wise craft

the dolphins danced with us

We just got back from a relaxing Spring Break trip to Florida. I posted a few pictures during the week on Instagram and the wise craft Facebook page, but I thought I'd post some highlights here too. Stay with me till the bottom so you don't miss the video. As we were leaving the island to go to the airport, we had our very own personal dancing escort of the most beautiful, playful dolphins. Captain Dan explained that they love to play in the wake behind the boat, like kids. Such a nice reminder that we need to remember to have spontaneous fun. Enjoy!

 

 

 

recent instagrams and otherwise

Instagram is a pretty constant companion to our days. Here are some recent ones-

 

Rock doodling...

 

Coffee near Peter's new office...

 

When my dream of a light-filled studio was real for a moment...

 

Dinner table flowers...

 

Gracie, unable to find a lap, decides to rest on the back of the sofa...

 

Dinner on the beach (Ian is always the one who grabs a big stick)

 

Emma and I examining, well, everything...

 

dyeing...

 

walking...

 

and just being...

expressions in mixed-media portrait painting, an ecourse giveaway

Update: Giveaway is closed and winner has been chosen, thanks to all who entered!

 

You may remember my week of sketching faces on our family's sketchbook blog. They are challenging to say the least (the faces, not the family), and I need many more weeks of challenging myself this way, to say the least. I would love to learn techniques and methods to effectively sketch expressive faces. Maybe you do too? If this is you, I have a treat for you today. Regina of Creative Kismet is a prolific artist, using mixed media and incredible color to create beautiful portraits. She has a new ecourse called "Expressions in Mixed Media Portrait Painting", the act of expressing feeling, spirit, and character through artistic play and exploration starting in April. For 4 weeks, she will guide you through different mixed media materials, and methods of creating portrait faces, and will be covering a wide range of techniques in drawing, painting and use of color and texture.

in my father in law's studio

There is lots of art created and given on Peter's side of the family during the holiday season, we've done this for years. So long, in fact, that I think we would all feel cheated without getting something handmade by each other. Plus what do we really need? What's fun about giving art in this family is that everyone gets excited, and there is a so much appreciation for every type of art and everyone's unique style, medium, and talent.

In my father-in-law's home art studio in their home in New Mexico, he has created a family art gallery space in one area. There are many stories in that corner.

There's work from Kurt's mother Marjorie (Peter's grandmother), who was a fashion illustrator and a wonderful watercolor artist (we have 2 of her illustrations in our own bathroom, above the tub, which you can see a bit of here).

- from Emma (this painting was done a few years ago). The painting you see underneath was done by Kurt himself.

 

from Peter (I really wish he would pick up a paintbrush again)

 

watercolors by Kurt

 

from my sister-in-law Jen, who is a printmaker and also does gorgeous bontanicals

 

even the ojo-de-dios I made as a housewarming gift for them over the summer

We've yet to get art from Ian up there, he insists he works only in 3D, Lego primarily.

 

For my in-laws this year, I made a new painting, a New Mexico quilt star, to celebrate their new home. I challenged myself to work with earthy colors and, even though I had my doubts the composition and color scheme I used was working early on (I used a page from an old Anthropologie catalog as inspiration for the colors). But I came around to like it a lot and think it really fits in their new home.

My father-in-law, and Jen are both doing the year-long daily sketching with me. I love how different our styles are. The daily sketches can sometimes take on a daily journaling aspect, which is kind of fun since we are scattered all over the country.

I have begun listing some of my original paintings in the shop. I went back and forth with creating a whole separate shop just for the paintings, but decided not to. I kind of like everything being housed in one place. I figure all of it represents what I do as a maker, so why not have it all together?

rookie

I first read about Tavi Gevinson in Bust Magazine this past summer while waiting for Emma, who was getting her long hair cut short. It was good timing. In addition to Emma's brand new haircut, there was some subtle makeup introduced during that same weekend. Emma's Aunt Jenny was in town and the two of them headed off to Sephora, leaving me sitting on the couch, sobbing and looking at baby pictures.

Well, mentally that's how I was feeling.

There is a lack of magazines for girls Emma's age (she just turned 14). Seems like there is a big jump from American Girl and Discovery Girls, straight to Teen Vogue. It doesn't feel like Emma at all, and even if it did I don't know how I feel about them. She's nestled pretty firmly in between all this. Still in love with dragons and wants a real one "so bad it hurts, Mom!", yet the same girl stops to appliy lip gloss before checking the mailbox and wears her favorite clothes to lay around the house on a Saturday afternoon.

SO. Back to Tavi Gevinson. She has been writing the fashion blog Style Rookie since she was the wise old age of 13. Just recently, she published Rookie: Yearbook One, a 350 page magazine (book, really) with all things teenage girl. A 16 year old editor of a magazine, that is pretty impressive. Packed with all things teenage girl sage articles like "How to Be A Happy Homebody" and "How to look like you weren't just crying in less than 5 minutes", "Thrifting: Master Class", "How to Clean Your Room in 10 minutes". There's music playlists, interviews with people like David Sedaris, stickers, and tons of photos. I got our copy yesterday (and I say our copy meaning the mother/daughter copy). It's wonderful. There's occasional bad language, but nothing Emma hasn't heard me say when I'm sewing.

Tavi, you are awesome.

<><><><>

Thanks for all the comments on my last post, I loved collecting a new list of inspirational phrases!

school house craft begins today!

 

(These are phone photos I took on Thursday while in Ballard at Curtis Steiner, one of my favorite stores. They are currently exhibiting a collection of paper sculptures by Ann Dunbar, which are intricate and amazing. If you are in the neighborhood, you should definitely stop in this truly one-of-a-kind store and see these sculptures.)

I'm afraid I'm a little too relaxed this week. Which would explain my absence, and the lack of a granny square afghan update post today. (There will be one next week, but in the meantime, don't forget you can still include your link in this post if you are participating in this project so it will get on the master project page.) I am having a relaxing time with Jenny, who came to visit (and look, she even sketched Gracie!) and to attend School House Craft. Which begins today! Are you going? I know Kristen and Andrea and everyone has worked hard to plan an amazing weekend. 

Marie and I will be leading the discussion of Blogging 101 for your business (Saturday, 2:45 4:15pm). I love what we've got planned, I hope to see some of you. Peter will be leading an informative discussion on Brand Development without selling out (Sunday, 2:45- 4:15pm) which I will be attending cause he's smart and I like him. Actually, I am hoping to stick around and sit in on as many discussions as I can. If you decide to attend at the last minute, you can buy your tickets at the door.

<><><><>

And to you...

Thank you all for stopping by wise craft and sharing with me. As I was putting together my thoughts for our blogging class, I kept thinking about how grateful I am to have this space, to share with all of you, and for you all to care about it. The creative side of my life is so very important to me, and I truly value this space and all of you out there who share it with me. Hope to meet some of you on Saturday!

the sketchbook project

I have pushed myself creatively this year (taking classes to learn new techniques and mediums like painting, writing a book- more on that in another post, even relatively simple things sewing with Tyvek (thank you all for the nice comments on that, by the way!), One of my most recent self challenges is to sketch more. You see, I once said, many years ago, right here on this blog, that I could not sketch. And there is nothing like telling yourself you cannot do something to, well, give yourself permission to never do it at all. I decided I'm just not letting myself get away with that kind of thing. (I wouldn't let the kids.) I don't need to learn to sketch, but I simply wanted to stop saying I can't, because I honestly did not even know if that was the truth.

ojo de dios and after clean

Hello Monday! Hello Get Your Paint on Beyond the Basics! (So happy to get back to some painting.)

Peter's parents recently moved to New Mexico. There is always a little good natured elbowing and scrambling for the best guest room between Peter and his sister Jennifer. Jen won at the last house (um, how exactly did that happen again?) but this house we're laying claim. I made a little housewarming Ojo de Dios for them, with a bit of a Native American/Southwestern slant (as much as my yarn stash colors would allow). I even did the photo above in an Instagram filter to add a little 70's film touch to it (did it work?) This measures 16" in diameter, the same as the first one I made, which still sits proudly in our family room. I really love making these, and they are surprisingly easy, although I swear I'm making them differently than the PDF directions Jay sells. Heh, that seems to be the way I do things.

I am proud to say I finished the full 21 days of the Clean program last Tuesday. Part of wanting to do it was to prove to myself I could. And I did. It wasn't hard, and its quite motivating to keep it up when you feel so great. I had a lot of energy, I wasn't hungry, and felt really good overall (several asked if I bought the $450 program they sell, I didn't, but I was careful to follow the recipes and did buy a fair amount of supplements). I really thought the no caffeine would do me in, but it never did. I felt like I was in a general fog for the first 4 days, but after that, nothing. Interestingly, the program allows Yerba Mate tea, which has a little caffeine in it, so I did drink that, but sparingly. I lost ten pounds, I stopped drinking Diet Coke cold turkey and haven't gone back. Now that I am off the program, I am planning to drink alcohol only a couple of times a week. I have completely cut out the mid morning and mid afternoon (and evening) snacking that got me into trouble and am very aware of my portion sizes. Interestingly, the program killed my craving for sweets. This is a major problem for me. I crave sugar and never seem to be able to get enough, but by the end of the first week I was totally ok turning away from sweets and didn't feel deprived. I think the trick is that my body and energy level feel so improved, its not worth it to back up. I would recommend it to anyone that's looking for a reset. I will do it again in the future (the book recommends every 12 months or so). 

We are nearly done with Emma's room. What a journey it has been. More on that soon.

my week in instagram

I am addicted to Instagram. Have you tried it? I love the immediacy of it. The snap a photo with few words aspect, its addictive. I know a lot of folks are unhappy about Facebook acquiring Instagram (even though apparently the company has never made any money and weren't ever quite sure how they would make money). I don't love the idea myself, but I've always had a suspicion that all of these companies make their money from the collection of data from their users (us) how we each use our account. Data equals money. And I'm talking about pinterest, facebook, and twitter. If they would like to market to me, fine, its the price I pay, and I don't have to look.

Anyway, back to Instagram. I find that I snap many pictures with my phone and post to instagram, many that I probably wouldn't take otherwise with my big black camera. My Iphone 4s takes amazing photos, I hardly need to these days, the phone photos just blow me away. Mainly I'm just happy that these moments get captured. Of course, they could get captured the same by snapping a picture and posting it onto facebook, but for whatever reason I prefer instagram (which, by the way, my instagram feed goes directly to the wise craft facebook page).

All of these pictures were taken by my phone and put up on instagram this week.

 

Today's crochet assembly-

 

labels on things-

 

The wall above my desk-

 

Gracie finding respite from 10 year old boys in my studio-

 

Ian and me at the Science Center-

 

My owl embroidery progress-

 

One of Emma's scupley clay birds found while cleaning the studio-

You can follow my instagram updates here.

Its been two weeks of kids home from school for Spring Break (Emma's break was last week, Ian's was this week). Work and productivity always take a bit of a backseat when that happens. Even though we were bummed that the kids had different breaks this year (no big spring break trip to Florida like usual), I have to admit I've really enjoyed having some individual time with each of them. They each had a week with a little down time, and a little fun. That's good.

Although...

I am looking forward to next week. I am going to see the Gauguin & Polynesia exhibit at the SAM, I am going to browse secondhand shops without needing to make deals with my offspring involving rewards for letting me go there.

I know you hear me...

Oh! And I'm still posting over at habit through the month of April. Stop by!

Have a great weekend!

Blair

 

busy teenage hands

(I can't believe I'm calling Emma a teenage, but there you go. It's the truth, hard as it is to admit.)

Emma kept busy while we were snowed in by sewing a friend (Jinx, 1st photo) to go with Patch (2nd photo) that was made before Christmas. She's quite obsessed with anything to do with Emily The Strange right now, and I have to admit, going through the many books she got for Christmas, I'm pretty taken with Emily too. Emily is a clever, sullen sort of girl with quite a goth look, probably the kind of girl many parents would worry about in real life.

The Art of Emily The Strange is a book we have all looked at since Christmas. It's great. Many artists have drawn their own tributes to Emily, and its a fascinating book for a budding artist like Emma. I love the idea that she saw pictures of Jinx and Patch in several of her Emily The Strange books and decided she would make her own versions. Just like that. She spent hours on Jinx. Sketching the shapes, making her own paper templates, cutting the felt just so, making felt colors work even though they weren't quite right because we couldn't go out to get more felt.

I was merely a consultant. I didn't contribute one stitch

I don't want to take her ability and her desire to make things for granted.

There are so many things girl's brains and bodies are taught at school, and in life. To be confident in who they are, be inquisitive, stand up for their beliefs and themselves. All this is very important for a girl.

But you know what I love? I love that when the day is over, or there's a little time to herself, Emma finds relaxation and enjoyment in picking up a needle and thread and making something she can see in her brain. I am grateful that Peter and I have limited her time in front of TV and computer screens and instead created an environment in which she needed to find a way to fill her time. We don't do many things right, many things. But this I think she will carry with her throughout her life.

Thanks for letting me show off her work. I'm so proud of her.

<><><><>

And happy birthday to Peter. You, my friend, are amazing.