Photo Roundup For The First Week Of June

Busy, busy beginning of summer here getting the yard work done, summer craft shows, artwork, and of course playing with the girls. So here's this weeks photo roundup, all these pictures were taken on my iphone and processed with instagram. You can follow me if you want too! My user name is redherringjeff.

One of our goals for Handmade Family this year was to do a show a month, in May we ended up doing three.  It was a hectic month for Mrs Handmade and me. Memorial day was Gypsy Caravan, an annual craftshow and flea market benefiting the Saint Louis Symphony. We were expecting heat and thunderstorms, but got a pretty mild, windy day. It was really pretty nice. This is our booth neighbor Melissa of Villa Design through the window formed by our displays. 

This book shelf, built inside of a door frame is awesome. One of the really awesome things I saw in the vendors stalls around the show. If only I was a little richer...and earlier. At 7:30 it had already sold.

 

This is my first "successful" attempt to braid Abby's hair. It's not the prettiest braid in the world, but if ponytails are any indication, it'll get better. 

We're always making things around here, and imaginative role-playing is a pretty big game with the kids. Really, we do a lot of back to basics stuff around here. Which isn't to say that we never watch TV or play computer games, there's plenty of that too, but we like to shoot for a balance.  Abby found this box the other day and wanted me to cut a robot face out of it. She was walking around saying "I am a robot...I talk like a robot..." for quite awhile. The other side has just one big square cut out of it, so she can be a talking TV head.  Ha-ha-ha!

So I'm sitting on the couch reading, and Abby decides to climb up on my shoulders and start wrigling around and dancing. The more I think about it, the more it seems like a good metaphor for our lives with children. I know I'll miss these days when they're gone.

 

The leeks I planted in our garden last summer bloomed this week.  They are huge and beautiful, Amy smelled them and was surprised to find that they smell like onions.  Ha-ha-ha! I said it made sense to me. This is one of the really cool things about having a garden. Even if (for what ever reason) not everything you plant gets eaten, there's nothing like seeing where things come from and where they go. Nature's pretty darn amazing.

 

The beginning stages of a Cthulhu peg-person. I've been having a lot of fun working on these guys a little bit at a time, lately.

 

A sketch I did for my friend Rob over at SpaceMonkeyX. He's a freelance writer, and all around pretty awesome guy.  You should go check him out!

Well, that's it for this week! Until next time then, take care and be good!

Your friend,

Jeffrey

What I Think About In The Yard

Hi all! Mr Handmade here. Today I was working in the garden, it's past time to start my planting, and I'm still scrambling to get it in a position to grow anything! My yard is on a pretty big slope, so this year I decided to rethink my garden set up and begin terracing it. It's a combination garden and landscape project, really...

The first terrace will have 1 garden bed, and the picnic table that I got for Christmas in it. Basically, this will be our base of operations, and will offer somewhere to sit and rest, or play, or draw during outside time. The second and third terraces will each have two beds in them, and the fourth will be a patio area just below the fire pit. This is my plan, and now that the framing on the bottom terrace is done, all I have to do is move the rest of this bit of yard. Yay!
So here it is from above as of about a month ago. I had the front edge delineated, but most of the rest was looking kind of bleak. It's amazing how much the green changes how it all looks now.

When I'm working by myself, I have a sort of long-running, inner dialogue. My daily life is an ongoing story in my head, that involves me, hobbits, like the illustration at the top of this post by Alan Lee, for the Lord of the Rings...The Millenium Falcon, super soldiers, spies, farming, my daughters as adults...It sounds like an odd mix, but the story evolves as time goes by. Ha-ha-ha!

The reason I bring this up, apart from wanting to talk about digging up my yard, is that I wonder if this is a pretty common thing among bloggers. That constant thought in narrative form sort of lends itself to blogging. I mean, we talk to ourselves anyway, so we may as well let other people have a peek behind the curtains too, right? The funny thing is that I had no sooner begun to think about this than I stumbled upon some examples in blogs that I follow.

First on Fat Mum Slim she talked meeting bloggers in person. She talked about how bloggers like to share, and how they get it. "It" being that spark that happens between like minded people. She also talked about something that I worry about a lot, but in such a positive way. She mentioned that when you meet fellow bloggers all the groundwork has been done. I always feel like it would be odd meeting someone for the first time, and already knowing them like they were an old friend.

The other was on Connie to the Wonnie where she made a great little cartoon illustrating this thought. You should go check it out. :)
And finally I'm leaving you with this picture of young Wyatt showing what Uncle Jeffrey hath wrought. Ha-ha-ha! Until next time, take care and be good!
Your friend,
Jeffrey