In planning to head "home" with my boys for a few days, I faced the reality that my blankbook is at an end. I thought ahead enough to consider ordering one, but then I thought maybe I could get a kid to go to Flax with me. The days of camp, however, have been hectic schedule-wise and long. So, yesterday, in between one pick-up early and drop-off at art and the other pick-up, I ran into Flax just to get a journal. They were out of what I wanted, so I thought I'd get the same size in a Moleskine this time. I had it in hand as I grabbed the other essentials (new Pitt S just in case, a bottle of rapidograph ink, etc). I was trying to pick out a smaller (though bigger than mine) sketch book for the oldest to take. His is so big... And then I noticed the warnings on the Moleskine displays... huh? Warning signs for cancer causing substances. Huh? I admit, it gave me pause. I put back what I had and got the size I wanted in the Hand*Book, just the wrong orientation. But... health-safe, I assume. (By the way, Hand*Book has a new watercolor one out that has a linen colored cover and comes in three sizes including a very unusual narrow 'strip' size landscape one... really cool!)

Anyone else run into the warning?

I'll skip the preamble that might explain why I ask this... why I'm out looking... but I am curious if any of you have used Inktense colored pencils (by Derwent)... and what you think. On top of that, I'm curious what your favorite mediums or tools are for color... for many of you, I know, the answer will lie in paint. But not for all of you. What do you love and why?

Really, I'm mostly just curious.

Episode 152 of the Creative Mom Podcast is live... it's all over the place. "Catch-up" shows are rarely as tightly woven as they should be. The above photo was a reference photo for a piece talked about in this episode. The photo was taken... wisely... before it was accidentally toppled the next day.

Yesterday I paused and realized how grateful I was that I took time to make rice pudding Sunday with the recipe Gooma8x left at my house. I was skeptical, but it worked. And I made double. And so there is plenty for a seemingly decadent bowl of rice pudding with my toast while I work in the mornings. A simple thing. And yet it is one of the good things.

I've had a note in my journal for a while now to reply to a new listener who heard me mention a sample issue of "Puzzle Blast." It was forever ago - and by "forever" I mean 2006... a reality that surprised even me when I finally tracked down the files. Those of you who've been here all that time know that Puzzle Blast and the CMP came into being right around the same time. Only the CMP remains, by a string.

But when I look back and see the issues of Puzzle Blast that I did -- hopeful issues... something so tied into my parenting and my oldest child at that time -- there is a sense of wistfulness. These are pieces I'm proud of. It was a venture I really was excited about.

At any rate, there really are 3 full issues and 1 sample issue... and in the way that data collects and gets moved around and misplaced and shoved onto one drive or lost on a defunct computer or falls prey to some other virtual misplacement, it took me a while to locate copies. Here's the link to the sample one. It's a PDF. Print it out and take it with you for your next meal out or road trip. Just ignore any subscription info. It's invalid.

Anyone interested in the other three issues (longer than the sample)? I'm happy to post them.

Tonight was a different night. But last night, I read Calvin and Hobbes to two. We've read them all, I think, but I keep checking them out because in a pinch (and we are in a pinch often these days), it's the one thing almost guaranteed to get them both. As we cuddled together, three in a twin, a silly one got the best of them. They laughed and laughed, and the one on my right said, "I don't want to break my laugh box!"

That was quickly followed by the question, "Mama... can you die of laughing?"

When they both fell asleep, one on each side of me, I crawled out and left them there, the one immediately rolling to sidle up next to the other. And yes, I went back in after a cup of tea and sat in the floor and did the quickest of sketches. Just enough to remember the moment. Just enough to remember that sketching them - asleep - was how so much of this all started for me.

It seems like forever ago.

I wish all the nights were like last night.

Well, I was going to post to Facebook... my own Facebook stream... but really I'll only see maybe 3 of you that way. That it's easier and more inviting is probably why I am always tempted to update there but rarely find my way here. That I don't have the time to pull photos and post them... is also why I don't post here on the blog. The photo seems requisite. I DID take a photo the other day that goes with a story from the weekend... and I just haven't gotten that far.

Typing... I can do.

And fast.

And thinking... I can do.

And too fast.

But other things? It's harder these days. Everything is harder. And yet, there are so many niggling little things that are just the tip of the sour icing iceberg. They're the things I'll talk about and whine about and rant about... and yet not really the "big" things. Does that make sense?

Anyway, things come in threes... I know. I've had so many sets of threes. But I find myself waiting for the next three in the little bad things that happen. Yesterday, I rushed home from the grocery and started to put things in the downstairs freezer (the fridge we moved down there a decade ago when life was good and more lucrative and we remodeled the kitchen). So I reached in to put frozen things away... only to grab a bag of frozen lasagna and find it ... mushy...

And then I realized... the freezer wasn't really cold... and lots was mushy.

So, there was that. I unloaded everything upstairs and threw out what I could upstairs and moved what I could upstairs and then raced to get us out of the house for a birthday party a half hour away. I stopped to write down directions, and we raced off.

But I couldn't find the road.

I turned around and was getting worried so I called home for help. As I pulled into a driveway to turn around, I realized a motorcycle cop was blocking my way. That's right... I'd picked up the phone to call home for help.

Today... I'm working, of course, and yet my mind is spinning with a zillion things... and I actually think I need to print a calendar to make notes on. But I quickly realize... mid-year is not when you start keeping a calendar! I'll look into a printable solution when I get a break in a bit.

Well... that could mean a lot, I guess. But in this moment, it felt like the right title. Considering it... and so just a few stray marks here on the blog to show that I'm considering it...

And, really, there was a list in my head... which prompted me logging in here. And now... it's gone.

Well, I am considering it.

And there are details to share. There is another quilt to share, in fact. But the one above was given to me for my birthday. Isn't it gorgeous!

This piece was my response to Creative Therapy catalyst #112. I'll be talking a bit about this piece (and the process that led to it) in Episode 150 this week on the Creative Mom Podcast. That this piece features 40 blocks was no accident. That the Catalyst it appears under is numbered 112 is something I couldn't have predicted. It's a private symbolism that makes me catch my breath. Strange how things sometimes happen!

Without a doubt, this is one of my favorite parts of what I do with Science Buddies. It's not even a part I expected to be doing, but it's a perfect fit. I was working on something this morning and took a few screenshots of recent newsletters, and I just love the "look" of them from afar... all those little quadrants and boxes of information... clean design... just enough... and fitting with the overall tenor of the Science Buddies' identity.

Am I the only one who gets excited about this kind of organized, visual, creative outlet? I doubt it!

I've got another bit of pen and ink up this week at Creative Therapy 110. Less formal than recent pieces... but it's out there.

Looking forward to these coming out next week!

Pen and ink in response to Creative Therapy Catalyst #108. I tried several times, and the scan was bad each time. Frustrating!

This is one that didn't turn out quite as I'd hoped, though it's stronger, and the values are easier to read and distinguish between, in person. This is from a series of photos I had a friend take, all of which are important for me in capturing these days in this year in this life.

At the end of the day, it seemed all I'd sewn was a stack of flying geese. Symbolic? Maybe.

Episode 148 is live.

My social media streams make me constantly hungry these days. Just yesterday, there was a wonderful pea soup, a cool pea-based appetizer, and a "buffalo"-style dip. As I go into these next few months, being insatiably hungry is SOOOOOO not what I need to be! While I definitely give in to some things, some of these things just look and sound good - a bit of book eye candy - in theory.

I am entertained, however, by the fact that both Whoopie Pies and Macaroons have yielded new books of their own from Chronicle Books. I think it says something about where we are in these days, what comfort we crave and look back on... maybe.

I've got art live at Creative Therapy this week for Catalyst 105. Maybe it looks like I'm in a rut, but a quilt is not just a quilt is not just a quilt. This one was a challenge in many ways, and I've never seen this quilt in person so it was hard at times to figure out what was going on with the pattern I could see in the photo!