n o d d y b o o m

something

i have signed up for a painting class.  it's good because it forces me to paint for three hours a week and that's something i haven't done in a long time and something i've been kind of wanting to do for a long time and it forces me to take time for myself and i'm just wondering where it will take me.

i'm exploring.  i'm an explorer.

it's not quite the same community i fell in love with at squam.  it's not really a long enough time to paint, three hours.  i think i need a day.  but it's something.

:::

today i feel like

letting go

digging deeper

breathing into the tight spaces

flying

clearing out

embracing

seeing clearer

listening to something else

being quiet

meandering

having an opposite day

or at least an opposite meal

with my kids

connecting

breaking the mold

playing with colors

 

we have this new friend in the house.  his name is pepper.  he is amazing.

:::

amateur hat making :::

a little side project that came out of trying to make a medicine stick for pixie's class.  i was stumped with the stick, so i started making a medicine hat, sewing + gluing things on to a straw hat that seemed to want to be decorated.  it's pretty busy, but kind of eclectic and was fun to make.  now i'm wishing i had a felt hat to fiddle with for the fall/winter season.  

:::

soulodge medicine stick :::

working with the lovely pixie campbell at soulodge this week.  this is one of our many spiritual craft projects, meant to connect us with the totem animal we're currently working with.  i am working with rabbit.  lots of rabbit medicine showing up in my life these days.  i don't know why i had so much resistance with this project (it's a medicine stick, btw), but i'm so glad i pushed through it.  it was almost painful to begin, locked as i was into all my intellectual ideas about how it should go, and choosing instead to just flow with the project and let it unfold + choosing to be with it, perfectly imperfect, as it was.  and now i am so happy i did it that way.  it's like another obstacle averted, another mountain climbed, or something.  and it makes me happy to look at it, this thing.  rabbit medicine.

i can't recommend pixie's course enough.  it's been such a liberating, soul-searching, energizing experience.  race now and sign up for fall.  i wish it could go on and on.  thank you pixie.  xo

this is what she's making with handspun yarn

this and large pom poms, which i have pictures of that i'll post later.  in case anyone has any random handspun yarn lying around and is wondering what to do with it.  i'm so excited.

:::

felted yarn: part two

felted yarn in various degrees of being finished.  i'm really excited about this yarn.  it's thick and colorful and looks like wild dread locks.  that bundle on the bottom is still tied up and needs to be pulled apart strand by strand (the yarn sticks to each other in the wash and needs to be separated a bit after it felts).  the photo on top is of yarn that has been separated.  the process takes a really long time, but it's very relaxing and exciting to see how all the colors + textures come together when felted.

i've just discovered sabrina ward harrison's work and i'm awestruck.  

my family in england, i'm sending you my love.  xo

:::

making handspun + felted yarn: part one

we have spent a lot of time outdoors, so now we seem to be inside a lot.  making things.

next week is the week i have set aside to tackle my photos, but suddenly i'm not in the mood.  i just want to go to the beach.

:::

handmade fingerknit pillow with pompoms :::

   

there was a two day frenzy of pompom-making around here that culminated in this finger-knitted rope-turned pillow.

:::

 

indoor living/inspiration :

i love these photos via milk magazine + my new favorite store, les petits bohemes.  i want to live in these rooms with their stars and birdhouses on the exposed brick walls and their sweet creatures.

:::

portraits #1 :::

 

very exciting to stumble upon this online + print magazine about the art of small gatherings.  i love the name:  kinfolk.

i'm very drawn to intimate get-togethers with small groups of friends and family, where well-prepared food and juicy conversations can be savored + relished.  

i am also fond of solitary adventures; time to myself, time to explore without having to entertain or listen or amuse.  time to be and experience and watch and maybe do something like read.  or daydream.

how nice that fourty-some-odd admirers of smallish get-togethers thought to put together a magazine about exactly that.

it makes me think of that house we looked at in basalt that was surrounded by lush green grass.  the red one,  just off the river with that tire swing hanging from a tree out back.  and a little wooden playhouse to boot.  in my imagination, i had already spent whole summers there, lolling about on a picnic blanket sipping homemade lemon soda while the kids would turn cartwheels and romp, totally entertained by nature, needing nothing from me but a watchful eye and a sandwich brought to them at lunch.  friends would come by for tea + grilled trout, sharing their latest baking recipe or mountain biking adventure story.  i would sketch in a journal and serve chilled white wine and shoo the chickens back into their coop.

oh if only.

:::