Blue Nickel Studios

admin June 17th, 2010

Alrighty then, sorry it has taken me so long to get back here…my DayJob has been keeping me pretty wiped by the time I get home, plus I have a bunch of studio stuff I am trying to work on…all at the same time…

Note:  If these project were dishes I was juggling….we’d be eating on paper plates…..

Anyway….I could NOT just pick one entry for the bird stories I requested here ......and even with 4 prizes-winners that I eventually picked….there were still other wonderful little anecdotes and tales…and I truly loved reading them all…aren’t memories and stories fun??

So without further ado…...

here are the winners:

For the Main Prize…..Kelly Oletzke who talked about her Father-in-law with such love, I have re-read it a couple times, and it just warms my heart so very much….thank you for the loving picture of a great man and his love for birds.

Three runner up prizes are going to the following ladies whose entries also caught my eye…...

Ginawho also made me very sad with her story of when she was little coming to terms with the inescapability of death when she watched a bird die from being hit by her dad’s car…..I can just picture the sobbing and I really felt bad for you Gina!!

Denise who made me totally laugh out loud when she told of a “two-liner” she had heard about a mom’s love/hate relationship with birds….complete with a Ba-dum-dum for effect….

And lastly one of John’s Fly Girls whom I met at Market…. Kaye Prince shared some a beautiful poem by Emily Dickinson about a little bird…well Kaye being a librarian (if I am remembering correctly) must have remembered I was an English major in college and got me hooked in with the poetry (and no, I don’t really know or care too much if  it was supposed to be whom or who back there in that earlier sentence….I am not a copy editor!)

SO Kelly, Gina, Denise, and Kaye, please email me your snail mail addresses (to bluenickel5 (@) earthlink (dot) net…....and I will eventually get your prizes out of here into the postal system on their way to you!!  (and no, the last batch of prizes haven’t left here yet, but they are almost ready…they are in envelopes with addresses…but I want to add a note to each and whatever other little extras I can…I tend to throw little odd things in to make them not run of the mill….)

AND just so you know, I do have two more entries coming up regarding Quilt Market,  then we will be back to a more of the visual variety-pack from the world that inspires my Blue Nickel Studio Mindset. And since I don’t really want to leave you with another non-pictorial post….here is a little bit of inspiration from the studio and grounds to remind you that there is more to me than just fabric…..Not much more, but there is some….....

ALSO don’t forget….we need some more comments here  to get me drawing for those great little Anna Maria prize packs….

Later, peeps,

Scott

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admin August 8th, 2009

Sounds like a line from Silent Night doesn’t it?....I couldn’t think of another title for yet another one of my laundry on the line photo shoots.   Pretty much all Free Spirit fabric I believe, and mostly Sis Boom, but I do see some Jenean Morrison in there…

These pictures were taken in early spring before the trees leafed out…It is much greener here…well mostly, as a lot of the trees have decided it is fall already and shed most if not all of their leaves.   I am hoping that they all come back next year….

This is just another one of those cleanup the computer desktop projects….hope you enjoy…I know I just love this stuff!!

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admin April 12th, 2009

In case you were wondering….God didn’t cancel Spring this year…it was just a little delayed.  The first few pictures are from a few weeks ago…..      

and these are from yesterday…..      

I am so glad every year God sends a reminder that a fresh start is available every year and more importantly every day…..Here’s to your fresh start today….This last picture is photoshopped to the max, and I am really lovin’ how it came out…..

  Happy Easter everyone! 

  Bon Matin, Scott

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admin April 22nd, 2008

          It was a lovely Spring weekend this weekend in NW Washington state.  So much for global warming!! April 19th, 20th, and 21st we woke with snow on the ground.  I do not think I have ever seen so much snow this late.  I told the kids I should play Christmas music, and the oldest said….”Dad, what are you talking about? It never snows on Christmas Day!”  He is right, we seldom get snow then

Update on the chicks….they are getting adjusted to their new home okay….they even went into the coop on their own last night.  Gosh, they are growing up so fast, sniff, sniff…..

• chickens , color , country , flora and fauna , shiloah cottage
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admin March 24th, 2008

That sounds ominous, but it wasn’t.  I just didn’t have time to write about the weekend during the weekend that is all….or I didn’t make time to write about it.  Anyway, Easter Saturday was a really cold morning.  When I went out for my morning fitness walk, Sassy, our beloved she-manx cat, barely lifted herself out of her bed.

  Here she is in her royal swan bed.  My dad made this bed as a planter, but after the first set of geraniums died, her royal highness Sassy, took over years ago, and it is now her place. It was so cold though, she wouldn’t even come to the door looking for a hand to pet her, or a handout of food.

This is the sunrise that greeted me on that Saturday morning.  I wanted to capture the abundance of snow on the foothills, but I don’t think this photo does it justice. We really don’t have snow on those hills very often, especially not on Easter morning.         

Easter Sunday rather a disappointment to me, as I didn’t at all get the sermon at church.  The time of worship was good, but the best part was when my friend Mike read from Matthew the part about not worrying about the future, each day has enough worry of its own. It reminded me of a book I recently read called The Shack.    It is a very powerful book, and one of the best parts was about  God’s love for us.  The phrase “God loves you” is so over done these days, I find it rather meaningless but this book reminds us the God is “especially fond” of us…all of us, even if we don’t acknowledge His hand in our lives.  The whole “His” references are challenged in this book too, as God first shows up as a very large African-American woman.  I love it!   There are many far-right seekers of God that would be offended by that, and the far-left seekers get too wrapped up in themselves to see that God is both male/female.  He created us that way in His/Her image.  I still refer to Him as Him, but it is good to know that He is our mother as well…...Kinda trippy and metaphysical I know, but it is a good book, and the book is not hard to read at all.  There are no pictures, and I even managed to get through it in 3 days….

Another great book (with some REALLY trippy parts) as well is The War of Art .   

 It is rather strange, and parts of it are hilarious, but some of it speaks well about fighting artistic blockages of all sorts.  It rather demonfies “resistance” and glorifies perhaps defies art.  The author has some strange religious anger brewing underneath his ramblings, and some of that I found rather annoying, but I did like how he faced resistance head on and basically challenges the reader to keep plugging through all the barriers that keep one from creating.   I recommended it to my friend Mark Lipinski on the phone, and while we were talking he ordered it from Amazon.  I am wondering what he will think when he reads it.  I think the line that I read him likened the problems of Resistance to somethings like acne, world hunger, and erectile dysfunction.    I KNOW that the ED is in there, that is what made me laugh out loud. 

Anyway back to Easter Sunday….it rained and rained and rained…..not very “springy”......so the Pagan Easter part of the celebration was pretty drenched down….did see some neighbor girls way out back running around in boots and fancy dresses looking for eggs….that was pretty funny  The Christian part of the celebration left me rather sad….I think I must have missed it….all of it…the point of Jesus on the cross and ressurrecting on Sunday I “KNOW” it in my head, but my heart sure didn’t seem to notice, and I think that is the point where I was very disappointed by it all..

This is supposed to be an “Artistic” blog, so I don’t know why I wrote all that heavy stuff…it is not like anyone really reads this stuff anyway.   But there you have it, Easter weekend in a nutshell…..

• books , cats , country , randomness , shiloah cottage
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admin March 18th, 2008

     YEAH!  The chicks are in  Linda went to the feed store today and brought these darlings home!!  There are 8 of them, and NOW I really need to get working on the coop from last year’s demise.  The winter storms have knocked down the old outdoor roof for them, and ripped the door apart as well, so I have to get working on a new home for these sweet things.  We are going to make it more industrial strength for them as well, to keep them safe.

       this is the state of the current coop and yard

My quilt for the “Mantastic” invitational quilt show in Connecticut is back from Judy Irish’s quilting frame, and looks great.  I was concerned as there was a lot of bias in that quilt, but Judy got everything to quilt out just fine.  I am very happy with it.  I am excited to have my quilt in with some of the “greats” of the male quilter world (grant you a much smaller pie, but big enough for me!!)  Now I have to put the binding on it and my reliable Singer which hasn’t had a tune up for oh….4-5 years….has been at the service shop for 2 weeks this Wednesday.  She should be coming home soon, and then I can finish up this quilt and move on to more….   The studio has NOT gotten cleaned!!  But I did approach the Juki and the B-line quilting rack, and we had some nominal success for now….enough so that I don’t feel threatened by it.  I think I still need to figure out the rolling up on the poles part, but it didn’t jam up and become a horrendous mess like it had been.

My daughter wants to use the phone now, and I am currently online on our phone line so I need to close for now.  Son #1 has been on our dialup line most of the afternoon for homework….time to close…and maybe work on cleaning????   nah…I have journaling to do too!  and  brownies for dessert…

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admin March 6th, 2008

 Well, here is the tattoo in all its glory.  When I see it, I think it isn’t real, and then I realize it is, and it will never leave….and I am reminded that I will always be God’s beloved child, no matter how far away He or I seem from each other…..and He will always provide for my needs (and my family’s needs) even when it may not quite seem like it…..and I think that those two reminders are very good things.   I don’t have much time to write here, so that is it for now…..hopefully more tomorrow.

there have been many frogs croaking outside for many nights in a row….a sure sign that Spring is really on its WAY

• Jesus , country , tattoo
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admin February 7th, 2008

Funny, I am grieving today over the last 20 plus years I spent at my previous employer.  I was struggling with things there for the last 5-9 years so much, you would think I would be happy to be “retired” and moving on to a new place.   .....this would probably go under the heading of “like you care” that my new quilting e-friend Michael refers to in his blog State of the Craft  .....I am in the process of being 3 on the ring of Male Quilt Bloggers he has started…hope I will be on that soon….

Anyway, on to posting some pictures here that I posted on my two yahoo groups QuiltGuy and Pickle Road Studio  a couple days ago.

Here is my quick “decor” thingie in the stairwell window which was woefully nude until this display      

then this is my “country living” photo of my display of sink stoppers in the guest bathroom that Max calls “weird”     I think this shot is so good….I am planning on making cards for sale with this photo…so look for some nice hand and computer crafted cards for sale here in the next month or so…or for sale on our Etsy site  .....

And then a whole week and a half ago we had snow…. and this is the arbor on the edge of the woods at the end of the day…it looked much more marvelous early in the morning, but I didn’t bring my camera out in the AM 

• art stuff , color , country , shiloah cottage
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admin January 26th, 2008

  This church is for sale in a town near where I live.  I so want to buy it  But I don’t want to sell the house I live in to do it.  We actually could live in it and have a shop in the front.  That is what is currently being done with it.  But it does need a lot of work still.  And it ain’t cheap by my standards.  Linda liked it on paper too.  I actually was in it, and thought it would be great, especially if it was just Linda and I, but I don’t think that the kids would like the move.  And I would miss our land even though every summer, I think to myself that I cannot handle all of the yardwork…..

sigh….

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admin December 12th, 2007

   This scene captured my eye last Saturday when I got back from my morning fitness walk.  It reminded me so much of the swamp scenes in the Lord of the Rings movies.  Can you hear the haunting elvish melodies coming across your mind?  I sure can.

On a totally different note, the crew on Mark Lipinski’s Pickle Road Posse on Yahoo were discussing Santa Claus and some of the ways people are trying to reinvent him. I was looking up Santa and what is going down in the PC world and found a Fashion School that redid Santa’s look.  Here are three samples of the students work.

               Now I have been thinking that I would like to be a Santa Claus when I “grow up” or retire or what ever….but now I think I have to lay off of 

these  and buy a bunch of Just For Men Hair Color….to fit the “new” look…..

I have been working out and trying to lose weight, and I have lost some and toned up some, but those FastBreak candy bars get me everytime…..they are not part of a healthy diet

• Christmas , country , randomness , shiloah cottage
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