artsy tuesday

Despite the increase in daily chore-rigmarole and time happily spent admiring young cashmere goats, the Daily Markmaking has continued without interruption. Though the markmaking has often been quite rapid:

newborn

In recent weeks, as you might imagine, most of my sketches have been done in the paddocks or the barns...lots of paintings of rocks, trees, and mud. I haven't actually been painting mud, it has appeared in the form of snoot smudges.

pencil sketch of maple 

rare surviving white pine sapling
(beyond reach of goats)

standing dead and deadfalls
(within reach of goats)

For a long time I've been pondering the possibility of having some of my botanical paintings or drawings made into fabric.

It's very hard to make the leap for two practical reasons: first, because I no longer have software for graphics editing which would help immeasurably with the design and layout, and second, because fabric is not inexpensive.

Which is why, although I received a box of sample fabrics from Spoonflower weeks ago, I've hesitated to open it.

But today I did.

May be in some trouble now.

We'll see.

~~~~~

Planting a seed

This is my first attempt at blogging, and it feels a lot like poking a seed down into the earth and hoping for growth to begin.

Several online "Blogging 101" resources offered the same advice: before starting a blog, one must define a purpose, identify an audience, and find a personal "blogging niche."  While I am sure this is very good advice, the fact is...

if I waited til I had all those things worked out, I'd never get started at all.

So I'm just going to give it a go.  And keep it very simple:

a place to post photographs, thoughts, and words that make me think,

and a place to record projects, creative endeavors, and some of the ordinary magic that seems to go on all around.

~~~~~

There will be fiber-stuff...

often knitting, but also dyeing with botanical materials, and the long, slow process of combing cashmere in the Spring, when the goats decide they are tired of their winter underwear.

I am Quinn on ravelry - here's my project page

~~~~~

There will be food-stuff...

growing, preserving and simple cooking.  Very simple cooking.   Shredding carrots for slaw is almost "cooking" in my book, and I did just that this morning:

But since I'm trying to expand my cooking skills just a tiny bit, I also experimented with homemade mayonnaise for the slaw.  Luscious!

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Although I personally avoid New Years Resolutions (and the almost inevitable crash that tends to follow), I do have a few ideas for things I'd like to try in 2013.  I'd like to grow enough cabbage to make a years-worth of sauerkraut.  Then I'd like to make the sauerkraut.  I'd like to learn to properly clean my precious Singer Featherweight, inherited from its original owner, my Auntie Ruby.  And I'd like to learn to use even one of the many mysterious attachments that came with the machine.  I'd like to write for fun sometimes, instead of only for work...hence this blog.

So, if anyone is out there reading my First Post Ever:

Thank you so much for visiting and a very warm welcome!  As I begin to figure out the nuts & bolts of blogging, I will try to include all the useful tools I find so helpful on other peoples' blogs.  Suggestions are welcome.  I hope you will visit again and find improvements!

And meanwhile, please wish me luck :)