i am so anxious to get started with my bees and chickens. i have been working on my research. the yard is still a challenge with all the water and not having a fence. i may not be able to start until next year. hopefully we will still get our kitchen this year. i will be posting pictures of the house renovations soon. what we have done and what we still need to do.

for helen's teacher this year each family is choosing their favorite book to present to her teacher in a basket with all the other chosen books. we found a new book since we can rarely find our very favorites in stock at the book store. the book is called the curious garden by peter brown. it was interesting that i found this book because a few day ago i had heard a story on npr about a garden in manhattan that was just opened that was created in the abandoned railroad tracks.

one of my friends had a tag sale today. i spent way too much time there and bought too much too. i found the really cute "jane jetsen" dressing table for helen. we are very excited to decorate her new room.

i also went to a antique shop and found some great vintage wool yard and almost 12 yards of vintage 1970s fabric still on the roll, many other vintage textiles. i had to stop. i could have bought them all but thought i had better get moving with what i have then buy more.

helen had her piano recital today. she has been playing now for almost a year. she really is doing great. we are very proud of her. she played 4 songs today. she was pretty proud of herself too.

andrew and i have been working on a teepee for helen for her birthday. i worked on it for a good portion of the day. andrew helped my try to work through the measurements.

one of sweet pea's neighborhood friends had all the little 1st and 2nd grade girls in our neighborhood over for an almost sleepover. they had a scavenger hunt, a spa - they painted each others nails with relaxing with cucumbers on their eyes, gave each other tattoos and then pizza and a movie.

she had such a great time. thanks to the mom and dad who braved all the joy.

helen had her almost sleepover tonight.

my husband, andrew and i took the opportunity to check out the rochester international jazz festival. it was nice to get out. we decided to catch a bite to eat at the triphammer grille.

here was one of the dinner alternatives.

it was a beautiful night it has been a really long time since we have been down to high falls.

the path to class

felting class

my first class was felting with another new creative friend and house mate betz white she has 2 books that you need to check out.

Warm Fuzzies: 30 Sweet Felted Projects
Sewing Green: 25 Projects Made with Repurposed & Organic Materials

my felted project in process

i wish that i had taken more pictures in this class. everyone made very unique things. i was really feeling challenged with my design and my sewing skills. with so much support in this class i pushed on and ended up with a nearly finished bag, nothing short of a miracle. one of the big goals is to complete projects. this was the only class that i did not do some initial prep for.

creative characters

i did get to take one of mirsa's classes. yippee! as soon as i signed up for this class we started to discussing what types of charcters i could make. i asked helen if she would make some drawings that i could use to make some characters. in the end, i used a drawing that my husband and i love very much that she did before i even knew about squam.

meet shy horse.

this is the pattern that i made from helen's picture in the process of cutting the pieces.

this is the pattern all cut and pinned and ready to sew. it went just fine. marisa was so encouraging. i so enjoyed my day.

i stuffed it was some buckwheat that helen loves and sewed it up. i still need to work on the embellishments but shy horse is all together! helen loved her.

i am very excited. i can't wait to make more of these from her drawings. i think that this is going to be something very fun that we can do with her friends too. so much of this project the kids will be able to do. i think they will love picking out the fabric and embellishments.

here are most of the other creative characters from my class. again incredible creative.

block printing fabric

the last class that i took was block printing with incredible lizzy house

i don't want to seem redundant but she is yet another amazingly creative new fabulous friend from nirvana.

we really clicked. i am just sorry that i missed the first two days with her. but we had fun after that.

here is lizzy giving us the printing demonstration

i made blocks from helen's shy horse and another older picture that she had done called "baby bird in a tree"

here is the take home of my creations from my time at squam.

the second night that i was there when we were visiting in nirvana and sharing some wine i was able to make some bracelets for breast cancer. the other two night that i had left i was so exhausted from creating during the day, eating and the evening events that i didn't have any energy to make more bracelets.

i am very excited to be starting an online course called in the fish bowl with my friend marisa of creative thursday who was one of my amazing teachers at SQUAM. i feel so fortunate to be taking this course. i was also so fortunate to share a our wonderful house nirvava with her and so many other wonderful, talented and dynamic women.

squam!

how to even start about this amazing experience. i may need to just share the pictures because the words still have not come after being home for over a week. when i keep starting most of what i say sounds very cliche.

i added a little wine to the mix and here comes the share+++ who cares how cliche it sounds, it was a life changing experience and i made so many incredible friends and enjoyed myself so much i want to share it!

this was my first look at squam in the light of the morning.

i can tell you when we decided that i was going to attend i had so much anxiety about what classes i should take. there were so many that i wanted to take and so little time. i had no idea how many people were going to be trying to register and how many spots there were, i thought i would be lucky if i could get in, let alone get the classes that i wanted. oh the joy to get the note from elizabeth that i was confirmed and had my first choices! yippee!!!

nirvana - the camp

i feel so fortunate that elizabeth, the creator of this event, put me in the cabin appropriately named nirvana with so many talented and creative women. i loved being in the "vault". i feel so nourished by my nirvana family. i was living with the women that were teaching my classes this was so incredible. they were so fun and so honest and shared so much of themselves as did all of my other wonderful housemates. so many late nights.

i was anxious about attending this workshop. i had no idea what to expect. the photos from the previous retreat can't begin to describe what it was like there. the campus is really expansive and all tucked into the woods and surrounded by water. beautiful everywhere you look.

when i first started college i went in as a studio art major. i had terrible creative anxiety and lack of self-confidence. i can appreciate creativity but it does not come freely to me. i know what i like but cannot readily express what i would like to.

it was extremely overwhelming how talented and creative the attendees were. i knew already that the teachers were but this was very intimidating. that did not last long though because everyone was really so supportive. they would share ideas for my projects and ask for input on their projects. also we were all so happy to be there. everyone was smiling all the time and chatting with everyone else. even if you were not in class with them you said hello to them and chatted in line or when you were looking at all the production on display at the end of the day. it was so exciting to be in such a positive mutually supportive group.

the product that came out at the end of the day was so overwhelming. that these beautiful pieces could be taught and created in such little time was amazing. i wanted to take so many home with me. also wished that i could have taken so many other classes in addition to what i took.

painting a day with my new sweet friend marisa haedike one of the many great classes that i could not fit in my schedule

printing with botanical designs with another new sweet friend maya donenfeld and another wonderful class i did not attend

one more wonderful maya class. coffee sack hack, repurposing with burlap missed this one too.

lauren smith and derek fagerstrom taught wallpaper projects. I couldn't fit this class in either but I bought their book of the same title.

most of the ladies from nirvana. we are missing three. not sure how they escaped. photo from laura nelkin

i need to let you know who all of my new friends are here. i will also add the nirvana ladies that are missing from the photo.

alexandra almeyda, me, kellen meyer, lizzy house, laura nelkin, maggie hollinbeck, betz white, marisa haedike, maya donenfeld, missing - donna collins, andrea mckeen and kristin bonner

missing you all!

i did have some ideas about what i would like to accomplish while i was away from home. i really thought that this would be a time that i could learn about some ways to repurpose material and find new activities that i could share with my daughter.

i had planned on having the evenings to myself to rest and create having quiet time away from the calls of family and house work. i enjoyed my new friends so much that i only slept between 5 and 6 hours a night and enjoyed every minute that i could. i also had plans to set up my blog while i was there so that i could better record the experience and not have to try to remember when i returned home. again there was no time for that.

the time went so quickly. we had three yummy healthy (if you chose) meals each day. you didn't want to miss a meal not because you were necessarily hungry, but it was such a great time to catch up about the classes and visit with your new friends. also at afternoon and evening meals most of the classes would display what they were working for everyone to see.

we were also working off those great meals walking to all of our events and classes. all of my classes were a 15 to 20 minute walk through the woods . i never knew how heavy my sewing machine was until i started carrying it through the woods to class. where else would you go and see someone walking in the woods with a sewing machine. to think that a little over a month ago i didn't even know how to use this machine. you could say that i had a crash course. my mother-in-law actually gave me a lesson almost 2 months ago now. she helped me make some napkins and showed me how to use the machine.

nirvana dock - finally made it down here on the last day as i was leaving. how can we fit more hours in the day!

the next post is the classes that i did take. i think that i may be blogging about this workshop forever...