Shibori Baby!

Look what I found:

Teens can learn two fun Japanese crafts in one evening at this unusual workshop offered by the Sun Valley Center for the Arts.

Becka Rahn, Education Director at the Textile Center of Minnesota, will show you how to use shibori, a traditional form of tie dye, to design and dye your own bandanna. She’ll demonstrate four or five traditional patterns that you can combine as you wish to create your own one-of-a-kind wearable art.

While the dyes set, you’ll learn kumihimo, the art of making an eight-stranded braid used to accessorize a kimono or decorate a samurai sword. Warning: Kumihimo is highly addictive—make a bracelet or two and you’ll be totally hooked!

Guest instructor Becka Rahn is a self proclaimed jack-of-all-trades when it comes to textile art. She has taught classes in everything from felting to tie dye to beginning tatting (that’s lace-making, not tattooing!). Becka has taught at the Textile Center of Minnesota for more than four years, making art with everyone from toddlers to grandmas. In her spare time, she specializes in creating puppets and whimsical embroidered pieces. You can see more of Beckas work at www.beckarahn.com.

Teen Workshops are designed to be fun, creative, artistic activities just for teens. All Teen Workshops are done in partnership with Yak!

Thank you Sun Valley Online! If you are visiting from there, I hope to see you in one of my classes!

the end is in sight....

* Thanks to some fantastic macro photography by my superhubby, I have finished some of the nicest handouts I have ever done for a class. (At least I think so.) It is hard to take photos of yourself doing embroidery. Not enough hands.

* We finished our taxes. TurboTax tried to tell us we made $332,000 last year (so not true) but we tracked that down.

* We cleaned the house from corner to corner. I would say top to bottom but we didn't do the basement. That's for another time. The main floor is spiffy and so needed to be done. Spring = muddy puppy feet! Still need to vacuum and find someplace to put a dining-room-chair-full of books.

* Walked and walked. It got up to about 45 degrees here and I wore my sunglasses. It was heaven. Our poor old dog was a little stiff when she got done with her first real hike of the spring. It's supposed to snow tomorrow.

* On our walk got to see the grand re-opening of one of my favorite local fabric stores - Crafty Planet They moved to a new location (still within walking distance - hooray!) and the new shop looks fantastic!

* Off to bed.

yawn

She pretty much sums up just how I feel. I leave for teaching in Idaho in about a week and I have been making handouts and samples and gathering materials like crazy. All this happens to coincide with a bunch of things that must get done at work. Yawn. I have to leave to go in early today for a tour group, but on the upside of that, I am hoping to be able to leave work a little early and stop by a favorite yarn shop on my way home.

Happy Easter Flamingos!

I am sensing....

... some disapproval, perhaps?

mmmmmmwwwwwahhhhhhh!

Sea Horses

...or perhaps more accurately Leafy Sea Dragons. They are some of my favorite animals ever. I just found this lovely shot while looking in the photo collection for something else. When you have more than 14000 photos in there, you occasionally find an unexpected treasure. I love the color combination on these two - bright lemon yellow and glowing silvery blue with black edges. Wow.
I think I may try to share some of these photos more often.

A bullet point post

Some very cool caffeine earrings that I got for my birthday last week.

Andy playing a concert.

Pretty red amaryllis.

Prizes!

Thank you to everyone who participated in my blog roundup through the comments or email! Now it is time to award the prizes! Drawing names out of a hat...

Boogie Woogie Shimmering Sheep Pin goes to.... dale-harriet!


and Fiber Fiend Magnet Set goes to... trek!

(Sorry for the delay - images weren't working on blogger.)

Thank you!

Just a quick note of thanks to everyone who sent me blog links! You had some fantastic suggestions and I now have a whole page in my handout of just links. I will announce winners of fibery prizes later on today!

Housekeeping!

Hi Readers;

I have 2 favors to ask. First, if you subscribe to this blog with a blog reader, can you let me know if I have broken anything. I am putting together a class all about how to start a blog and I was double checking all of my settings and I want to make sure I didn't break anything.

And then, please send me your favorite links! I need examples of blogs used in many different ways - used as a journal, a shop, a portfolio, a tool - anything really! I would like to have several good examples of specific ways blogs can be used to do different things.

AND, by way of a bribe to encourage your assistance, if you leave a link in the comments or email it to me by the end of the day Saturday March 8, I will put your names in a hat and draw some fibery art prizes and give them to you! (note: I edited this to extend the deadline because Chris @ Stumbling Over Chaos is going to help spread the word.)

Love, Becka

Luverly

My Fair Lady was a delight! All of the actors were fantastic. They stayed very true to the original script - I hate productions that change things willy-nilly. On that note, they did change a few things that I thought brought a lot to the show. It is originally set in 1912. This production moved it up to 1910. (Huh? What difference does that make?) In 1910 King Edward died, which put the entire Ascot scene in mourning colors. The photo I posted below is from that scene. It was gorgeous in shades of black, charcoal, and smoky purples and mauves. After Eliza storms off singing "Show me!" Freddy follows her down the street, into a subway car and back out into the street where she meets up with a group of suffragettes on a busy street. They are there to provide a backdrop to the scene, but their signs of "Deeds not Words" and "Votes for women" add something bigger than Eliza to the song. It was a nice touch.

Another really fun thing about this production was Henry's mother. In this production, Mrs. Higgins is played my Marni Nixon, who was the singing voice of Audrey Hepburn in the movie version of the musical. She was perfect in the part.

Finally, I think a truly great production of My Fair Lady has to hinge on one song - On the Street Where you Live. It is a miserable song. Sappy, not terribly interesting, and sung by Freddy who is not the most interesting of characters. I lve the song, but it can be a low point in the show. This one was luverly. Freddy's character is a puppy. He's adorable and you can't help but like him immediately and you get the feeling that Eliza feels the same way. The reprise of On the Street finds him sitting by a street lamp after the assembly ball (where he has spent the evening unsuccessfully trying to get Eliza's attention) cradling an empty champagne bottle and tipsily serenading it.

I am so glad we went. We didn't even really know it was playing here - a friend was a member of the pit orchestra and got us great great seats. A great evening for sure.

(I didn't even talk about how good Henry or Alfred P Dolittle were. Little Bit of Luck brought down the house!)