Break Those Winter Blues

The holidays are over, the decorations have been put away for another year. Now what? Time to settle into those winter blues-NEVER! I say! NEVER! Time to pull out that coconut bra, mix up a Pina Colada and watch these tropical movies.

The first on your tropical adventure is Blue Hawaii. This is one of my favorite Elvis movies. Yeah, I know most of Elvis' movies are a boy, a girl and some hip swaying singing but this one is so pretty! Elvis stars as Chad Gates, a soldier just released from the army. His father wants him to join the family business but Chad has plans that involve girls, singing and helicopters. Hello! Who doesn't have those kinds of plans? Not only is this a great movie but a mighty tasty drink...hmmm, that gives me an idea.

Let's do a little island hopping and head on over to the South Pacific. This Roger and Hamerstein musical deals with war, racism and love during WWII. Love blooms between a military nurse and a French planter. While some of the movie is light hearted it does deal with racism and the boxes 1958 can place people in. The music is amazing and the set design makes you feel like you are on the island in a grass skirt and a sailor (or maybe a sailor in a grass skirt).

Our last stop on our sunny vacation is One Night in the Tropics with your tour guides Abbott and Costello. This was their debut into film. For those of you who have never seen the famous "Who's on First" skit, here is your chance. A couple of smooth talkers hire Abbott and Costello to make sure their weddings go off without a hitch. Hilarity ensues and your gut will be busting from all the laughter. I swear you will go around the house yelling, "HEY ABBOTT!", wait, that might be just me.

So there you go all my snow bound buddies. A couple of movies to help your forget that it's -20 degrees outside. Get that bathing suit out, slap on some suntan lotion and melt your troubles away. Remember to turn and be careful not to burn!

Feel Good Friday! Happy New Year!

Welcome 2010 and welcome Feel Good Friday! I hope everyone had a great New Year's Eve and celebrated the new year in your own special way. Today's Feel Good Friday goes out to you! I want to thank you for your overwhelming support and love in 2009 and look forward to seeing everyone in the new year. There will be some new features and of course the wonderful old ones.

I am so blessed to have such wonderful friends-like you-in my life. Thank you for making my Friday and everyday feel good. You make me smile and giggle more than you will ever know.

Happy New Year Everybody!

xoxox
Pam

Hanging out with Spotted Dog Farm

I noticed Jere's work on Flickr one day and knew we were kindred spirits. Not just because of our location (I'm a true Southern girl at heart) but also for our love and dedication to keeping puppies safe and making sure each one is loved. I love that every stitch of every piece of work she does, tells a story.

Who and what is spotted dog farm?
Spotted Dog Farm is just me, Jere Alexander, and a motley brood of dogs, donkeys, chickens, rabbits and my little handspinner's flock of sheep. It's a real place but it's also a pastoral dream that I'm trying to express in life and in art. I like how the name confuses some people - sometimes folks think I'm a dog breeder - so it kind of hints at how different animals are constructed since in this place and time, most people don't think of dogs as farm animals.

Your embroidered pieces have so much depth-what's your favorite and why?
Thanks so much!! So far I love the piece "I give you my tomorrow" the best. It's of my Rosie, who if i had to choose the most beautiful dog I've ever known, she would be it. She's just perfectly adorable with her underbite and her thick little body. It's hard to embroider a pit bull face straight-on. Their heads are such interesting shapes that I was afraid would lose expressiveness if I flattened it out in 2D. And at first she was looking more like a pig than a dog, but I used different stitches to make something of a sampler on her face. The triangle pattern in the vintage linen reminds me of a chain link fence, and the title is a lyric from a 70s song by Tim Hardin.

Who inspires you?
I am endlessly inspired by the handmade revolution, and textile artists like Nicole Licht/Astulabee, Beefranck, Porterness, Iviva Olenick, Sandrine Pelletier, and so many others. The cheeky, subversive angle of contemporary embroidery just kills me. I'm awed by soft sculpture artists - again Astulabee, Hisa Kato, Jennifer Murphy and Jennifer Muskopf. I am also seriously fascinated with some of the sculptors working with taxidermy, like Emily Mayer, Iris Schieferstein and Polly Morgan. I know it's creepy to lots of folks, but since i'm already used to working with animal fiber, it's not such a stretch to use furs and skins (although I would only use thrifted or roadkill, not hunted).

 What advice would you give to the masses?
Oh, I'm not in much of a position to give advice to anyone! But my hub has this little joke that we always laugh about, and I think it's very instructive. It's from some police movie with Sean Penn although I don't remember the name. It goes something like... Two bulls, father and son, are standing at the top of a hill looking down at a pasture full of cows. The son says to the father, "Hey dad, how about we run down and fuck a couple of 'em?" The dad replies, "Naw son, how about we walk down and fuck em all." So when I get all manic, I'll just think "walk don't run... fuck em all..."

Do you have a website?
Well, yeah, I have a love/hate thing with my internet presence. I love making online friends and connections in the craft world, but there are so many crazy pit bull haters, and I have no tolerance for that negativity. Some day, I hope to learn css and flash and those other obscure languages to make a beautiful website. Right now I have spotteddogfarm.com to describe my work, and then I blog over at Pit Bull Patriarchy, pitbullpatriarchy.blogspot.com.

Bonus Question!
Best name for a pet
The most magnificent name I've heard is Iris Ladonica Deville.

Worst name for a pet
I knew a shelter dog with a head injury that had been dubbed "Wee Toddy."

Gah! I think I want to be Jere when I grow up! Her attitude, spirit and just plain ol' kick butt good nature makes me smile on a daily basis. Her work is so inspiring. It makes me sleep a little better knowing that there are people like Jere out there in the world.

Movies to Ring in the New Year.

What are you up to for New Years? Have a party planned? Maybe a little dancing. No, you just want to stay home and have a nice relaxing night with family and friends-well, have I got a few tasty movies for you! There's suspense, romance and a few laughs to make you New Years go off with a little bang.

A very personal favorite of mine and one that I mentioned a few weeks ago is After the Thin Man. Nick and Nora must solve a mystery on New Year's Eve.  This is a wonderful story of intrigue and suspense with humor only William Powell and Myrna Loy can pull off. Of course, don't forget their wonderful terrier Asta-he certainly has a bone to pick with Mrs. Asta!

For the record, I am not a fan or romance movies, with that being said, I will make an exception for When Harry Met Sally. This is such a sweet and funny movie. The dinner scene was so hysterical! I love when Rob Reiner's mom says, "I'll have what she's having". The story is basically a boy meets girls, loses girls, meets her over and over again-they are friends and then fall in love. The last scene still gets to me. The soundtrack is amazing too-it brought big band and swing into heavy rotation again.

Repeat Performance is a wonderful "what if" movie starring Joan Leslie. Joan stars as Shelia Page, a Broadway star that murders her crooked husband on New Year's Eve. In a state of panic, she flees to a friend's house and he grants her a wish and sends her back home, only this time, it's a day earlier. The suspense is..what path will she take this time and will the outcome still be the same?

What a wonderful way to send 2009 on it's way-a little romance, some giggles and a lot of intrigue-kind of sounds like the state of global affairs. Anyhoo! I hope you enjoy these wonderful New Year's gems. Until next time my favorite movie goers!

Scrappy Dog Sunday-The Holiday Edition

Hi all! I hope your holiday was a festive one. I know at the Pedersen household, the pups were in rare form. From putting the decorations up

To posing as Santa Claus and his reindeer

The pups were in the Christmas spirit as they patiently waited for Santa.

And when the day finally arrived toys were destroyed!

And savored

And guarded

Don't worry, no limbs were lost and the holiday came to a close without a hitch. A few pieces of ham from grandpa, a couple of cookies from mom and new toys gutted....All was right with the world.

Happy Holidays everybody!

Feel Good Friday!

For this very special Feel Good Friday I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. May your day be filled with peace, joy and love. May today and everyday find you with love, tolerance and respect for your fellow person. My Christmas wish for you is very simple. Good food, a wonderful family and smiles for everyone.
I am so blessed to have all of you in my life.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna watch A Christmas story for the 15 time today and crash from my sugar high!

Love from the Pedersen household
Pam, Mark, Lola, Jujube and Pete

The Amazing Stitching of Kunderwood

If you have never seen Kunderwood's stitching, you are in for a real treat! She is AMAZING! I first came across her work on Flickr and was blown away. She is just too adorable and super sweet to boot. Wanna know what else-this girl is the Kung Fu master of French knots! She kicks butt and takes names!

Who is the real kunderwood?
This is kind of hard for me to answer, since I am still
trying to figure it out for myself, lol. The real kunderwood
is a wife and mother, first and foremost. I tend to be shy
around people I don't know. I have an off-beat sense of
humor and can be very sarcastic. Oh, and I curse too much.
:-)

I love your embroidery. How did you get started?
First of all, thank you! I love your work, too. I got
started a couple years ago. I'd been an avid cross-stitcher
since 1996, but had grown a bit tired of it. I was online
one night and stumbled upon Sublime Stitching's website and
thought, "Hey, now that's cool! I want to try that!" Then I
found various embroidery blogs, which led to Flickr, where I
discovered that there are tons and tons of people who
embroider. I fell in love with the vintage patterns,
especially the ones with anthropomorphic fruits & veggies,
and once I started stitching I was hooked!

What or who inspires you?
Flickr is a great source of inspiration for me, along with
blogs. Floresita and Early Bird Special were the first to
really catch my eye and make me long to be able to do what
they do! There's a long list of people who inspire me,
including Wild Olive, Sewsew-a-Gogo, sewitsforyou, Amanda
Panda Pants, and you, kittykill. That shag glow in the dark
piece you did is amazing!

Any advice for the masses?
If someone is just starting out with embroidery, I'd advise
them to take it slow and easy, and start off with a small
project. I think a lot of beginners try to tackle
complicated projects before they've had much practice and
tend to get frustrated and want to give up. Or maybe that
was just me, lol...

Seriously though, I would say persevere. Keep trying! Don't
give up on French knots just because they're not turning out
the way they're supposed to. Also, if it ain't fun, don't
do it! I have lots of UFO's in my closet. Embroidery is
supposed to be a fun, relaxing activity, and if I am hating
the piece I am working on, then it defeats the purpose of
stitching! Chuck it and try something new...you never know,
you may rediscover it a few months down the road and see it
through different eyes, so to speak. And don't be afraid to
ask questions. Stitchers are a nice bunch of people who like
to talk about their craft. :)

What other crafts do you like to do?
I'm not a big crafter, believe it or not. I LOVE stitching
and it comes easily to me, but crafting takes a kind of
effort that I find exhausting. I recently did a
collage/paper project that I really like, using paper
embellishments that I bought from greenbeanbaby
(http://www.etsy.com/shop/greenbeanbaby). It took me forever
to figure out the placement of the pieces, which background
color best suited the embellishments, etc. Whew! Talk about
tiring! I have such admiration for people who are crafty. I
wish I were more so.

BONUS QUESTION!
French knots-friend or foe. Discuss!
Oh, French knots are *definitely* your friend! I adore
French knots. It took me a looooong time to master those
suckers, but once I did, I was unstoppable! I think they're
so cute and versatile, and can really add dimension to a
project. Last year, I stitched a Sublime Stitching piece of
a mod lady and I did her hair entirely in French knots. I
called it a French Knot 'Fro, and I think it's totally rad!
There's a rhythm to doing a large number of French knots
that can be very soothing.

So awesome! kunderwood attention to detail can not be surpassed! I simply adore her stitching. I just love her outlook on life. She is a great inspiration to so many stitchers out there. Make sure you check out her blog.
She has all of her amazing projects in one place. I hope she makes it up my way one of these days-Portland would never be the same!