Tools for me.

Greetings all. I've been busy in my studio making my sculpting tools. If I do say so myself they came out wonderful. I can barely wait to get to the sculpting portion of my education. I bought a sculpting book in the fall sometime and I'm going chapter by chapter. Next I have to make the tool so I can make the foil head armature. I'll do that tomorrow. That won't be very interesting as it'll be just white. Once that is done I can start on faces. I've also decided to start something new on my blog. I'd like to start a regular monthly column caller THE RANTING AND RAVINGS OF A LUNATIC AT 47 . I turn 47 later this month so I figure I'll launch the column on my birthday and update it on the 29th of every month. Rants will be similar to my Christmas Card piece but you know different as it's not Christmas anymore. When I grow up I want to be a writer as well as a princess. I'm way to intimidated to write a novel but I figure I can manage one piece a month. A friend suggested I start a blog and publish without leaving my name to see if it will be successful or not. Well, I already have this blog why start another. So even though you know who I am I'm trying my hand at publishing a regular column. So look on March 29 2009 for the birth of my newest creative venture. I'll also publish in between all the other stuff. I'm not giving up on the fiber. Until next time....

For Tessa

Dear Tessa:

I just finished sewing on the patches for your first Girl Scout vest, the blue one for Daisy's. I added several patches and just in case your leader asks why I added them I thought I'd tell you here goes:
1) GS Friendship- I added this patch hoping you find and make many long and lasting friendships during your years in girl scouts. I have many great memories of me and your Mother during our years in scouts. Some of my favorites are the field trip to Philadelphia and two camping trips.
2) Science-I hope you'll consider science to be an interesting school class and consider it as a career choice. One of my goals with my own girls is to expose them to as much science as possible. You are very smart, smart enough for Science.
3)GS Winter Fun- Winter is a great season with so many fun outdoor activities like sledding and skating and snowball fights. Don't listen to your mother Winter is an awesome season.
4)Smores- There are so many traditions in Girl Scouts that are important to honor like learning the promise. But please don't forget the fun activities like smores what's better then toasting marshmallows and eating a smore.
5)Girl Scouts Make the World a Better Place- There is no doubt in my mind that you make the world a better place just by being who your are. Just having you around brightens the world.
6)Daisies have Attitude- I hope you'll always have a positive attitude about yourself and always walk with your head held high.
7)I love Patches- Sometimes in this world it's okay to love something just because. You don't need a good reason or explanation. Just because is good enough.

Mainly I just wanted you to know I LOVE YOU AND THINK YOU'RE SPECIAL. I may only see you on the rare occasion and you may not get to know me well but I love you and think your special. I hope you'll always have everything you need but please know that I am out there in the world if your need me. I love you.

Aunt Maryellen

2008 CHRISTMAS CARD MANIFESTO

My favorite part of any Christmas is the Christmas cards. I love them. I save last years cards so I can review them as I write out my new ones. I love picture cards. You know the ones of your kid’s, dog’s, cats and vacation places. I especially love the ones of people vacationing in Disney World. I love Disney World almost as much as I love Christmas cards. I even love the generic Christmas letters sent in some of the cards. I like reading about all the happy stuff you did all year long as well as all your accomplishments. I really do. Before I had kids I’d address and sign all my cards on the day after Thanksgiving. I’d get my supplies together and a nice hot cup of tea (Earl Grey of course Twinnings) and I’d spend a few lovely hours looking at the old cards and writing personal notes in the new ones. That would be all 70 new ones. Now that I have kids I try to get the cards out before January and personal notes are a thing of the past. But I have a few grips. These grips really are with family members who either don’t know about my blog or are too important to read it. So really I shouldn't’t burden all my wonderful cyber friends with my evil grips but I have to share with someone so I wrote my manifesto. Plus I liked the sound of the word manifesto. I like decapitate too but it’s really hard to work into a sentence, especially a sentence about Christmas cards. So without further ado I bring you Maryellen Newton’s Christmas card manifesto.

1) To the woman who insists on addressing every card, package and envelope to just Jeff Newton I’d like to remind you that I’ve lived with the man for over 20 years. We’ve been married for 19 years and there are two little girls that have resided here for 9 years. We aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. Not acknowledging our presence just pisses me off. Who do you think is going to look after you when you’re old decrepit and can’t move fast? Hmmm. Funny it won’t be Jeff because he’s too busy working, mowing the lawn (which takes two to three days and various modes of law mowing machinery to achieve) and playing brand new video games. You might want to think about that the next time you’re faced with an envelope.
2) To my dear sweet old aunt who insists on addressing my family’s card with Susan, Jeff, Amanda and Megan. I am Maryellen not Susan my older sister. And yes I do realize its confusing with two sisters. I call Megan Amanda all the time. But I do mange to writer Megan on all her important paper work. But there are four really good reasons that I’m not Susan:
A) Susan has never sent a Christmas card to anyone at anytime. She’s never had a stamp and a pen in the same room at the same time let alone a fancy card and your address.
B) Susan has never been married to any man, woman or beast let alone my husband Jeff. Get it she is not married to Jeff I’m married to Jeff. Jeff is my husband. I wash his dirty underwear and socks so the least you can do is remember my name Maryellen that’s M-A-R-Y-E-L-L-E-N.
C) Susan has no children. She doesn’t like children. She doesn’t want them around and refuses to play with anything resembling a child. She didn’t spend 100’s of hours in labor to bring my children into the world I did that’s me Maryellen.
D) And the last most important reason is that Susan has been dead for three years. That’s dead as in dead in the ground no longer alive no longer breathing and no longer sending Christmas cards wishing you a Merry Christmas.

3) To all who send me a card please stop informing me of your dead relatives and pets in the card. Wishing me a Merry Christmas then informing me that your father passed away is a real downer. Just because your Christmas is going to suck doesn’t mean mine has to. Informing me that your Father passed away nine months ago is really lousy. Do I send a sympathy card now instead of a Christmas card? Now I’m not a callus person. If you inform me your father has died and it’s within my power I’ll attend the funeral or send flowers, Mass card or sympathy card. Readers please don’t think I don’t know what it feels like to lose a relative. I personally have two dead Grandfathers, two dead Grandmothers assorted dead aunts’ uncles’ cousins and pets. One dead sister. And the mother of all dead relatives a dead mother. My own personnel mother died on December 4th and I sent out 70 Christmas cards refraining from mentioning my dead mother while wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. That’s right my Christmas sucked really badly but I did not try to ruin anyone else’s Christmas. You can do the same. Oh and this goes for dead gold fish too, you know who you are and I mean you.
4) To the family friend who insists on including the bad news in the generic Christmas letter by making it happy by stating we’re making lemonade out of our lemons don’t do it. Carrie Ann does not appear strong and resilient because she can make lemonade out of the reality of her ex-fiancé beating her up, stealing all her money, setting fire to her house, and killing her dog. It makes her appear stupid. After all if she wasn’t so busy making lemonade she may have noticed that something was off with her ex-finance before he beat her up, stole all of her money, set fire to her house and killed her dog. Please just include the happy positive news it is Christmas after all.


That about sums up my Christmas card manifesto. I hope everyone had a healthy and happy holiday season. I look forward to 2009 as I always look forward to the New Year. And in closing may all you’re 2009 Christmas Cards be happy Christmas Cards.

Merry Christmas!

I recently gave a party for my friends. As a Christmas Present to all of you I thought I'd share my invitation. If you have a sense of humor please read on. if you don't skip my blog and go have a glass of wine. Until next time.....


Right here was a lovely picture of a Christmas tea pot that won't copy in so use your imagination.




THE HONOR OF YOUR PRESENCE IS REQUESTED AT MARYELLEN NEWTON’S FIRST ANNUL CHRISTMAS SUCKS TEA AND ORNAMENT EXCHANGE.

WHEN: Monday December 15 at 8:45A.M. until? Please note the date change. My Spiritual Advisor stated that 16 was not a proper number for mass coffee and tea consumption. Mass outbreaks of wildfires, earthquakes and weird people showing up at your door requesting old socks would happen if I didn’t change the date. Now I didn’t want any weird sock requesting people at my door so I changed the date to the 15th.

WHERE: My house. It’s my party so of course I’d have it at my own house. It would not be fitting to have my party at your house. Well, it would be easier on me to have everyone over to your house and cheaper too as you’d have to provide the food and do all the cleaning up but then I guess it would be your party and not my party. And the purpose of this party was for it to be my party. So I guess I’ll just have to have the party at my house: 302 Morgan Valley Drive Oswego IL 60543.

WHY: Well to drink tea and eat food and celebrate why Christmas sucks so much. Why else would I have a Christmas Sucks Tea?

RSVP: Well, you have to RSVP to me because it’s my party. It would make no sense to RSVP to someone else as they are not having my party. But if you know someone who is willing to have my party and provide the food and clean up please let me know. 551-1816

WINE: I will not be serving whine at my party because it tastes like goat piss. Serving your friends goat piss in a glass is rude and I would never invite you to my house or someone else’s house and be rude. Now I will serve Scotch because it does not taste like goat piss. Please feel free to bring your own bottle of wine and I will provide the wine glasses. But I won’t be sharing your wine because I think it tastes like goat piss and why anyone in there right mind would drink swill like that is beyond me. Nothing ruins perfectly good food like a big tall glass of goat piss.

ORNAMENT: Please bring a $10 or less ornament to exchange with others for fun.

So Who Likes Turkey!

Happy Thanksgiving to all! This is Lenny but my face looks similar right now before I dig into my turkey dinner. I saw on someones blog a meme about the seven things I'm thankful for. So I decided to participate. Here they are:

1)My family Jeff husband of 19 years, and Amanda and Megan my daughters that I talk about all of the time.

2)My dog Bessie Spot, she's big energetic lively and a big couch potato.

3) My cats because through them I see wildness. Sandy 13 Lenny 4 Lily 4 and Lou Lou 3. And yes muliple cats are a huge blessing.

4) My good friend Maureen who has been a huge part of my life for 36 of my 46 years. She's the guardian for my children if something should happen to me the first person I call with good news and the person I call when I'm sad or upset. Friends like this are rare, hard to find and one of the best reason's to stay alive.

5)Creative work, its what keeps me going. It's a reason to get out of bed when all else fails. It's a job I never want to retire from.

6) Books reading is my most favorite activity and the one fun thing I've done everyday of my life since I learn the line "Go Dick GO".

7)My wheel with out it I couldn't spin and it is my peaceful activity and the only non living object that I would want to save if my house was burning down. It's an Ashford traditional that I bought used from a women in Dover New Jersey who bought it used from someone who bought it from The Spinnery. The wheel has a great feel and when I sit to spin it's I don't know how to explain it but I don't think I would ever want to spin on another wheel. I just feel right at home with this piece of wood it seems almost alive to me. All right enough weirdness about pieces of furniture. Until next time....

At last me live well sort of live!

It's been several months since my last post.This particular meme sums up my life at the moment.

List Five Things You've Done In The Past Few Weeks!
1) Drove Megan to soccer four times a week and once on Sunday for a game.
2) Drove Amanda to dance four times a week but not on Sunday for a game.
3) Drove Amanda and Megan to Girl Scouts and ran said Girl Scout meeting.
4) I did laundry, food shopping and cleaned the house so bacteria won't form in huge quantities just small isolated cells.
5) I went to Karate, I love karate.

If you told me ten years ago that my life would be totally kid centered I'd laugh in your face. I never liked children very much and never really minded that we planned on not having any. Then two accidents occurred and well see above. Originally I planned this blog to show my work and talk to other fiber people and artists. I have lots of friends here in town but no one spins or makes dolls. A few knit but they don't design their own stuff. So when I had nothing of artistic interest to report I didn't report. I really didn't think you were interested in soccer camp and practices and dance classes. Well I'll tell you anyway. Megan made the travel soccer team which practices twice a week with optional training sessions two other days. Megan wanted to go to all and woke Jeff up early on Saturday and Sunday for more practice. The season is over now so we have a rest. Amanda takes four dance classes a week which keeps her busy during soccer practice so I don't have to listen to how bored she is and how she hates her boring life. Dance doesn'e end until June so I'm very busy but rather bored. I decided to buy some face books and study faces to hopefully finish a doll before the next decade comes rolling in. Ii purchased Creating Lifelike Figures In Polymer Clay by Kathrine Dewey which is fabulous. My other three book purchases were Fantastic Figures by Susanna Oroyan which is really good as all her books are, Creative Cloth Doll Faces by Patti Medaris Culea which is good and lastly Artdolls Basic Sculpting and Beyond which is my least favorite but still a good resource book. So then I needed a place to create. Where will I do this great new endeavour? I thought the kitchen table but then I had to clean up every night before the kids came home. So it left me my studio. My dirty disorganized overfilled dump of a studio. The last time I dared entire that room a big roll of paper fell on my foot giving me a nasty bruise. Three weeks later I have a less filled clean workable place. I sent two big bags of wool out to be made into roving, I gave many books away as well as other stuff. My studio is a vision. As soon as I get rid of my kids tomorrow I'm going to start my face filled odyssey. So please get ready for some cool face activity on my blog here. Are you as excited as me? Well I'm excited anyway. Until next time.... And yes there will be a next time......

L is for Laughter.

It seems my art career is on hold. I'm not sure for how long but I don't seem to have the urge to go into my studio to work. I haven't spun in ages and that is usually my stand by activity that I did almost religiously. But everything is on hold for now as I've become a social butterfly. On Friday night I hosted the first annual Girl Scout backyard camp out. It was great fun for all. Well maybe not for Jeff. I came to be a Girl Scout leader in a round about way. Amanda's always had a troop that I wasn't involved with at all. Megan's dance class met at the same time so a friend took Amanda to all the meetings so I could take Megan to dance. Once Megan was old enough to join girl scouts I helped her leader there by becoming a co-leader. Said leader was not organized so I sort of stepped up and did a great deal for the troop while she remained the main leader. Last year the leader for Amanda's troop started to make quitting noises. The new leader was going to be the mother of the area bully which would be bad for Amanda. I wanted her in the troop I was doing the work for but the main leader freaked out said no and I pulled my kids and started a troop with three other women. It's been a fabulous experience for me. I think the kids are pretty happy too. Amanda and the two other older girls just flew up to juniors. The camp out was a junior activity with only sister or leader brownies. There are five other girls in the troop besides the leader daughters which makes the group very easy to run. Plus we've done so many great activities that I hope my kids continue to enjoy it. But me and the other women stayed up until three in the morning laughing and just having fun. I guess it was a slumber party for us as well. Jeff made pancakes the next morning which everyone enjoyed. This is the second party we've given this summer. I've never had so much fun and so many parties. I really need to thank the old leaders of Megan and Amanda's troop for giving me such a great gift even is it was delivered with a great deal of aggravation. Until next time....