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Thursday, January 17, 2008

Inspiration in Strange Places

Currently my whole family (but most notably my youngest and I) are engaged in hiding rubber rats where they will get the best reaction. (The rats, left over from this Halloween, replaced the spider rings, left over from the previous Halloween, we were using.) They've shown up in stacked cups, on the bristles of hairbrushes, on the nozzle of the liquid soap in the bathroom, etc., and I suspect DH has been disappointed at my not wearing my slippers lately.


The other night I read before bed while curled up in a ball because the bed was freezing. When I was done reading I turned out the light and stretched out . . . and found a clammy rubber rat with my feet. In all fairness this was in retaliation for my stuffing one under the lid of the electric toothbrush, so . . .

Since my youngest doesn't read my blog I'll confide my next target--the pocket of her winter coat. Left one in her sneaker this morning that she will have found at school since it snowed and she wore boots on the bus. My oldest is the next target--working on the best way to surprise her when I'm not around.

We are easily entertained, my husband more than any of us. He makes spinners from paper straw wrappers and thinks the little wad of stickum on magazines is a great toy. A couple of months ago I went into the bathroom to find the recently replaced bathtub plug "planted" in the soap dish. It just screamed "Bob was here."


Well, I found the composition oddly compelling. It had light, it had shadow, it had reflections.


Since one of my current goals is to explore light and shadow (a gap in my education and experience) it seemed serendipitous. So I snapped the photo and have begun. Even did a sketch though I usually avoid it. Gave me some great ideas about where to go from here.



I've been enjoying some handwork, as circles are the easiest of all shapes to applique. Very zen.



Meanwhile I'm clearing up after the tornado that was me finishing up an article for American Quilter. Keep your eyes out for it--it's a how-to on two ways to audition your quilting design on paper before you even baste. Once it's been published I'll post it on my website (www.cindihuss.com) with a link here.

3 comments:

Lynda Shoup said...

We used to hide a rubber chicken around the house. One time we had a very proper guest come to visit. Didn't realise until it was too late that she headed into the bathroom where it was hiding. We heard a little scream, but she came out composed and never said a word about it. She never returned, however.

Cindi said...

I'll have to keep that in mind, especially as we begin showing the house!

Cindi said...

From my friend Lori:

We, very occasionally, play hide-the-black plastic-spider, a la Hussian rat. Last week, early in the week, I came across the spider and dropped it into a glass at the back of the cabinet.

Days went by.

I completely forgot about the spider.

On Saturday, Bob made smoothies for everyone. As i stood in the kitchen, in a peaceful, foggy, early morning smoothie daydream, I suddenly became aware that my darling one was spewing smoothie onto the floor and into the sink. Thus rudely aroused, my first utterance began, "what the....", but that was all I managed, because at that moment a black plastic spider emerged from the aforementioned darling one's mouth.

Not only had the poor man not seen the spider in the glass and so blithely poured smoothie right over it, he then IMBIBED THE SPIDER.

I still can't think about it without hitting the floor.

Aaahhh. Better than coffee!