Do you think this design is cute? Then you should go vote for it (and whatever else you like) at the Spoonflower weekly fabric design contest. I designed it. I’m having fun with their themes. I don’t think I’m going to enter next week, but the collage theme after that sounds like fun.

In other news, we had a great Vermont day today. It started with my waking up at 5am. That’s okay, I probably fell asleep around 9, and Penelope only wakes me up 3 times at night now instead of 5 or something. Those first four hours are the really important ones for not being a zombie, so I’m grateful. I got sidetracked.

We dropped Grandma/Nenny off at work, then went and played in the river for 45 minutes. It’s a lovely wide shallow river, so we waded out into the middle where there was a huge rock to climb on. Rebecca got soaking wet of course, and ended up in her underwear. Then we went to a happy cafe for morning snack. Then we went to a bigger-on-the-inside-than-the-outside antique store, where we bought Jesse’s sister some willow ware for her collection. Then we had a lovely lunch and Jesse had a beer sampler at the Long Trail brewery, sitting right next to the same beautiful river. One more antique store, the grocery store, and we picked up Nenny and went home.

Rebecca, D-Pa and Nenny went out to an evening concert and ice cream on the village green, but mom and dad and Penelope were too tired!

Don’t forget to vote for my fabric design!

So, when I created the tutorial for this felt doll house chair I wondered what would happen if I turned it into a toddler chair. Well, when the next One Yard Wonders book comes out, you’ll be able to decide if it was successful or not. Clearly the ‘muslin’ (canvas) pattern holds weight, but, I don’t know, I’m not totally satisfied with it. Is tying a chair weird? Should I have used upholstery buttons instead of just thread? But I don’t think I can do any serious redesign now.

I do still need to make the final version, that’s next on my table. I’ve finished one project for the book, and I have two more and a looming deadline that is totally stressing me out! It’s like I have a real job again! Stress! It makes me want to crawl into bed and wait until those in authority come and haul me away for pretending that I can accomplish something good. Erg. But! One foot in front of the other, and not wasting time online can work wonders. Also, just a little sake before I sit down to write really helps me get out the first draft of a pattern! I found that out last week. Is that bad? Should I not admit that? Maybe, but it was nice to have a little help with the voices in my head saying, ‘no!’ ‘that’s awful’ ‘no one will understand that’ ‘that’s too basic! People will think you’re condescending!’ ‘give up!’ But what would be the point of life if we gave up, right? So, forward forward forward.

Inspired to get around to it by Thrifty Craft Mama I put away our set of pattern blocks with pattern cards and got out the thicker set that didn’t have any pattern cards. The pattern cards were too slippery and frustrating for Rebecca, she wanted her shapes to line up perfectly, and they were always getting bumped a little bit, so she didn’t want to play with them anymore. Once we put the pattern cards away she was able to have a lot more fun laying out strips of triangles and making her own stars. Then we started building mountains and little houses, and that was even more fun.

And I like making really complex mandalas too. Most of my creative energy recently has been going to cleaning and organizing, there is much too much clutter and not enough space and I think it’s bad for me and Rebecca. (That and energy going towards taking care of Penelope and not abandoning Rebecca.) So I’m not sure there is going to be too much craftyness around here for a little while. Maybe next week I can take a picture of my refolded and boxed fabric stash, right now it’s gotten to the point of being crammed in on top of the books on the bookcase and in shoeboxes that stick out further than the shelves. I got some boxes from IKEA that actually fit on the shelves, and I’m trying to rearrange everything to be more visually uniform and relaxing. And not covering every horizontal and vertical surface… sigh.

But hey, if you’re reading this, maybe, if you feel like it, if you have time, and it isn’t too much trouble, because I never want to make work for people, go and leave a nice comment on someone else’s blog, telling them how awesome they are. Every day this week if you’re feeling really motivated. If you’re feeling super motivated, take jojoebi’s Comment Pledge. I thought that one was such a sweet idea.

I call it tooth brushing yoga, because that’s where it started. We all brush our teeth for two minutes in the morning and two minutes at night, and maybe even floss for a minute. If you add in a warrior 2 pose while you are brushing your teeth, left foot forward on the top teeth, then right foot forward on the bottom teeth or however you like to divide things up, and a chair pose or some kind of squat while you are flossing your teeth, every day, then that is 35 minutes of yoga a week, just while you’re taking care of your teeth! It’s a miracle! I may also be punchy.

Not that 2 minutes of yoga at a time could be called a work out, lets just call it an improvement over 0 minutes of yoga at a time.

But then there’s that balance we all need to work on as we get older. You’re standing in line somewhere? Tree pose. You can leave the hands out if you’re feeling shy, or just keep them in prayer form in the center of your chest. If the thought of tree pose makes you fall over, just lift your foot up to your ankle. Or put one finger on your shopping cart. This is ten times better for you than scanning the awful checkout magazines or staring at the candy bars and batteries.

Standing next to the car (or anywhere) waiting for your young child to PLEASE GET MOVING? Try some chest openers. Interlace your fingers in front of you, turn them palms out and stretch them up and over your head as far back as you can. Doesn’t that feel great? Release your arms out to the sides sweeping them back and down. Some people call this morning stretch I think. I’m a yogi, really. If you keep doing yoga when your kids are dawdling you may start to actually like it when they slow you down. Maybe going faster isn’t that important anyway.

Just flow. Namaste.

(Have more ideas for incorporating yoga into the tiny cracks in your life? Share them in the comments.)

What did Lois win?  I don’t know, because she had to go and ask for a surprise.  Which means now my head is full of plottings, and schemings, and here I thought I was done with the whole thing!  So she won’t get what I thought I was giving away, she might get something wonderful, and she might get something awful, but either way, she’s brilliant, because the best part is the surprise anyway, and then you can chuck it if you don’t like it.  So you’ll all find out what it was next week after she’s gotten it, because what’s the point of a surprise if you find out ahead of time?  Sheesh.

Anyway, I’ve been blogging for about six years now on livejournal, but I’ve been reading so many ‘real’ craft blogs recently, and going through a bit of a craft renaissance myself, since mostly quitting my job to stay home with my two year old daughter.  That and getting to go to Tokyo and buying way too many Japanese craft books, sugoi!

Oh, putting craft blogs I love in my link list, and getting rid of the defaults.  Right, that was what I forgot!  Time to go to the farmer’s market now though.  WordPress is so fun, I wonder if there is a todo list around here somewhere?