Break

Hi there. This is sort of a rambling journally muse as I haven't checked in for a while. Wednesday was crazy busy. My son had a last minute doctor's appointment. We stopped to visit an old friend that I have known since I was ten and she was the elementary school librarian for a minute on the way back. That minute turned into a pleasurable hour. She is one of the most delightful people I know with the greatest stories. I had plans to deliver some dolls for a dark carnival window display and had a terrific time chatting and working on doll stands all afternoon. After that great experience, I came home mowed the lawn, prepared dinner and checked the computer for buys in my store and other signs of life. I ran into a couple of brick walls, mostly because I think I am running myself ragged to deal with the frustration of my partners' terminal illness. Perhaps what would be a minor branch across the path could be at times too much to deal with in the preparation for this great loss. I suppose this oversensitiveness is just natural. So I have decided to take a break from more frustrating areas in my life just for a week or so and focus on more rewarding pursuits.

Projects are afoot. Steering clear of the mundane, but necessary, Suzees JubileeZ next event will be a demo at Blue Moose in Richmond on Friday July, 25 9:30 a.m. in preparation for a needlefelted sachet workshop there on August 20th. I also have a little book project on Shorty and Jack and the the Anatomy of Catnip Cats ( I am still frantically creating tons of cats for two upcoming craft shows one on August 2). Poking little cats it quite therapeutic, the rythym provides a meditative quality.Ohm.

Today I just chilled mostly and went to Pemaquid after running a few errands. Claire was exhausted after the trip, but she did eat a whole lobstah and had strawberry short cake for supper. I enjoy watching her savor all her favorites these days. The air quality is going to be even worse tomorrow so we shall see how that goes for her. I did get 6 cats polished off today and I made this Pirate Clown Beau Beau Periwinkle earlier in the week for the "dark but not too dark" circus. Beau Beau is Beauticia's brother who ran away to the circus at a young age.

A 45 year family tradition

4th '08 in Plymouth, originally uploaded by suzeesjubileez.

These shots should give you a little insight into where I get my fun loving ways. Dressing as clowns and riding highwheelers has been our fourth of July family tradition for 43 years. It happens in Duxbury or Plymouth, Mass. in between Boston and Cape Cod. My dad Russell "Rah" Shirley and my brothers Russell, David ( later Jay and Scott) dressed as clowns and rode decorated High Wheelers in the Duxbury Days Parade for the first time in 1964. My dad rode his antique High wheeler and the boys rode bikes he created from cannibalized trikes, bikes and unicycles. This Shirley love of parades started when my dad was a boy and rode the high wheeler in the Duxbury Days parade and also for kicks on his paper route. He graduated from that to putting together "horribles" for the parade at his uncle's garage Herrick's ( horribles are junk cars that are graffitied and ketchuped and hacked in various unseemly ways with crazy costumed drivers and passengers and all manner of shoes cans effigees and what not dragging from them). Dad started his grease monkey years at an early age at that garage next door to his home, graduating to airplane mechanics and computer maintenance in his adult years. He loved to put together bicycles and we had an enviable fleet of one of a kind wheeled contraptions as kids in our garage on Chamberlain Ave. in Brunswick Maine .

We also filled out our family collection of High Wheelers with a couple of replicas and another antique High wheeler in the past decades. The clown costumes and the crepe paper ( now we use mylar which holds up better in humid weather) were really my mother Shirley's (Yup that would be Shirley Shirley) design. She is crazy about costumes and decorations. Even in her small apartment she still has closets of holiday decor.

Poor Mom, I had out grown doll buggy parades, which we also did during Duxbury days. One year she made me a crepe paper grass skirt and totally fringed and flowered my doll buggy with crepe paper and dressed my doll in a matching Hawaiian outfit for a prize winning Aloha themed entry. Another year Mr. Glass constructed a plywood boat on wagon wheels, bedecked with strings of lollipops. We dressed as saliors on the Good Ship Lollipop. My brother Russell and I pulled David and Jay. As you might imagine, Halloween which was also quite a spectacle at our house (there were four of us in a five year spread and this made for some terrific ensemble get ups). I inherited Mom's festive spirit, and had my own fun with my uncle's antique bicycle built for two and a few floats and walking units I put together over the years. I recruited my cousins and friends to go in on some Duxbury Days fourth of July spectacle or another.

This year two of my brothers Russell and Scott rode, my son Jake, a niece Kayla, a nephew Kyle and several of their friends. My sister Sandra who often rides was in Alaska this year. Jay declined for medical reasons and David sadly passed away in 2002

If I ever get a scanner I will post some of the older shots. If you have any pictures of horribles or shots of the old parade please feel free to add them or links to them thanks.

Fat Eddy at his drums

Fat Eddy at his drums, originally uploaded by suzeesjubileez.

Fat Eddy the drummer for Mungo Mango's Immor(T)als gears up for the show In This summer's art walks in Midcoast Maine.

Miss Periwinkle and the Zapps

Miss Periwinkle and the Zapps, originally uploaded by suzeesjubileez.

Alphonso presents Beauticia with long stemmed roses. Antoinette is anxious to get on with her Air ship expeditions but its clear that Beauticia will remain at home with her brother. Antoinette is hoping to find her mother Athena Zapp who she last saw with the Radical Woman's Discovery Society to Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland (1915) for a routine exploration. (Perkins also wrote the Yellow Wallpaper) Sadly, Athena and her fellow activists chose to stay there rather than sit through the post feminist movement and what Cassandra Grumbaugh (seer of the movement) predicted the hawkish Bushwhack regime with its false nods to womankind and the tragic dummying down of girls and boys into cannon fodder with its "no child left behind act." A public school program that frowns on original thought and supports rote learning and order taking amongst the less privileged families who can not afford prep school. This left Antoinette to fly The Zapp's airship back alone and her generation of women to fight this difficult battle with out the benefit of their foremothers at their sides.
On her last trip with her future sister in law she had a vision which she believed would lead her back to Herland. In the Morning Antoinette began a most magical steam punk adventure. The journal of her travels is catologued periodically in the Etsy treasuries as well as in Antoinette's journals.

Jacks trip

Jacks trip, originally uploaded by suzeesjubileez.

Jack and Shorty are moving to a cat free, parrot friendly safe home in Corpus Christi. TX. At their farewell bash, Jack may have accidently gotten into the wrong herb in the catnip cat workshop. As the Jimi Hendrix Smash Hits disc whirled and Shorty danced with the guests upstairs, Jack produced a couple of psychedelic catnip cats as a last hurrah. He even named them which is a no no in the catnip cat workshop. Peter and Maxxine, fortunately he didn't tell Shorty this. Even though we suspect Jack may have been impaired the catnip cats he created are of the same quality as the "normal" catnip cats. Jack is always a fastidious worker.

Shorty was stunned but not surprised and helped Jack pack his bags, as Jack babbled on about Woodstock the concert, not the little bird that hangs out with Snoopy. Shorty thought, hm must be a flashback of a past life experience, because Jack isn't that old. In the process, Shorty lost his thinking cap so he won't be bringing it to Texas as he'd planned but he is sure that in his carefree life in the tropics he won't need it.

Clock's Full Page Spread

Clock's Full Page Spread, originally uploaded by suzeesjubileez.

Alphonso Zapp, relaxes after a long session of tango lessons and paper work at Ms Periwinkle's Ball room. Beauticia Periwinkle is on her first Zapp expedition with Antoinette and Alphonso offered to go beyond his usual part time role as Latin dance instructor at the ballroom in addition to his responsibilities as the manager of A and A Zapps Purveyors of Esoteric Artifacts and the substitute teaching gig at the charter school for little wizards. Alphonso will really have his hands full when his niece Ambrosia arrives on the scene. Alphonso is the only Zapp who stays close to home and Ambrosia needs a little stability.

Shorty's Catnip Parrot Relief Plan

Shorty and Jack have been friends since Shorty hatched.
This a great thing since Shorty and Jack are working together to save themselves from cats. They are a very sturdy pair of catnip parrots about 3.5 inches tall and would face prolonged torture under feline paws. Shorty was working on his catnip parrot relief plan while Jack courageously dashed off to get poster making material for a rally. Jack believes that there are many catnip parrots at risk. While Jack was out Shorty flew into a panic but after a lot of aimless flying in circles he came up with a plan.
It started with building a relief fund to place catnip parrots in safe houses and evolved into a business. Jack thought it was just so crazy it might work and in fact, it might be a lot safer than a rally in the park.
Shorty thinks if they make 1 -2 inch cats filled with catnip not only will it make a statement but will keep the cats busy. It would also let the public know that violence against catnip parrots is a serious problem. Shorty has sketched out the packaging "Shorty and Jacks Catnip Cats" and called the health food store. Shorty is a great sales rep it turns out. Jack added that it should be noted on the packaging that this product is for the relief of parrots everywhere. Once they get their business off the ground in brick and mortar stores and on Etsy they hope to lay low in a cat free environment. Preferably together, but who knows what the future holds says Jack.
Shorty figures he will get the first run of catnip cats started next week. Jack plans to call the press.