mosaic monday: wintery tones

you know i love to take the temperature of my flickr faves occasionally and see the big picture of what's catching my eye. maybe because it's been so grey and foggy outside of late, grey tones have made their way into my normally very bright flickr faves. these are so lovely and peaceful, tho', i don't even mind the grey. 

a bit more color here, tho' still far more subdued than my usual. maybe i'm in a peaceful, soft period.

this is a little closer to my usual self, with touches of teal creeping in here and there.

i'm just adoring these softer, more washed out tones. we'll have to see how they manifest in my own surroundings.

and a few that aren't so much about the color as the subject matter...cocktails and iPhones and coffee...what more could a girl want on a monday?

as always, click on each picture to take you to my flickr stream, where you can click on through to the original photos and fave them yourself!

happy monday! if you're in the mood for healthy vegetarian fare today, check out this post. and please do suggest a name for our new tractor.  there's a handmade prize in it for the one who suggests the name we choose!

name that tractor

if you have a tractor, you really have a farm, right? and if your tractor has a big scoop thingie on the front, that's really good, right? and if you also got two barn kitties, then you're well on your way to living in the country. and if you gave the neighbor down the road permission to put his cows in your pasture this summer, then you can call yourself a farmer, right? can you see i need reassurance here? because it's quite an old tractor - a massey ferguson. it's a bit temperamental - husband had trouble starting it and then getting it in gear and he's normally pretty good at things like that. but now he's learned how (the previous owner had to come over twice this morning) and it's all good. the kitties, on the other hand, might not be so happy about their new digs, but they'll adjust, i'm sure.

now, s/he just needs a name...any suggestions?

husband did manage to get it running and pull it into the carport the other way, so that little chimney thingie wasn't in the way. and he also managed not to hit his head.

oh, and there will be a prize for whoever suggests the name we ultimately choose to call our new old tractor - the best name (as judged entirely subjectively by husband and sabin) will win. i don't yet know what, but undoubtedly something handmade. the cats, they came with names - tiger and woods, so we don't need names for them.  now if i could just remember which one is tiger and which one woods...

a touch of the mad cow

i love pretty paper and recently got some sweet little bitty squares of japanese paper from this etsy shop.

so after watching 4 different videos on youtube (i'm a little slow) and downloading a PDF (which i couldn't relate to at all), i managed to make these two tiny paper cranes. however, i got stuck trying to make a third one. it's kinda like me and granny squares...my mind goes blank on it, like it's never done one.

i wonder if i have the mad cow?

intersections 4: magic on film

you may have noticed that i am quite an immediate sort of person. the photos i use here are usually taken on the day i post them (tho' my clarity birds from a couple of days ago were taken last summer).  i have a bad habit of not really looking back, even in my iPhoto. which means that i completely forgot that i hadn't shared all of the wonderful photos from the second roll of the film swap with shokoofeh. so here are some more for you here on the cusp of the weekend.

i think i'll just let them speak for themselves.

happy weekend, one and all.

so far this week...

~ i bought a product called "hobby skum," which in and of itself, i never thought i would do...not imagining that scum could ever be a hobby. but with it, i made this little mattress to make sabin's built-in bench more comfy:

bench for watching t.v. in sabin's room
it has storage underneath (which isn't quite finished yet)

~ i finally got enough of those little styrofoam bead thingies to fill the handmade fat boy beanbag chair for sabin's new room. you need WAY more of them than you think you do. so many, in fact, that i maybe should just have bought her a real fat boy. she's always got it out in the living room, tho', as you can see here:

iPhone AND iPad in action.
super cheerful blue fabric from Ikea

i got these fabulous new cheery postcards from syko on etsy. you may know her from her scandinavian stitches book.  a little late afternoon sunshine broke through onto them, just as i took this photograph. i'm all about brightening up my environment these days in an attempt to make spring come faster.

i began to read an article that i thought was about the fashion culture of holy warriors, but which turned out to be about how they dare to be suicide bombers. and here, i thought leave it to the danes to want to discuss jihadist fashion during copenhagen fashion week. the misunderstanding arose from misreading the danish modkulture as modekultur for the linguists among you.  it actually was a very interesting article about a woman named ann-sophie hemmingsen who recently finished her Ph.D. on the attractions of jihadism in which she investigated the reasons that young muslims raised in the west turn to extremist branches of islam and are willing to give up their lives for the cause. turns out it's not out of any burning religiosity, but more about finding a group with a strong identity, being part of a counter culture and feeling like they belong. hmm. sounds pretty human to want those things.

~ i spent a good number of hours today without electricity, since a nice electrician was here, changing out our 1940s switchbox for a modern one with fuses and everything. i thought i would be paralyzed if i couldn't use the internet or the sewing machine, but you know what? i was just fine. and had plenty to do.

~ i marveled once again at the superiority of the british when it comes to crime shows. last night, it was a new one i hadn't seen before: criminal inspector banks. just excellent - strong, complex characters and a great story. no dazzling camera tricks and no one was wearing prada.

~ i found husband's growing stash of screws and nails. and let me tell you, i clearly do not yet have enough fabric.

~ speaking of fabric, i had a strange conversation with my mother in which she did not understand my fabric stash. she, the queen of stashing in general (jello or cake mixes, anyone?), claimed she had never bought fabric for which she didn't already have a project in mind. i was incredulous to say the least. and i refused to send my half yard of robert kaufman metro cafe mixers, even tho' she was going to sew something for me. happily, i found an etsy shop with some left and had it sent to mom so i didn't have to part with mine.

~ i learned listening to the radio that our DNA is 4% neanderthal. that explains so much.

what have you learned this week?

waiting for clarity

it feels sometimes like everyone else has all of the ideas. which sounds odd, because i've been babbling on of late about how many ideas are swirling in my head. so maybe it's not a lack of ideas, it's that everyone else actually sits down and acts on them, while i sit here stewing in my idea soup. but it's also that other people's ideas seem profound - like these beautiful little art quilts that commemorate the zeitgeist by exploring the theme of foreclosure.

i can't really remember the last time i had a profound idea. i guess my ideas come in quantity and not quality these days. and that quantity can be paralyzing, leaving you unable to act on any of them. or even just get started. so i sit around, making what i can only begin to characterize as an obscene amount of clarity birds. there is, after all, a kind of meditation in repetition. and i remain hopeful that clarity will come. but i don't feel very patient here in the waiting.

things i liked but did not buy

if i could be sure it worked, it would have bought it

fantastic old projector

and another, even more elaborate one

if phones still looked like this, i'd have one.

more goodness from saturday's visit to the flea market. sadly, none of these came home with me, except on my camera's SD card.