Small is not Easy (but 3 of 5 are done)

Months ago, while I was in the midst of crocheting and stitching large afghans, I opined that I ought to do some small projects, like animals or something.  The idea was to do things I could complete quickly, thinking it might somehow be easier.  So I did.  Some small animals might be easy, and in fact I thought the elephant I did was fun and quick.  The third of my animals has proven more challenging.

Meet the (as-yet-unnamed) Pirate Panda, which is a gift for my brother Jeremy. He has movable shoulder joints (made with buttons).  He comes with accessories - the skull-and-crossbones hat, the eye patch.  I think he’s pretty cute.

Jeremy gets a panda because has a particular fondness for pandas. He and I both support Pandas International. This organization that raises money to support the panda preserve in Wolong, China.  The Wolong preserve is the primary organization for panda research and preservation in the world, and has had a lot of success.  Sadly, it was hit recently by the massive earthquake in China and sustained a lot of damage.

On another note, yes, I know I screwed up my June postings. I thought I’d already posted Friday and then on Saturday morning I realized I hadn’t made a post after all.  I can’t believe I messed up and forgot like that.  Ah well, I guess none of us are perfect, and this was probably not the best month for the attempt in the end, though I couldn’t have known that to begin with.  After realizing I missed Friday, I decided to take Saturday off too.  Why not?

I very nearly took today off as well.  I went hiking today and got heat exhaustion, thanks to our lovely 100+ degree weather.  Without the surprise illness and subsequent nap, I might have made a nice post about the peach syrup I made today.  Do you know, it’s pretty easy to make syrup out of fruit?

Oh yeah, I’m livin’ the life …

So I had three things to tell you all today, and when I stopped and thought about them I was very amused. My three things are (1) organic vegetables, (2) a print from an independent artist and (3) something I just made. You can’t say I don’t do what I preach, er, ramble on about on here.

Organic Veggies: At the moment I’m super crazy excited waiting for my first home delivery of organic vegetables. A friend who already has been doing this for some time swears by Greenling for their produce. They are supposed to be awesome for veggie quality. I got two of their “surprise” baskets. The local basket has an unknown variety of seasonal fruits and vegetables from farms in the area.  The other one is the “artisanal basket” with a surprise variety of breads, meats, cheeses etc. from local shops. I don’t know what I’m getting, and I just love that! I have to admit that although I like the organic part, I’m actually more excited about the surprise element, and the fact that I don’t have to go to the grocery store.  I used to love getting home delivery of groceries in Manhattan.

Art Print: The art print is one called Bear Snug (#214 from March 1 ,2008) from Nut and Bee. What, you’ve never stopped by Annette’s stationery shop?  You really should. Her illustrations are some of the cutest I’ve ever seen, and I love checking out her 3x weekly postings of new Sketchbook Sweeties (her name for her drawings). Check out the Whirlipig and the Drama Llama. You’ll succumb to the spell too.

Kitchen Curtain: In addition to all those WIPs from yesterday, I did actually finish one thing, if only because it was the easiest thing.  I have this wierd spot in my kitchen where the 1970s builders decided to put a countertop for some sort of breakfast nook, I assume.  It would have made about 1000x more sense to put cabinets there, but apparently builders and architects can’t be bothered to be, you know, practical.

So I’ve put up 2 shelves (well, my dad did) and made a curtain to hide the area below.  Now it can serve as additional storage without just looking messy.  Plus, I love the stripe.

My mom had a GREAT idea for making this.  I got a pair of shorter pre-made curtain from Target to do this, and she suggested that instead of cutting off the extra at the bottom I should just fold it over so it’s the right length, and just sew in the rod pocket in the middle somewhere. Then you just sew down the sides. If you use a loose enough stitch, you can pull out the stitches later and reuse the curtains! FAB.

The weather, and other unpleasant facts

It’s 10:44 pm, and it’s still 86 degrees outside. No kidding. Ugh. The weather people tell me it is supposed to be 98 tomorrow. Now that it’s June, I know the weather isn’t going to do anything but be gross until October. All I can do is hope for a lot of rain to block the sun and try to balance my air conditioning bill against personal discomfort. You’d think I hadn’t grown up in the subtropics with all my complaining about the heat, but I just can’t seem to reconcile myself to being baked.

<–That’s my most recent painting. I’m experimenting with shapes and painting the negative spaces instead of the object itself. This is a technique exercise, just to try to see objects differently, to understand better how things are shaped. I like how it turned out, and I’m going to try more like it.

Summer calls for several things, craft-wise. I’ve put away all the blankets I’m making, and switched to things that aren’t hot to sit under. I have a couple of big crochet projects I’m planning (one left from last year) and a bunch of experimentation with fabric.

But first I have to put my house back together.

One thing I had to do for summer was move my sewing machine downstairs. Heat rises, and this apartment has craptastic insulation. No force on earth is powerful enough to make me stay upstairs during the day in a Tejas summer. Migrating my space has been this weekend’s production, and in fact we dragged the rest of the house into the evil reorganization vortex. I think Jeff and I moved all but 3 pieces of furniture over the last couple of days, a painful process.

Fact is that I feel as though I’m supposed to be moving right now. For the last 8 years I have moved every two years for school purposes. Big, go-to-a-different-city moves. Plus the natural upheaval of 5 years of thrice-yearly college semester changes. I wonder if I’m not having withdrawal, if the furnishings aren’t my way of making up for not being able to make a big change this year. After so much constant, regular change for so many years, I’m actually finding it more difficult than I imagined to continue in the same city, same house, and same job for a third year. I know people do this staying-in-one-place thing all the time, but I’m just not feeling it.

Anyway, another result of the shuffling-furniture project is that I have some new colors in my abode. The way I decorate takes my frequent redecorating into account - I have a primary color in here (brown) and then I use lots of colorful accents. This is a much less expensive way to make sweeping changes quickly. The red in my main space has given way to bright green. My front room has moved on to include orange and blue. I have three new sets of curtains to make and some pillows. And I have Plans for a couple of tables involving a combination of lacquer, paint and paper.

Thus begins summer. Jeff, of course, says I’m causing too much trouble for myself, but what would be the fun if I didn’t?