Verbosity

Owl Give away!

2012-01-31T16:29:00.002-05:00

As much as I've avoided kisses and hugs and most of my family over the last week, I finally feel their cold catching up with me. Blech!

So to cheer me up and because it's my birthday in a few days I've decided to host a little give away this week.

Some lucky person will be getting this little owl.

About my owls:

These psychedelic little owls are sewn, stuffed, painted and detail is added with markers. A layer of varnish is also added to protect them.
They are fun and colourful and each owl is totally unique. Each owl comes with a black hanging strap which is big enough to fit over a door handle.
They measure roughly 14cm x 11cm (5 1/2" x 4 1/2")

If you would like to enter, you can do one of the following:

a)"like" my Georgia Mars Art and Design page on Facebook

OR

b)"favourite" my Georgia Mars Art and Design Etsy store

OR
c) "follow" this blog

AND leave me a comment to let me know that you have done so- and how I can contact you.

Competition closes Sunday night (Feb 5th) and I will announce a winner on Monday

round up

2012-01-30T15:50:00.000-05:00

A lovely very chilled weekend in Vermont. The weather up there is just as strange as down here, and it was more like the end of winter, rather than a month in! These were the only 2 photos I took when we went out for a walk. That's the "mail" car and it cracks Matt up that his license plate says "US MALE". Good to know he's a home grown postman!

We had haggis for Robbie Burns night with our Scottish friends, and I delivered my birthday present painting as we had one less in the car this weekend, so we could actually fit the painting in. It was even more of a hit than I could have hoped for. It always makes me happy when I know that someone really loves something I've made.

Today, I've been keeping away from Matt who's sick with a cold- hiding up in my studio. A bit of painting, a bit of sewing. These lovely woolens arrived today (they were on special) and I can't wait to turn them into fox pillows.

And playing around with a cat....I find cats so hard but I really want to get it right. This is getting there- a bit of tweaking is required.

studio futzing

2012-01-26T21:44:00.000-05:00

Happy Australia Day (although I know it has come and gone in Australia). The kids were over the moon that I made them lamingtons for after school snack today.

And while it rained/snowed/sleeted on and off through the day, I took myself up to my studio to kind of futz around on a few ideas that have been rattling around in my head lately. (avoiding sick children- Kit was home with a cold today and Oscar and Remi have been sneezing all over the place too).

This little chipmunk almost got made into a 3 dimensional painted fabric little guy, but half way through, I decided he wasn't working so he was deconstructed. But I still liked him, so I had a go at painting him 2 dimensionally.

And I had a play around with doing some collages. Kind of like my pillows, but I'm waiting to make some more of those until I work out the best way to just make covers as the postage costs of sending a full cushion is just to much. These photos were all taken tonight, so they're a bit dodgy. (And we're off to VT tomorrow -finally- so I wasn't sure if I'd get around to doing this post then). That's why I put both photos in... to give you a better idea. I matted this one, as I had a spare mat that fitted.

And a raccoon and fox who were too big for the mat. I kind of like where these are going- would be cute in a kid's room, but not sure they are how I want them yet. The fox looks like he has sunglasses on...

I really want to make some more of the cushions. I sold all my foxes (except for one I kept for myself), so I think I might make some more of those. And I want to make another raccoon as I loved that one and almost kept it too. But the woman who bought him said she loves him, so I have to be happy with that.

rag rugging again

2012-01-24T15:41:00.000-05:00

For Christmas Santa gave me this enormous crochet hook. I mean, how does he know exactly what I want? And I have been promising Ella for months that I'd make her a rag rug for her floor in VT- she often sits on the cold floor playing legos or playmobil - but couldn't face the amount of time and effort involved in making another plaited one, but thought I'd have a go at one crocheted from old t-shirts.

The cutting is very tedious (thumb blisters and all), but I only started this yesterday afternoon. And yes, these are all real rags- old t-shirts and hoodies and old pillow cases made from t-shirt fabric. Hopefully it will do the trick in Ella's room up there - although I'm not sure how that red will look with the pink (!BLECH!) painted floor in her room....

Year of the dragon

2012-01-22T12:08:00.001-05:00

Dragon brooch available to buy in my etsy store

恭禧發財 Gong Xi Fa Cai or

Gong Hey Fat Choy

Or Happy Chinese New Year for the Year of the Dragon.

I've been wearing my Winter survival collection lots the last few days as we've finally had some snow. Must get out and take some photos of it; it's lovely fluffy dry snow, but it won't last for long as temps are supposed to get up again next week.

I've put a few more things in my etsy shop for sale today. Plus changed a few things around here yesterday. Do you like?

And something else fun to share. I came across this article about iPad art in the Guardian the other day and was just blown away. I saw something similar in an article about David Hockney a few weeks ago. Who knew that I could love my iPad any more than I already do???

If you go and have a look at the specific artist websites, there are some fantastic videos of them actually drawing - one of the apps records how they do it.

Now, I only have a free app, but it is SUCH fun to play around with. Totally different way of drawing/painting. It's a bit like finger painting, and there is something really kind of primal about doing it that way. Here's some of my very-much-just-mucking-around-getting-to-know-how-it-works "finished" pieces.

Fun hey!?

New knitting patterns

2012-01-19T19:26:00.003-05:00

(I braved my greatest fear, and stepped in front of the camera for a change....)

Announcing the release of my Unisex Head to Toe Winter Survival Collection.

These 4 patterns are available for purchase as one collection in my etsy store. Once purchased they will be emailed to you in PDF format.

I have designed these patterns to be easy to knit. All you need to know is how to knit, how to purl and how to do a Knit (or Purl) 2 together decrease. Plus casting on and off, of course. All patterns are knit in the round; 3 on Double pointed needles (no need to be scared of them) and one on a circular needle.

I used the Lion Brand Fisherman's wool, because I like the price and the way it looks and it is WARM. I used less than 3 skeins to knit all 4 pieces. But I wrote these patterns so that you can use whatever yarn you wish- either 2 strands of worsted weight, or one of bulky.

I will also be offering these pieces for sale individually.

Unisex

2012-01-18T16:52:00.000-05:00

Did I mention that my Head to Toe winter survival set is unisex?

I really wanted to create something that worked just as well for men and women. In the neutral colours this is totally a his or hers set.

I managed to bribe Remi into modeling for me. Lucky for me that they have exams this week- most of the time they leave in the dark and get home in the dark.

Just need to do the female photos now and write up all the patterns.

Wrestle

2012-01-18T08:24:00.000-05:00

Got to go to one of the boys' wrestling matches last night. I've only seen them twice before I think, even though they have about 3 meets a week. Usually I'm running the other two around to their classes, but this week is snow day make up week (ahem! We've had NO snow) so there are no classes.

It was good, because it was senior night, where they recognised the seniors on the team- had them walk in with their parents, so it was nice that we could both be there. Unfortunately, I gave the camera to Kit, so I don't really have many photos.

I had to drop Matt at the train, and made it back in time to just watch the last few minutes of Oscar's match...(Kit had put some weird setting on the camera, which I didn't even have time to check, so the photos were all a bit blurred.)

Still not quite sure how Oscar managed to turn this guy over (he was wrestling up a weight division and there was a 50 lb weight differential). Oscar is in grey...

It was also a good one to watch as both Osc and Rem won their matches.

Remi's (in black) was over very quickly- both ma boys won with a pin. I don't claim to understand anything about the sport, but I do actually enjoy watching it. It is such an honest physical contest, and you watch these boys put their all in to try and win.

That's noo how you make porridge

2012-01-17T10:02:00.000-05:00

I have spent the weekend working with this lovely oatmeal fisherman's wool. Inspired by the cold blast of weather (and the entire heating in our house going- and then being repaired), I've been developing a "Head to Toe Winter Survival Set" consisting of a hat, a cowl, hand warmers and boot toppers. I'm hoping to finish my knitting by tomorrow and to do some photos and upload these patterns into a PDF document which will be available for sale through my etsy store. I have Friday as my deadline in my head, so I will be busy this week.

Clearing the dance floor

2012-01-16T09:25:00.001-05:00

I realised that I still had a few photos of the kids dancing from last week...

Kit and Ella at their jazz/hip hop class. This one has been a bit of a change of pace for them both this year, but it's a fun class. It actually reminded me of when I used to do jazzercise and I really wanted to join in!

Ella, but not Kit, also does a jazz ballet class which she loves.

I always love to get photos of her long hair...

There was another ballet class that they do together, but I had to go and pick the boys up from wrestling practice, so I didn't get any photos.
A week off from classes this week, and thn Ella starts her pointe class.
And now no more dance photos until spring concert.....

Posted from my ipad

Painting

2012-01-14T09:42:00.001-05:00

In the words of the Dukes of Hazard (or so I am led to believe), "I love it when a plan comes together!".

We are very fortunate to have some wonderful friends here in the US; friends who are like family to us. Jon, who is turning 40 in a few weeks, and his wife Nicola. Matt used to play rugby with Jon when we lived in Singapore, and it is they who introduced us to Vermont, and skiing.

I wanted to give Jon something special for his 40th birthday, and came up with the idea of a big, textural Scottish flag (they are scottish). I sorta kinda had an idea in my head. Actually I had a few idea to play around with, but I wanted the finished painting to be big, bold and really textural, and I think I have accomplished that.

They have plans for expanding their Brooklyn apartment (they bought the apartment upstairs a year ago and are still waiting to get everything past city hall), and I can just see this on their wall....somewhere, when the walls are finished.

Very happy with how this turned out. Playing around with new gel mediums to get a layering of texture. That was all a bit scary to begin with, as I haven't really used them before, but I do love to paint with a palette knife. It's big- 3'x5', but as is usual for me, I now want to do another one....but bigger!

Posted from my ipad

Studio tour

2012-01-13T17:51:00.001-05:00

One day I would like to have a beautiful studio. A studio with lots of natural light, with actual electric light, with heat, with lots of storage with pretty storage boxes and containers, with a sink (!), and much more.

But for now I am truely grateful to have my own space to spread out. My main problem is that I like working in so many different mediums and I hate to throw away anything that I know I may use one day. Which all = lots of stuff crammed into a small space. I have mismatched furniture, lots of shoe boxes and cupboards which a are full of all the things that need to be crammed away.

My other (guilty) admission is that I am a really messy worker. I love to pull everything out; surround myself with what I am working on....the problem being that I am lucky to complete one thing before I start another. At the end of a project(s) my studio tends to look like a storm has happened in there.

But I do like to start with a clean slate, so to speak, and enjoy having my studio, however briefly with everything in its place. So, I thought I would share my clean studio before it slips back into chaos (been working up there all day, and already things are starting to slip).

A little vignette with butterfly, cicada wing and robin's egg (all usually packed carefully away) with my dog lamp (can you guess where he came from?) in the background.

My little woodland gang awaiting adoption...

Some work from over the years

Some ideas and notes

My sewing/cutting area

Fabric piles (there's more in another cupboard...all little scraps that I like to use up)

This corner shows how I stock pile...a bag of leather scraps, a bag of paper scraps, 2 boxes of fabric scraps, two boxes of papermaking supplies, and that whole cupboard is filled filled with frames and prints from the house in VT which I paint over.

My desk...print making supplies, painting supplies, more fabric and paper scarps, craft books, papers, jewellery making supplies etc

My lovely little tape collection.... ( thanks chels!)

A door handle I bought years ago

So there you go. Working on a big canvas for a friend's birthday present right now...will share later.

Posted from my ipad

Reflections

2012-01-12T21:24:00.001-05:00

I am totally in love with reflections. I am fascinated how the world shimmers and changes slightly when reflected back to us at a different angle, how they create a different depth of vision. How we see the world around us in a different way.

So I took advantage of today's heavy flooding (let's not focus on the water in the basement) to get out and take some photos.

Today was the first day in a long time where I felt...not back to normal, but that feeling back to normal is, in fact, possible. I've spent the last two days very slowly tidying my study. Usually I can't work up there this time of year because it is just too cold. But with the strangely up and down winter we are having (12 C today but supposed to get down to highs below freezing by Sunday), I have pockets of weather where I can brave the upstairs room. And with my energy slowly but surely returning, and some new toys (thanks Dad and Maggie!), I have some works in the works, so to speak.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

restarting

2012-01-10T07:39:00.000-05:00

I always find January 1st such an arbitrary date for beginning the "new year" and even more so this year. With semester "finals" coming up for the kids next week, semester endings for dance this week (including lots of observation days- stand by for lots of photos), and me finally being back on my thyroid medication and hopefully getting back to a state of normality, it neither feels like the end of an old year, nor the second week of a new. It just is.

So in the spirit of that, here's some ballet photos of Kit and Ella's Monday class (for family). But first, this is how my boy goes to class: A big thick tartan hoodie, stripy long shorts, midcalf socks and thongs. Seriously. I have learned not to make a fuss- the more of a fuss I make, the worse it gets.

( Ella is in the purple skirt.)

I wish I could have videoed Kit doing turns across the room. As one grandparent said on the way out; "you know what you are doing, young man".

Toxic avenger

2012-01-06T06:54:00.000-05:00

Going in for my radiation therapy today. Been told that I'll be radioactive all weekend so have to isolate myself from my family. But I won't glow in the dark (DOH!). Back on medication on Monday.... (yay). Have a good weekend.

knitted cowls

2012-01-04T15:24:00.001-05:00

[There are some really not great photos coming up- apologies.]

Remember when I went to Soho for the day before our friends got married at city hall? Well, when I was in Purl Soho, I splurged and bought myself two skeins of gorgeous kitten soft baby alapaca yarn in this beautiful teal colour called summer sky heather (teal is my new fav colour). Walking around SOHO, it became very obvious to me that I needed a cool and funky cowl. Now, while I have always loved a good scarf, I do find them difficult to wear- they become unravelled and never totally embrace my neck the way I want.

A look in a few shops for some inspiration had me GASPING at how much shops charge for a cowl/neck loop or whatever they want to call it. So I found a free pattern on ravelry which was basically 141 stitches knit in the round in seed stitch (k1, p1 all the way around continuously, but because the stitches don't land on top of each other, it isn't a rib) on 7 mm needles for 12 - 15 inches or there abouts. And I have to say that I am super happy with the results (just not the photo).

Look at the difference in colour there- it's somewhere in between. The seed stitch makes it stretchy and able to trap air for warmth, the alpaca makes it nice and drapey. And all for around $27- it was my Christmas present to myself (and took less than a few days to knit).

And seriously, I have been wearing it almost continually since I finished it. In fact, it could do with a wash- it has absorbed perfume smells and bonfire smells.

But wait...

While I was up in VT I dug out an old vest that I (ahem) designed and knit way back in 2006

This is actually a photo of it before I added another couple of inches to the band at the bottom. And while it was a good learning experience for me to do the designing bit, and I love the wool that I spun for it, I never really wore it that much and I'm not as big now as I was back then. So I spent a few days pulling it apart. And I wanted to do something with that super soft and warm alpaca (the white bit in the middle). I also wanted to play around with some stitch design for another cowl- something that would have lots of texture, but be soft, so that it would create more air pockets.

So, without even rewashing that yarn to get rid of all those wiggly bits when you pull something apart (I LOVE the look of those), and doubling the super soft white with the little more rough, coloured, wool, I dove in.

I wanted a pattern that would be fully reversible as you see both sides as you twist these things around. I also wanted something close to a waffle weave to trap air (air that warms up from body heat = extra warm). It also needed to be stretchy, but to have the give that a ribbing does.

This time I knit on big 10mm circular needles ( with the two strands held together. I created this pattern of a 4 stitch repeat that alternated every row. As I was knitting in the round, this meant I had to place a stitch marker, so I could remember where I had to change rows. [The k is knit, the p is purl].

I cast on 140 stitches, and the result was a super long cowl, but long enough to be able to wrap around 3 times comfortably.

And while it isn't as "Waffly" as I'd like, a combination of the wool that I used and the stitch make it really springy and warm.

Of course, it will need to be blocked as some point (when I can spare the warmth that it provides to my neck- maybe April!). And I do love the variations in colours (unfortunately these photos wash them out)

But I still wanted to try and create the stitch I had envisioned. I still had some of the white handspun (I'm pretty sure that I spun this BEFORE I had my spinning wheel- ie on a spindle) and another nice teal wool in my stash; a nice soft bulky roving [Seems teal has been my new fav colour for a while], and I just knit with them together.

So this was the pattern I came up with this time around. Once again, a 4 stitch repeat (although this time I went for 96 stitches on the 10mm needles), but over a 6 row repeat. (I coloured in the Ks and Ps just to make them easier to see). This required a little more concentration to make sure that I changed rows as I went around the circular needles, but the stitch marker made it easy enough to keep track of.

The result was exactly the reversible, textured look that I was going for. [Although once again the photos are really bad]

And warm- yes, nice and toasty. As I said in my previous post, I slept in the long one wrapped around my neck 3 times last night, and it was soft and divinely warm.
So now, I have a cowl for every occasion- and I didn't spend $100 on each!

What about you? Do you wear scarves in winter? Do you like the idea of a nice big soft puffy cowl around your neck? Do you think you'd wear one at all?

Just getting through

2012-01-04T10:23:00.001-05:00

We are back down south. Our last few days of Christmas break petered out slowly. New year's eve was a very quiet event and we were all in bed before midnight. New year's day was spent cleaning (the oven had had days of continuous hard core cooking, and if we don't leave it spotless, the mice come out to play), and driving home in the rain that evening. The kids had Monday off school, but not wrestling practice and there was, of course, the lovely Christmas Doctor Who episode to watch, twice.

Yesterday it was getting up in the dark again, trying to keep warm in this freezing house (-10C this morning....you should have seen what I slept in - woollen socks, woollen hand warmers, a scarfy cowl and a beanie!) and getting back into the swing of homework, activities and wrestling meets.

I'm just trying to get through this week, taking no thyroid hormone drugs for over a month now has really taken it's toll and I am constantly cold and excessively tired. I have my treatment starting tomorrow, so I am just looking forward to getting it done and getting back to some kind of normality.

And although I have set up camp on the couch, I have had the energy for some knitting, in between napping, (super warm cowls) which I will share when I have some energy for proper blogging- you know; with photos.

But for now, it's another movie, another cuppa tea, more blankets and a snuggly cat. Just trying to get through....

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

More treats

2011-12-31T09:52:00.001-05:00

The biggest treat for me this year was having an old school friend and her husband come and stay with us for 3 nights. I have to admit that there are very few people from school (despite what facebook says) who are truely friends that I have kept in real contact with. And Loretta is one of them. We were a group of 3 in grade 11, joined at the hip, and yet since then (she and our other friend were a year older than me and went of to art school, leaving me behind) we've really only seen each other a smattering of times. I went off to Norway for a year, her to the UK for longer. We moved to far flung places, she and her husband live in Dubai. But it doesn't matter. We totally connect like we saw each other yesterday....except for all the reminiscing.

We had a lovely time together, including them being dragged next door on the day they arrived for a party with neighbours- didn't matter, I knew she'd fit in.

And here's some of the lovely treats she brought us

Camel's milk chocolates

And pretty nougaty things (photos by Ella)

And these gorgeous slippers to put on my wall....

Does she know me, or what!?

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

On going christmasing

2011-12-31T09:15:00.001-05:00

It is a funny thing to be perusing my favourite blogs and to continually read about the "break" between Christmas and new year. Around here it has truely felt like 12 days of Christmas- starting back on the 21st with our solstice celebration.

First, more photos from our Christmas Eve

Our wonderful Christmas Eve repast shared with friends who came to visit

Ella's letter to Santa on my fun new blackboard I made for the kitchen from a spare piece of wood.

Our Christmas day:
Ella fetching Matt's glasses

As I said before, one of our nicest Christmases ever. This has been one of the hardest years of our lives with my cancer and ongoing thyroid issues and Matt being out of work for the last 6 months.

And yet, the generosity of family and friends meant we had presents to put under the tree and fill the stockings (everyone got a lot of things they really needed like socks and underwear), and a few treats like books and CDs.

All the boys were even able to get a new shirt and t-shirt and we were able to get Kit his promised birthday present from August of an ipod (we do a lot of travelling in the car and he was the only one who didn't have one)- his reaction was so precious that both Matt and I were close to tears.

They know how hard it's been this year and it's been super hard on them. Probably no more so than this awesome boy who is supposed to be making plans for university and yet with everything so up in the air, it's really hard for him to work out what to do.

Maybe that's why it was such a great Christmas-everyone pulled together and celebrated our being a family, and our Christmas traditions. Not a word in anger or annoyance was said all day, and the kids' gifts to each other were so thoughtful. With Oscar turning 18 in 2012, and going off to school somewhere, it was possibly our last family Christmas all together for a while.

So we feasted, (and feasted again and again from this meal over the next few days).

Later that evening (after a substantial post meal nap), we ended up with the two girls from next door, their dad, and two friends (one who was meeting THEIR family for the first time and ended up over at our house), over here for some raucus fun.

It was certainly a Christmas to remember.

A gift for you

2011-12-26T09:14:00.001-05:00

I will be back later with photos of what seemed like the longest, nicest, funest Christmas day ever, but for now [for those of you who don't read the desire to inspire blog (and you really should check it out now and again -link in my side bar) where this link came from], you should go and check out this amazing collection of art work and inspiration;
http://huamao.tumblr.com/
A blog called colors of life. I could spend all day just going back through it. If you've had enough of feasting of the food kind, then try a purely visual one.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Chistmasing so far

2011-12-24T09:05:00.001-05:00

Snow...mostly gone already, although temps are supposed to stay below freezing

Aebleskiver for breakfast yesterday to kick things off.

Our stash of chistmas goodies (mum, they had 50% off at the VT country store for xmas food last time Ella and I were up).

The decorating of the gingerbread house. A swedish kit, which had a method of melting icing sugar to join the house together....worked brilliantly, but I got a tiny drop of molten sugar on my finger...arg!

Soi left the decorating to the kids. Ella, and Oscar thoughtful and meticulous...Kit and Remi standing back and literally throwing things on.

But some how they managed to work together. Rem and Osc are preparing their phones for photos to upload to facebook.

I left them to it and went next door for a while....

And came home to this masterpiece. Complete with a path, wall, tree, bushes, yeti?, and some Harry Potter lego figures.

We watched White Christmas last night (well, I fell asleep). Can't believe it's Christmas eve already. Santa may have already come to everyone in Australia! Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas. May all your wishes come true.

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Dreaming of a white christmas

2011-12-23T08:38:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, in Connecticut, we sat out on the veranda to eat our lunch in the sunshine. Last night, driving up to Vermont, there was not a touch of white to be seen and it was so mild. Visions of a Christmas in VT with "no snooooow" (as in the movie White Christmas) came into my head. But as we went to bed, a light rain began to fall, and this morning the world is white and snow is still falling. With temperatures set to drop over the next few days, it looks like we will, after all, have a white Christmas. Which is good as I have friends coming to stay after Christmas from Dubai, and I promised them snow. I do love a northern hemisphere Christmas.

On the adgenda the next few days: Gingerbread house decorating with the girls next door, some last minute food shopping and present wrapping, cooking, catching up with friends- including meeting the new little twins that were born a few weeks ago, and hanging out with our lovely neighbours, of course. Let the happy season begin!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

A busy weekend

2011-12-19T07:09:00.001-05:00

There was nutcrackering for Kit; dress rehearsals on Friday night, 2 performances on both Saturday and Sunday.

There was snowglobe making (including making the polymer clay figure ) - this is Ella's little mouse king.

And cup cake decorating- fun little monster cup cakes.

wrestling medals to win (3rd place)

11 year old birthdays to celebrate (always exactly a week before Christmas)

With Ella's best friend who knows her so well that she gave her a hermit crab for her birthday. It's been so cold the last few days (so cold that we abandoned our plan trip to NYC for Ella's birthday) that we've been having trouble keeping "Herman" warm - we resorted to a hot water bottle under his tank last night.

And of course, a birthday dinner with cupcake eating and happy birthday singing made all the more fun by the wearing of Remi's trippy glasses...

so, what's yhe attraction with the glasses? This is the Christmas tree before glasses

And this is it with the glasses.

paper snowflake tutorial

2011-12-16T10:05:00.001-05:00

Every year one of our favourite Christmas traditions is to make paper snowflakes. I think this is something we started when we moved back to Australia from New York and missed a winter Christmas. To begin with we used to make the 8 sided snowflakes where you just fold the paper in half and in half again 2 more times. But I never liked the look of those, and real snowflakes are always 6 or 12 sided, so I taught myself how to fold them to get more authentic looking snowflakes. Over the last 7 years, I've got quite good at folding them as I usually have to fold all of them for me and the 4 kids to cut. I've found it's easier to fold a whole bunch before we have our "snowflake cutting night"- usually while we an open fire to make it easy to dispose of all those paper scraps.

This year I decided to use up some old scrap booking paper that isn't be used for scrap booking, I cut the big pages into quarters so that I had 4 squares. [ If you are using plain white printer paper, make a square by folding a triangle at the bottom of the page and cutting off the thin paper strip at the top (this can be used later to make paper chains).]

Once you have a square, you fold it corner to corner to make a triangle.

then you bring the two bottom edges together to find the middle of the bottom -just pinch it there, don't fold it all the way up.

Now that you know where the middle of the bottom, folded, edge is, you will find it easier to work out the next two folds. This is the hardest bit; you want to fold a 3rd of the triangle at the front, and a third at the back. This is the front, then I'd turn it over and do the same on the back.

So it kind of zig zags front and back. I usually try and line it all up before I press the folds down.

When you are done, it should look like this- with one triangle fold at the front and one at the back, going in opposite directions, with another triangle in the middle. (I hope this is making sense, as it is much harder to say in words)

You then fold that triangle in half again (this becomes harder, the smaller the piece of paper you start with). It doesn't matter which side you fold (front of back). When you get to this point, you should have a shape that looks like this.

You then cut across at the shortest point of the "tail" ends...like so....

....and you will end up with a pizza wedge shaped folded triangle.

Now the fun part begins. You can cut any shape into you snow flake. You can cut into both of the long sides, but don't cut all the way across. You can cut off the pointy tip, and that will make a hole in the middle, but once you go all the way through further up, you will cut your snowflake in half. I find geometric patterns work best, for kids, triangles are easier.

The more you do this, the better you will become. Ella had a total snowflake cutting breakthrough up in VT on the weekend. Suddenly she started to see what shapes various cuts would make and her snowflakes became really intricate. Warning: this can be highly addictive. Make sure you have enough paper!

When they are done, put the snowflakes between pages in a heavy book - like pressing flowers. We like to sticky tape them to the windows, or thread them on cotton (you can just sew a needle through the paper) and hang them all around. It sometimes helps to put a button on the end of the thread, or an ornament as it helps them to hang straight. If you put them over heat vents, or near windows, you get a lovely effect of snow flurries, with the snowflakes dancing around everywhere. Near windows and lights, you get beautiful snowflake shadows on the walls. Here are some photos from previous years:

Perfect if you are dreaming of a white Christmas where ever you are in the world.

en pointe

2011-12-15T13:48:00.000-05:00

Yesterday Ella got her first pair of pointe shoes. A few months ago, her dance teacher asked her if she wanted to start pointe classes, saying that she was ready for them. Unfortunately, we weren't able to afford the shoes straight away, so Ella patiently waited. I've made a few Etsy sales this week, so I told her that she could have them for a birthday present. She was so excited. Can you tell? She won't start lessons until after Christmas, so we will be working on strengthening her ankles and feet over the next few weeks. I only finished sewing on the ribbon and elastic after she went to bed, so she hasn't even been able to try them on properly yet. I'm sure I'll be able to get a photo when she gets home this afternoon though. She had asked if she could sleep with them last night....

Super quick and easy last minute gift for boys

2011-12-12T11:05:00.001-05:00

Do you find it hard to find gifts for males? I have a hard enough time with husband/fathers/brothers/uncles etc, but throw in the fact that they are teenagers and it makes it really difficult. Yes, there's socks and music and smelly shower gel, but I really like to give a special gift. My boys all have many hats made by me, and they aren't really into scarves, and how many felted phone holders do you need (particularly when they don't use any of them).

So I was thinking really hard the other day about what I could make them, last minute, that wouldn't take too long and wouldn't be costly. I was thinking about their rooms- the state of their desks, when I came up with this little gem. Covered pencil/pen/marker etc holders.

Initially I thought I would crochet around some tin cans (and I still may have a go at that as I do like that look- you could used jute or string maybe) and then I remembered I had a few scraps of felted knitwear lying around (this example was a hat that I knitted that went through the wash and felted).

Firstly I wrote some words onto white felt (store bought) and embroidered those words with embroidery floss. You could even do this by printing words onto fabric or even card.

I then cut a strip of felted knitwear to size (length and width) and simply blanket stitched it close using a scrap of wool. [I have two pieces cut out here for each of the two tins]. I also blanket stitched the bottom "raw" edge just to make sure it wouldn't fray. The top edge was the ribbing from the hat so that didn't need to be stitched, but if it was a "raw" edge, I'd blanket stitch it just to be sure. You could even use a thick woollen sock, or a felted jumper (sweater) sleeve.

Finally, I cut out my embroidered word and attached it with split pins (brads), although you could just as easily stitch it on. Ta da! Simple.

The beauty of doing this is that the woollen cover adds more weight to the tin can, so it is less likely to tip over. And I have to say that what I love about this idea is that a) it is recycling/repurposing, b) it encourages organisation, and c) it's kind of a yarn bomb!

Of course you could just as easily turn this into a gift for the females in your life (or for yourself). You could use a big tall tin and make a lovely knitting needle container. You could put your children's names on your labels instead of words. You could put phrases like "these are mine and if you take them I will track you down"- no? Just my lot who get very protective over their black sharpies then. Right, I think I might need to have soup from a can for lunch as I am one can short....

Wonderful

2011-12-11T08:45:00.001-05:00

No photos to share today. In am sitting here in my favourite spot on my couch with the morning sun gently warming me.

Had a lovely day yesterday. Drove an hour and a half into New Hampshire to my friend's house. It amazes me that we've only actually met 3 times, but she feels like family almost. Her daughter was having her birthday party, and even though she is is two years younger than Ella, those two really hit it off. It's lovely to see. While Ella and Ivy played, I bogged in and helped to bake and prepare and decorate. Doing kids birthday parties is so much less stressful when you are not the organizer!

It was a little house on the prairie, pioneer themed birthday party - nice and natural, and fun. We had games, and yummy food and a bonfire where we roasted hotdogs on sticks on the fire (seriously, they tasted so good like that) and had baked beans. After the other kids had gone home, Ella and I stayed longer, chatting and playing and it was so nice.

On the way home in the car, Ella said how nice it was to go to a house that was really creative. She said how she often feels like people don't understand her, and she loves to see home made things, and beautiful things all around a house. How she felt at home in their house. Ah, from the mouths of babes.

We got home, had a bath each and then hopped into my bed and started watching a movie on my iPad. I fell asleep pretty quickly, and she eventually decided to turn it off, but stayed in my bed where it was cosy and warm.

Which brings me back to sitting in the sun this morning while Ella sleeps on.

Wonderful.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Girls road trip.

2011-12-09T12:25:00.001-05:00

Ella and I have hit the road and come north for the weekend. A night here in VT and then a night in New Hampshire tomorrow for Ella and a little Aussie pal to have a combined birthday celebration.

Fun fun!
Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

From doodle to design

2011-12-05T11:01:00.001-05:00

Recently I was asked where I get all my ideas from. In all honesty, I don't know, but I suspect everywhere. Sometimes I will wake up and remember dreaming new ideas, sometimes something will spring into my head when studying something in nature or when I see a combination of colours that really speak to me. I always wish I had a photographic memory to capture those moments to play back later. But I don't.

But I do like to doodle. It was quite recently, when feeling a bit under the weather and not really feeling up to doing much except listen to an audio book (yes, Doctor Who for those who know me well) and doodling, that I came up with a motif, if you will, that I have been using quite a lot in my work lately. I often draw flowers, and I was trying to come up with a new way of doing them: somewhere between a paisley design and a mandala (both favourite doodle subjects of mine). This is what I came up with.

Initially I was drawing on scrap paper, but I liked the look of these flowers, so I cut them out, added them to my sketch book and expanded on the design. As I was doing this, it struck me how fantastic these flowers would look as owl eyes. And more doodling was done.

I have always liked adding a lot of detail to things -scales and feathers, and it struck me how fun it would be to create these psychedelic looking owls with their crazy eyes and detail of the feathers. I had already been working with using fabric to create painted animals, so I went for that, scaling things down a bit.

I started by painting the owls, but found I couldn't get the same detail in the eyes as I had with my flower doodles.

So out came the sharpie collection to add detail to the eyes and the rest of the body.

Every owl is, in a way, a doodle. I play around with how I do the eyes, the feathers and the expressions.

My first lot were pretty similar, but I find it hard to bog out the same thing over and over again, so with my second batch, I ended up with all kinds of different facial expressions and wing positions; each owl has its own personality.

It then occurred to me that the same motif could be used as a Christmas decoration- half way between a flower and a snowflake. So I carved a stamp and my Christmas tags were born. I love how these look on my tree.

And from that idea, sprung another - bird ornaments, using a hand carved bird stamp, tweaking the design slightly: Can you see the "flower" on the eye area?

So keep up the doodling- you never know where it might take you. I am sure that there is something in doing things "mindlessly" that lets us connect to our subconscious. That super sneaky part of the brain that collects so much information and plots and schemes away ideas behind our backs (so to speak). Finding a way to connect to that lets all those ideas you didn't even know you had come streaming out. And doodling is one way to do that.

Etsy store promotion

2011-12-04T20:56:00.000-05:00

For the month of December, with any order from my etsy store, you will receive a free handmade gift tag. These little quilted fabric tags are made from an original carved stamp. They can be personalised on the back and your recipient can hang them on the tree.

2011-12-04T16:48:00.000-05:00

My very cramped little space at the fair. I was in a strange position, not in the main area, in a corner, in a corridor that was often blocked by people. Not that it was a great fair anyway, but I am so pleased to have one under my belt. The good news is I now have lots of products to add to my etsy store, so stay tuned to updates this week. I'm not sure I still have time to post international orders before Christmas, but I can definitely get out orders in the US.

And just when I thought I was done

2011-12-02T13:33:00.001-05:00

I discovered I wasn't.

I also made two more foxes, but sold one to a friend who came for a sticky beak at what I'd been doing as she couldn't come to the fair.

when all else fails

2011-12-01T22:13:00.000-05:00

Sorry about the tone of my last post. I was feeling kind of depressed when I got home from my doctor's appointment.

But there's nothing like putting up the Christmas tree and finding all our treasures again to make me feel like myself again.

Ella is especially happy to see her Christmas snow globe collection again. She has her collection of snow globes from around the world on top of that black cabinet in the background, but the Christmas ones only get to come out for a month every year.

And speaking of snow globes, have your ever heard of Walter Martin and Paloma Munoz? Seriously, have a look at their amazingly beautiful, if slightly macabre, snow globes. Amazing.

And speaking of collections. This is the only collection I really have. Snowflake ornaments. Mostly the Met ones that they release every year. I think I've only missed one year (maybe 2004 or 2005) since they started doing them. I love them, but they are always slightly lost on the tree, so this year I decided to do this;

I love LOVE how the "wish" has a shadow on the wall (actually it has 2 shadows if you look at it from the right angle) so I wanted the snowflakes to, too.

Ella says it looks like a shop window display (now wouldn't that be a fun job to have?)

But I like it and like the fact that every time I look at the TV I will be reminded to make a wish.

And speaking of things of a Christmas nature, I THINK this may be coming to the craft fair with me. It was an idea I had (probably in a dream) to create a "christmas tree" for my fair to display some ornaments. Wood with cup hooks (I'm still trying to find the smallest bit to go on top). I'm just worried that some of the sticks will break in the transportation...If it makes it there, I will use it- once I get the boys to screw more cup hooks in for me.

another universe

2011-12-01T15:32:00.000-05:00

This world of blogging is so very important to me. It's a funny thing, but I sometimes feel that the connections I have through the blogs I read, through sharing my work on my blog, and even places like etsy are stronger than the ones I have around me in the "real" world (apart, of course, from my family). I feel part of a community in a way that I never really feel in this town that I live in. I love the exchange of ideas, the inspiration, the beauty. In that universe I feel like I belong; that I can be me.

Today I had a doctor's appointment. [Long and convoluted story about health insurance and doctors and clinics excluded.] I was told that in order to have the last piece of treatment that I need to wipe out any possible remaining cancer cells in my throat, I have to go off my thyroid medication for a month (!!!! over Christmas!!!!). The doctor said, "starting tomorrow." I looked at him in horror and I had to try and explain that I couldn't possibly do that until after the craft fair. (The craft fair which has become my whole focus over the last few weeks, which has had me waking up with new ideas I've had in my dreams, which has made me feel alive with potential, which seems such a huge and wonderfully big thing to me.) The blank looks (I had 2 doctors and 6 residents in the room) I got in return was probably close to the one that I get when Matt starts trying to explain to me what it is that he does for work (it has to do with law and finance and ....yep, that's about the extent of what I understand). And I suddenly felt so small and that this big important thing to me was really such a small and frivolous thing. I felt like I was in another universe, one where no one could ever begin to understand who I was and what I did and what made me tick. And yet, I can't imagine living in a world where people didn't make beautiful things. Maybe if I'd said I had a deadline designing something for some big company I would have got a different response??? Or I had an art exhibition opening (which is actually kinda, sorta how I view it)??? I don't know. Why is the word "craft" such a dirty one?

So, anyway, I only have a few days of feeling reasonably good before going off my medication. SIGH. I was never a sick person, and I do so hate being reminded that I am one now. Having 6 residents feeling your throat is a good way to make you feel like a specimen- and also being asked if the residents could come in as the doctor thought my case was very interesting.

Dear family

2011-12-01T06:34:00.001-05:00

As I stumbled out of bed this morning and realized that the date was December 1st, I also realized that it is very unlikely that any of you will be receiving gifts from me for Christmas this year. That is, at least, in time for Christmas. Sigh. Or, at this rate, even a card. Please forgive me. This has been a very strange year for me. Hopefully I will have extra brownie points for all the handmade things I've sent you in the past....

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

still going

2011-11-29T18:18:00.001-05:00

Another "raw" photo, taken in the dark. Some biggish cushions I've been making. (The front fox and owl need the bottoms sewn up). I wish I had some more remnants of the hounds tooth and tartans. I love how they look on the foxes. The little vixen hiding up the back is sitting up. I'm kinda hoping that one of the lying down foxes doesn't sell so that I can keep it....

morning light

2011-11-28T21:31:00.000-05:00

Some photos I took one morning in VT when I took Honey out for a walk. The light was amazing through a slight mist and off the snow.

Our swimming hole looks so different in the snow and after the floods from Irene washed away some of the boulders.

And then this morning, back home in CT....I looked out the window and thought the house across the street was on fire. It was just the rising sun reflecting off the windows into the water. And hard to believe that it was 19C down here today after all that snow on the weekend.

Being thankful

2011-11-26T10:35:00.001-05:00

I have no photos to share as i left my camera cord down south. But I thought I'd share some of the things that I've been really thankful for over the last few days.

Firstly, I am so thankful for this house. I can't begin to describe how happy it makes me feel to come up here.
I'm thankful that we finished our path out the front, as we arrived up here to a rare (at this time of the year) 7 inches of snow on the ground, and the path did exactly what it was meant to (and thanks to mum for helping us out with it).
I'm thankful that we have such wonderful neighbors, who are more like family, up here...that they don't mind when we walk in on them having dinner and that we can end up spending the evening with them watching movies, jamming and sharing food and drink with no prior notice. They are the best.
I'm thankful that our other "family" away from home- who first introduced us to this area of VT- are such lovely fun and generous people. And that we got to spend yet another thanksgiving with them eating too much food and having too much fun. This year it was 6 Aussies, 2 Scots, 2 Poms, an Irishman and a Welshman. What more could you want for an American holiday?! And I'm thankful that my two older boys were happy to dig a path through the snow to the fire pit, dig out the fire pit and light the fire...and that my husband was happy to cook the turkey in the Dutch oven on that fire....it was delicious.
And finally, I'm thankful that the fall down the stairs I had yesterday because I was only wearing my woolly socks (not my slippers) and carrying a big handful of washing, didn't end up with a broken right arm, just a bone bruise. And that there was still so much snow on the ground so that I could fill a bag of snow and ice it continually for 3 hours...I'm sure that made a huge difference. But I am so happy that I can still use it...I still have a week until the craft fair!

I hope that, for those of you who do celebrate thanksgiving, you had a wonderful day, and, for those of you that don't, you take a moment to think about what you are grateful for.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

A sneak peak

2011-11-23T07:31:00.001-05:00

Before we head off for Thanksgiving long weekend, I thought I'd try and post some photos of what I've been working on for the last week and a half.

Unfortunately, it is disgustingly wet and dark today, so photos are not up to scratch....

Some bookmarks and little crochet flower hair slides

A variety of hats in a range of creatures and sizes (all my own designs which is why they have so much...."character"...and they all need blocking)

Some flower decorations which can also be used as gift tags- they can be written on on the back. Made with a stamp I carved.

More stamp carving- this time made into little stuffed bird decorations

My acorns of course

Some more prints

one pair of booties- this is my own design (hopefully I'll get time to make some more)

Of course, everything that I have listed in Etsy will also be coming to market. And I may even have time next week to make a few more things. At the moment, it's not unusual for me to do 12 hour days. Looking forward to some forced rest today and tomorrow as my hands are starting to feel it a bit.

And in a few hours we go and pick up miss Ella who has been away for her first school camp. Here she was at 6am on Monday morning right before she got dropped off to school. She spent all weekend packing her bag- rolling all her clothes, labelling everything. This girl knows how to travel!

A NYC day

2011-11-19T09:45:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I had such a fantastically wonderful New York City kind of a day. Very pregnant-with-twins friends of ours (from VT, but they live in Brooklyn) decided to have a "shotgun" wedding at city hall. Matt had a meeting at lunch time, so we went in together: him going off to his lunch and me venturing south of Grand Central by myself for the first time in YEARS. And it was wonderful. Wandering around SOHO. I spent a good hour perusing everything in Purl Soho - so nice to finally go there after so many years of reading their blog. I really wanted to get one of these kits from Prints Charming that they were selling in the store as they had a sample and it was really gorgeous. I really don't have the time or money (or eyesight until I get new glasses) at the moment though.

From there, I had a lovely lunch at le pain quotidien, before spending another delightful hour in an Anthropolgie store. I decided right there and then that I would be happy to live in that store.

Eventually Matt and I met up again and walked down to "city hall" (a building that is part of city hall in a generally speaking, functional manner, but isn't the original city hall- but not to worry, they have a big picture of the original city hall in there for the newly married couple to have a photo in front of) to wait for our friends. While we waited outside, there was a noisy occupy demonstration going on in the park across the road, and loads of police everywhere.

I am so glad I got to experience a city hall wedding. We were told to get there at 3:30. The bride was almost late, as they cut off registering and taking a number at 3:45 and she was right on the dot. So there was a lot of standing around waiting...and watching. Talk about fascinating. Seeing all the different people in there- some dressed to the nines, some more casual. So many different nationalities and races and walks of life. I don't think the actual "ceremony" was until just before 5, but we got to meet some really interesting people. And it was so nice to go to a wedding as it's been at least 10 years since I have. Afterwards we walked over to an Indian restaurant to celebrate. A kind of perfectly NYC kind of wedding I think.

The owllery

2011-11-16T19:59:00.000-05:00

Trying to come up with inventive ways to display my work for the craft fair. An old picture frame, some chicken wire and fabric.

And there's still plenty of room for all the others in production

In production

2011-11-16T06:59:00.000-05:00

It's nose down, tail up around here as I prepare for my first ever craft fair. I will be at the New York School for the Deaf craft fair on December 3rd in White Plains, New York. If you are in the area, please stop by and say hello!

A contest of Beauties

2011-11-15T07:55:00.000-05:00

The wonderfully talented Jackie Morris is having a little blog "contest". While the "prize" is one of her wonderful illustrations, she sees it as a celebration of beauty and invites everyone to participate.

So for my entry, I would like to put forward my menagerie of animals. While I am happy to sell these little guys to a loving home, I do love to see their furry faces looking out at me as they hang from the plate rail in my dining room*.

*All except this fox who has found a new home in Australia

Razzle Zazzle

2011-11-10T15:47:00.000-05:00

I've been playing around with loading some of my images onto various items lately. You can check them out by going to my Zazzle store- or click the little Georgia Mars Art button over to the right there. I will be adding more items as I find the right images.

Another Owl

2011-11-09T14:11:00.000-05:00

This time a hat made from the lovely pattern by Kat Goldin. The pattern can be found here and is downloadable as a FREE PDF pattern.

This little hat is already wrapped and ready to be given as a gift to friends of Matt who are expecting soon. It was super quick to make (particularly as it uses a chunky wool) - I literally started it this morning while I was volunteering up at the highschool. Of course it's not exactly the same as the pattern as I really don't have the attention span for following patterns exactly- once I get the hang of what needs to be done, I just go with it. And I was both trying to use up what I had, and trying to make it gender neutral. I'm sure I'll be making a bigger one at some point when miss Ella sees it when she gets home from school. I also may be tempted to make another pair for twins that my friends are expecting around New Year.

Etsy update

2011-11-07T14:37:00.002-05:00

SHOP UPDATE

Something new

2011-11-06T18:32:00.001-05:00

I've had fun the last few days making some small psychedelic owls.

I think they would look make a very colourful addition to a Christmas tree.

I'm hoping to update my etsy shop with them sometime this week.

Saturday arfternoon

2011-11-05T13:21:00.000-04:00

Death and decay

2011-11-01T07:27:00.000-04:00

Yesterday afternoon, all the kids went off trick or treating and it was just Matt and I having a very quite night in (and because I made an effort, no one came to our house). So I went up to the grave yard that is at the top of our lane to take some photos. I hadn't realised that so many trees had come down in the grave yard- actually while I was there a huge branch came crashing down- causing a lot of damage to this old and poorly tended piece of local history.

Maybe it's because I've been spending so much time reading about art schools and paying attention, in particular, to photography, but it occured to me that these photos made a lovely commentary about the nature of death and decay and how even those things we think of as permanent - grave stones, trees- eventually succumb too. Plus the light was nice and the photos were really interesting.

Most of these grave stones are from the 1700s and 1800s - some you can't even read anymore, and MANY are broken and being swallowed up by the trees. This last one, which looks new, is from 1907. It's a shame to watch it fall to ruin like it is. It's not an active grave yard, and apart from historical society volunteers and "gardeners" who come twice a year or so, it just sits there. A lovely buffer for us from the busy road, and a place where the local deer love to hang out, but makes you wonder...what happens to grave yards once they are no longer needed and cared for?

Trick or Treat

2011-10-31T18:20:00.000-04:00

Sunday Morning::: Monday Afternoon

2011-10-31T14:05:00.000-04:00

Sunday Morning

:::::::::::::

Monday Afternoon

I was feeling really guilty that we hadn't carved pumpkins this year, but when $$ is tight, it does seem like an indulgence to buy those pumpkins. So some free printables of the ol' internet, some glass jars and candles etc lying around and some food colouring and we at least have a little halloween display- complete with mini jack o lanterns (aka clementines with sharpie faces). I will have to try and pick up some cheap "candy"- we rarely get people coming down our lane, but if I don't get anything, then we are sure to have visitors.

The snow is melting- lots of drip dripping all day. I'm thankful that we have electricity and heat (although only downstairs as upstairs needs to be fixed). The kids had a delayed start today as they were still clearing branches off the roads. I have to get up to our mail box and take a photo- the tree up there split in half. Wet snow is heavy snow and so many branches and power lines came down. The kids are tweeking their halloween costumes to make sure they will be warm enough.

And snow it did

2011-10-30T09:37:00.001-04:00

I will try and get out and take some photos today while there is still snow on the ground.

It was a long long drive back from Hartford. What should have taken about 1 hr 40 min took closer to 3hr 30 min and was a pretty difficult drive. All the way I was thankful of the all weather tires that we didn't have the money to take off the car in the summer. All the way.

We didn't loose power, although 30% of the town is supposed to be without and 40 roads were closed this morning, but we did lose Internet.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

seriously???

2011-10-29T07:02:00.000-04:00

This is the weather forecast for the weekend. Seriously? Snow in October? They are talking winds and snows and rain and power outages????? And I have to drive to Hartford today for Oscar's first portfolio day visit. Grr. The biggest bummer is that, in my mind, getting to Hartford is half way to VT (time wise is usually is, although it is the shorter milage part of the trip). I'll be so tempted to just keep going, especially as they are expected to get 5-8 inches of snow up there....but we will have a friend of Oscar's in the car....

let sleeping foxes lie

2011-10-27T15:31:00.000-04:00

In Norway, the tricksy fox in the fairy tales (kind of the equivalent of the big bad wolf) is called Mikkel Rev. And this is who this fox apparently wanted to be. I worked on his face for hours and hours, but no matter how many times I redid his eyes, he wanted to be a little bit of a wicked fox. A fox saying leave me alone so I can curl up tight in a ball and go to sleep. (It's hard to take photos because the day is so dark and I can't find my tripod and the flash reflects too much.)

7:50 am this morning

2011-10-27T08:11:00.001-04:00

I had to share the shadows on this particularly dark and rainy morning.

Some things

2011-10-26T11:16:00.000-04:00

We have 1 more weekend until daylight savings ends. It always seems to end so late to me. I get up in the pitch dark at 6am and it's so hard. Although occasionally catching a sun rise like this makes it sort of worth it.

See the lovely destruction down the end of the yard? That's our land lord "repairing the sea wall" (aka preparing the property for building more houses). Of course, he's using the finest workmen (NOT) who only come on SATURDAY to do the work. So far, we've managed to mostly miss them as we've gone away, but now we will have to put up with it all.

And I had been wanting to post about my favourite Halloween decorations. I made some a few years ago, but didn't save the link to the templates. But I recently found it here.

I love these because they cast the most fantastic shadows on the walls. We mocked up some templates from our others a few weeks ago because Ella had a friend around and we made some for her to take home, and I just put the templates up as well, because they are rather time consuming to cut out!

But such fun. So, if you haven't done much else for Halloween (which we haven't this year), you can whip up a few of these over the weekend.

As for the kids...fairly low effort costumes this year. Ella and a Doctor Who loving friend (I know! She is so lucky to have a fellow Who fan friend) are going as The Doctor and Amy Pond. I got some orange hair spray yesterday (couldn't find red and Ella's not quite brave enough for a semi permanent colour) for Ella's hair and she already has the legs! A fairly easy costume although I'm not sure how many people will have a clue Who (get it?!) she is. Kit is trying to decide between a hobo (which should entail him just wearing his normal clothes- no, really) or a rasta (we already have the hat with dreadlocks) or jean claude van dam, although I think the latter is a bit of wishful thinking.

Not sure about the older two, no doubt they will find something to do/be. I miss the days of Matt's firm's Halloween party in NYC where the kids would all dress up and even some of the adults. My heart's not really in it this year...

Two new listings

2011-10-21T13:52:00.001-04:00

We're heading off for the weekend for one of our last few visits to our VT house for the year. Kit is committed to do the Nutcracker again this year and with portfolio day college visits for Oscar, it means we can really only make it up as a family on Thanksgiving and Christmas- and this weekend. The sacrifices we make...
Any hoo, before we go, I thought I'd share my finished fox. He has penetrating eyes and a big bushy tail, and some how he reminds me of Lily our cat, although he probably looks more like Honey our dog.

Both he and his friend the ferret have been listed in my etsy shop.

Have a lovely weekend!

Completed:::Working on

2011-10-20T12:12:00.001-04:00

The black footed ferret is completed. As he's an endangered species, I couldn't find any photos of his back, so a bit of artistic license was used for his markings.

Sorry about the crappy photos- I wanted to go outside, but it is way too windy. So a hang from the lamp for a quick snap is all you get today.

And my next victim is this little fox. Actually I shouldn't say little as I noticed that the last 5 animals I have prepared (I have 3 more blanks ready to go) have all got larger.

Working on

2011-10-18T18:07:00.000-04:00

A black footed ferret

SHOP UPDATE

2011-10-16T17:04:00.000-04:00

<<<<<<< Etsy Shop Update today!>>>>>>>>>>

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I've added some items, including my new animal decorations, some more handspun wool and a few bags 'n things.

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I've also reduced shipping fees on some items, so hop on over and have a look - it's only a few months until Christmas! And please, if you think there's anyone you know who might like my work, share my link.

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The Polar Bear

2011-10-14T17:41:00.001-04:00

He deserved a photo shoot out in the light.

I'll have to get the others out for a proper photo shoot tomorrow (if the light is good). I'm hoping to have time this weekend to put them into my etsy shop.

He is NOT a rat

2011-10-14T06:37:00.000-04:00

He's very difficult to photograph in the low light as he's a sweet shiny little black mouse.

I know his tail is a little rattish, but that's the problem with sewing these; it's very difficult to make very small, thin features. The foot could have been better too, but otherwise I am very happy with him.

And here's my polar bear in progress. He's looking less like a rhino now that he has a face.

Mum left yesterday, so I spent the day in my studio painting. We went to the MET last week and caught a fantastic exhibition of master painters of India- intricately detailed miniatures. It was amazing. There were very strong magnifying glasses available to carry around the exhibition (I really want one of those for life!) and you could see all the individually painted hairs, and the details of the flowers and trees. Totally inspirational. So, both the mouse and the polar bear are painted with individual hairs. A time consuming, but rewarding method.

fabulous felting

2011-10-13T20:12:00.000-04:00

A little shout out for my fellow "Aussie living in New England" friend, Emily, who is running a FABULOUS online felting course called

FABULOUS FELTING

Em is a wonderfully artistic and fun person and I know she has put a lot of work into this course. She still has a few vacancies, so race on over to the FF website and sign up! It's only $25 for 3 weeks of e- coursing wet felting fun- see the blurb below

Fabulous Felting
A Beginner's Guide to Wet Felting
Have you ever felt like trying it? Felting that is! Felting is a hands-on, all ages, colorful, creative treat for the senses and Emily and Nicole are going to show you just how it is done! Wet felting is the art of taking soft, natural wool (often called roving), and combining it with water and agitation to form endless options of texture and shape. In this three-week workshop you will learn all the basic skills to create various felt pieces. Get ready for your world to be rocked with felt-a-liciousness! Projects include felt beads, a scarf, layered felt flowers and a seamless pouch – wonderful handmade gifts for the upcoming season and a whole lot of skill to take your felting further!

A Gorgeous Autumnal long weekend

2011-10-11T07:45:00.000-04:00

In Vermont, of course.

We "Jackson Pollocked" a canvas drop cloth in order to get rid of some old paint that was lying around from the previous owners.

A gratuitous path shot (yes, we are very pleased with our path).

We visited some farm animals. Ella made friends with the farm cat (she always does).

(Oscar was a very aggressive goose)

We went to an Oktoberfest celebration up one of the ski mountains where we met up with some friends, saw some lovely birds and enjoyed the stunning sunshine.

We took my mum out for a fun birthday including a trip to the VT country store.

We saw some beautiful cars in the car park (you know how much I enjoy photographing cars)

We were inspired by some photographs in a local cafe/gallery and Oscar took photos of the landscape out the window as we drove home in the car.

We even went for a walk to the river to cool our feet off in the freezing water of the river (it was a very unseasonably warm weekend).

And we made more (lots more) fresh (and free) apple juice.

All along the roads are apple trees with apples just dropping and rotting. So, the last few weekends we've been picking big bags full and juicing them up (we also made a crumble). Oscar takes the juicing very seriously. And it is SOOOO delicious. I've been saving the best seeds and have (grand) plans for an orchard.
Ah, a long weekend with gorgeous weather in Vermont is the best.

Run Rabbit

2011-10-03T15:51:00.000-04:00

A new 3 dimensional/ 2 dimensional painting (as I am calling them). An Arctic Hare.

Oh, and a new Mushroom.

I also have a mouse in the works and a polar bear (who at the moment looks more like a rhino). It is very tricky getting the shapes right for the animals when sewing them. I've found I have to exaggerate the smaller parts of the body so they look more in proportion when the animal is stitched and stuffed.

Rain and things

2011-10-03T07:29:00.000-04:00

I know, I have been majorly slack with my blog recently. No excuse really. Mum has been here...we did a girls' trip to VT with mum, her friend Colleen (who she travels with), Ella and me that involved some shopping...quite a bit actually.

Then Mum and Colleen went off to Maine for the week and things were boring and wet around here. Mum came back on Friday, then we drove back up to VT for the weekend for more...rain. I've done a few drives up there recently in driving rain and I have to say I am OVER the wet. Our front door in CT is so swollen with moisture that you have to shoulder it open. And while the sun is shining this morning, I know there is more of the wet stuff on the way.

But I did take the boys out yesterday for a photo shoot. Both Oscar and Remi are doing photography this semester and needed to take some photos. Oscar wanted something a bit different from his other photos (mostly taken across the road), so we drove around to the local truck rental place. It wasn't raining at that point, and even I had a go....

Ella saw a chipmunk and was off...

We also stopped at an old graveyard- I gave Ella my camera at this point.

Mum is here for another week and a half. Hopefully we will make it into manhattan this week and we will have another (long) weekend up in VT next weekend. Please excuse me if I'm not around here too much.

[and we did manage to watch the Doctor Who finale in VT (our neighbours were away, and we had permission to use their TV) and we loved it. Now we have to wait until Christmas for more who....boo who...]

makes me happy

2011-09-27T17:50:00.001-04:00

That face! Can you IMAGINE how much knitting you would be able to get done as a time travelling time lord???

the owl and the pussycat

2011-09-21T16:05:00.001-04:00

Went to sea in a beautiful pea green boat

For some reason that poem must have been in my head when I decided to have a bit more of a play with painting 3 dimensional ornaments.

I started with a purple cat (why not? I can always give anything cat themed to Ella). I like the detail in the face, but I'm not convinced about the rest of it....

And then decided that I really wanted to do an owl. I love the faces of owls, particularly barn owls.

These two seem very happy together.

I am really having fun with these- I love how firm they are- really like a 3 dimensional canvas, and I love the way they look hooked around a door handle, or hanging from a hook. Will definitely be doing more of these.

My mum arrived last night and fortunately I'm feeling a lot better today. I'm really looking forward to taking her up to VT this weekend to show her our house.

Brain storming

2011-09-20T16:35:00.000-04:00

Some help please

Something that has been keeping me awake at night:

When we first bought this house nearly a year ago, one of the things we knew we would eventually have to do is to build a mudroom. At present, there is always a massive pile of shoes around the front door and hooks with coats and scarves etc. Over the last year we've ummed and ahhed about where we would put the mudroom: out the back of the kitchen? (where we now have a lovely little courtyard area and a nearly impossible roof line- you have to think about where all that snow is going to go); out the side door? (where it is the perfect place for another courtyard and there is a septic tank which we can't build over the top of.)

Since doing so much work to the front of the house over the summer, it is painfully obvious that the front needs at the very least a portico, but I started thinking about the possibility of building a little mudroom/enclosed porch at the front. If we made the porch base wider along the front of the house, and maybe echoed the bay window look????

The problem is, of course, the double bay windows, and not wanting to block out the light. I would want it to look like it was always there- part of the house, although every image I can find of a house of this style and age has a mostly plain front door.

We have a photo from a long time ago (which I keep misplacing), maybe the turn of the last century which shows a simple covering over the front door. And we can't build out too far due to planning restrictions about how close we can go to the road. And I still don't know what would be the best roof line as we would still need a bit of a lip over the entry door (nothing worse than dripping icy water on the stairs) [oh and please excuse the look of that middle window...I haven't got around to painting that yet]

The closest I could find to kind of being a visual of what I want is this photo of a dolls house...minus the balcony of course and it would need to be an enclosed room (I do love those windows though)

So, any thoughts? I know there's some clever people out there who will have opinions.... Obviously this is total pipe dream stuff. Not going to happen for a year or two at least, but it's fun to have a plan. And I'm sick today with a NASTY cold so this is about all I can handle doing. And if you come up with some good suggestions for this problem, I have another one that is driving me nuts for you.

A weekend's work

2011-09-19T07:24:00.000-04:00

Matt and I got stuck in this weekend and put in 2 big days of working on our path. (the big boys stayed down for sport commitments, Ella was sick and Kit was...well, Kit). We relayed the path from the stairs to the front door as I realised it wasn't flat enough.

Much better

We did the path leading up to the stairs at the front door.

And all the way over to the parking spot.

It's a bit hard to see at the moment with all the soil on it. We wanted to give it all a chance to settle. There's rain forecast for this week, so hopefully it will wash down into all the cracks a bit, and eventually we will fill all those cracks with fine stones for looks and traction in the winter. We are hoping that in a few years it will look like it's always been there as part of the house.

I tell you what though, I am sooo stiff and sore this morning! Squatting for hours on end, lifting and moving stones, raking, sweeping, digging. PHEW! We are a bit proud of our efforts though.

READ THIS!

2011-09-14T07:03:00.000-04:00

There is so much I love about this. I can't really even express it. You must follow this link and read it. I cannot believe what is happening to libraries in the UK. We are so fortunate to have an amazing library in our town- it is a cultural center of the town; even in Vermont, there is a little library up the road. Using art as a protest like this is such a beautiful thing. And there is nothing like a good mystery.

More great works

2011-09-12T07:44:00.000-04:00

One of the problems of going up to the house in VT for just a weekend is that we really only have one full day of work and one half day. So the path was on hold for Sunday. Instead, we tackled a project we've been wanting to do for ages.

See where the wooden platform is? That's the back door, that goes into the kitchen. And next to that, right up against the house wall, used to be our shed. Now, it's a nice little shed (you should see the plans Ella drew up to turn it into her own little loft apartment), but where it was, it was blocking light and sun to our little courtyard. It was always damp and cold, and the snow took forever to melt right by that door. Here's a before photo taken way back earlier in the year (before I painted the barn doors)

So we've been wanting to move it. But, HOLY COW! it is heavy. Ages ago, Matt went and investigated getting a fork lift, but they suggested trying to just use a log, and some 4x2 and slowly lever it corner by corner to where we needed it. So that's what we did. No progress photos, because it was all hands on deck to make sure the shed didn't fall; to reposition the logs; and to supervise keeping Honey out of the way. And an hour and a half of moving it inch by inch and VOILA!

Look how much space we have! Remi moved the log pile too, which helped. And behind that little wall there is my "quarry"...see how nice it will be when we level all that out and have another, slightly raised patio up there?

And we even put the shed up high on some concrete blocks to allow more air to get underneath (it was a little rotten in a few places)...and made some little stairs...

A good day's work before driving home.

The path of progress

2011-09-10T18:19:00.001-04:00

But first a photo Ella left on my camera...this amused me to no end! I can't look at it without a chuckle.

Ok, down to business. We started work on the path today. First some weed cloth... (all photos courtesy of Kit)

Then gravel

Then some very meticulous mini stone wall building. All those years of TETRIS may have finally paid off

Then I had the big boys (including Matt do the grunt work of bringing the BIG rocks down from the quarry

And slowly but surely the steps started coming together (and yes that is my idiot 17 year old working with bare feet)

We managed to get about half the path done...but we ran out of gravel to fill in around the stones (and do more).

Not bad for our first go at laying a path/stone work. And we were mostly just winging it as we went...no idea how it will stand up to the winter here....

Autumn

2011-09-06T11:04:00.000-04:00

I can't believe how quickly it happened. Last week, I swear it was summer and now, well it's autumn. I know this because I spent the weekend being bombarded by yellow leaves falling from our maple trees out the front of our Vermont house while we were digging our moat.

Actually, it's not really a moat, well that's not the intention, but with the amount of rain they've had up there, I'm sure it's looking pretty moaty. It's the start of a path to our front door. It goes across the front of the house to the front door and down to the other parking area. The boys dug an AWESOME set of stairs which I...ah...forgot to photograph. I hope that they are still there when we go up again next weekend and haven't washed away. Those boys worked HARD this weekend. Proper aching shoulders and blisters galore. The plan is to put down some weed cloth and gravel/crushed rock (which we need to save up for) and lay some gorgeous flat stones that I dug out of the yard at the back of the house to make a stunning and functional stone path.

This is my "quarry" out the back. I started by clearing the trees and bushes that were too close to the house and discovered that at some point someone has used lovely old flat, stone wall stones to fill in that hole- and they are relatively easy to get out, just REALLY heavy. That means we are going to save a bucket on making this path. So we really have two projects going, because once we finish clearing this, we will have a fantastic spot to have a patio.

So then, part of digging up the ground for the path, also required separating out all the round rocks that are naturally occurring around here for filler to replace the lovely flat rocks in the quarry. We also took out all the grass and our neighbours were quite happy to take the lovely soil left over. Of course, 2 and a half days is not quite long enough to complete a project like this, so we left the front of our house looking a bit like a construction site. And then the rain came. HEAVY rain, that we had to drive through for 1 1/2 hours on our way home. It will be interesting to see it next weekend....

And I AM feeling very guilty about starting a new project when I haven't finished painting the house. But, the painting is slow, takes a long time for me to set up, and really I can only do it (and I have good days and bad days with my health). And it's hard to start when you know rain is on the way. This, I had lots of "willing" helpers, and I want to try and get it done before the ground freezes and so that we can use it this winter. The house painting may just have to wait for next summer... Although there are a few more leaks I need to patch.

And this week, it feels like autumn down here in CT too...rain, rain, rain and a bit of a chill in the air. We came home to hot water last night- the landlord had had someone in to "repair" the boiler while we were away, but when Oscar went to have a shower this morning, the boiler had died again. Ah well.

This week

2011-09-02T08:33:00.001-04:00

School started for the year yesterday- finally. After 3 days of cancellations and a delayed start in the morning. So I played. Some stuffed mushrooms. Little painted decorations. Lots of fun to do; there will definitely be more of these

Ella started middleschool. She has been stressing over the whole of the summer, and yesterday her fears were realised; her locker got stuck, she was late to lunch (therefore couldn't follow the crowd), got lost, got to lunch really late and in tears, didn't have a chance to eat, got flustered, went to the wrong class after lunch because she was looking at Monday's time table, not Thursday's. Fortunately for her, big brother Kit rescued her at lunch and had her sit with him- they are not allowed to sit by themselves, but the last thing Ella wanted was for people asking her why she was crying. She said that teachers tried to help her in the hallway, but that only made it worse. But she went off today with only a few tears in the morning. And I know she will be fine.

We are still without hot water...and will be for the foreseeable future. The YMCA where I'd hoped to shower is still closed from the storm, so we are doing it all the old fashioned way- boiling pots of water for dishes and "showering" with a jug of warm water. Fortunately for me, I had plenty of experience of living with tank water as a child, and learned these skills when the water got low. So I guess you could say it's a good learning experience for the kids. Having said that, we're hot footing it up to VT for the long weekend and I will be enjoying some nice hot soaks in the tub up there, yes I will!

And just to clarify- only our basement flooded. I know those pictures of the house look pretty insane. We had cleaned out the basement before we left, and put all our lawn furniture in the cellar stairs to stop them flying/floating away. So although they are covered in a silty kind of muck, they are ok. Our neighbours kindly tied our hammock stand to a tree for us, and of course, that's the only thing that was damaged- by a branch falling on top. We will have to bring our chainsaw back from VT, as there are plenty of downed branches. Yesterday we had to set fire to a bloated maggot infested musk rat that had been washed up by the storm- too icky to try and pick up. The stench was pretty bad. Yuck. But our "gardeners" had come before we got back and cleaned up most of the other mess. So really, we were lucky.
Have a good weekend.

our house here in CT

2011-08-31T12:12:00.000-04:00

Photos courtesy of neighbours over the back on higher and dryer land

Check this out

2011-08-31T08:12:00.000-04:00

After all the doom and gloom of the last few days, I thought I'd share this little photo article from the guardian newspaper about a "post it war" going on in Paris....more photos here

we're all fine

2011-08-30T19:16:00.000-04:00

Our house in VT turned out to be quite well situated- even with the river flooding so close to our house, we were high and dry (apart from a few leaks in the roof). Today the river was almost back to normal- a bit higher than usual, but no where near what it was. We drove back to CT today- our trip usually takes 3 1/2 hours- today closer to 4 1/2. We had to detour off the major highway due to flood damage and take a different route to our usual one. Some amazing scenes along the way- hillsides washed away, flattened fields, roads and bridges demolished.

Our house in CT is still here- a major leak in Ella's room, and at least a 4 feet silt mark in the basement where the water came up. It's all gone now- but it was enough to move the washing machine. It went higher than the boiler, so we have no hot water, higher than both the washing machine and dryer, so they are out too. We thought we'd do some oven pizzas tonight, only to find the oven filament blown somehow. Oh joy. That's going to be a fun conversation with the landlord tomorrow. But we have power, while half the town doesn't. The start of school has been delayed another day...maybe Thursday. Poor Ella, as if she isn't nervous enough about starting middleschool. She keeps flip flopping between wanting to start and being scared to - and she doesn't really know when she will.

Matt took some great videos that I will upload at some point...

Water water everywhere

2011-08-28T14:39:00.001-04:00

We went for a walk to check out the river. What sounds like thunder is boulders smashing down the river...river has burst it's banks in 2 places, so our road is now cut off....people across the road who are lower than us are being told to get out... And school has finally been cancelled for tomorrow which is lucky, cause we're not going anywhere....

Next door....

Across the road...

The road....

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The massive cresting "wave" in the river where is hits a bend

Across the road...

The cresting wave...it is so high, but hard to capture on film

Across the road...

The road ahead is blocked...literally while I was typing this, a fire dept guy came and put up a caution barrier across the road.

And apparently it's another 8 hours until the rivers crest....
Kids have had fun though...and we are all safe.

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Update

2011-08-28T12:18:00.001-04:00

No idea of the state of our house in CT. I assume that everything flooded, but until friends down there can get out and have a look for us, we won't know. At this stage they haven't cancelled school for tomorrow. Massive flooding up here in VT; there's a river running through our basement and they've closed off our road due to flooding too. As yet the river hasn't come over the banks, but there is a lot of water running down onto the road and pooling there. We may get stranded up here, even if school does go ahead tomorrow, as major roads have been closed on our return route.

We did pop round to our friends' house this morning to watch the new episode of Doctor Who ( which is how we found out about the road closure when we were coming back- luckily they let us through), and happy to say it was an excellent episode.

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C'mon Irene

2011-08-26T14:19:00.002-04:00

So, here we are sitting, waiting to see if we are about to be hit with a hurricane. Things were out of control at the supermarket today- worse than just before christmas! We've cleaned up the yard, cleaned up the basement (which will surely flood either way), and are trying to decide whether we're going to get out of dodge and head up to VT. It would be a no brainer except that the kids are SUPPOSED to be starting school on Monday...hmmm. Last thing we want is to be stuck in traffic on the already over congested highways around here if they call for a mandatory evacuation. I'll keep you posted.

****UPDATE**** We're getting out. Tonight. The governor is talking about parkway closures (the route we take) and power outages next week. No point hanging around. We will have flooding, and wind and I'd rather be away from it all.

stormy weather

2011-08-25T14:52:00.000-04:00

Lots of thunder and rain today, so some painting was in order and a bit of audiobooking (one of my favourite things to do- listen to audio books whilst sewing, knitting, painting, working on the house- multitasking to the extreme!)

My thoughts on Dyeing and Spinning

2011-08-24T09:50:00.002-04:00

Over the years I have experimented with natural dyes. I have two great books: The ashford book of dyeing and Wild Color. However, I find that it's too much like science. Too much NOT how my brain works. When I cook, I don't really follow recipes, when I glaze pottery, I don't really keep tabs of all the different effects (much to my own frustration sometimes). It's just how I roll. SO I always have limited success with natural dyes.

This time, I used some lichen collected from the logs of the tree we had cut down in VT (which had to sit in some urine for a few weeks), some apple tree bark and birch bark (all collected from the garden) and then some brazil wood, madder, annatto, and something else; all bought from a dye supplier years ago. I mordant the natural fibres (this time I used a baby llama top, some alpaca, some domestic sheep and some flax) and following the instructions very carefully, I dye the wool. And the smell (think stinky toilet water- but that may be because I left the bark to soak too long).

BUT, I'm always disappointed in the colours. They always come out more or less the same, and in my frustration I mix my vats. It was fun to watch the reddish colour of one pot turn very purple once I mixed in the wool that had been done in the urine soaked lichen mix (chemistry in action), but then I end up with more or less all the same colours. Wool always picks up more dye than the softer fibres of alpaca and llama. I had also bought some gorgeously soft angora/merino mix, which I decided not to dye.

But once all my fibres are dry, then comes the fun part- the carding to mix the wool. I take a pile of different fibres and colours that I like. In this lot are some I've dyed previously - some Koolaid, some commercial dyes (like dyelon and rit) and probably some natural dyes.

I load up my carder trying to make sure I have a good mix of sturdy elastic fibres and super soft and lofty ones. And then I blend.

Once I have some lovely "rolags", I spin them into yarn. My band wheel on my wheel broke last year, and I had to put it back together shorter (and keep forgetting to get a new one), and since I've had problems with over spinning the wool (making it too tight and twisty) and just spinning once the bobbin is full. But this time, I was trying really hard to make sure that I spun it loose. Those lovely soft and fluffy fibres can get very harsh and scratchy if they are over spun.

Once I have two bobbins, I usually ply them. Some of the wool I spun last week I kept as a single spin, and then knitted a pair of booties using three strands- that kept them soft and I was able get some of the twist out as I knitted. These are super soft and warm- for a friend that's having twins this winter- I think another pair is in order. This is them being blocked, pattern from this book with the variation of little ties as I hate it when booties fall off.

But after all that natural dying, I decided that I would use up the rest of my undyed fibres using some Koolaid. SOOOO much easier. You can literally mix the different "flavours"/colours to make your own. The green was 5 packets of yellow with one of blue. The blue was 4 packets of blue and the purple was 2 or 3 blue with some pink lemonade and some tropical punch. I also like to just sprinkle the koolaid powder on the wet fibres and see what happens. Once you mix it up, you just put your wet wool into a container with water, add the koolaid and bung it in the microwave. I usually give it increments of 5 minutes until the water turns cloudy and there's no colour left in the water. Then let it cool, gently rinse and VOILA!. Some nice bright colours that I can't wait to card.

So there you have it. I think you could probably tie dye hankies or bits of fabric with koolaid this way. I went to the gym with bluey green hands. Fun and safe for kids (just be careful with the hot water coming out of the microwave)- or even if you have some white/cream/light wool laying around. As for the natural dying, ahhh, I SO love the idea of it. I love reading books about it, and no doubt I will keep tinkering with it, but I'm not sure I could be exclusive with it.

Quote of the day

2011-08-23T12:43:00.000-04:00

From Oscar...
"dyeing with koolaid smells a lot better than dyeing with natural dyes." Oh, SO TRUE!

Some results from this week....

The end is nigh

2011-08-23T08:34:00.001-04:00

I've had these photos on my ipad ready to post for over a week now, but some how we've been caught up with our LAST week of summer holidays. Not really doing anything summery, just preparations for school and trying to get life in order, plus some makings (there's always makings) that I will share at some point. These were photos sent to me by Grandma. I always find it slightly fascinating to see myself in photos as I'm usually on the other side of the camera. So, different perspective, if you will...

Me at work on the house....

A standard night at our neighbours' house, making music. Steve is a drummer who also plays guitar, ukelele, and a bit of piano. We either end up around there with Matt and Steve jamming, or they end up at ours, round the fire doing the same. It's so good for both of them. We have inherited another of their pianos, which now lives in our dining room. I guess that means more dinners at ours. We usually share at least one meal with them while we are up there.

Some outings with Grandma...

And saying goodbye in VT

...and CT

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I speak teenage boy

2011-08-18T08:20:00.000-04:00

Remi's catch phrase

Some obsessive behaviour

2011-08-10T17:22:00.000-04:00

Kit's birthday feast included some individual fondues... He is rather fond of fondue.

Yes, he's hamming it up for the camera, but that is chocolate smeared all the way to his ear lobe.

A birthday hat I whipped up very quickly the day before. Even though it's ridiculously hot, he still insists on wearing it.

And another home made gift- a Dalek t-shirt, made with freezer paper (loads of other places to learn about this- first one I found when looking for a link for you), totally sparked a freezer paper printing frenzy.

For a start, I so want my own dalek t-shirt, so have another to cut out when I find the right shirt.

Then there was playing around with some designs I've been playing with lately. The Peace + Love pillow is of course for miss Ella. I'm not sure what the flowers will become, but I've been doodling/painting this image and variations thereof heaps lately. It was fun to be able to make it really big and graphic. I even pulled out the old puffer fabric markers and played with the pink one.

And of course, we couldn't have daleks without the TARDIS...this was a design that I found on line and altered to make my own (same with the dalek). Also not sure what this will become.

It's all so much fun, although you can only use the stencils you cut out once (as they rip when you peel them off) and there is an awful lot of cutting involved. I suspect this will be a short lived obsession. I only wish I could screen print my designs. Oh, then what fun I would have!!!

Birthday boy.

2011-08-09T12:29:00.000-04:00

He made it to 12! Wowzers. Although today is his actual birthday, we had a celebration on Sunday night, while Grandma was still here.

Kit always has trouble making decisions, and so all of them are last minute. So last minute, he decided he wanted a "Red Velvet" cake ...having no idea how to make one, I got a packet mix. Others in the family went "awooo" because they wanted a chocolate cake. So I mixed a red velvet cake with a devil cake and created the perfect cake for Kit: a RED DEVIL cake! Ta Da!

Happy birthday my Red Devil!

Bye bye Grandma

2011-08-09T12:23:00.000-04:00

Those 3 weeks just flew by! We had lots of fun with Grandma around. Ella, in particular, is missing having a special friend to talk to and play with all day.

Oscar caught the train in with her to Grand Central to help her onto the bus to the airport. Such a long way to go after that. She won't even be back in Australia yet. Grandma, when you read this, we hope your trip back was uneventful!! Thanks for coming all that way to visit us. We love you!!!!

oh the indignity!

2011-08-09T12:18:00.000-04:00

I finally got sick of picking up the great huge clumps of

dog hair that constantly litter our floor. I got sick of the matts of dreadlocked dog hair behind her ears and legs and underarms and tail. For some reason, this year, Honey has taken forever to malt her winter undercoat that she grows. I got out the scissors and was trimming. Oscar was holding her down for me. It's got beyond brushing as there are too many clumps of matted hair. The buzzer that I use for cutting all the boys' hair was right next to Oscar and he thought it would be a good idea to shave her a bit....

Then Remi came and Matt, and before Honey knew what had hit her, she had a tail like a rat and hardly any hair.

Then to add to it all, the boys decided to bath her because, in all honesty, she stank. Oh the indignity!

Poor puppy! We call her our little lion dog now because she looks so weird. Her beautiful full and luscious tail is just a....sigh.... I can't get used to her. Fortunately, she seems really happy and trots around everywhere looking very pleased with herself. No doubt feeling much lighter and cooler. She'd better get hair growing though, otherwise I'll have to knit her a little tail cover before winter comes!

A day in NYC

2011-08-06T20:13:00.000-04:00

I love the buildings.

I love the reflections...

The total over the top-ness. This is the M&M store which is branding gone berserk! Everything you can possibly think of with M&M branding on top.

Not to mention plenty of chocolate which smelled slightly strange, was overpriced, but pretty.

We stopped for some very cheap pizza.

Some delicious croissants from Bouchon in the Time Warner center on Columbus circle.

A detour through central park- the Wollman rink in summer...

Some very sweet Central Park sparrows

Some rock climbing, of course.

Grandma got her wish of going to Tiffany's.

More reflections and a chinese horse.

Ella fell in love with this kitty in the window. She named it "Spaghetti".

And then...and then we went to a little place called "Alice's Tea Cup". Our lovely neighbour's (who I mentioned last post) daughter works there and we went in to have a fuss made of Kit for his birthday which is next week. Kit got some wings...

And we all got glittery fairy dust from Hayley too.

Only the lovely miss Hayley could get away with sprinkling glitter on my teenage boys. She has all the kids wrapped around her little finger.

Speaking of little fingers...Remi has tea drinking down to a fine art.

And after stuffing ourselves with yummy scones and tea, Kit got a little happy birthday cup cake too.

We left Osc and Rem in the city to go to see a comedy show with Hayley, while the rest of us were quite happy to come home after a big day in the city.

And one last photo- a little t-shirt I whipped up for Ella yesterday. She saw an old bag that I had with Miffy on it and demanded a Miffy T-shirt (we were making some other t-shirts too, but this is her favourite). Now we have to sing the song all the time.

Summering on

2011-08-05T09:30:00.001-04:00

We've come back down south, after two glorious weeks up in Vermont. And while I didn't take my camera with me as often as I should of, I have a few photos to share.

We introduced Grandma to S'mores.

First there was the making of a perfect marshmallow roasting stick. Fortunately the boys had trimmed the tree out the front of the house, so there was lots of green wood.

Grandma seemed to enjoy them....

Remi and Ella were showing me their "fat" bellies after having so many s'mores.

We stayed outside for as long as we could stand the bugs, playing with fire lit sticks and long exposures.

And we also took Grandma around a bit, tested yummy icecreams, went to little quaint towns, shopping, blueberry picking. Not enough, for sure, but my goal this summer was to paint all of the house. And with 2 lots of surgery in June/July, I've not come anywhere near that goal. Besides, I really didn't realise how much work I had to do to the woodwork before I even got to the painting stage. But with only 24 days until the kids go back to school, I was determined to get as much done to the front of the house as possible. I haven't started on that middle dormer window (and there are 4 more of those to do), and the ladder I've been using won't reach all the way up to the very top trim, but the front of the house is finished...more or less.

That's our wonderful, gorgeous, generous neighbours there. Part of what we love about being up there is seeing them. And the house in the background- the only photo I quickly snapped as we were leaving.

And a photo of all of us, just before hit the road. It's good to be back down here, with Matt, resting my very sore shoulders, but already I miss my house and want to get back up there. But Grandma leaves on Monday, and we're planning a day in the city with her tomorrow.

And the before photos of the front of the house....(there are some things I can only do on my real computer)

Work in progress

2011-07-29T08:17:00.001-04:00

We've spent weeks working on just the front portion of the house: scraping back paint, pulling out old caulking, and often with it chunks of rotten wood which then have to be replaced or rebuilt using my magic wonder product ( see previous posts), then sanding priming and painting.

My big boys help a bit...Oscar doesn't like getting up the ladder, but he's good at moving it and holding it for me. Remi will climb anything, so he'll tag in for me for a while.

I actually haven't even finished preparing everything to be painted yet, but my shoulders were so sore from holding power tools above my head for days, that I needed a break...and well, painting is the fun part and it keeps my spirits up.

I've tried all morning to copy some "before" photos from my flickr "Vermont house" album directly into this post, but from my iPad, how to do this escapes me. Instead, you will have to go and have a look on flickr if you are interested. You can see the previous house colour in this photo...kind of a pinky brown. Really yuk!

I may have had a paint can falling from the top of the ladder incident, so it looks like I will have to paint all the foundations the same " French grey"...

but when our realtor (who helped us buy this house and is now a neighbor and friend) stops by twice in one day to watch the progress and tells you how much she loves the colours and what an asset you are to the neighbourhood, you know you are doing something right!

Spending our days

2011-07-26T09:49:00.001-04:00

We are enjoying the break in the hot weather. YesterdayI was finally able to get up the ladder and use my rotten wood repair kit (which i cannot recommend enough- see last post if you are interested), before the heavens opened and we were forced to find other indoor occupations for the rest of the day.
We showed grandma how to play wii fit.
We did some after dinner planking. (as you do)

I cracked open one of our precious packets of Tim tams to much excitement

And we played "whoonu", a very fun game where other people have to guess your favourite things....then you have to put them in order. Remi struggled to work out which of these was his favourite... If you can't read it it says "4th of july" for the fireworks, "the window seat", and "sneakers". Talk about insight into a 15 year old boy's mind!

The kids have also been playing lots of scrabble with grandma. Today we'll do a bit more sight seeing, some more work on the house and maybe some more games...
Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

It's been hot!

2011-07-24T10:43:00.001-04:00

Our days have been spent showing grandma around VT and cooling off- in the river (where g'ma and I sat in the current cooling off) and around at a friend's pond pool. I keep forgetting to take my camera with me, but I did get a few photos at the pond pool.

This is a man made natural pond, fed by the river. There are little fish in it, frogs, salamanders and little crayfish, known in Australia as "yabbies". We discovered them as they nipped our feet a few times. So then the kids decided they were going to catch some to eat. Remi, of course, was the best at catching them. It was fun to watch him revert from his 15 year old self back to being exactly how he was when he was 5.

We caught 18, but when we got home, Ella set the smallest one free in the river...she wasn't very happy about eating them and said they were her friends. Hmmm maybe a while before we can raise our own meat....

They were tasty little morsels. But here is the pond...

It belongs to the realtor who sold us this house, and she has the most gorgeous house and barn and land and garden.

Today, finally feels like the last of the really hot weather. I haven't done any work on the house for the last few days, and I'm feeling summer and all that I had to get done slipping away from me. But I will have to get up the ladder tomorrow and work on using this stuff:
http://www.abatron.com/buildingandrestorationproducts/woodrestorationmaintenance.html?vmcchk=1
on all the rotten wood around the windows before I can even start to paint. We had so many leaks last year that I don't want to go even one more winter without repairing what I can.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Grandma the Australian elf

2011-07-22T08:04:00.001-04:00

Grandma's here...and look at all the goodies she brought us all the way from Australia- Tim tams, all manner of Australian chocolate bars, Milo, vegemite, honey, lollies.

It's been quite busy the last few days...we drove back down on Tuesday to CT and the sweltering heat, tidied up for grandma on Wednesday, Matt picked her up from the airport, and then yesterday we ran some errands in the sweltering heat before deciding that we may as well just head north as soon as possible. We got up here late last night, and although it wasn't quite as hot, it's still quite uncomfortably warm. It's the first REALLY hot stretch of the summer....all in honour of grandma who doesn't like the heat. It's 8 am and already 28C. Don't think I'll be working on the house today...

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

By George!

2011-07-15T10:20:00.003-04:00

I think she's got it! I love that she persevered. Read all my crochet books, especially this really good one, and worked it out. She even went and spent some of her pocket money on hooks and wool and other things. And I made her a little crochet hook case and gave her one of my project bags. I love that she's into this...she wants to make a blanket. These are her patches she'll sew together. And Ella set up this little photo shot. She's a girl after my own heart.

And that's not all. We had 4 days back down at home and both of us were very busy. We made loads of cool and funky bracelets and anklets. These ones here are a favourite and fun to make. Ella has also been using this tutorial to make friendship bracelets (none finished yet).

And a crocheted belt which doubles as an anklet, or a groovy hair accesory.

Oh, and Lilly is getting some love. We thought we'd lost her. She disappeared the other day. We were so worried and even handed out flyers in the neighbourhood. We were going to go up to VT last night, but I just didn't want to... And SOOOO glad we didn't. When Kit went to bed, he kept saying he could hear Lilly. Matt and all the boys were outside with a torch trying to find her (Kit has a small room with lots of windows), but no luck. Kit went back to bed and could STILL hear her. Matt opened the drawers under Kit's bed, and there she was. She'd climbed into his undies draw and from there up over the back of the draw to under the bed. Kit had (shockingly) "tidied" his room and shut the drawer and she'd been trapped. For 2 days. As Oscar said; if Kit actually changed his undies.... but let's not go there. If we'd gone to VT last night, it would have been a much nastier smell than cat poo we would have come home to... We are so happy. We love our naughty Lilly. I am starting to think there is a children's book in all her adventures....

But that's not all... I also found some time to begin a new quilt. I have started on my squares of blue...I will also use other colours.

Taken in my studio trying to avoid showing all the mess EVERYWHERE

I also did some wool dying. I have been wanting to try using natural dyes again. My first attempts a few years ago weren't very successful, but I have a new book and have made myself SLOW DOWN and follow instructions properly. I have some bark soaking and have done two lots, but had to order some more fleece as I had nearly run out. So more of that later....

And I even found time for one more crocheted rock. It's only a tiny little one...maybe this one will come home in a suitcase for a certain sister in law of mine.... I know it's her favourite colour.

It's nice to come home sometimes. It is the one thing missing from our other house...my studio with all my creative supplies.

A new blanket

2011-07-13T11:23:00.002-04:00

The fruits of my labours from last week.

Actually, I started making these tiny granny squares over a year ago. I hate to throw out even the tiniest scrap of wool and these were all remnants from other projects. Putting all those squares together takes a long time and it grows very slowly. I also find those squares can make for quite a chunky blanket.

So I crochet around them and it changes the feel; makes a lovely drape. I and love the look. Something a little less traditional. This one is for sale in my etsy shop

natural gas video

2011-07-12T22:13:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned in a few posts ago...watching the how it was made video, they put the knitting around things then filmed pulling it apart and played it backwards. Either way, I love it.

Barn

2011-07-12T16:05:00.001-04:00

As promised, photos of the barn re do, but first my little crochet cover on my vase...

[ Blogger's new layout is fantastic, but I'm used to loading my photos backwards to get them in the right order, and now they load in the right order...]

The "barn"is an extension on the main part of the house. Upstairs is the boys' room and a kind of walkway, downstairs is the bar room and the "barn" room. The barn room used to be painted dark barn red inside, with lots of orange pine, and was overstuffed with furniture. It was my least favourite room in the house, but it is the family room where there is a gas stove and where we end up watching movies.

So here it is from the outside. It has barn doors which open onto this courtyard which also opens onto the kitchen back door.

And the barn: I had originally intended to paint all that orange pine white, but that's a BIG job and for now I can live with it. Eventually I want to finish running a (bigger) mantle all the way across.

The furniture for this room is too big- it was here. We took out half of the corner couch: it's now our outside "redneck" couch for when Matt's BBQing. The green chair we inherited from our neighbours. {Vermont is big on curbside recycling- if You don't want it, put it out on the street. Usually things go, if not, take them to the dump and even there if it's worth salvaging, someone will take it.}

This is my crazy pavement I did under the gas stove. When we moved in there were some loose big tiles kind of shoved onto a very uneven concrete block. A few of these tiles were broken. So my solution: to break them all up and crazy tile. The smashing of the tiles was unbelievably fun, and I have to say that I think it looks great. I love it when my ideas turn out.

The hideous couch; how many blankets, can you use to cover it? Looking back through the bar room (should have moved the vacuum cleaner) and the lovely little green room

And this is the "gang plank"/walkway. A very strange use of space. We eventually want to put some kind of stair case up to here so that the boys can access their room from this room (right now they have to go through Oscar's room to get to the rest of the house), but we still haven't quite worked out how to do it. So for now, it's doubling up as my "shed". Very pleased with this day's work- getting those shelves up and making it work.

So there you have it. I have to say that NOW this is one of my favourite rooms in the house. It is SO. MUCH. LIGHTER.!!! And it gets sun from both sides, and a cross breeze and it's lovely to look out those doors.