the queen of Likes-to-Sew...

Yesterday was the Tour De Coops, and I had a very busy time talking with the people that came to Acorn Cottage to see my chicken coop and the hens. Got lots of positive comments, and I think that there were about thirty or so folks over the course of the day. I actually got sunburned (grump, grump) from being out in the yard, there were some places that I missed with the sunscreen, and I usually do not go out in the yard during the middle of the day. This morning I gave another tour to my neighbor Tuan, baby Pippin, and her houseguest from San Francisco. They arrived too late in the day yesterday, but it was no trouble to show them around the yard today.

I've been having difficulty starting to actually fix things in the workroom, not sure why I'm feeling intimidated...? I've played hooky for the last two Sundays, when I should be sawing and hammering, and gone downtown to the new Museum of Contemporary Craft.

They just opened last weekend, with a free fun creative block party full of live music and hands on craftyness, as well as demos by local groups of various kinds. You know me, I love crafty projects. So I got to make two collaged matchbox shrine magnets, and an artist trading card, but the most fun was the raku fundraiser... for two dollars you could choose a prepared hand-thrown teacup, and paint your desired designs on it with metallic oxide colors, and they would fire it right there, and you could pick it up about half an hour later. I painted two little cups, with acorns and oak leaves and birds on the outside, and a little decorative bit on the inside at the bottom of the cup. They had this amazing propane fired kiln setup, and it was quite the fire-dance to watch. My pottery artifacts will be a great addition to my kitchen, being just the right size for morning juice, or kombucha...

This weekend I went back on Sunday, and the museum itself was, of course, much less crowded. Still plenty of folks there looking at the great artwork, but there was room to actually see things. The last Sunday of the month they have a hands-on inter-generational craft workshop. I asked, and it is not just for parents and children, so I went . The project this month was inspired by the selection of modern crowns and tiaras in the current exhibit. I ended up finding some old bone and mother of pearl buttons in amongst the pipe cleaners and artificial flowers, and came up with a construction of twisty wire and buttons that looks quite fanciful. I wandered back to my car parking spot wearing a crown of buttons, and actually got a number of smiles from passers-by.
Now, back to our regularly scheduled house-repair programming...

P.S. I'm looking for a place to stay in Seattle on Friday and Saturday night this coming weekend. I'm teaching an enameling workshop at Danaca Designs in the U-District. Anyone up for supporting the arts, or at least giving the arts a place to sleep?