penny carnival

'The rain is like a baptism'

One of my favorite movies in high school (and this might make some of you youngins realize how old I am. 35) was "Say Anything." I was so in love with Lloyd Dobler. Still am, really.

The movie is set in Seattle, which of course is thrilling when you're 16 and you sort of think Seattle belongs to you even though you live in a suburb 86 miles away. That was before Nirvana and Pearl Jam made it big, and then we really thought we had something to brag about--even us sheltered kids from the 'burbs who probably couldn't relate to half of the angst those guys sang about.

My friend Simon, who lives in Seattle, has this for his status update on Facebook this morning: "The drive to work in the rain through tree-lined streets that were shedding their leaves, listening to Classic King FM ... I heart the PNW!" (Translation: Pacific Northwest.)

I'm four hours away, on the "dry" side of the state, and it's pouring down rain here today, too. The rain is like a baptism (a Lloyd Dobler line) on my back patio. (I don't have any profound rebirth to report. That line from the movie has just always stuck in my head.) 

The rain sounds more torrential than it is because we need to clean the pine needles out of the gutter, but I almost want to keep them there because the sound of the water crashing down onto the concrete reminds me so much of home. 

Rain was a constant growing up in northwest Washington. It didn't keep you indoors during recess--you just wore your slicker or played kickball under the "covered area" at Roosevelt Elementary School. It didn't stop you from riding your bike through Whatcom Falls Park. On especially wet days at home, you stayed inside eating grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup and doing arts and crafts at the card table with your big sister. When you got older, there were first kisses in the rain and nights out with your girlfriends when the roads always seemed to be wet.

I've got the icks (again!), so I don't much feel like being out there today. But it's a perfect day for hunkering down, getting some work done, and then hopefully finally sewing up the girls' Halloween costumes later tonight.

If it's rainy where you are and you're looking for an arts and crafts project to do with your kids, check out these 3-D pumpkins I wrote a tutorial for for the new About.com site. You can use them as Halloween decorations or save them for Thanksgiving dinner and set them out as place cards.

One other crafty thing to report--the last book sling I'll be making for a while:

 

(Note to self: if someone ever asks me to applique the letter "S" again, just say no! Damn those curves.)

I put my little Etsy shop on vacation for a bit. Just too much other stuff going on. It's not like I had that many orders, but it takes a lot of time and care and I really admire the people who make a living out of doing that. I'll open it back up soon, but I need to get some Christmas and birthday gifts made for my own family first.

Don't forget that you can make your own book sling. Tutorial here.

And speaking of book slings, one that I had the pleasure of making recently is hanging in a home that many of you are probably familiar with, if you're a fan like me. Meg from Sew Liberated did a trade with me--a book sling in exchange for some of her patterns. I was quite honored that a talented person like herself would want something from my humble craft room. You can see it hanging for little Finn here.

Mobile-ization

I just got a message from my cousin Bethany with a photo of a seashell mobile she made with her daughter Grace the other day. Bethany and Grace are always doing crafty things, like making these beautiful necklaces a few months ago. 

This is what she wrote today:

I was reading your blog and it's so funny that you made a mobile, we made one last week out of shells.  I had been wanting to make one one for a while and finally got around to it.  We found some good conch shells down the beach and they were easy to string.  

    Oh yeah and i took a VERY old chalk board out of my mom's garage and hung it up in Grace's play room.  She LOVES it, she has to draw on it everyday.  

And what's funny about that, Bethany, is that I'm planning on painting a wall in our kitchen with chalkboard paint next weekend. We're 3,000 miles apart, but we're riding the same wavelength. 

Bethany said she's also making some signs for her house with phrases that her dad--my beloved Uncle Tommy--used to say. He passed away a couple of years ago, but his gentle wisdom still lives with all of us. 

Love you and miss you, B. 

A buffet of inspiration

Not much to report on the crafting front. I've been pecking away at a few projects, but nothing worth showing and telling yet. One thing I'm pretty excited about is an art quilt I'm working on for my aunt. I've never made one before--in fact anything with the word "art" in it is a bit intimidating to me--but I'm having fun with it so far.

I thought I'd offer a smorgasbord of links to some cool new finds. I'd love for you to post your latest sources of inspiration in the comments below.

First off, I hardly touched the surface of the beautiful new clothes from Tea Collection when I blogged about that a couple weeks ago. For some reason I'm having trouble copying photos from their site, but check out these links to loveliness:

Rasmussen Floral Knit Dress

Aurland Bubble Dress

Fjord Plaid Swing Coat

I would order them all if I could. In my size, please.

I also recently stumbled upon these beautiful coloring pages by Dutch artist Frank de Kleine. He says they're for kids, but I'm having a heyday thinking of all the ways I could play with these. I'm already embroidering/appliqueing the beach cabanas. The peacock could be projected onto a canvas, traced and painted in beautiful, vibrant colors.

And since we're gearing up for the start of preschool, a Montessori-inspired bedroom:

So hip it hurts

There are so many thoughts and project ideas whirring around my head these days, and absolutely no time to do anything about it. Work has me so busy that I'm finding the time I do get to spend with the girls is best spent doing simple things. Today that meant a taking a walk, cutting lettuce from the garden and making a salad out of it (which Bo then refused to eat) and painting polka-dotted toenails.

A wonderful old friend of mine is coming to town with her daughter tomorrow and as I tidied up the basement, i.e., the craft disaster room, I just kept thinking of things I would have liked to do to the house before she arrived. We yanked out the shrubbery in the front yard several weeks ago with the intent of planting something nicer, but that hasn't happened. There are walls in the living room desperately in need of artwork. And I haven't picked up the dog's poop from the yard all week. (I'll definitely take care of the latter before you arrive, Nis.)

She and I talked on the phone today and she confirmed what I already knew: good friends don't care. In fact, she said it would be flattering to her to arrive to a little madness because it would mean we were so close I didn't feel the need to impress her.

So for now, I'm going to dream a little bit about what my craft room could look like--maybe--one day--with the photos below of craft rooms owned by people who've got their lives in order way better than me these days.

I've also been meaning to share some thoughts from a fellow Spokanite I interviewed recently for a craft-related article I'm writing. Cherie Killilea, of StudioCherie on Etsy, has taken the whole craft movement further than most of us, having some of her ideas manufactured in China (she was never happy with the quality, though) and having met with executives at Disney who loved some of her creations (but then wanted millions of dollars from her so she could use the Disney license). She has found a home on Etsy because of the immediacy of it. Instead of designing something and then waiting two years to see it on store shelves, she designs, sells right away and moves on to the next idea before she can become bored by the old one. Cherie also talked about how only two or three years ago, everyone wanted a Louis Vuitton bag. Today people want something truly unique and fresh instead, so they turn to Etsy and buy things that might have been sewn within days or hours of being posted. It makes me wonder how conventional designers and fashion magazines are keeping up these days.

It was a great conversation and I wished I'd recorded it ala CraftSanity. It helped confirm what I've mostly unsuccessfully been trying to convince loved ones of: if nothing else, this whole handmade thing is hip, dammit.

In 2000, I wrote an article about the Voluntary Simplicity Movement. Back then the people who were advocating living with less and--heaven forbid--giving handmade Christmas gifts, were not part of the mainstream.

It's amazing how quickly things change. Not that crafters and advocates for simplicity have taken over. Yet. I see plenty of evidence of the opposite every day and I don't think my schedule these days has been the model of simple living.

But it's a trend I love. Now if I could just find some time to join the fun.

(The craft rooms below were found here, here and here.)

Jiggity jig

Home again.

Our marathon vacation has come to a close. After three weeks in Rhode Island, we came home Wednesday evening to a full garden, a happy dog and an empty fridge (the freezer filled quickly, though! We recently bought 1/4 of a grass-fed Oregon cow. More on that another day). It's always hard to say goodbye to my family back east, but it's also good to get settled at home again.

I apologize for neglecting the blog as much as I have. I have a flood of work deadlines to slog through but promise to be back in regular crafty action after that.

It's amazing how much a garden can grow in three weeks, by the way. There's so much that needs to either be eaten or frozen, and there's no shortage of weeds that need pulling. The photos below include a shot of a young sunflower and a hollyhock making its way through our fence from our neighbor's yard (don't you love when that happens?).

We also came home to a huge stack of mail, of course, including the book "How to Raise an Amazing Child the Montessori Way," by Tim Selden, which I won from Amber over at Kids Craft Weekly. She holds a monthly contest for anyone who submits photos of their kids creating one of her crafts. I'm not sure if it's a random drawing or if she just chooses a photo she likes, but I was excited to hear that my shot of Bo doing pantry art won. Thanks, Amber!

I haven't had a chance to dig in, but the book looks great so far. I've read a more detailed book about raising your kids in the Montessori way. This seems to be a good refresher/quick reference/easy-to-find activities sort of thing.

So tonight was a little rough. Bo has been begging to take a ballet class ever since she saw her cousin MH dancing last spring. I finally signed her up, we read a book today about ballerinas, she put on her tu-tu, and we drove to the 6:30 p.m. class only to learn that it'd been changed to 3 p.m. Um, how am I supposed to explain that to my 3 year old? Crocodile tears ensued. I attempted to dry them with a trip to the ice cream shop--is that horrible? Am I teaching her to numb her emotions with food already?
My heart really broke for her, which worries me because this is only ballet class. What happens when life gets more complicated?

Back to books, though. I need to come up with a better system for displaying the girls' books. For a long time I thought the more books the better, but Bo seems really overwhelmed when she goes to her bookshelf to pick out something for us to read. Plus she has a hard time recognizing books when she just sees the spine.
Some of the books I have are crap-o-la, too, since a lot of them came from a book sale in which you could stuff a big box full of books for just $5. I hardly looked at the titles, let alone the plots. Sometimes she'll pick out a book and as I'm reading it all I can think about is how in the world it ever got published and how can I make up a new ending so she isn't emotionally scarred forever.

Anyhow, I ordered a few books online last night--The Seashore Book, by Charlotte Zolotow, Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney, The Carrot Seed by Ruth Kraus, and Feelings by Aliki. Those suggestions came from Sew Liberated (previously Montessori by Hand). I'd also love to start chipping away at Amanda Soule's picks.

Now I just need to come up with a better display system. Pasted below are some ideas: Martha Stewart, All Sorts and this way-too-expensive spinny number, respectively.

Anyone have an idea for displaying and storing books they'd care to share?