Here are a few snapshots:

35 down and 65 to go. I’m working on a visual menu of project offerings. I feel like Julie in the movie about Julia Childs, trying to cook through 365 recipies. No deadline though…that’s too much presssure.

Yesterday Paul was out of town and my mom was watching the kids….so I escaped to the workshop to create a little collage made from a matchbox and repurposed magazine pages. It’s a giving box which is as much a gift as the treasure inside. This can be adapted to bigger cracker boxes, cereal boxes and any other kind of box. When you give a box like this, the recipient can in turn give it to another person, keeping it moving and giving indefinitely.

Stay tuned for more ideas…

a cracker box becomes a gift box

a T-shirt becomes a ball of yarn

What a happy, happy day!

Several years ago Paul and I were visiting friends in South Carolina. Their house was too small for guests, so they arranged for us to stay with some friends who had a guest house in the woods. I’ll call them Linda and Bob, because I can’t recall their names at the moment. Linda invited me to join her at her spinning group which gathered monthly to swap and spin fibers from their sheep. We drove and drove through dark winding roads to get there. I’ll ever forget the bubbly excitement of these women, gathering to create, eat, gossip and share. Community. Neighbors joined by common interest, but separated by miles of farmland. It was their time to escape and have fun.

We take a lot of road trips and often stop in small towns to see antique and craft shops. Amish quilts seem to be a common inventory item. I imagine several generations of women gathered around a quilting table sharing skill, stories and wisdom while they all work together.

A creative gathering place. A place to stop. A time to restore. That’s the vision and dream of The Little Bits Workshop. Let the fun begin!

Yesterday I plunked down a big check and in exchange I picked up a pair of keys from a conference table. The deal closed and a door opened. And I say “I” because it’s my idea, my dream. Paul is standing behind me, not in front. This is definitely NOT his idea. He’s more of a 9–5-kinda-guy…do the job, collect the Friday check, go home. Me? I’m miserable in a 9-5 box.Why are the walls always gray cloth in the 9–5 world?

This is the front 1/2 of the new workshop in the raw. The walls are not really quite this gray—a soft green actually. However, I did buy 3 cans of Benjamin Moore, Morning Sunshine today. This green is way too gray and corporate. The tarps are down and I’m ready to roll.

I’m giving The Little Bits Workshop 6 months to fly, if not we’ll rent it out and I’ll go jump in a 9-5 box and join the sad army of moms who drop their kids off in the morning and pick them up at night. Believe me, I’m going to give it every bit of energy I have! Because the door is wide open and I’m foolish enough to walk into a dream…praying I don’t wake up too abruptly.

On December 27, my mom called to say that Grandpa slipped away. We said goodbye on January 2nd and celebrated his life. It was very hard to let go. This was his obituary which ran in his local paper. He was a good man and I miss him very much:

Harold Hunsicker spent hours in retirement working in his basement building clocks by hand for family members.

“He always liked to be creative,” said his grandson Keith Dryburgh of Hilliard, Ohio. “I think everyone in my family has a clock that he built.”

Harold Y. Hunsicker, a research engineer who worked for Alcoa directing the development of aerospace, aluminum cans and architectural products, died on Sunday, Dec. 27, 2009, in Bayberry Court in Lower Burrell. He was 95.

“He liked to be busy and active and involved,” said his son, Jim Hunsicker of Sandusky, Ohio. “He was very involved with his professional activities and his work life, but at the same time was very much a hobbyist.”

Mr. Hunsicker was born and raised in Frankfort, Ind. He earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Purdue University in 1932 and a master’s degree in metallurgical engineering from Case Institute of Technology, now Case Western Reserve University, in 1939.

He worked as a research engineer in the Alcoa Research Laboratories division in Cleveland before transferring to New Kensington in 1958 to become manager of the company’s physical metallurgy division, a position he held for more than 20 years. During that time he authored a number of technical papers, co-authored several books and handbooks and held a number of patents on his aluminum alloy developments.

In retirement, Mr. Hunsicker took up hobbies. When he wasn’t building clocks, he was gardening or traveling, family members said. Over the past four years, Mr. Hunsicker cared for his ailing wife, Alice Kerns Hunsicker, who died in October. They celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary in August.

Mr. Hunsicker was a life member of The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society and Sigma Xi, a scientific research honorary, for more than 60 years. In 1967, he was named a distinguished engineering alumnus of Purdue University and was a co-recipient of Alcoa’s Arthur Vining Davis Award in 1988. In 1986, he co-authored and co-edited, “Lore of Yore,” the history of the communities of New Kensington, Arnold and Lower Burrell.

A 50-year member and elder of Grace Community Presbyterian Church, Mr. Hunsicker served as its treasurer for several years and played in the hand bell choir.

Dryburgh said his grandfather encouraged him and his sister to pursue their interest in music.

“He was always interested in organ music and attended our recitals and concerts,” he said. “He was always interested in hearing us play.”

In addition to his son Jim, and grandson Keith, Mr. Hunsicker is survived by daughters Patricia Ann Tiitto of Winfield, Ill., and Susan Alice Dryburgh of Boardman, Ohio; four grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife; his parents, Samuel M. and Carrie Yundt Hunsicker; a sister, Helena Grinstead; and a granddaughter, Holly Hunsicker.

Grandpa was an inventor, a fixer, a researcher. He had a workshop… a place to create and escape. He loved to make things for his family and friends…especially clocks.

I’ve been so preoccupied by this workshop and getting ready for classes, that I nearly forgot how wonderful Thanksgiving Day was. Above are my four sous chefs who helped me chop, chop, chop in preparation for Thanksgiving. From the left is Thayene the business major from Brazil, Gabriella the lawyer/model from Brazil, Nathan, me, Seda a busines major from Turkey, and Cynthia a law student from Paris. Below are some of our other guests from China, Japan and Korea along with our favorite Uncle Randy! It was a good day. There were 19 of us all together. Most of our students were not familiar with Thanksgiving traditions and history, so it was very fun to share. Everyone went home with a book titled Thanksgiving, A time to Remember, by Barbara Rainey which Crossway was so kind to donate…thanks Geoff Dennis!! A beautifully designed book that I really enjoyed reading and highly recommend.

I’ve been thinking about opening a workshop for a long time…years…scribbling ideas in journals. Project ideas, class ideas, objects to look for as materials, studio space, who might come…and now I’m about to launch this concept that I’ve been dreaming about.

Our downsizing adventure has made me realize that I really do need SOME space, so I went looking for it and found it. It’s a really long story about how this space became available, if it all really happens, it will be a miracle.

Anyway, the dream is a workshop & studio where people of all abilities will learn useful skills. Children from 5 – 85 can come learn how to recycle materials into new functional products or learn old fashioned skills that their parents never taught them. Classes will be designed for specific ages and abilities. The whole premise is to empower creativity and ingenuity. If a child learns the basics of sewing, crocheting, knitting, book making, paper making, collage and how to sew on a button or do a whip stitch. Imagine the possibilities for her/his creative development! Found objects can become a piece of art in the right hands.

How about an after school art studio where kids can make stuff…really COOL stuff, not just popcicle stick picture frames, but recycling boxes into gift bags, or catalogs into envelopes, old picture frames into chalk boards…rags into ribbons, shirts into bags or yarn? Upcycling! Repurposing! There really are no limits to the possibilities.

To test the waters, I wrote a proposal for 4 class ideas to the River Forest Park District. They loved the ideas and took me on as a teacher for Jan/Feb/Mar/Apr Saturday mornings.

God willing, The Little Bits Workshop will open in late winter or early spring. Stay tuned! Below is a preliminary logo…subject to evolve….feedback would be greatly appreciated since I don’t have a marketing team working on this…only my own instincts and ideas.

In the aftermath of our Ultimate Downsizing Adventure, I find myself very restless…itching to create, make a mess, do something crazy, impulsive, daring…. My space to create in is almost non-existant. I don’t want to complain, but at the same time, I desperately miss having my own office. This move and transition was the absolute best thing we could have done, but…I need space. This BOX above is my office. I’ve poured over countless oranizing books and small space planners and have come up with some better solutions, but they all involve building and spending…something I’m not quite willing to do. The good thing about this tiny arrangement above is that it does all fold up and disappear if we need it to for a gathering. Of course on a daily basis, it all spills out and oozes into the living room.

We’ve been so absorbed in life lately that I’ve had no energy to make anything or write anything. My grandmother passed away on October 1st which basically put a cloud over October. She’d been slowly fading for quite some time, but that final goodbye was really hard to do. She taught me so many useful things…mending, manners, relentlessness to name a few. Margaret Alice Hunsicker was a whipper-snapper of the highest order. I miss her.

Then there’s the daily dealings with the issues of property management and students…lions and tigers and bears, OH, MY…can’t discuss it here, but let’s just say it’s a trip and would make a really good book.

So, in the midst of all these things that happen each day, I still work and generate stuff in my little corner. I was happy to get my yearly call to do the Audubon annual report for the Chicago region. Below is my project for the week…illustrating the cover. On Sunday, the kids both had bad colds, so we stayed home from church…in our PJ’s most of the day. I painted. Miika wanted to paint too, so I sqeezed her into my little corner and she painted phalaropes, sandhill cranes, and a pintailed duck with me. Nathan was off watching too many DVDs, but at least we were all together and happy.