And There Was Great Rejoicing...

'Cause the boats started running today!!!

Only three trips per day to start, no Sunday service and it's the slooooow boat, but still our horizons have just suddenly expanded.

If you look closely, you can see how thick some of the flow ice is; what you can't see is just how much flow ice there is out in the Straits and how fast it's moving - it changes hour to hour.

Just the first sign that "the season" is on it's way!

Herbarium Update

I've been working on Mary Todd's herbarium this weekend. I collected all the plants I'm using when she visited last October, it was quite a challenge to find nice examples of various plants that were small enough in scale for the doll. I'm having to "compose" my pages from bits and pieces, as opposed to mounting an entire plant.

Tickets are still available for the Mary Todd doll raffle:

Contact Kay Dodge at Patriot64@aol.com regarding tickets, please put Mary Todd in the subject box. Tickets are 5 for $6.00 or $1.50 each. The drawing will be held in mid-April at Camp Nelson.

I owe a huge "Thank You" to zibboon , an artist at Etsy, for custom creating the wonderful little book - the scale is perfect!

So back to the tweezers and tiny brush to apply the glue...

I Want To Ride My Bicycle!

Well, we finally pulled the bikes out of the basement, pumped up the tires, checked the brakes and lubed up the chains. There's still lots of ice and sludge between us and the main road, but we can push through that and once we make it through, there's a strip of road all the way down the hill.

Now, you must realize, it's only in the 30's, maybe the 40's on a good day, so I'm still wearing, boots, heavy parka, two pairs of gloves, headband and neck gaiter, but the bike just gives such a sense of freedom, it just felt so good to jump on and peddle away. And where else but Mackinac, would you be passed by a snowmobile as you ride your bike to work! Each one of us pushing the season, one working to avoid the snow and the other clinging to each patch they can find.

So in honor of my first bike ride "up the hill" (a notable achievement for those of you not familiar with Mackinac), here are a few bicycle themed items from some creative artists at Etsy:

I love this photo from FeralGoat, with the fenders and the cloth tucked under the seat (so as to avoid a wet behind) it could almost be an Island bike - it's just missing the basket and bungee cords.

Here's a great example of upcycling, from pixelthis .

And finally, just for fun, this cute necklace from kissmejewelry

"Playing With Fire"

Just wanted to share my latest finished piece, "Playing With Fire"

This was made as a submission for the weekly Thursday Sweet Treat Challenge, this week's theme was "A Flicker of Imagination".

I'm working outside my usual boundaries again this week, very graphic, almost cartoonish and like last week, not as polished or refined.

This is a bead embroidered ACEO, the design was just free handed, not planned out in advance. It's a small piece but I still managed to use nearly twenty colors !

Fire and imagination/creativity have much in common:

Both start with a tiny spark.
Both require nurturing and feeding.
Both combine utility with beauty.
Both can be all consuming.
Both can be dangerous - Allowing imagination free rein can be very liberating, but for many people, a dark shadow is lurking, care must be taken in pushing boundaries - sometimes they push back and you can get burned.

Fashion Recycling!

A couple years back I came across a beaded bracelet in an 1857 edition Of Peterson's Magazine, for once the period instructions were actually useful - not the typical, "any lady can make this design by studying the image". Still it took a bit of looking to find rings and of the proper size, but eventually, I worked it out and ended up with a perfectly fitting bracelet.

I taught a workshop at the Ladies & Gentlemen of the 1860's conference; it was based on this design:

I wear it for everyday, as well as living history events and most people are amazed when I tell them the design is 150 years old - they all are convinced it is modern.

Recently I found an interesting site, Craft Stylish, and while browsing around found instructions for this bracelet:

Exact same concept, just without the beads! (Of course, I think beads make everything better)

I do have a booklet with instructions for the period bracelet and several other ring crochet projects available in my Etsy shop.

The cliche is true - everything old is new again!

All In a Row

I finally finished this bracelet - it was just one of those things I kept procrastinating about, but as it's meant to be a companion piece to "Follow the Sun", I'm really relieved to have it done at last.

I didn't want to recreate the sunflower on a bracelet, as I thought it would be too overwhelming. So I went much simpler, the row of accent beads is meant to represent the uniform rows in a field full of cultivated sunflowers.

On to the next project!

A Small Tradition

There are many small traditions here on the Island, traditions that the casual visitor will never be aware of and one of these happens on the first day of Spring.

On that day, one of our local florists (whose shop here on the Island is, of course, closed until the season starts) walks the streets and the few open establishments with baskets full of carefully wrapped little packages of daffodils, still tightly in bud, which he presents to anyone he encounters.

We're weeks away from having daffs blooming in our yards; there are small signs of rebirth for those who look closely, but Spring is not here yet, regardless of what the calendar may state. It's a simple pleasure to have these buds slowly unfurl as they soak up warmth and water and a reminder that warmer days will soon be here, allowing us to also unfurl and shed our winter layers.