Late Friday night

Woo hoo! I managed to knit a slipper using the pattern I mentioned in my last post. And it fits, too! Now I need to knit a second one.


I thought the slipper looked awfully small while knitting it, but it's quite stretchy and the smaller size makes it nice and snug. I'll post the pattern in a couple days.


I used a scratchy wool yarn that didn't feel very good on my hands, but does feel surprisingly cozy on my feet. Normally I don't knit with wool, but I wanted to use up some of the yarn in my stash, plus the slippers need to be nice and thick. I once tried knitting slippers with acrylic yarn, and they immediately got stretched out and wouldn't stay on my feet.

I recently read Coaching the Artist Within by Eric Maisel and really liked it. He offers great advice for completing your creative projects, like how to get a grip on your mind and commit to goals. The book includes exercises and interesting stories about the clients he's coached.

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that I have a thing for owls. This one arrived in the mail recently, a surprise from my buddy Dogwood. Isn't it cute? It's perched on an easel on my nightstand.

Have a great weekend!

Painting & knitting

Okay, I admit up front, I don't know how to paint. I've never taken a class or made a serious attempt to learn how to do it correctly from a book or any other resource. But I love how it feels to paint, to dip the brush in a mixture of gooey colors and sweep it across the canvas. I love being totally immersed in the process of painting; it is so soothing and satisfying.

Last weekend I was feeling that melancholy that comes when the days get shorter and colder. I got out my paint and a blank canvas and let myself just play without worrying about making something pretty. It made me so happy.

I want to decorate my bedroom in blue and white with a beachy theme, but because I'm on a tight budget I have to do it little by little. I painted this picture to hang over my dresser and feel pretty good about how it turned out. It would be nice if I knew how to draw and could add a sailboat or a bird, but I'm afraid I might wreck it.

With the holidays just around the corner, I'm starting to think about handmade gifts. This is an attempt to knit a slipper. The pattern is so simple, but I've never had good results. I'm hoping my skills have improved and it will work this time. I'll keep you posted.

Well, there's a little black cat peeking over the computer screen, his eyes begging me to play with him, so I better get going. Hope you're having a good week.

De Young Museum

Last weekend I went to the De Young Museum in San Francisco with my family in celebration of my little sister's birthday. I'd never seen their contemporary art collection and enjoyed it so much. As I walked through the rooms, absorbing each piece and listening to the narration on audio, I kept wondering, why don't I do this more often?

The above painting is Petunia by Georgia O'Keefe.


The Blue Veil by Edmund Charles Tarbell.


Easter Morning (Portrait of a New York widow) by Frederick Childe Hassam.

This is a sculpture called Anti-Mass by Cornelia Parker. The pieces, which are suspended from above, are the charred remains of an African-American Baptist Church in Alabama that was set on fire by arsonists. It was so moving.


Winter's Festival by Willard Leroy Metcalf. This is a scene I will never see outside my bedroom window here in sunny California, which is why I like it so much.

We ate lunch at the museum cafe, and I had this delicious chicken curry salad with figs, grapes, and mangoes. I didn't eat the figs because, as I explained to my family, I only like them in newton form.

Sculpture of a giant safety pin outside the cafe window.

This is the botanical garden where we took a walk in the afternoon. It was a surprisingly warm and sunny day in San Francisco, and there were squirrels everywhere. They've been fed by tourists so much that they run right up to you and look up in to your eyes, waiting for food. I was constantly explaining to them I don't feed wild animals.

I'm having a lazy Sunday today, laying in bed reading and writing. I can hear my neighbors yelling at the football players on television, and my cat Apollo is curled up against my feet. It's supposed to be 80 degrees today, but I'm pretending it's a cozy rainy day so I can slow down and enjoy being at home. It feels so good to just stop for a day ... stop running around, stop trying to accomplish anything, and just be present in my life and feel gratitude for all that I have.

Happy November to you ...

Happy Halloween!

I'm ready for trick or treaters! Hopefully I'll get lots of of little ghosts and goblins knocking on my door tonight ... as well as Hannah Montanas, fairy princesses and pirates. If not, well, I'm sure I can figure out something to do with all that candy.

I went shopping last night for an autumn centerpiece for the dining room table. I was going to get a dried flower arrangement or big candle, but ended up with this white pumpkin. I love ceramic and hand blown glass pumpkins. This one was only ten dollars at TJ Maxx Home Goods.

The October theme for my ATC swap group was "The Witching Hour." I received some awesome ATC's! The one above is from Deb at Garage Sale Girl.

From Dogwood at Pink Dogwood Blossom.

From Rachel at Not-So-Plain Jane. Can you see Charlie lurking in the background? He was stalking the crepe paper pumpkin. It makes the loveliest crinkly noise when you smack it with your paw.

This one is from Cheryl at For Interest Sake.

From Jill at Mindfully Simple.

Have a happy Halloween!

Giveaway winner

Using the random number generator, the winner of the sugarcane yarn is DebsCrafts! Congrats, Deb. I'll be sending you an email soon.

Hope everyone has a safe and happy Halloween.

A little bit of light

It's been a difficult week, but a little bit of light is beginning to shine through. I don't have much to say, but do want to share these photos of flowers from a walk last weekend at the San Francisco Botanical Garden. Hope you enjoy.

It's All About Me & Giveaway

Natasha at Artistic Creations came up with the best idea for a swap ... It's All About Me! The twist is that instead of making something for someone else, you make something for yourself.

I think this is a great idea because we are so generous to one another, but it can be difficult to show that same kindness to ourselves.

For the swap, I knit myself a set of Log Cabin Wash Cloths. You might remember I bought this yarn for my birthday a couple months ago specifically for these wash cloths. The swap helped motivate me to get them finished. Thank you, Natasha!

The wash cloths are knit by starting with the middle square, binding off and then picking up stitches around the edge of the square.

This project helped me improve my skills in picking up stitches. I feel much more confident with this skill.

I tried to finish this scarf for the swap, too, but wasn't quite able to do it. The yarn is made of 100% sugarcane and is very nice to knit with.


I'm offering a ball of the exact same yarn that I'm using to knit the scarf as a giveaway. It's called Ruca and is made by the company Araucania. It is hand-dyed in Chile and there is 263 yards.

This giveaway is open to anyone, and I will ship it to any country. Please be sure to leave an email address if your comment doesn't link to your blog! I'll use the random number generator to pick a winner on Thursday, October 29th.

Halloween Greeting Cards

I made Halloween greeting cards out of these vintage-looking postcards for my friends in my ATC swap group. The greeting cards aren't too fancy, but I thought you might enjoy seeing the postcards. I fell in love with them when I saw them in the store.

Basically, all I did to make the greeting cards was adhere the postcard to a panel and then glue the panel to a blank greeting card. You might remember my post about trying to use glitter to fancy them up-- the card above has a skull border because I had to cover my glitter faux pas. I like how it turned out.

This is my October artist trading card. The theme was "The Witching Hour." It was a learning experience for me. I saw the cutest Halloween stickers at the craft store, but decided to challenge myself to create the ATC from scratch instead of using stickers. (I did buy the bat and cob web cut outs.) The ATCs took a very long time to make and I really don't like the results. Today I decided it's okay to use stickers if that's what makes me happy. While I do want to grow and learn new art techniques, I also want to have fun and feel good about what I create. Plus, I love stickers!

* * *

So, I just realized today is the big reveal for It's All About Me, the swap where you make something for yourself. I mean I JUST realized this about five seconds ago. I thought the reveal was this coming Saturday and I planned to do a giveaway, too. It's been a hectic week and I got mixed up. I'm too exhausted to take photos of my project and write a new post, so I will just do it on Saturday. Please stop by and check it out!

The Small View

Many years ago while visiting Yosemite National Park I watched a ranger do a slide show presentation called the "The Small View." Instead of showing slides of the massive granite walls that surround the valley or the incredible waterfalls, he presented images of a dew drop on a blade of grass, an insect perched on a leaf, and the tiniest flower bud. Throughout the presentation he talked about how the breathtaking, sweeping views of Yosemite can distract us from the tiny moments of beauty right in front of us.


With that in mind, I went for a walk at my favorite park yesterday afternoon to take photos of the small view ... those little things I would normally miss because I'm usually scanning the treetops for owls (that I never see) or simply lost in thought and not fully present.

I think blogging has helped me to appreciate the small view, too. In our blogs we are constantly celebrating small joys like veggies grown at home, late-blooming flowers, and finding a vintage handkerchief on sale. It's easy to miss those things if you aren't paying attention.

There were lots of acorn caps on the ground yesterday. I wonder where all the acorns went?

Oh, I think I found them! The acorn woodpeckers were extremely busy drilling holes and filling them with acorns. At times there was so much pecking going on it sounded like an audience's applause.


But there are still plenty of empty holes to fill as they store up food for the winter.

I was fortunate to snap this photo just as two woodpeckers flew in to view.

This might be the last remnant of summer.

I couldn't resist one or two larger views as the sky clouded up. The peak in this photo is Mount Umunhum, which is an Ohlone Indian word for the resting place of the hummingbird.

Before I knew it, two hours had passed and I felt a drop of rain on my forehead. It was wonderful to spend the afternoon enjoying the small view, as well as the large one, too.

Wishing you a wonderful week.