more moose action

This guy was staring at me through our entryway window when I came up the stairs a few minutes ago. I ran to get my camera as he turned toward the street.


See what he's checking out? That's Rob and the girls, on their way home from on a walk with the dogs in the rain. They turned around and are now taking the long way home. Glad Cooper and I stayed home this time. My fear of moose lives on.

"Patchwork Night"

This is my final piece for the First Friday show "Wax Squared" at Virtu next week. I still might do a couple of tweaks, but it's due at the gallery on Saturday. I wish encaustics photographed better. The texture on this piece is really rich!

Note the name-- "Patchwork Night." I've been wanting to do a series of work, and decided it's going to mimic the improvisational quilting I love. I'm considering doing textile twins of my encaustic pieces. I think it would be fun to see how each idea gets translated in the two mediums.

seven random things, and one milestone

Monica tagged me to post seven bits of randomness. Isn't everything I post pretty random? Here we go:

1. I didn't learn to ride a bike until I was almost 8 years old. I'm reminded of this because Claire, now seven and a half, is still on training wheels and a little bit embarassed about it. She's got a goal of getting to two wheels by the middle of May. I think Rob will get her there faster. He taught Avery to ride her bike in one afternoon when we had only been dating for about a month (he broke his finger in the process but didn't even tell me about it until a couple of months later-- tough guy). Anyway, he's good at that stuff, and I'm excited to see Claire take off!

2. I like the smell of cow manure. It brings back memories of living on our dairy farm in Washintgton when I was a little kid.

3. I love vending machines. At my last job, we had one of those old school ones where you have to put exact change in the slots and crank a knob to get your goodies, so I got obsessive about saving quarters, nickels, and dimes in my desk. My fave picks were Pop Tarts. I blame them for a good part of the 50 pounds I gained when I was pregnant with Cooper actually. Now that I'm staying home, I'm eating much better. Except for when I have weak moments at the grocery store and see Pop Tarts on sale, like I did the other day. Luckily they don't hit the spot as much as they did six months ago.

4. My favorite job ever was when I was a tour guide for the Alaska Railroad for two summers right after high school. The people and ever-changing views were amazing. When I was on my first training trip, the train derailed. Totally crazy experience.

5. Everything in my house is covered in dog hair. I should spend Cooper's naptime vacuuming and cleaning instead of messing around on the computer, but I'm not. Priorities, right? Maybe this afternoon.

6. I want to be a runner. I did high school cross country, ran the Dublin Marathon in college, but it has never come naturally to me to get outside and run. I want to get to the point where it's easy and enjoyable. I want to get out on trails with Rob and be able to keep up. And I want to do the Humpy's Half Marathon in August. I hope I can get myself together and train like I should.

7. I have a strong allegiance to one baseball team, and I've never been afraid to encourage my children to love them too.

So there you go.

In not so random news, Cooper rolled over for the first time last night! I didn't see it-- Rob was playing with him on our bed when he did it. I'm actually quite thrilled that it happened that way. I spend so much more time with the little guy than Rob does, so for him to get to see a "first" instead of me is pretty awesome. Hopefully I'll catch a repeat today with the camera.

Do I get to tag people too? If so, Krista and Susan, you're it.

spring!

I'm playing along with Jacquie's Spring to Finish this year. And how appropriate to post this today, because there is some sort of freak thing happening with the weather. It was supposed to be rainy and reaching the upper 40s to low 50s, but instead it's sunny and 65 degrees! Cooper got to experience his first walk outside without the plastic rain/wind shield just now! Anyway, on to my list before clouds roll in:

1. May blocks for Not Your Grandma's Quilting Bee

2. Quilt my Liberated Log Cabin wallhanging

3. Make a baby boy quilt for Katrina's nephew who is due in June

4. Finish the top and back for my batik log cabin quilt, then send it off to a long arm quilter

5. Finish the two Girl Scout quilts. (I'm not loving these, so I've been putting them off.)

6. Potholders for Malka's potholder swap.

7. Mini embroidery quilt swap-- I got my secret partner yesterday and it turns out her husband is like Rob's European twin. No kidding.

8. Black and white plus one color, not square mini quilt

9. Quilt and bind the Funky Momo.

I'm a wee bit overcommitted, yes? I decided that other than the three bees I'm in, I won't commit to any more swaps until summer is over. I've been trying to decide how I'll reward myself if I get all of these done. I'm thinking new shrubs to line the front walkway-- not that I can't justify these anyway, but I think I'll be more apt to buy them and plant them right at the beginning of June if I've earned them.

First up though is finishing my encaustic painting for First Friday at Virtu. I've got everything set up in the garage and have started work on it, but I'm in a creative funk. I start off thinking I know exactly what I'll do, then I screw up my plans by doing something totally different! I've screwed up the almost finished pieces multiple times over. Hopefully I'll have at least one done by Friday so I can put it up on the show's website.

catching up & the 4 month (!) update

Cooper turned 4 months old yesterday! He celebrated it by marking a whole week of waking up every 1 to 2 hours to eat. Granted he has a cold, but I think he's enjoying his middle of the night snacks and won't be rushing to sleep through them again. That makes for very sleep-deprived parents, so I really haven't had much motivation to sew, or do anything really.

But on to the good things about Cooper at this stage. At an unofficial weigh in with me this morning, he was topping the scale at 18 pounds. Yes, 18 pounds. We'll find out how accurate that is at his checkup next week. He's wearing 6-12 month clothes and size 3 diapers. We're considering starting solids very soon. (For all mommies with babies/toddlers reading this, did you start at 4 months or wait until 6 months? There are new recommendations since Avery and Claire were babies.) Cooper grabs everything in his reach, can sit for small periods on his own, and is rolling over onto his side every chance he has. Naps are better, sometimes 2 hours at a time. One of the biggest changes is his vocalization. He talks and talks and talks. And he's got the sweetest little voice, so we all love hearing it. He really is a joy.

In other news, we sat down as a family the other night and mapped out our summer. We've got big plans. Vacations to Orlando and Seattle, roadtrips in the van, lemonade stands, bike riding, bat roost and catapult construction, and much much more. Avery and Claire had a lot of great ideas. It got us all really excited for the months ahead. And for warmer weather. Can you believe it's snowing outside right now? Absolutely ridiculous.

it's good to have friends

My best friend Katrina is visiting this weekend from Fairbanks. She found three more Liberty of London mugs for me at Target to complete my set! She bought us doughnuts for breakfast! But more importantly, she brought joy to all of us who miss her so much since she moved away. Avery and Claire have been especially thrilled to have her here.

Today we're joining her at the museum's Star Wars exhibit, then she and I will be heading out to dinner downtown while the kids have fun with their grandparents. It's going to be a good day.

(Note the little hat I'm making for Cooper in the photo above. At yesterday's class I learned how to knit and purl Continental-style, and I LOVE IT. I see speedy knitting in my future.)

Anchorage Modern Quilt Guild

Anchorage needed its own branch of The Modern Quilt Guild. After crossing my fingers for awhile that someone else would start one, I decided to just go ahead and do it myself! I know so many great modern quilters through flickr and blogging, but very few locally, and I know there has to be more of us here. We have a huge quilting community after all!

So this afternoon I went to the local quilt shops and started handing out information. It was fun to talk it up, and it sounds like people are excited to help spread the word. Sandy at Seams Like Home even offered their class space for our first meeting on May 19th!

So here we go! If you're local, join the group! I think it's going to be a lot of fun.

orange and blue

Remember this top? I realized that with all of that white, it wasn't going to be a baby-friendly quilt. So I chopped most of it off and added the blue solid instead. I finished it just in time today and donated it, along with matching onesies, to the girls' school for a weekend fundraiser.



Another one off the list.

knitting

I took up knitting again last fall. I wanted to have portable projects I could take with me to the cabin. I got stalled out after Cooper was born though, so last week I signed up for a finishing class at a local yarn store. I finally learned how to do the earflaps and kitty ears on Avery's hat, which I finished up last night!



I was telling Rob last night that I don't think knitting is going to be my "thing." Meaning that I don't see myself making sweaters or lacework shawls any time soon. But I do like making small things like hats and scarves, and I think I'll try a cowl soon too. Next up are hats for Rob and Cooper.

weekend recap

Cooper got a Jumperoo-- these didn't exist when the girls were babies. So cool! And he loves it. He bounces like a little crazy person.

I went to an encaustics workshop yesterday. I've been going to Sheary's studio for over 2 years now. Even though I have the supplies to do it at home, I need a ventilation system in place. It looks like we'll be doing that in the garage this summer. I did three pieces, none of which are finished paintings to me.



The first one is pretty bright, which seems to be typical of my paintings. I tried to tone it down. Didn't work.



I'm doing a First Friday show with the Alaskan IEA group in May, so I'm working on a 12x12 piece for that. The one above is also a work in progress. It's definitely missing something. This one below is in it's very beginning stages. I'm thinking it looks like the start of another abstract landscape, but I just don't know. I've got a couple of weeks to play around with it.



Otherwise the weekend was filled with birthday parties for each of the girls, and a lot of great family time. Just the way I like it.

changing every day

Cooper is almost 16 weeks old. Where has the time gone?



I'm excited to report that he's changed from a very fussy newborn into a much happier and content baby. He's close to rolling over and has much better control of his hands. Really likes tummy time. He lights up when he sees his dad and sisters. We really love this little guy.

why I LOVE liberated quiltmaking

I whipped up this quilt top in just under an hour, while Cooper has been napping (he's still asleep. woo hoo!). I had the shot cottons in a basket, ripped into strips from a bout with making shot cotton scarves for Christmas gifts that I never gifted. It's about 2 feet by 2.5 feet, and I love it! I'm taking part in a quilt bee on Flickr called Bee Liberated, and this is really getting me in the mood.

kids and batik

I took a break in my personal crafting this week to do a quilt project with Avery's Girl Scout troop. I first saw the technique here on Swallowfield, referencing this tutorial. It's pretty awesome.

Since we only had an hour and a half to do this project, I prepped all of the fabric by taping it onto a piece of waxed paper and posterboard. The girls did the glue designs, then went on to another activity while the glue dried. Since we didn't have 12 hours to let the glue dry, I blasted it with a hair dryer until it was dry to the touch. It seemed to work fine.

When it came time to paint, we had the girls do it in 2 separate groups. One got warm colors (red, orange, and pink). The other got cools (blue, green, and yellow). After each group was done, I put each set into one big garbage bag for the car ride home so that the warm and cool paints wouldn't mix (or ruin my upholstery). They dried overnight in the garage, and I put them through a wash of synthrapol and dried them this morning.

I'm still thinking about how these will get pieced. The finished quilts will be donated to the NICU at Providence Hospital, so we can make at least 2 small ones.

I'm definitely going to do this again with the kids and try my own designs.

Easter Recap

We had a good one! The Bunny brought baskets.

The traditional bunny cake was made (although we broke from tradition and made our first ever chocolate bunny).

And I made raspberry jell-o salad, my favorite food ever.



We spent the day with family, which really made it the best. I hope you had a great Easter weekend too!

dyeing eggs

The girl dyed Easter eggs yesterday after school. Each year I have hopes of pulling off Martha-esque eggs like these, but each year they pick out the basic PAAS dye kit and keep it simple. No crayons. No stickers. Not even double dips, which were my favorite when I was a kid.



I think they turned out beautifully. And now to go have one for lunch!

quilt-ish

I made this probably 6 years ago in my single mom days. I had zero money to decorate the house I had just moved into. So I used my scrapbook paper and modpodged it to a big canvas. I had always thought it was kind of cheesy, and even now it's just sitting on a ledge in the basement because I feel weird about putting it up in the parts of the house that people see.

But geez. Today I looked at it differently. What have I been thinking? It looks just like a quilt. A quilt I need to make. Add another one to the list of to-dos...