Change of venue

Now making my home over at http://writecraftthink.blogspot.com/

Sabbatical

Clearly, I have already been on sabbatical from the blog for a while. And it will continue a while longer. It's time to shift voices, it feels like, and I'm listening to myself on this one.

Dear Tomten,

I think you are a little creepy, frankly, but I'm willing to overlook that. You see, some people (my mother, my imagination), think you might be living in the attic space of the house. After all, why else would the third floor, that long, single, slant-roofed room above me - why else would it have those little, little doors?

Oh, I know. There's storage space there, right? Yes. We have some boxes of holiday ornaments behind one of the doors. And some other random boxes behind another. Books in most. I fear that you, like a spiteful brownie, might decide to ruin the books.

Worse, I fear you might, like your Scandinavian kinsman we read about some evenings, you might decide to tiptoe through our house as we sleep. So, I keep things stacked in front of the little doors. But, I've been thinking it might be worth the creepy creeping if, during your nighttime ramblings around the house, you made some cookies.

Chocolate chip, ginger, peanut butter, molasses, your choice. Though I would be especially grateful for those little chocolate pillow cookies my grandma used to make. Cocoa drops. With icing would be lovely, but perhaps too much extra trouble.

Anyway. Just a thought.

A List: 10/24/12

I want to knit some socks and wear them with a beautiful pair of clogs.
I want to make more art - journaling? trading cards? Start small.
Time to re-instate Curry Night. Cooking curry, eating curry, makes me happy. Do more often.
Remember when you used to take pictures?
Read more. Web surf less.

Eight days until NaNo. Get ready.

April?

I'm committing myself to ScriptFrenzy this month (so proud of myself for still being on track here near the end of week two!), but I don't want to let all of April go by without a post. So, here's one courtesy of my own little craft-companion!

The first photo is a drawing Cora made as a pattern for a quilt. Then I asked her to make a list of all the design elements in her pattern and what kind of fabric she would want to use for that item/shape. Then, there was a lot of sorting through my fabric bins, talking about color/texture/shape interactions, and through a combination of seaming, fusible applique, and stitching, we arrived at the last photo.

For the parts that are fused, I had Cora draw the shapes on the fusible and, after I cut them out, she positioned them on the fabric. Then I pressed them in place. It was an excellent collaborative experience, completely led by her own vision.

For example, after looking through the fabric she found a piece of fabric featuring cat heads - she pulled it out and said, "This will be perfect for a cloud!" I wasn't so sure, but it was her design, so we went with it. Turns out she was right. That is one awesome cloud.

Photo fun

I'm enjoying playing with Pixlr these days.

Hello Spring!

This year Cora decided to ring in the spring with a fever. Because she is so rarely sick, it was very strange to spend a day with her while she just curled on the couch watching PBS and listening to stories. Not much moving around yesterday.

Today I can tell she is on the mend, because she is her usual squirrelly self. She's still watching PBS, but also writing a letter to the tooth fairy, coloring, reading some of her library books, and being much more chatty than yesterday.

I've missed two days of work to tend to her, to make her homemade chicken soup, and to do a little handsewing while I sat beside her. It wasn't the start to the week that I had planned, but it has been pleasant in its own way and, coming off a more hectic than usual end of week/weekend, not entirely unpleasant.

Now we wait to see if the fever jumps to another family member, or if it really is done with us. In the meantime, it is good to see this smile back (at least until that VERY loose tooth comes out!)