Sewing and Designing my Wearable Art. Today. Thoughts.

“I will not buy any more fabric until I use up the stash I have at home,” I said. And then I laughed and laughed...

 

This is my latest sewing art design, a maxi skirt made with a wonderful cotton fabric called, A Day at the Museum.  I purchased the fabric where else but in the museum district?  I had been admiring it for over a year.  It was purchased from High Fashion Fabrics.  You can order online if you like.  I adore that store...Especially the huge, huge, huge room with retro ballet-pink wooden fixtures (the real deal, older-then-me fixtures I am thinking) in the huge room of totally wonderful and inspiring cotton fabric prints.  There are retro prints, modern prints, you name it.  I spent more on this fabric then I normally do but it was worth it on this.  (What is Christmas money for anyway?)   It took more fabric then usual because the print is one-way. 

 Elbee liked the fabric too.

"I will sit myself here as I enjoy the view," he says.

My pattern, a tried and true:  New Look 6843.

The simple "View 'A'" lengthened to a maxi length and widened waist band. I kept the same width at the bottom of the maxi, shaving off a bit at the sides.  I usually go by the finished measurements if the pattern manufacturer is gracious enough to print them!  : )  Usually they are on the pattern pieces if not on the envelope.  Warning:  The size will usually be two sizes larger then your store bought size, just eat the pride and go with it, right?   ; )

I just love the simplicity of a long maxi or midi A-line skirt with a simple knit top. It reminds me of that Mary Tyler Moore/Rhoda look.  Give me a print skirt with a modest but fitted black or navy knit top and I feel very comfortable.






I've always loved to draw since I was a wee little girl.  Since junior high I have been drawing people, designing clothes on paper, drawing girls in pretty dresses, and then portraits, fashion illustrations in high school. 

We can use our talents in a variety of ways in many seasons of life I have found.  In homeschooling, I had and still have a great time with my art in sewing and designing my own clothing.  My husband reminds me that creativity is of God.  God creates and loves it when we do too.  

There was and is always art of some kind going on in our home ..and musics.  Once in the suburbs a neighbor came over and let's say things were a bit undone....  She just smiled and said when I apologized... "You just have a liberal arts house!"  --  lol! 


Yes, we creative messies do have a knack for being a bit undone...I strive to declutter but many times things evolve into something similar like these guys have...






























 Einstein's desk.

   Steve Job's desk.

Creative clutter is more blessed than tidy idleness.  ; )





I'll close with some photos of our fur angels here at the Forest Cathedral.

Elbee... There you are, you little character....

 Becs captures the moment as well.

This is our precious little Guisseppe.  He is our little elder fur angel and blind.  He is much like a little child to care for... An angel.  The vet's assistant calls him, her baby.

 Muffie this evening, a heartbeat at my feet...

Charlie, his eyelashes are beautiful, and he is quite a character.  Sometimes I call him Carlos, the character from the comedy, My Man Godfrey (1936) since he is so dramatic.

  Gracie.  She loves the tiny bed.  She's quite a character too.

That is a sampling of our fur angels here at the Forest Menagerie that we care for. 

Today I watched   Penny Serenade  (1941)  while getting some things done.

I love this movie...I cried as if it were the first time I watched it...  I really enjoy any movie with Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, and Beulah Bondi in it.  Greatness.  It reminds me of my mom and dad in happy times years ago.  

This evening before dinner, I listened to this song by Fernando Ortega from upstairs, Mar was playing it.  It makes you want to just stop and contemplate life.

An evening walk here...

Sometimes it captures my heart...far away...beyond the sky, beyond all telling, our Father Himself will be our Light...   

Have a great week, loves,     Amelia at the Forest. 

Songs from Sunday, Heartfelt Sightings and Sharings

Live your life while you have it.  Life is a splendid gift -- there is nothing small about it. 
-Florence Nightingale

Half the joy of life is in little things taken on the run.  Let us run if we must --even the sands do that--but let us keep our hearts young and our eyes open that nothing worth our while shall escape us.  And everything is worth its while if we only grasp it and its significance.  -Victor Cherbuliez

As we go on to know Him better we shall find it a source of unspeakable joy that God is just what He is.  -A.W. Tozer

Yesterday:  It's Monday, I'm sitting on the screened porch typing here...I think this will be my writing room today.

What a lovely Sunday Jem and I had.  I will share sights below.  We took a drive into town, listening to a Zac Poonen short sermon and then pretty musics.  Even when I was very young we would listen to 'pretty musics' together.  Jem got that and I appreciated it.

Beware, some of these photos are taken in a moving car by a sentimental brunette named Amelia.  And yes, I say music - musics.  

God uses musics in my life.   He created it of course. You can listen to this song with us as we travel along, love this song, gives a good rush I think.  Jem is also a musican by the way.

The lyrics are very appropriate for my life in many ways these days...

Sunday had started in a foggy kind of way, Jem takes a prayer walk with the fur angels.

Things clear up..the weather changes like the wind.

Who has seen the wind?  Neither I nor you....  -Christina Rossetti

We then got ourselves dressed up and went on that trek to Midtown to eat at a fun Greek restaurant...It's a nice treat with the outdoor seating.

Jem was amused...At this...

Very merry firemen, making a stop to eat some good Greek foods!

After lunch Jem takes a drive down Main, he said he hadn't been down there in a while...and what greatness do we come across...

This old church built in 1917-20.  It's the Episcopal church my Uncle Wesley was married in.  As you may know if you keep up with this blog I've been on an emotional adventure of sorts.   

Jem thought at first it was the old Catholic church he would visit when a little boy, but then I saw it was Episcopal.  Wait, I think that is the church Uncle Wesley was married in!  I felt it in my heart.  After checking that 1940 society page?   It was indeed.   My heart melted.

Minutes away, the  Rice University entrance where Uncle Wesley attended.  A beautiful, untouched campus.

The Museum of Fine Arts...My sweet mother attended art school in the area as a single young lady.  She and another student, Delores, another conservative young lady met and became lifelong friends.  Delores was married to a farmer and became an art teacher, teaching until she had children.  She, her husband and children would come to visit us and us children would watercolor at the kitchen table.  I'll always remember that...so fun.  They were such sweet people, I like sweet people don't you?

Our youngest daughter also attended the art school in the area.  I thought it was wonderful that she was able to do that.

 

I've always loved this area of town, just look at the beautiful tree canopies...This older classic area is a comfort for both Jem and me.  It's interesting, many of the trees in the city are much like the shape of the many trees here in the Forest.  The city is a great place to visit every once in a while.

Here is another song we listened to that I think is just beautiful.  This was played at my Italian grandma's funeral right around the time of this video.  I'll never forget that day in the old stone chapel on the lovely grounds, it felt so European.  My Grandma was born in Naples, Italy.  Her family arrived in Boston and moved to New Orleans where she grew up into her teens then  moved here.  When I cook, I think of my grandma.  She always said, We'll have good eats and lots of laughs...  In her simple home that is the way it was on holidays, and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.  There was always eggplant with pasta gravy and lots of pasta of course.  Do you know that many Italians call pasta gravy, gravy not sauce?  I can identify another true Italian when I hear...the words pasta-gravy.  Our pasta gravy is savory, and I love that about it.  Now back to that beautiful music...

Andrea Bocelli is a favorite of mine, a fellow prolife advocate.  

I hope you all are having a nice week so far and that Valentines day is a sweet, pleasant, uncomplicated holiday for you. : )   I have a neat sewing project in the works, a maxi skirt with a great art print.   I'll be putting together a bracelet for a nursing home resident as well.

Every day is a journal page what will we compose?  


Signing off, until the next time! 

We'll have good eats and lots of laughs....

-Amelia


Happy Valentines Sweet Friends!
   
Photo by Robert Stock

PEACE, PICS, PETS, THOUGHTS and Us HUMANS at Home in the Forest

We do not need to search for heaven, over here or over there, in order to find our eternal Father.  In fact, we do not even need to speak out loud, for though we speak in the smallest whisper or the most fleeting thought, he is close enough to hear us.   -Teresa of Avila


I'm plodding along, trying to simplify and declutter.  In this way I can *see* a bit better!  The less I have to deal with the more I can *see* to minister to others whether it be an encouraging note or perhaps designing a simple Little Dress for Africa.   Here in the U.S. most of us with sense are rejoicing despite some most strange liberal and hostile activity. 

I for one think President Trump is doing an outstanding job and am so proud of his decisions of late.  I thank God for him, and I think it's God's grace and mercy that he is our President.

Alright,


...I will tell everyday life with photos...


Going to Smalltown is a peaceful thing in the evening or anytime... Every day yields a different personality as the sky tells its story and shares its mood.

Jem and I eat at a cozy little restaurant for dinner situated in an old lumber warehouse as only Smalltown can do.  Smalltown in the rain.  Neat.

 

 At home.  You remember our resident new mommy, Gracie, our rescue hound?  She was near death last year at this time.  She is quite a personality now, all seventy pounds.  She is here with her new baby-kitty that she cares for, Elbee our now junior kitty, also recently rescued from the country road. Elbee is a white kitty as you may or may not see and he blends into the white quilt so you have to look closely, quietly so as to not scare them.. ; )

This expression is *so* Gracie...I see that glamorous Maybelline look, Gracie...You are quite glamorous, dear one.

I always say:  Ask the animals and they will teach you.    -Job

Evening walks in the Forest.

 

 The trees say:  See the art in me...  (from a Jars of Clay song)

 This photo reminds me of an old mysterious black and white movie, something perhaps like, 'Rebecca'  (1940) with Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine.

 As you may know Jem and I take little rides on occasion as we get the druthers.  Downtown, Midtown.  Just the cadence of those two words makes me want to do a dance. : )  Jem and I were born blocks away, delivered by the same doctor. 

Jem takes me to another part of town on the outskirts of town where his cousin lived.  His cousin's story is a neat one.  An anesthesiologist now.  The city is a dog lover's haven, I love that about it.

 I thought this photo should be in a book, something like the Humans of New York..Yes, something like that.  I think it speaks multitudes.  I was only able to quickly get a shot of half of it, in entirety it said Jesus Christ on both sides of the fence.  I love the older homes, they have the neat wooden porches and stuff.  I wonder what stories they could tell?

We get back to the country...and are glad; it's a bit like taking a deep relaxing breath.

Long evening shadows...

Reflection.  What do we reflect?  I hope we are kind and keep our plumb lines to God straight.

 Last but not least, Becs was in the kitchen cooking one of her healthy soups, and I thought this design on her cut cabbage was beautiful.  You can't improve on God's design. 

I'll close, friends.  A lot of quiet pondering going on here.  I found my cousin on facebook by her nickname of all things.  She resembles me.  Mar messaged her and enjoyed a brief message exchange, she was friendly enough, a self-proclaimed character.  I haven't heard from her though even though she shared she was always sad that she had not much family.  I do know now that my Uncle Wesley supported her even as a young man at 23 when he died after her mother and his divorce back then in the early 40s. I know that Uncle Wesley in his cowboy mode, not only slept under the stars on the West mansion grounds along side his friend, the black Cowboy Will but he attended Georgetown as well as Rice. My cousin told Mar her grandma would tell her, "He was a handsome rascal!" she wrote, lol with a heart emoticon. 

It's eerie the similarities...She is a conservative politically, also an only child, a fellow patriot like me but she claims Judaism as her faith, quotes the new testament as well as old and is interested in animal rescue and their well being. She majored in Art History.  She likes to write.  It came out that she loves and misses the country but lives in Uptown; she loved to ride horses she shared, as Mar shared Uncle Wesley had a beloved horse, Punkin'.

I am keeping things in God's hands since I have not heard from her, it is surprising since I know so much about her father besides the obvious.  We pray that God would open the proper doors if any and that's plenty enough for me.    For years I have tried to find her, now I have, I have done my part.  What happens next is completely up to God and there is such great peace in that. 

Why are you not on facebook Amelia?  ...Far too many bad witches (as Dorothy said).   My daughter, Mar tells me, Facebook would not be a good place for you.   ...And I believe her.

Closing with this old song I heard a radio speaker share most recently.  When in highschool I would listen to Carly Simon over and over again, just loved her. 



To promote her 1995 album 'Letters Never Sent', Carly surprised travelers through Grand Central Station with this unannounced concert. 

She is very tall, isn't she?   It always interests me as an artist, the various builds of people! : )

I hope everyone is doing well.  It's a foggy day here in the Forest.

Signing off for now,     Amelia