97 Hot Pot - Go with an empty tummy and prepare to be fully satisfied

My Hunter and I were headed to the Cactus Club on Saturday night to see our friend / have a drink to celebrate his birthday. This friend is younger then us - well we got to the Cactus Club, we paid for parking. We then noted all of the juice monkeys hanging out, then the girls that Mr Hunter felt were missing a large portion of their clothes and I had to explain that is how young girls dress in the summer you old fart. Then we say the line up to get in. Mr Hunter poked his head in, did a search for our friend in this packed place - we didn't see him and we ran - not screaming, we carried ourselves.
We got back in our Jeep - a two door with the top off, parked next to all of these rich kids Audis and other high cost rides - we looked at each other and laughed. This is so not our seen, lets get the heck out of here!
So off to our neighbourhood we went - and it was a good thing as we were able to stop at the new place on 97th - The 97 Hot Pot!!
They are not used to "the white folk" in there, which made it highly entertaining as we had to keep reassuring them that we did not need a fork, we can use chop sticks. The concept is you get a metal bowl of broth which fits in the table, you then after choosing your delicious broth, order ALL YOU CAN EAT items off of the menu. They have slices of meat, they have their own mixtures of meatballs, there is seafood, there are lots of vegetables - and a whole heck of a lot of fun.
I really would recommend this place to any of you whom want something different, and aren't too chicken shit to come to china town - thats right, I am calling you out! Yes there is a sketchy walk through crowd there - lock your vehicle when you get here and just come. It is an adventure, none of these people are out to get you, and the more we all come out, the less they do! Plus you are all missing out on some really great experience in your own city.
97 Hot Pot is a must come out and eat at place in Downtown Edmonton, Alberta.

 Complete with desert - this is "cake" - looks like jello, tastes good.

Cheers,

Carolyn

Busy Busy times!

I was at the George Pegg Garden on Sunday, June 15th and it was a great time. The crowd was lovely and I managed to sell a little bit of stuff. Mostly the art pieces went which surprised me (very happily so). 

Here are some of those pieces:

I have a table for the Simply Seba Sale in Seba Beach, Alberta, I hope to make a few more art pieces before I have to have my inventory sheet in. I have to have it in for July 7th so its getting really tight. I am on a non flexible deadline as well to complete the mudding, sanding, painting, molding and flooring in the spare bedroom upstairs + the Edmonton Weavers Guild is putting together a proposal to the AB Craft Council for an art show. Although the show will most likely not happen for 4 years - I have to have a piece done and photographed / sent to the organizer for the 27 or 26 of June. GULP!

The theme for the proposal art show is "It Comes Naturally" and the organizer in our group has stated she wants work made from 100% natural / un-dyed fibre. Ugg, you know me, I love color so I didnt even have any un-dyed fibre. I had to go out and buy some, not even knowing what I am going to make! But, thankfully - yesterday, in the shower of all places - It came to me.... an Idea!! Phew!

Now I just have to get my ass in gear and get everything done - easy peesy right??!?! HA HAH AHAHAHAHAAAAaaaaaaa Wish me luck - I am going to need it! 

I did get up early this morning and was able to get some more mudding done so thats good at least.

Cheers,

Carolyn

Art in the Garden - George Pegg Botanical Garden Event

I was lucky enough to catch an email from my friend Carolyn W. whom was helping to organize this event and scored myself a table before the closing date.

This was the second year the group out at George Pegg Botanical Gardens have put on Art in the Garden and they did a wonderful job. The weather was perfect, the artists there were all amazing and the live music was super fun. There was a large covered area which most likely used to be the stable as the George Pegg Botanical gardens was once the property of George and his family. I was unable to hear the story as to whom they were, but they sure do have a lovely chunk of land!

Here are a couple of pics I snagged from the event before it got started. 

This is the table I shared with my friend Katherine

These are my Feltscapes and Katherine has a matt on the back of that chair that was just fabulous.

This is just outside of the log house Katherine and I had our table in, on the window ledge are my table runners, and Katherine had a shawl on the right of the window, a couple more woven pieces to the left, the spinning wheel was for her husband. He did spinning demos all day for the people whom came through. 

Here are some of the vendors whom had canopies outside.

And the old stable area where they served wine, beer, light snacks and had the band.

My friend Margie makes these -they are just beautiful, I want to get one when I see her next month at the Simply Seba Art and Show and Sale out at Seba Beach (its July 27 I think if anyone is interested in coming out - 25% of all sales are going to the Seba Museum)

My friend Carolyn W makes these -they are bracelet cuffs - really funky!

Katherine's Hubby Hugh spinning his little pink heart out.

Cheers,

Carolyn

Art in the Garden Show and Sell

I'm off to the George Pegg Botanical Gardens for an Artist Show and Sell to pedal my works - Wish me luck!! 

If any of you are in / around Edmonton, if you do not have plans already - please come out to the George Pegg Gardens to help support local artist. There will be live music, food trucks and even my friend Hugh is going to be there Spinning on site!! (Spinning wool into Yarn that is!!).

Here is more info on the Artist Show and Sell:

Art in the Garden

Father's Day Family Event
Sunday June 15th, 11am-4pm
George Pegg Botanic Garden

Just a quick reminder that you won't want to miss our 2nd Annual Art in the Garden event! This Sunday from 11-4pm

This is an all-weather event, dress for the weather and join us rain or shine!

- Art on display and for sale, meet the artists

- Sheltered area to enjoy the musicians - 5 hours of live music entertainment!

- Concessions on site- JT’s Food Truck, Lil Jimmy’s Italian Ices, popcorn stand, plus a beer and wine bar (come prepared - no cash machine on site)

- 2 chances to win! $25.00 voucher for Art Show & Sale. Enter twice by answering our visitor survey and voting for the Youth Art Competition

 1^st name drawn at 1:30pm for $25.00 to spend at any artist booth. 2^nd name drawn at 3pm for 1 piece donated by a participating artist

- Art project for children

- Fun for the whole family! We have accessible washrooms

For directions visit www.PeggGarden.org

Cheers,

Carolyn

ROI = Happiness?? Yes, that sounds right.

I have been a busy bee, making what I think are fabulous things and I started to stress - what am I going to do with all of these things? I have to make money right? I mean, my time is worth something isn't, plus fabric an fibre are not free.
Thankfully, Mr Hunter sat me down and gave me the talk. According to my wise husband, my return on investment is happiness - "Give them Away!" He claimed, "or sell them - did you have fun making them, does it bring you joy?? Then who cares, you have a full time job that pays you. This is your passion, you make because you want to" - this is where I injected into the conversation and advised him, I have to make art because I am a creator, if I did not create art, I would be denying my soul, my inner being - from being what I am. - "Right" he said, " there you go - so who cares if you make money at it, once you start stressing on how to make money at it. Its no longer fun, you no longer want to do it and you give up on it."
Well Alright! Here is to ROI = Happiness

And here are some of my newest creations:

Cheers,

Carolyn

Focus On Fibre Arts Edmonton YarnBomb 2014

Check out this awesome video Mr Hunter made of the yarn bomb we did to promote the Focus On Fibre Arts Association - Prairies Art Show.

If you like it, show it - Click LIKE and and SHARE it!!

Thank you,

Carolyn

FFAA Prairie Art Show

The art show I entered my dress in had the opening reception this past Sunday and they announced the winners of each category. I WON SECOND PLACE for my felted dress!! Cool huh?!?

I got 50 bucks and a fun ribbon I'm going to put up in my studio. 

There is a lot of amazing pieces at the show. If you can make it there before the end of August, please check it out. 

Alternatively you can check out the FFAA website : http://www.focusonfibrearts.org/gallery

Cheers,

Carolyn

Sculpture Class

I'm taking a figurative sculpture class, I'm two classes in, only one left to go. Here is my sculpture so far:

The back is not so great, I barely touched it this class.

What do you think? Have you ever taken a class like this?

Cheers,

Carolyn

New quilt project in the new space

I went to work straight away after moving into the new space. I took this picture the day before Lucky's surgery (hence the lack of cone).

Lu was helping me select what went were - you can see he has marked his favourite squares with his favourite toys!

Look how proud he looks! You would think he made it himself. I did have to cut everything on the floor so he did definitely supervise =)

This technique was taught to my Seba Beach Guild during our Fall Retreat and we all loved it! The instructor was the amazing and talented Marianne from The Quilting Edge! You can see her original quilt that started it all HERE. She did a wonderful job teaching all of us her fantastic techniques. Marianne enjoys a studio in both Edmonton and Lotus Land (out on the coast of BC that is - of course hee hee, it isn't Edmonton!!).

This will be done a quilt as you go - do any of you do quilt as you go? I tell you, after I learned this technique from Marianne, I will never quilt the same.

Cheers,

Carolyn

Chickadee Feltscape

I just added my first Felted Landscape to my Etsy site - well, its not my first made landscape, but it is definitely the first time I have put one on sale. I am really happy with how it turned out. 

First I cut a piece of pre-felt to lay my design on. If you want a source for a great pre-felt for making landscapes, scarves or even felted garments - I would really recommend Mara over at Manucatura.ca (no, no-one paid me to say that - LOL - I do really love this shop though, Mara has an amazing selection of fibres and the pre-felt is just perfect for these applications and she has a good selection of colors to choose from. The pre-felt from Living Felt is really poofy in comparison and it is great for building animals, or using with their foam blocks to build bags, but I would not use it for felted landscapes - that is definitely another great shop though!)

Once my design was drawn with fibre, I did some light dry felting with felting needles to tack it in place - then I wet felted the entire thing. Once that was completed and the feltscape dry, I did free motion stitching on my Bernina to really make the bird pop and give definition to the tree.

Here is the original photograph I took in November of the Chickadee in my cherry tree:

There tummies are so gold in the winter! I hope to make more of these.

Have any of you tried felting yet? 

Cheers,

Carolyn

If you want to check out my Etsy site - click HERE. 

Poor little LuLu and his old man bumps

Our little Jack Russle Terrier is 13 or 14 this year and he has over the last couple of years been betting these old man bumps on his body. This last one was on his eyelid so we had to have it removed. Poor little guy, I am happy to say though, he looks much better today then he did yesterday all groggy. He came out of the vets smelling like manure though. It is so gross, and I'm scared to bath him, but he smells so bad 😢

He is still a little cutie pie though!

Cheers,

Carolyn

Super secret Yarn Bomb!

Coming to Edmonton, be on the lookout for a super secret YARN BOMB!!!!

More details to come!

Have any of you ever done a yarn bomb?

Cheers,

Carolyn

The new studio space

Weird, I had published this post a week ago, but now blogger is advising it didn't really publish! Here is last weeks post about my new studio:

Every room I have been given the go ahead to use as my studio space, I've been kicked out of (lol - darn renovations).

But FINALY I am getting my own space, and I am only going to move from here if I get a chance to be in a bigger room!!!

Here is what my space looks like now (pardon all the poly that is protecting everything from the reno dust).

And here, dadadaDAAAAaaaaa is the new space:

It's smaller, but it's going to be all mine. Muhahahahaaaaa

Still lots to do, plugs, closet doors, trim, and the inside of the closets are not done  😁 but it's getting there!

Cheers,

Carolyn

Moving in

It's official, I got the trim touch ups, the closet doors and all the walls painted this morning! The desk and table are now in there new home (until they are replaced with the promised custom unit Mr Hunter will make me when the rest of the house is done). 

I somehow managed to post my Etsy Shop link in this post (I still don't know how to use my phone properly). 

Since I managed to get it here, I'd love your feed back on it. If you have time to check it out, please let me know your honest opinion on it, what do you love, what do you hate about it? what do you think should be different? Here is the link:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/CarolynHunterDesigns?ref=search_shop_redirect

Do any of you have an Etsy store? I'd love your feedback on what works and does not work for you.

Thank you very very much!! 

Cheers,

Carolyn

Focus on Fibre Arts Show - Prairies

I entered a felted dress into this juried show that opens in May and I got it!! Woot Woot!!

If you live in Edmonton I hope you can make it to Enterprise Square to see the show. More details on the opening night specifics to come.

Here is my entry:

I call it my Harvest Dress. It is one piece wet felted and the wheat colours where applied at the wet felt stage, then I free motion stitched in the details:

Have any of you been felting? 

Cheers,

Carolyn

Quilting gloves at the hardware store

Mr Hunter just bought me painters gloves, which are identical to the quilters gloves I got for 10 dollars more. 

I prefer the bright yellow ones with the rubber dots from the Depot for 2 bucks, but this is a great find as well. These 5 dollar gloves are 100% the same as the quilt store gloves.

Cheers,

Carolyn