PROcrastinate

Confession time guys.  I'm not 20.  I'm actually a 40 year old and a 3 year old trapped simultaneously in a 20 year old body.

I'm taking a Leadership communication course right now.  You know, efficient leadership, motivating people, emotional intelligence, changing the world.  High brow, deep stuff.  I'm in the middle of a paragraph on adding value to every situation you are in when I somehow end up on Pinterest.  Crazy, right?

Well, normally these detours last 1.5 minutes.  This time I clicked through a picture on spring break ideas for your preschooler.  [Background: we are not on spring break, we do not have a preschooler in our house, and I'm the only one home right now]  A couple clicks later and I'm on this article about flubber.  Normal people would move on or pin the thing, right?  Right.  Unfortunately, normal and I aren't getting along today.  Long gone are thoughts of followership and leadership theory.  In their place are "Hey!  We HAVE Borax!  I think we have glue too . . . food coloring can't be hard to find. . ."

Some simple math(approximations) later and a climb on top of the washer later, I sit back down in my study corner with some lemon/sunshine yellow flubber, and the most ridiculous grin.  This, my friends, is the life of a hopelessly professional procrastinator.

Sincerely,
Your resident 3 year old

The Art of Life

Saturday was quite.  Snow gently fell and the temperature continued to drop.  Grandma and Grandpa had just gotten home from Panama.  Poor them.  80 degrees to -10 degrees is no fun.  My Grandma is a wonderful artist.  She is always quilting or painting or drawing or weaving or sewing something funky and incredibly BRIGHT.  She pulled out her paints and got to work on her hundred day challenge: to work on a creative project everyday.

She's been doing a study in poppies for the last couple days that is gorgeous.  Some she paints, some she uses chalk and today we gave her markers.  Permanent markers.

Mom bought this break taking set of 36 colors and we all wanted to try.  I felt like a kid on Christmas.  I couldn't wait to try something, but for fear of ruining that pure piece of paper I sat and sketched, erased, and sketched some more.  Finally I asked my brother Hudson if he wanted to collaborate.

We settled on a cityscape and I dug in my dusty bag of art skills till I found my one point perspective.  I dress an intersection and then mirrored it.  We were going to draw society.  Society from two opposite perspectives.

We got to work on the graffiti.  May I just say that I have so much more respect for graffiti artists now?  This is hard!  It's quite a bit harder to draw it in permanent marker though because you have to create your own layers and decide on everything before it happens.  We included a number of references to politics, books, movies, and our favorite tv shows.  Because we can.  Shout out to Doctor Who, Sherlock and J.R.R. Tolkien!  I spent probably 8 consecutive hours on this with occasional input and help from the Hud. (Hey!  He's a busy fellow.)

The official statement of meaning has yet to be released to the press.

Snowflakes for Sandy Hook

A week or so after the school shooting in Newtown, CT we heard that the school board up there wanted 500 snowflakes the decorate the new school building and create a winter wonderland to help the kids transition back to school and move on with their precious lives.

We made 20 or so and sprayed them with white and icy blue glitter so they would sparkle just like snow on a sunny day.

Then we decided to get our chapel involved and had everyone bring scissors to our New Years Eve party.  There were some really cool ones. :-)

In all we sent up 52 snowflakes.

As it turns out, they got so many that they had to close the event and find places to put all the extras they already had!  I think ours made it before the end though.  I hope they are brightening the lives of many kids up there.  Our prayers are with you, people of Newtown!

Nat's Patch Bag

 Pattern: Slouchy Bags by Cindy Taylor Oates, views d w/o the pocket.

 Natalie hadn't ever sewn anything before, so we decided that we would make her a bag and finish it before we went on a field trip to Chicago the next day.  We were up till 11:30, but it was worth it.  The bag really doesn't take that long, but we made our own fabric, so that took a good deal of time.

All the edges are raw, and it looks SO neat.  We pulled parts of a towel, parts from a cut up flowered chiffon skirt, some corduroy, some cotton, some minky fabric, some quilting fabric, and a knit t-shirt from the scrap bag and went to work.  It is lined with a sturdy tablecloth so there isn't stress on the more delicate fabrics.  I think it turned out so nice!  Our approx. 5 inch squares were not very even, but she did a nice job.  When it came down to crunch time I did the darts and straps, but she did everything else.

Great job Nat!

Etsy Dilemma

I have a hobby.

It is called beading.

It is very fun.

I make all sorts of things...

Earrings, Bracelets, Necklaces, Anklets, Headbands etc.

And I try to sell them on etsy.

But what does one do when they don't sell, and you don't feel like listing them for the third or fourth time?

What do YOU do?

Accessorize..

First Impression

I got a wax seal! I love it. It is so old fashioned and lovely. The art of letter writing has really been lost in our culture. Texting, emailing, the telephone, and the internet has all but squashed the heart felt letter. We want things, and we want them NOW. Everything is fast, we hardly ever relax and stop to think. Some people even resort to yoga, of all things, to relax and "empty" themselves. Well, I plan to improve my writing skills and write more frequently. To make it more fun, I got a seal with my first initial on it. Here is a tutorial on how to use a wax seal with wax that has a wick.

For beginners, you'll need to trace around your seal, but after a while you will be able to wing it.

Moisten your seal. You can use water, oil, or a pigment stamp that you would use for rubber stamps to make a 2 tone impression.

Light the wick.

Hold wax at 45 degree angle and drip on the circle.

Don't drip till you fill the circle...

this is too much. :)

Press your seal into the wax and hold for 1-3 seconds, then lift straight up. If when you lift up, it doesn't want to come up, leave it down till the wax hardens completely then pull up. You probably did not get all of the crevices when you moistened it.

Voila! You have made your first impression.

Guess Who!`

This is me, around 2 years of age.  What am I doing?  Sewing. :) Ok, pretending to sew.

Future projects

Here is a project I am really looking forward to. I plan to make a summer dress out of the middle pattern. Perhaps a flowered print? What do you think?

A Yoyo Project

*Happy sigh* After a lovely day, and lovely grad party I'm ready to post! Rachel asked what I was going to do with the yoyos, so here is one of my projects. Another skirt! I used letter E from Simplicity's pattern 5914. I also used this pattern for this skirt. Enjoy the pictures and be inspired!