it's a colorful life

at least one small corner of my life is now organized. and isn't it pretty? a rather meditative activity for a cloudy saturday, watching back-to-back episodes of QI and dr. who (thank odin for the BBC). hope your weekend is colorful too.

get out there and meet someone new

after my recent paradigm shift, i've been thinking about ways to be more active in my local surroundings. because previously, when i haven't found the human interaction i felt i needed in my everyday life, i turned to the blogosphere for such things. (easy now, i'm not abandoning that!) but husband has long teased me that i should find creative people in my area and hang out with them.

late last week, i stumbled onto the brooklyn brainery website and through it, found the society for the advancement of social studies and i longed for there to be such organizations in my area - somewhere to hang out with interesting people, to learn something esoteric, to teach about something i love (like blogging? or how to go about a 365 photo project?). and on facebook, i lamented that if there were to be such a thing in my area, i'd have to start it.

after more than a decade of closing myself off in order not to feel that feeling of rejection from the at times cold culture around me, i screwed up my courage and went to the library. i go to the library all the time, so it's not that bit that required courage. i knew that one of the women who works there is involved in the local "culture house," and i decided that i'd talk to her and share my ideas with her and ask how i could get involved. just out of the blue. like that. opening myself to rejection and everything.

and guess what? she was totally cool about it! she gave me her card and invited me to their january meeting where they will elect a new board and discuss the coming year. she said there are also possibilities for such activities through the library and not only through the local culture house (they managed to get their hands on the quaint old city hall building in our little town). and so last night, i sent her a mail with some ideas. and i'll talk to her some more on thursday. and i'm feeling pretty excited about it.

sometimes you just have to dare to get out there and meet someone new.

we interrupt the interviews for the colors of the moment

it's been awhile since i played with big huge labs' color palette generator i love to do this to check in on the colors that are attracting me at the moment. these are all photos i've taken recently. hmm, i sense warm scarves and quilts on the horizon...and i still haven't painted over that awful pink in the kitchen. i wonder if these colors are among the ones i bought two months ago?

i love the names of some of these: bracken, allports, chelsa cucumber, stromboli, persimmon, sherpa blue, mash, chenin... tho' my ubiquitous teals and greens are here, there are some other ranges sneaking in. what colors are speaking to you in this late summer-early autumn transitional time?

coloring eggs

i'd love to say we used natural dyes, but i'm afraid it was traditional paas and crayons all the way. this was our third batch this year. and we'll probably do at least one more. luckily we like egg salad.

scenes from an atelier: by sabin, age 9

i turned sabin loose with the cameras at my weaving teacher's atelier this afternoon and these were the results...

pencils await inspiration to strike.

a peek through a plant at the beautiful, unique, fish-laden woven window panels.

jewel-toned materials await their chance to be used.

wool in waiting.

i'm just blown away by the child's natural eye for composition. these photos were all taken with the nikon D60, but she took quite a few with the nikon D300 as well, tho' at first she complained that it was too heavy. afterwards, she said, "mom, now i like the "big camera" best and it doesn't even seem heavy anymore."

more about paul's beautiful works in the coming days...i have to process both my photos and my thoughts about his unique and wonderful work.

ikea is more than just meatballs

i hadn't been to ikea in several months and i went the other day to stock up on the throw pillow cases i use for my etsy pillows. i wandered into the fabric section and fell in love with several fabulous fabrics. ikea has some seriously great fabric designers. in addition to the one that i got to make a bedspread for sabin's new and improved big girl room, i found these beauties as well (please forgive the pictures, our light sucks this time of year):

this makes me think of dr. seuss.

this has a dr. seuss-ish quality as well and i love the colors

birds and cages in cheerful colors. i can think of lots of good things to make with this.

and a seaside scene to remind us of warmer, lighter times.

i've finished sabin's bedspread and made a couple of pillows as well. i "quilted" the fabric to a fleece (also from ikea) and put a binding around it, which i sewed on with the machine to save time. i've decided that what kills me about binding is that hand sewing takes forever.

#86 - bedspread for sabin's bed

the fabric is designed by lotta kühlhorn for ikea.

it's so cool i decided she needed credit.

i know this picture is blurry, but the light is horrible these days and i wasn't patient, nor can i hold still.

also blurry, i realize. again with the lack of light. yet i show you the crap pictures anyway

because i want to count #87.