there..the line is my pet...my baby...it lets me express the side of me that is happy and believes that the world is a wonderful place to live... the enjoyment out of seeing how well received Squiggee has been the last six months makes me oh so hopeful....let's face it..it is now or never for me to make all of what I have worked for these last 36 years really come together...I turned 59 this July and for the first time I realized that time is ticking away , and I don't have all the time that I had when I first started out....No grand kids to spoil, because I had to have children first..funny how there is always a catch.....a large part of my life has been devoted to honing my craft and becoming a really accomplished needlepoint artist....I am precisely that....so now is the time to have it all come together...granted this wasn't my life plan when I started out, but things just take on a life of their own...somehow, I ended up in this business, and there is no going back for a redo...
the trade has changed 180 degrees from when I first started.......I have always tried to be true to my craft and take no shortcuts...
no computer generated designs...I create the same way I have since I first started so long ago...
every stitch is painted with the thought that , one stitch one color...when you sit to work one of my designs...your only problem is what colors or stitches you will decide on, to make it yours, but never do you have to wonder where to stitch ...the lines are clear.....I know that I am a purest in this regard, totally unbending....but that is just tough...if you want to spend hours deciding where to stitch...then clearly my canvases are not enough of a mystery....or a challenge...my question ?..if you want to work a canvas that is clearly just painted..than do it yourself.....think of the money you could save...
...I didn't spend the first years of my needlepoint training, painlessly painting each stitch.....learning to think of an image in pixels...lol...also worrying that at such a young age that I was going blind.....to give up and just do a more or less job....I take great pride in keeping my craft pure......now if I could change something I would change how the holidays get pushed aside because I am so involved in getting ready for Jan.....
I have good holidays...only if I am supper organized and have everything done by Sept 1...all done and sorted...I am afraid that this Christmas is the opposite...so far I have missed Halloween...it came and went before I could even decorate my little scary tree...Thanksgiving is coming and I am so behind in my work, because I have had so much to get ready for the big trade show...that now with all that in place, I have to catch up on all I have pushed aside....and for the first time in 30 years I haven't even decided what the dogs will be( in costume) for our Christmas card...........
I even have a personal assistant NOW..but still I have big holiday issues....no plan no list...
there is a coupon for a free Turkey on dinning room table , from the local market...I guess that is a start, but frankly I am not sure what day Thanksgiving is...we never go anywhere this time of year, because I am always so busy........
my life has taken on so many changes this year......needlepoint has just taken over the house.......needlepoint is everywhere....so I fear that this holiday season will be catch as catch can...we will just have to roll with it...I am losing ground as we speak......
Maybe I should just make plans for Easter...????????

We have mouse closure...kind of ???

First let me thank Monica for all her advice....we have done the steel wool thing for years...but We still have the occasional mouse each year.......

First, let me start by letting everyone know that Squiggee, our Boston has been right all along and the night before last she went crazy around 8:00 pm and was after something behind her little cubby...dog bed...I laughed , and commented to my husband that Squiggee was hallucinating again....so I leaned down and pulled the cubby away from the wall...and yikes...a mouse ..it went crazy twirled and spun and made a hasty retreat behind the stereo speaker stand and then a b-line to the kitchen.... we were so surprised and the little buggers are so fast...that after we recovered from mouse fright , we headed to kitchen...but no mouse........so my husband and Squiggee did the big search to avail......

then we had a pow wow...... I suggested that this mouse might have peanut butter flash backs explaing , why he hasn't gone after the traps...so we took up all the mouse traps that had peanut butter and washed them....... to make sure that there was no faint trace of the stuff, I had my husband get new traps and very smelly sharp Cheddar cheese...and back up mouse poison pellets...I set the traps early evening yesterday and we put the pellets in know mouse places , under the cabinets in the kitchen and bathroom...after my husband re-steel wooled all...and then we laid the traps...in closets and utility room...all out of reach of the dogs....

It wasn't one hour later, while watching a DVD....that we heard the big snap...music to our ears....

my husband investigated returning from the kitchen utility closet with a trap and a

small medium gray dead mouse attached....Squiggee was circling and all excited and feeling vindicated......drinks all around ( coffee & Squiggee got a vanilla wafer)...celebration...which is too sick..after all the little mousie died a horrible snappy death...quick but still...he is toast......there are better ways to go for sure...a mousie heart attack in an open field when you are an old mouse with arthritis....not seeing a truck and becoming road kill..fast ... you didn't see it coming or eating so much cheese you go into a cheese induced coma never to awake......oh well....If I have to pick between the the mouse and my sanity...I win hands down...

since the traps are cheap...we just dispose of the whole thing...like being buried in your car...

here is the rub !!!!!...this mouse didn't look wounded and wasn't black...granted, sometimes a mouse will look darker when he scurries along the floor boards and in the shadows......but I would be much happier if he was darker...

Squiggee spent this morning retracing all places of recent mouse sighting ..... methodically sniffing in every nook and corner of the house...looking...now we are not sure...but hope she just has a mild temporary case of mouse phobia......or does she sense that there is another mousie, somewhere in the house....??????

no other trap was sprung and all the mouse poison , seems undisturbed....but we will be on alert for the next couple of days....

so a mild celebration is in order and I do admit to sleeping better last night...

but Squiggee seems to have the creepies.... she is giving me a slight twinge.......lol...maybe we need a mouse exorcist????.......too much??????????......I have always thought of myself as pretty sensible and brave....but mice just simply creep me out...

I love Flip flops...

I find my painting year never seems to go along with my life year...example...in a big snow storm mid January , I can be found in my studio painting Santa....when clearly the time for the little guy is so over....Christmas and Halloween seem to go all year round in needlepoint...they are the two most popular holidays....painting a custom Christmas stocking or ornament in mid July always makes me laugh...you wonder, if as you age and some of your cheese slips off the cracker, will you get confused as to what month it is while painting Easter eggs at Halloween......

for the moment I am able to keep the seasons straight, but time is a ticking as they say.....I do hope someone tells me , when I do go seriously loopy...or more loopy......I guess in an artist it is a fine line...just enough loopy to make you interesting...not enough to call the men in white......

but I find that anytime is flip flop time....they always cheer me up and I love painting them anytime and with any design...face it they are funny...even though my toes are getting too old or too sensitive to wear them...I can still remember what a thrill I got as a child wearing the cheap rubber ones all summer... making that ff noise....that is the best...makes you feel like you have the power!!!!....somehow the ff mode of foot wear has taken on a more formal venue.....even needlepoint ff...the kind you wear...I still like the cheap rubber ones that broke after a certain amount of wear in the summer .... you would be treated to a brand new pair,at the 5 and dime...after all they were considered disposable...I never remember having a pair make it to the next summer.......

so this little custom ff was a joy to paint for a little girl......I even added some little green glass leaf beads to the mix...fun all the way around......now back to Santa...ugh!

A Mouse in the House...and not attached to the computer !

We live in rural PA...who am I kidding...we live in the middle of nowhere....the land our house sits on was just a field...part of a big farm that was cut up and sold off.....someone forgot to tell the critters .... no more their personal stumping ground...not a mouse hotel ....... every year we get the influx of little squeaky creepy mice, looking for a place to spend the Winter and call home....
....we have tried to open the door all the while singing born free and encourage the mice to happily skip out the door...to live another day....no luck....
last week in the early evening I was in my studio, when I moved some books on a bottom shelf and a very black field mouse jumped out at me and took off across the studio....I went screaming the other way into the living room....
to my knowledge this was the first spotting of meces in my studio...my husband went into the studio and came out with a half package of salt less saltines that had little mouse teeth marks on it...icky in the supreme......this mouse must be half crazed with hunger to go after my saltines ...I have one friend that says..."what is the point ,no salt !" Anyway....
studio time was out of the question...my day was finished...a trap was laid...and a towel put under the door so , the mouse could not escape...or worst come into the rest of the house....
these traps are always effective.....but in the morning ...no luck....
my husband then trekked to town for more traps and peanut butter...we only had port wine cheese, clearly peanut butter was a better choice ????
we set traps in all the known places that there have been mouse sightings.... that night my husband and the dogs went to bed, while I watched a DVD secure that my house was mouse trap secure....... a trap go snap and then smashing a crashing, then silence and then more smashing...... again silence.....I leave the disposal of mouse remains to my husband ,so I did not go to investigate.....the first words out of my mouth in the morning....."so we got our mouse"....my husband shook his head and informed me in the gravest way....."no mouse , just a pool of blood , a sprung trap .... no body"........my husband then proceeded to look for a blood trail and a body...no trail and no body....
we waited !!!!...the next morning my husband heard noises coming from a paper trash can .....low a behold a mouse had thrown himself into the trash can and could not get out because the sides were to slick.... after trying to grab his tail with no luck...my husband proceeded to throw all the paper trash out onto the backyard .... the mouse ran off to the woods ,when he too hit the ground with all the paper....
my big question ?...was he wounded ?...was it the black mouse?...oh noooooooooooo, I was informed..... he was light grey...
that same day my husband and our two dogs were watching TV in the living room ,when a black mouse came out from under the TV......looked at them, then made a hasty retreat back under the TV cabinet .......Squiggee went nuts...she and my husband tried to flush him out to no avail... then to a half hour later the mouse appeared again , retreated ...this time making a detour and headed to our bedroom...all the while my husband and Squiggee in hot pursuit......with their trusty flashlight , they looked in every nook ...but still no mouse.......surely we would get our mouse...traps everywhere...no luck so far...
I have a feeling he is laying low like a wounded gangster in a bad B movie ...gathering his strength , dreaming of revenge and he is coming for us......crazy yes....it doesn't help that our Boston runs around looking in corners and acting like there are 50 mice all over the house in every dark corner just waiting to pounce...last night my husband was down on all fours with a flashlight looking under the computer table, because Squiggee was acting like she had something cornered.......
other than moving and letting the mouse have the house...we are hard pressed to know what to do next...he has not been spotted for days on our part....
I have visions of him appearing at the end of our bed, in fatigues, a bandanna round his head and a very small bayonet raised , like Rambo...Squiggee spends all evening looking for him...it is so spooky...I feel she is having mouse flashbacks...I won't venture into any room that is not well lit and i make my presence known...lots of noise...I feel pretty safe during the daylight hours...like I could hold my own...but night is another story...the mouse has not left the building I fear....total icky !...no mouse pooh and no body...I need closure..........a body...or at least a small note ......"Dear people, I am spending the Winter in Florida , will send a postcard when I get there !

At Last !!!!!!!!!!!!!