tablecloth clothes

The tablecloth clothes have turned out great! I really want to give away all of the kids clothes that are store bought... but I still need to acquire certain skills, so shirts are next on my list to learn how to make. here are some recent pictures of the skirts and pants that I have been working on. I'm going to turn some of the pants into bloomers and work on a pair for myself as well!!

Fair's 6th Birthday!

Our first born turned 6 on Monday and I'm really not too freaked out about it. I did wait until I was in my mid-twenties to have children, while a few of my friends had kids before they exited their teenage years. People always say that Fair looks like an elf, imp, changeling child and this picture really does capture her "everafterness" I got the idea of making fabric birthday crowns for the kids from amanda soule, off of her amazing Soulemama blog. The kids love them and they can be used until they can't fit them on their heads and even then they can be passed down the line...

http://www.soulemama.com/soulemama/2007/03/a_little_about_.html

Our friend, Navae, eats mostly raw foods and makes the best and healthiest dishes. Above is her raw mango and peach cobbler with cashew butter topping. Many people want her recipes, but like Michael, she really makes them up as she goes and based on what she has around. She has mentioned putting together a cookbook... well "un-cook"book. She has three little ones and her time for projects is limited. Speaking of her little ones... Fair got married to her oldest, Micah, at the birthday brunch. The picture below is of their post wedding carriage ride. I would be very pleased to see our families merge in the future...we'll see if their love survives the teenage years!

Every Sunday we host a brunch and it's usually a full house. There are typically 6-10 kids and sometimes up to 15 adults. Since our friends are diverse in their diets, we prepare vegan, vegetarian, and local meat dishes. The goal is to have everyone bring ingredients and then cook together. The kitchen is crazy and Michael and Mara are the cooking gods so I usually keep friends company and do a lot of the pre and post clean-up. This Sunday, however, Michael got out of cooking and I was in the kitchen helping out. I wasn't able to join many conversations, but I did get out of dish duty!

Fair got to spend time with some of our favorite people and received some great gifts. My favorite was Mara's journal, all handmade down to the binding. I'll post a picture of it soon. Whitman got a few gifts as well... people who are around kids a lot know the possible crisis of younger sibling jealousy on birthdays. I always make a little something for the non-birthday little ones. I had a great time and Fair really loved the whole day. Thanks to everyone who helped make the birthday brunch wonderful!

a work day

the house today was filled with sounds of working... my sewing machine buzzing, ben and michael pulling up flooring and hammering and to kids trying the stay busy and out of our way. They did a pretty good job. I'm almost finished sewing the tree bags and from the looks of the studio, in the picture below, I haven't been keeping up on the organization end of things. I always find my self leaving piles of unfolded fabric and an ever-growing collection of thread pieces at my feet.

We have agreed to do as much renovation work as we have the skills to do, while we are staying in the house. Today we began to redo one of the upper bathroom floors and start the dismantling of the stair case. All day long both Michael and my brother, Ben, commented on the "creative" way ( meaning cheap and seemingly lazy) the house has been worked on in the past. My brother is a perfectionist and managed to beautifully renovate his old house by himself. This pretty much shocked the family, since we had no clue he had those skills. He just says it's common sense and he has had many conversations with contractors. I think he's hiding something...

Whitman asked today if he could do some "stitchin'" and I was more than pleased! He sat down at my feet and stitched away, not once needing my assistance to untangle thread or getting frustrated with any of his mistakes. I thought his design looked like some abstract bird head, but he said it was a "haunted L." The video below is pretty cute. Fair spent most of the day building her own cozy reading nest while keeping her madeline dolls company.

We ended the day with another one of Michael's famous soul food meals. After a full day of work, my stomach is full and now it's time to settle down with the kids for an episode of BBC's Robin Hood. Once the kids are asleep, I'll resign to the studio again in hopes of finishing the bags.

my day in a glimpse...

Fair and Whitman are really getting into activity books. We have been working on lots of decoding puzzles, word scrambles, and even how to understand maps. We were given a kids atlas to the U.S. many years ago and Fair is old enough now to work on most of the activities on her own. It was nice watching the kids work together, without fights. Fair assumes the role of reader and actually gives Whitman a chance to get the easy answers.

Fair went out with Michael today to canvass the neighborhood for his job with B.A.R.K. She's really proud to go out and help daddy protect Mt. Hood National Forest. She says it was fun, but the lots of walking was not so much fun... They did come home with a dozen fresh chicken eggs from some friends they saw along the way.

I also got to witness an awesome transformation of Sara's daughter, Sophia. She's been asking for a pink mohawk... and today was the day!!! Not pink yet, but the most dramatic part is over...

She has the attitude to suit...

Sara and I started working on the next kid's bag design. This is the blood orange so far... Sara took it home to do the stitching and I'm excited to see the outcome! I spent most of the afternoon cutting out fabric pieces and tonight the sewing will recommence!!!!

xoxo

angela

Whitman's First Poem

I love you: Spiders you mother

you airplanes don't fly (junk)!

sticks aren't real, now leaves don't exist.

Trees die every day. Is a myth and

Ghostes don't exist.

That's a myth.

Fences aren't real, but people don't like fences.

--Whitman 2/28/2010 (age 4)

as recorded by our friend Matthew, at one of our Sunday brunches.

tree applique

last night sara and i started working on our first applique. I have never spent much time doing hand stitching, but I thought I'd give it at least one shot. My intention was to use a blanket stitch, but some how ended up making an interesting cross-stitch. Even though it was started by mistake, I decided it was pretty neat and kept with it.

This is a simple tree design for one of the kid convertible bags. I think I will stick with my machine stitching for future appliques and use hand-stitching to accentuate certain parts.

Fair has come a long way on her own stitching. I am only threading her needle and tieing off the ends now. Pretty soon we will be seeing her own works on some bags...

MamaNature Creations : Sara Brown

Shortly after our return to Portland, I reconnected with an old dear friend, Sara Brown. Sara and I share so many common interests and aesthetics. I have always wanted to have a partner in crime when it comes to making art and bags. That desire was shortly fulfilled when Angie, my crazy talented Peruvian dreamer, popped into my life in Missouri, but we both ended up relocating. Now I am determined to bring Sara and I's fires together.
Sara is an amazing graphic artist who incorporates motherhood, nature and spiritual awareness in to her work. It may sound a bit too new-agey, but the way she pursues her art through intense color, expressive lines, and a complex weaving of forms is amazing. I was only able to find photos of a few pieces, but more will come.
The plan, so far, is for Sara to create applique designs for my fair ophelia bags and to collaborate on some more time consuming hanging wall art. The hanging art would incorporate both Sara and I's artistic styles with a combination of fabric and handmade paper/pulp with hand and machine stitching. I'm really excited about starting on our work together.
Sara is a mother of three and has spent the last 11 years of her life focusing on her children. It is so difficult to find a means of subsistence when you are not willing to sacrifice your time with family and being steadfast in your beliefs. I hope by working together we both will be able to foster each others expressive capabilities and create a situation where we will be able to continue to keep our children near and out of day-care.
I have been lucky to have a husband who constantly reminds me that we are on the right path and despite our lack of financial security we have our passion and we will never stop celebrating with friends and family through art, music, poetry and always amazing food. Sara has been a part of our family for some time and now that we are living in the same area I am excited about the possibilities...
here are a few examples:

much love!

tablecloth skirt

here's a better picture of fair and her tablecloth skirt I made. The shirt coloring is also the result of one of our home dyeing experiments with a mixture of onion skins and tumeric. I used tap water for rinsing the shirt and some mineral deposits can be seen on the front side. I found a book on natural dyeing and it said to only used distilled water... next time!!!

bolsas por los ninos

After a month with no sewing machine, i finally paid off my debt for the tank of a machine, the Singer Slant-o-Matic 401A. One of my dream machines! And the four kids bags that were inches away from being finished are done and posted in my shop.

We had a little photo shoot with the kids and i'm off now to continue on the bed ruffle and table cloth skirt adventure. Fair is wearing a green tablecloth skirt in the pictures.

Fair and I are also doing natural dyeing with onion skins, tumeric, etc for the mass of white fabrics I recently found. The outcome so far has been stuning and gives the skirts a great vintage quality.

i'll show off my new machine in the next posting and show our adventure at the anti-police brutality protest we went to yesterday. Portland has a horrible track record, just a few weeks ago an unarmed man, Aaron Campbell, was shot in the back.

my husband's radio show segment on the protest, on BURN

table cloth reconstruction

One of my favorite places to go in Portland is SCRAP. My trip there a few weeks ago was well worth the bus ride from our home outside of Portland.

I found this amazing green table cloth with even more awesome green lace finishing.

So I decided to turn it into a wrap skirt and here it is finished ... i love it!!

For the first time EVER I have organized shelves of fabric. Here's the evidence and we will se how long it lasts.

This is my latest project, incorporating this vintage burlap piece that I found on Esty. I have a really bright and intense purple fabric that compliments the bird colorings. (not that the colors in this picture are anywhere near accurate!!)

more to come...

more house pics

the freakin' huge kitchen

the "presentable" section of the living room
note the amazing Vox organ Pecos B gave us!!!

we have been given the green light to stay here at least for a year, so if we don't get to tired of busing into the city then we will be able to host any of our friends and family who would like to come a visit!
we miss you!!!!!
xoxoxo

where we are...

I just finished this amazing new messenger, finally utilizing a silk piece of fabric embroidered with peacocks, on the flap. I have one more section to make another bag!! I'm still working out fabric combinations for the other vintage and rare fabrics I've been hoarding. It's nice being out of burlap for the last couple of weeks...
I finally have pictures of our new home, in Portland. We actually live about a 30 min. bus ride from the city, but the wooded area is going to be great once the winter is over. the buses out here are limited, but still better than the old st. charles SCAT bus system!! Michael and I take the kids to the library every few days. Fair and Whitman are really into the human body right now. They want to know how everything works and the books with the fascinating pictures of our inner workings keep them wide-eyed.
The following are pictures that I took this morning. We are still waiting on our box of decor to come from grandma, so our walls are a little bare!! disregard the slight mess...

fair at the kitchen table

looking up from the entry way at my sewing studio

more pictures to come...

Costa Rica Bag

Just wanted the share one of the few bags I have made since our move to Portland. I love the Coasta Rican "bird of paradise" design. This was given to me by one of the Chauvin roasters before I left St. Louis. I finally put up some new bags on my Etsy and have some really nice ones that I'm working on. I'm running out of burlap and the supply here in Portland is a lot harder to get a hold of. So I'm cracking into my collection of vintage fabrics and I'm extremely happy with what's coming into fruition... check back soon for updates.

HOLIDAY ORDERS!!!!!

I am now taking orders for the Holidays. Please email me as soon as you can so I can get to work.

fairopheliadesigns@gmail.com or wordsinbminor@gmail.com

No Rain!!!!

Our temporary backyard is huge, fenced, and filled with wonderous hidden toys (from the past family...) and fuschia. our friend Mara showed Fair how she used to turn the flowers into little ballerinas...

fair and whitman had some interesting ways of playing with the "ballerinas"

with their catapult that they found under a bush!!!!

Portland!!!

I've been missing in action, for the past month due to our upheaval from the mid-west and our planting back in portland. Michael , the kids and I are really happy to be in portland. We are house sitting a beautiful place right outside of Portland, in a very woody riverside area. I'm still working on tracking down a good sewing machine... I had to hand mine over to a friend, since we traveled by train. Our laptop died and we are not hooked up to the internet at home, so soon I will have pictures and more time to elaborate on our travels and current adventures. until then... xoxoxoxo

rebecca's bag

I love this bag!!! I was saving the fabric for a special bag and Rebecca was the lucky one. Some of the fabric is part silk, so it is super soft and the eastern design is gorgeous. I love making these one of a kind bags, from the heaps of designer scraps I have, but it would be nice to be able to make other ones as well!
I have a lot of half made bags, from my marathon pre-Strangefolk weeks. I'll be posting bags every few days on etsy... so keep checking in!

BAGS!!!!! ... and more!

ETSY SHOP UPDATE!!!!!

Unschool Family

We are now going on the third week of "unschooling." This has been an amazing adventure and I feel absolutely confident that we have made the best possible choice for our children. We opted to "unschool" rather than "homeschool" because of our belief that children are naturally curious and eager to learn. We go on their lead in what to help teach (more like facilitate and model) and they have geared us into the path of science, especially bugs, and learning about their immediate environment, plant identification and nature walks. Fair is still excited about doing math workbooks and has started reading whole books out loud to us. Her first read was Green Eggs and Ham. Her eyes were so wide and full of glory when she realized she was reading. Now every night when I read to her, she asks me to point out different words she hears and follows along with me...until she conks out.

Whitman is a lot happier now that he is with his sister again. I know that he is learning a lot by just watching Fair. Whitman is 16 mo. younger than Fair, who is 5, and he is not quite understanding some of the more complex scenarios, but he surprises us constantly.

If you would like to read both Michael and I's digest/blog on the family's unschooling experience, go to:

http://www.teachersareeverywhere.blogspot.com/

Anyone that would like to share a skill with us and the kids or go on a nature hike/museum visit, just give us a ring or email.

wordsinbminor@gmail.com

much love

angela

I'm in lock-down for the next two weeks, working on Strangefolk bags... anyone want to help cut some fabric/burlap?