swallowfield

more plus than minus

a little monday morning +/-:

+ a great overnight to boston this weekend with my mom and stepdad
+ we all saw a terrific production of annie - so much fun
+ goofed with my camera from the 28th floor of the hotel

- unbeknownst to us until we got there: the hotel pool was closed for the weekend
+++ a visit to the apple store and a new laptop for me, wee! (i've been contemplating it for ages. i am giddy. )
+ finished up the pillow i was working on

-my sewing skills are questionable at best - don't look too closely
+finished a new collage

+snow is melting...melting! finally!
-there are small muddy footprints all over the house, all the time
+went to an adult party on saturday night with good friends
+i made a new pattern, and i like it

+appreciating kid lunch as art this morning

+i see more pluses than minuses

how about you?
happy monday!

putting it on fabric

if you've been reading for awhile, you might know i sometimes dream about ways to put some of my more patterny stuff onto fabric. there's a lot i don't know, and  i feel plenty busy as it is, so this is a far-off 'someday i might like to ...' kind of goal. i've been fooling with some different inkjet fabrics when i have time (with mixed results,) and today tried a new sturdy canvas one that i liked the end result of, so i started working on a pillow with a little bit of my own fabric in the middle. i am a pretty beginning seamstress, but it's fun to experiment with. i'll show you it again if/when i finish it.

i also made another pattern that i like, so you might soon see it showing up in collage or on a wee bit of inkjet fabric, or somewhere. it's sunny + yellow in that mustardy tone that i love.

i'd like to say thank you to dear ada for a nice little blog review yesterday. i love her blog and find a lot of inspiration there, so it was a surprised little happy to see my drawings on her pages as i went through my morning reading. 

it is almost friday. that's a good thing.

easter weekend

dial up users might want to run from this post - it's heavy on pictures and light on text.  i'm not feeling very talkative today. 
we took a trip down east + visited my parents for easter this weekend.

we did some egg decorating

and took a lovely hike in acadia

enjoyed dinner out

and had a nice lunch with my aunt and uncle.
i was happy to notice signs of spring and lots of pretty shadows along the way.

happy monday!

a little shop update

two posts in one day! it must be spring or something....

this is a little awkward self promotional update, because, you know, it's my business and all:

one donation i made to the often-mentioned auction was a couple of my prints mounted on panel, ready to hang. it's kind of a nice solution if you're like me, and can't afford fancy framing, or you just want that instant gratification feeling of being able to plop something right up on your wall with minimal fuss.

along those lines, i decided to mount four of my more recent prints from the spring green series - they're 6x6x2" on chunky panels, ready to hang, and sealed with a uv protectant matte acyrlic sealer. i think they'd look nice in a 4-square or hung vertically in a narrow spot, maybe between doors or something.

these four are available as a set in my shop; i'd also be happy to take special orders for single prints or a different grouping of prints if anyone's interested.

other sort of braggy-sounding things to tell you about:

i got a nice mention from jena/modish while she was guestblogging at design*sponge this week.   thanks jena!

and i was featured in a very nice list over at etsy, via a thing of beauty. thank you to both of you!

over and out; i'm feeling sheepish now.

sunlight and pattern

it's feeling a teensy bit springy around here, if you can look past the big snowbanks still hanging around in the shady parts of town, ie my tree-filled front and back yards. i see green grass here and there, a few crocuses, and the morning sun streams into the living room and makes me happy. the kids have been scootering and biking a bit without me worrying that they'll have a terrible accident on some big patch of glare ice, so everyone's happy.

i was super impressed by this before and after bungalow makeover at design*sponge yesterday. hot damn, that took some serious vision, + i love the results. i found this hilarious video by clicking around some links on the homeowner's design business site (which is lovely) called finishing school design.  having been a major, major tetris lover in college, i thought it was especially excellent. i used to love tetris so much that i would fall asleep dreaming of level nine blocks falling down and how i would arrange them. {{and of course i was always totally sober and imagining this scenario from a purely studious angle. }}  it's all pattern love, right?

thinking of patterns reminds me to share this article by oliver sacks from the new york times, sent to me by my friend suzy.

did you know the heather smith jones just opened an etsy shop? i really love her stuff. 

i finished a drawing yesterday and i like it. i like to imagine little teeny people coming out of the house to tend these crazy ginormous flowers.

happy friday. happy spring. happy sunlight. :)

hippity hoppity

happy first day of spring!

we dyed some eggs this morning before school. we didn't do anything special, just a paas kit like the ones we used when i was a kid. the colors are vibrant and make me feel nostalgic in a happy way.

this sweet jack rabbit was made by the super talented, currently super pregnant dawn from look what i can do. it was a gift from meg for my kids last christmas, and we all love it. i think he is eying the eggs suspiciously, or else he just needs a big nap. he is the king of the sideways glance.

post-op catch up

oh, hi!  thanks for all of the nice words about the decorations - because you asked, i'll tell you that the auction was a big success. we made a lot of money, i think people had a good time, and it all turned out better than i could have hoped for. i brought my camera but totally forgot to take pictures during the evening (of course) - i got swept away in the event and it was over before i knew it. here's what i will tell you: the decorations were perfect, thanks to the creative genius of ms. meg rooks. they were subtle and lovely and everyone purchased the flowers at the end of the evening to bring home. i am not sure how it came to be that i ended up buying a branch of flowers i'd mostly made myself, but there you have it. everyone had to have a few of them. the addition of beer, wine and food this year seemed quite welcome. (beer and wine especially.  funny how that works.) the bartender basically ran out of libations, so i say it was a success, right? it felt social, happy and relaxed in a nice way.  and after swearing up and down i wouldn't do it again, i found myself driving down the road with meg on monday morning, planning next year's decorations theme. d'oh. i think it's kind of like labor.

+ i have to say the flowers are pretty addictive to make - yesterday i worked on making some fabric versions in a similar style. i'm still teaching myself and i think the technique needs more tweaking, but they're fun to do + positively seem to signal spring, don't you think?

this week i am catching up and doing some overdue work - around the house (hello, laundry, legos and dust)

+ working on a commissioned drawing that's based on another one i made last fall.

and today i went along on a third grade field trip to the art museum to see bright common spikes exhibit by john bisbee,
which completely knocked my socks off. check out the video here if you're interested.  the day got even better when i followed up the museum visit with lunch with a good friend at the green elephant. holy yummy vegetarian, batgirl.  i might have a new local favorite.
 

auction night

tonight is our school auction - we've been busy setting up all day, and now i'm home for a few minutes before the big event with some nervous energy, so i thought i'd do a quick bloggy update.
i know there are many of you reading who don't care a hoot about school auctions, so i'm sorry and please indulge me this entry for those of you who do...i think there are at least a few of  you out there...

the paper flowers are super lovely and totally made the whole thing - it pretty much transformed the hall we rented into something really special.

i took some pictures for you of the classroom projects because i get a lot of emails from people wondering about auction project ideas and i thought you might like to see them. look here for more photos.

more tomorrow, after it's all cleaned up + done!

scribbling, falling

i'm a nervous scribbler.

yesterday it came to be that i slipped and fell on some ice while carrying a rather large garden gazebo that had been donated to the auction out to my car. ouch. i seem to have arrived at the age where things like that hurt more than they used to, which is unfortunate since i am a huge doofus +  pretty clutzy.  heating pad + advil + wine = good.

super inspiring : fabulous garlands by sophie  cuvelier   (via jennifer)

super sad and depressing (via meg)

and here are the rest of my new, spring-inspired collage pieces.  i've got my mojo back, and it feels good.

grassy green

i'm dreaming of spring today.