Mabel and The Cat in the Hat

Many people live near their extended relatives while growing up. I was not one of those people. I lived near none of my extended family and traveled to see them about twice a year. What I did have was a next–door neighbor named Mabel Mattingly, who was a pretty darn crafty lady. She was in many ways my stand-in grandmother and gave me a deep appreciation for things done by hand.

Mabel made me my first quilt, which I will show you all sometime. Should I have children, that quilt and its matching pillow is my daughter’s. Mabel also made awesome apple turnovers, the like of which I’ve never had again. She provided our house with various jellies and jams for all the years I was growing up in that house. She used to go to Louisiana to visit her family and pick mayhaws and come back and make ‘em into jelly. Mmmmm. She also had a big garden and taught me how to garden as well. I had a postage-sized plot out back that gave me great joy. She canned a lot of vegetables- she is the reason I adore pickled okra today.

One of the major things that Mabel did was make ceramics. She was not a wheel potter, she was a ceramicist; she used molds. She had hundreds of molds on shelves in the garage, all tied up or wrapped with giant rubber bands.  She had a big, deep kiln by the door to the kitchen, so deep that my small self couldn’t reach the bottom. She made me various things over the years, and I have 2 of them - a little turtle to put plants in, and a black witch hat. I also have a very pathetic vase she made with me - it’s the paint job that’s mostly pathetic. Mabel was an excellent painter - her colors were even and her finishes glossy. My witch hat isn’t very complicated, but some of the paint jobs she did were really intricate.

Hope you enjoy the little show that my kitten Callie put on with the hat that Mabel made me. Although I don’t know what happened to Mabel after she moved away, I always feel big warm fuzzies for her whenever I get out her handicrafts and remember the things she taught me to love.

Saturday at the Maker Faire

Wow. Maker Faire.

I was not sure what to expect when I went, but let me just tell you that I have never seen such a collection of involved and amazing stuff in one place. The Faire is HUGE, first of all. Ten booths just for the Robot Group here in Austin. A whole floor of electronic geekery, a field of organic foods, a store of kits and books, a barn full of DIY. I was worn out well before it was finished.

So, what was there? Modded computers, animatronic animals, air & water pianos, robot spin art, mechanical flowers that open up, a kick ass beer brewing setup, mini transistors to make, crazily articulated models, dimming 3-color LED lights - oh, and Instructables was there …

Organics: lots of tea, brownies, vegetables from multiple places, honey, goat cheese

Art cars, make-your-own buttons, carnival rides, demonstrations on several stages, Tesla coils, Jacob’s ladder, mechanical wood carvers (at least 3 kinds), Darth Vader Legos, Tinker Toys
(deep breath)

Sewing demonstrations, a truckload of yarn to try out, a big ol’ clothing swap & fashion show made of re-made clothes, spinning and weaving demonstrations, and various kids of machines that screamed and wailed when you touched them.

And dude, they had those guys with the Mentos and the Diet Coke - the Eepy Bird guys. And did I mention the rockets?

Seeing all the Austin people represented was very nice, although clearly there were a lot of out-of-towners as well. Very inspiring to go to, very obvious that a large part of Austin certainly doesn’t go home after work and crash in front of the TV.

So tired now. Will do show and tell later.

Cute? No. Not this Friday.

Yeah, so basically what I was looking for was really crazy pumpkins. And I found them. If you have a moment you should really go check out Extreme Pumpkins (.com). This is absolutely the way that Pumpkins were Meant To Be. Here’s some of my favorites (bwahahahahaha).