Lee Thomson

I managed to bring my camera to the barn today, and use it!

This is Revy, he is youngish, and very stiff, and a bit thick, but very sweet, and he means well:

I did not ride him today, because I have graduated, sort of, to Tiger Eye. Tiger Eye is a little older, has a little more dressage training and is worried about things that he needn’t be. It is my job to reassure him, and not get upset when he gets worried. This is Tiger Eye in the pasture: 

And this is Tiger Eye’s eye, which is such a lovely, spooky golden color I had to photograph it.

A friend took this picture of me on riding him today. You should ignore my face which is awful because I am making noises, and focus instead on the equine cuteness you see here. I adore this pony. Of course, I adore most ponies, I have very little discrimination.

Isn’t he a wonderful color? Is he not astoundingly sweet?

I’ll have an actual postcard later. After I finish hyperventilating about my great ride today.

Feb 25
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I wanted to work in my new chair,

so I brought hand work downstairs to visit with people after supper and sew. The background is red silk from the lining of Red Kate’s chinese jacket, the blue is silk from the Shaggy Man, the pansy ribbon is from the ribbon lady (who is having a half-off sale until Feb 28 – so you should go, NOW and order something fabulous for half off). Once I got the first big washers together, the ribbon begged to be added. It was just sitting there being admired before that.

We went to see the Really Big Show this afternoon at the Academy of Music. Some acts were great, some were mysterious, and on the whole it was a lot like a town wide talent show, uneven but endearing. We were cheering on our Family circus instructor Cody and Big A’s friend from gymnastics and now a full fledged member of Circus Smirkus. They totally rocked.

Feb 24
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I took a pile of pictures in my mother’s cellar as well. I couldn’t move anything (I didn’t want to lose it for her) and the light was awful. The flash didn’t help much because then I lost all the shadows, so I got a bunch of blurry, interesting pictures of antiques and hardware. I love the twist on these andirons, so I accentuated that in the embroidery. The negative of the picture helps show it up as well.

Another day of costume making. Today I finished the longer red one for Serenity and made up version 1.0 of a slinky purple object for Cody, our Family Circus teacher. I’ll try to get pictures of the people in their costumes, in part because they look pretty amazing. 

I am thinking I need a Finished Objects file of pictures, because other things are getting done in my sewing room that are not part of the original charter. Which is good.

Feb 23
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I took a lot of pictures on the beach the last day with my mother, and some of them fall into my hard wear category. These are the steps going over the dunes and down to the beach. The texture enchants me. I thought I wanted a medium gray for the embroidery, but when I realized I don’t have any I stared at all my colors again and chose this really light purple. I like it a lot. I love this beach. I badger my Mum and kids to go every time we visit. They laugh at me, but they go too. And we always have a good time.

I have been working on a costume for Serenity out of stretchy dark red lycra material covered with gitter dots. I pulled the pattern off a costume she has that fits. I finished the first iteration of the costume yesterday, but when she tried it on this morning, it was too short – my model has more vertical stretch than the red stuff, so I stretched the pattern vertically, and I hope it fits because I pretty much finished off the fabric. She seemed unworried about it – insisted that is why she bought extra – but I feel bad.  This stuff sheds the glitter and odd bits of fluff everywhere, it will be nice to be finished with it.

I promised a sledding picture, but it is past my bedtime, so here are the two girls thinking about heading down.

Feb 22
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I was inspecting my younger child and admiring the knees sticking out of these holes, when I said “those pants have seen some hard wear” and it resonated. So she donated them to the cause, and I whacked off the knees for this postcard and gave her back a pair of shorts MONTHS before she has a chance of wearing them. It was quite the fashion statement. She prefers tall socks, her favorite is a pair with pom-poms on strings off the top. She realized if she pulled them up high enough, the pom-poms could be made to come out the holes in the knees.

Note for future reference: DO NOT iron the nice waterproof band-aids. They melt.

Feb 21
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I was experimenting with washer arrangements and using the camera as a way to remember (thank you yarnstorm for proving I am not alone in this) and it showed up again today when I downloaded all the pix from visiting my mum (Hi Mum!). So I printed it out, and embroidered it some, but since it looked too flat I added two real washers as well. I broke two needles, failing to clear the washer. I swore if I broke a third, I’d stop, but I managed to finish it before killing anything else.

I am so pleased to be home. Not that I didn’t have a lovely time. But to have access again to my own tools and stuff is bliss. Six different ideas popped out at me while I was ironing fabric onto this postcard.

Before we left my Mum, we all went to run on Crane’s Beach with her lovely dog Parker.  You can see Mum and the A’s (Big A, Little A) and Parker all standing on somebody’s float that washed ashore.

Tomorrow I’ll put up some pictures of us sledding after it warmed up. The girls and Mum were out in the -18 weather, while I huddled cravenly next to the woodstove and kept it blazing. I was very proud of them.

I managed to make a postcard every day. Some are great, one is really silly.

I posted them all to Flickr: Feb 16, Feb17, Feb 18, Feb 19, and Feb 20.

I still have to finish one for today.

So, I’m here but not from home, which is a strange feeling. I can’t do anything about posting pictures because even though I have my camera, I don’t have the wire and software to get pictures onto Mum’s computer, and thence into cyberspace.

I had a lovely weekend being fed and allowed to sleep at Kate’s house (Hi Kate! Hi Bob!) and managed to make a postcard a day while I was there. They need backs and photography, but they have been accomplished.

I attended a baby shower for a baby I could not be happier about. Really it could not happen to nicer, stronger, better adjusted people. I find it insanely difficult not to spew advice non-stop, so I spent a lot effort shutting up and letting others talk about what they remembered and how wonderful their babies were. They were all completely fabulous, of course. As were my own.

I’m with my mom now, for a couple of days, with the girls. Since we’ve all spent most of the last couple days traveling and because it is -18 F counting wind chill, we’ve been staying inside admiring the view out over the marshes instead of accomplishing anything that requires effort. We might have to venture out tonight to feed ourselves, but by then the wind should have moderated some. 30 knots with gusts much higher right now, thank you Very much. Plus it comes roaring in over the marshes and hits the house like a hammer. Fairly exciting. We’ll be here another night or two, depending on the weather. Then home and the pursuit of boredom. It always helps to get the kids good and bored before making them go back to school. It makes school so much more enticing.

So – postcards when I hit home again, and probably not much else before then.