How do you like me now?

So, in the past week I have discovered that one acquaintance from high school has a movie, The Painted Veil, that he both produced and starred in, on my cable's On Demand. I have another friend from grade school through high school who was on "The O'Reilly Factor" about boycotting the new release of Hairspray. The best man from our wedding just returned from a week of rebuilding a church in New Orleans. (He is the tall one in the back on the left.) And what am I doing? I am teaching algebra to at-risk students. Not that it isn't an important job that I am very excited about taking on, it just seems a little lackluster at the moment.

In order to combat my feelings of inadequacy, because all three of these men would think that teaching algebra to at-risk students is important, I decided to work on my piece for Fiber Art Fusion's show, Messages of Hope. (I have also been working on my Trip Around the World, but I need some variety in my life!) I made the background piece and designed a tree. But then I decided I didn't like any of my fabric for the tree bark, so I decided to try to tea dye something to thread paint. I only have herbal tea, so I hope that works. The leaves of the tree are going to be made of camouflage and button onto the tree. There will be a yellow ribbon around the tree. (I get to go back to Nicholas's shop to buy his most fabulous yellow ribbon.) Here is what I have done so far...

And the tea dyeing...