Written in the stars

 I'm not usually into the whole zodiac thing, but these astrology baby blankets sure are super cute.

Tanya's studio

My friend (and amazing painter) Tanya sent me pictures today of her studio in Boston. It looks like such a calm space, with all the pottery and plants and such.

When we lived in Chicago we used to get together and knit for entire afternoons... Is there a train from Durham to Boston? I am going to find out. 

Squid (in progress)

She managed to mix the exact perfect color for a squid, I think.

Wedding band shopping

We've been doing a lot of internet browsing, trying to find wedding bands that feel really "us". Below are some contenders...

Plant cozies

My front porch needs one of these.

Kids love animals

I was reminded at the Will Allen talk last week just how much kids adore animals. Not that I really forgot - animals are frequent subjects for my students and clients, and they're always interesting to talk to kids about, since they take on different symbolism for different children. This is the last week of after school art club until mid-April, so I was going to give the kiddos a little "see you next quarter" something, and decided to make them some tiny animals. As a kid I loved (and still love) mini things, so I used Sculpty clay and made them each an animal based on something they've said or made this quarter (which, in all honesty is probably more fun for me than it is for them). 

Wisdom from the (urban) farm

Last week I got to go hear Will Allen speak at a local school about his experiences as an urban farmer in Milwaukee.

He talked about growing food, composting, solar energy, running a non-profit, and how we can stretch ourselves to lead a more sustainable lifestyle.

The kids loved his photos, especially of the goats and chickens, and they all got adorably squirmy at the sight of the worm composting images.

And some of them were soo little, and still such good listeners! I was impressed.

I discovered a dream world

I like to drive around and look at neighborhoods. I always have, even as a little kid. In fact, as a baby, driving through twisty neighborhood streets was the only way my parents could get me to sleep. So sometimes when I have a little extra time between appointments, I take myself on tours of different areas. I find cute parks, admire gardens and houses and fences, think about paint colors and porch swing ideas and whether or not we should get a chicken coop or build a pergola. Today I was in Carrboro for work, and I had some time to kill before my next session, so I wandered. I drove down some twisty road until I came upon a colorful world of brightly painted homes, communal garden plots, solar panels, bikes, canoes, and park trails. 

In other words, I discovered the co-housing compound of my dreams, a place I want to move all my family and friends so we can cook and garden and raise babies and have parties in the giant "common house" and live close together in happy sustainable loveliness forever.

 I got home and googled like I've never googled before. And here it is, this dream place. 

But wait: there's more! Literally. There are several other co-housing communities in the triangle area (like this one, this one, this one, and this one), although this one seems to be the most colorful and is therefore my favorite, I think.

Dry my eyes

Lykke Li - Tonight from Lykke Li on Vimeo.
(Another favorite here.)

Papercut collages

Yesterday at our ATI meeting, we did a group art exercise together, just for fun, collaging and drawing on squares of paper which we then put together to make a collaborative paper "quilt". Cutting and gluing paper reminded me that I've been meaning to document some of my paper collages that have been sitting in the studio. So I finally spent some time with the scanner and thought I'd share a few of the pieces.