The start of summer...

Just a few more hours of school tomorrow and our summer will begin. I am looking forward to having the kids at home -- I just hope I can keep them from getting too bored. When they were younger it was so much easier -- just a little attention from me or a brief walk "around the block" with the wagon was enough. But as they get older they really crave more excitement with their friends. At the very least they will enjoy sleeping in a bit and less running around. I haven't signed them up for any camps so we can relax a bit more.

I took a few pictures of my new little needle felted bird named Rose. I love photographing outside because of the lighting and the scenery.

Ahhhh! The sun.

I am enjoying the sun shining through the windows cheering me up. After a few morning chores I will make my way out to get my hands dirty a bit in the garden. I finished photos of this needle felted rooster and bee this morning and listed them in my Etsy store.



This little bee looks more like a bumble bee than our dear honey bees. Our honey bees were out this morning enjoying the sun and flowers. While waiting for the school bus we watched them gathering nectar and collecting pollen on their legs. They seemed to be humming happily.

We haven't heard any word from the sheep shearer that didn't show up so maybe today will be the today. He never did show up on Friday or over the weekend. I am looking forward to seeing the silly faces on those adorable sheep. Maybe someday we can get two to keep out in the field. We only have a single acre so I'm not sure if that is enough space for them.

One of my little birds was included in another Etsy treasury today. This treasury is called So Precious by cynmb.

Featured Etsy Artist and Shop: Sarah Knits

I have always been in love with babies since I first held one. So when I saw these wonderful hats and booties knitted by sarahknits I couldn't help but remember fondly when my own children were that small. The little white booties and hat looked so adorable and soft -- so perfect for that sweet little baby in your arms. Well I can dream anyway... So while I dream, let me introduce the wonderful shop created by Sarahknits -- so you can join the fun.


Sarahknits...
Tell me a little about yourself...
I just finished up my first year at Whitman College and am planning on majoring in geology and physics. I love math, crazy, I know. That's part of what draws me to knitting though, figuring out the number of stitches I need, etc. I live in the pacific northwest, and can't imagine living anywhere else. Being surrounded by the wheat fields of Walla Walla for nine months taught me that I need trees and mountains to survive, and I can't really see myself living anywhere else, except maybe somewhere in Latin America, but for that my Spanish will need to improve.

Describe your shop and your work.
I love knitting, and I see my shop as an excuse to buy even more yarn than I already do. Currently, my shop features mostly baby items, since this is what I have been inspired to knit lately (I get to knit cute baby clothes without having to have a baby, who could ask for more). I try to use all natural fibers whenever possible, or at least blended yarns with some natural fibers. I think they have a much nicer feel than most synthetics. Right now, I'm working on some hats from Noro's silk garden yarn, one of my all time favorite yarns because of the color combinations and soft feel.

How long have you been doing this and what inspires you to do this?
Well, I started knitting a little more than three years ago. I decided one day that I wanted to learn to knit and searched the entire house for a pair of knitting needles. Finding none, I picked up the closest thing I could find, some skewers, went online and taught myself to knit. Since then, I've gotten some real needles, more than I know what to do with actually, and I rarely put them down. I love being able to turn a mass of fibers into something you can wear. Hats are my favorite, because they're the one thing that you can go crazy with in your wardrobe. I have a rainbow striped hat made from noro yarn that I wear all the time. If it was anything else, I'd never wear it, but as a hat it's small enough, I guess.

What are some of your interests outside of your work?
I love making things with my hands, and always have numerous projects in the works; jewelry, bookbinding, drawing (though I'm not very good at any of them, still, it's fun). I also love spending time outdoors gardening, or hiking and backpacking. Oh, and photography, I'm really into that too.

How would you describe your experience within the Etsy community?
Well, I just found Etsy a few months ago, and I just set up my shop only a few weeks ago, but so far I've loved every minute of Etsy. I've posted numerous questions on the forums and have gotten excellent answers every time; the Etsy community is terrific! I've only bought one item, some silk roving from copperpot, which arrived very quickly, but I'm sure I'll be buying more soon, as soon as I get my summer job figured out.
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So if you have a baby or know someone with a little one don't miss the opportunity to buy one of these sweet little knit items from Sarah Knits. Keep an eye on her shop for other items too. You can visit her blog to learn more about this new Etsy artist.

Another rainy day...

I finished this little french hen or "la poule" today. Craft night with my friends is tomorrow night and I'm really looking forward to it. I started work on another wedding couple and I may be doing a custom order for an upcoming wedding. Exciting! Anything to do with weddings is so much fun.

Well it looks like rain in the forecast for the next few days too. I think this will mean the end of the lilacs for us. My beautiful white crab apple only had 2 days before the rain spoiled the flowers. Here is the last photo of the lilacs I took while the sun was out. The deep purple is already fading.

May Day

After yesterday's craziness running errands, today will seem so much calmer. My husband started a new job yesterday and it seems to be going well. My youngest has no school today again and will have a friend visit for the day. They play so well together and are so intent on their play too. It is really fun to see them playing so nicely -- unlike siblings which seem to have so much conflict.

I just sold this little pair of pottery chickens and they are off to Australia. I would like to think I could travel around the world in a little box. It would be so much easier. As it is, with 3 kids we don't get much travelling done.

I picked up some relatively inexpensive rolls of 1 inch ribbon yesterday for the May Pole. They were more difficult to find than I expected. The ribbons that we had used for years were so frayed and tangled that I finally got rid of them. I am hoping to set it up for the girls today. We started doing this when my oldest was about 4 and have kept it up every year. Those first years we usually invited a group of kids over for a little May Day party. It was so cute.

Monday

My little bluebird and nest of eggs was included in an Etsy Treasury called "Bye Bye Birdie" by shanasays. I love birds and am quite happy that my little bird was included with such a cute grouping of birds.



I finally took a few pictures of my workspace that I "organized" over the weekend. Of course its not really as neat as it should be but most creative people I know dont tend to be very organized -- so I will use that as my excuse.

These are some of the IKEA shelves we purchased a while ago to organize my art and craft stuff. I really like the simple bare wood and how easy to assemble it was. A few more baskets or plastic bins to sort some of the smaller items are needed.
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This is the cool expanding/folding card table of my grandmothers that we recently moved out of storage. It works perfect so I can stash some of the larger boxes underneath. It may not be sturdy enough to work on but as far as organizing my materials I think it will do fine.

Here you can see the two drafting tables. The smaller one is an antique and the other I have had for some time now. I love the cool standing lamp of my grandmother's.

Town Earth Day

Our town is celebrating Earth Day this weekend and will have a bunch of interesting things at the Town Common. I decided not to do a craft table this year which means I am much less stressed but I will miss it. The girls had fun and enjoyed meeting up with their friends. It was perfect weather and very crowded. With all this rainy cold weather everyone is anxious to get out and enjoy the sun.


Last night my friend organized a crafting night at a town owned building that can be rented out for $45 an evening. The building is called the Reading Room and I believe was donated by Winslow Homer's sister for a local girls seminary school in the later 1800's. We had 7 women come and it was such a wonderful time. It has been so long since I enjoyed an evening out away from children and husband. Everyone brought something of their own to work on and the conversations were fun.


After thinking over the dilemma of a decent work area I decided to move everything back up to the new "attic". The walls are finished nice and painted and the ceilings are high. The floor is just plywood with an old rug over it but its fine. I will just have to share half the room with boxes of stuff stored there. I moved the small drafting table and brought up the expandable card table of my grandmother's and placed these against the wall. Boxes of materials and things went under the table. I am also going to move the larger drafting table from my adjacent bedroom into this room as well. I think this arrangement will go a long way towards getting myself more organized. Then when we finally finish the floors in that room downstairs I can move again. Meanwhile our new kitchen dining area won't be cluttered with my stuff. I feel a whole lot better already!

Later in the day I let the chickens and ducks out of their pen to enjoy the green grass. They made a bit of a mess in my gardens though.

Rainy Friday

Another rainy spring day. Every thing outside is greening up so pretty. Soon the trees and lilacs will be blooming. This is my favorite time of year but it passes so quickly.


I spent my morning working on my needle felt projects while my youngest was off at kindergarten. Right now I set up everything on our little used (for eating that is) dining table. The lighting in that room is so nice and I can look out the window and enjoy the backyard. Eventually I will have everything set up in the room that was our original kitchen. We are waiting to save up some money to remove the old flooring in that room. Once that is done I will set up my art work area in there. That part of the house is over 200 years old and the lighting and ceiling height are not very good. But it really is the best place for my art studio in the house.

I finally finished this little orange bird. My youngest daughter and I dyed the wool with orange Kool-aid. It was a fun project for both of us. She of course wants this little bird but will settle for a hat just like hers. I'm not sure how I will manage that though!

This is also my husband's last day home since he starts a new job on Monday. He was laid off in March and it has been longer than anticipated for finding a new job. It will be nice to have the house to myself again though I will miss him. Under different circumstances it would be fun to have him home. But being unemployed is just too stressful on everyone. My car also died during that time and we survived with one car for several weeks. This created additional stress as well.

Thursday

My little pink bird was featured by meeshmac.etsy.com in a "Pretty in pinkie dinkie" Etsy treasury.



Most of my day was spent sorting through the STUFF on the porch. We are due for rain again tommorrow so I wanted to get some things put away. I finally found all the cute little dresses I sewed for my oldest daughter. My youngest will not get a chance to wear them because they are much too small for her now. I am going to save them though since they bring back so many memories for me. Most of the bags of clothing will end up going to good will after all.

This is the first day in a long time that I haven't done any artwork at all. My house needs some serious attention and I need to get better organized. Otherwise I just feel as if I am drowning. Its crazy that I can't get up to the bathroom at night without stepping on toys and clothes. I guess that this is the price of being creative or at least working at home and raising a family.


Anyway here are a few of my pottery chickens from my Etsy shop. I can't wait to start painting some more.

Midweek

I woke up this morning overwhelmed by the clutter in this house. No one wants to get rid of anything here so every year we just accumulate more stuff. And adding to the problem will be the boxes of STUFF that we have to move out of storage today. Where can they possibly go? We rented the storage a few years ago when we took down an older part of the house and built an addition. That space was our "attic" storage so all that stuff stored there had to go somewhere. Unfortunately that project has lasted a lot longer than we expected so getting the things out of storage wasn't an option. But at this point it doesn't make any sense to spend $40 a month to keep it there. Really that STUFF isn't worth that much.

Well all the boxes, broken antique chairs, old picture frames, rug hooking frames, and grandfather's fishing gear are stacked up on our porch. Along with that are many bags of clothes that are too small for my youngest now. I was saving these for her but could never find them. Somehow we will have to absorb this stuff into an already crowded house. But all this is motivating me to go through the house and get rid of a few things. Since no one else living here wants to cooperate I guess I will have to do this in secret. I see a yard sale in our future.

With all this I did not get much work done on my art projects. But it was quite an accomplishment to empty the storage so I'm happy enough with that.

Back to school

The kids are back to school again now that spring break is over. The next 2 months will be the busiest of the year for us.

I spent this morning getting messy with clay making my little pottery chickens. I have a wholesale order to work on so I had best get busy with this so they can dry properly.

I also have a few custom orders of needle felting to do as well. I put together another bluebird but still haven't finished my little orange bird. I think she will be so cute. I tried to work on her this morning but my youngest wanted to needlefelt too so she needed my attention.

My youngest is still half-day at school so when she got home I played outside with her. She made a little cute area under the crab-apple tree where the picnic bench currently sits. The forsythia is in bloom next to it so it looks just lovely. I gave her two of my windchime dingly danglies to hang in the tree limbs. Then I got busy clearing out the old rose branches. Ouch! And my tiny pond. Yuck! Nothing like the smell of decaying leaves and muck in water. But now its all nice and I put in a yellow iris plant so soon it should look lovely.

Now that the flowers are coming out I would love to sit down and do a few more paintings. I am just so busy with my needle felting and pottery right now that its hard to find any time. Plus life in general has to go on too. Here are a few of the ACEO's I did in March 2007.

Warm spring day

Yesterday was so beautiful. I spent the morning raking a few of the flower beds so I could admire my small bulbs a bit more. The girls went off to church with Dad and I had the place to myself. It was so peaceful once I got the dogs to quiet down. I worked more on this little pink piggy wiggy.



In the afternoon the girls each had a friend over so they all had fun outside on the tire swing or in the playhouse. Dad worked on the door frame for the closet and I worked on cleaning up and painting the old shaker door to go in that frame. After the friends left the younger two dragged out the sprinkler, bathing suits, and flip flops and had a little water fun. They really want the pool out but we will wait until later in May. I sat on the porch with some wool to hand card and pick out some of the bits of hay. With a wine glass next to me what more could you want.

In the evening we watched a rented movie and I worked a bit more on an orange colored bird. I haven't pieced it together yet. My Etsy store was finally back online and I noticed I had sold my ducklings and several other things. But the site was too slow to do anymore.

Canoe Race

This morning was our town annual canoe race. Our neighbor up the street borrowed our canoe for the second year to do this race. Every year at 10 am on a Saturday morning in April we sit down by the river and cheer on the canoe racers as they paddle by. This year was a bit strange since only 5 days ago the water level on the river was the highest it has ever been since the 1930's. The frightening water of last week has subsided to normal levels but there are subtle changes to the shape of the river bank as sand is washed down and redistributed. Last week the old stone bridge a few hundred feet down river had water up to the top of the arches. But now the levels are normal for this time of year.

It took only an hour for all the boats to pass. They have to pull out soon after they pass our river bank to carry over the bridge and around the falls.



My arms ached too much from yesterday's yard work to continue anymore art projects today. After lunch we decided on a walk to enjoy the nice weather. We settled on a walk along the old abandoned train tracks with the two dogs and the girls. It was a pleasant walk with the warm weather and lack of bugs.

Burning day

I finished up this little bird this morning. I think she is so adorable and I love her color. The pink wool was from the batch my daughter and I dyed with cherry kool-aid. The black bead eyes work well too.



Once I finished my little bird, I got the kids dressed and out the door because the sun was finally shining. This is the first day this spring that we actually worked out in the yard all day. The sun was warm and so inviting after all this cold and rain. After getting a permit from the town we started our brush burning at 10am. I always like this day every spring when we reclaim the yard from the fall and winter leaves and branches. As I watch the smoke rising and obliterating the yard I am conscious that this is probably not the most environmentally friendly way to get rid of brush. Composting would be better of course. But we have thorny blackberries that are taking over each summer and their prickly branches must be burned -- as far as I'm concerned. They are evil! And those invasive virginia creeper can't be composted either.

The kids were no or little help gathering sticks and preferred to swing and play softball instead. They did help tend the fire while I collected at least. It was fun to see them running around having fun.

So I end the day with my forearms scratched red and aching. The rest of my body feels the pain too. I feel some satisfaction in taming the blackberries a bit even while I know they are sending runners out to invade more space. I do love the berries though. And I am relieved that we did not let the fire gain control as we did one year when we were much younger and much more naive about fires. That year we nearly started the whole field and forest on fire when a burning leaf blew up and started the dry grass burning. The flames were a wall of 6 feet high. I had to race up to the house to connect and turn the hose on -- it was terrifying. Our neighbors helped with their hoses too. Since then I treat this day with a lot more caution -- thus permits and hoses nearby with water running.