thinkin' about stuff

As I work through the last couple of months of 2014, I am of course looking ahead to 2015.

For the last 15 years I have been working on my art, exploring new things along the way-- sometimes finding myself sidetracked, most often with the whole "I bet I could do that and add it to my business" path.  I've been met with some success when I've taken a different fork in the road, but I am finding in retrospect that while I have learned from each experience, it has overall taken a bit away from what I am best at--

my cross stitch designing.

I have thinned out an already too thin budget of time, and have ultimately found myself with less to show for my body of work in the one area that has -always- benefited me.

My goal at one point had been to make my designing my career by the time I was 45. Well, I just celebrated 49, and while I am closer to making my dreams come true, I have come to the realization that in order to do that, I really need to reel myself in. That's not to say I will limit myself creatively. No, instead I think I need to look at things differently in my designing.

There are so many things I've not tried to incorporate into my needlework. Techniques, materials. Other distribution opportunities, returning to magazine work. Kitting my designs. Embellishments. Networking.

The list goes on and on.

I have decided that 2015 is going to be the year that I concentrate on my designing.

It scares me just a tad.

I regularly go through the self-doubt that I think most artists go through. However, I think the only way for me to push past that is to work hard. Draw a lot. Chart, stitch, create. Make connections and expand what I do as a 'cross stitch designer'.

I've always sustained myself on a limited income, and I really don't think it can get any worse than it has been in the past. It's not like I can't find something to supplement my income if I find need of it.

But I won't know unless I try, right?

50.

That's a good round number.

New goal, let's go!

Holiday Helpers, the December installment of the Whiskerkins Collection. Available on my website. www.carolynmanningdesigns.com

I have been stitching at night before bed, kind of a wind down bit of free form cross stitch thing that helps shut my brain off so I can get a good night's sleep.  Here is one of the latest bits. I might turn these into pin cushions at some point, as I still intend to do some finished pieces for my Etsy Shop.

The first of the four new snowbugz from the third swarm. 

finished!

Little Hoots, stitched over two threads on 28ct. cornflower blue hand dyed jobelan from Wichelt Imports using DMC floss. 128w x 150h. Will be winging its way to Hoffman Distributing soon and will be available on my website either later tonight or tomorrow!

sunday discovery: popeye the sailor man

image from Popeye Wiki

Today I discovered a very interesting article about Popeye The Sailorman. 

 13 Interesting Popeye the Sailorman Facts

How he originated, the cool words that the comic gave the English language. Did you know his first appearance was in a Betty Boop film? Or that Mr. Mercer was not the first voice of the sailor? Or that he originally got his strength from rubbing the head of a Whiffle Hen? (what the hell is a whiffle hen?)  Lots of interesting story behind the spinach eating, too! 

Popeye is the only character not in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? 

In the original cartoons, Olive Oyl is really kind of a trollop?

So there you have it. Your Sunday Discovery from an animation nerd.

*~*

And finished up today, Violet's Kitties, the newest in the Whiskerkins Collection. 

Now off to start Gingham Buds, still hoping to make it out to the woods today, too.

saturday splash

Feeling Green....and marveling, as I always do, over the colors that Nature gives us.  

Sunday is shaping up to be a warm (although muddy!) day. I think I need to head out to the woods. There isn't a whole lot of green out there right now, but there is color and life and all those things that I need to connect with so that this restlessness might ease. 

*~*

Oh, Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the wind,

Whose breath gives life to all the world.

Hear me; I need your strength and wisdom.

Let me walk in beauty,

and make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset.

Make my hands respect the things you have made

and my ears sharp to hear your voice

Make me wise so that I may understand

the things you have taught my people.

Help me to remain calm and strong

in the face of all that comes towards me.

Let me learn the lessons you have hidden in every leaf and rock.

Help me seek pure thoughts and act with the intention of helping others. Help me find compassion without empathy overwhelming me.

I seek strength, not to be greater than my brother,

but to fight my greatest enemy -Myself (My fears and my doubts).

Make me always ready to come to you with clean hands and straight eyes. So when life fades, as the fading sunset,

my spirit may come to you without shame.

~translated by Lakota Sioux Chief Yellow Lark in 1887

(reblogged from Wild Woman Sisterhood FB)

*~*

Finished Mama Cat & her kittens of the Whiskerkins . If the sun comes out this morning, I'll try and get some shots of the finished piece. Starting Gingham Leaves in the meanwhile, using some of the colors that were pulled in the Design Seeds swatches above. 

Happy Saturday!

thread painting

Happy Winter Solstice!

As I worked my way through my first pot of coffee this morning, I was running through Etsy looking at pretties and drooling over so many things that I wished I could experience with all of my senses instead of just my eyes. I was seeking some inspiration,  a nudge of sorts, a lightbulb moment.

 With the new year just around the corner, I am still finding a blurred creative direction, although I have narrowed it down to a needlework focus.  I have always been in awe of textile artists that dye and use their own fabrics and fibers, and it came to me. There it was. Really sort of obvious, when you think about it...

So I have allll of these Jaquard textile paints.  I have more white cotton 6-strand floss then I know what to do with. It may be string, but it is still cotton and could be treated the same way as a hunk of muslin that I had loved painting on before. 

So I played, and here are the results!

Once dry, I will heat set them just as I would fabric, and then see how they stitch up.  I had played around with Easter egg dyeing tablets before to color floss, but the colors were too pastel-y for me, and the colors did not set very well.  Maybe I will include a skein of this in future designs, or maybe I will just use it in the finished pieces that I plan on working through in upcoming months. Whatever I decide to do, I am just kind of tickled that I've found a way to stretch and explore while still holding closer to my creative direction.

Now off to wrap the rest of the presents and make another pot of coffee!

wool for felting & other randomness

So I have this image in my head combining my love of needle felting and needlework in general. I ordered some wool from a wonderful shop, Headley Grange , and it arrived today!

(Image from Headley Grange Etsy Shop)

It is just yummy and the colors are beautiful. It is going to work perfectly with what I have in mind. 

More to come as I get working! 

Almost finished up Of Mice & Snowmen , the next in the Snowballz Again series, and I finally got all the things beside my Stitching Chair sorted.  Feels much better, although I still need to get all my floss sorted so I know what I need to pick up besides the usual white, winter white, black and brown-black! 

There are also some new Kreinik threads that I simply need to order, and I have come to realize that my fabric stash has become seriously depleted! Time to trot off to the Wichelt site and put an order together!

Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.
Franklin D. Roosevelt