La Sirena

Give A Kid a Camera

And you could get a lovely portrait of two furry friends showing off their twin summer gowns (a previously undocumented project from earlier this year)

or some intersting self-portraits:

The Joys of Spring

Colorful schoolwork

A new found hobby, courtesy of a Great-(in both senses of the word) grand-mother.  Note that the fearless five year-old did not hesitate to jump into colorwork.  She was very hesitant about the idea of posting a photo of a work in progress, but relented with the condition that she be the photographer.

Remember the smatterings of yarn we dipped in the Easter Egg dye last year?  I didn't really either, but figured it was high time I should.

And last but not least.. a work in progress from the garden

Fill my Cup...

My daughter arrived home from school the other day quietly singing a new song:  "Fill my cup until it odor-flows, fill my cup until it odor-flows, fill my cup until it odor-flows and it odor-flowed with lo-ove..."  At which point I gently suggested that perhaps the song really says "overflows" seeing as how to my knowledge "odor-flow" is not a word.  She considered this momentarily and rejected the idea.  After hearing this verse repeated a couple of times her interpretation grew on me.  I thought of sweet wine, hot chocolate and Christmas cider.  I reveled for a moment reflecting on the thought of receiving life's abundance through all our senses and after all, what better time of year is there to witness and thankfully acknowledge how fully our cup over odor-flows?

Happy New Year!  May your cups odor-flow for many years to come.

PS: Thank you for the kind comments...what a lovely Christmas gift!

Countdown to X-mas

On the 6th day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

One sweet nativity scene (Jesus hasn't arrived yet)...

Two views of the Gingerbread house...

A stack of shiny presents...

16 skeins of Pakucho Cotton...

One finished sleeve...

And a box of juicy gourmet pears...

A Week in Review

Oct. 27th- I was caught by surprise... and arrived at the scene of Austin's annual day of the dead parade, this year celebrating Frida Kahlo's 100th birthday, sans costume, sans camera and with a car full of groceries that had to be whisked home shortly after the procession.   And so it is that you will have to imagine the sight of the 6 foot paper-mache bust of Frida with enormous wobbling, skeletal hands outstretched, mounted on a truck, leading the procession.  Behind her was the usual parade of costumed chihuahuas and their owners and dozens of Frida-look-a-likes.  It was over in about 10 minutes, then we proceeded home to unpack the groceries and set up the altar.  We had spent the day before mass producing paper marigolds for the purpose. 

    

Oct 31st- Rapunzel, the devil who was not wearing a red dress (to the disappointment of some), el Santo, and a granny witch met up with scooby-doo and the grim reaper to trick-or-treat.

Nov 1st and 2nd- We light our candles for the departed.  For the second time this week, I am saddened by my lack of tangible pictures. 

Nov 3rd- We are off to the International quilt show in Houston.  Once again, I find myself without my camera (I have no excuse this time, if the prints from the disposable come out I will post later meanwhile you can see some of the quilts here ).  It was truly a feast for the eyes.  We spent all day wandering up and down the convention center, gorging ourselves on inspiration and trying to show restraint as we worked our way through the hundreds of vendors stalls.  Here are my spoils:

1. A book detailing the artists, techniques and cultures showcased in the Quilt of Belonging: a beautiful installation quilt, with each block representing the ethnic textile heritage of each of Canada's aboriginal people's and every nation in the world.

2. A box of 260 pre-cut squares in 1930s reproduction prints.  As you may have noted, I'm not really a quilter and lord knows I have enough other half-baked projects in my craft corner, but that's never stopped me yet!

3. A pair of silver earing's with mounted with tiny coral stones.  Not fiber related at all, but I couldn't resist.

One of the truly wonderful surprises of the show for me was to discover how many wonderful Japanese quilt artists there are out there.  This led me to subsequently discover these fabulous quilts shown at the International Quilt show in Tokyo: http://flickr.com/photos/movinghands/sets/72157594488104676/show/

Ah, what a week...

Halloween Decorating

We had some fun decorating the house with halloweeny paper crafts today.  We strung our usual mexican skeleton banners and hung ghosts and bats from the ceiling fan. 

I stuck a bat in our centerpiece for good measure, then looked up to see the shadows of the cut-outs we put in the window dancing across the wall!

Found Beads

Found some glass lampwork beads  we originally picked up at a flea market in Tucson and decided to put them to use. I thought they would make a lovely addition to the garden, which thus far has been adorned with plastic beads (below left and center) left over from last year's bird feader.

Frida thought they would make a lovely addition to her mermaid costume.  You may recall the knit mermaid tail from a past post; the crochet shell top was a recent quick-o addition which still needs some tweaking.   

 

Busy Bees

My outdoor plans were foiled by cold wet weather and my daughter's refusal to wear a sweater, so we went to town with the easter dye.  We dyed eggs and yarn and our fingers.  We baked and made fresh aloe gel from the pieces of the aloe that fell of when we moved it to a bigger pot; we talked to Aunts and Grandmas; we took turns hunting and hiding eggs indoors. 

And the weekend's not over yet!  Now that the sun is out, (sort of) it's time to pack up our egg sandwiches and go!

It seemed a shame to throw away all that easter dye, so we used the left overs and did some experimenting in dying yarn guided by Julie Theaker's helpful Knitty article on dying yarn with food coloring http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEspring07/FEATdyeyourown.html.  I'm quite pleased with the results.  Thanks Julie!

And last but not least a finished object: I may still modify the neckline, but I'm quite pleased with the lacy ribbing at the bottom and the stripeyness throughout.

Floral Inspirations

Freshly gathered flower petals grace this school easter project.

Spring flower fairies frolick in the garden.  Perhaps some will play hide and seek with our eggs this weekend.

And last but not least... the Spring issue of black purl is up!!!

An elongated picture of Frida's embroidered pillow graces the front page (the pattern and some of my own nostalgic ruminations are in there too)

http://www.black-purl-magazine.com/  Enjoy!

Some works in Progress

These projects have actually been finished.  But I haven't taken the finished photos yet.

Some left over wood flooring inspired this table/"entertainment center" (TV goes above, cds, board games and art supplies below)       Don't worry, my knitting supplies have their own shelf.  The finished product has dark wood along the front as well..and maybe..a door on the right hand side?

A new line of rings (pun intended, see below) begins to take shape. I'll be posting the finished rings throughout the course of the week on etsy.

And...last but not least... the crowing moment of the week.  Frida learns embroidery.  I was so pleased.  She really put her full concentration into it and thoroughly enjoyed it. A half hour later she had a beautfully embroidered letter F.  A couple of hours after that it had been stained.  I panicked and scrubbed vigourously at the fabric.  The spots came out.  So did the pink dye in the fabric. :(   Maybe I could pretend its a tye-dye effect...maybe I could get her to do another one....sigh...

As for me... I didn't do much beyond this coloring project...Frida helped