molly irwin

bird houses :: collection 1

Here's a peak at a crafty little project I've been chipping away on just for fun.  It's still a work in progress and these are just the first six in a collection of 18 or so that will be hung together on a big open wall in our home. 

I've been so inspired by the beautiful work of Tamar Mogendorff, particularly this photo of her fabric bird houses and birds shown as a grouping. There's no shortage of paper around here, so when I saw a bunch of unfinished bird houses at the dollar store in the spring I knew just what I wanted to do.

The houses have been sitting around in a corner for a while and I kept thinking I needed some kind of overall plan of action before starting; a color scheme or some materials limitations; something.  (perfectionism getting in the way of progress, really.)

However, with Paul and the girls gone for the weekend I just got started on one and then the next, and so on.  Once again the truth is reinforced: getting started is half done.  It's true in every case.

While I'm on the subject of 'inspiration', I want to point to an interesting post by Sharilyn Wright, of Lovely Design, in which she ponders the overuse of the word and"copycat" work product.

My thoughts on this project are clear. I'm not trying to re-create the subtle textile art of Ms. Mogendorff.  I'm aware of the many differences here. Also, my versions are not for sale, merely for personal enjoyment and I'm happily crediting my source. Position covered.

I'm particularly liking the map print, book text and vintage ledger versions. Another 'something new' for me with this project is working with some of the really good Italian papers.  Let me just say ... it makes all the difference; so buttery soft are they it's like working with fabric. A real tactile pleasure to be sure.

Here's one last shot with one of the unfinished houses to the right.

There are several more on the cutting mat now, so ... more to come soon and I'll share the entire grouping when I hang them on the wall as well.

we've been in the feilds again

Another glorious summer day, this time picking blueberries and sugar snap peas.  We all enjoy it so much.  It strikes me a little like cheating in a way.  The farmers do all of that hard work and we suburbanites just go out there on occasion to harvest, enjoying the bounty of their labors.  Of course we do pay $2.29/pound for them, but still.

The orchard is quite the sophisticated operation, complete with a tractor-pulled shuttle transporting us out to the blueberries.  That was half the fun, of course.  To my delight, having hand-selected the snap peas the kids were happy to eat them for dinner.  They still prefer the "funny" ends cut-off though.

 

I'm just keeping an eye on their online picking schedule and we'll be heading back for cherries in another week or so.  What an excellent use of communications technology!

My freezer is getting nicely stocked with fruit, but the blender is broken.  That will have to be remedied very soon.

nest

This little concept book was born of the idea to document my favorite places, which I quickly -- and without hesitation -- whittled down to a short list of one: my home.  I'll do that sometimes -- reinterpret an assignment, but I think it's okay to take that liberty in this case since I am both the assignor and assignee.

My home, and more specifically the love of light in our second floor, has been on my mind lately and I wanted to use some favorite photos from my 'mornings' daily project. 

Welcome to my nest.

[click any photo to enlarge]

I've been influenced by the sweet reference of Stephanie Congdon Barnes to her children as 'little birds', and her use of natural fabrics. Also the realization [as I went through our home for a daily photo project] that we do indeed live in a literal tree house hewn of heavy southern yellow pine.

Here's a detail shot of the hemp, which i frayed to resemble twigs and grasses of a bird's nest.  It's about my favorite product to use right now.

This was my first time with rub-ons of any kind.  I realize now that they don't accept print over their glossy surface.  I'll stick with paint next time and reserve these [they're fun!] for another use.

Materials include: metal 'nest' tag: paper valise, patterned papers, blue circle print: paper source, branch + nest print: snow & graham, linen fabric, hemp twine: ecolution, craft card stock: Bazzill Basics, white rub-ons: Hambly, and for the book and chipboard pages ...

well,

those

started

off

so

unsightly

that

I 

want

to

separate

them

from

the

finished project.

Ready?

'cause

I'm only

showing these

once.

Yep, these "freaky" dollar store purchases, a ring-binder style address book and a children's board book formed the foundation for the piece.  I covered the binder with a piece of felt before wrapping the linen around.  See ... told you I'm frugal.

an odds + ends book

 

Today, while cleaning out piles of accumulated paper, I collected bits of things into into a 4x6 odds + ends book.  We don't keep things laying around for no reason and rather than toss it all I saved a small cutting from those I found interesting.  Just little bits of life stuff:

catalog covers ...

 

a parking permit ...

a bubble mailer + note,

possibly the coolest grocery bag ever,

 

a page from a kid's apparel catalog,

... and lots more. 

I plan to keep filling it as more papers present themselves, until the binder rings are crowded and need to be replaced with a larger size.  This may just stand alone as a collection of inspiration and imagery, or I may use it as a journal.  Right now it's a lot nicer to look at than the big pile from where it came. 

This was pretty fun with it's lack of structure, since some of my other works-in-progress right now are more story-oriented. 

 

edited: I should note that I saw something like this in Ali Edwards' Life Artist, and have been inspired by the casual style of others, including: Elise, Jamaica and most recently Erin Zam's re-use book, (also via Ali)

the father in you

 

[picnic by the reflecting pool -- early september 2007]

I am privileged to see this side of you every day, Paul. The best part is not the support you provide to our family in a practical way, but the huge example you set. With you the kids experience deep kindness, patience beyond belief, hard work, playfulness, steadfastness, and someone who understands them. Thank you for being all those things and more for our little charges. They are so filled up with Papa love, and I am so proud to be the witness to your ways; the jam to your toast.

Happy Father's Day!

bringing meal time home

A few weeks ago I sat, once again annoyed, in a booth opposite two girls engaged in some sort of imaginary game instead of eating their meals.  Not only was it [i felt] age-inappropriate and poorly behaved, but wasteful ... spoiled even.  In this moment I made a decision; one that had been coming for some time, but one not easy or even convenient for me to maintain: we need a break from dining out.

Our family -- primarily for a lack of my own planning -- has fallen into the practice of grabbing something on the way, stopping in, even going out of our way instead of eating in our own home.  I read some claim in The Washington Post a few years back that in the DC area on any given night nearly half of it's residents are dining out.  Half! 

It has happened for years.  How fondly I recall half-price-enchilada-night when we lived on Capital Hill. Then there was the ease of our local Asian/fusion vegetarian diner (we're on a first name basis with the owner and manager, you know).  When faced with a struggle over what the kids will eat I can always count on pancakes from Eggspectation.  And then there's my Chipotle addiction, and the Starbucks thing.  So the story goes that my children have not only become accustomed, but they take for granted the luxury of the restaurant opportunity.

I'm struck by the decadent reality of my own words as I describe this here, at how horribly glutinous and extravagant it all sounds, and is.

Who has money to waste like this?  Not I.  As I reflect on this, I realize that the entire thing goes against the very grain of my frugal nature.  It's completely out of alignment with the way I want to be living.  I wonder, is this just another example of looking in the wrong places for a fix, rather than creating a solution from within?

 

Our next door neighbors are self-described "urban homesteaders."  They have transformed what used to be a rough gravel drive into a sizable vegetable garden complete with raised beds, pathways between, and a small cutting garden bordering the produce.  As they approach the delivery date of their first born, they plan to stock a winter pantry with canned goods from their summer harvest.  The recent salmonella scare won't get in the way of their enjoying a proper tomato salad.

Seeing the hard work they put into their own eat local effort is nothing short of inspiring. On any given evening they can reach for a handful of fresh organic greens and have something very sustaining in more ways than one.  It's reminds me of my Grandparents who also enjoyed the bounty of their own garden on a small, city plot.

[page from Ellie Krieger's The Food You Crave. - a really lovely book]

The crazy thing about this is that I really like to cook.  The colors and textures or the rhythm of whisking together a vinaigrette ... it's all so good.  My kids enjoy helping and I have let them down in this department lately. 

Now that summer is here -- today is the last day of school (hooray!) -- we've decided each of my daughters will pick a night to be in charge of making dinner.  They get to choose [with some stipulations] a menu, and enlist the help to get dinner on the table.  They are into my cookbooks today and have even remarked that they want to try meatloaf.  I'm not reminding them that I made meatloaf a few months ago, much to their dissatisfaction.  I'm just going to present it on a lovely blue platter just as the professional photo-stylist did.

Though we may not have a garden to reach into, we do have many potted tomatos, a nice Sunday farmer's market and freezer full of fresh fish.  Not to mention a Mom determined to bring the homemade back into our family, our home (and our summer picnics) at meal times.

Off to make the guacamole!

things i heard today

"Mom, what a hadda tadda do?"  - Marty, age 2, re: helicopters

"I ate fourteen cherries. I counted the pits." - Helen, age 8, re: lunch

"When I first draw things I dont' know what they're called." - Joan, age 6, re: her art

thoughts for a tuesday

[A fun letterpress card from enjoy design - by Elise.]

I'm guilty.  Guilty of browsing all around the web, visiting other peoples blogs. Clicking in and out faster than you can imagine and feeling unsatisfied ... not by them, but by me.  Because what I really want to see on the Internet is more of myself.  Now I don't mean that in a braggy sort of way, only that I have so much going on lately, but I'm feeling the need for a finer balance.  Balance between what is felt, thought and done and the need to share [or not to share] it. 

Also, this medium is such an immediate one that I've been experiencing a nagging desire to find something new all the time. Can anyone relate to this?

On a different note ... I just took a personality type test on facebook and the results say that I am an introvert.  I don't think so.  I'm no extrovert ... I know that.  But an introvert?  No.  It's gotta be the test, or some more widely acceptable definition of the word than the common interpretation.

So for now it's just this brief.  As I'm feeling a need to wait until I can "improve on the silence" and all that implies. 

After all, it is summer, and there are knees to be scraped, tomatoes to be watered, and faces to be smeared with lotion.

done and done

Done.

And done.

Yep, there it is --  the requisite blurry-back-of-the-room picture of somebody in cap and gown making an exchange.  Hand shake for document.  The pledge of allegiance.  The national anthem.  A choppy elementary school band version of Pomp and Circumstance ... and a teary eyed Mom mentally flashing forward and backward again.  It's that imagination that gets me in trouble, every time.

The memory books will be distributed today at a class picnic and I'm figuring out how to share our format of this project here, while maintaining the privacy for the many children represented in its pages. 

Their class theme being butterflies, and a unit on the life-cycle of the painted lady caterpillar, made these Heidi Swap ghost butterflies and easy choice for embellishment on the covers.  

There's something very gratifying about seeing a quantity of projects all collected together like this, even though right now the best way I can describe my feelings about them is "I don't hate it."  Don't worry, this will change back to a positive after I stop looking at them for a while.  I'm always the most critical of my work immediately after completing it and then the love returns.  Maybe that fact is oversharing.

We're off to the picnic where I'll address the parents about how to personalize their child's book. 

I suppose this means summer is really here.  One down, one more to go as the end of the school year continues for our family. 

found film

 

Ahhhhh .... film. 

I took several photos on Thanksgiving with my digital camera, but this [surprise] discovery today is my absolute favorite image from the day.  Paul carving the turkey ... fridge plastered with reminders ... table linen wrinkles, and all.  When I took the roll in for developing I thought it was leftover from Christmas.  I had forgotten all about the autumn shots outstanding.

What a reminder to me today:  delayed gratification can be a good thing.