Color Wrap


Thank you for all the sweet comments about Alex and his Fez Frog. He has been enjoying those as much as I have... maybe more. I think Santa and I have worked something out, so if Alex continues to be a good boy, this should have a happy ending. Maybe he can illustrate one of his grinning frogs. He draws these frogs, and lots of other amazing things, freehand, from his own vast and wondrous imagination.

We keep a lot of art supplies around here, and in the car and under the beds... coming and going... pencils, markers, charcoal, erasers, and paper of course! No wonder I've always admired those clever pencil roll carrying cases I've seen around. When "Lemon Tree Tales'" Tami made a color coordinated carrying case, I finally could not resist making one too. Mine is just a first try and made for washable markers.


I love the color match one that Tami made and I may still try that, but I knew I had to practice first. She kindly offered to share the details of the pattern, but I am too impatient and intimidated by patterns. I think her post and encouragement were all I needed to give it a try. When I finally stole time to put this together I just sort of worked around the size and number markers I had on hand. I also tried something kid-friendly for the closure. I covered a button in coordinating fabric and attached it to the edge and then I sewed on a pony-tail holder a few inches from the button. I think a young child should be able to pull the band over the button and keep the markers secure in their new home. The pens slide in and out easily, but they do not fall out... so cool!


If I can hide this from Maria, I may actually have a Christmas gift for her cousin...shhh! I've been one busy Christmas elf, but Maria claims a lot of the things I make! And I wonder how economical and clever it is to neglect all chores, errands, and responsibilities for the sake of homemade gifts. Let's not get mired in these technical burdens. Last night I made mice! Those mice have been an idea scurrying around in my head for several weeks... turning the wheels of my mind! I made one. Loved it. Fed it to Chango. He loved it and that was all the encouragement I needed! I hope to be shipping Christmas mice to all the cool cats on my list! I also have face cloths, scarves, hats, drawstring bags and coasters in my warehouse of homemade goodness, and if I keep reading "Sew, Mama Sew!" I will never run out of ideas I want to try.

Alex Wants A Fez For Christmas


He's been making his list and leaving subtle hints around the house.

Good News

As devoted fans since 1996, we are thrilled to hear, from thoughtful sources, that our favorite dynamic duo are in a new flick:
Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death
This news is too wondrous. We are so delighted, we can hardly comprehend the magnitude of our elation. I take this as a sign that
good shall prevail.

Gee, just when I had begun to believe this blog had run its course, I find new purpose and inspiration... if only to spread the good news!

Scenes From Our Sunday

These particular scenes are provided by our 3 year old resident, Maria. She is an artist. She is a tornado of creative industry. She is a visionary.






A girl and a boy and an angel overhead, all beneath a smiling sun, with a raining cloud and grass and a tree. But those are just details. I see so much more. I love this picture. The sun is so satisfied, basking in its own rays.


Angels are everywhere.


Maria was dismayed to see this picture on the screen. "I didn't put the thing on the chicken!" Do you notice the missing thing?


She sighed audibly when she fixed this and handed it back to me, "Here, copy this."


What for some may be clutter or pure randomness, in Maria's world is order and art, expression and play. She gathers her elements and puts them together. She fills the vacuums, the empty spaces, nooks, boxes, bags... her canvas, her space.

Oh Woe Is We


William is on the mend.
Alex may be going down, but he made it to school today.
Max is stricken and the only thing worse than his symptoms is the dread he feels regarding missing school.
Maria insists she is not sick, but that doesn't help her, or me, sleep at 3 a.m. when she is coughing and sneezing and crying for tissues and hugs.
I got it too. It's a mean bug and as I lay awake, moaning and aching I am penitent. Do you ever get that way when stricken with flu or cold? Suddenly I can recall every chore left undone and every misdeed done, and I make pitiful, solemn vows to be a better person... cleaner, neater, friendlier, more organized, less neglectful, more fit, less fat, more flossing, less self-critical. Is it the fever? Delirium? In the wee hours, in the dark, wracked with pain and congestion, I imagine that I would rather be cleaning the closets and decontaminating surfaces. I admonish myself for being a procrastinator and a lackadaisical domestic engineer.

How about Maria's dry erase chicken? Pretty cute. Kind of mythological... makes me think of the legendary scorpion chicken. Not a fatal sting, but it makes you think twice before ordering an omelette.

This is not one of those posts I will look back on, wondering why Terry Gross never called. No this is just me, passing time... too headachy to operate heavy machinery or work with sharp objects, too congested to read aloud, too sleepy to think of what sick people should do. Is it soup? Should I make soup? I think I'll make soup.

eruhhhh.

You know what's cool? The Internet. The Internet is totally cool. Janece posted an assortment of links and this video was as fortifying as any soup... the children and I busted up laughing watching the cat in the box. Seriously brilliant... unless you don't like cats without exception.

The Internet provides. This came with a racial tag line, but I like to think we can see it as a universal joke... presenting the Greater Depression Fire Alarm:


Where there's heat, there's fire and this will wake you in a jiffy!

eruhhh achooo mehhh

WIP It, WIP It Good

WIP: Work In Progress.
Loose threads everywhere. And I am still attached to my crochet hooks, so everywhere I turn there are WIPs waiting for my attention.

You may have heard me mention an area quilt shop once or twice. Now when I pop in with the children, a game of chess is requisite. Kim, the proprietress, is an amazing talent. Her quilts are tales in fabric, original and lovely, and a favorite of ours is her chess quilt.


I love her 3-D chess pieces, and the cozy color choices she made. She really knows how to capture the mood and feeling of her themes.


So, you may have guessed, I've been inspired. I chose some favorite prints and colors for our chess quilt. I am thinking of it being a quilt that will stand up to 4 children and days at the beach or park, camping and backyard picnics. Ours will be 56 inches square... a nice lap quilt, when it isn't a game board. The hard part was deciding on the pieces. I decided to go with something that would come together a bit quicker than little figures, so I went with beanbags, but how to distinguish them? Pawns and rooks, and opposing colors... decisions, decisions...


Since quilting and designing are supposedly just hobbies, something to do in my freetime, I finally decided to stick with simple. Basic forms and machine applique. I sketched the essential figures and then traced those on freezer paper. Yay freezer paper! This was my first time trying this handy technique and it was a happy success. Even simple is time consuming, but as I see the results and think ahead to comfy and cozy games playing together, I am motivated to keep cutting, stitching, and stuffing.


16 blue and 16 brown. I will not hand quilt this one, since my biggest, semi-secret WIP of all is still waiting for binding.


Rook and bishop. I will add just a bit of embroidery to really distinguish these minimalist designs. I stuff them with poly-fill and tiny beads, which give them a nice weight... perfect for tossing at the gloating winner...haha!


The derpday is the other major inspiration for sitting in the sewing room. Maria has been helping me make princess favor bags for her guests. She chooses fabrics and helps pull the drawstring through the sleeve. They are coming out princess-dorable, in pink and purple and also in monkey.


Alex called *dibs* on this monkey bag!


Home made favors and decor are not time savers, or necessarily less expensive than store bought, but I am dedicated to avoiding plastic and too many party disposables. Plus I am enjoying the process and playing with details for Maria's first birthday party. We've had cupcake celebrations, and coloring with immediate family, but this 4th birthday is her first invitation-favors-games and friends party and I want it to be special.

I have more to do and tea to sip. Max looks loads better today than he did yesterday, but he still won't eat. He's coughing and weak. Alex got them more than half way through book 6 of Harry Potter, and he's reading more now. Maria and I are congested, low and slow. So, I am thinking... Excellent! We will be sick now, cough-cough, and then we will be healthy and vigorous, bright eyed and brilliant all the rest of autumn and winter! It's a perfect plan!

Rain Clouds and Dragons


Maria's illustrations are getting very elaborate, and she narrates as she goes, which is fun to listen to. She does the voices and acts out the little dramas and trials. Standing in the gate of this castle is a king and he is being visited by a family of dragons, including a baby dragon. The flag at the top of the castle is waving, despite the rain falling from the clouds, and the rain has done little to dampen the flames of the torches on the two balconies. I am sorry you cannot see the king's horse. The horse is grazing on daisies, behind the castle.

I think her latest work was inspired by the discussion I was having with Alex and William. We are trying to come up with an illustration for original chess pieces. William knows a lot about the origins and history of chess... game play and art. Alex is familiar too and he's been helping me design pieces for a chess set quilt... a checkerboard and playing pieces in fabric. There are a lot of options and ideas to search through, and we really enjoyed the very oldest game pieces, which were once quite elaborate... so while we were talking about knights and horses and castles, rooks, kings and bishops, and sketching rough plans, Maria played along.

Max did not join us in the chess conversation, though he would have enjoyed it. He is sick. Very. He's done 3 things today... listen, sleep and vomit. He has a fever and chills, he sipped three spoonfuls of broth tonight and the rest of the day he has been either asleep or listening to Alex read from the 6th Harry Potter book. Holly lent the boys her copies of the last 2 books in the series, and I am glad for Max that he can still enjoy being read to. And I am glad that Alex likes to read aloud. There's no school tomorrow, which was supposed to be a good thing, but it's now become just a necessary thing.

Don't ask me how I am feeling... I am flatly refusing to acknowledge any uncomfortable symptoms or the fatigue I am feeling from too little sleep. I feel perfectly fine. Thank you.

Tomorrow I am going to post about quilts and other WIPs. Tonight I am going to sip hot lemon tea, and listen to Alex read. And you? Stay well. Sip tea, and keep rain and dragons at bay.

Meltdown Results
Well, I am happy to announce that our big meltdown was a big success. Not only do we have 22 brand new and very original crayons to play with, but we cleared all of our boxes and drawers of old, broken, dirty, sad crayons. This was a seriously fun project and I was very encouraged to read Jess' comment about collecting old crayons from schools... I definitely want to do this project again.


Not all colors melt at the same rate, which is interesting and by no means disappointing. I love the variations and deviations. Trust me, these crayons are really cool. We tried 2 of them, because we could not resist the urge to play, but I am trying to save the rest as party favors... we'll see how well I manage. Every crayon presents it's own color/s temptation!


We don't go anywhere without drawing supplies... paper, pencils, pens charcoal, crayons... necessities all.


Maria has been drawing princesses and fairies, in anticipation of her derpday. Puff sleeves! Love those!


We appreciate restaurants with butcher papered tables. When William returned from the restroom he was greeted by Alex's expressive little friend.


Do I ever give the impression that I get a lot done? I was very nearly worthless today. Maria and I are sniffling and kind of dragging. And of course it is now, when my energy is hitting bottom, that my memory manages to surface every last ball I've dropped, every person I have neglected, every chore that has been abandoned... all the stuff I am not getting done. Feh. I seem to recall that last week my list of things to do seemed insurmountable, and today it's as bad or worse. This fact is really getting me down. Once again I am leveled by the I want to never move again, but I have to, and I wish we had our own home blues. It's devastating.


I hope the universe can forgive me for taking our sniffles out into the world. I took the kids out to eat and then to our favorite independent, local toy store. We had the place all to ourselves, and it was nice to sit in a bright and cheery world and play house.


Broken crayons can be repurposed and made good again. Yarn can become a hat. I'm not sure how I will ever accomplish all the things I need to, want to, but I suppose I can hope. Imagination. Faith. Hope. Princesses and fairies, play and prayer... a bit of glitter. Every bit helps.

The Colors of Our World


Messes everywhere and so we begin where we may, and I say let us begin with the pieces. Crayon pieces here and there and everywhere. We gathered them all, or probably only most of them. We sat together and unwrapped broken Crayolas, sorting them into color groups and discussing our combination options. We experimented with mixes and gradients, with a bright pink and a bumblebee black and yellow. And we have no idea what the results will be when we pull them out of the oven. We've never done this before.


We're excited to see our creations. To color with them, and to share them as party favors for Maria's birthday party.

We're Listening To: Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf," David Bowie, Eugene Ormandy and Philadelphia Orchestra. Last spring we watched a wonderful version of the story on PBS

An OCYD Update


Did everyone see Anna Banana's comment? She found a link to a TP cosy, and I swear I thought it was a top hat! I was staring at it for the longest time and humming Putting on the Ritz. I know that art is subjective... do I need to post an apologetic disclaimer, in case I am hurting anyone's feelings? I have to say though, this is the line, for me, where art and craft parts way with aesthetic beauty, function and form. I am also uncomfortable with coconut monkeys, googly eyes on seashells and this.

There were a lot of good and funny comments from the OCYD post. Sara, I don't know why I suggested that knit hats on chickens would be too much... the very idea is gaining favor with me by the hour. And some mini croissants would be good too. And I see Nikki appreciates the possibility that the chicas might look spiffy in hats and knit accessories.

Hello River, of Australia. You are so right: I wouldn't want to send out homemade gifts that are not unique. In my post what I meant by "unique" was that they might be a bit unpolished or a little too amateurish, or less gently put... ugly. I am laughing, when I say this, so no worries.

I think Mtn. Child is right to suggest I try Afghans. I am not disciplined or ambitious enough to try anything as cute as this dress from "Oiyi's Crafts." But I really, really want to try my hand at a ripple blanket, like the one I saw at "Cats and Quilts."


I finished another brown hat last night. I love it. But I am not unaware that it may resemble a toasted acorn. Now I am working on another scarf... same brown with flecks of orange and lichen green. I am laughing again... I've been so drawn to this color palette, the seasonal browns and pistachio green, deep oranges and golden ambers, and I wasn't even aware how drawn I have become until I looked at my picture. I am wearing the same brown with orange and green as I am crocheting, and I may even try to fix a dinner to match.


And the owl is my other crush. This summer Max and I read a wonderful thrift shop find, called "Owls in the Family" by Farley Mowat. We absolutely loved this book with its adventures and suspense, and it's rather politically incorrect narrative about boys, nature, bullies and life's hard lessons. I like its open and honest approach to describing the good and bad antics of these children's lives. And I have become fascinated with the beauty and charm of owls. I miss hearing the pair of owls that called to each other when we were perched high up in the home we called the Tree House. I miss seeing the collection of dear owls Grandma Eunice kept in her home... she has an owl crush too... she might like to read that book.


Last year I added this tiny owl to the Halloween decoration I made.


So far we have 3 costumes ready for Halloween this year. Max gathered articles from different closets so he can be young Indiana Jones. He looks really good, ready for an adventure in history and archaeology, like Henry "Indiana" Jones. Alex has been preparing to portray Dex of "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow." Alex was born to this role, an inventor in a steampunk world, with a high moral code, impromptu skills and a ray gun. Maria consistently tells everyone she is going to be a pumpkin for Halloween. She wore this costume last year, the same one I made for William's first Halloween in Minnesota, 1991! Maybe I can crochet some kind of pumpkin hat to cap the pumpkin suit...

Artists in Residence

Copyright
2002-2008 by Chickenblog and it's family members
All rights reserved. Please do not use our original photos, or drawings, or reprint our writing without asking me for permission. Thank you!

For quite some time I have been meaning to add a copyright to Chickenblog, maybe even a watermark on my photographs. However good or mediocre my own work may be, it is my work and it would be infuriating to see it somewhere else, under someone else's name. And since today I am showing my children's work, I feel particularly protective.

Geoff replaced our sad, tired, broken printer, and he taught me how to use the new scanner. Taught, is a big word for what amounted to a small lesson... now I know how to push the button that says "scan." It's so easy! Grin.

Now I can share my children's art quickly, simply. I think when world events, the economy and housing woes bring me down, I will still be able to find something beautiful to share, thanks to the many talents in this home. Today's featured artists are Alex (14) and Maria (3.)


Alex


Alex


Alex


Maria

Alex has started a little mood barometer. He likes frogs and he likes drawing and so to express his overall impression of his day at school he brings home frog drawings. The frog reflects his day. William and I, Max and even Maria look forward to each day's frog. Sometime last week when I picked Alex up, I didn't even have to ask him about his day to know that it wasn't a good one. He had the tired and sad look of a boy in middle school. He handed me this first frog...



Some days are better than others, for us all.


I love today's frog. I think this is A+ Frog, Caught the Football Frog, Light Homework Frog.

Happy Frog.