Jennifer, in the house

Domestic Projects

It's Summer, y'all.

When our neighbor, who cared for our lawn for several years, passed away unexpectedly a couple of months ago, Isaac (age 6) said "well, I guess I'll have to start mowing the lawn now."

We did have our own decrepit, shoulder-wrenching, push-down-hill-to-start-it gasoline mower that showers its operator with grass, dust and icky fumes.  Meanwhile, Isaac has been our household representative of green and eco-friendly activities for the past year or two.  So he was thrilled when we went out and purchased our very own mechanical reel mower. (You can enlarge the photo by clicking it, if you wish.) 

He couldn't wait to try it out (with lots of supervision).

Although our yard is large, since there is no need to fill the reel mower with gas or start a difficult motor, it's pretty easy to keep up with the grass -- a few minutes here and there in the evenings.

Joyce will probably be thrilled to hear that after a mere three months, I am nearly done balling the beautiful sea silk yarn!  I had lots of help in the beginning from Eve and from Salvador, as you can see on the left.  Salvador has tried to wear it several times (yes, he even figured out how to open the closet and get it out) and wants me to make him a spiffy vest, but I have my heart set on a sock pattern from knitty -- maybe these, or maybe those. Another couple episodes of Buffy and it'll be balled and ready to go!

Ok now for some fun:  what do you think this is?

a) A breastmilk storage bottle

b) A container for a six-year-old's pebble collection

c) A handy way to measure 1.5 oz. when you're making mojitos and can't find a jigger

Answers: yes, yes, and yes.  Use "c" evolved just a couple of nights ago.

And now for one final photo.  My baby, who is nearly two, is big enough for pigtails!  When did this happen? 

Late Spring Flashback

Here's a series of photos from Isaac's last soccer game of the season:

(click to see larger)

 

In order those are 1) Isaac's favorite position to play, 2) Another favorite position, 3) Not such a favorite position (that's Isaac in the middle) and 4) Awesome position, near cake!

Just this past week, Isaac participated in drama camp at BSC.  It was a b s o l u t e l y up his alley!  He had a really good time, ran and skipped all the way across campus to camp every day, and bounced all the way to the caf afterwards.  (With Isaac, the amount of bounce is directly proportional to amount of fun he is experiencing.)  Marc and I went to the final production on Friday, a creative amalgam of things the group had worked on that week.  As one of Robin Hood's merry men, Isaac the Hunter made a stew of animal tails (tiger, pig and donkey, if I remember correctly).

It being Summer, I decided I'd try some batik on cotton -- still using soy wax (so much easier to work with and clean up) -- and on a larger piece than I've ever done before, a gauzy sarong.  One of the challenges of a large piece is coming up with a design that makes sense on a larger field.  I took Collage's June theme of "Splash" and decided to go with water and sky.  On one corner I had the moon reflect on undulating water, and on the other corner, the sun shimmering across rippled water.

Here are some close-ups:

Marc's home from vestry now -- time to go hang with the fam!

Help! There's fabric stuck in my printer

Ok so that really only happened once today.

Most of the time, the fabric sticks nicely when ironed onto freezer paper, and the paper holds it as a flat sheet to run through your printer!  Pick your design, print, and ~~voilà~~ you have interesting self-printed fabric.  Peel the freezer paper off and you've got soft, pliable fabric again, ready for some fun.

The fabric here came with the soft stripes, and I toned the whole palette down a bit by tea-staining it.  Then came the freezer-paper action and some clip art from an educational public domain clip art site offered by the University of South Florida (thanks, USF!).  What I love about this site is that it's full of old engraver's prints from 19th century books, and you can find almost any subject -- here you see butterflies, fairies, birds and botanicals.  And those are just some of *my* image-interests.  If you want to see an illustration of the innards of a dragonfly, or a bird's-eye view of Citeaux, you can find those there too.

As you see, these printed fabric sheets are becoming Valentine sachets, pretty on a doorknob or drawer pull, and aromatic with lavendar, rosewood, clove and bergamot.  Kids and kitties are hungry, so I bid you adieu--