Dec 19
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

The muse continues to push the skinny strips. I thought of one more yesterday looking at the back door of one of the giant trucks.

I was auditioning the red spots in different places and realized it made a kind of little animated film. But, with all the great toys on the new mac, I don’t think I have something I can use to make stop motion animation. If I figure it out, I’ll post a (very short) animated clip of the dot(s).

Aside from people with octopi on their heads today was pretty calm. Alice had a friend, we walked to the library for their book group, hit the candy store and the video store on the way home and then decided pizza for supper was a good plan. So we did that too, before we finally straggled home.

And also why flickr sucks up waaaay more time than it should. Not only can I see what my contacts are posting for photos, but I can browse around and locate THIS.

Which really cracked me up.

Dec 17
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

The winter solstice is roaring down upon us, and my world is very white. I was waved off the barn today, which was nice actually. I spent extra time at the Y (I am becoming a yogi, more or less unintentionally) and then came home and spent extra time at the sewing machine. I was following my muse, and she seems intent on lots of thin strips of fabric with whiffly edges. I got the horizontal strips stitched down and was trying to set the vertical blocks so that the loose edges fluffed out around them. I have more strips ripped on the ironing board, so clearly the muse is still chasing this idea.

Dec 15
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

The forecast is for a couple inches of snow followed by freezing rain and rain on top, with temperatures plummeting and solidifying it all into one giant skating rink. sounds exciting.

Alice and I went to see a kids’ production of The Reluctant Dragon. It has always been one of my favorite stories – i have a recording of Boris Karloff reading it aloud on an old LP my dearest Dad kindly digitized for me. Now Alice knows and loves the same story, with the same cadences.  Anyhow – our neighbor was in it, and we needed to cheer her on. Alice was riveted, and wants to take to the stage. She was also interested in  the tech – lights, music, special effects – which is closer to her genetic heritage. At least now we have something to sign her up for.

I am feeling ambivalent about reaching the end of my year of postcards. I realized I am stuck between kid time and grownup time. A kid year is forever. A grownup year is over in a flash. This has been one way to stretch out the year, and make sure I see each day. 

In two weeks, I’ll have to give myself a review and a grade for the year. I also need to think about what I might do next year. I definitely need to do something (smallish) every day, or I get out of the groove. If I give myself a break I don’t come back refreshed, I just don’t come back, at all. If I keep stooging along, then more and more interesting things happen, and more work opens up for me to choose from.

I probably need to sharpen up my goals for the next year too. I’ll worry about that over the next couple weeks.

Dec 14
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

A little less than a foot of snow, and all cleaned up by morning. The kids went off to school, Aerin by bus, Alice by carpool, and I went inside and went back to sleep. Al dug us out in time for lunch.

This was inspired by a woman’s pocketbook at yoga on Thursday. It was made of overlapping rings of leather, riveted together, backed with something shiny. You could see through the rings to the lining, and the strong texture contrast added interest. I like the rings a lot – I can think of a couple different things they can do. I have some cut out already for tomorrow.

A dinosaur mummy, with fossilized soft tissue, and an articulated skeleton. Text here, video here.

How cool is that? 

Dec 13
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I really love the twisty and curly parts of grape vines. This is still more ice coatings on the best twisty one I could find.

In 9 years of school, I’ve never had the kids sent home early. They were sent home early today. At 11:30 the roads were clear and the snow just started. At 11:45 the snow was blowing so hard we couldn’t see across the field and cars were going less than 10 miles an hour. And skidding and slithering all over the road. It took Al an hour and a half to go 10 miles from work to home, it took poor Aerin an hour on the bus to get home from school 3 miles away. Pretty exciting. Once everyone was home, we turned up the heat and got quiet with books and projects.

Happy Snow.

Dec 12
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Experimenting with the settings on the camera, I realized I could adjust the color on the "Color Accent" choice. After a fair amount of thrashing about, plus freezing my fingers, I caught the red of the bittersweet berries, still coated with ice.

Aerin’s band concert was tonight, she was great. I was sitting way near the back, and almost didn’t recognize her until she stood up to bow after her piccolo solo. Stephanie Pearl McPhee  has a great post on the importance, and musicianship, of these grade school and middle school concerts. I think they might change up the program a little more at our school(s), but there is a relentlessness to it. But still, I sit in the middle of the cafetorium (vile word, vile space) thinking "these are all treasured children."

We are all so lucky.

Dec 11
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

We have had two snow/freezing rain/ice storms this month, and another is bearing down on us even as I type. This is a picture from the first one, of part of a grape vine coated with ice on the driveway.

I love having weather, but only if I have a good safe, warm place to watch it from. Aerin and I were admiring the ice coated branches of the basket willow outside the kitchen window this morning, and she mentioned the soft quiet snow that piles up in tiny clouds and puffs on each branch of the trees in the windless storms. There are moments when I feel as though I am doing exactly the right thing with this child, if she both notices and appreciates something like that, and can describe it so beautifully.

Dec 10
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

This looks like the terrain today. Low light, coated with ice, gray skies. I think I failed to incorporate a non-gray color, but I’m not adding anything to this one. Unless you count the extra color in the sky. I am very pleased with it.

Aerin skated off to the school bus on a solid half inch of ice. I took Alice and the car pool through rain and slush. I couldn’t make it up the driveway for the barn, so I stomped up the hill and mucked out stalls. It was too icy to ride – outside the front and back doors were solid ice.

Alice wanted fudge, so we had to make it. It was awesome.