makin’ stuff

In which Wonder Farm poses as a craft blog.*

Seems like everyone is makin’ stuff around here these days, which is pretty much what one should do in the summer, I think.

First up: what is surely to be H’s one and only appearance here as a jewelry-maker. But isn’t this beautiful? He made it at his beloved 11-day camp in the Sierras. Carved it from a piece of manzanita, then sanded for days with progressively finer sand paper. Finally deemed it smooth enough for a coating of shea butter. It’s lustrous and lovely and I plan to borrow it when he isn’t looking.

Lulu the craft queen has spent much of her summer singing and dancing, so her usual craft quota is down. But this week she’s taking a series of sewing classes, so things should be back to normal soon. (I refuse to call the classes sewing camp, as the creators of the program do. If something is to be called a camp, dirt must be involved.) Before Lulu lit off on her many summer endeavors, she did embellish her backpack. Her bunny patch is a simplified version of the cute animals she makes, inspired by–what else– The Cute Book. (It is seriously impossible to comment on these creatures without letting the word cute wander out of your mouth.)

Here’s my summer craftiness. It’s the Drawstring Chemise from Interweave Knits Spring 2008. Don’t go getting bamboozled by the lace or anything. Instead, please draw your eye to the bow at the front. Notice how that aforementioned drawstring holds the whole thing on. That’s 73 inches of i-cord, my friends, knit in cotton, which always i-cords badly. It was only when I was in the final 5 inches that my friend Stefaneener noticed what I was doing and mentioned that she has an i-cord machine. Doh!

And here’s Mr. T’s contribution. Just a sampling of his never-ending art. Of course, this is what happens when you are six and your brother is sixteen: you draw pictures of scary demon guys playing the drums. (You also, when out in public, sing songs from Guitar Hero, like “Rock and Roll All Night” and “Rock You Like A Hurricane”. But that’s another story.)

Speaking of makin’ stuff, last week I was away for five days with the man with whom I’ve made a lot of stuff over the years–made three lively, opinionated children to be specific. We didn’t take them along to the wine country to celebrate our twenty years together. Imagine that! The two of us just drank wine at least twice a day, ate gorgeous food made with local produce and cheese, surrounded ourselves with stunning gardens and vineyards, sat in hot tubs late at night–and talked about the kids the whole time. Isn’t that how it goes? And our camera broke, so I have no pictures. As it should be, I suppose. Anniversaries are one thing not meant to be shared.

* I don’t have the photography skills to match my favorite craft bloggers. In fact, I don’t even have a camera, since ours broke. I’m making do with Lulu’s camera and my limited skills. Check out some of my favorites to see how the real crafty bloggers do it: beauty that moves, wise craft, house on hill road, soule mama.