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By Joanne, on April 16th, 2010
I do not know how I neglected this for so long. It’s really quite embarrassing. But for all our trips to parks and Little D’s obssession with nature shows about birds, we had not gone out to do a true nature walk. A ramble. Tsk tsk, shame on me.
Why has it taken me so long to get Little D into a really nice, nature oriented park? I do not know. I have been blinded by the equipment heavy play parks and baby gyms. I have been disoriented by the bustle of the city. I’ve been distracted by the worries in our lives over food allergies and speech delays. And I guess I forgot. I forgot how much I loved getting out into the world of trees and birds and just rambling. It was such a part of my life when I was a kid. We had an enormous backyard that my brother and I conquered daily. We frequented state parks. And when time did not allow for such a day long excursion, we’d head up to our local botanical gardens and walk the trails. We made up stories. We drew maps of our adventures. It was so much fun and SO NECESSARY. Geez.
But today I went out to meet a lovely group of local AP moms and we rambled and roamed the meadows and hills and woods with our kids and babies. It was GREAT. Little D had A BLAST. This little guy who can get so frustrated at regular parks - taking turns on swings, finding a shovel in the sandbox, feeling nervous around the more boisterous kids on the playscapes - was full of focused and content energy. He ran. He climbed up and down stony steps. He picked flowers. He learned how to blow the puffy seeds off of a dandelion. He tumbled and rolled in long grass. He got sweaty and shed his coat and hat. It was all so right.
I feel like sometimes the mom I meant to be has been overshadowed by my worries over Little D’s health issues. I’ve gotten so exhausted and honestly, bitter, that I’ve made a lot of choices based on convenience. It has seemed easier to go to the parks with swings and sandboxes. Neat, organized, not too much thought needed, I know exactly what to expect. Just go. And not that they are bad. Little D loves swings. We’ll still be going to parks with swings. But I thought I’d be the mom showing my kid the world I saw as a kid. Full of magic and wonder. I always meant to be this mom. This mom I was today.
By Joanne, on April 1st, 2010
Bloggy blog blog bloggity!
1) I almost have my writing blog organized. But I cannot decide how I want to use it or share it. Do I want to link it here? Do I want to keep it separate? Do I want to use my real name on it? Do I want to post actual writing I am doing or just talk about the process of writing? Decisions decisions . . .
2) I am about to embark on a silly photography game for myself. Using color. Each week I will pick a color and take photos showcasing that color and then make a mosaic of those photos in a crazy explosion of that color. Or something. Yeah, so really I just like making mosaics (like here and here).
3) I have a tiny repurposed toddler clothes project. Well, it’s not really a repurpose job, more of a slight adjustment to a shirt. BUT it will prolong the life of said shirt so . . . maybe it’s more of a recycle! Post about that soon.
4) I think I am giving up on my resolutions because I just cannot do them. They are stressing me out.
5) But I am still writing my novel.
By Joanne, on January 11th, 2010
And so much to say!
So here is a recap:
1) Project 365 - is a bust! I took no photo yesterday. I feel no inspiration today. It’s done. I could call it a resolution failure but instead I feel like I just figured out more about my photography-ing (much like NaNo for my writing). Basically, I only like taking pictures of people. People is my muse. And since I am a bit about the privacy here with the toddler, well, not really going to work. So, eh. Maybe I’ll do Little D 365 on my own or somethin’.
2) Reading - is going great! I read a book last week. Well, okay, I cheated. I started it in December but I had well over half of it left and it was somewhat long so I am letting it slide. I also got Goodreads all up and running in the sidebar for my reviews and tracking of my reading. I wrote my first review. Ouch. I definitely need to get better at that. I am only a few chapters in on my book for this week but it is already very good. Mmmmmmmmmm.
3) Exercise - what now?
4) Cooking - I have done some. Woo!
5) Writing - thinking about it. Thinking and planning and pondering.
6) Knitting - I have begun a fake sweater for Hone. He ultimately needs a real one, I know, but I have no suitable yarn. AND since our local yarn store saw fit to move the button display out of reach of toddlers, Little D was not amendable to me picking out any yarn this weekend (Oh how he loved to shake those button canisters with Hone and let me slowly peruse the delectable yarn). SO I am making do with the lame scraps I have and knitting Hone a practice sweater. Fake.
7) I have done no drawing but phffftttt. I only have to draw 10 things this entire YEAR. I can do that . . . later.
I leave you with this photo. Little D jamming on his jamming Xmas present from Uncle A and Auntie C:
By Joanne, on January 26th, 2009
I have some goals. Some crafty creative goals. Here they are:
1. Sew some clothes for Baby D BY HAND. I know! But it is actually easier to sew stuff by hand. See, my sewing machine requires set up time and clean up time. I can never be guaranteed more than 20 baby-free minutes at a time so that makes it pretty impossible. By hand is good then. Well, except I AM wondering if the clothes will fall apart in the wash . . .
2. Sew some crafty stuff by hand and then make patterns for it. Put the patterns in my empty Etsy shop. Check my shop obsessively. Sigh sadly when nothing sells.
3. TRY to do Illustration Friday at least a couple times a month.
4. TRY to do Photo Friday at least a couple times a month.
5. Write and write and write my story and delete and delete and delete. Wonder why I keep ending up with blank pages. Hmmmmm . . .
6. Try to learn from Baby D: Making art without an inner critic is way more fun.
By Joanne, on August 26th, 2008
You are on my list!
Making Baby D all miserable. I shake my fist at you! My Fist!
Today he needed a distraction from the misery so we went to the beach. Water! Walking! Birds! Planes! Trucks!
It worked. Phew!
(But you are still on my list, molars.)
By Joanne, on July 8th, 2008
Oh the Memes! The Memes!
First up, I was tagged by Mary for this Random Questions Meme:
1. Last movie you saw in a theatre?
Hot Fuzz, while I was pregnant.
2. What book are you reading?
Mr Brown can Moo! Can you? by Dr Seuss.
3. Favourite board game?
Buffy the board game. Just kidding! Or am I? I am. Or am I? No really, I am. What’s that game where you have to make lists of things that begin with a certain letter?
4. Favourite magazine?
Teen People. No, I’m totally kidding. In Touch. No, kidding again. Sigh, I don’t really have time for magazines right now so I don’t know what is my favorite. Hmmmmmm . . . .
5. Favourite smells?
Lemon. Vanilla. Chocolate
6. Favourite sounds?
Baby laughing. Gusts of wind.
7. Worst feeling in the world?
That sinking feeling when you first wake up and realize you did/said something stupid the day before.
8. What is the first thing you think of when you wake up?
Nooooooooooooooooooooo, more sleep! More sleep!
9. Favourite fast food place?
Kidd Valley. Mmmmm, meat. Mmmmmmm, shakes.
10. Future child’s name?
Oh, we know, we know, but we’re not telling you, you internety name stealers!
11. Finish this statement. “If I had lot of money I’d…”
Buy some stuff, give some away, make origami animals.
12. Do you sleep with a stuffed animal?
I did for years but now I have a baby.
13. Storms- cool or scary?
Cool!
14. Favourite drink?
Water.
15. Finish this statement. “If I had the time I would…”
Write, sew, sleep.
16. Do you eat the stems on broccoli?
Of course, it’s where my magical powers come from.
17. If you could dye your hair any color, what would be your choice?
Blue.
18. Name all the different cities/towns you’ve lived in?
No no no, you internety nosy people! I’ve lived on the East coast, the Midwest, and the Pacific Northwest.
19. Favourite sports to watch?
What? (Stamping foot) I don’t like sports! Oh wait! Figure skating is cool. Go Michelle Kwan!
20. One nice thing about the person who sent this to you?
Mary is an excellent writer and is working on self-publishing a book. Woo!
21. What’s under your bed?
The floor.
22. Would you like to be born as yourself again?
Uh, what? Like a clone? That could be awkward.
23. Morning person or night owl?
Night owl.
24. Over easy or sunny side up?
Scrambled.
25. Favourite place to relax?
By big water.
26. Favourite pie?
Cherry.
27. Favourite ice cream flavor?
Mint Chocolate Chip.
Second is this meme, from one of the blogs I found through the Group PiF. I had to do it because it is so cool and I love finding cool photos AND making mosaics.
The rules:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.
The questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.
Here’s what I got:
And finally, my very own meme, inspired by the above photo meme. I just like the whole finding cool photos thing sooooooooooooo, here it is:
The Favorite Book/Author Photo Meme.
Rules:
1. Type your favorite books and/or authors into Flickr search
2. Pick your favorite photo
3. Plug it into fd’s mosaic maker.
4. Post your mosaic when you are done (you can make it as big or small as you want).
5. List the books/authors that inspired your mosaic.
6. Tag people!
Here is mine (it makes me want to read, write and take photos more):
List:
1. Ursula Le Guin
2. Tad Williams
3. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
4. Anne McCaffrey
5. Jane Austen
6. Anne of Green Gables
7. Harry Potter series
8. The Monkey King
9. Madeline L’Engle
And I tag Mary and Kim and anyone else who thinks it might be fun.
By Joanne, on April 23rd, 2008
I thought my newly knit up scarf was pretty boring. It was boring to knit (all garter stitch) and thinner than I planned.
BUT, Baby D feels otherwise!
Never has he been so enthralled with something I’ve made. He threw it around with glee and pounced on it like it was alive. And then he sat quietly and closely examined the sparkly yarn. If only he had been this excited about Rag Doll Dog!
Me, assuming it is boring:
Baby D begging to differ:
By Joanne, on April 13th, 2008
Oh, just some “earthy” stuff around my house (didn’t get any metallic colored things, though).
Man, I love Mosaic Maker. I love it so much I HAD to go back and edit my PS Fire photo hunt post and make those shots into a mosaic too. Mmmmmmmm.
By Joanne, on April 9th, 2008
I made another shirt out of old clothes!
But I forgot to take “before” pictures of the clothes I used. Oops.
It was a fabulous onesie (Year of the Pig!) and a pair of leggings! I used the leggings as sleeves and they totally work. I was too tired to bind the bottom so I just hemmed it. Yes, more hemming. Wobbly hemming. But I kinda like the wobble in this case.
Overall I am really happy with it, although, Baby D did not inherit my broad shoulders (heh heh) and so it does not sit quite as nicely as it could.
Oh man! I should have made raglan sleeves! Damn.
By Joanne, on April 8th, 2008
So, I made Baby D another pair of pants. Woo. (With this being his third pair, it seems less exciting to post about it. Heh.)
They turned out nice if a little long. Still had some trouble with the hemming. Why are hems so hard for me? What is the secret to nice hems? Probably it is to hem slowly. But I am helpless in the face of my machine’s fast speed setting. Helllllllplessssssssss.
By Joanne, on April 4th, 2008
I finished my final version of Rag Dog!
Sadly, I am not overly happy with him. I mean, he’s fine and all. There are no gaping seams or super wonky bits. The fabric is fun; orange corduroy and red fleece with black felt eyes and nose. He’s fairly cute. He turned out pretty much as I had envisioned. So why don’t I like him more? I do not know. I get that the charm of handmade items is in their imperfections. But here is my question: where do you draw the line between something that looks charmingly imperfect and something that just looks sloppy? (And I apologize for being so whiny and dissatisfied. It never fails that when I am vaguely unhappy with one of my creations, the photos always turn out so much better than reality. Heh.)
ANYWAY, I had also hoped to finish Rag Dog within the month of March so he could be part of Project Spectrum (Fire Rag Dog!). But alas, he did not make that cut either. Not that that is his fault, poor little Rag Dog.
Baby’s interest in him was short lived too. Oh seriously, poor little Rag Dog!
By Joanne, on March 21st, 2008
I have two crazy projects a-brewing!
First, I am working on a pattern for a little rag doll dog (rag dog?) softie. Hee! This is only the second pattern I have tried to create, but my process at this point is:
1) draw rough idea
2) draw up pattern
3) make super rough version (usually sloppily hand sewn with a running stitch) in muslin
4) tweak and redo as many versions as needed until I like it
5) make final polished version in good fabric
I label all my versions with a sharpie so I don’t get confused.
So here is version one (V1) of the dog:
I discovered I want to reshape the head, enlarge the ears, and tweak the paws. I have cut out the muslin bits for V2 and just have to whap it together. It’s kinda exciting. I hope it works.
My second project is super cool. It was inspired by Minnie! See, she commented on my CED Month 2 update about wanting to see the clothes I had created for Baby D from his old clothes. BUT, I was so unclear in my post because I did not actually sew anything. I just mixed and matched up different shirts and pants that I had previously not put together. See, totally boring and uncreative. But what Minnie thought I did, take apart old outfits and create new ones, was such a cool idea I had to start planning. Woo!
I have picked my first victims:
Soon they will be combined to fulfill their new destiny and I will post pics. Muuuwaaaahhahahahahahahahah!
By Joanne, on March 7th, 2008
Spent some time today looking for fire colors around the house. There’s even inspiration in the fridge!
Edited on 4/13/08 to make the photos into a mosaic. Woot!
By Joanne, on February 29th, 2008
I made a . . .
. . . ?
Well, it’s a . . .
. . . ?
Okay, you take this:
And do this:
So eventually you have this:
I just kinda winged it without a pattern so it’s pretty sloppy and more floppy than I’d planned. But it gets the job done.
Woo! It just feels so nice to pick up all that stuff at the end of the day. Must be some sort of Feng Shui thing.
By Joanne, on February 27th, 2008
I found another cool and inspiring thing to join. It’s called Project Spectrum. I am a tad late but not too bad. Basically it is about taking the color themes and doing creative stuff. Knitting, sewing drawing, photos, anything creative. This year (which is year 3!) the overall theme is the elements so Feb/Mar=fire (orange, red, pink), April/May=earth (green, brown, metallics), June/July=air (gray, white, yellow), Aug/Sept=water (blue, black, purple).
So. Much. Fun.
I took one quick photo today to get started. It’s a little stack of red calico. Hmmm, what to do with it . . .
By Joanne, on February 17th, 2008
We took baby down to the water today and there were two dragon kites being flown. One was adorable and one was awesome. LOVE!
Adorable
Awesome
By Joanne, on February 15th, 2008
Seriously, this hat took me 10 minutes to make and I did not even need a pattern. I just made it up as I was cutting! That is my kinda project!
I did say I’d knit baby a Jayne Hat when he grew his head more but really, knitting? It takes too long for me right now, with crazy-intense mobile baby.
Did I mention this hat took 10 minutes.
10 minutes.
10.
And since I already have one baby picture on this post I must add this one because it makes my head explode. 
By Joanne, on February 10th, 2008
I hate using kits. Even when I was little I stubbornly wanted to do it all myself. With very mixed results.
This dislike of kits often extends to using directions of any kind. Like I can figure it out myself, right?
Heh heh.
So, I got a great book of baby clothes patterns and yet, the shirt pattern is not quite what I want (I want a raglan shirt, dammit!). What do I do? Try and draft one up myself. Of course.
Sigh.
But I am hopeful. And I’ll do some mock ups first with muslin before I actually cut any cool fabric. Plus, shirts are pretty basic, really. The shapes of the pieces seem standard. I just did some measurements of Baby D.
The beginnings of a pattern.
Baby D intervenes to throw in his two cents.
Baby D proceeds to eat the pattern. I guess he doesn’t like it?
By Joanne, on February 9th, 2008
Nothing as inspiring as baby cuteness.
By Joanne, on February 2nd, 2008
But seriously, doesn’t it look like my Neti Pot is laughing at me?
So my cold turned into a sinus infection AND chest cold (which is not so good since I have asthma). Even my naturopathic doc decided it was time for antibiotics. Sigh.
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Contact: bebellyboo at yahoo dot com
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