Peanuts and Crackerjacks

Here is a pic of the Isotopes ball field from the parking lot. D and I have been pretty excited about getting into the baseball spirit again. They have the absolute nicest field in the minor league! We watched the episode of The Simpsons that started the Isotopes team here, and we've been watching old baseball movies to get into the proper mindset, Lol. We went early, because they will cater to people with Lupus and other conditions if they can. We got seats entirely in the shade, and possibly the best seats in the house!! We took a jar lid from a El Paso Salsa jar, so we got one ticket free!!

Here is my sweetheart in his new baseball cap, he's just too cute!! We ate really bad food and it was wonderful!! They serve Hebrew National hotdogs!! And we had funnel cake, and hot chocolate too!

The stadium is maintained so well, so clean and in mint condition.

This is from my seat. Right behind the Home Plate. They're prepping the field here. Gotta love a baseball game with a mountain view!

And there are the Isotopes!! We played the Zephyrs and we won!! Excellent experience all the way around. I love the music and atmosphere. Orbit, the mascot, was adorable.

Ram Progress

Twi and I got together on 4/20 at the yurt for our annual 4/20 party. Floyd Archuleta was there too! We had hours of really great, productive, art discussion. He got to see the pieces I'd finished so far and really liked where we were going with our ideas. So I gave Twilight what I had, she added it to what she had, and here we go. I just got these pics from her yesterday. They show off her beginning progress of the assembly process.

We're shooting for a "Day of the Dead" meets "New Mexican Cemetary" look for this guy.

So far, I'm in total love with it. She called me last night to say we definately need more squares, stripes and rectangles!! So I put on a movie and went back to knitting and crocheting!!

Crazy Girl's Day

Twilight and I got together at our favorite coffee shop, Wired Cafe, for a nice relaxing day of eating snacks, drinking coffee and knitting. We always hold a 'Show and Tell' of sorts, bringing our latest finished projects to show off. Twi just finished her Noro Blossom Sweater, you can see more about it here. Okay, now the fun begins. She was working on a pair of knucks for Thebes, and using her special multi colored woodend DPN's from knickpicks in a size 1. Before we could react, one of the five slipped from her grasp, fell to the floor, and swiftly fell through the cracks in the floor!!! YIKES!!!

Here you can see the nice guy who works behind the coffee counter, coming to see if he can help. He happened to have a small solar powered flash light that we used to locate our prey.

Now for those of you who happen to have a Capricorn for a bestfriend, you probably already know how this story is going to go. I knew immediately that we were going to get the needle back, even though we were on a raised platform, at least 2 and a half feet above the ground. The floor was filthy, and the underground was even worse with dust and junk. We checked to see if the floor boards could be removed or lifted. No dice.

Regardless of the fact she's wearing a brand new hand knit sweater that she just finished 10 minutes before this, she begins desperately crawling around on the dirty floor, moving tables and chairs!! Our host brought over some duct tape and she began make long skinny tools to help us reach the lost needle. Duct tape, other knitting needles, straws, coffee stirrers, paper clips....

After an hour of no success, we were hysterical with laughter at our own obsurdity. We were sweating and dirty and crazed with determination. We had sporadic on lookers. One man came over and asked what we had lost. I told him about the rouge knitting needle and he just shook his head in disbelief. "I thought you'd lost something important" he said. My mouth hung open in mock outrage!! But I knew a non-knitter could never understand.

Then Twilight realizes that the answer is to move the needle (2&1/2 feet underground) across an expanse of about 6 feet, to a larger opening in the floor boards. I had no doubt that's what we were gonna do. I made Twi take off her new sweater. Her face was pressed against the floor, and she was dirty from head to toe.

Here is the larger crack that we were aiming for. So Twilight, with her long string of taped together straws and things, works to nudge the needle repeatedly in that direction. It took awhile, the "tool" kept falling apart, and we lost pieces to the dusty abyss below and had to tape on new extensions. Each foiled attempt made us laugh even harder, several times we had to stop to wipe tears from our eyes.

After our hours of persistance, she got it!!! Ta Daaa!!! Look carefully at her very dirty nose!! I love it. Just more proof, that this girl can do anything she sets out to do!! And she has fun doing it!! It was a reminder of why I admire her so much and love having her for a bestfriend. YAY for girl-power!!!

Happy Earth Day!!

We have a new project underway that we are super excited about!! We? Yes! A new collaborative art piece!! This awesome ram sculpture was created by Floyd Archuleta, a popular sculptor from Taos, New Mexico. He owns and runs the Des Montes Folk Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden. Twilight and I will be covering this ram in yarn, using various techniques, to create a techni-colored center piece for this year's Taos Wool Festival.

Floyd's sculptures are made from recycled bailing wire and rebar and old farm stuff! So cool!!

We're gonna post updates as we put it together, so look for our upcoming progress pics!!

BTF 2011: The Reception

This year was the best so far, really very wonderful. The public response was overwhelming and so positive. D teased me for days about my ego, saying that my head was so big I could barely get into the car afterwards. And my big head pushing him out of bed at night!! LOL Our outside banner, made by Merce

Here's the whole group!! All of the Fringers!!

The live music we had was awesome, made for the perfect environment!!!

Twi took this pic of me in the back just before the opening, as we were doing out toasts.

Here I am with my youngest daughter, Samantha and her boyfriend Floyd.

The lady working the desk.

The rest are just action pics of random people during the reception.

And of course, Thebes and Daniel outside most of the evening doing Man Talk. xoxo

BTF 2011: The Show

Okay, I'm being self centered I'm sure, but here I'm featuring gallery pics of my own work from this year's show. Photos taken by Thebes. Twilight did such a fabulous job on all the artists interviews and gallery work, that I'm sending everyone to her blog to see the entire show. You can see the full spectrum of work here and here. Mind Dancers

Mind Dancers close up

Frolicking; or The Dancing Nasties: An Idle Mind at Play

Dancing Nasties close-up

The Other Side. Installation; 8 feet wide and 7 feet tall.

Street sign close-up

Reality side close-up

Dream side close-up

Another Dream side close-up

In the Paper!!

The same day as the hanging, we got the paper, and everyone was celebrating that we got a great write-up!! This is the Tempo section of the Taos News. It was a page and half this year! I'm going to cut mine out and frame it for the studio! I should have done that last time too, bleh!!

Twilight and my work was featured! My Merce and her Green Man. Yay!!

BTF 2011: Hanging Day

So here we are again. Another fabulous year for Beyond the Fringe (BTF). Hanging day was March 24th, the day before the show opened. It's not common for an entire show to be hung in one day, but Merce and crew always pull it off in one long exhausting stint. It begins with tables, dropcloths, tapemeasures, power tools, spackle, ladders and things being moved in and around at a hurry.

Above are Jana, Linda, and Gail.

Here is Jana again. This was my first year at being involved in the hanging process. I had to be there because of my installation piece, and so did Twilight for hers, so we worked as a team and wow did I learn alot from the experts!! These ladies really know their stuff!!

Here I am, trying to explain to Linda and Merce how the Dancing Nasties were supposed to look once they were hung.

Here's Pearl, Twilight's skeleton piece. Getting this baby hung right was an adventure!! The rest of the time, we were too busy for pictures.

Here's Twi at the end of the day when the drama was finally over. YAY!!

Ha! She's knawing on the bone!! Ha ha!!!

A Dress for the Art Show Opening

I've been saving up material towards this dress for 2 years, and finally it was born!! This yarn was a handspun gift of goodness from Twilight in Dec. of 2009. It was spun from wool roving that she picked up at the 2009 Taos Wool Festival. It was plied with a strand of bronze colored silk that she had gotten from me as a gift in 2008, I think. I immediately started looking for and setting aside materials to match it.

I cut up 4 other old skirts (recycle & reuse!!!) into thin strips of very frayed ribbon yarn. I had to have some help since my arthritis doesn't allow me to use a pair of scissors anymore, and I still haven't gotten myself a rotary cutter. So thank you to my good friends Olivia and Benjamin for donating their efforts!! I love you guys!!

Then the fun began! I knit all this up on size 17 needles, using (loosely) a pattern for a tank top in a wave lace pattern. The matching slip dress underneath is sewn, thanks to my friend Polli who patiently sat and helped me with that part!! xoxo

Thebes, Twilight, Myself, and Daniel.

Here we are at the show's opening reception. The dress was everything I wanted it to be and I got many great compliments! I'm now calling it my Friendship Dress, cuz I couldn't look this good without a little help from my friends!!!