Eric Carle Art Camp

The shrimp were very busy this week at art camp. There is a new art studio in town that did a great job with a friend's birthday party and I think camp there was a big hit too. I want to go to art camp! Here is a little show of their projects from all different Eric Carle stories, they also had ceramic painted butterflies and a whole set of very pretty flash cards they made with tissue paper and embellishments that aren't shown...

Napkin Revamp

It has been driving me crazy every time I host a dinner party at my house where I use the "fancy" napkins that I have a whole pile of nice linen napkins I don't ever use because, ahem, they are embroidered with an initial that I no longer have. So what to do with napkins that have an embroidery you don't like anymore? Or a stain? Or a hole? Well, you find some excuse to slap some fabric on them of course! I was trimming off the embroidery the other day in hopes that my mom could embroider something new on them, but the threads were embroidered so thick that the area just wasn't strong enough anymore. Then I had a major ah ha moment in which i exclaimed "birds!". I have a bird obsession lately you see. Bird fabrics, bird pillows on the bed, stuffed bird patterns downloaded off the internet... really, the list goes on. So appliqueing birds onto my napkins made perrrrrfect since. I found a kind of stylized bird image on the internet, cut them out of some moda charm squares I had and stuck them on (over where the initials used to be) with some steam-a-seam 2 and voila! So, the big question is... do I leave them as a kind of stylized bird or do they just really need feet? I'm going to stitch around the edges with a buttonhole stitch too, but have to decide the foot thing first. I'm just not sure, help a girl out will ya?

Reader and Stars

Last week I was chatting with my friend and she mentioned that she was going to add my email address to her list of people to be notified when she updated her blog. I was confused for a minute and said that I automatically saw when her blog was updated through my Google Reader and then realized that she was not using a reader. This was pretty unfathomable to me because I read so many blogs that there would be no way to keep up with them without Google Reader (yes, there are other readers, but I'm of course biased towards the one I use). So I pointed her in the right direction and then got to thinking about all the things I love about blog readers. Obviously that they show when someone has updated their blog without you having to actually go to each blog, and that you can view most blogs in one place, but also the feature I am completely addicted to and probably use way too much is being able to star items. I love, love, love starring things I want to make, bake, do, buy, remember, and then being able to scroll through all these favorite blog posts on one page. It totally rocks! So in honor of how much I heart my Google Reader, here are some of my recently starred items (my actual list is 98 items long, there are so many great ideas on blogs!)

Sewing:

The eight dollar dress (I think this would be a great way to make a customized bathing suit coverup) via Not Martha

Cardigans out of sweaters, cool! (thanks Arwen) via Not Martha

Heather Bailey's new fabrics!!!

Reversible headbands

Cooking:

Homemade cinnamon rolls from Angry Chicken (I already bought the bread book because of all her posts about it)

Pink Mojitos on Casapinka

Pies in jars! Oh My! I will be trying these really soon.

Warm and Nutty Cinnamon Quinoa, would love to try quinoa as something sweet

Pop Up Pancakes The girls would love these.

Decorating:

Fabric as wallpaper! And all you need is starch! I could go really crazy with this.

Staircase redo, I happen to have a set I want to rip the runner off of.

Fabric Covered Jar Lids because finding more places to use fabric is essential!

June Projects

Currently working on (and hoping to finish soon...)

My Jane Sassaman butterfly quilt. This was supposed to be a quick and easy strip quilt to use for picnics and stuff. Then I decided to applique on butterflies. And now I am seriously considering bejeweling them to death. They really want to sparkle. Anyway, the butterflies are coming along and I like how they are turning out (at the moment the butterflies are just tossed on there to get an idea of the effect I am going for):

Also, my first knitting project is nearing completion. Just a couple more rows and binding off. For some reason I worked on this non-stop in Idaho but have hardly touched it back in Atlanta. Could it be the hundred degree weather? Hmmm. I am itching to finish this one soon though because my second knitting project was purchased in Idaho (another scarf, but this one quite fancy) and will be made of the most luxurious alpaca yarn. But I am being very good and not starting it until I finish the first. Do you like my model? This chenille yarn really drapes quite nicely.

My Own Private Idaho

Alright, alright, I didn't go off to Idaho and disappear forever. Maybe I wanted to, but I didn't. People keep asking me "So, how was Idaho?" and all I have really been able to come up with in reply is an exasperated sigh. How do you even describe anything so vast? So awe inspiring? So... full of emptiness? See? It makes no sense. All the cliches are true, life moves at a different pace out there, the locals are very weary of outsiders and possibly a bit crazy, but in a good way. It is easy to see how people go out there and never return to their past lives. And the stars? Seriously? Who knew how many layers there are? And we could watch satellites in orbit, satellites people!

Someone very close to me once said, "You feel like you have fallen through a crack in the world out there, and you discover things that have also fallen through the cracks". I wrote it down at the time as something that I just had to find out for myself, and I have to say that nothing could be more true.

So, what did we actually do out there? Well, have a look see...

(Be sure to hover over the "Notes" button with your mouse for my comments, and once again, if you are using a blog reader you will have to click through for the pictures to show up)





Activities not pictured... lots of shopping in nearby Sun Valley (ritzy ski town, see there is civilization, even annoying Starbucks), lots of knitting and sewing, a whole afternoon driving through the most amazing mountains looking for moose, dinner with two local couples that live down the road (these people do things that I wouldn't know how to even begin, like kicking the guts out of a moose they just shot or continuing to hunt and camp after being rolled over by a horse falling down a mountain. I think I spent that whole dinner with my mouth gaping open and eyes as big as saucers), a lot of good eats, and more drives to see the local sights.

The book I was reading out there, Kafka On The Shore by Haruki Murakami, had a paragraph in it that fit my experience out there perfectly:

"I turn to look one last time. Up till a minute ago it felt so real, but now it seems imaginary. Just a few steps is all it takes for everything associated with it to lose all sense of reality. And me- the person who was there until a moment ago - now I seem imaginary too."

I love the day-to-day me and my day-to-day life, but I will yearn for the me that stomps around on the wide open plain and chats with cows and mule deer until I return.