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October 31, 2005
Modern Quilt Along update
Kelp quilt. Abandoning the Redwork pattern in the Modern Quilt Along book and adopting a freestyle motif. Turquoise/olive and puffy, similar to the quilt seen here in the book by Jean Ray Laury.
Posted by Steph at 05:11 AM | Comments (0)
October 30, 2005
Thinking of: Holiday CelebrAprons?
Posted by Steph at 08:30 PM | Comments (0)
First Place!
We had to leave home without finishing the costume. Seventeen papier mache quills left to tack on but I ran out of glue for the glue gun. When we arrived at the lake for the carnival, we stumbled onto the costume judging stage. Around forty children were decked out and fidgeting in their seats. We coaxed Ford onto the stage and he just stood there when the the kids began to parade in a circle around him. But following Ford were many ooh!s and aa!s, and he ultimately won first place! Twitching those creepy claws of his. He is so proud.
Honorable mention goes to Ford as Samurai. Here, searching for treasure in the hay. School Halloween party.
Posted by Steph at 09:35 AM | Comments (0)
October 29, 2005
Studies reveal that girls are getting dumped earlier in life than in previous generations.
I walk Ford to school every day. School's been going great.
Today when we rounded the corner of the playground, the boys yelled, "FORD'S HERE! FORD'S HERE!" and stampeded to the fence to wait for him. Closer to where we walked was the little playhouse, and a cute little girl in pink and white, with straight blonde hair heard his name and walked out towards us. Ford lurched forward from the jogger so he could annunciate through the veil of chain-link:
"I'M *NOT* YOUR FRIEND!!!"
She heard this, didn't flinch, and turned right-side-round back to the playhouse. I watched her tell the other girls what happened. Or that Ford is a little prick and I hope he never calls again. That bastard.
UPDATE: It has been over a week since I last posted this, but I forgot to mention that, on the following day's walk to school, Ford picked yellow wildflowers for this sweet little girl. When he arrived at the gate, Ford climbed over his friends to hand-deliver them. Alas, she didn't want to hold them all afternoon, and Ford wondered why not. Still, they are new friends.
Posted by Steph at 12:13 AM | Comments (0)
October 28, 2005
thinking of: a "My Animals" puzzle
Posted by Steph at 11:36 PM | Comments (0)
October 26, 2005
SPT, Self Documentary Series #4
My little corners, here and there.
Nobody but me would put Rosemary the pony in her own stable for the night, nor would they place Bird the fish next to the lava lamp during the night to stay a degree warmer:
Nobody would go to sleep at night without putting the lily pad sculpture back together again and tuck it aside, either. And here is the Christian coloring page that Damon gave me and that I laughed at on Sunday after we argued about the importance of the church to religion:
I enjoy feeling a tad more like gentry when I see these putters beside the entrance, along with my homemade cedar walking stick. Offset by a huge walking shoe collection (of which mine dominate):
These little green clogs are a gift from mom on a trip to Amsterdam a few years ago. Damon keeps accidentally throwing them away and I somehow manage to rescue them every time, my sixth sense (or what I call my Unwanted Clog Sense) kicks in. I prefer these to remain nested by the front door, even though nobody can currently fit into them.
The last photo is the wild card; the tabletop is a good reflection of my spirit tonight: slightly cluttered but creatively content. I am building a wild boar head for Ford with papier mache. This is for his Snifferator costume WARNING!!!! CREEPY!!!! But he insisted and I think it's way cool anyway.
Posted by Steph at 11:19 AM | Comments (0)
October 25, 2005
First Big Boy Shoes
Posted by Steph at 04:22 AM | Comments (0)
October 24, 2005
He had me at "Kelp Forest," Fun in the Garden, Hold the Sprinkles
We have a wonderful wool rug in our living room. We bought it in May about three hours before our renters signed a year contract on our home in McKinney, and I somehow believe that it was because of the rug. Being inviting and cozy, it softened our concrete floors and probably made an otherwise cold and cloudy Spring day a little warmer.
There were 3 designs we were deciding among when Damon sold me on the one now own. He told me that it looked like a kelp forest, and with those two words I was sold. He literally had me at "kelp forest." And every time I catch myself staring at the rug, I get warm fuzzies thinking about happy creatures like sea lions sea otters and encrusting bryozoans. And sometimes ice cream and bubble gum. Because they're made with carageenan. Which is made of kelp. You know.
Anyway, this rug is very special to me and I decided it's time to make a napping quilt in it honor, for the cooler month or two ahead. I've been on the fence about joining the Modern Quilt-Along but I figured I could do a me-version of the Redwork pattern in turquoise and dark olive. Maybe take a little creative license and use variegated and hand-painted solids with hand-painted floss? Maybe a little trapunto?
We explored another nursery in town today: The Natural Gardener. It blew me away, I think it is an attraction on many levels. The prices are fair, they have a tremendous variety, endorse organic gardening, have an abundant and helpful staff, numerous display gardens and a few barn animals. I could and will take the kids there on a weekday and kill an hour easily. And maybe a coupla twenties. Easily.
For the kids garden I selected:
Lamb's Ear
Texas Rock Rose
Pineapple Sage
Texas Fall Aster
Purple Oxalis
some feathery-purple-flowered perennial that attracts throngs of Viceroy butterflies that I can't remember the name of and I'm too tired to go outside and look on the plant tag to find out what it's called
Round-leaf eucalyptus
and Damon's pick:
Squid Agave.
(They were out of Pony Foot and I dutifully denied myself the Smoke Plant, but I'll be back for both soon enough)
We had terrible cupcake cravings today and I didn't fight the urge to bake two dozen vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting. Magnolia Bakery recipe. The frosting became a pale pink and Damon insisted I forego the sprinkles (which I will never forgive him for; he believes that sprinkles ruin cupcakes but I will fight this argument to the grave--who WOULDN'T?!). The icing called for one entire bag of confectioner's sugar. That's right. Ultimately, they tasted like Krispy Kreme donuts with the same pleasurable guilt. One can only eat perhaps, well, one. So I boxed them up immediately and marked them "BARBEQUE" for tomorrow's potluck at Damon's colleague's home. Why bother taking a photograph when you can imagine what they look like, without the sprinkles.
Posted by Steph at 01:56 AM | Comments (4)
October 21, 2005
Why?
Every family should have a village to help it grow. Every single one, yours and mine.
Posted by Steph at 09:52 AM | Comments (2)
October 20, 2005
Argentina?
I need to recharge my sense of wonder. While I was watching a squirrel outside on a limb, I reflected on my dull reaction. I thought my appreciation would climb if I travelled to another continent on another hemisphere.
Posted by Steph at 11:37 PM | Comments (0)
crazy crayons
These are an exhibit of tedium but the children enjoy them. Chas left toothprints, do you see them?
Posted by Steph at 04:46 PM | Comments (0)
fingerpainting.
the cornstarch recipe is not as pretty as goopy.
Posted by Steph at 09:51 AM | Comments (2)
October 19, 2005
metro-retro botanicals
My brother John told me that, if I were shopping for succulents (which I am), that I should drive over to Big Red Sun in East Austin, because they have the best selection in town (which they do). Above is a wall hanging in an assortment of unique pieces termed "retro botanicals," variations on (what is probably their signature) Midcentury Modern bonzai-kitsch.
While it wasn't wise to bring the children (the place reminds me of someone's home--someone single--the way totems and art mingle in sterile grace with the contrived botanicals) it was wise to bring the camera. What I couldn't spend five seconds examining was more easily photographed so that I might instead watch the heathens, who were climbing all over everything.
Posted by Steph at 08:35 PM | Comments (0)
October 18, 2005
Self portrait tuesday - self documentary series #3
Working in the office.
Multitasking, usually involving children. Here, with Chas:
Working as he is headed towards the power strip:
Pause,
A moment of peace while I work:
Distracted:
I need to clean the upstairs. Wait! what was I working on?
How important is it, really?
Posted by Steph at 04:42 PM | Comments (3)
October 17, 2005
Fearless
It's hard having conversations with other parents at the playground when I have to keep eyes on Chas. He is fearless and out of control. Ford and Chas are so different at the playground. Chas' proprioception keeps surprising me; he always seems to correct himself when he starts losing balance; just when I think I have to step in and save him, he saves himself. Mostly. And he has more self-confidence in his physical ability than Ford did at his age.
Posted by Steph at 04:58 PM | Comments (1)
Inquiring Minds Want to Know....
We were shuffling through a lazy night of low-IQ tv with the kids and landed on E! during an episode of The Girls Next Door. Because it was too mature for the children, we kept oggling for a while, long enough to pique Ford's interest. About ten minutes into the show, Ford ultimately broke down and asked us, in response to the selective digital pixellation,
"So, are we having satellite problems or something?"
Posted by Steph at 05:30 AM | Comments (0)
October 13, 2005
Crawfish are fun! And did you know? They're tasty, too!
Mom places Ford's lunch before him: several boiled shrimp, some fried rice, and a crimson red crawfish, and Ford looks at his plate with proud disbelief and surprise.
"Is this a crawfish?"
"Yep."
He sits there, peering into the crawfish's tiny boiled black eyes, examining it like some Edwardian curiosity.
"It's so cute!"
"Want to touch it, mommy?"
"Is this his thorax?"
"Yep, it's in there. I think his abdomen is in there, too. Well, part of it. Anyway, you eat the tail."
"Like a shrimp?"
"Yep, like a shrimp."
"Can I eat it?"
"Sure can. Here (I break open the tail, pull out meat, God this looks disgusting, and hand it to Ford)
"Mmm! I like it!", grinning. "Can I have some more crawfish?"
I look up at my mother with a faint look of "WTF?" and then we both laugh at how cute this really is.
She tells him, "Ford, I'm so impressed with your adventurous palate!"
"I know," he tells her into his plate quietly.
And while she and I eat and chat and wrestle Chas through the rest of lunch, Ford continued to eat crawfish. Periodically, however, he obliged the technicolor carcasses to duels sur le table, narrating as he went along.
He's becoming a very interesting narrator.
Like today, when we were reading the book I Be You and You Be Me by Ruth Krauss and Maurice Sendak, there was a page in the book tenderly illustrating a boy standing on a quaint little hill overlooking a small town, with birds flying overhead and trees in the valley...the words go:
I love the sun
I love a house
I love a river
and a hill where I watch
and a song I heard
and a dream I made
I asked Ford, without reading this charming passage, to narrate this picture himself. Just to compare. Here's Ford's rendition:
There was this boy,
on a hill,
and somebody PUSHED him over the hill,
and he crashed onto the town
and shattered in a million pieces
and broke his eyeballs all over the place.
That's it. That's what happened. (grinning)
Posted by Steph at 05:02 PM | Comments (1)
SPT, Self Documentary Series #2
Conversation at lunch.
Self Portrait Tuesday, Self Documentary Series #2
Posted by Steph at 01:26 PM | Comments (0)
It's been a good, long day. I'm going to keep staring at these precious feet for a while longer. He will outgrow these shoes within a week, I'm afraid.
Posted by Steph at 12:06 PM | Comments (0)
October 11, 2005
MY martini
Trust me, he wasn't thirsty; he's just discriminating.
Which reminds me: Today at lunch, when mom placed a plate of lentils in front of Ford, he shot me doe eyes from the table and fawned, "Aren't we having wine with this?" We laughed at what he might be asking for during snacktime at school a few hours later. Mint-infused sippy mojitos? Icy Kool-Aid cosmopolitans?
School. It has been a very good thing. We start the day with breakfast and either go somewhere for the morning or have fun at home when he's fresh. Then we lunch, read and rest until 3pm, when off we walk to the schoolhouse. When we arrive, he lurches out of the jogger onto the playground, dismissing the teachers and plunging into play. I chit chat with faculty, and leave to run errands with Chas. All the while, Chas is either asleep or restful, engaged and content; it's a lot of fun having the one-on-one time with him. Three hours pass, we return down to the school, and Ford pours bubbly bucketfuls of enthusiasm in my ears. I give him a juice box, we walk home, eat dinner, clean up and read Harry Potter. It really has been that perfect. The best of both worlds: having him home when I'm at my best, having a break when I'm more tired in the afternoon--he benefits from having playpals and square footage when he's his most physically atomic, and time with me when he's most quietly engaged. Way cool.
Posted by Steph at 05:46 AM | Comments (1)
October 09, 2005
Heels down, boys!
Posted by Steph at 06:19 AM | Comments (0)
October 08, 2005
Cold Front #2, this time for real
Mom and Dad arrived this evening with a truckful of potted plants from their home in Houston, and with the refrigerated rain they are all perky and ready for me to spend time with them, rearranging them in the garden while Chas chases balls into the street and Ford runs around the yard in the buff. But seriously, when I do get a moment, I'll enjoy putzing around the garden, rearranging them. To distract me even more, the Wildflower Center is having their Fall plant sale tomorrow morning.
I'm beginning to get more excited about the land again. This weekend we will scatter and stomp wildflower seeds around the grounds, tuck a few perennials here and there. Add a totem or two. It's time.
This just in--new phrases from Chas: "All done" (sounds more like "ah-duh" followed by a flinching refusal to eat another bite of food), and "Woof!" He is also less afraid of dogs, but at the same time Clingy with a capital WTF on me. Annoying, but with so many lovely chunks to hold, how can I really complain?
Posted by Steph at 11:06 AM | Comments (0)
October 06, 2005
Revelation
It was eleven this morning, and we had eaten breakfast, cleaned up, brushed teeth, read a book, and the next sequence (even though out of sequence) was "wash face and get dressed" for Ford. He balked, meanwhile charming his way to watching I Robot,eventually turning the movie on outright, and I started losing it, irrationally complaining that I have no control over my kids. I was so ruffled over trying to get the kids out the door by noon, for chrissakes that I was starting to jerk my weight around and complain about not having enough control all the while. Damon walked into the room and pulled my horses to a screeching halt with his lucid analysis. He told me to rephrase "I have no control over the kids" (a self-centered, gun-in-the-foot approach) to "What does Ford need right now? What needs to happen?" (goal-oriented approach). It was an amazing moment of silence in my raging brain. All the birds swooped down to the tree branches, the monkeys stopped throwing papayas at me and the "to do" list tickertape died. It's one of the things I love most about Damon, his ability to help me regain control over my temper (which translates to forgetting about regaining control over the kids), because hostility and irrational moments are part of my makeup as much as moments of clarity and calm. So thank you, again. I needed that, so did Ford.
Posted by Steph at 05:22 AM | Comments (1)
October 05, 2005
SPT, Self Documentary Series #1
Ford is now in an afterschool program from 3-6pm. It was quiet today even with Chas whining in the background as I did mundane chores, but it was a deafening kind of quiet, and I felt a little out of balance as I putzed the hours away. I missed the din of his bubbly monologues and the nonstop questions, meanwhile wondering whether it's time I did something new to really make myself happy.
Posted by Steph at 10:02 AM | Comments (3)
On Saturday, a trip to the music store to get strings turned into a trip to get 6 more: Ford asked for his own guitar and we flat out bought him one. And do you know what? He's picked it up like a natural. Here he is playing Mozart's Minuet in G. Minus the Mozart. And the minuet part. But the G--he's got that,, and I can't believe how his fingers are already able to wrap themselves around the fretboard to play a chord. It's amazing.
Posted by Steph at 03:21 AM | Comments (0)
October 01, 2005
Fall, cont'd.
Posted by Steph at 05:23 PM | Comments (0)
New Acquisition
Friday was Funday, and we went to the thrift store to hunt for treasure. Or postpone cleaning the house and catching up on laundry. Either way you look at it, we discovered (among several other great finds) another pull-toy gem: a bouncy, lumbering wooden Stegasaurus. Chas walked it like a little dog while Ford and I bowled in the front yard.
It was another cool day. Ford ground up juniper-cedar boughs and berries with mortar and pestle, making forest floor to mix with glue and make collages:
Posted by Steph at 05:20 PM | Comments (0)