Mean Ole Dean and our Blissful Akumal, Mexican Get-A-Way

Daddy Stitch, Lil Stitch and I had planned to leave for Mexico yesterday for a little Caribbean family fun. But a little ole Cat 5 named Dean convinced us to leave early last week with hopes of returning before the storm's expected arrival in Cancun yesterday. We landed safely in Houston Monday while our fellow Akumal Beach Resort guests were evacuated to a hotel in Merida. We are of course so relieved that this beautiful little beach village was not destroyed though damaged from the storm. We want to go back tonight. It was the best vacation we've ever had!

Cordelia and Esmerelda joined us for a much deserved girl's trip! They had many fans watching their poses and photo shoots.

Beautiful beaches of Tulum. I think in a hurricane, I would like to stay in one of these Mayan temples. They're pretty tough!

Lil Stitch snorkeling her first reef in Akumal Bay! Daddy stitch and I adore diving but this trip was all about snorkeling with her. We saw the famous "wall of fish" in the bay, a cloud of thousands of slivery fish that swim together in near the same spot. LilStitch wanted to dive down into them but i was nervous as I who've dove to 100ft have never seen such a massive swarm of fish! The fish parted revealing the biggest baracuda we've EVER seen as well. I thought it was a shark he was so big. Baracuda are normally harmless in clear water as long as you don't mess with their food. We left the wall of fish.

Akumal is the village of turtles and the locals take great care of the wildlife. In August, baby sea turtles hatch in their nests on the beach and run for the ocean. On our last night we were treated to hundreds of babies saved by the resort staff and brought to the ocean. The turtles get confused by the restaurant lights and run toward it! The staff surrounded and gathered the turtles in baskets. One of them was wearing a chef's hat which prompted my daughter to shout, "Mommy! Are they going to cook them?"

Holiday?!!

I will be out of the zone for a few days on Holiday. Wah? With no access to phones, puters, email or anything! Bliss.

The Adventures of Cordelia

Check out the adventures of Cordelia, a living art doll and the brainchild of my friend Mary. Cordelia is a world traveler and has a full spread in this month's Art Doll Quarterly . She is off to a much deserved Mexican Caribbean vacation next week so look for her "waistin away again in margaritaville" updates. And just like all of us living dolls, Cordelia thrives on comments and compliments so leave a couple on her blog; Cordelia's Adventures .

PostSecret

Real human secrets. Gut-wrenching and real. I'm sending mine on in. What about you?

A little someting I'm working on for someone

I think she's pretty. It's just that she had to apply her lipstick from the rearview mirror, while in the car and flying down the freeway with a mocha grande lodged between her legs. Sure, she can easily fix the lips with a little pencil at the red light. Or, the next time traffic comes to a grinding hault for no freakin reason.

More UTEE Madness

Little tin pins, fibers and beads encased in clear ultra thick embossing enamel. This time I poured the molten utee into silicone ice cube trays. I learned this from The Artful Mama's "Seaglass and Utee" post 5/25. The silicone ice cube trays easily release the UTEE unlike the candy foils from my first attempt.But wait. There's more...

I'm often asked, "so, what are you going to do with all of that...stuff?" love that one. I have however been asking myself the same question about my collection of utees. Many pieces have been incorporated in the altered book box for Emmy. I'm loving making the altered book. And the utee, well if it involves heat, burning and melting stuff, great!

i really like this piece. i poured clear utee into a metal cookie cutter laid over the image. after the utee set, i let the piece soak in water and rubbed the back of the paper image until it was translucent but retained pieces of the image.

Scary stamp! This is SO creepy. I made a stamp from that "magic foam" stuff you heat and press any old three diminsional object into it make a stamp. This doll made the freakiest stamp! pretty cool. My daughter was scared of the image but happy i didn't encase the doll in utee! None of her toys are safe,

My World

no, they can't even act natural for a second when i'm trying to capture a beautiful daddy-daughter storytime moment. i'm the luckiest lady in the world.

Altered Book & UTEE Embellishes

Tin dragonfly encased in UTEE.


Use caution when playing with the UTEE because when it's hot it may drip on your hand. It gets so hot. It then hardens on your flesh immediately and when you go to rip it off, the top layer of skin goes with it. It really hurts and doesn't make a cute embellishment for your altered book.

Cute tin things seconds from being drowned in hot utte. This experiment didn't work out too well since the foil candy wrappers do not release the UTTE. Only the dragonfly made it out okay. My hand was saved by alovera and ice.

So I made UTEE girl-faced embellishments. I'm using many of these pieces in the altered book I'm making for a swap with Emmy . This book should have been completed last month. I will be very proud to send it once it's done though and I think she will like it.

A Big thank you to everyone who commented on my first utee's! Mary will be getting antique utee keys delivered since she's right around the corner and Karoda's will be sent along with a few fun charms.

OMG I bought a Melting Pot

if i were a criminal, i'd bumb off Texas Art Supply and go straight for the UTEE (ultra thick embossing enamel). like i needed another obsession over a medium and a very expensive one at that. not that fabric ,embellishments and all that that entails are cheap. oh no. just don't buy the ultra thick embossing enamel thinking it's your moma's powder. get ready to break out that mastercard. i'm sure crack is cheaper and not as addictive. my problem began with the desire to make those painted washers you may have seen in cloth paper scissors with the glass paints and sprinkles of metallic UTEE. I made 30 of them and just found them where i suspected. My child had them hidden in her room as they make glorious play monies.

then i sprung for this contraption:that is not blood or an illicit drug, it's the UTEE. those old keys are not keys at all, they're UTEE that i poured into the "mouldy pour" and they look just like the real old keys i bought at art and soul. if you'd like some of these old keys, email me and i'll send you some. i have a plenty of utee in several colors. i rounded down the cost of everything you need for your melting utee adventure because my accountant reads this. btw i used a 40% off michaels coupon for the melting pot itself. everything else was just necessary...

$ melting pot 35 bucks but hey 40% off!
$ clear utee <-the big jar 11

$ flex 11 <--something i didn't know i needed until i bought...

$ the suze weinberg melt art video 18

$ bronze utee 7.99

$ pearl utee 7.99

$ black utee <--can make faux dicronic glass with it 7.99

$ gold utee 7.99

$ to dye for colorants 7.99

$ moldy pour mold compound 9ish

$ the plastic tools that won't melt like the ones i melted, 5.99

$ craft sheet - had it!

$ perfect pearls - 11ish

$ bees wax - 7.99 <---cool project on the video

$ memory glass 4.99

$ rubber art doll face mold 5.99

$ project pan for melting the beeswax 6.99

oh i'm sure there's more. why didn't i marry tim holtz? then i could have a direct link to ranger. and that suze weinberg is a genious and must be a brazilionaire. pretty awesome stuff! pay no attention to the time stamp of this post. it's the utee and i need help.

Schmooze with Suze Website

Fibre Cards Finally Finished

I'm really happy with the way my Greek ocean fantasy vacation fiber postcards came out. Above is the fantasy villa my husband and I are staying in for the month while we're on Holiday in Greece. We'll have a fully loaded bar and Bernina in the dressing room - i wish. I included pressed wood ferns from my backyard and hope they'll hold up.

These cards are extremely tardy and heading overnight to a couple of very talented fiber artists in the UK. I wanted something special for them since I'm so late with the June Birthday swap and even July is now over....according to my boss. SO, I'm including some of my dyed silk, little Utee faces, nuno felt, and maybe some nice dyed silk velvet in my FAF swap birthday friend's envelopes to make up for my slacker swaptality.

I call this one Sea Garden because it looks like my scuba diving adventures in the Caribbean. The fern looks just like kelp. Apparently in the UK, it has been raining and hailing for something like 80 days and they've had absolutely no summer. In fact, it's been pretty cold there! We've had rains daily in Texas for over 40 days but at least it's hot and we can pretend it's summer and really going on a "holiday"

And the newest addition to our family "Buddy"!

Belated Blog Birthday

Stitchtherapy turned 1 on July 2 so I'm wishing it a belated birthday blog! and many more...on channel 4: My first Post:



My first post is born!
Creativity IS my recovery and my joy.
Recovering from what you ask?
Laundry List of stuff I'm Recovering From:
The daily grind, wretched grief, past traumas.
I began sewing a few months after the death of our infant son Weston in April 2003. An urge to sew things compelled me. I saved up and bought a computerized sewing machine. I made a few dresses for my then 3-year-old and made myself a few blouses. Once I innocently attended Houston Quilt Festival in 2003....I went completely insane....but in a good way. I've always been creative but never committed to it on a regular basis until I realized the healing I gain and the joy it brings me. I've since converted my son's nursery into my art studio where I now spend glorious hours creating.
I believe the creative act fills a missing/damaged piece of me and helps get the pain out and into something positive and beautiful....exept for those "dark" works which are beautiful but in a scary way!OK...What I like to make so far: quilts, collage, and the latest...artdolls.
*NOTE: I did not make the butterfly. Walt Whitman did.
On with the show....

Dark clouds go away

It's been one week tonight since the last tragedy and I seriously considered never mentioning it here. It's just so horrible and i like my people to be happy. Do not read on if you want happy news.....

Well the new kitten, Muffin, met a quick but tragic death last Monday night. My darling husband stepped on her accidentally while carrying his computer and killed her. I feel for the poor guy, the husband I mean. I was hard on him. We all took it hard..myself being the most hysterical.

We adopted a new kitten from the shelter named "Lucky" well, that's what i wanted to name the new little guy. He has been named "Buddy" by my daughter however.

I am finishing up my altered book for Emmy but I'm late with it because I get so carried away....and it's my first altered book. Tonight I used Ultra Thick Embossing Powders and glass paint on several new washers I bought at the hardware store. They are very shiny but I'm not sure how to incorporate them. I will finish this book box and It will be wonderful.

Fiber Postcards from Emmy and Angela!

I've received two beautiful postcards recently and they have encouraged me to put my sewing room back in functioning order and get caught up!

This is a fancifully beautiful piece made with embellished wools, couched fibers and wonderful handwork from Emmy at Cramzy ! Thank you Emmy I truly love it!!

This colorful stitched card is sewn with varigated colors and pieced byAngela at Angelcat. I just love it!

I'm trying to come up with a way to display all of the beautiful cards I've received in these months. First though, I'm finishing up projects for swaps and I'm sorely behind. I need a vacation!!

Computer Recovery!

Oh my I am back on! The pc crashed then died and my hub thought he could fix it and he certainly has, sort of but apparently it's my fault for blogging w/the pc on the couch or lap. So, I apologize to everyone as I've not been able to check all 576 emails on my sbcglobal.net until tonight! If happens in the future I will endeavor to communicate this to everyone. I will dedicate myself to returning your emails this weekend. Now i must figure out how to restore my word document that has all 50 passwords to various groups and things and figure out what all has changed since I've been in oblivion.

Crazy days and computer viruses

Life things have gotten in the way of my sewing and blogging. For one, my home pc is down with a nasty virus. I'm managing to blog from my work laptop tonight.

I thought my next post would be to announce our move from Houston to Dallas because of a career opportunity for DH. The offer has since turned out not to be worth uprooting everyone and moving up north. Ah but in preparation for quick home sale, we had our sagging ceiling lifted, painted the living room, fixed the dripping sinks after 10 years and re-sodded parts of the backyard.

We were going to sell our little old house and buy a bigger old house in our outragously over-priced neighborhood. I've been packing clutter and storing to "stage" the place for quick sale. Now it looks like we will stay here and remodel the kitchen and maybe a bathroom while my husband studies for a certification that will surely allow us to safely buy a bigger house.... one day! Good news is after all of this unsettledness, I have a nicer looking old house and I'm getting a new kitchen remodel and maybe a bathroom. The best is that I get to keep my wonderful Houston friends and my daughter hers.

I've received some beautiful postcards this week and will get them posted in the next couple of days! Once I get my half-staged sewing room I will get back to creating.

New Baby Kitten!

Here she is! She doesn't have a name yet though my daughter calls her "Skittles" Thank you all so much for your comments of comfort after our Tera's loss.

Tera has passed away to Kitty Heaven

My white kitty Tera was run over by a car in front of our house Sunday. Tera would have been 16 years old in June and a part of our family. She was getting on in years and in the past few months had suffered a few minor health issues. Tera was an "inside" cat but loved to sit in the backyard and roll in dry dirt on sunny days. I never once saw her cross the street but she did like to play in the neighbor's backyard occasionally. I was shocked to hear my cell message that she was run over and killed. I found her laying just near the curb in front of our neighbor's house on the most beautiful Sunday evening when everything seemed to be rolling along so smoothly.

So, I've been shaken with tears of painful grief the past two evenings. We buried her in our backyard. I'd named her Tera when my husband and I were dating because of the the sheer "terror" she'd caused as a kitten when she'd bite all who she'd meet but always in a nice way. Tera always pp'd and pooped where she was suppose to and was an affectionate little white ball of hairy love. Tera has seen us through many years of the best and has certainly comforted me through the very worst.

My daughter had a field trip to Kemah Boardwalk scheduled this morning and I was to be a 2nd grade parent chaperon. Yucky early morning thunderstorms struck anxiety in all of our stomachs by 7am, forewarning that our much awaited field trip might be cancelled. It eventually was cancelled but I managed to contact a few of my daughter's friend's parents to get permission to take the girls bowling, swimming and then to Houston SPCA to pick a new kitten. We bring "Speckles" or maybe"Rebecca" home Thursday and our day was saved.

Rest in Peace Tera Kitty and may there be plenty of bite-able morsels and sunny dirt piles for rolling into PetErnity.

The Secret update and a new Fiber Art Postcard!!!

A received a beautiful fiber art postcard from Francoise in Belgium! It's wonderfully designed with her hand-dyed fabrics and a secret tiny heart that makes the whole piece even more personal. Check out her rust dyeing pieces! I really want to try that!

Remember yesterday when I said I would not sell The Secret? Hahahaa! Well, I've actually sent like 8 people to the bookstore with my over-enthusiastic promotions. I sent 3 fresh new converts to Borders today after I gushed about my $3000 sell this morning. Hahahhaahha! I asked my boss to come with to the appointment. I was actually feeling anxiety and not feeling "the Secret" love. But then my lovely boss used her "secret" power for the both of us! Do do ddodododo...(twilight zone music)