Lisa Quilts

The sketchbook project

2012-01-27T23:11:00.001-08:00

In a few moments of decision over the Christmas Holiday, I signed up for the Sketchbook Project. I went for it, the whole enchilada...and am so glad that I did.

When the sketchbook itself arrived, I was a bit disappointed. It's a rather small and slim Moleskine with very light paper (suitable for drawing, but not for too much more). The paper is a nice quality, and there are only 8 leaves in the (single) signature, making for about 15 double page spreads in total. The cover is plain, recycled cardboard brown, and it has a little bar code on the back with my name and my theme, 'The Science Of Story'.

The plainness, the thinness of the sketchbook is part of the genius. It really does represent the 'blank canvas', the emptiness on which we participants can improvise and riff our way to a completed book. The 'rules' of the project allow for all kinds of shenanigans. We can alter and replace, unbind and rebind, fold, cut and burn our books into almost anything we want...as long as the final closed/storage size is the same width and length, and no thicker than 1".

Once I started playing around with actual images, doing paint sketches for the parts that were already clear in my mind, I realized that the best course of action for me is going to be to make the book as individual pages, then to assemble and bind them into the existing (or a modified) cover, replacing the existing paper.

I've rediscovered watercolour. The existing book pages are too light to take the water and paint, and I have a block of bright white 100lb watercolour paper here to play with...so, naturally I'll be making my book from the paper I have on hand.

I could probably fill over a hundred blog posts with all the things that I've forgotten about watercolour as a medium; the how-to's and all the little terminology items like, 'grisaille' and 'impasto'. Been operating mostly on instinct, feeling my way around the medium again, relearning all the little things (like that I should have taped the dang paper down - fundamental, Lisa!!).

I ended up doing two parallel paintings, both from the same base image/reference photo. I wanted to try something that used a lot of heavy black, that let it run all over, that took multiple glazes of colour to bring to life, and something completely controlled, almost 'comic book' style for the actual title page.

The photo of the black and white self above and the one above left are two stages of the same painting. The one above right is the grisaille, the one at left is after multiple washes were applied and let run around, doing their wonderful damage to the base image. The final painting is very gestural and warm, with a lot of dimension. It was a good way to play and loosen up so that I didn't get to tight doing the other image, the one that will probably end up being the title page of the book.

This one had more steps and stages, and many, many more washes. Using a totally different approach (but one I'm far more comfortable with), this one began with dropping in the shadow areas of the sketch. Each layer applied overlaps and deepens the colour of the existing layers, while is translucent on the paper and other exposed areas.

If you've been reading this blog for a few years, you will remember that this is the same method used for 'Bacchanalia' and 'Blossom Lady' quilts.

I love the under painting stages every bit as much as the finishing, when it comes to this method.

The second picture is an intermediate stage that shows a few more layers dropped in.

The last photo here, at right, is the finished image. Once the painting was all done, I went in with some fine tipped markers (black and brown) and tightened up here and there, creating greater definition and doing the lettering. This one will get a little work yet, as I need to balance the composition a bit more. I'll probably do some nice lettering borrowing from what the project has already established, dropping 'the sketchbook project' into the upper left hand corner.

Next, I need to make some real decisions about how this is all going to go. I have a loose idea, but am at the 'rubber hitting the road' stage, and need to just get working on the more difficult stuff. Can't wait.

:)
Lisa

2011-12-29T10:03:00.002-08:00

I woke up this morning to the sound of a cricket somewhere nearby in the house. Every so often it chirps and chirps, but I haven't been able to locate it yet. I'm always surprised that critters like this - especially crickets - can survive in a house with boys clomping around, two cats, and a large dog who quite likes to snap at insects.

It's really quiet in here this morning.

Randy has gone back to work after his Christmas break, and the boys are away at a friend's house for a couple of days.

Maybe the cricket has been chirping for a week and this is the first time I've heard it.

Last year around this time I took a few days and made myself a planner for the year. It stemmed from having used planners for 20+ (gulp) years, and not really ever having one 'fit' my life. For a long time I loved the Polestar Family Calendar, but found that it had more pages than I needed and whole sections that I didn't use, year after year.

The one that I made last year worked really well. There was enough room in it for all of life's unpredictability, and for the rhythm of the week. The boys could add important (and goofy) messages to it, and it spent most of last year firmly parked on the kitchen counter within 2 steps of the whiteboard that we use to keep our whole family's week straight.

By some miracle, I kept the template from last year with the stamps, and was able to put the one for 2012 together without much fuss or bother.

There are a couple of modifications, but not many. The main one is that I made the date numbers substantially smaller, and the month itself doesn't take up quite so much room on the page. The basic layout is the same, with a week per page, and all the page's dates close to the spine. I cut the corner off the pages last year as the weeks went by, and occasionally lost part of a phone number or name, so this year will be a bit more mindful about where things will be written. The new book has a 'contacts' area, and a 'frequently used numbers' section, as last year's did. There are dividers with pockets at the point at which the school year becomes summer, and where the summer meets the school year again. There is also a pocket divider at the very end of the year (this was really handy for receipts and other papers that had a longer shelf life than a week or two, but not a long enough one to warrant filing).

Once again, I used stamps to show certain things...days with a bird stamp are loved ones' birthdays, and days with a peacock feather stamp are anniversaries. The above photo shows the week of Randy's and my anniversary last year, and in the year to come. It would seem that summer is not about relaxing! Last year I pasted little things into the book throughout the year (pictures, fortune cookie fortunes), and doodled. I can see that this year's will be the same in that regard.

I've been pretty decadent about my time over the holiday. I found time to finally finish the sweater that was started in the summer, and to start another sweater. Nelson's needlework and craft store closed this week (sniff), and I bought myself a little cashmere yarn as the doors were closing.

I still need to buy proper clasps for the completed sweater (the photo here shows it being held shut with stitch markers), and block it. In the meantime, the new sweater I'm working on is coming together rather quickly as there is plenty of sitting-around-in-the-evening time right now. The new sweater is acid green and seafoam stripes...mmmmmm, cashmere......

Randy has been finding time during the holiday to work on the house. He built doors for the boys' bedrooms, (yay!) and the caps for our posts. Bit by bit, the house is coming together.

We're all getting ready to jump in to the new year around here. Last year my resolution was about drawing, and I managed to keep it going in the intended way for about 3 months. After that, I started including drawings I was doing for work or other purposes as my drawing 'resolution drawings', but knew that I was cheating myself! It's funny how we can convince ourselves of things that are so contrary - part of the point of that particular resolution was to ensure that I had a place to invite drawing back into my life in creative, non-commercial ways...and promptly started mentally using my 'work' drawings as my 'recreational' drawings. Hrm.

So this year I've opted to do a similar (non-commercial) thing in a new way. I've joined the Sketchbook Project. The whole works has to be wrapped up and sent in by April...and that's about as long as I was able to make my resolution stick last year. I have to pay to participate in this one - hopefully that will help with my stick-to-it-ive-ness...and at the end of it all the book will be available online for all to see, and in their library in Brooklyn. I like the idea, too, that all the books will travel around the US, and that someday I or people I care about could go and view the book in it's new home. I loved the themes and was able to choose one that has a lot of meat on it's bones for me, and can't wait to get in there and start working on it. I've already been doing a bit of research and getting some ideas down.

Now I'm off to tidy up and reorganize my workspace...my little corner of the loft is completely torn apart right now as I prepare for the art-ing and craft-ing year ahead.

Cheers!
Lisa

2011-12-20T16:45:00.002-08:00

Hellooooooo!

I realize it's been far too long since I stuck my head in here. Since August we have been busy - we've been working and playing a LOT of our waking hours. I'm back working at the school I was at last year (hooray!), as well as working to co-build and co-teach the ShelterGuides course, and am coaching speed skating. In the quiet corners here and there I've tried to find time to do some crafting, but those quiet moments have been few and far between.

I'm currently managing three websites, and developing a new one. Somehow I managed to stay away from the computer for two full days - only to find more than 70 emails waiting for me this morning! (*Note to self * NOT vetting the email regularly can be disasterous!!)

A good example of how little crafting time I've had: the sweater that I cast on in August when Randy was at the coast for his knee replacement surgery is still not finished. I managed to cast off the second sleeve last night, and still need to assemble the sweater and knit the collar. This sweater may end up taking the longest of any I've ever made!

School ended for us last Friday, and I got busy stitching, making gifts for friends and family. Now I'm mostly playing. There are just a couple of gifts left to make, so this afternoon has been playtime!

If you've been reading this blog for a very long time, you may remember this post or this post...

I found a local source for verrrrryyyyy inexpensive clothesline ($2.00 for 100ft...100% cotton). I still have a rather large stash of fabric - and some spare time!! I've been playing with shapes and sizes, and am finding that I can make a rather nice sized breadbasket with about 50' of line. The photos here are of my only circular one so far - the most recent experiment involves using up lots of extremely colourful scraps, odd bobbins and ends of spools of thread...and I plan on attempting a lid. This particular basket is quite a bit larger than the other ones that I've been making. I'm hoping it will not end up TOO big, and can be recruited to hold all the remote controls and other detritus that collects on the coffee table but needs to be there. Then again, if the lid thing works out, I may make another one in tamer colours to live in the main room and recruit this one to hold crafting or spinning supplies. :)

Yesterday I went out for a walk with young Max through the neighbourhood. Although it snowing now, yesterday was reasonably clear (for this time of year) and cold. The frost had formed on almost everything in the yard (branches, buildings, fences) - but only on the WEST side. There was a lot of beautiful furry frost to be seen in all kinds of different corners.

We walked all over the place and Mr. Max left quite a few people prints in different areas...edges of fields, just off of driveways, out in the gravel pit. The area was beautiful and misty, with a low fog hanging in the valley. I was able to get some really gorgeous photos of the area (some of which are posted on my Facebook account for friends and family). It was wonderful to get outside together for an hour or so. The kicker is that it was the last hour before sunset, which is at about 3:50pm these days as we are right up against our shortest day of the year. Hurry up solstice! We need our days to start getting longer!

The other night we unleashed our Christmas Chaos, and the boys decorated the tree - and each other from time to time. It was pretty sweet to see. They're so lovely together so much of the time. I count my stars every day that they are the young men that they are. We are so lucky.

Wherever you are, I hope this note finds you well.
:)
Lisa

Sheep!

2011-08-27T14:33:00.001-07:00

Here they are, at daybreak, the first morning on our farm.

Our starter Soay flock consists of 5 sheep, all from Carla at Rhyant Rock Farms.

*ahem-later edit* SIX sheep. There are SIX sheep.

It was really nice to meet Carla (and Larry, too!) after the last few months of correspondence. She was tremendously generous with her information and infectiously enthusiastic about the sheep - and sheep in general. Not that we needed inspiration for enthusiasm! The boys have helped through each stage of the process of researching and getting ready for flock's arrival.

All 4 of us have been so excited about becoming Shepherds!

The oldest of our little mob is Winniandy, and she is the undisputed leader of the group right now. She's two years old and has come to us with her ewe lamb.

The sheep are very small, even as adults, and are supposed to be good 'starter sheep': they don't need their tails docked, or to be sheared.

They seem to have settled in okay, and are busily munching down our back pasture area, the area that will eventually be more for the rams.

I think our learning curve is entering it's steep phase...there is certainly a lot to know.

And, for the fellow fibre lovers in the audience, I have already spun up a teeny tiny sample of fleece (Winniandy is still shedding) into wool...it's a short fibre, so I'll probably end up blending it with other fibres until I get better at spinning it. I've been reading about Soay-specific spinning and fibre preparation techniques, and am chomping at the bit to play some more.

We've taken about eleventy-seven-hundred photos of them all already, and are still getting to know who is who a little. Three of them are very distinct looking, even to our untrained eyes, but I keep getting two of the ewes confused. As long as they don't expect me know each of their names to call them to dinner, I think we'll be okay.

:)

The ram lamb's name is Yorick, which I absolutely love. He's very cute, with lovely markings and colouring.

So, in among all the other changes we have in our lives right now, we are now a farm (as Max said, "We're a REAL farm now, because we have farm animals").

For those who have been in closer contact lately...yes, we did sell the van, but it won't change hands until later next week.

Randy leaves tomorrow to go to the coast in preparation for his knee surgery, which will take place in the middle of next week. Our thoughts are all about his speedy recovery and increased mobility. His pending surgery would completely occupy my head if I let it.

The course that I've been writing with my colleagues launches on Sept 12, at Selkirk College. I'm still working on aspects website which will be the portal for the course, both in this iteration as a pilot, but also in the iterations to come. More pieces of the site are there, but not visible until we go live. We're currently putting the finishing touches on everything, and getting ready to work with some real live students. It's so exciting, I can hardly stand it when I think about it sometimes.

So, yeah, lots going on right now.

Change can be really good, not baaaaad.

:D
Lisa

rocks,rocks,rocks

2011-08-03T09:12:00.000-07:00

It's official, I'm obsessed.

I think the rocks have gotten into my brain (would that make me a 'rock head'? Haha) and I'm now dreaming about rocks fitting together....when I close my eyes I see interlocking shapes...much like back in the days when I played too much Tetris!

The scale of the project is pretty big. I wanted to be sure that the area would be big enough to be useful ( at least to fit a cafe table and a couple of chairs, and maybe our fire pit). As it turns out it's plenty big for that. And more, I think.

I can't wait to get that little flower bed part finished and planted up...maybe a little ornamental shade tree in there? A star magnolia, or a dogwood? Some day lilies around the base?

And the grass is all coming in beautifully.

These photos were taken at about 7:30am, when this side of the house is still cool and shady. Later in the day it gets pretty hot over here...I'm hoping that the stone will warm up in the sun and radiate the heat back to us if we sit out there into the late evening. There's almost a ton of rock there...many of the individual stones are 3" or more in thickness...that's a lot of thermal mass!

DH got an email last night from the lady we are getting our sheep from, and she thinks she can deliver them at the end of the month. (!)

Exciting, to be sure - and there is still a lot to do to prepare for the little wooly gaffers. That and DH's knee surgery is scheduled for the 31st of this month...

This fall is going to be verrrry busy.

So, I've been placing rocks, as fast and furiously as possible. There's still a long way to go across the front of the house, and I'm starting to wonder if I'll have enough, or will need to make another trip out to the quarry. We'll see. Stone by stone.

Lisa

Quiet Saturday morning

2011-07-30T09:31:00.002-07:00

I'm still home, writing. I managed to snap a photo of one of my companions out here...the hummingbird who sits on the jade plant out on the deck...

It's usually when the feeder is occupied by some of the more noisy birds, tussling for position, that this one will sit and watch. It's been hard to catch it in a photo because it doesn't sit for long, and I'm usually clumsy and loud about getting the camera ready.

Finally I got the photo by leaving the camera set up on the table, pointed at the jade plant so that all I had to do when my friend arrived was to reach over, push the 'on' button, then the shutter. A little grainy from the zoom, but there it is!

Couldn't stand it last night anymore.

After a day of writing I just had to get my hands on those rocks! I played until it was too dark to see what I was doing. It's a good thing I stopped, too, as there's one there that's sitting too proud and will have to be re-set. No amount of pounding with my rubber mallet will get it to sit lower on that corner, so, biting the bullet, it will get pulled today.

I love how the river rocks give way to the flagstone. Soft edges meet hard corners. And all the colours in the stone...it's amazing. I can't wait to get it all in so that I can clean it up a little and let the colours glow.

As usual, this is going together in an kind of unorthodox way. I figured that this sand is all pretty hard packed because we walk on it all the time, it's been under that piece of fake grass you can see folded up to the side. As the rocks are not all the same thickness, there's not a lot of point in me excavating everything to the same depth before putting the rock into it. I've been working with my line level to ensure that the walking surface is flat and level (slight grade toward where the lawn will be, as I want it to drain that way), and scraping out the area for each group of rocks as I go, putting sand back in and pounding the heck out of it when I need to, and pulling more out when the rock sits too proud. It's a slow process, but very satisfying.

The final shot here is of the area toward the driveway, across the front of the house. I want the stone to continue across in a walkway through here. The idea behind this is that it will be easier and tidier for mowing maintenance - and I think it'll just look good.

Well, I should get back to writing - er, writing what I'm supposed to be writing!

Happy Saturday,
Lisa

Watching the grass grow...among other things...

2011-07-28T16:40:00.001-07:00

My fellas are all still away, camping up in Nakusp with friends and family. I'm here at home, watching the grass grow...and writing like a madwoman.

I'm working on something kind of special, something that I've been involved in for over a year and half...and before that there was at least 1 and maybe 2 years of background consultation and research done by one of my colleagues in this endeavour (who is also my friend).

There are 6 of us writing and preparing a training course that will be offered through Selkirk College this fall, in their CE (Continuing Education) catalogue. It's a Home Share and Respite Care course to train people who would like to work in those capacities with people who have disabilities. The Province is moving away from group homes as a housing model, and toward Home Share which is a really good option for many people. At this time there is not a lot of training available for people who would like to do this type of work, to share their home with a person who has a disability and support them in their daily endeavors, and we are hoping, respectfully and humbly, to fill that gap. We've formed a small company called ShelterGuides. We're in the process of building our website, and of filling the Moodle (teaching/learning content management system) with our coursework.

Writing the curriculum is an interesting experience. We're doing everything collaboratively, mindful of the different draws and claims that exist on each other's lives. We initially joined together not knowing each other, or not knowing each other well - but through this process have become friends. I'm amazed by the intelligence, strength and experience that each of these women brings to the table. It's phenomenal.

So, I'm sitting here, out on our deck, with my dog and the crazy hummingbirds. There are so many birds right now that it feels dangerous sometimes to sit here...I realize that I have a lot of faith in their reflexes, that they won't actually skewer me with their little beaks (at high speed)! There have been a couple of moments that have felt (to me) like close calls...those pesky birds are probably buzzing me for fun, then going off to laugh about it...

It's pretty peaceful. I mean, aside from the crazy birds. The grass is growing, the dog is snoring. I'm typing.

Yesterday I took time out to go and get rocks...thanks to our neighbour and his kick-ass trailer. We moved a ton...yep a ton of flagstone from the rock yard near Salmo to here.

This morning I went and bought a mason's chisel and maul, and tried my hand at splitting one of these bad boys...and, although I definitely have lots to learn, I think I'll be able to split some of the thicker ones down to approximately the same thickness as the others before setting them in to the patio area.

But I'm being very good, very disciplined. I'll get my piece of the writing done before going out to play with the rocks. I promise.

:)
Lisa

Something that's just for fun

2011-07-24T18:41:00.000-07:00

I'm on my own here today and for the next few days while all the boys are up camping in Nakusp. The weather is gorgeous for them - and I think this has been on of the coolest Julys on record!

The fellas all left this morning and I have been here writing in the 25 minute intervals between each move of the sprinkler. It's strange to spend a day in little, measured increments like that. Why moving the sprinkler? Because we have a large swath of land that we're improving to be pasture for the sheep we're expecting this fall.

Toward the end of the day here I got playing with the functionality of my laptop - it's still pretty new to me and I've not really just let my hair down and monkeyed around yet. So here I offer you a silly little video to introduce any of you who have not met him to our big dog, Dude:

Heehee!

I think that moving the sprinkler and Dude will be forever linked in my mind as, with all the baby grass out there, we can not just let him roam free the way we usually do... the poor oaf is sentenced to the end of the leash until the grass is big enough to withstand his Brobdingnagian paws. Poor pup. Oh look - it's time to move the sprinkler again - and Dude is waiting at the door for a walk!

Lisa

A little experiment

2011-07-01T12:47:00.002-07:00

I've been playing a bit here, on this sunny Canada Day morning.

Yesterday was the last day of work for me at school. True to form - I'm sick. It would seem that every time we come up to a school holiday for the past two years I take the opportunity to grab whatever airborne bugs are out there and offer them a home in my upper respiratory system! I've had no voice since Tuesday, and now have a cough as well.

The last few weeks have been exceptionally busy with school ending for both boys and for me, and all the other things that seem to happen at this time of year. Soccer ended (temporarily - it starts again in the fall). Each of the boys and I all had different end-of-school activities (mostly field trips of one kind and another).

We had lovely company for a few days, with DH's sister and brother in law coming from Oman. It was pretty special for us for them to come at this particular time of year and be part of all our different celebrations. They live so far away these days that we rarely get to share our milestones with them. We not only got to do the big, important things (like see Youngest complete Elementary School), but little day to day things (like eating together, playing cards, hiking, visiting). All in all, a really sweet time.

This morning found me up with nothing in particular on my agenda for the first time in a very long time. I sat down with my little water colour set and played with painting a couple of special things that we've received as gifts over last year. The table runner is indigo dyed (from Japan originally) given us by my Mom-in-Law last year at Christmas. It seemed the perfect backdrop for the Koran stand that Sister-and-Brother-in-Law gave us last year when they visited from Oman.

I've wanted to try to paint or draw the stand for a long time, as it has such wonderful texture. Each of the individual tool marks show on the carved part of the stand. I love being able to see the actions of the artist in the art! I had a drawing teacher once, years ago, who said we should only take photos of things no one would believe if they saw them in drawing form...and I have to say, that stuck with me. There are many times that I take photos for reference for drawing only to sit down and discover that the photos cannot be interpreted that way. There are places both for photos to record what we can not draw, and a place for drawing to record all the rest of what we see. Sometimes the actions of the artist would obscure the art - then it is always better to simply take a picture.

The second half of the experiment was to try to use Gimp to edit my photo for posting. I'm new to Gimp, but wanted to give it a whirl after all I've been reading about it. It's open source, which seems to be the direction that I'm heading with all the programs in my life. I missed using PhotoImpact10 (simply because I've used it for years and it's like second nature to me anymore), but it's not available in the form it used to be - maybe it's becoming obsolete? Hmmm. Gotta try to stay current, whether it's easy or not!

Here's to summer, here's to family, here's to time to play and learn.

Happy Canada Day, everyone!
Lisa

A little time, and JJ

2011-03-29T23:53:00.000-07:00

The JJ blouse, that is.

With a little extra time tonight, I got started on a blouse similar to one that's been rolling around in my head for the past year or so. This pattern is called the JJ blouse, and it is available here.

I've blogged about BurdaStyle before, and about just how dangerous it can be to wander around in their free pattern section! I'm not exactly sure how I ran across this blouse, but it was probably in a Flickr pool or something. Regardless of how we found each other, this pattern has been crying out for me to make it for ages now! I love the unabashed femininity of it.

There was a bit of a lull in my afternoon, so I hunted through my fabric boxes and found 1.5M of this lovely older Jinny Beyer fabric from 'way back when I had the shop. Most of the fabric I have is in relatively small pieces, as I was a quilter for so long. Back in those days I never bought terribly much of any one thing unless it was for borders or backgrounds, or backing in a quilt.

I was a little worried that the cotton fabric would have far too much stiffness and the ruffles would be completely unruly, but things seem to be working out just fine. The fabric has enough body that it's easy to work with, but enough give that the ruffles don't stand straight out like fins or something.

Obviously this is not one of the heavier cottons I used to love for quilting. In fact, now that I think about it, I can remember kvetching with customers that my beloved Jinny Beyer had gone to a new, lower thread count stock to have her patterns printed on! Funny, eh? Tonight I was glad for that lower thread count.

Things have a way of working out, I guess.

Now my head is a-buzz with ideas for variations on this pattern...maybe pleats instead of ruffles, maybe different fabrics for all of the different pieces (that would certainly be more useful for using up some of the stash...), a redrafted bodice, some sewn in elastic to nip in the waist a little more.....

Or maybe I should just concentrate on finishing this one...

:)

My progress tonight got me to the point of finished the fronts and back. Soon, sleeves!!

Cheers,
Lisa

Sunday, Sunday

2011-03-06T14:28:00.000-08:00

Monday last week I fell at skating and chipped a little bone from my hip, necessitating a bit of time off work. The week has been very quiet, punctuated with brief interludes of going out for brief errands.

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm terrible at sitting still.

I spent the first few days reading Shantaram - well worth it if you've not picked it up yet!

It took until Friday for me to come up with a list of things that could be comfortably done from the couch in the odd, not-sitting-not-lying-down posture that was most comfortable...and now I'm in the thick of chipping away at the list. The first thing on it is something that has been languishing in the background of my life since I sold my shop - my pantograph patterns! Over the past few years I've been working on ideas, jotting down little scribbles and doodles here and there, photographing various things as references, etc., but not really just sitting down and banging out a few patterns. During the last few days I've been able to do just that! It's so exciting to be messing around in my sketchbook for this purpose. (oh, and for those keeping track of my New Year's resolution...I'm almost caught up on my Illustration Friday challenges, the last few have just not been fit to blog).

Today was my first day out walking in the neighbourhood since my fall...it is the perfect day for it, too...sunny and warm! Spring is certainly in the air here in Krestova, though the snow is still very deep. As you can see in the picture at right, the snow piles along our driveway are 5 feet high in places (the ones at the back of the house by the parking lot are substantially higher). The sun is out, things are dripping into puddles, and the neighbourhood is waking up from Winter. I really love living here where each season is so distinct, with its own character and colours.

Our school district has one more week of instructional days, then the two week Spring Break begins.

I returned from my walk to discover that my family is not interested in waiting for full spring to come...bring on the epic deck backgammon battles!! Chess and Risk are next!

(ooh, look at the snow piles in the background)

Come on Spring. We're ready.

:)

Lisa

Skating!

2011-02-22T06:54:00.000-08:00

Last night we had a special guest come and skate with our club, Scott Bickerton.

The whole club was terribly excited to have him come - Nelson is his home skating club, and he was among the founding skaters of it in 1999. He now trains in Calgary, at the long track, and competes in World Cup, World Junior and National level races.

We were all a little star struck, to be honest!

Scott was lovely: friendly and generous with his time and autographs. I hope he knows how much it means to all the athletes to have had him come out and skate with us. It was so inspiring for everyone!

We all learn so much by watching, by listening, by being out there with skaters who are further along in their journey of perfecting technique.

As a family with two young men growing up in it, we are always aware of the male influences in the world around our boys: in the culture in general, and in our community. I think this is a pretty confusing time to be growing into a young man. Many of the boys that I meet in the same age range as our two are heavily into video games, often 1st person shooters (and think that they'll grow up to be video game testers). Having the opportunity to meet Scott, with his kindness, his openness and his obvious dedication to his sport was a real gift.

Thanks, Scott. Spending a few hours of your life with us was a major event in ours.

Lisa

A first of sorts

2011-02-13T08:15:00.001-08:00

It's not a gold, but it a first for me. It's the first medal I've ever earned for any sport.

Great fun speed skating day yesterday in Vernon...

:)

Happy to be home,

Lisa

Recent finishes

2011-02-10T07:47:00.001-08:00

This past weekend I got a lot of spinning and knitting done...

Most of the fleece from Bella is spun into yummy thin singles. I'm doing wool that's about 15 WPI (wraps per inch) as a general rule, which makes me happy! I found that the secret with this particular fleece seems to be: comb, comb and comb again. The final wool from this fleece is much softer than what I was spinning up from the previous one. There could be a couple of reasons for that:

Greater time and care directed to the carding/combing process
cleaner fleece
more experience
soft undercoat hairs distributed well throughout the wool

I'm getting better at the spinning part, too. This fleece has been easier to spin straight from the rolags without pre-drafting. Again, I'm not sure why that is. I'm sure more experience will teach me.

In the meantime, I made the thrummed mitts above using purchased Merino roving (that I originally intended to do needlefelting with and now will probably just spin) from this pattern. For those who are not familiar with thrumming, look it up! It's Canadian!

The first time I saw a pair of thrummed mitts was a pair my friend Frances was wearing at an Elementary School assembly that we were both attending as parents. In those days, Monday mornings would consist of walking the boys to school, then heading to the gym to watch the weekly school assembly...and catch up and visit with friends! Considering the size of the community and the groups of parents who would routinely attend on those mornings, I think most of the behind-the-scenes connections for volunteer powerhouses such as soccer league, youth society projects, etc., were made during that brief weekly convergence at our kids' school. Funny, I haven't thought about that in quite a while! It was a real gift to be working at home during those years, to be able to attend things like that.

The other thing that got finished this weekend is my short sleeved cardigan...with wool that was a Christmas gift from my Mom and Dad. (THANK YOU!!) I would link up the pattern here, but it seems to only exist as a Ravelry download. If you are a member, look it up as 'Star-cross'd love'. You should be able to find it through the pattern search function. Or write me, and I'll hook you up to the .pdf.

I managed to get it done and blocked and was able to wear it to work on Tuesday this week...one of my co-workers, whenever I was working on it during my lunch break, would come over and say, "So, watcha making for me?"
The first time he did this, I said,"A vest, but I think it's going to be a bit small for you." We had a bit of a laugh, as he is quite a bit bigger than I am... and it became a bit of a running joke. He would ask how his vest was coming along, etc.

So I made him a little vest.

A very little vest. It measures about 1" wide, finished and worn by the little man at left.

Tuesday morning, I left it in his mailbox at work.

You see, he never asked what I was making for myself!
:)
Lisa

Bella and 'Surrender'

2011-01-30T14:45:00.000-08:00

Okay...so it's not a finished picture, but it's progress. I think this one might end up being something that I work on digitally, using the tablet and Corel Painter.

The idea of this is from the ruminations about the word 'surrender'...the idea of surrendering to the blank page, to the process of the work, not to work only with the finished product in mind. Though I love having finished products (and producing them), having had the shop (Threads in Motion) for all those years helped to dissociate the joy of making things with the need to possess them. To truly surrender to process, one must not need to possess the outcome.

Culturally, here in North America, that's a pretty rebellious idea.

It always amazes me that all the minuscule, incremental decisions and accidents that happen along the way are what ultimately add up to the final product, whatever it may be. I had a drawing instructor 'way back in College (a College that's now a University...that's how long ago it was that I attended) who encouraged us to make every single line on our page one of intent. He would not accept 'scribbles', and certainly not as an excuse for shading. He was, however, the teacher who introduced me to the idea of the 'character of line': that the intentional mark on the page could have uncontrolled elements to it - thick and thin areas, slight meandering within the path, and lighter and darker points along the line. This 'found' or 'accidental' element within the intent and decision making of drawing is really all about our surrender to the process of drawing...the cumulation of all those tiny decisions. And ultimately, it's what gives a drawing it's dynamism, flow and personality.

Speaking of surrender and of process...

(a little heavy-handed for a segue, but it will have to do! :) )

The fleece from last post's sheep is working up into wool of lovely character.

The singles are about 12 WPI (wraps per inch). I'm hoping to ply them together into an aran weight yarn. The first project from this particular wool will be a beret for my neighbour's daughter, in black, as requested. The ewe that this comes from is named 'Bella', making for a 'Bella Beret'!

I've spun up 9 oz of the fleece so far, into about 208 M of yarn. The soft undercoat of the fleece is a charcoal grey, the outer coat is a dense black. They are coming together into a heathery black colour that is quite lovely. I keep thinking that the icelandic wool would be beautiful knit up into this - especially in this gorgeous grey-black.

I've completely surrendered to the rhythm of spinning, the process of making yarn. Each moment gives little chances at decision making for the final product, and opportunities for the yarn to dictate the way that things are going to go.

As I spin, I can't help but think of the multitude of generations that had to rely on this fibre process, this hand-intensive process, for clothing and furnishings. To completely outfit a family and home would be a huge undertaking, especially in a climate like this one. That the health and welfare of the family would rely on the health of their animals is a foreign concept today. The idea of the wealth of the family being expressed in the quality and quantity of their garments, and in the skill and speed of the family's clothiers...well, it is just not something that we think of in a first-world country where we are so dissociated from the origins of our possessions, the things that give us comfort and protect us from the elements.

Food for thought.

Lisa

Dusty...but not

2011-01-28T16:16:00.000-08:00

All right. So it's not actually a good response to the 'Dusty' challenge, but it was a challenge to do - and filled my quota for the number of drawings I need to get done in order to stay with my resolution!

I think I did anthropomorphize this ewe, though...it's her wool that is soaking in the tub and on the drying rack right now. That hint of a smile is probably a little projection of how I feel about playing with fibre, and how grateful I am to my neighbour and this sheep for the opportunity.

As I've been following the Sketchbook Challenge blog since the beginning of the year, I thought I'd include a progress photo.

Many of the people formally participating in that challenge not only share finished drawings, but much of the messy stuff that leads up to them.

When I know I'm going to be doing a 'finished' style drawing, I will do a bit of a line map before drawing in earnest. If you click on the drawing at left you'll see some thin, spidery lines here and there that are my visual code to guide the light, shadow, proportion and different 'planes' of the drawing. I tend to think of the object I'm drawing (even from photos) in all three dimensions...mapping out the planes helps me to keep foreshortening, light and shadow all in the right places.

In the case of the sheep, it was also about dividing the space between the different textures - there is a substantial amount of space on the sheep's face that has straight hair. Part of the challenge in this drawing was to create different textures between the different types of coat, the horns, and the eye area. As you can see in the progress photo, I'll often jump straight to the details that I think best characterize the subject once the initial mapping is done. If I can get the eye area (often the part of a drawing that we will focus on right away) right along with any other important characterization, the rest of the drawing really only needs to be hinted at in order to be successful. The viewer's eye will SEE the parts that are tight, drawn to describe the subject, then their mind will FILL IN all the other details. My favorite drawings are certainly audience participation in nature - and I believe these are also the ones that hold the widest appeal.

So now to go back and rinse out more of these lovely black locks, and to think about my challenge word for this coming week...'Surrender'.

Happy Friday,

Lisa

Chicken (and skating!)

2011-01-28T13:21:00.001-08:00

Better late than never - right? It's my contribution to Illustration Friday's challenge, 'chicken'. The last couple of weeks have been silly busy with life and skating. This is the first chance I've had to get myself across the street to photograph some chickens at our neighbour's house - so my challenge entry is two weeks late. Does this still count for keeping my resolution to draw more? I hope so.

Now to do 'Dusty' (last week's challenge) and 'Surrender' (which was in my inbox this morning).

It's going to be tough to focus on the drawing today as my neighbour sent me home with another one of his fleeces - black this time - and I'm looking forward to knitting his daughter a beret with part of it!

Last weekend I was not drawing on Saturday morning because I was here:

...at Nelson's first Speed Skating Comp. Our club hosted, and the day was fun and friendly. We each skated 5 different races, the distances based on our age categories. Both of our boys skated, too, and DH was an official timer. It took all of the available parents, grandparents and friends of the club to make this happen - would the world still spin on its axis without volunteers to power it?

The boys and I combed through the 200 or so photos that were taken of us all out on the ice to analyze for body position, weight distribution and technical form. It was fun to go through them and enlightening to see, with a critical eye, what we are ACTUALLY doing on the ice vs. what we THINK we are doing on the ice. For myself, I know that I need to get lower and not allow my upper body to move as much...

Now - off I go to rinse out the soaking fleece, then figure out what I'm going to draw for 'Dusty'. Hmm. I have some lovely pictures of sheep here, maybe I want to draw one of them??

:)
Lisa

If you're not a fibre freak, turn off your computer NOW

2011-01-12T19:35:00.001-08:00

A little magic happened here for me yesterday. After spinning up several 50M skeins, I tried my hand at plying.

Mmmmmmm. Yummy.

I've read a lot about plying and there are many good technical articles out there about HOW to ply, but nothing about WHY one should ply.

What I discovered is that - at least with this yarn - the singles knit up a bit scratchy. Plying the singles into a balanced 2ply yarn made it squishy and soft. That was the magic...the transformation from scratchy to soft.

I downloaded an app about spinning for my iPod...it's pretty cool, really. It's full of information and different calculators, twist, grist, etc.

My calculations were a little off.

I thought that my roughly 13 wpi (wraps per inch) singles would ply into a 6 wpi yarn that would be a worsted weight...as it turns out, it came out more of a chunky weight.

I was so entranced with the squishy softness of this yarn, that I started knitting a toque last night with it...and finished it this morning. It's sitting blocking now, waiting to go to it's new home.

My neighbour spent some time with me yesterday, carding up rolags. Much of the wool he carded is spun up into this toque...

Yummy.

:)
Lisa

another thing to do with fleece

2011-01-11T10:05:00.001-08:00

One of the things I got up to last weekend with the fleece was making felted soaps. It's really very easy and low tech...and the results are so worth it.

Why felt soap?
Gentle exfoliation.
Subtle, natural antibiotic properties of fleece.
Regular contact with wool ;)

There is a wonderful soapary (is that a word) up the Valley from us - Mountain Sky. The greengrocer down the hill from us carries end cuts (or off cuts) of this lovely soap in a big bulk bin. The pieces can all be different kinds, and non-standard sizes, but are always first-rate quality. I had a bag of these in the cupboard that I used for my project.

It's very simple.

Have ready some rolags or combed fleece, a sushi mat (or washboard), some chunks of nylon stocking, a towel, soap and a drying rack.

Wrap the soap in fleece, making sure that all the corners are covered, and that there are no thin spots.

Stretch the chunk of nylon stocking over the wrapped soap carefully, to not shift the fuzzy fibre coating. Because I was doing several, I did each step to all the soaps, production style.

The picture at left is a bit decieving...the nylon stocking is only tied at one end. It's twisted and tucked underneath at the other. If you tie both ends of the stocking, you'll have to cut the stocking to get the soap out...and eventually your stocking pieces won't be big enough to do anymore soap!

Dribble a bit of dishsoap on the nylon-wrapped bundle, then dribble some hot water on it. Start rubbing it in your hands...you can be pretty vigorous! If it feels too dry at first, add more water until it's all frothy and foamy (you don't want it dripping wet).

Rub it on the sushi mat (or another ribbed surface) to speed along the felting process. Make sure that you rub each edge, end and flat plane of the soap. When it starts to feel like all the fleece has compressed evenly, you can slide it out of the stocking.

Keep rubbing it in your hands and on the sushi mat until the fibre is completely compressed and not loose around the soap anywhere. Rinse it in the sink, roll it in the towel to blot out most of the water, then set it on the drying rack to dry. Et Voila! Finished!

I made about 8 of them for gifts. It's got me thinking about other things that I could felt. Hmmmm.

:)
Lisa

Making good on my resolution

2011-01-09T10:57:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to be a good girl and follow the Illustration Friday suggestions, but this week's topic (deja vu) just didn't catch my fancy. I opted instead to try the Sketchbook Challenge's topic: 'Highly Prized'.

So, rather than draw my family (which was my first thought) or my hands (which was my second thought)

I drew my skates.

You can click on either picture for a larger version.

Lisa

Yes, yes. There's always room for one more craft...

2011-01-08T20:24:00.001-08:00

My kind neighbour has become my new enabler - he gave me the fleece of one of his Icelandic sheep. He had three sheep at shearing time this year: one brown, one white, and one brown and white. Given my choice, I asked for the brown and white fleece.

Man I love fibre. Who doesn't, really?

I haven't done any spinning since I was a pre-teen. Back then our family was given the use of a beautiful spinning wheel from one neighbour, and several raw fleeces from another. I can remember washing wool in buckets in the greenhouse shed...picking crud and vegetable matter (VM) out of it, carding it with hand carders, and spinning it on the wheel. I don't know how much I really did at the time, and have no wool left from then to show. I remember the fella who gave us the fleeces when I was young asked me to knit him a scarf...and I think I crocheted him a hat. As an adult, I recognize his lovely social grace in accepting the hat rather than the requested scarf (wherever you are - thank you, Misha).

It's funny how pushing my hands into all this wonderful smelling wool brought so much of that back. I remember sitting in the unfinished part of our basement (with radio plays from the 30s and 40s on my new 'ghetto blaster'), bits of frass and VM falling on my lap and the floor as I spun. This is when I first learned about S-twist, Z-twist and plying. Now, I can't help but wonder how my Mom knew so much about the process! She is the one who showed me how to use the carding brushes, helped me learn to wash the wool without felting it, and set me up with the spinning wheel. I have vague memories of her showing me how to use a drop spindle as well - a wooden, bottom/low whorl spindle. The spindle was frustrating, but the wheel was fascinating.

I washed this new fleece this week by filling buckets of uncomfortably hot water and submerging large handfuls of locks in it to soak. Before the locks were put in, I put a little bit of dish soap in the water to help degrease the fleece a little. Apparently lanolin melts at 107degrees, so I used as hot water as I could from the tap. Each bucketful of locks was rinsed by the same method (sitting in a bucket of clear water), with as little agitation as possible. I used the spin (SPIN ONLY) cycle on our front loading washer to get as much water out of the fleece as possible before setting it up on the rack to dry. One spin is fine (on my machine it is 11 minutes), two begins to felt the fibres. (Yes, I found that out the hard way! Lucky for me the fibres are not so well on their way to felting as to be unusable for spinning.)

Because I'm not the most patient person on the planet when it comes out to new ideas, I elected to spin one spindle-full with unwashed wool (something spinners call 'spinning in the grease').
Some of the current web information about spinning is in favour of 'spinning in the grease' and some is in support of spinning with washed fibres. I love the smell of unwashed fleece and have concrete floors...so am not all that worried about having bits of VM and short fibres fall on the floor as I work. I learned that there is a big difference between spinning 'in the grease', and with washed fleece in terms of feel. The wool that I spun before washing is thicker and loftier. I think that is due to the stickiness of the fibres (more stiff to draw), and the stickiness holding the wool together well enough that I didn't have to put quite as much twist in it. For the technical types out there, that 1st skein has 42degree Z-twist, at approximately 10-13 wraps per inch (wpi), considered to be a heavy Aran weight. It is quite slubby (thick and thin spots), due to my learning curve. I made about 40M/110g of yarn (single, not plied) in that first skein. I washed it after spinning and skeining to set the twist.

As I have no proper hand carders any more, I bought a dog brush that matches the one from the cupboard to make a pair of ersatz-carding brushes. In my spare time, I've been combing up diminutive little rolags.

The spindle I'm using is the one originally posted about here, modified by crazy-gluing two scratched CDs to the top of the whorl. It's working surprisingly well! At first I was spinning by predrafting each rolag and the 'draw and park' method shown here, but have since figured out how to keep the spindle spinning while I draw and am making much more even, thinner yarn.

The wool spun 'in the grease' and the wool spun from washed fibres ended up the same colour after the 1st skein was washed to set the twist. I think I'll continue to spin from the washed fibres, just because I feel more control with the spinning process with the washed fleece. The smell is not quite so sheep-y, and my hands won't be as soft, but the longer process before spinning makes for less seeds, dung and short fibres by the time I get to the spindle.

Washing ahead also seemed to make it easier to pick out the short, unspinnable fibres from the fleece. Something I would do next time with a fleece is to take the time to spread it out and pick out as many of the really short fibres, burrs and dung bits as possible before washing.

I'm on my third skein now (each averages about 50M in length, and about 15wpi.

I knit a beret from the first 1.5 skeins off the spindle using a pattern designed to show off the loveliness of thick/thin 'designer' yarn. It went together really quickly, and without incident my the slubby yarn.

Now to knit Todd a toque to say thank you. Or maybe a scarf?

:)

Happy Saturday,
Lisa

The Resolution Bandwagon

2011-01-01T22:53:00.000-08:00

Yes, this year I'm on it. The resolution bandwagon.

I don't think I've ever had a formal 'New Year's Resolution'. In fact, for years, I rather turned my nose up at the whole idea. What a silly girl. I used to think,"if there's something I want to change, I will change it' - and, for the most part, that has been true. I quit smoking without premeditation, cold turkey(16 years ago this month!). I went back to school, grew a business, sold a business, and made other major changes in my life, all without joining into the western-culture-resolution-thing.

This year I really had a feeling that the only thing that I really lack in my life is the time to do more drawing. Actual drawing. Pencil to paper, no net, no parachute. I know that nothing in my life happens unless it is scheduled in, I have decided to actually TAKE those Illustration Friday challenges that roll into my email inbox each week.

Surprise, surprise. This week's challenge word was "Resolution".

Now, I've taken IF challenges before, but never religiously. I've read them each week for the past few years, and often had an idea sparked from the suggestion of the topic. I've just not often made good on that idea and actually sat down to make something happen.

Today, I did.

I paid a lot of attention to the process: all the little things that I did to procrastinate vs. the actual time spent drawing. (I'll give you three guesses which took longer....the procrastination part or the drawing). It was good for me, as part of my goal setting for something that I enjoy and welcome in my life, to look at all the ways that I put it off - that I avoid that moment of commitment, of putting pencil on paper! I know from all the schooling I've done over the past few years that the main things that need to be in place to make a goal happen are to be able to visualize it completed, and to schedule a time in daily life to ensure that the goal is done and not forgotten. My goal is to do my drawings on Saturday mornings (scheduling - check), and my first drawing is a self portrait of me drawing myself doing my drawing (visualization - check).

Not the greatest scan of my drawing, but it's a start. I realized after doing this that my last couple of self portraits have been my early morning hair, comfy sweater, just-got-out-of-bed-clothes. I may have to consider (if self portraits are going to become a habit) waiting until later in the day to make the drawings happen!
:)
Happy New Year to you, whatever your resolutions be. May you hold to them all, and be a happier person for it.

Lisa

Unable to leave well enough alone

2010-12-30T15:14:00.004-08:00

I tried to be happy with the way the beginning of the book was...but I just wasn't. January was messy...as any learning should be...and the rest of the book was clean and lovely.

I woke up this morning thinking,"I bet I could disassemble that book, print a new January, and reassemble it again". As it turns out, it's not so hard to take apart a coil bound book, if you're careful and don't try to take out too many pages at once! I carefully slid the pages out, printed new ones, then put them back in.

You'd think I would have been happy with that.

But that's where you'd be wrong.

I kept thinking...it would be nice if there were some contact pages at the beginning for all those numbers that our family needs to have close to the surface. And some more pockets would be nice. And some dividers - one at the end of June, one at the beginning of September....

I took it all apart again. I folded and punched, stamped and glued, and put it all back together again into a really lovely book that I feel very good about. If I'd left it as it stood last night, I would have thought - this could be better... and never felt quite right about using it.

All things considered, it went together rather well.

Fave details:

It doesn't necessarily look like a homemade planner, but definitely has a hand crafted feel
It has pockets and dividers where I want them, where they will be used
room for notes and miscellany in the back (no doubt also for notes on how to make next year's one even better yet!)
The heaviness of the sketchbook paper
The portable size
The colours
Little reminders here and there to 'do art'. That's my main goal for the year...to do more art.

Cheers,

Lisa

As the year closes

2010-12-30T00:02:00.000-08:00

The last couple of months I've been rolling around an idea in my head. Well, okay, more than one idea...but this one is about my day planner.For the last several years I have bought the same planner - and loved it. It has room for all the things I need, and more. It's the 'and more' part that got me thinking. Much as I appreciate the organizational brilliance of these books, I rarely use the family profile pages, note pages or contact pages (except as grocery list paper). After all these years of planner use (at least 20), I know what I need from a planner.

So, typical of my personality, I decided to make one myself.

After surfing the web looking at endless templates that weren't quite right, I decided to draw my own. Rather than attempt to print out all the pages from my computer in the proper order, double side them accurately and collate them, I opted to buy an existing book and play with some ideas.

The things I liked about the purchased planner were the hard cover and the coil binding (can't beat a book that will lie flat!), so I bought a 5.5 X 8" sketchbook and made a stencil template to rule the pages. There were a bunch of letter and number stamps kicking around a drawer upstairs begging to be put to good use, so I employed them as my typeface.

It probably took me about 4 hours to print up (to be honest, 2 of those hours were spent watching a spaghetti western movie with my husband, and the other two listening to a Jeffrey Archer book while printing). I learned a LOT in the process (for example, mounted stamps are far easier to handle than unmounted ones...it took until about June to figure that out!). My later pages are far prettier than my earlier ones, but that is to be expected, isn't it?

And here, my final picture of my sample page, will not load the way it should!! This is my 3rd try to get this particular picture to load...and it will remain rotated, as I can not get it to go any other way.

It made most sense to put the month on the right page. My weeks are all Mon - Friday on the left, the weekend on the right. The lower right divided area is for 'to do' lists, and telephone messages.
My planner tends to spend most of it's life on the kitchen counter being consulted daily for meal planning and open for use and referral by other family members, so the loosely divided space on the lower right doesn't get formal designation...

It's hard to see in the picture, but I've put big gold stamps on family birthdays (Youngest's is Sept 29, shown at left).

After all the stamping was done, I added some expandable pockets for receipts, etc. The whole works is sitting under a pile of books upstairs while the glue dries. Tomorrow I begin the adventure of writing in all the different things we have already lined up for the coming year...not the least of which involves speed skating.

It's silly, but every year I have the same satisfaction with closing the previous year's planner, and opening the new year's one. As we get older there are fewer milestones - and the ones we have tend to get further and further apart. There's something about the ritual of literally closing the book on one year and opening a fresh new book on the new one that's so appealing. All those blank pages will be filled with the story of our lives... the literal story, the minutiae. We have the stories we tell about our lives, the love, the memories, but these planners end up being the record of how we get from one day to the next.

Enjoy the rest of the year. I hope your next year's book is filled with lovely things.

Lisa

Sunday morning

2010-09-19T11:33:00.001-07:00

It's pretty rainy here today...well, it's actually been pretty rainy for a couple of days. When the weather's like this I have a tendency to get uber-domestic.

Yesterday I made granola (again), and banana bread, and chicken cacciatore from scratch. The bread that is currently baking in the oven was started last night, too.

The last few days have been good for cleaning up the garden (between - and sometimes during - rain showers).

Earlier in the week, before all the rain, I'd set aside this sunflower head so that I could try my hand at toasting seeds. I figured, "how hard could it be?"

As it turns out, not very hard at all.

I started out by separating the seeds from the head and washing them in the sink. The seed head was pretty dry, and all the ripe seeds separated by the simple action of rubbing my palm across the flower head. Once they were in the sink, I picked up double handfulls of them and rubbed them against each other to knock off all the garden dust and debris.
They were then left to sit in the sink so that the debris could settle and the seeds float (coincidently, this step corresponded perfectly with the amount of time it took to check my email!).

Because I didn't think to put them in a salt brine last night for today's roasting, I opted to boil them in a brine (5:1 ratio of water:salt) for about 20 minutes. They're still a little saltier than I'd like, so next time I'd probably do 6 parts water to one part salt.

Once they were boiled, I drained them in the colander, then spread them on a baking sheet for toasting. They were toasted at a higher temperature (375F) than I normally would have done them - but - I was baking the bread at the same time.

I took them out and stirred them at 10 minute intervals to check on their progress. I think they were in and out of the oven about 4 times...making the total roasting time about 40 minutes. It was pretty obvious when they were getting close to done, as the whole house started to smell like roasted seeds. Mmmmmm.

The inspiration for all this activity was a memory I have of big sunflower heads that Mom and Dad grew on the farm when I was young. I remember passing those seed heads sitting in the shed, drying, while I fed that cats (I think) each night. It's funny, the way that memory is, but I don't remember if we ever did anything with them, or if they just eventually ended up in the massive compost area that we had behind the greenhouse. Either way, the sunflower seeds today are a little tribute to those long-ago sunflowers, to that long-ago garden.

Enjoy the weekend.

Lisa

Morning self-portrait

2010-09-13T10:44:00.001-07:00

Things are pretty quiet around here.

I'm on call for work, which means right now that there's a very low chance that the phone will ring. The beginning of the school year was tough last year, and I have to keep reminding myself that I didn't get a lot of work until mid-late September. I'm so low on the seniority list that I can't expect much. I did work one day last week (our first week of school), so that is somewhat hopeful.

There are other projects to keep me busy - I'm learning how to build a website using WordPress for a collaborative project (more about that as it emerges), and am getting the van ready to sell. I'm working on some quilting patterns for Threadsongs, and doing a lot of cooking.

I keep wondering if I should just bite the bullet and continue with my schooling. Selkirk College/UVIC will allow for someone with a Bachelor's Degree in Child and Youth care to go into the teacher's training program...which might be a really good idea. It would mean picking up a few academic courses (English, Psych), then entering 3rd year online from UVIC. My experience so far in the school system has been good, and I think I could see myself managing a classroom. It seems like the right thing to do...

This fall feels like a new year - or a new beginning. It's seldom in this stage of life that everything seems to slow down or stop at the same time like this. I feel almost as if it's the deep breath before the next plunge...I just have to figure out what that plunge is going to look like. I like it when life is busy, and am happiest when I can spend my day with people, working together and figuring things out.

Don't worry, I'll keep you posted.
:)
Lisa

Back again! With lots of knitty content!!

2010-08-24T08:58:00.004-07:00

I guess the boys and I didn't get enough of camping with the family and had to - just HAD to - go back for more.
Much as we missed all the cousin action and the laughter, the lake was pretty tranquil with just the boys, one of their friends, and me.

The weather was gorgeous, not too much smoke made it down the valley, and we all got a lot of swimming time in!

When I wasn't swimming, I was beach sitting. It gave me a great opportunity to get some knitting, journal writing and drawing done. Every year, at least once over the past few years, I've drawn Saddleback from the vantage point of the beach.

Typically I've got watercolour pencil crayons in my bag, along with some coloured pens.

This year I also brought some pre-cut artist trading card sized cards of different weights and textures.

And, because I'm that knitterly kind of girl, I finished up two projects that I've been working on for a while.

This shrug, from this pattern, has been on my needles for only about a week from start to finish - pretty big project considering the gauge! The yarn is one of my all-time favorites, Noro Silk Garden Sock. It's a blend of wool, silk, angora and nylon meant for sock knitting, but I think it's far to lovely to hide in my shoes.

For the curious, I used colourway 268 - colours that coincidentally completely match this season in this area. Something that doesn't really show in the photos is the beading in the cuffs. This was my first adventure with beading in knitting, and it's spawned loads of ideas for my next projects. Now if I could just settle on one and get started!

The other major project that I finished was this big red cardigan. It was originally started as something to keep my hands busy while I sat on my rear recovering from my broken toe.

Please excuse the cheezy self portraiture - it's hard to set the camera, run around to the front and quickly look natural!!

For those who are interested in the process and modification notes of either sweater (or in seeing more photos of how they go together), there is a great deal more information on my Ravelry page. Look me up, if you care to - you'll need to be a member or become one to sign in - you'll find me there under the username Threadsongs.

Ciao!
Lisa

Pulpit Rock

2010-08-19T07:49:00.000-07:00

The boys and I hiked up Pulpit Rock yesterday with a couple of dear friends. It was the first time on this particular hike for the 3 of us, but a regular hike for our friends.

The weather was perfect for it - although Oldest claims it was about 10000degrees! We were pretty hot and dusty by the time we got down the hill, so went straight to Lakeside park to jump in the lake for a swim. The weather was perfect for that, too.

In all honesty, I wondered if I was going to make it up! It's only 3 km, but pretty steep most of the time - and I'm obviously pretty darn out of shape from sitting on my duff this summer! Good motivation to get out more!

The boys and I are picking up one of their friends, and heading out camping for a couple of days. See you soon!

Lisa

Reflecting

2010-08-16T08:26:00.003-07:00

It's late morning, DH has gone off to work after 3 weeks of holiday and the boys are still sleeping (one out on the deck, the other up in his bed).

I turned 40 last week.

The day itself was pretty anticlimactic, in a way, as lovely people in my life have been celebrating it with and for me for over a month already!

My dear girlfriends from Nakusp whisked me off to Lillith Fair in July to see amazing performers(Sheryl Crow! Erykah Badu! Sarah McLachlan!) and be silly for a couple of days. If it weren't for these girls I'd not know the what chicken gizzards taste like (yummy), that dollar store beads can colour skin in beautiful hues, or the multifarious meanings of the word 'Schrag'. I can't begin to say how wonderfully silly and profoundly deep my experience of these women is... but they've certainly been heavy influences in my growth and emerging adult womenhood over the past 15 years.

As we do each summer, we camped for a week with the extended Thiessen side of the family. I continue to be amazed at the connections made and tended amongst us all. I know I'm very blessed to have such loving and welcoming in-laws - ones who are not afraid to create some high silliness in honour of milestone birthdays! Two of my sisters-in-law also reached the 4 decade mark this year, and the family rose to the occasion with a ceremony complete with hand carved staffs, paper towel gowns, tiaras, champagne and (literally) jumping through (hula) hoops.

My own family honoured the day with lovely notes and calls, unexpected gifts and beautiful sentiment. I can't seem to write about how that made me feel without tears springing up.

Through all of this I've been knitting and drawing, jounaling and thinking, and just letting the summer soak into my bones. I've been counting my blessings and feeling deep gratitude.

Somehow I wanted to weave into this post something about my hands...just how grateful I am for them, how they have been the locus of my interaction with the world, the place I learn and the place I create. Though people flatter me with saying that I look younger than my 40 years, I think my hands show each day of that time. They're strong, wiry and capable. The skin is showing my age. And that's as it should be.

Lisa

finishing is so sweet

2010-07-15T12:31:00.004-07:00

And now, for the knitters in our audience...

I finished it. That's right...the sweater I've been working on since the beginning of the year.

It's from a book by Martingale called Dazzling Knits. I bought the book for the cover sweater pattern after seeing photos of ones other people had done on Ravelry.

The whole sweater is made modularly(in small units that all fit together to create the whole). Part of my attraction to the sweater was the method, as I've never done anything like this before.

The pattern and book are well written - if a little preachy about colour- and well worth the read, if only for the tips and techniques that are of interest to us yarny-types.

For those who care about such things, I used Noro, Ella Rae, Gallway and some Jojoland wool. By the way, it was 30 degrees C outside while Youngest was helping me out with the photo shoot! Not the weather that I intended to be wearing this sweater in when I started it in January!

I guess there's something to be said for sitting on my duff for a few days - and my foot is doing much better, too. The swelling has gone down a lot, and it's no longer quite such a bright blue. I think it'll be better sooner than the doctor thought.

Happy stitching,

Lisa

Changes in plan

2010-07-12T08:58:00.002-07:00

I had a bit of a mishap last night....and fractured a bone in my little toe. I caught it on a deck fixture that I'd been stepping around without issue, but as I went to start the BBQ, I nailed it good and hard, in full stride.

The upside is that I get to spend a bit more time knitting, I think, as this poor ped of mine needs to stay elevated. Knitting on the deck - doesn't that sound nice?

With school having finished, it was expected that things would slow down around here...but many, many things that had been put off for a long time clamoured in to fill the space. Some

days I don't know where all the time goes.

We had a houseguest for the weekend, which was part of why I was running out to start the BBQ last night - and the weather was perfect for cooking and eating outside. I had this

week set aside for more deep housecleaning, and lots of different plans for the boys. No more!

This is my new plan:

Sit. Knit.

Hopefully I'll finish the sweater in progress in the next couple of days. All that's left to do now are the sleeve cuffs.

:)

Lisa

June's end

2010-06-27T09:39:00.003-07:00

I managed to finish up my final classwork for the last class of my diploma the other night. It seemed anti-climactic, somehow, to end two years' work by clicking 'upload', but that's the way online learning ends! Last year, at the college, we had a day devoted to closing, there were all the goodbyes and hugs and promises to keep in touch...

So, with my classwork done, I've been indulging myself in the activities I was putting off - such as knitting. It's the wrong time of year to work on a big, heavy wool sweater, but I can't help myself! The colours and texture of this project have been whispering to me for months, telling me to put aside my schooling and immerse my hands. I was so good, and resisted - but don't have to anymore. Last night I managed to add another long chevron and am looking forward to getting back into the rhythm of this project.

It's sunny and beautiful here as we count down the last few days of school. Oldest has been done since last week, but Youngest and I (because we are in the Elementary part of the system) close out our year on Tuesday of the coming week. The close of this school year marks the end of this job for me. Being a school district employee at the level I'm at means some uncertainty at this time of year, as I don't really know what position I'll be in come fall...and most of the students that I spent my days with are moving on to other schools. If I stay at the same school, it will be with other students; if I stay with the same students, it will be at other schools. Change is inevitable.

I think my 'to do' list for summer might be a little bit unreasonable, but who knows? Maybe I can get everything done. All the little things that have been calling out over the last few months are on the list, plus new things seem to be emerging daily. Today, though, I will have another cup of coffee, knit a little, hang out with the boys and take it easy. Summer is stretching out in front of us, and I think we should begin by taking it slow.

:)
Lisa

Rock wall completion!

2010-05-23T11:52:00.002-07:00

Boy, there's nothing like finishing a big project to make a girl feel good. Randy and I spent the morning working on the rock wall again, jostling those balking boulders into place.

DH was able to use his amazing tractor powers to move the remaining rocks over to the area under the windows where I'll build the perimeter of a flower bed.

Randy also dug and poured the footings for the deck today, and is in town getting more supplies. There's a real, honest to goodness deck in our future....

It started raining just as we finished up. The timing could not have been better. Once the rain stops, I'll get out there and rake out the soil to level it and groom the grade a bit. Next step, topsoil and grass!

I guess while it's raining I'll just keep surfing the 'net for plants that would be happy growing in rock walls...

Hope you're having a lovely long weekend,

Lisa

The slow emergence of green

2010-05-18T12:21:00.003-07:00

Youngest is feeling sick today, so I'm home. It's a bit of a blessing to be off work, in a way, as I got to catch up on my school work and write a test for my last course while he slumbered upstairs.

We've had a couple of lovely changes around here, not the least of which is the emergence of green.

DH has been outside every morning raking topsoil and chicken manure compost around the yard, seeding areas and getting them to grow. It's hard to explain how wonderful it is to come home to this particular colour of green every day after the last two years of nothing but sand. I love our home, but an especially wide smile spreads across my face as I pull in the driveway these days - it's like an unexpected surprise, all that green.

Yesterday I came home to a pile of fencing materials - apparently the fellas had come to drop off our gear and will start installing the fence tomorrow! Our big ol' dog has no idea the freedom in store for him once the fence is up.

I'll miss watching the coyotes run across in front of the house at dusk, but not the nagging worry that they may want to eat our cats or our old dog.

No more elk in the yard, no more deer. I can start planting my garden in earnest very soon.

On a completely different note, I'm reading a book called 'Spark'. It's about the science of the brain...on exercise. Dr. John Ratey talks about all kinds of different brain imbalances (ADHD, anxiety and clinical depression among them) and different research done about the effects of exercise on brain chemicals. Interestingly, he doesn't reject the idea of medication, but looks at multivariate situations in which medication and exercise (either or both in combination) are used to successfully treat individuals with various difficulties. The evidence is pretty convincing, and makes me want to get everyone I care about and work with out doing something active. If you get a chance to, you should read it.

Off I go, to dig in the garden.

Lisa

Mother's Day weekend

2010-05-11T21:14:00.004-07:00

Saturday was our second anniversary of buying the property here - the official start of the biggest darn project ever.

Last year on Mother's Day weekend, I got up on a ladder (at times supported by the bucket of the tractor) to seal the cedar shingles on the second story...this year I was back up there, sealing the shingles on the south side again! Hmmm. A tradition in the making?

Hopefully not every year will involve me getting up on the roof for one reason or another!

The next phase of the yard work has begun in earnest - the rock wall. The top picture shows where we stopped on Sunday afternoon. It took DH and I all of our combined efforts on both Saturday and Sunday to get it to this point. Thank goodness for our big-ass tractor.

DH was able to move the rocks over using the tractor, and between the two of us we leveraged, shifted, budged and swore these stones into place. All in all, rather satisfying.

The wall will continue out as far as the near edge of the photo on the right. I think we may have, in two days, accomplished about 1/3 of the wall's total length.

Part of what made it so difficult is the size of the rocks we had delivered (I picked out some humdingers!).

The idea is that we'll be able to walk out the double doors onto the deck (not yet built) and have a level exit to the upper yard. The rock wall will diminish in height over the length of the courses and curve gently toward the soon-to-be lower lawn so that we can have a gentle slope of lawn from upper to lower (for ease of mowing, etc).

You can get a bit of an idea from the picture of the house on the right. In my mind it's already finished. I can look at the photo and see it with the grass in and growing, some wooly thyme and other rock loving plants growing in the wall, and the deck all finished. Maybe housebuilding requires that one be an optimist. Or delusional. Or somewhat of both.

The final photo here is to show from what is the existing mini-deck the point at which the real, big deck will meet the soon-to-be lawn. The garbage can (actually a compost can) gives you an idea of how big these pesky rocks are!

Things am learning while building this rock wall:

1) Rocks like to stay put. They don't want to move, it is not in their nature; thus the saying, "solid as a rock"

2) I don't like being brought up hard against my physical limitations, and am not used to being unable to do something I've set my mind to. No matter how much I try, how hard I think, how much I push, some of these rocks will not budge. (See item #1).

3) Much as I like low-tech solutions (leverage involving crowbars and shovels), the diesel-powered solutions can make life easier.

Of the things I've learned so far, I think #2 is the most important one. I'm used to being able to tackle problems and shift them or change them, or find some kind of solution. Not possible when confronted with a rock that weighs as much or more than I do! This particular building exercise is not just to exercise my muscles, but to exercise my ego control. Hard to do, but worth it in the end.

Hope the weekend was lovely in your part of the world,

Lisa

Garden and yard changes and a dramatic haircut (photo heavy)

2010-04-17T14:44:00.005-07:00

Surprise Grandma and Grandpa! After what we think is five years, Oldest elected to get his hair cut short....

And we were amazed to see that he had grown into a young man under all that hair! A trip to the barber can not remove his sense of humour, though (and we're so glad!). Nice pose, eh?

And because there is no natural segue into what else is going on in our lives I will just jump on in:

Little greenhouse joy:

All the seedlings that I started at the end of March and the beginning of April are stretching up...even the ones that I didn't think were going to!

Everything that has shown true leaves has been transplanted over the last week or so, with the last of them being finished today. I'm new to this whole gardening thing (I have kept other gardens, but not with great degrees of success...) and am trying to learn to do it well.

I grew up in a gardening household. Both my parents and my sister have green limbs, not just green thumbs - and to my eye, they have the Gardener's Midas touch - everything that they touch seems to explode into jubulant, lush growth. They can tease growth from plants that not even the plant knew it was capable of.

I'm doing my very best to forget everything I thought I knew about gardening and learn, as a complete newcomer would. I'll make lots of mistakes, I'm sure, and some of these little guys will probably make the ultimate sacrifice in my learning curve.

My little greenhouse of seedlings seems very modest compared to my family's beautiful gardens and wonderful indoor plants. I've always loved the smell of growing things, of soil - and love the humidity and heat of the greenhouse. Although I'm in a bit of a seedling frenzy right now, I'll be happy to eat one or two cucumbers and tomatoes, and to have a couple of tall sunflowers...

On the home front, we're getting ready to put in the lawn. Randy pushed a LOT of dirt around today, and we had our first load of topsoil delivered. It doesn't look all that big without anything to give it scale, but that big pile at the bottom of the yard is about 14yd of topsoil. We'll need to do quite a bit more raking to get everything smoothed out to the level we want, but a greener area is on our horizon!

Now if it will just keep raining, the other grass will germinate.

Although it's hard to see in the house picture, Randy has moved a LOT of soil/sand over to the front end of the house (the far end in the picture). We're hoping to get a load of large rocks delivered so that we can dry stack a retaining wall the height of the sonotubing (that's the concrete cylinders that the deck roof posts are on). The idea is that we can then backfill the front yard area to be level with the hight of the eventual deck. There will probably be stairs down from the deck into the lower yard (the one that is shown here on the left/south side of the house).

Bit by bit, it's all coming together.

We probably won't get the deck built this year. Our next big adventure is going to be fencing the whole acreage and gating the driveway.

Anyhoo, I'm off to start some more seedlings...maybe some broccoli and parsley, hmmmmm. Maybe some monarda, and some nasturtiums and some....

:)
Lisa

Spring joy

2010-03-31T06:47:00.005-07:00

Armed with a magazine that was given to me as a leaving Nakusp gift (Hi Beth!), we started a little hothouse project this weekend.

We had the wire left over from the stucco debacle, and lots of wood kicking around. The foundation blocks are ones that were poured when the fellas were pouring the cement for the second floor of the house (each block has a piece of rebar embedded in it). I only had to buy the pipe and the plastic.

So far, this little project has cost about $60.

The footprint is nice; it's about 8' square at the base. The top of the hoop is about 6' from the ground. (Being a shorty, it's just right!) There's enough room that I might be able to fit a table in there for the seedlings that we've started in the house.

Once the wind dies down (or it stops raining long enough - or both) I'll wrap it in plastic. This week has been pretty blustery so far! Two trees have come down on the land next to ours, one onto our place from the neighbour's.

Sunday we spent the afternoon over at my Mom and Dad's, celebrating what would have been my paternal grandfather's 100th birthday. It was a lovely afternoon, and a great way to remember Poppa.

Oh, and I spent some time with Youngest yesterday going through back blog entries...these last few years have certainly seen some major changes in our lives! I'm grateful for this place to record and remember, to share - and to those of you who read, for taking time out to come and look in on our little lives out here in the mountains.

Lisa

Reflecting on the last week

2010-03-20T21:04:00.003-07:00

I spent most of this week in a workshop on Applied Behavioural Analysis...and it reminded me of how much B.F. Skinner contributed to the whole field of psychology. I recently read a book that talked about how true Darwinian philosophy (extrapolated into modern day) was anti-Skinner: that behaviouralism is a crock of s****.

I found that point of view to be pretty darn shocking, considering that my whole education is predicated on the idea that as individuals, we can learn new things based on the way these things are reinforced. If I were to stick with the idea that our genetics are all that makes us who we are (considering I've been a life-long evolutionist), then there is no reason to do the type of work that I do.

I'll have to spend some time thinking about all of this.

Maybe it's about the idea that the individual has potential, within the parameters of the genetics. Maybe we can each learn to be the best potential self we can be...but then we can not pass that down through our genes, only through our memes. Hmmm. Yes. I will have to spend time thinking about this.

:)
Lisa

Beginnings and endings

2010-02-28T08:13:00.007-08:00

Let's start with the endings, shall we?

I realized as I was starting my new journal that I'd not yet finished the last few pages in my old journal...something I'm notorious for. I have many, many journals that don't end, but rather sort-of peter out. In my mind I rationalize that it's because the journals themselves really are only sections along a continuum, not fixed points, and that to have them end would mean that I ended!

This last journal, the one I finished yesterday, is especially close to my heart. In it are recorded the last 3+ years, and it was a gift from my Oldest for Christmas, 2006.

These have been some busy years, on many, many levels. This book travelled all over with me (even to New Hampshire and back, twice) and was comforting in it's weight and heft as much as in its pages. It deserved a proper ending.

The pages are creamy and thick, I was able to do almost anything to them. To close out the book, I did several pages of quotes about endings of various sorts, and this is my favorite. You can click on it to see a larger version (that goes for all the photos).

I couldn't leave yesterday's page alone (it just felt 'unfinished') and went in with one of my sepia toned pencil crayons with dictionary definitions of and synonyms for 'begin'. It's a good exercise to meditate on one word like that, to explore it fully. I'll have to remember to do that if I find myself in need of creativity exercise.

The page feels much more finished now, if still a little unbalanced.

And (because I'm completely hopeless once I get going) I added a bookplate page to the new journal. This piece of paper has been kicking around for at least a year, and it's high time that it found a home. It's in need of a much more elaborate frame than it has right now, and that is coming. I learned a little with this page (don't paint over glue, it cracks and then can't be written on), and am looking forward to working it up into something much more elaborate over the next while.

Oh yes, and I finished both of my school papers yesterday and sent them off. Whew.

I'm losing my steam for being a student right now, mostly because I'm not all that well suited to being an on-line student...there's something about a classroom full of people that makes it all more interesting, makes the subject matter make more sense. I'm a little past halfway on my current courses, then one more and I'll be done!

Happy Sunday, happy end of February. Bring on March!

Lisa

Begin....

2010-02-27T14:01:00.006-08:00

A gift recently got me going on something that I've wanted to get back to for a while now: journaling.

I spent a little quality time (in between working on the papers that are due this weekend) painting up the first pages. I find it's hardest to start, and I really didn't have a direction for this page until I got really going. It seems to reflect a lot of things that I have going on right now:
my work, the academic work, and the learning I've done in the last years about myself. Every day I have to remind myself to begin, not to avoid.
I've also recently had an opportunity to do a little illustration, which makes my heart happy. The little detail photo below is from a doodle I did during some quiet minutes at work yesterday - while thinking about the illustration op.

The piece ended up being about starting the new journal (and ending the old one), but also about many other starts...the commencement of learning to read or count, the start of the day, the movement forward, the taking of risks.

From a technical point of view, there's a lot more I could play with (and perhaps will, over the next day or so). The space in the final piece does not quite seem to be effectively used, and I would love to have a sepia toned pen with which to fill in more of the background. Perhaps the art supply store is not yet closed......?

Cheers,

Lisa

Update - Speed Skate Kamloops

2009-11-08T09:51:00.006-08:00

We spent our day yesterday at the Speed Skate meet in Kamloops. Both boys skated a 333 (333M - or 3 laps), a 500M (4 1/2 laps), a 222 (222M) and a 111. I've placed here, for your viewing enjoyment, both of their last races...the 111. First, youngest:

Not his best race of the day, but certainly his best 1 lap time ever. He started in position 4 for this race, on the far outside and came in 3rd. He had a great start, and we've learned that this is one of his strengths. His best race of the day was his first...

And Oldest's last race. Also a 111:

He is the one in Green - out in front. Best time ever for him, best race ever. Funny though, when he saw the video, he said, " I could have been lower...."

What a great day.

Here are the warriors, pre-races with their armor on:

Cheers!

Lisa

Surprise guests

2009-10-18T09:02:00.002-07:00

A little Sunday morning "where's Waldo" exercise...can you find 3 deer in this picture?

(*HINT*) They're all leaving....

This is the only one that really came out of the weeds so that we could take a picture of it yesterday. So pretty. They came up quite close to the house. We usually see their footprints, and their -ehm - droppings, but not themselves - except on the road!

After it was dark out last night, we were sitting in the living room together. SOMETHING BIG walked into one of our picture windows...I could see some light and dark shapes, but couldn't make out what it was. I turned on the outside lights to find that it was one of our neighbour's cows! He was here with several of his closest friends, probably quite disappointed that we don't have much around here by way of grass. They didn't seem to like the light on, and didn't hang around long.
Other wildlife here? Youngest and I saw a brown bear with two cubs in the last week or two, heading up toward our area from the road down below. We haven't seen too much evidence of them in the yard, but I haven't gone down the hiking trail in a while, either. We've had some bear poops up at the top of the driveway, but no fresh tracks around the house.

There's a flock? gaggle? murder? of wild turkeys that is often on the side of the road as I head up the valley to work in the morning. I almost hit one a few days before Thanksgiving weekend...we joked that I could just wrap it in tin foil and put it on the manifold to cook it up for dinner! In all honesty, though, I'm as afraid of hitting the darn turkeys with my van as I am the deer. I don't think it would cause as much damage to the vehicle, but I don't want to stand in for the grim reaper with any critter, no matter how big or small.

No elk sightings yet this fall, but there is evidence on the south side of the property that we're still on their daily path. I'm surprised that our big dog has not ensured that they find a new route.

Happy fall weekend,
Lisa

Apple abundance....apple pie filling

2009-10-04T11:57:00.004-07:00

My Mom and Dad shared their apple bounty with me - THANKS!

I spent a couple hours last night and this morning making Christmas gifts of canned apple pie filling (be forwarned, family and friends) and thought I'd share the recipe...

4.5 C white sugar
1 C cornstarch
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp salt
10 C water

Combine in a large pot, mixing well. Cook until thick and bubbly. Remove from the heat and add

3 Tbs lemon juice.

Meanwhile....

Peel, core and slice
6 lbs apples ( I used about 8 lbs for each 7 L of finished filling, but many of the apples were small)
I put mine into a sink full of cold lemon-water as I worked so that they didn't get too brown.

Pack 1 L jars with apples, leaving about 1/2" head space.

Fill the jars with the hot syrup and gently remove air bubbles with a knife.

Put lids on and process in a hot water bath canner for 20 minutes.

Whew!

I made a pie from the leftover bits of yesterday's jars and this morning's jars using a pre-made pie shell.

If you wanted to do this with pre-made shells (from the grocery store freezer section), make sure you buy a 2 shell, deep dish box.

Let the two shells thaw on the counter for at least 15 minutes, then pour the contents of one jar into one of the shells. Unmold the other shell onto the counter top so that it flattens out a bit.
Place the flattened shell on the pie , pinching all around the edges. Cut a few vent holes in the top, and bake in a 450 degree oven for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350 degrees, then bake another 25-35 minutes, until the pie is lightly browned on top and the crust is flaky.

Let it rest for 15 minutes or so before cutting into it...serve with ice cream, or cheddar - or, with my dad in mind, BOTH!
:)

Happy Sunday,

Lisa

Back to school, on a couple of levels...

2009-09-25T11:13:00.003-07:00

I got a job!

I've been working in an on-call capacity since the beginning of the school year, but was not caled very often...that is until last Thursday. On call last week for Thursday, Friday, Monday and Tuesday at the same school. Tuesday afternoon I learned that I obtained the position I was substituting in! Wednesday, I went to work in my new position - same as what I'd been doing since the previous week. Hooray! I'd applied for 5 positions, but this was the one that I wanted!
It's an elementary school, and I'm in the position of Education Assistant. I love this work.

Life is good.

In that nailbiting 2 week period of NOT having any work, I put the wheels in motion to start my next year of schooling - online through the College of the Rockies. If I were to go there, it would look like this:

But instead, because it's all online, it will look like this:

Yep, I'm in school as a teacher, and as a learner.

The courses I'm taking online right now are about crisis intervention and conflict resolution. Very timely considering some of the issues I've already come across on the playground!

Life is good, is busy.

(Doesn't she look so incredibly hip? How much hairspray does that really take?)
:)
Lisa

More knit love

2009-09-17T10:28:00.005-07:00

My Mom-in-law recently finished a gorgeous aran knit sweater for my DH. In the parcel she mailed us, she included the 3 skeins of yarn that she had not used for it...and surprise, surprise...I had a project in mind that takes exactly that much yarn!

The project is from the Fall issue of Interweave Knits, and it's called the Every Way Wrap by Okmin Park. If you click on the link in the name, you'll see several pictures of the model for the magazine...something to notice is that the cabled area is actually reversible! I'm learning how to do a cabled area that can be enjoyed from either side.

Also, this is the first knit I've done using the technique that has no cable needle - in all honesty, I don't think I'll ever go back. No way. This is just too slick. I can cable MUCH faster this way than I ever could before.

Anyhoo, that's what's got me busy in the evenings right now. That, and looking for renters for our house in Nakusp.

Cheers,

Lisa

Summer green, finally finished

2009-09-16T08:44:00.009-07:00

It's been moved from place to place, unfolded, refolded, moved again...and now it's finally finished.

I posted a picture of this sweater back in July, when I was still actively knitting it. Sadly, it has been shuffled about, claspless, until last night.

The main thing was that I thought I'd need to reinforce the front bands with ribbon, but, after trying to sew one on last night with no real success I thought, "finished is better than perfect" - and just put the pesky clasps in place.

I love it.

I loved the yarn to begin with (Ella Rae wool from Romania? I think?)

I spend a silly amount of time just enjoying the weight and texture of the sweater. This is done on 4mm needles, much smaller than the leftovers vest of a previous post. Somehow this needle/yarn combination just hits that textural 'sweet spot' that can be so elusive.

Hopefully I'll get called into work so that I can wear it out! Classrooms can be chilly, you know, and shorter sleeves ensures that I don't drag them through a student's (or my own) work.

And it fits.

Hooray!

The little clasps are from Fabricland (which a friend of mine not-so-affectionately calls "the F store")... *blush*

Cheers,

Lisa

Change - long (photo heavy)

2009-09-15T13:45:00.005-07:00

For a while now - about a year - I've been contemplating a big change for the blog. It is not what it began as, and has been bothering me that I've not changed it to reflect that.

This blog began as a way to connect with people in the quilting industry, to be part of that network, and to let my customers (at the time) know that I was working on things for them, and to announce things that were coming up within my career as a professional quilter. I've been very lucky to have met many, many lovely people through this strange media, most of them connected with quilting or crafting in some way.

We lived very rurally (in a way we are more rural now, but have greater access to services) in a small community, and this blog gave me a way to connect with others of similar interest in a place where few shared my passion with the same intensity.

Now, life is very different. I spent last year completing a certificate program in Classroom and Community Support Work through Selkirk College...living in the garage...building the house. Now that we are in the house, the children are back at school and we have all the conveniences that modern life can afford us, I've had a little bit of time to look back and reflect on just how much our lives have changed.

It's pretty dramatic, really.

So, this is the post that will mark the transition between a blog that has been written as much for work as for pleasure to one that is a little more personal in nature. I didn't want to lose the name of 'Lisa quilts', as I still hope to do that in my life, but wanted the header to reflect a little more of what I do in other aspects of my life.

The sunflower in the header is the only one we have left that has survived the elk that wander through...probably because it is about 11 feet tall. All the leaves have been stripped off up as high as I can reach! Oh, well. We've been promising ourselves that NEXT year we'll landscape (and put up fences). This year is for building. It's tremendously hard for me to focus like that.
:)

Because of our life in the garage, I've become reacquainted with my love of knitting. This is partly due to it's tremendous portability, the lovely textural sensation and technical challenge that knitting can be.

I've come to love the look of a well stacked firewood pile - and the stacking itself! Living here has necessitated my being more active outside, something that I love more and more.

Our boys are settling (after a year at this property) into what living out here is like. When we want to, we can go to the city - but we can stay home, make forts with friends and jump on the trampoline, too. They are happy to have room of their own now, and to have rediscovered all the possessions that they had that had languished in storage for a year. Moving into their rooms was like Christmas and Birthdays all rolled together. It was a gift for me, as their Mom, watching them create spaces that are as distinct as each of their characters.

In all honesty I feel a little at sea this fall. I'm ready to launch into the next phase in my life, but unsure what it will be at this time. Right now, I have one on-call position (which is not keeping me busy), and have just applied for another. I don't know what role I'm in unless all the family is at home in the evening and I know that I'm Wife and Mom. I miss being Student - that was a lot of fun and challenge. I look forward to having that role again, but know it will be after I've spent some time sharing the title of Breadwinner with my fella.

Our property is really to our tastes. My fella gets to drive his tractor, we get to build and explore, to dream and grow. We had the most wonderful experience on the labour day weekend of family arriving to help us with building a roof for our 10' X 40' tractor shed...we are truly blessed with love and willing hands.

We are closer to my parents, now. Among many little favours, they did us the tremendous favour of taking our boys to their house for the week that I was in an Autism course at the end of August. We get to see and play with them more often than we did when we were in Nakusp and I love the relationship that's growing between our boys and my parents. My sister and her family, while not physically closer, cross paths with us much more often - another lovely gift. Our boys love to be with their cousins, and it is a joy to me to have a caring relationship with my neice and nephews as they grow.

Life is finding a rythm again. There's a little more room in this rythm for contemplation and personal writing, for socializing and other things that feed our souls.

I feel like we're at a confluence point right now - a place where the path of our lives and relationships from Nakusp come together with the friends and experiences of the past year to create a much larger river. Our lives are richer for the experience, though at times it has been very hard. The joys have been as intense as the difficulties, and we strive to find balance in life each day.

It's a gift to be here, in this moment, looking forward and looking back.

I can't imagine what will happen next.

Lisa

Knit love...

2009-09-01T09:57:00.004-07:00

I'm waiting for some wool to come in. While I do, I've been using up odd skeins that have been hanging around...

This is 'Leftovers' from Knitty. My modifications include the fact that I didn't realize there were any body increases - whatsoever - and had to 'make up' the neck decreases and armhole shaping! It's not blocked yet, and there are a few ends to weave in, but it's pretty much ready for going back to school/work next week.

My winter coat will be Heroine, in red plum colour. Currently I'm biding my time waiting for the wool by making a Lucy bag. Chances are I'll have to make something else, too...there's got to be some sock yarn around here somewhere...

:)
Lisa

Fully fulled - ready for winter...

2009-07-20T11:10:00.003-07:00

Well.
Perhaps blogger and I just plain disagree on how photos should be presented.
Perhaps something fundamental has changed in the software since I was a regular blogger.
Perhaps I just have lost my 'touch' for these things.
Regardless, here is the story of fulling my slippers (shown in last post) in reverse order:

Finished!

It's a good thing that I looked into the washing machine when I did, as the slippers were fully fulled to fit my foot. There is absolutely no stitch definition left, and they have a delightfully squishy, nubbly texture. I had given up hope on them by the time I'd thrown them in the washer with a bunch of pairs of jeans for agitation.

The photo above is the penultimate desperation point, when I gave up on being gentle and just went for it with the plunger and HOT water in our bathtub. The slippers were seeming to just stretch at this stage, so I thought I could put them in the washing machine as I had nothing to lose by it.

Here is the cold shock I gave them, hoping to make them start to lose stitch definition - or SOMETHING.

The photo above shows how gently I started. The bucket is filled with crazily hot water and a little bit of mild soap. Having accidently shrunken knitwear before, I thought it best to start with caution. Somehow the idea of abandoning the slippers to the front loader seemed a bit too rash...

At this stage I was still thinking it might be safe to throw DH's new sweater into the washer (these slips are using up a couple of the last skeins from that project). Now I know that would be disasterous.

And this, last and first photo, shows how big they were in proportion to my feet before I started the fulling process. I love the not knowing part, the excitement and anticipation that's all part of projects like these.

Now I'm ready for winter. Which is only 3 months away...

:)

Lisa

No, I really do still make small stuff, too....

2009-07-16T07:50:00.003-07:00

I've been knitting a little over the past month since school let out. I started with these socks just around exam time - they're going to take a while. I'm actually further along on them than the photo records as I would work on them during breaks at work. I was calling them my 'grad socks', but I think they're more like my 'lunch break socks'.

While DH was away on a five day motorcycle trip over the Canada Day week, I knit a skirt:

And before that, I tried my hand at knitting a shrug:

Right now I'm working on these slippers (they'll be fulled down to size) using the leftover wool from the sweater I finally finished for DH. I put the book in there for size reference. These badboys are knit on 7mm needles - I feel like I'm knitting with cordwood!

My main project, though, has been this little 3/4 length sleeve cardigan. I really started the slippers as a break from the seed stitch (don't enjoy doing it, but love the way it looks once done). I'm in love with the colour, and with the texture of this particular knitted fabric. It's knit top down based on this pattern. I've made quite a few mods, though, and will probably pick out the cast on row at the neckline and do something different there. We'll see, I haven't decided.

What do they say...idle hands are the devil's..what? Idle hands don't get sore? Idle hands still have nice fingernails? Hm.
I just can't remember.
:)
Lisa

Pole Barn action....

2009-07-15T10:00:00.008-07:00

(Please note, these photos are all out of order - blogger and I are disagreeing about things this morning)

Because we just don't have enough to do inside on our house, we thought we'd build a pole barn. Well, DH actually wanted to build it, and last year.

In order to build a pole barn, you need several things: a shovel, level, a chainsaw, a tractor, logs that you cut the year before, gigantic bolts, adoring fans, ready help, a good head for problem solving, and a lot of brute strength.

Optional things to have include:
a chair, a stack of wood to build the barn around, a drawknife and a beer.

We've been having the most amazing loads of firewood delivered. It's salvaged from an area that I wrote about here. The logs are huge, some a little burned, and all 2 years seasoned.

What you cannot see from the photos here are all the times spent, with DH and I sitting, looking at this - trying to figure out how to get the big*** tractor between the two buildings in a way that would not damage anything, that would be reasonably easy to navigate, that we'd be able to get it out again (I say 'we' but the tractor is driven by 'he'. I've not learned that particular trick yet).

DH built the front side with a bit of help (I emphasize 'BIT') from me on Sunday, then half of the back on his own on Monday. Apparently we started at the toughest corner to negotiate...a good thing, I guess, as everything after that is more straightforward.

DH dug the holes by hand, and we placed each of the poles in their posthole by hand... sounds easy, right? DH had the herculean job of lifting the log, and I had the job of guiding the end into the posthole (without allowing the hole to be filled by bumping the log against the sides too much). I felt VERY left-footed about the whole thing. I know there are places in my life where I have strengths, but this is not one of them!

Funny - although the photos didn't come out in the order I wanted, one thing did work. The photo I wanted to end with is here at the end:

:)
Lisa

Oldest finishes Elementary School

2009-06-25T10:41:00.004-07:00

We had the celebration yesterday! Today the boys' school ended and they are as happy as can be. Summer looks lovely and bright.

I've finished school now - OFFICIALLY - and am so relieved. And happy. I've been working since May, but now am done again for the summer. I lucked out by getting an on-call position in the district I wanted, and now am a school district employee.

I'll post more pics as the week unfolds.

We're living in the house now, but still finishing it. The kitchen's not quite to where I can use it yet, so expect updates on how that is going, too.

I've missed blogland. It's good to be back.

:)

Lisa

On a lighter note....

2009-05-12T16:15:00.005-07:00

Yesterday, Dude the dog ate my glasses. Now, I realize that's not all that funny - in fact, I had a few choice words for him (uttered at high volume) when I discovered him happily munching on my favorite - and only - pair of glasses.

Today he issued a video apology, in the style of YouTube:

So there you have it. He's sorry.

:)
Lisa

Still here

2009-03-23T14:43:00.005-07:00

I'm still around, just in school a whole bunch. I've been so lucky to have this opportunity, to re-connect with the whole 'school' thing...
I forgot how much I enjoy writing and learning.
Part of what we are doing in the Health and Wellness piece of what I'm doing involves doing ART each class! After not having access to any of my visual art supplies for a few months it was a lovely surprise to find that we were going to be spending time doing drawing and collage as part of the self-exploratory part of our class. I love, too, that the art is presented as an avenue anyone can participate in to find their own quiet inner space or to explore things in their own lives. The classroom teacher treats it all very respectfully and is aware that things can get emotional for people as they are moving through their own 'stuff'.

I'm moving into exam time soon, finishing one practicum and preparing to begin another.

I guess I'll have to keep doing art to keep my inner equilibrium! Aw, shucks. Well, anything for school....
:)

On the house front:
We're getting closer. I need to post photos of progress, I know. My DH is building our interior stairs out of maple - and they are absolutely beautiful. So classic, so strong, so beautiful. He'll be building all of the window and door moldings, baseboards...anything out of wood. I can't wait to see what it looks like all finished!

Almost all our lighting fixtures are in. One of our bathrooms is fully functional. All the little parts of civilized lifestyle are coming together bit by bit.

I admit that I do love the challenges and lifestyle that comes with our circumstances, but there are days when I'd like to have easy access to an oven, and hot running water in a kitchen setting.
Don't think I'm complaining, though - our family may never live so close to each other (in the same room like this) ever again, and with our boys moving toward adolescence, I try to treasure every day.

:)
Lisa

Catching up

2009-02-09T21:58:00.005-08:00

I can hardly believe how quickly time is flying. We're already this far into February and I've not updated about life!

School is going well.
It's given me opportunities that I could not have imagined before, and new ways of looking at the world. This year, between our move, our build, change of lifestyle and going back to school I've learned a lot about myself and how I react to, deal with and cope with change. To be cliche, it's been very character building. Pretty soon we're going to have to build another outbuilding just to house my big character!
:)

The weather is still quite cold, and we have tremendously deep snowpiles on the property. I wish the photos had turned out, but about 2 weeks ago I came home from school to find that the boys had built inukshuks out of snow (s'nukshuks) all the way down the driveway - it was like coming home to a cheering crowd. They were so pleased! Their most recent project has been building snow caves and caverns in the big, deep piles. Our sweetheart neighbour gave the boys each smaller versions of real snow shovels, and they've been digging up a storm ever since.

I wouldn't mind if they were motivated to dig out the path to the outhouse now and then.....sigh.

The house is progressing - I'm writing this from what will become DH and my room, once all is done.

Yes, we have wifi. No, we have no indoor plumbing.

We have priorities, you see!

As of tomorrow, we'll have a functioning shower. I won't go into the saga of how the shower got built...considering it's square footage, it's got more story than it deserves. Our plumber is coming tomorrow to put in the faucet and shower head, the sink and toilet in this bathroom. While this sounds sooooo promising, I'm learning not to do the happy dance until everything is actually in place and functioning - LIKE OUR WASHER AND DRYER!

We installed them last night after the tilers left, and I've not let them sit idle for long since then.

In the time since August that we've been living here, I've been doing my laundry nearby in Castlegar, at a lovely laundromat called "Soap 'n' Suds". It's been my connection to clean clothes for the family, and my connection to the internet.
It would normally take me at least 3 hours to do my laundry there, not including the 20 minute drive either way.
I can not tell you how extatic I am to be able to fold my underwear in the privacy of my own home!

We had our kitchen cabinets built through Rona. I designed the kitchen( so anything that goes wrong is my fault). So far, things seem to be going into place without toooooo many adjustments for size....
I love the cabinets. I can't wait to get in there and tile that countertop and backsplash.

Our main floor is concrete, with in-floor heating. It was a bit of a gamble for us to go with this heat, but - let me tell you - it's so worth it! There is nothing like taking off your shoes and having a warm floor underneath your tootsies, even when it's -20 outside.

We had our concrete floors stained, and at right is a picture of the compass that we had etched into the floor. Once the sealant is completely cured (another week or so) I'll grout all the scribed lines with a black grout, then reseal the floor. Right now, the floor is just dirty as all hell with all of us and the tradespeople traipsing in and out all the time.

The photo on the right is of the entryway when I came in this evening. Yep. I'll be resealing the floor before we move any furniture in!
On the left is a photo of our hallway (looking back toward the entry). Although the floor is a bit dirty, it gives a good idea of what we had done and what the colours are.

The whole main floor has a jade green 8" border stained into the floor around a nice coffee brown. We were a little worried that the green was going to come out turquoise, but it came out exactly the colour we had hoped.

We have a long way to go yet before we are moved in, but each day brings us a step closer. DH and I were saying last night how it always seems like everything happens at once - but really, without all the preparation, things would not come together at all.

Each convenience is such a gift. One of our family traditions is to say what we are thankful for when we sit down to a meal together. It's been really wonderful to hear our boys' excitement as we move toward this goal as a family, and how they appreciate all the little things that so many of us take for granted in this culture.

Tonight I'm thankful for the challenges and successes that have come my way over the past 9 months, for my family being around me and nearby...
and for clean laundry.

:)
Lisa

More... of the same....

2009-01-05T10:00:00.002-08:00

It's been cold enough for long enough that we've been able to build a pretty big skating rink out next to the garage. It's about 20' X 40', and was first skated on in the picture above on Dec 23. The boys are much stronger on their skates than they were in that pic - they whizz around there like lightning now...I can hardly catch them when we're playing tag. The snow banks around the rink are much, much higher now, too, and the boys can skate at full speed down the ice and crash right into the drifts (they're about as high as my shoulder).

Here's an early morning view of our land to the south-west. We've had some truly lovely sunny days in between the deluges of snow.

Oh, and though we have no oven (I cook either on the bbq, on a hot plate, or in the slow cooker), we had to make a gingerbread house. Those pesky kits at the store are not half bad. The boys built the whole thing themselves this year...times, they are a changin'.

Cheers,

Lisa

Happy New Year!

2009-01-05T09:47:00.003-08:00

My oh my.

It's been a long time since I've written. I'm kind of embarrassed, really, but there wasn't a whole lot I could do about it. I didn't realize just how much I took for granted this whole 'internet'-thingy until I didn't have it anymore.

And I still don't have it. Not at home, anyway. No, this post comes to you thanks to a monumental scheduling misunderstanding which has put me at school with enough time to answer all my emails AND post a blog before my first class of '09 starts. Yikes.

So the above photo is of our house with the roof on and the windows in. The one below is the one I sent out with our Christmas letter. The house looks about the same right now, just with about 2 1/2 more feet of snow on the roof - you probably think I'm kidding - but I'm not

It's been a bumper year for snow, and if it were a cash crop, we'd all be rich.
Our living conditions are much the same as last time I wrote. We're living in the garage, happily using our outhouse and fantasizing about the conveniences of hot running water and indoor plumbing.
The progress on the house has been consistent in speed, and now all the changes that happen are on the inside. The painter is there now, and the inside is slowly changing into a lovely, lovely colour. The kitchen should arrive mid-month, and the lovely couple that are staining our floor will be here in the 3rd week of Jan.

And because everything is so back logged, photo-wise, I had to post a pic of my boys TWO months ago...

Boy it's good to be back.

:)
Lisa

up up and away...(photo heavy)

2008-09-26T11:36:00.002-07:00

On Tuesday the trusses were delivered. Some of the builders spent part of the day putting them together, while the other builders worked on putting up the blocks for the boys' rooms on the second story.

On Wednesday the crane arrived with a shipment of drywall and plywood (etc.), and before he left, he lifted up the scissor trusses and set them on the walls...I held my breath the whole time.

It amazes me that we human-types have built machines that are capable of lifting such incredibly heavy, awkward things with such precision. It's hard not to marvel at the skill of the machine builders, and of the machine operators. Some of these guys make it look really, really easy.
And there it is, the full bundle of scissor trusses on the roof... can you believe it? The subfloor is on the second level, and during the day yesterday the plumber came and did all the rough in so that we can go about getting the floor poured really soon on the main. The septic fellas came Wed. and Thurs. and got the whole septic system put in...

Here's what it looked like this morning when I left. You can now see where the octagon windows will be on the second story, and the way the roof line changes from the front living area to the back where the boys' rooms are on the second story. Oh, and yeah, we've been sick this week so we haven't finished wrapping the garage. (That would be the royal 'we'...I've been sicker than a dog. Slept through most of this progress, except when I lifted my head to take pictures or talk to the builders about one thing or another).

Now to get caught up on school work!

:)
Lisa

more progress and some climbing monkeys...

2008-09-19T13:33:00.003-07:00

The floor joists are going in...and the house is going up.

Here are the 3 main lights of my life up on the wall, in a spot they'll not get to ever be again. The big opening on the left will be the french doors to our deck, and where they are is where the roof will go up and also down over the deck.

The view from up here is wonderful. Here we are in our loft. :)
Things are coming, step by step. I'm so grateful that we get to witness all the progress of this, our new home.

Happy trails,
Lisa

Another quick post between classes

2008-09-08T12:45:00.004-07:00

What can this man be doing?

Has he gone mad with tractor power?

No...

just that it's time for the Great Outhouse Migration of 2008!

We've moved camp down close to the garage, and will need to have the spiffy biffy closer to our new digs. DH spent the day on Saturday digging a new trench and moving this honey over.

In all honesty, this was a pretty tense process. That little building is HEAVY.

The photos of this are a little bit patchy, but here's the basic progress...

Somehow, through DH's muscle and my - ahem - direction, we managed to tip it off of it's base. Note the stool holding the house up as we tried to position the forks of the tractor to facilitate tipping the outhouse on to them. The boys were rather worried that the stool would fall in!

Just for the record - I've read about outhouse tipping as a prank, in novels, etc., from older times. Having now been part of a very deliberate outhouse tipping, all I can say is that it would take a very determined tipper and a very, very unfortunate tippee. I can't imagine doing this as a prank. The person inside the outhouse would most certainly hear the person on the outside grunting and groaning. Hmmm....I guess those sounds could be mistaken for a bear, in the right circumstances...

I didn't draw a full breath while this thing was on the forks. Every bump and rock was a major obstacle, and DH pulled in all his cosmic driving favours in order to get this driven the 70 or so feet to it's new resting place. My.

Our oldest filmed the journey, something that will certainly go into the family archive.

The in-between phase, of which we have no pictures, is of us moving the foundation (made of 4 X 4's and huge lag bolts) to the new area. This part ended up being accomplished by tipping the foundation so that one end rested on the truck bed...and I carried the other end while DH drove the truck (again slowly and carefully) to the new spot. We got it unloaded and placed there (reasonably levelled), then unloaded the outhouse and wiggled it onto it's new resting place.

Voila! Here it is, in the woods at the back of the land, closer to our new camp.

DH said that the slight bit that it's off - level is going to bother him, but honestly, after moving that thing, the last thing I'm worried about is it tipping over in the wind!

Yesterday was spent trenching the newly levelled driveway in order to run the electrical, the cable and the internet connection all through underground from the pole to the house, then to the garage.

The electrician is there again today working with DH to get the wiring into the garage.

The house is completed to the top of the 1st story, minus the concrete pour (which should happen on Wednesday).

Here's how it all looks right now, as of last evening, before we went to the pool for a swim, soak and shower. That can and should become a welcome little weekly ritual! Currently DH is still showering in Nelson at the aquatic centre, and I'm showering at the gym at the college. Yeah. Hot water. Indoors. Yeah.

It sure doesn't take much to make us happy these days...

And if your partner ever asks you if you think you should buy a tractor, just say 'heck yeah'. Ours has been a tremendously good investment so far.

:)

Lisa

A quick check in...

2008-09-05T10:22:00.002-07:00

I'm at Selkirk College! Doing a quick post before my laptop battery runs out...

This was the state of the house this morning when I left, they're almost up to the floor for the second story, hooray!

I'm in the large foyer of the school - affectionately called 'the pit', where there is free wifi. I wish you could hear, but someone just sat down at the piano and started playing the most beautiful, chopin-like piece. College is grand.

The boys are adjusting to their new school with such an amazing resilience and joy. We're very happy for them, as they make new friends.
Here they are, on their first day....

Can you sense Oldest's, "aw, Mom, aren't I a little too old for this posing thing?"

:)

Cheers to you, wherever you are.

Lisa

Quick progress post while I'm near a computer....

2008-08-27T11:59:00.003-07:00

On Saturday we had the towing company pick everything up....

And Sunday morning they brought it to us and put it down at our new place.
Here's the garage, now at the point DH and his Dad and brother got it to in order for us to live in it...it's a long story. We'll not be living in it now, as they've started the construction of the house!

Look at that - so easy, a child can do it (hah!). This is how high they got the first floor built yesterday (up from the foundation). Now they put the scaffolding inside and get ready to build higher...
Those are our front windows where we will look out from our living and dining rooms. I can hardly wait.

:)

Until next time,

Lisa

See you soon

2008-08-22T09:11:00.001-07:00

We'll be going off line shortly while we get our new place set up, and during the nitty gritty of our move. I hope to be checking in with you all again in early September!

All the best to you until then,

Lisa

Progress...

2008-08-17T10:29:00.002-07:00

Dh's brother and Dad have been at our land for the last week, putting this bad boy together. Wow! Can you believe they did this in one week?

We're busy packing here, we'll move next weekend.

Things I have learned from packing:

I am old enough to have a formidable number of National Geographics. They hurt a lot when you stub your toe on them.

Keeping a Lego container in every room is a VERY good idea. That way any wayward pieces do actually end up back with all the other Lego.

All those twist ties in the bottom of the garbage bag drawer are mighty handy for wrapping up computer cords, lamp cords, etc., etc.

Every time you think you've packed all the books, there are more books. Books individually are light. Many books together are heavy. Really, really heavy.

For everything I keep, there is something that I don't.

Stuff is just stuff, but some of it really matters. Stuff that matters is worth keeping.

:)
Lisa

Something I meant to post

2008-08-02T08:51:00.002-07:00

A reflection in the hub of our new truck...noticed while exiting the outhouse one morning:

I just LOVE distorted images.

:)

Lisa

Sleep? What's that?

2008-08-02T02:30:00.004-07:00

Omy. I haven't had a night like this in a long, long time.

Can't seem to get my brain to shut off. Keep trying to lie down, but -

yeah.

So, I took some photos along the way, thinking I would show you all the process for this, but it's done.

There are a couple of modifications I'd like to make...mostly to do with the order of construction.

Once again I took the webbing strap and big clip for the shoulder strap from the previous bag (what does that make? 5 bags now that I've used that strap?), and took the zipper out of it for this one.

I had a small clasp and some webbing here that I'd removed from some previous bag or backpack that came in handy holding the flap side down.

I have a hunch that I put the zipper in so that it would be more convenient for someone who is left-handed (uh, I'm not). The pockets on the inside are not as detailed as usual...there need to be more pencil slots in there (once again, an order of construction problem. I stitched through all the layers with the zipper side pocket and front open pocket before stitching the inside pocket to the lining. Big mistake).

The size is good, though, and I like the way it feels on. It holds all my gear with a little room left over for my camera, as well.

This one is certainly worth making again, better though.

Maybe this time when I lie down sleep will find me...

Yawn.

L

It's a good thing that I love this puppy...

2008-08-01T21:32:00.004-07:00

...because apparently it loves me. A lot. Remember this bag? He ate it.

Yep.

I guess he missed me.

My sister was wise to point out that it could have been worse, the laptop could have been in it at the time....

It's brought about another bag design brainstorm - here's the 'nuts and bolts' page in my journal along with all the things that I find myself carrying these days (wallet, sketchbook, phone - I've finally joined modern society -keys, MP3 player, and, well, poop bags). If you can see the drawing, the one I've decided on is the picture I drew in the middle of the page - inspired by the 'comb over' bag shape, but smaller in scale. I need to make it to fit these things... not nearly as big as the actual 'comb over' bag (which is designed for carrying a laptop, etc.).

I think this one will have final dimensions of around 10"w X 9"h X 3 1/2" deep. I've figured out where all the pockets will go, and drawn the main pattern piece on vellum, getting ready to cut things out. Now I just have to figure out which order the pieces go together in....

:)
Lisa

Our last while at the new place

2008-08-01T08:35:00.004-07:00

We've been down at the land off and on over the past while...the pics above are from the hike that we took down the trail behind our new place. If you'd like to browse through the pictures and descriptions, you can do so here.

We've been watching the foundations being poured for our garage, as well as the first few rows of blocks on our house. Apparently they are starting the back fill today, and bringing in the loads of gravel in for the driveway and the fill needed for the main floor (I think). If you'd like to see more of that, you can look here. It's the spot that has all the pictures of our place so far...

Yesterday was Oldest's birthday. Oi! My Oldest is 11! We had lots of great cousin cuddles and friend time, got to go to the movie and have some friends sleep over. Pancakes for breakfast this morning....life is good.

Thought you might enjoy a parting shot of my two young men in their wedding guest finery. We got to see some dear friends begin their lives together this weekend past, and it was a very special thing to be a part of.

Happy summer,

Lisa

While I've been packing

2008-07-25T12:07:00.004-07:00

I've run across all these little projects that I kept thinking I'd get around to. I guess I should be happy that I have so much time to pack, as this has given me the opportunity to go through all those deep, dark corners in the house - you know the ones I mean, we all have 'em.

One of the things on my list has been this dress from the Burda Style website...don'tcha just love good quality, free downloadable patterns? I'll be back... there are at least two more garments I want to make from here....

As you can JUST see in the background, I'm working an an area filled with boxes , empty shelves and piles of disassembled stuff. It was sanity saving to sit down and put together this little dress. Sorry not to have too many progress photos, but I stayed up late, the light was bad for photo taking, the audiobook was good, and - well- I just kinda got caught up in the process!

Here's me, in a photo taken by youngest, doing my best Twiggy.

Hooray for summer sewing, hooray for summer.

Now back to house cleaning...we show again in the morning and I've got a loooong workday ahead of me to get to that point!

Back to the boxes, the basement, the washcloths...

:)
Happy sewing,

Lisa

Music Fest Weekend

2008-07-20T16:13:00.005-07:00

Some of you may know that this is Music Festival weekend here in Nakusp.

The Festival grounds are quite close to our house, at the end of our block, actually (we're the second house from the corner). For 3 days out of each summer we are utterly surrounded by campers. And I mean completely. This is the high school field behind our house (there are no campers on the upper lawns, as that would wreck the underground sprinkler system). The campground 100ft away is also filled to capacity, as are most driveways, backyards and fields right nearby.

The boys have taken an interesting approach to our proximity and have had an iced tea stand two years in a row now. I love the spot that they set up at, it's within a block of our house and I can easily see them from my kitchen window. This year they not only have iced tea, but homebaked cookies and cool ties. (Cool ties are a tie that you soak in water for 15 minutes, the crystals inside absorb the water, and they help you evaporate off your body heat - we've been a sweat shop *heh* making things for their booth). Here they are between rushes:

And here they are, amazed at their own ability to earn...

Pretty nifty.

And, because I'm a silly dog owner, head-over-heels for my puppy, is a puppy photo.

All hot dogs should have a cool floor to lie on...

:)
Lisa

My summer reading

2008-07-20T11:13:00.002-07:00

I've been reading 'Eat Pray Love', by Elizabeth Gilbert. Not quite finished yet, but ran across a passage I had to share. It seems very significant to me, well stated and pertinent to my life (and perhaps it would be to others who periodically struggle against depression).

Quoted from page 260:
"I keep remembering one of my Guru's teachings about happiness. She says that people universally tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will maybe descend upon you like fine weather if you're fortunate enough. But that's not how happiness works. Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it, you must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it. If you don't, you will leak away your innate contentment. It's easy enough to pray when you're in distress but continuing to pray even when your crisis has passed is like a sealing process, helping your soul hold tight to its good attainments."

There you go.

Lisa

Something I found...

2008-07-18T15:53:00.003-07:00

I little gift taped to the wall from my youngest geologist.

Parenthood can be sooo sweet.

L

House progress

2008-07-17T20:27:00.004-07:00

We spent part of the weekend and this week at our new land. You can see that the new (to us) camper got pressed into service right away!

It was certainly much more comfortable than sleeping in the tent.

On Monday we got a chance to see them pour the foundation for our house... so exciting!

Those poor fellas are working out in the sweltering heat. They had to work really fast because things were drying so quickly. Oldest and I watched this happen from the shade of the camper, as it was almost impossible for us to stand in the sun for more than a few minutes at a time.

Here's the finished pour:

Probably not all that exciting for you non-family members. Really. It's okay, I understand. I probably wouldn't read about someone else's cement pour...

For those of you are still reading...

We're building with ICF (Insulated Concrete Forms). Very cool, very much like giant Lego.

The fella doing the work said that it's as much fun as Lego for big boys...with rebar...but you don't get to choose your colours, they only make the blocks in white - BUT the kits are REALLY BIG!

The day after they poured the foundation they came back and set up two rows of blocks. Once the two rows are in AND the forms are built for the garage foundation, the cement truck will return and pour into these forms - then we'll be able to put the floor in. And the walls should go up quite quickly from there.

Can you believe it? It's begun in earnest, now.

Whew.

Lisa
:)

Now you see it, now you don't

2008-07-17T20:16:00.007-07:00

We spent some time in the hospital waiting area this morning....

We waited...

and waited.....

and waited....

and when finally they had time for us...

Check it out! New X-rays, CLEAR X-rays... and one very, very happy boy.

We spent the afternoon at the beach, swimming, fully submerged as often as possible to celebrate.

Summer officially starts today for this young man.

:)

Lisa

A tremendous honour

2008-07-15T22:01:00.004-07:00

While I was not looking, Debra awarded me which reminds me how thankful I really am for this online network of wonderful people I've met through blogging. I don't know if I'll ever get the chance to meet Debra in person (she's in Texas and I'm in B.C.), but if I ever do, she'll get a big, big (Texas-sized) hug. If I could give the award back to her, I would. Her work is tremendous, it makes me think...it makes me drool...and most of all, it's a feast for the senses. I really would love to reach right through my monitor and touch what she's working on...maybe someday we'll have feel-o-vision for us fibre nuts.

Who to share this honour with? She's already passed it on to a couple of lovelies that I'd have had on my list...

Here are some inspirational blogs that I read as they are posted:

Rhiannon (over at Toast and Cupcakes). Rhiannon is a lovely, tremendously talented clothing designer who is busy, busy, busy. I've got a couple of her creations in my closet (all the way from Australia) and love reading about her life when she has time to post. I find her work very inspiring.

Bethany (over at Bitter Betty Industries). Bethany is always cooking up something new, whether it's wonderful vintage-styled clothing, cooking, gardening, or puppy rearing. I never know what I'll find with one of her posts, but I always know it'll have style.

Jared (over at Brooklyn Tweed) never fails to amaze me with his knitting, his spinning and his wonderful photography. Drool.

Samantha (over at Diary of a Mad FabriHolic) is always doing something involving her family, her work, her volunteer work, her knitting or her quilting. She combines colours in wonderful ways and has tremendous enthusiasm for crafting. I always open her posts to see what's going on.

Sue (over at Sue Bleiweiss) is always making new surfaces for us fibre junkies to ooh and aah at. I was lucky enough to take a class on multi-media surfaces from her last year (some of you longtime readers might remember) which opened my eyes to all kinds of new possibilities for fibre art and fibre art surfaces. I'm a huge fan of her journals, which she has made into an art form unto themselves.

Now, these are only a few of my daily reads. These are some of the wonderful people that keep my creative juices flowing, even when I can't express my fibre-lust in my own life - I get to live vicariously through theirs...

Yours,
humbly,

Lisa

We're away

2008-07-13T09:33:00.003-07:00

In our new (to us, anyway) camper trailer for a couple days. See you soon!

Lisa

There's no school like the OLD school...

2008-07-12T21:43:00.003-07:00

As my DH pulled up with the truck, Oldest said, "cool, we got a retro truck!"

Little does he know how NOT retro, but just plain OLDSCHOOL this whole set up is...yup, a beautiful '76 Skylark camper and 80's vintage GMC. Guess where the boys are sleeping tonight? I just took out a flashlight to them, in case they need to come in during the night.

The truck has been dubbed 'Rootbeer', and the boys want to name the camper 'Cappuccino' - I mentioned that we don't have to name all our vehicles after beverages, but was voted out. Sigh. Who am I to argue?

We'll take it down to the land tomorrow, and set up a rather deluxe (well, more so than the van, anyway) domicile so that the boys and I can spend more time down there without having to tent. And this way we'll have an easier way to cook meals and store food.

Life is good.

Lisa

Bad. Bad Blogger. Bad. Sit. Stay. Good Girl!

2008-07-11T10:23:00.005-07:00

We've been up to lots of shenanegans over the past 10 days, but somehow I've not been able to get it together to sit down here and log them.

The boys and I spent part of last weekend down at our land, clearing sticks and watching DH get the site ready for the foundation pouring fellas...who apparently got there last night and started their work! Whee! The house is begun!

And now I can better appreciate the basic necessities of life, and just how hard it has been for DH living without them all these months while we waited for this part of the project to begin.

Here is the much celebrated outhouse (in situ), and functioning power pole. Life is good, and a bit more convenient.

We played hard, and worked hard. I 've spent a LOT of my time working on communicating with this guy:

(who would be easier to see if Blogger would stop over-rotating my pictures!!)

We're all pretty lucky that he's such a smart dog (or maybe I'm just close to his intelligence level), and that he's quite laid back. He's just starting to get a little 'adolescent' minded, making things rather interesting.

He's still very affectionate, which can be a lot to handle at 67kilos!

Not far from our new house site in Crescent Valley is an antique shop called 'Rosetown Antiques and Collectibles'. Originally sucked in at the idea of antique sewing machines (because I need more...really... - ahem), and got talking with the owner. It turns out that she is an avid sewer and fibre artist - we had a LOT in common, and she was very friendly and welcoming.
I had a look at some of her machines, her vintage clothing (gulp! - beautiful dresses from the 40's...close to my size...DANGER), and a little shoebox of patterns. This lovely Simplicity pattern had to come home with me! Sadly not all the pattern pieces are in it, but that's okay. I was thinking I might like to frame the envelope and instructions...

Yep, I think I can see myself dropping in to see Rose from time to time to see what other lovelies she has in stock.

And, in preparation for moving, I gave away the rest of my fish and took apart my 200L tank. It's really strange to have it sitting there, empty. Yesterday the power went off for a while and I found myself looking over at the tank to see if the power was back on yet - silly, as the tank was completely empty and dry, not plugged into anything anymore. Old habits really are hard to break.

It was a little bit of a sentimental time, dismantling things, as that tank has been up and running (in one capacity or another) here in our living room for the last 8+ years. Some of the fish we gave away were 5+ years old.

What you can't quite see in this picture is all the boxes that are around the living room right now. There are many open boxes in varying states of organization. It drives me a little bonkers to have things taken apart like this - I guess a little piece of me is compulsive, after all. I just want to put it AWAY. So that I can VACUUM. Then everything will be TIDY. Hrm. The things a girl learns about herself when not expecting it.

BTW...I've done some sewing, but have no pictures to show for it. I couldn't sleep in the wee hours of the morning last week and made the boys 8 pair of pajama bottoms...4 pair each. And a pair for myself. Oh, and I finished knitting a pair of socks. Oh, and submitted another assignment for the course I'm (still) working on.
Plus cooking, cleaning, walking with the dogs, playing with my boys...

Whew. I'm glad I wrote that down. Maybe the days aren't just slipping away on me after all!

Cheers,

Lisa

Happy Canada Day!

2008-07-02T13:58:00.003-07:00

I know, I know...it's a day late...

We were too busy having fun yesterday to do anything like posting!

Nakusp has a terrific Canada Day Celebration commencing with a pancake breakfast by the firefighters (they drive around with the sirens on at 6 am to make sure people are up for some flapjacks...) and ending after 10 pm with a big fireworks display over the lake. We were lucky to have company for our day yesterday...cousins, aunt, uncle and grandparents. Life is good. We're rich with family.

Today started with a house showing (the boys, dogs and I just got out of dodge and went for a walk on the waterfront), then I did a total tear down of my smaller aquarium.
I still have my big (50gal) aquarium upstairs -with only 4 fish left in it!

A few days ago we gave away the last of our fish from the small (downstairs) tank, and today was the first chance I've had to look at taking it apart. It's so sad to see all those components drying - temporary, though. Once we're in a new house we'll set up at least one of the tanks again. I love having the fish.

The weather here is crazy hot, and the town is just hopping with tourists. I think we'll head to the beach a little later. Poor youngest has a new cast (that pesky wrist was fractured after all) and still can't get it wet. At least this time he got a fiberglass cast, so hopefully we won't have have to go up and get a retrofit with this cast as we had to with the last one (we learned that Youngest needs more than a plaster cast to get through his days...).

Happy summer,

Lisa

Egyptology robe

2008-06-25T07:48:00.005-07:00

Got Youngest's robe done last night, and left it for him at his breakfast spot...he likes it!

It's almost the same size as his brother's with some modifications. This one is padded and lined, a slightly different proportion and more challenging to make, all told. I didn't want to cut any of the panels of Egyptian gods, so had to measure up and piece each of the outer garment pieces. Oldest's robe took about 2 hours to make, this one took about 6. It's worth it, though. He loves it.

Here we go, second last day of school...field trip day. I can't wait to release those tadpoles back into the wild!

Lisa

Origato

2008-06-24T07:42:00.005-07:00

Ah -

so last night I finished Oldest's robe and left it folded at his spot at the breakfast table. The boys slept out in the tree fort last night, so it was among the first things he saw when he came in this morning.

He loves it! It's non-traditional as far as proportions go, and somewhat modified to withstand the type of wear it will get from our young grasshopper.

It is made to his measurements, and to his proportions. The tie and collar measurement are based on the width of his closed hand - don't you just love the Japanese aesthetic?

All the seams are all a modified flat-felled seam, so that they are strong and lay flat. I also like top stitching (have I mentioned that?), so everything is top stitched to hold it all in place - You know, just in case he's attacked by Ninjas. Hey - it could happen, couldn't it?

Now to do Youngest's robe...

Happy stitching,

Lisa

the Hanten jacket

2008-06-23T17:03:00.005-07:00

I've not run across a better book on Japanese clothing than this one :
Make your Own Japanese Clothes by John Marshall . If you're interested in drafting your own kimonos, yakata, japanese style socks or how to tie an obi, this is the book for you. It has information on how to care for Japanese textiles (such as how to properly fold a Kimono), and many, many ideas of how to modify and modernize the clothes.

Oldest would like a hanten-style jacket that we'll modify a little (okay, a lot). Traditionally, hanten jackets are worn over kimono, are padded, worn without belts, and about 3/4 length. They can be worn both formally and by craftsmen with their family or company emblem on the collar and centre back.

Our hanten's intended use is as a robe, will be unlined and worn with a belt. It will longer, too...

We've measured Oldest and the fabric is in the dryer...I can't wait to get into making this. Oldest can't wait either...

:)
L

A better picture...

2008-06-23T14:43:00.003-07:00

I promised...

A better picture of my skirt, taken by my Oldest.

Happy Monday,
Lisa

some sewing

2008-06-23T11:18:00.004-07:00

With the final sales of shop fabric being done and the last of the website removed from the internet, I've finally gotten around to starting some of the projects I've been putting off.

On Friday last week I got going on a wrap A-line skirt, drafted and made following Bitter Betty's tutorial, found here.

I've been in love with these Jane Sassaman prints for some time and thought they'd make a great, summery reversible wrap skirt...

I followed Bethany's drafting instructions, but did a little improvising on the construction. *note* Bethany's instructions are GREAT!

Once the whole thing was turned right side out, lined up well and ironed, I topstitched all my edges (except the waistband). I like my fabrics to stay put, darn it!

I made my waistband a little narrower, and only used two widths of fabric for the waistband/ties which I made all in one piece, not in three as Bethany did. I liked her effect, but didn't have much time so did my usual trick of making it up as I went along...not always time saving, but in this case, the winds were blowing in my favour!

And here I am with my finished skirt. (Sorry about the dark, blurry photo...I'll try to get a better one at some point)

This may well become my favorite summer skirt.

Off to draft a pattern for Oldest's robe...he wants a traditional Japanese Hanten jacket...I can't wait to sink my teeth into this one!

:)

Lisa

And the mystery man is....

2008-06-20T09:20:00.003-07:00

Youngest!

At first he was so excited about it that he took his own marker to school for his friends to sign it...but last night the itching set in. Not a pretty picture, not a happy fella...

We don't know for sure if his wrist is broken or not, but this is one of those preventative things they do. He may have broken a little bone in his wrist - if so, it would not really show as broken until about 10 days from now, by which time it would be a candidate to cause him problems later down the road. They stabilized his wrist for the 10 days, then he'll get the cast removed and things re-X-rayed (is that even a word?) to see if all is well inside there.

In the meantime, we've got a good conversation piece. Between the new puppy and the big cast, we make friends wherever we go and always have lots to talk about.

here's to hoping to get sewing today,

Lisa

What on earth?

2008-06-19T13:49:00.001-07:00

Who is sporting this lovely piece of plaster this new summer season? Ah, tomorrow it will be revealed....

Mom and Dad - Don't worry too much, all is well!

:)
Lisa

Oh, and if you haven't entered this, you should....

2008-06-18T09:56:00.002-07:00

A blog giveaway for some lovely jewelry...

Check here. Are these not beautiful?

:)

Lisa

the arrival....

2008-06-18T08:33:00.005-07:00

We've had a new friend enter our lives.

He's a sweetheart, a Cane Corso Mastiff...and he's only 6 Months old.
Don't let his cute face and young age fool you, though - he's a big boy already, and getting bigger!

As you can see, he is really lovely with our boys (well, he is only a boy himself, still)...

We were lucky enough to have him given to us by friends of ours who are moving to a smaller piece of land. We're moving to a larger one (and had some extra room in our hearts for a new family member) - so it's a perfect fit!
Helping him to settle in to our household is taking some adjusting. We already have another dog and a few cats, so we've been trying to help the animal population get along (oh! I just realized our pets now outnumber us!).

And although he is still a puppy, this is one of his favorite things to do:

preferably nestled up against someone's feet.

He's snoozing now, so I'm going to take advantage of this bit of time to get some work done downstairs, in the 'dog free' zone.

Yours, in puppy bliss,

Lisa

just to let you know

2008-06-09T07:08:00.001-07:00

I'm away camping part of this week with my younger son's school class.

This is the fourth year we've done this - every year it has rained. There's something tremendously charming about 30 wet, happy kids.

Lisa

News from last weekend - some lovely quilty content

2008-06-07T15:02:00.005-07:00

As many of you know, last week I was at the Abbotford quilt show, Quilts in the Valley at Tradex.

It was my last show with my shop, Threads in Motion, which is now in the final stages of closing down. It was a great weekend! I got to spend a little time with some of my quilt show friends from The Secret Workshop, To be Quilting, Longarmsupplies.com and others. I finally got a chance to meet Rhonda of Quilt Nut Creations and Quilted Cats Hideaway - We've been corresponding for well over a year, so it was nice to finally meet in person!

The show was busy and fun. Beautifully hung in a great space! The guild had arranged with both the Mission and Abbotsford museum societies to show vintage textiles and quilting/sewing related artifacts...there were countless sewing machines (both those belonging to members' private collections and the museum societies), many lovely quilts, and other related notions, publications, etc. I could have cheerfully spent the whole weekend at that end of the building combing over that display.

The second morning of the show I had a chance to walk around and have a good look at the quilts before things opened. I was really pleased to find a blue ribbon on the above quilt of Lois Brown's! It is a first prize for best in category, Commercially Quilted. How lovely!

Later in the day they announced the winners for the Canadian Quilter's Association ribbons, and Lois's name came over the loudspeaker again! I was thrilled! We got to have our picture taken together in front of her lovely quilt - and she gave me the blue ribbon.

I really can't express what that means to me.

I've been quilting for quite some time now, and this is the first ribbon given to me from a customer. Thanks so much Lois, you touched my heart.

I wish that I hadn't had to close all those beautiful, perfect appliqué stitches into the quilt...Lois is a master at hand appliqué. If you get a chance to see her work, you should take advantage of it!

Happy weekend,

Lisa

House finished, yesterday at noon

2008-06-07T14:59:00.003-07:00

I am tremendously glad of two things.

1) The house is done.

2) I did not have to paint it.

:)
Lisa

Today's progress...

2008-06-05T14:43:00.000-07:00

Painting - day 2

2008-06-04T10:34:00.002-07:00

More changes

2008-06-03T09:01:00.002-07:00

We're getting our current house painted in hopes that it might be a little more attractive to prospective buyers....

I'll keep you posted.

Lisa

More privy progress....

2008-06-02T19:25:00.003-07:00

Not so private privy....

This could use some walls, wouldn't you say?

View from the inside, as it's going together... (photo by youngest)

In it's final glory.

With a roof. Don't you just love this door?

:)

Lisa

Photos from last week

2008-06-02T17:52:00.006-07:00

I thought I'd share some of our beautiful spring weather....
here's some photos of our apple tree in bloom

Aren't these blossoms just gorgeous?

I had some company as I worked, she followed me from tree to tree, wiggling the branches and making it hard to take photos.

This is her in the crab apple tree.

The crab apple has been amazing. It looked like it was all peppermint frosting or fluffy ice-cream.

And our weather last week was phenomenal.

Wouldn't this be a great colour palette for a quilt?

:)
Lisa

found treasures...

2008-05-26T22:13:00.006-07:00

I've been going through all the boxes in my sewing room, getting organized and trying to decide what I really want (and what can be given away or sold) - uncovering partially finished treasures.

When I first started the machine quilting part of the shop I made wallets and tote bags for sale from my quilted fabric. It gave me a great way to sell off the practice pieces I was making, a way to use lovely fabrics in my practice bits, and to promote my quilting. People could hold in their hand a little bit of my work (usually with a business card tucked strategically inside) and I could get better at freehanding. It was a good system.
Lately I've been lamenting that my current wallet is giving up the ghost. Corners are worn through and it won't come clean in the wash anymore. I uncovered a box today that had several wallet starts in it, one that was so far along all it needed was the binding! I reached into my odds-and-ends binding box tonight, found an appropriate colour that was long enough, and VOILA! I have a brand-new, seven-year-old wallet!

Also while going through boxes I uncovered this little honey. I initially did the paper mache head, arms and legs in about '93, I'd guess. Her body is a little scrap of tea dyed muslin that I embroidered the bodice of at that time.

(Could someone tell me why blogger keeps over rotating my pictures?????)

I started stuffing her body tonight, and will glue on her hair, assemble her and make her a skirt tomorrow. I made two originally, and my sister-in-law has had the other one all these years, the only one of the pair that was completed.

I'm looking forward to seeing her finished...

L

In pursuit of the perfect privy

2008-05-25T16:45:00.004-07:00

Thanks to all of you who read my last post and talked or wrote to me. I really am okay - this came at the right time in our lives, it's the right thing to do, and today I feel really quite good (aside from the aches and pains associated with packing large chunks of steel up and down stairs, doing a couple (or more) dozen squats while putting the machine together, punctuated with two 3 hour stints sitting, driving)!

It was a tremendous gift for me to share the excitement of the recipient getting her machine - and all of the wonderful feelings that brought back for me. She's at the beginning of her adventure...I know it will bring her amazing things, as it has for me. It's a powerful thing to be a part of that piece of someone else's journey.

In the 'looking forward' department, my DH has been hard at work on a project for the property as we wait for the initial (and rather fundamental) building to take place.

A privy of prodigious proportions...

Never one to do things halfway, my fella has built a modular privy that incorporates our old screen door from this house, as well as cedar shake siding... and the crescent moon that is so symbolic, so archetypal, so associated with the private, contemplative moments so important in our daily rituals - no, no one will mistake this for a garden shed! It is what it is.

I love the way he thinks.

I'm very lucky that way.

To all of you who have been though large, perplexing changes,

I remain, simply,

Lisa

Goodbyes

2008-05-23T23:03:00.006-07:00

Today I took apart my Milli, cleaned her thoroughly, and got ready to say goodbye.

We (the machine and I) are going on a road trip tomorrow to Grand Forks to deliver her to her new home.

I really thought I was ready for this, but when I turned her off for the last time (and thought to myself, "this is the last time") my throat closed a little, and I felt tears well up. It really is the end of an era in my life, in a big way. Somehow it is comforting and fitting that I finished with a customer quilt - a friend of our family's.

I have always been struck by the emphasis we (as a culture) put on 'firsts'. This is especially true when our children are little: their first steps, first words, first day of school, first day of college, first job.....

but we don't acknowledge the 'lasts'.
The last time I sang my boys to sleep, for instance. I wish I could remember that.

It's been a few weeks of acknowledging 'last times'. Now that we are seriously moving toward building on our new property I've been very aware of our 'last times'. On Sunday of the past weekend the boys, DH and I flew a kite in the big field behind our house. As I sat on the grass next to my fella watching the kids run around, bright Chinese kite up in the big, blue sky, I thought to myself, "we may never do this again, here". The day was gorgeous, sunny and windy- the perfect day to fly a kite, to make a memory.

I hope you remember the good 'lasts', the ones that make your heart swell. The bad 'lasts' can be lost to memory - good riddance, and all that - let's take all the good endings and move forward into our new beginnings.

Yours, humbly,

(as one door closes and another opens)

Lisa

Ch ch ch ch changes

2008-05-21T10:31:00.003-07:00

I'm at this odd, lovely, confusing juncture.

Usually it is New Years Day that gets me into this kind of philosophical mood, but I guess big life changing events can do it too.

I just got off the phone from my internet service provider, cancelling my domain for June 1. Threads in Motion will end...that day.

I've been going over the website info and photos, trying to decide what to keep and what to discard. I've had the shop for 7 years. During that time I've made and re-made the website several times (this last time with some help from a bona-fide web designer), written and re-written much of the content.

One thing that has stayed consistent since the beginning is my bio page - I'd just add to it as new things happened in my life. I love how it is written with a sense of adventure - that's what I get from it when I read it, anyway. Each of the things included was a thing of pride, of accomplishment, of risk taken and met. For those who do not know me personally, you might be surprised to learn that I'm quite conservative in my decision making and not a tremendous risk taker. I like to take calculated risks. Of course, in business, risks can only be so predictable...there are always surprises. I know I'm lucky, as most of my surprises have been good ones.

So here, for posterity, is my bio:

You asked for it...here's the story:
My husband and I were married in 1995, not long after moving to rural Nakusp, British Columbia.
Like most people, I got started on my quilting journey with a baby quilt. Knowing nothing about quilting, but being an avid sewer and crafter, I combined all kinds of fabrics (velvet, velour, quilting cottons…). That first quilt was usable, washable, (just barely) - a very textural sensation!
Instantly I was hooked. My insatiable appetite and tremendous love for quilting in all of its wonderful, diverse forms began then.
Sometime later I enrolled in a quilted pillow class put on through one of our local shops. Surprising, fun and informative, I learned what ‘buried points’ were (what? You can’t square a quilt block just by rotary cutting it to size?!*!!) and that rotary cut strips are not really supposed to be ‘V’ shaped!
While enrolled in this 3 session class I was working on several quilt projects at home—two large quilts and a baby quilt for our expected first child.
I found that class as a direct challenge to do better work. Although there have been many, many quilts between then and now, the personal challenge remains the same.
It was also during that time that I discovered free-motion machine quilting. I spent hours and hours ( and hours and hours) practicing, learning, knowing that I was only scratching the surface of this art form.
After several years, many quilts, a new house and the birth of our second child I was lucky enough to be asked to share these acquired skills at our (then new) local quilt shop. So, in 1999, I started teaching. What began with sharing machine quilting skills soon expanded to include beginner, advanced , and project based classes.
After a year of research, in 2001, I bought a professional quilting machine, and started working with other people on their quilts. This business has been continually challenging, interesting and inspiring. I feel very lucky to meet so many interesting people from so many different walks of life, and to collaborate with them on quilts that will be part of their own families histories.
In 2004, I started travelling with my teaching, and expanded my home-based shop and website to include fabric!
In January 2005 I started designing pantograph patterns under the name 'Threadsongs' as well as co-designing a line of patterns designed for domestic quilting systems called 'Homelines'. They are published and distributed by Willow Leaf Studio.
Fall 2006 finds me looking forward to seeing my name in print for the first time. One of my patterns will be featured in 'A Needle Pulling Thread' magazine's Festive Issue, coming out December 5. I was also lucky to be one of the contributors in a book called "Stitch Journeys: Your passport to Sewing with WonderFil Threads" to be released later this fall. I have been privileged to make 2 quilts for the WonderFil thread company sales booth and office in the past year.
As things continue, I look forward to all the new surprises that this career will bring...it seems there is always something new around the corner!

It's a funny spot to sit, looking forward and looking back. Our lives really are a continuum.

Thoughtfully, thankfully,

Lisa