Yeah! That's Me! :) Want My Autograph?

   Last year I was contacted through my Etsy shop by someone asking if they could publish my reindeer in their magazine.

 
 
 
 
 



 Ok, at first I thought it was someone playing a joke on me! Who had I tricked lately that would want to pay me back? looks slowly over shoulder in both directions...
 as Pooh says "Think!
                           Think!
                                Think!"
Yikes!
        That could be a long list!
                Well.....after a little checking I found out it was not a joke at all! Better Homes & Gardens Holiday Craft Magazine really did want to feature my snow white reindeer and so the journey began.

A journey that took a year. Yes, a year! Because you see, the fine editors of magazines are very organized and plan things out a year in advance. I know to many of you that might not seem impressive, but to disorganized me...well let's just say I am lucky if I can plan tomorrows events and actually come up with

1. An objective
   
2. A plan

3. A list to follow my plan by (ok, I am good at lists, but list for me come with a butt)

4. (and here is the butt.yeah I meant to spell it that way) Not losing the list!..Oh crank! I lost the list!

5.Scrap previous plan!

You get the picture! You see why planning something a year in advance impresses me so! What a wonder it is to me that these editors actually start perusing the craft sites, like Etsy, for ideas that would work for their next years magazine and that they do this before I have even bought one Christmas gift for this year. WOW! Only in my dreams could I line my ducks up so well and not lose them!

So, after many back and forth emails and packages sent, then a long year of waiting and me thinking the whole time...
  
           "I bet they lost the list that said  *Publish Lisa's reindeer in the 2013 Holiday Craft Magazine"
*really! I could see it in my minds eye laying crumbled beneath a table gathering dust and the photographer saying "Uh, weren't we suppose to do a shoot on something white or something? Oh never mind! Let's move onto the next one."

                     They really did not forget and they really did publish my reindeer! LOOK!
                                           trembling finger pointing down. quivering voice.  

shows girl at checkout counter. girl does not care &  says "uh..ok!"

 

and not only did they remember, they gave me the inside spread for their Merry Red & White section!

 

 

eyes get dewy. sniffle!

 

Here is the full spread in all it's glory!

 

 little disorganized heart soars. hopping up and down 

 

 

 shiver! giggle! sigh... 

 

Yes, There is my name! I feel like Steve Martin in the Jerk. I AM SOMEBODY!!!!! My Name! (just don't mention that no one paid attention to him even then. let her live in the moment!)

                                                                                       

 

 

 

I made those models...proud grin. more hopping up and down!

 

They even made my directions look like I knew something! Dare I even say they made me look...(whisper)...organized!

...and Lisa skips off into sunset giggling and mumbling to self about little white deer!

 

A Bit Of Wild Magic

Update! I am so honored to have our creations featured on LivingFelt's Blog
Click here to read and seehttp://livingfelt.com/blog/?p=5576

 Growing up on the mountain I remember that every now and then we would find a bit of wild magic.
The magic came in the smallest form, in the unlikeliest place. On the quiet side of the yard, where wild thyme grew and mossy patches made soft  bright carpets among tufts of bluegrass and wild flowers, we would find tiny bowl like holes in the ground. These perfectly round bowls would be no bigger then our cereal bowls and lined with bits of clover and soft, soft downy fur. Inside there would be the tiniest, soft as velvet little gray beings with big brown eyes looking back at us. A bowl of little bunnies waiting for their mother to come back and nurse. I am sure that my words cannot quite paint the picture of how incredibly cute they were, or how we felt as if we looked into the very eyes of fairies and angels, when we looked into their tiny world of clover and fur.
 As Spring and Easter approached this year, my mind kept going back to these sweet bubbles of new life and I longed to see them again. Below are photos of my handmade wild magic selling now in my Etsy shop.

Bowl of 6 bunnies & carrots

Bunny and Carrot

Easter basket with white bunny

Three peas in a pod

Moss green basket

Enough carrots for all

My carrot car goes sooo fast!

Mine is faster!

You can't see me!

 

Peek a boo!

Warning: Impending Doom! Grab Your Nuts, Duck & Cover

  What do you grab when you feel the shadow of doom peering over your shoulder? When I say impending doom I mean blizzard, wind storm of unusual speed, hurricane, flood predictions, you know the things we have advanced warning for by our local weather people.The people that love to fill us with a never before known sense of urgency.
 Do you run for your nearest grocery store and knock over  feeble and slow(er) shoppers to grab the last loaf of lite bread and dented water bottles?  Do you say the hell with water, where are the cheesy doodles?
Do you run for the duct tape and plastic rolls and make plans to seal the up all air leaks?
Do you speed in the other direction past the grocery getters and head for the liquor store because "this could be a long one" and "There ain't enough liquor for this much snow" ? What do you do???

My family is like a log full of chipmunks! Mention "impending doom" or  say "time to prep for the storm" and we scatter like squirrels with firecrackers taped to our butts. Yes, we grab our nuts and run! Then grab more nuts and store them and more and more...We measure water. We order water... this is where I should remind all you reading this that we live on a mountain and have to have our water hauled in at great expense, now back to the prep...we bottle water. Any empty milk jug or juice bottle will soon be washed and filled for the chance that the power is out and the water pump is not working. We run to the woods and cut wood, gather dry kindling, stack and cover. Then it is off to the grocery store to carry jug after jug of milk to checkout. (very important! The jugs will hold more water when empty) and don't forget the dry gas! Dry gas is very important so that we can make sure our little generator will run and  we can watch the news, because nothing and I do mean NOTHING is more fun then watching the Impending Doom creep up on you from behind by way of the weather channel....

...OK admit it! It is a little like watching a horror movie and you are the star, but this time you are so well prepped that you think that you can rewrite the ending, jump out at the insane ax murderer (Impending Doom)and send him running and screaming  into the night.

Why do we feel like this?
 Because we have been caught too many times unprepared and have sworn it won't happen again! We feel empowered by the extra loaf of bread, the extra jug of milk, the extra bottle of booze! We love to sit snug in our cozy logs chocked full of nuts feeling safe and prepared for the worse. It is a dreadful feeling to not be prepared! It is glorious to be prepared! We feel as if only Impending Doom will look at us, standing strong before it with gleaming rolls of duct tape and plastic wrap hanging from our belts, pantries stocked full and plastic water bottles piled high behind us, impending doom will whimper, crawl away defeated and swear not to try that again! We will chuckle with hands on hips and scorn it back into the dark shadows. We grab our nuts and fill our pantries with them and by doing this we defeat Impending Doom! Or we think we do!

Like the prepper in the liquor store says "Sometimes there is just not enough liquor prepping for this much snow! Or enough water...

Lakota Jean Pierre Bondurant playing in the snow before melt down

This picture is from 2011 when we had really prepped hard for the coming blizzard. But 3 weeks into being marooned on the mountain with no water truck able to make it up we started gathering snow and melting it on the cookstove. We did that for another 3 weeks before clean snow was getting too hard to find or far to carry. The cistern was dipped out and siphoned until we could not get more. Our plastic bottle long empty lay scattered and dusty.

The back down spout. We ran hot water to the front spout with a pipe to cistern

We had the melt from the roof to hold us over, but dang! ..This would be a good time to warn you what a slippery slope fighting the demon of Impending Doom can be. Fighting Impending Doom can lead us to a road of insanity!... The down pipe froze and and the power went out. We would not be defeated! Would NOT I tell you! We squirrels gathered and soon had a plan to gather more nuts! We hung out the window with a piece of PVC trying to pour precious amounts of hot water heated from the cookstove to melt the clog so we could again have water. While hanging out the window a power worker walks up the long mountain road to check the lines. Joy filled our hearts! There was hope! There was still life in the world beyond and they had come to rescue us!

"Oh thank God!" my husband exclaimed.

 "I know" I jumped up and down with excitement. "We will have lights again and the oven will work and ..." He cut me off in mid sentence "Oh the hell with that! If he gets the power back on we can use the hairdryer to unclog the gutter! We'll show this damn blizzard who who gets the last word then!"

Tell me what you do when Impending Doom is coming. Leave a comment below if you can, I know sometimes this Blogspot does not let you leave a comment but try. TRY! Impending Doom will not catch us off guard again!

Shades of Gray and Dreams of Spring

Love Ewes in Shades of Gray

                                           Here in our mountain studio the snow drops are blooming, the temperatures are perfect for tapping and the fires waiting for sweet sap to cook need tended like new born babies.The winter has been so cold and yet so little snow, only shades of gray. I have come to love the gray, but I love the snow of winter too. Snow brightens the mind and makes magic seem possible and makes the cold worth enduring, without the snow then what is the point of winter! My eyes thirst for color and are constantly searching the windows and mountains for the first signs of Spring. Spring, the real season of magic and the season of babies will soon be here in the valley and oh what a season of color it is! I look forward to the baby lambs, rows of pink piglets and cows grazing in pastures greening with the warmth of longer days. Here are some of my new creations inspired by my dreams of Spring and brighter shades. And don't forget Valentine's Day! A good excuse for a splash of red in winter's cold shades.

"You Complete Me" felted soap

"Way Too Fluffy Family" felted soap set

One of many Love You Love Ewes

Our Love You Love Ewes were recently featured in the blog Lark Crafts, thanks to Shannon Yokeley for this opportunity!


http://www.larkcrafts.com/needlearts/etsy-valentines-finds-for-your-sweetheart/

Sweetpea The Cow felted soap

When Pigs Fly

Pig & Piglets