Hi There, 2009!

(I got a new journal/planner/sketchbook - and a new skirt!!)

Also, you may have noticed the delicious new layout that my sister gave me. Isn't it lovely?? I wasn't allowed to have a sneak peak - it was all surprise. Ah, she knows me so well! It's up to me to get the sidebars all filled in again. That shouldn't take very long.

As if that were not enough, my socks were knocked off to open this VERY unexpected present. May I tell you how many months we three, my mother, my sister and me, have been drooling over Alicia Paulson, aka PosieGetsCozy's book: Stitched In Time.  

Oy, it's lovely! And has inspired a few things, which you'll see later...

Happy New Year!

Once Upon A Happy Hanukkah

So many blog posts in my head...so many pictures taken throughout the week. Must say two things: a) SavingDinner's braised red cabbage is oh-s0-good (and easy and colorful and healthy! What could be better?) b) I think my menorah is just about the prettiest thing ever. 

Again therefore Jesus spake unto them, saying, 

I am the light of the world: 

he that followeth me 

shall not walk in the darkness, 

but shall have the light of life.

{John 8:12 ASV}

To Laura:

(image from here)

Wishing a happy birthday to the greatest little sister in the whole wide world! Oh, how you are loved!!! Can I hug you just one more time before the day is out?

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

But I'm toasty and warm by the home fire, my fingers busy with last minute gifts (that ActuallyLaura gal has got a birthday coming up!), tunes on low (gracious, Marty Goetz's 'Exodus' is beautiful!) and a luscious pile of Hanukkah chocolate within arms length. You'll forgive me if I'm a little distracted, yes? Be back soon! 

This Doll Named!

Hello everyone! Thank you for all your beautiful and inventive suggestions for this paperdoll's christening. I took them in hand this morning with a good old-fashioned "Eeny meenie, minie moe" and the winning name is...

Emily!

(Which I think is just about perfect and I didn't skew the results-honest!) Emily would like to thank Barb from Art-Therapy for this lovely name and is sending her lots of kisses. Did you get them, Barb? Muah!

I'll let y'all know when I get her into a cozy little etsy shop. Scary stuff, that! It might be a little while, as I'm still in SC. There's also a baby doll and a 70's inspired gal on the way, so...keep your thinking caps out where you can get to them! (If you want, of course...)

Presto, Chango!

Ask my niece. Sometimes it's nice to have an aunt who knits.


Like when your Aeropostle sweater suffers a terrible disaster and one whole sleeve is ravelling off, rendering the thing completely unwearable. (Forgive the self-photography!)

Rip, seam, frog, knit, purl, knit.... (I love frogging. It just sounds so funny!)

And this is what you've got!

Easy-peasy sweater to sweater vest transformation complete. Sank you, sank you....

Since I haven't done much in the way of picking up stitches, the arm openings are a little tight. However, I think the result flatters me better anyway. Hehe! Is it a bad seamstress who tries to talk her clients into lettting her keep the clothes? ;) I'll be keeping an eye out now for thrift store sweaters in similar condition. Shucks, I should've done a tutorial! Well, we learn, right?

Soul Journaling pt 5

(An unprompted page inspired by my first time at the polls. There was a cat there!)

(Misfits. Mine are decidedly unscary. Which is less so: the hula dancing circus seal or the unicycling rooster?)

(Prompted self portrait. For a finger painting, I think it's pretty swell! Well...reasonably so. When did I get a beauty mark??)

(Table of Contents collage page - [yes, I'm awesome like that.] Very uninspired, except for the Pocket made with Laura's quilting scraps and some masking tape! I LOVE it and intend to make similar ones in the fronts of all my future journals. I'm always sticking receipts and clippings, etc. inside - now they have a home and will not fall out whenever I build up the courage to write in public!)

And that's the end of that. I'm not sure where my next journal is going...we'll see!

Can You Spot The Chameleon?

Still out of state. Busy, busy, busy! Another portion of my little nephew's wall has been adorned though, this time the design being entirely original and painted by myself and my talented niece.

Orange and Green and Bunnies, oh my!

I'm out of state for the day, so you're getting a filler post here. Nevertheless, may I say how happy just looking at all the things on my etsy favorites makes me? Gathered for this project and that party or just because they were just too darn pretty to lose track of.... Yet look at how all the colors go together! They must be my favorites or something. ;) (And yes, they are mostly expired. I'm a window shopper. :)

Do your etsy favorites show your personality too?

Name This Doll!

She's smart, fun, and fashionable, with a love of the great outdoors. I don't think she's all that fond of the winter though...judging by the look on her face. Maybe a pretty name would cheer her up? Soooo.... NAME THIS DOLL! Enter two or three or four of your favorite names for this young lady in a comment. In a few days, I'll do a drawing and announce her new title. (Any one else getting Snow White vibes?)

 

Outfit 1: red patent headband, pencil, lacy t-neck, tweed jumper, vintage cameo, red tights and teal boots

Outfit 2: gold ribbon with feather-flower accessory, black dress with lace overlay, fringed gold throw, gold purse, gold ballet flats

Outfit 3: earmuffs, harlequin patterned scarf, striped sweater, green down jacket, pleated wool trousers, pink Uggs 

And keep watching, because Miss ____ is going to be the first in my new etsy shop!

Something to be grateful for

Grandaddy, nearly 97, Blake, 10 weeks

THE END!

Yaaaaay! It's over, the story didn't turn out half bad and, since my stack of library books has been sitting quite lonely for this whole month, I am dying to get my hands on some real fiction! But I think that I may sit here for a few moments more, petting my pretty certificate... 

Happy Thanksgiving!

There was pie.

Pretty place settings. (Laura's handwriting looks just like a font here!)

There were pilgrims.

And there were Indians...

And there was even some begging... 

But truthfully, most of it didn't come from the pup in the race car sweater. It was more between humans for the last piece of Laura's pie. May I say Y-Um?

"O give thanks unto the LORD;

for He is good:

for His mercy endureth for ever."

{Ps. 136:1}

Amen!

Wordcount Wednesday

This is the last Wednesday of Nanowrimo and I am glad. Maybe it's the (fading!) cold speaking. Maybe I really need an outline of some sort to make it sanely over the finish line. Maybe it's knowing that there is fresh cornbread dressing in the fridge downstairs - patient, crumbly, buttery, sage-y goodness.

Wordcount? 42,737. I'd really like to have 45K before all the relatives arrive. Dr. Wicked's Write or Die is my friend.

Excerpt? Meh. This far in, things are lucky to get spelled 'tairs' and 'he' instead of 'the'. (Also, I want to know when the sinister hotel manager got so attractive? This comes of seeing too many Paul Newman pictures!)

(Okay, well not this side of him - but I love these goofy poses!! <3)

Hi There

Sorry for the intermission. I was off playing with these guys:

(Nephew #2 and Niece #1. Nephew #1 unpictured)

And then I caught a bit of a cold. Hopefully we'll be back on track soon! (Like, before Thanksgiving!!)

The Tale Of Peter Rabbit (And His Quilt)

There was a notice in the newspaper last week about the "Make A Blanket Week" for Project Linus. All Laura (that's my sister) and I had to do was go to a church right down the street and pick up a free kit.

 
As most of the fabrics are are donated, we were afraid that the prints were going to be pretty cheesy. Among the herds of cattle (seriously - cattle print!) and 80's florals, I picked out a Beatrix Potter baby kit. (Laura got this super duper cute dalmatian/plaid kit. Read about it here. Oh, wait, she hasn't posted it yet! Well, read about it there soon, anyway. ;) )

I love Beatrix Potter, but I don't know that I'll ever use them in a quilt of my own, so this was a fun opportunity. The binding was some that we had in the closet. Also - a word about flannel backings. Awesome soft, but I'm very glad that this one needed to be washed because it shrunk like crazy! If you ever do a Project Linus comforter/quilt, wash and trim first. The top and the bottom are not necessarily the same size.

Lots of lovin' and prayin' and stitchin'.

Finished up just the night before (adding seed stitch finales to the swirls because things just didn't feel stuck together enough).  There were some super yummy refreshments at the church where everyone returned their projects and a lady told a few stories about the children that our blankets would be going to. Overall, it was a really fun project, I want to do it again and so should you!

(This post has me all nostalgic about watching 'The Tailor of Gloucester" over and over again every winter. Oh, how I loved those little sewing miceys and their big skirts!)

Finis

And that would seem to be the end of a lovely, color-soaked autumn. Rain and wind have bared most of the leaves, which now lie in a moat two feet deep along our street curb. 

Tell me why, then did this little wren wake up this morning with a spring song in his heart? It was the first thing I heard and ran from window to window trying to figure out the source. Well, there he sits, pretty as a pea on the rooftop. 

Wordcount Wednesday

While I was at my sister's, I fell a little behind on my word count and told Nephew #1 (he's 8 and just beginning to get this reading/writing thing) that I couldn't come play video games until I finished my words.

A: I know some words! How many do you need?

S: Two hundred.

A: ...I don't know that many words.

But it was so sweet of him to offer! And while we're talking about it, let me tell you, that kid can tell a story! He told me a full epic series about some guy and his spaceship (which kept breaking) fighting off whole armies of aliens and robots. I loved the ending where the guy goes through several battles, fighting left and right (complete with hand-planes!) and then comes home to crash right on the landing pad...and no one ever knew he had done anything. I thought it was pretty funny. Maybe while he's here for Thanksgiving I can copy down one of his stories, just like my aunt used to do for me!

Project Linus Has Inspired Me

I want to be a Baby Cuddler! 

And making Lifebooks for foster children sounds like a really good way to use the journaling/scrapbooking skills the Lord has given my family to help others. I want to do that too!

Wordcount Wednesday Thursday

(It's at 20K now, but the widgets won't cooperate.)

This week I've had a lot of fun skunking my characters, dousing them in tomatoes and then not giving them the dessert they wanted. In return (they must be very forgiving characters!) the real mystery of the matter is finally appearing. If I mean to tie it up in 17 days, some action had best come soon!

It must have been a bad night in the kitchen, was all that I could figure, and continued in preparing my little snack only a little more disturbed than before. Suddenly, as I was spooning a glowing amber gem of apricot jam out of its ribbed glass jar, a horrible little chill went up and down my spine. I froze on my stool with the spoon at half mast, holding my breath and listening.

Funny how these little spooks can come upon us in the dark of the night, when we are all alone with no one within distance to say "hello, did you hear that?" and then laugh together when it turns out to be the cat. Funny how they make our hearts pound and our lives go still for just a moment, while an unexplained cart goes rumbling down our road. Surely you have had such things happen to you? I guess that I was lucky that there *was* indeed someone there to laugh with, though I hd not known it a moment before.

As I sat there, poised and listening, I suddenly thought of my father back in Oak Grove and how very very much I could have liked to been there just at that moment. Then the hair on the back of my neck rose straight up and I'm sure my eyes were as big as saucers as I heard the back kitchen door squeaking open. In fact, I caught my own reflection in the copper bottomed pots above my head and the sight of myself looking so silly shook me out of it and into the role of watching a figure slip into the room behind me.

- randomly chosen excerpt

Shoot for the moon and you'll land among the stars.

{banner credit: parfumeries}

Writing like mad.

Fussing over my still unfinished desk.

Waiting for laundry to finish.

Pinning a Linus Project together.

Wanting to write long letters to all my Very Cool great aunts.

Supposed to be inking in a garden theme.

also: 

Cuddling with one cute pup.

A Moment of Truth

This is the awesome wallpaper that I downloaded from the Nanowrimo forums. (Since Laura has to cope with seeing it for a month, I let her pick. Wasn't that sweet of me? ;) ) I thought that all the little notes were cool and that I might try to follow them through the month, letting my villain appear on the day suggested (still not sure who he/she is...), reading a bit of poetry on Day 5... Well, yesterday and today happened of their own accord! It's 2AM, do you know where your character is? Yes, mine's in the kitchen giving a haircut because I'm still up and trying to catch up from a really fun family reunion. Wake up and treat myself to a breakfast of >cringe< doughnuts (yum!) and then go to write. What's that? Grab a treat?? Yes, little Calender! 

Sara the Cardmaker

As my stationary supplies were running rather low and I had a letter to write, I decided to make the card myself. And (thanks to the soul journaling pages, I think!) it turned out pretty well for a first (well, fresh) try!

(Paper: salvaged Fanny Farmer cookbook, old scrapbooking g/w  checks. Art: salvaged nursery rhyme book. Not acid free here! Embroidery floss, German initial ribbon. )

The ribbon is from this lovely German 'chewing-gum' pack that my Mama surprised me with. Since Sarah and I have the same initials, I had to share some! :) (Hopefully she won't visit here until her letter arrives. ;) )

I think that a Card Day each month would be a good idea, to stock up our writing desks and save some lovely green stuff. Would any one like to join me?

(Now that I have pictures up, the card does look pretty wonky. Still, good for a first/fresh try!)

Wordcount Wednesday

"Once upon a time, there was a girl. Forgotten and weary of the wind that blew ticklish strands of pale amber hair onto her nose, she sat in the corner of the only place as forgotten as she was that she knew. Did that make any sense to you? It didn't to me either. Her name was probably Alice and she probably wished that an old Victorian mantle mirror would whisk her off to wild and wacky adventures involving flamingo cricket sticks and hedgehog balls. In fact, she would have been content with the Victorian mantlepiece alone, but as it was, our Alice was really much too old to fit into a mantle mirror, much too big to fall down a rabbit hole of any sort (rather, getting stuck before she even began, with elbows and knees caught on poplar roots and her skirt snagged on a earthling rose bush, by nature painted neither red nor white but orange."

- From the crazy opening

"From the front, the way that most people are introduced to the Bronnydd, the timber frame entryway reaches out in a most friendly and beguiling manner. A bellhop would take your bags, and, depending on your degree of eminence, the manager might come out to usher you inside, smiling all the way. If you arrived in the afternoon daylight, the cool dark interior of the hotel might render you a bit disoriented, but that is half of its charm. Before your eyes adjust, the other bodily sensors take their turn. Breathe in deeply and catch those earthy nuances of cedar and pine. Feel the comforting solidity of a well mortared stone floor beneath your feet. Allow you fingers to take delight in the smooth curves of the manager's desk as you lean against it to get your bearings. Do you hear that ripple of sociable chatter, drifting in from the piazza where teacups clink in turn? Drink in the precious silence guarded by granite walls nigh three feet thick. And what is that? The cozy crackle of a flame spitting on the hearth. Yes, there it is. Turn and see it lighting up a pair of deep leather armchairs, one with a book of poetry resting on its yielding arm. Someone has left their hat there too, a turkey feather stuck gaily in the rim."

- From the 2nd person stage. Things are more normal now that we've got our setting! But sadly, unquotable.

I voted for the first time today!

And now I am going to make some yummy butternut squash soup. See ya' later!

'Cause it's important.

(the idea was a lot clearer in my head...hope you can read it!)