Updatish

Just popping in to say two things on this winter Sunday (besides the fact that I'm kind of jonesing for spring): first, I am having one of those hard parenting days, one of those days where I'm convinced that I've gone terribly wrong somehow because I can't seem to get my near-eleven-year-old child to stop arguing with me or whining every time I ask her to do something she knows very well she's responsible for (like putting away her laundry, practicing her beloved piano that somehow becomes a burdensome chore when I mention it), one of those days where I'm angry half of every hour. Do you have those days? Tell me it's not just me.

Second, and far more cheerful is the fact that I've begun updating my empty-since-Christmas shop. All my custom listings are back up, along with sachets, scented houses, and wool-felt brooches. Still to come: wool-felt valentines, teensy bluebird hoops, and whatever else I can come up with!

I'm off to spring the girl from her room and try, once again, to explain to her that she's part of a family, which is a community, and in a community, everyone must do his or her share of the work, including the work of being kind and respectful, so everyone can be happy, etc., etc. Wish me luck, my dears. ;-)

All About Light (fireflies! ideas! full-spectrum flood!)

Popping in to share a close up of that final piece, "Aglow," and to say thanks for all your encouraging comments on last night's post. (I do get a bit emotional after dark.) If I say you're the best, will you know I don't mean it in that weird, car-salesman-sounding way?

The dad is home today, which means I have a bit more freedom of movement, a few extra moments to focus on something besides the kid, and I think I'm going to walk to the store to buy light bulbs (for the light box I'm trying to rig). Such is the glamorous life I live!

Manifesto with Jitters

Well, here I am breaking the cardinal rule of blogging--sharing photos I know are bad, but the thing is, my dears, tonight I just can't help it. I'm in the night studio (a.k.a. my study after sundown), and there's only the glow of the lamp, its robot neck bent downward so its face points right at the vignette you see before you. I finished the sixth piece for Three Graces moments ago, and I couldn't wait to tell you.
I couldn't wait to tell you that I am relieved--because I think they do work together--and a little wound up--because having managed to finish the requisite number of pieces means I'll actually have to go to the opening, stand there with my work, stand up for it and behind it. I want to say this right: I am proud of my skills, of my cozy, loving, quirky vision, of my devotion to doing a thing I love. And I am thrilled to be given the opportunity to accompany these images into the world, to meet the other artists in the show, to talk with them and with gallery-goers about the things we have made. But I am also a teensy-bit tempted to stay behind, here in the room where I keep my piles of wool felt, my cushions full of needles, my paint brushes, my quiet time, a little tempted to protect myself from even the slimmest possibility that something someone says or doesn't say will sting or slow me down.

Of course I'm going. With my sister and my husband and my little girl, in a new dress, with a smile on my face and a mantra: I love this work. I love this work. Like a mother loves a child, you see--not because the child is perfect but because she has come to be, through hard labor, through careful ministrations, maybe through a little ecstasy. Because she is like a map of that mother's days. Because she is a manifestation. I think you'll know what I mean. And that's why I couldn't wait to tell you.

Pretty Bird (or "Why I Felt Like a Good Mother Yesterday")

Lots of days, Annabelle's "art class" is entirely self-directed. While she was in the midst of this project yesterday, my husband said a lovely thing to me.
He called me into the kitchen and whispered, "You've been such a good influence on her. She thinks she can do anything." And you know what? She kind of can.

Be My Bluebird (and a Bloggy Welcome)

Hello, friends--old and new. Welcome to those of you who have come over from Today's Creative Blog, and thank you for all your kind comments. I'm quickly realizing that any friend of Kim's is just plain nice to have around! (For those of you asking how to subscribe to the blog, I've added a little subscription dealy on the right side bar.)
I've been working on my valentine tutorial for Sew, Mama, Sew--the spotty winter light has slowed progress, but I sent it off today. I'll let you all know when it's up--should be around the first of February, which, incidentally, is also when my Three Graces pieces are due at the gallery and when I plan to update the shop. There'll be the usual custom listings (for family and house portraits on hoops and canvas), along with some other bits and pieces--maybe some prints for the first time if all goes well. If you have any requests--things I've done in the past that you'd like to see more of or things (in your infinite, crafty wisdom) you think I should make--I'd love to hear them. I'm actually really excited to get back to shop stuff--it's been good to have a break, but I'm ready.

"Party"

Having finished this one last night, I have only one more piece to make for Three Graces before February 1. Whew.
I'm truly experimenting with different techniques on these six canvases--always some mixture of painting, applique, and embroidery--and am hoping they hang together because of this crew of kids and critters I've dreamed up. Here I've used black floss to draw a scene, attached the linen to the canvas, appliqued a little party banner, and painted inside the floss lines. At any rate, it was fun!

Reversible, Baby

I decided I needed a new pincushion, and I made one--I love that feeling: discovering a need or even a desire and knowing I can fill it myself, with what's on hand. Like I'm a pioneer. A pioneer with a Janome and a chai latte. Whatevs. The point is, I made a pincushion yesterday, and it's cute, a welcome replacement for my old one, which was wonky as all get out. (I'd tried to make it as a gift for friend and wisely decided it wasn't good enough for her.)
I used this tutorial, which was simple and easy to follow (though I didn't do the seam allowance thing, which confused me just a little--I knew I wanted a smallish pincushion anyway). The whole thing took about fifteen minutes from fabric cutting to pin sticking.
And it's reversible. Why is reversibility so intensely satisfying?

Dogs on the Beach

The dogs are done. They live in Hawaii, and I think they may be laughing at me a little today, since we're having a bit of a blizzard here in P-town.
It's all pink flowers and palm trees for you, doggies, but I'm going to go ahead and enjoy a chai latte while I gaze at the fat flakes falling outside my window. No, really. I like snow. I do.

Crafting for Hope

We're having friends for dinner (you know, feeding them, not eating them), and I still have a menu to plan and shopping to do, but I wanted to pop in to say two things. One, those dogs are in progress finally, and doesn't that little one on the right kind of crack you up? And two, while there's nothing but a bit of dust in the Little Pink House shop, I do have a custom house portrait listed in the Craft Hope etsy shop--proceeds to assist the efforts in Haiti. Now's your chance to get your house feltified and do a very good deed.

Painting with Floss

Working on this piece today, which is called "Quiet." Annabelle says she thinks it's the only thing I've ever made that's completely embroidered--no applique. She may be right.
I'm not doing any fancy stitching--to be honest, I usually stick to the bread-and-butter: running stitch, split stitch, back stitch, satin stitch. Here, I'm trying to achieve the look of coloring or painting and am just doing a kind of haphazard, messy version of the brick stitch, I guess. If you want to see somebody who really knows her embroidery, visit Corinne. That woman's a virtuoso.

"Friends" (and Some Home School Stuff)

I'm finishing up the third piece for Three Graces and sketching a fourth--sorry about that lamp glare. It's darkish by 3:00, right around the time my blogging brain wakes up. I'm thinking about how lucky it is that once I solve a problem--(how to make a veil for that beautiful bride from my last portrait), I have a new technique in my tool kit. Here, I've applied the same basic idea (a dotted line to create a gauzy impression) to indicate an imaginary bear.
On a pretty-much unrelated note, I wanted to share a little of what we're doing home-school-wise. Here's the schedule for mornings, Monday-Friday, when we're doing the heavy lifting:

Wake-up-10:00

1. Housework and Hygiene

2. Check In--here we sit at the table and write on our chalkboard the goals/plans for the day and week--things like "get a book with pictures of sewer systems" and "finish Barbie tranformation." Serious business.

10:00-12:00ish (or until we get super hungry)

1. Creative Writing--I give A. a short prompt, and she writes till she's satisfied. Each week, she has to finish one of these pieces for her portfolio. So far, we've used prompts like, "Write a poem in which all the lines begin with 'I wish'" and "Two people are trapped and one wants something the other doesn't want to give. Write the scene." This is going very well--Annabelle is ready, pencil in hand, before I can even start the dishwasher.

2. Women's History--we're reading from Born For Liberty by Sara M. Evans, not a book intended for children. Some of the concepts are heady and the writing can be dense, so we just go slow and talk a lot. I'm amazed by how well Annabelle grasps complicated notions about power (who has it, who doesn't, and why), a primary concept in the book and in my heart. When we're really interested in an idea or a person, we write it down in our notebook and look for more books on that subject.

3. Math (Everyday Math, 6th-grade-style) or Art--we're currently transforming a Barbie into a regular-looking woman, using paper mache. We'll keep you posted.

Whew. That was a lot. In the afternoons, we have outings (library, art store, etc.) and, and then we do whatever we like, folks. Cause that's how we roll at the Crowe School.

Done (and ready to make many felty dogs)!

Don't they look happy? I'm so glad to have captured some of the joy of the original photo.
But can I tell you? I had to redo that stinking limo thrice. (I've decided thrice gets a bad rap, so get ready to hear it a lot, people. I mean, we're all happy to pepper our conversation with twices. What's the deal? Discrimination riles me.)

Off to start a many-dogged custom portrait. And maybe polish off the remainder of my Santa candy. It's hard life, I know.

Tute Prep

Dad's home today, currently reading a book of cat jokes with Annabelle. (I personally don't think cats are all that funny, so it's nice to have back up.) Meanwhile, I'm happy to have a little time to experiment with designs for the Valentine tutorial I'll be doing for Sew, Mama, Sew. I love those ladies. And I love my new screw punch. And I love toast. Just sayin'.

Pet Project

As promised, here are a few glimpses of the first piece (called "Pets") I made for the Three Graces show. It still needs a few finishing touches--a belt buckle on the little girl, for example--but this one's mostly complete, along with a second piece. Both are based on drawings I did around the time I started this blog.
I'm excited about these pieces because while I think they connect to my other work in clear ways, they're also a departure, partly in style, and partly in technique. Specifically, I'm experimenting with using acrylic paint on wool felt.
Stripes are, for some reason, a large part of my vision for the children I'm imagining in this series, and all the stripes are made using white paint. I'm also using it to create spots of light.

More soon, my dears! I'm off to make veggie fajitas for my girl, who has worked hard this week as we've begun a slightly-more-formal home school regimen. I plan to share some of those details in the coming days, for those of you who are interested in what we're up to, education-wise.

The Goody Report

We had a very handmade Christmas this year, and though I'm a little late, I wanted to share some of the highlights with you. (I'm trying to wrap up a wedding portrait, make teeny-tiny piece number 3, and create a wool-felt valentine tute for Sew, Mama, Sew. I'm getting a bit of a twitchy eye with all the deadlines looming, and I'd kinda rather just hang out with you all and brag about my loot!) The top trio are a gift from my husband who got them from the etsy shop of KG+AB. I'm thinking about buying their "bears in love," just because they make me ridiculously happy.
And here we have a trio of holidayish originals, specially made for Miss Annabelle by our dear friend, the needle-felting genius Kit Lane. Serious lurking in her shop will pay off--her critters tend to find homes very quickly. I must caution, though--this habit is addictive. We (and by we, I mean I) may have developed a wee problem. (Not a problem with "wee," you understand--just a small tendency to order Bingles.)The gorgeous bag is from my mom, purchased from drika.b--I'm currently trying to figure out why I might also need a pocketbook wristlet and a handheld satchel. (Bank robbery? Smuggling snacks into the movie theater?) I'm also trying to figure out why I never noticed how badly that dresser needs repainting.
Finally, this dreamy print--the quality is terribly rich, the paper a creamy, textured stock, and the image itself clear, with deep, true colors--was a gift to me from my sister, who claims not to remember who the artist is. I guess I'll have to de-frame it to find out because I'm dying to see what else she's got going on.

Promise to be back soon with a sneak peek of the new work I'm doing for the show. I'm really excited about it--I'm painting on felt!

Last Bits

We're hanging on to the last bits of Christmas--tomorrow all the bells and bobs will go back into their boxes until next December, and the house will return to its tidier, if less-festive state. I'm of the sort who feels mostly ready to move on by January 1--my husband is not, so as we pack it in, he may emit a few muffled sniffs.
I'm back to work--finishing up a couple of custom orders left over from the tail end of 2009. After that, I'll be on a little portrait break, until the first of February (though if you have questions about the process or want to talk about an order, feel free to contact me). The shop is so empty you can hear echoes in there, but I promise new things in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, I'll be working on six 10" X 10" pieces for a show at Three Graces Gallery in Portsmouth, NH. They're due on February 1, and I have two so far. Wish me luck!