Quietish

Hey.

I’ve not been around online much, true, but I’m around. Emailable and textable and callable, you know. I’m definitely not in sit-still-at-computer mode. Sorry about that.

So. Update.

Jamie had her recital this past weekend. The fam was up for it and Jamie was adorable as always.

She also has a very very loose tooth that is hanging all snaggletoothey from the top front of her mouth. She won’t let me near it.

I finished a sweater yesterday. I love it. Ignore the look on my face– I’m sure it’s just something Justin said while taking my picture.

Rusted Root

Today I finished some artwork for my brother James to use on his film company’s website when they get it up, etc. Thankfully, he seems to like it. This is a good thing because it took me FOREVER to get around to doing it.

So. I’m off. I have a movie date tonight. Yay!

I was lying in bed this morning, glasses off, when Jamie burst into tears and begged me to show her how to draw a Moogle. She had decided it was too hard and gave up drawing one on her own. So I rolled over and sketched it with a ballpoint pen. She thought I should share it.

I spend quite a bit of time thinking about and/or complaining about my lack of time and my inability to do everything I want to do. I’m often frustrated that I can’t keep up with all of my interests. Last night however, I was surprised to sit up and realize that the “regular” day I had been having was actually very productive.

I started the day by trying a new hairstyle with Jamie. Tall pigtails right in front to keep her out-of-control bangs out of her face. Once she was at school, Cian and I got some coffeeshop time as well as knitting time. I had finished some fingerless gloves the day before and celebrated by starting a new shawl project.

The afternoon was relaxed but also managed to not be lazy. When I’m home with the kids I do things here and there, but yesterday I also managed to grab up the guitar and practice a bit several times. I had a cat in my lap or a dog in my lap at various points. Oh yes, fuzzy puppy/kitten time is indeed essential. I also had kids in my lap or sitting on my legs here and there, too, naturally.

I cooked dinner. For the third time this week. I will wait while you regain consciousness.

After dinner we had family TV time (which is actually pretty unusual for us). Pokémon. I cross stitched. CROSS STITCHED, people! I did maybe 2 square inches of stitching in all of 2007. This is huge!

With the kids in bed, I fit in my nightly walk accompanied by an audiobook. I came back and stitched some more.

What I did to deserve a day with more hours, I don’t know. When I spend some time drawing and writing in the next few days I will have everything covered this week. Who knows, I may even feel like I have something to post about.

I have a really full life without even trying too hard. That is exciting to me, and I hope that I can make a habit of not worrying too much about things and letting them happen.

Happy 2008, everyone!

I’ll warn you now that I’m in a mood to whinge, so the post below will follow accordingly.

I shouldn’t complain. Life is good. Really.

But the crafting? Not so good.

Knitting goes. It’s fine. I’m just a bit uninspired and when I am inspired, I’m too busy to do anything about it. I would be tempted to cast on every project I have the yarn for, but I would like to keep on with my tactic of not exploding my head.

I would like to quilt. I want to try paper piecing like Jen does. I want to make up crazy HP themed appliqué designs as well. The problem? I have a very lame fabric stash. It’s a stack of highly-patterned fat quarters, mostly. This makes it hard to find anything worth cutting into tiny pieces to sew back together. And if I did have a fabric stash, I’m not sure where I’d put it anyway.

I have been daydreaming about beading. Beads are beautiful. I want to loom bead. I want to learn the peyote stitch. I want to work with tiny, tiny Delicas. I don’t know how to start though and, as is usual around here nowadays, I don’t even have time to put the research into it. Although I think I’m hitting the bead market with Susan.

Yeah, you’re right. I have so much to do that not only can I decide what I want to do more, I don’t even have time to consider. So, it’s knitting by default I guess. I can cast-on a new project in my sleep.

I’ve managed to squeak a little reading in lately, but it’s still not enough! And my little dream of one day actually writing again? Just as I lost my ability to speak German with any fluency when I quit using it, I fear I will not know how to string a sentence in English when I finally do sit down and try to put something out. I can picture showing up for my first day back in college classes (maybe next year? gulp) all eager and happy-go-lucky with pencil in hand, only to have my brain leak out my ears when the Freshman Comp professor assigns the first essay.

This last weekend I spent a few hours in the tattooing chair of a very good artist that’s working in Oklahoma now. People that do such good work always make me wistful about art. I’m annoyed that I quit back when I was in the right place to keep going with it. Now I’m all rusty and feel like I’ll never catch back up. The idea of trying for art school now is laughable. I can’t find time to sketch even weekly.

While I’m at it, I suppose I could go ahead and mention that this year I’ve also had weekly guitar lessons. Full disclosure and all that. I’ve been at it since February, when I decided that I’d been wanting to play for as long as I could remember and should finally just go for it. I’m happy, I love it, I look forward to every session. It is VERY slow going though, I assume because my practice-at-home time consists of a few minutes here and there of grabbing the thing up and playing a few bars before having to put it back down. I really am not used to not being instantly good at something. (Double negative, wheee!)

As is consistent with my above statements about not knowing how to write anymore, I shall now end this post with no real point. I’m frustrated and while I know that you all will have great advice and wonderful words of encouragement, I’m just gonna have to live through the frustration for awhile. It’s just part of my regular cycle and when it’s done I’ll pick back up and happily move along. I just like to whinge about it now and then.

At least I’m thinking about creative things, right?

Thanks for listening. For sticking around, I’ll post the pic of a hat I started last night.

Ciao.

It’s a little sad that it is Thursday and when I pop into my blog’s home page it says “…it’s Monday” at the top. I feel as if I have accomplished very little this week and I haven’t had much to post about.

However, I did spend a few minutes playing with colored pencils a bit ago and here’s a little something to look at:

I seem to have a lot of random bursts of fascination with my small stash of art supplies lately. (BTW, you should check out the owl webcam here.)

Between doing things with the kids and running errands yesterday and today, I have managed to finish the front side of Lacy Waves and am currently pushing towards the finish line on the sleeves. I have to take it slow though, as the “YO, P2Tog” pattern in them has turned out to be hard on my hands.

Played with my little watercolor set today. It’s quite adorable. I have almost no prior experience with watercolor painting, but I keep finding myself trying it out on various things. Today I was particularly enjoying experimenting with mixing on the little palette that slides off the bottom of the compact.

Not the greatest display of skill here, but this is my take on the current CMP ATC exchange theme, “A World in Bloom.”

I hope you took my hint last week, went over to Shimelle’s, and signed up for her latest class. She surprised me recently by inviting to be a guest artist and to create a sample to go with her prompts. Her classes are always so cool and so worth it. Hope I’ll be seeing you there!

Someone might have told me that I should maybe tell you to that if you’re the scrapbooking and/or art journaling type, or if you’re the type that simply likes me and is compelled to check out things just because I say so without much further information, that you sorta might be interested in this link: When I Grow Up

I shall say no more, for now.

Simple Knitted Bodice, now into the 5th ball (whee!), sits by while I work on non-knitting stuff this afternoon. Knitting to recommence this evening.

I have always been a mess. That is to say, I’ve always been one to completely immerse myself in whatever I’m doing. When I clean, I am covered in whatever I am cleaning with. During my short stint in dog grooming, I was always soaked head to toe and covered in hair and shampoo (and often other stuff). And of course, when I’m being arty, I become quite colorful.

Currently my hands are coated in gel medium, white acrylic, and india ink.

What’s on your hands today?

I don’t know if she is following my lead or if she’s just in the mood, but Jamie has been coloring and drawing lots lately. Normally, she’s not one to sit still and color.

Over the past week, she’s colored a couple-inch stack of pages printed from the Littlest Pet Shop website. Earlier I was drawing owls and she stole the piece of tracing paper I was working on so she could color it in. And for the last hour and 1/2, she’s been drawing what she calls pokemons.

Dig it.