indelible studios

We’re so lucky to have you to goof around with!  And we’re bringing cake tonight.

xoxo

Here is M working on her first-ever embroidery project.  She took it straight off the hoop and made it into a “doll-thingy” in the cradle, even though I offered to finish it as a blanket or a pillow.  She has since started a second project.  I think her favorite part is picking out the colors of floss – she is actually able to hold the hoop and manuever the needle all by herself with barely any help after just a little while practicing.  She likes to work standing up next to the couch or the bed, although I try to be careful when we do that – I once sewed a pillowlike Care Bears doll (the kind that’s printed on the fabric and then you cut around them and sew, turn and stuff)) right to my aunt’s comforter while working on it standing up.

That reminds me that I’ve been remembering that my love of crafty projects was kept burning by two unlikely family members: my aunt Diane and my paternal grandma – I don’t know why but I forgot that I often did crafts with them during visits.  With my aunt Jean, we usually baked.

Anyway, tangent.  Here’s M:

She often asks to help me with my embroidery projects too.

So I haven’t written a blog post in, what, a few days?  More than a few?  Did I post since our trip to New Orleans?  I did right?  Oh man I can’t even remember….

This is mostly because I have nothing to report.  No embroidery, no sewing, no container garden updates (um what’s up with that?  I think the plants need fertilizer).  Just lots of time spent with gringey (my mom), lots of time feeling lazy and/or bone-tired, and lots of time thinking about what I should be doing.  Oy.  Writing that makes it look really bad!!  Ok, back to productivity again starting tomorrow.  So I need something inspiring.  I have a tote bag to finish, but I think I’m not feeling the cross-stitched bracelet thing right now.  I don’t like the patterns I’m “freehanding” so I think I’d better resort to sketching them out ahead of time.  One good inspiring thing that I would like to start on is an embroidered header image for this blog.  I really liked the way the feeling stitchy one came out (oh!  I did post about that!  That was after New Orleans!) so I’m going to do an indelible studios one next.

I’ve got to get to campus and make copies/enlargements of a bunch of stuff, mostly from Sew Simple magazine (which I love) and a couple of other things.  That will help me get back into the sewing groove, I promise.

But rest will also help.  So, goodnight!

My daughter has been making these crazy things at the workbench at her preschool.  The above creation is a “Fraggle thingy.”  The first of many Fraggle thingies, which are “for Fraggles to sit on” and/or “do stuff with.”  (She’s a bit obsessed with Fraggles, and the Beatles too.)  Most of the creations are made from combinations of boxes, colored masking tape, pipe cleaners, and paper.  Sometimes they include string or yarn, stickers, bows, plastic containers, etc.  The above “Fraggle thingy” is made from a yogurt container, pipe cleaners, tape, film canister, tinsel, pom poms, and paper.  She is SO proud of these creations. They remind me of what Amanda has said many times on her blog and in her book – that her kids’ favorite materials to create with often come from the recycling bin.

M loves making things at school and bringing them home – often it is pictures, but sometimes it’s a “letter” folded up in an intricately tiny way and stuffed in an envelope.  They have a painting area in addition to a writing area and the workbench.  All this besides any special thematic art projects they have going on to complement whatever lesson they’re working on (and they usually can choose what to work with; besides art and writing there are games, imaginative play, Montessori activities, listening to a story on tape, etc).  We love our preschool so much.

My banner was up on feeling stitchy for a while – it didn’t win the banner contest, or even place as a finalist, but the admins decided to rotate all of the entries on and off the blog over a couple of days.  It was actually a little thrilling to see my piece up there!

Here’s a screenshot, thank goodness we captured it for posterity: