Veteran's Day

My lovely grandparents, Virginia Louise Freet Bair and Charles G. Bair on their engagement day. Salem, Ohio.

Going through the daily motions on this rainy day, it seems fitting to remember the past. Mostly today I am thinking about Veteran's Day. I wrote the following last year, and it still is one of my favorite posts. So, here it is again...

On a grander and more important scale, I am remembering all the Vets out there, living and dead, who have done so much to protect our country. My grandfather on my mother's side was a WWII vet, stationed in the extreme remote wilderness of Attu, Alaska for several years. Some of the worst bloodshed of WWII was fought on Attu. My mom was a tiny baby when he left, a three year old when he returned. I can't imagine not seeing my family for such a long time. I can't imagine his loneliness, living in a tiny quonset hut in the freezing cold, or my grandmother struggling to support a household that included my mother, my great grandparents, and my great aunt, who was a high school student at the time, all on a bank teller's salary. This is how people looked out for one another back then. But she never complained, either at the time or years later, an admirable quality I wish I possessed.

While the war raged on, my grandparents kept up a correspondence, writing each other every day the personal and plain events of their lives, documenting my mom's development from an infant into a toddler and all the events that my grandfather was missing back home in Ohio. The letters are voluminous and detailed and they were saved by my grandmother for more than forty years after my grandfather's untimely departure from this life at the age of 51. I never had the pleasure of knowing him, a gentle and kind man, and my mom was deprived of her beloved father and my grandmother her beloved husband for the majority of their lives. After my grandmother's death in 2000, my mom discovered these letters kept in a large wooden box, preserved in order, along with tiny Eskimo dolls, postcards and the long awaited cable from my grandfather, telling his wife that he was finally coming home...

Happy Veteran's Day, everyone. Thank you for your service.

Angel stamp

Wow, I haven't posted in about eight days... Since last post, I have been down for the count with the flu and still recovering a bit. Right before I hit the bed for a few days, I sketched out this image of an angel and transferred it to a rubber carving block and went to work carving it out. For several years I have had a set of sharp carving tools in various sizes but never tackled the carving block until now. I think it turned out pretty well and am using it on some vintage distressed muslin for fabric work. This item is available on http://jenniferstumpf.etsy.com.

It was such fun carving this image that I carved a couple of pine trees, a self portrait of myself and my husband in miniature (this is hilarious), one of a dog sitting, a row of buildings and I have a few more sketched out but not yet carved. It does make a mess of rubber shavings all over the place and I keep finding them everywhere, even after I clean up with vacuum and attachments.

I see hand carved rubber stamped images for our Christmas cards this year. =)

Otherwise I am just applying for jobs since business is so terrible for my husband in this recession. I read yesterday that acquiring a job these days is akin to getting into Harvard. Very encouraging.... But I keep looking anyway. I'm pretty sure I could get into Harvard if I wasn't so old....

The most exciting thing I have done otherwise is color my hair. Grey be gone! yes!! Nothing real exciting for color-- just a golden brown. No red hair or white blond spikes. I keep thinking I may have an interview I'll have to look normal for. Or a Harvard application.

the pumpkin patch/a few new etsies

I've listed a few more of these neat little fabric swatches to my etsy site. So far, no buyers. I think they are sooooo cute and for anyone who adores vintage, stained, rumpled, frayed bits of fabric art like I do, these are wonderful sewn onto a quilt, a fabric journal, a purse, or whatever you want. I made a few for myself to sew onto collaged fabric purses and they look fabulous. So there is my plug for my etsy shop for the day. =) http://jenniferstumpf.etsy.com.

One more listing! I believe in so many things.... do you?

Michael and I bought our pumpkins this year from a country market where they had three wonderful patches to choose from. They had one patch with cut pumpkins, where we got these, and two with cut your own from the stalk. And they had gi-normous cut from the stalk pumpkins in their main market. I fell in love with all of them, which wasn't difficult for me since I love pumpkins to the point of dreaming of the day when we may live somewhere where we can try our hand at growing giant pumpkins. I'm talking HUUUGE pumpkins, like were on the PBS program last week, 1500 pounders! Fascinating! I read books about it, read online about them and their growers. I know. It's weird. Anyway, we already had one big orange pumpkin, and here he is perched on his kitty beanbag, looking a little peeved that we bothered his favorite big kitty resting spot. What an expression... Mango Man! We love you anyway, big guy.

Michael choosing a little pumpkin.

So many choices!! I picked a big one. Sadly enough, we've been so busy we haven't had time to carve them and now it's already going into November 2. We still plan to do it.

What else is going on.... We're like many Americans who are self employed these days, watching our ship slowly sinking at the same time as we are waiting for another better ship to come in. Hopefully my husband's business will pick up this week. Michael just finished restoring a grand piano and shipped it out to the customer. Now he is working on another but day to day jobs are scarce. It's kinda scary, folks.

This morning, since it was pouring buckets of rain, we did something revolutionary and cleaned our apartment. Michael took to spraying nasty smelling stuff into the moldy shower and I took the rest of the apartment-- a fair exchange, I thought. Afterwards, we took Lucy out in her little red doggie raincoat, got her rubbed down and wistfully settled in the apartment, then took off to go see Michael Moore's latest, Capitalism- A Love Story. We knew alot of this was going on, of course, but what an eye opener. We both laughed and cried throughout the movie, it felt so much our story and what we relate to with our every day living. After the movie, of course it was all we could talk about. Then it was on to Costco and then home.

Tonight I've mostly rested in the big warm bed with a big orange kitty at my side and a sleepy dog on the other, working on my stitching projects. I'm sure not many people outside my family know that I am an avid needleworker and love it probably more than any of my other creative endeavors. Someday I would like to design cross stitch charts but for now I am quite satisfied when happily stitching that of others. To explain what all I am working on would require another blog altogether, which may not be a bad idea. =D

Tomorrow is another day. I have my list ready!

a few new items with lots more to come

I'm delving into fabric art, as I am making art quilts. These sweet little bluebird stampings are too lovely to resist on my own work, so they are to be offered up for sale on etsy tomorrow...

this is the cutest teeny tiny postcard on overdyed distressed muslin. so sweet!! about ten more to go on that front... have to work on the photos tomorrow and then upload. i'm spent tonight!

LOTS of new etchings, themes this time of vintage Paris. Each set is a mis-matched set of scenes and items pertaining to vintage Paris. Voila, mon cheri!

Check them out at http://jenniferstumpf.etsy.com.












believe. There is no other way...

http://jenniferstumpf.etsy.com

moonlit forest

I have a high stack of pendants (I know you thought I was going to say pancakes, but no. but I would like some of those too...) and etched charms to list on etsy but etsy is not cooperating with me today. I managed to list this moonlit forest copper etched pendant photo and am still having problems that hopefully will resolve overnight... At any rate, this one is on http://jenniferstumpf.etsy.com.

It is a rainy, rainy day here in Richmond, dark and dreary. Dank and dark and dreary and I cannot get motivated this evening. It's a good night to lay in bed, watch movies and work on needlework.

I've been working on various projects all day-- etchings, sewing, cleaning up and running errands but it's hard to get real motivation going. Just when I was going to leash Lucy up and take a good walk, it started to really rain, not just drizzle out, so it was a quick out and back in again.

For cheap entertainment, I've been photographing funny pumpkins in our neighborhood.

I particularly like the top one. Something about the teeth make me laugh.

A bright-shinier day tomorrow, I hope...

a visit to the parents

Two days ago my husband and I loaded up the dogs and went to visit my parents. While there, Michael did work for some churches (tuning pianos) and a neighbor. My mom and I went to the beach, loaded up the dogs and bought the most beautiful mums from a very friendly Mexican fellow, got groceries, washed loads of laundry (our laundry facilities are terrible where we live- scary place...) and in general we all got caught up after not having seen each other in several weeks. First thing my parents showed us from their beach walks in New England? A big tray full of sea glass collected along the shores of northern Maine. Beautiful! My mom picked a handful out for me to bring home and drill so she can make some lovely things with them. Last night we were treated to a full screen show of the New England pictures, with whale watching and the works.

Dad, Michael and I took Lucy for a long walk past the horse pastures and down almost to the bay. Along the way, Dad, a retired wildlife biologist with a keen eye, found umpteen neat insects on the road that I almost squashed for not having the good eye. Above, Dad and I stop for a photo op along the trail home.

Big hairy spider Dad found on the walk. It was HUGE and sluggish. Dad said it was cold. Good thing- I didn't want it jumping on me.

Mom finally had her bon appetit moment in the kitchen last night with Julia Child's boeuf bourguignonne.

Yes it was most delicious! Yum!!!

Now we are home again and I have a boatload of jewelry orders to complete and mail out, plus so many new ideas swimming in my head I sat down for quite a while tonight and wrote them all out, plus a to-do list so long I had to quit out of practicality.

Don't anyone faint but next time I will have new jewelry components on etsy and here!

Foliage Fancy

I'm very pleased to be included amongst the talented artists in the new Fall issue of Stringing magazine. My necklace, a copper and silver creation titled Sit Under A Tree, is on page 40. The pendant is reproduced and for sale on my etsy site http://jenniferstumpf.etsy.com. Before the magazine came out, I wanted to make the pendant available on my etsy site. Since my memory failed, I searched and searched through my photos, trying to recall if I made the stamped bar with copper or sterling and could not remember. So, finally giving up, it's created with sterling silver and went live a few weeks ago. Now that I have the free artist's copy back from Stringing, I see it was in fact made with copper. Go figure. I'm leaving it with sterling online, unless someone requests copper, as it is just as attractive, goes with the rest of the piece just as well, and is just as step-by-step tedious to create and wire wrap either way.


Foliage Fancy! Speaking of which, the leaves are really turning brilliant reds, orange, and yellows in Richmond. This is my favorite time of year so I'm really savoring it and drinking it all in. Maybe one of these days it will stop raining long enough to take a proper walk through our neighborhood. Today & yesterday we had record low temps in Richmond. yay! I love it!!

It's to rain all weekend, thwarting our yard sale plans tomorrow. A good day to stay inside and create some lovely new things, and also to head out and see the new Michael Moore movie we're both itching to see- Capitalism, A Love Story. I'd also like to go see Julie & Julia again but it's my husband's turn to pick a flick.

Have a lovely, fall filled weekend, everyone! Go buy a pumpkin, drink a pumpkin spice latte, take a leisurely walk or drive- enjoy life!