a little inspiration

Last year at the sewing retreat I had a colossal fail  (but look how tiny she was!!) when I tried to make a bag.  I will admit, it was good for me.  This had never happened to me before.  And in the time in between I don't think I made any bags at all (except perhaps a library tote for E?)  This was a little odd for me because I have made quite a lot of bags and really got sewing as an adult because of them.  I've used patterns and made up things, done simple and embellished. Anyway, last year was a disaster and I wanted to redeem myself (okay, maybe it was sub-conscious...) and when I came across the Cooper from Colette Patterns I knew I had just the right thing. I spent a lot of time online looking at what others had done to figure out what kinds of fabric combinations I really loved and then I spent a few more hours looking at fabric online to pick just the right combination for me.  I searched around quite a bit for the hardware. ...

So, there is this guy I know- He is kind and patient and tolerant.  He is loving and thoughtful.  He does so much for us and we almost never give him his own time without throwing in some little task for him.  But he doesn't often complain.  He rubs my back even when his hurts too.  He takes over for me when he comes home, even though E is at his hardest in those hours.  He loses his patience and then goes back for more, so rarely calling for backup.  He works an extrovert's job all day even though his natural inclination is to be an introvert. I wanted to make a couple t-shirts for his birthday.  Morai provided the shirts.  I asked E what should go on them.  His first answer? A guitar.  That boy is smart.  Since our printer is not functioning I had to draw it myself.  This is unheard of.  I am pretty sure everyone can tell what it is without any prompting.  UNheard of. I also wanted to have a shirt that ...

  I can't believe it is New Year's Eve.  Life is so different than it has been before that I can't quite keep up with the time.  So here are some thoughts that have crossed my mind today. 1- I am so thankful.  Thankful for friends and family and even some kind strangers.  I am thankful for you for reading and checking in even when I display a complete lack of "having it together."  Thank you! 2- I can hardly believe the things that started this year as ideas and have come to fruition.  At the beginning of the year we were just plotting on how to get to Asheville.   Now we live here.  At the beginning of this year I was pregnant and then miscarried.   Now I am exactly one month from my due date.  Both of these things are so big I am surely missing the point, but I am living them each day and trying to enjoy each moment. 3- My son is changing so much.  He makes me crazier than crazy but he also is kind, tells fantastic st...

We have spent the last week without Papa.  Finally, yesterday he arrived and we are all together again.  E did so well, but he really is a Papa's boy.  Others have a place in his heart, but not THE place. When Papa got home E was glued to his side.  Even though we were getting back in the car to go to visit family for Thanksgiving and Papa had to get ready.  E helped Papa shave most of his week long beard off. They are so sweet.  I am so glad to see them back together again. I think he likes his Sissie, too. Hope your day was full of love!

I love that we are now in the season that our garden dictates our meals to some extent.  Would you like some cherry tomatoes with that? No? Well, here, have them anyway.  I love being able to eat from the garden too.  The problem?  I have no interest in maintaining the garden.  Or maybe, that isn't exactly true but I have two very strong objections to working out there. One is the heat.  As I get older my ability to withstand heat gets lower.  Sometime after I moved to Baltimore I got heat stroke working on my car in front of an Advanced Auto.  Let me tell you, the guys who worked there were really impressed until I fell over.  Then they were kind enough to bring me in and sit me down and get me some water.  I can be still in the shade in Baltimore heat, but bending and standing repeatedly to pull weeds makes me dizzy as anything. (Heck, standing up inside in air conditioning can make me black out, so I guess that is no surprise.) Th...

taking pictures.  Somehow, it isn't at all rewarding anymore.  I never seem to get a really good one even though I have a decent camera and that camera is too big to have in my pocket and catch things when they happen.  Because of this I haven't been writing, because I always feel like a picture makes the blog.  Otherwise you are just listening to my random drivel... ;)  But, I still have that drivel running about it my head and most of it is just for me anyway, so I'll write. I'm all wrapped up in Mary Stewart's classic Merlin and Arthur books .  That has horrific cover drawings- don't judge.  It is really good reading.  I even have John on them now.  I've read them all about a dozen times since I was in high school.  I think it is because of them that I write the way I do at all.  I just realized this when I tried to explain to John why he should read them.  It is simplistic to say, "because I read these, I am how I am." Es...

This past weekend we did something I've wanted to do for a long, long time.  We took the Bug and drove down to a DC Metro stop, bought tickets and rode into the heart of the city.  All last year I wanted to do this with him but was afraid to do it alone.  The time finally came when we were ready. And Papa could come too! It was pure magic watching the Bug see the metro train come into the station, getting on and picking seats, watching and talking about all the things that were speeding past.  And then we went into the tunnel!  How exciting to be traveling underground.  He wanted to know where the grass was down there in the dark.  Why didn't the dirt come in?  What kind of lights are underground?   He has recently been more and more interested in dinosaurs.  I wanted to take him so he could see how big they really were.  I wanted to watch him run on the Mall and go visit the National Sculpture Garden with him.   It...

Happy Valentine's Day.  I always like a holiday dedicated to eating chocolates and telling people how much you love them!  This morning I was nudged awake at 6am sharp so that I could hear a singing card.  The Bug had gotten it in the mail yesterday from his Nana and Pappy and Aunt Carolyn (they have a little tradition with the singing cards.  Remember this ?)  It is obvious that he had slept with the card and had been waiting all night to share it with me (I didn't come home for dinner last night, I was at meditation until after he was in bed.)  It was the sweetest way to wake up way too early I've ever experienced.  He said, "You want to hear it again, Mama?" Of course, darling, of course!   After that I sent him down to find Papa so I could pull myself out of bed and head downstairs to make breakfast.  You heard me. I. Made. Breakfast.  Crazy talk!! In all fairness, I cheated.  I made a Dutch baby,  from this recipe ...

  It is interesting to step into new chapters of life knowing you are on a particular path.  Of course, you can only see the parts of it you are planning and so you don't get to see the whole picture until afterwards.  I never think of myself as the type to plan much (but I think that may not be reality either) and so I feel especially neat and powerful when I am looking ahead with intention.  Even if all the things I see are hanging in an ever changing tapestry and what is completely true today will be completely untrue tomorrow.  It only matters that the dreaming goes on and the effort to live right now is done with intention of your path held also in your heart. In trying to quiet the many voices vying for attention I have started spending one evening a week in meditation with others (called a sangha .)  This gives me the chance to set aside the time and choose to silence the competing dreams so that I may more easily follow the path that is best fo...

I've been dying to share this Christmas gift.  I have such a hard time keeping secrets.  Our little Bug is very Papa centric.  He often tells me to go away when they are playing together and I show up.  One day when Papa was out I pulled out this big canvas and had him paint the whole thing yellow.  After waiting for it to dry I asked him what color he'd like to paint with over the yellow.  He said purple.  I mixed up some red and blue and came up with this color.  I let him paint however he wanted until the paint was gone and then directed him to other paper to get the rest of his painting desires out. I had the goal of keeping the canvas simple and not turning it a sea of mixed brown paint.  I had gone through a whole bunch of quotes looking for the best one.  When I came across these words I knew it was the right thing.  I printed it out in a font that looks like my handwriting, only neater.  I pulled a light box out and...

(Two today because I missed yesterday completely.)  I love Saturdays better than any other day.  First e helped Papa making waffles in the big kitchen, then Papa helped e make rubber duck soup in the little kitchen.

Today he takes her home.  It has been nice having her here.  He will enjoy the quiet time with her in the car and the luxury of the drive back all alone.  I'll try not to go crazy.

This is cheating.  I didn't take this picture.  But I thought you might like it anyway.  Thanks Papa!

I've made about a bajillion things I should have shown you all but I was waiting until after the holidays.  I've really had the itch to crochet, perhaps because I have been so cold. I made another Acorn Cap but for an adult ( a special order) and sent it off to live in Spain with out getting a picture of it.  It was done in a darker colorway of that amazing Cascade Yarn - Eco Duo Yarn. This one is called Chicory.  Yum!  I had a bit left over after that and used it to make Senor's Christmas gift.  (He requested a hat.  How sweet!)  I had some yarn from the Bug's cap so I used that as well.  Now we look like a match set. (I love that yarn so much I made myself an infinity scarf with it in an amazing lace pattern.  It is blocking right now.  If we really get the snow they are talking about maybe I can get a pretty picture of it tomorrow.) John seems to like the hat.  These pictures don't do the yarn justice.  I made the li...

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. From Soulemama . Wishing you a lovely weekend!

I had never really liked the end of summer when I was little.  I loved the hot sun on my skin and the cool grass on my feet.  Now I feel like I betray summer as I rejoice for autumn's arrival.  Maybe because I love making quilts and sweaters.  Maybe because of the soft crispness in the morning air.  The golden light and the butterflies and the frantic squirrels. The last few weeks I have been imagining a little boy's vest.  A warm piece that keeps him warm inside before we break down and turn the furnace on.  That will keep him warm while playing in the leaves. I made up this pattern myself and just finished it today (sitting on the porch, in the sun, where it is 90 degrees!) I made the stitching run a bit the opposite direction most sweaters would have.  I am going to have to wait for a cooler day to put it on him.  I'll get better pictures of it (perhaps in use?) because it seems all of my pictures taken of finished work lately are terrib...

Go see the beautiful work Senor did for the Bug's room.

This last week I have been rocking my way through a long action item list and feeling very good about it. My whole life is ups and downs of productivity like anyone (?) but I do a whole lot more thinking about doing than actually doing. But when the list gets longer I just have to get to work because it messes with my head space. (Ignore the dirty floor but check out the passed out pooch. So sweet, she wanted to help.) The first thing I had to complete was our donation for Craft Hope . They are organizing the donation of probably millions of towels to help with cleaning animals affected by the oil spill. I don't have a good picture of the finished project because the light was bad. (Which hardly matters. It just looks like stacks of fabric anyway.) I only have this picture of the left overs. Senor (the saint) and I stayed up late one night this week and cut up about 50 t shirts that his company had given us to do this with. That works out to something like 250 washcloth...

Savoring: Making: Eating: Curing sadness: Finding sleepiness: Achieving silliness:

(You can still sign up for the Block Swap until Friday the 12th. Sign up on that post or shoot me an email.) We are having V-day presents a little early this year... Since we have nothing better to do and I am trying to use this time to catch up on the blogging and sewing I always think about but never quite squeeze into the day. I have wanted to make a soft toy for the Bug since before he ever got here but I couldn't decide what. I wanted something out of natural fabrics that wasn't complicated and left a lot to the imagination. And recently, something he can chew on became one of the things I was looking for. Enter Last Minute Sewing Gifts . I have made a couple things from this book in the last couple years (which apparently I never mentioned here because I can't find them.) This little guy is made from sweater felt I have had for a while. Being 100% wool felt makes it the perfect toy to snuggle and chew on. It is super soft and squeezable. The orange is my fav...