Kelp quilt. Abandoning the Redwork pattern in the Modern Quilt Along book and adopting a freestyle motif. Turquoise/olive and puffy, similar to the quilt seen here in the book by Jean Ray Laury.

We had to leave home without finishing the costume. Seventeen papier mache quills left to tack on but I ran out of glue for the glue gun. When we arrived at the lake for the carnival, we stumbled onto the costume judging stage. Around forty children were decked out and fidgeting in their seats. We coaxed Ford onto the stage and he just stood there when the the kids began to parade in a circle around him. But following Ford were many ooh!s and aa!s, and he ultimately won first place! Twitching those creepy claws of his. He is so proud.

Honorable mention goes to Ford as Samurai. Here, searching for treasure in the hay. School Halloween party.

I walk Ford to school every day. School’s been going great.
Today when we rounded the corner of the playground, the boys yelled, “FORD’S HERE! FORD’S HERE!” and stampeded to the fence to wait for him. Closer to where we walked was the little playhouse, and a cute little girl in pink and white, with straight blonde hair heard his name and walked out towards us. Ford lurched forward from the jogger so he could annunciate through the veil of chain-link:

“I’M *NOT* YOUR FRIEND!!!”

She heard this, didn’t flinch, and turned right-side-round back to the playhouse. I watched her tell the other girls what happened. Or that Ford is a little prick and I hope he never calls again. That bastard.

UPDATE:
It has been over a week since I last posted this, but I forgot to mention that, on the following day’s walk to school, Ford picked yellow wildflowers for this sweet little girl. When he arrived at the gate, Ford climbed over his friends to hand-deliver them. Alas, she didn’t want to hold them all afternoon, and Ford wondered why not. Still, they are new friends.

My little corners, here and there.
Nobody but me would put Rosemary the pony in her own stable for the night, nor would they place Bird the fish next to the lava lamp during the night to stay a degree warmer:

Nobody would go to sleep at night without putting the lily pad sculpture back together again and tuck it aside, either. And here is the Christian coloring page that Damon gave me and that I laughed at on Sunday after we argued about the importance of the church to religion:

I enjoy feeling a tad more like gentry when I see these putters beside the entrance, along with my homemade cedar walking stick. Offset by a huge walking shoe collection (of which mine dominate):

These little green clogs are a gift from mom on a trip to Amsterdam a few years ago. Damon keeps accidentally throwing them away and I somehow manage to rescue them every time, my sixth sense (or what I call my Unwanted Clog Sense) kicks in. I prefer these to remain nested by the front door, even though nobody can currently fit into them.
The last photo is the wild card; the tabletop is a good reflection of my spirit tonight: slightly cluttered but creatively content. I am building a wild boar head for Ford with papier mache. This is for his Snifferator costume WARNING!!!! CREEPY!!!! But he insisted and I think it’s way cool anyway.

We have a wonderful wool rug in our living room. We bought it in May about three hours before our renters signed a year contract on our home in McKinney, and I somehow believe that it was because of the rug. Being inviting and cozy, it softened our concrete floors and probably made an otherwise cold and cloudy Spring day a little warmer.

There were 3 designs we were deciding among when Damon sold me on the one now own. He told me that it looked like a kelp forest, and with those two words I was sold. He literally had me at “kelp forest.” And every time I catch myself staring at the rug, I get warm fuzzies thinking about happy creatures like sea lions sea otters and encrusting bryozoans. And sometimes ice cream and bubble gum. Because they’re made with carageenan. Which is made of kelp. You know.

Anyway, this rug is very special to me and I decided it’s time to make a napping quilt in it honor, for the cooler month or two ahead. I’ve been on the fence about joining the Modern Quilt-Along but I figured I could do a me-version of the Redwork pattern in turquoise and dark olive. Maybe take a little creative license and use variegated and hand-painted solids with hand-painted floss? Maybe a little trapunto?

We explored another nursery in town today: The Natural Gardener. It blew me away, I think it is an attraction on many levels. The prices are fair, they have a tremendous variety, endorse organic gardening, have an abundant and helpful staff, numerous display gardens and a few barn animals. I could and will take the kids there on a weekday and kill an hour easily. And maybe a coupla twenties. Easily.

For the kids garden I selected:
Lamb’s Ear
Texas Rock Rose
Pineapple Sage
Texas Fall Aster
Purple Oxalis
some feathery-purple-flowered perennial that attracts throngs of Viceroy butterflies that I can’t remember the name of and I’m too tired to go outside and look on the plant tag to find out what it’s called
Round-leaf eucalyptus
and Damon’s pick:
Squid Agave.
(They were out of Pony Foot and I dutifully denied myself the Smoke Plant, but I’ll be back for both soon enough)

We had terrible cupcake cravings today and I didn’t fight the urge to bake two dozen vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting. Magnolia Bakery recipe. The frosting became a pale pink and Damon insisted I forego the sprinkles (which I will never forgive him for; he believes that sprinkles ruin cupcakes but I will fight this argument to the grave–who WOULDN’T?!). The icing called for one entire bag of confectioner’s sugar. That’s right. Ultimately, they tasted like Krispy Kreme donuts with the same pleasurable guilt. One can only eat perhaps, well, one. So I boxed them up immediately and marked them “BARBEQUE” for tomorrow’s potluck at Damon’s colleague’s home. Why bother taking a photograph when you can imagine what they look like, without the sprinkles.

Every family should have a village to help it grow. Every single one, yours and mine.

I need to recharge my sense of wonder. While I was watching a squirrel outside on a limb, I reflected on my dull reaction. I thought my appreciation would climb if I travelled to another continent on another hemisphere.