Not like I was doing much while I was gone- let’s see- I moved, spent the fourth of July on the White House Lawn, and just got back from a balloon fashion show in Las Vegas, you know- the usual!  I’ll fill in the details shortly- but in honor of taking out my Singer for the first time in about 6 months, I felt inspired to blog!

Chloe wanted some snuggly dollys for her bed (it’s been awhile since she’s slept the whole night through, and yes, I will stoop to bribery) So I promised her we’d make some dolls for her bed. Now it’s turned into making mermaids for her and her little friend Morgan. I’ve spent most of the late spring/summer in perpetual motion- maybe this is a sign that I’m actually settled in a bit!

I promise I’ll write more about what I’ve been up to and blog more often again, but if you truly can’t wait for some of the recent details- go check out Larry Moss’s blog, over at www.airigami.com. While you’re there you can read about what we’ll be up to in September for Artprize in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Awwww… I’ve been digging through some old pics, and I came across this shot of my son Wyatt wearing a “dinohat”. These were a little concoction of mine from a few years back. I need to make some more of these, they really are fun to wear. Maybe I’ll bust out some polar fleece tomorrow with my daughter and she can help me design some new polar fleece hats…

wooden building blocks

wooden building blocks

My kids have too many toys. I keep trying to purge the piles, thankfully we’re avid freecyclers so nothing really goes to waste. Now that the kids are getting bigger, I’m finding that I’m the one more attached to some of the things they’ve stopped playing with. I did put a small box of Wyatt’s beloved train tracks away, just in case I have grand babies someday, and I’ll save the rolly-poly chime ball (which was one of my favorite things as a child- the musical chimes have so much depth and beauty compared to sharp electronic noises) but the rest will have to go at some point.

I debated over saving the wood blocks- and then I realized that was kind of silly. Those I should still be able to find in 20+ years with little effort, why do I want to haul those around?! So while I was planning on giving those away, I realized they’d make really great somethings. I haven’t decided just yet what they’ll become- and well- there are alot of them, so they’ll probably end up becoming lots of things…

Rock Garden, Deep Pendant by AdornJewelry

Rock Garden, Deep Pendant by AdornJewelry

When I was around 4 or 5 years old, we lived with my maternal grandparents for awhile and they would watch my sister and I during the day while mom was at work. Often enough I was handed one of my grandmother’s spoons and told to “go dig” in this little patch of dirt between the spigot and the back-porch door. I’d spend hours transforming that little 2′x4′ rectangle of dirt into tiny moss-covered islands– planting weeds as tiny trees, placing little stones as boulders in the landscape,  lining the stream bed with sand, and building tiny bridges out of popsicle sticks…

I stumbled across these pendants on Etsy and was instantly transported to my grandmother’s backyard… The artist, Amy Mueller of AdornJewelry, combines polymer clay and faux moss into these beautiful little pendants & rings. They have a nice little interview with her.

So much more here…