Hooray!!!! featured today

I am featured on the By Your Hands Blog today. Fabulous!     http://byyourhands.blogspot.com/

The Notions Snail Box

Its a box to store the lovely tiny things that you have slowly collected, maybe buttons, maybe acorns, maybe spools, maybe lint...


Notions is made of muslin that has been coffee dyed and baked. he has vintage buttons eyes and long cloth covered wire antenae. He is glued upon a painted wooden oval shaped box. it is trimmed with vintage lace and a vine ribbon.

Amost 7 inches tall without the extensio of the antenae, and about 8 inches wide.

Valentines Day Angel with advice to sustain a good marriage...

Arnette has an advice column in the Baggaraggs Gazette. She frequently answers questions about sustaining a healthy marriage, and maintaining Romance. She suggests that you store up a bank of memories of loving embraces, tender looks and sweet words from your spouse that you may refer back to when there are Moments of what we like to call "Friction or Peevishness," that sometimes occur in the connubial relationship. This may prevent a costly divorce or worse, criminal charges and a lengthy jail term.

Arnette is about 7 inches tall. She is made of muslin and comes with an envelope that has been collaged upon and has a gromet set for handy hanging upon the wall. (The envelope, not the spouse)

Plumbing

Ok, so I am hearing a noise that sounds like running water in the bathroom, but Everything is turned off. I am writing this passage in small text in hopes to minimize the BILL that I am sure will be staggeringly Large. So Last night I get home from the hospital to towels, yes my GOOD ones, lying in a sopping mess on the bathroom floor with MY husband looking more agitated than normal. Something is leaking, and welling up in the floor. Well, isn't that just GRAnd? So at midnight, we are rocketing around the house, outside with a flashlight, looking for the water valve to shut off the water hurry up it won't turn oh get a screw driver can't get it to turn, that's the wrong valve you've shut off the pool, ok that's the right one. WHEW!!!!!
Ok, so today, the plumber comes and I guess we have a slab leak and the house has to be re-plumbed.
I guess no one told the household gremlins that seem to be so intent on having the place crumble, that we are starting a new year and that NOW, everything is supposed to be just PEACHY!!!!
So far this year, I have not spent any time at all in the studio except to try to organize it. I am doubtful about using my regular vacuum in there for the floor, because I think the first swipe will surely clog up the bag and I think I will have to use the SHOP VAC.
Well, that's it for me. I hope all is well with you guys. may we be free from suffering, happy and peaceful. RObin of baggaraggs.

Dreaming

It is a dream of course. I am laying at the bottom of the sea, gently caressed by the frondy fingers of the seaweed. It is warm here and I do not have to trouble myself with breathing. I look up and see the vibrant bands of blue-green light from above, illuminating the lazy descent of a large Fish who seems to be headed my way. he looks like a whimsical torpedo and carries a corked glass vial about his neck.
He comes to me and nudges a scroll of paper into my hand, and with a fin waves a pen for writing. He nods his head in encouragement as I write my message. It is finished and corked inside the vial for delivery.

I wave goodbye with a mermaid's tail that I have sprouted somehow. I watch as the fish ascends to the surface and uncorks my message from the tiny vial. Upon the waters he pours out my message of hope. "Let there be peace on Earth."

2011

I am waking each morning to the darkness of pain in my shoulder and elbow and back. It is starting the day in this way that has me bothered, as if some black Bell tolls out another step toward my Body crumbling. I am feeling as if my strength is ebbing and my spirit is flagging. These times I carve out a hole for hiding and rest from fears that I will stay stuck in this dreadful rut of SElf-Pity.
I will believe and honor this day that I am just gathering and recooping my strength, find my favorite quilt and sleep a few moments without guilt or worry that I am never going to get my creativity back. I have decided to spend each day trying to make someone else happy and be happy myself by acting from a place of Love. there are no other resolutions. may you be Happy, May you be healthy, may you be peaceful, may you be safe and may you be free from Suffering. May I also. happy 2011. There is nothing that can seperate us from the Love of God.

I would like you to help me welcome a few newcomers to the world of the baggaraggs. Ada Boffit and Norma. Both dressed for Christmas and available at my Etsy. I am sorry I have been MIA. My Mother Board has been Down and I had to buy a new computer.

Happy Thanksgiving

Just wishing you all the Happiest of Thanksgivings. I am working at the hospital today.
I have been very busy trying to get ready for the holidays. I have been neglecting my Blog and my story. Please forgive me.

Here are some of the things that I have been working on that you can find at my Etsy. I hope that you have a magical Thanksgiving.

been a while

So today I had to appear in court, as I was a witness to a traffic accident that happened on I-75, this summer. I watched in helpless Horror as a driver of a furniture truck switched lanes without apparently seeing the car next to him. He drove his truck over the side of the car, ripping the car to pieces and causing the car to loose control. I yelled out "Jesus help them." The car served to the right shoulder and came back into the right lane and collided again with the truck. They then parted again and the car veered into the palmetto off of the highway and I seriously thought that the people inside that car were dead.
The car was shredded.
I stopped and with shaking hands dialed 911 before getting out of my car to see if I could assist them in some way.
No one was injured. Not the folks in the truck, or the people in the car.
I could not honestly understand how this could be but I was thankful to God that it was so.
Today, I had to confront the driver of the truck in front of a Judge, who claimed that the people in car drove into him instead of vice versa. Not so. The driver of the truck was found guilty, and was angry by this verdict. After we exited the court room, he was quite hostile, yelling at me that I had lied and done so in a court room. REALLY? He was quite intimidating, and to be truthful, I was a little afraid. I did feel calm. I did think there was something that I should say, but I said nothing.
I did feel peaceful. I am sorry that the driver was fined and that he may have lost his CDL license to operate a truck, but everyone was alive and uninjured. That was the most important part of the whole thing to me. It seemed a fairly simple conclusion to come to.
The driver of the truck was so angry. I struggle to try to understand how he thinks lying about any of this would make it better.
I have lied before in my life. I confess to this. I am not much of a liar now adays.
To lie about something so very serious though is to twist your spirit into a hunk of shredded metal, not unlike that car totalled on the highway.
Please be careful driving. This is an unusual post for me. This episode occurred the same weekend that my friend Debra of Monniebean witnessed another terrible accident many states away in New York. She also stopped to render aid.
Please be a helpful citizen. Even if you have to go to court, do your best to try to make things right.
Please try not to lie. Your guts might get twisted up as a result and that would leave you in pain.
Please handle your anger appropriately. I don't know what to say about that. Claim the gift that is meant for YOU. If its not yours don't accept it.
Thanks for reading. Peace out.

My Visit

I recently had an opportunity to visit with my sisters in Vermont. It was LOVELY. I love my sisters so much. We had a great time.

Bennet acts.

Startled by Grace's fall and her thrashing about, Bennet found his feet in motion, full throttle through the meadow toward her. Doves launched from the field, rising hastily on their squeaky wings to get out of his way as he tore down the hillside and reached her yelling "Grace, what is it, what is it?"
Hysterical laughter mixed with tears was all that Grace could respond. She was reaching up inside her skirt hem batting at herself.
Bennet decided this was his time to act. he grabbed the offending dress bottom and heaved, rending the seam at the waist, and revealing , to his acute astonishment Grace's Pink under panties with tiny cranberry roses on them. A large green grasshopper sprang out and ricocheted off his left shoulder, bounding away.
Grace angrily covered herself and them tried to rescue her torn clothing from Bennet.
"Look what you did," she cried.
"I'm sorry, "he stuttered, horrified.
Grace glared at him, until at last a ting hysterical giggle issued forth and they both dissolved in laughter, slumped in the long grasses of the field.

The Romance begins.....

Grace Tenderstitch gingerly picked her way up the path through her field. She wondered if she should have worn a hat, and briefly chided herself for lack of confidence. She was aware that Bennet watched her progress, aware that her feet were sweating in her good shoes and that they pinched her bunion. She was admittedly nervous and felt the hem of her slip catch irritably on a patch of leg hair that she had missed while shaving that morning. She tried hard to look like she was walking in a relaxed fashion but the heels of her shoes dug in the ground and threatened to topple her. Never the less she held her head high and made great progress, sauntering along like she was use to going to a breakfast picnic at 7:30 every morning. She would normally watch where she put her feet but today she felt like a model on a runway, albeit one that wound through a tall grassy field. Her filmy flowered dress shifted off a shoulder, and dipped down causing Grace to pause and slip it back where it belonged. She was smiling in the direction of Bennet Wimmer when the grasshopper took aim at her thigh and flipped itself inside her dress, coming to rest on her inner leg close to the place where the elastic from her underwear gathered itself in the crease of her leg.
Grace Tenderstitch leaped into the air as if she was launched by an  unseen trampoline. She grabbed at her crotch, and made  wild shooing gestures to get the offending creature off of her inner thigh. The raspy legs and feet of the grasshopper tickled her unmercifully and Grace let out a squeal that was with her contortions and gyrations difficult for Bennet to interpret. He smiled nervously and then chuckled hesitantly, thinking that Grace was having a bit of fun, until Grace actually fell to the ground, swatting at her lower body like it was biting her.

Interview with Debra of Monniebean

 I am I confess a copycat of sorts, Maybe.  But maybe Debra of Monniebean and I are kindred spirits, close enough in a very deeply spiritual way that we have similar ideas, and similar happenings. So when she suggested that she interview me for her blog I thought that I would interview her. I wish I had thought of it first...the idea that is.  I do know a few things about her  that I will share with you. Her WORK IS FABULOUS.  Debra and I met on Etsy, we were both enchanted by bugs. We got to chatting and it became clear that we were ....kindred spirits.Some folks get some skills but Debra (I call her Bean and she calls me Baggy) has alot of Talents. She is a gifted Artist, Photographer and Designer.                                                                                                                                              Here are the questions I asked her: Tell us a little bit about yourself: 1)I am married to my sweet husband Geoff. We just had our 21st anniversary! We have one child, a son, Micah.


Is there anything significant about the name  MONNIEBEAN?                                                                   2)My business name, Monnie bean Folk art came form my great-grandmother. Her first name was Cora-how it got changed to 'Monnie' is a story I don't know, but I love her name anyway. I needed to identify my art with the name, so I put 'folk art' at the end. I like the way it looks and sounds. I think names are very important for a person or a business.

What excites or inspires you Bean?                                                                                                            3)I am very excited by prim art and folk art, but I really don't think I am very good at either. I think my real talent lies in design. I used to do silk screening and the designs were bold and funky. I wish I still had all my old equipment for silk screening, but I donated it years ago. I'm sort of returning to it in the stencil work I'm doing on burlap.

I am inspired by: magazines, color combinations, clouds, childrens' art work, old clothing, wool, primitive artists that can really pull it off, like-Baggaraggs, Vermont Harvest, Middleburg, all the great ones that I follow on my blogs-there's so many out there that make me say "Wow!"
How do you know when you are finished with a piece of ART?
4) I'm getting better at knowing when I'm finished with a piece-but I did have the bad habit of working something to death that was just NOT working to begin with, thinking I could make it work somehow. That's not a good idea. Now I stop at the first sign that things are not coming out right. I have a huge pile of rejects. I recycle everything though, and rejects always make you learn something!
What are your BUsiness goals?
5)My goals for my business are to make 100 dollars a week. I would be very excited over that.
Favorite Quote or saying?
6)Favorite quote: "Lord, please make me the kind of person my dog thinks I am." When I saw that hanging on the wall in our vet's office, it actually brought tears to my eyes. We had to be extremely patient with our dog, Cheyenne, when we got her because she had been abused. I learned a lot from a dog! But sometimes my rotten attitudes and actions grieve me so much! My dog loves me anyway...
What are your goals for your Business?
7)I'd like to see my business being settled to two or three things I am good at, and not so many that I don't have a cohesive look. I want really nice business cards and a great logo, tags, the whole thing. In five years I'd love to have a write up in some magazine, or have work in a gallery somewhere.

Where would you like to see your work Published?
8)Well, if my work was in a magazine-I think I'd love to have it be in "Where Women Create," which I am just gaga over. I drag my copy everywhere I go and have been so inspired by every issue. If I could make it in that publication, I would think-"wow-my art must inspire someone."

Ok the island question,what 7 items would you take (there is food and water) for two weeks if you were stranded on a desert island ( I prefer dessert island)
9)OK-the island-first of all-there are no snakes, spiders or creepy things on that island...but the seven things I'd take would be my Bible,lots of dark chocolate,sketchbook and pencil,the latest issue of Where Women Create,my camera,coffee and coffee pot.
Any classes that you would like to take?
10) A class I would take would be water color painting.

Bean What is your Fav color?
11)My favorite color is rusty orange.
 And your Fav Bible verse.
12)My favorite Bible verse is Psalm 118:17 "I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord."

No ONE does Birds like Bean. NO ONE. She has a love for Nature that is apparent in her interpretation of BIRDS. Debra has also started a new Etsy Business called BeanBaggs. She makes fabulous Purses and pillows. Aren't they fabulous? Well Bean. I think we will meet one of these days. I hope so anyway. Keep on inspiring others with your Beautiful Photos at Sparrowgrass.

 -http://www.etsy.com/shop/BeanBaggs

Coming SOOON....

I am interviewing the Brilliant Folk Artist DEBRA, the Creator of Monniebean Folk Art and the Photographer and writer Behind Sparrowgrass. Stay Tuned...

I took this photo at Bellingrath Gardens in Mobile. It beckons with the light at the end of this covered wallway. I was captivated by it.