Mar 31
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

After waxing poetic about my plastic glasses, I found these (also at Stop&Shop) made in Italy. I bought them because I like the lumpy bottoms, and curvy way they fit my hand.

The living room remains startlingly orange.

Alice and I took two friends to the Smith College Art Museum for the family art program this afternoon, and made lumpy art out of recycled materials. They really didn’t care At All about the stuff other people had made (hello? It is a museum? And Gallery? Their response – can we poke it or push it or touch it? we can’t, it’s boring, just let us make stuff. ) but they had fun. Plus we got candy on the way home. Clearly the high point of their afternoon.

Al and I are hip deep in trip planning. We are taking the girls to England this spring. I had a giant shock on plane fares, and we were thinking briefly about twitching them out of school for travel. It looks like the timing will really work better for us if we can wait til they finish the year. The kids’ focus is where characters and authors come from. Swallows and Amazons is top of the list. Al wants to see Christopher Robin’s 100 Acre Wood. But then he twitches because, as he says, there is REAL stuff there, and the people in books are IMAGINARY. I don’t know about his imagination, but they seemed pretty real to me, and if I can go stand on Wildcat Island it is orders of magnitude better than seeing where old fat Henry swapped out another wife. But I digress.

I made two postcards this evening, the other one was so ugly I left it visible on Flickr and refuse to list it here. It was a mad experiment, with a lumpy result. I rather like this one, though.

Mar 30
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I like the concept, and I am tempted to try it again, because a couple technical issues are interfering with my vision. The fusible makes the picture too dark, and the blue background underneath makes it even more too dark. I need to find some reasonable fusible that a) peels easily almost instantly, b) is nearly invisible and c) doesn’t stink. This stuff peels easily but makes patterns on the fused fabric. The wonder-under doesn’t stink and is more nearly invisible but needs to marinate for at least an hour before it peels properly, and even then I get wisps of paper on the back. I have some spray on stuff, and then Red Kate loaned me hers because mine is unlocatable, under something. It is relatively sturdy but it smells vile and makes the house reek both on spraying it on and again on fusing. It may be the fusing equivalent of software (and other projects I’ve worked on); fast, cheap and on-time, pick two…

And in other news, we got two coats of quite orange paint on the living room walls. It is not there yet. I am thinking a lighter, ginger glaze, maybe with some gold metallic shimmer in it, over the top. That should make it lighter and less looming. But the trim is also painted and looks fresh, and two coats – really – I am pleased with progress overall.

Mar 29
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Pouring down the drain. We are so profligate with the water we have. The river is high, and roaring, and the melt is slowly sinking into the ground, but it is still mud season, not spring yet.

We are wrestling with colors in the living room. The new chair has requested a new color scheme. Since the old one came with the house and is entirely white everywhere plus it has seen hard use for 7 years, and is FILTHY – new paint. And new covering on the couch.

The choices:

Mar 28
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

It feels odd to be doing this at lunch time instead of just before bed. Alice is home with pink-eye (yick) but remains cheerful.

I loved the colors of the kid cups enough that I experimented with the adults’ cups today. When I first saw these in the Stop&Shop several summers ago, they made me smile – so colorful, so indestrucible, so nice in the hand – so I got a bunch then and a few more each time they come out with new colors.

I thought I had constructed one of the Tarot minor arcana (eleven of cups, anyone?) but they only go up to 10. That, of course, made me think of making my own tarot from end to end. Not this year. I think I have my hands full with the daily postcard and the monthly journal page. But it would be deeply amusing to construct such a thing out of the materials that mean most to me and everyday objects. Embroidered fabric collage cards, anyone? Maybe a couple of us could cooperate, with some divy of the major arcana and a whole suit to experiment with. I know there is a quilt tarot deck, I have a copy of it and it is quite lovely.

Off to the doctor’s with the dripping child.

Mar 27
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

The snow is retreating across the back yard, and hiding in the shadow of the pines in the yard behind us. I realized I had a series of pictures of the pony in snow, and tried to get them all to line up. A moderately successful experiment there.

The postcards have a viewing scheduled at Valley Fabrics today, and Francesca thinks she may want to display a handful of them, and possibly rotate them as new months are done. Yikes!

Lynne very kindly looked over most of them (Lynne who trained as an artist, and made her living as an artist until recently) and said I had show there. That felt huge. HUGE!! So with renewed energy, I found a thing to use for a portfolio, and am printing out many more copies of my business card, and off I go to flog the postcards. The dolls get to stay home for a while longer. I love making them more. I think because of that I have more trouble thinking about what to do with them.

Mar 26
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

The snowbank next to the house. Melting slowly. The grass next to it is turning green.

Major migraine, bed now.

Mar 25
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Alice’s footprints across the backyard, having melted and showing the green grass peeking up. Or perking up.

I managed a yoga class today, but needed a nap after. My new friend Lynne came by and we went to the Hands Across the Valley Quilt Guild show. It was awesome. Completely. Fabulous. Plus Lynne showed Cathy and me her foray into dollmaking, a gloriously embroidered flat doll. She’d used lots of floss, some strands were two colors together, and gone densely across the surface in flowers and leaves and swirls. I was impressed.

Lynne trained as an artist, and she had a different perspective on the quilts than I did with my craft and sewing background. It was interesting what we both liked, and what we found lacking. We agreed that many pieces needed only more thread – more quilting – to pop them from interesting to fabulous. The quilting really makes the quilt.

I was trying to photograph the melting snow, and found tulips nosing up on the south side of the house. Go guys!!

Mar 24
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

There is a lovely Tom Chapin (Harry Chapin’s brother) song, a lullaby round that sings about what kids need before bed:

Oh Mom, I need a glass of water,
just a small one,
Mom, I need another story,
just a short one
Mom, I need another hug,
please

I cannot hear it without tearing up and laughing, simultaneously. Putting Alice to bed is more and more like this. We’ll get it straight, eventually.

I accompanied Aerin to her friend’s Bat Mitzvah today. It was interesting. In a liberal college town, the only possibility was a strongly reformed congregation, and there was a lot of equality in the congregation. I liked many parts of it. Aerin did all the right things – I was very proud of her – and wound up making friends with another girl there, and dancing, and laughing and having a great time.

Bat Mitzvahs are good for knitting. Several people admired the sock-in-progress. I felt I was channelling the Harlot and Representing like mad.

One woman asked how many hours it took to make a sock. She gave me a funny look when I said it didn’t matter, it was what kept me happy and polite. I really have no idea, and there didn’t seem to be a good answer for her. I also had two very nice conversations about knitting what pleases you, plus a location for a yarn store in Brattleboro,  another one about the right kind of mood for getting into Terry Pratchett’s books, and one long one about kids’ relative happiness at school and home. Quite nice, all told.

Mar 23
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Alice’s footprints off across the backyard. I am pleased to see that the grass is starting to come up, and I made a point of embroidering it in even greener.

Today is just not a talkative day.

Mar 22
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Part of a painting experiment, using a lot of water and trying to get lots of flowing shapes. Some success. I have some other pieces that will make nice backgrounds for later postcards. To my astonishment, when I dropped paint on a piece of silk the drops formed squares. That may be visible soon.

Plus, the child that WILL NOT SLEEP. aaaargh. I need more sleep than she does. I’m pathetic. She’s just young.