In friendships/relationships are you most influenced by:
For myself, the primary influence in a friendship or personal relationship is always #4: how they make me feel. Or, more accurately, how do I feel in their presence? I know that my feelings are mine to make and own. Nobody can truly "make me" feel one way or another. I act or react to you based upon my own conditions. Still, I want to feel something when in you're around: Joy when I first see you. Compassion when you are troubled. Concern when I am troubled. Understanding when I express concern. Delight when I share a success. Interest when I'm speaking. And more.
These said, I think the strongest predictor on our attachment in a relationship is that first unguarded reaction when me come together. Does my soul lighten upon seeing you? Does your face brighten? If neither of us react at all, if our souls are not connecting, do we have a relationship, or are we just going through the motions?
The second most important quality in a relationship to me would be a tie between How They Treat Me and What They Tell Me.
Aren't both indicators trust and respect? These seem manifestations of the qualities I bring to a relationship, and qualities I want returned in a relations. Treat with kindly, gently, honestly. Don't lie to me, don't hide things from me, don't tell me things that make other relationships awkward.
As far as "who you are"? I could less.
Then another question:
For me, that #5 would be Sense of Humor. An ordering of the degrees would be:
Again, these seem to that these once again return to the first quality: How I Feel Because We Have a Relationship.
If you are reliabile, I can trust; If you are kind; I can let down my guard. If you possess humor, I can show you my weaknesses. If you are honest, I can believe in you. If you are intelligent, we can expand our horizons.
Using Laura questions, how do you evalutate our relations?
Yesterday's 50 Things I Like About Me post took me a long time to write. I'll admit it. I thought it was hard. Yet, Arianna (http://twitter.com/ToThink) saw me twitter the post, read it, and quickly ripped out her 50 things. Among my favorites:
9. I love the 80’s. Music. Colors. Jazz hands. But not shoulder pads.
33.Cooking is not my forte 34. Talking is 35. I’m not Martha Stewart… 36. Or Betty Crocker 37. I’m okay with that
And Monica at Healthy Green Moms zipped out her list like it was triple-coupon day at the grocery store! What I think was her most impressive item:
I can sit in another’s pain.
These brilliant women jumped on a bandwagon I didn't know I'd built and are driving away with it. They are encouraging their readers to quickly (or not so quickly) come up with a list of their own. I hope you all do. I hope this step toward positive thinking spreads across the blogosphere like wildfire (no. too destructive) like a cold (no, too inconvenient)...like LOVE. Spread it like buttery love.
If you choose to spread the buttery love yourself, please leave a comment for me with a link to your post so I can read your list too.
This is an exercise someone suggested. I may be doomed, as I'm approaching it already with a negative attitude. Let's see if I will able to find 50 Things I Like About Myself.
1. I have an infectious smile. 2. I "infect" people with it frequently. 3. I remember details if I can place them in a narrative style. 4. I am intuitive. 5. and empathetic. 6. and occasionally psychic. 7. At times I'm silly. 8. I (sometimes) know what I like. 9. I find simple joy in baseball. 10. I understand the infield fly rule. 11. I surprise myself. 12. Like.. I like people to hug me. I swear this was never true. 13. I'm generally happy. 14. I hate it when I quit on anything. .. oh wait. I like that I'm tenacious. 15. I sing to myself when I'm doing things. 16. My hair is soft. 17. I believe. Just that. Believe. 18. I can plan a simple, healthy, tasty meal off the top of my head. 19. My lips. 20. My listening skills. (which is good because my friends talk a lot!) 21. I know the words to lots of songs! 22. I'm quirky. 23. and proud of it! 24. I notice things. Including little things. 25. I appreciate beauty in nature. 26. I appreciate beauty in people's spirit. 27. I look for the good in the people. 28. I'm positive without being "pollyann-ish" 29. I have these cute little toes. 30. I can read upside and backwards. I like that. 31. I can hold an interesting conversation with myself. 32. I like to figure out challenges on my own. 33. I can do simple electrical and plumbing repairs. 34. I have my own tools. 35. I'm strong for my size and age. 37. I've developed a fairly good color memory. 38. I can tell a good true story, but I can't tell a joke. 39. Dogs can sense that I'll scratch their butts. It must be tattooed on my ankles. 40. I like guy friends and well as girl friends, but don't threaten guy's girlfriends. 41. I like my tits. 42. I can doodle but I can't sketch 43. I can embroider, knit, crochet, hand-sew, quilt. 44. I'm good at reading maps. 45. I can program VCRs without reading a manual. It's a lost art, I know, but still... 46. I can spell. Ya know.. when someone asks "how do you spell ___?" I can answer. 47. My eyes are expressive. 48. I tan instead of burn. 49. My imagination. 50. My arms. They are awesome.
Whw. This was not easy! What are 50 things you like about yourself??
I'm looking at making a couple summer skirts from this Simplicity pattern. It's rated easy, it has pockets, it has a drawstring waist (that I'd probably make with elastic.)
Now the key fitting item here is the hips. My hips at their widest are 35.5" so I know I choose the size with the 36" hip measure, though the waist is 3" too small. However, in reading the measurements they say that the finished skirt would be 42" wide.
Do I really want 6.5" of ease in a skirt? Really? That seems like a lot to me. Sandra Betzina in Fast Fit suggests an ease in a straight skirt of about 2" and in an A-line of 3-4".
So riddle me the solution.
Go with the size (33.5" hip?) that finishes at 39.5" for a 4" ease (which lists a 24" waist where mine is more like 30" so I'd probably be using a different waist measure) or go with measurements/suggestions on the packet?
(Yes, that is one of the ugliest run-on sentences I've ever written!)
I can hear ya already: Make a Test Pattern. But I thought this was supposed to be easy!
(cross posted by Blogher) Every year for the holidays I customize books and give them to about 10 select friends. After making up that year's list, I search for the perfect book (normal binding, not too large or small, with wonderful paper) then paint, dye, stamp, embroider, and/or screen print fabric and make covers for the books. Each includes a a small pocket for the appropriate marking instrument (writing pen or drawing pencil).
For several years Artist's and Craftman's Supply sold a beautiful square book with the most luscious paper inside: it was smooth, rich and somehow unlike anything I've ever felt before or since, like paper silk. The books were hand made, imported from Africa and reasonably priced. They were also a limited purchase by the company. Since they have disappeared, I haven't found a book I really love for my purpose. I've been searching for for a couple years with no joy.
Before you say it: I LOVE moleskine books, but the pocket inside the back cover and the elastic cording coming from the back cover means they are not appropriate for my decorating techniques. Believe me, I've tried. It's also a challenge to simply gesso the surface and design right on it. Tried that too.
This year I may try to learn how to make my own books. This gives me the chance to obsess about size, paper quality, binding, and book cloth each independently. The books I give to writers can have a great writing surface that lets pen slide effortlessly across it; the sketch books, a nice toothy paper that holds the line. Both can be the same size with similarly designed book cloths!
Bibliophile Bullpen found a perfect tool for book binding: Spoonflower.com offers print on demand fabric. For those book binders who don't normally surface design fabric, this is a great to get custom book cloth.
It may not SOUND book related, but in the back of my brain, I see custom designed book cloth. Not a big deal for first run printing, but for hand binders and artist books THAT's a big deal.
I have started to search the internets for instructions, though this series of videos seems to do a great job of covering the basics. Kelly at Two Brides is taking an independant study course in book making. She shows hand bound books for sale on Etsy, and suggests that $75 each is steal! These books are gorgeous! However she has me rethinking this gift idea:
Hand binding books is a really hard thing to do right- it takes excellent hand skills, a good teacher and lots n lots of time.
I'm beginning to go crazy with ideas. For the artists, could I purchase the pre-stretched, pre-primed Fredrick canvases, drill holes in them and use them as the book covers? Let the recipients design the cover themselves? (ala the My Penguin series of books?) Or just keep it simple? Miki showed a small hand bound book she received in a craft swap. For my first attempts at this technique, this may be a wiser road to travel.
After all, how many of us are women who live for fashion week? Who own (or even admire $700 shoes?) How many of us are lower maintenance? Which is not to say no maintenance..
So to quote Suzanne:I present a meme for feisty, spirited women who share our lives and support one another, yet are also slovenly and/or miserly (or is it practical?):
What's the cheapest pair of shoes you own?: I have a pair of rubber slides I bought at the drugstore for about $5. And I have a pair of Dansko shoes (my frankenstein shoes) that I picked up at Good Will for about $4. Don't think I can go lower.
What's your favorite piece of jewelry, if you own any? While I love my SuperHero necklace, my favorite piece of jewelry is a long beaded thing I bought at GlobalTribe about 8 years ago. It was $12. I couldn't buy the beads to make one myself for $12.
What's your favorite t-shirt? I like my long-sleeved "Flawed but Authentic" shirt, but it's summer and I wont' be wearing it much. I'm getting a custom-drawn t-shirt later this month that I suspect will be my all-time favorite. Until then, it's one of the v-neck stretch cotton shirts from Target, or (really) my ribbed tanks. If you could wear jeans every day, would you? I shift from jeans to cotton knit yoga-pantsy things a lot. That's what I live in. (Please make pants for women with pockets!!) I only don't wear jeans when it's too warm. Then I pull on a nice cotton skirt and enjoy the air on my legs. But really, why wouldn't I want to wear jeans or cotton knit pants every day?
Do you comb your hair every day? When I remember. I'll admit it, some days I just get it wet and never remember to do anything more with it. I may run my hand through it at some point.
So I ask you, are you more like the characters in Sex and the City, or more like we feisty, spirited and slightly slovenly souls?
I've been stopping back at my Flickr photostream almost daily this week, discovering that friends are not only viewing some of my photo but leaving comments I hadn't seen before. Normally, I remember to stop and look through friends' photos maybe once a week. Not enough. I'm sorry.
I promise from now on I will be a better Flickr friend to you all. Right now, I'm off to the weekend Farmer's Market!
Somehow while driving home from coffee with a friend today, I recalled one of my favorite summer memories.
Go back in time with me to a simpler time. We lived in a small suburban development right on the edge of "development" though the city was expanding fast, chewing up farms and land and spitting out cookie cutter houses faster than one could blink. It was the early 60s..
Jim the milk man still made his rounds, bringing milk, cream and other dairy goodies to the door. On hot summer days, we kids would stand by his truck and he'd dole out one ice cube to each of us. His ice had a hole in the center, perfect for sliding over our finger like a ring and licking.
For most of a season in 1962 or so, we also had a trucker farmer would who drive around every Wednesday trying to convert families to the idea of fresh vegetables instead of canned. He packed the food he grew on his own land, plus the freshest and best he could pick up at wholesale markets.
If it was nice (and light) when he arrived, the women would walk out to his truck and check the produce. If there was something they were unfamiliar with, he'd give a family enough of the item free to try. He'd explain the best way to cook it to get the full flavor. But the women in our neighborhood were a cautious, conservative lot when it came to veggies. They stuck to their basics for the most part, not venturing into zucchini or acorn squash. Stick to watermelon, corn and onions. Safe things.
One warm summer day this green grocer man sold my mother a dozen ear of freshly picked corn. It was afternoon, so he suggested that we shuck it quickly and cook it up that night. (There were 6 in our family.. a dozen ear would be about right).
I was given a paper grocery bag to place the husks in and sent out to the patio to clean the corn. As I pulled the green husks and silk from the second ear, I saw a corn worm working on the kernels inside.
It scared me silly.
I screamed loudly and threw the corn as far away from me as I could.
And here's where magic happened. (like having a truck farmer bring fresh veggies to our door wasn't a miracle!):
The farmer walked into the backyard with another ear of corn. He had heard me scream, and figure out what had happened. He then sat there, cleaning the corn with me and telling me about how corn was grown, what he did to keep worms from getting into the corn, how they got there. The importance of insects in the world.
He didn't talk down to me, but didn't make the conversation too technical either. Just a man talking earnestly about growing food for people. It was important to him. It was also important to him that I know that every once in a while, I'll find a worm in the corn and not be too scared.
At the end of that season, he stopped coming. He told the women that it was a great experiment for him but that it wasn't as successful as he had hoped it would be. I think he sold his farm and moved away. I know we returned to fewer fresh veggies from the grocery store and more of the canned stuff that was easy to prepare and always ready in the cupboard.
Today I realized this man was decades ahead of his time. And I pray he eventually found a spot where his dream of providing families with fresh fruits and veggies (and new fruits and veggies) could take hold.
Today, Sweetney proposed an impromptu "come as you are" party. The idea: grab your camera, take a quick photo and upload it. NO editing or photoshopping. Post it to the flickr group and your blog.
So here I am, just after 9 pm at night. I've walked the dogs, worked out at the gym, visited a friend and moved some boxes, fixed dinner. I'm probably heading to bed soon.
Want to join in the fun? Grab your camera (or use your webcam) and grab a quick of yourself. Upload it to your blog, come back and share the link.
Go big or go home. Because it's true. What do you have to lose? Eliza Dushku
Wednesday I went to a baseball game, the local Oakland A's playing the visiting Detroit Tigers.
While normally my support goes to the home team, being my local fix for American League baseball, this game I was a little torn. During October, I follow the playoff using my "Babe" philosphy of loyalty: To your Team, To your Division, To you League Be True (unless it's the Yankees). So I cheer first for my Cleveland Indians, Second for AL Central, and finally for American League (unless it's the Yankees.. and it's starting to be unless it's the BoSox, too. Let some other teams compete and win for a change now).
So my "Babe" soul was whispering that I should cheer for the Tigers. That just didn't feel right, though.
Fortunately, good sense returned to me about the time the A's decided to give the Tigers a royal whupping. And I went home cheering for the winners.
Yes, it's June 3rd, not June 1st.. but I just joined the monthly NaBloPoMo monthly challenge. Close enough to the beginning that it should count.
The rules are simple: a blog post a day. The theme for the month (though not a required topic: Home). Home can have so many different meanings that this one appealled to me.
A GOOGLE search on the term delivers a number of interpretations, each of which could be fodder for a post.
Or maybe not.
How much, really, can say I say about the Dutch band The Gathering? Or their second album which carried the "Home" title? Although I did find a number of videos by them on YouTube...
OK. Tomorrow something more in keeping with my and my knowledge of "home"...
Summer is right around the corner, which means stitchers are heading outside to cook-outs, soccer games, days at the beach, and of course Stitch And Pitch, 2008.
This is the third year that a national - make that international - Stitch and Pitch event has been planned. If you are unfamiliar with the idea:
Stitch N' Pitch brings together two wonderful traditions — Baseball and the Needle Arts. Come to a ball game and knit, crochet, embroider, cross-stitch and needlepoint. Sit among friends, family and colleagues and cheer on your favorite Baseball Team. Beginners, intermediate and experts are all welcome.
At the moment, 24 Major League teams are committed to hosting a SNP game this year; check the calendar to see if your home team is participating and when the game will be. Last year, several teams joined the fun later in the season. It appears to me that the teams not participating are those few stadiums with strong enough ticket sales for all games that they would have trouble reserving a block of 500-1000 tickets for the event. (sorry, Cubs fans!)
In 2008 one Major Minor addition has been made: Minor League Teams are getting in on the fun!
To whet your appetite for the event, check out Let's Knit 2gether's excellent podcast of last year's Mets game. The podcast includes comments by Debbie Stoller, Lilly Chin (who knit her own baseball uniform! out of wool!) and shows some of the 800 S&P attendees fomr that night. There are baseball fans who don't knit, knitter who are baseball fans, and knitters who don't have clue. This podcast captures the entire atmosphere!
If attending a game isn't in the Cards for you, you can still enjoy some Giant stitching fun:
This is a typical spring morning look. The sun kisses the top of the trees and fog hides San Pablo Bay from view. About 10 am., the fog pulls back through the Golden Gate and sits off shore. Then, as evening comes, it slides back into the bay and up along the water ways leaving us with warm days and cools nights. It only gets HOT here when there isn't any fog.
I stole this link from MizFit, who shared it with her readers Friday. I like that if you can't do all the four main things to maintain a healthy lifestyle (not smoking, exercising, eating right, and keeping your weight in a range), there are a lot little things that Lisa Newton suggested we could try: 50 Ideas for a Healthy Lifestyle That Take 10 Minutes or Less.
Some of my favorites:
Straighten your posture Smile Open a window Say thank you to someone who deserves it Throw away that pen that doesn’t work Put your car keys in the same place everyday
To which I will add: Stretch your shoulders and neck for 10 seconds Swing on a swing Laugh Hang your laundry on a line to dry Say hello to a stranger Rub a dog's belly Arrive 5 minutes early Stay 5 minutes longer Eat a meal with chopsticks Hug someone
I had lunch with two creative friends of mine yesterday. We ate Thai, talked, and did a very little economic stimulation. Most of the time, we caught up on what each of us has done since our last lunch.
I admit that I have done very little creatively. And that I still walk into my workroom and almost immediately feel the need to walk out.
The room is light (when the lights are on), is relatively organized, has clear work surfaces. I just don't have any desire. No heat, no hope, no vision.
And when pushed, I had to admit that part of it may be my one (unfixable) vision problem. The muscles that adjust your sight from close to distance and my lens are just very slow to change from one to the other. When I focus on something at a closer distance (like this computer screen, or my sewing machine or a book), I lose the ability to re-adjust to seeing clearly at a distance for some period of time. It's become almost an hour.
I have closeup glasses set at a 24" focal point that make it easier to work at this distance. Still, when that work is over, the blurry vision lasts. If I can engage in a task that keeps me at one focal distance or the other, then I'm fine. The switching is the killer.
So I can sew, but not really put things on a design wall and see them. I can sew, but not necessarily find a tool. I can sew, but then can't cut or press clearly.
The problem has gotten worse over the last 2-3 years. The eye doctors now know that it's a mechanical problem, so it's not fixable by lenses or surgery. It's just the way it is.
So now I look at activities different. This may be why I'm considering concentrating on dyeing, painting, surface design of clothing and home dec. That I can do at the distance focal range (I think) and not have to alternate much between close work and distance.
I said it quickly at lunch, without thinking much about it. But I think I may have hit the nail on the head.
Michael Pollan's oft-quoted line from In Defense of Food is a good place to start. I try to:
"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."
It wasn't that long ago that I wouldn't make this claim for myself. While I spurned "fast-food nation" except for the occasional visit to KFC, many of my meals were composed of food items made by someone else, at a place somewhere else, and at sometime in past. It wasn't that easy to look at a dish and identify it's pieces. I was all about throw-it-together quickly from the freezer.
Slowly over the past two years I've been moving back to the idea of eating the way I did when I was child. When you bought simple foods and ingredients from a grocery store: carrots, cabbage, apples, pork chops. When you then took these simple ingredients home and prepared them to be eaten. They were peeled, sliced, chopped, steamed, broiled, baked. In the summertime, they were grilled.
My food doesn't come with a nutrition label. It typically has one ingredient and you can identify that for yourself: carrot, mango, lettuce, brown rice.
That what I'm moving to do now. Today I try to eat:
Vegetables. Fresh and whole when available, frozen for greater seasonal variety. The only canned item in this section would be diced tomatoes.
Fruit. Fresh, whole and in season. Frozen berries to supplement since their season is so short. Canned applesauce occasionally.
Whole Grains. Brown rice, red quinoa, bulgur wheat, polenta, steel-cut oats. Grains that come in small bags or boxes. Grains that you cook with water. You can look at a small pile of these on a plate and know what kind of grain it is. Occasionally I eat a processed grain (a flour product) such as a whole grain slice of bread, tortilla, or pasta. Maybe some cereal. But these products make up about 1 serving/day.
Legumes and nuts. Cooked dried beans (since we are a small household, I do usually to for the canned varieties), dry roasted nuts or nuts in the shell. The beans give me a lot of my protein and the nuts provide quality types of fat. Both give me a lot of my protein.
Fats. Olive oil and canola oil are the fats of choice. A little butter every once in a while. But I try to limit my consumption of saturated and animal based fats.
Meat/Fish/Poultry. About 3-4 days a week I might eat one serving of animal protein. Last fall and winter, I was strict about only eating these on days I pushed heavy weights. It's what finally got me to lose the last bit of weight. Unfortunately, it put me in such a protein deficit that I was unable to build new muscle despite the hard work I was doing.
Protein powder supplements. I tried for a while simply eating more lean proteins. I found that I was returning to my old way of cooking and eating and was gaining back several of the pounds I'd fought hard to lose. My "leaning way" wasn't leaning anymore, though I seem to be building muscles. For a temporary period of time (I'm not sure how long), I will supplement my whole, pure foods with a powder to get the protein I need.
I have a deal with myself. I have permission to eat what I want when I want without guilt. So I can choose to stop at KFC and eat a 3 piece snack box and order an extra biscuit with fake butter and honey. I can choose to have cake or pie or cookies if I want them. Nine times out of ten, when I ask myself if I want these items, the answer is "No." So I leave them for another day.
I am not giving up eating good tasting food. If you ever tasted my grilled veggies with balsamic vinegar, you'd know that I eat for taste.
I am not giving up anything.
I am eating differently than most of my friends and most of the United States. Some might say I am depriving myself of something. But what?
We are all voyeurs to an extent. We read blogs to learn about people who are like us but different, different but so-much-the-same, different and we-cannot-imagine. Without back story, human nature will fill in gaps based upon the familiar. That's why I am so enjoying a new feature at Robyn Chachula's Crochet by Faye: A Day in the Life.
Robyn decided to share: Nothing earth-shattering, just a day in the life of this... Structural Engineer- Crochet Designer- Wife- Crafter- Dog Owner- Daughter- Friend- Me
The start of Robyn's day has a familiar ring to it:
6:00am- Turn over and look at the clock. Poke the hubbie that we agreed that today we were going to get up and start walking the puppy in the morning again now that his ankle is better. 7:30am- Actually wake up. Agreed with the hubbie that we will start tomorrow walking again, well, if it's not raining...
We learn about her boss, her new book and a little about being a structural engineer. Since Robyn works in the restoration of old buildings, she often has to create the plans herself, as any that may have existed are long gone.
This one has one plan, yes only one plan, for the 12 story, 110 apt. building. Hey, I take what I can get.
At the end of the post, Robyn invited others who are inspired by her post to write their own Day in the Life. Several of her crochet designer friends took her up on the challenge.
Kim Werker, editor for Interweave Crochet, posted a typical weekend day, then bravely posted her work day! Kim does much of her editing work from home; this day, she edits patterns for the Summer issue:
9:30: Start second-round editing of pattern PDFs. Our summer issue is going to press next Wednesday, the 14th, and we’re in the home stretch. At this point, each pattern has been edited several times by several different people. Up to the point that I arrive in Colorado next week, I’ll be scrutinizing PDFs—mostly for wee details like commas and typos, but very occasionally for an “Oh man, if we change this and that it will be so much easier to understand!”
Next, Amie, a teacher and crochet designer, shares her day:
My average day lately involves less of crochet than I’d like to admit. I’m juggling a lot of hats right now between my website, filing for trademark, being a school teacher, managing (organizing) our studio build in the basement, doing freelance graphic design, and just brainstorming/planning for other things (including a wedding…some day). This was my day this past Friday.
7:00 am - the alarm goes off - first the Kid's and then mine. Neither of us are particularly happy about getting up early, but there you have it - until there is a local middle school that opens at noon we do the best we can. During the getting ready process I make the first check on all my emails - the writer one, the radio show host one, the knitting book author one, and zip over to Amazon.com to see where The Secret Language of Knitters is, ranking wise. Sulk or jump for joy accordingly. I am going to do that approximately 1200 more times today, and may even check on other knitting books to see where I am in comparison at that moment. I am not going to cop to that here, on my official schedule. But I can waste some serious minutes that way...
11:00 pm - go to bed. Decide to crochet just a little bit more before I go to sleep to try to get ahead...11:02 and a half - pass out cold.
2:00 am - dream of yarn.... realize I am sleeping on pointy crochet hook. Throw it to the floor even though I know I will spend fifteen minutes looking for it tomorrow - go back to sleep.
Tania del Rio draws My Poorly Drawn Life, and posted her "Hourly Comic Day! 2008". Yeah.. this happened back in February and Tania didn't post it until April.. but DO appreciate the talent it takes to draw about every hour in a day.
I'll be documenting my Sunday and posting it here on Monday. If you'd like to join the fun, leave a comment with a link to your Day in the Life post below so we can follow. I also blog at: Deb's Daily Distractions and BlogHer on Mondays and Saturdays.
Wednesday was the start of a projected 4 day heat wave. The particulate matter in the air, the heat and the likely several other factors combined to create this stunning sunset.
I've spent the last couple days in the South bay, working at the Internet Identity Worshop. While the discussions were way in the deep end of the pool, the people were all friendly, passionate, and a joy to spend time with.
Do you remember the first crafted gift you made for Mother's Day? I think I was about 6. I painted and collaged the frame from a free stand-up insurance company calendar, then ripped the calendar out and replaced it with a "happy mother's day" note. We shall ignore that the paint was the inexpensive water color found in tin boxes, the colored paper from her new magazines, and that nothing totally obliterated the insurance company advertising. I think it was still wet when I gave it to her. I don't remember her being thrilled my artistic endeavor, but who recalls the past that clearly??
We Who Make love the doing. We love the thought of creating something special for those in our lives. And even as we grow, we still look to the making for Mother's Day.
Kathy Cano-Murillo, aka Crafty Chica, tells a sweet story of her mother as she explains why she made her custom games.
About, oh, say, 35 years ago at my parents' house, this is what you'd hear my mom scream out every Saturday night:
"Yahtzee!!!"
Back then, my mom loved playing all kinds of board games, Yahtzee, Aggravation and Bingo.
To this day, every time I walk by the game aisle in a store, I see Mom kissing the dice, saying "Come on, baby, give me a Yahtzee!" She'd wink at me, and then toss them on the kitchen table as if she were at a swanky Vegas casino.
Now that I'm an adult, I wish I had made my mom a personalized game. That would have made her triumphs all the more empowering. But, hey, it is never too late!
A Warhol-esque picture on Craftster, by Bewitched 2982, highlighted her photoshop skills to turn a great photograph into a pop memory for her mom.
A Mother/Daughter crafting night gave Kerri patience.. or something like that:
Last evening we had a Mother-Daughter Sparks meeting. Jennifer informed me we were going to make a craft together for Mother's day and then we were going to do some dancing. We arrived at 6 and got started making our craft. We were given a clay pot and the girls were to paint something on it that they like to do with their Mom's. Jennifer painted her and I gardening, it was a masterpiece, she painted the sun, butterflies, a rainbow and some beautiful flowers on it. The next step was to plant some impatience in the pot, she chose a wonderful cheery pink color. When all was finished(dancing and all) we left for home. Just as I was driving home she piped up in the backseat "I'm so glad you could come Mom" I said "I was so pleased that we had such a nice time" The she added"Do you like the patience I gave to you in the pot" I broke into laughter and told her they were called impatience. She replied with a frown "Your already impatient" I love this child, LOL. Giving me a pot of "Patience", if were that easy, he he .
Beverly, aka Beestamper, was enthralled with the $1 buckets at Target. She and a friend turned them into these Mother'd Day gift containers for themed little extras.
You need a blank canvas sketchbook from your local art or craft supply store and markers or paint. You also need years to hone your artistic ability, or if you’re like me and skipped all that pesky training, you can embrace abstract art.
Not super confident working directly with markers? You can do a design in pencil and fill it in with ink. Present for mom? Draw like you did in kindergarten and she’ll probably love it even more.
If all that’s too hard, just drop some paint on the book from about 3 feet up Pollock-style. That’s what’s great about the improvisational arts. There is no “wrong”. There’s just “do”.
While this was written several months ago, but I've holding on to it because it speaks of everything good about Mothers Who Craft. A perfect tribute on their day! Anna, younger sister to BlogHer Goddess Lisa Stone, acknowledges that her mother, who taught her how to sew, is a saint.
My mother is a saint. She taught me how to sew…’nuff said. If you do not sew, you can not fathom the patience, focus, and combination of geometry, second sight, and straight up luck it requires. It is truly an art from an era where people had endless hours of time void of distractions like television, cell phones, and email as well as a lack of unlimited, affordable, store-bought clothing made overseas.
Mom had put in several hours on The Dress in between teaching, raising 4 kids (my oldest sister was in college at that point), driving 2 of us to every sporting and musical event we were involved in, and studying for her master’s degree. Good lord. What an asshole. I remember the look of rage she shot me as she bundled the almost completed dress into a paper bag and muttered, “I’ve been sewing for Goodwill for 10 years!” I was a thankless wretch.
Happy Mother's Day to you playful, artful, impatient, creative, under-appreciated, over-inspired, buried-in-stash-and- supplies spirits. May you spend part of your day making something wonderful.
Hey, I'm in the middle of trying to research what (to me) is an interesting question. I'd LOVE your input in this if you can give it to me in the next couple days.
I made quilts for all the beds in my house about 10 years ago. Some older, some newer. I still have a couple bags of standard bed-sized quilting batting in a cupboard if the notion ever strikes me to make a new one.
Yesterday I replaced the old mattress on the double bed in our guest bedroom. The replaced one was purchased in 1978, so it's lived a good happy life. Since most of it's time was spent as a guest bed.. it probably had about 10 years of real sleeping on it in that time. The new mattress is a new mattress. Which means it's deeper than the old one. And the quilts I made to fit the old bed no longer fit. They are about 10-14" too small in both directions. Check out the photo with another quilt underneath.
This side shot really shows the problem. Major mattress gap-osis:
I've "solved" the problem by moving a queen sized quilt onto the bed. It's not perfect, but it seems to work OK.
But it led me to think:
Are publishers adapting sizing recommendations for bed sized quilts to accomodate the new deeper mattresses?
Are batting manufacturers adapting the size of their batting?
It looks to me that we are in another period where the quilts that we have made no longer fit the beds that they are being made for. I remember the adjustment period when everyone switched from full to queen and then king. It was not joyous! I'm looking for answers, solutions and directions from both the industry and the quilters concerning this.
Please leave a comment with your reaction. If I'm thinking about this, other people are too. Can you point me to any good discussion or information online that I've missed? I'd appreciate it.
Saturday, I left my house at dawn and headed down to San Mateo for a day at Maker Faire. It was my first experience with this extravanganza, but it won't be my last. As the sign says: the day emphasized the permission to play.
I started with a four hour volunteer stint: first directing the Bizarre Bazaar crafters on parking their cars (whee! fun! I felt like the Safety Patrol all over again!). While at my station, Tamie Snow and Missy Ballance wandered by wearing these fabulous aprons! The vendor who sewed them sold out to other vendors before the fair even opened! Check 'em out!
Afterwards, the killer opportunity to help set up Make. Play. Day. The guys running that show admitted they were not crafty-types.. much more into the makey part, so they welcomed my crafty enthusiasm! Boxes of papers, googly eyes, dingle balls, stuff were divied up (half for Saturday, half for Sunday) and spread out on the supply tables. Then the "project" tables were "salted" with goodies to kick-start anyone's imagination.
After the doors opened, families would wander innocently wander in, find a space and begin to play. Violet Blue (site NWS), said of her time working there:
Play Day was so much fun: there’s nothing as cool as watching kids smash keyboards with mallets and hammers, or seeing little girls make elaborate buildings out of circuit boards (or make their own armor and stage combat with weapons made from colorful industrial scrap). I think Play Day needs to be happening somewhere every day.
At one point, I revisited the room, stood in the center and quietly filmed the experience.
After putting in my time, I began my wanders through the Craft Section. The Crafty Chica was there helping people make beautiful little matchbox alters, complete with images from her new line, paint and glitter. LOTS of glitter. I wandered through and until I found myself in the Swaparama.
Swaparama! Imagine a cross between GoodWill and Project Runway with a maximum 8 hour time limit. People were invited to bring clothes they no longer used, then choose items from other people's donations. You could take whatever you wanted with a catch: they wanted you to refashion the clothing that day! There were people slicing and stitching, embossing and screening, creating something new and wonderful from a pile of discards. I saw someone making what looked like it would be a fetching corset from the top of some overalls. (now why didn't anyone think of THAT during the PR denim challenge?).
Again, a quiet (by me) look around the room. Note to self: learn to talk while shooting video:
Finally I hit the great outdoors. There was so much to see!
A pedal-powered shuttle bus that carried folks from one part of the fairgrounds to another! All the travelers looked happy as they cheered their way along.
A Jeep covered with "lego base material" plus hundreds of legos for kids to add! This is Art Car 101!
Janine, the fabulous glass bead maker. Check out her necklace!
A variety of contraptions turned into bicycles. This lawn-mower bike was not as easy to manuveur at one might think!
Corey Fogel, a musician and performance artist, whose knitting needles play his drums.
Power tools (like this Ryobi circular saw) turned into racing vehicles!
And impressive Heavy Metal sculpture abounding:
There was a little fire, this courtesy of the Flaming Lotus Girls.
I made through most of the exhibits in the day, though I never caught the robot wars. In the Maker Shed (I think) Lion Yarns set up a demo area, complete with a "living room"-like knitting area. It was jam-packed with women relaxing and sharing. This year, Maker Faire made the decision to add a number of fire exhibits in the evening. After my early start, and without gloves or a jacket, I just couldn't make myself stay there and wait until the sun went down. But next year? Next year.. I'm throwing extra stuff in my car and hanging out till close to the bitter end!
And if you couldn't make Maker Faire in the bay area this spring, you might plan to make to Maker Faire Austin, October 18th and 19th.
What I love about Maker Faire is that it has gone from an outcropping of a seeming O’Reilly side project into a full-blown arts festival, in the most serious and international sense. On the surface it has the feeling of a homegrown arts and crafts fair slash outsider arts gathering: in truth it’s the closest thing we have to something that reflects current, modern American artists (and contributors from other countries) in their most essential, non-hippie or homogenized state. Really: it’s the nearest we have to an authentic , slightly guerrilla international arts gathering. Simply for the sake for sharing and growing with other artists, not for some BS highbrow grant-gathering art machine, or for impotent bourgeois conceptual salvos onto an empty landscape of Kooons’ and Barney’s. And I’m not just saying this because my friends organize it and produce it: I’ve been there every year, I’ve worked international arts festivals and orgs since 1996, and I know what I’m talking about. It’s a place to *be*.
Hey, I'm slaving away on my post about Maker Faire. I wish I had had the technology (read phone) to blog it while I was there, because by the time I got home it all faded into a blur of people and cool things. I'm checking other people's blogs to remind what I did.
In the meantime, how about this tasty little wrap up post I did for BlogHer on Saturday? Refashioned sweater (just like what they were doing at the Maker Faire Swaparama), a clever decorating idea with cheap frames and whatever cool stuff you have around the house (from Betty, who I was supposed to meet up with at Maker Faire)! Looblylu's Friday Archives sounds like something we could all grow to love! And today begins Virginia Spiegel's Collage Mania! Check it all out. I intentionally left Angry Chicken's clock to mention here. I LOVE her non-traditional icons used for the hours. I Love her husband's reaction about half-past soup. And I'm going to challenge you: Check out her clock and find your best reaction to an icon. Leave a comment here with your wittiest reaction. The one that tickles my funny bone the most will win a small prize. Come on, now.. put on those thinking caps and make me giggle!
Now to the article, previous posted on BlogHer: One Pearl Button wrote a wonderful tutorial on refashioning a sweater. In five quick steps she turned a stained pullover into a cute, embellished cardigan.
As I was getting dressed this morning, I thought "a yellow cardigan would go perfectly with this outfit." Unfortunately, I don't have one. Then, an old yellow pullover caught my eye. I used to love this sweater, but I haven't worn it since I spilled soy sauce down the front (I'd like to say that I'd had too much sake, but honestly, I spill stuff on myself all the time). It has probably been over a year since I last wore it. I grabbed it, did some quick alterations, and threw it on to run errands with Nate. I love getting new clothes that aren't actually new at all!
Angry Chicken posted photos of a great clock using small, non-traditional images for the numbers. Her husband's reaction: "Now we can say it's half-past soup." which looks like supper time, to me. Mine? Like a clock that tells me it's "wine bottle hour." Comments on this post continued to show how each person found meanings in the images. How many different meanings could you apply?
Frames without glass come cheap, Homosote board (noise dampening fiber board) bigger than your car is 10.00 and batting and fabric tend to be spilling out of the craft cave.. . .It takes about 25 minutes and a box knife, straight edge and a staple gun to make these. . . .Grab those frames! Make yourself a gallery of delights. Just buy every little print you see on etsy and change them out weekly.
I have started this thing where every Friday I post some work (illustration, art work, craft, writing) from my past and I invite you to play along. This week I’ve even made a button.
Virginia Spiegel kicks off this week next week with Collage Mania 08. While this is the newest fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, Virginia's Fiberart for a Cause has raised over $150,000 in the last several years. This year's two day art-aquisition-fest offers 235 collages created by over 100 artists. Instead of the auction Virginia's run in the past, these collages are offered on a first-come-first served basis. The minimum donation for a piece on Monday is $80; Tuesday it drops to $40.. but will your favorites still be there?
#1. My legs haven't died and given up the ghost on me. I'm please.
#2. I was volunteering right around the wall from where Steph spoke. Did I remember to check my watch so I could watch her? Nope.
#3. Never found Garth and his paint ball project.
#4. Saw a little fire, but most of it was going to happen after the sun set. When I left after 7pm, I was already getting chilly and sunset was an hour away. I missed most of the fire (pout).
#5. Met some new people, saw some old acquaintances. None of the folks I expected to.
#6. The guys who run "Play.Make.Day".. basically a giant room with stuff where kids and families can come a create to their hearts content? They want me back next year as one of their volunteers.
#7. I liked the entire day.
#8. I didn't eat well or enough or drink enough water, but I survived.
#9. I timed it to avoid all traffic jams on the drive both ways.. and got there early enough that I didn't have to pay for parking. W00T!
#10. I'll be there next year. Look for a mention to put it on your calendar.
Saturday I am spending the whole day at Maker Faire. First a couple hours of volunteer work there (they call my position a runner. Glorified name for a Go-Fer).
The rest of the day I'll be walking around, taking pictures and gawking like all the other folks there.
I hope that I need to "run" close to the Yarn Harlot while she's speaking.
I don't care if you like baseball as much I do. I don't care if you like sports at all. There is humanity and character and strength of purpose and honor when players exhibit the level of sportsmanship and honor that most games hope to inspire.
I don't know if you've heard about the story of the Washington college softball game played last weekend. When Sara Tucholsky hit her first home run ever, she looked up to watch the ball go over the fence and missed first base. She pulled up quickly behind the base to turn around and seriously injured her knee. She had to crawl to first base to touch it. In the meantime, her two teammates who had been on base ran and scored their runs.
There were none of her teammates on the field to help her and the rules strictly forbid anyone not on the field already helping her to continue. They could have put in a substitute runner, but to do so would have erased her home run.
So two members of the opponant's team volunteered to carry Sara around the bases. In doing so, they helped her score a run that would eliminate their own team from advancing in NCAA competition. I can't think of a better example of sportsmanship or better examples of how exactly we should all live our lives.
