True North

Happy New Year

It has been wonderfully snowy and quiet these past few weeks. (Excepting some occasional yelling, and exuberant, top-of-the-lungs singing by a certain small, off-from-school person.) We had a lovely holiday.

 
Someone began walking in earnest...

We loved our chubby, friendly little tree. (And all those presents!)...

We had a beautiful Christmas breakfast...

We saw lots of family and a couple of far-flung friends whom we had been missing terribly... Chris smoked a ton (literally, it might have been one ton) of insanely delicious meat in the walk-in smoker he built in the backyard... Stella received the official title of Puzzle Princess after wowing us with her speed-puzzle skills... Lots of naps were taken, clementines were eaten, and episodes of Madmen were watched... And most exciting of all (to me): I got a new camera! I am still figuring it out and probably will be for a while, but so far I am very happy with it. (Thanks honey!)

Very little happened in a creative vein, other than figuring out that Irish cream poured atop cookie dough ice cream is ridiculously good. In place of anything of my own, therefore, I leave you with this link to the work of Bettina Hubby. She would be called a fashion designer, I suppose, although really she is an artist who happens to work in the medium of clothing design - each piece is one of a kind, and quite avant-garde although also seemingly workable in a real wardrobe. I am loving her eye right now, I keep going back to her site to flip through the pictures again. So good.

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2009! I am looking forward to sharing it with you.

More Gift-Givin'

We went to another little person's party today. (It's birthday season in our preschool social calendar.) Our small friend was turning four, and his dad is part of the same volunteer firefighting company as my husband. Our present, therefore, took a rather obvious course, but I think it was pretty adorable. On an excursion to the Children's Museum of Manhattan the other day, I found this great dress-up firefighter helmet in the store. It's so much nicer and more authentic looking than the typical red plastic ones.

Pliable yet sturdy foam covered in fabric, with real metal rivets. And an adjustable strap on the inside!

Okay, so that's very nice and all, but what does it have to do with anything here? Well, because to go with this super cool helmet, our buddy also got a t-shirt:

{front}

{back}

The front is a simplified version of the real t-shirts worn by the firefighting daddies. ("Probie" is short for probational firefighter - the newly-on-the-job person who has to do all the crap work around the fire station to earn his/her stripes. I thought about making it a chief shirt, the opposite end of the spectrum, but probie seemed - ridiculously - more believable, and therefore funnier.) On the back I stenciled his last name at the bottom. On actual bunker gear, last names are written across the butt of the jackets, since that's the only part you can see of a firefighter's back when they have their air pack on.

I made stencils for the 46, the Maltese cross, and the last name. The rest is done by hand. I should have made a stencil for "probie" too, but oh well. I decided I liked the homemade feel of the imperfections, since I had no choice! The stencils are easy and fun, if you're interested in how to do it, you can find a tutorial here and lots of inspiration here.

More tomorrow. In the meantime, Happy Easter, Equinox, Purim, and Mawlid to all! This is such a beautiful time of the year...

For a Small Friend

Already this blog is getting to me. In a good way. We went to a birthday party yesterday for a little one who was turning four, and we loved the present we gave her: a bag of art supplies. A fancy bag of art supplies, I should say. Why have I never thought of this before?

We started with a plain, canvas tote bag. I got out the fabric paints and, on one side, Stella went nuts:

I would totally tell you what brand of paints we used, but I forgot to check before and now I have a sleeping baby on my lap. Oh well, you'll see them again. We paint a lot of fabric.

On the other side, I painted the kiddo's name and did some fun little circles, which will look very familiar in just a moment. Then I sewed a trim across the top. Stella picked it out at Michael's. (I want to love and support my local art store, and often I do, but with littles in tow I can't risk going somewhere, not finding what I need, then having to go somewhere else. And Michael's just has everything. It is freaking huge.) Sewing the trim was not the most fun part of this particular endeavor, as canvas is tough to get a needle through, and I was sewing by hand. Plus, I seem to have lost my thimble, a little black leather one that I love. Leather. Black leather.  It's one badass thimble. Maybe it's in the closet with all the collage stuff?

Sewing the trim by hand made me wish for a machine more than ever. When I was 11, my dad and stepmom left the city and bought a house in the suburbs. A house with modern appliances, unlike our apartment in the city. I have a distinct memory of my dad, elbow-deep in a sink of dirty dishes in the weeks leading up to the move, moaning, "I want my dishwasher..." That's how I felt sewing this trim. I really, really want my dishwasher.

But it looked great when it was finally on, all the little circles in a row, echoing the circles painted below. Stella was particularly pleased, and deemed it Really Fancy, which is high praise indeed.

We filled it with:
little pots of acrylics
two canvases, and a special canvas-hanging hook
a bunch of new brushes, tied up with ribbon
a palette
these really great colored pencils
the coolest coloring book ever

This is the coloring book:

We got it at Michael's too, though I can't find it anywhere on their website. It is really beautiful, so much more interesting than Dora or princesses.

And inspiring to boot. Recognize these circles?

I might have to go back and get myself one. I never grew out of coloring. It's so relaxing. I have an Art Nouveau coloring book that I love, though I have to guard it against Stella's gooey fingers and wild, unkempt technique. Basically I can only use it at night after she's gone to bed, and alongside a cup of tea and a gigantic chocolate brownie, it is a fine way to unwind. Surreptitious, after-hours coloring, that's how we roll around here.

Point is, I was thrilled with the outcome of this gift. It was a creative activity for me and Stella AND will hopefully encourage further creativity in the birthday girl. Told you this blog was getting to me.