A Snail's Pace

I have been enjoying summer vacation this week. The alarm clock has officially been turned off for the summer!

The mosquitoes aren't quite as bad this week either. For some reason I get SWARMED with mosquitoes when others are not bothered. I feel like Pigpen in a cloud of mosquitoes while others are playing normally. Sigh. M noticed the phenomenon while we were in the garden today. He was picking peas with no mind to the mosquitoes and then looked over at me swatting them all over myself. He calmly said, "Mom, there is a CLOUD of mosquitoes around you." Yeah, I had noticed that.

I have been walking on the road a couple of times this week and found that if I walk in the MIDDLE of the road that the mosquitoes are not too bad. I do, however, get swarmed when I go to the side of the road to take pictures.

P and I went to the registration for the summer reading program at the library. That is always a fun event with lots of activities, games, and snacks.

I have been slowly progressing on some sewing and knitting projects in the evenings but have nothing really exciting to show you.  These roadside photos will have to do.

M has been busy though, he made this cool robot magnet for his middle school art teacher who wrote a poem for him for graduation. He thought a simple thank you note would not suffice.

I hope that my snail's pace on crafting projects will soon yield something that I can share. 

Thoughtful Sunday

"And now," cried Max, 'let the wild rumpus start!"

Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak, 1963.

Baby Chicks - again

Every year we get new baby chicks and every year I love to watch them and try to photograph them.

Their little wing feathers grow so fast.

They are fun to watch when we let them out and they peck at the plants and bugs.

They are very wiggly and tricky to photograph.  This one jumped right out of the picture to get a mosquito!

I left their cage outside for a while yesterday in the hopes that they would eat some mosquitoes but I don't think they made much of a dent in the population.

Beat the Heat at Henry Ford

Yesterday we beat the heat by going to the Henry Ford Museum.

P likes the silly cars in Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks and Things that Go and never believed me when I told her that I had seen a hotdog car. She was quite surprised when we walked into the museum and saw this car right at the entrance.

They have a collection of doll houses too. I liked the kitchen sink in this one. And that little baby in the walker was just TOO cute!

The Dymaxion House that is on display there is another favorite.

Just look at all of the NEW materials that are in there.

The fabric in this 1950's shirt is pretty fabulous, I think.

Here is P in the seat on the bus where Rosa Parks was arrested. Yes, they have the actual bus on display and they let you get on and have a seat.

The bus is restored complete with mid century advertisements.

A day in an airconditioned museum was just what we needed. I enjoyed all of the mid century goodness on display.What have you been doing to beat the heat?

Wordless Wednesday - the playhouse edition

Fun Filled Frenzy

The last few days were filled with fun and festivity.  We partied and marked some big milestones.

M's high school graduation.

P is SIX!

We are ALMOST finished with the playhouse. We bought the paint yesterday. P chose pink for the walls and turquoise for the trim. The painting has begun.

New chicks!

And I have been able to keep up with my ICAD project! Others around here have joined in the fun too. 

Summer Doodles

I started following  Daisy Yellow a while back. I love the colorful photos Tammy puts on her blog. She mostly does Art Journaling, not something that I want to dive into but I love her experimental approach to it. She is not afraid to try new things.She has introduced a fun summer project, Index Card A Day, that I will give a try. The idea is to commit to some sort of creativity each day. I figure I can carry some cards and pens in my purse and doodle while I'm out and about. I know I have had some great quilt ideas get away from me because I didn't jot them down. So, some of my doodles may be quilt inspiration.  Even when things are really busy I should be able to doodle on an index card.I started on June 1st and my first two cards are miniature versions of my favorite projects from Art Club. The index cards are not the greatest paper for watercolor but it was fun to do in small scale.

Go buy a pack of index cards and join the fun!

You can see more ICAD pictures here.

I'm off to bake some more cookies for the weekend's graduation festivities.

Wordless Wednesday

Thoughtful Sunday

"It is only when one has grown old and dull that the soul is heavy and refuses to rise. The young soul is ever winged; a breath stirs it to an upward flight."

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Kate Douglas Wiggin, 1903.

Black Dots

This week in art club we read the book Ten Black Dots by Donald Crews.  We talked about a lot of things that the dots could become in a picture.

I took my one inch circle punch and the students punched out circles from black paper and then created a picture.

They were very creative

and came up with a lot of good ideas for their black dots.

Next week is the last week of art club for the year. There will be an art show on June 4 from 1-3 at the Chelsea Center for the Arts. If you are local, come to the show and see what the art clubs have been doing. I teach K-2 art club but there is also an art club for 3rd, 4th, 5th and a middle school art club for 6th, 7th and 8th graders. Artwork from all three clubs will be on display.

Kapow!

We are having another rainy day.

Wordless Wednesday

Stars for Sarah

Last night I made M's graduation and recital invitations so I rewarded myself with a bit of sewing machine time this morning. Here are the results of my play time!

These blocks are for Sarah. She requested orange, yellow, pink stars on turquoise, aqua, blue background. She wanted one block of four stars and the other to be one BIG star. The 12 inch star went together in a FLASH!

I am pleased that I found all of these fabrics in my scrap pile! Oh, Sarah, just so you know, P has pajamas out of that pink with aqua dots. The yellow with flowers is a vintage piece that used to be something - I don't know what.We will not discuss the fact that Sarah's Bee month was April.... I am just thrilled to have made these fun blocks this morning.  Some day I'll be caught up. Maybe.

I'm off to the garden.

May Merriment

There is always a flurry of activity in May. There is much to do outside in the yard and gardens, in addition to end of school activities. This year we also have a lot of graduation related events.This weekend P and I worked a bit in her fairy garden. The plants from last year all look happy there. We put in a few new plants but still have quite a few seeds to get in the ground.

We put in fence for the peas and weeded the vegetable garden. B did a bit of mowing and working on the house. D installed the toilet in our new bathroom upstairs! M wrote a term paper and had a couple of music gigs. P had her spring recital with others in the studio. I also made 20 books covers from these papers for the art club students.  We have all done a bit of spring cleaning.

When it gets crazy busy like this I do try to make time to walk the yard and see what's in bloom.

I don't want to miss any of that!

Since on the go knitting seems to be all I can fit in for now, I have also been progressing on a few portable projects like new socks for B.

That yarn in the background is making its way to the top of the knit pile too! I need to decide what to make with it.

I'm currently working on socks for myself using the same rib pattern as these mitts.

Today I hope to make M's graduation and recital invitations. He has a much bigger list of people to invite than his brother had two years ago.  

Painting with Tissue Paper

This week in Art Club we painted with tissue paper.  The technique is really fun and easy. All you need is some heavy paper that can take getting wet, tissue paper that will bleed (spectra tissue works really well), and a spray bottle of water.

The first step is to tear the colored tissue into smallish pieces and arrange them on the heavy paper.

Next, spray the project with water. Make sure that all of the tissue is wet and touching the paper (the color will only transfer where the tissue touches the paper).

The last step requires patience. - Let dry.  As the tissue dries the color will bleed onto the paper below. Anywhere that the tissue colors overlap will give a blend of color that is sort of magical to watch.

After the project is dry it is time to remove the tissue paper. If you remove the tissue too soon, the paper underneath may get damaged or torn.

We plan to use these papers to make covers for books that the students will take home at the end of the year.  I have sewn blank papers (copy paper folded in half) together for the middle section of the book. The covers will be mat board covered in our tissue painted papers. I think we will use black duct tape for the spine.Before I do any more on the books I need to make some graduation announcements and senior recital invitations for M.  There is never a dull moment here on the farm.

Foraged Food

We had a cool rainy weekend which, I understand, is great morel weather.

We made quite a haul today.

And they were not tiny either.

We'll be having some mushrooms in our dinner tonight. 

Endpaper Mitts

I've had these mitts finished for a while but haven't gotten photos of them until today.

The pattern is Endpaper Mitts by Eunny Jang.

The yarn is a no longer available hand paint and cream baby ull.

I love the look and fit of this pattern and the directions are great.  The tubular cast on and cast off give a great finished edge. I know I'll be using both methods again in the future. Heck, I'll probably use this whole pattern again - It is THAT good. I don't usually knit the same pattern more than once.

The hand painted yarn lost a lot of color in the washing but I love the faded blue jeans look that they have now. The original color can be seen here.

In addition to this photography, we attended three music events this weekend. B and D also replumbed the house so that we have water up to the new bath! The room has no fixtures or walls yet, but the water is there!  They worked until 2:30 this morning so that we could have hot water in the rest of the house today. Someone even washed all the dinner dishes before going to bed in the wee hours of the morning. Thanks D.

Thank You

Sara, Ian, Lisa, Steve, Jed, Nathan, and Rick, I am SO glad that you live, play music and teach in our hometown. You all do great things to make our community a wonderful and musical place to live.  You inspire all of us. You provide impressive music events which are gifts for all.  You teach and make it possible for us to have music events by people of all ages.  You help the young build skill and confidence.  And you encourage them to come together in diverse groups to make music and new friends.We appreciate you.  You are all shining jewels in Chelsea's crown.  Thank you.

Smell the Flowers

I hope you are taking some time to smell the flowers.

I am sure it would be even more fun if you wore a cute vintage dress while enjoying the flowers.

Have a great weekend and try not to be bothered by the bees.

Our redbud was buzzing with bees yesterday - big bees and little bees. It was really quite loud.

Pretty in Pink

I think it has finally arrived. The reward for the dull dreary winter months is finally here! Everything is bright with color. The grass is very green and growing. The early flowers are up and blooming. Our daffodils are fading but there are now bright tulip colors all around. Trees are bursting with flowers and leaves. This week is PINK.

Our apricots,

redbuds,

and the very photogenic crab apple are all in full bloom.

Oh, I do love spring.