Ninja Woman

Sunday Art Class: DIY Mugs

2012-02-13T07:49:00.004-05:00

I've seen a few posts on people designing their own mugs lately, so when I was at the Goodwill a couple weeks ago and saw a bunch of white ceramic mugs, I thought I'd better snatch them up.

Then I picked up some Porcelain markers at Michael's. (On clearance! Whoo-woo. But then 2 didn't work, so BOOO!)

I started the boys out by showing them some examples of mugs that I pulled off the web of cool mugs. I tried to show them how to make big designs - not too much detail - and not too much color. I found some great mugs here that do a lot with only two colors.

Then I gave them all mug templates to practice their designs on.

When the designs were approved, then got to draw them on the mugs. See Curly's in the lower left. You can see his devil face design on the template and how he's drawing it on the mug.

One of the nice things about these markers is that you can wash the ink off if you made a mistake. It's not permanent until you bake it on the ceramic.

And here are the boys with their mugs.

Here's nice tutorial if you want to try it yourself. And (below) here's the template for sketching mug designs.

The boys had a really good time with this project and I think they're super psyched to use their own, personalized mugs. (Sorry boys - I have to bake them first!)

I only had three mugs so I didn't get to make one - boo. I'll have to run back out to the Goodwill and gather more mugs. I think these could make excellent teacher gifts!

The Waiting Game

2012-02-10T10:59:00.001-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I pulled out all the illustrations for my newest picture book, laid them out in the dining room, and made a list of 'things to fix.'

That's all done now, so I'm in that terrible, horrible place where I have to wait. I'm waiting to see what cover design the publisher wants to go with. I'm waiting to see if they like any of my mock-ups for end-papers. I'm waiting to find out if there are illustrations that need tweaking. And if not, then I'm waiting to get the 'go ahead' to glue everything down. (It's only taped in place right now.)

Tweedle-dee, tweedle-dee, dee....

Of course, I'm working on other projects. But it's great when I get momentum going on a project and so hard when I have to stop - cold - and just wait.

In other news: Magoo is working on a biography of Sitting Bull. Part of the project is a timeline - a timeline with illustrations!

I present The Battle at Little Bighorn.

My favorite part is the expression on the army guy's face. Like OH [bleep]!

Have a great weekend!!!

Yarn Along: Honey Cowl

2012-02-08T08:03:00.002-05:00

My newest project on the needles is the all-too-famous Honey Cowl that it seems EVERYONE is making (or has made) on Ravelry. Well, I just gotta have one too! In Tosh DK Moss. I think this will be my last cowl of the season. Then I think I'll be all cowled-out for awhile.

I'm reading (and about 120 pages into) The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton. I read about it on an author's blog that I frequent and she loved it! I can see why. It hooked me by page, like, 13. The basic story is that the MC, Mike, survived something unspeakable when he was eight years old. We, the readers, don't know what it is because he can't quite bring himself to say it. In fact, he doesn't say anything. At all. He's a psychological mute.

He grows up with his uncle and has a pretty miserable childhood, until he discovers two things about himself: he has natural art skills, and he's awesome at picking locks.

The story jumps back and forth in time between the kind of trouble he gets in in his youth and to the kind of trouble he gets in as a "specialist-for-hire" for professional criminals.

It's told in first person and Mike's voice comes through loud and clear as he recounts his adventures and how he fells about having participated in them.

I'm really enjoying it.

And guess what? I finished my first sweater!!! Da, da DUUUUUUUM!

I haven't actually blocked it yet which is why the trim (seed stitch) is still a little puffy. I'll give it a bit of a steam blocking today. But all in all I'm pleased with it and I'm so impressed with myself that I was able to make an adult sized sweater in less than two months.

(Sweater is Frances Revisited, pattern on Ravelry.)

So now I'm onto garments and it's a brave new world!

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

(Joining Ginny at Small Things.)

Sunday Art Class: Watercolor Landscapes

2012-02-06T07:50:00.001-05:00

Last year, the boys did very well with watercolor, so I decided to introduce it earlier this year and maybe we'll do more than one.

I like to teach the boys watercolor step-by-step. So I'm not really teaching them concepts. I think they'd get bored with that. Right now it's all about results. So we just take it one thing at a time. We're painting a sky. Then painting some bushes. Etc. I try to encourage them to use different colors, paint wet-on-wet, and other things of the like, but I also find that I can only throw one or two things at them before it becomes too much. And even then, they are usually so gung-ho to get started that I only have half their attention.

Here's Magoo working on the shrubs at the horizon line.

And Mo.

And Curly.

Here are the finished paintings. Didn't they do a good job?

I worked from the book The Watercolor Painting Book by Wendon Blake which is a great book for step-by-step landscapes. It's out-of-print but it looks like Amazon has a few left. It's not a children's art book, it's just a standard watercolor book. It's not as glossy as a new watercolor book, but it really has some sound lessons in it and I find it's one of the books I refer to the most.

Tra-la-la Friday

2012-02-03T08:54:00.001-05:00

Nothing blog-worthy going on today. Not really.

I'm waiting to get feedback on the art for the picture book, so there's nothing I can do for that right now.
I spoke to my editor about a title change. See the book was called Monkey Ho Ho after the stuffed monkey that my sister-in-law had growing up. Isn't that the best name?! It is! BUT there is a show on Nick Jr. that has a small monkey named Ho Ho. I kid you not.

So ... title change. Booo.

I think we've got a solution to the problem, but I don't want to share it until I know for sure.

In the meantime I'll work on a new painting, knit the cowl of my sweater, and start illustration ideas for another proposal. And clean. The house needs cleaning bad.

That's my day.

Hope you all have a lovely Friday and a great weekend.

GO PATS!

Yarn Along: Francis Revisited Sweater

2012-02-01T07:56:00.001-05:00

The sweater is progressing nicely. I was hesitant to start a sweater because I thought it would take me the better part of a year to finish it - but I have to say this is such a lovely, simple pattern that I'm happily cruising along. Of course, I had a bit of a cold last week so I spent more time than usual sitting on the couch, watching TV, and knitting.

I started the first sleeve with US10 dpns and I. HATED. THEM. Ug - how awful to have to jump from needle to needle. It was like having a commercial every 2 minutes throughout a show. Choppy. Frustrating. So I bought a 16" circular US10 needle and I'm so much happier. La, la,la!

I know some people love their dpns - but those people are weird and foreign to me. ;)

I continue to love the yarn which is Nashua Handknits: Julia. 50% wool, 25% Alpaca, 25% Mohair. It's very soft and has a nice drape to it. I think it will be the perfect weight.

I'm currently readying IMAGINARY GIRLS by Nova Ren Suma.

I'm about 100 pages into it and the story is intriguing. It's basically the story of two sisters, eldest Ruby who practically runs the town with her flirting. She's kinda like Austin Powers; men want her and women want to be her. And Ruby's younger sister, Chloe, who finds the body of a dead teenager while night swimming in the reservoir - which, naturally, freaks her out quite a bit. Well, it seems there's lots of freaky stuff going on in the reservoir - but I haven't gotten to all of it yet.

I like a plot-driven narrative. Tight. So I have to admit that this story is a bit over-written for my taste. I'll skim paragraphs of description. But I like it. I'm wanting to get back to it. So that's always a thumbs up for me.

Happy Wednesday!

(Joining Ginny at Small Things.)

Abstract Workshop #2: Pebbles

2012-01-31T08:10:00.001-05:00

Pebbles by j. c. phillipps Jan 2012

Hello. It's week 2 of my practice into abstract painting. I have to confess that I did a really, really ugly painting last week. It was so ugly that I scrapped it. I'm hoping to be able to use the other side of the paper. I blocked the whole thing out in rectangles and then just started filling in the colors. The problem I have had in the past was a wack-a-doodle color scheme, so I tried to remedy that by choosing a famous painting and using that scheme. Nope. Still stunk. Maybe I'm not meant to paint rectangles like that. It was gross.

So I returned to the formula that worked for me the first time: I found a photograph that sparked.

It was actually a sky. The gradation from blue to lights in cloudy wisps was what got me going. There was even a little yellow in it. And one black bird.

So I did the gradation. And the wisps. But I wasn't trying to recreate the photograph - only to use it as a starting point. So no bird. Instead I made a blue/green shape. It was that big one kinda in the middle. Then I made a few more. Just shapes. Then, when I had five shapes it started talking to me.

We're pebbles on the shore, they said.

Oh. Fantastic. I mean, I didn't then aim to make a realistic pebble painting, but it gave me a bit of a path to follow.

There was a moment when I was weaving the black through that I thought I'd botched it completely, but some wet ochre mellowed it out. Actually, it was vertical too - but when it was finished I kinda liked it horizontal.

So there you have it. Abstract #2. Pebbles.

Happy Tuesday!

Sunday Art Class: Wax Resist Hieroglyphics

2012-01-30T07:54:00.000-05:00

Last week Curly expressed interest in hieroglyphics. (I think he might be studying them in school.) So I pulled out some old mat board, crayons, printed up some hieroglyphic samples, and we did some wax resist.

The first step was to have the kiddos sketch their designs on the matboard in pencil. I printed up some alphabets in case anyone wanted to write their names, but no. They stuck with the designs. Magoo chose a low cup/bowl. Curly did a falcon. Mo chose a scarab beetle.

One of the challenges in this project is getting the kids to leave blank space. Ideally, you leave areas of board untouched and that's where the ink/paint holds. But that requires thinking about negative space, so I had to go over it with the boys a couple times.

Here's Magoo applying his paint.

I used black tube watercolor for the ink.

And here's Curly. You can see the paint form into drops over the white crayon. TIP: the harder you apply the crayon the better.

When the ink was dry, I let the boys do some detail work with gold markers.

Great job boys!

Happy Monday everyone!

Remembering Snow

2012-01-27T07:52:00.002-05:00

The snow has melted away. Once again, the ground is brown. So I'm sharing some snowy shots that I took the last couple weekends.

(Above.) Woodstock, VT. This is the view from Charlie's condo. Not too shabby, eh? I love the long shadows falling across the hill.

This is also Vermont. This little stream is right outside the ski resort Suicide Six. As Mike drove around there were lots of beautiful little streams and such, but it's hard to get a good shot inside a car. I was happy to be walking right past this scene.

(Below) Back home. Last weekend we finally got some snow. We did some shoveling, then we hit the slopes.

I had bought a toboggan at a summer tag sale, so I was happy to finally try it out. It even has a padded seat!!!

And it's pretty quick too.

Magoo and Curly work on a ramp for the sleds to fly over.

Magoo has such long eyelashes that they often catch snowflakes falling down.

We let the boys stay out as long as they wanted. It's such a wonky winter I didn't know how long the snow would last - and it was a good thing, too, because it didn't last long. We got two days of sledding and by Wednesday it was gone. Booooo.

Let's all do a Connecticut snow dance and bring it back!

Until then, hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Yarn Along: Sweater

2012-01-25T08:10:00.003-05:00

It's Wednesday - so it's time to join Ginny's Yarn Along.

The sweater is coming along nicely. Since my yarn isn't quite as thick as the yarn they suggested, I had to add a couple rows in before I tied off the arms. Don't want the arms too high or too tight. Fortunately I have a dress form in the basement which is basically my size - so I just whipped it on her and made some measurements. I've worked through the decreases in the torso and now it's time to make some mild increases to create a bit of a bell shape before I do a seed stitch finish. Then there are the sleeves and the cowl - so there's still a ways to go. But I have to admit that I'm psyched for having gotten this far in a week!

The yarn I'm using is Nashua Handknits: Julia in color: Squash. It's lovely.

I finished The Night Circus and I LOVED IT! I did a review of it on Goodreads. If you're a member of Goodreads I think you can view it here. (I think.) If not, let's just say, if you like magic, romance, mystery, and you're alright with time jumps - you'll probably like The Night Circus.

Right now I am reading Cassandra Clare's Clockwork Prince. I'm literally not even through the first chapter yet, so I can't say much one way or another. But I loved the first in the series: Clockwork Angel.

I've also been delving into abstract art, so I've been checking out Painting Abstract by Rolina van Vliet. I should sit down and read it, but what I usually do is look through the pictures, get a tip or two, and start painting.

Happy Wednesday everyone! (Oh, I tried to add a Yarn Along button but Blogger wasn't being cooperative. I'll try again later when I'm not trying to feed a boy breakfast and usher him off to school.)

Abstract Workshop #1: Dirty Sunlight

2012-01-24T09:05:00.001-05:00

Dirty Sunlight j.c.phillipps Jan. 2012

You know how last year was The Year of the Bird and I spent the year working on watercolor and collage birds? Well, this year is The Year of the Abstract.

I am drawn to abstract art but I've never been good at it. I've always felt I needed to have a concrete path, such as: I am painting a fish. And when the painting looked like the fish I wanted it to look like, then I was happy. I slapped my name on it and said, This is a good painting.

That's much more difficult for me to do with abstract, because I don't know how to map out a path. Or judge my work when it's done. And, quite frankly, it's kept me kind of crippled when approaching abstracts.

Still, I really like abstract art.

So I decided to take a different approach. I'll start just like I would start any other painting, with a spark of inspiration. I'll see something in nature or in a photograph that will spark something in my watercolor brain, such as this photograph by Kat Sloma. And that will be my starting point.

Photo by Kat Sloma

I was attracted to the color stains on the wall and the bold rectangle in the middle of an otherwise loose composition.

I reproduced the basics on my paper, let them dry, then I ditched the photo and simply let the painting tell me what to do next. I think the trick is to accept that it may suck. In fact, it did suck, so I added something to it. That caused me to add something else to balance it out. Then I started scrubbing rectangles away. At one point I blotted out some loose paint with a paper towel and that left a paper-towel pattern behind which I quite liked. And so on and so on.

All I'm working with is my own sense of composition, really. And I don't sit there for hours either. I just leave the painting out, work on something else, and tinker with it between other projects. That way I keep coming back to it with fresh eyes.

Finally, it's to the point where I think (think) it's done. It feels balanced to me and I'm happy with it. I can always come back to it later if I have a watercolor epiphany, but for now it is the first in my abstract series.

If you're interested in doing a little abstract workshop of your own, check out these books:
Water, Paper, Paint by Heather Smith Jones
and
Painting Abstracts by Rolina van Vliet

Happy Tuesday!

Sunday Morning Art Class: Figure Drawing

2012-01-23T08:08:00.003-05:00

It was around this time last year when I started teaching Magoo and the B Boys (Curly and Mo) art on Sunday mornings. It went really well, so we decided to do it again.

We started off with figure drawing. Well, actually, we started off with some symmetry warm-ups (which they did OK with), then we moved on to figure drawing.

Drawing is such a strong fundamental skill, that I like to teach it off and on all through the "semester." But these are high-energy boys and I want them to have fun too, so we jump from project to project: clay, watercolor, T-shirt design, comics...

Anyhoo, back to the task at hand.

The first thing we did was break down the body into part; ovals, circles, and rectangles. Then I gave them all copies with three bodies already drawn out and we broke down the parts on those bodies: head, neck, shoulders, etc. I really want them to understand what's in the body, where it goes, and how it bends. When they get that, they can draw anything.

Then we drew "activities" from a bowl to sketch out.

This is Curly's "Tripping." Curly was very good at capturing the motion of the physical activity. Can't you see this guy really falling forward?

Here's Mo working on "Climbing." Mo's climbing guy is getting up on a chair. I love the tongue sticking out in concentration.

Magoo's climbing guy is working his way up a precarious branch. From the proximity of those clouds, it looks like he got pretty high!

(I like the T-shirt that says I am right 94% [of the time.] I want to make a shirt like that.)

I was very proud of the boys. They only needed one reminder of how they are expected to behave during art class, and then they were great. I think it's most difficult for Magoo to make the transition from kid-in-his-own-house to art-student. And when I'm teaching them, I'm pretty no-nonsense for an hour. There was one point when Magoo was feeling down and wrote I hate art class on his paper, especially for me to see. :) I just gave him a tissue (he had a few tears) and told him (in a nice voice) that he needed to work through it, and after a while he was back on task and having a good time.

In other news: It was a crafty Sunday. Magoo and I also made a car from cardboard and rubberbands from this book: Amazing Rubber Band Cars.

In addition to having a fun toys, we learned about axels and friction. And Magoo learned how to use the hot glue gun, cautiously.

Also - We FINALLY have some snow! It was a two-day sledding extravaganza!!! Pics tomorrow.

Happy Monday!

Almost Finished

2012-01-20T08:05:00.004-05:00

It amuses me how messy my desk can get after a single illustration. I suppose it makes sense. Any given illustration usually requires; pencil, eraser, ruler, scissors, a multitude of papers, hole punches, Xacto blade, liquid glue, glue stick, and sometimes watercolors. Oh, and a little pen work too.

I'm also using some wire and thread in this book.

But I am ALMOST DONE.

Today I will finish the last full illustration in the book.

Of course, I'm not done done.

I still have to fix some things here and there, glue it all down, design the cover, make the cover, maybe make endpages (I don't know) and other little detail work.

Still - it feels good.

In other news: It snowed! Finally! I'm hoping to get some sledding in this weekend and we may start up the Sunday morning art lessons this week as well!

Have a a great Friday!

Yarn Along: Road Trip Mitts

2012-01-18T07:50:00.002-05:00

It's Wednesday, so I'm joining Ginny's Yarn Along.

I finished the mitts. I got a ton of knitting done in the car on the ways to and from Vermont, so I'm calling these Road Trip Mitts. The pattern is called Optimistic Mitts and its a free download off of Ravelry. The yarn is Malabrigo Twist in Burgandy.

Now onto the new projects. The moss will be for a Honey Cowl (off of Ravelry. What would I do without Ravelry?) And the squash is for (drumroll) my very first sweater!!!! I'm going to attempt the Francis Revisted Sweater on Ravelry. (Right now I'm just making a gauge swatch.)

I'm still reading The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and loving it. It's dense, like a thick chocolate cheesecake. The chapters are short, so I only read one or two and then I set it down and digest them. It's also unclear as to where the story is going - but in a good way. It's more like a puzzle than a normal novel. You get pieces of sky and pieces of mountain and pieces of a tree, etc. And slowly, slowly you put chunks together here and there, but you don't 100% know how they're all going to fit together as a whole. I can imagine that might be an issue for some people. I have such faith in the writing, though, that I know it's going to be a wonderful surprise! (At least, I hope so.) I'm half way through and I think it's fantastic so far!

Photography: Windows

2012-01-17T08:16:00.001-05:00

I read this blog post about photographing windows and it got me thinking about the window photos in my repertoire.

This shot was taken in the courtyard of the Eric Carle Museum. It was a gorgeous day and the the big door/window had the a fabulous reflection that I thought looked cool against the simple white walls.

What cat doesn't loving basking in the sunlight? One of Java's favorite spots is peering out the big picture window. I have a few different photographs of her in similar poses, but I like this one the best because the light is so bright it has drown out all the details of the window and is threatening to smother her in its glow.

One Thanksgiving morning, several years ago, it snowed. This was a first snow of the season and Magoo was little enough that he probably didn't remember the previous year's snow all that well, so this was like magic to him. Delight through a window pane.

Just this last weekend I snapped this shot of the hall window in Charlie's Vermont house. I was attracted by the sun coming in the windows both upstairs and downstairs and all the lights and darks created by that.

Since reading that post, I know I'll be looking for other window opportunities when snapping shots, but it seems I was already drawn to windows as photographic inspiration.

Ski Saturday

2012-01-16T13:15:00.000-05:00

This weekend, we drove up North to hang out with family and hit the slopes. Mike's uncle has a place in Woodstock, Vermont and Suicide Six (above) is just minutes away.

Here's Magoo all ready to go.

This is only Magoo's second time skiing (and Mike's too, for that matter) but he was doing pretty well last year so we decided not to get lessons and just take him down the bunny hill a few times. Well ... that didn't work out so well.

For starters, there are some basic concepts to skiing that Magoo doesn't quite get, like when you've fallen and you need to get up DON'T point your skis down the mountain. Stuff like that. So in addition to me shouting things like "Pizza!" "French fries!" to get him to put his skis in certain positions, I was also trying to talk him through getting up which can be complicated. "Now move your ski forward. Not that ski, the other ski. No, honey, forward, so your tips are pointing to the trees. Now move your body..." and so on. And because I'm on skis and Mike's on skis it's hard to reach down and help him.

Magoo was getting pretty frustrated and I was starting to get tense, which causes Magoo to tense and so on and so on...

Then the grumpy clouds cleared and a choir of angels sang as NICEST MAN IN THE WORLD stopped by. His name was Terry and he offered to help out and give Magoo some pointers. He took Magoo down the bunny hill three times, showing him how to stand with his legs apart, how to bend his knees, how to position his body to put his weight forward. The fourth time down the hill, Magoo made it down without falling once!

(FYI Terry was not a teacher there. He was just a man who was there with his own kids who had been skiing all his life. Sooooooo nice!)

Then Magoo started having fun and I started to relax. After a few more runs, Magoo said he wanted to try one of the bigger trails.

So when Mike and Larry came back from their ski adventure on the other side of the mountain we all went over to the EASY MILE.

All went well - at first. The trouble was, the EASY MILE is a mile. It's looooong, and it's more challenging than the bunny hill. After three falls, Magoo started to tense up again. And when he gets tense, I get tense and so on and so on and so on. Eventually, we agreed that he would ski down with me, between my skis, and we made it down the rest of the mountain that way. It was tough on my thighs, but easier on my nerves.

Larry offered to take Magoo into the lodge for a snack while Mike and I hit the EASY MILE solo.

That was my only run that day sans Magoo. I was exhausted.

We would have gone back Sunday (and we would have paid for some ski lessons for Magoo) but it was C.O.L.D. I mean -8 degrees, baby. No thank you.

In the end, Magoo said he had a good time. I think he just needs more lessons and he needs them to be from a professional and not his mother. Then he can get a solid foundation and I can have some fun going down the hills not in full Mama Bird mode.

Author Visit: Center School

2012-01-12T08:18:00.001-05:00

On Tuesday I had the absolute pleasure of visiting Ms. Donlon's fifth grade class at Center School in Simsbury.

Ms. Donlon (a.k.a. Heather, to those of you who know me) is a very good friend of mine and she wondered if I'd be interested in coming in and talking about my revision process with the kids.

I LOVE going into the classroom any chance I get. It's such good experience for me. So I talked with Heather about the kinds of things that they teach in 5th grade, and I made my presentation trying to highlight the aspects of revision that we share.

Of course, I could probably talk for a couple hours on plot alone - so it's somewhat tricky to discuss plot, character, dialogue, verb tense, strong verbs, etc. in one hour without being overwhelming. But I tried to touch on a lot of different things, include examples, and places where the kids could solve problems and do rewrites.

It went pretty well.

When I'm on my game doing school visit after school visit, I can usually run a group like this pretty smoothly. But I hadn't done a presentation since last Spring and I'm not used to fifth graders, so I have to admit I maybe had a little too much fun. Fifth graders are funny!

Here's what I learned about my presentation:

I need to ask specific questions. I put a chunk from the first draft of Wink on the board and asked them what was wrong with it. The answer was the verb tense switched from present to past. But they were saying all sorts of things! They weren't right about what they were saying, but clearly it was too vague a question. I need to tweak that and ask, "Which verb is in the wrong tense?"

Be careful with nicknames. I can't always remember everyone's name. I'm pretty good, but some escape me. What I usually do in this situation is call the child by his/her shirt. So if there's a girl in a Hello Kitty shirt - I call her Hello Kitty. Simple enough. Well, there were two boys named Kevin.*
One had kind of wild hair and the other had glasses. So I called them Kevin Hair and Kevin Glasses. Everything seemed to go smoothly, but I found out later that Kevin Glasses is not in love with his glasses. Heather couldn't tell if he liked the nickname or not, but most likely, he did not. Of course, I am mortified. What I'll try to remember is kids usually have some control in picking their clothes - so if they wear it, they like it. But kids don't have control over their glasses, freckles, braces, etc. So I'll try to remember not to make mention of any of those things. (I hope he wasn't upset. Sorry Kevin.)

I can't spell dialogue. Kinda. Here's what happened. I presented a visual slide where narrative was balanced with dialog on a teeter-totter. And that's just how I spelled it. Dialog. One girl raised her hand to correct me. I asked how you spelled it and she pulled out her dictionary and spelled d-i-a-l-o-g-u-e. OH, WAS SHE PLEASED WITH HERSELF! And that's totally cool. I wasn't embarrassed. I explained that I made a mistake and thanked the girl for pointing it out. Only guess what? I wasn't wrong. I looked it up. Both are correct. Dialogue is Old English. Dialog is a more modern but still accepted way of spelling it. In your face, Girl! I'm totally kidding. I'm glad she felt proud of herself. But I'm also glad I don't have to change the slide. :)

THANKS SO MUCH to Ms. Donlon's class. I had so much fun! You kids were FABULOUS!

*Kevin is not actually the name of the boys.

Knit Along: Mitts

2012-01-11T09:13:00.004-05:00

You know what's nice about Wednesdays? I know exactly what to blog about because I'm usually knitting something and I can just join in Ginny's Yarn Along on Small Things.

What I'm working on now: A certain friend is having a birthday soon and I thought a charming pair of fingerless mitts might tickle her fancy.

Besides - I still really love mine. I'm using a worsted Malabrigo (Twist) in color: Burgundy.

So far so good. I just put in the opening for the thumb. I'm sure I'll have at least one done by next week.

I just started reading The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and it's gooooood. I had to abandon lasts week's book, Star Crossed, b/c the celestial world building kept getting in the way of the story. It was making me nuts. I mean, it was a fine book. It's wasn't horrible or anything. And I LOVED that author's last book, A Curse Dark as Gold. But Star Crossed wasn't doing it for me and if I'm not invested in the story by page 70 or so, then I just take it back to the library. I want to read things that excite me.

Since I only just started The Night Circus - I can't speak on it too much. But it's mysterious and a little sinister. Julie like!

What I finished: my Casu Cowl. YAY!

I kid you not, I had about 6 inches of yarn left over when I was done. I learned how to cast-on in a way that keeps the stitches live (I didn't love that process) and I learned the Kitchener stitch (which I didn't have a problem with.)

New cowl! New cowl! I love a new cowl!

Knit Along

2012-01-04T07:58:00.001-05:00

It's Wednesday, so I'm joining Ginny at Small Things for her Yarn Along.

I have two things on the needles now. (Well, three things really, but I'm stalled out on the socks and thin-thin sock yarn!)

I am well into my Casu Cowl which I knit up with a skein of Malabrigo that I had sitting in my stash for awhile. It has some lovely emerald greens in it. I really like the diagonal trim on this. I think it's going to look super spiffy when I'm done - well, I hope so, at least. It knits up flat, then I join it with a kitchener stitch. (Eeek - new stitch!) Considering my pace, I probably have another week to go on it.

I also started another pair of Optimistic Mitts in red Malabrigo for a friend. I don't think she reads the blog - but you never know - so I'm going to keep my lips sealed. They shouldn't take too long, but they require tiny needles (I'm using a 9" circular Size 5. I have dpns and avoid then whenever I can.) and my hands can only tolerate tiny needles for so long.

I'm reading Star Crossed by Elizabeth Bunce. I LOVED her novel, A Curse Dark as Gold, which was a retelling of the Rumplestiltskin story. It was gorgeous. I'm having a harder time with this one b/c the world building keeps getting in my way. I like the heroine. I get her dilemma. But then there are talks of the seven moons and the different warring politics and everyone has weird names and it can get a bit much at 10pm. I have no doubt that when I get through all the muck of the politics that the plot will take off, but right now I'm wading through the murky bits.

Hope you're all having a great week!

Back in the Saddle

2012-01-03T09:22:00.001-05:00

Busy. Busy. Busy.

I have much to do this month in 2012.

I've completed two-thirds of Monkey Ho Ho illustrations but still have a chunk to do.

I have a new picture book text and dummy ready to show my editor but I'm also preparing a graphic novel proposal and that should take another couple days.

I have to prep for a school visit next week. I'm talking revisions with fifth graders.

I may or may not be teaching a class on Picture Books at the West Hartford Art League depending on if I get enough students. So I have to have at least the first class ready to go.

And then there's just the every day stuff. What am I having for dinner tonight? I dunno!

Magoo has to get a tooth pulled today. I'll have to yank him out of school for that in another hour.

So I'd better get back to work!

Happy New Year everyone!!!

Magoo's 9th Birthday

2011-12-31T08:09:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was Magoo's 9th birthday. He requested a honey cake - so a honey cake he got.

I can't make colorful sugary frosting or decorate with candy, so one of the more recent traditions has been to make a candle holder character of Magoo's choice. Last year he wanted Ruff Ruffman. This year he asked for a character from the game Skylander. I believe this fellow's name is Stump Smash.

I was pretty busy in the morning: making the cake, cleaning, decorating, and taking Magoo to Toys R Us so he could use his gift card. I would like to brag that Magoo opted to put all the money that he received in his bank account, even though I told him he could have some fun money too.

"I want to have a good savings account," he replied.

Then, in the afternoon, I took Magoo, Curly, and Mo to Nomad's Adventure Quest which is the BIGGEST arcade I've ever been in. There are games (of course) but this place also houses a rock climbing wall, bumper cars, a spinning ride, a full-sized baskeball court, a indoor jungle gym, glow-in-the-dark putt putt, a bowling alley, and a laser tag arena.

It's just a wee bit stimulating.

Lucky man Curly hit the 1000 tickets on the Fisherman Game. OH THE JOY! No child on Christmas morning has ever beamed like that boy beamed when tickets came pouring out of that machine.

After about 90 minutes in the arcade, the boys finished up their visit with a run around in the laser tag room. Heather and I sat out so I don't know what goes on in there, but all three boys came out exhilarated and sweating like hogs.

Here's Magoo, back at home, in front of one of our other birthday traditions: the timeline.

I don't remember how this started, but I did it a few years ago and he LOVED it. Last year I hadn't intended on putting one up, but then Magoo asked about it so I had to whip one out post haste. Then I wised up. Now I pull it all down carefully and tuck it away in a folder. So next year I'll just have to cut one number out of construction paper and print one photo.

My wish for Magoo was that he had a wonderful birthday. At night, when I asked him how it went, he said he had an awesome day.

Wish granted.

Thanks to all the friends and family who sent gifts to Magoo. He loved them all and the thank-you cards will me manufactured today!

Magoo Turns 9

2011-12-30T10:14:00.004-05:00

Follow Magoo as he ages from newborn (top,right) around a clockwise spiral to age 9, in the center.

Today, at noon, Magoo will turn 9 years old.

I'm not big on mushy blog posts - but gosh darn it - I love this kid something fierce.

The Next Richard Avedon

2011-12-28T19:14:00.002-05:00

On December 26th, Magoo was all excited to go out and shoot some photographs with his new camera, so we went to Elizabeth Park.

He practiced getting low and on the same plane as the subject...

He practiced taking shots from unusual angles...

He got some extreme close-ups...

And I showed him how to use the self-timer...

I remember getting my first camera. It was one of those thin, wide ones that took the film shaped kinda like a peanut - yanno what I mean? I can't remember what they were called and I just did an internet search and I couldn't find it. (How can you NOT find something on the internet?!?!?) But I remember thinking I was pretty hot stuff with my own camera. I think he's having a bit of that emotion. When we were at the park, Magoo was snapping away and a dad passes by and asked if Magoo got that camera for Christmas. Magoo was pretty pleased with the attention.

The challenge for me is trying not to "over-teach" him. I want to give him a few pointers, but mostly I want him to enjoy it. Which means hands-off for this control-freak mama.

So far, so good. He's taken it out the last two days.

Thanks again, Gramma, for the great gift!

Christmas 2011

2011-12-26T08:47:00.002-05:00

It's December 26th. For me, it means one BIG celebration is over (Christmas) and one smaller celebration has yet to be planned (Magoo's 9th birthday.)

But before I move on I'll share some scenes from the holiday season. Let's go clockwise from the top, left, shall we?

Java looking out a window decorated with paper snowflakes.
Magoo still loves to make a gingerbread house, even if he can't eat it.
My sis-in-laws, bro-in-law and dog-in-law at the dinner table - post-eating. Look at my pretty new tablecloth! (I didn't take a picture of it, but I made a lovely pork loin roast based on my friend Heather's recipe. It was great, Heather! Thanks!)
Magoo and Java in matching Santa hats. Java LOVES it! Can't you tell?
I made Java her own stocking this year.
A cashmere bunny I made for my niece.
Mary and Pat getting down with Just Dace 3 on the Wii.
Ornaments on the tree. (I read a blog post about capturing Christmas lights. I don't think I mastered it, but it was fun trying.)

Magoo got his very own camera from Gramma - OH was he excited! Here are a few Magoo-shots:

The family at the dinner table.

Java smiles for the camera.

Java playfully swipes.

Magoo also got a book, Cool Robots, which inspires kids to make robots out of the bins and bins of Legos they have around the house. This is the one Magoo made. He also took the photograph using my lightbox.

Now we're thinking we might have to make another stop-motion movie featuring Lego robots. Good thing we're on break!

I hope you all had a LOVELY holiday and wishing you all the best in 2012!!!

Magoo's Poetry Slam

2011-12-22T07:56:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the Third Grade's Poetry Recital, where every third grader wrote and performed their own poem.

Here is a video of Magoo and the stage reading his poem, CAT.

CAT

Claw like needles,
pupils as big as a boulder.
Fur like a bear,
they say they have
nine lives.

Striped, black or tom,
fire red coated too.
They pounce and hiss and
purr and scratch your pants.

They sleep in a circle,
as lazy and loyal
as you think.

All the kids did an AWESOME job! They really did. And the teachers had the whole thing moving [kids entering and exiting the stage] eels in oil. Smooooooooth.

Apparently many kids were inspired by the poem The Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams.

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

I heard a lot of kids say things like:
So much depends upon a plastic dinosaur ...
So much depends upon a scoop of ice cream ...
So much depends upon a white horse ...

It was pretty cute.

Great job, Magoo! And great job third graders! You rock!

Stop-Motion Saturday

2011-12-20T08:23:00.000-05:00

Some days you just gotta throw your plans to the wind.

On Saturday, I thought I would do some cleaning, some baking, and start working on the last 2 Xmas gifts I had yet to make. But when I came home from the grocery store, Magoo announced that he wanted to make a stop-motion movie.

Well, his buddies were occupied that afternoon and I always like to encourage a creative pursuit that does not involve reaching level six on some Wii game - so I chucked aside my baking, my cleaning, and my gifting.

Magoo was in charge of the concept (an obstacle course he built out of K'Nex) and I was in charge of the star. So I fashioned a little Sonic the Hedgehog character out of polymer clay.

Then we had to make a set. I cut three sides off a box and lined them with white paper. Here's Magoo stabilizing his K'Nex course on the set.

Then we his a snag. The webcam that I had used over the summer to make my zombie film was so completely out of focus that it was unusable. It was a super cheapo camera, so it was no big loss. Still - why bother making a stop-motion film if it's going to look like there was Vaseline on the lens.

So we went out to Best Buy and got a much nicer camera. (I'll be making more book trailers so I consider it a professional investment.)

Once we got back home, I had to install the driver for the camera, but I couldn't get the animation program disc out of the computer. (That was just plain flukey!) So it took me a good 20 minutes to figure out how to get the first disc out so I could put the other disc in. And by the time that all got settled, I needed to chill out and eat lunch! Whooosh.

But after lunch we all it altogether!

Here's Magoo on set.

We have our lights. We have our camera. And together Magoo and I (and our SAM Animation program) provided the action.

Magoo was a trooper through the whole thing. He was the director and he seemed to really enjoy the process. And he is VERY proud of his accomplishment.

Want to check it out? It's up on YouTube. Click here.

It turned out to be an excellent way to spend the afternoon with my son. MUCH better than cleaning!!!

Happy Tuesday!

The Trees Came Down

2011-12-19T08:35:00.001-05:00

As I had previously reported, the October snowstorm did quite a number on our trees. Because Eric, our tree guy, was very, very busy, his crew only just to our mess on Friday.

The saddest loss was our Maple out front, which was so badly damaged that it had to come down.

The Maple was a very small tree when we first moved in. Magoo was born soon after and I can remember taking him out front and laying him down in the shade of the small tree - which only covered his baby blanket. I would move him around the yard as the sun moved the shade.

In more recent years it was a climbing tree, a pinata hanging tree, and the place where we sat with company when were outside.

It's a true shame that it had to come down.

The tree guys had to get the big truck into our small backyard to deal with the Mighty Oak. That was like thrreading yarn through the eye of a needle.

There were quite a few large branches that were potentially dangerous, dangling up there. And even more LARGE branches that had been badly damaged and needed to be removed. Down came the tire swing.

See that huge branch in the back? They cut that into chunks for us. Mike bought a new log rack to hold the excess wood we're going to have and I think we might need to get another one.

And sad as it was that these things had to happen, we will be hanging the tire swing again and we will plant a new tree out front. And maybe - with all the excess sunlight coming in the backyard in the Spring - maybe, I will be able to grow some grass back there at last.

In the meantime, I need to do some research on landscaping. Anyone know any good books?

Yarn Along: Socks

2011-12-14T08:56:00.002-05:00

It's Wednesday, so I'm joining the gang at Small Things for Yarn Along.

It's exciting and daunting and I think it's going to take me a loooong time, but I am finally trying to knit a pair of socks! I got a great, simple pattern from Ravelry that called for DK yarn, but when I went to WEBS, I was a little overwhelmed and although I started in DK, the saleslady walked me over to the sock yarn when she found out what I was making (I should have been more specific) and I ended up getting very thin sock yarn. So, it's going to take me forever.

But that's OK. I might have to get a couple different projects going so I don't go sock-crazy-mad. We'll see.

I just started reading The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. This is a book that has been on my shelf for a couple years. My mother-in-law lent it to me. But it never whispered, "Read me next." So I didn't. But I've been seeing it pop up of peoples BEST lists or books that might get made into movies and whatnot, so I thought the time is now! I'm only about 40 pages into it, but it's picking up.

I finished the Gap-tastic cowl. I LOVE it! Here are my notes on Ravelry.

Journey to WEBS

2011-12-12T08:09:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, Heather and I decided to make a pilgrimage North to Massachusettes and the MEGA yarn store, WEBS.

(Above.) Here's part of the view when you walk through the door. Whoosh. There's a lot to take in.
I had a super-anal 3-ring binder with my upcoming projects in my arms so I grabbed the first salesperson I saw and had her show me to the DK and sock yarn.

After I found a couple things I wanted, I allowed myself to just stroll around and take in all the colors.

I love a store with a resident cat. This is Fred. Technically he's not a resident, just a frequent guest. He lives in the neighborhood and he loves attention. So when he's out and about he stops over at WEBS to be pet by the employees and customers. And he's welcome there because he doesn't seem to care for the yarn one lick. Of course Java doesn't care for my yarn when it's all balled up and put away either.

After wandering around the store for awhile, I overheard a clerk directing a lady to the back warehouse section where everything was ON SALE. Oh, you know I hightailed it back there quick!

Hot diggity dog!

I had been wanting to make a sweater for myself but when you figure in all the yarn you need it's not really a cheap option - but back here I found some lovely yarn in an orangey-squash color and got a fantastic price for it.

Here's Heather and I in the aisles.

I did pretty good. I got yarn for my sock project, for a pair of fingerless gloves for a friend, and for a sweater. It was tempting to get more, but I reigned myself in. I imagine it's quite easy to go overboard with so much yarn-y goodness.

I'd also like to add (in case anyone from WEBS every reads this) that the staff was TOP NOTCH knowledgeable, friendly, and available. There were staff people everyone, always smiling, always eager to help you find what you desired. It was just a happy place to be overall. So if you get a chance to head out to North Hampton, MA, and you love yarn, get on over to WEBS.

It's Cookie Time!

2011-12-09T11:17:00.001-05:00

In years past I have enjoyed making Christmas cookies and gathering them up in pretty tins for my friends and neighbors. When Magoo was put on a special diet, I spent so much time baking breads, cookies, and muffins for him that the LAST thing I wanted to do was make more cookies.

I think the last time I made Christmas cookies for others was 2007. So, four years later, I feel I have Magoo's baking under control and I possess the will and energy to try Christmas cookies again.

My specialty is Buckeyes. My mom used to make Buckeyes and they were OH SO YUM. And I have to admit - they are still OH SO YUM.

What they aren't is easy to make. You have to work through the whole process - there's no sitting and waiting while they bake. Oh no - that deliciousness comes from standing up for 90 minutes, getting your hands wet and sticky in peanut butter gloop, and bending over a pot of dense liquid chocolate to coat each and every morsel. (I brought my portable DVD player into the kitchen and watched Project Runway the whole time.)

Two trays are done. Hooray! And the kitchen is an unholy mess. Boo! But it's time for lunch so it will have to wait. And I have one Christmas cookie done for the season.

Ho ho ho.

Knit Along: Gaptastic Cowl

2011-12-07T07:46:00.001-05:00

It's Wednesday, so I'm joining the ranks of Ginny's Yarn Along.

One of my first knitting projects (about this time last year) was the Gap-tastic Cowl. The designer had been to the Gap and had seen a cowl she really liked, so she reproduced it and shared the pattern on Ravelry.

I liked the one I made, but at the time I was still a beginner and using cheap yarn. So it's not super soft against the delicate skin of my neck. So I thought I'd make a new one with luscious Malabrigo chunky in BUTTER.

The only thing I've altered from the pattern is the needle size. The Malabrigo chunky is thinner than the chunky I used before and when I did a swatch on the US13 needles I had previously used - it was very loose - and not in a good way. So I purchased a pair of US10.5 and they are working out just fine.

I'm still reading Savvy. I should have finished it by now but I've been super busy and haven't been reading a lot. It's cute but I'm not hooked yet.

Evil Christmas

2011-12-05T07:42:00.001-05:00

Allow me to introduce the newest members of out Christmas Village: Xmas Zombie and Evil Smurf.

You see, Xmas Zombie was just a regular ol' Joe who went out for some Christmas caroling when he was attacked by zombies. Although his skin is green and he thirsts for brains, he still remembers what the Christmas spirit is all about. So Xmas Zombie has brought a brain, just for you. What a thoughtful zombie!

Evil Smurf has less of a back-story. Magoo says he wanted to make a Christmas guy but he wanted him to be evil ... with blood on him. Still a Smurf is pretty jolly - so Merry Christmas Evil Smurf!

In other news: I have some lovely fuschia blossoms on my cactus. They are all crammed against the glass in the window so I was finding it difficult to get a good shot. At one point I just held the camera out and got this one... which I quite like!

We bought a Santa hat for Java. She's not in love with it.

Mike detected a squirrel heist in progress. Seems Squirrel A repelled down the rope to steal seeds via dropping them down to his accomplice, Squirrel B.

I'm actually shocked it took this long for the squirrels to get into it. I've had it up for months. Maybe there were so many tree seeds and acorns and things for them in the warmer months that they didn't feel the need to invade the birds' buffet. But they have figured it out now.

Yanno, I'm not opposed to helping a squirrel out, but I'm a little afraid they're going to hogs about it and clean me out of my birdseed. What to do? What to do?

Hope you all had a great weekend!

I love Pumpkin Pie!

2011-12-02T08:45:00.001-05:00

(To be sung to the tune of Joan Jett's I Love Rock and Roll)

I love pumpkin pie

so put another bite in my mouth, baby

I love pumpkin pie

so pull out a plate and eat with me

If there's one flaw about our family's Thanksgiving, it is that my in-law's do not hold the absolute love for pumpkin pie that I do. It doesn't appear to be a big New England thing. Oh, if I beg the pie makers for one, they'd make one for me. But only a couple people would eat it - so why bother.

Instead, I made one that my peeps could eat and enjoy. A gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free pumpkin. I know what you're thinking, Yummy, yummy, right? But it is! With the exception of the rim of the crust - which I burn every single time - it's really very tasty and has a nice thick consistency.

I don't expect anyone out there to make this. But I'm going to record it for my own purposes next year around this time.

Here goes:

Start with the CRUST!

You'll need:
1 1/2 C. gluten-free flour mix
1/2 tsp. salt
1 TBsp. agave
1 stick "butter" - we use a vegan Earth Spread kind of dealio
4 TBsp ice water

Pop the flour, salt, agave, and cut up "butter" in a food processor and PULSE until the dough starts to form pea-sized clumps. Add the ice water and keep on pulsing until combined. Put the dough in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap and chill it in the fridge for an hour or so.

Now it's time for the FILLING!

You'll need:
A can or box of pumpkin
1/2 cup of softened "Butter" - again we use a vegan brand
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup agave
2 eggs
1/2 cup canned coconut milk
1 1/4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 TBsp GF flour
1 Tbsp lemon juice

Start with mixing the pumpkin and butter. (I used a food processor, but you can mix it however you like.) Then add everything else. You might want an electric mixer here b/c you want to get it all nice and smoooooooth.

Why don't you go ahead and preheat the oven to 450 now.

Now it's time to roll out your pie crust. What I do is tape down some parchment or wax paper. Flour is up good. Plop the dough on it. Knead - only a little - basically just getting the flour on it and taking the stickiness away. Roll it out. When I have it wide enough and thin enough, I brush away the excess flour, pull the tape up, and cut the paper around the edges of the dough so I don't have any excess to deal with. Then I invert my pie pan (which I sprayed with oil) on the flat dough, then flip the whole thing over so the dough is on top. (The paper is still stuck to the dough.) I gently tap the dough in place, then remove the paper backing. If there are holes - I use the excess dough to patch them. Then I trim the excess dough from the sides of the pan. Boom - it's ready to fill.

Pour filling into the pie crust. Pop that pie into the oven for 10 minutes, then turn the heat down to 350 and bake it another 50-60 minutes.

After that first 10 minutes, I put foil over the crust, but I was too late. Next time, I will put the foil on right away and take it off closer to the end - if need be.

When you remove the pie - it will need to cool and set a good long time - preferably overnight.

If you can't wait that long - like I can't - you know what you do? You take some of that excess dough from the crust and you cut smaller circles and line little individual baking cups - or even cupcake tins - and you put a bit of pie filling in there and bake those for, like, 20-30 minutes. Then you have little pies to eat. Ours weren't completely set, so we called them Pumpkin Puddings - but they were sooooo good.

I was going to take a picture - but honestly - I was more about the eating than the photographing.

Hope you all have a lovely Friday and a wonderful weekend. I think we're going to see the new Muppet Movie - yay!

Knit Along: Fingerless Coffee Mitts

2011-11-30T09:07:00.001-05:00

It's Wednesday, so I'm joining Ginny's Yarn Along.

I finished my Fingerless Coffee Mitts! (Pattern here.) What a fun, fun project - and BIG THANKS to Heather for gifting me the lovely Erin Wool Heritage Yarn in Glazed Pecan that sent me to Ravelry to find something fun to make.

I will admit: the thumb scared me a bit. I will also admit: I did not rock the thumbs. They are OK. Not awesome. Picking those stitches up was a little tough.

I lovelovelove the straps and the buttons though. Talk about a wonderfully easy way to make something POP! The straps really make me seem like a hard-core knitter when it's just a simple seed stitch.

Here they are in action:

As for my reading: I just started SAVVY by Ingrid Law. It's a Nutmeg nominee in these here parts - which means it's supposed to be pretty darn good. I've heard good things about it. I'm only on page 14 so it's too soon to tell if it's going to hook me or not.

We shall see.

Have a great Wednesday!

Bad Ass Boy's Cap: My First Knitting Pattern

2011-11-29T18:40:00.001-05:00

I had a decent amount of yarn left over after making my Fingerless Coffee Mitts. Heather said I should make a hat for Magoo. Good idea! I had the needles (US5 and US7 circular and dpn) and I went on Ravelry and found a basic boy's hat pattern to get me started and I was on my way.

Then, at a certain point, I looked at my ball of yarn and thought, Uh oh - I'm not going to have enough to finish this. So I went through my scrap yarn and found some of the lovely Madelinetosh Merino DK in Cove that I used to make my shrug. It's the most beautiful color of blue and it has warm tones in it so it was a perfect companion to the glazed pecan wool I was already using. I put in a stripe of the blue, then switched back, then repeated the stripe at the crown one more time.

As I knit along, I thought There's too much brown at the base. It's going to look weird. So I pondered different ideas and settled on adding a skull and crossbones in Duplicate Stitch.

I have to admit, I'm SUPER pleased with it. I think the colors go together like peanut butter and jelly. The fit (which is pre-blocked here on Magoo) is pretty good. I think I'll stretch it just a tad while blocking, and I think the Duplicate Stitch design came out well for having never done one before.

I thought since I changed the pattern up a decent amount, I would write a fresh pattern. So, may I present:

THE BAD-ASS BOY'S CAP (sized to fit an 8 yr old's mellon)

Needles:
US5 24" circular
US7 24" circular
US7 16" circular
US7 dpn's

Yarn:
Madelinetosh Erin Heritage Wool in Glazed Pecan (worsted)
Madelinetosh Tosh Merino DK in Cove

Using your US5 24" circular needle, cast on 96 stitches.
Place marker and join.
Do a rib stitch (K1, P2) until the band is 1".

Transfer to US7 24" circular needle, stockinette stitch.
I knit in the Glazed Pecan wool for another 2 1/4" , then I switched over to my Cove. (Note re: Cove. My cove was a smaller dk weight - so I doubled it up when I knit my stripes. If you use another color int he same weight, there's no need to double up, obviously.)

Do you know how to switch colors? It's easy. Bring the new color in and knit 3 stitches with both the new color and the old color, then drop out the old color and keep knitting with the new. Cut off the old color, leaving enough to weave through when you're done.

I did 1" of blue (Cove), then I switched back over to brown (Glazed Pecan.)
I knit one round (in brown) in a regular stockinette stitch, then, on the next round, I separated it into 8 equal sections of 12 stitches each. In other words, knit 12 stitches, place a marker, knit 12 stitches, place a marker, and so forth until you get to the end of the round.

Now it's time to decrease - and doesn't that always feel good? Yes. Yes it does.

To decrease: Every time you pass a marker, k2tog then knit the rest of the section. Pass another marker, k2tog, then knit. Do that eight times. You should have 88 stitches when you're done with that round.

What's that you say? You have a couple extra? That's cool. Just divvy everything up as evenly as you can and decrease normally. You can loop some strays in at the end. No worries.

So, after you decrease a round, then you're going to knit the next round just like normal. After that normal knitty round, then you're going to decrease again (pass marker, k2tog, knit, etc.). You should have 80 stitches.

At a certain point, your 24" circular needle is going to be too large. That's when you either transfer to a US7 16" circular or US7 dpn's. (I'm not in love with dpn's so I'll work on circulars for as long as I can before I switch over. But if you LOVE dpn's, you can knit the whole hat on them. Knock yourself out!)

After another 1 1/4" of brown (maintaining the decrease round, knit round, decrease round, knit round pattern), I switched back over to blue (still following the decrease, knit, decrease pattern) I knit another inch of blue then finished off with brown.

When you get down to 5 stitches per section, 40 stitches total, just start decreasing and skip the normal knit rows.

When you're down to 8 stitches (or close to that) cut your yarn (leaving a tail) and put it on a needle and thread it through the final stitches. Fasten off. Go back through and weave in the loose yarn.

Woo-hoo - you have a hat! Woo hoo!

Are you feeling daring? Good. Now's the time a design with the Duplicate Stitch!

For those of you who don't draw, here's my simple skull and crossbones design:

If you do draw, perhaps you'd like to try something different?

I followed directions in a book as to how to perform the Duplicate Stitch, but I wished I'd seen this video. (I would have done a better job. Check it out!)

Weave in those ends. Block it. And you should be good to go.

I hope this pattern is clear. I've never written a pattern before. If you have any questions, leave a comment. I've only been knitting a year - so I am by no means an expert. But I will try my best to answer any questions.

Good luck, have fun, and be BAD ASS!

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-28T09:20:00.001-05:00

I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving. We sure did.

One of my FAVORITE things about Thanksgiving is getting all the (child) cousins together for the group shot. Sometimes it works out, sometimes not. This year they were all troupers and posed nicely for me.

Aren't they a handsome bunch!

Here's a reference photo from 2005. Magoo's still in diapers and one of the cousins hasn't been born yet. When you see a kids only once a year it's AMAZING how big they look.

It's always kinda interesting to see how Magoo will merge into the group. You see, all six of the other cousins live in the same town and are quite used to each other. Magoo is the odd man out. Last year the girls sort of adopted Cam and played hostess until he was comfortable. This year the girls squirreled away to the upstairs making stickers from puppy magazine photos. It was Magoo's youngest cousin, Jack, who wanted to hang out the most, and that brought Magoo into the group.

We always gather at Marybeth's house. It's big and beautiful. Here she is setting her gorgeous dining room table.

Mary and Elaine are the matriarchs of the clan. Elaine is the turkey doctor and Mary is the nurse. It's very 'ER' in there. Actually, they were both professional nurses so just remove the turkey and insert some dude needing surgery and I don't think their expressions would change one lick.

Oh, and the pies! Mary and her daughter Pam and are PIE QUEENS! There was Pecan, Apple, and Lemon Meringue.

Not favoring the super sweetness of Pecan, I stuck to Lemon and Apple and they were both DELICIOUS!

And since it was Thanksgiving, and one should always count one's blessings on Thanksgiving, I should say how thankful I am that I married into a family that I adore. Seriously, I hit the in-law jackpot! Gatherings are always so much fun; Mike, Magoo and I look forward to the big family Thanksgiving every single year!

So to my married family I say thanks for the hospitality, the turkey, the laughter, the trampoline, the pies, the tolerance of my camera clicking away, and the acceptance of me into your family.

Adding to my Art Collection

2011-11-21T08:04:00.001-05:00

Sometimes when a piece of art does not sell at the show I'm kinda psyched because I know just where it'll hang at home.

Murder of Crows was on display down in the gallery at ArtSpace. Now it is up in my living room and I'm LOVING it there! This space was previously filled by a large orange/brown canvas I painted in college. I liked it, but I thought it was time for a change. Also this allowed me to frame some old photos that I really like.

Here's the photo on top:

These are my paternal grandparents Frank and Antoinette Phillipps and their super groovy VW van. I remember this van with great affection. At some point they took the middle seat out, so my brother and I could run around when my grandmother was driving. It was like a disco on wheels. Hey, it was the 70's. We did stuff like that.

Here's the bottom photo:

This, I believe, is my first dance recital. I must be, like, four years old, maybe five. I have a few abstract memories of being backstage at this event. I think I can remember my mother putting make-up on me as well.

Can you find me? I'm in the middle.

I picked this shot b/c I thought the blue wings might be kinda fun next to the crow collage.

OKAY. Lots to do today. I want to get another illo done, tidying, and I have to go through all the gifties I have already bought for the holidays and organize them. And I can only do that when the men aren't home.

Happy Monday everyone!

Knit Along: Fingerless Mitts

2011-11-16T07:55:00.001-05:00

It's Wednesday, so I'm joining Ginny at Small Things for her knit along. I finished the baby sweater last week (below) so I pulled out the lovely Madelinetosh Erin wool in glazed pecan that Heather gave me for my birthday and got started on some Optimistic Mitts. (The last photo on the post shows what the finished product should look like.)

I'm reading Maggie Steifvater's The Scorpio Races. I'm a big fan of Ms. Stiefvater's. I loved the Shiver series! So I treated myself to her newest book as a birthday gift from myself. I haven't had a ton of time to either read or knit lately, but I'm working it in when I can. At some point, I am sure, the book will hook me hard and I'll do nothing but read until I'm finished. That's usually what happens.

Optimistic Mitts, pattern available on Ravelry

And I think once I get going on the mitts, they will knit up quickly as well. (I'm not looking forward to the thumbs though. Fortunately, they aren't long.)

Hope everyone is having a great week so far!

Open Studio Weekend: Wrap-Up

2011-11-15T08:49:00.001-05:00

Here are a couple shots of my space when it was all set up. I had intended to take some pics of people mulling about in the hallway - but when it's SHOWTIME, it's hard to remember such things.

It was slower than last year - but I expected as much. This area was hit mighty hard with the October snowstorm. Many people just dropped a wad of cash on a generator and others will be giving their first born to the tree-trimming guys. But I met my financial goal and I sold a decent amount of stuff from the walls. So I'm a happy pappy.

A Few Things I've Learned:

1. Marketing helps.
On Day 1 - I barely sold any cranes, books, or cards packs. The cranes were new so I had no idea what to expect there. But I sold a TON of books and card packs last year. So I made some little signs suggesting that teachers love card packs and cranes were great gifts, too. I also made some signs for the books with reviews on them. All three items sold better on Day 2. Open Studio can be overwhelming to people, so it's important to remind them of what the little things might be good for.

2. Too Much Theme
This year all my wall art (well, 95% of it) was bird themed. I did sell a decent amount of it, but I think I went a little bird crazy. Usually my collages are aimed at kids' rooms. I've done dinosaurs, fairy tales, fables, cats, dogs, trains. And despite the fact that I loved my bird collectives, I don't think the kids cared for them particularly and I don't think adults looked at them and thought, "I bet that'd look great in Timmy's room!"

3. People Love a Sale
I know - this one is obvious and it's not news. But when I start slashing prices on Sunday - people respond. The sad thing is is that I already price low because I want people to be able to buy original art. And by "people" I mean, "people who are cheap like me." Art shouldn't be only for the wealthy. If you love art you should be able to have some.

There was a lovely young artist near me - fresh from art school - where she was taught to price her art high in order for people to value it. She said, "Artists owe it to the art community to value their art and price it high." I said (nicely) "I don't owe the art community anything. I price my art for the audience of the show."

I don't think she sold anything. (But she had wonderful technique.)

So, basically, when I price my art I have a few things in mind: how long did it take me to make a piece, what I would like to get for it, what I think I'm going to get for it. Then I name a price that I feel is fair, but also a price that I won't mind knocking some bucks off of if I need to.

It's not easy but you get a feel for it.

Some of the items: prints, t-shirts, cards will go up on my etsy store for those of you far from Hartford who want some Julie art. I'll let you know when I post them. Or, if you can inquire through comments here or my email.

MANY THANKS to those of you who came out! I always love seeing a familiar face!

Now - onto illustrating Monkey Ho Ho!

Open Studio Pre-Show

2011-11-11T19:15:00.001-05:00

I spent a portion of my afternoon hanging the wall art at Artspace for Open Studio Weekend. (Did I mention that it is this weekend? ;) In my old space by the elevator, I pretty much knew how many things I could fit and where to put what. But this is a new area - deep into the maze of hallways on the 3rd floor (but close to the back staircase, in case I need to look out the window and soak in some sunlight) so I thought it best to go in today - lay things out - and get a jump start on the set up.

What's that weird branchy thing? you ask. It's a cheapo display I made from ribbon, branches, and hot-glued tree nuts. Tomorrow it will hold 40 beaded origami cranes.

In addition to my hall space, my friend Angela and I can also hang a few pieces in the little cubby by the stairs.

This is awesome news because I ran out of wall space. Sure - I could cram a bunch of stuff on the wall from floor to ceiling, but a few years ago I learned that too much stuff confuses the art buyer's eye. They can't focus on anything so they don't buy anything. Less isn't necessarily more, but too much is too much.

Tomorrow, this table will be covered in books, ninjas, t-shirts and cards. The rack will be full. And I'll be sitting with my knitting. So this is a little pre-show for you.

Also, I took pics to document what I had on the wall in case something got stolen again. Fingers crossed that lightning doesn't strike twice.

Hey - if you're in the Hartford area, it's going to be a great weekend to get a jump on your holiday shopping! It won't be so nice outside that you'll want to bask in the sun - and it won't be so crummy that you don't want to leave your bed. Come on down to Artspace (555 Asylum St, across from the train station) and pay a wee visit, won't you!

Up, Up and Away

2011-11-10T11:00:00.000-05:00

When Magoo and I left our home last week, it was winter in West Hartford. When we arrived at Mary's house, one hour later, it was autumn. How did that happen?!

So, one afternoon when we wanted to get out of the house, we bought a small wooden wind-up plane and took it to the beach.

One of the tricks to successfully flying the plane is to aim it into the breeze so it would fly straight. In the little video, Magoo aims it to the side and almost takes out the lady on crutches. Niiiiiice.

Countdown to Open Studio Weekend

2011-11-09T11:22:00.002-05:00

OPEN STUDIO WEEKEND - HARTFORD

Sat, Nov 12 - Sun, Nov 13

11 am - 5pm

ArtSpace Building, 555 Asylum Ave.

One of the things I was able to do during the power outage was make sure all the art was wired and ready to hang. Inventory the art. And price it all.

It's good to get things done.

I was also able to make some ninja softies. And in the last two days I did all my Wink the Ninja T-shirts.

So I'm in good shape.

I still need to locate one collage that has gone AWOL and get that matted and framed. And if I can do a massive everything inventory - that would be great too. But it's not necessary.

I have a new space this year (3rd floor by the back staircase) so I'm not sure how everything will fit. But I'll load the majority of the stuff on Friday and I'll hope to see any local friends who might be coming out this weekend.

All my ninja-making inspired Magoo to make his own stuffed ninja. He cut the pattern, sewed with the mini-machine, stuffed, and hand-sewed it with little help from me. And he stuck with it too! There have been times in the past where he's started projects like this and then grown bored with it. So I'm very proud of him - and I think he's pretty proud of himself too.

(Magoo's ninja not for sale.)

The Halloween That Wasn't

2011-11-08T08:35:00.000-05:00

On the Saturday morning of the snow storm - pre-snow - I thought it wise to dress Magoo up in his Halloween costume and get some shots. Man, was I ever right about that one!

Magoo asked to be a frilled lizard this year. Once again, I made the mask out of cardboard, wire, and paper mache'. The costume is basically a green sweat suit that I painted. And I sewed a tail and hood. We took the shots in front of our neighbor's bush - which turns such a beautiful shade of red in the autumn. (That sucker got completely crushed, but it seems like it's going to be OK.)

At least Magoo got to trick-o-treat a little at his Gramma's house. She lives in a rural community, so he only hit a few houses. And despite not being able to eat any of the candy - he still likes to go around, show off his costume, and take treats (for which he exchanges for cash. Except for the dark chocolate, which Mama eats. Ooooo yeah.)

Sadly, the jack-o-lantern I carved got no love. It didn't sit on a step. Apart from taking this photo, it never was illuminated.

It's currently on the back porch, rotting. And this reminds me that I need to haul it out to the garbage today.

Sorry Pumpkin Mario. At least I got a picture.

As for the frilled lizard - maybe you'll see him next year.

Power's On and I Have Pictures

2011-11-07T12:08:00.001-05:00

Power came back yesterday at noon. Cable/phone/Internet came back about 30 minutes ago. That was a long haul, but it's over (for us - not for everyone.)

Here's some of the images. (Above.) This is out house LAST Sunday morning. All the branches are bending - some broken. The mighty oak in the back looks like a menacing claw threatening the house. And the maple in the front has blocked our door. (Most of that is gone now.)

(Below) Here's the backyard. Pretty! There are still some broken branches up int he tree, but all the tree crews are working like crazy around here so we're just making sure the kids don't play int he backyard. Hopefully someone will be able to get their truck out here and get them before it gets windy.

The grill took a hit on the side. It still works but one of the side shelves in bent down.

What do you do when you have no power? You curl up by the fire with your comic books.

Or knitting. See our smiles? This was Day 1 with no power. It was still kind of novel then. We thought, "What an adventure!" It got a lot less cute the following day, and the following, and the following...

This shot was taken a couple days ago. The town is sending trucks around to mulch up the branches if you can drag them our front. We were able to clear the front yard, but some of the limbs in the back are enormous. There's no way we can deal with all of that.

Look at the poor maple out front? It's like Charlie Brown's Christmas Tree. The whole thing might have to come down. We're not sure if it will survive. I'll let a professional guide me in that one.

Last night we had heat, slept in our own beds, and were able to offer some comfort to neighbors who's power hadn't returned yet. It did us all a world of good to get back to a somewhat normal existence. No school today. Hopefully tomorrow. And I've been chug, chug, chugging along with preparations for the art show this weekend. More on that tomorrow.

Thanks to all of you out there who sent good wishes! Sometimes it's nice to whine and have your friends send sympathies your way. Small comforts, but comforts indeed!

If you don't have your power back - I wish for it's speedy return for you.

One Week With No Power

2011-11-05T18:41:00.002-04:00

As of 5pm tonight, we have been without power in our house for one full week.

We went back today - kinda hoping that someone we know might have power. Maybe, just maybe the trees tangled in the power line on our road would be fixed. Nope. Not fixed.

One of my neighbors was speaking to a tree guy in the neighborhood and he told her that our road was one of the worst ones in town. Ha! In your face, other streets! Our street is #1 in devastation. Woooo!

But the mayor said that 46 electric crews would be in town today. Maybe more tomorrow. Maybe the same. Maybe we'll have power Sunday night. Maybe not.

Halloween was officially cancelled. Is that not the saddest thing? Well, maybe if Christmas was cancelled - that would be worse. Still. Halloween, man.

Anyway I'm much less angry. I'm sorta in a state of disbelief. Disbelief that this is still going on. Disbelief that it will ever improve. Everything is just surreal ... and cold.

But we plug on. I made three stuffed ninjas for the art show yesterday. We took Magoo to see Real Steel today - it was good. Did you know that Hugh Jackman's real last name was Jassman, but they had him change it because of the way it sounded when you said his full name out loud? ;)

Hopefully the next time I post I will be at home in my well lit house enjoying heat. Hope you all are well and toasty!

Still Powerless

2011-11-04T09:12:00.003-04:00

It is Day 7 of no power.

Magoo and I have been back and forth between a cold, dark home and Gramma's house where we can sleep in comfort and cook.

We are super grateful that we have someplace to go, have hot food, warm showers, comfy beds, do laundry, check emails, watch TV, etc. But it's good to go home and clean up the fort, see Mike, and let Magoo visit with friends. There aren't any kids for him to play with at Gramma's house. (And if there were, they'd all be in school.)

I was feeling accepting of the situation yesterday. The power company had promised to get everyone up and running by midnight Sunday.
Then, yesterday, the went back on that statement saing that it was "too optimisitc." They haven't given a new time frame yet.

Now I'm angry.

I'm still grateful that we have a place to go - but the power company really screwed the pooch on this one. They are responsible for keeping trees trimmed by power lines and they let that go. They didn't pay their bills to the many out-of-state companies that came in and helped out during Tropical Storm Irene. So those companies decided to go help out in Pennsylvania instead.

Slowly, slowly the businesses in West Hartford are coming back to life. Traffic lights are working. You see a truck pass by with branches in the back.

The National Guard has been called in to help.

But when will we be able to return home for good? When will Magoo get to go back to school? When will we be able to sleep in our own beds without winter hats?

Who knows.

And we have to turn the clocks back this weekend. Sunset will be at 4:40pm. That's a long, dark, cold evening when you don't have power.

This is a downer post. Sorry about that. As I said, I'm a wee bit angry.

But we are all well, we're just tired of having out lives on hold.

No Power

2011-11-01T09:51:00.001-04:00

Around 1pm on Saturday, October 29th, it started to snow. We knew the storm was coming and we knew we'd probably lose some power but we had NO IDEA the level of devestation that was on it's way.

We lost power at 5pm. I happened to be looking out the front window when I saw a branch from the neighbor's tree fall on the power lines. There was an explosion - a blast of fire the size of a barrel - and then the house shut down.

Fortunately, power was still on around the block so we fed the cat, packed a bag, and headed over to our friends's house for heat, TV and comfort of eletricity.

Their power went out at 11:30pm.

Sunday morning, Mike and I walked home. Oh, the pictures that I took! Oh, the power lines that were down! Oh, the branches that were everywhere.

And our poor trees. We had a lovely Maple tree out front that was just a wee baby tree when Magoo was born nine years ago. It grew big and tall and gave us lovely shade - no more. It was a mess. Imagine a healthy tree with roughly 10 branches in the air. Now imagine 8 branches broken and bending down and only 2 scrawny ones poking out. It was like that.

The mighty oak in the back is all over the place. It looks like a tornado ripped through the back yard. We are VERY LUCKY that nothing caused major damage to the house. But the clean-up and expense is going to be massive.

Sooooo, that was a little depressing.

Long story short. It is Tuesday morning. There is no school today. No school tomorrow. West Hartford is at 96% power outage so I imagine there won't be school all week.

Everyone is fine and we're all getting through it.

When I can get back on my own computer, I'll show some pics. Until then, I hope you are all safe and warm.

Is it Fall or Winter?

2011-10-28T08:11:00.002-04:00

This is what it SHOULD look like around here. (And it did a few days ago.) But we had wet snow slopping down last night and Saturday we're expecting 3 - 6 inches. (!!!!) So basking in this photograph might have to satisfy my autumn cravings this year.

That said, I can see the sun is trying to poke out today. I might have to find 15 minutes to go outside and soak up some Vit. D.

I have a busy day before me. I'm finishing up some small owl collages for the show and I'd like to get started on the iron-on Wink T-shirts. If possible, I'd like to start a new illustration as well. But I also have to hit the grocery store and do the birthday party at school today. So we'll just see what ends up getting done.

Tonight, I am introducing Magoo to the movie E.T. (I'm really excited to see it again myself. I wonder if it'll hold up.)

Baby Sweater & Origami Yoda

2011-10-26T09:23:00.002-04:00

I'm joining Ginny's Yarn Along this Wednesday.

The baby sweater marches on. I probably have another 2 inches to add to the bottom before I can do the "trim" and start the sleeves. Maybe next week I'll be in sleeve city?! I'm enjoying the slow, steady motion of knitting with sock yarn - but thank goodness it's a small sweater. I love the weight of it and would LOVE for someone else to knit me a sweater in sock yarn - but I think when I finally tackle the mountain of woman sweater - I'll be using a thicker yard and bigger needles - for sure.

Thanks to all the knitters that chimed in last week to offer encouragement for my color choice. I hope the recipient's mother is as pleased as you all were, you kind, kind people.

Magoo and I started The Strange Case of Origami Yoda last night. So far, so good. And, of course, I had to make an origami Yoda to go with it. How could I not?!

That actually got Magoo, Mo, and Curly interested in making origami this morning before school. Magoo made a samurai hat all by himself. Mo improvised a hoe. I don't know what Curly made. Finally, when I had finished getting myself dressed, making Magoo's lunch, and packing his backpack - I sat down and helped them all make an origami crane. Some turned out better than others. But it was just fun to have them get excited about origami.

In other news: It's my birthday! The big 4-0, people. I gotta say, I'm not that bothered by it. Last year, when I saw some wrinkles creeping into my face I had a minor freak-out. But I've come to grips with that, so I'm good and ready for what the next decade holds. I'm going to let myself eat anything I want today. I have Bollywood class later tonight so that will help burn some calories off. But tomorrow I have to get back on track with eating, exercise, and all the stuff that makes me feel better physically.

But today ... today I eat chocolate. Sushi. And maybe some macadamia nuts!

Pirates and Rockin' Out

2011-10-24T08:10:00.004-04:00

I ran an errand yesterday morning and when I returned, Magoo had turned his bed into a pirate ship. (With help from Mike.) Isn't this the BEST?! It reminds me of a Norman Rockwell-type scene. Just a boy, his bed, and his imagination. We tried to find some of his pirate costuming, but he - like his mother and father- is not the neatest of boys. So the best we could so was locate a pop gun and a small spyglass.

In other news:

The karaoke party went off very well. Our neighbor's son, Jon, made some KICK-BUTT guacamole! Then we ordered Pizza from my favorite place in town, Jimmy's, then I made a dark chocolate cake with raspberry sauce.

Eat Until Your Gut Explodes - check.

I keep the karaoke parties kinda small. I've found that it's important that all members of the party be
A.) willing to sing and
B.) comfortable with each other.
Otherwise, it's just me singing and no one else wants the mic. Oh, alcohol helps too.

Even the kids got in on it. Magoo can sing a pretty good Whoolly Bully.

(Sorry - it's dark.)

Lady Gaga got a lot of play that night. I had a new Katy Perry disc and sang Waking Up in Vegas and my neighbor belted out Firework. Of course, when it's a popular group song - usually the whole gang chimes in. Mike did a very nice version of the Kinks' Waterloo Sunset. Toward the end, as a group number, we put on Bohemian Rhapsody. It was about this time that Mo came downstairs to see what we were up to, and was quite upset by the lyrics.

Mama,
Just killed a man,
put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger,
now he's dead

Yanno, the sad stuff at the beginning before it starts rocking.

So I brought him into the computer room and showed him the Muppets version on YouTube. If you haven't see it and you enjoy the Muppets, check it out here.

He perked up then.

Hope you all had a great weekend. It's getting CHILLY 'round these parts. We might have to turn the heat on soon! Brrrrr.

Whatcha Makin', Bacon?

2011-10-21T10:54:00.001-04:00

My main project on Wednesday/Thursday was to complete another spread for Monkey Ho Ho. I'm finding that it takes roughly two days per 2-page spread. And, of course, the studio is in shambles at the end of each illo, so there's a wee bit of clean up that needs to happen before I can proceed.

But today is Friday and I am on to new things like: Magoo's costume! He's going as a frilled lizard this year. I've just completed the mask (except for a bit of interior painting) and I have a green sweatshirt and pair of sweatpants that I have to dot up with fabric paint. I love dots. They cover all kinds of imperfections!

I just bought two more pieces of matboard so I can make more prints for OPEN STUDIO WEEKEND. I also just found out where I will be. So here it is:

OPEN STUDIO WEEKEND
Nov. 12 & 13th
11am - 5pm
555 Asylum Ave (right across the street from the bus station)
I'll be on the 3rd floor, by the BACK staircase.

It looks like all the halls will be JAM PACKED with artists this year - and a lot of new artists. So that will be fun. I'll be hanging with my pal, Angela, who will be showing her awesome photograph and watercolor paintings. Swing on by, if you can!

Finally, I am making raspberry sauce. Tomorrow night I'm having a karaoke shindig and making a flourless dark chocolate cake. There's NOTHING I like better on my flourless dark chocolate cake than some homemade raspberry sauce!!! (I think it's a lady thing. I don't know too many dudes who would be like, "Pass the raspberry sauce!" But we shall see!)

That's what I'm up to. How about you?

Yarn Along: Baby Sweater

2011-10-19T07:53:00.001-04:00

Since it's Wednesday - and it's gonna be a soaker! - I thought I'd join my friend Angela and Yarn Along at the blog Small Things and post my current knitting project.

My cousin is due to have a baby in April, and I have never made a baby sweater so I thought I'd give it a go. Besides I'm kinda itching to try a big girl sweater for me - but this is a nice way to learn about holding stitches for sleeves and cast-ons once you get started and little things like that.

The pattern is Sock Yarn Sweater {Children's Version} by Hannah Fettig and I scored it from my friend Heather - my knitting guru - but if you like it and have a Ravelry account, you can get it there for a small fee.

The yard is Madelintosh Tosh Sock in Earl Grey. In the store the blues and oranges really came out. All knit up - it does have a grey tone to it. Yeah - a grey baby sweater - right?! But I'm hoping that it will go really well with bright colored pants. (Maybe I'll buy some when I find out if it's a boy or girl.)

So far - so good. I did make a minor mistake reading the pattern, but I don't think it'll be a problem - nothing a little math won't fix, at least.

AS far as my reading goes, I'm still working on Nowhere Girl by A. J. Paquette. Normally I would have read it in 2 -3 days but I am SWAMPED with work between illos, art show, and other misc. things.

More on those later. Have a great Wednesday!

Rose's Berry Farm 2011

2011-10-17T08:10:00.002-04:00

One of our favorite yearly traditions is waiting until a beautiful crisp day in October rolls around and hitting Rose's Berry Farm to pick pumpkins, run the corn maze, eat apple donuts, and run around. And this year did not disappoint.

I'm the only one who can eat the donuts. And since I usually don't eat donuts at all - this is quite a treat.

But don't worry. I always pack a snack for Cam.

Here the boys are - all ready to get lost in the corn maze.

I can remember when Magoo was so little I would get nervous letting him run around a corn maze for fear that he'd get lost. He's old enough now that I can just let him go crazy. Of course, the rain did a number on the corn. It was all dried out and low. NOT pretty. But the boys didn't care. And the weird/nice thing about low corn is that you can totally find your kid in it even if he's on the other side of the maze.

One of the nicest things about Rose's is that they have a playground. Someone was thinking. After pumpkin hunting, after corn mazing, after donut eating, parents can have a seat on some of the many lawn chairs and let the kids run their ya-ya's out. They have long tubes, tricycles, see-saw's, and a big slide on the side of a hill.

I know this is one of Magoo's favorite things to do each year. Mine too. And we had a gorgeous day for it.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend!

Prepping for Open Studio Weekend

2011-10-14T08:35:00.001-04:00

As I mentioned in the last post, I'm getting ready for my art show at Open Studio Weekend in Hartford, Nov 12 & 13th. Yesterday's big project was getting all my bird watercolors matted and framed. I like to prop things up after I frame them and just enjoy them for a bit before I wrap them in plastic and box them up. Looks like Java was enjoying them too. She's very sophisticated, you know.

I decided to makes some beaded origami cranes as well.

Originally I was going to put them on branches in a vase, like I do in my home. But I decided that I rarely have enough table space as it is, so I made a wall display from branches instead.

And I'll have some postcard options this year.

I love postcards. I rarely send them out. I just like to tape them up to walls like mini-art. And I think that when people come to a big art show like this, they want to walk away with something. Not everyone can afford a $200 painting, but most people don't mind plunking down a dollar for a postcard.

Today's goal: make and mat some prints.

Have a great weekend everyone! If you're in the West Hartford area, I will be doing a reading/signing at a fun event: H'Art of Art. It's being held in West Hartford Center from 11-4 and will have all sorts of fun activities for the kiddos. I'll be reading at 3pm. Here's a link for more info.

My Friend Flicker

2011-10-13T12:30:00.002-04:00

Hi all!

Sorry I haven't blogged this week. (My mother called to find out if I was OK.) Yes, I'm fine. Just busy.

It occurred to me the other day that the Open Studio Weekend art show is only a month away.

A month! Zoinks!

I'm in good shape, but there are still paintings to frame, prints to make, mats to cut, cards to bundle, postcards to make, and I have to keep emailing the co-ordinator to find out my hall location to put on my promotional materials. Let's just say, I haven't found out where I'll be just yet.

On top of that, all my sketches for the next picture book have been approved so I'm in full-on illustration mode. It's awesome - but time consuming - but good time consuming.

And then there are the smaller projects: Magoo's Halloween costume, knitting a baby sweater, returning cable boxes to Comcast (surprisingly time consuming), groceries, cleaning, birthday gifts, birthday cards, and yadda, yadda, yadda.

I will try to keep things flowing on the blog - but if I'm gone a few days, know that I'm not trapped under a furnace in my basement - I'm just busy cutting, pasting, and all that jazz.

In other news: A new bird friend came to visit yesterday. Check out that awesome red triangle on the back of the neck! Stunning! This is a Northern Flicker. My father-in-law said as the weather changes and the birds migrate I might see some new birds on the beat. I'm sure this is all very boring for you, my loyal blog readers, but I have to confess that I get pretty psyched when a new bird comes along to visit. (Fortunately I keep my camera right by the window.)

Happy Thursday everyone!

Picture Day

2011-10-06T10:13:00.000-04:00

Today is picture day and Magoo is looking swank. Last year was the first year he decided that he wanted to wear a tie to school pictures and I was totally unprepared for it. Luckily, I had a tie and a dress shirt. But I had to run around like a crazed chicken trying to find all the pieces and iron them and whatnot. But when Magoo got to school I think all the teachers and aides made such a fuss about how nice he looked and he dug all the attention.

This year I was ready for it. We had been given a couple ties from our neighbor next door who had outgrown them. They're zipper ties - do you know about these? You slip the tie over the boys head and zip it into position. Whoever invented this is a genius!

I did have to go out and buy a dress shirt at Sears. Normally I would hit the Salvation Army for something like this, but there was a crazy traffic back-up on the way and I couldn't be sure they would even have something in Magoo's size, so I decided to go new.

And yesterday Magoo got a new haircut - so he's looking very dapper. I think he knows it too. He didn't even give me grief when I asked him to pose for the photo. (You just never know how the school photos will go, so I thought I'd better get my own shot of how handsome he looks.)

School Photos: 9.50
Shirt : 20.00
Haircut: 20.00
Magoo Rockin' Business Casual: Priceless

Read & Knit Along

2011-10-05T09:11:00.000-04:00

I am joining my friend Angela, who, on Wednesdays, participates in a blog knit/read along. What it boils down to is that every Wednesday people post about what they are knitting & reading.

Since I was a lame blogger last week, I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and share two works-in-progress.

READING: Nowhere Girl by A. J. Paquette.

I have a confession to make: the author is in my critique group. I KNOW HER! And I'm so excited to see this book in it's glorious hardcover form. The cover illustration is fantastic and I really think it captures the lush storytelling in the book as well as any image could.

Joan, as she is known to her crit partners, writes like a ballet dancer - gracefully. In Nowhere Girl, you not only get the compelling story of Luchi Ann, an American girl born in an Indonesian prison who's set free when her mother dies, but you also get lovely literary writing. It's gorgeous.

I'll write more about it when I am finished. It's been awhile since I've looked at drafts of this and I want to write a fresh review, but I can say it's a beautiful story and I'm SUPER EXCITED for her. You rock, Joan!

KNITTING: Hermione's Deathly Hallows Beret in Sky Blue.

I had some lush cotton/silk yarn in my stash and I had tried to make a couple different versions of scarves before, but nothing ever stuck. They just weren't the right projects. But I loved making the same beret pattern in black, for myself, so I thought I'd use the blue to make a beret for my friend, She-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named-In-Case-She-Reads-The-Blog.

It's perfect beret weather and I'll be finished with it soon. It's not her birthday or anything, so it will just be a surprise present. And, really, isn't it always great to get a gift just because?

So, that's what I'm up to (among about a million other little things.) If you want to see more books and knitting projects, check out the blog: Small Things.

What's Goin' On

2011-10-04T13:06:00.000-04:00

October is here so it is time to bust out the Phase 1 Halloween decorations. (Phase 1 in interior. I don't decorate outside until mid-way through the month.)

I bought a couple new things this year: two mini disco skulls that light up (Target). Two black rats. (Christmas Tree Shoppe) And two small pumpkins. (Trader Joes.)

And since it was such a rainy, yucky weekend and we couldn't go out apple picking with my visiting mother, we decided to make new creatures for the Halloween Village.

I made a new plot for the graveyard. My mom made a jack-o-lantern. Isn't it cute? And Magoo dedicated himself to crafting a very spooky spider.

Here's the collection so far:

I'd like to build the graveyard up a bit, and maybe get some fake moss or something to lend some atmosphere, but it's coming along.

In other news:
I'm getting started on the final collage illustrations for my third book, Monkey Ho Ho.

I'll be teaching a class on creating picture books at the West Hartford Art League this January, so I have to work on my course description and sign my contract this week. More on that later.

I had to go to my local cable center to pick up three digital converters for my TV's. I got three of them, one for each TV, and I was very proud of myself for hooking them all up. But, as it turns out, I'll be returning two of them. We simply couldn't get it to work in the basement, and it messed with the HD channels on the big TV. But it works on one TV and it's a TV with the VCR so I can still tape my shows. Parenthood and Prime Suspect - I did it for you!

The house is a mess, but Mike scored a house cleaning coupon on Groupon so I plan to have my kitchen good-n-scrubbed by a professional!

And, I don't know what to have for dinner tonight.

Birds of a Feather

2011-09-27T09:01:00.002-04:00

I'm sluggish. I'm not entirely sure why - but I have low energy and simply don't want to do anything on today's list. Therefore, I will procrastinate and show some of the bird pics I've taken over the last couple weeks.

The birds were PSYCHED when the big branch came down. They had all this new exciting habitat that was close to the bird feeder - SCORE!

And I benefitted as well b/c I could take lots of pics. (And they were much less skittish in the security of branches.)

(Above.) A White Breasted Nuthatch chooses his favorite seed.

(Below) I believe this is a female cardinal. We get a decent amount of cardinals now, so it stands to reason. Plus, the tip of her wing and tail have an auburn glow to them. But, if you know better, please correct me.

A male cardinal, obviously.

I know my birds like I know my flowers: rose, daisy, tulip, daffodil, iris - then I get confused. Birds: cardinal, bluejay, robin, crow, pigeon, seagull - then I get confused. (Well, not about the difference between a penguin and an emu - but all the little flighty ones, yanno.)

(Below) I had to look these up. They're a lovely pair of house sparrows.

These two actually put on a quite a photo shoot. And the branch has an interesting shape to it and good lighting. I might have to paint some house sparrows...hmmm?

I hope you all have good energy today. And if so, send some my way!

The (Not So) Itsy Bitsy Spider

2011-09-26T09:15:00.000-04:00

It's spider season 'round these here parts. It's not at all uncommon to see new webs on windows, off lamp posts, beneath the mailbox - anywhere really.

One morning I opened Magoo's shade to find an EMORMOUS spider wrapping her dead mate (perhaps?) in a coccoon. I called Magoo over and rushed to get my camera.

~~Here's some video.~~ You can really see her pulled the webbing out of her abdomen. Pretty cool.

(I have tried twice to upload the video but blogger isn't having any of it. Sorry. It was cool.)

I shot another video of her pulling her prey out of the web and moving him. I don't think she liked us spying on her. Then I went on the internet to look up "egg sacks" because that giant thing on her abdomen concerned me. I actually like spiders, but I don't want hundreds of baby ones hatching outside my son's bedroom - no thanks.

Based on the pics I pulled up, it did look like she had an egg sack going. So, and I'm not proud of this, I got a big stick and flung her from the window.

I bet she survived. Spiders are pretty tough. And I wish her and her babies well - just as long as they move next door or something. :)

Honey Thumbprint Cookies

2011-09-23T08:43:00.003-04:00

We were in need of cookies!

All the oatmeal cookies had been eaten and the last store-bought ginger cookie went out in Magoo's lunchbox. I didn't feel like going to the store and spending $4 on a box of 5 cookies (that's how much cookies cost when your boy can't eat gluten, sugar, dairy, nuts, yeast, etc.) so I decided to go through my cookbooks and online. What I found was a recipe for Old Fashioned German Honey Cookies. Of course, I can't really make them like that. I have to adapt. I have to substitute. I have to experiment.

And there was SUCCESS!

Here's my Magoo Friendly Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free, Casein-Free Recipe.

HONEY THUMBPRINT COOKIES

1 ½ cup vegan butter

1 ½ cup honey

2 eggs

1 tsp alcohol-free vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp ginger

¼ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp nutmeg

4 cup GF flour

2 tsp xantham gum

carob chips

coconut milk

in a small saucepan, melt honey and butter. Cool.

In another bowl, combine eggs, vanilla, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg together.

preheat oven to 350.

add honey mix to egg mix.

mix flour and xantham gum. Add flour mix to honey mix, slowly, combine.

drop teasppons of batter on cookie sheets. Bake 9 minutes (rotate sheets at 4 minutes if baking more than 1)

while dough is warm, make indentions with thumb. Then move cookies to cooling rack.

heat bowl of carob chips (about 1 cup - I didn't measure) in microwave, 1 minute. Add a bit of coconut milk. Stir. Spoon into center of cookies.

ENJOY!

Deathly Hallows Beret

2011-09-21T14:28:00.001-04:00

When I finished my shrug, I found myself on a bit of a knitting high. I think part of it was due to feeling proud of that project and the other part is that I like to have new clothes. It's knida an extra bonus when I'm able to craft something for myself because then I still get to have something new but I don't have to feel like a greedy consumer.

I decided that I needed a black beret to go with some of my autumn/winter wear and I found this pattern on Ravelry. It was inspired by the beret that Hermione wears in The Deathly Hallows. (See above.)

You can't see the texture as well in my version - the profile (below) offers a better shot at that.

This knit up super fast for me, mainly because I had a wee cold and sat on the couch for hours knitting and having a Sons of Anarchy TV marathon. (LOVE that show!) Maybe I should call this my Sons of Anarchy beret?

Anyway - I'm pleased with how it turned out and when I wear it Michael can pretend he's married to a French woman. Oo la la.

If you are a member of Ravelry, you can find this project here along with the yarn, needles, pattern, etc.

Happy Wednesday!

A Descent of Woodpeckers

2011-09-18T18:10:00.001-04:00

A Descent of Woodpeckers marks the fourth in my series of bird collectives. I think this will probably do it. I have a Herd of Cranes, a Parliament of Owls, and a Murder of Crows. I don't want to overdo it because I have no idea how these will sell. One might say, "Don't worry about selling your art, just create what inspires you." And yes, that usually creates the best art. But I also want to make a profit. I'm a little bit artist, a little bit business woman. Although I'm a much better artist than businesswoman, to be sure.

But since I just did a woodpecker collage, I thought it would be nice to note that we had a woodpecker visitor recently.

A woodpecker stopped by Magoo's birdhouse. I caught him there a second day too - he had made his way inside the house. I thought he might set up shop there, but I think he saw Magoo and me checking him out and decided the neighborhood wasn't elite enough.

In other news: Mike's a lumberjack and he's Okay....

The tree guys came and took our big branch away, but they left nice chunks of wood for Mike to cut up. He pulled out his mighty ax and didn't some sweaty manly man work.

Magoo and I helped with the stacking (but only a little. Mike did most of it.) See it in the background? There's a ton of it. But I guess cut oak has to season for a year so we can't even use it until next winter. D'oh!!!

Still - good work Mike!

Evening Shrug

2011-09-16T07:49:00.000-04:00

Just in time for the cool snap - I have finished the shrug I was working on. I used the pattern, Evening Shrug, from the PurlBee site and Madelinetosh yarn in Cove. My yarn-pusher/friend Heather talked me into the pricey Madelinetosh yarn (the most expensive I have used so far) but I think it was worth it. The colors are lovely: blues, greys, greens, and bits of brown. And the feel is lush.

It's actually too chilly this morning to wear it - but I think I'll strut around in it this weekend when the bite is gone.

Here's the back.

And the detail on the sleeves. This is also a better shot of the colors in the yarn.

Now that it's cooling off I'm kinda in a knitting frenzy. I'm working on a black beret for me and a scarf for Mike. I had made him a scarf last year. It was my very first knitting project. And because I was a beginner I used cheap yarn. Therefore, it is not soft and Mike doesn't want to wear it. I can't really blame it. So I bought some Misti Alpaca which is very soft and hopefully this one will keep him warm and cozy.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Wink Won an Award!

2011-09-14T07:57:00.001-04:00

I received a most wonderful surprise in the mail the other day - a plaque!

As if I didn't love Texas enough (b/c of Friday Night Lights "Texas Forever!") the good children of Round Rock ISD (Independant School District) voted Wink the Ninja Who Wanted to Be Noticed the Armadillo Reader's Choice Book of 2011!!!

I am thrilled, delighted, honored - the works.

As Wink would say "Yahoo!"

There are so many great aspects of being a writer/illustrator for children, but the best has to be knowing that kids love my book and my little ninja. Every time a person tells me that their child loves Wink, or dressed as Wink for Halloween, or did a book report of Wink - I gush. It's the best!

So THANK YOU Round Rock ISD! I will find a special place for my plaque and every time I look at it, I will think, Go Texas!

Parliament of Owls

2011-09-13T08:01:00.001-04:00

You know, I've never been a HUGE owl fan. I've liked them, but it was never like I was gaga for owls. (Like Heather.) But having done the last owl collage and after looking around on google images, there are so many different cool-looking owls, I simply could not stop at one.

And since the theme behind my bird collage is "collectives" I had to do a Parliament of Owls.

This is a small piece. Only 7" X 5". Most of the paper is prepared watercolor paper. I tried using a flat black in the background, but it didn't work at all. I had already painted some wood texture for the barn beams, so I just took the leftovers and darkened them up. I like seeing the grain of the wood - that works for me.

As for the owls, the wings have different layers of paper for the feather. The bodies are one piece of watercolor and I used a nice natural paper with bits of leaves and flower petals in it for the faces.

I am planning one more owl collage for a fundraiser at Magoo's school. The owl is their mascot so it fits perfectly.

Happy Tuesday!

Brown Owl

2011-09-12T13:57:00.000-04:00

This is my third bird collage. I thought the feathers of the owl would look really good in collage, so I was sort of excited about doing it. It turned out to be a bit of a challenge, though, getting the feathers just right. I made all sorts of papers - watercolor here and spattering there - that sort of thing. But once I figured the wing out the rest of it came together.

In other news, the giant branches in my back yard are now gone. The very friendly tree guy came by this morning and - chop, chop, chop - made it all go away.

See all this sun? This is all new. There was a big bush by the side of the house and a tree that went between my house and the neighbor's house. It was kinda nice. I felt like I was walking through a secret door of greenery to my backyard.

But maybe now I can grow some grass back there. I'll definitely have to rethink the landscaping.

Here's the extra wood. Good to have, but maybe not to keep by the tire swing. I guess I have a task for this afternoon, eh?

Whooo - Doggie

2011-09-08T11:00:00.000-04:00

You know what's not supposed to be between these two houses? A big ol' branch - that's what.

It was just yesterday when I contacted a tree guy about the big oak branch that seemed to be broken and stuck up in the oak tree in the back yard. Of course, yesterday it didn't seem like that big of a deal. It seemed pretty secure up there. (Damaged by Hurricane Irene.) But last night it rained HARD. HARD, people. DOWNPOUR!

And sure enough, around 3:30am, a loud rumble woke Mike and I up.

After a groggy "What was that?" I figured it out - the branch had been shaken loose and fell.

So I got up and checked on the back yard. It was dark, but I could see leaves and branches where there were not supposed to be leaves or branches. But it also looked like the roof dwas in one piece and the windows were intact - so I went back to bed.

Well, it was a little worse than I thought. The big branch brought down a couple lesser - but still substantial branches - and a small tree.

To make everyone really cranky - the basement flooded too!

It's not major. No one was hurt. Both our house and our neighbor's house seem to be fine. The basement will require bleaching but most things were picked up from the hurricane. So that's just work and fumes. Ahhhh, bleach fumes!

I've got two different tree removal companies coming out to give quotes and I'm going through our insurance policy now to find out if any of it is covered. But all in all, it's cool. Things could have gone sooooo much worse.

But still - whooo doggie.

Sailboats and Kayaks

2011-09-07T09:07:00.000-04:00

On Labor Day, we went down to Niantic for the final beach day of summer. Apparently someone did not move their sailboat before Irene hit.

Amazingly enough, the mast is not touching the house behind it at all.

It was kind of wild to walk along the shoreline. Some houses were in fine condition. Others has boarded-up windows. In some places the sand was pushed up to the concrete wave blocker, in others it was at a normal height. Irene was very choosy.

But, for the most part, the beach was fine.

The water was lovely, except for the fact that it was a bit choppy. If we'd only had boogie boards, we could have done some fun wave riding.

But Magoo did have his flippers.

While we were doing that, my sis-in-laws and bro-in-law enjoyed a mellow kayaking excursion.

I don't really know if it was mellow. But it looks mellow, doesn't it?

Murder of Crows

2011-09-06T09:09:00.002-04:00

You know I love me some crows, right?

My favorite collective names for birds are a murder of crows and a parliament of owls. Well, maybe they are my favorites or maybe they are simply the ones I can remember. But a murder of crows...how perfect is that?!

I thought it would be kind of cool to have a small splash of red blood somewhere in there, but I had to consider the audience. If I did that it probably wouldn't sell.

This collage is 11 X 14". I painted the crows' paper myself so it's not straight black - it's a mix of purples, deep blues, greens, and payne's grey. I would have loved to make this really big. But, once again, if it was huge it probably wouldn't sell.

Over the years I have learned a bit about what this Open Studio customer base is like. You can make a big, expensive watercolor. But not a big, expensive collage. It's wise not to price any collage above $150 and that's even a stretch. $125 - $75 is the goal for a decent sized collage.

This one will hang in the group show under the Double Digits theme. Twenty crows - that qualifies.

I think it's going to look pretty sharp when I slap a crisp white mat and a black frame on it. Oooo yeah.

But, most of all, I think it will represent what the rest of my collection is about this year. My goal for the group show is to hang a piece in gallery that people will remember. Then, when they make it to my space upstairs - they will recognize the style/subject matter and say, "Oh, she did the crows downstairs."

Maybe they'll buy something or maybe they won't - but having that moment of recollection connects them to the art.

Besides, I plan to have some lovely $1 postcards available this year, so hopefully people will be able to take a little something home with them.

Herd of Cranes

2011-09-02T07:52:00.002-04:00

Now that Magoo is back to school, (his first day went really well, BTW,) it's time for me to turn my focus to the November art show.

I've done plenty of watercolors this year, but what I've been struggling with is a theme for the collage portion. Last year I did Fables. One year I did Recreation Dogs. One year I did Cats in Art. I don't have to have a theme, of course. But I like to.

I'd been making lists. I could have done more fables. Those are always fun. I thought about Greek Myths. I thought about just doing straight up animals. Then it came to me.

Duh! Birds.

But not only birds - bird collectives. Then I get to use those super fun names: a parliament of owl, a murder of crows. I LOVE those!

Also, now I can a bird collage into the Group Show which has a theme of Double Digits this year.

My first piece (above) is a Herd of Cranes.

I wanted something quiet, something where the repetitive shape of the crane would be calm and soothing.

I'm not entirely sure who the audience for the bird collages will be. I thought the fables would go like hotcakes last year, and I probably sold only 60% of them. The main thing is that I'm producing art that I'm excited about and hopefully other people will be too. And I certainly am happy with this piece. It's exactly how I pictured it. And I'm psyched to be excited and inspired to produce more.

Have a great Labor Day weekend!

More birds next week.

First Day of Third Grade

2011-09-01T09:26:00.002-04:00

I'm not a sentimental person. I'm really not. But lately I've been going through some of the photo albums and looking back on when my little boy was actually little, and now, putting together this progression of first day photos (kindergarten, first, second, and third) it's hard not to get a little misty.

First days are always a mix of excitement and nerves.

Whenever we would ask Magoo if he was excited about starting school, he'd say, "Yes!" But yesterday (before the open house) I heard him talking to his buddy Mo, confessing that he was scared to meet his teacher. Mo was very sweet, saying that he shouldn't be scared. Ms. Paradis (Magoo's teacher) is really nice.

We went in to meet her and see the classroom for a few minutes and Magoo was courteous, maybe a little shy, but happy and chatty and told her about a book he had just read. She seems great, BTW. I don't really know her at all, but everyone says she's fantastic. The vibe was good.

This morning, we got our act together with plenty of time for the mandatory photos. Then we headed out. As we were walking, Magoo seems upbeat. He even flashed my this third grade smile:

At the front lawn at school, the nerves kicked in.

One of his best buddies is in his class this year. But he wasn't there yet. Magoo was brave. He stood in line with the other children. He clearly wasn't the only child feeling somewhat unsettled. I gave him a quick kiss (something he still allows me to do in public) and backed off to the parent section. He stood like a statue for a loooong time.

Then his teacher came out, shook everyone's hand, and had a little chat with each one.

I could see him loosen up after that.

The principal gave her first day of school speech, then all the students followed there teachers inside.

And that's that.

Now he has to adjust to his student lifestyle and I have to adjust to my author/artist lifestyle, which I am sure we will both do just fine.

Hope all my Whiting Lane Mom friends had smooth mornings and hope everyone else is having a great day!

Lake Compounce

2011-08-30T11:04:00.004-04:00

What do you do the day after a tropical storm hits? Why, go to an amusement park, of course!

It was Mike's company picnic at Lake Compounce. Private Party Y'all - Wooot! The day could NOT have been nicer. Low 80's. Sunny. Perfection.

We got there a wee bit before 1:00, just as the park was opening for us. (Did I mention is was a private amusement park party?) We had never been to Lake Compounce before so we just wandered a bit. The first ride we came to was The Wildcat. I would say the Wildcat is a medium intensity roller coaster - perfect for me and my 8 1/2 yr. old who is adventurous but not crazy.

We (Mike, Magoo, and me) were the only ones on the ride. We took the first two seats. Then up, up, up we climbed.

It's kinda crazy when you come over that first hill. My first thought was This isn't so bad. Then when we kept dangling further and further over the abyss, I thought This is a 90 degree drop! We're going straight down!

Of course it's not. It's probably more like a 45 degree angle, but HOLY MOLY it felt steep. It was super fun though. Lots of twists and hills, lots of laughters. No barf.

We pulled into the loading station and since no other passengers were in line, we got to take another go-'round.

When we pulled in to the loading station a second time, Magoo said, "I think that's enough."

I seconded the emotion.

We were all feeling pretty jazzed. So we decided to ride this:

It's called Thunder and Lightening and it's basically like a giant pendulum. You sit at the bottom in the chairs and you swing back and forth. You swing so high you can only see the sky. Then you swing back and can only see the ground.

It. Was. Horrible.

Zero fun.

As soon and I felt the G's in the first "tiny" swing, I knew I had made a big mistake.

When we reached the top heights all I could do was close my eyes and go to my happy place. I was in full logic zone: It will end soon. It will end soon. Just hold on. It will stop soon.

I don't know how anyone finds that fun. I think it should be used as a form of punishment.

We were all a little shakey after that one. I think Magoo was alright though. I don't think he loved it, but I don't think it shook him to the core, like it did to Mike and myself.

We rode a few more rides. Some more pleasant than others. I really started to feel a little old. My body was responding differently to the movement of the rides. I felt more like I was in danger than I was having fun. Maybe Thunder and Lightening messed me up more than I cared to admit.

Mike decided to sit the Saw Mill Plunge out. This was actually very pleasant. It's your typical water log ride. You go up, you have lots of twists and turns in the water, then BOOM big drop.

Magoo and I sat in the front and didn't get too wet.

The Bumper Cars, unfortunately, were less calming. Magoo got pinned in by a kid who couldn't drive well. I was zipping around without hesitation, but Magoo couldn't get out from his wedged in position. By the time he was wriggling free, the ride was over.

See this smile? This is the BEFORE expression. The AFTER expression featured the tears of bitter disappointment.

But that was short-lived because it was time to hit the WATER PARK!

I LOVE a good water park. And I've learned what I like and dislike to help me choose the best rides for maximum enjoyment.

I like to see. Pitch black water slides are unpleasant for me. I never know when to close my eyes or cover my nose and it's not uncommon for me to emerge from the dark semi-blind and with the taste of chlorine in the back of my throat.

I like slides with inner tubes. I can certainly ride a regular slide, but when there's a tube full of air to absorb the shock - that's all the better.

I don't like giant novelty bucket of cold water poured on top of me. When I went into the kid's water play yard with Magoo that happened to me. Twice. Then I was like, You're on your own, kid.

The water park at Lake Compounce is probably about the third of the size as the water park at Six Flags - but we got all the major components in. And you didn't have to walk miles and miles to get from one ride to another.

Despite my list of things I dislike (and those are just general water park things - not specific to any one park) - it was super fun. There were plenty of things that I did like and I especially liked the fact that I was at a PRIVATE PARTY and it wasn't crowded at all.

After about 90 minutes, we dried off, put our clothes back on, played some games, and were outta there by 5pm.

It was an awesome afternoon and a lovely way to close out the summer.

Tomorrow, I take Magoo into the school to see his third grade classroom and to meet his teacher. And Thursday is his first day of school. (Clap, clap, clap!)

Hope you are all having fun in your final days of summer.

A Visit from Irene

2011-08-29T08:57:00.003-04:00

I woke up around 6:30 yesterday morning and Tropical Storm Irene was in full swing - although technically the full force of the storm was a few hours away. But the wind was a'blowin' and the rain was a'whippin' and this is what the back yard looked like. (above)

Mike and I watched the news, flipping from channel to channel to see the best maps. We felt fortunate that we had electricity, so I made sure to make Magoo a nice hot breakfast. At 9am, after I'd been up and anxious for about 2 1/2 hours, I started to relax. Hey, this isn't so bad, I thought.

At 9:30 we lost power.

Then the fun began.

We live in what used to be a pond. It got drained and houses were built. But it wants to be a ponds and seizes any opportunity to return to a pond-like state. Which means, we have a sump pump in the basement. And the sump pump was doing it's job - chick - ch ch ch ch chug - until, of course, the whole losing-power thing.

So Mike and I strapped on our boots and sprung into action. (Actually, we had been prepared for this. Mike already had his boots on. Mine were out. Magoo's were out. Every available bathmat was on the floor between the basement and the front door. All we had to do was grab a flashlight and go.)

This is the set-up in the basement:

Stick the bilge pump in the hole, stick the tube in the bucket. 14 pumps for the small bucket and 20 pumps for the big bucket. Carry the bucket of sewage water up the stairs. Magoo opens the front door. Throw the water out. Go down stairs. Repeat.

Of course, the photo above was taken with a flash. This is what it really looked like:

We were like cave-dwellers. It was super creepy.

We were constantly pumping and dumping for two hours straight. At 11:30 I took a lunch break while Mike kept it up. At noon, things started to calm down a bit. We found we could pump for 10 minutes and rest for 20 minutes. Then pump for 8 and rest 25 and so on and so on.

Meanwhile, our friends on the other side of the block ... well, they didn't lost power at all. And since they are on the high side of the hill, they don't have to worry about flooding either. So Mike took Magoo over there to play and soak up the electricity. Shortly after Mike got back a HUGE branch fell from the neighbors' tree, knocked down their power lines, and narrowly missed both of our cars. (By our cars I mean mine and Mike's.)

So now we have downed power lines next door. Awesome! But we did get really lucky as far as the big branch and cars thing goes.

In the afternoon, we all went over to out friends' house for a pasta dinner - courtesy of electricity!!! We came home around 7pm. Tidied a few things up. Lit some candles.

Here's Magoo relaxing with the iPod.

And at 8:10 pm the electricity came back on! Hooray!!!

So all is well. There are still downed power lines next door, but things are up and running in our house. There's a little cleaning to do, a little laundry, but all in all we came through Irene A-OK!

And the moral of this story is: I like electricity.

Hope all my East Coast friends did as well!

Preparations

2011-08-25T09:52:00.003-04:00

It's going to be a busy few days, I think.

On Saturday, there's a block party.

I already: made flyers
passed out flyers
reserved the road (with the town)
prepared my act for the talent show (Bollywood dance)
bought plates/napkins/utensils
created a kids' scavenger hunt
bought prizes for said scavenger hunt
bought trophies for road race

There will be more to do on Saturday, but that's a bulk of the prep right there.

Does it seem like I'm doing a lot for a community block party? Yes, yes it does. Normally there's about six-to-seven regular people who chip in. This year there were three.

So I'm gonna hunker down and do my best, knowing that next year I won't be the schmuck who spearheads this event.

To ADD to the preparations, we're gonna have a HURRICANE! Wooooo!

Yeppers. Hurricane Irene looks like it's going to be heading right toward West Hartford, CT. Of course, it may not. It may move East. Wouldn't that be nice? But right now projections show it flying right over our house. So we've bought some water. Some batteries. Some flashlights.

I'm doing laundry now so I can clean the basement in case it floods.

As long as we don't lose electricity our super-awesome sump pump will keep us dry. But if we do lose it ... glug, glug.

So there's much to do. Little of it fun. But if I do a little bit here and a little bit there, we'll have a lovely block party on Saturday and a non-tragic rainy day on Sunday.

Here's hoping!

I Have a Little Birdhouse

2011-08-22T07:47:00.003-04:00

Well, it's not actually a birdhouse. It's a bird feeder. But birdhouse sounded better in the title.

When I was in Maine, we went to a big firehouse-funding tag sale and I found this little bird feeder. I'd been thinking of getting a bird feeder to put outside the window by my computer desk. I keep my camera right there and I thought, Wouldn't it be nice, as I'm typing away, to see a little birdie out my window and snap pictures of it.

So I when I saw this bird feeder, full of rustic charm, I plopped the the dollar and made it mine.

Next, Magoo and I went to the pet store and bought some bird seed. I choose the bird seed I wanted by the pictures of the birds it had on the bag - and the price. The low price.

Then I filled the bird feeder, hung it up, and waited for my FLOCKS of feathered friends to come dine. And waited. And waited.

Clearly they didn't know it was there yet, I told myself. I will make a path!

So I went out with another dixie cup full of seed and left a Hansel and Gretel style path from the tire swing to the bird feeder.

A couple days passed. No birds. A couple squirrels found my path - no prob. But no birds.

My father-in-law came to visit and since he's all about the birds, I proudly showed him my bird feeder and the seed I was using. He told me I should get them sunflower seeds. "You have to spoil the birds," he said.

See, I don't want my birds flying in here with fine dining expectations. Sunflower seeds are something I buy for us. We, humans, eat sunflower seeds. The birds are gonna eat the cheap bird seed I give them - and like it!

And sure enough, a few hours later, I had my first customer. (above.) Mr. Chickadee. Welcome. Do tell your friends.

And he did!

The next day a cardinal was sifting through the scraps the squirrels left in the dirt...

... while his lady friend had a table for one.

That was yesterday. This morning I have had several visits from Mr. Chickadee and/or Mr. Chickadee's friends.

My photography challenges are these:
- moving slowly as to not upset the birds.
- my red flash light not upsetting the birds.
- taking photos through a screen gives a hazy image.
- taking photos through the side door off the kitchen has no screen, but is further away so I have to majorly zoom - which sometimes gives a hazy image.
- those darn birds are FAST!

I'm hoping that they will learn that the crazy lady behind the window with the red, glowing eye won't hurt them and they can dine at their leisure. But for now, I'm just psyched that the word it getting out.

The little blue/green bird feeder in back of my house is open for business!

Magoo Presents: Dr. Frankenstein's Dog-Cat

2011-08-17T14:26:00.002-04:00

Dr. Frankenstein just woke up and was hungry. He had an idea; he would combine bacon and eggs together!

"Mwha ha ha!"

He took the eggs and bacon to the laboratory and put them under the Combine-inator.

Meanwhile, Mr. Meanie (Dr. Frankenstein's Shih Tzu dog) was chasing Ms. Smarypants (his cat) through the lab. The dog and cat jumped on the breakfast food as Dr. Frankenstein hit the power button.

ZAP!

He accidentally combines his dog and cat, creating ...

DOG-CAT!

Dr. Frankenstein yelled, "Ahhhhhh!" and that scared Dog-Cat away.

Dr. Frankenstein had another idea; he would combine a net with another net so he could catch Dog-Cat.

Dr. Frankenstein chased Dog-Cat to the top of the castle. Then he swooped the double net at Dog-Cat, but he missed. Dog-Cat ran away to the basement. Dr. Frankenstein ran down many steps. He swooped the double net at Dog-Cat again, but he missed again. Dog-Cat ran back up to the roof.

"Blast you, Dog-Cat!" cried Dr. Frankenstein.

He ran up many steps. Then he swooped his double net again, but missed again.

Later, he had a third idea. He made more bacon and eggs.

"Mwha ha ha!"

He took the food to the lab and put the bacon and eggs on the table with the Combine-inator. Then Dog-Cat followed the smell of the bacon and eggs and jumped up on the table.

Dr. Frankenstein pulled the switch to reverse, the hit the power button. Now the machine was a Separator-inator.

ZAP!

Mr. Meanie and Ms. Smartypants jumped off the table, each with their own four legs.

"Success!" shouted Dr. Frankenstein.

"Meow," said Mr. Meanie, the dog.

"Woof," said Ms. Smartypants, the cat.

The End.

More Shots of Maine

2011-08-16T10:14:00.001-04:00

The view from Cundy's Harbor dock.

A shot I snapped as we drove along. Pretty, pretty.

A hermit crab peeking out.

Skeet-surfing anyone?

Lab-stah boats.

Maine

2011-08-15T10:02:00.002-04:00

We spent the weekend in Maine. A few years ago our neighbors bought an unfinished cabin up in Cundy's Harbor and every so often they go up there and work on it. (They've done a TON of work on it - actually. It looks awesome.) And they invited us up for the weekend.

Since Mike used to spend summers in Maine when he was a young man, I think he especially wanted to get back.

Maine is beautiful. It just is. Naturally, I took a bunch of photos. I think I'll just post them throughout the week.

(Above) The abandoned boat house at the dock at Cundy's Harbor. This is a short walk from our neighbor's place and it's where they launch their kayaks and the boys hunt for green crabs.

(Below) Lobster cages at the dock.

Captive lobsters.

Magoo strolls through the chilly waters at Reid State Park. (I went in up to my knees.)

The view from the Holbrook Lobster Wharf and Grill at Cundy's Harbor.

More soon ...

Zippity-Zip Lines, Zippity-Ae

2011-08-11T19:03:00.004-04:00

It was an adventurous day today.

Magoo and I went to Brownstone Park in Portland, CT. Basically, it's a big lake/quarry with zip lines, inflatables, kayaks, waterslides and a bunch of other fun water-related things. It's pretty exciting to look at.

(I should also mention that I took a disposable camera with film along. So there will be photographs - just not in this post. So to see pics of the place, click on the links.)

Magoo wanted to hit the Iceberg first. (If you go through the slideshow here, it will pop up.) Basically, it's a giant inflatable iceberg with arm/foot holds all over it. I tell ya - neither of us could even get up on the thing. You have to have strong arms to hoist yourself out of the water because there's really nothing to put your foot on. After some feeble/pathetic attempts, we moved on to another water toy with a foothold.

After our friends joined us there, it was time to hit the zip line. Zip line! Zip line! Clap, clap, clap! That's what I was excited about. There are a ton o' zip lines at this park. Some you have to walk far away to get to the start of it. Some you have to climb a mighty tall rock wall. But the one we hit was a mild one (as far as zip lines go.) You walked up a rock path and then waited...waited...waited, until it was your turn to go up a steep rope bridge and then zip.

This is a single file situation. I had to watch as my baby walked the steep rope bridge. To give you an idea of this thing, imagine one thick rope that you walk on, and two rope net/railings on either side. If you fell, the ropes would catch you - but in a way that would result in massive rope burn. Now, crossing this, in and of itself, would be slow-going - but this thing was steep. So, that wasn't easy. As Magoo was nearing the top, I was mentally willing the man-boy up there to extend his hand and help my little dude out. Nope. No can do. He just hung back, as if to say If you can't make it up here, then you can't zip line, kid.

But Magoo made it.

The man-boy hooked him up and then whoosh - Magoo stepped off the platform and glided over the water. He hit the water's surface and back-stroked to the next platform, just like he had been instructed to do.

There's something very *Danger, Will Robinson* in my mom-bones about letting my child be so far away from me at a water park. A lot of trust went into that moment. Trust of the park's system. Trust of the lifeguard on the other end. Trust of Magoo.

And it panned out. All was well. I took a big breath and knew he had grown up just a little bit more and his boundary had been pushed just a little bit further.

So now I had to climb the dreaded rope bridge. Yeah, man - that thing ain't easy. Man-boy hooked me up and gave me the thumbs up and I put my instinct aside (Instinct says, Uh, don't step off the platform) and zippity-do-da'd over the water. Wheeeeee!

It. Was. Awesome!

If the line (for the zip line) hadn't been so long, I would have loved to do that a few more times.

Then we went back in the water for awhile. It was getting kinda crowded so all the inflatables had lines. We got out, had lunch, went back in for another hour and paddled around. Then called it a day.

It was mucho fun - but upper body strength is definitely a must to really enjoy this park. Still, if he wants to hit it next year - I'm in.

If you're local and have adventurous little ones, definitely check it out.

Magoo's Latest Find

2011-08-10T10:46:00.003-04:00

Time is slipping away. If I have three goals for a day, most likely I will only get one done. There's simply too much to do most summer days, and much of my attention is needed by Magoo.

So (another) one of my goals has been to find things that interest him and that he can do independently. Last night we found this: Make Beliefs Comix. (above.)

It's very easy. You choose how many panels you want (2-4.) You choose the characters you want. You choose the size of the word bubble - or thought bubble. You choose your background. And you type in your dialog. (The dialog bit is a bonus for us because I've been teaching Magoo to type - so he gets to practice when making comics. Win - win!)

Magoo has been loving this! He can spend a good 30-45 minutes a stretch at it and have something he's proud of when he's done.

If you have creative kiddos who are starting to get a little bored this summer, definitely check it out.

Note: If you are a teacher or work with children with special needs, there are tabs on the site that help you guide the child's play in ways that may be therapeutic for them. Bonus!

Magoo Presents: Grizzly Bear and Squirrel

2011-08-06T09:25:00.002-04:00

Once Grizzly Bear went into the forest to find his friends. He saw Squirrel. But no one else.

Bear said, "Where did all the animals go?"

Squirrel said, "There was a poacher. They say he lives in the South. We'll need to find a boat."

Bear said, "Where are we going to find a boat when we're near so many trees?"

Then Squirrel got an idea. "Wood can float. Let's tie logs together and make a raft!"

"Squirrel, you're a genius!"

So that night, Bear stroked with his big arms to get to the South on the raft. Squirrel was the look-out.

When they got to the South, they found the poacher's house. The poacher said, "Ooooo,

more animals to hunt down!"

Bear swooped his big claw at the poacher's face.

Squirrel bit the poacher's leg.

They knocked out the poacher and freed all of their animal friends.

The End.

Mystic Aquarium Has Gone to the Birds!

2011-08-04T17:00:00.003-04:00

A new attraction at the aquarium is the Birds of the Outback exhibit.

Here's what you do. You give the nice man at the cash register some extra money ($3/person) and he gives you a popsicle stick with some bird food stuck to one end of it. You go into the big cage, locate a willing bird, slowly present your stick to the bird. Like so:

And if you're lucky, the bird will step onto your stick and hang with you while it dines. Like so:

Magoo had several different feathery friends hang with him throughout our visit.

Here's the little guy who spent some one-on-one time with me. I call him Mr. Yellow.

Yeah, Mr. Yellow and I were buds!

But, eventually, it was time to go. I think both Magoo and I had a lot of fun getting close to the birds. I think it might have held some therapeutic value for me as well.

You see, I once lived with a young woman who had a small bird named Basil. For some reason, Basil liked to fly AT MY FACE! Most of the time she would have the bird's wings clipped so it couldn't fly - but when the wings grew out, Basil would FLY AT MY FACE! Once I covered my face with my hands and it landed right on the top of my head.

Not cool. Not cool at all.

So although I would say I greatly enjoy birds, I've never been a fan of the pet bird, or even birds being too close to me.

But my time with Mr. Yellow was high-quality, bird-lady-binding time. So who knows?

Mystic Aquarium

2011-08-03T08:51:00.003-04:00

Yesterday Magoo and I hit the Mystic Aquarium.

Ever since I was a little girl, I have loved aquariums. The darkness and slow underwater movement is very soothing to me. Aquariums chill me out. But Magoo has often been bored in these environments. He's much more of a hands-on "doer" than an observer. But he saw an ad on TV that featured a new "exhibit" - a 3-D, seat-moving, feature - and he wanted to go. So we went.

And it was good.

We started off with the ray-petting pool. The last time we were there, Magoo wasn't able to touch a ray. They were all swimming really low. This time, there was a man feeding them near Magoo, so a bunch were swimming closer to the surface. (Video at the end of this post.)

Then we went inside and there was a shark-petting pool!!!

They were small sharks - as you can see - but Magoo got to pet a couple of them and that was super-fun!

Then we just walked around, looked at the jellies (I LOVE jellies behind glass, I HATE jellies when I want to swim), pufferfish, big sharks, pirahna, sea turtles, and sea horses.

Magoo wasn't too interested in the outside creatures: beluga whales, sea lions, penguins - but that just might have been because it was hot and crowded out there.

We DID see the 3-D motion movie, and compared to the highly synced, smooth 3-D rides at Disney, this one was like a 10-minute physical assault in an alley. OH MY it was jarring! (Still, Magoo liked it so that was good enough for me.)

Way back when Magoo was a wee one, he had the mother of all meltdowns at the Mystic Aquarium. He LIVED for throwing sticks into bodies of water: puddles, drains, rivers, lakes. So when he was not allowed to throw sticks into the Beluga exhibit - he started to pout. When he was not allowed to throw sticks into the penguin exhibit - it was a full-blown, red-alert, class 10 melt-down. We still talk about it to this day.

It's nice that, a good six years later, we can go back to the same place and have a lovely time.

(There was an awesome bird exhibit at the aquarium as well. More on that tomorrow.)

Making a Stop-Motion Short Film

2011-08-02T07:03:00.004-04:00

Were you wondering how I made the stop-motion film? Well, lucky you, I'll tell you how in this post! (If you weren't wondering, just check back in tomorrow. I'll have aquarium shots!)

(Above) This is my set-up. (And by "my" I mean the set up I had with my partner, Jon.) We had a plank that had a webcam and a light attached to it. And the computer with the SAM animation program on it. That's what's up on the screen. That's basically all you need to get rolling.

If you're really interested in trying this out, I'd like to recommend this book:

The Klutz Book of Animation: Make Your Own Stop Motion Movies

It goes through a lot of basics and it uses the SAM animation program, which is a great program!

Here's a shot of what the "set" looked like.

See all the extra arms, legs, and eyeballs off to the side?

As you probably know, you put your characters in a pose, take a shot (or two or three), change the pose and do it again. In animation like this, you want 24 frames per second. Which means if you shoot your little guy making 24 small movements, when you are done you'll have 1 second of animation. We were told that it's OK to take 2-3 frames per movement, that the eye fills things in. Depending on how many frames you take and how big the movements are - that's how you control the speed of your characters.

Our movie was about 2000 frames long.

All in all, I probably spent about 7 hours preparing to shoot the animated short and another 7 (or so) hours shooting it with Jon. When you think that it took 14 hours to make a 90 second film, that can be daunting. But it was really 14 hours of fun.

If you want to see some really, REALLY good stop-motion animation, check this out.

Have a great day!

Five Stages of Grief (for a Zombie): a Stop-Motion Short Film

2011-07-30T18:55:00.005-04:00

Two posts ago, I mentioned that I would be taking a stop-motion animation workshop through my local library. The video above is the fruit of that labor. I hope you enjoy it!

As it turned out, I got the perfect animation partner, Jon. He's a puppeteer in the Hartford area, and is very used to writing and performing his own puppetry so he came to this workshop to learn a new skill and had no desire to put in extra work. Since I had put in 8 hours of prep - we were ideally suited to working together. I had a ton of fun with Jon and I think we both did a great job.

Thanks to the West Hartford Library for hosting this awesome event, and to Joe, Tessa, and Dan for running it and teaching us!!!

For those of you in the area, there will be a "film festival" with all the shorts (9 in total, I think) outside the Faxon branch library on Thursday, Aug. 11th at 8:30. It's al fresco movie watching in the parking lot. And you need tickets (they're showing How to Train Your Dragon after the shorts) but they are free. Call the Faxon branch and reserve some, if you like. I know I'll be there!

Oh, in case you're wondering, the star of my movie is Little Noah, the mascot of the Noah Webster Library.

Enjoy!

HACKED!

2011-07-27T12:23:00.003-04:00

Last night, I got hacked.

Someone hacked into my email contact list and sent an email to EVERYONE on it with a link to Viagra.

The bad news: Well, it's creepy to think that someone is going around pretending to be you. Also, it's embarrassing as heck to think that my professional contacts think I'm sending them ads for Viagra. (Sorry to everyone at Penguin!)

The good news: it was only a link and not a virus. So apart from being annoying and confusing - no harm should come to those who received the message. Also, I've been hearing from all sorts of people today!

What really boggles my mind is this advertising technique. I mean, does this work? Is someone going to open a message that they think is from me. Click on a link. See an ad for Viagra and think - OK. If Julie thinks I need this, I'd better order some.

I hope not!

Hey, maybe I should hack into the email of corporate Wall Street brokers and send them a link to my book on Amazon? ;)

Anyway - if you received the message - sorry about that. I've contacted Yahoo and changed my password and hopefully that'll do the trick.

Stop-Motion Zombies (I hope)

2011-07-26T15:51:00.003-04:00

On Thursday, I will begin a 3-day workshop to learn some stop-motion animation techniques. This workshop is being run by the town library and I'm PSYCHED to be participating.

I've had a concept ready for a little while: The Five Stages of Grief (for a Zombie.)

Then I got a notice from the library asking that we try to place their mascot, Little Noah, in the short film. This threw me for a moment, as I wasn't sure how to put this character in my monster movie. Then it hit me, Little Noah can be the main character. I'll turn him into a zombie!

The library isn't expecting anyone to come with stuff prepared, but that's how I roll. I have a storyboard ready and I have cut characters and props for 3 scenes.

I *hope* that I can make this film. There are two possible glitches:

1.) Everything I have cut is the wrong size.

2.) I get saddled with a partner that has no interest in this topic.

In which case, I will learn as much as I can about the cameras, software, etc. and try to make my zombie movie on my own in my own time.

But, in the meantime, fingers crossed for stop-motion zombies.

In other news: The heat wave has broken. Yesterday it was downright cool (awesome) and today it's normal. The house is comfy and I finally got around to cutting the lawn. I didn't have to sit throughTransformers 3 on Saturday. Instead we went to see Captain America - which was fine. Today Magoo and I just took it easy - had a lazy day - and for awhile we counted the cars pass in front of our house while sipping on milkshakes. It was a most excellent fifteen-minutes.

PS - This is my 700th bog post!!!

Feelin' Hot, Hot, Hot

2011-07-22T08:24:00.002-04:00

It's flop-sweat hot around here. Which means I'm not at my productive best.

Fortunately Magoo is off at camp where they have him swimming and tossing water balloons and things of the like. I'm going to try to hit as many air-conditioned places as I can. Then it will be evening swim for Magoo and me. (Maybe Mike.)

Tomorrow we'll hit Transformers 3. (The things I will sit through for air-conditioning!)

And then, hopefully, the heat will break.

Hope you're staying cool.

Esmerelda

2011-07-19T09:34:00.003-04:00

There is an author/illustrator named Aaron Zenz who created a blog to feature the artwork of his talented children. It's called Chicken Nugget Lemon Tooty. Once, a couple years ago, he invited other artists to re-interpret his kids' art. I must have read about it on someone else's blog and thought it sounded like a fun idea. So I found a lovely bird drawing by one of his daughters and turned it into a collage.

Go here and see what other artists came up with.

Well, Chicken Nugget Lemon Tootie is celebrating it's Five Year Anniversary - so I got an email from Mr. Zenz asking if I wanted to play again.

Yes, indeedy, I do.

Here is the drawing I chose.

It's called Wabbit and it's by his daughter, Gracie.

And here's my interpretation:

I decided to give the rabbit a girl. As I was making the girl, she started to speak to me. Turns out, her name is Esmerelda and she loves it when things go wrong. As I was putting this collage together, all these little story ideas started weaving their way into my mind and I now think I have a new idea to write up.

Time can only tell where it all leads - but I think little Esmerelda and I are going to have a lot of fun together.

The blog post on Chicken Nugget Lemon Tootie isn't up yet. I'll let you know when it is. I'm sure it will be a blast to check out what everyone's done!

Happy Tuesday everyone!

8 1/2 Year Celebration

2011-07-18T08:54:00.003-04:00

Magoo was born right after Christmas, which is not an ideal time for having a fun, friend-filled birthday bash. So, Lucky Duck that he is, he gets a small family party on his birthday and a second "friend" party in the summer.

I had planned on this being a small affair. Last year's party had me running around like hummingbird on crack and, this year, I had just spent a lot of time planning the Disney trip - but, as is often the case - one thing lead to another and I had nine boys in my yard.

BUT - I had a plan. And that plan was ... treasure hunts!

The day before the party, I had hidden 6 treasures around the yard and made directions sheets for each one. Here's Magoo reading the first "map" to the party-goers.

It said something like: Start at the front steps,

walk backwards to the basketball hoop,

twirl around three times,

run to the backyard,

stand on one foot,

now look where the clothespins live.

And then they'd find a treasure in the little bag on the clothesline. They'd run it back to me and I'd give them the next set of directions.

All the while, I'm sitting in the shade chatting with the other parents. Pretty smart, right?

All the treasure boxes contained the same thing: gogo's. Magoo LOVES his gogos. These are popular toys in his crowd. So I emptied them all out and had the boys take turns choosing their gogo teams.

After that, I set them up with clay and let them make their own gogo and gogo accesories.

And after that, it was cake time!!!

Magoo requested a honey cake. It's the standard birthday cake around here. Although now that I have my new babycakes cookbook, I might be able to perfect some of those recipes and add a little variety to our cake eating lives.

Magoo, of course, was MOST looking forward to the present opening. A few weeks ago, Magoo and I were in a toy store and he found a great big Ugly Doll that he really liked. Well, have you seen these things? They are SO EASY to make (if you sew.) So I noted which one he liked, (this one,) bought fabric, and made the darn thing myself. (Don't worry, good folks at UglyDolls, I am not selling your fine product. I only made one for my son.)

Magoo was psyched - which made me psyched. And he has slept with it ever since. (Well, only 2 nights - but still.)

And that was the party, folks. It was a lovely day and all the kids had a pretty good time. We were so happy that our friends, The Metcalfes, were in town from Baltimore and could be a party of the celebration. It made it all the more special for all of us.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Stuff On My Cat

2011-07-15T08:25:00.002-04:00

The other day Magoo and I had a grand old time placing ninja after ninja on Java's tummy, while she stared at us, confused and annoyed.

In total we were able to place twelve ninjas and an army guy.

Yesterday we uploaded the photo to the site: Stuff on my Cat. Hope it gets picked!!!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Magoo Presents: George Washington and the Amazing Battle

2011-07-13T12:03:00.002-04:00

Like last summer, Magoo and I are working on writing stories. Writing was a big challenge for poor Magoo this last year in school. He is a boy full of ideas, but the slowness of his writing prevents him from getting them down in a timely fashion. And while he's concentrating on spelling the words correctly, he forgets where his thoughts were going. All that equals great frustration.

So, in order to promote the skills of story-telling w/o worrying about the fine motor skills or spelling, I am Magoo's secretary. He now dictates his stories to me. That way, we can record all his thoughts and ideas. We print them up. And then we edit a bit.

His first story is George Washington and the Amazing Battle.

Page 1:
Early one morning, George Washington was practicing his gunfiring at the firing range when he got captured.

Page 2:

George Washington said, "Who are you?"

The leader of the group said, "We are the British."

Then the British captain said, "Check all his pockets for weapons."

While soldiers checked his pockets, George Washington pulled out a banana peel and threw it on the ground.

One of the British soldiers slipped and bonked his head.

Page 3:

George Washington grabbed his gun and fired it before being locked up.

The bullet flew through the window of the American Army barracks.

A man in his army said, "Hey look - a bullet! Something must be wrong!"

The Army marched to the British hideout and said - in a creepy, old voice - "We are old scoundrels."

The British Captain said, "Come in."

The army went in and got a piece of wire and unlocked the prison gate where George was being held.

The army said, "We will fight you at 10p.m."

The British said, "That's our bedtime."

The British changed it to 9 p.m.

Page 4:

Later that night, the British arrived with stuffed animals.

George Washington said, "Why do you have stuffed animals?"

"Because there's thousands of bullets in them!"

The British fired the stuffed animals. BANG!

Page 5:

George Washington had a shield. He said, "Ha! In your face!"

The British were steamed with anger. The British shot their guns but they misfired.

George Washington fired his gun and he took down ten guys.

The British ran for their lives and said, "We surrender!"

George Washington put the British in prison and locked them up forever.

The End.

I guess you could call it Historical Fiction. :)

Didn't he do a great job on the illustrations. He printed p pictures of George Washington and British soldiers so Magoo could get the details of each uniform and he worked really hard on these.

I'm very proud.

Magoo is at day camp for the next two weeks so there won't be another story until August. But I'm so impressed but he work he did on this one, I'm super optimistic about what else he'll come up with.