Marsbarn Designs...

Guest Post: Sweetheart G Fairy Pictures.

Hello! This is Sweetheart G typing today. This is a picture of Nixies [ above ]. They are amphibian fairies. The picture is  called  Nixie Pond.   Drawn with markers and colored pencils.

This is a Western Elfian Sea Side Dragonous Maximous. It loves sushi,chocolate,s'mores,and all desserts. On its wing is a phoenix. In the backgrond is a nixie.  

Here is some sushi that a swimmer left on the beach to eat after swimming. The dragon is thinking about eating it.

This is the cover of the Elfain calender. More fairy pictures soon! Bye!

Really, I didn't hear about this sooner?

While reading Kirsten's blog, Pompom Rouge, I saw her post about Iraqi Bundles of Love.

The idea is that people raid their stashes of yarn or fabric and send bundles to Iraq.  The supplies will be handed out by security forces (Iraqi and American) to women and co-ops that need them.  You should start reading about it here.  Honestly, it's brilliant.  So easy for those of us with stashes, so important for those who receive them.  There is even a post on how to build your bundle.

The hard bit is that this is wrapping up quickly!

You have to post your bundle before September 7th, 2009!

the seasons change, but one thing remains the same... there just aren't enough hours in the day.

Summer is almost over,

fall is right around the corner.

 

and I have so, so many projects I want to do.

... note to self.. must find way to slow down time.

In the mans own words.

For a better version of the Mighter Than a Locomotive, look here .

Faster than a speeding locomotive

My favorite guy had a good night last night.

He heard a report of a car stuck on the railroad tracks.

Seconds later he saw a freight train heading north.

He used lights and sirens to get ahead of the train.

Then he lit flares.

Think Die Hard II, when McClane tries to wave off the doomed airplane with flares, 

but this time it's a huge freight train heading toward a car wedged in the tracks.

But my guy had his shirt on, and he was successful.

The train stopped, the conductor was hugely thankful, 

and now I need to figure out how to get a 

"I stopped a train" award patch.

The car, by the way, was probably a DUII.

Since the car turned onto the tracks,

and then drove up them until the its wheels became wedged.

Sober people don't normally do that.

the pen is mightier than the sailor talk

A couple of weeks ago,  Big E and little e gifted me with a collection of BIC Mark-it permanent pens.

Such pretty colors... what a way to win a girl's heart!

 

The latest quilting project I've been working on is one of those lessons in organized chaos. In the past with these sorts of projects I could only work on one bit at a time or risk confusion and sailor talk.

But!  My new Mark-it pens will write on plastic, like the plastic of my daisy head pins. (And the ink doesn't scratch off like my Sharpies do sometimes!)

Taste some order quilting chaos!

Oh ya!  And absolutely no sewing like a sailor.

Don't take this too seriously, I'm just feeling the need to gripe.

School will start in two weeks.

That means volunteering starts soon, very soon.

I love to help out my children's school.

I do.

I like to be involved, to know who my children spend their time with, to make their education better.

I know the school cannot function without volunteers.

I know I'm privileged to be able to give my time.

I know this. I believe this.

I'm just not excited to do it this year.

I feel like I want to drag my feet,

like I need to hurry up my projects here

because once school starts up again my time will be consumed.

I know that once I'm in the middle of the activities I help with I'll be happy and excited..

but.. 

but..

Wait a minute.

I know this feeling;

the "Crap, I don't want to go back, but I'll be happy once I'm there" feeling.

This is how I used to feel about work.

As in paid, forty hour a week work with bennies...

What does it mean when volunteering feels more like work than the stuff I actually get paid for?

Ollie-ollie-oxenfree

The whole gang is back home.

The new art area upstairs has been oooh-ed and ahhh-ed over.  

The first argument between sisters has been survived.

The kite quilt has been finished and washed.

Now I just have to arrange to see that new babe!

I did not, in the end, tie this quilt at all.

I used my free motion foot and did little air current swirls here and there.   I found the whole enterprise terrifying and exhilarating, but I did it and I'm giving the quilt away before I begin to obsess over it.  

And, I found an Easter Egg this weekend.

It was stuffed into the middle of a yoga mat.

Happily it contained a playmobil knight.

So we're all back home. 

The house has been reassembled. 

And, we have two weeks to settle into the Home routine 

before school starts and our time is no longer our own.

Where we spend

Defying my own expectation, I got out of the house yesterday.  On his way out of town, Big E dropped me off on a major bus route so I could get downtown without griping about our Saturday bus schedule.

 I cruised through the Farmer's Market buying carbs (and the occasional bit of produce).  Oh glorious food!

Then I moved across downtown to the Saturday Market.  The Saturday Market is a huge (HUGE!) outdoor marketplace.  I visited my friend Tonya briefly, but Oh My! it was crowded.

So, this is the thing about our little/big town:

both of the temporary markets I visited were bustling in an overloaded capacity, but the brick and mortar businesses in downtown were empty.  Echoingly empty.  This is great for our independent people, but so much of our city's economy depends on big time retail.. it's worrying.

So in a purely economically  stimulating capacity, I stopped in the art supply store downtown and put some cash into the system.

Ahem. It was virtuous... sort of.

Don't judge me by the empty cereal boxes...

Tomorrow morning Big E is going south to game.

He'll spend the night with friends.

Then, he'll take a detour on his way home on Sunday to pick up the sweet monkeys.

Know what this means?

I'm going to be home alone for the whole weekend.

Don't worry though, I'll have The Tank to take care of me.