It's more than just what you'd find in a fruit bowl.

PRODUCE. Depending on how you pronounce it, it's either a blueberry or the creative output of an art studio. As in, "let's see what you've been stitching. C'mon. Produce the art." So I suppose I should give you a glimpse of what's been produced lately.

Sometimes I guess I forget what this blog is supposed to be about. There are just so many other interesting things to talk about. I'm suffering from a little January A.D.D. -- for instance, I'll just be stitching along and then something will catch my eye and for no reason I spend the next hour sorting through a box of vintage valentines. It's difficult to stay on task, which makes my desk/studio a terrible mess, which makes it difficult to stay on task. Anyway.

I'm working on several things at present. The one that's consumed most of my work hours this week is this, which I've been having a great time with:







I couldn't resist jumping on the owl bandwagon -- it's always really fun for me to stitch something I've never stitched before. You can't see it very well, but the patch on his chest is done the same way the pineapple was done in the piece above, which is one of my favorite little tidbits ever, so I was delighted to get a chance to use it again. The question on everyone's mind is: What are the eyes going to look like?

Good question. While I think more about that, I'll show you this:


There's obviously a real green vibe going on in the studio right now -- could have something to do with the utter lack of it in my Minnesota world. One of the paper pads Hannah gave me for Christmas had this great drawing on it:



which I loved, especially in combination with these awesome word strips I found recently:







I figured that surely these elements must combine somehow to create something green and wonderful. So first I announced to Hannah that I was going to plagiarize her drawing (to which she consented graciously -- thanks, Hannah!), then I did my own working sketch:




and cut out the pieces:




They were supposed to be stitched down yesterday, but due to things like vintage valentines, two swell "Saturday Evening Post" magazines ca. 1950's that I found this week, January laziness and keeping Cooper entertained while Russ has been basking in the CA sunshine (oh, and seething with jealousy because he's been in CA and I haven't . . .) I'm running a little behind on my stitching goals.

I also realized that I have no "flower-pot-head" ladies in my inventory at all, and that will surely have to be rectified before Baltimore. So I guess I've got my work cut out for me!

By the way, blogging is the new baking cookies in my world. For years I've baked cookies when I wanted to avoid what I was supposed to be doing, and I've gotten pretty good at it from so much practice. In fact, if I weren't a stitcher, I could be a cookie baker. I'm sure there's more money in it.

Now I write blog posts. Better for my weight, but perhaps even worse for my productivity. And no cookies in the house! Rats.

Now that I've written this, I'm going to go see if that package of chocolate chips is still floating around in the pantry. And later I'll cut out a flower-pot-head lady. And maybe stitch something. And I'm going to Kinko's to copy those vintage valentines I've been sorting.

Anybody have ideas for owl eyes?