Need A Clone

Well, not really, as I am against the idea of cloning, but when you have a to-do list that is growing daily and there's only one of you... Wouldn't it be nice? Imagine what you could get accomplished AND in only 1 day!

You could have your clones do things like:

Laundry

and cooking (the what's for dinner syndrome is solved!)

and tidying up

and going to the dentist...

and teaching school
(Shhh! Don't tell anyone ~ aren't homeschoolers to be continually
joyful about filling their children's minds and hearts with educating thoughts?)

and giving overdue haircuts to long-haired boys

and moving large mounds of dirt into a future garden

and...

While the real you could enjoy doing things like:

Photographing more

and journaling ideas
(think I have enough? they're empty by the way...)


and implementing said ideas
(these are just stash pictures and I love the colors)

and reading

and...

Have a relaxing and creative weekend everyone!

Lions and Tigers and...

Bears! Bears! Bears!


My next round of purses are finished. Although I like the cat purses (and may make more of them), I really like bears much better.

For years I collected bears. Some I purchased; some were gifts. Each bear sat or stood on a high shelf... high enough to keep them from sticky fingers or sudden and quite unexpected accidents of escaping drool or spilled milk.

I would often go into my children's rooms and admire the bears, smiling, sometimes running my fingers over the soft fur, repositioning ears or legs, adjusting a paw. But then one day (mind you this was a cleaning/purging day) I looked once again at the bears, all cute and cozy on their shelves and saw dust and dust and dust.

Well, let's just say a librarian friend put them to good use as decoration at her tiny library.

I did however, keep one favorite bear~ Wilson ~ a dark brown, very soft furry bear with the cutest face. My husband gave him to me so that is partially why I've kept him. Wilson does not sit high on a shelf anymore. Oh no. He gets loved and borrowed and hugged and squished by many in our family.

So here they are, all lined up neatly in 2 rows. I need to take better photos of them first if I'm going to try my hand at Etsy. Not sure about that. Plus, I want to make a few more designs and try out some other ideas. But what do you think? Like them?

Look! Look!

Woodland Sprite, originally uploaded by pichurrayic.

This past week was not very creative, and I was a bit mopey because of it. Not that it was a bad week for it was filled with birthdays and schooling and a visit to a park, NY-style pizza, dinner out at a seafood restaurant, and some time to relax. It was just sort of ho-hum on the crafty scale. Lots of ideas roaming the recesses of my mind, but nothing tangible as of yet.


So imagine my surprise~ Oooohhh! ~ when I visited one of my favorite blogs and found out that not only was I listed on the sidebar of her new blog, but my daughter's puppy was featured on it! Thank you, Cassi! It will certainly jump-start creativity again in our family.


So if you haven't already seen it, go over to Bella Dia's NEW blog. Go now. It's fun, creative and a good source for crafts for parents and children of all ages. Crafty ideas all in one spot. And what's neat about it is that if you're spotted by Cassi, you may be featured on The Crafty Crow. I think I'll be visiting often. The buttons above were designed by her daughter...creativity obviously runs in the family...

WIPs and Rain

WARNING: Looking at this ugly photo may cause you to faint!

Hurrayic is not liable for any trips to the emergency room
from hitting your head while losing consciousness.
Thank you.

Yes,

it

is

still

raining...

We've never had a sump pump before moving to this very wet area of the country, and thankfully we replaced ours last year and put in a back-up battery. So far, so good. However today, my 2nd son went outside to float some boats in a tub of water and came back inside to tell me that there was water gushing from the side of our house! Well the sump pump was doing its job and pumping the water out of the house, but the tube connected to the house was dumping the water right next to the foundation in a never ending cycle. Yeah! So after a quick run to Lowe's and temporarily hooking up some black accordion tubing, I am glad to say that part of our pooling water has been abated... at least for now. (note: the picture above is a different part of the house; not the sump-pump pipe part)

Now onto some WIPs. First up:

A sock is made; the mate is in the making.

Same pattern as here, using Araucania yarn.

I like to call them my 'Grateful Dead' socks because the colors remind me of tie-dye t-shirts. Next on the list is:

A sweater from this book. I like many patterns from this book because they're relatively simple-looking classic designs and could be changed in coloring, textures and adding/removing details.

I'm using Lion Brand Cotton-Ease in Charcoal which is a cotton-acrylic mix. The book actually asked for a Rowan brand of yarn that is also a cotton-acrylic mix so I figured I'm covered. Had to drop a few sizes because it looked humongous once I began knitting it. (No, it's not because I've lost weight - more like my knitting was a tad loose.)
And lastly:

A pile of fabric and trim that will hopefully become my submission for Amy's Tie-One-On. The theme is Havana Nights. Only thing is...wonder if it'll make itself? Hmmm...

Inspiration: 1

It has been raining all day, and I think my yard is looking more and more like a pool or maybe a mud-wrestling pit! It reminds me of the creative muck and mire that sometimes we get stuck in. A rut, writer's block, blogging block, call it what you will. Some days we're inspired and know exactly what to do & say; other days we flounder in the muck and mire, hoping either to crawl out or be pulled out. I've been working more on my purses and a new pair of socks, but have nothing to show as of yet. I also have been working on my apron for this month's Tie One On but again, nothing to show.

So instead, I am enjoying a cup of sweet Thai coconut tea (above) ,

Letting lentil soup simmer on the stove (thanks to Moosewood Cookbook), and and browsing the web for inspiration. I am never disappointed and always amazed at the creativity of others. I think I need to start an inspiration journal like Bella Dia or like _____________ (can't find that blog ~ does that ever happen to you?).

Here is a short list of some things that are inspiring me:

Seed Pod's Still Life Project
Papeis Por Todo O Lado's embroidered slippers
Rosehip's Babushka dolls
and Shisho Mama's continuing Collage-A-Day series

Non-Existent

Did you know that today doesn't exist?

At least not from my children's point of view. More accurately, they (are ruing) rued this day. For the past 2 weeks, they've been hoping that somehow today would be skipped for you see, it was 'shot' day. Yes, that dreaded visit to the doctors for updated immunizations. In their protest, they labeled today 'No Day'. No amount of reasoning worked, not even the 'it's just a little pinch, a little pain but it's better than getting some deadly disease.'

Well 'No Day' became 'Oh No Day' as we visited the doctors and now the protest sticky note has been removed. All is well again. We celebrated with sushi. Yum.

And during this non-existent day, I signed up for a Lunchbox Swap, listened to piano lessons, knitted a bit on my 2nd pair of socks and made more progress on my new purses...

Do's, Don'ts & Weather

From Do's and Don'ts of Yesteryear:
A Treasury of Early American Folk Wisdom by Eric Sloane

We are snowed in today. Enjoying it. Thankful to be home in a warm house and not out driving. I think all the transplanted New Englander's (like we are) or basically any group of people used to piles and heaps of snow, may scoff at this amount. However since this area of the country doesn't see too much snow, and therefore the plowing and salting and dirt-laying of roads is a bit... ahem, unprepared, I am glad that we've finished our errands early and don't need to go out again. I hope to use this snowed-in opportunity to do 2 very opposite things: cleaning and creating. We'll see.

From Skies and the Artist by Eric Sloane

I just got the above illustration and these in my email today and thought I'd share it. If you don't already know about Dover Publications, check it out and sign up for their free samples. You end up getting samples sent every week or so. I've been doing this for several years. Lots of goodies to save and use.

My older two are studying weather and trying to learn the cloud names. They try to rattle them off while we drive in the car. (good entertainment) And we like Eric Sloane, the author/illustrator of all of these pictures/books and many more. And speaking of clouds and snow and weather, (sorry this post is more disjointed this time) I've also been enjoying these examples:

Clouds and Lines & Shapes
Clouds
Cloud Appreciation
Raindrops (scroll down to bottom)
'Raindrop-Like'
Fairyfrost
Snowflakes
Snowy Trees
Snow (melting)

Have a good Friday!

Little Amusements

Medieval Babe, originally uploaded by pichurrayic.

Today was very quick. We amused ourselves in very simple and odd ways:

~Having the boys try on a medieval-like 'chain mail' hood for their costumes for co-op class. I'm not using a pattern (which is probably too bad) but it is what it is, and it will look fine once they put their crusader pillowcase on top. Whew! 2 down and 5 more to go. Had a little trouble with thread breaking while sewing ~ I don't think the needle and this metallic-dotted fabric like each other much.

~Making sculptures from chicken nuggets and toothpicks.


~Eating the sculptures with gusto!

~Watching this spider try to sneak a bite...Who doesn't love to play with your food? For the past 3 years we've had calenders from Joost Elffers hanging on our kitchen wall and have enjoyed each month greatly. I also found this book of his at a tag sale last spring. Very funny.

~ Attempting this, pausing, waiting until my mouth caught up with my brain and trying again. My daughter ripped this from Annie's Cinna Bunnies package that we finished in only 2 days! Ugh! It is a small package, tastes good, and 3 of my 4 children love cereal! Oh well.

~ Starting a new pile of animal purses. No more cats right now, but something else...

Thanks so much for the comments on and off the blog about the purses. It certainly makes my day.

Busy-ness

I wish I could say it was with more crafty-like ventures that I was so busy, but the past few days were really filled with many needed-to-get-done items. And in some ways, that brings satisfaction too, but it's not the kind I jump up and down about while wearing a huge grin. However, if I stop and consider the small items, the seemingly mundane things, I am thankful for much like:

completing the first part of our crusader costumes for our co-op class ~ only 7 more classes to go (yeah!)

sending out payment for bills (oh joy, but at least it's done)

getting our taxes ready to be sent to our tax-man (double joy)

trying to wash out the vintage smell from some fabrics (okay, so this wasn't so mundane...)

making dentist and doctor appointments (much overdue)

having to listen to heart and soul played repeatedly on the ivories (twinkling they were not)

enjoying banana layer pies that my daughter made and which we enjoyed with friends on Sunday (even if she didn't clean up afterwards ~ okay, not a mundane thing either, at least the pie eating part).