DuhBe.com

The teddy bear shirt was finished a couple of weeks ago and shipped off to its new owner. This is the one I blogged before where I digitized the mad scientist for my embroidery machine based off a photograph. I also sent along the funny glasses to complete the outfit.

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Excuse me while I “w00t!” a bit.

Remember the little amoeba artists that I blogged about?

I heard back from Stampington Press and they plan to publish my amoeba artist piece in their Summer 2010 issue of Sew Somerset, in the gallery section.  I love that magazine, so I’m quite pleased.

All together now… “W00t!!”

I need to finish my studio renovation so I can create more stuff.  My goal was 4 magazine submissions this year.  On that note, I’m off to paint the ceiling and install a gaudy chandelier.

You don’t need rose colored glasses to see roses everywhere.  I made a few extra roses this week to adorn my critters.

Teddy the Rat Terrier has been happily wearing his pink and aqua roses for several days, but he was reluctant about the photo shoot as you can see from his sad little face above.

But then I explained there would be treats involved and he perked right up.

These are just a couple of my handmade roses sewn onto an elastisized organza ribbon found at hobby lobby.  Very easy to make, and very cute on the little wolf-pig-dog that lives at our house.  Look at him, just begging to be adored…

Why such girly colors for a boy dog? I thought it would blend nicely with his pink and turquoise stuffy that I catch him in bed with.  I wonder if that embarrassed look is because of his ugly girlfriend, or that he was caught reading War and Peace again….

But the dog wasn’t the only pet I tortured adorned. The cats got rose collars as well, but they (and the husband) keep taking off their roses.  (I mean the husband takes the roses off the cats, not off his own neck.  But there’s an idea for another post)

I think the cat is winking at us because he looks so sexy with his neck rose.

And even the crumbling cement pig that gaurds our chippy front porch got his own rose and tulle fruffy thing.

But of all the roses, I think weeeedle dog Teddy likes his the best. I mean just look at him – The sly dog. He knows how spiffy he looks.  He knows all the girls want him.

Fabric roses are availabe in my DuhBe Etsy shop, or make your own from my rose tutorial.

I’m going WAY off topic today, because I haven’t made anything new in a while, and I have no photos to share of the studio remodel.

The video below is a trailer for a documentary called “Babies” which comes out in April 2010. I’m fascinated by the concept and the cinematography of this movie. I think it’s more about anthropology than babies. I’m loving the first and last scenes of this trailer.

BABIES:Movie Trailer – For more funny movies, click here

Did you know that the human brain is wired to enjoy the faces of babies? It makes sense, otherwise we could not be such a prolific species. But did you know that advertisers know this about you and use it to influence your buying decisions? Babies are not just for selling baby products, they sell you tires for your car, and online stock trades and even bottled water. We feel the need to watch the baby, and thus watch the commercial. I got all that from a neuro-marketing book I found at the library.

And there you go – I gave you fighting babies, science, and business all in one post.

I have written, and re-written this post several times.  I want to tell you what I’m up to, but without boring you to death.  So I finally decided to write this post from my heart.  You are welcome to follow along or just skip it over if you like.  I won’t mind.

It started with the Dottie Angel challenge which I have decided to take on for myself.  Her challenge is to buy handmade or used items for oneself or one’s home for a full year.   I will be adding her logo to my sidebar to show I’ve taken her challenge.

But that wasn’t the hard part.  Explaining why I took the challenge is more personal, and has made me look deeper into myself to uncover my motivations and beliefs.  It starts out simple enough – hubby and I couldn’t even figure out how to spend gift cards at a retail stores because there’s just not anything we NEED.  And if we don’t need it – we try not to buy it.  Then I realized I have started to reject the American dream of money and prestige and the collection of status symbols.  And then it gets more personal for me.

You see, in 2002 I bought myself a new car.  Not just any car, but an expensive Acura with horsepower and power everything and just about every option they could give me.  That car was my gift to myself for having a successful career while also being a single mother.   I paid for that car.  Just me, and nobody else.  It was a sign of my financial freedom several years after a divorce.  It was a luxurious status symbol that even the gear heads were jealous of.  It was my own personal measure of success.

Where is she going with this?  (Sometimes I wonder myself)  This week I sold that car.  I didn’t trade it in for a new car, it wasn’t broken down, it was still a beautiful car to drive.  I was finally ready to let go of all those things the car stood for – those things I used to hold dear and now I could care less about.

It was such a big deal 8 years ago, but now it’s just a hunk of metal, an image, and money down the drain.  The job with the big paycheck is gone.  The expensive townhouse has been replaced with a much more humble abode. There is a wonderful new husband now, and a studio where I get to create and play all I want. It seems that when the money moved out, the happiness finally had room to move in.

And the challenge?

I am thumbing my nose at retail therapy.   I don’t even know the Jones’, so why do I care about keeping up with them?  (I hear they don’t even have good taste anyway)

I am saying “poo” on malls and chain stores and things we don’t really need but we buy them because they are so pretty.  Meanwhile, the earth gets more depleted and the landfills grow.

There will be times I falter, and there will be times I overcome temptation.  I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.  Maybe I’ll have some funny stories to tell.  In the meantime, check out the challenge for yourself and see if this might interest you as well.

By the way, I hear Carmax has this awesome Acura for sale, in case anybody who took the challenge needs a second hand status symbol

Ready for a magic carpet ride?  I’m participating in the “One World, One Heart” blog giveaway. You can enter to win 10 handmade fabric roses by leaving your comment below.  It’s easy.  Don’t be shy – not here, anyway.

Come on in, have a look around.  Maybe even sit back and sip some tea or coffee. You can even spill it on the carpet, we’re used to that kind of thing around here.  Just be careful not to soak the controls on your magic carpet, lest you get stuck here with me too long! Read more…

I promised to keep you informed of my home improvement projects while I take a break from sewing for the next few weeks. Last week was full of creative endeavors of the nesting kind. This was all inspired by moving my studio to the dining room, but other rooms must be fixed up in order to get there. This is because all the unfinished home projects decided to live in the dining room until their special time came around. Now is the time they get to become finished projects, so I can take over the dining room. Clear as mud? Good.

The first thing we got out of the way was to finish the spice rack in the kitchen. Two shelves were hung a year ago, but 2 more shelves and dozens more spice jars were waiting for their turn to show off. So here is the finished wall of spice…..(I think it needs a drumroll)

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I’ve decided to sew less and work on the house more in the next few weeks/months or however long it takes.  This has been needed for a long time – our old house needs improvements.  But last week I got spurred on like wildfire. Read more…

I can honestly say I have never done any canning and preserves in my life. But I’ve been working with jars lately and decided to continue that theme for valentines day. So I’ve sewn up some preserved hearts in 2 flavors – both were added to my Etsy shop today.

This is the cuter version. It has a copper patina key tied to it with machine wrapped cord that I make. There’s a preserved heart in there.

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I am definitely in stitches over my latest creation…

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I digitized a mad scientist for my embroidery machine.  Don’t tell Professor Impossible, OK?  He will be finding his way home soon enough.

I really have fun when I digitize designs.  It’s like playing connect-the-dots, except that I must create all the dots myself.  After I create the dots, I must drag them around the screen and adjust them until they are just where I want them.  Embird converts all the dots and lines into stitches and then…

Presto!  Chango!  Professor Impossible lives again!

He’ll look great on a little teddy bear T-shirt, don’t you think?