A present from Fran!

Today I went to Poipu to see my friend Fran Saperstein. We had a lovely breakfast at the Grand Hyatt (ocean view!) and then we sat and talked and talked and talked! This is the 2nd time this year Fran and her husband have come to Kauai for a convention - and I love it because I get to visit with her. Look at what she made me for my birthday.
Isn't she amazing? Look - she even has a hula skirt!
Here's a close-up. Aren't those the coolest embroidered hands?
I took a photo of Fran and I together, but it turned out (....ok, I turned out....) so ugly I erased it. Oh vanity! ...maybe Fran will post the one she took on her blog......

I have been playing with the heatpress a bit. Here's a paper/fabric collage i did. I grabbed whatever was in reach on my work table - I didn't want to get hung up thinking about it. Sometimes I think and plan and draw and think and plan and then I get tired of it and overwhelmed and nothing gets made. Anyway, it started with a sheet of cardstock with black webbing that was leftover from some other project. I squashed up tissue paper and made it into the tree. I had lots of leftover eyeballs, so I put them on the tree. It could have used more, but that's all I had. Then I found the preggers woman drawing and the bird and the hands, so I just tar gelled them all on. I used gesso and dyno flow for the color, and a bit of sienna acrylic and a black sharpie for the tree. Finally I threw on some fibers, coated everything with tar gel and threw it in the heatpress ala DJ Pettitt.....Preheat to 320 degrees, load in your image, close the press and unplug. Cook for 10 minutes. The result is a smooth vinyl like top. Afterward, I mounted it on fabric, added some ribbon trim and heat pressed it again. Voila!

It says "go forth and multiply"
A few months ago I posted a fabric painting I started. I hated the background, so I cut it out and I made more flowers, some reeds and a much better horse. It has also been heatpressed, but only the castle has tar gel on top. I didn't want it to be shiny. It's not done yet - it still needs some more topstiching and to be mounted. I'm hoping the copper frame I am making will look OK with it. Click on it to enlarge so you can see the detail. The edging is shibori dyed silk I made, but I don't like it, so I will take it off and the figure out a new way to edge it.

I found a bunch of photo's on the camera from when i was in LA and when I was with my dad in Sacramento.
....so, for all the "Jericho" fans out there, here's a photo from the set after we blew something up...I can't go into too much detail - mum's the word!

...and here's my dad. We went to Travis Airforce base to get groceries and stopped at the museum.. He's next to his favorite airplane, a B29.

...and her'e my grandbaby hana who came to visit me!