idle moments

i just found this lovely oak appalachian dulcimer stand on ebay (oh what wonders can be found on ebay!). now i have two treasures to wait upon. i've seen a few versions of stands meant to be used to hold your dulcimer while you play instead of having it slide around on your lap. mostly, i use a small table when i have slippery pants on since i don't like the heat of using the traditional chamois. this little gem is fully adjustable in height and slender, yet stable, enough to rest between your legs so will make it an ideal companion to support my favorite dulcimers while playing!

until it arrives, i will just kick back and rest a while. perhaps even stitch? i'm done with the holiday gift quilt and am cutting back on shifts at work for a while. it's time to take some joe time for a change....

meanwhile, outside it is snowing. again. we got almost 8 inches over the weekend and are getting a few more even now...

namaste'

cigar box guitar heaven

since i can't share with you the quilt i've been working on (it's a holiday present and i don't wanna spoil the surprise), i thought i'd share my latest musical acquisition instead. earlier this year i commissioned an extremely talented english luthier to build a very special cigar box guitar for me.

i asked him to use a vintage cigar box with an interesting design, electrify it, make it convertible from 3 to 4 strings (hence the two little brass screws above the base string and extra notches in the bridge and nut....very clever solution on his part!)...(also note back in the first pic the fret markers....those are made from salvaged vintage bone piano keys and a great amount of the wood is salvaged from old furniture)...

i asked him to carve a blossom and a skull on the custom bridge...

i sent him sketches and photos of my tibetan monk's skull tattoo and asked him to stylize it for the hand carved heel...

and to include some tibetan clouds and more blossoms...

then i asked him to carve some stylized tibetan clouds on the headstock...

he did some very creative layering of woods to give the instrument fine detailing.

now, we decided to not actually ship this beauty across the pond until after the holiday madness subsides (for safety's sake), but flatfoot johnny made this wonderfully teasing video to stoke the flames of my desire and longing... in it he describes the many features, gives a lot of close up views and plays it both accoustically and amplified!



ooooh.....i can hardly wait to coax my own music!!

namaste'

a little holiday cheer

imagine my surprise when confronted with a rather large, unusually shaped box this afternoon at the post office, arriving from an interweb quilting friend down in kentucky. surprise transformed quickly into delight once i opened the box and found this beautiful old mountain dulcimer nestled inside.a plethora of golden packing peanuts! she obviously knows my passion for these amazing instruments. i am enriched and filled with gratitude by such a kind and generous gift from this incredible lady...

you can see how it was made in the traditional manner, using fence staples as fret wires...and where old frets had fallen out and been replaced. i can only imagine what this beauty sounds like given that the fretting is virtually all over the place. ha!

hand carved friction tuning pegs planted in a sculpted headstock. no grand grace and charm in the construction here. this is a down home, lovingly crafted instrument that invites you to speculate as to its history. possibilities spin out into eternity, spiced with romance and joyful gathering around the hearth!

the conundrum now is whether to restore this glorious wounded bird and help her to sing again by repairing a crack on the back soundboard, refinishing her, and adding a new fret board complete with properly intoned frets, or to leave her aging grace and charm in place and allow her silence to speak volumes in our dreams? i think i'll let her rest and settle in to her new home for a while and see what she whispers in the quiet hours of the night...

namaste'

clarity in chaos

a clean workbench. a steaming cup of roobios chai with almond milk and honey. a bit of sunlight. and a fresh start. perhaps wiping the slate clean was just what was needed? a little corner of clarity amidst the chaos from which to refocus. regroup. renew.

from this vantage, i begin to see my way clear. needle and thread have begun to click and flow. a quiet silence fills the room. and color blooms in cloth again... emerge in mind and in hand. i am eager to rejoin the creative stream and reconnect.

namaste'

the tangled thread

there are moments when i feel like one of these tangled balls of thread. thrust among so many other tangled threads. not always knowing where my tangled bits end and another's begin. it is not a comfortable bowl to be tossed into for one who likes ones threads to be tidy...

namaste'

coming back

"love can change a person

the way a parent can change a baby -

awkwardly, and often with a great deal of mess."

-lemony snicket, horseradish: bitter truths you can't avoid 

i was reading terry pratchett's a hat full of sky this morning and in it he asks, "why do you go away?" and answers, "so that you can come back.so that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. and the people there see you differently, too. coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving." i can see the truth in this every time i find myself coming back to this blog. whether i've been gone for only a few hours, or a few weeks. each time i sit down to compose my thoughts i find new colors creeping in from the corners to add their hue to rainbow of my experience. i used to lament my time away. but now...now i rejoice in my leaving. and returning. for i know i will discover new delights both simple and convoluted!

in honor of this revelation, i've been making chocolate chip pancakes for my oldies here at the cottage. the scent that fills the house is divine! even though i am no longer eating wheat or sugar, i can still tantalize my nose with their delectable scent. i can already hear the stirring sounds of our early risers. probably in search of what smells so delicious...

namaste'

noter & drone

i have found that i have to pace my stitching at the moment as my slashed finger aches and has a tendency to want to break open and bleed if i over use it (if you don't follow me on facebook, i slashed my left middle finger tip at work a few days ago while prying open a can after using the sub-standard can opener my employers seem to think are acceptable. fortunately, i have a very caring partner in my life right now who has provided me with a most excellent pampered chef can opener to save my finger tips in the future!) since the damaged finger tip is on my fretting hand, i had been moping about town because it precludes me from playing guitar, cbg or most other stringed instruments, thereby dropping music out of my life. not a pleasant thing to contemplate. however, in a lucid moment while gazing longingly at my appalachian dulcimer collection, i realized that i *could* still play in the traditional noter & drone style!

as you can tell, this is quite a different style than i'm used to playing (though not completely unfamiliar since this is the method i learned oh so many years ago when i found my first - and still favorite - dulcimer and coaxed my mom into loaning me the $450 - omg! that was so much money back then! - to purchase it from the luthier who created it, joe sanguinette of branson, missouri). if you listen closely, you can hear the noter (a wooden dowel turned from hardwood) slide between frets so it is slightly reminiscent of the blues slide style i've been experimenting with lately.

stitching. music. love. life is good!

namaste'

s'mores cake decadence

a little sugary decadence for my oldies at the cottage. i don't have a recipe, since i rarely cook that way, but i can tell you how to make your very own sugar coma inducing delight!  bake your favorite, super moist devil's food cake. once the cake has cooled, cover the top with a generous pile of marshmallows (i used mini's since that is what we had on hand, but any sort will do). place in oven set to a high broil until marshmallows have browned nicely (watch them close! one moment they are pristine and white, and then all of a sudden, poof! they're done!!). tuck graham cracker rectangles into the cake at random angles. then melt a couple cups of chocolate chips along with 5-6 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of corn syrup in a double boiler to create a creamy, rich ganache. spoon the ganache over the top of the cake and tadaah! there you have it!

in case you missed my facebook post the other day, we had our second round of early winter snow!

namaste'

sunday musings

sometimes i seem to careen off into a tangled forest of thought and distraction. these journeys may last a few minutes, if i'm lucky...weeks, or even months, if i am inattentive to the moment. our first snowfall this year woke me from this current slumber. nothing like a face full of snowflakes to bring ones attention back to the moment!

my creativity levels are still on the sluggish side, so i have simply picked up the pile of tiny little 1 1/4" squares of salvaged fabrics and begun stitching again. it's rather like walking, isn't it? first you take one stitch. then another. and another. pretty soon cloth is materializing beneath your fingers!

namaste'