Hamming It Up

Anna's dwarf hamster, Claire, died before school was out. She wanted to get another hamster but I said she had to wait until after we were back from vacation, since we would be gone for two weeks.

Of course she did lots of research on what kind of hamster she wanted to get next. She talked about a certain type of dwarf she wanted to get for a month. After vacation, she was still a little sad about Claire and wanted to wait a little awhile before getting another hamster.

One day as we were going to Michael's, she asked if we could go to the pet store and look at hamsters. I said no because I did not want to get a hamster that particular day. The cage at home wasn't ready. She kept asking and asking. I finally said o.k. but we were only going to look and I didn't want her to get upset because we weren't going to get a hamster that day. I knew she would fall in love with one anywhere we went.

We went to the store and she fell in love with one little hamster. She asked if we could take it home. I said no we could come back another time. She kept asking and giving me that "look". O.k. the hamster came home with us that day because she was really cute and seemed nice and interested in us.

So I would like you to meet Angelica. I think you will agree that she is adorable (She is a regular hamster, not a dwarf and not the kind Anna had researched.)

Hot Hats

I finished the hat we started in our knitting class. Actually the one above is the second hat I made. The first one was kind of roomy fitting for me. I gave that one to Frank. I had only used a little bit of the second skein of yarn that we had for class, so I thought I would have enough to make another one. The class sample had a big tassel on top and I decided not to put that on.

I made a few adjustments for the second hat that worked out really well. I was surprised since I don't know that much about knitting. I didn't cast on as many stitches to begin with and I shortened the length of it. Much better.

Anna managed to finish her hat as well. We both had the same yarn, just in different colors. Hers goes well with her eyes.

Fabric Finished

I have finally finished processing the fabric I dyed. This first pile was done with Pimatex cotton.

The second pile is a Bleached Muslin from Dharma. As you can see from a few fabrics in this pile, they are not all solid. I didn't manipulate the fabric as much this time. I'll have to work with it and see if I like it that way or not.

The last pile is miscellaneous, cotton fabrics.

Tie Dye

While I have been dyeing fabric, I also tie dyed some t-shirts. Here are how they turned out. I sometimes buy white or light colored t-shirts at garage sales or thrift stores with the intent of tie dyeing them. The two green shirts were already a chartreuse-type green to start with.

Today, I have finally gotten to rinsing out the dyed fabrics. Some of the very lightest gradations didn't take much dye because it was mostly spent. They look almost white. So I think I will have to dye those again. Hopefully, pictures tomorrow.

Dyed

I managed to get some fabric dyed today and, thankfully, it was not over 100 degrees. However, I didn't get it all finished so will need to try to do some more tomorrow. Anna wanted to help me mix a few colors and now claims those fabrics to be hers.

Dyeing of Heat

Today it was probably around 105 degrees here. A good day to do some dyeing as the dye tends to set better in warmer temperatures. However, I did not get around to it. I did get my dyes all mixed up and ready to go.

Instead, Anna and I spent our hottest summer afternoon making wool hats. Hmm? We went to a knitting class to learn to knit a hat. It was our first time using circular needles (and it will be our first time using double pointed needles when we get to that point). Here is my hat, so far, in a lovely variegated green wool. I might be able to finish it soon, depending on how that double pointed needle thing works out.

Long Island

Although we had a couple of cloudy/rainy/stormy days while we were in New York, we had several wonderful days on the beach to play games . . .

go sailing,

hang out on the beach,

attempt fishing (Frank cleaned up the old rods and tried to get them working but it was not very successful),

play in the water (although Frank and I were the only ones to get in the water consistently and spend some time in it as everyone else thought it was too cold),

and go kayaking.

New York

After several days in Edisto, Frank's parents picked us up and we drove to Long Island.

Along the way, we picked up Frank's sister, Susan . . .

and our niece, Alexandra.

Usually when we go on a trip, I will keep a travel journal to write down all the things we did. That way I can go back and read it, since my memory is not the best. This time I decided to do a pictorial journal since I knew we wouldn't be doing much but hanging out at the beach. Here are a couple of pages.

ARRRg, matey

While in Edisto we drove past a shop called the Pink Pirate. Since Anna is currently obsessed with the Caribbean and the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, she wanted to go to this shop.

It was in a pink building and even had a pink pirate flag outside.

Although they had one small room dedicated to pirate stuff, the rest was, surprisingly, jewelry, clothes and girly stuff. We got Anna properly outfitted. (The earrings are parrot earrings.)

Edisto Up Close

Frank found this shell in the ocean. . .

but this guy was still occupying it, so we put it back.

Does anyone know what this is that washed up on the beach?

Edisto, S.C.

We met up with my family and spent our first four days of vacation in Edisto, South Carolina. It was our second time there. We enjoyed the beach.

We're Back

We have been away on a trip to the East Coast, which is why there has been no activity here for a couple of weeks. We got in late last night and are unpacking, grocery shopping, doing laundry and trying to reacquaint ourselves with the home schedule. I will definitely put up some pictures in the next few days.

Kool-Aid Yarn

Anna and I tried our hand at dyeing yarn with Kool-Aid this week. Here is Berry Blue and Cherry above. It is a funky wool yarn that the lady at the store suggested, but it is a little hard to knit with. The colors are nice, but together it makes me think of clowns.

Summer time

I know things have been slow here on my blog lately. That doesn't mean we are having lazy summer days, though. I have been working at the museum helping to get a new exhibit up. The artist is Devorah Sperber and she uses thousands of spools of thread (like pixels) to recreate works of art. Click on her name to see what I mean.

Anna has been in all day camps while I have been working. I have a new piece I am working on and trying to finish up the quilting. But I haven't had a lot of time to finish it.

We have been having a nice wet spring here and all our plants are doing well, especially the roses.
Our peonies never last very long but they leave behind some interesting things.

Happy Birthday to me!

Today is my birthday! The piece above is a piece I made for my friend for her birthday on June 3rd. Below is what I made for my birthday treat to take to work with me today.

Good News!

I found out today that one of my pieces, Japanese Rock Garden 1, was accepted into a juried show which will be held at the one of the local galleries. It is an art show that was open to all kinds of media (except crafts) and people from other states, I think. I am very happy. It's like an early birthday present.

Cardboard Cat

Yesterday, Anna and I took a workshop at the museum. It was taught by an artist whose work we are currently showing in our sculpture court. Her name is Ann Weber and she does amazing sculptures made from cardboard. You can see some here. The pieces she shows outside are actually bronze that was cast from the cardboard pieces she created. They are really amazing. She coats the inside cardboard pieces with shellac and I think that makes them look like baskets. I really like the pieces, the forms she uses and the fact that it is a recycled material.

Anna and I arrived a few minutes before the time when the class was suppose to start (at least according to my watch) but we must have missed the brief introduction as we caught up with the everyone just as she was showing the group her sculpture (or maybe there wasn't any introduction?). Really she just pointed out some things about the structures and then we went right to work. She showed us some different ways to put cardboard together, but there was nothing specific about what to make. I think she wanted us to be creative.

It was a workshop for a child and parent but I think mostly we parents were there to help the kids cut the cardboard and help them put the construction together. (There was a separate adult class in the morning, but I thought it would be more fun for Anna and me to do it together. Ann also said our class did a better job than the morning class because the kids were more free in their ideas.)

Above is the cat that Anna and I made. The class was three hours long and it took us the entire time. I wish I had brought my camera because what the rest of the class came up with was really neat. One mother and daughter pair made a lounge chair for her daughter to sit in. The daughter laid down on the cardboard to draw the template and she could actually sit on it when they were done.

One father and son team did three different sculptures with one being a large fish that looked like the kind fishermen hang on their walls. Another father and son team did a very tall (about 8 feet) piece of diagonals and triangles from cardboard slotted together and then made a small round piece for the top.

Another mother and daughter team did a piece that kind of looked like a bongo drum, but they decided to use a lot of colored cardboard which made it very different and fun. They also made a round sphere for the top of theirs.

I got lots of ideas from this workshop and am thinking about trying to make a small side table with this technique. I would also like to try it with fabric.

What is Success?

Yesterday was Anna's last day of elementary school. Thank goodness! I don't know what happened at the end, but things seemed to deteriorate a bit with high emotions, people getting on each others nerves, and I don't know what else. Anna came home cranky every day this week.

One day that she was cranky was after the "awards" ceremony they had for the 5th and 6th graders. I did not go. I know they passed out some papers for the sports teams. They also passed out Presidential Awards, which was for mostly A's (maybe not more than two B's?). Anna said after they had passed out the awards, they had said something like, "Let's give a hand for our future successful . . . ." I don't know the exact words.

Anna didn't happen to get that award. She was sitting with one of her friends, who is very smart and did not get the award either, among others as well. And she was very put off by the statement they made because she was thinking, "Well, what about us?" She told me just because they got a piece of paper doesn't mean they are going to be successful later in life. Conversely, it doesn't mean she wasn't going to be successful in life either. I totally agreed with her. I told her it didn't mean anything.

I thought it was an important idea, so yesterday I had a conversation with her about it. I said that in our American Society, there is a lot of pressure on people to "succeed". However, most of the time it is society's or somebody else's definition of what that means. I told Anna that only she can decide what her definition of success is. She said, "I know." I'm glad she's a quick learner, because it has taken me about 35-40 years to figure this one out!

I gave her some examples. Maybe someone's definition of success might be to write a book and have it published, even if it didn't make a lot of money (or maybe even just to finish writing a book). Or maybe someone's definition might be to have a family and be able to take care of them. Or someone might want to just be able to help others or live as lightly as they could on our earth. Success could be so many different things. It doesn't have to be like the Jones' or making lots of money, etc. I said I think success is being able to follow your own dreams without letting anyone stop you. Even if you don't reach the goal, the journey of following your dreams is a success in itself.

Image what the world would be like if everybody was encouraged to follow their own dreams and passion. Now that would be a success story!

New Work

This is a piece I finished last week that kind of goes with the aerial landscape series. It was very hard to take a picture of as it is long and skinny. This time I used the paintsticks to create the tree circle before I did the hand stitching. It is subtle but you can see it in the detail picture. It turned out a bit different than my original idea. What are your impressions?