Relentless Toil

Have a delicious day

Would you like to color this very tasty slice of pie?

If you click the pie-picture above, you'll be taken to a flickr page; click All Sizes, then download the size of your choice, print, and have fun!

This image is Creative Commons Non-Commercial, so the only thing you can't do with it is sell it -- otherwise please do enjoy and share a picture of your creation with me sometime. I'm taking several copies over to my daughter's pre-school class's pie feast in a few hours. I think it's going to be heaps of fun.

The Binky Fairy was here

There comes a time in a little person's life when he or she is ready to give up the binky, or dummy, or deedee, or nuk, or whatever the pacifier is called. For several months we have been telling Maya about the Binky Fairy, a kindly, philanthropic fairy who comes -- when you are ready -- and collects your binkies -- when you are ready -- while you sleep, redistributing them to those in need -- when you are ready -- and leaving you a wonderful present or two in return -- when you are ready.

In Maya's case, she was ready in October, pretty much.

In October, the Binky Fairy came and collected all of Maya's binkies for some very, very poor squirrel babies in faraway Kentucky. You may not have known that squirrel babies use binkies but they do, they need them. Unfortunately, squirrels are pretty much universally oppressed, and they aren't allowed to just wander into the supermarket or the drugstore and get their own binkies, even if they could pay good money for them. I mean, you've certainly never seen a squirrel buy a binky where you buy your binkies, have you? And maybe up here in Pennsylvania somebody might do a squirrel mother or father a favor and go run that binky-purchasing errand for them, but in Kentucky, we are told, those poor squirrels just have no hope.

It took a very long time for the Binky Fairy to make her way to Kentucky with Maya's binkies. And then it took a very long time for the Binky Fairy to make her way back from Kentucky -- about the same time it took for Maya to get herself to sleep on her own, binky-free. But the Binky Fairy completed her long journey Friday night, and brought a Cinderella dress -- just what Maya wanted.

{illustration by me -- photos by sammybaby}

This evening Sam was at a violin lesson and I had to get some work done ('tis the season ... for crafters of all kinds to go a bit nuts) so I gave Maya a new sketchbook, a big one, pure and blank. Within an hour she had drawn and decorated many, many of its pages. She was very content, and mostly very quiet. I am thinking that something very similar must have happened numerous times in the late seventies, with me. I do remember getting TONS of leftover dittos to draw on. My parents are retired schoolteachers from way back in the day of ditto machines. OLD SCHOOL!

(If you were born after, say, 1980 you can read about ditto machines here. The output was usually blue or purple.)

However busy I am, I can't resist when my kid wants me to draw something special for her. She had me do all the big-name dresses these days. Aurora (shown above), Cinderella, Belle, Ariel. I love the Elizabethan direction she went with, with that Aurora dress.

Whatever will I do with all the extra space?

It is amazing how much large and clunky and obstreperous gear REALLY tiny babies seem to need nowadays, but I'm passing a carload of it on to a new baby tomorrow. The crib, the swing, the stroller, the highchair... all to a very long-awaited little girl. It is very exciting!

P.S. THANKS for the helpful podcast comments earlier! I have some downloading to do!

I call upon the power of the internets to entertain, delight, and inform me

Okay, I am a very late adopter, but I want podcasts. I need podcasts. You see, my day job has taken an utterly boring turn -- there is more than plenty to do, but what needs doing is quite tedious (beaucoup de software testing ... beaucoup de bugs), and so the podcasts' job is to keep me from fidgeting into counterproductivity.

I am hoping you will bombard me with comments about your favorite podcasts and favorite internet videos, or maybe there is music you like to work by? Tell me about it!

So far, I listen to This American Life, Radio Lab, CraftSanity and today I tried out One Stitch at a Time (so nice; I wish there was more) and Driven to Quilt (no longer in production because its host is, in fact, driven to quilt, as well she should be; but what a nice gift from her, keeping all her podcasts available for latecomers like me).

In return, I will share with you the wonder and splendor of the free instructional videos from Bernina. Free motion machine couching! Holy cats. That couching foot is THE NEW MUST-HAVE THING that I really really want yet do not at all need.

It's also about time I shared with you this piece of goofiness, below. Technically, it's not very good -- I actually did this embroidery while tipsy. But it holds some great sentimental value. My late grandmother was fond of saying this saying here:

<

...which my mom embroidered decades ago onto the apron my grandmother wore while doing housework, and which my mom eventually wore during the Small Dance at my wedding, then gifted it to me. I don't want to mess up the apron any further so I have lately embroidered my grandmom's saying onto some kitchen towels. See?

I think I must come from a long line of devoutly irreverent people. I am also hoping that your tender babes gazing over your shoulder at home cannot read cursive yet!

Leaves

I have been happily busy drawing a bunch of super-duper-cute children doing the super-duper-cute things they do or would like to do if they could -- but I can't show you any of them, because the drawings are holiday surprises. It's the season. The child above is not real, but a quick reference to the million zillion Japanese maple leaves I raked up today. A MILLION ZILLION. There are still, oh, maybe half a million zillion left on the tree so I'll have to do this again soon enough.

This is the first year my daughter has wanted to play in the autumn leaves. She learned how to rake, kind-of; she danced; she lay down in the big pile and made leaf-angels; she threw fistfuls of them at her dad, all in good fun.

This is also the first year it occurred to me that our electric mulching leaf vacuum thingy should be put to good use making actual mulch, as opposed to something that resembles mulch but gets deposited into those huge paper bags and hauled away. Now the flower beds have a nice deep comforter of crunchiness. I hope it serves them well! Some of the mulch went to the compost, but I did end up using 4 of those huge paper bags, too, because there really were a MILLION ZILLION leaves.

Joy

With the Phillies world series championship, Halloween festivities, that little election business, the Kueter children's fund auction (huge success! Thank you!), and our latest cold-bug in the bag -- I can now, should now, be bulldozing through my massive holiday commission rush. I was telling my daughter this evening, "I have so many children to draw before Christmas." She was very eager to help. But did we draw any real children? No. I drew this pretend one, just for me. My responsibilities can kick in tomorrow.

Here are some small things that made me feel joy today:

- My daughter singing "We are the Champions" by Queen to her pre-school class. Her idea. Solo. She was very brave, and tiny, and adorable, singing to her very attentive audience (also tiny and adorable). She loves that song so much, she insists that I play it in repeat in the car since the Phillies' big win. She is also fond of doing some face-melting air guitar solos to "We Will Rock You", and plenty of interpretive dance.

- A big tasty burrito for lunch (this also made me feel rather URGH and OOGH afterwards but only briefly)

- Pipedreamy, pie-in-the-sky, sketchy plans for my "needlework sabbatical" this coming winter, tentatively scheduled from Solstice until Inauguration, perhaps a little longer, perhaps a little shorter. During the needlework sabbatical I will quilt and stitch and sew and embroider, putting aside my trusty Wacom tablet and Adobe Illustrator. Among other things my dear friend Keri and I are undertaking the 2009 Hoffman Challenge. I look forward to keeping warm through our coldest and darkest nights under the growing mass of a cozy quilt-in-progress.

Now you tell me -- what are your joys today?

Election Day 2008

"The men and women who gathered there could've heard many things. They could've heard words of anger and discord. They could've been told to succumb to the fear and frustrations of so many dreams deferred. But what the people heard instead -- people of every creed and color, from every walk of life -- is that, in America, our destiny is inextricably linked, that together our dreams can be one.

'We cannot walk alone,' the preacher cried. 'And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.'" --Presidential Candidate Barack Obama, nomination acceptance speech, 2008