Dancing Crow Designs

headed north

My brother is a year-rounder on Monhegan, 12 miles off the coast of Maine between Rockland and Damariscotta (you know, go down one of those thumbs to the very end, and catch a ferry).  Since the weather is dreadful much of the year, and I am a stone cold wimp, we only visit in the summer, when it is lovely except for water issues. We are headed out tomorrow for the long drive and ferry scrimmage. We'll touch down for the end of the day around 4:00 pm, having left before 7:00 am tomorrow morning.

For all that I dread the trip, I look forward to the island part. I stop wearing a watch, and we make sure to catch the sunset at least once, and we let the kids stay up late, and we walk everywhere. The island is tiny, about one mile by two, and all the houses are on one side. The rest is hiking trails and coastline.

I'll bring pictures.

what the big kid did on her summer vacation

She went to circus camp for a week. This was one of the two pieces she was in for the end of camp spectacular:

front of July TIF

IMG_3780
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

just a quick peek at the a piece of the front - a layer of painted white cotton jacuqard stitched to a plain white cotton twill.

I've been inspired by jude's efforts to try this month all by hand. Go see her stuff now - it is always inspirational.

Aside from my fingers hurting (my thread is too fat) and my impatience showing, it has been educational. Plus it is rather more portable than previous efforts, making it possible to transport and work on in VT for my third and final week of assorted camps.

me meme

me meme
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

There is a kind of flickr thing making the rounds, where you type things into flickr search and choose the image you like best off the first page. It is basic things, like your name, and where you went to high school, and favorite drink and dessert. I liked how mine came out.

June TIF done

June TIF done
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

All strung out like that they are much more impressive - singly they are eloquent but small (5"square).

I was working from the idea of stories from one's stash. Like many, that meant all stuff from the stash, unlike many these were all bits I had failed to put away off the end of the ironing board; a kind of stash within a stash if you like.

I liked the image the palette was taken from so I looked for fabrics that echoed sink colors. The pages were inspires by a series of encaustic pieces I found on the web. The woman used text to make striking images. I tried to echo the idea of text with the beads, and realized some of them did look like odd transcriptions. Some reminded me of the little scratch marks when little yellow Woodstock talks to Snoopy.

The pieces are all mounted as pages in a small square book.

biking in Vermont

What I like about biking in Vermont is that all the roads are either uphill (no biggie, that's why I have all these gears) or down hill (whoopieee) or running along next to a river.

Both girls have camp in Brattleboro VT for the next couple of weeks. Aerin is helping keep small children from falling off circus equipment, Alice is learning scenes from Shakespeare to be performed at the end of two weeks. I get to have a day in Brattleboro while I wait for them to be done. Yesterday and today I rode my bike. Yesterday was down the Connecticut River on the New Hampshire side and into Massachusetts, then across it and back north on the Vermont side. It was lovely coming back up the river with the wind pushing me along up the hills. Today I followed Rt 30 north along the West River. It was busier than I usually like to ride along, but the river was gorgeous. I got so hot I waded in, bike clothes and all, at my lunch stop. It was cooling as I continued back to town.

I am still working on the June TIF Challenge, I am almost done, and that should be my next post.

things I like about summer

no bed times (until camp starts)
no getting up times (see above)
no commute to any where
fireflies
games of Manhunt all over the neighborhood in the dark
taking six (!!!) kids to the beach and sailing (my two, a sleepover friend, plus three neighbors)
how cool the air is in the night (mostly) with the fan organized just right
more fireflies
fresh veggies from the garden (not mine - black thumbs - but the local CSA is across the street)
the smell of the first cut of hay
sailing a tiny boat in a tiny pond
fireworks
driving around with all the windows open

Happy 4th of July for other USans
Happy Summer for the rest of you in the Northern Hemisphere
Happy mid winter for those of you in the antipodes