We spent this afternoon at our neighborhood’s annual block party. It was a nice time, but it was hot & sticky. We wimped out and left a little early so we could come home, eat a junk finger food supper, watch an episode of Due South and play Rummikub.

Dancin Jules tagged me the other day!  I’ve been wondering if anyone ever would - it was starting to feel like grade school gym class where I was always the last one to be picked.  (sniffle.)  But now Julie picked me for her team, yay!  I’ll try not to drop the ball, LOL!

Here are the rules:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. List eight (8) random facts about yourself.
3. Tag eight people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving them a comment on their blogs.

• My feet get claustrophobic in shoes.  Sometimes I get all panicky, if my toes don’t have room to stretch.
• I used to spend my summers riding my bike to the  library, checking out Agatha Christie books, and reading the day away outside in the patio. I usually only took one or two days to finish each book.
• Before Agatha Christie, my favorite author was Judy Blume, and before that was Beverly Cleary.  I used to love those Ramona books!
• I only remember three projects clearly from my Girl Scout Days: a t-shirt we tie-dyed and then silk screened, finger knitting, and interviewing my grandmother about her childhood.
• If I go for more than a few days without a Dr. Pepper, I get cranky.
• One of my favorite things to do on a Sunday morning is go for a long drive through the countryside, with the windows open, singing along to a CD I made specifically for that purpose.  I often find it to be a more spiritual experience than going to church would have been.
• Neil and I used to stay up late on the weekends and often caught episodes of Due South at 1:00 in the morning.  We’re having fun watching them on DVD now and sharing them with the kids.  Eamonn loves the theme song.  And that Benton Fraser is not hard on the eyes at all.  Gotta love a man in uniform - even a mountie
• I am a mosquito magnet and am usually the one who gets eaten alive when I’m out with a group.

Ok, now who do I tag?  I have to figure out if there is anyone who hasn’t already done this thing, LOL! How about Neil, Tina, Heather, Lisa ,Jen, Angela, Tamara, and ZudaGay?

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In the Encyclopedia of Me:

• R is for Running out of steam on this meme
• S is for Singing, which I have done since I was little and still do nearly every day
• T is for Tea, which I developed a taste for after marrying into an Irish family
• U is for Unusual, which I sort of am
• V is for Vegetable Aversion, which I’d love to overcome, but if you think something tastes bad, what exactly can you do to fix that?
• W is for Water Bottle, which I am making an effort to fill and to drain on a daily basis (starting tomorrow)
• X is for XML, which pertains to me more than Xylophone or X-Ray does
• Y is for Yawn, which I start to do every night around 10:00
• Z is for Zinnias, which I used to buy by the bunch from a roadside stand on my way home from work at this time of year

Oh, wow, I am so glad that is over. Not that I didn’t enjoy it at first, because I really did. But I was starting to feel pressure to post every single day and not only to have something worth reading but to make it fit into the letter of the day. At this point, I am more in a mood to fly by the seat of my pants and post once a week if I want to, or twice a day if I am so moved.

Thanks to Cassi at Bella Dia for starting the Encyclopedia of Me. I enjoyed the challenge for the first few weeks, and I liked exploring some topics I might not otherwise have considered writing. But I’m done now. Summer is almost over and I don’t want to lose any more time trying to figure out how I was going to fill up a screen with something clever about the letter X

So.  Want to see my first quilt?

Well, it’s not finished.  This is just the top of it.  Inspired by how simple the lap quilt looked in Bend-the-Rules Sewing, I am undertaking a small-ish quilt for son #1 (to be followed by another quilt for son #2 and, if I’m still as excited about this project, a third for me).

This is the top, which I did tonight. It’s all Amy Butler’s Lotus prints, mostly in the Tea Box colorway. They’re not my favorite colors, but the boy loves red, so this is what I’m starting with.

I used all fat quarters: whole ones for the corners, 1/4 for the center, and 1/2 for the rest. It turned out to be 53″ x 61″.

The back is most likely going to be a solid color, and the border will be red. I am thinking of making coordinating pillows (or maybe just pillow cases for his regular sleeping pillow) out of some of the extra dots & stripes that I have.

I’ve been yawning now for an hour and 18 minutes.

Lisa

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In the Encyclopedia of Me, Q is for Questionable Judgment. For instance, tying my new anklet directly to my leg instead of making a clasp - it makes it tough to put on tights this way. Or, wearing tights with a cotton skirt - the friction between the two makes the skirt bunch up in such “attractive” ways. Just two of many “duh” moments I have on a regular basis. Ah well, at least I learn. Sometimes. Q is for Questionable Judgement.

Is anybody else getting tired of this A-Z meme? I’m not sure how inspired I am to do R-Z…

It’s a chilly day here in NJ by August standards. It’s been cloudy and hasn’t ventured much past 70 degrees. I feel like I should be listening to October Project or Crowded House and baking pumpkin bread.

Yesterday was more like summer, but still in a mid-September breezy and sunny kind of way. The menfolk around here decimated half a watermelon that I cut up for them. I don’t eat watermelon myself, but I love to look at it. Those colors!

Instead of chowing down on summer fruits yesterday, I geeked out over php code. I solved a problem with this blog that had been bugging me. I had disabled the plugin that let you subscribe to a post’s comments via email, because it was confusing people when they would get notification of everybody’s responses to the original post. I installed a threaded comments plugin so that we could reply directly to specific comments if we wanted to, but two things about it bugged me:

1. There was no email notification when someone replied to your comment.
2. It was ugly.

In researching the threaded comments plugin, I discovered that someone had written a hack that would accomplish the notification I desired. I spent a long time yesterday trying to get that to work, in a way that respected everybody’s privacy and was worded nicely, and I’m happy to report that I succeeded! So, now when you post a comment, if anyone would like to answer that comment directly, they may click on “respond to this comment” and do so. The response will be posted under the related comment, and the original comment’s author will be notified.

Besides the email issue, the thing that bothered me the most was how the plugin changed the formatting of my comments. I had liked it the way it was, but this new way just wasn’t pretty. So, I dug in my heels and waded through more of the plugin code until I figured out how to format it the way I wanted. Now it is pretty

I think the best part of all of this is the new understanding I have of how plugins work, and how easy it would be for me to change lots of little things in my blog. For instance, I could change the little blurb at the end of the post from

Posted in occasions, memes, chit chat | No Comments »

to

Lisa waxed eloquently today on the following topics: occasions, memes, chit chat | Nobody has bothered to respond yet »

I’m not going to do that, but it’s cool to know that I can!

Oh, I also tried to add a sidebar to the single post view, but that just broke more than it fixed.   For now, I’ll have to count on people in the single post view clicking on “Blog Home” to see the rest.

Hope you’re having a lovely weekend!  I need to re-open the store tomorrow and then I’ll be too busy all week.  Ack.  I need to try and enjoy a little peace this evening if I can…

Lisa

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In the Encyclopedia of Me, P is most certainly for Polka Dots, and I’ll tell you story of how that came to be:

Fifteen or sixteen years ago, when I was a college student, I spent my summer working as a teller in the local bank where my dad was (and still is) the manager. One of the other tellers had just bought these simple black canvas shoes that were decorated with white polka dots. I thought they were nifty, but being a poor student, I couldn’t afford to buy a pair for myself. So, I went to Woolworth, got myself the $2 white canvas shoes they had, and put my own red, green, blue and yellow polka dots on them with fabric markers. I wore those shoes for the rest of the summer and well beyond that (in fact, I only managed to discard them last year, though they had been threadbare and the soles had worn through many years earlier). When I returned to school that autumn, I went back to my job working at the Computer Aide Station, wearing those shoes. Unfortunately for me, there was also somebody who worked there at the same time who was fond of plaid pants. The proliferation of polka dots and plaid in the Aide Station caused the mean, grumpy boss (who himself generally wore gray, brown, and blue solids and nothing in the least bit adventurous) banned plaid and polka dots from the computer center. I was forbidden to wear my shoes again as long as I was working there. Of course, it was all in good fun and I didn’t pay any attention. In fact, I later bought myself a funky polka-dot bucket hat and matching shorts and made sure I wore them to work as often as possible

There’s a lot more to the Polka Dot story, but that’s how the whole thing started. After the banning of polka dots from the computer center, I guess I ended up on a polka dot crusade. I created a Vax Notes group called “The Polka Dot Palace” (Tina, remember that?) which was the precursor to my BBS of the same name. I later changed the name of the BBS to the Polka Dot Cottage, which I resurrected nine years later on the Internet. Somewhere in there I bought a car, got a POKADOT license plate, and started a business. Polka Dots and I go waaaaay back, although I rarely wear them myself these days.

P is for Polka Dots. And actually it’s also for Party, which brings me to my next topic…

It poured on us! We were supposed to have AE3AWPE on Thursday, but it had been cloudy all morning and by Noon it was raining and three different weather forecasts were calling for severe thunder storms all afternoon. So I called everybody and told them to come Friday instead. Fast forward to 2pm, when the party would have started had I not postponed it, and the clouds parted, leaving behind a gloriously sunny day. And I mean gloriously. It was beautiful, perfect water party weather. And I had told everybody to stay home. Darn.

Friday dawned, sunny and warm, with a favorable forecast. We set up snack stations and water toys, I put out the dye buckets for the Moms to do some tie-dying, and friends began to arrive. About an hour into the party, that storm that never came on Thursday decided to drop by. It rained buckets. Being a water party, it wouldn’t have been that big of a deal were it not for the accompanying thunder and lightning. We spent the remainder of the party indoors.

Had I just stuck it out on Thursday and not postponed the party, we’d have had a long, lovely day in the back yard with a dozen of the boys’ friends running through the sprinkler. Instead, we had an hour of backyard play with 6 of the boys’ friends (several couldn’t make the rain date) and a few hours cooped up inside. We all had a nice time anyway, but it’s somewhat frustrating that everything would have gone exactly according to plan if I’d ignored the threatening clouds and the inaccurate forecast! Ah, well. There’s always next year

I lied the other day. I made two more skirts: the one above with the gorgeous Amy Butler print that I’ve been dying to use for ages, and another one which is from Joel Dewberry’s Aviary collection (what’s with me and the birds lately, I wonder?). That brings the total to 11. I also made another one of those shirts. I have obviously been enjoying the Summer of the Elastic-Waist Skirt, but there has been one drawback - I haven’t had a built-in indicator (aka pants getting too tight) that I am overdoing it on the munching. These skirts have been waaaay too forgiving. So comfy, but so dangerous for the waistline.

So I have come to a decision. I stepped on the scale this morning, knowing I had put on a little weight, only to find that I was a mere 2lbs shy of my all-time non-pregnancy-weight high. Oh, dear. Last time I weighed this much was 1998, and I remember hating it then. Nine years later, I’m not as miserable about it. No offense to my parents or anything, but “skinny” is just not in my genes. Little by little I am giving in in to heredity and just accepting that I’m meant to have some pudge around the middle. I’m not at the point of total surrender yet, though

So, starting today I am on a diet. Well, sort of. It’s more of a “pay more attention to what I am eating, eat a little less of it, and try to slim down somewhat” challenge. Heh. I took a set of “before” pictures and uploaded them to flickr (I set them to private - I’m not insane enough just yet to show you the least flattering images of me ever) . I recorded all of my vital measurements with the images. Periodically, I’ll take more pictures and take more measurements, and if I ever see a decent amount of success with this, then I’ll make the pictures public. I am not a believer in starving myself, and frankly I have no intention of being miserable from giving up all of the foods I enjoy. I’m just going try and improve my ability to practice moderation. Wish me luck. I thoroughly enjoyed being 130lbs a few years ago, but I’ll take 140 at this point and like it

I hope you enjoy this week’s Flickr favorites. I’m looking forward to seeing how the prominent colors in my favorites change when the seasons change. I anticipate a turn towards warmer hues in the coming months…

It’s a beautiful open-window day, with a breeze blowing in. Any moment now, I’m going to crank up some tunes and do a bit of cleaning. Happy Saturday!

Lisa

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I had to go out-of-order with the alphabet so that I could do Neil on his birthday. (You may interpret that last sentence however you wish, but keep in mind this is a Family Show )

Yes, in the Encyclopedia of Me, N is for Neil, my husband of 12 years, the father of my children, and my partner in crime. He is also the one who has accused me of writing novels for posts lately, and so in his honor, I make this the shortest post ever. N is for Neil. Happy Birthday, you crazy old coot.

Lisa

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Yes, I know O does not come before N, but I decided that O and N needed to be switched, for reasons that will be come apparent eventually. Or maybe not. Doesn’t matter - it’s my blog and if I want to re-arrange the alphabet, then so be it Shall we get on with it?

In the Encyclopedia of Me, O is for Oral Histories, and that is mainly because, when I think about my grandfather, who would have been ninety years old today, I mostly remember how he liked to tell stories. And I liked to listen. This picture was taken at my nephew’s 2nd birthday party in the Summer of 2000. That’s my 7-year-old on his lap, who was a plump 5-month-old at the time. My grandfather had a very technical mind and loved to solve puzzles. I remember him sharing his thoughts that day on how to get the water to flow uphill in the moat that Neil wanted to dig around our home. Neil never did dig that moat, but it always amuses me that Grandpa had given so much thought to the logistics of it, even though he surely knew it was not going to happen.

I am having trouble finishing this post. I composed the whole thing - quite eloquently, I might add - in the shower a few days ago, which is where I do some of my best work Somewhere between thinking and typing, words become a completely different animal, charged with more emotion than one might initially have expected, or just not coming together coherently at all.

I had some general observations about the old and the young and storytelling, but I can’t make the words say what I mean, in the non-preachy way that I mean it. I wanted to draw parallels between some of my grandfather’s interests and my own, and how, in thinking about it, I have realized that I am more like him than I may have realized. He had a whole basement full of things he made - some useful, some just decorative, most made of salvaged materials. Had I been thinking about it when I was last at my parents’ house, I could have illustrated this post with an image of the windmill he made for my mother out of an old metal cigarette ad. He was full of projects like that.

I wanted to talk about how many times I dreamed about him when I was expecting son #2. I wanted so much to name the little guy after him, but there were several reasons why using his name was not practical, so we went a different direction. I spent the first few months of my son’s life with a feeling of his familiarity. Now he just looks like himself to me, but initially I felt like someone else was looking at me through his eyes. When we dug up a photo of my grandfather from his babyhood, I knew where I’d seen my guy’s eyes (and much of his face!) before. For fun last year I “aged” son #2 on a website whose address I now forget, and it was uncanny how much he, as an old man, looked like my grandfather.

I wanted to talk about the memoirs he wrote, which I found fascinating, entertaining, and funny. I could hear his voice as I read them. When I discovered he had been writing down some of his stories, I emailed him and asked for a copy, which he gladly sent along. [As an aside, how cool was it that I could email my grandfather?! Six years ago, How many thirty-year-olds could have said that their grandparents were online?] Those memoirs arrived in my inbox just a few months before he died, and I read them during the weeks leading up to his passing. I haven’t looked at them since, but I keep them in a safe place. I hope that my own kids will find it interesting to read some anecdotal family history some day, even if one of them never knew him and the other one was only a year-and-a-half when he died.

O is for Oral Histories (which, I realize is stretching it, but coming up with another O word for this wasn’t easy…)

This post almost didn’t happen. If the weather had been cooperating, I’d have spent this morning getting ready for the boys’ water party, the afternoon having the party, and the evening recovering from it. I’d likely have gone with the much easier “O is for Open Windows” post, and chatted lightheartedly about how much I enjoy feeling a breeze coming into the house or the car, even though I’m not much of an outdoorsey person. I’m glad I was unexpectedly presented with the time to go a bit deeper. Even though I really do love open windows.

Lisa

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As in, I’m trying to be more aware of the special Moments that make up my day. Despite the intentions I declared in June, I have spent much of the Summer hunched over. Hunched over my computer, working, reading email, reading blogs, playing on flickr, posting my own blog. Hunched over my sewing machine, learning to make fun things, mostly for me, but some also for the special people around me. Hunched over the clay table, mixing colors to match favorite fabric collections, turning the resulting canes into coordinating pendants and buttons. Hunched over one time-draining activity or another until I discover that the day has slipped away and then so has the week, and suddenly it’s August. That’s not to say that these distractions are bad. The enjoyment I have gotten out of my current creative streak is immeasurable, as is the fun I have had sharing the fruits of my labor here. As long as I continue to be personally fulfilled by these activities, I have no intention of stopping. Not completely, anyway.

I am working on being more conscious in my choice of activity. That is to say, I endeavor to look up at the clock more often and think to myself, “have I spent enough time on this already today? Is there anybody in this house who’s been looking for my attention? When was the last time we all got some fresh air? Is there something going on under my nose that I should be seeing - a Moment that bears noticing?” Today I looked up from my laptop to see the boys cuddled together in the papasan, the big one reading Captain Underpants to the little one. This went on for at least six chapters - a sweet Moment I would have missed, had I not bothered to take a breather from my email.

In the Encyclopedia of Me, M is for Moments and my personal quest not to let too many of them go by unnoticed.

Ok, next topic I’m so excited by the submissions to the Polka Dot Creations COLOR CHALLENGE! We started off with a lot of polymer clay artist submissions, many of which are stunning, by the way. We’re finally starting to see some pretty aqua pieces in other media too, which I find pretty exciting. One of my goals with this whole thing has been to find inspiration in materials I may not have thought about before, so it’s great to see other arts and crafts making an appearance. Check it out - we’ve got cupcakes - cupcakes - in the pool! How cool is that?

Beaded jewelry, paper arts, felted creatures - fun stuff! If you haven’t submitted your creations to the pool yet, you’ve got until August 25th, at which point, we’ll choose a winner.  Get your entries in, and good luck!

Lisa

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In the Encyclopedia of Me, L is for Live365. Live365, for those not in the know, is an Internet radio broadcasting service with thousands of stations in hundreds of genres. You can find pretty much anything you could ever want to listen to in their directory.

The reason it’s in my encyclopedia is because I run one of those thousands of stations. I have been making mix tapes (and later CDs) from the first day that I had the technology to do so - I’m guessing since my early teens. In 1996 (I think) I orchestrated an annual tape exchange with my coworkers and have been doing tape/cd exchanges periodically ever since. It’s great, particularly when you find exchange partners whose musical taste complements your own (hi, Penny ). A few of the bands I am particularly enthusiastic about are groups that I was introduced to via a single song from an exchange.

It seemed to me to be a natural progression from sharing my favorite music through cds to starting my own radio station. Given changes in the way royalties are paid, running a station may become cost-prohibitive when my contract is up for renewal in November, but for now I’m having fun making up playlists and broadcasting them for all the Internet to listen to. My only complaint is that I am only able to upload enough music for a 7-hour playlist, and in order to keep the music fresh, I really have to change the playlist often. I’m just not that organized lately! Ideally, I could devote a computer here at home to being a music server and broadcast live all day long - then I’d only be restricted by the size of my mp3 library. Which is substantial

You’re all invited to listen. Every time you drop by this blog (or any part of the Polka Dot Creations website), you’ll see at the top of the page a little area devoted to Polka Dot Radio. The currently-playing track is listed, along with a link to the website, a speaker icon to allow you to listen now, and an rss icon so you can subscribe to the message board (which sees pretty much zero action since I got sucked into the blogosphere ). To listen to my station, you’ll need a Live365 account, but they are free and relatively easy to sign up for. You can download Radio365 (for a fee), listen to the station on your browser (for free), or use any other media player of your choice (which is also free). We even own a little doohickey that lets us listen to internet radio (and our own mp3’s, too) on our home stereo, which is pretty nifty. As soon as I’m done blogging, I’m going to update the station, since I think it’s been a few weeks - 7 hours of music repeats an awful lot in a matter of weeks!

L is for Live365. And for Listen!

And for Lisa.

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In the Encyclopedia of Me, K is for Kaleidoscope. I still remember the blue cardboard kaleidoscope I had as a child. I enjoyed turning the cylinder at the end, making the colorful little bits move, and creating beautiful repeating patterns of color. I have to admit I haven’t thought about that little kaleidoscope in many years, but recalling it now, I can see that my interest in patterns and color goes way back. Who knew?

I have been playing with polymer clay for over 11 years, experimenting with several styles before settling into a niche as a cane-maker. This is really where my love for the medium lies. I am not particularly fond of making canes that are meant to look like specific objects. I’m happier creating fabric-like repeating patterns (is it any wonder, then, that I should be drawn to sewing at this point? Given that I get the most joy out of my clay when it is mimicking a textile, it seems my fascination with real honest-to-goodness fabric was really inevitable. It was only a matter of time…). I hope to make more kaleidoscoping patterns in the near future - it’s fun, and produces such spectacular results.

If you are a kaleidoscope fan and a polymer clay enthusiast, I can’t gush about Sarah Shriver’s Intricate Kaleidoscope Caning enough. I’ve seen her work in person (bought a pair of earrings from her, actually) and it’s jaw-droppingly gorgeous. My things look nothing like hers - which is as it should be, really - but I learned a few things from this video, including some Skinner Blend tricks that never really occurred to me before. And before I start sounding too much like a commercial, I will say, K is for Kaleidoscope, and move on.

Speaking of fabric and sewing… you had to know I was going to have another show-and-tell, didn’t you? Yesterday I told you that I had made two skirts and a shirt for me, and a pair of shorts for each of the boys (I took in that bowling skirt tonight by the way, much better now - I’ll probably wear it tomorrow). What I didn’t mention was that I had this tote bag/messenger bag hybrid idea percolating in my mind, and that I was likely to sit back down and make the day even more prolific sewing-wise. Well, I did, and then I did.

I’ve been using some “clowny” bags lately, to borrow an adjective from my oh-so-fashionable 7-year-old. This is the boy who wears striped polo shirts with camouflage pants, but I digress… I really needed something plain to use when I wear my more “busy” skirts, plus I was interested in having something I could wear diagonally across my chest so I could go hands-free. I wanted a flap so it could close, and lastly, I wanted to add some pattern and color to it, but in a subtle way.

After a logistical nightmare of figuring out when I should put right sides together vs. wrong sides together, and just how I was going to do all of this without ending up with an inside-out bag that couldn’t be turned rightside-out, I finally figured it out. But woe to the husband or child who tried to interrupt me with an innocent story while I mulled over my stitching strategy. I need a sign: Do Not Disturb the Mommy Beast Whilst She Deduces and Ponders Logic. Seriously. I enjoy logic problems immensely, but leave me alone while I’m thinking or I’ll lose my place and get seriously crabby. Seriously.

So, a little credit where credit is due: I combined ideas from the Artsy Clutch project in Amy Karol’s Bend the Rules Sewing and the Simple Tote project in Lotta Jansdotter’s Simple Sewing. The lining fabric is from Michele D’Amore’s Bleeker Street collection, one other pattern of which I used on one of my favorite skirts. (I’m looking forward to using the leftover scraps in some project together sometime, somewhere…) The button is one of mine. It’s a Swamp Calico design, and there’s one more available in the shop, if you want to be just like me and have one of your very own (and really, who doesn’t?). Oh, and can you keep a secret? The button, while it is sewn on to the bag, is not actually functional in this case. Hidden behind the button is a snap closure. Just my way of avoiding learning how to make button holes

I really should just end this here, but I’m feeling chatty. You’re invited to keep reading. Unless you’re bored of me at this point, in which case you are invited to go read somebody else’s blog. Or take a nap and come back later when you can appreciate my witty prose

For the rest of you:  I was reading some more Artful Blogging tonight by the light of the citronella candles, amid the sounds of children splashing in the kiddie pool and a husband beheading the daylights out of some weeds that dared to grow up along our retaining wall. Perhaps those were odd activities for dusk, but I got tired of being in the house and thought maybe the kids would sleep better tonight if they had a chance to burn off some energy before bed. (I wish it had worked - they were still awake, an hour after we tucked them in, fighting over a stuffed cat named Pounce.) Regardless, it was nice to do something different after supper, and I got to read up on a few more crafty bloggers that I want to add to my Google Reader. Like I need that.

One thing that stuck with me was Artsy Mama’s tea party. A date was picked, an invitation was posted, and on the appointed day, people all around the world had a cup of tea and blogged about it, sharing images of their cups & saucers, of their tables set with shortbread cookies and other delights, and of their steaming kettles. It reminded me of my college days. We used to have a tea party every Friday in our suite. It was BYOM (bring your own mug) and anyone was welcome to attend. It was such a civilized little gathering, at a time of life when so many people would have been off preparing for that night’s keg party. I appreciated having friends who were more into sharing a little hot water, good music, and friendly conversation than they were into guzzling beer at 2am. Maybe it made us strange, but I liked it that way. So much so, that after I graduated, I continued the Friday afternoon tea at my desk job. I’d put on a little Tchaikovsky at Tea Time, put out some cookies or my famous Pumpkin Bread, and invite my coworkers to bring a mug and congregate at my desk for a 15 minute interlude. I miss those small social moments. If I could invite friends over these days for a Friday afternoon tea, I would. But my friends come with noisy little satellites bent on helping my own two asteroids wreak havoc on the universe that is our family room. There would really be nothing peaceful or civilized about tea time right now. Perhaps when their children are old enough to stay home, and mine are old enough to stay upstairs, wanting no part of Mom’s silly little girly party, I’ll give it a whirl. The online tea party, though… that is an idea that deserves mulling over. I find it appealing.

If my bottom weren’t so firmly entrenched in this couch cushion, I’d have gone upstairs to photograph my great-grandmother’s green glass tea cup, full of a steaming brew, and used it to illustrate that last paragraph. But hey, it’s late, and I’ve been posting this entry for at least an hour and a half now. It’s time to turn the chatty switch off, read a few of my favorite blogs, and turn into a pumpkin. And if you’ve read this far, kudos to you! Personally, I’d have stopped reading once the pictures stopped

Until tomorrow, my friends…

Lisa

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Originally published at Polka Dot Creations. Please leave any comments there.

Hi, my name is Lisa Clarke, and I’m addicted to skirt-making.

Yep, in the Encyclopedia of Me, J is for Junkie. I apparently have an addictive personality. Thankfully, I don’t dabble in dangerous addictions, so much as creative or wardrobe-related ones. My latest addiction is both creative and wardrobe-related. Am I crazy? Who needs NINE summer skirts? I’m done. Really. I made two skirts today, and I think that’s it for a while. I needed a solid-colored one to go with any patterned tops I may feel like wearing, so I made that today in a linen/cotton blend. I also made a funky bowling pin skirt, but I’m not really happy with it. It came out too wide for some reason. I’m sure it’ll be fine after I take it in a touch at the side seams. Why bowling pins? I have no idea. I thought it was fun and kitschy, even though I haven’t bowled in about 20 years. Maybe I’ll take it up now that I have something fun to wear

So my skirt addiction seems to be winding down, but is my shirt addiction just gearing up? I made another one like last time, but this time in the solid linen/cotton blend that I used for the skirt. I could technically wear them together, but I probably won’t. I adjusted the pattern this time so that it wasn’t quite so roomy in the waist and I like it better. And I like that it’s a solid color and I can wear it with some of my skirts. I don’t see myself becoming a shirt junkie. This pattern takes somewhat longer than the simple skirts did, and I think it’s a distinctive enough style that I don’t really want more than 2 or 3. I think I have one more in me and that’s probably it.

I worked on finishing up the jewelry that’s supposed to coordinate with the bird skirt this weekend. Unfortunately, the orange darkened somewhat during the second baking, and the colors are no longer perfect matches. They still look nice, though, and after I drill a few holes and re-order some findings I’ve run out of, I can get them all photographed and in my Etsy shop. The pieces I’m not keeping for myself, that is

Now that I have written this entire post, I realize J should have been for Jewelry. I’ve spent the last 11 years pouring most of my creativity into jewelry-making, but I forgot all about it, posting under the influence of my skirt-making high. Junkie, indeed!

Lisa

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Originally published at Polka Dot Creations. Please leave any comments there.

In the Encyclopedia of Me, I is for Impulsive. Impulse buys, impulsive crafting sessions, impulsive hours of getting sucked into reading blogs instead of cleaning the house as I’d originally planned… you get the picture. I’m way more impulsive than I am disciplined. And I’m now going to impulsively switch to a new topic rather than go on about that

I’m happy to report that I’ve started the Polka Dot Creations Color Challenge and already there has been much enthusiasm! As of this writing, there are 44 members in the group and 40 photos in the pool. That’s a lot of aqua. Oh, yes, this month the color of choice is aqua, and you have until the end of the month (give or take a few days) to create and share an aqua masterpiece with us. The vast majority of entries so far are of the polymer clay variety. I, of course, love to see that, but I am hoping to see some other media represented, too. All of you scrapbookers, cardmakers, and those handy with a sewing machine, let’s see what you’ve got!

I finally finished my anklet. Block party press made me these beautiful beads, and I’ve had them for several days. I’ve known what I wanted to do with them, but lacked the materials. When I finally bought the hemp, I discovered I had forgotten how to go about knotting it. Even after consulting the book I’ve used in the past, I still had four botched attempts before I gave up and just braided the darn thing! Anyway, I am very happy with it, and I plan to wear it for the rest of the summer (and beyond, until it becomes difficult to pair with socks). We lost our baby 5 months ago, and while I no longer think about it every day, it has been entering my mind a bit more as we get into what would have been the home stretch of my pregnancy. Lilies have been abundant and symbolic over the last several months, so I like that I can wear this anklet with it’s lily-like beads. It’s certainly no replacement for a squirmy pink bundle of nibble-worthy toes and peachy-breathed goodness, but I think it can be a comfort just the same. I appreciate block party press making me these perfect beads when I was stuck on trying to come up with something myself!

And now for this week’s flickr favorites…

Birds, nature, and maryjanes seemed to dominate my likes this week. As much as I don’t want to rush the Summer of the Skirt, I am looking forward to what I predict will be the Autumn of the MaryJane

I may not be around much today - I have it in my head that I will spend the day taking care of some cleaning goals, making those claythings I wanted to make to go with my bird skirt, sewing another shirt, and having some Family Game Time. That doesn’t leave much extra blogging time. But then, as we have learned today, I is for Impulsive, and you may see me here after all!

Happy Weekend!

Lisa

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Originally published at Polka Dot Creations. Please leave any comments there.

I’m doubling-up today because I was a little late in starting the Encyclopedia of Me in the first place, and also because I thought of something I’d forgotten to ask you all about in my G entry More about that later. First, H.

H is for Homebody. I’ve always been a homebody. When I was in my 20’s and my friends were spending their Friday nights on social pursuits, my favorite thing to do was curl up on the couch with Neil and watch The X-Files. I’ve spent the better part of this summer keeping to myself here at home, making things, and not really noticing that I haven’t been calling my friends to make plans. While my local friends have been hanging out at the lake together, I have been happy to sit on the patio reading a magazine while the kids play with chalk. H is for Homebody, carefully trying not to become too much of a Hermit

Now, here is what I wanted to ask you about: I’d like to do some kind of challenge here, maybe on a monthly basis. I’d like it to be a color-based challenge, and since I seem to have readers who enjoy several different types of artwork/crafts, all media would be welcome. So, let’s say the first theme is red. If you’re a polymer clay artist, you would create a clay pendant where red is the predominant color. If you’re a photographer, you’d take an amazing shot of a cardinal on a branch. If you’re handy with a sewing machine, you’d stitch together a red tote bag. You get the idea. You could enter as many times as you like, all entries would be posted to a flickr group, and at the end of the month, someone would win a gift certificate to Polka Dot Creations. I figure I’d choose a group of my favorite entries from the pool and of those entries, a random winner would be chosen.

Does this sound like something you would be interested in? Can I drum up enough participants? I think this could be a lot of fun, as long as we have enough artsy people getting involved. And you don’t have to be a clay artist to enjoy a PDC gift certificate. I sell a few other types of books/videos/magazines and I do sell my own creations - you can use a gift certificate on any of these things.

What do you think?? Tell me you are interested and that you want to get all of your crafty friends involved, too! I’m excited to create a flickr group and design a logo right NOW All I need are participants…

Lisa

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Originally published at Polka Dot Creations. Please leave any comments there.

Yeah, I have my fair share of guilt at times, and so it is G in the Encyclopedia of Me.  Guilt when I have other plans the same time as a family party; guilt when I have too much business to do and can’t spend quality time with the kids or the husband; guilt when I have artsy things on my mind and am in such a frenzy of creativity that I don’t really want to spend quality time with them…  And guilt when all of my other endeavors cause me to have no time for keeping house.  While I know that in the grand scheme of things housework is really less important than time on the floor playing Uno, it’s still a necessary evil.  And when things get as out-of-control clutter-wise as they have in recent years, it impacts those other more important moments.  There have been times when there really was no place good to sit down and play Uno.  And the kids haven’t been able to have a friend over in more than a year!  And either have I, for that matter.  I feel really guilty about that.  And I go through decluttering phases and get parts of the house cleaned up, but I just can’t seem to see it through enough to get everything presentable at once.

Well, I’m doing something about that this week and next while I’m taking time off from my business.  My vacation actually started Tuesday afternoon.  The kids and I had a Burger King lunch, and then went out on the town for some errand-running, which included a stop at the pet store for some quality time sweet-talking the kittens, marveling at the colors of some of the more exotic fish, and wondering what kind of new friend we would bring home with us if we were going to do that kind of thing (which we weren’t).

Yesterday morning, I caught up on the laundry and then the boys and I went swimming at Grandma’s house with their cousins.  A fun time was had, and I came home somewhat pinker than when I got there.   We also went out for ice cream (Daddy’s idea) last night after a trip to the liquor store because (in Neil’s words), “Mommy needs a drink.”

And today I am finally in a position to tackle the kitchen.  It took me an hour and a half to subdue the beast, but I did.  There are still dishes in the sink, but once the dishwasher is done running, I’ll move them over and be truly done.  One room down, 8 to go

Actually, I am working towards a greater goal than mere cleanliness.  I have a social agenda.  I don’t need to finish all 8 of those other rooms, but if I manage to do 4 of them I will consider myself to be in great shape for the social event of the summer: A+E’s 3rd Annual Water Party Extravaganza!  Or AE3AWP for short   Most of the invitations went out this morning, so there is no turning back!  Basically, we’ve invited a few neighborhood friends to play in the back yard in our kiddie pool.  It’s really more fun than it sounds, LOL!  The kids tend to stay on the grassy spot in the yard, while the moms hang out on the patio, and this year I decided we moms should have an activity, too.  So, I’m setting up some buckets of dye on the patio and we’re going to get artsy with some clothes.  It should be fun!  In the meantime, the kids and I have to plan a snacky summer menu, party favors, decorations, etc.  I’m looking forward to the prep as much as the party itself.

While G is for Guilt, I should clarify that I don’t spend my days caught in the throes of it.  It’s there, and it makes itself painfully known from time to time, but it doesn’t own me.  What kind of life would that be? And when guilt does take over, after it’s done making me feel bad, It does inspire me to improve, which is a Good Thing.

Now we have an afternoon of fun ahead of us - playdate in the park with E’s “favorite friend” that he hasn’t seen since school ended in June.  (Note to self: Why don’t I do this park thing more often?  No clean house required…)

Lisa

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Originally published at Polka Dot Creations. Please leave any comments there.

In the Encyclopedia of Me, F is for Flickr. I’ve become kind of a junkie. I love