Shawna's New Do

Last night, after driving school, I took Shawna to her favorite restaurant to get her favorite Caesar Salad. Here she is with her friend drinking Emergen-C because they both feel a little under the weather. Not sure if it is allergies or a cold, so this is precautionary. Notice her hair in this photo. Long, grown out Mohawk.

Today, after Phil picked her up from school, she went into the bathroom and closed the door. Nothing weird there...then came the sound of the buzz cutter...

After awhile I was curious so I went in to check out her new do and this is what I saw...her sitting on her bed doing algebra with a shaved head. She looks gorgeous, but she won't look at the camera.



I really want a photo because our friend and honorary Auntie Annalisa is in Switzerland and feels left out and asked me to send a photo...nope.



She was being a punk so I put the camera in her face to try to get her to relent...all in good and goofy funness of course...this is what I got.

You see, we've been having this good natured family disagreement about Senior Portraits. We want her to have them done and she is adamant about not getting them done, so this all plays in to it.

A little while later she came out and asked me for a ride at 4:30. I told her no because she wouldn't give me a picture, she was fairly shocked because I always say yes. She went back into her cave and shut the door. Hmmmm. I could tell she was plotting. She came out and had lunch with us and we all bantered around about Senior Portraits. She suggested that I should like to have a photo of her in her natural habitat instead of in a sterile studio, to which Phil quipped..."then give her a photo here!" I told her we could hire one of the three photographers that live on our street to have her portrait taken in her natural habitat, but she wasn't really going for it.

After lunch she allowed me to take a few shots in weird places and didn't give me any time to take a proper photo...those are the next three shots. You'd think if she just stayed still for five seconds the pain and suffering on her part would be over...but no, she continued to give me a hard time.







As she and Phil and Value left, I decided to be a pain of an adult and followed her as if I were the paparazzi. Snapping shots off as often as my camera battery would allow.


Isn't she pretty?


This is the final one...I think it is hilarious and reminds me of my own teenaged angst when my parents wouldn't leave me alone about something that I didn't think mattered...to me anyway. Because as a teenager, isn't it all about ME? You can see that Phil, in the background, is quite amused with his two girls.


And just because she was being such a little punker, here is a photo of her when she was about 13 with black hair. At this time she had a boyfriend and wanted me to take photos, and actually posed, but now she is too cool for that action! Gotcha!



Love you girl!

Impromptu Neighborhood Ice Cream Social

Tonight Phil and I had the honor of baby sitting our good friends' two toddlers, Sarah and Shawn. We have been looking forward to this for a couple of weeks. We live in a wonderful neighborhood with six kids from two families and we all played together and had brownies and ice cream. Here are some action shots of our evening together...it turned out we had eight children from two and half to ten years old, and seven adults, only two of them being parents of any of the kids. It was an awesome evening.


Here Black Ninja Girl chases Toddie around the car...


Steven watches Shawn hit a home run!


The kids all bounce around on the trampoline like unsecured luggage in the belly of an airplane.


We looked at and later fed the beautiful, furry legged spider living next to my front porch.


Can you believe I took this photo of Melia and me while there were five other kids bouncing on the trampoline? That's a steady hand for you!


Phil, the Potions Master, sits as the children make their "poison potions" with water, soap, glitter paint and THIN sticks, not fat ones!


Phil and Melia smiling big for the camera!


The poison banana potion...we didn't have an apple...a banana had to do. Check out that glitter paint!


Farmer Girls in Glittery Dresses! Oh yeah!


And last but not least, I did my best to get a complete group photo but, well, that was like herding cats, so I was happy with this cute photo.

We are blessed to live in a wonderful neighborhood where we know all of our neighbors and love them dearly. What a wonderful Friday night we all had together!

~ The soul is healed by being with children ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

It's been a Loooong time...

Alot has happened since I last wrote on this blog.

May 6, 2006 Phil and I were married and I created all of the flowers for corsages, boutonnieres, bouquets, table center pieces, wedding arch, etc. Here's proof! We deputized Sonny Angel, owner of Sonny Angel Motorcycles in National City/San Diego, CA to perform the marriage ceremony. He is an inspirational man and has always been a huge supporter of our union. We had a fantastic day!

In early January 2007, I welcomed a new studio cat into the world of Curious Creek Fibers, his name is Mr. Cosworth Motors, AKA Rocket Boy or Roo. The first two photos are him when he was about 10-15 weeks old, and the third one, he is sitting with our friend and neighbor, Ryan summer 2008. Cosworth is a big boy now!

December 16, 2007, Phil and I took in a wonderful young lady and our lives have been immensely enriched. Shawna is a senior this year and has a kitten of her own. His name is Value and he brings a lot of that to her life! Here is Shawna modeling a Lucy Neatby pattern for her Faroese Flower Shawl made in Curious Creek Fibers Omo yarn. She's a wonderful young woman and she has brought a lot of Value to our lives as well.

December 27, 2007, my Daddy went to sleep and didn't wake up. The weather for his funeral was exactly how I was feeling inside. Blustering loud wind and driving rain and sleet during the funeral and graveside service. Then the quiet of snow all afternoon during his wake, the quiet of him being gone, no more conversation, just quiet.

I sure do miss the old cowboy.

This is a photo taken in 1972.

That's all for now folks. I am endeavoring to journal more often as I find my memory isn't as sharp as it used to be. Did you know you can get your blog made into a book? I think that is neat and I know I will appreciate it when I am old. er.

Mr. Knick Wiggles

My boy passed on. He left on his twelfth birthday. He changed me for the better, anchored me in reality when I was struggling. He was a true best friend.

Knotted Pile Rug Workshop

Philip and I took a knotted pile class last month with Sara Lamb. She is a fantastic teacher and an all around nice person. Here is the progress we made in class. Phil was the star student, I think his math brain just got it and off he went. He wound his first ball of yarn in this class. I was such a proud mate!

Phil is working on a spider design.

I am working on a star design. This is how much we both finished in the class.

This is how much I completed while watching the Olympics one night.

I took this class because Sara does some amazing work with silk knotted pile. She seems to specialize in bags (that is what our samples will turn out to be when we finish them)and recently she made a really awesome hat. Check out her blog archives on September 13, 2005 to see the hat. I would like to use this technique for cuffs and collars on art to wear pieces. That way I won't be spending years completing one piece, such as a floor rug, and I'll have that lovely silk next to my skin with it's beautiful pictures in fiber where I can see it! For some reason the link isn't showing up in blogspot, so here is Sara's blog http://www.saralamb.blogspot.com/

Creative Endeavors

I have been working on the Cottage Tea Cozy in Knitter's Stash by Marji LaFreniere. It is a perfect gift for my dear Irish sister in law. Here are a couple of photos of the work prior to the fun part, the embroidery and futzing with embroidery floss, ribbon, beads and other goodies. I am still trying to work out a way to make a miniature wind chime. Her birthday is today, I am late and she will understand. She truly appreciates and uses hand made goods.

I used a single strand of Cascade 220 on size 10.5 US needles for the building of the cottage, and a single strand of Curious Creek Fibers Nakuru in Rock Grotto for the roof, shutters and door. I think I will put a hose in the backyard and another set of shutters and flowers, rather than just decorating one side. It will be seen from all sides and this is a true Irish tea drinking lady we're talking about!

You Are Gonzo the Great

"Is something burning in here? Oh, it's just me." You're a total nutball who will do anything for attention. The first to take a dare, you'll pull almost any stunt. You're one weird looking creature, but your chickens don't mind!

The Muppet Personality Test

Beginning A New Textile Collection

Saturday, Phil and I had the opportunity to be the first people to look at and purchase items from Estelle's large Textile Collection. This is the most prized piece, in my opinion, of many wonderful peices we purchased. It is Nigerian fabric dyed in indigo with sewn and tied resists. It is large enough to cover a queen size bed!

Estelle Carlson Leader on these Fiber Trails

The following is a statement of love that I delivered at a memorial service for an artist in the fiber arts community of Los Angeles and the United States as a whole. She was a teacher, a traveler and an inspiration to all who ever met her. Estelle Carlson was an internationally exhibited artist who died with courage and grace of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) better known as Lou Gherig’s Disease on October 27, 2005.

This blog comes from my desire to document my art and the great gifts of inspiration and looking at the world through new eyes that Estelle gave to me throughout her days of dying and upon her death in the bequeathing of her extensive textile reference library and looms to me. A gift I still am amazed to have.


For those that don't know me, I'm Kristine Brooks. I met Estelle only two years ago, as a student in a Shibori in a Jar workshop she taught in San Diego. My fiancé Phil and I helped her move to San Diego to be near her sister Cathy in October 2004, brought her back to Pasadena to visit Alfred (her ailing husband) many times while he was still with us as she was unable to drive any longer. Phil and I were part of her primary care giving team until she passed.

What always struck me about Estelle was her indomitable spirit. She never let her illness or difficulties break her will. Even as she lost the ability to do many of the things she loved to do, she didn’t dwell on the past, or mope. She always had plans.

A few weeks before she passed, she looked over the schedule for the Symphony season, and asked us to get her tickets to some upcoming performances, including up to next March (2006). One of those was for a performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony, the Ode to Joy, which started at 2 P.M. today (December 11, 2005). If she was still with us, that is where she would be right now, listening to Beethoven at San Diego Symphony Hall with a rapturous smile on her face no doubt.



She was always about what is now and what is next, right up to her very last day. We spent the day before she died with her, and as we left that evening, she said to me one of the very few things she was able to clearly get out that day. She said "I will see you ... tomorrow." Estelle said this with that well known flourish of her hand that those of us who knew her have seen many times when she was happy.

She met every day with grace and optimism, and did what she could, and let go of what she could no longer do. That level of courage is, and has always been, rare. We each can only hope to be as strong when it is our time.