swallowfield

my blog-iversary

today is my one year blog-iversary. i don't think i really had any idea at this time last year where i was going with anything here, but i'm pretty happy with the place i'm at right now. thank you to all of you who read and comment and support my art and my ideas. i feel so grateful for you, my virtual community. i now refer to many of you in casual conversation as 'my friend so-an-so' when i'm chatting about something amazing one of you has said or done - i can't decide if me doing that is cool or sort of creepy.  i think i'm pretty safe and non-stalkerly, so i don't imagine you need to be too alarmed.

as a way of saying thank you to you for reading and being here with me, i'd like to offer some little gifts. i will draw three names from everyone who comments on this post by monday 1/14 at noon- after that i'll email the winners and arrange to send you a print of your choice from my shop. and maybe some other goodies too. :) so leave a comment!

last night i had terrible insomnia, so i finished working on a little drawing i've been picking up and putting down for awhile, then digitally colored it while streaming episodes of pushing daisies. i love the set design + costuming on that show so much, plus it is witty + funny. 

see you back here in a day or two. until then, thanks for being here!

25 things, roughly

i was tagged by pam at housemartin (a blog i love, by the way!) while i was on vacation - sorry for the delay in  responding.  and i feel i should  make some sort of disclaimer, because i am no good at these...but i'll try.

8 things i am enjoying looking at this week:
caitlyn keegan and julia rothman's stuff at sqft gallery. wow.
lisa congdon and diana fayt's new etsy shops
karen gelardi's groovy home on design*sponge
security envelope patterns on flickr. **swoon**
cathy nichol's painting for the enormous tiny art show II at nahcotta gallery this fall
smallstump's birch bark tubes
shari's botanical shadows - so lovely

8 things i am thinking about lately:
feeling... happy to be home in my house after vacation
dreaming... of art i want to start working on soon
gearing... up for the kids going back to school in a few weeks (it's bittersweet)
making...the most of the last few weeks of summer  with them  (our to-do list is long)
wanting... to reduce the amount of clutter and busyness in my house
hoping... to embrace my 38th birthday next week, but feeling a little bit down about it
realizing... no matter how old i am, i will still feel tentative and unsure at times (aka, grownups don't know everything)
imagining... elaborate meals i want to cook with all of the luscious local produce around right now! (i could eat tomato & basil salad salad every day.)

eight recent pictures i've taken and like a lot:


something i think at least eight times a day:
i am so grateful for connections i've made via the internet over the past few years. it's pretty amazing to think about what has happened in my life because of it.

join in and respond yourself if you'd like!

5 things

i got tagged by jesseca to tell you five random things about me.
1) i am very shy - some might even say awkward. hell, i would say awkward. i am learning to be okay with my awkwardness here in my 38th year.
ps: the brady bunch imagine everyone in their underwear trick doesn't work, and never has. it just makes me feel, well, more awkward. but i do know with certainty not to play ball in the house, and that stealing another team's mascot will end you up with nothing but trouble. and don't even get me started on tarantulas in hawaii. for a long time i planned never to go to hawaii because i was so afraid of spiders. (still haven't been there. would now like to visit. could skip running into a tarantula.)
2) i watch very little tv, but my up-to-now secret shame is a love for veronica mars. who can't love a smart, snarky feminist teenage detective, really? i sure do.
3) i love coffee so much that it hurts. my favorite is stumptown coffee organic french roast, which i order online. it's delicious. i don't drink as much water as i should.
4) i have an abiding love for things that are letterpressed. i have a dream of finding a small press in working order and getting some lessons from incredibly talented local expert mav someday. (because i need another art interest! there isn't enough chaos around here!)
5) other random little things:  one of my favorite movies is saved.  if i could , i'd have a house full of dishes made by diana fayt . check out her colors - they are just gorgeous. i like listening to this american life podcasts when i'm alone in the car. i am very much looking forward to some hang out time and sewing lessons on my newer, more complicated sewing machine with the very talented amanda. (i haven't forgotten, A! i'll bring the wine.)
okay, i think that's more than five. now i'm feeling awkward. i can't deal with tagging anyone, because it might make them feel awkward, but please do it if you're inclined.

and because i can't do a post without a picture...here is something heading renegade next week. there is also a wee print of this in the shop.  you can see a few more things here and here. have a lovely day, pals.

ch-ch-ch-changes

may is a busy time for us: field trips, t-ball, end of school meetings and budgets, yard clean up, dreaming of summer, bike rides, evening walks... + all of the other things we do all year for work and home. this year i am also wrapping up at the job i've been doing for a long time, and i'm feeling a lot of sadness and mixed emotions about leaving my wonderful community of female friends there. (yup, nary a guy  at my office.) transition is hard, and i heave a strong desire to leave everything just-so, but i'm starting to think it's probably not possible to ever really do that. i think it's kind of like moving - no matter how organized you try to be there's always a few boxes at the end that you just chuck all of the random junk into. hopefully i won't leave them too much random junk.

when i am thinking and worrying about a lot of stuff all at once, i like to doodle to work through it; these doodles are the result of sitting through a busy school meeting + worrying about work simultaneously. + thinking about the clean-up i need to do +, + +...  oh, be quiet, busy brain.

better than a snowball

it's kind of a nice feeling to walk into, say, staples and ask to see the paper cutters - because, you know, i actually kind of need a paper cutter now. i don't think i could have said that a month ago, as much as i might have liked to have one in the crafty arsenal of tools. tonight i did just this, and am now the proud owner of my very own, supah-shahp* paper cutter. i want to go and, you know, cut some stuff.

*can't resist getting those little mainer-isms in where i can. other favorite down east sayings include:
cuter than a bug's ear
better than a snowball
don't she go and can't i drive her
and you've got the world by the ass on a downhill slide.

i put a few limited edition archival prints of my collage work in the shop tonight if you're interested.
good night everyone!

dirndls::snow::etsy 101

isn't this picture funny? i found it this morning while thumbing through my learn to sew book, copyright 1970 from golden press. i had picked it up at a thrift shop awhile ago, dreamily thinking i'd do some handwork with the kids*, but had somehow failed to find this completely freaky picture until now. i especially enjoy her knee-highs. meg thinks she looks like drew barrymore from firestarter...i agree.

check out the big blizzard that landed in my backyard this morning. it was a heavy snow, and lots of branches are down - i was feeling sad seeing all the wee buds that won't get to bloom.  the kids were happy for a snow day, though, and we've had a cozy time today. i have been looking at etsy with the kids, searching for things they want to look at. searches have included star wars, squirrels, polkadots, and hamsters. i may sound like a prophet of the obvious here, but you can find everything on etsy! (you can go ahead and call me ms. pretty-late-to-the-party.)  today i made  a list of some of of my favorite  printed matter there - there's so much great stuff. ::::eta: and then etsy ate it and it's gone.::::
*ha! it's never happened. maybe some day.  enjoy your day, friends.

stop:look:listen

after weeks and weeks of speeding along in one way or another and not being particularly tuned in (or, frankly, enjoying my own company terribly much,) today is only about slowing down and breathing, enjoying my sweet children, and feeling cozy in the quiet.

enjoy your own cozy sunday, bloggy pals.

way up north

we went away on vacation this week, to a quiet a-frame house way up north with no internet! at first i thought i might go into crafty blog and/or flickr withdrawal, and was feeling quite cross. it turned out to be surprisingly excellent, though, and i realized what a time-suck the computer can be for me. (i did get to watch some tv, which i normally don't spend much of any time doing, and got rather sucked in... to infomericals! especially that groovy thing that sucks the air out of special bags for flat and space-efficient storage! good thing there was no phone for me to call and order it with! the commercial made the air sucker and bags seem so pleasing, and so necessary.) instead of internet time, i puttered around and kept the house tidy, cooked a lot, read a couple of books, and played games with the kids when we weren't skiing. it was just the ticket.

i credit crafty blogs (and  the food blogs, design blogs, parenting blogs, political and feminist blogs that i am fond of*) and flickr with inspiring me in a way that i haven't felt consistently before. i can remember feeling pretty jazzed in college about art classes here and there, or a new design book or magazine, but these newer sources of constant inspiration provide me with a fresh lens for looking at everything with. i feel like i stop and appreciate the tiniest simple things more now, and that doing this simple thing makes me a happier person. things like the curve and shape of a perfect bowl, the random pattern of leaves, a shadow, my kids' artwork, white on white, the weave in fabric, or a simple illustration.  it's all inspiring, and i credit my internet pals for sparking my increased appreciation of the small stuff. that said, there's something to be said for turning it all off (or mostly off, save the infomericals) for a few days and just simplifying a bit.
*meg and i were joking that we keep our bloglines feeds private because it would be embarrassing to admit how many we actually read. um, that would be yours, yours and yours. oh, and yours! and even if i don't always comment, i appreciate what you're putting out there. it fuels me on a daily basis.

since it seems much more satisfying to have at least one photo in every blog post, i'll leave you with this one: my kids were skiing from the top of the mountain by the end of the week! which was, for me, an interesting combination of total terror and enormous pride all mixed into one. i also got a bit hoarse from yelling 'turn, buddy! TURN, please!" and muttering 'holy crap!' under my breath when i couldn't keep up with them.
(the one in green is not the fruit of my loins.)

welcome to the world, tiny earthling

see chris, one of my best friends in the world since high school (in the eighties!) fly across the country for my wedding in 1997.
(okay, so this is near the end of said wedding and there may have been drinking and merriment and sweatiness and dancing and questionable fashion choices and hair accoutrements involved.)

see me fly across the country in 2004 for chris' wedding:

(okay, so again with drinking and general merriment.)

see me get an email from chris and his lovely wife early last winter telling me they're having a baby.
see me :squee: with happiness and do a little dance around the room.
see chris and i correspond periodically over the next few months.
see me get a picture of the ultrasound confirming boy parts and repeat the dance, as above.
see time getting closer to arrival and me not wanting to bug chris and regina.
see me purchase a baby present for the bun:

see me email chris and ask how things are going.
see me listen to my voicemail later that day and get a sheepish message from chris telling me that the baby in question was born december 3rd.
see me scratch my head. (if there was a bubble above my head, it might say 'WTF?')
see me crossly calculate that december 3rd was 73 days ago.
see me have a temper. for a minute.
see me run to look at the website chris made of sully photos and say 'aaaaaaawwwwwwww!'

see baby sully and chris in the photo below:
see me totally melt into a big old puddle on the floor. 
see me wish them well and send them tons of love and feel really happy about what terrific parents sully has and therefore about the general state of the universe.

welcome to the world, mr. sullivan hosking dorr, born 73 days ago. i can't wait to meet you.

please leave yer weapons at yer home

chase is going to a weapon-free pirate party today. this was almost a dealbreaker for him, because he just could not conceive of a pirate theme without swords a-plenty. "in fact," he said, "there is absolutely nothing interesting about pirates who do not brandish swords! nothing!"

:::insert the part where he lay on the floor and wept bitterly at the injustice of it all. for a long time.:::

i think it's a great idea to have a weaponless birthday party. a big bunch of five and six year old boys at an indoor winter birthday party have enough collective sweaty pre-testosterone to imagine and act out all of the weapon play they can think of - props would make it almost too easy.

(did i mention the part about how it's almost impossible to get a sweet picture of a six year old boy? these are his pissed off pirate faces.)