watercolor painting in a sketchbook of a Clanculus margaritarius
Drawing Vicariously
I’m not heading to the ranch so T is sending me pictures. I am drawing them and it feels just as nice and meditative as getting to go up there.
Chicken Math
Our second to last chicken died in February of this year and, with just one chicken left, I decided that we would get a new batch of chickens. My timeline was dependent on Concord Feed and their schedule of chickens. I was hoping to get some specific breeds. I ended up just getting the ones they had available and I am very glad I did because the week after I picked ours up there was a global pandemic declared and people went nuts buying up all the chickens. It was all about sourdough starter and buying ‘pandemic chickens’ in those first few weeks. I mean, also it was about people being scared, dying, losing their jobs and a host of other horrible things.
We ended up getting six chickens, 2 cream legbars, and four cochins (black, blue, buff, speckled). Our older hen is an Easter Egger and she mostly hates us.
Even now I feel the inexplicable pull of chicken math. I really want to add some chocolate eggers or a Lavender Orpington… there are so many adorable chickens out there.
Meme showing a still of Boromir from The Lord of the Rings with the caption, “One does not simply get a few chickens”.
Baby chickens are just the cutest things! Check out these nerds as babies:
So the week after got these the SIP order was put in place. My sister and I organized a pet fashion show for the kids in our lives. It was a great success. I submitted several chicks wearing muffin papers.
Photo of a sketchbook page open to a watercolor and ink drawing of a ticket (front and back) saying ‘Pet Fashion Show March 2020”
Picture of a gray and white chick butt wearing a muffin paper as a skirt.
Lami Safari Fountain Pens
I’m really enjoying sketching with my Lamy Safari pens. I’m most worried about upkeep for them, though. They need to be cleaned regularly and I am not great at that kind of thing. Right now I amusing Noodler’s Ink Black with the special refillable cartridges. Why do they come with non-water resistant blue ink? No one wants that!
Another HOOT Painting
My 2019 HOOT painting has dropped! I like the deckled edges of this one. I’m thinking maybe I should have added some nice blues to the background. I can still do that, I guess.
Landscape Sketchbook - Containers
Turquoise pots are just lovely aren’t they? I bought this one at Pottery and Beyond in Emeryville.
Sketchbook
Whoever is doing the floral design for Blue Bottle is killing it.
Taking some time to draw at the coffee shop.
Indian Springs in Calistoga is (one of) My Happy Place(s)
Indian Springs in Calistoga is my happy place. I have a core memory of being in my early 20’s and taking a yoga class - at the end of class during Shavasana the instructor told us to envision our happy place and I though, “fuck, I don’t have one?!” and then I started crying. LOL. Poor baby me!
Anyway, ever since then I have attempted to fix various 'happy places' in my head so that if this situation ever arises again I will know what to do.
I’m amused thinking back to how something as simple as an instructor's suggestion during my crappy 24-Hour Fitness yoga class triggered such an existential mini-crisis. I’ve got a few other places I picture - one and two are Town Beach or Bonnet Shores beach in Narragansett, RI. The other is the beach at Napili Bay on Maui. Hmmm, water seems to be a theme but also the theme is NOT HERE. HERE being my daily life with the regular grind of things to do and remember, etc.
They are really working on the gardens here. I’m in love with this huge stone wall and this concrete fountain. Here you can see someone planted some spring bulbs amidst the agaves. I like this fresh meadowy look.
These olive trees must be very old!
Map Dress and Landscape Brooches
I'm close to being done with this dress. I have been prototyping the brooches. First in tissue paper and then with wool felt and embroidery.
Map of Paris Dress
I found this old gold velvet map fabric online. It's got a bit of stretch to it and has a nice heavy substantial weight to it. I decided to use a pattern from The Party Dress Book: How to Sew the Best Dress in the Room
I added pockets, too. <-- possibly a mistake. Also, it was possibly a mistake to use this heavy fabric for what is supposed to be a flirty party dress. Anyhoo... I'm working on some fitting. The lower part of the torso needs to be lengthened and the bodice strap is making me twitchy.I had all sorts of ideas for incorporating some sort of Ardiuno into this dress. Upon further consideration I realize this would be distracting and TOO MUCH. I will be adding some embroidery to it, however.The Arduino powered dress will come later and needs more thought.
Forest Dress
I finally finished the Forest Dress. I started sewing this dress about 5 years ago when my son was a baby. The fabric is Timeless Treasures vintage lawn that I found in a thrift shop, or maybe I bought it at the Oakland White Elephant Sale. The black trim is an old black sheet that I repurposed into various things. The dress lining (skirt and front bodice only) is a really pretty black on black striped lawn.
I've not been slacking in the sewing dept. for 5 years. This just got wadded up and put in a box and I forgot about it. It's more a testament to ADHD. I love to start things and once I have the basic idea out there I get bored of it. Details! Annoying, annoying details!When I started getting obsessed with combining sewing and thinking about landscape design I remembered it and pulled it out. Since it was already started I figured I could finish it up real quick. Of course, that didn't happen. I started 2 other dresses in the middle of it (again?!) and THEN... horror of horrors, I accidentally locked my cat in my studio and um... let's just say that my cat destroyed the pattern pieces.I (mostly) used McCall's M4769 for this dress and since I have made other dresses with this pattern I was able to reverse engineer the missing pieces.I can tell I started this dress right when I got my serger. I serged the skirt seems with elastic thread I was using to sew myself some bathing suits at the same time. ahahaha. WHY?! Probably I did this because threading elastic nylon thread into a serger is a huge pain.
Fabrics: vintage lawn - brown blue and black forest scene, old black sheet, trim: striped lining: black striped lawnNotions: vintage pearly shank buttonsPattern: partially McCall's M4769, partially my own slopers, partial some reverse engineered/jiggered piecesTime to sew: oh, about 5 years. :DTheme: Vintage forests.