miss lila mae

lately

2011-09-28T09:14:00.002-05:00

lately, I have been more comfortable speaking in pictures instead of words. right now it's difficult; I spin out a sentence or two and then it sputters awkwardly to nothing, like a runner that begins gracefully and then turns self-conscious, over-aware, and trips over their own toes, three strides in.

I'm working on it, though.
♥

tiny

2011-09-07T08:42:00.003-05:00

What's the fun of having teeny tiny flowers all over your yard, if you don't have a teeny tiny jar to put them in?

I don't know if it's the long-avoided girliness finally catching up to me*, but DUDE, flowers are so pretty. My yard is filled with flowering grasses & groundcovers ("weeds" to most folks), nearly too small to even notice at standing height and certainly too small for anything like a normal-size vase. And so! problem solved.

Now I've acquired quite a few of these wee little jars, and course I have all sorts of wee little ideas to put them to use. Necklaces, brooches and boutonnières, tiny garlands so you can hang a string of fresh flowers anywhere you like. Tiny bouquets for everyone!

♥

* Honestly, the girliness caught up a good five years ago. I'm still a tomboy at heart though, and every so often the denial creeps in. ;)

No.5

2011-09-04T11:56:00.002-05:00

♥

No.4

2011-09-03T23:04:00.003-05:00

Coming along nicely, I think.

I am completely enamored of the meditative quality it has acquired, not just from a maker's perspective (the zen of repetitive action) but as an observer too. The stitches run together, thin bands of color always subtly shifting, moving, intricate and simple. From even a short distance it looks like oil paint, maybe, or colored pencil; any medium other than what it is. It's pretty rad, if I do say so myself.

It's nice to be doing art again.

♥

a span of twenty minutes

2011-09-01T07:17:00.001-05:00

Happy September, my loves.

♥

spiral

2011-08-31T17:23:00.003-05:00

Just a peek at the latest, No.5.

♥

plans

2011-08-28T09:27:00.006-05:00

click through to view larger & see notes.

Those plans I was talking about: Voila!

These were a long time coming - we've lived in this house for three years, and the back yard has remained largely untouched, save for a simple seating area in the shade and a haphazard "potting bench" that's more a tangle of crates and boards than anything bench-like at all. I have this [relatively] great expanse of unlandscaped lawn, a blank canvas for whatever I want... So what did I want? Somewhere to grow vegetables and herbs, a shed for storage and music-making, a patio and fire pit for long conversations and good times, a dedicated 'potting' area, a clothesline, a chicken tractor, as little "lawn" as possible, and lots of edibles and flowers. A garden to sustain and nourish the whole of us - body, mind, and spirit. Quite a lot, in other words!

Our property isn't large, only your standard suburban quarter-acre. The back yard takes up approximately 3/5 of that (the big lightly-shaded shape at the bottom is our house. It really isn't very big at all). It took three years of living here to know to use this space: where the sun shines, where the shady places good for book-reading hide, how far is too far to trek to the compost bin, etc. As it turns out, the north corner gets the best sun (the photo shows our lot's orientation more truly than the drawing), the southwest section is almost always in shade, and the furthest back corner is too far. It was an epiphanic moment when it all came together - "if that part's always sunny then the garden goes there.. if the garden goes there, then this goes here.." et cetera, all the bits shaping themselves where they should go before my eyes. And hot damn, it all fits!

The idea is to have it all as DIY/recycled/cheap as possible. The vertical garden fences will be made from pallets and cinderblocks, the vegetable garden will be enclosed with a compost fence, all non-garden bed will be edged with bottles recycled from local restaurants, stepping stones will be DIY'd, and I have two giant wooden orange crates (4'x4'x18"!) to hold the culinary herb garden. Rainwater will be harvested as much as possible, and I'll use DIY ollas for irrigation in all raised beds (which should be most of them). Every plant should have a purpose: edible, medicinal, attractive to pollinators, or native. There should be enough 4x8' garden beds to have a fallow cycle (ten?), and the chicken tractor will be able to fit over the beds in turn.

I know it's ambitious. Really ambitious.
But that's what hopes and plans are for, right?

♥

in the garden

2011-08-26T15:59:00.000-05:00

in progress #2

2011-08-18T10:45:00.002-05:00

After a rather scary mishap involving morning coffee and an uncooperative cat, embroidery#3 is now drying in the sun (no damage, whew!) and my busy little fingers immediately went to work on #4. #3 is the most dense bit of stitching I'd done, and I started to notice the striations of split stitch, how the colors lay close and layered together, and I knew I wanted to do something more with that notion. And lo, #4 was born. Somewhere between sunset and woodgrain, ribbons of warm color, meditative and tactile.

Of all things for me to circle back towards, embroidery?
I'm just as dumbfounded as anyone.
♥

photoshop is magic

2011-08-15T17:44:00.002-05:00

I have discovered these things called actions.
and now all of a sudden I AM A PHOTOGRAPHY GOD.
BEHOLD!

With the new camera and now these, it's like discovering photography all over again. and for the first time, I'm making the pictures I've always wanted to make. This makes me veryvery happy. Finally I can show you what I see.

Don't be fooled, though.
I still have mostly no idea how to use this thing.
♥

learning curve

2011-08-14T09:40:00.003-05:00

in progress

2011-08-13T18:25:00.003-05:00

new camera baby, yeahhhhh!
nikon D60, pawn shop special.
I have no idea how to use this thing, haha.

also, there's been lots of embroidery.

more soon.
♥

hello.

2011-07-26T15:11:00.003-05:00

so.

it has been a while, and I do not have pretty pictures to show you (my camera was stolen during the Rapture), but there have been things happening!

happening things are all the rage, you know.

there has been tumult and change and also the same old things day in and day out. there have been housemates and parties and crazy road trips with friends. there was a time of depression and stagnation, and after that there was a time of growth and building and hope. that time is now. :)

so!

there's a pile of pallets in the backyard waiting to be transformed (it's magic! and also hammers and mallets and sweat) into garden beds. I have a happy crew of potted herbs (including five! different kinds of basil) and three baby blueberry plants waiting patiently for a raised bed to call their own. seeds are germinating.

<3