She has new bears that I haven’t seen yet up on her site. I love their uniqueness, their quirks, their circus clothes. They are just so cute I can hardly stand it.

I am in search of a style as distinctive and irresistable as hers. What talent!

And for the most part, without casualty. Unless you want to count the wake of destruction Ellie left in her path through our house, but what’s one new, striped, favorite wing-back living room chair more or less? I’m sure repairing the damage will cost less than it would have to board her somewhere, so I’ll try not to dwell on the very large hole chewed in our dining room carpet. I wanted new flooring there anyway and this has just expedited the process. So thanks, Ellie. We were crazy to leave you home alone for ten days with only baby gates to deter you from chewing up furniture and 3 neighborhood kids to run around with you in the yard a little every day.

We had a nice trip. We drove a lot. We stayed with family. We saw the ocean and some church history sights, played with cousins, went to a birthday party, listened to lots of books on CD…

After all the excitement, we are all VERY ready to sleep in our own beds.

We’re in New Hampshire to visit family. It was a nice drive and today we went to the beach. Just wanted to let you know that I’ll be back in a week with good stories to tell

New site design!!! I’m so thankful I have a computer genius husband, because it would take me a long time to figure all the programming jargon out. All I have to do is show him how I want it to look, make a graphic or two, and WALA! It’s on the internet. Well, maybe not quite as fast as WALA, but close.

I even made an “about me” blurb, but we’re having a hard time figuring out static pages in Word Press.

Also coming soon– shop seedpod! I have “learn to spin” drop spindle kits ready to post, and also some niddy-noddy-nostepinnes for anyone out there that wants to learn how to spin their own yarn. I’ve got some good journal ideas rolling around in my brain too, so hopefully this fall I’ll have some up for your Christmas shopping pleasure.

Also, I’m venturing into flickr. There are lots of cool things it can do. I just need to sit down and figure them out. I want to have a handspun yarn gallery. If anyone out there has bought a spindle from me and made some yarn, e-mail me (jessica AT seedpodbooksandart DOT com) a picture of it and I’ll post it. I just think it would be cool to amass a bunch of pictures of handspun yarn, you know, because pictures are cool.

On a totally unrelated note, but noteworthy nonetheless:
It is a good thing that my boys have nicely shaped heads. Because you can see them very well now. Because they have no hair–well, next to no hair. They were pretty shaggy and I just never got around to giving them haircuts, so, when I went to a meeting Tuesday night, Barry gave them haircuts. Logan’s blond wispy softeness is now about 3 mm long. I had quite a shock, but today I think he is the cutest thing ever again and I love his fuzzy head. I am very thankful to have a husband to helps so much–even if he doesn’t do things quite the way I would. (Stay tuned to Barry’s site for pictures.)

*UPDATE*
There are some glitches with the categories over on the left. If you’d like to look at the posts in a category and get a file not found error, try clicking on “home” first, then going to the category you’re interested in. Not that anyone really cares that much, but I’m just trying to figure out this new layout

Here’s my newest teddy in her smock and apron:

She’s made from a pattern in my Japanese teddy bear book. I haven’t scanned the page for you to see what the original looked like, but I did change things around a little bit and added some clothes to make her mine. She’s my first bear made with traditional mohair fabric. Here paw pads are merino felt made right here in my kitchen. She’s stuffed with polyfil and pellets, so she sits nicely on the edges of things. So, for the past few days she’s been following me around so that I can keep an eye on her.

Too bad mohair is so expensive, because it is much faster to just cut out pattern pieces than it is to needle punch or rug hook them myself.

But, needle punching mohair….

Hmmm….

I got some advice yesterday from none other than Denyse Schmidt! It was very helpful advice too. I had looked at Hancock’s of Paducah, but somehow failed to access their never ending selection of Kona cotton solids.

After jumping up and down and calling my husband to tell him “DENYSE SCHMIDT MADE A COMMENT ON MY BLOG!!!” I searched the sight for “swatch” to find the swatch set Denyse suggested. I ordered the set of 5″ squares in every color–that’s 119 colors! There’s also a card with swatches of every color. I got the squares so that (hopefully) I can move them around and experiment with color combinations and find exactly what I want.

I f you don’t have to decide hands on just take a look at the yellows , reds, naturals, greens and blues.

I had also heard that Denyse was going to come out with her own line of fabrics–so I e-mailed her back and asked if it was true. Well, it is! Here’s what she said:

“Yes, I’m doing a fabric line with Free Spirit (they do the Amy Butler fabrics), and I’m very excited about it. Should be in stores next spring or early summer, I’ll have info about it on my website when we get closer to its release.”

How cool!

Anyway, she’ll be watching as we “Quilt Along.” I’m excited to get underway and I’m excited to watch what everyone else does.

I did find a place with most of the Kona cotton solids online. I’m wary of ordering fabric online before I actually see it though.

But, here are some fabrics I would love to have, even without seeing them in real life.

  

I went to a local quilt shop in search of solids and these Amy Butler prints, but no luck. In looking online it seems there isn’t any of that top fabric left either. Bummer. The colors are just perfect for my upcoming quilt!

Well, my Denyse Schmidt book came last week. Yippee!! I’ve been studying and dreaming about what I want to make. Barry really wants one just like the orange “Drunk Love in a Log Cabin” one, but orange generally isn’t my thing. My dad calls me an ‘Earth child’ which totally describes the colors I’m drawn to. Brown, green, gray, yellowish-brown, grayish-green… you know–brown and green.

I’ve been playing with color combos:

brown and green– with the color of dried wispy grass thrown in

dried wispy grass with live green grass, then some green and orange to spruce it up

now, I think this is my favorite– rust and light rust with green, grey, and muslin.

So, all you Denyse Schmidt quilt alongers, I’m declaring my decision. I’m doing “Drunk Love 2 Tone” in rusty-orangy for Barry, with a back pieced like “A Day at the Beach” in calming green, brown and muslin for me.

Now to find SOLID fabric. I’ve been looking… Any suggenstions?

I read a couple of reflective blog entries yesterday (here and here) that echo completely how I think and feel about art, making, creating…

I need to make things. Everyday. It seems hard to justify, though. It seems so comsuming and wasteful to my rational mind. It costs money, it takes time… But the drive to create is woven into the very fiber of my being. I know I won’t find my place or purpose in life, as a mom, a wife, a leader, without making things and exploring my ideas. I get paralyzed by the impracticality of it though. I wish I could overcome that. I wish I didn’t always feel like making and creating were a selfish waste of time, because I don’t think that is the right way to look at it.

It is a strange thing, this blogging thing. I have been real hesitant to write too much, to become too involved, to bare my soul here, because there are wierdos out there. ANYONE could come here and read it, and that seems like a huge risk.

I’ve been lurking and reading the blogs of other crafty moms, agreeing with what they say, admiring the things they make, the mail they get, the lives they display, and I think, “I wish I could be friends with her. She thinks so much like I do, and she makes cool stuff!” But, creating friendships over the internet seems so dangerous and silly. But, in reading the blogs of other women who have children and make art I’ve found that I’m not alone in my drive to create and all that it encompasses…

Anyway, I think I like this blogging thing. I want to make crafty friends. They echo my thoughts.