First, I just redid all my headers!! Wowwww, much brand! Much color! I have been meaning to do this for a while, mostly because I’m hoping to add some new segments to this newsletter so I’m not worried about hunting for links. Let me know if you love them, and subtweet me if you don’t!!!!
This week, I wanted to share one of the first story ideas I wrote in my planner when I was thinking of this substack. It intersects a few of my favorite things:
-weird kids things do
-the way playgrounds become our own
-weird things I did just because someone dared me
So here's the story of the mud puddle.
So, in the 3rd grade, my friend Kate and I had this GORGEOUS mud puddle we made.
First, my friend Kate and I were pretty different. She was sporty and lanky and tall. But we were good friends! She was creative, and was usually up for trying anything.
We’d found the mud puddle after it rained. We had a gravel area in front of our playground, I think left over from some construction. This mud puddle had silty-style dirt- creamy? I am not sure how to explain just why it was so alluring except that it was different from the consistency of the rest of the playground. There were little rocks around the edges but for the most part, it was gorgeous mud.
After playing with it all recess, we decided we should keep it up. The next day, it was a little dry, so we brought it water from inside. We kept it up, churning it up every recess like little dirt chefs. I have a photo somewhere of both of us in front of it, hands absolutely COVERED and beaming over the mud puddle.
When it rained next, we discovered that one of the trees had pollen pods, and we could even scrape that off and color the mud. Most of the other kids weren’t interested, but some did come by and help mix it up and widen it.
I don’t know the actual timing of it, but it felt like weeks or months that we kept up this mud puddle. I do however, know exactly when we had to say goodbye to the mud puddle.
Playgrounds at the time in Vancouver were not as regulated as they were now. I know this makes me sound a thousand years old, but they would literally make the playgrounds out of wood timbers and chains and tires and whatever they could find. Actually, there was a problem that summer because people kept burning the playgrounds. ANYWAY we had a TRULY glorious tire swing. It would go way too fast, and if you stick your hand out wrong, you’d get pinched by the chain. DANGEROUS!
Someone dared me to spend the entire lunch hour spinning on the tire swing. One thing that was probably not great about me as a child is that I would do anything that you dared me to do. Remember the milk?? I was horribly competitive. I think it’s because I have two older brothers. So I swung around and around on the tire swing for like half an hour.
It’s true what they say! If you spin around, you will barf. And I did, right into my mud puddle.
And that was the end of that.
Last week, I went to my friend
‘s show at the Philosophical Research Society . PRS is a really cool non-profit! They have tons of workshops, and a library, and a bookstore, and the building itself is beautiful. Alison created a really cool comedy show, where comedians do sets, and then she asks them philosophical questions. It’s called “What Does it All Mean, What Does Any of this Mean? Why? How? Help!”. Anyway, I learned about IMMORTAL JELLYFISH!!! Which are a real creature, who live forever.They get old, then they get young again, then they get old again… Most just get eaten or squished or other stuff, but I really hope out there, is a jellyfish who has been very lucky, who has lived for a thousand years and will live for a thousand years more, getting older and younger on and on.
I share a lot of mixed media experiments, but I wanted to share some that have gone wrong. I have been working with polymer clay lately, and I glaze them with UV resin. Resin isn’t new to me, but the UV version is- you set it with a nail light (or any other UV light). It smells real bad, and it takes a while to set and it gets bubbles, but if you do it right, it has the most beautiful glassy ceramics-style shine.
ANYWAY when it goes WRONG, it can bubble, flake, and PUFF UP and look absolutely HORRIFYING.
I made this Super Sonic for my husband Grant for his birthday, and it really looks SUPER WEIRD. I think I didn’t let it dry enough between layers, so it puffed up. I’ve got a lot to learn about UV resin!! I will keep trying!
ok love u bye
We TOTALLY had our wooden playgrounds burnt in the Maritimes, too!! What gives?!?? I remember stopping in my tracks at the sight of the charred mess surrounded by yellow caution tape...
(Happy belated, Grant!)
1. Happy Birthday to Grant! 🎉 🎉 🎉
2. RIP to your mud puddle. 😔 😔 😔
3. We went to the PRS yesterday for the first time! We saw Heather Henson’s festival of puppet shorts. I agree, it’s an awesome venue.