new york botanical gardens

Yesterday at New York Botanical Gardens.

portrait of a girl in a new dress

The pattern is this one with Heather Ross fabric.

sun prints

The children love making sun prints. We made them a few years ago and they wanted to do it again. We used a kit but the kids took a class recently and one day they made them by using treated paper and dipping them in vats most likely similar to this.

We used phlox, black eyed susan, grapevines, blackberry, cosmos, nasturtium, pansies, zinnia, dusty miller, bachelor buttons and hydrangea. I love the way ferns print but, we did not have a good specimen.

sun prints

The kids and I made sun prints last week from leaves, flowers and vines we found around the garden. This was a really fun project for all of us.

Some of the plants we used:

cosmos
grapevines
fern
echinacea
currant leaves
marigolds
nasturtium
hydrangea
verbena
phlox
lavender

You Make My Day

I bought this photo a long time ago and I have it up on a wire picture holder with other items I love. I never get tired of it. I love the girl and her happy expression, her haircut, her dress, the way the sun shines through the branches of the tree and the beautiful doll she holds. Anyone know the name of this doll by any chance? It's so amazing and I would love to get one for my baby doll.

I received a You Make My Award from Elizabeth. Thanks so much!

Elizabeth was my scrap swap partner and was super good to me. She also has recently offered to send me one of her doll quilts that she made for the collection I am gathering for Scarlet. How sweet is that!

Honestly all of you who stop by here to read my journal make my day and although I don't get a chance to personally respond to all the comments I receive I do love reading them and I appreciate that you take the time to write them and cheer me on.

The idea with the 'You Make My Day' award is that I now pass this on to ten bloggers who I admire and who inspire me.
I am passing the award to Jenn, Laura,Ann, Fiona, Abby, the girls from the Purl Bee, Claire ,Jenny ,Sarah and Abigail

on sewing and old photographs

On sewing...I didn't mean to imply that I don't enjoy sewing yesterday because I love to sew. It's just that here it is a lot of setup, stop and go and take down. As I work in my bedroom, I need to unhook the computer, set up the sewing machine, pull out the ironing board etc. and then all the normal stuff- clean up etc. and I don't have much room to work in. I cut on the bed or if it's a small project I cut on the floor. I could use the dining room table but it's too near Little M's room and since I only work when he is sleeping it's not going to happen.
Knitting on the other hand is just pick up the needles and go. If I get a call, I can knit while I'm talking. I can't really sew when on the phone although I did finish up a seam while on the phone with my oldest friend Bridget last week. She was kind enough not to notice or not to say anything.
Since having Little M, I'm super conscious of using my time to it's fullest and I get very serious about my crafting during my free time.
Okay, enough chit chat. Here in the photograph we have evidence of my Mom sewing. My Mom is not crafty. I've had this photo for a while and I pulled it out the other day. I had only remembered that she was ironing in the photo. So, when I reviewed the photos again the other day I noticed that there was what appears to be a basted skirt on that table and sewing notions. Since my Mom was here yesterday I showed it to her and she got all excited because she kind of forgot about it. She hardly ever made anything and barely remembers making this but, she said anytime she ever did make something it looked handmade. I told her that is the charm in it but, I don't think she bought it. She did say that she was in her Aunt Janet's basement so I suppose she had something to do with encouraging the craftiness.

On old photographs:

Last night at Mackey Blue after I had set up and got settled in I promptly got Karen's tin container full of 100's of old photographs and set to looking through every single one of them. When I was about 3/4 of the way through I sort of got this eerie feeling that I was sort of re-working work. What I mean is before making the decision to stay home with Little M, I was a freelance photography editor working at all sorts of magazines. I did a stint as a prop stylist too and before that I worked at an archival stock photography place. As I was going through all the photos memories started swirling in and I was enjoying the old familiar feeling of the photo paper, the smells of the dust and chemicals although in reality they really aren't that appealing. Little giggles emerged here and there: the photo of a really bad makeshift operating room where they actually were performing a surgery (possibly army?) that looked very unprofessional, the photo of an old woman cleaning her snow covered car all dressed up while standing next to her was a very funny snow-woman who looked like her and seemed to have kohl eyeliner on and a fancy hat like hers, the man whose friend/brother is being held on his shoulders with silly grins on their faces. Old family photos have such distinct charm whether their inhabitants be bored, poking fun at each other, getting married, being playful..I always feel a little sad though that the extended relatives don't get to share in these memories.

Loretta Lux & Davina Zagury

Loretta Lux and Davina Zagury are two photographers whose work with children and childhood I really admire.

I own two of Davina's doll images and would love to obtain more of her work. I am very fond of her images and her series entitled, Reminisences. And, I would absolutely love to have her photograph Little M.
-I can't grab any of her images so you will have to go and take a look-

Then, there is Loretta Lux





The dreamy, ethereal way in which the children all look like they are in fairy tales is so amazing. The children dressed in vintage clothing all portray this real, yet imaginary image.



I'm so sad I missed her recent show at The Guggenheim but, silly me, I actually didn't know about it until it was too late.

little shoes and art

The past 2 days I've been knitting these. I'm loving this lilac and turquoise combination. The pattern is from Debbie Bliss, the yarn is not. I'm trying to only use yarn from my stash.They are knit with size 2 needles. I rarely work with such small yarn. I know there are those hardcore knitters out there who think working with small yarn and needles is true knitting and anything about a size 8 needle is cheating. I'm not one of them. It is so dainty and tiny imperfections tend to show up more. I wish I could have photographed them on a little one because I'm not doing them any justice with this photograph. They will be gifted to one of the three little girls arriving over the next few months.

Also, today I got out to ICP and saw this:
Louise Brooks

Munkacsi

Henri Cartier-Bresson