Dancing Crow Designs

Sept 17

Sept 17
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Today's face, looking rather like John Lennon.

I'm sick. Alice is sick. It is some phlegmy cold thing, but it makes us tired and grumpy and sleeping is difficult even though it is all I want in life because breathing is even more difficult horizontal than vertical.

The Garlic Festival yesterday was amusing. It was a lot of local artists, growers and musicians. The musicians played onstage while people wandered about looking at crafts and artwork and tasting various garlic based foods. I found some excellent hot sauce but I really bought it because the gentleman called himself Dr. Gonzo (who was my favorite muppet) and wore goggles over the top of his black top hat. He looked straight out of Miyazaki or some other purveyor of patent medicine. Cathy and I found a bunch of tasty things to eat, and split them all making it much healthier. Plus a box of tiny heirloom multi-colored baby tomatoes. Several local organic farmers were there with fabulous lumpy tomatoes and multi-colored vegetables. I was looking for a bumper sticker to send Andy in England, figuring it would amaze the locals and spark conversations and help make friends, but I didn't see any.

Although there were many garlicky things to eat, I have to say I like my own garlic goop best of all. To make it, I take a lot of cloves of peeled garlic, mash it in the marble mortar and pestle with kosher salt to help the grinding, then stir in the nicest olive oil I have until it stiffens up. The result is incandescent, and very nice on toast or chicken or almost anything else.

Sept 16

Sept 16
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Sunday's face. Kinda scary looking.

Sept 15

Sept 15
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

sometimes you just need to step away from the computer

Hilltowns Garlic Festival tomorrow with Cathy. It should be interesting. Tasty. Will report back.

OK - I just had a total squee moment, when my favorite living author said she liked my postcards. Then she made me crack up. I am going to bed a happy woman.

Sept 14

Sept 14
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Friday's self portrait postcard.

giant clothes

Sept 13
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I'm experimenting with my own face, mostly because I don't think I should subject anyone else's mug shot to the things I've been thinking about.

I also made two shirts for Alice.

I have been making dolls and doll clothes for long enough that working on actual people clothes, even for kids, feels like making giant's clothes. In a fit of brilliance I insisted she give me a shirt she wasn't wearing any more in return for the nice new shirt. I got two for the second shirt. I am feeling extremely crafty, both like a grandma and like a fox.

ponies again!!

Sept 12
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

This was a huge improvement over yesterday.

No rain, no driving, no accident, gorgeous weather, pony to ride, happy children.

THIS is the life.

holes, oops, faces

Sept 11
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

deeply odd day.

something in my back went scrunch in yoga (little oops - fixed with child's pose)

miscommunicated with new barn woman, and was there when she wasn't (little oops, but I got to scratch a bunch of friendly horses)

punched a hole in the cutting mat (little oops)(had no idea i was that strong)

van got smacked by a lost lady in a SUV (moderate oops) good news? no airbag, no blood, no vital car or human fluids, all the lights still work; bad news? a costly dent, probably replacing the headlight on that side, and me rattled enough to cry for the rest of the afternoon

late to circus class, no private classes for me until october (just as well, i still need to get stronger in the shoulders)

a glass of wine later, the little oopses are getting smaller

June Journal Quilt

June Journal Quilt
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I have not been so reliable about finishing (or blogging) the Journal pages. I signed up for a Journal Quilt class at Valley Fabrics. The plan is to make a page for every month. I have finished through June (shown here) but I hated July until I got some suggestions from my cohort in class on Saturday. I am working on August and September both at once right now. August is about being married to Al - it has been 21 years as of August 25, 2007. September is a self portrait on account of it being my birth month. I am torn between some kind of funky sideways view and attempting to recreate a Chuck Close kind of gridded dot thing. And eventually I'll have to go back and fix July. All the done pages are on Flickr. Click this image and you'll be whisked there, almost magically.

stomping on details

Sept 10
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Here is the last of the family portraits in shades of blue. I realized I wanted to cut out from the right side fabric that had already had fusible applied to the back. In a fit of brilliance, I printed the black and white image I wanted onto freezer paper, on the paper side, and ironed it to the fabric. Then I could iron fusible to the other side and cut out exactly the image I wanted with no flipping it around or going backwards. I got braver as I went along, with tiny lines and two colors. I like the set of four together. I wonder if more shades are possible.

For today I spent my time spinning. I think that comes from Jamaica, where someone is not attaining much forward motion, for all the effort they are putting into it. Kate sympathized that it was much like the unexpected nap of the young child. It is very difficult to decide what to do, how best to use your time, when faced with a nap of unknown length. It took a while to learn to chunk life into nap sized pieces. Of course it all fell apart when they stopped napping, but school started eventually and ... well, you all know this I am sure.

Mostly what I did was swat things on my to-do list. I showed Al my list, a half sheet of paper scribbled and about half crossed out, and he said "oh. overhead." He frequently says "half life is overhead" by which he means that for any fun thing you do, you spend at least the same amount of time preparing for it and picking up after it. I think it comes from grant writing, when the university took 50% off the top of whatever you were awarded for overhead. Fifty percent to cover the basics; turning on the heat, the electricity, keeping it clean, all under overhead. So to speak.

So maybe I should think of today as spent on overhead. I missed the fun part though. Have to make up for that tomorrow.

dizzy social whirl

Sept 9
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Still working on faces; I figured I'd get more local in time and space. These last three are my family. I was thinking about saving mine for later, or saving all the others til I could post all four together, but the deal is a-Postcard-a-Day.

We had two parties today, both local. The first was the 2nd annual Ward Three Picnic, with Politics and Neighbors. We had a nice time schmoozing with neighbors, talking about real estate prices and local views and the proposed off-ramp.

But we had to leave early to make it out to my neighbor's Pirate Birthday at their lake house. We made it in time for beer and pizza and cake and the pinata. And the giving of the presents. Alice wanted to give Yelena a pony with a cart. She made the cart, and I  finished a pony. Alice found three legs on my desk. I made a fourth leg and a body, and finished it up this morning. Here he cavorts with his brothers before going into the box with ribbon. The new one is purple.