Switchin' It Up

Hi Friends and Followers,

This is a picture of me and Violet on a recent (and infrequent - thank goodness) asphalt jungle shopping spree.

Kinda gives me the feeling of having one foot out the door. Appropriate here because with the help of my friend Jay Elling of Umbrella I have been able to reconfigure my web presence and make travel between my blog, shop and regular site a little more seamless.

What this means to you is that my blog is relocating to www.crispina.com. This is the last post you will see here at Blogspot. The most difficult thing about making the switch for me was the risk of losing my trusty followers. Jay and I are working on making it possible to follow me at my new blog location. In the meantime I hope you come see and check back often.

Thanks for all your input here and I look forward to showing you around a bit more at my new digs. www.crispina.com

Book Release Party!

Hard to believe that my book is actually complete and soon to be out in bookstores nationwide! We will be hosting a Book Release Party in the studio on August 27th from 6-9pm. There will be snacks and drinks, a crafting table and live music.
At 7:30 all the items featured in the book will be auctioned off with a live auction with our local celebrity auctioneer, Cheryl Hutto.
Auction items will be posted online for off-site bidders who want to participate.

The evening promises high-jinx for all!

Visual Notes from the Last Ten Days

Between raindrops, during this very rainy summer in the Berkshires, are a collection of images from my last 10 days. Starting at the top left corner:

• Lucy's first installation work - post-it prayer flags
• Ben behind the wheel - that is his car, next to the one he is driving. I have confidence!
• Bridget's Alchemy Initiative Chamomile harvest
• On the drive home from Sam Bittman's garden tour and planning session
• Valerie and Jade weaving a rug at my Potholder Rug Making Studio Workshop
• Lucy doesn't like having her picture taken
• Violet loves it!
• Today's misty morning at Pittsfield State Forest
• Poured concrete sculptures in recognizable containers at Storefront Artist's with Filis
  

My Book!

As the days pass my excitement builds! I spent a year working on the words and technical illustrations and in a month all that work will be available to everyone!

Email your pre-orders to me crispinaffrench@gmail.com and I will send you a signed copy by mid August. $20 includes shipping!

YAY!

A Couple Things

1.
Since my hubby and I own a church - AND have considered structuring our business entity housed in it as a church to reap exemptions - I found my new water bottle exactly what I needed!
My friends at BlueQ come up with the funniest stuff!


2.
From where I was standing when turning to grab the days diaper bag and head upstairs ~ that birthday hat on the shelf was on my head! Gave me a good 'out loud' chuckle.


3.
Soft opening of my Atelier at Alchemy Initiative on Thursday evening during the screening of Meryl Joseph's City Farmers. Movie starts at 8pm shop from 7 til 8
40 Melville Street in the heart of Pittsfield, MA 012o1

Sisters with Haircuts

Atelier Series

Working on a custom king sized blanket for some friends. What a treat! Left me lots of room for creativity with simple parameters of color and size.

The first of my Atelier Series ~ The former production studio is morphing into an Atelier. Come shop or visit on Wednesdays from 9-5 or by arrangement.

The soft opening is scheduled for Thursday evening - coinciding with Alchemy Iniative's screening City Farmers - a documentary made by Meryl Joseph about community gardens in NYC.

Happy Birthday Brittany!

This summer I am fortunate to share my studio with a creative, self disciplined, smart RISD intern.

Brittany took off for a long birthday weekend in Maine. Her sister is visiting from Iowa and she just turned 20!

Fun to celebrate a day she'll probably remember for a good long while!

Diane, Okemo, and I surprised her with a slice of very delicious vegan Chocolate Cake!

(Can you tell in the picture we were faking? We couldn't find any matches! hahaha!)

Gardening, Drawing, Working in the studio

Working on the 2010 Dolphin Studio Calendar. Making color separations and learning ALOT

Eating salads from the garden most nights.

4th of July Weekend in the Berkshires

Traditionally the 4th of July is the start of our tourist season here in the rolling hills of western MA. As a kid it meant inhanced possibilities for high-jinx. As an adult there is still that sort of magic that comes with jumping into the height of 'the season' as well as other more mundane concerns like timing errands, grocery shopping, and trans-county travel.
This year the weather has been pretty unusual - lots of rain. Rain that sort of sneaks up on you and then leaves as abruptly as it arrived with a drenching soak in its wake. The garden is GREEN - and my laundry on the SLOW cycle!

On account of the un-summer-like weather I sort of forgot what Great Barrington is like during this season. None- the less, Berkshire Arts Festival at Ski Butternut in Great Barrington was a lot of fun on Friday – the girls had a great time while I was able to browse the great quality crafts –
always with one eye on the bouncing kids.

Notable was the stained glass mosaic work done by a guy from Maplewood, NJ named Michael Solomon.

A family from Maine who made super cool spinklers - the girls got soaked - and LOVED it! When I find their card I will post a link.


Friends and I had gone to seek out a dear friend and future Alchemy Initiative workshop teacher, Janice Shields - of Cut It Out. When the daily drench surprised us we headed for the
car without finding our friend. It was great to soak up some D for a while anyway.

The girls were most impressed with the homemade small farm icecream and the chairlifts. They would like to get one.

Friday night I got a couple hours in the studio – finished a trio of baby blankets. My heart is content when making – edging blankets with just the right touch of color and texture sensation that magical stripe around
the outside, completing things. Ohmmmmm


This morning I wound up posting the three in my shop. You can see them on the left hand side bar – if you click it you can see all the things for sale there.

Hung the laundry in the fleeting sunshine then off the the parade with the girlies while Chris was working on some plumbing next steps at the Farmhouse.

Funny to think that we were all sporting windbreakers and sweatshirts on this normally HOT day in the Berkshires!

The Baltimore Police Association Marching Band was our favorite! They had go-go girls in swishy beaded skirts and tassled boots, a man who filled the space in the circle of a tuba belting out the low notes and a jumpin'jivey beat.

Alot of the participants are very serious - there are banners from sponsors that go by without any accompanyment - droopy kids on either end of the banner shuffling along wishing the parade was shorter.

The multi cultural dancers were bright and cheery as were the Dalton Firemen who cartwheel on demand!
I think I saw Richie Rich in giant balloon form. There is a funny memory associated with that character that will have to be saved for another time.
Every year I think how much a little added creativity would enhance the festivities. One year I will think of it in time to do something about it! Bread and Puppet-esque figures, art cars, crazy handmade bikes. This year I have a lot of creativity swelling up in and around me. It is fun and demanding of my time in the best way.

Pittsfield Hosts a Green Panel Discussion

Come see what we have in store!  My hubby Chris, of Cesco Plumbing and Heating - the Biodiesel Specialist, myself and a couple of other Berkshire Greenies have been invited by Pittsfield's Green Committee to be panelists on Thursday afternoon at the Berkshire Museum.  I am excited to have an opportunity to talk about what we are doing at Alchemy Initiative and spread the message of scaling back our consumption.  Once I have my talk finished I will post my notes here.  

If you are local come by and participate!  After the discussion Pittsfield's Third Thursday festivities will be in full swing.  I will have a table in front of Dotties where you can stop by and buy my latest wares or just have a chat.

Also we are having a Summer Solstice Garden Party on Friday evening.  There will be live, old thyme, bluegrassy music and dancing beginning at 7:30pm.  Bring a picnic to enjoy on the lawn of our urban farmhouse!  $10 donation will pay the bands.

Jiggety Jig

Our trip home began at 3am when Chris and I woke, packed up the girls, and gave middle-of-the-night good-bye kisses to John and Primm as they slept. We could see city lights of Galway twinkling across the bay as we closed the garden gate for the last time.

So the plan was:
Shannon, Dublin, JFK, shuttle to GCS, Metro North to Wassaic, to Warren picking us up in Chris' truck. Then home - for a garden harvest dinner with the Alchemy Initiative peeps - and bed hhuuuuh!

We were due to arrive at JFK at 1pm local time, but arrived an hour early.
We caught the Grand Central shuttle just as we arrived on the sidewalk.
We got to Grand Central where there was a train leaving in 15 minutes - rather than the two hours we were planning.
We took the train to Wassaic with two, still well behaved, easily engaged little girls - without a plan on our next step or a cell phone to make one.

Ben lives with his dad 10 minutes from the station so we thought we
could go visit him and meet Warren as scheduled - BUT as we were pumping the last of our $7 worth of change into the payphone, trying to get a live person on Ben's end, Warren pulled into the station - 2 hours ahead of schedule! I was just starting to loose my cool and was SO happy it all continued to work so smoothly.
As we were leaving the station, Charlie, Ben's dad arrived having gotten all my messages.
We stopped for icecream on the way home.
Dinner was a loving re-entry. The food was superb, Scott made polenta with home tomato sauce, Jess Conzo made goat cheese and mushroom quesadillas, and a huge lovely salad from the garden, Diane brought a dish of sauteed carrots, chard, and quinoa.
Reconnecting girls flitted into the evening dancing around bountiful beds, shoes off, on the ground and happy.
Violet mastered the slide with coaching from Ella - all by herself!

Morning came after a deep and comfortable sleep - Okemo and I went for a run.
Chris went to work. The girls and I went to Dotties to catch up with Jess Rufo.
Dinner was at Dream Away Lodge to catch up with Daniel and others we had been missing. The car belongs to Rip - the herd of kids I was hangin' with loved it!
Fheeeuw! It was a long couple days. Good to be home with the space needed to see the magic.

Galway Playground

Since we arrived here in Ireland we have been searching for playgrounds. My friend who lives here gave me directions to a few. Playgrounds in Ireland are not located in every town or at every elementary school like w are used to in the states. Yesterday we finally made it to a playground - the girls were in HEAVEN!
We started the day by meeting Nicholas - my Dublin cousin at the Galway train station. We wandered down shop street and around the canal to the main cathedral and came upon this truly magical place.
There was a play yard for little ones my kids' age, a climbing gym for older kids where Lucy took a try adn a skate park for teenagers who were out in droves. Even the public outside bathroom was memorable. It cost 20 cents and was fully automated. The money went in a slot the door opened with an automated voice notifying the user of this happening. The door then closed. The lock button was like an elevator button on the inside. Everything about the washroom was spotless, clean, and automatic. After
each use there is a cleaning cycle - sounded like a dishwasher!
We spent a couple of hours playing in the sunny weather with a herd of shorties. Everyone had a lot of fun. The girls slept all the way back to Kinvara.

Smoothing Out My Web Presence

I've got Facebook for myself and Facebook for by biz. There is this Blog, and the Alchemy Initiative Blog, my website, Twitter, Flickr, Etsy, Gmail, and Constant Contact. So many places to go and people to virtually meet! Now that I have some familiarity with it all I am working to smooth it out, to make it consistent and easy to navigate. As I dabble in the technology I keep running across other post ideas and friends online with super interesting/intriguing sites of their own - adding hours to the learning process but keeping me inspired and learning. Check out Spoonflower. The image here tells you a little about what they have to offer. HOW COOL! I haven't used their services yet but am jazzed about the possibilities!

Naked Lights

The station attendant said it meant exposed flames. Cost 55 Euro to fill the tank. Good thing we are getting 43 miles to the gallon!

Recycling Trash in Ireland

Since our arrival I have been carefully separating our trash in the same way we do at home. Plastic, cans, glass and paper, then compost, and finally household trash. As the stuff was accumulating I was working to learn the Irish standards for this part of our consumption. So far I have found this. A bank of receptacles, found in every community, for all different colored glass (must be separated by color), and beverage cans (must be crushed). There was no place for any sort of plastics, paper, or other sorts of cans. My work to figure it out continues.
While grocery stores charge for shopping bags in an effort to reduce litter, I have noticed that there is a lot of trash on the beaches and roadsides. People are shameless about tossing stuff out their car windows as they hurtle along on the very narrow and windy Irish roads.

As far as the compost goes, we fed it to the cows across the street.

Irish Inspiration

This post is to inspire you - my readers to check out these pictures taken on my Irish travels, and join in the flower making fun on June 26-28 at my flower making workshop. I still have room on all three days -

This post if also for my friend Diane who takes AMAZING pictures of flowers, morphs them into art and helps me at the workshops.

The details on the workshops are:

• They are held in my studio in Pittsfield, MA.
• 10-4 each day
• $150 per day
• Come one, two or all three days
• One and two day students can come on any day/s that work/s.
  

Scroll down to see what the flowers I have made look like and email me at www.crispinaffrench@gmail.com if you have any questions or want to register.