Gypsy Rose quilt top

In recent days I have had more time to spend in my craft room than I had had almost since I moved to my house. I have also cured my yarn-buying habit by displacing it with a fabric-buying habit. I also have my craft room half full of pillow forms and yards & yards of [...]

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Corncob cornbread

Sparks has access to a dazzling array of vintage oddities. On the one hand his family enjoys junk shops, estate sales, and auctions. On another hand he has received copious hand-me-downs from his parents and grandparents. On the third hand, he’s always looking out for interesting things left on the curb.

Thus was found, several years [...]

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Renovation news: late November

This weekend, feeling happy and fresh and fit as fiddles due to the roof finally being begun, we ventured to our darling new/old town to see how the house was going.
The roof is indeed going on. The house has such an enormous expanse of roof, though–and a passing neighbor reports that the roofers are delicate [...]

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Renovation news: mid-November

In the absence of any new photographs to show you, here’s a pretty mosaic of my Flickr favorites:

So. The house renovation. I am able to post about it this morning only because I have GOOD news to tell you. I have several pieces, in fact!
1) The new metal roof is being put on AS I [...]

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Bathroom colors

Sooooooo. Supposedly, the roof will be put on our house starting today, which means that drywall goes up soon, which means it’s time to choose paint colors. For real.
In the bedroom, my current thoughts are to paint each wall in a very subtle tone. One will be the same lovely warm white as the rest [...]

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Dad’s hurdy-gurdy

My dad had been talking about it for years, ever since we got Microsoft Musical Instruments bundled with Windows 95, really. But in the past year, he did it. He built a hurdy-gurdy.
The hurdy-gurdy is one of my very favorite instruments. Do you remember The Mummer’s Dance, by Loreena McKinnitt? It’s the instrument that plays [...]

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Altered photographs

I recently discovered the joy of applying textures and overlays to pictures in Photoshop. Oh my, what fun! Now I know why some blogs have such stunning pictures… postprocessing, baby, it’s the answer to all things.

A texture is just another picture that you layer on top of your own picture, then decrease the opacity of [...]

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Autumn leaves

Every year when the leaves are at their peak, I take a walk and photograph them. I feel like the precious colors of autumn are every bit as much a part of the season’s bounty as the harvest, and that it would be a crying shame to squander their beauty and let it go unremembered.
Plus, [...]

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Fidget Pie

Sparks and I have been experiencing an unaccountable interest in “good Olde English” food recently. Perhaps it something to do with having recently watched Lord of the Rings, or perhaps it was the trip to Italy that made us pine for a trip to the UK, or perhaps it has to do with our buddies [...]

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Farmer’s Market

I didn’t get to the Farmer’s Market all summer. There was just too much to do, and while it’s a fun place, it’s also a jumbled confusing place… and one that happens early on Saturdays, when I just want to take my time at home.
This past weekend we went, though, for one of the last [...]

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There will be time

And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,
Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;
There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop [...]

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Doll dresser jewelry box

The first jewelry box is done! Woop woop!

To sum up: about six weeks ago, crazed by the excitement of jewelry-making, I realized that I needed a storage system for my handiwork. Many jewelry boxes are filled with confusing compartments and special holders, which I wasn’t interested in. All I wanted was a series of shallow [...]

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Jack-o-lanterns 2009

It is the morning of November 1, and it is oddly early for me to be up on a Sunday morning because it’s the first day of Standard Time… and we have also had our first frost. For the first time this year, it’s below freezing out there. How about that for a happy confluence [...]

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