Greta and a Cat

A Welcome to the World to Dickie and Christine's second child, Greta!

I made her a world-warming present, this little kitty pillow out of old cashmere sweaters:

Yay!

What I've Been Up To

Making an album cover for the band Gold and Glass. I just finished step three right this second. Photos are wonky because I am tired and the scanner isn't big enough for the thing. It is a silhouette cut-out and eventually will be accentuated with embroidered flowers and lines. The rule was four colors only, (black, white and two pinks) so texturize, texturize, texturize is my current mantra. The boys wanted a car parked under a Japanese Saucer Magnolia tree, with a suggestion of a person in the car.

Step One: Sketch (blown up from 1x1 inch)

Step Two: First Mock up (9.5" x 9.5") Sharpie and Chalk

Step Three: Final Draft Base (white silhouette shapes over black gouache layer)

Next step: days of embroidery. Days.

Lunar Eclipse

Sat outside during the lunar eclipse drinking Prosecco with my neighbor, waiting for a break in the clouds in order to catch a glimpse of the eclipse. The clouds never parted long enough during the sliver-moon phase for good shots BUT I did get a few interesting photos around 9:45. It was a beautiful night, with the clouds rushing past with the that swiftness you see so often here in New Orleans.

Sunday Sunset on Jackson Avenue

Random Ruthie

Ruthie's growth has plateaued and I am crazy busy so I am starting "Random Ruthie" pictures to replace Ruthie Monday. Here's the first:

Here We Are!

Billy took these pictures of The 13th Ward Marching Band and the Cadiz Creepers, marching in the Krewe of Pals:






A nice, dreamy picture of Ethan, Kristen and John H (with a very pleased unkown man in red).

A friend of mine sent this to me and it's from a man named Renso's blog:

It's a very cool concept-blog where he took pictures every hour of Mardi Gras and posted them!
Cannot wait til next year!

Cadiz Creepers

Gonna be a ribbon girl in the Cadiz Creepers, marching in the the Krewe of Pal's. Here are our colors:

I am super excited. I am hoping that my ribbon moves look a little like this:*

or this:

But really would love and dream to look look this:




Our poster:

Rolling at 10:30 am

Our Route (With Stops):

It will take us awhile to get to the quarter, but look for us!

*ribbon dance and color pictures come from the net. The poster and map courtesy of the Krewe of Pal's.

Ruthie-Bird-Dog

Been making doll-puppet-thingies lately. Dressed Ruthie up with some materials and it's official. She hates costumes. No Barkus for her. I had to hold soprosata up in the air behind the (hence, shaky) camera to get her to stop sulking,

spoiled little thing that she is.

Believe it or not, the skeleton and doll-head-in-progress were not posed.

Too bad she looks REALLY good as a bird. with a bow. Sigh.

Change the Y to I and add ER

As if I was not busy enough...

I have started teaching art again at the International School of Louisiana (aka ISL). I started out there when the 7th graders were in 1rst grade, just one year after the school was founded, in order to start up an art program. I left to go back to art school.

I called in just to see if I could pick up a few hours and suddenly I am working every morning.

As most teachers (and parents) know, when you get back into a school building, it takes approximately three days to get whatever illness is smeared all over the desks, pencils, etc. The more involved you are, the better the guarantee.

Welll. Went in on Monday to talk things over. Started teaching Tuesday. Felt the weird itchiness in the throat Wednesday. Fell prey to the nasty bugger of a flu Thursday. I have been laid out FLAT -which never, ever happens to me since Friday afternoon.

This season's flu rrrrreally hurts. I missed Krewe de Vieux AND the ball!

Oh, well. Just have to hunker down and get my Cadiz Creeper costume ready for Krewe of Pals!

But more of that later.....

Ruthie Monday

Back from the Family Hollar Days.

What the "H" I been doin'

Well I have not been posting as much this year. Maybe this hu-jungous house project has something to do with it. My first post-Katrina freak out purchase was a dog. That I did by myself. But together, my husband and I committed ourselves to New Orleans in the best way we knew how: to suck every ounce of equity from our starter home and take on a colossal dinosaur of a formerly glorious house in a sketchy neighborhood. We've jacked it up, stabilized it, re-plastered like we oughtta and all that good stuff -and we still have a ways to go, of course. We have recently been able to paint, and well, me being a pesky artist and all...I experiment. Here's one trial run below.

I call it "Hibiscus in the TV Room"

Did Anybody Notice?

The crazy changes in the light between 4:55 and 5:05 this evening? There was an omninous yellow tint to everything. Here's what I caught after running to get my camera.

Speaking of CHILL

We finally got heat for the whole downstairs under control on Christmas Eve so we could feel as cozy as our front parlor looks on Christmas morning! After all the work we've done, we can sit in it without makeshift ski masks on!

Yay!

These is the only before shot I could find (taken in July), BUT it was taken BEFORE we started grinding out the cracks in the plaster and fixing the gaping holes in the ceiling! I just finished painting before I went home this month to visit my family in Maine.

More Chillin's

There has been a request to post Violet's hair. These are pictures of Violet and her cousin Corban (one of the most photogenic humans ever).

At the Alfred Country Store
(Where I had my favorite ham Italian sandwich with extra sour pickles)

kisses

Crazy Blue-Eyed Kid
(who just got a new sister Niola two 1/2 weeks ago)

Family Photo

Pure, Ridiculous Cute-ness

Visited with my family this past week up in Nor'easter country. That means lots of pictures to post over the next few days of sick-sweet children for all those moms, pops and grandparents up there!

Violet!

The Mama

Here are a few movies. Too bad that I keep forgetting that the camera I was using doesn't let me film vertically, SO......they are sideways. Vi is 18 months, so she gets the concept of Bye, but not that this is something you say to a select lucky few...usually, but not exclusively, to things with heartbeats. It takes awhile to leave places.


Vi comments on a Mess                                  

                                                                                

Vi Says Ba-Bye...to Everything

Going for a Ride

                        

Violet Sings Softly to herself in the Car    

(and then sings along with my hoarse voice)