A Little Imagination and a Pile of Junk

productivity halted

Judging from the amount of time I've laid in bed the past 3 days, you'd think nothing had been getting done around here. But you would be wrong. A sustained wave of productivity was only rudely interrupted by a very bad bug, shared among the whole family and me worst of all, resulting in a ruptured ear drum. It turns out that a ruptured ear drum isn't nearly as horrible as it sounds and, as I've been told, is now on the mend. But at least for a few more days there is sure to be more of the Huh? What was that? What did you say? going on until I can hear sufficiently out of both ears and have the energy to spend more time out of the bed than in it.  Meanwhile, this is just some of the chaos awaiting me.

I've got seven new art journals in process and it kills me to abandon them now, but it can't be helped. I'll have to satisfy my longing to be with them by wandering through the room wistfully throughout the day--being very careful not to trip on a pile of junk and impel myself on a rogue knitting needle, which as you can see is not outside the realm of possibility around here.

Thankfully, I have a pile of mindless Summer reading that does make the day go by a bit faster. I'm too ashamed to show you a photo of the books themselves, but let's just say they involve the exploits of a certain group of teenage vampires. (Here is where I hang my head and avoid eye contact.) For all my friends who are hopelessly hooked, the pages do have a way of turning but I'm not about to join any fan clubs any time soon. And that's all I have to say about that.

victory is mine--haaahaaa!

Thanks to all of you who offered suggestions on how to make shirring work for me. I pretty much tried everything you suggested and--it worked!

Unfortunately, I can't attribute my success to any one thing, but I'm just thankful that it worked and I made two new dresses for friends to show it. Here's my lovely friend Shannon modeling her new sundress. She loved it so much that she's coming over tomorrow for a marathon session of dress making--God and kids willing.

I cannot recommend this pattern enough. If you're on the fence--make it. It almost makes me want to keep living in the tropics so I can wear them everyday. Almost but not quite. It'll look just as cute with a cardigan.

something else you can do with stencils

My husband's been wanting some new ink for a while but was having a hard time deciding on a particular design. We talked about me drawing something for him, but that's so much pressure and I'm really not much of a drawer. I'm really more of a doodler if anything. Recently we stopped by a local tattoo shop just to get some ideas. There are certain images and motifs that are particularly popular in the Rio Grande Valley where we live and we liked the idea of incorporating something with a Mexican folk art feeling to it. After seeing lots of tattoos that memorialized loved ones, we thought it could be really cool to use the kids' names in the design as well. John spent some time consulting with one of the artists and after a few tries,  suddenly knew exactly what he wanted. So he raced home to get the guy an image to copy. You're never going to guess what he came back home with.

 

Recognize my self-portrait stencil? (See the link in the right hand side bar.) This guy was an amazing artist. And I think he made me look pretty good, too. I especially like the golden halo. Very appropriate for me, I think. And I love the lime green vines and the scrolls with the kids' names. Marley is the name of our baby that I miscarried last Summer at 12 weeks. It just seems so right to see our whole family represented together. And there's something incredibly sexy about the man you love having not just your name but your face on his body--forever.

 

Tattoos are addictive. I wouldn't know. I have an impossibly low pain threshold, but I'm told it's true. Guess I better get busy working on ideas for the next one.

taking a leap

Recently we decided to take a huge leap into the unknown and start our own publishing company. It's not something we ever thought we'd be doing, but a door opened and then another and soon we found ourselves rushing in without a care in the world. Since then our vision has grown leaps and bounds and we think we just may be onto something amazing. Time will tell. For now, however, we are thrilled to be offering our first book written by dear friends who we believe bring a unique voice to the Church today.

 

I see it as continuing a dialog that has already been started by others with more wisdom and insight than we may ever have, but hopefully by keeping it going, we can help to shed a little light in the darkness and bring something new to the table at the same time. Our little business is a community endeavor and we hope to offer a means for other small voices who might not otherwise have an opportunity to be heard. I have to admit that we're still fleshing out who we are and what we will be about but we have visions of bringing not just writers but also independent artists and musicians to the table as well.

 

And so Rhizome Publishing was born. Our name emerged from our first book which is ready for pre-order here. I'm not above soliciting support on this dream-come-true effort, so if you are able and willing click on the "Buy Now" button and let me know in the comments that you heard about us through this blog and I'll send you a little goody with your book as a thank you gift.

Back at home I'm busy as a bee working on multiple projects including another stripey blanket, more sundresses, art journals for the shop, and a few patchwork pouches. My sewing machine and I are reliving the old days when we used to be inseparable but I'm trying hard not to let the stencils, spray paint, or crochet hooks feel too left out.

another dress and a song

 

Dress #2 all finished! Have I mentioned how much I loooovve this pattern? It is so flattering on. I probably lean more toward a pear shape but I really think it could look fabulous on any body type. Shapely enough to flatter womanly curves, but still loose enough to hide any, ahem, problem areas (like my Dr. Pepper tummy pooch) and--most importantly--feel amazing on. I did make sure that I picked the softest cotton fabrics, too, which is important. I'd love to make one in a drooly cotton double gauze, particularly a purple one with unicorns (eeekkk!!) but I just haven't been able to convince myself to spend $18 a yard on--admittedly exquisite--fabric for myself. I think I'll just dig through my stash a little longer and experiment with some vintage thrift store finds first--then splurge.

I have discovered that I have to deliberately shop for fabric for clothes with nothing else in mind. The patterns and colors I tend to naturally gravitate toward are usually not patterns and colors that I want to wear on my body. I fell in love with the blue Moda print for my first sundress only after the fact. I realized later that I would not have even considered buying it had I not been looking for dress fabric.

I got to wear dress #1 out to a outdoor concert with the kids recently. Not a kid's concert, a real grown up concert, but we all had a great time. A dear friend was asked to head up a local band and open up for Jeremy Camp and we couldn't miss that for the world. (If you are the curious kind, you can see him here.) The whole concert was fabulous and so worth the four pounds of water I sweat (sweated?) in my new dress. I even made a video! It's not good, but it's my first bootleg concert video (do they even call it that anymore??) so I think it's cool. If you can make it past the first 30 seconds, it gets better. I was definitely not alone in recording that night. The audience was a literal sea of tiny glowing screens from all of the cell phones and digital cameras being held in the air. Who needs lighters anymore?