lulubeans

inspiring

in no particular order:

started from zero
(i forget who introduced me to this blog, but i am finding it very inspiring.  one of these days i hope learn how to crochet more than a sloppy little chain!)

felted nesting bowls from bugheart.    i also love her pony pouch.  she has a great knack for making fulled objects look wonderfully clean and modern.

  wool and water.  i especially love her wolf girl dolls.

and goodness from flickr:

i wish my deck was more like this.

souvenirs

boats and aprons (and reading about lisa's travels!)

brown flowers

and i have really been loving everything from  this photographer.

in the interest of not leaving this entry photo-less,  here is some handpainted falklands roving to share with you:

 

i have two big sections of this in my etsy store right now.  sold- thank you!!
(i'm listing them as 4 ounces, but they are closer to 4.5 ounces.)    i have been spinning a lot of this falklands lately, and it is very delightful to work with.   this colorway makes me happy.

happy wednesday all!

lemming love

have you seen work from anna of mochimochi land yet?
i stumbled on her swimming lemmings this morning while flickring around,  and i am in love!
i love seeing who really push the limits of what yarn and needles can do. 

i am glad that anna has assured us that her lemmings swim safely to shore and enjoy diving again. 
the piece still feels kind of dark and subversive to me,  i guess because i usually don't think of the lemmings' leaps generally ending well. 
the fact that anna's work is so damn cute enhances that feel for me in some weird way.

hope your monday is off to a good start!

 

currently loving:

1) polaroids

>

(finally got around to scanning some and only later noticed how much dust there must have been on my scanner.  being lazy + pretending the dusty look is romantic or something.)

2) my recurrent spring time boyfriend, billy bragg. (if talking with the taxman about poetry isn't perfect driving around in warm spring evening light with the windows down music than i don't know what is.)

3) lilac watching.

4) bouncing around etsy and, much like daria recently mentioned, being so impressed with the abundance of really great stuff people are making.

i'm also:
::thinking a lot about the differences in how fine and functional art are valued/perceived.  ( this recent entry from diana fayt felt really timely to me in an almost eerie way.)

::thinking more about what it means to craft something that is not just functional art but even further- something that is a supply, a supply that (usually) goes on to become a whole other form of functional art.   it's kind of humbling and pretty cool.

::feeling a geniune and profuse love for what i do in all the big three segments of my life (personal/paid job/ creative work).     so glad that i went through the slumpiness (is that a word?) of winter because right now feels like renewal.

a p.s. for the spinners: if you are interested in my handpainted top, i have made four colorways available on my etsy shop.  i am thinking that i will be adding fiber over there as it is ready and dry, but i may also set up a section for spinning supplies on my website too.

you can click on the picture to take a peek:

flickr love

    my friend jen calls it flickritis, which i like, even though it makes it sound like a painful affliction. 

 

    i am loving my love affair with  flickr.   i feel like it is this great thing that has happened to me.   i am inspired by the images that i see there daily,  and i believe that favorites such as the ones pictured above give me little (and much welcomed) serotonin boosts.    i find it interesting to see what i favorite  (i like the verb-ing of the word "favorite")  over a given period of time.   this most recent line up seems to speak to me of a craving for warmth,  for orderly domestic space,  and of my love of yarn and fiber and knitted beauty.   what resonates with me visually says so much.

    i'd love to hear your thoughts on your own favorites.   what do the images that you love say to you?

hurrah for moo cards

I love moo cards.  They are both tiny + cute, two of my favorite things.  The paper they are printed on is thick, high quality, and purportedly eco-friendly as well.   I had the free 10 cards months ago, and gave them away as business cards.  I thought that I had ordered 100 more way back in October, but apparently this was something that I had imagined doing, or dreamt about doing, and not something that I actually did.  I was super excited to get this order yesterday, because it felt as though I had been waiting forever, although to the moo robot's credit, the order came within less than a week.  Yay!

Have you ordered any?   What are you using them for?  I am going to single hole punch mine and use them as yarn tags.

 

p.s- I am feeling mildly guilty about ordering 100 unique prints of my handspun yarn and exactly zero of my sweet and lovely wee daughter.  Although, she is an a) an egomaniac (in a delightful, endearing way, of course) and b)  even more a lover of the cute + the tiny than her mother, so I am sure that she would hoard any moo versions of herself.  A good reminder that I should probably print my digital pictures more often though!

spinning kids make me happy

How awesome is this??!!!

Natasha is often my co-treadler.  Tiny non-rhythmatic feet can make spinning hard sometimes, but the cuteness factor makes it totally worthwhile!  She says that she will be a "yarn maker" when she grows up too.  That, and a cowgirl, an acrobat, a babysitter, a circus actor and "a lot of things."
When N has friends over, they usually want to try out the wheel.  Their little bodies usually aren't long enough to go comfortably from orifice to treadle, but almost.  I love that kids can just *see* that spinning is super, super fun.