originally i built this blog to chronicle the folk dogs, but now that they are sort of self-sufficient, i don't have a lot to say. look, here is a folk dog. and here is another one. and another. it gets sort of, er, repetitive. so now, the folk dog blog is going to be folk dogs plus some, aka a way for my to chronicle everything from folk dogs to pinterest adventures to health & fitness to photography to (fill in the blank). because it turns out i need a place to put all this stuff, and also i spent a ton of money getting some degrees in creative writing, so, you know, i figure i should write.
i have never been good at resolutions. it seems like i'm so busy over the holidays that the new year sneaks up on me and then it's july. so, how about easter resolutions? resurrected resolutions?
now that spring is here for real, it's high time i sorted out my priorities. so here it goes.
1) stop eating junk. i gave myself a break over the holidays and the holidays have lasted 4 months. i mostly eat a pretty great diet full of protein and veggies. but, in the past few months cookies and m&ms have taken over part of my diet pie chart (those jerks!). so, i gotta back off. although i am at an ideal weight for my height and age and all those other factors, and although i consider myself to be pretty fit, i just don't need the sugar. google doesn't think i need it either ... i googled "oreos" and look what i found. this creepy hugging oreo and mean-looking glass of milk may have cured me of my problem.
2) get to work on the quilt i am going to make this year. i have never made a quilt. i figure now is the time to start. when i look at quilts, i see the design work in them, and as a designer and lover of colors and projects, i think i will really enjoy quilting. i **think.** in fact, now that the folk dogs pretty much take care of themselves, i sort of need a new hobby. quilting, here i come.
this is the quilt i want to make:
gorgeous, right? mine won't be exactly like this, of course, but the colors and half-square triangles are what i'm going for. according to my mom (who **has** made quilts), this will be "easy." naturally, i am terrified. nevertheless, i am collecting fabric, taking my sewing machine (a kenmore i inherited from my mom after she bought her fancy new sewing with swanky buttons and actual brains. the kenmore is older than me; we are talking 35+ years old, here, folks. i hope those parts are good) to the sewing machine repair shop in belgrade for a tune-up, and obsessively re-reading the blog post from which the above image came.
my goal is to get the triangles cut over the course of the summer, sew the squares and rows this fall, and then do the quilting (by hand?!?!?!) in the late fall/early winter. this seems like a completely reasonable timeframe for my first-ever quilt. i may get to it all faster depending on how fast my ancient sewing machine gets fixed. because after i make this one i want to make like a gazillion more.
so the point of this goal is to stop talking about it and start actually in real life doing it.
3) spend more time with these three.
they are growing up too fast. period. kristen, on the left: we share a middle name (marie) and nearly a birthday (she's 8/15, i'm 8/16). she is athletic, funny (knock-knock jokes made up on the spot!), and creative. according to my mom, she is just like me. god help us all. charlotte, in the middle: we share an eye color (green) and the burden of being the oldest sister. she is smart, sensitive, and giving. i witnessed her birth, an event i will remember and cherish for all of my life. danni, on the right: we share a love of life and all of its surprises: balloons in the sky, ants on the sidewalk. she is the sweetest, most precious baby girl, savvy for her age (thanks to her older sisters), and very coy (in case you can't tell). i love her sense of self, how big it is for such a puny little thing.
they're in denver, and i go down as often as i can. as they grow up, i hope i can be as inspiring to them as they are to me. and now that their mom has an iPhone, i figure it's my duty as their aunt to teach them about FaceTime. ;-)
4) keep up a blog. oh wait, i am sort of doing that, right? this was an actual new year's resolution for the past two years, and i am only now acknowledging it. better late than never.
on the nightstand: the big sky, a.b. guthrie, jr.
on the ipod: gregory alan isakov
i got a nice email the other day from an administrator at gallatin gateway school. she was letting me know that students in the art classes at the school were using the 'folk dog style' to paint portraits of their own pets. what fun! the image at the right is by morgan, who is in 8th grade. nice work!
i have a tendency to latch on to the winsome and whimsical, when it comes to folk art. i've mentioned a guy called 
for the two years or so (or maybe more, memory fails me), tart has carried these super awesome paper maché animals by 
ok, so what is the point? the point is that a paper maché moose is now mine, all mine, in one of the best surprises ever pulled off in the history of surprises. (i don't like surprises, really, and i'm a bit difficult to surprise; thus the praise for this one.) the moose that is mine is one i have been eyeing for a little while, complete with polka-dot antlers and delicious-looking green moose food. i love it! LOVE.
you can't really tell from the photos, but it's about four feet wide from antler to antler, and probably two feet from antler tip to chin. this is not it's final hanging place, but it will do for today. or maybe a few days.
i've been thinking about breaking her of this. then, the other day, i came across an entry about these boiled wool dog balls on 
i was at the vet the other day with all three of the knuckleheads, for their yearly check-ups. my vet happens to be a friend of mine, which is a good thing. i highly recommend that you befriend a vet if you have animals. anyway, as the vet was doing black lab selah's exam, she asked what "selah" means and how selah got her name.
the longer answer is that "selah" ("celah") comes from the hebrew word "calah," which means "to hang," and implies hanging a weight for measure, like in a balance. "selah" came to mean "weigh," as in "weigh someone's words," or, basically, that we should measure or value what has been said. that's why so many old testament verses end with it: "Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah." (Psalms 4:4).
case in point: irish setter.
for as long as i can remember, i have been a fan of folk art. i think what i like best about it is the ’self-taught’ aspect. i love that it’s a genre where people who sort of don’t know what they’re doing (in comparison, i guess, to fine artists, and i know that this is not always the case) — and therefore have almost no pretenses or expectations – just go for it and make art. these people are like me. i mostly don’t know what i’m doing. i put paint on a canvas and shape it into a dog.
