Wonderings & Wanderings

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Artists on the Move

1 Jul
The rocks of Joshua Tree, as interpreted by a 35-year-old and a 4-year-old.

On our family trip this year we ventured out into the desert for a week of hiking amidst giant boulders and jackrabbits. My husband and I backpacked in Joshua Tree National Park almost a dozen years ago, hauling our water, hiking to abandoned mines, enjoying the quiet vastness of the Pinto Basin. So we decided to go back with our 4 and almost-7-year-old.

Yeah, the second trip was nothing like the first.

We’d hike in the morning, hide out at the hotel during the heat of the day, then bring a picnic dinner into the park. There was whining, for sure. My younger kid would wake up at 6 a.m. with loads of energy and volume, but as soon as he set foot on the trail he would beg to be carried.

But we were prepared. We had read stories about desert animals, geology and artists. We had animal and plant ID pamphlets, and a Junior Ranger activity book. And I had a travel painting kit tucked into my pack.

I packed a set of Staedtler Watercolor Crayons, Strathmor Watercolor Postcards, a handful of paint brushes, and two little plastic pans for water (jar lids or bottle caps would easily do the job). I carried them in a small zipper bag and tossed it in our backpack when we went hiking. With watercolor crayons, you can draw out the shapes with the crayons, then go over it with a wet brush to spread the colors and blend them, and you can even try brushing water on the blank page and then drawing with the crayons over that. We don’t paint a lot at home (what can I say, paint plus toddlers is overwhelming) so this was all kind of new, but low pressure.

I wanted to have a quiet activity for when we needed a rest, but an activity that kept us in the moment and outside. My kids are never silent, but at least we could sit together while we talked about the color of the sky or which rock was their favorite.

The most meaningful and satisfying family vacations we have had are ones in which we found a way to stay engaged with the place we were visiting. By learning about the history of a place, learning about unique rocks or animals that we might see, we get to do more than just see a place, but examine it, be immersed in it. I don’t want to pay thousands of dollars just to get out of the car, snap a selfie, and drive on.

I am going to bring my watercolor kit on hikes or outings this fall, and see if the magic will work again. If painting in the desert was fun, with all its many browns, imagine how thrilling it will be to paint all the colors of a Hudson Valley autumn?

Originally published in Dirt Magazine, July/Aug 2018

Categories:
Dirt Magazine, Family
Tags:
creativefamily, travel

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Who is this Raheli lady?

Raheli is a creative problem solver and fiber-lover in the Hudson Valley. She sews, knits, mends, spins, homesteads and writes, all while trying to get outside a little more often. (She/her) Read More…

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Class is over and socks are (mostly) darned. Thank Class is over and socks are (mostly) darned. Thank you to @fallkillcreativeworks for hosting me! @rachelharrietteb posted a few more photos.

The evolution of a sock darn - #mendmarch  Flux and Extra (days 5 and 6). I taught some darn good students today (😉😬) and now there will be some *extra* mending in the world, and something about how they fluxed into menders?? Uh, maybe a stretch @visiblemend but I am sticking with it.
#mendmarch day 4: FIX Oh look, I fixed my dress. A #mendmarch day 4: FIX
Oh look, I fixed my dress. After wearing it for a year or two with the hem unraveling in the back. It wasn’t unraveling quickly and I didn’t want to lose it to my mending pile... so I figured I would fix it someday... and I did. Yay! 

Dress is thrifted, and backdrop was hand-dyed by @thematerialsdesignco
Darning while talking to myself about my opinions Darning while talking to myself about my opinions about darning (aka: prep for my darning class at @fallkillcreativeworks, aka: kinda weird).
#mendmarch day 3 : cross - in the sense that the warp and weft *cross* over and under each other). But let’s be serious- this is really a photo of those tiny balls of gorgeous yarn that I got from @jbellvavra last year when she was cleaning out her sock yarn scraps. They are so 😍😍😍
Mending Kit: This is a bald-faced lie of a photo. Mending Kit: This is a bald-faced lie of a photo. Yes, these are *some* of my mending supplies and tools... but this desk is inside a whole room of fabric, thread, books, and one very cozy chair with lots of pins stuck in the armrests. But it’s hard to capture all that while actually showing what I use for mending. I mostly used embroidery needles, embroidery thread, scraps of fabric. I occasionally get a specialized item (the darning loom, heavy duty thread, the ripstop adhesive tape) but mostly, mending is about having a cute bag or tin to store your essential items. I mean, it’s about keeping it simple (so my supplies can fit in a cute bag and I can therefore mend anywhere). And by anywhere, I mean, the cozy chair by the fire. Sometimes I assemble my toolbox and serve as a Repair Coach at our Repair Cafe, but sadly it has been a year since it was safe to host one.
#mendmarch day 2: mending kit. Join along this month to work away at your mending pile! And I am teaching a darning class on Saturday - it’s virtual and you can find more info @fallkillcreativeworks (link in their profile).

Bags are from @brooklynhaberdashery and @kzstevens, vintage tin, all my scissors went missing for a while (and which they always do) so they will probably appear later. I do use the pilot frixion pens a lot for erasable marks... and I am using a bag-magnet still in its package (which I didn’t even buy) as a pin cushion even though I have so many cuter pin cushions 🤷🏻‍♀️🤪
Hello #mendmarch! So delighted to see you again! M Hello #mendmarch! So delighted to see you again! My name is Raheli and I have been. mender for 20 years! I mend because even if clothes are sold for very little money, they still have a lot of value. Humans have touched our clothes at every step of their way, and I want to be a good steward of these garments that people made. 
And I love the way mending, for me, becomes a practice of breaking down the Perfection that is presented as our ideal. My clothes get worn and marked by wear, and that is Ok. They break and tear. And that is Ok. It is a constant reminder that I will do these same things - be marked by my years, be broken - and this is hard, but it’s ok, because I can also mend and heal.

I am wearing my mother’s vintage shirt (which needs a hem fix soon), a wool cardigan that was a gift from my husband (mended cuffs!),a hand-dyed scarf from @thematerialsdesignco and a necklace that belonged to my grandmother. I am also wearing a thrifted (and mended) black dress, leggings that came from @dina.andretta by way of @molahandle, and a second cardigan (it’s damp and chilly today) passed along to me by @spreadablefats 😘 

I love that mending (and slow fashion in general) moves from commodity to community.
Look at these beauties! My cousin, @thematerialsde Look at these beauties! My cousin, @thematerialsdesignco is such a talented dyer! Can I wear napkins? Because I am going to wear the speckled napkins (on the left) as bandanas. Except there is also a scarf (purple) so I supposed I will wear that too. Once I stop petting them and making pretty arrangements. 😍 (although if I am being honest, there is a part of me that also wants to cut them up and stitch them into snails.  Or compasses. Must resist! 🤣🤪)
Mid-day photo shoot to commemorate the 53rd snow d Mid-day photo shoot to commemorate the 53rd snow day of 2021. 😉😂
Oh look. It’s snowing again. Oh look. It’s snowing again.
Today’s snail. Number 5. And my favorite so far. Today’s snail. Number 5. And my favorite so far. The white backing fabric used to be one of my grandmother’s cleaning rags. Not sure what it was before that, but maybe a summer shirt?
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