Nov 17
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

So we are still at home. Alice decided she wanted to stay here, she wasn’t feeling well enough to cope with the city. So I am working on more room clearing, and finding floor space and lost things and more dead pens (note to self, no more jelly pens. ever.) than absolutely necessary.

Talked with the Other Kate yesterday, and we joked about Thwartation, with a side of Shui (see Mason Dixon Knitting for usage) and other things that happen when it is impossible to plan.

As for this postcard, I am not sure what it is all about. I started to make it, and my hands took over, and found old bits and scraps, and just whanged it together. So I let my hands do it all.

Jenny Crusie talks about The Girls in the Basement when she’s writing, or collaging about her writing. The Girls are the part of your brain that knows what happens next, but can’t talk very well. So they show you colors or sing songs, or stop at pictures of your main character when you thought it was her sister. She says you have to trust the Girls.

So I let my girls work on this postcard. It is kind of interesting, working that way. I like this postcard too.

Nov 15
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

It has fur. I found this over at Ragged Cloth Cafe, and was inspired. Or whatever. In a fit of goofiness I attached a brown sheepskin heart to a brown velvet postcard.

The cleaning out continues. The room is in that disastrous phase where truckloads of carp are removed and the remainder is spread across the floor in the decision making process. Alice’s art school is totally loving me. So long as they don’t think I’m dumping stuff on them, we’ll all be good.

Al is installing the new computer next to me, so I’m cramped for space at the moment (mouse in the lap, keyboard under the chin) and things may be off-kilter for a bit. It’s a mac. With a really pretty screen. We’ll see how that goes.

Nov 14
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I used to just like saying ginkgo, but I fell hard for the object itself when I found fossils of it in college (in samples in the lab, not in the field). It is a living fossil, older than dinosaurs, with recognized leaves from 270 million years ago. Wiki talks about it extensively over here; scroll down to see some fossils.

The leaves have this lovely flexible feel to them, with all the veins running parallel to each other the length of the leaf. The veins furl together at the edges where the leaf narrows. It almost feels as though you could unroll the stem into something as wide as the leaf itself, but I couldn’t. The leaves I collected remain quite soft still, when the maple and oak leaves are brittle and dry.

Nov 13
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I’m sorry, I have nothing useful to say.

I had circus class today.

I am working on a reverse New Year’s resolution, where I resolve that my workroom will be cleaner and emptier by New Year’s, letting me give that old resolution a long deserved rest. I read about it on someone else’s blog, regarding fitness and weight loss. I thought it was a great idea, but I’d rather apply it to my work room because, well, I’m spending a lot of time in there, and I’d like it to be neater, better organized, and easier to work in.

I have issues 1 – 60 of Threads Magazine. If anyone wants to give the complete set a good home, email me and we’ll discuss shipping. It was a great thing while it lasted, but they’ve gone all focussed and technical about sewing and skipped the rest of the string things they used to do so well. I’ve reread them, they are still great, but I need the room more than the inspiration.

Nov 12
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

An acorn cap is one of my favorite things in nature. It can be plate or cup or hat or whistle. It is smooth on the inside with interesting textures and scales on the outside. The center of it looks like an eye.

Nov 11
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Another patchy background.

I’m not entirely sure what kind of nut this is. Although after looking about on Google I think it is a black walnut. Beechnuts are small and triangular, maple keys are helicopters, hickory nuts are not visible and all the acorns are gone (but I have some caps that Aerin can whistle with – they shriek in a most amazing fashion). Plus there is a black walnut tree dying in the neighbors’ yard. The world’s fattest and sassiest squirrels bring the nuts onto my back porch and make loud noises of ownership while they peel off the heavy green outer covering, and crack these extremely knarly interiors to get at the meat. Then they throw the shells around. When they aren’t scheming on how to get in the house so they can eat whoopie pies and smartfood.

Yesterday nothing went as planned, so I gave up. Alice and a neighbor and I went to the Smith College Art Museum for their family fun day. The neighbor really is a cheerfulness pill. Even though I was aggravated and on the verge of tears when we started, I had cheered up by the fabric store where I stopped in and allowed as how I was going to completely miss the journaling class. From there we went for bagels for lunch and then hit the museum.

The theme for the the day was book art. We got to make our own books (star books, and accordion fold books) and then paint a book-shaped box with fabulous colors and stick things on it, then try to make a projected picture that looked bizarre until you looked at it in a cylinder. I realized on the way home that I had been taken out for an art date by a pair of 10 year olds. I made two great little books that I want to actually put things in instead of saving for some special project. I have a little booky-box that I want to make a dolly to go in. And then maybe write a story about her. So I thnked them very much and went to make my postcard.

Today I just went and sat in the coffee shop and pretended I was 25 again. I covered a postcard with triangles, invented two different ways of filling triangles with triangles, and wondered if there was a triangular coordinate system. Then I went home and resumed family life.

Nov 10
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

This one is an idea I had for making bigger things that I wanted to test on smaller things. So think of it as a test. Or a proof of concept.

I really like making and using these patchy backgrounds.

Nov 9
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

A very appropriate set of swatches for today because I went to Equine Affaire and saw more different breeds of horses, demonstrations, supplies, tack, clothing for both people and horses, and assorted carp with horses printed or engraved on it… It was at the Big E fairgrounds in 4 different buildings. I fell in love with a new saddle. It is for forward seat/jumping but has long billets like a dressage saddle and only a single flap instead of layers. But I didn’t buy anything. That took strength of mind. It helped that I have no horse, and thus didn’t need about 55% of the stuff available. It also helped that I probably wouldn’t become a cowgirl (although I do crave red cowboy boots and a red cowboy hat) so there is a different 55% that I don’t need, or Saddle Seat, for another 35%… Of course the saddle I fell in love with has a $2700 price tag on it, so that would cover a lot of other much cheaper carp. Except for the horses themselves. Or the trailers. Holy moly I could live a happy life in some of those trailers – there were ones with tack rooms and changing rooms and kitchens and beds….

But this has nothing to do with postcards, does it? This postcard is circles of different horse colors taken at my two different barns.

Nov 8
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

The end of one of the logs at the new barn. It made me think of the ends of two by fours. I was looking at horse colors (a future postcard) and found other things that are brown as well. If I run out of things I like that are brown, I get to shift to more abstract stuff. Just saying.

Nov 7
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I took the camera on a ride on the old horse last week – it is how I got the lovely shot of the woods between his ears – and there were beech trees shading from yellow to brown all through the woods. This is a closeup on one of the smaller trees, with branches at eye level.