Bragging Rights: Cindy Bish

Cindy did a great job!! I think she likes the Santa/Christmas themes!!

Santa at Night

 http://www.bead-patterns.com/shop/shop.php?method=itemnumber&keywords=10680

Elve's Christmas

http://www.bead-patterns.com/shop/shop.php?method=itemnumber&keywords=10466

North Pole

http://www.bead-patterns.com/shop/shop.php?method=itemnumber&keywords=8814

Week 6 Ghost Dance Dress

Here is the 6th week of progress on this project!

Week Three: Ghost Dance Dress

I really had my needle hot, and thread smoking this week with the amount I got done!! I also realized I have to add more to the shoulder area especially for hanging on a T-Bar!

Send Postcards, Anyone??

If any of you would like to help  a 6th grader, maybe you could send a postcard. A good friend has asked me to try to help. 

Sounds like a fun thing to do, and to help would be great. The more postcards the better! 

Here is the info I was sent:

Some of our good friends here, actually our neighbors when they’re here, have asked us to send postcards to their grandson from wherever we are.  Remember I sent one from Peru and one from Ecuador?  Well, the grandson’s team is neck-in-neck with another team so we’re going to try to beat them.  SO, do you think you could get any of your out-of-country, or, actually, anywhere, to send his team a postcard?  It has to be postmarked in the state/country that it represents. I’ve attached the original email below.  Thanks, sis!!!

To all our friends:

One of our grandsons is trying to win a contest at his grade school.  Whoever can get the most postcards from each state and country the world over will win.  Who knows what the prize is - maybe a special pencil!  The idea is to identify on a map where each postcard came from.  To a sixth grader this is huge!

We are asking our friends to send Jacob a postcard from the state or country where you are or where you visit starting now and ending the middle of January 2013.  We're so proud of Jacob, an A student, and works very hard at his assignments.

Please address the postcard to:

6th Grade Tamarack Team- Jacob Rawlins

Mountain view Middle School

17500 SW Farmington Rd.

Aloha, OR 97007

Why I still Believe in Santa

When did you stop believing in Santa?

I still cling to the belief that Santa exists. I know that he is alive and well.

I don’t tell a lot of people this, because they think I am crazy. They say that Santa is only real to little children who don’t know any better. Santa is a fantasy. He is made up. I need to grow up.

I don't care what they say, I still believe.

In a world where the goodness of God causes disagreements and hate. Where God’s word becomes the grounds for killing, where no one truly can say who or what God is, there has to be something simpler for me to believe in. I want to believe that there is something out there that is pure joy and hope.

In a world where we can’t accept the fact that everyone believes in God through their own eyes and culture, and cannot accept the fact that in the end that God is the same, and that we are the ones who change His personality and rules, that He never did, I need to believe in something more flexible.  Santa changes according to nation and culture. His clothing changes, as does his language and customs. Yet we are all ok with that. No one has killed because we disagree on Santa's different way of being in different nations.

In a world where little children are murdered for no good reason,

in a world where people forgot what they are fighting about, but they can't stop,

in a world where money means more than someone’s health,

in a world where selfishness means more than someone’s well being,

I still have to cling on to my belief.

I believe that Santa is alive.

Santa is alive if only in my heart, where I know that magic still lives. I don’t need to explain why Santa can be in a desert with penguins by his side. The fact that he possess the magic to make that happen is enough for me.

Santa is joy and hope bundled into one tacky red suit. Even the sight of the suit without him in it, still brings that joy and hope to my soul. Have you ever really noticed the joy of a still believing child’s face when they see Santa? I don’t ever want to lose the joy and hope. I too, want to be like that child, unable to contain or hide that joy and hope.

Santa represents that selflessness and hard work can bring success. Even if he has elves working to help him, and magical flying reindeer to help carry him to his goal, his hard work brings him love from those he might never have met. I hope that my hard work earns me the same success and respect.

Santa also teaches me that even if you have to fall in a dirty pile of a mess as he does by coming down a soot filled chimney and fireplace, that if you keep your sight on your goal and brush off the dust, the morning should bring the joys of a mission accomplished.

So to all you nay-sayers who want to say Santa does not exist, leave me to my beliefs. I still want to believe in magic, joy, hope, and that in the end, hard work and perseverance pays off. And most of all, that sharing ear to ear smiles,  good belly laughs, generosity of spirit and love will come back to me, just as it does to Santa.

I believe. Do YOU??

Images are all patterns by me

Ghost Dance Dress: Week Two Progress Report

 I got a lot done!! I am really happy to have done so much in just 2 weeks. Getting close to the neckline! Then I will turn and work the bottom part. Trying to decide. Should I make the back the same as the front, or change it a bit. Maybe even if I just change the blue part a bit, it will be more fun.....ideas?? Suggestions???

My Pattern

Inspiration

When Fantasies Offend

It's been a while since I crabbed about something. Not that I haven't had anything to crab about, mind you, it's just that my crabs have been not worth sharing. All of them rather mundane.

As luck would have it, I have two things to crab about. And strangely enough the issues are so related as to be the same.

Yesterday on FB was this wonderful motivational cartoon that I love.

I love this simple cartoon. A hippo is on the treadmill with her dream always by her side, causing her to keep trying. I can relate to this cartoon, as I am sure many of you can. You need to have some sort of visual of your dream to focus on to keep you motivated.

This is not how someone saw it. She went on a full out rant to the person who posted it about how it signifies women who can never attain the hourglass figure. That one of the images in this cartoon is a well endowed "real" creature, while the other is mythical. In no way can the real creature ever become the mythical no matter how much she tries. To her this cartoon is a horrible commentary on women who are expected to become what they never can become.

Then, I got a complaint about the image I used for "Northern Lights. (not by the same complainer mentioned above).

The complainer stated that I was an idiot. How could I possibly have an image with Santa with the Aurora Borealis behind him and penguins in front of him? Yes I was an imbecile since everyone knows that Santa and the Aurora Borealis are in the North Pole and there are no penguins in the North Pole, they belong in the South Pole.

I said yes, the South Pole has its magical lights too.

This made me worse than an imbecile. "WHAT!!??" There is no Aurora Borealis in the South Pole..!!"

But yes there is, I argued. Google it! It may be called by a different name: Aurora Australis, but it has the same look.

She did not want to be proved wrong. She still argued that I was just plain dumb. She finally stopped emailing me when I asked her if she thought that Santa was real. Perhaps I should eliminate Santa from the image along with the penguins. Or should I remove Santa along with the Aurora Borealis leaving only the penguins in the image to make her happy so that the image would be more true to real life.

Funny how people cannot take a simple cartoon or image at face value. Some want to find a deep inner meaning, and all too often want to find fault or something offensive in that meaning which was never intended.

I still like the hippo trying to become a unicorn. I am that bulky creature trying in some fashion to become a svelt beautiful lovely. I still believe in Santa and the magic that surrounds him. I believe he could be in a desert surrounded by penguins (and unicorns) if that is what he wants.

Without a bit of magic, mystery and fantasy, I think life would be mundane. Leave that sort of life for the ones who criticize my exciting magical world. They are welcome to all the dullness and mundane day to day life without wonder they can handle.