turkey feathers

Transitions & Practicalities

My birthday bouquet greeted me with an explosion of blooms this morning. Just like here! You’re all so sweet. Thank You for the good wishes, links, and slippers! My fortune cookie read, “Friends are like chocolate chips, you can never have too many."  How true!

 

September is a transitional month, and as the seasons begin to shift it calls into action my primitive side to hunt and gather. Like a squirrel with a good nut, and seized with a sudden desire to re-feather my nest and settle in before the leaves begin to fall, I listed a room full of furniture on craigslist and sold it all in two days! We’ve been busy as bees carrying things in and out of the hive with happy smiles and friendly handshakes on both sides. There’s still so much to do. The plumber is coming today, to fix a leaky pipe in the girl’s bathroom, and will also have to replace the fixtures and faucets which have corroded beyond belief from our mineral rich well-water. And this little improvement has just started another chain of redecorating reactions of its own. Naturally!

Some of these practicalities might explain why the blog goes quiet for days at a time. It might also explain why we are eating cosmic espresso éclairs (from the bakery) for breakfast . . . and pancakes for dinner!

Toasty Toes & Warm Hearts

It’s official.  I’m another year older and wiser!  Had a fun week of surprises.  Got the royal treatment, and Grace baked one of her fabulous yummy chocolate cakes.   I feel so loved and appreciated.  My tootsies are telling me that fall has arrived.  There’s definitely a nip in the air and my feet are cold.  Time to pull out jeans and sweaters again and find a new pair of warm slippers.  One of my grandmothers used to knit slippers year-round, for every member of the family, big and small.   They were usually knitted from colorful combinations of worsted wool and the girls' pairs always had a big fluffy pom-pom on them.  Silly and fun.  I get a cozy feeling just thinking about that.  Makes me miss my dear old granny.

Tried to find a pattern or something similar, and was pretty excited to find these (above) instead from Craftsbury Kids, unfortunately, not my size, but darling for a certain grand-daughter.  Some cute pom pom peds from PurlBee, that Grace can make for me if she wants (hint-hint) and this slipper pattern, which is adorable.  Must give those a whirl when I have some time to stitch again.  

September Days

As summer fades, sadly, so do the blooms.  I never have the heart to toss out spectacular roses once they start drooping either.  These aren't from my garden though, they're from a bouquet the Mister surprised me with a couple of weeks ago.  We were celebrating small victories.  I'll add them to my hatboxes of aromatic potpourri once they've dried completely.  I think the colors here are amazing.  Sweet memories for sure.

And the last of the delectable blackberry filling. . .until next year.

Our family went out on another sustainable living and organic garden tour, here in our local area on Sunday.  Got around to six out of the ten homes that participated, with everything from backyard gardens like this one, to working farms with livestock and bee keeping.  Utterly inspiring.  The ingenuity, creativity, and thoughtful solutions to energy and land management that can be achieved on a personal level is always so hopeful.  Bumped into old neighborhood friends and picked up some handy gardening and composting tips along the way too.   A good day spent.  We can really learn so much from each other. 

Patchwork Post in a Clam Shell

    

 

 

 

This morning, I feel these two-tone eyes on my back. 

Peek-A-Boo. 

Miss Lily is keeping an eye on me from under my desk, probably to make sure I don't sneak off again anytime soon.  One can never tell when I might make my move.  I'm so proud of her.  She killed three humongous spiders in the house while we were away!   She's normally pretty lazy, and will have nothing to do with mice, but those heart-stopping horrible spiders she will go after without any problem.  What a treasure.  I love that about her.

 

Those spiders just better watch their backs.

Back on Track

I’m seriously happy to be alive and back on my feet.  Thank You for the well wishes.  There's really no "good time" to be sick.  The world stops, but the to-do list keeps growing.  I’m busier than ever, trying to get caught up. For this reason, pattern orders are taking more time than usual to ship out.  I appreciate your patience while I get on top of that again. (I mention this for those with emails that bounce, don’t receive my notes, and may be wondering about their orders.)  Everything will get on its way eventually though, pinky promise!

 

Listen.  Can you hear that?  It's the distant drum of the local high school marching band.  It reminds me, that another school term has begun and there’s no more time to waste.  We always like to start our home schooling year with a trip somewhere while the weather holds up, so I’ll be laying low (here on the blog) for a few days while making those plans and getting things organized.  Speaking of organizing, our new Pazzles Inspiration Creative Cutter arrived a few days ago and Grace was so excited, she had it out of the box in about two seconds flat and was installing the software before I could get my keester off the couch.  

 

It looks promising.  And it's a nice size.  Not too big.  Still, we had to rearrange the entire upstairs workspace to make room for it.  That tells you something about our upstairs workspace:: you can’t move one thing without turning the entire room upside down.  There was lots of dusting and tidying up throughout.  It took all day and then some.  We are pretty happy with the new arrangement though, and the cleaning needed to be done, regardless.  Though I must say, the addition of a new "toy" gave our efforts purpose and certainly made it easier with that goal in mind.  So.  After looking at lots of other die cutters, and reading your suggestions and comments (all very helpful btw), this is the one I finally chose.  It doesn’t do everything I initially wanted (or wash clothes or cook dinner), but it is programmable, giving us options.  Hopefully we'll have some new projects to show for it soon.  Once I'm on top of things again.  Like, I should go check out the garden ASAP before we have a crazy shock like this on our hands.  I still haven't forgotten last year's scary bounty.  Have a great week! 

Down Shifting

Thank You for all the support and sweet words of encouragement for my humble book project.  I appreciate it so much and everyone who stopped by.  I was (and still am) in the process of wrapping it up, but picked up a flu-bug and haven't done much this past week except drift in and out of misery.  After seeing the Mister off to work yesterday, I wanted nothing more than to take my tea and head back to bed, with the intention of spending the morning warm and idle, maybe even flipping through the latest issue of Marie Claire Idees.  But my head was pounding and laying down just made it worse, so I staggered outside and napped in the sun instead.  Hopefully the worst is over.  The girls have been sympathetic and helpful, yet keeping a healthy distance and so far no one else has succummed.  I am feeling much better today. 

Chicken soup works wonders.  More specifically, egg flower soup.  Which seems to taste best in proper bowls.   Recipe here.

Picked up my embroidery and downloaded a few movies while Grace took my car and drove to a friend's house.  That still feels strange.  I think I'm starting to get used to it.  Deep breathing helps.  "Sarah" and I watched The Ballad of Lucy Whipple together.  There's a book too.  It brought up questions and dialog that's sometimes hard for a tween to approach.  We had thoughtful conversation afterwards.  Followed by lemon popsicles.  It's hard to believe how much my girl has grown up this year.   I won't wax poetic, but it's bittersweet when the youngest of the brood is suddenly no longer "the baby".  If we're lucky grandchildren soon fill the gap.  I'm grateful to have a couple of them to take the edge off what feels like such a huge loss.  In some ways it is, I guess.  It's inevitable and natural and amazing, but also a little sad.  The end of childhood and the tender mothering that is no longer needed after that. 

So as expectations shift and new chapters begin it's nice to have a few crafty diversions to help, and I'm having fun with these.  They're part of my new bonus transfers up on the website now for September.  That little lass looks like my four-year-old grand.  I couldn't forget blackberries.  I'm still picking them.  And it's my birthday month! I love coming up with new designs throughout the year and find the inspiration for them all around me.    I'm particularly proud of that fawn.  It looks just like the one that has taken up residence in my backyard.

 

What a wonderful summer this has been.