introspectator

[introspectator]

When you can only think of toxic posts, so it’s time to go to bed.

#go to bed

[introspectator]

HONK!

She Crocheted Goofy Goose Mittens and You Can Too! HONK! 👉 https://buff.ly/3QxHRbR

[introspectator]

“Paint with me, mommy.” But I didn’t pick up a paintbrush for hours, painstaking pencil taking precedence. With every ruler-straight line, my little house emerged. There’s beauty in the details of every imperfect thing, if we slow down and stop complaining long enough to notice. I sketched a portrait of a loved one: this house. The house I settled for. The stepping stone I’m stuck on 15 years later. Too small, with loud neighbors (a car wash and gas station), countless flaws we’re too broke, too lazy, or too busy to fix. She’s my reflection: how I settle, how I float and wait. She’s also filled with beauty and life, growth and comfort, a thousand tiny improvements. She’s enough for today.

#watercolourpainting #watercolour art #watercolor #watercolour illustration #watercolour sketch

[introspectator]

My mom and I are on a Christmas Crafts mission to replicate her 1980’s felt advent calendar. One of my favorite childhood Christmas traditions, the advent calendar contained a different character of the nativity in every pocket. Now we are making one for my brother’s new baby.

Using the original piece as a guide, we created our own pattern pieces. We definitely took a few creative liberties, and it has been so much fun incorporating jewelry, buttons, and beads from my grandmothers. A family heirloom for sure.

#felt embroidery #embroidery #crafts #christmas #nativity

[introspectator]

This Joseph head I embroidered is giving me Hagrid vibes.

#hagrid #felt embroidery #nativity #textile art #harry potter

[introspectator]

My childhood neighbor taught me to knit when I was 13 years old. She was a master fiber artist who raised her own sheep, processing the wool and spinning it into beautiful yarn.

She wove elaborate shawls and rugs, and I worked with her for several summers as a historical interpreter at a pioneer village. We sweated out our days in 1850’s dresses and petticoats, teaching visitors how the pioneers made things out of wool.

She passed away earlier this year, and her husband and son were kind enough to let me raid her workshop and take some treasures home. I haven’t touched a spinning wheel in over 20 years, but now I own one.

As I knit my first set of fingerless gloves with her needles and yarn, I remember my dear neighbor. The fiber connects me to the past and all the generations who practiced this craft. I feel a deep gratitude to carry these skills and traditions forward.

#knitting #wool #fiber art

[introspectator]

My grandpa’s jigsaw. It’s the only thing I have of his, and it doesn’t work. It’s a “someday” item, an “I could if…” When the space is right, the project, the time. The potential of a broken saw, a bridge to the past. Future projects, echoes of the holiday decorations he (lovingly?) cut for my grandma to paint. Did he sweat and swear over the cuts? Delight? The truth is, I never saw him use it. A saw could mean anything, which is why it waits in my basement instead of gracing the curb with the rest of my cobwebbed hoard. When I finally make that cut, will it mean something? Or is a saw, a saw, a saw?

#diy #woodworking #tools