Projects

Living in a 92 year old farmhouse means a life of projects to tackle.  Most of the work falls onto Sweetheart.  That's a lot of work for one person.  He had some help recently finishing the attic.  After he framed and hung drywall on some of the crookedest beams ever (the original wood not his framing), a neighbor helped him with taping, mudding and texturing it.  He was able to teach Sweetheart what to do and Sweetheart did it.
And so the attic is "finished".  That means it is finished enough to move it even if there are still more things to do to it.  So, nearly three years after I began packing up our old house to sell it, I finally have a space to create.  I love it.
I unpacked tub after tub of art and craft supplies and have enjoyed finding places to put it all.  I still have one laundry basket of stuff to deal with, but I moved in enough.  We were able to spread out and make some Valentines for people, even if some didn't get mailed out until Valentines Day. 
It's so nice to have a place to sit and think and spread out papers and paints and not have to clean it all up for the next meal!  I've gone up early a few mornings armed with my thermos of tea and or coffee.  I can sit up there and do devotions and even do some sketching and watercolouring. Joanne is my inspiration for that.
I've got several books on living creatively that I have been reading through as well and trying out some ideas and teaching myself a lot.  The Creative Call is one book I bought in January that I am really enjoying.  I bought Taking Flight shortly after Dumpling was born and am just now getting around to reading it again.  And The Creative License:  Giving Yourself Permission to Be the Artist You Really Are is the final one.  Now, all I have to do it get going on it all.
I am not one to consider myself An Artist.  I always think of my Aunt as such.  But, as I grow older I am learning to live more creatively and feel freer thinking of myself as one.  I enjoy creating beauty whether it is in writing, taking pictures, reading stories, gardening, or making cards.  I am learning that my life is my art.  I may never sell a thing, or be published, or whatever, but that's ok.  I am happier whenever I can be creating beauty in whatever form it takes.  We'll just see where it takes me.
Well, it's time to create some beauty in the kitchen and while I wish that was to be in the form of making some scones, it more just needs to be in doing the dishes I've left in the sink.  Since breakfast.
In all fairness to myself, I've been battling a cold since Saturday and have spent more time just trying to rest and get better than I have cleaning.  Which would explain the laundry pile threatening to overtake the downstairs washroom...I have been able to read though.  Sense & Sensibility, Pride & Prejudice are complete and I am in the middle of Mansfield Park.  Not bad for a few days reading!
Hmm...maybe I should whip up the scones and do the dishes while they bake...  ;)  I think I like that idea.  Having discovered how much a simple vanilla glaze can do for my scones has been a dangerous thing.  It's elevated an easy treat into something amazing. 

Busy Kitchen

Ok, so I've decided I need to get back to some regular posts here. I confess that it has been hard to write much lately. This has been an incredibly difficult time for our family this last year and I don't want to just mope and complain. I do want to be honest though, and not one of those perky, perfect bloggers who seem way too together for me to relate to.

I also know that many of you do pray, and I seek that out as a community of faith. Some of you have become true friends, some I see in real life, some through personal emails and writings. Thank you all for being so loving and supportive.

So, life continues on around here. It has rained/snowed/hailed seven out of the last eight weekends, making our dreams of finishing our yard seem a distant reality. We even had a tornado warning on Sunday afternoon. I've got a skid steer tractor stuck in my backyard from Sweetheart trenching for sprinklers. It's too muddy to move! Plus the 16" deep trenches have about 14" of standing water in them. Again. We thought we'd have the garden in and lay sod this weekend. Not going to happen. *sigh*

Seriously, our weather is absolutely gorgeous during the week and abysmal on the weekends--the only time Sweetheart can really work. Of course, we've still been out there working in the rain and Sweetheart does as much as he can in the rain and the dark. Not always too successful as we now need to replace a fencepost on our fence because it got in the way. Oops!

As for inside things, I finally completed a projected I've been working on forever and my sister will finally get her birthday present next weekend. Her birthday was in January. Yep. Sewing is new to me and I'd been trying to sew a purse for here out of some fabric I had she liked. First it was put off because I couldn't work the sewing machine with my bum ankle, then we had Pumpkin's stuff. I've been a bit addled myself and not too good on finishing projects. I've had to switch patterns because apparently pattern writing is a second language and not one I'm fluent in. But it is done. Finally.

I was so excited to finally finish, and was on such a roll sewing that I whipped up some new valances for the family room. I took down the velvet drapes and sheers when I washed everything for spring cleaning. When I was done, I hung back up the sheers and loved it not wanting to rehang the heavy drapes. It looked unfinished though. I had some fabric I'd picked up at a fabric sale in November. So far I'd made it into a table runner, but still had a few yards left. So, I quickly rolled out the fabric making sure it was wide enough and cut it into four equal lengths. I then hemmed all the edges and made a pocket thingy for the rod. Done!

(Look closely~you can see the skid steer through the sheers!)

Moving the sewing machine to the kitchen counter has made it easy to work on things and not have to wait until the boys are sleeping. I've also been whipping up some easy drawstrings bags for all sorts of things. I made fleece bags for Sweetheart's sunglasses collection which of course meant the boys needed bags for their shades as well. I made a bunch of light-weight bags for all my bulk foods and produce. I've used them a few times already and I love them!

Today I'm making salves, body butters and more lip balms. I'll do a separate post on the salve later. I've got little bottles and tubes all over and lots of things cooling on the window sill. The house smells great~like beeswax and lavender mostly.

So, picture my kitchen. I've got all my body product ingredients out, the sewing machine on the counter, and two flat of seedlings I'm trying to keep alive until they can be planted. It looks awful, but necessary. The boys are happily reading and playing with trains as I type. We can hear the birds outside chirping and there is a gentle breeze stirring the lace curtains at the kitchen window.

I'll sign off for now. I need to check on the body butter, and get lunch going for the boys. Hope you all are having a lovely day as well.

Progress!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Big breath in! I feel like I'm actually getting my head above water. I've been completely a bunch of projects around the house that have been half done for far too long. It's felt like I haven't finished anything in so long, but tonight I've reviewed what I have done in the last two weeks.

* The garden is all in. Yippee!

* I've finished painting all the porch furniture, except a small part of one piece I need to touch up.

* I've sewn two of the cushions for the porch. I think I have three to go.

* I've clean out our closet, our room, and the loft. These were an utter disaster, especially after dashing out of town last week.

* I've done some sewing on a bag I've been wanting to get to for quite some time. It was a black canvas bag that I loved, but it had an ugly logo for a reading curriculum company that I got at a teaching training years ago. I gave away most of my teacher bags when I quit, but this one was always comfortable and the inside pockets so useful. So, finally I cut out a rectangle from some of my Grandmother's old barkcloth curtains and sewed it over the logo. I tried to sew it on with the machine, but since it was on the pocket of the bag, I couldn't get it to work right on the machine. So I ended up hand sewing it with embroider thread. It's not perfect, but I like it a whole lot better! (I love the fabric, but entire draperies out of it might be too much even for me!)

* All the dishes are washed and now I have time to go work on my projects for the Art Swap over at Quill Cottage. I am excited about this as they are manageable projects with a end result and a deadline. Finally, an excuse to just be creative because I want to! I needed something like this to do just for me and just for fun.

* I've been cutting roses and filling the house with them this week. The bushes have simply exploded with blooms! I'm sure I'll post pictures soon. It's amazing.

Project Finished!!!

Woo hoo! I finally finished my Mothers Day present for my Mom. Boy, is she patient. I was beginning to think it would end up as a Christmas gift. I had decided to make both she and my Stepmother Memory Albums for Christmas, but ran out of time to finish both.


Though it may seem odd, I chose to do my Stepmother's first, as many of the pictures for her album were of her mother who passed away just a few weeks before Mothers Day. I made a mini album for her using the pictures that had been digitized for her Mother's memorial service. It turned out really neat, but I was too tired when I finished to take pictures of it to post.


Well, I bought my Mom a flip book album; one that stands on its own and allows you to flip the pages along the rings at the top like a calendar. I used pictures that my Uncle Kurt had scanned a few years back and put on disks for everyone.


The album started with pictures of my Grandparents just after they were married during World War II and went through about 10 years. I finished it all up this week and gave it to her today. She was pleased. I took a few pictures of it, but pictures of pictures don't always turn out so great, so please bear with a little blurriness.

This is the cover. It's my Mom when she was still pretty little. See where Pumpkin gets the red hair?

This is a picture of my Grandmother. They were living in Germany just after the war as my Grandpa was a part of the rebuilding efforts. I love the papers on this page, especially the one that looks like a vintage hankie. The 3-D sticker in the bottom corner looked like something my Grandmother would have worn and really finished off the page.
Wasn't she lovely?

Here's my Mom in her Father's Garden.
He won quite a few awards for his flowers. He was such a big, strong man that no one dared tease him about it!

In fact, here is a picture of him with his German relatives after the war.
He's the guy in the back.
I wouldn't tease him about anything, would you?
(He was born in Germany and raised there until he was about seven. Then he sailed to America (ALONE) to meet up with his Mother who had moved here a few years before. Boy, is that a tale worth telling someday!)

Here's is my Mom in her tutu. Family members will laugh as they know that she was often photographed posing in various ballet positions for many years growing up.
She loves to twirl those skirts!

I love working with the old pictures. They have such a timeless quality to them. It's not always easy to find scrapping materials I like to go with them, but I seem to add buttons and ribbons to almost all of my projects these days.

I hope it's something that will bring a smile to Mom's face whenever she sees it.

Projects

I am busily creating a few special projects that I'm attempting to finish before the baby arrives. I am hoping to get Pumpkin's first year scrapbooked, but have stalled around month five. I really need to get going!
I am also working on a special project for my mom. I put so much effort into my stepmother's memory book of her mother, that I've burned out on finishing the project for my mom. Sigh. I've gotten back in the groove and am hoping to finish her project in the next week. Maybe then I can reclaim the surface of my desk...

This book is my journal of sorts. I got tired of not finding a book I liked, so I finally decided to just scrap a cover of a black book. Inside are writings, to do lists, prayer lists, book quotes, and an assortment of odds and ends I don't want to lose track of. Not as pretty as Jewel's Journals, but she has inspired me to do more inside the book now and not just the cover. We'll see what happens.