Up Next: Pink With Sparkles!

So, those of you who remember me from long ago, when I had two boy children and was sure I was a Boy Mama through and through and perhaps not at all cut out for being a Girl Mama, and then I found out I was having a girl child, and remember I said I wouldn't dress her all in pink and frou-frou until and unless she asked for pink or frou-frou?

Behold the yarn for my next knitting project:

That's Dream in Color Starry. The last time we visited the yarn store, my three-soon-to-be-four-year-old was just bowled over by the sparkly yarn. She has been for a while, actually, drawn to all the sparkly bits, some of which aren't anything I want to knit with. But when she admired this one, I told her we'd come back to get enough for a sweater (I wanted to figure out how much that would be exactly before buying it). After viewing some pattern choices, she settled on another Daisy Cardigan, because she has finally outgrown her first one (look at that adorable toddler--go click!!). We went back today, and I pulled all the colors with at least two skeins and from those she picked this pink sparkly yarn with hints of purple.

And you know what? I kind of like the pink sparkly yarn too. Look how far I've come!!

August

This week, the one that begins with my mother's birthday on July 29 and ends with the anniversary of her death (five years this year) on August 5, has the potential for being rocky every year. I say "potential" because these things vary. Some years it's okay. Others, not so much. Sometimes bracing yourself for it just means it pops up somewhere else. I still have a lot of big, yucky feelings, understandably. To add into that, my 96-year-old grandmother was discharged last weekend from the hospital to a nursing home--the same one, actually, in which my mother died. When I visited my grandmother in the hospital I really thought, well, I thought I'd better tell her whatever I needed to tell her, and I did. Last weekend we brought the kids to see her in the nursing home--this is her third rehab stint there, all after hospital stays--and my oldest looked drawn. He remembers just enough of visiting my mother there. But we visited again on Thursday and he noticed right away how much better she seemed. She sat up and visited with us, enjoyed the kids, and she and I joked and laughed together. I felt so much better after that visit with my grandmother.

And despite the sneaking feeling that I spent a goodly part of the week lying on the couch in a heat- and inertia-fueled stupor, that's just not so (although there was some of that, too). We began the week by taking the kids to Watch Hill's Flying Horse Carousel. This was my daughter's first ride on the carousel.

While she was riding she was almost solemn. She smiled when we waved to her, but otherwise, I think she was just quietly soaking it all in. After her two rides were over and I went to help her off her horse, she didn't even say anything (unusual for this talkative girl), she just wrapped herself around me and hugged me tightly, so overcome, I think, with absolute excitement and joy. That ride was just so wonderful she was rendered speechless.

Later in the week I took the kids to the zoo, and later still, the oldest, youngest, and I painted rocks. My daughter had been asking to paint rocks again so on a hot hazy afternoon, we did. My oldest and I took our inspiration from an activity in My Art Book, which I borrowed from the library. It's based on Australian dot paintings from the Balgo Community--but really it's just taking the technique of painting dots and transferring it to rocks, not trying to reproduce the traditional paintings (which would give me pause). My son opted to paint a turtle but without the extra layers of dots; since he was painting a local turtle that already has spots, he kept his dots to the shell. I decided to paint a snake and go all out with my dots.

This was just super fun to make. And since I have acrylic varnish on the shelf (what don't I have, I wonder), I made it shiny. I want to make more--and even though we have rocks aplenty, I couldn't help but bring more home from the beach today, to become more animals, more shiny rocks, more brightly colored happy things.

Which is why I also painted this:

It's on a 6x6 gessobord, in need of a frame. It's a fragment from a favorite poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot. (I have also embroidered this fragment on my jeans.) I was trying out some different Pages + Paint techniques here, although no collage. It's just a happy piece, created to make me happy.

In the same vein as beach rocks and mermaids, this week I received a sweet little package of sea glass and driftwood from Cameron at Paint Myself Pretty.

The bag is shiny so it's hard to get a good picture of all the goodness inside, but it's also so pretty with that sticker and all that I haven't been able to make myself tear into it yet, even carefully. I'm just enjoying looking at it the way it is. But soon I will pour the sea glass into a little bowl and put it on the table so I can just look at it and enjoy it all. Thanks, Cameron!

And I've been working on my Ravellenic Games lace:

I've been trying to do a repeat per day (64 stitches times a 24-row repeat). The pattern says it took 15 repeats to get a 60-inch scarf, but my gauge must be different, because even with stretching, I don't think that will happen. That length right there is eight repeats. So while I may meet my Olympic goal of a repeat per day, I don't think I'll be done with the scarf at that point. I want to use every bit of that skein of lace weight. It's really pretty stuff, too. Here's a close-up; unblocked, of course.

So that's been the week, pretty much. Posting may be spotty for the rest of this month; we'll see how it goes. Pages + Paint had me in the computer a bit more than I wanted to be in July, trying to contribute to the discussions on the blog, in the Flickr group, and in the private forum. I'm feeling I need to counter-balance that and step back a bit (so much so that for two days this week, the laptop was not only off, but shoved under my bed so I couldn't even see it). Summer feels like it's slipping through my fingers, and I'm not quite ready....no, not quite ready.

What good things snuck into your days this week?

Getting Ready

(Giveaway is still open--postcards inspired by the lake!)

I will be spending Saturday and Sunday taking a weekend intensive in mixed media through RISD continuing ed, so I've been gathering my materials and preparing for this very exciting (and somewhat intimidating) experience. I signed up because mixed media feels so challenging to me. I'm hoping to exit the weekend feeling far more confident with it. To add to the excitement, Karen is taking the class too. I am very much looking forward to meeting her in person.

Linking up with my creative space--lucky me, I get twelve hours of creative space this weekend!

Saturday Sewing: A Skirt For Mama

Yesterday I was awakened at 5 am by the sound of pouring rain. (I went back to sleep, no worries!) This worked perfectly into our no-plans Saturday; I wanted to sew a skirt for myself anyway. So I spent the day turning this

into this:

It's hard to see the ties there, but they're of the same fabric. I made this with a drawstring waist. Perfect? Nope. If I'm going to make more of these (and I think I am), I'm going to have to get comfortable with the buttonhole foot on my sewing machine. I did these two by hand, which definitely gives me more control but takes much longer, and probably isn't quite as neat--although I don't know, the one time I tried my buttonhole foot, it didn't seem all that fantastic, really. Also, the casing is a little (accidentally) gathered in one spot, but since the skirt itself gathers with the drawstring, it's not a huge deal. I don't expect anyone will be investigating my waistband anyway. (That's a bit too personal, no?)

Here's another view, from the back:

This skirt is really comfortable and flow-y. I love the line of it. It's a simple A-line, drafted using Sew What! Skirts. I used their suggested minimum of 2-inch ease for the top width, but I think I could go down to one. On the other hand, I like the slope from the waist to the hem the way it is now. And as you can probably tell from the one-day sewing, this was very easy to make.

And hey, look what the kids and I scored on Friday:

Someone was Freecycling wooden cigar boxes. Having never seen any before, I was picturing something less polished, that we could decorate and use for treasure boxes. We like these the way they are, but we could still personalize the inside covers, if we wanted. There are five boxes, and five of us, so we'll each get one. (The big people in the family are rather taken with these, too.) I plan to use mine for paper ephemera. I don't usually respond to Freecycle posts; it's often not anything I want, and if I do, it's already taken. But this actually worked out, and I had two of the three kids with me when I picked them up, and goodness, were we excited.

I hope you're enjoying your weekend! Today is sunny, but not too hot. Oh, and the cowbird chicks fledged...the whole story (with pictures) is here. Just so you're warned, it didn't end well for the phoebe's eggs.

A Little Something For My Moos

Once you get Mini Moo cards, of course you want to make a little case so you can carry some around with you.

This is made from cork leather, which was part of an order from Agulha Não Pica, the shop of Gabi, who writes the Portuguese stitchery columns for Feeling Stitchy. I have a small and precious piece of it. It's already soft on the inside, so I didn't need to line it, just sew it. My crooked stitches are proof of my inexperience with sewing this new material.

But I still think it's just the perfect little carrying case for my sweet little Moos. That's just a simple adhesive Velcro tab, cut in half--I felt that would be the closure that would wear on the cork leather the least.

Gabi explains what cork leather is here. I already knew Portugal was a big producer of cork (the biggest, apparently) because when my husband went there for a conference, he came back with a a little blank book for me, with covers of cork leather. It would be so lovely to have enough of this to use in book binding. Maybe in the future.... meanwhile, I have the rest of my original small piece. Wonder what else I'll make with it?

In The Mail

Lots of fun in my mailbox this week, as postcards have been arriving thanks to iHanna's DIY Postcard Swap. I've received eight so far, pictured here with the personalized wrapping Caterina used. I've left this photo a little bigger, so if you click it you should get a much better look.

Roughly top to bottom, going left to right: Caterina's "Home Sweet Home" ccollage; Vesna's "Be You" paint and washi tape collage; Yvonne's stitched fabric card; Madelene's woman card; Quinn's found poetry card; Paula's cheerful red and yellow painted card; Susan's "She loved books most of all" collage; and Chris's goddess collage. (I don't know if it's really a goddess, but it reminds me of one.) How cool are all of these? I'd love to show you close-ups of every single one, since they all have some amazing details. You can see lots of postcards in the Flickr group. I want to share the quote Madde included on the back of her card, though.

Kinda what I need to hear right now...

Also in my mailbox this week, I received my first Whimsey Box!

It's just so sweetly packaged, with a pretty postcard telling what's inside. Glue stick, stick-on magnets, Sharpies, trim, and patterned paper, which you can't see at all, so here's a better look.

Luscious, is what that is, especially with that lace and rick-rack.

Anything fun in your mailbox lately?

**

I typically try to keep background chatter off this blog, but my husband is away for the next week. This isn't an uncommon thing (although this spring has been lighter than usual), and I'm usually pretty on top of the solo parenting. I typically handle it all, with something approaching aplomb. During his last work trip, the dishwasher broke, the cat killed the TV by puking into it, and I was diagnosed with Lyme. That's a fairly typical solo parenting week, actually. However, due to non-bloggable background stuff, I'm not feeling too confident in my abilities to handle even the daily schedule on my own, never mind the random crazy. So if you'd take a minute to wish for a calm week in these parts, I'd so much appreciate it.

Pretty Things + Surprises

I had the sort of week where every single night, I went to bed thinking, Tomorrow is a new day and I will do better. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday...I failed to do better each day. I was so far from the me I want to be. In part I blame February, such a tough month for me. I know last winter was colder and much, much snowier, but I feel like this winter has been darker. We got more sun last year, and whatever we got was intensified by all the snow cover. I think that's the difference. In the understated way my husband has, he ventured, "You always have trouble in February and March." This was some point after a kitchen drawer literally fell apart; eight years of me slamming it shut when irritated in the kitchen finally took its toll. Thankfully, after that, I stopped falling apart too. Friday was better. Want to see?

Four headbands I've made lately, three of them finished up Friday morning. The two larger ones on the bottom are mine, made from fat quarters bought just for that purpose. The two smaller ones are my daughter's, from stash fabric. Aren't the colors so springish and bright? On purpose, of course. I really do love these. They take minutes to sew up, they're so useful (my hair is long, long, long and heavy, too, and my daughter's is also long, and elastics slip right out of her baby-fine hair), and I always get complimented on them. I'm planning an embroidered denim one next.

After that, I put the stroller in the car and my daughter and I drove into town. Wednesday and Thursday, it was cold and wet--not only couldn't I take a walk, but the damp bothered my hip. Today the temperature hovered near freezing, but it was sunny and dry. I parked at one end of a stretch of bike path and walked the path from there to Main Street, where we stopped into a couple of stores. At one, I paid for a one-night watercolor class I'd signed up for over the phone, and at the fabric store, we did a little of what I called February Recovery Shopping.

Two fat quarter bundles and a 1/2-yard cut--that's the polka dots--for another headband for my daughter, because why not? She likes to pick out fabric too. Fat quarter bundles are the fabric store equivalent of a nice skein of sock yarn. You want something, you don't have anything in particular in mind, and they're so pretty. This store makes them especially pretty, don't you think? You can't see all the fabrics in this photo, of course, but on the left is a variety of beautiful greens, and the right has four pieces of Japanese fabric that feels lovely and told me it wanted to be embroidered on somehow.

When I got home I found unexpected goodies in the mail. I think I mentioned I participated in the Squam Double Dog Dare for February? I said I was going to walk at least twice a week, because I felt that moving my body would help me recover from the effects of Lyme and help me with the quicksand naps I was falling into daily. I'm happy to say I both made good on my word, and that it has helped. And this is what the Squam fairies sent me:

Yes, that's just the package. It's decorated. I had to take a picture before I opened it. There's a note on the back, too.

Honestly, I don't know how they have the time for such personalized love, how Elizabeth and her staff are keeping the spirit of Squam so true as it gets so big. This is what my daughter and I found inside:

My daughter helped me empty it, which is how we ended up with sparkly blue stars all over the rug!

Notecards, a dog tag that says I'm a top dog, glitter lip gloss, sticky notes (which is awesome, because I'm always hunting for sticky notes while I'm knitting), and FLOWER SEEDS!! Because spring, oh spring is coming, y'all. Oh, and everything was wrapped in what I think is a doggie neck bandana. Hmm, maybe I can get the cat to wear it? I'm sure a stuffed animal will be pleased to receive it, if the cat isn't.

And another sign of spring landed in my mailbox today:

That, my friends, is this year's National Poetry Month poster. Those of you who have been reading since I first began blogging elsewhere may remember that often in April, I posted a poem a day. I'm considering doing that again. I love poetry, love it, I love sharing it, it makes me happy. Spring and poetry and pretty things and walking and surprises and getting through Friday behaving more like the me I want to be...it all makes me happy.

{P.S. I set myself a March DDD challenge too...and you don't have to be registered for a Squam workshop to participate. There's something about publicly setting a goal, no matter how big or small, and feeling accountable, that does wonders. There is a lot of good energy over there.}

Sunday Photos: Autumn Beach Walk

Beautiful beach

Collecting

The waves come in, full of rocks and shells

More collecting--we can't help ourselves!

Pinecone Stamp

From this...

to this.

I'm working on some ideas for gift tags and/or stamping onto Kraft paper for gift wrap. (I still love brown paper packages tied up with string best! But I want to add some stamps here and there.) This is a different carving block than I've used before--it's Speedball Speedy Cut. I find it very easy to carve but a little crumbly and probably not the best choice for anything with detail.

Sunday Photo: From the Farmers' Market

{Do I ever have plans for this!}

Custom Commissioned Ort Jar Label

My, that does sound impressive, doesn't it? A couple of months ago, I used a stamp I'd carved to make a label for the pickle jar which has been holding my DPNs for years now. I learned the process from Print Workshop by Christine Schmidt, and once I knew it worked, my boys and I labeled every jar we could in our art studio. So my sister's recent request for a labeled jar in which to keep her orts wasn't completely out of left field, although I wasn't quite sure what an ort was. In this case, an ort is "the snippet of thread left over in the needle after finishing a section of embroidery."

And this would be a dressed-up jar in which to keep your orts.

I just realized Blogger lost an entire post, in which I mentioned I'm participated in Sew, Mama, Sew's May Giveaway Day. Thanks a lot, Blogger! I'll work on re-creating it... maybe?   Here it is!

(Re-Post) Procurement of Supplies

For a while I had a string of jobs that all contained "procurement of supplies" within the long, open-ended job description. Honestly, isn't that such a fun duty? That's what my daughter and I set out to do today. Her room is ready for curtains, but the local stores have a limited selection and a high price, so I decided we needed to head to the cavernous fabric store about 45 minutes north of here, where cotton fabric is just $5/yard ($2 in the bargain loft). My daughter found purple fabric all right. It's not quite what I'd have chosen, but it's not my room, and I do think kids ought to have control over these sorts of choices.

It's covered with tools. She's ecstatic.

This store doesn't offer fat quarters, but with prices like that, it's cheap enough to gather up your own. Mindful of time and budget, though, I didn't. I simply went for a yard of this:

As you can tell from the buttons, I have plans for it. I was only going to get a half yard, but at the last minute I decided, Oh heck with that extra $2.50. Let's get a whole yard. (That stop by the button section cost me an extra $10, by the way. I didn't photograph the silver skull & crossbones buttons I got for my sons, or the five button cards my daughter just had to have. Letters, numbers, ducks, ladybugs, and fish, all terribly cute.)

Since we were already up near the city, we swung by Utrecht. I order most of my art supplies online or pick up what I can at craft and hobby stores, because the actual art supply stores (there are three of them) are all in the city, 45 minutes away by car and with challenging parking situations. It's not always easy to get to one of them. But I wanted some paper for bookbinding, and that's the sort of thing you really need to buy in person. See?

That charcoal one is actually for my daughter. I'm not sure what she plans to do with it, but she'll let me know.

I was super lucky and found free, one-hour parking right across the street from the art store, and right next to a hardware store that's been there for nearly 100 years. Do hardware stores draw you in? Especially independent ones? I checked with my daughter and she agreed we should go look (after putting the carefully rolled-up paper in the car). We ended up with a plastic funnel and an aluminum scoop for the sandbox, some nightlight bulbs (seems like we go through those like water here), some foam-tipped paintbrushes (which may have a date with that charcoal paper tomorrow; we'll see), and some free stuff.

That piece of fabric over on the left is a sample--this hardware store also does interior decoration, apparently, not just paint and wallpaper but fabric, too. I have something very specific in mind for that piece. The other two books--books--of sample fabrics were also free. I asked if they ever sold the sample books when they were done with them, and I was told exactly where I could find the discards and that I could have whatever I wanted. They just give them away! (Did you know this??) I'm not sure what I'm going to do with those sample books, but I'm sure my kids and I will come up with something. They're heavyweight, with some sort of backing--I don't know if that's because it's all upholstery fabric or because samples are always reinforced--whatever the reason, it definitely expands the possibilities of what we might do with them. I'm so glad I asked.

Also? Now that I've procured some supplies, I'm signing up to participate in Sew, Mama, Sew's May Giveaway Day. I just haven't decided yet if I'll be using that pink fabric or some of that paper to make my giveaway...