That we have an almost president who volunteers at foodbanks

Play Obama On The Importance Of Helping Those In Need

CBS 2 Chicago - Wed Nov 26, 2:58 PM ET

President-elect Barack Obama talks with CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery about the importance of helping those who don't have enough food at Thanksgiving, while he and his family give food out to the needy at a South Side church.

And that there are art shows devoted to sketchbooks

The Sketchbook Project

And that I am so enormously lucky to have friends, family, food on my table.

Searching, determined to help more people, more.

Happy Thanksgiving!

If you are in the Rochester New York area and want to see a good gathering of crafty-arty-homespun goodness, the Second Storie folks are doing it again. This year I'll have my paper dolls out on Saturday (I'll be on a plane to Atlanta on Sunday) and I'm really really really looking forward to it.

More about Second Storie is at http://www.secondstorie.net/ and on the image below...



I'm off then to make more paper dolls, to keep making, thinking, and being grateful.

goodnight
Rachael

Every year we go with a group of friends to a national park, a protected seashore island, where we camp and soak in the place. I have a dream this time to draw armadillos, to fall asleep on the beach and to see the full moon above the live oaks. I have packed enough watercolor paper to share and for inspiration I am looking up Mark Catesby's fascinating paintings and prints of the these amazing places, more here...

best
Rachael

I was trying to sew a skirt on election night. We don't have a TV anymore (haven't for years) but I had the radio on and I was hopped up on coffee from a meeting with my closest advisors and anyway it was bowling night so I thought I'd try a skirt but then the news started coming in and it was exciting and my seams started getting crooked, and I wasn't sure what I'd pinned and I hadn't pinned, and then I lost all concentration and just listened to the new president elect talk about changing the world by coming together.

Rock on! We can do that, can't we?

My skirt's for naught but my spirit is back on track. With the presidential election over and a real feeling of joy and optimism and collaborative change in the air, what would have been a simple skirt is more meaningful for it's mistakes (leaning to the left a little in some of the stiches, and not as much backtacking as we've seen) and it's still not a skirt.

I'm still learning to speak seamstress. I've been burdastyling my way around the terms and techniques and the inspiration of sewing, and the inspiration factor is pretty high.

So then, I am officially on vacation and typing this in is too close to 'work' so I'm off...
take care,
Rachael

I have fallen into the world of sewing in such a fast and furiously wonderful way. Hard to describe but I tend to be a bit obsessive about my projects and in the past week or so I have been spending my freetime trying to learn as much as I can about machine sewing. Even knowing that the learning curve (curves are hard to sew by the way) is steep and I am at the bottom, I am really relishing the process.

So what this straight stitching will teach me is a mystery, but the goal this week is a wearable skirt at some point. Buttonholes be dammned and zipper seams will simply have to cooperate as I try again and again.

There is a relaxed and rythmic way in which the bobbin and the needle dance through the fabric (I keep trying new ones mostly the cheapest most cotton-y things I can find). There's a hum the the machine makes that I find soothing and the joy of the pressed seam is one of accomplishing practical tasks.

More process than product at this point but I don't mind...

Rachael