off to work

Just a quick post to get me going. There's a big work day at our church and Matt and Anna are on their way to get started with some projects. Eli is napping and I have a little time on my hands. I am resolved to NOT spend that time cleaning the kitchen, picking up toys or looking at my computer screen. A few days ago, I was inspired to work on cleaning up our front porch. There are countless projects that I want to tackle, but I haven't been truly inspired to do any of them lately. They all seem like big undertakings that require extra hands and big decisions. In the old days, we used to sit around and dream about future projects. These days, there isn't time for that and the dreaming becomes nagging and then the excitement is gone. But something about the porch has really sparked something in me and I feel like I better jump on it before that feeling is gone.

Now I'm dreaming about Anna's birthday near the first day of fall and cool porch breezes, a pretty tablecloth, a pitcher of lemonade, and a strawberry cake with the celebration kid candle holder that we recently ordered from the small object. oh, how we love this little guy! I recommend at least one per household!

i feel like a wizard

i'm a little late to the game, but i finally pulled out the freezer paper that i found at my mom's last year and rounded up some fabric paint and made a little present for a teeny tiny baby named jackson. i learned that i need to work on my x-acto knife cutting skills and maybe the freezer paper was a bit aged, but overall, it turned out how i was expecting and i'd like to do some more. unfortunately, i tossed the stencil that i'd made into the trash with coffee grounds and baby cereal before i remembered that i could reuse it. ack. and i'd like to reference the image that i found that inspired the little robot but i can't remember where i found it. i believe it was a website which focused on scottish graffiti, oddly enough.

it will feel good to get this packaged up and mailed out today. and maybe this will even erase the bitter memories in the minds of the new parents of their evening out with us a few years back. they came over and rode with us to see radiohead. we opted against the $20 parking fee and found a residential road with many other cars parked along its curbs. there were no signs warning us against parking here. after the show, we made the long walk to our car. when we found an empty street, we wondered how we got turned around. and then we saw the other concert-goers with puzzled looks on their faces and realized that we were, in fact, not turned around. we were on the right street but our cars were not. they had all been towed. and no one had a clue where they'd been towed to. finally a cab driver came along who happened to know exactly where our cars were and offered us a ride to the tow yard not far away. to the tune of $75. hmmmmm. pretty sneaky, city of atlanta. all of us who felt like we'd been scammed exchanged email addresses and shook our fists and conspired to make the higher-ups understand that we'd been had. to to make a long story short, around 3am and at least $100 poorer, we were home and so was our car and we never contacted any of our fellow comrades. thankfully, our friends who rode with us were troopers.

and now they're happy parents!

mother of one for a day

Let me preface this entry with the fact that I love my three and a half year old to pieces. More than I can say. I'm crazy about her and she makes me laugh and breaks my heart almost every day. However, she's been busy with relatives for most of today and yesterday and I've had a very sweet time with little Eli. There are so many things that I rush through, with him being Child No. 2 and for the past 48 hours, I've tried to slow down and just enjoy watching him. I don't think I've complained out loud more than twice about having to rescue him from under a chair, grab him just before he enters the fireplace, or remove various objects from his mouth. I've given him my undivided attention while he shows me how he can push Anna's dolls in her grocery cart back and forth from the bathroom to the hall. About 50 times. I've taken more time just watching him and talking to him. And he's reciprocated. He's been much more snuggly. It's as if he realized he has me all to himself and is taking advantage of every minute.

Some moms handle having more than one child with grace. A grace that I long to achieve someday. I still haven't gotten over the shift of focus from one child to two. The mental exhaustion that comes from juggling my thoughts around two (a walking baby that's always inches from getting into a fix and a three year old with your common three year old meltdowns and expectations for me to be in character half the day--from Peter Pan to Ma Ingalls) is just not easing up.

So I revel in my one-on-one time with my children because I feel like they finally get to be with the Real Me. The Me that I miss and hope returns sometime soon. Maybe with Eli's coming birthday, I'll feel a sense of accomplishment and gratefulness that will push me over into a more hopeful, graceful era. And the fact that he's slept past 7am these past two mornings, isn't hurting one little bit. I want this rest and renewal for myself, but I also want it for my family. They need me to be joyful.

Our yard

One thing I have been working hard on is our yard and my various little flower beds. It's something I enjoy so much and if I was able to devote even a tenth of the energy I spend just thinking about gardening to the actual practice of doing it, I'd probably have a rose named after me by now. I love that it's something I can work on in bits and pieces and not feel like I'm working towards completion exactly. I can put Eli in his porch swing and pull weeds for 5 minutes and feel really good. **Look carefully at the middle photo. This smidgen of work doesn't leave me with a table full of half-finished projects. There's not a lot of planning or cleaning up to do afterwards. It's perfect. And I realize it's something I do almost completely for my own enjoyment. While it would be nice to receive a few compliments on my yard, it occurred to me that I hardly ever do, but the fact that this just now occurred to me must be a good sign. In one way.

A little history of our yard. (Hold on to your hats--what excitement!!) We bought our house in the fall of 2001 and the following spring/early summer, we discovered a leaky exterior water pipe. This led to some grueling work for Matt: digging in the hot sun. Digging maybe 5 feet down to reach the pipe in question. And digging from the house to the middle of the yard, straight across and under the central steps, creating a path (or trench) of mud and destruction. It wasn't a spectacular yard to begin with, just grass, a border of liriope, and some redtips. I was holding my breath for a few flowering surprises that first spring, but was left with just a single pincushion flower in the back (which returned two weeks ago, with a partner, for the first time since 2002!). Our front yard is on the small side so since about a fourth of it was now dug up and a good third of the grass was gone, we decided to go ahead and essentially start over. With the help of my parents, we got rid of all the grass, planted two red maples, and an assortment of shrubs and flowers. I'd give just about anything to go back in time and make some different choices as to plant type or placement. (i.e WHY 2 maples and not a crabapple or a dogwood?) But I'm very happy that our work has paid off and since I've added to it every spring and fall, we now have a happy assortment of plants. Here are the highlights:

Shrub that makes my nose the happiest: Tea Olive (Osmanthus fragrans). I grew up with this smell greeting me outside our carport door. I LOVE this smell. Oddly, Matt can't smell it at all!

Most surprising: I had no idea the Butterfly Bush would grow so tall, so fast. It takes up a large chunk of the front corner and I wish I could be Mary Poppins and just point my finger and magically move it somewhere else (in addition, my daughter would be very pleased with this coveted trait).

Most dear: My daylilies don't do a lot of blooming, but they have a good story to tell. They were transplanted from my parents yard, straight from the pet cemetery. I like to think that I have a bit of Patches, Wags, Daisy, Allie, Hobo, Hobo II, Hobo III, Big Eyes, and many goldfish in my patch of green daylily leaves.

Thriving: Several guaras. They're taller than me and add so much life to the front yard this year.

Brand New: The Good Ol' Summertime rosebush given to me by three sweet friends, in memory of my grandmother. It produced its first blossom last week!

Lately Added: Tigerlily bulbs straight from the yard of a 91 year old watchmaker from Macon. (And Anna's "best friend.") Also added: creeping phlox, thyme, blue plumbago, more salvia.

Most Changed: What were once blue hydrangeas turned pink shortly after we learned our first child was to be a girl.

Questionable: The beautiful rosebush given to me by a dear family a few birthdays ago. It's leaves often get nibbled at.

Strangely commemorative: The Cecil Breuner climbing rose which happened to get planted the day of my really bad car accident last May, maybe the scariest day of my life.

Goners: Two oakleaf hydrangeas, one broadleaf hydrangea, one pee-wee hydrangea, one camelia, and countless perennials. (I didn't do enough research about how these would hold up in our hot afternoon sun).

I could go on but since I've put my few readers to sleep, I will stop. Thank you for indulging me.

strawberry cake

apparently, amy has received numerous requests for this recipe. and since i've been feeling way too in over my head with daily life, this gives me incentive to re-learn how to log into my blogger account (so sad) and write a quick post.

i had to remember where i was when amy called for the recipe. oh yes, giving one of the kids a bath. so i retraced my steps and there was the recipe card, in a basket next to the bathtub.

this recipe comes from my mom's very good friend, carol, who she grew up with in florida. at a young age, carol started cooking for her family of 7 and this dessert apparently was made a good bit as it became a favorite of my mom's. in carol's recipe book, she even has my mom's name written next to this cake. when i asked my mom the history of the cake, she got a little choked up telling me that part. and my mom never forgets where a recipe comes from and gives credit where credit is due every time she makes something, even if it's on a weekly basis: "we're having maxine's rice with sue's good salad tonight" is commonly heard.

without further ado, here's how it reads on the recipe written up by my mom:

HERE'S WHAT'S COOKIN': STRAWBERRY JELLO CAKE
RECIPE FROM: MOM

(BEST TO MAKE A DAY OR 2 AHEAD) * i've never made it more than a day ahead*

1 BOX WHITE OR STRAWBERRY CAKE MIX *we love using strawberry cake mix*
1 CUP OIL
4 EGGS
10 OUNCES FROZEN STRAWBERRIES *here's where amy recommends the real thing*
(5 OZ FOR CAKE; 5 OZ FOR FROSTING)
3 OUNCES STRAWBERRY JELLO

STIR OIL IN CAKE MIX. LIGHTLY BEAT EGGS AND ADD TO CAKE MIX.
STIR IN 5 OZ OF STRAWBERRIES.
MIX IN DRY JELLO.
BAKE IN 2 CAKE PANS 25-30 MINUTES AT 350.
COOL AND FROST.

FROSTING:
1 POUND CONFECTIONERY SUGAR
1/4 POUND SOFT BUTTER (1 STICK)
1/8 TEASPOON SALT
1 TEASPOON VANILLA
3-4 TABLESPOON JUICE FROM STRAWBERRIES

BEAT SUGAR AND BUTTER TOGETHER. ADD SALT AND VANILLA AND JUICE. ADD DRAINED STRAWBERRIES. FROST. REFRIGERATE.

i've served this cake at each of my daughter's three birthdays. i suppose it's our tradition now. i think the close-up is actually from my husband's birthday, though, since he's also quite a fan. i began putting the sweet little birds on top at anna's first birthday, loving how they looked with the pink. and what do you know, they were a gift from amy.

enjoy the yummy cake!

night night

i like how this photo conveys the dreamy softness of the nightgown. don't look too closely at the handiwork. and try to ignore the SLEEVES. do you see how gigantic the are? but the glorious thing is that i made them! once the pieces were cut out, you should have seen me trying to match them up to the body of the dress. even while sewing the second one together, i was sure there was a good chance i'd done it wrong. it just sorta muddled up my head for some reason. thank goodness warm weather is here and i can make some sleeveless tops.

lately

Alright, I realize that lots, maybe even most, of the online journalists whose sites I visit have children and still seem to get lots of brilliant things done. But I don't seem to fall into that category. My littlest is already 9 months old, but I feel like I'm still going through my days like the mother of a newborn. So few things get accomplished without it being in teeny little increments spread out over the day. And those things are just laundry and dishes and getting the kids fed and bathed and dressed and fed again. So I'm trying not to be so hard on myself about the lack of creative projects going on around here. And I know that I don't have to wait until I complete something in order to post, but I don't get around to doing much done at the computer right now either. A pair of tiny hands likes to crawl up next to me and push on the keys when he sees me typing. And a pair of three year old eyes spots me sitting down with the laptop and begins to request various videos or pictures she wants to see. I can't very well say, "Hang on, Mama has to write about how much stuff she has to do."

Moving on, I am eager to sew a few skirts and maybe a dress or two for Anna very soon. I decided I'd begin with a nightgown since she's eager for a new one and it's a good way to get some sewing practice in without putting too much pressure on myself. I wanted something super soft and lightweight. I was having trouble coming up with the right fabric and then finally came upon an old dress in my studio outside that's hanging around with a collection of household goods we got when cleaning out an estate for a friend of a friend. (We scored with that deal---even got paid for getting all of the amazing goodies out of the house!). So I took the old dress and did a lot of cutting and used the soft, soft, pale sea-green fabric for the nightgown and I worked in some elastic around the neckline for the first time. I sewed that part by hand, mostly in the car on various family excursions. Anna put it on yesterday and although she really likes it (which makes it successful in my mind) it looks like it's made for someone twice her size. I'm going to have to do a little nipping and tucking and hopefully I'll figure out a way to do this which will allow for me to undo my tailoring so that she really can wear it when she's twice her present size. **I'll have to wait til later to add a photo**

3 baby gifts

photo no. 1: i l*o*v*e this fabric. i ordered it from someone off etsy and now can't remember who. (the baby was sleeping and the bib is sorta big, so sometimes you have to do everything yourself.)

photo no. 2: this burp cloth was made from things i had on hand: a white flannel crib sheet and my favorite bird fabric. the back is made from a receiving blanket (see photo no. 3). the bird pocket was a last-minute decision but i'm happy with it. what's that? did you ask what one puts into a pocket on a burp cloth? oops, running out of time and must move on to photo no. 3!

photo no. 3: teeny bib made from soft soft receiving blanket. this blanket was one from a pack that i'd received for the second baby and i really really didn't need any more receiving blankets. but i thought, maybe i'll do something with them one day; perhaps a gift? and usually that just results in another bag of stuff sitting around waiting for me to do something with it. but this time, this time, i made good and i've used that polka-dot blanket for about 4 different projects already. hurray!

i suppose i should have photographed the snaps but they're not visually exciting. just snaps. and don't mind the pointedness of the second bib. anna likes to step on the pedal of the sewing maching and have me say, "Okay, go!" and then, "Stop!" sometimes, her foot stops a few seconds after my command and there are a few hints of this throughout. oh well.

with love from finland

fevers and croupy coughs have been haunting us for a while around here, but in between, i was able to throw together a few things to make me feel a little less unproductive. we were the happy recipients of a collection of dollhouse furniture from finland last week and when anna asked me to make blankets and pillows for the bed, instead of just talking about it and never following through, i went straight to the sewing machine and let her pick out fabric and push the pedal and even pull some stuffing out of the open cushion on the chair that really needs a foam insert rather than the leaking stuffing that she's always tempted to pull out. soon we had made the little wooden beds much more inviting. she and her daddy have been sketching out ideas for a dollhouse that he will soon make her. and now i'm on the lookout for some dollhouse figures that are halfway cute. they're all so creepy! there are a few from magic cabin that are okay but they're nearly $20 a piece! but even without a house or proper dollhouse people, anna is having fun with her new toys, setting up tiny teaparties for whoever will fit in the little chairs, arranging the pieces to resemble our house, and making up stories.

i also finally conquered the task of setting snaps in the bibs i made for a friend's baby. i never figured out the snap-setter tool that i once used years ago. so i pulled out an old wooden spool and a hammer and after two attempts, got the snaps in place and they look...real. and i finished up a burp cloth to go along with it. i'll post pictures tomorrow, God willing.

did i mention that i cast on 40 stitches while standing with an almost-20 pound baby on my hip the other day?

that's all for my accomplishments as of late. but i had to list them so i'd feel a little more upbeat about our recent state around here, getting so little sleep and always needing more from the store and barely getting dressed by dinner. i'm hoping for a week of healing.

new

i am finally using mozilla firefox rather than safari and i was able to upload a picture for my header. after how many months? safari was terribly unfriendly to me and i am so happy to say that we have officially broken up.

i never really intended on my first header to be a photograph of an air raid. how did i go from a sweet picture of anna's little red keds to this? i'm not really sure. i had to think fast and get it done and there it is. and am i at all happy with the placement of that title? no way. of course not. but do i have time to figure out how to change it? it doesn't seem possible to do it with blogger tools. or am i wrong? amy? help? i guess i'll figure this out, too. but i am so happy with firefox because the little icon for adding a link is FINALLY visible and i won't have to type in the code. hurray!

today is warm and sunny and i am so so glad. but anna woke up with a fever and has been in bed most of the day. she did come out to eat a popsicle on the front steps and pick a few dried pod-like things from the enormous butterfly bush which is begging to be pruned. and now she's back asleep.

today is DAY 2 of OPERATION MAKE ELI FALL ASLEEP ON HIS OWN. it's going fairly well. just to know that he can do it gives me hope, even if it does take 10-12 trips into his room to resettle him. and it seems to have caused his naps to stretch out as well as the time in between. we've suddenly gone from 3 naps to 2 and maybe soon i will be putting him down to bed and not waking him for a late feeding. this means that i will maybe be able to get to bed before 11/11:30 for the first time in almost 8 months.

Easter weekend was lovely. we went to the georgia state sacred harp convention. anna had an easter egg hunt in a cemetery and eli crawled in the grass without eating too many sticks and leaves. we saw many people we love. i suppose it is high time to write a bit more about sacred harp but i'll save that for next time.

one week ago today, i spent the last hours i would spend on this earth with my grandmother. i am so grateful that i knew that these might be the final hours. i'm not up for recounting the entire story, but i will say that i am feeling very peaceful about her passing. God's timing was perfect, as always, even if there are a few pieces in the plan that still seem a bit mysterious. i was able to hold her hand and sing to her, pray with her, stroke her hair, kiss her soft cheek, and lay my head on her lap. she remained so still and quiet, but gave me signs to let me know she could hear me when i spoke into her ear. i have to believe that she knew i had come.

i grew up next door to my grandmother and spent many days out of every week with her. in all of my 32 years, i have spent every Christmas and every birthday with her. and so many days in between. we were alike in many ways and she has influenced me greatly. she was my biggest fan.

success (rice)

i decided against the zipper pouch. or it decided gainst me. i haven't sewed in a zipper in about 10 years. the last one went fine but now i'm feeling quite intimidated. the zipper package has directions, the pouch pattern has directions and the manual for my sewing machine has directions. they're all a little different and all for the same task. this i do not like.

so i poked around and found inspiration for making a rice pillow at wise craft. (i'm still learning the etiquette that pertains to the blogging world so i hope this is the correct way to go about giving credit where credit is due.) a little ironing and a wrinkly few yards of material that came from who-knows-where resulted in some fabric that i now want to make everything out of. i'm horrible about liking something so much that i don't want to use it. (or is it that i selfishly don't want to use it for someone else but never make things for myself?) i altered the pattern a little, making the outer cover removeable so that it can be thrown in the wash. i was really pleased with the results of this first attempt at making a rice pillow so i went ahead and cut out pieces for three more: one for anna (who also liked the results so much that she slept with the first one i made and requested one of her own as i tucked her in), one for an out-of-town guest who was coming to stay with me for three nights, and one to have on hand for a last minute gift (!).

one of the best parts of this rice-pillow-making experience was how i was able to work while my children were awake and either involved or otherwise being helpful (well, eli wasn't all that involved or helpful). after the pieces were cut out, i wanted to get right to sewing but it was time to feed eli. i put him in his chair and perhaps my longing gaze at the project, all ready to go, inspired anna to offer to feed her baby brother so that i could get back to work. so for a good 10 minutes, i sewed away while she dished out the sweet potatoes and he smiled from ear to ear at the attention he was getting from his big sister. later, after he was cleaned up and in bed, anna sat at my side, asking questions about how the sewing machine works and working the foot pedal for me. only a few stitches here and there were a little out of control. i love my little helper.

found him

last week, i unveiled a thrift store find that had been packed away in the closet for the past 18 months or so: a simple little raggedy ann get-up with a pinafore-type top and white bloomers. prior to this, anna had never heard of raggedy ann and andy. within minutes, she WAS raggedy ann and wore this costume to prove it for the next 3 days. i pulled out a few old books and over the course of a week or so, we read story by story. i told her about the old raggedy andy doll i used to play with and asked my mom to look for him. she looked but said he wasn't there. so today we went for a visit and i retraced her steps and did my own looking. i was sure i'd seen him in the past 5 years. i went out to The Barn, which isn't really a proper barn, just a building which used to house my grandfather's gem shop but now is the holding area for cast-offs from about 8 various individuals. there are so many treasures out there that often my favorite birthday and christmas presents come from The Barn. i often spend lots of time out there during my visits home, sorting through our old toys, picking out things of mine that are now ready to be passed on, and wondering why in the world my parents have saved So Much Stuff. (and then realizing from where that habit of mine comes.) the thing that gets me is their stuff is orderly. they take care when they save their junk. a beat up old beach raft that is sure to be disentegrating is stored in its original box. a cheap, dirty fish acquarium still has some accessories stored inside and just a little bit of fish food that we didn't use up before Big Eyes jumped out and landed behind the buffet in the dining room. broken space heaters have their cords neatly wound up and old mattresses are stacked according to size. i'm at a point in my life where useless belongings make me feel sorta sick. they overwhelm me. even though all this stuff behind my parents house is miles away from me, i found myself making plans to get out there with boxes and bags this summer and head towards the thrift store. (but why would that be any easier than tackling my own attic?)

but back to the search. i escaped The Barn and went back inside to my old closet and ignored my mom's reminder that she'd already looked there. i was too hasty to drag in a chair so i reached up to the highest shelves, straining every muscle in my neck and shoulders, meanwhile trying to keep a 7 month old occupied at my feet, and i brushed past many a cabbage patch kid until i finally saw him, sitting upright with a big smile on his worn, cotton face. after looking him over, i quickly found a good place for him to hide until anna came home from visiting great-grandmother next door and we played the hot-cold game until she found discovered him. then it was her turn to look him over and compare him to the pictures in the book as i made my own comparisons. i couldn't help but to think of the bit in Johnny Gruelle's description of "How Raggedy Andy Came" where "Daddy" receives a nice, soft lumpy package and opens it to find Raggey Andy "with his soft, loppy legs folded over his soft, loppy arms." And how once he propped Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy up to face eachother, they just sat there and smiled at each other. And "Yes! There was lump in Raggedy Ann's throat, and there was a lump in Raggedy Andy's throat. A cotton lump, to be sure, but a lump nevertheless."

forecast

The weather forecast for Sunday is "Abundant Sunshine." Good golly I need Sunday to come quickly.

renewed love of ebay

It seems like the few times that I've bought anything on ebay in the past year, I've been a little disappointed. There hasn't been anything horribly wrong with the items I've won but it's just that once I receive the item, I think, 'Would I have really bought this if I'd seen it in person?' The color might be a little off, the scent a little smokey. And whatever it was I bought must have been quite unremarkable because I can't even recall what it was. But a day or two ago I received a package. I'd forgotten all about my rather impulsive decision to buy a set of two more Flicka Ricka Dicka books for Anna (have I convinced you yet that my memory is still suffering in these days of a new baby?). I've so enjoyed reading 'Flicka Ricka Dicka Bake a Cake' that I had to have more. I'd been a little skeptical because I got these particular books at a great price, far below what others were selling for. It turned out that they were in very good shape and what's more, the seller decided to throw in an extra book. For free. As a thank-you for my purchase. And look what it was! I love this book and couldn't wait to tell my mom. We have an old, old copy of it at her house that sits on the shelf in a special spot for old classics. I've never been so motivated to leave feedback for a seller on ebay. Thank you, Mr. Ebay Bookseller Man.

snacks for my helper

Good grief. I know I've said it before, but it's amazing how many times I think about posting something, even upload a photo and then wonder later why I never completed it. Then I remember that despite how many times I sit down next to the computer, I'm usually holding a baby at the same time, so my hands aren't free for typing. (Forgive me if I've just typed these same words a few posts ago...I don't want to take the time to look back. I have about 40 minutes until Anna's Pooh CD is over and then her rest time may be over as well. So on to the present...).
What my house needs more than anything is the loving touch of one of those people who love to organize. If I have a system down, then I'm all about organization. And in my heart of hearts, I would be known as someone who is good at it. But I never seem to get started in the right way and so I find that keeping things tidy is very difficult. I just don't have enough little homes for all the toys, papers, and odds and ends that multiply over night. But there may be hope in sight! My three year old seems to have a talent for organization. Not always. But a couple of weeks ago, she decided to rearrange all the bathroom related items that live in a little rolling cart beneath our sink. She sorted all the bottles by size and set them upright, grouped all the hair care products, stacked the soaps, refolded the washcloths, and found a cup to store the combs and brushes. I was very surprised. And pleased. Then a few nights ago she decided to clean out my closet where all my shoes lie in jumbles, mismatched and messy on the floor. She pulled them all out, took out a little rug and shook it out in the laundry room (didn't quite make it to the back door where I usually shake out the rugs), and then set to work pairing all my shoes and putting them neatly back in the closet. When that was done, she didn't want to stop. She tackled a pile of 'semi-dirty but maybe I could wear them one more time' clothes of Daddy's and took them, article by article, in to where he was working and asked if they were clean or dirty. Dirty ones she tossed in the hamper. Clean ones she found hangers for. Since she couldn't reach the bar in the closet, she found somewhere else to hang each shirt, five or six in all. So that evening, there were shirts hanging on every doorknob in the hallway and back bedrooms. I decided to leave them there for the night; it was a sweet reminder of her hard work.

Presently, I'm trying to decide on a gift to make my sister-in-law for her birthday. It needs to be something simple and and fairly quick but I'd like to try something I haven't made before. Maybe it's time to pull out a 7 inch zipper and try a zip pouch. Any other suggestions?

favorites

it doesn't get much more romantic than a good handshake.

the bad kind of red

i'm seeing lots of red today. no, not the red of heart-shaped balloons or velvety boxes of chocolates (although i've seen my share of those too), but the red that's all over a load of laundry thanks to a red crayon that i discovered AFTER the clothes were dried. bother. i was really hoping for an impromptu project like this to come along and take precedence over the things i want to be doing in my little spare time. after internet research, a trip to the store and money spent on the recommended magical potions, i washed the load of clothes (thankfully mostly pajamas and socks---when do i ever do a load of just pajamas and socks??) in a solution of liquid detergent, oxi-clean, white vinegar, and shout. i had very little faith, despite all the goo-goo gaa-gaaing there was about the effectiveness of this particular concoction. but i am happy to report that it actually did work. a bit. there was no rhyme or reason to how it worked, though. few items were totally free of any red waxy spots. but other items looked unchanged.

i wanted to post a picture of my favorite valentine's card but i'm having technical difficulties so instead, i'll share a picture of a cake that we baked for m. a year or two ago. doesn't look so tasty, but we added the frosting after he'd read the message.

maybe i'll have a post-valentine's post tomorrow.

backtracking

okay, i need a little inspiration--something other than just looking at other people's workspaces and then coveting something that just can't be. so i'm going back to these photos of my studio when we first moved my press and type in there about three years ago. prior to that, i had worked in our spare bedroom. but once the first baby came along, we decided that maybe 'letterpress' wasn't such a hot theme for a nursery. however, we didn't actually get everything moved out until a. was 9 months old. that was when m. finished putting up the incredible salvaged bead board all over every inch of every wall in t my studio in the new gigantic building in our backyard. to this day, a's room still carries remnants of its old days: splattered type wash on the one-day-to-be-repainted walls, a foreboding crack in the drywall probably due to the weight oall the lead type... but back to the studio. there is so much potential here and i really really hope that springtime will bring some fresh starts. my christmas wish came true and i was surprised a great deal of cleanliness (thank you husband). now on to tackling some lighting issues in order to make it a little sunnier in there. and more inviting at night, since that is the most likely time for me to get some work done.

six months

despite the early teeth, he's still constantly searching for something to chew on.

on the agenda: i am overdue for a trip to the fabric shop. i haven't been able to work on anna's apron because all of my best fabric scraps are too small. but in order to shop efficiently, i know i must have concrete ideas before i go.

i'm working on several house projects involving clearing out cabinets, moving furniture, and making space. hopefully once some of those things are completed i will feel less cramped and more inspired.

spring tunic

hoping to make this soon. it doesn't look so hot in this link but somewhere i saw a version of it that i loved. i just loaded up my virtual shopping cart here at reprotdepot. i chose flannel and some prints as well with plans to try my hand at some baby bibs. there are lots of babies in the near future. not mine, mind you.

once or twice

hand me a jar of buttons and i'll gladly dump them out and sort through them for an hour. a hand-me-down pair of pants for eli elicited such an event yesterday. he'll probably wear them all of two times, with his beanstalkish way of lengthening overnight so it was a little silly to spend the amount of time i did deciding which buttons would look best.

after this quick sewing project, we finished up the movie once. we'd almost gotten to the end of it the night before but after putting eli to bed, i got super sleepy--and also found myself wanting to savor the ending. what a good movie. such lovely music. i imagine i'll always associate those songs with this stage of eli's life. i remember seeing one of the songs performed on a late night show several months ago, back when i was nursing at all hours of the night. i loved it then and haven't heard it since. so when i finally heard it again the other night, i felt so sentimental. as if those were the good old days: never sleeping more than two consecutive hours, dreading having to get out of bed, fearing that sound of a hungry baby at 3 am. motherhood makes so little sense sometimes.

if you haven't seen it, go put that movie in your queue right now. if you're at all doubtful, then listen to songs by the swell season the swell season. that will settle it.

happy half

today eli is one half of a year old. good grief.

better to eat you with

by the time i got around to finally getting a good picture of eli's first tooth, he was already working on a second one. and the day i bragged about how 'no, he never bites while nursing,' be began to bite the stew out of me. yikes. i didn't deal with that with anna. quite a new experience. but that's enough about that. since he'll be six months old on sunday i figured it was time to take the plunge into rice cereal. he told me in so many words that he can take it or leave it.

for stella

So unlike those of you who talk about your obsessiveness when it comes to ironing as you sew, I d.r.e.a.d. pulling out the iron. I have no ironing board and most surfaces in our house are usually covered with all sorts of items that don't have homes and therefore take serious thought to be put away. So finding a good spot, a clean towel, and an outlet that reaches this spot is a challenge. And never near my sewing machine. In Amy Karol's book "Bend-the-Rules Sewing" she frequently comments on the importance of the iron. She suggests setting up your iron (aka "your best friend") next to your sewing machine. I could go on and on about all the clever sewing tips she gives in regard to needles, fabric and everything else sewing-related, but instead, you should really go out right now and buy the book.

So I made myself get the iron all set up before I started this last project, an apron for a friend of Anna's. I even used my measuring tape to mark some lines on my fabric to ensure that I cut reasonably straight lines! (This is also a problem area for me. I like to rush through the set-up stage and get on to the sewing. I'm realizing now how essential it is to get your pieces cut out just right and I'm also realizing how desperate I am for a self-healing cutting mat!! With lines. And numbers.) And once everything was cut out and ironed, the rest went smoothly. The only rocky part came with the gathering. I love to gather, but I had trouble getting it evenly gathered and staying in place while I sewed it down. I created a pocket that would hold a little notebook so that a certain little girl could take orders if she wished. Looked cute but made the gathering a little goofy because the pocket was large in comparison to the apron, which was small to accomodate the pixie-esque proportions of a petite four year old.

The crowning moment came when the birthday girl (aka 'apron recipient') exclaimed upon opening her gift, "I've always wanted an apron!" And the next day when I bumped into her parents at the store, they told me that she'd even slept in her apron. This is wonderful news in light of the fact that I made three pattern-less aprons for my neices a few years ago and didn't get a response at all.

Now Anna is asking for one (though she has several and wears mine quite frequently). I'm looking forward to picking out fabric with her and walking her through the steps.

Now, if only it were safe to let her do the ironing.

ssssnow!

For months now, Anna has been asking me to tell her stories about snow. Stories about when I played in the snow when I was a little girl as well as make-believe stories about Anna playing in the snow. She would get so excited at the thought of this. So it broke my heart a little every time I sketched out the details of how one day we would look out the window and I'd say, "Anna!! It's snowing!!" and we'd make a mad dash for the front door because it's been so long since we've had a good snow here in Georgia and I was beginning to think maybe it wouldn't even snow a little bit this year. But today, as we were playing on the couch, I heard the sounds of out-of-control kids on a schoolbus outside and I pulled back the curtain to see...snow! It felt just as good as I'd imagined it, that moment of exclaiming, "Anna! It's snowing!!" I was a little afraid that it would only last a minute and that by the time we got bundled up it would be over. But after throwing on a jacket (a very light jacket) and a hat, and having a quick talk about how even though we'd always imagined that we'd wear boots in the snow, one pair was too small and the other too big the black shoes would have to do, we ran outside, leaving poor Eli on the floor.

It was classic. Neighbors began appearing on their porches; small children came out obviously bundled in a hurry in their mothers' scarves. There was a little bit of standing still to catch snowflakes and a lot of running about, not knowing quite how to best enjoy it. The snow got heavier and the flakes got bigger. We made multiple trips back and forth for various cameras and camera batteries. And hats. I noted maybe four hat changes over the course of 30 minutes. Most of this was due to my not having a hat that fits Anna (oops) and therefore having to put my own hats on her, none of which stayed on very well. But I think maybe she takes after her mom a little and sometimes can't decide which winter hat is more fun to wear.

And poor Eli. When he wasn't being left on the living room floor, he was being hurriedly dressed in bulky winter garments. He looked stunned the entire time we were outside. His poor pajama-clad legs were probably freezing. I just liked seeing his teeny hands in a pair of red mittens. He was happy to finally watch from inside.

After a while, Anna wanted to come inside. We inivited some neighbors in and Anna immediately took off her skirt and tights. Wha...? When asked about this, she replied, "Me warm my feet by the fire." We didn't have a fire, though. I suppose that must have been part of the story we'd made up about playing in the snow. And it also included hot chocolate of course. So not too much later, she was snug in front of a fire, rocking in her bear chair with a cup of hot chocolate and marshmallows in hand.

I think the snow experience may have acutally lived up to her expectations.

With the exception of the part where I gave her a sharp warning about the dangers of fire and she began to sob.

The rest of the evening was cozy and I couldn't have been more grateful that I got to enjoy snow with a three year old. As I went through the regular tasks of making dinner, changing Eli, etc., it was pleasing to see little reminders of the snowy day: wet shoes on the floor, mittens and scarves strewn about, and various winter accessories spilling out of the hallway dresser drawer.

And now it's time to pick up all the things that were left on the rug by the fire. A hot chocolate mug, a skirt, a pair of stockings full of building blocks..."I'm Santa Claus," Anna had explained to me earlier as she dropped in block after block.

What a wonderful day.

huh?

i just posted a new entry but it's hiding beneath a post from january 10th. ??? pesky computers.

so while i'm here, i'll show off my new shoes. oh how i love new shoes. especially when they fit my goofy feet. (don't mind the winter sock-lines that adorn my winter feet.)

forgot

i meant to post a picture of the gift i made for amy. so here it is. i've made a few of these so far. maybe after about 13 more, they'll be a bit more tidy and less organic.

if you like it, let them know

mmmmm. we received another loaf of amish friendship bread from bay today ('bay' being anna's word for matt's mom, otherwise known as 'gram'). it's a pretty coveted food item around here. once we raved about how yummy it was, we began receiving a loaf almost each week. if you've made bread from a starter before, you know that it can be a slow, never-ending endeavor...squishing bags on one day, stirring with a wooden spoon the next. and a cycle that is almost addictive. it invades your kitchen like moths in a pantry, but you're never quite sure when to let go. all in all, i think i've figured out the best way to go about it: have someone else do all the squishing and stirring and then deliver you a fresh loaf once a week and skip all the daily steps towards multiplying your own starters.

today's loaf reminded me of the benefits of letting someone know how much you like something.

speaking of, my aunt gave me this book for Christmas. i hope to have something to show from it soon. there's a birthday coming up for a soon-to-be four year old and i'm anxiously awaiting the reply from her mother as to whether or not little stella owns an apron. if not, i think i may have an idea.

i've tried everything

and i can't get my new header to load! now that i see it here, i realize that the typeface doesn't work, so it still needs some fiddling with. and this one was just supposed to be a quick temporary place-holder until i sorted out the header i've had in my mind for a while now. but instead of me throwing something together one evening to make my blog a little less boring, it's turned into this ongoing battle between my computer and i which i am determined to win. sir chalk vs. blogger. check back for results.

another view of yesterday

this is one of the few shots i got with both our heads making it into the frame. **note to self: use something other than a 50mm lens for these sorts of shots.

if you have to lie on ice

i've begun about five posts lately--uploaded pictures and everything. but there's a lot of incompletion (probably not good grammar but it just feels right) going around these days due to some ongoing back troubles that are making me feel quite helpless and a little blue. but 70 degree weather can really lift my spirits, especially in january.

after a nice break while my mom visited this morning, it was back to figuring out how to entertain eli while also taking care of my back. so i gathered up a quilt, my ice pack, a chewable toy, and a five month old and headed to the back yard. one more trip inside to grab the camera and we were all set. i laid back and watched the clouds while eli tumbled about beside me. it reminded me of my first outing to the park with anna once she was old enough to play around on a blanket. i felt so so happy to just be quietly enjoying eli's company and feeling so relaxed at the same time.

we have a new camera and i'm trying to learn how to make the most of it. today was a good day for that but mostly, i just felt like getting a few pictures to help me remember our nice time together. he was so happy as i held him in the air above me, but it was terribly hard to get a picture of him, while supporting him in the air. i tried balancing him on my legs with one hand (and managed to get the shot above) but it did feel a bit risky (and not the least bit helpful on my aching shoulder!).

it's time for bed. and more ice. and hopefully a few more shortish posts soon.