january journal pages....

My goodness. We've been struggling with internet connectivity. Finally got it back -- and here are but a few of the January journal pages I've been working on. More to come later.

christmas eve

Corner of our home. I'm thrilled with the tree this year. I *slathered* this small tree with lights. It's been snowing and snowing. We've had no mail delivery for days now. What happened to the USPS motto of rain, nor sleet, nor dark of night...what are the words? Anyway, what's up with that? No mail? And um, we have equally important bills and Christmas cards to get out (and receive). Sigh.
This shot from when I finished wrapping the lights all around.
There's already another couple of inches of snow on top of this. The roads are so washboardy out there. We are traveling as little as possible.
Projects are being slowly completed about the house. Finished re-doing the couch pillows (my goodness but the ones that came with the couch were *hideous*), you can catch a glimpse of the new and improved ones in the photo of the ornamented tree up top. A couple of Santa hats for LM. Unraveling thrift store sweaters (mom has been helping a lot with that). Knitting Christmas gifts. Sewing Christmas gifts. Knocking the snow off all the trees and shrubs to keep the branches from breaking under all that weight. Reading lots of stories aloud. Drinking cup after cup of hot lattes (decaf). I so am going to be more on top of this handmade Holiday next year. :)
Very disappointed in Obama's choice of Rick Warren as invocation minister. He's the kind of guy who would have spoken against interracial marriage 40-50 years ago too. He's just not the compassionate guy I hope for in a pastor (or you know, a random human).

100 thankful things

so i've only seen this on sproutgirl's blog, however, she says it's floating around the blogworld (i'm sure it's true, maybe you've seen it elsewhere, and maybe one day i will too). i too am joining in that list! 100 is the norm, but others have detoured & done their own thing of course. you are inevitably supposed to tag, i'm not going to this time, but if you do it, please comment and link to your list, i love lists (who doesn't?)
~little man
~c
~my family
~my in-laws
~baby's first christmas photo cards i picked up this morning
~artfest
~flickr
~hymn sings
~npr
~podcasts
~trader joe's
~pcc
~the tolt pipeline
~paper (all kinds, beautiful scrapbooking designs, vintage ledger, wrapping...)
~yarn (all natural kinds, especially good deals at yard sales and thrift stores)
~estate sales
~filtered water
~my stainless steel water bottle
~steno pads
~painting
~michael's 40% off coupons
~ravelry
~ribbons
~our new washer & dryer (we're doing a lot of laundry around here these days)
~nov. 4, 2008
~berkeley's gourmet ghetto (especially the cheeseboard & cesar's)
~canoeing
~swimming
~glitter
~bird art
~nests & nesting
~christmas
~fresh snow fall
~the colour of autumn leaves
~the public library (within walking distance)
~good friends
~art days
~advent calendars
~recycling wool sweaters
~dyeing my own yarn
~Half Moon Bay
~friends vacation homes
~BBQing
~Third Place Books, Powell's & other awesome independent bookstores
~garage door opener
~canvas bags
~a winning lottery ticket ($50 4 years ago when we really needed $50, the ticket was a Christmas gift)
~little man's fuzzy head nestled just under my chin when he sleeps
~long walks/hikes with c, solving the world's problems, planning meals, just connecting
~a gas fireplace
~Winter Wineland
~white Christmas lights
~baby monitors
~staying up late making art
~sunsets
~sunrises
~the mist coming of the water
~concerts in the park
~bartering for stoles
~East Bay Depot for Creative Re-Use (oh, how I miss you!)

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

~king babar (and queen celeste - we need to find a queen celeste stuffie, E has two king babar stuffies, they need their mates)
~hanna andersson outlet
~lucy neatby knitting DVDs
~netflix
~6 hours of sleep in a row (i remember them fondly)
~old-fashioned popcorn with butter & salt
~our kitchen
~an outdoor bonfire
~tidepools
~golden paints
~eggnog latte with nutmeg
~my sewing machine
~creating stuffies
~clear containers
~a good haircut
~a good movie theatre seat
~nap on a thick patch of green grass
~hulu for my MSNBC fix
~Redmond Farmer's Market (San Mateo's I miss, especially the Kung Pao Tofu)
~handwritten letters and little goodie boxes
~bandanas as bibs
~morning pages (The Artist's Way - haven't practiced this for a while)
~self-serve mailing stations at the Post Office
~Pacific School of Religion
~Anne LaMott
~freshly painted walls
~the soft shade of the walls in our dining, living room, kitchen & entry way.
~small pieces of art nestled in the larger pieces
~mountain views
~Japanese dollar stores
~magazines (especially Martha Stewart, Oprah, Home Companion, Cloth, Paper, Scissors, Art Jewelry, Sunset, Dwell, any Somerset Studio)
~the silk scraps I picked up at East Bay Depot a couple of years ago

Still marching after all these years....

What a great day in Seattle (and around the country) when thousands and thousands of folks marched for Civil Rights. Yes, hard to believe, but in 2008 we are still marching for Civil Rights. We have an African American President elect and we are *still* marching for Basic Civil Rights. Dude. and another popular slang -- WTF? This is the front line of the thousands who marched. I couldn't begin to capture the enormity of it all, it was spectacular.
The park just kept filling up and filling up. We moved to the Westlake Center to stand above the crowd for a wee bit of space for little man, he was too excited about all the love and justice to sleep for the longest time, but that space and relative quiet did allow him to have a bit of a nap eventually.
I love this kid's sign. "When do I get to vote on your marriage?" She put her heart into that artwork.
Partly cloudy with a chance for justice and love. Dude it reigned in Seattle.

is it called frogging?

One of the random things that I wrote about a bit ago was wanting to recycle a wool sweater into yarn and to then re-knit into something that I would love. I'm gonna do it. Found this lovely sweater at a local thrift store and bought it to rip it and soak it and re-skein it and eventually re-knit it. It will become a sweater for little man and a couple of hats. Will post more photos as I really start taking it apart.

Had some time this morning to get a few pages in the baby book filled with paint. It's a multi-layer process.
He's got great balance I think for an almost 5 month old. He's so beautiful.

For some great journal making inspiration ">go here. And you can enter for a chance to win a fabulous handmade journal too.

a red cable sweater day.

Look at me go...four posts in November! I love being able to upload photos again. This is the vignette above my computer station in the studio.
The entry to the studio area. Needs a few more pieces of art. This was just an area where as I was unpacking in here I put up some of my art pieces where there were already nails in the wall. Will create my own cluster of art here one day.
Baby E looks so good in this red that I had to knit him a sweater. This is 18 month size from the Nature Knits book I borrowed from my SiL. Waiting for the pieces to block and then put together and knit the turtleneck part and it'll be done! Will post a photo of LM in it on Ravelry when he first wears it.

Kirkland Sunset and another meme

In the spirit of organization, I got around to answering Posie Gets Cozy One-Word-Answer meme.

Where is your mobile phone? Purse
Where is your significant other? Bed
Your hair colour? Umber
Your mother? Gardener
Your father? Puzzler
Your favourite thing? Paint
Your dream last night? Health
Your dream goal? Artist
The room you're in? Studio
Your hobby? Knitting
Your fear? Cancer
Where do you want to be in 6 years? Studio
Where were you last night? Studio
What you're not? Republican
One of your wish-list items? Jacuzzi
Where you grew up? World
The last thing you did? Rocked
What are you wearing? Sweats
Your TV? Off
Your pets? None
Your computer? Pandora
Your mood? Sickly
Missing someone? Yes
Your car? Wet
Something you're not wearing? Makeup
Favourite shop? DickBlick
Your summer? Baby
Love someone? Wholeheartedly
Your favourite colour? Crimson
When is the last time you laughed? NPR
When is the last time you cried? 12:30

Play along — it's fun! (and leave me a message if you play/ed)

a new meme, have you been tagged?

Super talented Catherine Witherell tagged me for this meme, and yes...it's time for a new post and another new day....





Here are seven facts about me, random and weird:

1. I love my coffee and am very snobbish about it. Peet's Major Dickinson Decaf turkish grind is my daily coffee right now. However, usually it's Strictly Organic if I can get my head around ordering it.
2. I love to have a little heated bag at the foot of the bed at night in the winter. My feet get too hot in the night for socks, but I do love the extra toasty warmth of that heat to get to sleep.
3. I cannot fall asleep at night without reading for a bit.
4. My digital camera is a great joy to me. Taking photo after photo without worry about the cost of printing, film, etc. so freeing.
5. I brake for garage sales (estate sales, open air markets...)
6. I subscribe to 159 podcasts, though less than half seem to regularly post. I think a lot have "pod faded" though I keep subscribed in case they come back.
7. I want to pick up some sweaters from Goodwill to deconstruct and re-knit. I hesitate because the task seems a bit overwhelming right now.

Tag 7 people:
Binky
Gwen
Cordelia
Elinor
Nikki
Tara
Kristie

Took this a couple of weeks ago at the U district's Farmer's Market. They said a lot of people had taken photos for their blogs. :)
This is taken from my studio out to the front yard. I love this Japanese Maple, so gorgeous right now. And the driveway is full of beautiful red leaves too.

He loves his jumpy! He's so strong he just gets airborne and laughs and laughs.

We finally finished painting his room a couple of weeks ago too. And his crib is all ready for him. (You can see it in the background of the jumpy photo).

a new day.....

amen and amen.
a mandate.
yes we did.

for a beautiful, hope-filled video head here.

I've been saddened by the number of wild and outrageous comments from "the right" on friends blogs...and then it happened here too. Anonymous commenters spewing their hatred and fear on blogs when people are simply stating their excitement for this new day, this hope that our freedoms will be restored after 8 years of an administration who would take freedom away from United States citizens, who would torture and imprison thousands of people with no trial. Who would spend hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out millionaires who made horrible business decisions in the name of more and more greed. Who would give their friends and the VP no bid contracts for hundreds of millions of dollars to fight a war that has nothing to do with 9/11 or freedom. Who took our country from a surplus budget under Clinton to the state of enormous economic chaos that we are in today (who will blame in on Obama, though this huge hole of debt is the Bush Administration's policies that will be inherited).

And what makes me the saddest about all of this? The majority of those "right" folks believe they are coming from a Christian perspective. Couldn't be farther from the way of Christ. Christ is centered upon Love and Grace and Hope. Not Fear and Greed and Shame. I say this here for the folks who have given up on church because of these people. Christ in not their way, they are following the path of their preacher, not Christ. There are good churches out there, if you'd like to find one you may have to shop around a bit, because even within denominations there are variations by church - but you could try a couple. The United Church of Christ, The United Methodists, The Unitarian Universalists . Each have searchable services to help you find a church near you. And of course, you can live a perfectable fabulous spiritual life without going to church at all. Peace be with you.

...and in unrelated news. the computer has been updated, soon, more photos.

go obama!

Waiting to update our computer so that it accepts more data. (Need new chip or something that gives it more memory), so unable to post new photos. These are "old" photos from the previous camera. Miss writing here. And getting comments.

the pull of the ocean

omg, did we want to go to the ocean before maternity leave was over.

what to do, what to do...it was high season (read: no hope due to budget).
one of the places we love has an email list and i said about two weeks ago, "gosh, we haven't gotten an email from them about any specials."
the next day
(no, i'm not kidding)
an email plops in.
super deals,
the final week of maternity leave is the first week of specials.
i called, our favorite room was available for the next three days, so i booked it.
we did a couple of chores on our to do list.
packed, went to an end of summer party at friends, came home early-ish to rest, sleep, begin loading the car...
and we went to Cannon Beach.

There was a negative low tide the first day we were there. I love low tides because I love me some tidepools, and I love *all* that wet sand to walk on....it makes the beach more private to me, because everyone isn't huddled walking along the smaller easy to walk section.

Little Man loved the beach. We talked all about everything we saw. And mentioned that we'd come back again and again whenever possible. And another time, when he was older, he'd get to put his feet and hands in the water. And touch the sea anenomes and starfish (if he was very, very gentle and never took anything from the sea).


I bundled LM up and took him each morning to a nearby bakery for journaling (and coffee, even though it was *bucks). Turns out, it's very difficult to journal with the cutest baby in the world. Everyone wants to meet him and ask all about him. (He slept through all of the gushing).Because I've been a bit scattered of late, I didn't get around to ordering my copies of the 1000 journal pages book (3 of my pages are in it). I bought it at my favorite store in Cannon Beach - the bookstore, and it was a staff favorite, when I went to the counter to buy it the clerk said she loved this book, to which I proudly replied, I have three pages in here. She whipped out a Post-It note pad to write down my information to tell everyone she met one of the artists. Yep, I floated the rest of the day, and did a lot more journaling too. I already love that store, but, you know, I'll go back again and again!




Oh, what a good time.

elmer fudd lives here

Is this not the cutest picture ever? OMG he melts my heart and makes me laugh outloud so many times a day. This is a gift from Auntie Gayle. She sent a big box of baby stuff she picked up at her new churchs big yard sale a couple of weeks ago. As he wears the stuff I have him model a bit and send her the photos. This should ensure more boxes of gently used items to keep on coming. I may put this in the little photo montage for Christmas cards this year. Oh he is *so* cute!

Getting more journal pages, and canvases too done! Such a thrill to finding some balance every day. I re-worked a tired, old piece and love it now. (Will post that later).

Really getting into shading and depth and letting the wise women (series name) sit out for awhile until the word/s needed for that image come to me. suggestions for this one?

Ta ta for now.

Growing Adventures

Weeks ago on a Saturday we went for a long walk on the Tolt Pipeline, it was a beautiful day. Later that evening we had an accident in our home. It was so incredibly horrible and frightening. He *is* wonderful (about two weeks later). Thank you to all of you who prayed and sent us so many good and powerful thoughts and prayers.

So, now, he's been himself again for more than a week. And he's smiling and giggling now. He smiles and laughs a little every time he's re-introduced to Francis the (ceiling) Fan, which he sees from the changing table. He looks so good in red that I'm planning two sweaters in his favorite deep, good red. Basic Crew and Geordie Stripe Yoke Jacket (Ravelry links).

The apple tree out front of church. I'm so excited to eat one of these this fall. Maybe enough to make a pie, or applesauce?

And this week. I made some art. A couple of pages in the journal. Got a couple more pieces of art on the wall of the studio. Need to keep doing this around the house, we have so much in boxes still.





I ran out of nails before I could finish adding the frame. Once I have this completed, I'll be posting to etsy.

Fell in love with hearts again after wandering through the Fresh Paint show at the Everett Marina on Saturday. Expect a series of these.

so in love....

...with this little man. He's awake a little more everyday. We're reading more and singing songs and following eyes and just drinking in his beauty.
Most of his collection of books thus far. (Many are on the nightstand for nightly reading). Oh my goodness the books he has received as gifts! So beautiful, I'll have to share a couple in the future. Amazing children's writers out there!
Most of his collection of clothes. my goodness there are some adorable clothes in this collection! Thank you thank you to all who have handed on such sweet items. Some fabulous new pieces and dozens and dozens of hand me downs.
A couple of photos of the vast array of wonderful meals that has been coordinated for us. The meal help has been such an important part of our developing a healthy rhythm in our house. Sleep has been so far from us so much (though we have really, finally begun to nap when he's sleeping), there has been a lot of dishwashing and laundry, and still the unpacking into the new home. Oh my goodness the meals....salmon, beef stroganoff, salads, chicken, mac & cheese, mexican casseroles, fruit desserts, a little bit of chocolate.
Thank you thank you all! The top photo is cool whip mixed with a bit of fruit yogurt, so good. The next food photo is of super good oatmeal! Makes me really sure that once little man is eating solid food, I'll be making batches of crockpot oatmeal for a quick warm breakfast on rainy winter mornings.

meme

Clearly the lack of sleep isn't helping me learn new computer tricks very quickly. I spent a few minutes yesterday trying to respond to this meme, only to have forgotten to cut and paste the actual picture mosiac. oh well, if you're interested, click on each link to see the corresponding Flickr photo to my answer to each question.

* Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr search.
* Using only the first page, choose an image.
* Copy and paste each of the URL’s into the mosaic maker over at FD's image maker.

The questions:
What is your first name?
What is your favorite food?
What high school did you attend?
What is your favorite color?
Who is your celebrity crush?
Favorite drink?
Dream vacation?
Favorite dessert?
What do you want to be when you grow up?
What do you love most in life?
One word to describe you.
Your Flickr name

1. Celeste Yawning, 2. bbq corn, 3. IMG06, 4. Lime Green Window Shutter, Red Flowers and a Rail, 5. Brad Pitt's housing project in the Ninth Ward. New Orleans. Louisiana. USA. December 2007, 6. Caffé del Doge - Latte Macchiato, 7. Riomaggiore, Cinque Terre, Italy, 8. David Lebovitz at Ici, 9. GREAT MOM [GRE8 MOM], 10. just another fantastic evening at the oregon coast, 11. creative embroidery, 12. Celestial*

blissed out

our little man has arrived. we've been happily watching him for hours and hours -- for a couple of weeks now. he's perfect.