Stormy Weather

I've been busy stitching photos again. Here's another that will soon be part of some new work or another. It's part of a photograph of the gorgeous art deco Anzeiger building in Hannover, Germany. I took the picture four years ago, when I
had a job going around to various cities in Germany and teaching English to the train service employees in order to prepare them for the world cup. The teaching itself was rather tedious, but I got to take around 11 different trips where my hotel and train was covered and the work itself was pretty well paid. One of the places I went several times was Hannover. I'm sorry if any locals read this post, but Hannover just isn't an exciting place. Located in the middle of Germany, there just isn't much about it that is especially interesting. The court house and the lake behind it are pretty and there is a villa district which might be nice to walk through. And, of course, the Anzeiger building is really beautiful. But the city itself is simply boring. There is not even a local accent or dialect (something they are proud of in Hannover)but I think it really says something about the place. Hannover is a city without a face is what my husband says.

Still, one of the times I went there to work it was really inspiring. It must have been in late November or maybe early December. A storm was brewing throughout the day, but somehow the rain never started. Instead there was just this incredible light shining through these dark, gray clouds; truly dramatic and electric. After class I walked around for hours taking pictures. When I got back to my hotel room, my feet sore from all the walking, I took a series of self-portraits called, appropriately enough, 10 Self-Portraits in a Hotel Room in Hannover. Later, I fashioned them together into a book. Hmm....Maybe I should stitch some of them....;) These days, I'm having an obsession with needle and thread. Whatcha gonna do?

Trying out Art Fire

So I'm trying out Art Fire to see what it's all about. It's only been a few days and I only have one piece on there right now, but so far I find the layout easier than Etsy with some nice features like being able to link your shop to various other websits and blogs. Still, my heart lies more with etsy and I find it somehow "hipper" than Art Fire seems to be. Still, I'll give it a try for a while and see how it goes. Here is a link to the shop which should be expanding soon: Contessa

New space for what's important...

Yesterday I emptied out a shelf of teaching materials to make room for my jewelery supplies. It felt so liberating. I've been teaching English as a Foreign Language for nearly ten years now. For a long time I found it really satisfying and fun, but for the past three years or so I've gotten really burned out. Always the same mistakes, always the same uptight, anal attitudes (Northern Germans are NOT very easy to teach, especially for someone from laid back California!!!) Cleaning out a shelf for my supplies was like a breath of fresh air, a statement that I am going in another direction more and more. Now I just need to empty out another shelf for my sewing supplies (all jumbled in a bag behind the bedroom door now) and another for writing notes and the transformation will be more and more complete. Believe and it will happen!

Ain't life grand?

I launched my new etsy shop, Rose, red Rose today. A lot of the ideas and inspiration came from my one month creative hiatus in California. When I was there I made the rose brooch pictured in the slide show below. I loved it so much that I decided I had to keep it, but it made a perfect logo for my new shop (which I named before making it.) So many new ideas, so many new things to make....Ain't life grand?

The incredible EXPLODING sewing machine!

So I posted earlier how excited I was to get a good deal on a sewing machine for my birthday. It finally came on Saturday, with a big box of needles and other goodies and a pamphlet straight out of the 70s. The sewing machine was rather simple; none of the fancy stitches that the one I use in my course has. But it was easy to use and I want something basic to start out with anyhow. If the sewing thing really takes off, then I will invest in a fancier machine. Anyway, I used it for about 5 minutes, trying out the different stitches and was having a grand old time. The motor sounded kind of loud, but it's an older machine I figured. But then my baby started crying and I had to go lay her down. When I did, I heard a POP POP POP. "What the was that?" My husband shouted from the other room. We both rushed into the living room to see a smoking sewing machine that had exploded. Anyway, that was pretty much a killer for the rest of my Saturday, anger, disappointment, etc. I tried to contact the seller but she didn't answer. I was tempted to give her a bad review (I mean, there is no guarantee on ebay but you DO expect the products to work longer than 5 minutes!!)but thought I'd wait until Monday. Today she finally wrote, very apologetic and offered to give me half of the money back which should hopefully be enough to get it fixed so fair enough. Anyway, I'll keep you posted on any further explosions or eruptions and there consequences!