Sept 26
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Sept 27
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

A pile of cards for today – four finished that I started yesterday, plus a mess of flickr toy experiments on my self portrait. The foursome was drawn looking at pictures of Mattie and Jes, but I’m not convinced they look anything like them. They do feel like them (I think) and they look like interesting other people, so I’m not too bummed. I did the drawings on paper, and copied them onto fabric. Then they needed color, so they got markered and re-copied onto more fabric. I am thinking of doing it again with paint, to get more subtle colors, in one more round.

Proof that this is not a food blog – we had a box of the most lovely pastry from the greatest bakery in town (Woodstar, for anyone local enough to wonder) including 4 eclairs, one lemon cupcake (for the candle) two lemon bars, one piece of flourless chocolate cake, and a (small) banana cream pie. We ate most of it before it occurred to me that we might have had an image for posterity.  Then we finished it before the batteries had recharged.  urp.   Delicious.

I had thought for years that I shared a birthday with Frodo and Bilbo.  I was led to believe this by a very old Tolkein calendar (circa 1979) that had a picture of Bilbo riding a barrel into Laketown on his birthday, and the birthday itself marked on the 27th. BUT (the wonders of the internet) when I googled it, Wikipedia insisted that their birthday is/was Sept 22. So I’ve been deprived of some fellow revellers, which is a small bummer because I could really get behind the Hobbit custom of giving things away on my birthday. Not that I can’t anyhow. It just takes a little more strenuous rationalization.

But all around, it was a very nice day. Thank you all for you kind wishes.

Hippo Birdy Two Meese
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Brought to you today courtesy of my patient parents, developed and extended some after leaving the nest. I am one whole year older today and celebrating mightily.

1960. I can’t remember how old I am but I can always remember the year I was born. You can do the math. Especially considering they don’t make years as long as they used to… Honestly, how can I (or anyone else for that matter) be expected to remember what my age is when it changes so fast. It used to take a year or so to get from birthday to birthday, but now it seems like weeks. I hear from those older than myself that sometimes a year will vanish altogether, without even a small pop or zing as it goes by.

I find that I do not feel a year older. I feel a day older than yesterday, but not necessarily a whole year older. Al points out that the planet is in the same place it was this time last year, and we are celebrating something like that. That plus the fact that I am still on it.

Let’s have more dessert.

Sept 24
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Sept 25
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

It took several attempts to make viable postcards today, I don’t know why. I liked making the first pair, but the resulting faces looked crooked and demented. I liked these, but without embroidery they were boring. I drew a pair of people that resemble my brother and Jes, and copied them onto fabric and put them on postcards, but they need something else, probably color. So I added thread to these, and am calling them done.

Sept 21
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

And here is one for tomorrow, or (if you are reading this a day later) Friday. She is Indigo Hedgehog Woman’s purple twin Violet Snakehair Woman.

What a combo!

Sept 20
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Here is Indigo Hedgehog Woman, ready to make your day. I was so struck by an illustration in Threads magazine from 1993 that I tried my hand at the same kind of idea. I don’t know why her hair came out so … hedgehoggy. Probably the panicky speed with which I am working so as to finish before the long trek to the wilds of Maine.

Sept 19
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

It seems she might need an eye patch in honor of Talk Like a Pirate Day, but she isn’t really a pirate and thus patchless.

Do they look as feminine to others as to me?

I must be better, I left my sickbed and rode a horse today. Soon I will post a picture of him because he is very very cute.

We are having a giant pre-trip scrimmage. My large, loud brother (I only have one) is getting married in Maine. He lives on an island off the coast of Maine with the woman he is going to marry. They thought about having the wedding on their island, but it isn’t big enough. This boggles my mind a bit, but there weren’t enough places for all the guests to stay for the weekend. It is a small island. But there are also 250 people involved. So they are getting married on the island Jes grew up on instead. It is another three hours farther north, but the ferry ride is shorter and more protected, and the ferry itself runs more often (three times a day vs. Mon/Wed/Fri to Mattie’s island).

We have wedding clothes and warm clothes and boat clothes and I have lists of food and supplies to bring because you can’t exactly run to the Stop and Shop when you forget something or run out.

So I have a giant case of trip fever, and I am (of course) worried about missing the ferry, and, and, and…. I’m working on outsourcing the worrying again. It worked well for the last trip.

(you’ll have to imagine my voice an octave lower and rough…)

Avast ye scurvy swabs, pay heed:

Today be Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Since I have missed it to date, I shall be talkin’ and swearin’ for as much of today as I remember.

AAAARRRrrrgh.