Jia - Taming my house and making a home

In the book "Shelter for the Spirit" by Victoria Moran, she refers to the Chinese word for home and family - Jia. One word, both/same meaning.

My house is a complete STY. Any of my old Partners in Clean out there can just hang their heads in discouragement of my predicament, but, honestly, I'm not all that surprised. Twins and post-partum depression will do that to a girl!

Anyway, here I am. I am seriously in need of not only getting to where I can just keep up with things, but with purging BIGTIME. Why you may ask? Just general clutter? Alas - no. We need to move. (I can't carry kids up the stairs, and that is where the other bedrooms are - all four of us in one room is getting OLD FAST, especially since we only have a queen size bed, otherwise, I'd be all for it.)

So - I need to get moving, and I thought that I'd use this space to motivate myself, and maybe you too! If I can find time with MY energy and kids, you can too! (Stories? Share them if you've got 'em!)

The only way I have *ever* had success with cleaning/organizing? Doing one small space/project at a time, and stopping there, savouring my success. One desktop. One drawer. One cupboard. Whatever I want, but only ONE of them. For crazier projects, like raking or whatever, where there is no point at which one is 'done,' (not that I rake, mind you - in Vermont that is just an exercise in stupidity,) I give myself a set period of time which I feel that I can stomach, and then go for it, no ifs and or buts. By the time I run out my clock, I am usually doing so well that I CHOOSE to do more. Bizarre, eh?

Anyway, I am going to try for one space/timespan per day. I am nervous that I'm not going to find time/energy EVERY day, but I am also aware that the entropy generated by two almost-toddlers and my beloved but organization impaired husband (and me, if I'm honest with myself) would keep my house a complete shambles with anything less than an everyday effort. No point in half-*ssing it and not getting anywhere with my efforts! So - it might be a really really small space each day, but it WILL happen.

Watch this space for how badly I mess this up. Yeah, I'm being a pessimist, and that is a LOUSY way to start a new endeavor, but I am just *sooooo tired* of never getting anywhere with this - dirty dishes and laundry just keep reappearing, and I never get below the surface clutter to the real purging that needs to happen.

I know some of the things that keep me from succeeding, aside from not staying with it - my frugal streak is too wide, for one, and I never *actually* get rid of the stuff that I say I am going to get rid of. My husband and mother have been known to eventually drop my bags of clothes at the Goodwill, but that is about all. (I think I got negative about donations when I took a HUGE bunch of books to my local library, only to be told that they don't take non-fiction. They only take stories. Don't get me started on the rant I gave them about access to information and priorities - I'm sure it would have been the same one you would have delivered!)

My frugal streak means that I hold onto anything a) of monetary value, b) anything of sentimental or inspirational value, or c) anything that might be difficult or expensive to reacquire (ie old movies, music, books, etc). Needless to say, unless something is 6 sizes too small and all my friends of my friends are gargantuan, I never get rid of anything. (I DID get rid of my clothes under size 14 when I got pregnant - I figured that if got down to a size 12 that I *deserved* to go shopping for new clothes, and, miracles never cease - I may actually get down to that this summer, pumping breast milk and running after twins providing!)

So - major space-taking categories that need to be purged include:

1. Clothes- mine and the girls (stuff that they have grown out of at their completely crazy rate of growth)
2. Books/magazines/videos/CDs/software - if I haven't looked at it or leant it out in the last three years, and if would cry if the girls couldn't enjoy it someday, out it goes
3. Fabric, art and craft stuff - easy to get rid of - schools and charities love this stuff - but *getting rid of fabric!?!?!??** Yes, I AM crazy, but I also have some stuff that I am unlikely to use, and which takes up HUGE quantities of space... garb fabric from the SCA and calicoes from when I tried making baby quilts to sell (not so much, but that is another, not *completely* depressing story - ask me another time).
4. Paper - this one is genetic folks - my Dad makes copies of everything he deems needful, and then 'files' them. More like he 'piles' them - on every flat surface available, including the floor. Sigh. I honestly think that this one will be the easiest to deal with, once I get my filing cabinet up to snuff.

I also need to get some moving and storage boxes so that I pack some stuff as I go - no point moving it twice, eh?

Yikes this is a big project. Breathe, Susan... One space at a time. One space at a time. One space at at time. Do it so my girls don't grow up in the same chaos that *I* did!!!

Happy Belated Valentine's Day!

Hi folks -

The girls are 10 months old now, pulling to standing and cruising around. They aren't sleeping through the night without eating several times, and show no sign of doing so soon, despite our trying to get them to do so.

Still no art, still no time/energy to do anything but sometimes curl up with a book, but at least I am really starting to FEEL BETTER. My post-partum depression started improving in December, and I am finally almost completely off of my painkillers. Hurray! Now if I can just kick the remains of my winter cold!

That being that case, I have high hopes of being really finally over my pregnancy by the time Spring hits here in Vermont - around the girls' birthday in April - and that I'll actually be able to take them to the park, and to playgroups, and all that other fun mom-and-toddler stuff that I didn't get to do back when we were mom-and-babies. Ah well - better late than never, eh?

I hope that you and your families and projects are doing well...

Long time

and no break in sight.

The girls are 7 months old now, and completely fabulous, but OI are they a handful, and I am TUCKERED OUT. Mom is shipping the girls and I off to her house in Boston for a week until Thanksgiving to 'give me a break,' but since I have the most hands-on hubby EVER, I just figure that I will be doing MORE work, not less.

Ah well, she means well.

Nothing artsy WHATSOEVER. Not even my usual ornament schtick. Sigh. My studio is now the househould junk room, and I really don't see that changing any time soon. Pain is still a constant in my life, and my meds and doctors just aren't helping anymore. Plus, time and energy are just nonexistant, as evidenced by my complete absence from this blog (hey, at least I remembered my account name for once!)

I think that my next project is going to actually be for my very own children, even though I have projects in process for other folk's kids. Those WILL get done eventually, but why should their kids get my limited work output when my own girls have nothing but the sweaters I made them (FINALLY finished them recently - they'll wear them once over this week for a picture, then get packed away, since they will already be too tight on my big 15 pounders!!! Best reason ever to not have something fit, eh?)

I want to applique their names in nice big letters that I made the templates for back when I was pregnant. I originally planned to do them in pastels, but since EVERYTHING I see these days is either a)pastel or b)bright primaries, I thought I might actually use like loden green or eggplant or something, just to give my eyes a break, but I probably won't. Regular colors on pastel grounds is probably going to be the ticket - something that will look nice now when they are babies, and will still look ok when they are preteens, in the not so distant as I like to think future.

Sigh. They are already growing up so fast! It sounds wicked cliched, but when life feels like one never ending day, it seems like they grow an inch a week!

Anyway, happy Turkey day to all. Do something creative for me (and tell me about it) so I can live vicariously. I'll even trade you pictures of my girls in their Halloween costumes for your good stories, ok? I'll check back in early December, so you even have time to DO the creative something before you write about it.

The world might still be spinning in it's appointed orbit, but it is still SPINNING, and my life with it! Whee!!!

Nothing so profound

No quilts, no politics; not really all that much ME under all of this spit-up. I LOVE being a mother - I've never wanted anything more than I've wanted my girls - but I have to have something that I want to do other than take care of them - I need something for my down time, something for my ME time; something FOR me, something ABOUT me, something ME, not just something MOM.

Fatigue is a very insidious disability. I keep getting just enough sleep to realize how frustrated I am with my situation. The art that I used to create is, again, too physically demanding. I stepped down from weaving to quilting years ago for the same reason, and I don't know where to step now. I dream of making furniture, but that is obviously right out of the question, and even my much lesser dreams of beading and scrapbooking require a stillness of hand and a dedication of time and environment that I just can't offer them. Let alone, a stillness of mind - I have to be able to put something down for an indefinate period of time in the time it takes my girls to go from asleep to inconsolate (about 30 seconds) and I need whatever I'm doing to be inexpensive ($360/month on less-allergenic formula to supplement my breast milk), baby/cat safe/proof, and not particularly flat surface consuming. I still haven't finished knitting the coming-home sweaters for my girls, and they are almost too big for them at near 6 months of age, and I am already spinning wool for blankets that I want to crochet for them that they can't outgrow, but neither "knitter" nor "crocheter" sounds like a description of myself that I could find self-satisfaction in.

If we move to the South Shore of Massachusetts, I can take on textiles and textile equipment curation at the Alden House in Duxbury, but we can't afford living there, and my parents can't afford to help us live there, and when we have said that, we've said it - no amount of *wanting* is going to change the financial facts of the situation, and I really don't want to risk my girls getting to see more of their grandparents just to get to spend most of that time watching them talk money with Mama and Dada. Plus, we can all do without the traffic, even if it does come with a lovely beach and dear, dear friends.

I *WILL* go back and get my MSW at some point, but my husband has his RN to get first, and who knows what life with the girls will be like by then anyway, so it sounds more than a little bit lame to define myself by what I want to do when my girls grow-up! Honestly, I want to spend the bulk of my time being the best Mom and wife that I can be, (as hokie as that sounds,) but I also need something where the free-will of others isn't going to be able to derail my senses of self and accomplishment.

My husband says that I could write, or program a game of my own (his hobby/semi-profession), but something about me just requires handwork, and not of the 'can do it in front of the TV without even watching' variety. Anything that a machine can do isn't likely to make me feel very good about my hard work.

Yes, I am a human BEING, not a human DOING, but I want to be something for and of myself, not defined by my relationship to others for 10 minutes a day (mother to my children, wife to my husband, daughter to my parents).

Suggestions welcome...

Another political quilt RE: Aminedijan

Yes, I'm sure I have misspelled that. ZERO offence intended.

Anyway, I watched his speech to the UN last night, and thought it was great. Aside from his paradigm that everyone needs spirituality, and that said should be monotheistic in nature, he didn't say a darned thing that I disagreed with.

The thought provoking part for me, was looking at where the line, time-wise, should be drawn on who 'belongs' where. I learned recently that Lebanese school children learn geography from a map that simply doesn't include Israel at all. Based on that, I can understand how the one can believe that Israel is an interloper.

I asked my mother, who was alive but a child at the time, how the decision to locate Israel where it is today was made. She said that, to her understanding, Israel was located in it's historic position. It seems odd to me that 2000 years of conflicts had determined who had the right of arms to live in that area (not absulte RIGHT mind you), and that European guilt over WW2 didn't give Europe the right to rewrite the net result of those conflicts and 'give back' land that wasn't theirs to give.

That said, I COMPLETELY support the right of both Israel and Palestine to exist. I'm just questioning the location of said countries. I think Aminidijad (sp) had a point that perhaps Europe should have created a Jewish state there, which to my mind makes sense, since that is where the Jews effected by WW2 actually LIVED at the time (as opposed to where their ancestors lived 2000 years ago.)

Anyway, I have ideas for two quilts, both involving a solid background layer of a geographical and political map with a sheer of a proposed political boundary of an Israeli state on them, one of Europe and one of the Levant. I'd have the sheer hang about 6 inches forward of the solid, and be basted down with VERY long stitches to connect the two, showing the outline of the proposed states on the solid/'given' maps. Basically, revisit the proposal, and see wherelse Israel may have gone...

Just an exploration, not a statement one way or the other. Might doesn't make right - not 2000, 65, 57 (when Israel was founded) years ago, or today. It does make maps though, and I'm not sure that we should go back and try to rewrite them, even if we can.

Thus Spoke Dad...

... and the really great house got kaboshed. It would have been nice if he had mentioned that it was too expensive (even with his help with the mortgage) BEFORE we drove down to Boston to see it, but oh well. At least my folks got to spend time with the girls, and we all got to talk about the move face to face.

It came to light that one of the best reasons for moving to Boston (and the first that my DH has really considered valid) is that my best childhood friend lives there, and REALLY **WANTS** us to move there, so we can be closer, and so our kids can grow up together like we did. DH Kevin moved about a billion times before college, so he doesn't have *any* childhood friends (other than his sibs, which I don't have), and he (and I, of course) really want them for our girls. Plus, having my best girlfriend just a short 5-10 minute jaunt away (rather than a phone call or the 35 plus minute drive to my other best girlfriend's house) would be amazing. The idea of walking or biking to my friend's house makes me feel like a kid again. Granted, she used to live next door, but we can't afford to live in her current hometown, at least not YET. Give it five years, and Kevin's RN, and maybe we can move even closer.

So, we have found ANOTHER house, $100,000 cheaper, and we want to look at IT next weekend. Kevin had already offered to help my Dad move some stuff then anyway, so it wouldn't be an extra drive. Kevin has even dropped his one on-campus class on the premise that we might move this semester - only online classes until we are done moving is the new rule!

Art this week? Does reading "Real Simple" count? Yeah right. My milk production PLUMMETTED with a new drug I was on (note past tense) and my pump went on the fritz, so my big project for the week (aside from yet more sleep) is getting my milk back up! Kevin plans to paint the beginning of next week, so I'm sure I'll be masking up a storm then, but, in the meantime, my life is getting my milk up for little girls whose vocal cords are making sounds like they are perpetually on idle and need a tune-up! VERY annoying!

Hi ho, hi ho

... off house-hunting we will go...

Yummy prospect at a very decent price, considering the craziness in the markets lately.

More details to follow, but it will be a few days.

This *could be it* and I am VERY excited!!!

Happy Labor Day weekend all - can't believe the summer is over already!!! Ack!

Politics : Fabric - the minimum wage

I'm just wondering if you think the two mix. I figure if it worked for Betsy Ross, it ought to still sort of stand for the real day to day life and how it looks at the issues of our day.

Crazy ideas I've had for political art quilts include my latest rant - the minimum wage. I haven't done the math out, but I do know that someone working 40 hours a week at the federal minimum wage still doesn't make enough money to break the federal poverty line. How stupid is THAT? It would seem to me that figuring out what the minimum wage ought to be should be a pretty simple calculation, namely poverty line amount divided by 52 (for the weeks in our vacationless and never sick working joe's year)and then divide your result by 40 for the number of hours in a full working week, American-style. Shouldn't THAT number be the minimum wage, ie the minimum amount someone can make an hour and still NOT fall below the poverty line and be able to get some sleep and have time to eat? (If they can *afford* somewhere to sleep and something to eat on what the federal government thinks they can, ie the poverty line.)

So - how to show this in fabric? I think fabric is actually the PERFECT medium for this subject, (other than dollar bills themselves, which, being printed on cotton rag themselves are pretty much fiber objects to begin with) being about daily life.

Idea #1: Some sort of mosaic-like graph of actual wage vs poverty line wage. Lame, but first anyway.

Idea #2: Seven panels wide - one for each day of the week. Photo transfer image of person at different minimum wage job printed at top of each. Money actually paid (the real US currency, since I mentioned it) glued beneath, then beneath *that*, the money that the person DIDN'T get for each day, dyed red bills, painted red coins, and below *that* an image of what that money would have gone towards in the life of a person actually living at the poverty line, like fresh fruit, bus fare, or even protein other than beans (horrors!) Then quilt the whole sucker with words; words that people use to describe folks who manage to get up and face another day at or below the poverty line. Words that I would never want to be called, and won't repeat here. You get the idea.

I actually really like that image, so I'll stop there. BTW - sorry I'm not actually drawing that for you and posting it as my uber-blogger friends would, but I'm just not feeling that cool today, or ever, really. So - where to show said quilt? I mean I *could* make it and just hang on to it, but a quilt about something this important should be SEEN. Somehow though, I just don't see it going over very well at the Vermont Quilt Show. The prize-winning quilt this year was about a pretty group of Native American women; that is about as much cultural guilt most shows seem to be willing to deal with. And, no offense intended, but many of the small, fringy shows that actually DO show politically progressive work all just preach to the choir when you get right down to it. How frustrating THAT would be.

Anyway, that is what I *would* quilt about right now, babies and all, if I thought it would make any difference what so ever, but it wouldn't and I just don't need that kind of disappointment right now.

People who continue to make and actually show political art must be just as hardworking, dedicated/desperate, and able to deal with frustration as those folks working and living at or below the poverty line are. Then again, many of the folks that I know that fit into either category have problems with alcohol and/or relationships. I guess art DOES imitate life, and when that life is spent working for peanuts it can look pretty dreary. A sort of dreariness that I am glad that I can be unself-absorbed enough to notice, but not enough to make me want to spend a lot of time there... even if that time would be in the studio.

Thanks Diane

Just wanted to let my readership know that the moderator of the Art Quilt ring, Diane, kindly read my post about being bumped from the list, and wrote to me about it. She filled me in on my criteria for reinstatement, and I wrote back that I wasn't sure that I was going to qualify any time soon.

Not that I can't post twice a week - easy, even now, with 4.5 month old twins. I'm just not sure that I want to limit my creative work to art quilting right now, especially since that is just so multitasking heavy, and the last thing my sleep-deprived down-time needs to be is *demanding*!

So, I may be back in a month or two, or it might be longer. I WILL get back to art quilting, but I think that I am going to enjoy my foray into other forms for a while first. I have all those projects listed below to be working on, and other ideas too - rustic furniture making (probably dreams only), *actually* getting my house and yard ready for sale (Partners in Clean, where are you!?!?), finding a new home to move into and helping my parents get a potential new property up to snuff (which might be all the same thing!), and, obviously, taking care of my girls and taking care of myself. Fitting myself back into the AQ box seems counterproductive, not to mention overly difficult right now, so I'm not going to do it. Period. What you see is what you get! Right now though, what I've got is a little girl asleep against my rhymically typing left arm. I should get her off to her crib...

shows what *I* know and block printing

I guess I do have readers - they just can't all post comments to my blog. I don't know why, and I'll try to figure that out when I've had a little bit more sleep.

Right now though, I am contemplating the uses of block printing in art quilts. I have an itch to try carving some, and want to put them to use asap, so...

I thought about making a sort of diaper pattern (all-over texture, not the nappy sort), or doing a large piece and make it a whole cloth quilt. I have even thought of printing part of the design on one side, and a complementary part on the other side of the quilt sandwich, and then quilting both designs, so that the pattern becomes complete only though the quilting stitches themselves. Then that begs for a translucent batting so that the whole pattern can be viewed at one time, and...

Well, you can see the sorts of things my brain dreams up during the 4 AM feeding!

Anyone have any brilliant ideas on what I can do, art-quilt-wise, with three rolls of tin foil?

Things I'm working on

Shoulds: (self-imposed, so they are ok)

* finish baby quilt for Erica's son, Jacob Jules
* sew labels on back of Jesse's and Genna's quilts so I can get them delivered
* finish Tra's girls' quilts (one in progress, other unstarted! Yikes!)
* CLEAN OUT MY STUDIO!!!
* finish postcards for year-old exchange (better late than never, I hope)
* send thank-you's for all the lovely things my girls have been given
* finish quilting the Magic Bus quilt from the Straight and Narrow challenge (languishing on the design wall at present)
* line up contractors for garden recovery and ceiling repairs
* get out invites to girls' baptism

Want to's:

* try block printing
* dyeing/painting some yardage
* order print paste from Pro-Chem
* order RTD clothes from Dharma
* play with batik more
* find some fun FICTION to read before the summer vanishes
* play the Civ 4 warlords expansion DH got me, and Sim City 4 that cousin George lent me

Have done recently's:

* screen-printed hand and footprint Father's Day shirts for my husband and Dad
* pastel drawing for card for my Aunt for her birthday
* continuing to document babies on digital camera
* enjoyed stargazing and other simple pleasures in Heath, Mass with family
* sewed boutique overalls for friend Barbara's daughter Ellie (princesses galore!)

___________________________________

Not too bad, and not so good, but doable. Get cracking, and have fun!
Life is what I make it!!!!

Frustration and Paradigm Shift

I know that I haven't been posting much. Twins and Fibromyalgia are most of the reason, but lack of readership is another. It is very depressing to spend lots of time posting things, knowing that no one will be reading it! Why won't anyone be reading it? Because I was bumped from the list for not posting in over a month back in June. I wrote to the moderator of the ring and requested that I be placed back on the ring, but never got a response. Having just checked the ring, I see that several folks were added to the ring July 8, and another on July 30, so obviously the mod is looking at blogs and mine just didn't stack up. No wonder, since I haven't been posting into the void!

So I am in need of a paradigm shift: I WAS posting becuase I liked being part of the ring community. I miss that aspect of blogging *very* much, especially since it got me both into the studio and through my pregnancy; the support therein was amazing. Now though, I am out here on my own, hoping to meet the mod's standards so I can be allowed back into the group, and I don't like the feeling this evokes in me.

Therefore, although I would love to be allowed back into the group, I need to blog for a different reason in order to actually ENJOY my blogging - I need to make blogging for my audience of one an OK thing. I need to make it fun for ME.

So - I'm going to worry less about what others think about what I am posting - less about general interest, and more about my life and art. I *am* working on art around taking care of my girls (4 months old now) and feeling wretched, and I'm going to write - to MYSELF - about all of it. I learned years ago that I only journal when my relationship with my partner is bad. As a result, I have not journalled since my husband and I got together just over two years ago. So, while keeping the private details private in this online world, I am going to attempt to at least document my artistic life here, and try to do so in a way that fosters personal reflection on my work and my quandries about it.

Sound good? I hope so! Besides, it only needs to sound good to me. Any readers that eventually find their ways here can like it or lump it! Bon voyage, Susan!

VT Quilt Fest - Best in Show

"Maidens in Full Bloom" by Denise Tallon Havlan of Palos Hills, Illinois. She says that this is "... one quilt in a continuing series of quilts celebrating the Native American." You can't see it well in this photo unfortunately, but the quilting work on this is *definately* one instance of where the quilting really makes the quilt, not that the graphic nature of the piece is slacking, because obbviously it is not.

I love that a non-traditional piece won. :)

Anyway, I will try to play with this in photoshop so I can get you a detail shot of the quilting work. Also, now that my husband is no longer keeping these images hostage on his hidden hardcard, I am going to TRY to show you one a day, ok? I apologize in advance for those images I guess at the artist of because I chopped out the ID numbers with my digital camera. Said camera is now in the shop as my karmic payment for such said error-of-ways. Mea Culpa. I will do the best I can to give correct attributions of work, and will happily take corrections, ok?

Vermont Quilt Festival 2006

This year was the 30th Anniversary of the Quilt Festival, and they ran a special exhibit to celebrate it - "Historymakers" - it showcased championship quilts from the last 30 years! They also had their usual contest quilts, and those made by kids and by their judges and teachers.

Honestly, I wasn't feeling very well, so I buzzed through the quilts with my 8 megapixel camera and took photos to be studied at length later. Not so good for me, but great for you, eh? I'll get them uploaded and annotated over this coming week so I can post them here.

Shopping can only happen in person though, so I *did!* Mostly gadgets, but also some real indigo fabric (I love the smell!), some fabric from Lunn with the ASL alphabet on it, and, finally, "Color by Design" and "Color by Accident" both by Ann Johnston. If I'd been smart (and frugal!) I would have read the supplies lists while I was at the ProChem booth, and would have gotten what I needed there. Now I'll have to pick stuff up locally or have it shipped, both of which will mean waiting and more money! Rats!

In other news, my girls are growing leaps and bounds, so friends are handing over more and more handmedowns for them, including dozens of *plain white onesies.* Sigh - a fabric painters HEAVEN! I am also placing an order with Dharma for some cute little outfits for the girls, so I ought to be well set for 'canvases' for a while! And I'll have lots of time to work too, since my teaching gig gfot kaboshed -again - for lack of students. Not that plenty of kids aren't still failing biology, but that fewer parents have the money or clout or sense of responsibility to send their kids to summer school. The upshot for me? Less money, but more time - perfect for playing with paint in the sun in between diaper changes!

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

DSCN0715
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

DSCN0684
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

DSCN0518
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? %)