no news is good news

I think I am going to relegate this blog entirely to cute stuff my kid says. Because it's way more interesting then all this crafty junk. Actually I am moving my business/illustration stuff elsewhere, but now for the funny quotation.

We were driving home from church when Clara says from the back seat, "I not ugly. no. I not ugly." We laugh, "you're not ugly Clara?" "NO," she says, "I not ugly like Papa."

From anyone else that would've been pretty rude, but coming from this impish two year old, it was pretty funny. No hard feelings. Just the other day she said, "papa is best my friend." which puts him in a elite group consisting of me, the neighbor, her stuffed bear and a spoon.

Uncle Keith and Clara in Washington

And here is the little worm with the fakest smile ever. Or at least that's what happened when we told her to smile.

I have the best genes

After raising bunches of kids and channeling her creative energies into amazing birthday cakes and prom dresses (thanks mom) for many years, my mother has dove back into the fine art world. She's been studying and painting pretty intensively the past few years and this year she's been entering contests and really making a splash. She's won some awards already alongside well established artists and no wonder really because she's, well, amazing.

I helped her out by making a website to showcase her latest work, which you can find here at vickiwalkerart.com. Check it out. And if you have lots of money, you should consider commissioning a work of art because you'll probably get a steal compared to her prices in ten years.

Watch as I master blogger

I'm trying to figure out how to post bigger pictures from Flickr on here. So here goes. If this works you will see the following pictures (and a follow up from last post):

a. A shirt I sewed for myself, from Simplicity pattern 2856 or something like that. I just went and looked at the pattern and forgot the number on the way back to the computer. It was an easy sew, but the neckline was pretty low, so if I were to make it again I would bring it in an inch or so. Great fit otherwise. And I especially love this fabric I got at the thrift store. Some sort of lovely linen blend with a great pattern. I wish I could get more of it actually.

b. My tomato garden. It's about a 5' square patch of solid tomato. Like a tomato plant cube that is spilling over into the herbs and melons. Don't know what I'm going to do with all those tomatoes when they get ripe, but I'm sure it will be delicious. If only I could get Clara to eat some too. And my yogurt turned out great by the way! I already made another batch and frozen yogurt twice and ate it all (with some help from Clara) I'm also about five pounds heavier since last week, I'm addicted. If I had to choose one food, right now, to live on and only that, it would be frozen yogurt.

c. An illustration I did a long time ago, which I have been printing out over and over again to try and figure out my $%#^@ photoshop printing problem. Everything prints out dark from Photoshop! but if I place the same file into an illustrator document and print it out, it's perfect. I can't figure it out. I've been learning all sorts of things I never wanted to know about color profiling mumbo jumbo and it's not helped one bit. OK, going to push the publish button now and see how it looks.

evening musings

I had a good evening tonight. After the little one was in bed, I sewed myself a fancy dress and made yogurt. Feels so good to make. We'll see if the yogurt turned out tomorrow morning. This is my first time making yogurt from scratch, although that's pretty much the only kind I ever experienced growing up. I spent a good a portion of my week also dry canning various beans, wheats, and dry milk in the dining room for our food storage. It was also surprisingly satisfying, I felt very Little Red Hen. Even though I didn't actually grow any wheat myself, I am making yogurt from dry milk. I'm still a hen.

I did harvest three cucumbers from my garden today though. Makes me feel less like a complete failure as a gardener. My zucchini plant is about dead. How do you kill zucchini? I don't even know how it happened, but I know it takes something special to fail at zucchini growing.

e-books for kids

This is an interesting post by Scott McLeod on the transition of children's books from print to digital. I have mixed feelings about it. I love sitting with Clara and reading a book, but the convenience of the digital form could be super nice. And I think digital books really are the future, so why not learn how to read from an e-book? At the same time, it's just not the same as having beautiful illustrations and words in your hands. I watched a few examples of ebooks for children and most were filled with weird, distracting animation, like you touch part of the picture and it gets big and floats away. I liked this one though, I don't think the animations detract from the fabulous illustrations, and I love Helena Bonham Carter's narration. I can't resist a good British accent.

Winter: Not Over Yet

Last week temperatures reached the 60s, most of the snow melted and revealed grass I haven't seen since last fall. So of course we went crazy: broke out the shorts, went for walks and bike rides, started planning a garden, and then winter decided to blizzard on us again today. So I'm back to hibernating indoors, sipping hot chocolate and wearing comfy sweat pants all day. And the usual cleaning and drawing and crafting comfy sweater pillows. Which really isn't so bad. Sweaters were on sale at Goodwill for $1, so I picked up a few soft wool ones and made a pillow cover for some inserts I got a while ago from Ikea. I have a few more in the works and I really like how they're turning out. I cut them up and sewed the pieces together because my pillows are rather large, but if you wanted a small pillow, I think a large cable knit sweater would work well for one, just sew it into a square small. Viola! Easy peasy, snuggly wuggly.

Busy Bees

Clara is such a busy bee these days. She's right there, everywhere I go, ready to do whatever I'm doing. Sweep? She's a pro-even with broom twice her size. Cook? she's a natural pan-stirrer, spatula-licker. Paint? Out of her way. No one has to show her how. I let her experiment in watercolor and colored pastel the other day and I'm pleased to present Clara's first pieces of artwork:

Clara has this look of complete concentration when put to a task. I think the poor girl inherited it from me. I've always found my mouth hanging open when I'm focusing on something. Very unladylike. But cute on a one year old.

I started on this giant painting Saturday while Clara was napping. It's huge. About 4' x 5' I think. It's been hanging around for a while now, taunting me, because I've been too chicken to commit to any one design for something this huge. But I just decided to pick up me paintbrush and let loose. It was super fun to paint large. I can't wait to get back to my painting. I'll keep you posted on the progress. It'll probably look a lot different from this in the end.

Oh I sent my first fabric collection off to a manufacturer. I told myself there's no way anyone is going to accept it, so I won't waste any time thinking nervously about how it's being received. I've already started on two more collections, very extremely different than this first one and some other design work. Probably Clara gets her ADDish busy beeness from me too.