Pop Mama

A New art project

2011-03-14T14:07:00.000-07:00

Comfort in familiarity:

horses and daydreams of youth

snug quilts and blankets

a park in my hometown, Battle Park, with its climbing rocks and flood gate and small rocky beaches covered in black snail shells

the ocean's sound

a favorite pair of shoes that are falling apart, but still get worn

my mother's face

the best chocolate milkshake from ben and jerry's

the shape of a circle

hearing my dad call everyone their first and middle names

hot showers

a seat in a car on a trip with warm air blowing in the windows and a book in my lap

the sun in july

warm tea in january

Designing Fair Isle

2011-02-28T12:39:00.001-08:00

I've been knitting for about 3 years now, so I guess it was about time I learned how to strand across stitches! If you know me, you know I love color! I've done a lot of color work in my knitting but never really took the time to learn the proper techniques. Well, this approach failed me miserably when I tried to knit a large circle in the middle of a child's vest. I didn't yet know about stranding, so I just broke the yarn every time I was changing colors (I'll get a picture of that darn vest here soon). This created huge gaps in between color changes, and I thought, "there has to be a better method of doing this!" So I consulted a book my step-sister had gotten me for Christmas this year, and there it was! Fair Isle! Stranding! YAY! I'm sure for all non-knitters out there these terms mean absolutely nothing, sorry! And if you do knit and you don't know what they are, Learn 'em! It makes color changes so much easier!!
So my first project using my newly learned knowledge was the hat above, it was also the first hat I've ever knit flat and sewn up the back. Also, it was the first hat I've ever knit with ear flaps! I basically love everything about this hat (it's finished now, yes I promise to have a picture up soon!) I love the point at the top! I love the cute triangle pattern I came up with! I love the alpaca yarn (the white)!
I wonder if anyone has thoughts on this- Does knitting hats flat seem to add more thickness? I've knit a bunch of hats in the round using only stockinette stitch and they seem a lot thinner than this one. I think knitting and purling (garter stitch??) adds thickness.

A Vision of Love and How to Retain it

2011-02-08T08:36:00.000-08:00

2 images fell
on disparate eyes
and in falling they were separate
then came together in the spiral of her vision
simultaneously a child's pure vision
and her own, adult one
low and high
just like under and over a counter
she saw at once the frailty in his movements
and his strength
he, a past and a future
wrong decisions and overstatements,
shortcomings,
yet
a grand performance by this man
right here in front of her
his wrinkles were nothing short of mysterious, unexplored canyons
and his black hair, a sorcerer's mane
his fingernails, ringed in black,
obviously from some earthy endeavours underground
or from erecting that castle today,
wasn't he a builder?

she knew this was lasting love,
the simplicity and grandeur
that children experience in every moment
every detail becoming a mythic story
the real and unreal fusing

Ohhhh

2011-01-23T04:57:00.000-08:00

I really like this idea... makes me wish i was in REAL art school!

:::in my Art 338 class (installation/performance), we have a very interesting first project... for 1 week we must entirely wear a colour from the chakra palette. when i asked my professor if we have to literally have everything on us in 1 colour, she said "the more pure you are, the more you will learn." i love that! i chose blue (mainly because i know i can easily wear jeans everyday. haha):::

(quoted from http://youcanmakeiteasy.blogspot.com/)

I think when I get back from my trip to New York I might just have to try this...get a little closer to colour!

...

2010-12-15T11:57:00.000-08:00

I recognized myself in the mirror... in that moment where I was being as weird as I could be.

I've never been able to before...

2010-08-27T11:32:00.000-07:00

but I think I've decided my top 3 favorite movies (as yet to be made)...

>>>>>>Terrance Malick's New World

>>>>>>Gus Van Sant's Last Days

>>>>>>Steven Shainburg"s Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus

I love these movies, especially the first 2, for their silence, their peacefulness, their developing just as life would.
I love Fur for its inspiration, total wierdness, and bravery of the characters. ~Love
Watch them!

Lots of random thoughts on my way back over the mountains

2010-08-24T18:13:00.000-07:00

From Townsend, MA to Saratoga, NY
Ashburnham
after 12:00
yellow hanging mailboxes
a little synaptic pruning
concurrent with a little growth
dragging old beliefs about what i can and can't do
to the trash
making room
to be excited
entering Rindge
and New Hampshire
blue White Mountains
in the distance
thinking about
taking care of a yurt
and a toddler
and school
and work
"He solves my family problems
JESUS CHRIST"
{{from a bumper sticker}}
house of yellow gables
splash in a green pond
a thick green snot splash
imagining
stocks of nuts and pasta
in clear glass bottle rows
on shelves
lots of warm hand knits
and silk long underwear
suzuki, gymnastics, and horseback riding
quick elevation changes
and stomache drops
corn staubbers to hold corn on the cob while you eat
and all of my other southern girl expressions
planet aid drop boxes
1:00
it's been an hour
a really strange burning smell wafting in the window
vertical piles of black eyed susans, yes it's still summer
a hawk at 500 feet
yin yangs on pale yellow squares on an old brick
factory on the far shore of the creek
following me on my left
i can see chinese workers
taking a lunch break near the water
eating bowls of rice
wooden playgrounds
and then a tin playground like from my childhood
discovered after my very first train ride
Hinsdale, NH
reassessing what's most important
and deciding to make an effort
towards those things
like keeping in touch more with my
little brother
and sewing more clothes
and planning fun outings for Pop
one of the 2 radio stations
i can pick up
is playing country music
bad country music
knitted animal pillows in the window of a Brattleboro store
knit or dye
brilliantly blonde family having a meal
motown oldies
a mobile home, a red barn, and about 30 broken down cars
all on one plot
took a side trip down a brattleboro road
lots of "dangerous intersection" roads
lots of people walking
a good sign for a prospective might-live-here-one-day town
teenagers in camouflage with hunting bows
107.7
talking heads
then some hip hop
i'm in a very oldies/classical mood
but everything is fading within moments as i zip through towns
hogback decline
2:08
the lake west of wilmington looks like
a nice swim spot
low, rocky beaches
i like being in Vermont
just driving through makes me feel good
a little wider,
more spacious
adds some square footage to my spirit
i see lots of things i'd like to buy on the sides of these roads
old RV's in pretty colors, wooded properties, a black moto
i'd give to my little brother
what's winter camping like?
a man runs all alone
up a mountain
dressed in black
with a rosary around his neck
he's old and grey but strong
a runaway truck ramp
with fresh tracks
old ride-on tools with a fresh coat of dust
separate entrances on either side of a school for "Girls" and "Boys"
a stop in Bennington 2:39
back on the road 3:50
the spinning wind sculptures
aren't moving very fast
considering all the wind
that's blowing around and in the tree tops and in my window
welcome to the Empire State
with a field of tall purple wildflowers
i picture a little house
on a plot of land
with a little pond for swimming
or a creek
and another guest tiny house or yurt or whatever
and a pony
and a westfalia for trips
hand from the sky holding hand from the earth
the yucky brown Hudson of New York
with it's PCB-lined shores
where no one should step with bare feet
and a boring, traffic-jammed 87 spurt
home
5:00

The new way to the beach

2010-06-28T10:22:00.000-07:00

Just getting on Us 301 south in North Carolina from Rocky Mount to Topsail Beach, there are lots of deserted buildings and very few new or elaborate signs or buildings. There are plenty of signs only in Spanish, advertising frutas and such. Black-haired families sitting in parking lots in the opened trunks of 1990's era Dodge vans. But after a bit, North Carolina has added a new 4 lane highway, 795, to whisk you away from the sights of poverty to a nicer view and a more pleasant ride to the beaches. Here are fields and forests, cows and corn and tobacco. Now my first glimpse of the invasive Japanse kudzu since being in NC; it's taken over a patch of trees. Its large leaves and spindly vines seem pretty, yet people in the south "close their windows at night to keep it from growing in the house," a saying coined because it grows so fast (a foot a day). [Note: Here's a neat website that advocates kudzu: http://maxshores.com/kudzu/ ...kudzu quiche?! kudzu paper, kudzu hay bales and baskets!] A cemetary next to a Budweiser plant next to a tobacco warehouse. "Large sweet cantolope" spray painted in black on a chipboard sign. "I luv used" in a red heart painted on an off-white cement building. Pine trees, browned grass, not many wildflowers although it's almost July. It's so hot here it must have dried everything out. Today it's 99º. There are no strawberries in the strawberry pickin' fields. What does it mean if you put a white cloth out of the window of your broken down car on the side of the highway? That you need help? That you surrender? That you're in the local gang? Probably just means "this car's screwed." And now we've hooked up with I-40, the iconic east-west connector with its famous Barstow, CA 2,554 miles [a website documenting the signs along I-40 http://www.interstate-guide.com/i-040.html]. In my high school town of Wilmington, if you'd seen the opppsite sign in California (which I had by the time I was 18) that was really something to talk about. Highway 17 to Topsail Beach looks the same as it always has, nothing too noteworthy, a mix of new and refurbished old with spots of green in between. We know water is to our right somewhere, but it's hidden by green. Then over the bridge into Surf City, a dead racoon marks our entrance. Now we're in between the sound and the ocean. Just after through the main intersection we get cutoff by a white SUV with a license plate that reads "CHUNKDOG," the driver fits to a T, white, bald, and quite chunky. Welcome to Topsail Beach.

a nice thought while driving (yes, sometimes i write and drive)

2010-06-01T08:06:00.000-07:00

i flew over the mountain
found a peaceful land
of flower and vegetable gardens and
gentle, kind creatures

when i grew old and died
my body floated up and away
and turned into a rainbow

my daughter shed tears of happiness
that turned into a crystal clear creek
all the creatures turned to drink from it

my grey hair had been cut
wispy and bright,
it was woven into jewelry
to be worn for generations

p.s. yeah i can get a little hippy dippy sometimes, but so what? it makes me feel good...

2010-04-18T07:35:00.001-07:00

I've been getting back into playing some tunes since I bought my ukulele a couple of weeks ago, and old favorite songs have been resurfacing as I've been looking searching for tabs online...

please excuse the video, it's all i could find for this song

gal costa is amazing..

a favorite from townes...

absolutely LOVE this collab between animal collective's avey tare and mum's kria brekkan

Fooooooood!

2010-03-15T12:50:00.000-07:00

Poppy and I have been cookin' up so much "yumyum" (as Poppy would call it) food lately!

Chocolaty Oat Muffins!

I made Mango Habanero hot sauce and stored it in an old honey bottle. Wow it was so yum! Sweet and spicy! The label reads "Jessica's Pretty Hottey Sauce"

Next we made veggire fritters out of zucchini, squash, and sweet potato! Rolled in corn meal and fried. Poppy loved them dipped in spaghetti sauce!

Then we made orzo in cottage cheese with scallions. Sounds and looked weird, but it was very good and Poppy loved it!
So if anyone wants a recipe or to come over and try our awesome cooking give me a buzz!

Precious Moments

2009-12-11T08:09:00.000-08:00

They really are...

she loves the falling leaves

2009-10-19T19:16:00.000-07:00

We walked down an abandoned train track right down 29 outside of Saratoga. The train used to run from

downtown out to Saratoga Lake. I wish I could remember more about it, but I just wish I could

have been there to ride it in the late 1800's.

Poppy really enjoys shuffling her feet, in leaves, on the floor. She's a dancing fool these days.

The Season for Pumpkin Pickin

2009-10-04T10:44:00.000-07:00

2 big orange pumpkins and one tiny white one. 3 for $1 gourds. blue hubbard squash?

oh we forgot to buy you, but if we would have we would have cooked you.

too bad. maybe we'll get one soon.

pumpkins with peanut warts and teepees on an apple orchard. yellow jackets chasing

us for apple cider doughnuts. 2 hours on a saturday off Route 29

2 posts in one day?! This one's crafty!

2009-09-01T10:08:00.000-07:00

I couldn't stand Poppy growing without me recording it, so I made a growth

chart for her! Her 10 month status is marked just above 2 feet 3 inches!

I used some thick brown paper as my base and sewed the sheets together

with a zigzag stitch. Then cut out some a trunk from an old sheet and

sewed it on with about 8 straight stitches down its length.

Next I cut the bushy area at the top, well I lied I cut it all out and arranged

it, some in front of the trunk some in back. And obviously sewed the

stuff in back of the trunk on first,

then the trunk, then the front stuff.

Gave it a neat effect I think.

Then I laid out the chart and put rulers down each side.

Marked the feet and each inch with a purple crayon, and at each foot I

used alphabet stamps to do the lettering.

Then punched holes on top at either side and tied twine with a loop

knot to form a hanger and a place to stick a white crayon for marking her height.

Hung it on the wall and boom! Beautiful.

I love dreaming up ideas like this using a little inspiration from things I've

seen in books and online,

and combining that with what I've got around the house. And believe me I've

got so much stuff piled around I could start a craft store!

This is a spot in the living room. Hopefully the walls will soon be crayon blue.

No internet at my house leads to lots of pictures all at one time!

2009-08-30T19:25:00.000-07:00

Guess I'll just narrate each photo as it comes...

Mint tea, mint tea, o how I love thee!

Here's my recipe:

4 bags tea (Yogi tea's ginko is awesome!)

Sprigs of fresh mint

A few squirts of Agave

Hot water to fill up a pitcher!

Put em all together then throw in the fridge! Remember to pour the hot water slowly if you're using a glass pitcher, I've seen a couple explode from getting too hot too fast!

We climbed a summit called Sleeping Beauty near Lake George and the view was amazing. Lake George is in the background of one picture. Poppy decided to do a little meditating on the peaceful scenery.

I love this website for hikes in the area: localhikes.com

It's got each hike, spot on directions to the trailheads, pictures so you know which one you'd like to travel down today, reviews, and topography so you know how hard you're about to struggle and how sore you're going to be tomorrow!

We've been on several this summer to swim in waterfalls, upstate New York is so much fun in the summer!

I love these moments. You find yourself not doing anything else but playing and enjoying each

other. Poppy loves it too. That's when she laughs the hardest. When we're all acting like silly

monsters and making the wildest noises and faces and movements. Which by the way reminds me

I'm seeing this movie the day it comes out!!

Popudate: She's holding my finger with one hand and

cruising the apartment, searching for anything to pick up and carry to another locale.

She's falling on her butt then standing back up completely by herself like nobody's business. She's eating

eggo waffles and alfredo pasta at the table with us. In fact she wants nothing else but whatever

we're eating.

on the hunt for a zoo in Saratoga county

2009-08-22T09:54:00.000-07:00

It started out a quick trip down 29 just to check out the road that we live on. We rode out past the apple orchards which are blooming nicely, then into Schuylerville to see the Zoo sign. We decided to follow it for the second day in a row. It's fun on the hunt for a place you know nothing about in a land you've never been in. The day before we had done the same thing, following a different set of Zoo signs, and it led us to a roadside yard sale with no seller. We picked up some wet plates and cups and left a couple of bucks and a note stuck in a door. We saw some farm land and neat lawn decorations and the weird way other people live out in the country. I love it by the way and can't wait to live in the country someday myself.

So here's one of the signs

Kinda makes you feel like what you're about to find is going to be very different from any zoo you've ever been to before.

We got lost of course cause the signs were so small we missed them several times, but we found other stuff...

A tire pile with compost underneath

Wildflowers

That's the kind of lake fun I want on my property when I have property

Amaizing corn.

Then we finally found it after stopping to breastfeed a bit!

But alas, it was $11.00 per adult and we only had $5! But what a cool looking zoo! It's like if I were to have all of these animals in my backyard, that's what it would look like. The peacocks were roaming, the crocodiles were behind chickenwire, ring-tailed lemurs caressed my hand, and handmade signs and gnome statues were everywhere. We are going back for sure!

Kinda glad we didn't go in cause about 10 minutes after we left: downpour!

Food and Fun!

2009-08-12T21:07:00.001-07:00

First the fun, fun water fun!

Then the fun, fun food fun! We really do have have fun making food around here. We've been making

a lot of recipes from Feeding the Whole Family by Cynthia Lair.

The beet soup is amazing!

And the huevos rancheros are amazing too!

And now Poppy explores textures and colors, how much fun is it eating purple food?!

New camera and new house

2009-08-10T20:41:00.000-07:00

Yoga on the new carpet

And yes she is standing of her own accord. She can stand from sitting all by herself, steps are a different story, she lets

loose the rooster trot, forwards and backwards and bouncing up and down.

As far as the new place, lots of cars fly by right outside our front door and our porch has a traffic cone on it, I guess

they deemed the rotten, broken wood a hazard. I'm sure the black plywood they put on top will hold us up for the time

being. I'm trying to figure out this landlord game, their motto seems to be "screw 'em". We signed a lease that said

our place had to be in immaculate condition when move out (i.e. the walls primed, the carpets professionally

steam cleaned, etc.) BUT when we moved in the door to our bedroom was falling off the hinges, there were lots

of holes and nails in the walls and splatters too!, they steam cleaned the carpet the day after we signed the

lease, there were spiders in every corner and dust lining all of the baseboards, there are even piles of leaves

in the windows, the toilet barely flushes, the water's barely warm and they had turned the gas to the stove off

so we had to wait over the weekend to eat any warm food.

Crazy landlords, crazy! I'm going to send them a letter with a little piece of my mind for sure. This is the third

management company I've had to rent from in Upstate New York and not one of them has been timely or

helpful or even fair. The last one, where I lived in Albany, I had to call them 6 times in a day when the ceiling

in my bathroom had caved in from water leaking through and there was water dripping

on my head when I was on the toilet, before they took me serious enough to send someone out to take a look at it.

Why they treat us like this when we pay them so much money hopefully I'll never understand.

Width?

2009-08-02T09:44:00.001-07:00

Purging my computer and found...

2009-08-02T09:22:00.000-07:00

some photos from a lone walk through a park in Arbor Hill last summer, I think I was 8 months preg or closer to 9.

Lake Sacandaga beach day

2009-08-01T18:45:00.000-07:00

And all of a sudden she was the center of our attention

2009-07-24T10:58:00.000-07:00

and she seemed a little nervous and excited too. She peered into each of our faces as we sang her happy 9 month birthday Poppy! She choked on too big a bite of strawberry cake then played with the bows on her presents. All in all it was fun times.

The Grand Ma (We call her GG for short)

2009-07-23T07:10:00.000-07:00

Sometimes being a mama looks really beautiful from the outside too

2009-07-18T12:07:00.000-07:00

What are some things I know a lot about and want to pass on to Poppy?

2009-07-15T13:04:00.000-07:00

Love

Family

Beauty

Sushi

Arts n Crafts