little birds handmade

back from fairyland

I do not remember a time when I did not try to invent pictures and make for myself a fairyland amongst the wild flowers, the animals, fungi, mosses, woods and streams, all the thousand objects of the countryside.  (Beatrix Potter)

As a child I was obsessed with all things Beatrix Potter. Her biography housed at my elementary school library had my name inscribed on the check-out card over and over. At the time, I felt that we were, in fact, the same person - painfully shy, solitary, fanciful, curious, in love with animals and the natural world. I even tried keeping a journal in code like she did (nothing came of it, but consider this the uncoded adult version). No I haven't seen Miss Potter, but, yes, I intend to go.

These are some things on which I have been working. They will probably be part of the show at Doe that I'm doing with my sister in May. It will have some sort of deep dark woods theme. I'm excited to put together a whole body of work. Imagining these little bits of the forest floor comes really naturally to me; I love giving them a new life in linen and thread and tweed and wool.

I did not accomplish what I intended during my break, although I made a little bit of a dent in all of it which is enough. There probably won't be a shop update for another couple weeks. I'm thinking of doing more owl and pussycat sets if people are interested as well as a few other new things.

Thanks also to everyone who has been checking in at 3191 and giving such positive feedback. I'm really thrilled about it.  I know a lot of people have questions about how it all comes together, so maybe I'll talk about that one day. mav, can I interview you?

Happy Monday!

** checking in with important news! **

 

Hello friends!

I have been enjoying my break and am planning on returning to regular blogging really soon, but I just wanted to pop in and let you know about a new development in the Kim Family Art + Craft Auction.

Unfortunately, the winning bidder of the two gorgeous print sets seen above (Natalie Tweedie on the left, Jill Bliss on the right) never paid and never responded to our emails (lame, I know). Lisa and I are pretty disappointed, but hope that some of you will be excited by a second opportunity to bring home some artwork and support Kati and her girls. We will be opening up bidding on these two items starting this evening at 6:00 pm PST. Check the auction site for details. The bidding will only be open for 24 hours, so make sure you get over there and check it out! We appreciate you showing your support to the Kim family and appreciation to the two generous artists.

I'll be back soon. In the meantime, please do spread the word about the second round of auctions. Thanks!

thank you and good night.

Whoa. Thank you everyone. The auction generated  $16,899.11!! Thanks to all your donations we now have the listing and PayPal fees covered (with maybe some extra to add to the fund...we're still doing the math) and will be donating the full amount. We are just truly grateful for all the goodwill that surrounded this project and are proud to be able to show our support to the Kim family. Thank you!

I am now going to head off on my blog sabbatical. I'll be cleaning, organizing, catching up with many months of correspondence, hosting a Mad Hatter's tea party, sewing and making, cooking, taking photos for 3191, eventually updating my shop, and just trying to get a fresh start on that whole slow life movement (last week was not-so-slow). I'll be back in good time. Take care! 

just one more day to bid!

Can you believe the bidding going on over at the auction? Wow! Some of you have asked how you might contribute now that the bidding is out of your price range (I can't afford anything either!) Well, we had originally thought that we would cover all the eBay and PayPal expenses ourselves, but now that the auction proceeds are quickly approaching five times our original goal, we are realizing that these fees might be overwhelming. If you'd like to contribute to a fund to cover the listing and PayPal fees, please send your contribution to the PayPal account for the auction:

Thank you everyone!! We have it covered!

Any money left in the fund after the fees are covered will be added to the donation to The James Kim Memorial Fund.

Thank you so much for your support and enthusiasm in regards to the auction. My sister's friend Diana Fayt graciously agreed to do a TV interview this week about the auction (along with Sara Paloma and Stephanie Scarpulla) and I thought she put my own feelings into words so well:

We can't replace the loss. We could donate everything and it would never replace what they have lost, but we can support, stand behind -- let the family know that we are there.

not to worry!

I know many of you were disappointed and confused to wake up and realize the benefit auctions were disappearing from eBay. I know I was! Be assured that we are doing everything we can to ressurect the auction and give everyone the opportunity to place their bids again. We were just totally wowed by the response yesterday! We had raised nearly $12,000 by the end of the day. Thank you everyone for your continued support as we sort this out. We are truly sorry for the inconvenience. We'll be back!

the auction is live!

Oh, the bidding love that is going on over at the auction! You can go directly to the eBay auctions here. Thank you generous bidders, thank you generous artists, and thank you to my sister...without her charisma and organizational skills, we never could have pulled this off.

the slow life movement

Thank you for all the positive feedback about 3191. It feels like just the right thing for me to be doing right now, although I have to say to mav, stop reading my mind.

I'm also really loving reading the new year's posts out in blogland. Everyone sounds so full of possibility. Isn't that a great feeling? I'm not much for resolutions, but I do love feeling like I'm getting a fresh start and that's how I feel now. We had a lot of changes in our lives last year, and I spent a lot of the time feeling overwhelmed and pulled in many directions. I found it really hard to enjoy any one thing I was doing without worrying about what was left undone. I began to rush through things that I had previously savored and enjoyed. The act of cooking and eating was one of them.

I've always been a fan of the slow food movement. It's really, for the most part, how I was raised and how I approached food and eating once I went off to college and began cooking for myself (maybe not always eating locally, but the care and intent of the preparation of meals and the rejection of processed foods, yes). However, parenting, living on a tight budget and balancing a busy life have all done their part to erode my reverence for a good meal. Nothing like cooking for an unappreciative audience to make the kitchen an inhospitable place.

I'm hoping that in the new year that I'll be slowing things down in the kitchen and at the market. I was motivated to make a change after reading The Omnivore's Dilemma and by the restricted diet we're trying with Miles (due to some minor health problems), but also by the desire that the preparation of food be, once again, an enjoyable experience.

I am also proposing a slow life movement, one where I approach things with intent and purposefulness and joy in mind rather than efficiency or other's expectations. A life with more walking and less driving, more lingering and less hurrying, more time outside and less in front of a screen, more doing and less worrying about what needs to be done. Taking a break from this blog is a part of my slow life movement, but, I imagine, coming back to it might be part of it too. 

I'll be back to remind you about the auction. I'll be getting up at 5:00 am tomorrow to help it go live.

Be well!

happy new year!

wishing you a super sweet start to the new year!

Please join me over at 3191, a collaborative photo blog between my friend mav and myself. mav and I will be exploring our mornings (which are experienced 3191 miles apart, according to google maps) through daily images.I want to thank mav for having this great idea and creating the perfect site for it. I also want to give props to my friend Michael for coming up with the concept for the blog name. mav and I each take a photo independent of each other, and so far things are almost eery in respect to how they go together. I'm really excited to see how it progresses. Come share the experience with us over at 3191!