angry chicken

greek mythology play

Crack-ups and chaos were the theme when we performed a play of Greek Mythology stories before we moved on to our next learning topic, Emily Dickinson. Greek Mythology was a big subject for all of us. We stayed on it a long time, 3 months. It just never seemed to fizzle out. This is what I love about learning at home, we don't have to move on before we are ready, we can really run with a topic as long as we want, and conversely, move on if a theme isn't super engaging for us. Along with learning Greek myths and arts and culture, we read all the Percy Jackson books and are onto The Heroes of Olympus now. We are listening to these on audio, and I think they are perfect for this. Unlike the Harry Potter books, these have vocabulary and plots that are simpler, so I dont' feel the need to stop and discuss as much, which is hard in an audio book.

The plays we performed we adapted from our favorite Greek Mythology Book that I blogged about, using the comics as the script with a narrator on the side. It was so funny. Props were made, the two pugs were in every scene and my brother was a featured performer as both Zeus and Hades (with a little of Hagrid and Eddie Van Halen mixed in.) Grammie narrated and we all took turns in the audience. We performed Pandora's Box, The Capture of Persephone, and Arachne Gets a Big Head (also starring Athena), each girl getting a lead part and choosing what stories they wanted to perform.

Here we have from left Hades, Persephone, a small Pandora, Demeter, Hermes, and a Deadkins (an Underworld helper of Hades. She also played Arachne) and the Pugs were a two-headed Cerberus.

 

sajou catalog and educational videos for kids

I got the Sajou catalog and have been poring over it with lots of sighs and oohs. I received a few items for my birthday, a tape measure and a needlebox—both of these are so nicely made. The boxes they come packed in are lovely.

Unrelated-

I was looking online for some information about Emily Dickinson and found a short analysis of her work by Crash Course. It was a bit advanced for the girls but enlightening to me, and the girls liked it a whole lot despite not quite understanding all of it. There are a ton of videos by Crash Course. A whole bunch. I haven't seen very many, but what I have seen I really like. Again, I think they are a bit advanced for all 3 girls (6, 9, 11) but they are great for me and I am surprised at what they enjoy. I watch them all first alone, to get a sense of what topics come up, especially for the 6-year-old. They are jam-packed and move very fast because they are only about 11 minutes. I often pause the video to explain subjects before moving on. I'm pretty excited to watch more, especially the US history ones.

I do feel a little like I've been under a rock, here. These courses are made by John and Hank Green and I had never heard of either of them. After typing their names into google, I see they are famous and John Green is hugely famous. He's a New York Times best selling author, (YA books) and I now realize I have seen his book cover in every store I have been in the last year or so. I sure like his content in these videos. I am very curious about his books. I haven't watched any videos with Hank yet. I'm out of it! But I can tell you all about hand-dyed thread and the Hungarian Braided Chain Stitch.

chocolate

For Mother's Day (and again for my birthday) I received some chocolate from Pete. He bought them at Cacao in Portland, a wonderful little shop selling fancy chocolate bars and delicious drinking chocolate. I loved everything shown here. I am a huge fan of dark chocolate but find most of it too chalky. I like the taste, but not the texture. These are all so smooth and wonderful to eat—the Patric being my favorite. It is so sophisticated and has so many flavors in one bite. I just loved it. He talked with the sales folks quite a bit and they told him these were all delicious and they were right.

Unrelated:

• I am super happy to see Bil Nye has a channel on youtube with a ton of full episodes of his shows, including the series The Eyes of Nye, which is nice for older kids.

• I have been telling friends that want to learn to knit about the amazing (and free!) projects  designed just for beginners over at Tin Can Knits. It's called The Simple Collection. It's new to me and seems so wonderful to learn from these designs that are specifically meant to teach basic knitting skills simply and clearly. The designs are lovely, as well.

new needlework on the wall

I finished the kit from Tristan Brooks Designs a bit back and have it up on our needlework wall. It was a great project. I have since started another crewel work project and then got agitated and took a break from it. I was using different wool thread and fabric than what I had used in the two kits and the materials are vexing me. I don't think I will scrap it, but I do need to give it a rest. I am now onto a new cross-stitch project and it's going well.

Sadie finished her first Calendar Girl from Little House Needleworks.

She collects these patterns and I wasn't sure if she'd be up for doing a project with this many stitches, but she went for it. There was some frustration but she stuck it out and I'm so proud of her. And she is of herself. She keeps saying she can't believe she finished it. She has since finished two quick and small projects to avoid burnout. I'm not sure if she will do another calendar girl, now that she realizes how long they take.

My mind kind of broke (again) in researching samplers. I discovered darning samplers, which I never knew existed and I can't even look at the pinterest board I found for more than 5 minutes before I get overwhelmed. I haven't even scrolled down to see what is on there, I'm still stuck on the top few rows.

• I'm super excited because my birthday is coming up and I plan to buy a bunch of needlework books and word has it grammie ordered a cake for me from one of my favorite bakeries, which now has a dedicated cake baking storefront, The Cakery. This name makes me so happy.

• We are headed to Oracs Island soon and I am so excited to be outside and on an adventure. Hopefuly the weather will behave somewhat. I can't believe we lived in Seattle for 5 years and never went there.

• We are studying Emily Dickinson right now and I am giddy with all the materials available at the library and online. I will cull them all soon. I am learning so much about her, I knew very little and once again I love discussing how conflicting/different biographical materials are with the girls when we learn about people and history.

 

pug crawl 2014

On the sidelines

Shark-pug

A Ghostbuster with Slime

A pug as a Tauntaun

The Hulk

A small Minion

We went to the Oregon Humane Society 2014 Pug Crawl last weekend and it was amazing. The costume theme this year was Comic Con. Angie (our pug) and Toaster (my mom's pug) went for simple matching capes in fake fur with red initials. All the above photos are from the Crawl. There were easily over 100 pugs there. They all had the same look on their face and were not too excited by the rain. There were only 2 barking pugs, and somehow one of them was not Toaster. We had to leave before we could do the crawl— torrential rain, thunder, and the threat of lightning was too much so we ran to the nearest cafe for hot cocoa and laughed at this great link from my mom, which I now can't find but is similar to this one, which is also very funny—35 naughtiest dogs.

grammie's quilts

It was such a fun time seeing Grammie (my mom) show off her quilts to family and friends at Modern Domestic yesterday. The sun came out and so many people came to see her work. She realized, when thinking about it, that over the years she has probably made over 200 quilts. None of these were for sale, they were made for family friends, babies, herself—just for the love of making quilts. There are about 12 in this show, such a small sampling.

Here's Grammie in the pink sweater with a dear friend, a woman who I have known all my life. You can see an amazing quilt of grammies behind them. The one thing people kept remarking on, besides her amazing piecing skills and choice of colors—is how much her machine quilting adds texture and dimension to her quilts. They are so amazing in person, a photo just can't show the level of detail.

This one in the forground is a log cabin made of 1/2" strips. The machine quilting on it takes it to a whole other level, it's hard to even see that it's a log cabin until you are up close.

The quilts are going to be up a few more weeks, so please take a look if you are in the neighborhood. And thanks to all my ladies and friends who came to hang out and hear Grammie say funny stuff, she didn't disappoint! We love you, Grammie!

meet grammie & see her quilts this saturday!

I am so excited that Grammie has a quilt show coming up!

Grammie has been quilting for so long, for herself and professionally, and this is her first show. She has showered her family and loved ones with quilts over the years—my daughters, my brother, my husband, my grandfather, aunts, uncles, cousins, we all have quilts that have been made by her hands and they are all so special to us. I think she will have about 10 quilts in this show, a fraction of what she has done over the years. She has pieced and machine stitched all of these. There are probably are some quilts with appliqué and hand-quilting in this show, too. All of the work done by her. I couldn't be more proud. Her show is at:

Modern Domestic

1408 NE Alberta Street, Portland

The reception is from 1-3, Saturday May 17th 

Grammie and I will be there with cookies and inappropriate jokes. Please come by and say hi!

Alberta is such a fun area to shop and eat. It's a maker's heaven with Bolt, Close Knit, nearby.

Cosmic craft stars are aligning! At Collage (across the street) my friend and fellow Creativebug instructor Courtney Cerruti will be teaching a workshop from 2-5 on the same day as Grammie's reception, you can catch both events! Creative Correspondence -- Combining Image Transfer + Washi Tape to Create Mail Art & Small Original Works with Courtney Cerruti. 

 

A great book for learning about presidents!

After countless readings of the Greek Mythology book by Michael Townsend, we bought Where Do Presidents Come From?: And Other Presidential Stuff of Super Great Importance.

I can't say enough great things about his books. They are so funny, absurd, and dry. The 11 and 9-year-old understand all the humor and information completely and the almost 7-year-old just loves the the hamsters and bunnies. It's not just about presidents, it's about the whole presidential process—what presidents actually do, how they are elected, and the history behind all that. It's got so much information with dinosaurs thrown in. I am sure crossing my fingers he writes more of these.

Unrelated: I made super easy and fast dinner last night— shrimp with whole-wheat couscous and 3 out of 5 of us liked it a whole lot! (2 adults and one kid.)

another crewel kit started

I started another crewel kit I found in my stash of supplies. This one has been so much fun. It's made by Tristian Brooks Designs and it comes with everything you need except the hoop. I love being able to use different threads. For my first kit I used Appleton thread, which I liked, but hadn't used anything else to compare it to. This kit comes with Heathway crewel wools, Gumnut Poppies (silk/wool blend), and Pearsall’s silk. I have been pretty immersed in reading and learning about threads, fabrics, and stitches for crewel. I also have been assessing my thread stash and needlework organization and wanting to clean up and clear out and display some items that are so lovely to look at.

Two days ago I had what my Mom calls a "Hello Kitty freak-out" when I rediscovered the Sajou webite. I had known about Sajou and bought (from a now closed needlework shop) a really amazing book by the historical company years ago, but hadn't really gone back to look at what they had in they last few years, and when I did my brain kind of exploded.

The complete catalog is online and there looks to be a few distributors in the US that carry some of these items. The sewing boxes got me all twitchy as did the scissors, ribbons, wooden supplies, and thread holders. I don't even know what to buy, I just had to look at the catalog for hours. This is what my mom was talking about. When I did have my "Hello Kitty freak-out" I was about 9 and found a Hello Kitty store and couldn't believe my eyes. I didn't actually buy anything, I just had to look. For hours. And she let me. She just sat and waited, telling me there was no hurry. I finally calmed down, and then left, empty handed and exhausted. She didn't say a word and was amazing.

Oh, this is turning into an unexpected Mother's Day post!

Speaking of my wonderful Mom, (Gayle Karol of Tilie Studio fame and known as Grammie on this blog) she is having a quilt show at Modern Domestic and the opening reception is next Saturday May 17th from 1-3. I will write about this more soon. I can't wait. Her quilts are so stunning in person.

3 warm days in portland

We had 3 amazing days last week, one was in the low 90˚s and the other two were in the 80˚s and the town went crazy. Now we are back to rain and the mid 60˚s and have forgotten all about it. I wore head to toe wool yesterday.

Unrelated:

• I made a huge batch of daikon and carrot pickles a month ago from Simply Recipes and have been enjoying quite a bit. My girls suggested that I open the jar and eat it outside because of the smell. There's a similar recipe at Just Bento.

• I can't stop visiting this Professor Fox doll by Mimi Kirchner.

•  The Letter Writers Alliance is such a great blog/project/mail-art headquarters and informs me about fabulous things like the World's Smallest Postal Service: DIY kit.