Boys with Toys...

....sometimes share with their mothers.























He earned the money himself, did all his own research, and let me play with it today. Oh...and his hair still looks great!

April Day

I'm breathing Spring.



I took this picture:



The rest were taken by...



My Daydreamer.

Easter Basket

My family decided...



...that instead of chocolate bunnies...



...they wanted homeless kittehs.



Wish granted.

Visitor: A Springtime Story

A sure sign...



SPRING has come to this northern land.

Bunny's been waiting aaalll winter for a fresh nibble...




Visitor would like some, too.
 




Our Heroine has a better idea!  C'mon!






Mmmmm....that's tasty.





Wrap it all up with a Great Big Hug.




SPRING has come to this northern land!

Grannies and Squares

I come from a long line, not just of crocheters, but of women who could and can work MIRRACLES with a crochet hook. These women, my Mom included, are Champion Crocheters, hooking everything from awful Red Heart slippers to breath-taking fine cotton lace. I could blather for hours about the feats I witnessed while playing near their armchairs.

As it turns out, up to now, I've barely crocheted more than a simple chain, or maybe a bit of trim. My fiber time has been focused on knitting, spinning, sewing, and printing cloth.

But now, my genetics have bitten me firmly on the A-Double-Snakes. I have a sudden, uncontrollable urge to make granny squares. This is not just a blip, a momentary whim. This feeling runs deep, calling on my womanhood, my ancestral lineage. This craving is seducing me to take my place in line with my Mother, my Grandmothers, and countless women before them.

I will, I must, rise up, hoist my hook, and crochet.

What I did...

I cut out some felt,


and shaded it with marker.


And turned it into these!


Aren't they cute?


I'm in the process of refining the patterns and thinking about making lots of them. Who doesn't need an extra pair of ears?

Pen, Paper, Wood, Wool.

Howdy!  Here I am, snow bound again after being lured outdoors by a fake spring.  Hopefully, Real Spring will arrive any minute now.

After a day of fussing and gathering and scanning, looking for camera cords and answering to my name, this post is Finally coming together.  Having just discovered the Picassa collage maker, I will proceed to overuse it in one post.

First up:  a truck load of sketches from several Sundays.  You'll notice I've ditched the circle format when it suits me.



Secondly, one of my children went to Arizona to hang out with Uncle Jeff.  Uncle Jeff has a homemade CNC router used for his amazing all-wood clocks.  Said child was given free reign and came home to surprise his mother (moi) with these wooden versions of my mandalas. He gets bonus points and extra pudding.

























The wooden image on the left is less clear because they didn't program the router to cut deep enough into the wood.

Lastly, there has been yarn, much making of yarn:


Something about winter makes me want to spin and dream of knitted projects.  No knitting--just dreaming of knitting.  And in preparation for this summer's Ren Fest, my satellite has pulled out her drop spindle and begun to hone those skills.  I will be sharing a booth at a small local festival and plan to sell fiber of all ilk, including hand made drop spindles.  Our children will be shunted into the crowd and forced to spin in public as advertisement.  We'll pay them in yum-yums and free time to hang out with the belly dancers.

On the left, is my daughter's first hand spun yarns.  The orange merino is her firstest first, the lime she Koolaid dyed and spun herself.  On the right is her current yarn, something not-merino.  She's starting to get the hang of drafting and is producing what will be a bulky two ply, maybe for some leg warmers or fingerless gloves.

So, there it is, Lemon Drops:  a fresh post and a new week. I'll be back soon!

Sunday Circles

Hi-Ho! Super Speck here, leaping life in a single bound.

So, the regular sleeping and I? Not so much. Something about the lack of sun, and my inevitable sink into a depressive state....makes me crazier than normal this time of year.  All this means that I went to church today on about 90 minutes of sleep.

Turns out 'Exhausted Cathy' = 'Super loose sketching'!!!.  Yay!



She looks like some kind of new Godzilla, with the super-robotic beefy arm at the left and her mega Medusa seaweed hair on the right.

And this?  Something about a crescent moon and half-dying-Tim-Burton-marijuana-plants-that-don't -really-look-like-marijuana and ovary-eggs-nestled-in-a-cross-hatched-world-of-fibrous-vessels.  I'm trying not to think about it too hard:


While stumbling around in a half-awake stupor was greeaaaat for unlocking that scary subconscious drawing monster, my outlook was horrible and I ended up taking a 3 hour nap this afternoon.

After that:  auditions for 'Steel Magnolias'.  My 'nervous while waiting' lobe kicked in and I turned out this tight-sphinctered piece of dreck:


There has to be a balance somewhere. While I want to be all loose and free all the time, sleep must be had. Otherwise I become a public safety hazard and wreak emotional havoc upon my world. I also know that trying to do this every day gets old, wearily old. All of the sketching so far has reminded me that creating daily is not optional for me. A couple of other fun projects have crept onto my work table. When they're fully gestated, I'll share them with you.

The circle format, even with the addition of color, is starting to feel a little stale, especially when I see them lined up on the blog.  But drawing still feels right and I don't believe the format is exhausted yet.  I would like my style to take a more sophisticated turn.  Pen is not as natural for me as pencil.

Practice is in order.

Sunday found me completing three circles, two started during church.


My first scan was accidentally in grayscale, but I like it that way:



Chunkier:

And one drawn during our 'Star Wars' marathon:

Something about the flair of a Jedi's robes during a light saber fight made me want to go here.


Have you been drawing at all?  Leave a link in the comments.  I'd love to see what you're up to.

Here it is, my first post of 2011. I am officially sticking my tongue out at last year and looking toward the horizon.

New Year's Eve was a quiet evening with a few friends. There was 'Settlers of Catan', finger food, and fireworks at midnight. My friend Deanna was here. She's an artist (and high school art teacher). We broke out the Mandalas and markers:


This one's mine. It was going downhill fast but seemed to level off and end in a good place.

Deanna's

Pen and ink happens to be one of her favorite mediums, so it was no surprise that this lovely design evolved under her hand. I am inspired by the way she brought color into it. And that's the signature of a creative mind, don't you think?

My daughter's also been caught up in the spirit:

Lots of color! She's responsible for the first picture too. I'm so proud of her for throwing herself into any project that comes our way.

I took a break after this, my head being full of other details. Real life elbows it's way in line and has a way of taking precedence over personal projects and cyber-life. But here I am anyway, Super-Speck in the face of the universe, determined to keep moving forward.