Wednesday, October 28, 2009

blog-spiration ...

in the back of a wee "cahier" which i always carry in my purse, there is a list of topics for future blogs ... i call this list my "blog-spirations" ...



here are a few items on the list, some of which we've chatted about in earlier blogs and some of which are eagerly awaiting their turn ...

inspiration not expiration ...
handmade nation ...
"Ode to Things" ...

you get the picture ... (and if you haven't seen these beautiful little notebooks from ecojot, check out their website http://www.ecojot.com/ ... you can even send a friend a postcard from the site ... and doesn't "cahier" sound so much prettier than notebook?) ...



anyway, today i did my walk with friends chatting about life and such ... and just getting inspired by the ordinariness of my day ... whilst trying not to panic about upcoming craft sale season ...

the studio is abuzz ...

gauntlets are gauntletting ...




baby blankets are blanketting  ...




and flowering ...




and ms. heart has to get busy making more heart felt labels and that's always a good sign ...



so, back to the studio ... and hopefully this little heart felt blog from me inspires some of you ...

and now if i could just remember what i meant by "inspiration not expiration" ...

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

"ya gotta take advantage of the downhills" ...

a few years ago, my friend suzanne and i did a marathon as part of our 3-day breast cancer walk training ... during the second half of the run/walk, we kept pace-to-pace with an elderly gentleman ... we would pass him going uphill and he'd pass us going downhill ... on his way by, he'd shout out "ya gotta take advantage of the downhills girls" ... (need i point out how thrilled i was to be called "girl" at the ripe age of 47 years?) ...

i got thinking about these words today ... isn't that a life lesson right there? ...

every day life presents us with hills to navigate ... whether it is in our dealings with our children, people we meet as we go about our business, illness, work, clients, teachers, other parents, etc ...

so on a cold, drizzly day in seattle ...

i cheerfully sent off the package that was the result of two sales on etsy (you might recall my unlike ms. heart moment a few days back ... some might call it a rant but i prefer to refer to it as a moment) ...

up the hill ... down the hill ...



and, while you are hanging out at home ...



here's a great website to check out ... if you like books, like i do ... the website is www.paperbackswap.com ... essentially you are joining an online book club for the purpose of ridding yourself of unwanted (sigh) books and receiving wanted books ...

we all love books ... even the cats ...





so have a nice day and always remember to "take advantage of the downhills" ...




















Friday, October 23, 2009

stick-with-it-ness

it's one of those fabulous days in the northwest ... rainy this morning making the house so lovely and cozy ... sunshine and windy this afternoon ...

i love this time of year when the burning bushes are on fire, the maple leaves are brillliant and the air is so fresh and clean ... i enjoy raking my wee plot and spend hours blowing cedar bits about ... just to be out ...

and dare i mention the harvest this time of year ... the squash and pumpkin, the apples and pears ...

here's what i like to do with the bounty ... chop up whatever you like (sweet potato, acorn squash, butternut squash, red onions and red peppers) and toss in a large bowl with enough olive oil to coat, add some dried oregano and a few tablespoons of maple syrup and roast until soft at 400 degrees ... you can sprinkle with feta if you like (what's not to like about that?) ... enjoy warm or cold ...

okay so when not enjoying the outside (i have determined i'm definitely an autumn girl) ... i have been beavering away in the studio ... pondering wool, life, crafting, selling ...

my dear friend laurie came by today and she always makes me feel so good about what i'm doing ... we shared a cup of tea and some laughs ... i must confess to having some very unlike ms. heart-like feelings when i shared with her that, at times, i am a bit frustrated by the wonderful oooohhhhs and aaaaahhhhsss i get about pieces but not the sales ...
in the meantime, while we were talking, my sweet laptop was making little "bloop" noises indicating emails arriving ... after laurie left, i checked those emails and, what to my wondering eyes should appear, but two sales on etsy ...

so i am writing to say good-bye to my sunflower coasters and my stripey bits pillow ... and encouraging you to have a little stick-with-it-ness ... ms. heart is turning over a new leaf ...





have a great weekend ...

Thursday, October 22, 2009

fall spells flannels ...

it's that time of year again ... there's a chill in the air and the days are getting shorter ... to me, that spells flannel time ... time to dig out the flannel jammies ... take off the summer sheets and replace them with flannel sheets ... a time for warm cider and soup ...

it's also, thankfully, the time for joann's to have a huge fabric sale ... i picked up some gorgeous flannels ...



aren't those fabrics stunning? ... not sure i'll be able to cut into those right away ...

of course the fabric store is not the only shop calling for dollars these days ...

i spent some time (and money) today on my garden and my planters but i think it was well worth it ... the old petunias and impatiens got put into the compost heap to feed next year's plants ... i moved my geraniums up against the house to stay warm for the winter and replaced the annuals with lovely colorful cabbages and chrysanthemums ...






can anyone else smell pumpkin pie? ... maybe it's just me ...

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

every day is a gift ...

"your daughter's had an accident" ...

words to strike fear in the hearts of any parent ... but words, as the parents of our oldest cherub, that we've almost come to expect ... as a toddler, she had pemanent bruises on her forehead ... thankfully we had a great relationship with our doctor so no questions were asked ...

one of her good friends, ryan, she met in kindergarten when they collided out at recess ...

and then there was the bike accident which resulted in two lost front teeth and years of dental and ortho work ...

she wasn't even out of her fifth year when i went outside looking for her ... we have 200 foot cedars on our property and i heard her calling from the tallest branches "oh i'm up here watching the sunset" ... how can i discourage that ...

last night it was a head injury during soccer practice, saturday it was a bloody lip due to a soccer game ...

i'm pretty sure that our health room at elementary school had me on speed dial ...

need i mention the fracture received when her head collided with the metal playtoy at school ...

and so on and so on ...

all i'm trying to say here is that each day with our children is a gift ...

i was driving home from an errand today and eric clapton's heart-wrenching song came on "tears in heaven" and i couldn't help but be thankful for the gift of another day ...

so hug your kids ... take a few moments and find out how their day was ... did they get teased because they have new glasses ... does their mouth hurt because they have an expander ...


and homemade cookies take care of a lot of life's little tragedies and some of the bigger ones too ...



Thursday, October 15, 2009

"going to pleasure" ...

early this morning, i was writing in my journal as homework for my fiber arts class ...

now i'm not really one to write in a journal on a regular basis, frankly, i'd rather be sewing or knitting ...

however, as i was writing and preparing to get to work, i thought to myself ...

"hmmm ... should i really say that i'm going to work" when it quite honestly gives me so much pleasure ...

so i've coined a new phrase ...

"going to pleasure" ...

so, today, here's what i did for pleasure ...

cut up some sweaters ...




pulled out some flannels to pair the sweaters with ...






and then did laundry and made meat pie for my sick cherub ...

okay, so perhaps today was more about work than pleasure ...

but with the house quiet again, perhaps i can "get to pleasure" now ...


Wednesday, October 14, 2009

a morning spent hooking ...

well now that i have your attention ...

my friend, suzanne, and i spent a fabulous morning with some friendly hookers ...

rug hookers that is ...

and other friends of wool ...

we saw fabulous hooked and braided rugs, hooked corn cobs, rug art supplies, carpet bags, etc ...

it was a delightful way to spend a drizzly seattle morning and i must share a few treasures with you ... (close your eyes mom or you'll see your christmas present) ...

these wonderful mixed media pieces were created by sharon baker ...


here's another piece i picked up ...

she was recently published in "stuffed" magazine ...




how could i resist ...

check out the artist at http://www.tararossstudios.blogspot.com/ ...

but alas now it is time for me to get to work ...

upcoming sales, homework, housework, the lines are starting to blur ...

but, if you find yourself on a rainy grey morning with nothing better to do, you can always turn to hooking ... i know a few particularly creative ones ...






Tuesday, October 13, 2009

building a better bomb ...

well, it's done ...

my first ever knit bomb ...

true confessions ... the original grey crochet bomb was a total bomb and so i had to go back to the drawing board and redesign ...

but i think the result is fantastic ...



do you think the world would be a better place if all bombs were made like this ...

it's off to night class again this evening ... can't wait to see what they have in store for us ...

and in the meantime, laundry beckons, seasonal squashes are grilling in the kitchen ...

gauntlets are calling for "gauntletting" ...




and this most gorgeous flannel fabric is begging to be made into a baby blanket ... for that special someone ...




how am i ever going to be able to cut into that fabric? ...

enjoy the day ...




Monday, October 12, 2009

handmade nation ...

well, the chili got made and the boys went off to camp ...

i'm trying to picture sharing a tent with 10 and 11 year old boys who have just partaken in massive quantities of bean-dense chili ... are you with me here ...

the cherub and i did a bit of shopping after soccer and then settled in with friends for a gilmore girls evening ... it was all fabulous ... and that took care of saturday ...


but come sunday, it was all about the crafting world ...

last year, i picked up the book entitled "handmade nation the rise of diy, art, craft, and design" by faythe levine ... it was based on a documentary film by the same name that she created in an attempt to document the indie craft movement ...

along with a friend, i attended the viewing of the fabulous film ...

we then had the pleasure of meeting faythe afterwards at the incredible vermillion wine and art bar in seattle ...

while sitting in vermillion, i got thinking of the many faces of crafters around me ... to my left, my friend was knitting a scarf using wires and cables for a night class, across from me was a woman who lives on a houseboat and who makes a living off knitting but she doesn't knit, to my right was a woman who is teaching fused glass art at the pratt school of art in seattle, i was working on my black dahlia corsage, faythe levine was sitting across from us ...

the many faces of crafting ...

i hope i inspire some of you to craft yourself and to buy handmade ... to look in the face of the person who created that "thing" you want to purchase ...

i am so inspired to create myself ...

just need to add the knit fuse to the "bomb" project ...

Friday, October 9, 2009

what's up with the knobby knees ...

have you ever wondered about that photo on my blog ... the little girl with the knobby knees and the well-suited man ... well that's me and my dad ... i am proudly sporting my brownie outfit ... the knobby knees are gone but i do still own the sweet brown tam ...

my bestest childhood girlfriend, shawna, and i were proud brownies ... we danced around the toadstool, we thrilled at the crafts (my favorite craft being a turtle we made out of a walnut shell), we went camping and loved the crafts ... did i mention the craft part ...

we lived in a small mining town in ontario where the winters were long and cold with lots of snow ... and i loved them ...

let me tell you a bit about my dad ... he was a small man in stature but a huge man in personality ... now i don't mean the kind of loud personality that fills a room ... i mean the quiet kind of personality that speaks without talking ...

when my dearly beloved and i were married, our photographer asked my dad if he wanted to stand on a phone book so i wouldn't appear taller than him in photos ... being the kind of man he was, never wanting to appear to be something he wasn't, he said "no" ...

sadly, my dad died many years ago, before i had children much to my regret ... in his wallet, next to photos of his 4 children, my dad carried this tiny newspaper clipping entitled "thought du jour" or thought of the day:

The only thing that does make us feel good about ourselves, if this is what we are after, is doing things of which we feel proud or which we deem to be worthwhile.  In other words, self-esteem is a by-product of action and can never be a goal in itself....Self-estem is a red herring.  It comes, it goes.  It gives us a nice feeling when we have it, but no more, no less.
this is for all the dads out there ... large and small ...

have a great weekend ...

Thursday, October 8, 2009

balancing act ...

well the "bomb" is in the washing machine being felted ... attempts to hand felt failed miserably ... i followed the instructions ... just add hot hot water and dish detergent ... agitate ... of course the hole in the rubber glove was not helping the situation at all but i can attest to the temperature of the water ... scorching would be my best guess ...

here's the before picture ... how funny is that? ... i'm WAY out of my creative box now ...



so i'm sitting here reflecting on my day and trying to figure out how people "do it all" and what "it all" is ...

i have loads of laundry waiting, a dishwasher to empty (ok kids can do that), items to photograph and post on etsy, sweaters to be chopped, kids to get to soccer, never mind the garden clean-up and bulb planting, kids to get to eye doctor appointments, glasses to be picked up, glasses to be returned to optometrist when cherubs collide and damage glasses ...

and just when i think i'm getting on top of things, someone in the family gets sick or the cat upchucks something unrecognizable on the creamy carpet ... (sorry for that visual) ...

anyway, i'm truly not complaining about my life ... it's a gorgeous sunny day (and in the northwest we don't take these for granted although i am starting to expect them which is always a sign of a long wet winter) and i've been out for a walk with a friend, i've had some time with the sick cherub ... i've listed a lovely new knit hat on my etsy site (one check mark on the list) and soon it will be time to head to the soccer field for a game ...

just hoping that, for today, that can be "it all" ...

and breakfast for dinner is on the menu again ...

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

crocheted bombs and other weapons of mass destruction ...

i like pretty ... there i said it ... i like pretty things in my house and i like to eat off pretty dishes and i like to drink my tea out of a pretty tea cup ... as far as i can see, the world needs more pretty ...

i knit and crochet pretty things to sell ... flowers and gauntlets and bags ... hats and scarves ...




i make pretty blankets and pretty buttons, pretty journals and pretty cards ...

so, having said that, as you know from following along on yesterday's blog, i am now going to the university of washington hoping to receive my certificate in fiber arts ... our professor said last night that her plan is to "turn over the rocks to see what crawls out" ... she's trying to make us think outside our box, so to speak ...

our homework this week is to debunk a stereotype of fiber artists and fiber works ie fiber arts are for women, fiber artists typically make something that is fragile, etc ...

so rather than making something pretty today, i found myself crocheting with my darkest fuzziest yarn round and round in circles hoping that the end result will look somewhat like a bomb ...

under the category of things i never thought i'd see myself doing ... crocheting a bomb is pretty much at the top ...


i'll let you now how it turns out ... but here's what i have so far ...

(please note the pretty tablecloth in the background) ...

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

back to school blues ... or not ...

the washing machine is churning up yesterday's fab finds from value village ... one day soon the etsy shop shall be replete with upcycled treasures ...



of course, sometimes family life intervenes despite my best intentions ... one of the cherubs is home sick today so instead of working, i am headed to the doctor's office ...

but before we leave ...

 i do have some rather big news to share ...

i'm headed back to school ... okay it's just one night a week for 9 months but still it is very exciting for me ...

along with a friend, i'm enrolled in the university of washington's certificate of fiber arts program ...

the requirements were rigid ... i had to complete an application, compose a resume (good heavens it's been two decades since i've had to do that--now that was truly a humbling experience) and send along 3 photos of my work ... while the accomplishments have been great (amy is still loving that quilt i made her when jake was born),  i'm pretty sure it was the check for $50 that sealed the deal ...

but all that aside, i'm excited to be heading back to school ... and hoping that perhaps i can take my art to the next level ... but where do you go from here? ...




oh and the good news is, the cherub will get better sooner rather than later if she just embraces the neddy pot ... and in the meantime, it's chicken soup and buttered bread for her ...




don't want to be the antagonist in any "mommy dearest" type novels in the future ...



Monday, October 5, 2009

second month, same as the first ...

i can't believe i've been at this blogging thing for a month now ... who knew i had so much to say ... okay some of you who know me really well are not surprised ... but i am, frankly ... and i am rather surprised you are still listening ... so thank you for that ...

now before i talk about our wonderful weekend, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM ... i love you and miss you ...

back to the weekend adventures ...

it was a wonderfully beautiful perfect weekend in the northwest and only made better by having the cherubs home on friday for an extra-long weekend ...

one of my favorite things to do is "go for a drive" ... i love nothing better than to pack up the car with my dearly beloved, the kids, some snacks and drinks, reading material, cameras, knitting (just in case) to hit the road ... just call me Thelma ...

so yesterday we found ourselves headed towards mt rainier ... the maple leaves are turning crimson and i was desperate for a good fall showing ...

don't know about you but i believe most great road trips involve at least one great meal on the road ... so our first stop was the black diamond cafe for an amazing breakfast and, in case we got lost on our journey and needed sustenance to survive, we picked up a half dozen of their homemade donuts ... now these are not your average greasy fast food type donut, no sir, these are the real deal ... just like my mom makes ... you can take your pick and eat 'em plain (my favorite) or iced (kids' favorite) ...



so after feasting on a yummy breakfast with the promise of donuts later, we got as far as the parking lot before the entire family came to a screeching halt ... "somethin' new in the neighborhood" was the thought that ran through my mind ... what could make a road trip even better ... i mean we got sun, great food, fall colors ... yes a used book store had opened since the last time we were at the cafe and, if you haven't visited yet, you must go to the baker street book store in black diamond ... a fabulous collection of mostly used books ... comfortable big chairs ... a franklin fireplace ... a historic building ... need i say more ...

and yes we did finally get on the road for the drive part of our 'drive' ... and it was a day well spent ...




now lest you think we were having a "walton" time for the entire day, we did have a sick cherub and were forced to turn around not long after entering mt rainier national park ... but that's life on the road ... some days you go the distance and some days you turn around early and head for home ...

(and okay ya caught me, that was an oatmeal fudge bar peeking out from behind the donuts) ...





Friday, October 2, 2009

the cream rises to the top ...

my mom has a saying that the "cream rises to the top" referring, of course, to the fact that a good person will not go unnoticed forever ...

we tend to sometimes overlook the good person in favor of the "good looking" person ...that term "good looking" is the focus of dove commercials these days ... and not something i feel qualified to give discourse on ...

however, i have a few friends whose daughters are full of angst right now ... for those of you not there yet, it is the dreaded "homecoming" season ... girls across the nation are wondering if they will get invited to homecoming, if so, by whom ... how will they be asked ... some of the girls have expressed surprise that their friends got asked and they didn't yet ... ah ... now you see why the term the "cream rises to the top" has been on my mind ... girls that age don't realize that at some point in their lives they'll be appreciated for all their qualities, not just the external ones ...

back to my mom, it is her birthday on oct 5 and i will miss it and her ... as i get older, i am appreciating more and more those words of advice she dished out along with the sheppards pie at our dinner table ... at the time, such idioms were probably greeted with a roll of the eyes by yours truly ...

so today's blog is really just me "thinking out loud" ... wishing some of the girls would just decide on their own to go with friends to the homecoming dance and forget the "waiting to be asked" scene ...

i've been told that's not how it's done these days ...

but of course women haven't always been allowed to vote either ...

and now it's tea time ...


Thursday, October 1, 2009

play in the rain ...

i wanted to share the cover of a wonderful card i bought recently ... it pretty much sums up life for me ...

walk in the rain,
smell flowers,
stop along the way,
build sandcastles,
go on field trips,
find out how things work,
tell stories,
say the magic words,
trust the universe.


i have to tell you that, as a family, we've done some pretty amazing things:  we've slept in treehouses in southern oregon; we've visited the great city of london, england; we've snorkeled in hawaii; we've been awed by kangaroos in australia; we've skiied all around north america; we've zipped on zip lines; and we've hiked places that left me breathless ...

and the comment i get from my oldest cherub time and again is "mom remember that time we ran outside in the rain in our barefeet" ...

we were living in southern ontario at the time, we'd had a huge rainfall, it was a hot day and, we left our inhibitions at the door, ran outside and splashed around in the puddles ...

some things in life are priceless ...

i hope you have a priceless moment this weekend ... go outside, enjoy the fall colors, have a mug of cider or a piece of apple crumble without worrying about the calories ...

and, if it rains and you find a puddle, throw off your shoes and dance ...