Scraps!

I need to know:

What the heck does everyone do with their SCRAPS?!?!?!

I am far too thrify a girl to just throw them away, and so I horde them. I have both a drawer and a special rice basket full of them, and I even sort them into different color groups and give them their own ziplock bags.

But what do I DO with them? I rarely (but sometimes) dig in them to find just the piece I want, and sometimes I actually DO use bits of a fabric that I don't want to cut up muy larger chunks for, but not much more than that - my stash of scraps is growing.

Crazy quilting would be a natural, but is just not for me. Pieces are mostly calicoes, 1" x 2" and up. Suggestions or offers to take them off my hands welcome.

Thought for the day, to be perused while I keep purging the studio: what can I do with CHALK?

Partners in Clean - I need YOU!

I have used my studio as a refuge - for my sanity and my junk - during my pregnancy, and now it REALLY needs a good cleanout. I've done quite a bit already, but you would never know it to look at it. So... I'll take a picture now, and then post it and a new shot when you can actually see progress. Please don't let me off the hook on this, ladies - I need my studio too much right now to let this slide.

BTW - both of my girls have smiled at me for the first time in the last two days. They are growing so fast! I need to order some blank clothes from Dharma Trading to paint/stamp/print/dye up for a summer of growth for all of us!!!

Dana Cordelia

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Originally uploaded by Bingham-McLaughlin.

Dana's nickname is Monkey, and boy o boy, has she earned it. It started out because she looked like a baby monkey when she was born and made really cute monkey noises, but now it is because she is full of mischief (don't let those baby blues fool you!)

She is an UBER drama queen, and makes a ruckus over darned near anything. A little smaller than her sister, she eats like a horse, trying to catch up. BTW - that is breast milk in the bottle - neither girl nurses very well, and we just haven't had the energy to work on it, so I am still pumping breast milk for them to take in bottles. At least this way Dad Kevin can feed them (like in the picture) and I can *sleep*!

Dana has a toy hippo, lots of dark hair, and a mighty fine set of lungs. Don't ask me how I know.... just trust me and everyone who lives within a 3-mile radius of our house.

Rowyn Eliza

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Originally uploaded by Bingham-McLaughlin.

This is one of our pair of much favored Pooh Suits. We .LIKE Pooh Suits, but we do NOT like Poo Pants. Understand?

Rowyn's nickname is Little Lady Love. She finds that many things offend her delicate sensibilities, including her own sneezes. She makes the most lovely moue of distate, sighs in exasperation, and even has her very own demure cry of outrage. Since she is such a Princess and the Pea type (although very easy going, in general) she got Froggy for a friend (Frog Prince, ok? Not much sleep, ok????)

Forggy is about 4 inches long, if you want scale. This picture was taken when she was about 4-5 weeks old, but she looks just the same, just bigger - about 10 lbs now!

Pictures of Babies, as promised

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Originally uploaded by Bingham-McLaughlin.

Me, April 13, 2006. Huge, as you can see. I went in for a regular OB appointment only to find out that -wham- I had developed preeclampsia, and needed to have a C-section that very day. The girls were delivered at 11 PM that night.

The blue belt shows the contraction monitor, and pink belts show the girls's heart rates - Beck/Rowyn on the bottom, and Call/Dana on the top.

See the stretch marks? Tip of the iceberg!

Ack!

A) Please don't bump me! I'm blogging, I'm blogging! Having this void to fill urges me into the studio and keeps my brain thinking ART and not just BABIES 24/7.

B) How the heck do I post pictures again!?!?! I swear, once I figure this out again, I need to make a post giving myself directions so I can read it next time I forget. Make sense? I sure hope so...

Art update:
* got silkscreening stuff for Mother's Day, and plan to get block printing stuff too
* have tentative plans to play with above with VT Art Quilters this summer, in my studio
* above playdate ensures that the Great Studio Cleanout Project continues (so far all of my painting supplies and dyes have found baby-proof homes! Hurray!)
* I'm thinking of a colaborative dye project with my daughter Dana - paint and spit-up. What do you think? %)