Milkweed Project - crocheted creation

The Milkweed Project, organized by artist Shan Bryan -Hanson,  is a collaborative fiber arts project using knitted and crocheted pieces to link people and the natural word together.  People from all over the world have created pieces in response to the milkweed seed and pod forms and they will be exhibited in a giant milkweed pod.  My piece along with many others is pictured here at the Sticks and Stitches website.  There are some amazing kitted and crocheted pieces in with a wide variety of shapes, textures and techniques. I personally tried to create a piece that had the elements of softness and lace like the the seeds and the sturdiness and solidity of the pod. I was so happy to have found this project to keep me connected to fibers during this heavy metal period!  More rings and metals projects to come...

Autumn Nature Birthday Party

So what do you do for a November Birthday Party?  It's too chilly for an outdoor picnic, but there is still a lot of inspiration in the changing nature of autumn.  

Nature collection from our autumn walks ready for kid crafting.

Party hats! Bamboo and recycled paper from Smock. 

Goodie Bags with acorn, squirrel, owl and tree stamps with lots of glitter.

Leaf, owl, acorn, pumpkin and butterfly cookies with lots of frosting.

Japanese bound coloring book.

Woodland animal coloring pages from First School

Nature and air dry clay sculpture made by the kiddos. A variation of the Montessori flower arranging activity we did here. 

Gathering around the table for autumn-colored chocolate cake.

Blowing out the candles; thanks for holding up the hat Willie!

Smiling faces; Cute as cake!

Autumn woodlands scene.  Holztiger toys from Moolka.

Four!

Happy Fourth Birthday Mai Mai!  What a wonderful four years it has been!  From infant to toddler to almost school-age, my Maia can now brush her own hair (!) draw beautiful pictures of her family (with hair and long legs and many arms!), sound out three letter words like Mom and Dad and Pop and Dog and says the sweetest things like "Mom, you are just what I always wanted."  

She was amazed by the bed Grandpa made and said "I can't believe he made that by himself," and "I want to work on a tree bed when I'm grown up."  

She also wanted a little brother or sister and requested three babies by the names of Percy, Emily and Thomas (can you guess the inspiration?).  So we found her a lovely little sister named Hazel hand made by the lovely artisans at Bamboletta who was then renamed Stella, like our dog.

Auntie Steph came through as well with a baby sister for Hazel/Stella.  And just look at that handmade quilt for the baby (who is also named Stella!)

So happy birthday dear Maia, you big four-year-old you!  You are just what we always wanted!!

Birthday Bed - Lofted tree house

Grandpa Mike, artist, designer and carpenter!

Fully installed lofted tree bed made for Miss Maia

Decorated with butterfly lights and birds

Underneath the loft is a reading nook

Grandma's Butterfly blanket

Side view - opens with a hinge to create more play space

Maia's first reaction - what a surprise!

Peeking through the branches

Happily decorating

Lights at bedtime - a magical treehouse

In her new bed!

Fall Faries

These little girls have been spending quite a bit of time together lately, playing hide and seek and dress-up, making pictures with paint and glitter and sharing a good book together. Summer is not quite 3, but looks as big as Maia which doesn't work so good in the hand-me-down department.  But they can share dress up skirts and Summer is getting pretty good at keeping up with her cousin.  They had their first sleepover on Halloween night.  Maia punched out first and Summer tucked her in and made sure her ponies were nestled in nearby. I'm certain there will be many happy play dates to come.  

Maia's fourth birthday is coming up and with her love of nature walks and animals, we are planning a woodland party in a few weeks.  This must be a popular theme because there are a lot of party ideas on the web right now. We are skipping the fairy stuff and going straight for the woodland animals, forest crafts and fall colors.  I love the mushroom and woodland gnome cakes and the fall themed cookies.  The felted acorns and party pom poms are pretty fun too. I also loved checking in with this site Party Perfect which is full of party inspiration.

The Elm's Gone Golden Leaves

Wintergreen oil transfer print

The Maple's scarlet foliage

And the Elm's gone-golden leaves

Let loose upon a cooler air

To ride a whimsy wind

They loop-the-loop

A dart, a glide

A pin-wheel turn, then

Angle towards the ground

I shuffle through their quiet gatherings

Chase them into rounded piles

Cupped and curled like hands waving

They are off in a rustle of laughter

I know these tricks

But still I stare

At gaunt limbs

And barren branches

So soon their clatter softens

And dampness presses secrets deep

Into earth-brown beds for quiet sleep

Under Early snow.

Copper Book Bracelet & Silver Rings

My first metals project was inspired by a poem I wrote last Spring and by the book form.  The text was etched using blue press and peel and bathed in ferric acid.  The arm bands were roller pressed so a slight imprint of string is visible, then soldered onto the base text piece.  The texture was made with a chasing hammer and everything is held together with a chicago bolt.  Liver of sulfur is the next step, along with lots more sanding and filing and fashioning of some sort of closure pin to keep the pages from sliding open.

Two rings complete, one cut and soldered the other pierced.  Many more to go!

Metals Gallery

Susan May - Tall Ring

Peg Fetter Ring

 Kayo Saito "Swaying Ring"

                                   Meghan O'Rourke  Jali Rings 

                          Joanne Haywood - Blue Bells

                                                                    Sharon Massey Preciousness Necklace                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Meghan O'Rourke  fold out bangles                       

                        Miriam Verbeek Necklace

We started our intro class with a few rings, using basic skills in sawing, annealing, piercing, drilling, riveting and filing.We have learned how to solder, how to clean the metal in warm pickle pot, how to anneal copper until it glows, how to texture with hammers, imprint with a rolling mill and how to etch using asphaltum and PNP blue.  We've used flux and scribes, mallets and ring mandrels, doming blocks and punches, flexshaft motors and firebricks as we began our first project; a tool/jewelry object.  It is due next week and I've got plenty of work yet to do.  But I needed a little inspiration and found lots in the images above.  I love the variety of materials used (crochet and fibers!), the designs, textures and colors.

Inspiring Books: 

Stitched Jewels - Jewelry that's sewn, stuffed, gathered & Frayed by Marthe Le Van

Wrap, Stitch, Fold & Rivet by Mary Hettmansperger

Images from Velvet da Vinci and artist's websites.  

Late September Camping

Fishing off the dock on Lake Kegonsa near Madison: It was cool and overcast, but the sun poked through enough to keep us warm. This campground has two playground areas, a boardwalk through marshland and lots of hiking trails.  
Ko was the keeper of the fire, making sure my kettle was hot for "tea" and dishwater.
Julian kept the fire burning, the logs stacked and the poker hot.
A cool day for the beach, but rock hopping and toe dipping was fun; lots of holes, canals and castles were dug in the sand. We avoided the rain, ate lots of good food and stayed warm around the campfire while the fall foliage began to dry, change color and blow down around us. Acorns crunched beneath our shoes as we spotted rotting black walnuts and wild turkeys in the forest around our campsite.  We woke to the loud honking of Canadian geese flying towards warmer places and held our cups of campfire coffee close.

Useful things: the comfort of crochet

crocheted dishtowels
Originally uploaded by monpon.

I pulled out my collection of knitting and crocheting needles this week and was comforted by the process of making a few projects I found in Crochet Today - dish towels, a acorn and a halloween bunny hat. The yarn was soft cotton and the needle moved freely through loops and v's, warming my hands and relaxing my mind. A much different experience from the poof and hiss of the gas/oxygen flowing from the torch in the metals lab, the grating rub of the jeweler's saw and the piercing bangs of hammer on metal. The cooler fall weather is coming and what better way to keep warm than cotton and wool and bamboo yarns pulled and looped and wrapped together to make useful things?

Yellowing leaves and ripe tomatoes

 

The weather is cool and sunny, a bit dry, but the garden lives on. Kale, chard and green peppers stand strong, while the tangle of cherry tomatoes has dried out and drooped.  A mass of fruit has hit the soil (readying for next year's volunteers?) and another mass of ripe red cherry tomatoes is drying on the kitchen counter. Mums the word, and dahlia's too.  Maia has collected dry leaves and acorns, sticks and pine cones on her weekly nature walk with Papa and placed them just so on her nature table.  

Crafting has taken off since the block party where we beaded, made masks and other recycled crafts from egg cartons. Silver has been ordered and sawed, pierced and soldered and my first piece of metals created.

New Moo cards have arrived which are pretty darn fun and a trip to the outdoor market produced some vintage materials and trim.  A dress is being sewn, a washcloth crocheted and lots of tomato based foods are being prepared. The fall sun slants brightly, soccer games have commenced.  The autumn season is in the air with tulip bulbs to plant, bags of red apples brought home from the orchard and  banana bread baking in the oven.

More pictures here.

Back to something resembling routine

Back to routine, or so we are trying.  Alarms ring at various times in the morning from three different clocks.  For the boys, each morning is the same; school and work, M-F, same time. And for the girls there is much more variability.  8 a.m. class two days a week,  with appointments, coffee dates, beach visits, play time and lab hours varying from day to day.  With the abrupt end of napping, we are reorganizing our afternoons to include some "quiet" play, an earlier start on dinner and getting that bedtime routine started earlier without forgetting the teeth brushing, hair washing and bath time.   For a couple of parents who like to go with the flow, (correction - go with their own flow) this is our hardest time - the beginning of a new school year.  There is quite a bit of unpredictability built into JB's work schedule, so we are also trying to figure out how to maintain structure and routine despite this and without mom burnout - high standards start somewhere...

Read Alouds for all ages

Not that reading favors any season, but since we are wrapping up a summer of picture books and trilogies and heading into a cooler season when reading becomes even more necessary, here are a few of our current favorites.  John is reading The Last Olympian to Julian and Shadowland is next up in cue.  Maia loves all of the picture books listed below and has had us read them all over and over again.  Special props to us for complying, since I usually get board with the same old, same old, which is according to Mem Fox, defies one of the secrets to getting your kid to be a reading wiz by age 18 mos.   But these picture books have enough detail, humor, silliness, sweetness, surprise, and of course lovely artwork that I can't say no to her little request of "again!"

by Philip Pullman

 The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, Book 1) 

 The Subtle Knife, Deluxe 10th Anniversary Edition (His Dark Materials, Book 2)

 The Amber Spyglass

by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

The Conch Bearer (Brotherhood of the Conch) 

The Mirror of Fire and Dreaming: Book II of the Brotherhood of the Conch

Shadowland: Book III of the Brotherhood of the Conch

by Rick Riordan

 Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1)  

 The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 2)

 The Titan's Curse (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 3)

 The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 4)

The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson & the Olympians, Book 5)

by Blue Balliett

 Vermeer  

 Wright 3

 Calder Game

by Louise Erdrich

Birchbark House, The 

 The Game of Silence

 The Porcupine Year

Big bug surprise by Julia Gran

The black book of colors [braille] / by Menena Cottin and Rosana Faría

Squirrel at night / by Mélanie Watt

Doodler doodling / words by Rita Golden Gelman ; pictures by Paul O.Zelinsky

Monkey with a tool belt / Chris Monroe

10 things I can do to help my world : fun and easy eco-tips / Melanie Walsh

Dear fish / written and illustrated by Chris Gall

I don't like Gloria! / Kaye Umansky ; illustrated by Margaret Chamberlain

The hound from the pound / Jessica Swaim ; illustrated by Jill McElmurry

Bad kitty gets a bath / Nick Bruel

The robot and the bluebird / David Lucas

The red book / by Barbara Lehman

George and Martha : the complete stories of two best friends / by James Marshall 

 

The spider and the fly / [based on the poem by Mary Howitt ; with illustrations by Tony DiTerlizzi]

Basil/tomato ratio = no bruschetta yet

100_0295
Originally uploaded by monpon.

So instead I made pesto. Walnuts, olive oil, lots of garlic and salt and pepper blended up and stashed in the freezer. The next batch will just be basil and olive oil frozen for a cold wintry day. Oh, wait, that could be soon because today is down-right autumnal.

Mai in Motion

In constant motion, despite no naps, this girl just keeps moving, dancing, running, chatting, playing and stopping occasionally for a quick snuggle or hug.  Sweet as pie, growing long and lean, loving her pink milk and walks around the block.  She looks forward to her weekly trips to the zoo with grandma and grandpa, still detests having her hair brushed (the birds in the nest are going to get mad if you brush it!) and tries to stay as close to undressed as possible. She loves her inherited and much added to collection of stuffed animals. She puts them to sleep in a laundry basket, lines them up on her pillow at night, moves them here and there, talking quietly to them. Dogs and kitties, bears and spider monkeys, penguins and bats. They float in boats, ride in buses, slide down stairs and huddle on beanbag chairs. And she picks one out for me to snuggle with at night when she finally relents and settles in for a few books, a couple of sips of water and finally, a long, sweet slumber. 

A Scrap of Honesty

Thanks to Christi at Writing Under Pressure for thinking of me and passing along an award that allows me to tell you even more things about myself than you already know.

It shouldn't be too hard, right?  I did the facebook 25, I blog about family life and the kids and the arts and crafts we do, but honesty?  I try to stay a little to the left of honesty.  I try to write around things, to capture them in a circle of details and impressions as if I were outside looking in. And now I should write a few scraps of honest truths?  Dare I?  Won't they all sound as If I am still hiding something, after all I am!  Smoke and mirrors baby, smoke and mirrors and more smoke...

1.  Although I value creative play, my three year-old is a TV head, and the truth is that I am sooo grateful for the 45 minute blocks or so that she will sit on the couch and yuck it up in front of Peep and the Big Wide World, Charlie and Lola, Hello Kitty or Ruby and Max for the umpteenth time.

2. I guess I should admit that we encourage this by buying movies for her: Bolt, Bee Movie, Wall-E,  not to mention most of the Miyazaki films though the only ones appropriate for her are Kiki's Delivery Service and My Neighbor Totoro. And her grandpa further encourages her love of cinema by bringing over classic Disney every Sunday night like 101 Dalmatians, Fox and the Hound, Lady and the Tramp, Bambi and the like.

3.  And what do I do while she is watching her shows?  Laundry?  Loading the dishwasher?  Checking up on the older brother? Nah!  Reading trashy mags like US weekly or those ad-filled parenting mags that just show up in my mailbox and warn me of the dangers of too much tv...

4.  Since my slacker mom ways are shining through... when all the tv in the world has been watched, I still have the i touch with a few toddler "games" on it to keep her occupied for a few extra minutes until she starts back in with the juice requests, the "I have to go potty" declarations and the constant assaults on my personal space.

5. I made these Chocolate Chip Cookies adapted by Molly of Orangette three times in the last week - sinful and yummy and really the batter was better than anything I've ever tasted, though I prefer milk chocolate chips to the semi or bitter sweets. It also took three tries to actually wait the full 36 hours of refrigeration before baking them.

6. I love naps, but my sweet little kitty thinks that it is time to give them up and I am stuck in the denial/anger stage of grief over the loss of our nap time.

7.  Sadly, I haven't done any "art" for most of the summer except for a few ink drawings with Maia that look like a fifth grader could have made.

8.  And my brain is turning a slightly green color, growing fuzz around my right temporal lobe.

9.  I  appreciate kid-humor: for example, today as we were filling up old, expired surgical gloves with water, the 11 year-old said as one of the fingers in the glove expanded eighteen times its original size "look, my balloon has antidermitus," which then turned into a slew of jokes about that auntie Dermitus having elephantiasis of the handermitus. Luckily no one mentioned anything about "sausage digits."

10.  And finally, silliness aside, I do feel as if I am too often on the outside looking in, obsessively weighing, evaluating, and assessing over the minutest details of my life, my home, my work, my family and just for a bit, I do wish it would all just blur up a bit more once in a while.

Consider yourself bitten.  YOU on my blogroll (Brian, Jocelyn, Denise, Wendy?) or YOU who are not on my blogroll and could use an excuse for a post, carry on the scraping, after all it's not like you have to reveal all your secrets...

Show Your Codpiece and Turn it Up!

Now playing at KSJD in Colorado on a show called Native Voltage hosted by DJ Maurice is my bro-in-law, Sean's band Codpiece   The show features "Music from native nation, native bands, solo native music, native local bands and mixed with voltage music (Pow-wow, Round Dance, Rock, Metal, Punk, Funk, R&B, Oldies and Reggae) a different kind of a radio program mix that well put a voltage in your soul on the road or at home. TURN IT UP!!!!"

Hang out from 8-10 to listen to a telephone interview with the man behind the bass and vocals of Milwaukee's own Codpiece.   You can also listen to a few tracks at Show Your Codpiece on My Space.

Thirteen - It's Official

Originally uploaded by monpon.

It's official: Julian is a teenager. Papa John bravely took Juj and three friends to Wisconsin Dells for the day on Saturday to enjoy the unnatural attractions of roller coasters and water slides. The boys slept in the on the living room floor and couches and woke up groggy but ready for an epic burrito birthday party affair. Though the party went on and on for hours and hours, I took few photos; I was far too busy looking for my lost glass of wine, readying the burrito bar and socializing with all the friends and family that stopped by that day.

What flashed through my mind as I lay in bed that night were a handful of absurd and laughter-filled scenes that although they were not photographed they remain vivid in my mind:

1. Julian and Pat blowing out their candles with small balloon pumps and big smiles on their faces.

2. Joe-Joe passing out poppers before singing Happy Birthday and the loud confusion of singing, popping and confetti landing on the candles and in Amu's hair.

3. Stella-dog barking and chasing rocket balloons the kids launched in the house immediately after the popper incident.

4. Summer sitting in a puddle of bubbles that I just opened despite Courtney's warning that "bubbles are for outside."

5. Vida Mae and her Shirley Temple curls.

6. Maia and Gracie sitting on the couch playing constructively with "potty putty" and the turtle shaped putty I found in the toy camper van the next morning. Along with lots of other toys and games that were pulled from somewhere deep within Maia's closet.

7. Stella snatching someones burrito off a plate and the walk that I took her on shortly after thinking that something might explode from either her front or back end in which she pulled me down the block ribbons streaming from her collar from balloon kids had tied onto her, not stopping to sniff or mark, just yanking on her leash, anxious to get back to her party. Though she did graze on some of the 16 varieties of grass we have growing on the front lawn.

8. Kobe and Maia sending up the rest of the helium balloons with pictures, notes and names written on them long after the party ended.

9. The laptop cake Amu and Papa made for Julian with his photo on the "screen."

10. Julian opening the package sent by the US government containing his official passport; Welcome to the world kid, this time it is for real!

The few photos I took can be viewed here.