Luna's Baublebilities

(What did I tell you about that wacky spring weather and my lilacs??? Yes.  Blighted.   Grrr.)  

When that much anticipated Tax Return came in, I knew I would have to go out and buy a new pair of sneakers. 

I hate buying sneakers.





So I bought some music instead. 

I fell in love with Natalie Merchant's voice waaaaay back when In My Tribe was released.

I know - I was a latecomer to 10,00 Maniacs but, come on, we don't get very much good radio here in Upstate NY.  I didn't discover some of my favorite kinds of music until I moved to Tucson and found better Radio - thank goodness for NCPR.  I'd never hear any good music now if it weren't for our local programming and World Cafe.

Anyway, Ms. Merchant recently released a double disc album titled "Leave Your Sleep."  It is a compilation of nursery rhymes and children's poetry set to music composed by Natalie.

Each song is lovely.  Put together, the compilation is brilliant.  Some songs are fun, some are silly, some are nostalgic, some disturbing and all are set to music deeply rooted in American folk traditions.  There's nothing left untouched - klezmer, blues, Apalacian folk, Celtic - you name it - if a musical style has touched down in America and taken root somewhere, you'll hear echoes of it in one of these songs.   I'm just so impressed with what she has created here, with her sensitivity to both the poetic and musical traditions of our richly mixed culture.  You should definitely take a listen. 

There's an interview with Merchant on World Cafe that is worth hearing here.

Or you can click my Amazon link and buy a copy for yourself.  I was tempted to buy the mp3 album and just download it as soon as I could justify the expense but the actual disk is worth going to the store (or waiting for the smiley box) for because it comes in a beautifully constructed package, including a thick booklet with the original poetry and commentary about the process of creating the album and short bios for each poet whose works appear in the set.

Now back to shoes.

I hate buying shoes.

I have a neuroma in my Right foot thanks to a broken toe 22 years ago thanks to a boyfriend who shall remain unnamed.  I also have very small, narrow feet with extremely high arches.  In the past few years, it has become increasingly difficult to find shoes that fit without hurting.  Wide shoes slop around and give me blisters and trip me up.  Narrow shoes pinch and cause shooting pain up my leg and back.  Shoes without adequate arch support make my legs and back ache.  Sexy heels?  Forget it.

The last pair of sneakers I bought lasted about 2 months before the wide toe box began buckling and digging into the tops of my toes.  I have been wearing a battered and thrashed hand me down pair of Nikes for about 5 years now.  (thank you, Sophia!)  I keep buying new sneaks and going back to the old shoes because I can't find anything that fits as well.


Last week, MB and I went shoe shopping.  She got an awesome pair of red pumps for Prom and I got a pair of black Pumas.  When I put them on my foot, they felt like they had been made from a mold of my foot.  The arch was in the perfect place and  high enough.  They lace up snugly without squeezing my neuroma and have a very low profile on my feet - almost like climbing shoes - so that I don't trip over my own feet or the furniture.    My only complaint is that they are actually pretty hard.  Not a lot of cushioning or a lot of give.  I'm trying to break them in.  I've added a layer of soft insoles.  I'm hoping for the best.

But Sophia's old shoes are in a box under my bed just in case.

But I still had to build a fire yesterday. June 1st and it was only 54 degrees in my house. I don't function well below 65 or so, the urge to curl up with a blankie and take a nap is just too great. I hate the fact that the Summer Solstice is upon us every year before school is even out. Other school districts in the country are finishing up (or are finished) right now but we have to go straight through the third week of June. Of course that is all related to the weather. We can't even reliably plant gardens here until after Memorial day, unless we have tons of mulch and plastic coverings to keep baby plants alive, so Upstate NY has a later end of school year date than warmer areas because there was not much need to let the farmers' kids out any earlier than this and those last few weeks of August are so precious for our growing season.

Etsy Bloggers carnival theme this week is to write about our summer plans. - Boy do we have a big summer ahead of us. We are anxiously awaiting a lending decision from the bank about our new place and as soon as we have a go ahead, we have got to start working. We are currently boxing up all non-essentials in our house to be put away in storage so we can start listing this home for sale. Once we close on the new pace, we have got to do a few cosmetic repairs, put in all new wiring and plumbing (because the Amish ripped everything electrical and almost all the plumbing out) remove the outhouse, build an entirely new bathroom in the upstairs attic, replace several windows, wash and paint all the walls, sand and re-finish several floors, install appliances, counters and cupboards in the kitchen, bath and my studio(!!) and maybe we'll be able to move in before the Winter Solstice!

Molly Bryn has been wanting to learn how to blog so I'm planning to have her blog the progress of the new Beorningstead down in Burnett Hollow. I'm so exited to see the progress of our new home as we prepare to move in. I'll let everyone know when we begin that blog - Molly has a great voice and loves to take photos so I'm sure it will be a fun blog to read. I'm also excited about the prospect of boxing up all of our non-essentials for several months. I suspect that there will be lots of things I don't miss tripping over that we will not put back into our new home. As it is, I have at least one huge box of orphan projects that will NOT be coming to my new studio. Anyone want it?

I also hope that we get to do some hiking this summer. Bryan aspires to hike all the high peaks in the Adirondacks and 4 years ago our family climbed Mt. Marcy - the highest peak in NYS. Bryan has climbed it many times and enjoys it but it was really more of a hike than I like and my mother-in-law said that she would probably not attempt such a long hike again, either. I like a quick, easy climb with lots of time to enjoy the scenery on the way up and a pretty view when you get there. We have talked about climbing all the ADK peaks that still have fire towers, I believe that there are 17 of them. Maybe we'll get in one or two of those this summer, if I can get my body back in hiking shape.

The mixed media drawing at the top of this post (which I cannot seem to convince GIMP or Blogger to resize for me - aaaargh!) was inspired by a hike up Mt Van Hovenberg when Molly was about 7. It is titled "There Was an Orange Salamander on the Trail." We have since discovered that our salamander was actually a red eft, which has since become one of my favorite teeny crawling things. What you cannot see in this composite scan is that the clouds, water and contour lines have a lot of sparkley gel-pen accent work and there is a teeneency little eft on the trail. The scanner just seems to read the sparkley as grey and the eft is invisible. Oh well.

December was a short and difficult month - there simply wasn't enough time to get all of the things done that I needed to do and none left over for blogging. Today life is almost back to normal after another week of sickies in the house and two days of 30 below temperatures in Almost Canada, NY. This has been a true old fashioned winter around here. When it isn't 30 below zero, it is snowing. We have more snow here than we have had in the last 5 winters combined. I took ashes out to the garden this morning and sunk up to my thighs in the show! many people are complaining but I am really enjoying it - it feel like a return to my childhood in the '70's when we went sledding and built snow forts in the huge heaps of snow left by the plows. If it is going to be cold, there might as well be snow! I'm not sure I would want a return to the winters of the '40's and '50's that my Dad experienced, though. He tells stories of digging a tunnel from the house to the barn and being able to step over the telephone wires on his way to school, the snow was so high in Colton some winters.

I've been cleaning out my studio/the dog's lair and coming across many old projects that need to be ditched, lots of forgotten supplies and a serious organization challenge. I took some "before" photos which I will probably be too ashamed to post and plan to take some "after" photos when I'm finally done ... maybe today?? I definitely need lots of new bins, big and small and I need to let some stuff go. Recently I read a quote by Suze Ormond on an artist's blog site that said; "If you are not making the money in your life that you think you should be making, if you have debt, if you cannot save a penny, I am willing to bet that clutter is standing smack in the middle of what you have today and what you could have tomorrow." Well, that's me. I'm just not productive enough because I am too busy trying to get through the clutter in my house and my life. So this year, I am trying to be more purposeful and organized about the things I keep, the activities I choose and the work I do.

Here's a list of the things I plan to work on in the next few days and weeks:

- - Two pieces of Round Robin fabric. As noted in one of my first posts, I'm participating in a complex cloth round robin and I'm behind. I now have two wildly different pieces of fabric waiting for my attention in my studio. One of them will get a layer of dye. One of them will probably have some dye discharged. Photos to come when I get the studio clean.

- - Sharon Boggon's Take It Further Challenge which starts this month. Each month Sharon will post a theme and a color scheme for stitchers and other artists to work with. Participants post their progress on their blogs and/or on the Flickr site for the group. The challenge theme and color scheme have only been up for a few days and already there is a great deal of excitement and interest. It is going to be fascinating to watch all of these artists work through their various concepts and goals during this challenge. One funny thing - for our anniversary, my husband and I bought new sheets and a comforter set for our bed in a color scheme that just happens to match the scheme for January perfectly. I hadn't seen the challenge page yet so it was a bit surreal to see my new bedroom colors posted up on Sharon's site yesterday!

- - Some new polymer clay beads and magnets. I've been planning to make some face beads and magnets for several months now and just haven't got to it yet. My friend, Hilary, who is also my boss at the Arts Council has been looking for some ceramic face beads for several months now with no success so I thought that it would be nice to make her some polymer beads for planning and practice. They were going to be a Christmas gift but if I hurry, she might get them in time for 3 Kings Day! Also as I was preparing for Studio Tour this year, I opened an old box of beads and came across the one remaining Transformation bead from a set I made two summers ago. I had forgotten how much I loved these beads and how much fun they are to make. I posted the one left on Etsy and want to make some more in different colors to go with it. Maybe I'll play with Sharon's green, gold and purple color scheme on some of these.

I also have several Alchemy Scarves to iron and edge as well as a beaded bracelet and brooch in progress. Beading is a good activity for 30 below weather when one is sick. I like to sit by the Fisher stove with a plate of beads in my lap and play with new techniques and projects. That way I still feel productive but I am not working on anything that I can ruin while I'm muzzy headed and slow.

It is now time to get everyone dressed and get the day moving in a purposeful way. The 3 year old is still sick and snotty in nose and attitude so it looks like a fun day around here!