swallowfield

girls weekend

last weekend i got the chance to head to brimfield with meg and betsy for 33 hours (who's counting?) of totally fun grownup girl time. we had some excellent thrifting adventures, happily poking around until we were tired and sunburned and ready to go back to the hotel + grab some dinner. i couldn't figure out why my back was aching so much by the end of the day...turns out i had accidently carried a bunch of rocks around in my shoulder bag all day - they'd been in there since the kids handed them to me on a recent beach trip. d'oh!

after a sound night's sleep (rare around here, since most nights one or both kids seem to wiggle their way in with me before morning) we headed back to brimfield on sunday morning for a few more hours...and we landed on a flurry of good finds all at once. meg makes a super-cute high-pitched humming sound when she finds something excellent, and we heard that sound several times on sunday.  brimfield is absolutely huge and overwhelming, but so much fun. i enjoyed carrying my newly lighter, rock-free bag as well. :)

all in all, a perfect time. ((and you can see meg and betsy's great finds here and here.))

from top to bottom, my finds:
::  a nice white round planter, filled with assorted vintage trims and a lifesaving patch (and you can see a bit of a celadon green homer laughlin bowl in the backround)
::  a west german vintage vase, which i LOVE, and two white divided dishes (we eat a lot of carrots and hummus around here, so they'll be perfect)
:: a rad set of vera pillowcases
:: assorted ephemera for art-making
:: four patterned and nicely sized glasses

unexpectedly good stuff all around

my painting class was great fun last weekend. i got to do 16 hours of encaustic painting over two days, and i loved it! i have long been drawn to encaustic work, and had tried at one point to figure out the technical stuff on my own so i could give it a whirl, but it was too much for my little brain.  i'm glad i waited - the instructor was terrific , and  i learned proper safety precautions to boot, which is probably a very good thing. it is not very often that i love the smell of art supplies (i don't share the love some friends have for eau d'permanent markers - you know who you are) but the wax used in encaustic painting has a delicious aroma. plus, all of the  steps involved in the process and tools i learned to use made me feel kind of cool - i admit it. i wasn't a girl who was super handy with a paint stripping heat gun before, but now...you should see me. :) i think i might need a holster for it or something.

here are some experiments from the weekend:

being at the art school all weekend reminded me of how much i love school, and the occasional chance to step out of my everyday life from time to time to try something new.  it made me feel kind of totally giddy. and when the class was over i had an excellent  mothers day sushi dinner with my family, who even got dressed up for the occasion. i can't get chase to take off his sweatband to wash it (it's totally gross + crusty, but he loves it,) but the rest of him was unusually clean + dressed in completely random clothes that he thought i would like.  my heart melted into a puddle on the floor, joining the miso soup that was also spilled under there. 

other things:

• my art space(s) are on modish this week. thanks jena! things aren't currently looking so tidy. you're not invited into my basement until i do a little cleaning, okay?

• i've recently noticed that waxed handlebar moustaches are back in fashion. who knew? 

• my friend betsy brought me back some stumptown coffee from her trip to that other portland. my favorite!  and while she was out there, she happened to meet one of my favorite bloggers. i love small world stuff like that!

• i planted some seeds today. what do you think the chances are i can nurture their little souls into something + not kill them? time will tell.

• my good friend nicole's funny + excellent parenting zine, hausfrau*, was adapted into a one-woman show by another very talented friend who performed it for the first time last night at portland stage company as part of their little festival of the unexpected. i got to go, and it was incredible. local people, i highly recommend you go and see it on saturday if you can.  (*and did i tell you she has a hausfrau book coming out next year? i can't wait.)

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.

gocco, gocco everywhere

good morning!  in case you were wondering, we are having a snow day. i think the kids will be in school until july at this rate, but they're happy to be home today.

if you're visiting here for the first time because you came over from house on hill road, a big welcome + hello to you! :)

i got a new tool for my gocco recently and tried it out for the first time yesterday - a stamper. this allows a lot more flexibility in printing on fabric or larger surfaces, and now i am busily dreaming of  making small bits of wallpaper and wrapping paper.

i used the stamper to print on paper and fabric - it was my first time printing on fabric and i had mixed, interesting (and at times frustrating) results. i quickly discovered that fabric soaks up a lot more ink, so i kept remixing and reloading the screen as i went. it created an uneven print, which i liked for the sort of antiqued, worn look.  fun.

salt air

happy 5th of july! if you celebrated things yesterday i hope you had a nice day.
we went out to visit some friends on chebeague island, a place i'd never been but instantly fell in love with. we had a great day and i came home with with my pockets stuffed with seaglass; the kids came home with their pockets stuffed with candy from the small and excellent parade we watched. a thrill for everyone!  linda, if you're reading this, many thanks for a great day!

i put a pair of summer prints of original collages in my shop this morning. these are two of my favorites and i love how they look together.

here are some other things inspiring me this week:
untitled 
umbrellas
untitled
::
felted wool
untitled

happy day to you, friends.

gocco, i'm in love

i love gocco. well, i love when other people gocco. i have spent many happy hours looking at etsy and blogs and admiring other people's gocco handiwork. a year ago or so i bought a used gocco printer and supplies from ebay in hopes of having some luck with it myself, but once it came in the mail i kind of choked. i have read many tutorials and heard from several good friends that it's really not so hard, but it wasn't clicking for me. the blue box actually started to mock me a few months ago, seeing as it was sort of disappointed to be only a space-filler in my dining room. grumble grumble. our grumpiness was mutual.
this morning i discovered a little video on the papersource website. the video is pretty basic, and i kind of liked how snarky the woman was in it. thank you, ms. papersource  - i guess i really am a hands-on visual gal, because you have changed things dramatically for me. you provided the means for my first date with my gocco printer, which i enthusiastically dragged out, dusted off and went to town with this afternoon.
it was love on the very first date.

i will probably start boring you all to death with gocco projects soon.  sorry in advance.

happy 4th of july tomorrow too!

flowery goodness

things i love this week:

4 10 oz cups by diana fayt (happily, the ice blue one has come to live with us - "that's mom's special cup, ellie. don't even think about touching it, or i think she might kill us. really.")

open window times (i heart daffodils)

ranunculas  (i want to draw tons of them)

tomorrow i have a long round-trip drive to barre, vermont for a meeting. i've got some ira glass podcasts to keep me company, and am feeling appreciative of the thinking time. and, of course, the eight hour meeting during which i plan to doodle incessantly. lately i've been doing some crazy doodling in my dreams, too - kind of like the old happy-hippy college days of old when i used to dream about the nintendo game tetris. all those happy little falling blocks, fitting nicely together, row after row...it was all so neat and tidy. there's probably a theme in there somewhere i should be paying attention to or something.

i hope your friday is delightful.

::click::

i bought a long wished-for new camera this weekend. let me tell you something about myself: i really hate technical instruction manuals, and always feel frustrated when i can't intuitively figure something out...so today i am frustrated, because i am having to read and figure out things that seem like they should be easy, but they're not. did you read alicia's post about her new camera awhile ago? i loved it, and could relate.

i hope you can see in these pictures how lovely and lush it is in maine today. it's warm and green and spectacular.
we're going to play outside this afternoon and revel in it. i think i'm going to bring my camera. :)

in bloom

happy monday!
i have been a little bit obsessed by all of the lovely budding branches i'm seeing around. i've always appreciated them each spring, but i definitely haven't stopped to study them - for a long time - until this year. they are showing up in my artwork a lot right now.

this weekend i got to go to a huge and overwhelming rummage sale with meg and see some bloggy friends there  - amanda said it all much better than i could, so i'll leave it at that. :) i managed to come a way with a few interesting old textbooks to chop up into bits, so i was happy.
this is a busy week for me, so i'm not sure how much i'll be updating, but i'll still be reading what you're up to. cheers, jen