Sunday, January 31, 2010

Picture of Pockets for website---Lila


Ok Lila is not smart enough yet to add a picture. I need to get someone younger to do it for me. Later. Lila

Sewing---Lila

I started sewing at age seven or eight. I was raised in a family where my mother sewed clothing and my father sewed backpacking sacks to go on the homemade pack frames he made. He sewed many other things as well, mostly related to camping. My parents shared a machine for years, then my mom finally got her own newer machine. The hum of a machine was a familiar sound.
I was in a 4-H group in my teen years and remember vividly that all my babysitting earnings went to fabric. I would sew a new outfit each month. That was in the days when girls had to wear dresses to school each and every day. I loved sewing. Many of my outfits earned blue and purple ribbons at the county fair. Some even went on to the state fair level.
When I graduated from high school, my graduation gift was a sewing machine. It still works many, many years later.
I bought a serger in 2001. I loved it even more. I said if I had nothing to sew, it was a sad day. My mother-in-law loved to sew too. A sign hung in her sewing room "The one with the most fabric wins". She also had the one "My husband said if I buy more fabric, he will leave. I will miss him". There are days I can understand these thoughts.
I recently, in January, had hours on hand that I put to good use sewing. I wish I had had a clock that kept track of my sewing hours. It would have been interesting for me. So, here is a picture of one stack of the cloth pockets that will be used with the Fairy paper dolls that we sell on the web site. Check it out, they have been very popular. Lila

How "ThingsAltered" came about---Mary


So how did the name THINGSALTERED come into thought and become our website name? It started about 8 to 10 years ago. I LOVE ART JOURNALING! I have kept journals for over 45 years. Way back then, I would put a few little pictures that I would draw in from time to time. But still, they were so dry and boring. My Left-Brain was always fighting my Right-Brain. Left-Brain kept saying "how dumb you are to want to draw stuff in this boring journal". Right-Brain kept telling Left-Brain to "shut up and let me have some fun!" It went on this way for many years until Right-Brain finally got it's way.

Then Right Brain got out of control!! So now all the journals are nothing but art journaling. "YEAH!!", yelled Right-Brain. Then a couple of years ago, I found an old TV cabinet that I "re-did". The cabinet was to hold the growing number of crazy art journals and other creations. I put the words THINGS on one side and ALTERED on the other. I put them in the wrong order but thought it was a clever mistake.
I will add that picture of the front of the cabinet next time but this is a picture of what it looks like on the inside. It is difficult to see all the journals that are in there. Don't worry. I will show them one at a time to you as we go along. Lotsa fun and crazy stuff in there.

End of January--Mary




End of January. It's cold but I am not wishing for warm weather yet because winter is my best time for CREATIVIITY! I am not ready for the garden and yard work. It sort of interrupts my flow. Well at least in the beginning. Then as the things start growing, I usually get another warm surge of CREATIVITY!


About three months ago, two of my dear friends and I got together with some ideas for a website to sell some fun stuff. We each have our own talents and by putting them together, we thought we could do a very fun web page. I am paper artist, Lila is the sewing wiz and Barb is the brains! Okay Lila and I (Mary) have brains too but she seems to see the stuff we do not and works the emails and website. Point is that we all three contribute and enjoy one another's friendship and ideas. We all need each other. I like that alot.
So this is the first time I have ever done blogging so it is a new experience. Starting at this age is a little bit of a challenge but hey, even Grandmas can do stuff too. It takes a little more courage but better late than never. BUT.....I am jumping in!
So what do I want to tell the readers? I want to bea little bit of inspiration to others. I love to CREATE! Hey, sometimes it is good stuff, sometimes it is bad stuff and other times, I really surprize myself. The main thing is to HAVE FUN CREATING!
I will be adding videos to show how the paper dolls are put together. I want to make videos of the ALTERED BOOKS and ART JOURNALS and other THINGS ALTERED.

Saturday, January 30, 2010