Pieces of April

reading: A Three Dog Life, a memoir by Abigail Thomas (sooo sooo good)

listening to: Half Moon by Portland band 'Blind Pilot'. We saw them in concert here in Missoula last year. I love every single song of theirs. Pure musicalpoeticgenius.

watching: this 3-minute video - I want all of my girlfriends and my daughters to watch it.

eating: an entire half of our first watermelon of the year (store-bought)

dreaming of: visiting my newest nephew Noah, born a mere three days ago. I wish Texas wasn't so far away or that airplanes went super fast but never left the ground

welcoming: the goldfinch to the growing clientele at our bird feeder. On a side note, last year we had a yellow warbler couple decide to nest in the tree outside Emma's window. We had such fun watching them build their home, watch over their eggs and finally feed their three frail children. Emma even lucked into seeing the very moment one fledged (as a 12-day-old! oh how soon they leave!) I posted some photos and wrote a poem about it here.

thinking about: taking a sewing class, making a terrarium, taking Glucosamine to see if my hips and fingers feel better

fretting: that I may be developing rheumatoid arthritis at 43

asking: "what can I do to help?" after watching this


What's up in your neck of the woods? 

iPaint

image © 2013 Jenny Scheuch 

Steal Like an Artist = fresh creative inspiration

Paper Flower Valentine Wreath

It's the onset of "awkward wreath season" — that strange chunk of time where I don't know what sort of decoration to put on my front door. I'm completely sick of the evergreen/pineconey Christmas wreath but my full-on Spring floral one feels a little premature. In years past I've just left the door vacant but his year I decided to make an early-Spring option (in hopes of coaxing something green to poke through the soil). I also wanted it to feel a bit Valentine-ish too.

Last weekend I got busy with a few inexpensive craft supplies and about an hour later I had created this little cheery number. I'm tickled pink over how nicely it turned out.


Supplies:

~ Styrofoam wreath form
~ craft punch
~ fun scrapbooking paper
~ glue
~ ribbon for hanging

Simply select some coordinating papers, punch your shapes and start gluing. I started by gluing them to the interior portion of the wreath, overlapping the flowers slightly. Then I worked on the outside edge. Finally I began filling in the front, more visible portion of the wreath, making sure to vary the colors and randomly overlap the flowers.

With all the paper punches and beautiful papers available the possibilities are endless here folks. I can feel the creative juices flowing when I consider all the paper wreaths I could create.

January rain?! and book drawing

Today got off to a rough start. I woke up to find it raining — which is just gross because it melts parts of the snowpack and makes things all puddley and dirtymuckyslushy. Then I drank way too much caffeine this morning and ended up poking myself in the eye with the mascara brush. Mascara on your eyeball does not feel fun, FYI.

But things improved. I got some work done and met a good friend for lunch. She knows how to make really amazing chocolates (it's so much more complicated than I'd ever imagined - it's all about keeping the temperatures exact) and is an avid runner.

I also created this little 'reading girl' sketch (drawing at top of post). My daughter asked "Is that supposed to be you? 'Cause it looks just like you." So I guess I must spend more time with a blanket and a book than I thought. Decades ago I used to draw little people like this all the time. Then I quit. But as part of my new year of being courageous I am resurrecting them and putting them out into the world.

~

Now for the book drawing. I've got all the names in a hat (well in an empty cracker box really because I was too lazy to go get an actual hat) and I'm going to fish out two names.

The winners are:

Rebecca for The Forgotten Garden
Jean for We Are All Welcome Here

Congratulations! Thanks for playing everyone. This was really fun for me. I think I'm going to do another book giveaway soon.

Found: Happy Things

These are some of the hardest days for me. These weeks when, although the days are supposedly getting longer, I feel like the sun is never far enough over the horizon and my bones are in a constant state of chill. 
To combat the dark I am on a constant search for pinpricks of light — a sprig of green, a sunny song, a hopeful laugh.

Here's a little roundup of some things I recently discovered.

BOOKS ~ This site — bookcrossing.com — where you can send your books out into the universe and track their journey. A version of the elementary school "Flat Stanley" project . . . . for grown-ups! (Thanks to Danni of Silo Hill Farm for telling me about the site.)

TV ~ This list of feel-good documentaries from PBS.

SOMETHING PRETTY ~ This dress from Mod Cloth. I don't wear dresses often, but this one is divine. Maybe I should plan a fancy Valentine's day dinner and get this dress for the occasion? Except, dang, one of my words for the year is "simplify." Buying a semi-pointless dress doesn't really work into that plan.

READING ~ This book. I'd never read it and decided it was high time.

ART ~ This french artist's blog and artwork. And this one too. There are so many talented people in the world, aren't there? 

MUSIC ~ This documentary on Tom Petty. (Again with the talent.)

HOOKY ~ For all the crochet-crazed out there — this free baby bootie pattern. I think I know what I'll be working on next!

And finally POETRY. This poem:

Winter-Time
Robert Louis Stevenson (from A Child’s Garden of Verses, 1885)


Late lies the wintry sun a-bed,
A frosty, fiery sleepy-head;
Blinks but an hour or two; and then,
A blood-red orange, sets again.

Before the stars have left the skies,
At morning in the dark I rise;
And shivering in my nakedness,
By the cold candle, bathe and dress.

Close by the jolly fire I sit
To warm my frozen bones a bit;
Or with a reindeer-sled, explore
The colder countries round the door.

When to go out, my nurse doth wrap
Me in my comforter and cap;
The cold wind burns my face, and blows
Its frosty pepper up my nose.

Black are my steps on silver sod;
Thick blows my frosty breath abroad;
And tree and house, and hill and lake,
Are frosted like a wedding-cake.

Wishing you a happy week. 

Oh - and don't forget to put your name in for a book drawing. I'll pick names on Wednesday (see previous post).

Live a Quiet Life

I started the day with a huge list of things to do, but somehow I got distracted and found myself, um . . . surfing the web. Guilt.

But then I came across this poster and I was so smitten with it that I felt vindicated and proud of myself for clicking the appropriate links and somehow discovering it. 

And then I thought of you, all my blog peeps. I thought they're gonna like this too. We're kind of a quiet life folk, aren't we? Always puttering around, making and doing or at the very least thinking about making and doing.

You can have your own 24" x 32" version of this poster by ordering it from this site. Through the end of 2012, all of the proceeds from the sale of this poster will go to Many Hopes, an organization committed to loving and educating children who have endured the worst of poverty and exploitation in Kenya. For more information, Visit the Many Hopes website.  Kinda cool, huh? (You can get it in black, blue, or green too). I think I'm going to ask for one for Christmas!

~

Speaking of "being quiet" I read a really interesting article on introverts yesterday. I want to tell you all about it but the sands are quickly funneling through my hourglass today so I will have to do it tomorrow. 

Hope everyone is staying warm, and dry (it's SNAINING here - nasty combo of snow and rain, ick). See you tomorrow!

Easy paper ball ornaments

Paper Ball Ornaments (hang individually or string a whole garland)

You need:
- Pretty paper (ooooh, so fun)
- Paper circle punch or scissors and a circle template
- Double-sided tape (or glue)
- Twine

: Cut or punch out at least four circles for each ball (5 or 6 look fancier).

: Fold each circle in half

: Tape (or glue) each folded circle on top of one another, making a small stack. Place your twine, then seal the final edge to form ball.

Viola!

Busy as Elves

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Things are busy, busy, busy . . . and the snow arrived Friday night to add an extra dash of holiday spirit. I rallied everyone out of the house with a trip to Dairy Queen for ice cream and a drive around the neighborhood to look at all the Christmas lights. We opened the front door and found a full-on blizzard outside. The short drive to Dairy Queen was quite an adventure — large drifts, cars cautiously navigating unplowed streets. At one point it was blizzarding sideways. Just a solid whiteout heading from West to East. I loved it.

All of the houses in our neighborhood are gussied up with lights and wreaths and some have those crazyhuge blow-up things — 10-foot tall Santa balloons and whathaveyou. It's fun to see all the different styles and tastes in lighting and decor.

After that little adventure we hunkered down for most of the weekend, only venturing out when necessary, although the girls did gather their friends for a lot of sledding and snow play. Being one who isn't too fond of the cold, I was waiting indoors (where it was cozy), prepared with hot chocolate when they came piling back inside.

The polymer clay snowmen I made are now standing in my Christmas village. I am pretty proud of how they turned out. They stand about 1-1/2 inches tall and have real twig arms from the spirea bush out front.

Kate got bit by the creativity bug today and got busy melting chocolate and crushing candy canes (results in marshmallow photo above). She hummed Christmas songs while she worked — sweet girl.

And Izzy? Well she just follows me all around the house asking "Now what are we doing?" "Where are we going now?" "Can I eat some of that too?" "Should we take a nap together?" Oh, that FACE.

And a short pause

{or How I spent a few days gearing up for the coming of December}

skimming Poetry books and watching Larry David make a mess of things in old episodes of 'Curb Your Enthusiasm'

cooking up a batch of turkey noodle soup

hanging a few wintery/holiday things

trying to be Alicia Paulson (it's hard! dang, she's good)

 











 
doing dishes while Izzy lays at my feet (there's a heat vent under the sink kickboard)

enjoying my new oil lamp (purchase inspired by my pilgrim obsession of last week)

walking by this downtown apartment window (just as it asked to be photographed)

impulsively purchasing some deliciously retro fabric — vintage Santas and folks strolling festive city sidewalks — then grabbing some polymer clay because I suddenly felt like making tiny snowmen

~

I'm easing myself into the Christmas season. If I rush in too quickly I tend to grow weary by the time the actual day rolls around, so I'm taking it slow . . . humming along with the tunes in the stores, browsing the gifts, but not buying too much yet.

I'm also decompressing from watching the entire 2nd season of 'Downton Abbey' while my mom was visiting. I was in a British WWI-era fog for several days, dreaming of wearing exquisite gowns and attending dinners with Matthew Crawley. Oh dear. Thankfully, the effect has worn off and I'm back to my old self again.

~

See those poetry books? Remember my "Poetry Workshop" class? Well, let me just say this — analyzing poetry is kinda hard and boring. It seems the more I think about HOW to write it the WORSE I get at actually writing it! Aaack!

BUT - the Ken Burns documentary on the Dust Bowl was on last week and it was really fantastic. Thus concludes my class on the Dust Bowl. I gave myself an 'A' for participation, effort and knowledge retention. :)

What are you up to these last November days?

Parent Rap

I think I'm a little late to the party on this but I just had to share. Maybe there are a few of you out there who, like me, aren't up on everything that "trends" on the web and have yet to see this awesome "Parent Rap." It's seriously genius.

Now back to trying to find 101 ways to use leftover turkey in recipes and other creative ways . . .

Hand Lettering Ideas

Back at the end of August I started a little homeschooling project for myself. I drew up a very loose course description on several subjects I wanted to delve into a bit this Fall and got busy trying to live up to my own expectations (sadly this is never easy for me).

I have to say that my "school" been so fun and mostly successful. Aside from skipping almost every one of my "Walking 201" classes (in my defense it was horridly smokey until 2 weeks ago but my instructor (me) is turning up her nose to my excuses) I've been carving out bits of time to do a little work in each area and I'm already mulling over class options for next semester.

My handwriting class met last week and I did some practice work on different lettering styles from the book Hand Lettering by Marci Donley & DeAnn Singh.

The book is filled with lots of good info — from the authors' favorite writing tools to full sets of alphabets that you can follow.

Aren't the fern letters tasty! You could make the leaves into holly for Christmas, add tulip tops for Spring . . . lot o' possibilities.

There were lots of fun embellishment ideas throughout as well.

I'm looking forward to using some new lettering techniques to address cards and packages for the holidays!

Yay for the dying art of hand lettering!

Life's Canvas

I'm all over the place these days. Crocheting a row on Emma's blanket, then jotting down a line for a poem, or noting (on a torn corner of paper that I will never be able to find) a book I need to read, then filing just two of 50 papers that need filed, before I run upstairs to vacuum the living room, getting distracted by the Country Living magazine on the coffee table. I feel like a scattered mess. A happy scattered mess. Life is filled with so much inspiration and so many tasks that call to me at every hour of the day. How am I to chose? There are so MANY ways to throw paint on the canvas of your life — your one, precious life.

For starters I've decided to start making a daily schedule each morning to try to calm by brain. And I've made a boring but necessary new rule that I'm not allowed to start a large project without finishing another. For example I began painting all of the cabinets in our kitchen last November. There are still a few cupboard doors left to paint, but now I'm itching to look at color schemes for the basement walls and my office. Under my new rule, I must finish the kitchen before moving on to the basement. Isn't it high time we quit tripping over those cupboard doors propped in the hallway awaiting their paint job? Another example — I am not allowed to look up crochet patterns for granny square quilts (oh, that sounds sooo fun) until Emma's all snuggled in her finished blanket. It's gonna be hard, but I've gotta give it a try.

In good news the cooler weather has got me hooking away on Emma's blanket. It had been a few months since I'd crocheted and it feels darn good. I snuggle up in bed at night with my skeins of yarn and spread the blanket over my lap. Izzy likes to curl up next to me, pressing her body against my legs. I work by the yellow light of my little bedside lamp and keep a cup of hot tea beside me. It's like a little snippet of heaven. Just me, and the needle, and the yarn twisting and pulling. Creating. My mind is so present in the moment that worries and stress fall away.

Oh, I love this time of year. 

The good news for us all is that today is Friday and that means we get to relax a little and enjoy larger expanses of creative time. I can't wait! Happy weekend to you, whatever your projects may be or your travels may take you. Go throw a little paint on that life of yours!

Pillow Disease?

Seems my initial pillowy successes have sparked some sort of insane pillow-making obsession. I would write more but it's hard to type while I'm feeding cloth into the sewing machine.

More later . . .

Summertime Begins

Lots of fun and activity over the weekend. Both girls were busy with end-of-year sleepover parties, the state soccer tournament and all the good things that kick off this season of warm, relaxing days.

As for me, I finally tried my hand at stitching up a few of those pillows I learned to make this spring. They are quite easy and use an envelope type closure in the back. I started with the green print, then made the tan one, and then got brave and tackled the ticking pillow, which is actually three thin remnants sewn together to create the front. I really love how they all turned out! I haven't done much sewing and it's been several years since I made anything at all, so I was amazed with the results and congratulated myself several times.

Today is all blue skies and busy birds (I can hear the babies peeping up in the treetops). 

Creative Inspiration - Part Deux

Here's another piece of art I typeset earlier this year and have on the door to my office. I LOVE this. And it's so true. It's just hard to remember when you're in the midst of middle age and all those pesky "should've" thoughts keep slipping between the cracks in your brain.

Did you know that Norman Maclean started writing "A River Runs Through It" when he was 71 years old!? The book, his first work of fiction, was published in 1976, when he was 74 years old, and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Letters. It even went on to become a sweet movie, starring Brad Pitt, who really is quite a fine specimen . . . (whoops, I'm starting to go astray . . . now I'm thinking about how he was Tristan in "Legends of the Fall," and there's that one scene . . . oh my, sorry) My point is . . .

See? It's really NEVER too late.

So GO!

Hurry!

Start right now . . .

~ Feel free to print this for your wall too - it looks especially lovely printed on a piece of colored paper (and framed to match your decor!) ~

Creative Inspiration

I first saw this list on Pinterest. I got super excited about it and I wanted to print a copy to put on my wall - but the versions I came across were small, with terrible resolution. A search for the original source/author of this fine list just fizzled out. Boy, things sure can get infinitely lost out there in the black hole of cyberspace. So I've re-typeset it and created a larger jpeg file. I now have it displayed on my office wall where it serves as a daily reminder of all the things I could be doing to get my creativity on.  Some I've been doing forever like #s 1, 2, 11, 30. And then some are SO hard (#s 6, 16, 18, 23, 29). And then there's that dang #24, which just typesetting it this way bothers me. I keep fighting an urge to fix it.

Feel free to download this pdf and print yourself a copy (click on the image to open the larger file). Maybe it will get your creative juices flowing just in time for the weekend.