Monkeyporkbun

Favorite Things

Yes, I love the movie The Sound of Music. Don't you just want to be Julie Andrews with all her sensibility and capability? I do. I especially love what she can do with a set of drapes! It makes me want to put on a pinafore, adopt a few more children and go sing in the hills. Okay, not really. That's just me being rejuvenated for a moment by the early morning silence. Can you hear it?

The photo from this post was taken while having an early morning cup at Starbucks. And I realized in the photo are a few of my favorite things.

1. Fabric
2. Shrinky Dinks
3. Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion
4. Somerset Pubs
5. Galvanized aluminum IKEA Home Org. accessories
6. Moleskine journals - the naked version like in this post over at Kloth & Bolt

Not pictured:
7. Paint
8. Glitter
9. Glue
10. Hilary Lang's patterns (did you read this post? Want more info on the subject, see here: http://www.uspto.gov/)
11. Bottled water and the marketing genius of it.

What are some of your favorite things? Do leave a comment and share. Seems like a fun meme to create. Shall I?

Baby Escape Artist Causes Long Blogging/Creativity Hiatus

Little E has learned, and quite deftly, how to climb out of her crib. So she only takes 40 minute naps instead of 90 to 180 minute naps now. Barely time to solder a few pieces or knit a few rows.

In spite of this I was somehow able to coordinate the finishing of the class project thank you quilt to Miss B's wonderful teacher and then hop onto the "I'm making a stained glass window" train for my sister-in-law as a housewarming gift for the purchase of her first house. And I somehow began all of this creativity before the naps shortened. Strange insight perhaps? Thank goodness for all of the help I had in bringing these projects to life. Photos later.

Other stories include we busted out the gocco that came from Leslie at Christmastime and used one of Miss B's amazing drawings as the first run for something fairy special. That brilliance with photos soon. Oh, and Miss B opened an etsy store for her artwork. More on that later as well.

We're off to a slow start this summer with Thursday being the last day and boy are we expecting it to be a hot one.

There is still someone out there waiting for my headshot. My last excuse was waxing. It is currently still . . .waxing.

I've been absent pondering how to create a gentler version of the below object. Just kidding. Really. Enjoy the vid. (And I totally understand why Typepad has been driving other folks nuts.)

Cabin Fever

It's true. I have had Cabin Fever here at Monkeyporkbun. From the picture below, chomping a beeswax gecko you can clearly see I've lost more than a few marbles this winter! I'm having a milestone birthday this year and I've begun planning like a mad(wo)man. Shaking off the Winter Blues feels really great.

I suppose this milestone birthday has me thinking. Or at the very least reorganizing my priorities. This is what my list looks like now:
1. Ride bikes with E and B
2. Swim with E and B
3. Take B and friends to ice cream
4. Plan summer slumber party
5. Learn new jumprope songs to share with B and her friends
6. Come up with new gift ideas from the "full moon fairy"
7. Anticipate the next tooth falling out
8. Writing a story about myself as a girl for my girls (and for my father and brother)
9. Organize photos and collect data with Nana
10. Spin, swim and run every second I get.
11. Make meals for friends
12. Smile more.

After I finished this project, all I could think about was playing. It's true I really did become addicted to making log cabin squares, hence the post title, and I can't wait to sew up some new skirts and gifts, but the sun is out! I'm torn to bits. I have a quilt to get to Sonya, raffle gifts to make for the Relay, a housewarming gift, HTML to rework, and product descriptions to write, but as the sign indicates up above, there are only so many hours in a day or so many opportunities. My girls are growing fast and my heart aches to think that I will spin them away making and selling things and writing things that twenty years from now are not going to matter to them or to myself.

We have been seeing a lot of this. . .

 
  And doing a lot of this . . .

In an effort to have a clearer design process I've been attempting to do less blogsurfing and more house tinkering. I look at my blog and some things I've written and it feels like I'm sounding like others and quite honestly it makes me feel like a wannabe. To blaze my own trail so to speak, we've been getting a lot of outdoors in. Will I ever design/make/sell full time?  Maybe. But not right now. If I blink I'll miss something. An opportunity to giggle? An unsolicited hug and kiss simply because I was available? A first sentence? Something important going on at school? Piano lessons if I overplan? Choices can be overwhelming. I'd love to hear how others arrive at where they are now. I guess I read blogs because I'm happy to see others doing it. It can be done. I just have to keep living my dream, with the occasional edit.
 
   

Thanks for reading! (I know it's all over the place!) Have a great weekend! This is our favorite bakery. The hours are above at the top.

Another Block on The Wall

I've nearly disappeared in this project. This one will be like giving away a child. 32 children to be exact. More on this later. Next week when I hand it off, I'll be able to post photos and other writing again. For now I'm off to fold laundry (because it's never done, right?) and have a cup of Buddha Nature otherwise known as coffee.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great weekend!
Gena

Tag it!

I have been so excited about painting small things! I just love these. Remember this project? These were what popped out of those frames. Add a little paint, a little decopage decal, chipboard, mod podge, papter, ink and glitter and Presto! It's a tag, it's a gift, it's a gift tag, it's a letter in a child's name, and best of all it's quick. And these days I love a quick craft fix. Making really soothes my tender soul. I can't wait to make more. B's requesting her name be spelled out and mounted on her bedroom door. This I can do.

Back in the Saddle

Unfinished Stitchette Log Cabin Square

Phew! That was one long Spring Break. We kept a good rhythm around here though with playdates and naps and mealtimes and bedtimes and no television. I am amazed. Now Miss B's back to school and I get to sew a little more. I think I'd better start thinking about producing enough to stock the shop through summer. And I can finally get my waxing done. These brows could be the star in a famous Eric Carle book. And I will because I'm being asked for my headshot. Now what to do about this odd acne breakout. The esthetician asks.

So I think I'll begin by making more of these log cabin squares. And maybe more pillowcases. I've been asked for a duvet. And my sister in law just bought a house in Lake Tahoe so maybe they'll be needing something as well. Potholders? Oven gloves? Personalized towels? Pillowcases, a lap quilt. We'll think of something, that's a guarantee. That it'll be finished by Christmas. Maybe.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Ain't it true? So what's four pictures worth? Anyway, I just loved discovering a sheet of wooden tags at Michael's for $1.29. Can you believe it? What can you do with a sheet of wooden tags? Well, this is what I did. For my mother in law's birthday. Happy Birthday, Rosemary. You're the best.

And this. We did this on Easter. It was what the kids and I did when the Easter Bunny was apparently there. I always seem to miss him because I'm busy doing something. Go figure.

Cozy Up

Since September I have been coordinating a project in my community. And only now have I begun to piece together a prototype log cabin square. (It's the buried thing in this photo. My camera died this morning just after it snapped this.) And this one isn't even to go into the end project. It was to see how well the pattern I drafted last week would work. During this trial, I found this tutorial  at a great blog called Craft Actually. This tutorial is just perfect for beginners like me. I have made other simple quilts, just never a log cabin. And Helen was absolutely right. In her post she said "Soon you will not be able to stop." Indeed. I am now obsessed with cutting strips and straight stitching. But this post probably gave that away ages ago. I am really enjoying this process.

This said project is a super special secret and involves many incredible individuals. I have worked out the kinks now and can turn over the fabric to some kind folks to help cut lovely strips. I have been offered a lot of help and for the first time ever on something like this, I'm excited to delegate. I will do embroidering in each of the "special" squares.

For a project of this caliber involving so many hands, the to do list looked something like this:

Identify seamstresses in the group
Identify seamstresses with piecing, applique, embroidery or quilting experience
"Select" colorway
Coordinate individuals for "designing" fabric. (This was what took the longest. I started in January and I am almost finished. I've moved on to the next steps because not having them will not hold up the project. We can add them when they are finished which will be next week.)
Bust into stash and supplement with purchased fabrics if necessary to fit colorway.
Draft a pattern.
Try the pattern out.
Examine "designed" pieces and cut out best sections.
Embroider each cut out section.
Cut many many strips.
Gather 12 strips for each section.
Piece together around centerpiece.

Postmaster

This started out as unfinished wood, purchased at Michael's for a mere $3. Then a coat of turquoise went on. And I embellished the edges with my trusty Martha Stewart ink pad like I had learned here with Lisa.
Afterward, I added the ginghamish paper, the decopage label roses and the yellow ovals. Then came the coat of Mod podge. Then the lettering with my two sided Prismacolor markers.

Definitely a project to aid in my goal of Organizational Spring Cleaning.

Cute While You're Ahead

This was going along really well. She was napping. As well she should be since we were awake all night. It seems the vocabulary fairy has been here and since discovering new words she has been terribly excited. Thank you vocabulary fairy. I am very tired, but no less grateful.

I really enjoy working with paint, glue, glitter, photos, and loveliness in general. Had I had the proper night's rest I might have stopped before Chore McCrazy Chore took over. But I didn't.  And it just looks like a crazy angelic mess, hence the Scrubs reference.

Ttfn,

Gena