happy baby card

...and a card to go with the pants...
i painted it with acrylics (plus a scrap of fabric) on my new surface - Srathmore 500 10-ply illustration board. a while back i was kvetching to my critique group about surfaces and someone suggested this. i never ever would have thought of it. it's totally new for me to use a non-flexible, less porous surface, but i really like it. wouldn't be great for water colors, but it's perfect for acrylics.
there's something very freeing about not having to tape down your paper. and because i was always lazy about stretching my water color paper, it was usually warping to some extent (or a lot!).
And i find that using transfer paper doesn't really take more effort than transferring with a light box - in some ways it's easier because you can see the line that your tracing exactly.
And, it's double sided, so if you mess up one side you haven't lost the whole piece.

just another example of the many benefits of critique groups!
xo

Baby Pants

 Vintage fabric baby pants for a new addition to the (small) extended family.  Trimmed with vintage cotton ric-rac (newer is usually all or part poly).

It's so exciting to have a little girl to make things for!
xo

Spring around the neighborhood

 A tour around the neighborhood on a typical slightly drizzly, light-gray spring Seattle day....check out this two-tone cherry tree...

 and my very favorite yard. got there a little late but it's still a profusion of color and texture...

 it will still look like an Easter basket long after april.

 another great rock wall.

 and this conjurs the Mediterranean. oh how i wish!

 love this rock wall right across the street from us.

 at the base of our landlords' chestnut tree.

 and these in our own back yard. Forget-me-nots. more subtle, more delicate, but dearly loved.

 a second favorite - a crabapple (i think) from the park overhanging our mossy garden shed.

and you've gotta have Daffies!
Many of you are probably on your way to summer by now, but here in Seattle, spring lasts until july.
Visually, that's a nice thing!
xo

Hoppy Easter!

for easter i made myself one of my bunnies from my Most Prized vintage cotton fabric - a stunning abstract floral. i'd love to have Everything made from this print - pants, skirt, shirt, pillows, handbag...but a bunny is a nice way to start.

Happy tulips and daisies and everything yellow!
xo

The Musician Mouse....

so when this wonderful knitted mouse arrived on my birthday and i was thinking about what to name him, i decided he was definitely a Sylvester - partly because he reminded me of a french book i'd had as a kid about a mouse with that name. or so i thought.  i still had the book but hadn't looked at it in years. when i found it, sure enough there was this intrepid mouse character wearing only a scarf, just like my mouse. but i was totally surprised to see that the book was called "Julienne - the Mouse Musician". as much as i wanted that connection for my mouse and this book, Julienne was definitely not the right name for my new friend.

 

 i'd not looked at the book in years and enjoyed all over again the classic perfect illustrations by N.M. Bodecker. i reread it the best i could with my french lessons long gone. it's such a fun (& relevant) story (originally published in 1961).

 Julienne lives in a meadow and enjoys all the other critters who live there, and he especially loves all the different sounds and music he hears in nature.

 by and by, Humans come along and ruin everything - they plow up the meadow and build a development. you don't need to know French to make out the meaning of "un grand bulldozer"!!

 Julienne is displaced and goes into the town to find somewhere to live. finally he hears music coming from a shop and goes inside and finds his perfect house inside a guitar. at night he makes music by strumming the strings on his "door" and passersby hear the lovely music.

the shop owner is mystified - with his bad eyesight and in the dark he doesn't see the little mouse.
eventually, the perfect person purchases the guitar and things work out spiffily. maybe you can find the book in your library system to see more of the wonderful illustrations and to read the whole story.
realizing it was not a french book after all (which i assumed as a child of course) i went on amazon looking for the english version, and here was my big surprise:

in the english version, the mouse's name is Sylvester!!!
how can that be?
i don't think i could have possibly known that....
very strange...but so satisfying - now everything wraps up into the perfect package i was imagining.
sometimes life is nice like that.
xo

Sylvester the Birthday Mouse

 it was a total surprise to open a package from my brother and his wife and to find this amazing knitted mouse! the pattern is a free one from Fuzzy Mitten who sells patterns for all kinds of adorable knitted toys. i love that they made the mouse together - cathy doing the knitting, and michael putting the pieces together and adding the features. it's funny because i can See a bit of my brother in the expression. i guess that's how it is with things we make.

 this mouse just seemed like a Sylvester to me. he is 3.5" tall.
we had a little bit of sun for my birthday so i took him out in the yard to check out my favorite primroses.

he smelled the purple flowers,

then visited a family of hedgehogs. they had a lot to tell him about his new neighborhood.

 

he sought some advice from FatBird about the meaning of life.

 

           then climbed a tree to get some perspective on it all.

 still tired from his move from northern CA, it was back inside for an afternoon nap.
all in all, he was happy with his new digs, and it was a pretty good day!
xo

spiral cat

if i wrap myself tighter and tighter, can i get as small as a woolley-bear?