n o d d y b o o m

polaroid series ::: two

 

outdated polaroid 600 film (blue)

portraits and our last sunset in hawaii

great article debating whether or not to incorporate technology into your child's childhood and about how techies from no-cal are choosing to raise their kids in the woods and about waldorf education versus other forms of education and consumption versus creation.  

thank you to all of the mamas who continue to help me move through parenthood with as much grace and wisdom and conscious presence as i can muster up.

thank you to my beautiful children who have taught me so much more than i ever thought i was capable of learning.

and to my amazing husband who loves and supports me through it all.

summer and its slow cuddly days are over for us.  it's a bittersweet ending and the beginning of fall and all the delicious things this new season has to offer.  we are ready to slip into the solace of finding other things to do (besides dip into technology) like cooking, planting our fall garden, adventuring, making things, collecting, reading, exploring, playing, etc. 

i'm excited for chilly nights, lots of reading, cozy fires and thick, hand-knit slippers.

:::

polaroid series ::: one

  

outdated 600 film

summer sparklers, ie: fairy lights

summer is winding down.  i'm not quite ready.  are you?

adventures in front yard gardening

there is really nothing like watching your child pull out the carrots that he planted from seed.  carrots that are bigger than his head!  so fun.  now we have pumpkins, corn, sunflowers, beans and tomatoes planted and growing.  we are getting better at watering and feeding everything.  there's been a lot of trial and error, figuring out what things need.  we are kind of learning as we go, here.

:)

the light has been extraordinary in the late afternoon.  i've been inspired to pull out my polaroid film that i've been hoarding away.  i haven't yet experimented with the new instant film that's being developed.  have any of you?  i'm excited, though, for a long summer of messing around with it, among other things.

what are you doing this summer?

here's my wish list so far:

+ read, read, read

+ work on a grafitti (or some other type of art piece) for the back yard (we're giving the back yard a face lift and we're thinking of just embracing the urban-ness of it)

+ refine the dotzauer pieces i'm working on for cello and explore music theory

+ design new labels for my handspun yarn

+ bake pies

+ learn how to use my vintage espresso machine

+ beach, beach, beach

+ get my hands dirty

+ finish that quilt i'm working on and maybe start another...

+ lounge in the hammock

+ run

+ learn how to make a good bloody mary???

+ have a bbq or two

+ take a road trip

this is really just part of the list, but i could go on and on and i need to be realistic about what i can actually cover in the summer. 

i hope you are having a magnificent weekend!

:::

rainy day series in two parts : part two

there are prospects of rain again this week, despite the sunny weekend.  tomorrow.  i have my fingers crossed.  i'm looking forward to one more day of gray skies and the pitter patter of wet drops hitting the roof and the windows.  me and my knitting.  wet boots by the door.

a lot of these were taken through the windshield of my car.  lots of running around.  errands.  classes//etc. 

the skies are my favorite.  and the tree branches, reaching their branches, like arms and fingers, up.

everything glistens, in the rain.  come back rain!!  :::

i'm going out for a little outdoor job/romp/walk/to smell the crisp morning air before it gets wet again, as it promises to.

have a lovely day.  :::

follow the geese

well, hello there.  we are enjoying another busy weekend filled with  shopping, a dinner at a friend's house, a concert, some "making" time, a little cooking and a drop in temperature, which means - soon - slippers and scalding hot tea sipped by the roaring fire.  mmm.

twice this week i ran as hard as i could all the way to the beach and then walked back, panting heavily.  it felt good to be outside.  to feel like i could almost kick off the ground and fly into the sky, just for a moment.  my legs ache.  it's nice.  i wish i could play you one of the songs i was listening to while i ran, but i can't.  it won't be out until march, i think.  but oh.  thank you, thank you for music. 

there is not much else to say.  we are clinging to our rhythm as the tide clings to the beach.  it embraces us, nudges us onward.  feelings come in waves.

my cello teacher has the following story hung on the bulletin board outside her office, which i thought i'd share:

"this fall when you see the geese heading south for the winter, flying along in "v" formation, you might consider what science has discovered about why they fly that way.

as each bird flaps its wings, it creates an uplight for the bird immediately following.

by flying in a "v" formation, the whole flock adds at least 71% more flying range than possible if each bird flew on its own.

when a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to go it alone and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird in front.

when the head goose gets tired, it rotates back in the wing and another goose flies point.

geese honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.

finally - and this is important - when a goose gets sick or is wounded by gunshot and falls out of formation, two other geese fall out with that goose and follow it down to lend help and protection.

they stay with the fallen goose until it is able to fly or until it dies.

only then do they launch out on their own with another formation to catch up with their group."

kind of a nice story, i think.  lots to think about there.

take care, everyone.

gratitude :: a daily ritual

thank you for reminding me to bring my own bags to the supermarket, today.

thank you for helping me to decide to be the person who pulls over when the street is not quite wide enough for both cars to pass so i don't have to get frustrated about the fact that everyone else hardly even seems to slow down - no big deal, because i choose to pull over anyway, right?  right.

thank you for giving me the chance to listen to a really good piece of music this morning.

thank you for the santa monica stairs and for the twelve times i had the opportunity to climb up and down them and for the thoughts and revelations i had throughout my climb.

thank you for helping me decide to keep my son home yesterday after all, because he really did turn out to have a cold and wasn't trying to pull a fast one.

and thank you for making that parking spot right by the beach magically appear on the way home from school (after making that decision to keep griff home) and for that glorious 40 minutes or so of watching him dig holes and roll in the sand and gathering pebbles together and chucking them into the water.

thank you for those amazing seat warmers in my car that kept me warm earlier tonight, on the way home from marley's ballet and cello classes.

thank you for giving me the opportunity to try a new recipe that happily turned out to be delicious.

thank you for arranging things so that chris finished his work early and got to eat dinner with us and chase the kids after dinner, their laughter filling the house.  thank you for that.

thank you for that absolutely gorgeous sky several mornings ago and for helping me think to grab my camera and snap pictures of it.

thank you to everyone, for sending such wonderful words of condolence and encouragement.  it is greatly appreciated.  truly.

and thank you, sheila, wherever you are, for that great idea to move the couch into my studio.  i did it, you know.  so now there's a place for my good friends and my dear husband to sit and hang out and sometimes join in with whatever i'm doing, when i'm in here working on things or not working on things, whereas before the whole room was rather... uninviting, cozy as it was, because there was absolutely nowhere for anyone to sit but me, which kind of sucked because people did want to come in here (piles of wool and fabric and yarn and possibility are attractive, you see).  well... you did see.  so, anyway,  the couch is working out great.  thank you for talking me into that.  chris is sitting in here with me right now as i type, and it's... lovely.

grief

 

 

 

on the day of her death, we noticed new leaves were poking their tiny arms out of the dark earth, from beds she had inspired;  reaching toward the sun, stretching, bright green and young, bursting with new life. 

on the day of her death, we decided we would still go to the pier after all and go on all the rides and play and have fun, in her honor, because she would have wanted it that way, the kids were sure.  and we did.  they must have gone on that roller coaster ten or fifteen times and every now and then, one of them would say something like "will the happiness be gone from our home for very long?" or "you know, now grandma is sewing the stars on the throne of god in heaven" and things like that and i would smile and save the tears inside for later, when i was alone, after they were fast asleep and dreaming.

on the day of her death, i thought about the speech the principal gave at my sister's school, when she graduated and how he made sure we understood that they had not prepared these kids for life, no.  "have we prepared them for life?  no", he said.  and i remembered standing there with my jaw hanging open thinking, "well, what the hell have you guys been doing all these years at this unbelievably expensive private school?" and i looked at my own children and wondered what the hell i was doing to prepare them.

on the day of her death, i sorted through pictures and found that, like me, she had been the one taking the pictures, not standing in them, so much, and i thought, i need to take more pictures of myself, perhaps.

on the day of her death, i held my husband in my arms and rocked him and felt his body shake as he sobbed and my heart burst into a million tiny pieces with his.  i said goodbye and reached out with my mind to all the memories i have tucked away there and listened to her voice in my head all day and the next day and the next.

color week :: brown

 

1.  knitting needles.  letterpress letters + tray.

2.  blue bottle coffee and raw chocolate.  mmmm.

3. a favorite stick we've kept around for a while.

brown is one of my favorite colors to explore.  there are so many browns i admire. 

a set of pencils we have

hardwood floors

tree branches

my favorite hat

the pony i got from astulabee

acorns

my sx-70 camera (that i have yet to alter properly, but still.  it's pretty cute just sitting there).

my daughter's eyes and hair

my grandpa's forever tanned skin

cattails

wood chips

hot chocolate

pudding

sepia photos

my cello

i don't know.  so many things.

 

1.  chris's bass

2.  favorite tools

these were taken with film that was still cold from the freezer and the results were quite unpredictable, but they're sort of painterly.  kind of.  i saw these gorgeous blueish photos somewhere, once, in blogland.  polaroids, i believe.  and the artist talked about how freezing the film created the blue tint in them.  well, that obviously didn't work for me.  i had originally taken these hoping for blue, so i could use them yesterday.  nope.  but they work for today, strange as they are.

and here is my lovely cello teacher demonstrating thumb position on my cello, which i am going to go practice right now.  so exciting.  and then i have 15 pumpkins to carve and cookies to bake, etc.  big weekend ahead, you know.

well, that was fun.  i hope you all enjoyed it!  thank you so much for playing along.  i've been wanting to host a color week for a while, but i was intimidated by the commitment.  but i did it!  i feel so accomplished.  and inspired.  and pooped.  i think i'll take a mini wee break from this space to dive into halloween and spend a few days post candy madness tidying things that need to be tidied and also trying to organize some of the photos i have piling up around my desk.  i found all these great photo albums at the container store and the poor things are sitting all lonely and untouched on the floor.  tsk.  tsk. 

plus i have some other things i'm making.  i'm in a making mood lately, cool windy weather and all, and if i sit here in front of the computer i accomplish none of it.  so...

have a wonderful weekend and halloween and i'll see you back here sometime at the end of next week, probably.  

take care!

color week :: blue

polaroid 680 se

random blue things i love.  there are only the three.  i don't have any sets or anything.  i just like the color, so i grabbed 'em when i saw them.  the glasses, that is.  the seltzer bottle was a gift.

 

 

 

 

shot with a lomo and cross processed.  i have no idea what the film speed was.  (i'm very bad at keeping track of these things.   naughty).  now i can cross number 1 off the list.

1.  aspen.  i can't remember the name of the trail, but it was griffin that spotted the heart-shaped rock.

2.  aspen.

3.  santa monica.  i love the pixie tag.

4.  the same trail as the first pic. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

canon g10. digi. 

mostly things from my studio.  that suitcase with the deer was a gift and i keep some of my un-finished projects in there.

that table on the bottom used to be my kids' art table.  it was once a sunday school table and now it sits in my living room/den, in front of my couch (it's a short table), stacked with japanese craft magazines and that bin of thread i found at a flea market years ago and still haven't used.  but i love looking at the spools, so i sit there and drink tea and read or whatever.  it's a cozy spot.

i hope you are enjoying color week.  i know i am!  it's so exciting to peruse all of your colors and images and words.  i'll be back tomorrow with brown. 

karen has joined us.  check out her amazing photos here and here.  and zoe is jumping in as well (yay!).

have a gorgeous day, everyone!

color week :: purple

 

 

polaroid slr 680

i think these are more mauve than purple, but oh well!  purple is a challenging color for me, for some reason.  i love the softness of the polaroids though.

looking forward to seeing your colors.  there have been some gorgeous images (and stories) this week!  thank you everyone for joining in.

tomorrow is blue.

have a wonderful day!