Cedar Bay Park
December 1, 2008
~2:45 PM
44°F
Heavy clouds coming in;
light layer of ice on the canal;
the man sitting on a picnic table just over my left shoulder is smoking a cigarette and wondering why we're there.
Actually, we were looking for our first letterbox and after three previous attempts and not one stamp to show for it, we didn't care one bit if the guy watched our every move. We found the box, stamped our guts out, noisily re-hid it and left. From the highway I spotted the smoking guy poking around the hiding place, trying to figure it all out. I guess we're bad letterboxers.
first stamp
tiny
When you discover a volunteer baby pine tree growing in the underbrush, you just have to uproot it and plant it in the backyard and name it Tiny. Then you must decorate it at Christmastime.
purple hair, red apron
Boy, am I tired. But it's a good kind of tired. I hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful, all you peeps here in the States. If you want to know how I spent my day, watch this video. The Frantz family has mighty sore feet, but our hearts sure are full tonight.
cuteness overload
My kids make me nuts. In a good way. Here I am, all busy and important, staying up and working in the studio 'til 2 AM for days on end, self-imposed deadline looming, preparing for The Big Happening That Shall Not Be Named, and they have to go and draw really cute stuff on little block remnants. So I did what any good mama would do...I put down my work and turned 'em into stamps. From left to right, Jossie's alien and flying pig and Noah's house and rocket. Or, as he says it, wocket. Aren't they just too cute?
before the week ends
three miles around the lakes
cold noses and toeses
then hot fire and hot cocoas
waiting for the snow
love to you on this sleepy friday afternoon
letterboxing
We threw ourselves into the study of letterboxing today after reading The Letterboxer's Companion at bedtime last night. I happened to have everything we needed to carve three personal stamps, and so tomorrow we are off to find our first letterbox. Beats the heck out of math.
almost ready
For the past several months, ideas have been waking me up in the middle of the night. They spin around in my brain and make an awful racket, and only when I blindly scratch their gist into my notebook do they let me return to sleep.
Much to my bewilderment, it seems as though smack in the middle of my thirties, new passions and interests are forcing my sagging rear up a very steep learning curve. Linocutting, proper use of the baren, vector illustration using Inkscape...it's like learning a foreign language, minus the conditional tense.
More on all of this soon...
ikea reading lamps
A US$10 investment and a few spare screws and bulbs yields the freedom to stay up late with a good book.
road trip
the kids and i are slipping away for a few days
what awaits us on this trip:
:: ikea (again)
:: a quick visit with a bit o'family
:: fish tacos at baja fresh, after a five year-long fast
:: 48 hours with my dearest long-distance girlfriend
kiss me, i voted
:: the posse heading out to our polling place down the street
:: wondering exactly what genius thunk up that very helpful sign for illiterate folks...
monster
I turned around in the sewing room the other day and found that the five year-old had made a monster out of a scrap of fleece, straight pins and some spare beads. Gotta put that kid to work.
the gnome
My little guy asked me to make a gnome costume for this year's All Hallow's Eve celebration. I whipped up a beard out of upholstery fringe and a gnomish hat from Bend-the-Rules Sewing
this time, before the snows,
I want to need to remember:
:: a pod of dolphins hunting for their breakfast in the waters across the cove
:: the smell of laundry that has dried in the salty bay air
:: laughing and carrying on with old friends over wine and clams casino
:: a funky haircut that heralds a new season in my life
:: rounded triangles of moonlight reflected off the backs of thousands of waves and minnows
:: linguine con le vongole made by my former chef of a husband using clams dug from the bay with our own big and little hands. so. very. yummy.
:: reading sonnets under blankets after the weather turned much colder
:: a renewed sense of hope for our family's future when all hope could (and some would say should) be lost
::a renewed love for the Source of my hope
stumps
Last week as I drove home after a quick, solo, post-dinner dash to the library, I passed my neighbor's house and almost crashed the car in my excitement, for there on the side of the road sat the most amazing, perfect tree stumps I've ever seen--can you tell I was raised in the 'burbs?
I parked the car and ran into my house to stir up the passion of my other family members. We all tumbled out of the house to gawk at the wood across the street. After oohing and ahhing and debating the merits of each individual stump, Daddy fetched the wheelbarrow and rescued five of them from their date with the wood chip machine. Now they feed the bees, serve as a place to put our lantern on our front steps, and provide a place to share fun snacktimes with neighborhood friends under the big tree.
first fabric design
My logo fabric for a Spoonflower order. I designed the logo and the repeat for the fabric in Inkscape, my first attempt at vector graphics. It's very different from Photoshop, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. I plan to use this fabric to line or back things. Different colorways to follow. This fabric design stuff is pretty addicting, I think I'm in trouble...
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