Here is another pattern I made today, this time with leaves.
Looks like this weekend is going to be a moving marathon. Even though my lease doesn’t end until the end of May, yesterday I noticed a “for rent” sign outside of my building. That sign really lit a fire under my bum. I’d rather have everything out of my apartment when the landlord starts walking people through. I guess it will be good to have it done and over with, rather than dragging it out until May. It will also give me back my time. Instead of going over to the apartment every night for months and bringing a small carload at a time, I can resume normal living all in one location again AND I look forward to having my own studio room to work on art (in case I haven’t mentioned it about 3.7 bajillion times already).
Do you ever go through those periods where you feel you have come down with a severe case of the uglies? Man, I am suffering big time from this lately. I get up in the morning after sleeping sound the entire night, get ready and put make-up on and still feel like I look I haven’t slept in days . It might be in portion to still recovering from being sick last week, but I also think it probably has to do with the fact that I haven’t exercised in weeks. WEEKS, People! And I haven’t been eating all that great either. Another reason I look forward to being done with the move is that I will feel guilt free about spending time on myself going to the gym, cooking good meals, etc.
Earlier today I saw this knit piece on flickr and was inspired. I want to knit a vest using my handspun, I’m excited. And then if you notice the belt in that same piece. The pattern is so perfectly suited (small and repeating) for such a piece. It has inspired me to create the pattern at the top of this post to iron onto fabric. I love fabrics with small repeating patterns. Often I see fabrics with the cutest patterning, but it is so big, so if you cut or sew the fabric down you can’t really see the pattern much anymore. So I decided to design this tree pattern where each tree is less than 1.5″ in size.
On Monday, my sister and I went into the city to the Art Institute to see the Hopper and Homer show. Chris liked Homer and I liked Hopper. I kind of had this impression that Hoppers work was all like Nighthawks, and kind of lonesome and distant, but after seeing this show I don’t think that anymore. His pieces really spoke to me because of their interesting and unusual composition, angles and obvious inspiration from film noir. His work is not sad and lonely, but like a screen capture of a story. That being said, my favorite piece in the show was a very simple painting that actually didn’t really have elements that I listed above. The above painting titled Hodgkin’s House, has a pretty central composition, the content isn’t very dramatic, but just a sweet house with angles of the light and spectacular use of color; greens with splotches of dramatic red flowers.
One last thing: here is a cool tutorial to turn an altoids tin into a tiny water color palette.
Hey everyone! Sorry I’ve been gone so long. I’m in the midst of the slow move from my apartment to the new place. I was slammed with the flu earlier this week which put a damper on moving much this week. Lastly, my desktop is still sitting on the living room floor so I am somewhat limited to computer access. Last night we brought Theo, my rabbit, over and she seems to be adjusting better than I could have ever hoped. She has been less timid than she was in my apartment and very eager to come out and play.
Searching through flickr at handspun yarns I came upon a flickr for Liz (pocket farmer) and was instantly smitten. She spins, and farms, and gardens and seems to live such an ideal life to me. I would almost go so far as to say, she is living the life that I always dreamed would be mine, as I grew up.
Seeing her images and reading her words has me even more pumped up about gardening. A post on her old blog got me thinking about how when I was young my family used to garden every year. To me it was just something you do, every year you garden and grow your own vegetables. This may not be right, but in my memory, as we (the kids) got older and my mom went back to work, we gardened less and less until no garden at all, yet I still have this idea in my head that gardening is an important part of life. Maybe gardening was just a phase my parents went through, but it just happened to fall in such an important part of my life.
When my sister and I took a road trip years ago we stopped at Lehman’s Non Electric, a store in Amish country devoted to all things…you may have guessed it, Non Electric. There, we picked up this wonderful book by Readers Digest Back to Basics and it just seemed full of exactly all the things that my parents were interested in while I was growing up, doing things for yourself the traditional way.
As an adult living in a location where there was no plot of land, not even a windowsill to place a container, it was always a regret that I couldn’t garden and just enjoy the outdoors in that manner. So now, I’ve found myself in a place that doesn’t really have space for a garden, but I do have a patio and have high hopes for some container gardening. Matt sent me this link earlier this week, how to build a square foot garden.
Last but not least, I would like to send out a thank you to my friend Sheila for sending me this wonderful easter package. I love this little bunny she sent me after I noted that it looked like Theo. Also, love, love, love the idea she had to make her thank you notes on a library card, brilliant!
I wanted to post because I just found out about this site http://www.savepolaroid.com/ and encourage you to please visit. There is also a flickr group http://www.flickr.com/groups/savepolaroid/ devoted to it as well. They ask you to please upload a polaroid picture to the flickr group, download the postcards free off the site, print them out and send them to the powers that be. They also have more actions that can help, such as signing petitions etc., etc. I’m not sure if wrote on here about how polaroid will no longer be producing instant film after 2008. It is very heartbreaking to me, as I use their film very often, and I own and collect polaroid cameras. As much as I am hurt to hear that polaroid is doing this, I can’t imagine how panicked those artists who work strictly in polaroid, and make their entire living from it, must be. All hope is not lost, with this cause, your help, and the fact that polaroid said they would be willing to sell the rights and ability to produce polaroids to another manufacturer, instant photography might be able to continue on. Please, please, please visit the site. Here it is again http://www.savepolaroid.com/ .
Thank you very much.
-robyn
I can not bear to contain myself. The fresh air has hijacked my mind and it’s impossible to focus. I know it’s not for real, it snowed just Sunday and I’ve read it is supposed to snow this weekend too. But it seems like spring is right around the corner. In the meantime I want to run around barefoot, I want sit outside in the sun and I want to rip the plastic insulation off of my windows.
Tomorrow we get the keys to the new place. I am very excited, but not enough to prompt me to start packing. See, the lease at my current place doesn’t end until May, so I am in no rush. But, don’t get that confused with the idea that I am not looking forward to the move.
Things I have to look forward to:
-I will have my very own room for all my art stuff. I might even venture to call it a studio, ooooh.
-That room is south facing so it will get lots of light. Have I ever mentioned how my current place has no light and how dungeon-like it is?
-I won’t have much of a yard to garden in, but I am so excited to at least to have a porch and patio, and now I’ll be able to do container gardening, yay!
-No more tacky wood paneling.
-No more ground level windows, or what I like to call peeping tom level.
-I have 3 levels, a main floor, upstairs and finished basement. I love houses with stairs.
-No more fighting for a parking space.
-I will have my very own recycling bin AT LAST! And the garbage pick up will be right at the end of the drive, rather than 2 properties away in a dumpster.
-A new mailman, I pray. Someone who actually delivers it and picks it up properly. Is it so much to ask?
-A garage to put my bike, oh yeah and a car can go in there too. Honestly, I’m more excited that there will be no more bike in the hallway or kitchen!
-No leadfoot, stomping, upstairs neighbors waking me up at 5 am every morning.
-Goodbye Sk8r boi, no more failed attempts at olys right outside my bedroom window when I am trying to sleep. (This kid should honestly be pro by now, with how many hours he puts in daily, but no one has yet to see him land a single, simple maneuver.)
-Goodbye double paned windows with moisture stuck inside, Hello clear views!
-Goodbye rabbit ear antenna, Matt can’t live without cable.
-Of course, when I get home Matt will be there already, and we won’t have the epic struggle of “no you come over to my place”.
I love this picture! The yarn is finally finished and currently soaking. I have to admit that it doesn’t feel as scratchy as I thought it would while spinning it. I still wouldn’t want to knit it up into something to go against the skin, but maybe a hat or a bag would work fine. And, Oh, all the torture to spin up that amount, was long forgotten once it was plied into this beautiful yarn.
and, and, and as I am in this major fiber mode lately, I have set up a ravelry page that can see here, come friend me if you are on ravelry too!
This weekend I hit up 3 fiber shops in one day with my friend Mary Kay. That has to be some sort of record.
Now I am on a mission to get the absolute worst yarn (above) done before I allow myself to dive into the luxurious fibers I just bought. I have this box full of horrible wirey, course fiber that I had bought when learning how to spin. I dyed it all with kool-aid when I first started dyeing stuff and it is all mostly bright kool-aid colors, not mixed, but just straight from the packet, cherry red, lime green, blue raspberry, orange, etc. That wouldn’t be so horrible if it weren’t for the texture, and the fact that when dyeing the wool I often felted it, AND it is out of control with nubs AND vegetable matter. I’ve finished about a bobbin and a half and it has taken me foreverrrrrrrr. I just want to be done with it. Honestly, I think it will look really cool because it is just about the same thing as this, but it just doesn’t feel as wonderful as it looks. It will be good to destash this monster pile of fiber, in perfect time for the move. Now if only I could do something about my 2+ tall laundry bins full of yarn (not handspun). Can we say garage sale?
Since last week, I’ve barely been at home. Every evening has been so busy and I can’t believe the weekend is almost here again. I realized that I haven’t really posted at all. FYI-My dad is home from the hospital and doing well.
(edit: hehe, I originally wrote doing good, and then reread it and realized it was improper grammar. I thought about it and wondered what are the actual rules for using good vs. well and found this test which I scored 100% at, lol)
Here are some things that have inspired me lately:
Spring is arriving, slowly but surely.
This amazing dress on craftster.
And lastly, here are some good design blogs, that often feature great home decoration. In one week Matt and I will be getting keys to our new place, a duplex in town. Very exciting.
design sponge
apartment therapy
decor8
happy mundane
it’s knot wood
modish
poppytalk
notcot
ikea hacker
Have any other great design blogs, let me know :)
Just a few cool links I wanted to share:
It’s finally March and that means Thing A Day is complete! You can check out all my posts for the month here. It was fun, and I’m proud to have completed something to share each day. One thing I learned; it’s one thing to create something every day, and it is another, to have to photograph it, post it and write something about it. I will be glad to go back to working on whatever I want for now, big sigh.
Here is a link via design sponge (I think) about people who dress only in one color always. I really love hearing stories about eccentric people and the idea of wearing only one color, head to toe, everyday makes me wish I could do something like that. One woman wondered if it might be some sort of illness, as she has to wear that color head to toe, even including underwear to the soles of her shoes. Another one said they couldn’t fall asleep unless they were wearing their color. Very cool.
Last week, a coworker informed me that I am in a minority of 25% of the population that “suffers” from Photic Sneeze Reflex. Basically, light causes me to sneeze. I never knew that it was rare, I thought everyone was like this, although I have encountered people who thought I was crazy for thinking that light would make me sneeze. In fact my brother was in disbelief until matt found the above page. The funniest thing is that on that wiki page it says there is possible treatment for this disorder but “the oft pleasurable nature of sneezing means that there is less demand for solutions to the reflex.” Sneezing is fun, lol. Neither my brother or sister have this ability, but I swear my mom or dad must, because I remember one of them teaching me as a child to use to my advantage. When you have one of those sneezes that just won’t come out, you just open your eyes as wide as you can and look into bright light and you’ll sneeze.
