pic by India

"the toilet's in heaven."

There's not much more to say about it than that!

Until next time...

Sarah

a shot from India's eye

I figured since I was back, India should be back too - again, we aren't commiting to being regular or anything, but instead posting when it feels right.  Whew!  What a lesson to learn! 

Anyhow, she recently came into an Olympus SLR camera that is on indefinitie loan and we are super eager to see what she's able to do with it as she learns to use it.  She's got a Nikon film camera our dear friend Elise gave her that has tons of lenses and we have ordered  a part for the Olympus that will make the Nikon lenses fit it!  There's going to be great things coming from her eye.  I can't wait to see what she creates!

We - meaning Jason and I - have got to get India out into the world to take some shots.  If you have suggestions of places she might could shoot (other than the Bot Gardens as she's been there, done that...) we would love to hear them.  She's also interested in possibly trying to do a photo shoot somewhere along the way with costumes and make-up.  I'm so excited to watch her voice grow with her eye.

Today, we have a picture from Hendershot's Coffee where she went a few weeks ago to see some her friends play music.  This shot is my favorite.  It captures the light and the atmosphere of Hendershot's at night.  I'm also grateful we have a small coffee shop that supports our local teen muscicians the way Hendershot's does! 

Kalib and I are off to Nashville for the weekend to learn Advanced Bird Language with Jon Young!

See you next week!

Sarah



Hanging the show

As promised, here are some photos from the day we put the show up at FloorSpace.  India took most of the photos (except the one she is in) while Jason and I got the show up.  Jason did most of the really hard work of climbing the ladder and hooking the wire while I adjusted and straightened.  I am always shocked when we hang up art work by how long it takes to get it all right and even on the walls.  It took about 3 hours and one trip to the store for more wire.

 I laid all the quilts out like I wanted them to hang on the wall while Jason got the wires ready on the rods.

 India did the same.

 We were eager to see how India's pictures would look on the wall and get an idea of the spacing so we hung one of India's photos up.  Looks pretty good doesn't it!

 Can't just hang out on that fantastic dance floor without a little dancing while mom and dad work!

 Quilts are up and now the job of getting the photos up!

 Wiping them down one last time to make sure there are no smudges on the glass.

 The last time to walk through and straighten.

 viola!  All done!  Looks great!

See you tomorrow!

India's Tuesday Photo 8/2/11

Today's Tuesday and it's India's turn on the blog to share a photo.

For those of you who may not know, India is my 12 year old daughter who more often than not can be found with her camera in her hand taking photographs.  We are so proud of the work she does that we share it here on the blog!  When India is not taking photos you can find her reading, watching zombie movies, chatting with her friends, and listening to music.  

To see more of India's fabulous photos visit her Facebook Fan Page.

 

AND don't forget you can check them out in person at FloorSpace the entire month of August or at the opening reception this Friday night from 7-10pm.  Shakti Project will be giving a sweet little performance to kick off the night, then cosmically inspired music by Killick! 7-10pm.   We hope to see you there!

India's Tuesday Photo 7/26/11

Today's Tuesday and it's India's turn on the blog to share a photo.

For those of you who may not know, India is my 12 year old daughter who more often than not can be found with her camera in her hand taking photographs.  We are so proud of the work she does that we share it here on the blog!  When India is not taking photos you can find her reading, watching zombie movies, chatting with her friends, and listening to music.  

To see more of India's fabulous photos visit her Facebook Fan Page.

India's Tuesday Photo 7/19/11

First of all I want to wish a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Favorite fellow.  My wonderful husband who only gets better with age.  I love you more than I would ever be able to write on a blog post and it would probably embarrass you and the kids, so I will refrain. Thank you for being such a light in all the lives of everyone you touch and thank you for always being true to your own inner nature.  You are a wonderful man and father, friend and partner. I am the luckiest lady in the world to get to live out my life with you.

So... 

Today's Tuesday and it's India's turn on the blog to share a photo.

For those of you who may not know, India is my 12 year old daughter who more often than not can be found with her camera in her hand taking photographs.  We are so proud of the work she does that we share it here on the blog!  When India is not taking photos you can find her reading, watching zombie movies, chatting with her friends, and listening to music.  

To see more of India's fabulous photos visit her Facebook Fan Page.

India's Tuesday Photo 7/12/11

Today's Tuesday and it's India's turn on the blog to share a photo.

For those of you who may not know, India is my 12 year old daughter who more often than not can be found with her camera in her hand taking photographs.  We are so proud of the work she does that we share it here on the blog!  When India is not taking photos you can find her reading, watching zombie movies, chatting with her friends, and listening to music.  

To see more of India's fabulous photos visit her Facebook Fan Page.

We'll see you tomorrow!

Leaves, Technology mixed with Dance

Making the leaves for the poppies turned into really pushing my brain to figure out how to make them look "natural," but without too much work - especially since there is still a foreground coming.

When I last showed them to you, I had begun sewing them down. In the process of doing that I realized they had to go down one at a time, sometimes over a stem, sometimes, under a stem.  Sometimes they had to be sewn completely down before even another leaf could go on.

In order to keep them from looking flat, everything had to go down in a certain order.

Here's a photo of where I had left off when I last showed you the leaves.

When I got off work on Friday, I was foot loose and fancy free as my Aunt Geri would call it.  (I have always loved this saying as one of my great southern favorites.)

The kids had gone to my parents, Jason was still at work and I had almost 3 hours to myself.  OH! YEAH!!!  

I often take time when I am home by myself to dance and I did on Friday for almost an hour.  I find that when I dance it opens up the creative juices even more and I can work in HYPER speed when I get back to an art project.  Problems I may have been encountering suddenly resolve themselves very easily.  

Dance inspires me in so many ways...

I knew I had quite a bit of work to do on those leaves. 

I needed a way to do them without having to spend time in between each leaf to figure out where the next would go.  

I needed to figure out how I wanted it to look completed without having to stop each time and rework the leaves.

You can see here, I pinned them down how I wanted them to look finished. 

I was doing this between every. single. leaf.  I would sew the next one down and re-pin the leaves to figure out where the next would go.

How dancing inspired me this time:

When I sat down after rinsing off the sweat from dancing I realized I could make a picture of how I wanted it to look finished, then print it out and use that as a template.  

AHHHH.... the simplicity of technology - sometimes.

So, I set to work IMMEDIATELY... 

I made three photos.  One of the whole quilt, one of all the leaves and stems, and lastly, a photo of the section I would be working on close up.  I made the last one close enough that I could see the patterns of the fabric very clearly.

I took the SIM card out of my camera plugged it into the computer and viola - there they were.

I clicked PRINT. 

Now, what size?

I went with 8X10" rather than smaller then I could pin them to my design wall and see them easily while I was working.  

Easy Peasy.

I then took the one which focused on the leaves the closest and numbered them in the order I wanted to sew them down.

After I knew how they were going to go down, I took the leaves off in the order I would be sewing them down and made a small pile by my sewing machine.

I pinned the other two(also numbered) directly over my ironing board on my design wall so I could make sure I was ironing them down where I wanted them finished.

I set back to work sewing down one leaf at a time. 

Because I didn't have to figure out where the next leaf would go in between ironing them down and sewing I was able to get them finished before Jason and I went out for dinner and music.

 

They are not exactly the same.  I found myself wanting to change them a little, but at least I had a general game plan and they managed to go down and look natural in a fraction of the time!  

I will be filing that step in my folder of things to definitely remember to use in the future and I will be working on remembering sometimes the simplest things to do are right in front of us.   I don't need to make things harder than they need to be.  Sometimes, they are quite simple.

See you tomorrow! I'm on to the next step!

India's Tuesday Photo 7/5/11

On Tuesdays, I share a photo by my daughter, India who is 12.  She has quite the eye for photography as well as some pretty mad skills at editing her photos.  If you like what you see, you can visit her Facebook Fan Page to see more.

I almost forgot today was Tuesday after that wonderfully long weekend.  If only the weekend didn't have to end today...

Here is this weeks photograph!  

I'm off to quilt!

See you tomorrow!  

India's Tuesday Photo 6/28/11

I made it home safe and sound from my solo camping trip.  I learned a lot about myself and will share it with you sometime soon.  I haven't gotten all my thoughts together yet since life is as busy as it is and I have been eager to get back to my quilt, but hopefully in the coming week sometime you will get to hear all about it.

In the meantime, it is Tuesday, and here India's photo for the week!

See you  tomorrow with a quilt update!

Be well!

India's Tuesday Photo 6/21/11

Happy Solstice Everyone!  The longest day of light in the year!  Summer Begins today!  What plans do you have for summer?

Today India's photo is from her rose garden.  Actually, from her first rose ever.  

Until tomorrow!  Enjoy!

India's Tuesday Photo 6/14/11

This week India has another photo from our trip to the beach to share with you. 

Heading down to the water in the evenings to watch the sun set was a big part of our vacation.  Watching the sun go down over the water is always breathtaking and India took plenty of beautiful pictures of those moments.  

Sunset over India Shores, FL.

India's Tuesday Photo 6/7/11

We are home from vacation, but we came to home to no air conditioning, so we have been caught up in dealing with that.  It was 92 degrees in my house when we got home on Saturday.  Poor Jason, he was here trying to get it going, but with no luck.  He's such a good man.

I have so much to write about, but haven't had the energy because I have been HOT - it got hot in Georgia while we were in Florida.  What I want to know is who let that happen?

I thought I would write on my blog while at the beach since my heart always opens up so widely there, but alas, no wifi (can you believe it?).  Honestly, I didn't miss it at all.  Very little internet action left me so much time to engage in my thoughts and the simplicity of quiet - just what I have been asking for.  Now, the goal is to carry that on into my everyday life and learn how to continue to integrate stillness in this fast paced world we live in. 

I am eager to share my thoughts and experiences with you all and some new pictures of the great moving and mysterious mama ocean, but today I'm going to do laundry and clean now that our air is back on and the house is cool enough to move around in. 

NOW... Onto India's photo this week!

India was the featured Whiz Kid on the Athens Patch last Wednesday and because I had little internet opportunity I wasn't able to share that with you.  You can learn quite a bit about her HERE.

India's photo today is one she shared on her FaceBook Fan Page.  (if you haven't already and you are on FaceBook, go there and like her page.  Not only will she be thrilled, but she shares more pictures there than I share here.)

Cow (the name they gave this bird on the Inter-coastal waterway)

India's Tuesday Photo 5/24/11

On Tuesdays we spend very little time behind the computers and more time together.  We craft, create, talk, and play.  So, rather than writing a post I share a photo taken by our daughter, India.  

India's Tuesday Photo 5/17/11

On Tuesdays we spend very little time behind the computers and more time together.  We craft, create, talk, and play.  So, rather than writing a post I share a photo taken by our daughter, India.  

Last Tuesday we went to the zoo.  There are numerous beautiful spots and animals to get photos of.  Today's photo is one of the many she took.  Look closely.  It's a bit of an optical illusion.

I'm off to finish Yab Yum and to clean the house!

Enjoy your day!

India's Tuesday Photo and a REALLY cool announcement!

Tonight, I'm excited to tell you all that I'm going to have a show in August at FloorSpace and I have decided that since I'm so slow at churning out quilts, India and I are going to hang a show TOGETHER!!!!  I'm thrilled she said yes!  I can't wait to see what she comes up with for it and it will push me to get my self together and work on it more and to MAKE more - her inspiration will trickle into my inspiration and we'll be inspiring one another!!  Mother and Daughter!  

Kalib is going to have a small table the night of the opening with his Klayations as well!  The next few months in our house are going to busy!  

AND... I haven't hit HuBb up, but I hope to squeeze him in somehow and make it a whole family affair!  A dream come true for this mama.

As soon as I figure out the opening date I will let you all know and you can come on out and see her pictures up close and blown up, my newest quilts, my sons clay sculptures, and hopefully something by my sweet and always supportive man.

So, until tomorrow...

India's photo for the week!

India's Tuesday Photo on Wednesday

This has been a whirlwind of a week so far and it is only Tuesday, I mean Wednesday!  Both Monday and Tuesday were like Mondays, so phew... here we are on Wednesday and I have nothing to say about quilting or home or life AND I failed to share India's photo yesterday.  

So, until life gives me a moment to come up for air or tomorrow which ever comes first I give you another wonderful photo by our 12 year old, India.

This one is of our son, Kalib with his joyous smile. 

I LOVE IT!

India's Tuesday Photo

It's Tuesday and time for another photograph by India! 

This one was taken out towards our dear friends Jenny and Jamie's house.  

India's Tuesday Photo

You may or may not remember, Tuesday is the day we are off the computer for the most part (mom gets to check in, but only to make sure there isn't anything requiring immediate attention). Instead of spending a long time writing a post on Tuesday, I share a photo my beautiful and talented 12 year old daughter has taken.

In looking with India through the pictures she took this past week there are so many I love.  It is hard to pick just one.  She knew I would be putting up the first, but the second I just happened to see as I went fishing through the files looking for the first.  I just can't help myself today, your getting two of her photos!  You don't mind, do you?

 She's going to have to have a fancier camera before too much longer.  She uses my Canon Powershot or her Panasonic Lumix (SLR) to shoot all her photos.  She wants a Canon Rebel and hopefully one day before too much longer we will be able to afford to get her one.  

Anyhow, here is a self portrait she took.  It's a pretty misleading picture because the grass looks much taller than it actually is.  (She's so pretty isn't she?! - I'm such a proud mama)

She may not be quite done editing this one yet, but I absolutely love it.  (I didn't tell her I was planning on using it because I just saw it and she is still sleeping!)

Dandelions are some of the best medicine earth offers us along with the thistles - which our society call weeds (hmmf is what I say to that). I love how she captured the seeds soft nature.

Wind, come blow these sweet seeds all over my yard and I PROMISE to make all kinds of dandelion tinctures and tonics to help keep us healthy.  You can cover our yard in dandelions and clover and we will take everyone else that thinks grass is better too!  They just don't know what good plant medicines they are missing.

Have a great Tuesday!

India's Tuesday Photo

It's Tuesday again and India has another photo to share with you all. 

The sky is just so blue and if you look closely you can see her shoe in the reflection too.  How she managed to that, I don't know, but it's pretty cool.

Feel free to leave her comments.  She loves them! We both do!