Tiadaghton House

 
 

Here is a preview of some of the art showing at the recently opened Tiadaghton House. Jim and Holly have done a beautiful job selecting and displaying the work of local artists.

I am honored to be showing my art here you can also find my hand-dyed scarves and one of a kind art to wear tee shirts.

The Tiadaghton House
111 W. St. Louis Street
Lebanon, Illinois 62254

Wednesday - Saturday from
10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Sunday from 12:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Kitten Love

This is how we first met last Sunday.... my dogs were barking like fools at these little ones who were sitting just outside our shed. This was a very distressing sight as it was raining they looked so pitiful and were meowing like crazy...to add to the drama my husband I were supposed to be leaving  in a couple hours for an overnight trip to Blue Sky Vineyard to celebrate our 23rd wedding anniversary.

After several calls to various and very closed animal clinics and humane societies (who had very annoying messages I might add).  My vets answering machine message was warbly and sounded like this "in case of emergency dial 539 -6 blib17 "what the hell was the number blib? So after dialing several wrong numbers I finally hit on the correct blib= number and left a message for my vet to please call me. Here is the sure sign that you have a good vet he actually returned my call in 5 minutes ( sheesh my doctor won't even do that! ).
 I explained the situation and he agreed with my suspicions that the momma was probably moving the kittens and was scared off by my dogs. He suggested we leave them overnight exactly where they were, do not touch them, keep the dogs away and the area quiet in hopes the momma would return for them. If she didn't  we would need to start bottle feeding them in the morning.  This vet is such a nice man ... he was so calm and matter of fact it eased my fears of these kittens dying any minute.  His advice was also practical the kittens would have a better chance of surviving if their momma was feeding them.

So we decided to head for the vineyard... leaving my very tenderhearted son in charge of keeping the dogs away and keeping an eye on the situation...I stressed how important it was not to touch the kittens or disturb the area but knew in my heart their pitiful meowing would tug at his heart... he is my son after all. He says he did not touch them and stayed away during the day but when it started getting colder at sundown he warmed up water bottles and put them out there next to them to try to keep them warm.... not touching them but definitely disturbing the area. He also went and purchased formula in case he needed to start feeding them in the morning. So we texted several times throughout the day still no sign of momma cat. 

When I texted for the morning report this was his return text  " I started feeding them this morning and have someone coming over to show me how to do it correctly she will take one of the kittens and will bottle feed it with the help of her grandparents" I was not even one little bit surprised. He had a plan in place and things under control. The truth of how that night actually went down will come out eventually! I have my suspicions but have to say I am proud to have a son who does not like to watch animals suffering.

I came home to see this little face in my kitchen.

So my son and I have been sharing feeding duties... every 4 hours... he does the night shift thankfully. We burp, and help the little bugger go to the bathroom... this stinks  to high heaven I might add! Then we give it a cat bath which is my favorite thing ( no I don't lick it)
 it purrs and relaxes completely falling asleep.

This morning we go see the vet and get this one checked out and weighed so we know how much formula it should be eating. Hopefully we can learn what the sex is so I can quit calling it the little bugger, this one, and the kitten. I think it is a female.

So life in the woods has taken this unexpected and sweet road...sometimes scratchy and frequently purring!

Meow!

Street Art Denver

I am in Denver this week spending some time with my daughter. It is really interesting to be in a city that has such a vibrant art presence. I am especially smitten with the these large posters we have seen on several walls throughout the city.

I would love to know who the artist or artists are. It is such an interesting addition to the street and I would love to hear the back story.

Explorations in Color.

I have been on a mission this summer to make cloth samples from every dye powder on my shelf ... a little bit boring to dye the small one color fabric samples ...but... during the course of the week I play on on a larger piece of cloth mixing and layering colors so I can explore the interactions between multiple colors and removing color. 

The shapes you see that look like bones ( to me) were created using soy wax for a resist before dyeing with golden yellow and medium blue.

 

 Over-dyed with fuchsia.

Then I applied Jacquard Discharge Paste in circle shapes using a muffin tin for a stamp. After covering the surface with these wonky looking circles I let the paste dry for a bit then steamed each circle to remove the color. The fuchsia disappeared leaving the underlying colors and was very exciting to watch during the steaming process. Yes Rosie... I was wearing my Darth Vader mask for safety!