Marsbarn Designs...

My project pile is developing attitude

I started prepping fabric crowns a couple of weeks ago. I got into the mojo and totally lost track of how many crowns I was making. First there was tracing the pattern on foundation (Oh, surely I need more than this...), then I started matching fabrics (oh, and I should do two like this..), and now I've been sewing, sewing, sewing and the pile still mocks me when I get on the computer. (Gahd, stop looking at me like that! I'll sew more tomorrow! Promise.)

It's all about the karma, isn't it?

Somewhere out there is a person who decided that it would be a good idea for them to steal the biggest pumpkin on our porch. I don't think they realized that pumpkin belonged to Little e, or that it was grown on a friend's farm with love. Maybe that person had a good reason for stealing from a little girl, but I seriously doubt it. I do know, with a certain viciousness, that people who casually steal from others have bad things happen to them. The universe vents its bowels upon them and they live unhappy, unfulfilled lives of misery. My feelings about this remind me of a story I heard on NPR once. This little old lady in the South who made fried pies to pay for her husband's medications was turned into the local Health Department because she was baking professionally in her home kitchen. About that tattletale she said (paraphrasing since I can't find the link), "Oh, I pity them. God will make them suffer for their actions, and I pity them their lives." So, Pumpkin Thief, I suggest you really, really enjoy our pumpkin.. after all, there isn't much else out there for you.

Hey, I DO still knit!

Little e wears dresses. In a pinch (like its laundry time and there's no other choice), she'll wear a skirt, but I'll get an earful about how a dress would really be better. She has nightmares about having to wear pants (without a dress on top).
As the weather continues to cool, I thought some legwarmers might be a nice addition to this one sided wardrobe. These are made from Cascade Fixation, and have been a cinch to make up. The knit is spongy and soft, and should wash up well. If these wear as well as I hope, I could well be making a selection of them for the girl. As a bonus, they fit me perfectly as arm warmers, so if she doesn't like them I can keep them for me! Pretty much a win-win, I'd say.

She nose her audience

Little e quote of the day said to Papa J as she is instructing him in rubberband gun safety: "Don't point the gun up your nose."

A most lovely Sunday

Today was a gorgeous day filled with children, bubbles, sidewalk chalk, and circus tricks. There were dried cherry ginger scones as well as chocolate chip scones. It was, in a word, divine. Hope you all had a Sunday just as nice!

moving beyond the fair

The hard part of the book fair is done. I just have to wait for some books we ordered to arrive, and then I can send the financial information off to scholastic, write my thank you notes and be done. Whoo-hoo! My first book fair as chairperson will be done! It went pretty well, I think.

In my non-fair time I've been working on crowns and a little knitting project. (I won't mention my delusional thoughts of being able to knit between fair shifts this week... total delusion.) Most of today was spent trying to catch up on stuff I didn't do this week (laundry, baking, picking up), but tomorrow should have more creative time.. maybe I'll even take some photos.

Look out! She's Fierce.

Big E has informed me that I scare people, men in particular.

When I first came to the Promised Land of Rain and Fog, lo these many years ago, I scared lots of people. Just walking across campus in my black boots of power, my black jeans, and my flannel, the people would part before me... not like Moses and the sea, but more like a wave of fleeing villagers before the invading Vikings. My normal at ease stance made people scuttle around me. (See that look The Tank is giving Big E? Ya I could do that.) And if I was pissed about something... I remember once, I was talking to some classmates and Big E ran silently up behind me, scooped me up onto his shoulders, and then proceeded to run across campus with me screaming wildly. When he put me down, back where the wild ride had begun, my classmates cringed backward and eyed Big E like a dead man walking. They obviously foresaw blood, carnage, or at least a throat strike. When I laughed until I cried and then introduced Big E, they looked at him like a man who has walked out of a blaze blissfully unaware that not everyone is immune to fire.

Big E blames my ability to disconcert on my East coast background and my urban childhood. I don't know... I think of myself as generally reasonable, unassuming, and even kind.. (really, I haven't used my Gaze of Death in years... and I wear colors now) but as he has recently reminded me, I apparently still know how to walk the walk.

Ahna knows all the cool guys.

I blame it on Ahna. She showed him to me first.

Then I googled him, and bookmarked his website.

Now I've been savoring his video poems, one every couple of days..
and I'm just not sure what I'll do when I run out.
My favorites? Like Lilly Like Wilson, I Could Be a Poet, and of course What Teachers Make.

Photo stolen from Big E. (Shhh.. don't tell him.)

planning with reservations

I've been talking with a friend in Seattle about heading North for a visit, but I just can't move the idea from hypothetical to reservation. I have money (culled from dice bag sales... which makes me smile just to type it) set aside, but.. but.. the idea of going to Seattle by myself, for a trip just for me fills me with guilt. Surely there are better things I could do with that money.
If this were a trip with Big E? No problem-o. Date weekend?! Sign me up. If this were Big E planning to go for a guy weekend? I'd pack his bag and push him out the door.
But, a trip for a girl weekend? Ack!

The joy of not being chosen

Can I tell you what a thrill it gave me, seeing the Scholastic Book truck pull up at our school and knowing it was for me?

I found out today that I am not going to have a table at Crafty Wonderland's Holiday sale... and I'm kind of relieved. (Phew!) Of course, I would have been excited if I'd gotten in.. (It's such an honor and all that...) but now I can relax a bit in my production plans. It was pretty much a win-win situation.