Birthday Week - Armordresses and Bargains

Thanks to everyone for all of the nice birthday wishes.  I enjoyed reading all of the messages in the comments, on Facebook and in my email. 

It's been a busy week since my birthday and I have lots to catch up with here on the blog.  My sister and brother-in-law arrived on my birthday.  While my family was visiting we went to the Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, MA.

This museum has an interesting assortment of collections.  Fruitlands was the site of the short-lived utopian community that Bronson Alcott (father of Louisa May Alcott who wrote Little Women) and Charles Lane attempted in 1843.  The farmhouse has been preserved and there are several other buildings including a Shaker Office, Native American Collection, and an Art Museum with a large collection of Hudson River School Landscapes and 19th Century Vernacular Portraits.  You can read some earlier posts I have written about the museum by clicking HERE.  I wove the chair seat in the photo above at one of the hands-on exhibits in the Shaker building.

The Cafe at the museum serves delicious locally sourced food and we really enjoyed the "herbade" (we asked for the recipe and I've already tried it at home).

Lunch was served in this elaborate tent (also used for events like weddings).  The view is amazing.

The interior of the tent is elegant with shirred fabric and chandeliers.

It was a hazy day but we still had a nice view of the mountains in the distance.

One of the remarkable features at the museum is the outdoor sculptures.  As we approached the Fruitlands farmhouse I could see these dress shapes.

The dresses were made of metal and very cleverly designed.

It was interesting to see how the look of the drape of fabric was achieved with metal sheets.  The artist is Alicia Dwyer.

If you look closely at this dress you can see the vine that has started to grow out of the neckline.  I wonder how the dresses would look if the plants continued to take over.

These dresses are one of the entries in the Art in Nature sculpture competition - you can see some of the other entries HERE.

It was a hot day but we enjoyed our visit.  The climb back up the hill is eased by rides in the "Gator" (this photo was taken on another visit last fall).

I have some birthday money to spend...here are a few ideas...

Washi tape anyone?

While I was at Costco last week, I did my usual cruise of the aisles and found these sets of washi tape from Scotch.

There are fifteen rolls in the box and my store had two different assortments.

Here are the details and the great price - about $1.25 per roll.  These sorts of things tend to disappear quickly so if you are interested check your store ASAP.  I did buy some tape and the quality is very similar to the washi tape I bought in Japan-town when we were in San Francisco (for a much higher price).

Not sure what to do with Washi tape?   Monica Bradford has done two "scrapinars" on Washi tape and the replays are available to inspire and teach you.

You can find the first class HERE,

...and the second class HERE.   These classes each include an instructional video with lots of techniques and the follow up question and answer session from the live scrapinar.  You can watch the videos as often as you like when you purchase the class - the links do not expire.

The exhibit of holiday ribbons was already up in our store.  The colors and patterns are amazing.  I often take the wires out of the edges of these ribbons to use pieces of the ribbon on cards or other projects.

Best of all is the price - less than 15 cents a yard!

Looking for a Cameo?

I noticed that the Cameo is for sale at a great price on Amazon - at the lowest price that I have seen advertised for this great machine.  I don't know how long this deal will last - it could sell out quickly.

The only thing better than a good price is the chance to win a machine for FREE - and SVGcuts is giving away a bundle including a Cameo, the Designer Edition software and a gift card for files.  You can enter through Facebook HERE. 

Finally, there are some great sets of digital papers and embellishments included in One Buck Wednesday at Jessica Sprague this week.  Here is one example - just look at all you get for $1.00 - today only.

Lots to do today - I have projects piled high and need to take photos so I can share them here.  Have you been crafting much lately or are you busy with summer activities?

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Fruitlands Museum (my 12+ photos)

Today is the 12th of November - if you are doing the 12 on the 12th in 2012 this is the penultimate picture taking day for your project.  We are expecting a beautiful day here with the temperatures may get into the 70s.  I hope you are having good weather as well.

This year has turned out to be somewhat complicated and I haven't kept up with some of the projects such as "12-12-12" that I had hoped to do - but the new year is nearly here so I may try again!

This weekend, we attended an event at the Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, Massachusetts.  Fruitlands was the site of the short-lived utopian community that Bronson Alcott (father of Louisa May Alcott who wrote Little Women) and Charles Lane attempted in 1843.  I've written about Fruitlands before - it is a fascinating place with a unique combination of collections.  You can read the earlier posts by clicking HERE.

There are several buildings that house various parts of an eclectic collection (Shaker, Native American, paintings...) in addition to this farmhouse where the Alcotts stayed during their attempt at living off the fruit of the land.

The vines have gone dormant for the season but the porch was decorated with pumpkins and cornstalks,

Can you see the nest in the vines?  Apparently it was used by two families of birds this summer - one right after the other.

The museum grounds have a wonderful view and the hillside is rather steep.  I had to take a photo of the John Deere "gator" that is used to help ferry people up and down the hill is the conditions are too challenging for them to walk.  My Dad used to sell John Deere equipment so I always watch for green tractors when we are out and about.

We were there in the afternoon and with the time change, the shadows grew long quickly.  The light was very pretty in this bedroom at the farmhouse.

I also liked the way the sun highlighted this bust and also cast a pair of shadows on the wall.

This slate has a quote from Louisa May Alcott's diary from 1843.  I usually like the sound of rain on the roof but after Hurricane Sandy it doesn't seem quite as appealing...

This simple bench is outside near the well.  When I looked at these photos to edit them I thought it was funny that the bench back pieces were lined up nearly perfectly with the fence behind the tree.

There are a number of large sculptures on the grounds by this year's artist-in-residence, Andy Moerlein.  You can see more photos and read his artist's statement about the work HERE on the Fruiltands website.

This is one of the most prominent pieces, called "Centering," and it looked wonderful in the sharp afternoon light.

The view from the top is spectacular as you look out over the mountains.  The sculptures on the right at called "Snow Haiku" and there is a bit of white snow in the crook of the branches,

The branches are bright blue and there are tiny red birds at the top of each branch (you can see them more clearly in the photo on the Fruitlands website HERE).

We were treated to a very dramatic sunset as we visited the last couple of buildings.

The temperature dropped very quickly once the sun had set.

If you are in New England, this is a great place to visit.  The buildings are not heated so the season is over until April of next year but there are some events that take place on the grounds during the winter months.

I spent some of the weekend clearing out and reorganizing kitchen cupboards - trying to get everything in good shape before the holidays.  I did have a little time to get crafty and, as you can see above, there was glitter involved.  I'll show you the project tomorrow.

Are you hosting a Thanksgiving feast this year or will you travel somewhere to be with family?  Thanksgiving is early this year so it feels a little bit rushed to get everything ready.

Have a wonderful Monday!

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Design Inspiration from a Weathervane

Saturday was a beautiful day so we went out to have a few adventures!  After a quick stop at my favorite stamping and crafting store, we had lunch and then headed out to the Fruitlands Museum to see a new art show in one of the museum buildings.

Fruitlands was the site of the short-lived utopian community that Bronson Alcott (father of Louisa May Alcott who wrote Little Women) and Charles Lane attempted in 1843.  If you'd like to know more about it, you can read an earlier post about Fruitlands where you will find a link to the official site.

There are several buildings that house various parts of an eclectic collection (Shaker, Native American, paintings...) in addition to this farmhouse where the Alcotts stayed during their attempt at living off the fruit of the land.

You may wonder what this has to do with papercrafting...

The title to the blog post from a couple of years ago was "Inspiration is Everywhere".  I have said that often in the time I have been writing this blog.  You never know what you will see that will inspire a new project, so you just have to keep your eyes and mind open to the possibilities.

A lot of people have been writing to me with questions about the Silhouette machines that I have been using since last spring.  I do find that they cut more precisely than my Cricut machines but the main reason I enjoy using them is the freedom I have to create my own images in the Silhouette Studio software.

I liked the weathervane on one of the buildings at the museum.  The design of the weather vane is interesting - I think it looks like an ornate clock hand.

I zoomed in on my image and then took a screen shot of the portion of the design that interested me.  Then I could drag that image into my Silhouette Studio software (the free version included with the purchase of the machine) and do a trace of the shape.

The post that supports the weathervane wouldn't work for my design so I needed to edit the image after tracing.

Another great feature is the ability to edit the image point by point.  I was able to delete points to take away the central post of the weathervane.

For my purpose, I wanted a totally symmetrical image so I did some additional editing to make the shape symmetrical above and below the horizontal line.

With the base image ready to go, I mirrored and rotated it.  Then I added a shadow behind the delicate lacy design.  This screen shot shows the image I created using the weathervane shape.  I haven't had a chance to try cutting it yet and I may make a few alterations before I try to cut it out with my Silhouette Cameo.

Would you know by looking at the design that it started from a weathervane?
Do you like the idea of making designs this way or does it seem like too much work!

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