The only thing I made this week was some photographs. Hazel wanted to wear wings to Cooper’s Rock, and proceeded to “fly around” singing her own made-up song about being a butterfly. For an audience of strangers who I assume were in agreement that she’s the most adorable and hysterical little girl in all the land.
There was also the rock that looks like a turtle. And EmmaLee.
This week once again saw an almost complete lack of crafting. But it’s going to be worth it soon, promise. And Big Project is going to lend itself to infinite small craft projects that will help sustiain it (Maggie and Walt are already working on Little Projects that will make my Big Project happen!)
This Big Project is so, so, so much work, and even though I’m super excited for it to exist in real life soon, it’s wearing me out and taking up all of my extra time. I needed to get my head out of it and find some zen, so on Monday I picked the yarn for a July birthday blanket and got to work on a vintage stripe. If I can’t finish this three-year-old sized blanket by July then I just don’t know.
A poem.
A parade.
A community.
A school.
A vow.
A moral principle.
One peaceful moment.
:: Maxine Hong Kingston
I didn’t make anything blog-able this week. This was a terrible week way beyond and before Boston, for so many people around me, and in worldwide ways that I’m still hearing about. I feel like something went terribly wrong in the universe for a few days.
I went back and forth between burying my head in Big Project research, taking notes and then filling pages with doodles while my mind wandered with what I would say to Hazel if she overheard something in line at the post office or elsewhere in passing. She didn’t. She doesn’t know anything. But today we had a forty-five minute discussion about bombs and war, anyway. (Thank you, Colin Meloy.) Her little brain is awesome. Her heart is even better.
Walt and I took turns keeping vigil over the news and trying to look away from the news.
We did plant some seeds. I made Hazel a miniature hopscotch board on the kitchen floor with tape (for Kitty.) I don’t think I touched a crochet hook. We flew a Yoda kite and played Jenga and watched a lot of Mister Rogers to keep our hoping machines running.
The Onion gets it right.
I will try for two projects in week 17. :)
Fifteen weeks in, there was some out of town tie-dying with three preschoolers! Thank goodness for spring weather, good friends and lots of patience. We helped the girls dye tshirts, tank tops, pillow cases, feed sack tea towels (Target has 4-packs of plain white right now!), and some thrifted hankies (aka blankets for little critters and dolls.) We used Maggie’s fave MX Pro dyes – beautiful colors that almost entirely washed off of little girl skin afterwards :) (and husband skin, who was mostly in charge of photos but still somehow ended up with green hands!)
Hazel was incredibly excited to do this after her teacher carried on *her* family tradition of tie-dying at Easter with the kids in her class a few weeks ago. All three of them had so much fun and were so good and patient that I’m pretty sure this is going to become an annual summertime welcome activity! Another regular Em & Mag summertime welcome will be showing up here pretty soon… :) We kind of love summer the most.
The finished products have been set and washed by Maggie & Danny, and will be mailed out to us tomorrow – I’ll post photos of them later this week!
More from Maggie, Erin, & James!
A late week of little girl projects, once again! Oh, how I love little girl projects. So much glitter.
Last week as I was about to give two egg cartons the recycling bin toss, I paused for a moment and vividly recalled making similar brown cardboard egg cartons into caterpillars as a kid and with other kids in the past. Since I love to make things out of trash and have passed this gene to my child, that evening I trimmed the two up into a bunch of three-segmented caterpillar bodies, ready for her to go to work on a few days later. To say she was stoked is an understatement. The kid drew plans for her creations on index cards, people.
She chose her colors and dictated mine (I was to paint some of these critters, too, she said), picked materials and named all the girls. Most impressively, she then dug through letter beads and scored 8/8 in picking the correct first letter of each name. Two of each, which I was then instructed to glue to the backs and butts of these lovely ladies. She’s quite the art director.
Virginia, Olivia, Sadie, Morgan, Zoe, Maggie, Taylor & Sophie
I love them. However, I wish she would agree to gift some to other people (don’t you want one??) I think she needs a few more days. Their population is rivaled only by toilet paper tube owls when it comes to trash animals in this house.
On the side I was working on this wee doll / test blanket. I’m trying to pick a pattern for a particular blanket lover’s summer birthday (I’ll give you a hint – there’s a egg-erpillar named after her) and tested out the vintage stripe pattern. The initial colors were all picked by Hazel worked at random according to my whims and hers, and one Walt pick. :)
I would have made it bigger but she declared it Done. I haven’t yet decided if I’ll use it for The Kid, but it was super fun / quick / mindless.
More from Maggie, Erin & James!
