This isn’t a new year’s resolution, just a fulfillment of a goal I’ve had for a while: to move my cookie designs onto more permanent formats. In recent posts I’ve unveiled numerous cookie designs that I’ve transformed into paintings. Now some of those paintings are giclee prints, and as of today, some are greeting cards. And they’re all available in my little Etsy store! (which is about to go through a little sprucing up). I’ll preview new cards as I make them here.

And of course, I’ll be making new cookies. Yes, yes, yes!

It’s the way you carry it. ~Lena Horne.

Well, if anyone knows, I mean really knows the meaning of that, it’s Lena Horne. Please don’t tell me you don’t know who Lena Horne is. I might just punch you in the eye. (And then feel really badly that I gave you shiner).

I made a similar bag to this one a while back after experimenting with a new silkscreen. Proud of my work, I took the bag on a shopping trip, and was stunned when the guy behind the counter didn’t know who Lena Horne was. For a split second I felt kind of old. Then I shook my head and came to. What?!? She’s a legend, you ding-dong! was what I wanted to stay. Instead, I told this DD (Ding-Dong) to go and find her albums and give them a listen.

“Albums? Can’t I download her?” he asked.

Does anyone buy albums anymore? I’m not that old, but I know what an LP is. I know the meaning of something that “sounds like a broken record.” I learned Japanese using cassette tapes in college. Yeah, for a few seconds longer than before, I felt a tad old.

“I’m sure you can. Let me know if you do, and what you think,” I suggested.

A few weeks later, DD was more than happy to stop pushing a chain of shopping carts and hold up traffic going into the store’s parking lot to tell me that he had listened to Lena. He loved her. A very, big, almost naughty smile appeared on his face. “She was kinda hot, wasn’t she?”

Needless to say, he’s no longer a DD.

Using a ton of scraps and donated fabric, I made three of these bags. Each one has the silkscreen on one panel, but each one has different sides and interior linings. All have a nice sturdy olive canvas bottom. They will be in my Etsy store shortly. I would have made more, but my machine just broke down. How I loved that little Simplicity. I learned how to sew with it. It’s not worth fixing. I’m looking for a new one, so purchases from my little store will go to that…