Lost in Transition

The weather doesn't quite match the season. We've had the longest, warmest, and driest Summer for as long as I can remember. Still, there are signs; signs that things are changing, that the shift is coming. I mean other than the obvious, other than school starting and the whole world turning upside down, waking up at 6:30 am every morning, making both breakfast and lunch 15 minutes after you wake up and please just let me make coffee before anybody talks to me.

I have to admit, I feel a little lost in transition. I keep waiting to feel like I've gotten past the hard part and can dig into work again. Yet, when I do have time to make, to sew, to create; I have too many ideas and can't settle. So instead, I do laundry, I mop the floor, I wander the garden looking for signs.

The signs are there. Things are changing. I am just adjusting, getting my feet back on land after a long Summer of sea legs. 

I am covertly, quietly, hesitantly, happily going forward... lost in transition for a brief moment. It all comes back around, we slip into the new routine, we get ourselves together and brave the change... we find our way.

Made It Monday

Dress: McCall's 6275

Pants: Simplicity 4572

Since we returned from our lovely holiday we have been playing catch up and getting ready for Fall and the start of school. Do you ever wish you could have a vacation to recover from your vacation? For my part, I have been in a mad rush to get school supplies and to stitch up some quick school clothes.

I have a stash of mainstream patterns that have been picked up for pennies, given to me, or come to me from a number of places. Many of them are not exactly my cup of tea, but why not go through them and see which are keepers and which to pass on. The plus side of this is that I don't have to spend time drafting my own patterns and most of them are super fast to stitch up. Since school is starting next Tuesday, that is a good thing.

Simplicity 2689

The dress above was made from a vintage sheet that I acquired from Sherri of Little House in Paradise.

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The Engineer has been busy as well. He finished up a gorgeous coffee table made from reclaimed wood.

It turned out beautifully and is the perfect compliment to our living room. I love it! 

He and a good friend also worked crazy hard on Saturday to build a chicken run to keep our pesky hens out of the garden beds. Hooray!

Oh, and Pony Girl has been making stuff too!

What have you been up to? Make anything lately?

These days

These days the bed rarely gets made. We throw our clothes all over the floor - having acquired a temporary amnesia as to the whereabouts of the laundry hamper. The table is sticky from Popcicles, littered with the souvenirs of our adventures, and a seat is always reserved for the newspaper crossword puzzle. There are ponies strewn all over the house and in the garden.

These days all of my photographs are of my girl, family, the garden, produce, or food. The best photo ops are never captured because we are too immersed in the moment to break away long enough to take a picture.

These days I am feeling better. I had a rough patch recently. I was feeling the crush of the sadness out in the far flung world and the weight of tragedy close to home. Getting outside and adventuring has helped so much; hiking down a mile of switchbacks to reach a secluded lake, hiking that mile back up again, swimming in the river, and swinging from the monkey bars at the park. Apple pie and fresh blackberry milkshakes have helped a lot too.

These days Pony Girl and I have been listening to pop music. Especially in the car. I'm learning to listen and sing along without cynicism, or cringing. There is a spectacular joy in sharing a loud sing-along in a car with your kid! Never make anyone feel bad about the music they love.

These days are rushing by. It was just the 4th of July and then I blinked, now it's nearly August. I'm only feeling like I've just now got the swing of Summer.

What have you been up to these days?

Where in the world is Lola?

Here I am!

As it turns out, I was not abducted by Aliens, I did not join the witness protection program, nor did the zombie apocalypse begin in the Northwest United States. I've been here all along. You know, just relishing in the abundance of life! That's just one way of saying, "Oh good gravy, life is non-stop action!" 

I'll just do the highlights:

The fruit must be obeyed:

When the "Hoods" come on (Mt. Hood, Oregon Strawberry variety), you have no choice but to drop everything and scoop them up. This old fashioned variety is small in size, quite perishable, and the best tasting strawberry you will ever have! To not immediately run out and make a quadruple batch of low sugar jam, would be tantamount to blasphemy and lead to painful regret and despair. We also ate them fresh and I had enough to try out my new dehydrator making fruit leather.

I really wish this was a scratch-n-sniff picture. So good!

Then came the raspberries. These from our own small patch. It seems my worry over my pruning job this winter was unfounded. They have come on like gangbusters! Fresh handfuls of just picked raspberries are the preferred method of consumption. Still,we had enough to make a small batch of jam, freeze a few pints and they are still going strong.

And there were the cherries! Having never grown cherries and having inherited one sweet and one sour variety when we bought this house; I did some research. I was a bit surprised that the trees were already dropping fruit (a sunnier spring than normal?). So we picked the first go-round. Being a bit canned out, I dried this first batch to use later. The second picking may see some canning of chutney and possibly a cherry Brandy.

There's this kid:

She ended 3rd grade and is moving on to a bigger school next year. We had a week of celebratory classroom community fun. She had a great teacher this year,a lot of challenges, and was ever unflinchingly herself. I am so proud and madly in love with this girl!

And this:

Go on! Get a kitten, you know you want to! Pure joy. No trouble, no trouble at all.

xo

Getting the Jump

Today I am:

Getting the jump on some Summer sewing for my girl. An old pattern that has been traced and changed and made bigger with endless options... so easy peasy to sew, I could probably make it in my sleep. Long tunics to go over capris and shorts. In shades of green with plans for other color combinations.

Planning a garden makeover for a raggedy patch in the sun. Making lists of plants for a "Bee and Tea" garden. I know there is more that I can do for those precious honey bees! Plus, many of the plants that bees love are also good for making lovely tea blends.

Trying to make our new kitten feel safe and comfortable so she stops hiding under he bed.

Hoping the weather holds for tomorrow's trip to the Farmer's Market. I'm in the mood for fresh peas! Our peas in the garden have a while before they produce.

Enjoying the warm day and of course, there is always laundry!

What about you?

Life at home

Sometimes you get busy with life or life gets busy with you. Either way, both good and bad, up and down, life happens. So we roll. I've let myself fall down the rabbit hole of family life, letting the adventure lead. Celebrations, hard work, sad days and having a little bit of fun.

What have you been up to?

Wishing and Hoping

Today I am wishing the sun will poke through the clouds.

Today I am hoping that our local teachers get a much needed break from the long and arduous negotiations that suspended what could have been an historical strike.

Today I am wishing there was more time to get things done.

Today I am hoping to get more organized.

Today I am wishing for time with my family this weekend.

Today I am hoping that you all are having a lovely day!

P.S. The Stitched Journal Project's first show and tell is coming next Friday, February 28th.  If you left a comment wanting to join and did not receive a welcome email from me, that means your comment was "no-reply" and you did not send me your email. No worries though, you can still participate of course! If you want to receive emails and reminders, please send your email to me! Happy stitching!

Thursday's child has far to go

It has turned into a snow day! My girl and I are doing science experiments and putting dyed fabric up on the design wall. Looks a bit crazy, but we're having fun.

Hope you are too!

Pony Round Up

On any given day, no matter the weather, both indoors and out, we are surrounded by ponies. No wonder we call our daughter Pony Girl.  At the end of the day, a great pony round up commences, most days. Sometimes the round up happens later, sometimes we forget about all those ponies left outside, in the bathtub, under the couch, in the cupboards...

I decided to document one of those round ups.

There are ponies on the patio table.

Ponies on benches.

Ponies on the lawn.

Ponies on the garden swing.

Ponies under trees.

There are even ponies in the chicken coop!

I know I missed a few, now where could they be?

Have a wonderful weekend!

It's not you, it's me.

Whoops, slipped away there for a bit. Completely unintentional you know. I am in an utter state of shock that the year is almost half over and school will be out in a couple of weeks! How, I ask you, how in the world did that happen? I am going to make an effort to spend more time around here, because I miss you!

I did want to take this opportunity to thank you all for your wonderful comments on my last post. What a bunch of lovely readers you are. There has been no luck as of yet in finding our new home, but we are patient enough to wait for just the right place.

Not finding a house hasn't stopped me from day dreaming of decorating or imagining more storage! In fact, I accidentally popped over to Pinterest the other day, oh my! So many gorgeous ideas to see! Not the ideal thing to go looking at when you have a list of chores as long as your arm. I did that thing, you know the one, where you tell yourself "just a few minutes" and then an hour later you look up to see it's time for school pick up. Yes, that happened and I'm going to have be more careful in the future.

Well, I do have more to share, but I will save a little something for later.
Have a happy day!

Outtakes

As a blogger, a maker and an observer, I take a lot of photos. A ridiculous amount sometimes. Very few of the photos I take actually make to my blog, or see the light of day ever again. I take a lot of photos so that I can get at least one or two that I am happy with. Or I just take photos of things that catch my eye, but don't necessarily "belong" anyplace. My image files are filled with Outtakes.

Sometimes these outtakes are images I truly like though. Like a picture taken during the process of making something, a pile of scraps that are destined for the rubbish bin. The above shot actually gave me an idea for another project.

Maybe a big mess gets in the shot. A tangled nest of brightly colored ribbons; the "before" pic so to speak, the "after" pic shows them all prettily organized (ok, it will show them all prettily organized when I finally get around to it).

Sometimes these Outtakes show the essence of something; a moment, a character, the truth. And so I have a real soft spot for some of them.

Like these photos of a model who is well and truly "Over It"!

Are your photo files full of Outtakes too?

The red and the gray

It is a cold January day, as I look out my window I can see little flurries of snowflakes swirling to the ground. Alas, once they touch down they simply disappear, much to the disappointment of my girl and myself. Just enough of the white stuff for playing in and making a mini snow-person would be wonderful.

Instead I am inside playing with pots of paints and managing to avoid the laundry altogether.

It might be some time before I can set myself up with some screen printing equipment, so I'm going with what I have on hand. I'm taking some ideas from my sketchbook and bringing them to life.

Testing, testing... 1 2 3

Oh yes, I like that!

Some days it is good to simply enjoy the process, have fun with experimentation and not worry too much about the end result. You might be surprised where it leads you. In fact, I now have a completely new direction I am thinking of taking this experiment. How unexpectedly grand!

What are you up to today?
Is it hot or cold where you are?
Had any surprises lately?

Today

Today there is a big wind sweeping the sky, liberating the leaves from the branches and tossing up a change. The Indian Summer is giving up it's foothold and passing the days over to Fall. There is suddenly an abundance of squirrels in the garden frantically scurrying, burying and scolding. I am wearing a sweater indoors for the first time in a long time, wishing I had a sweater with pockets, for I do love a handy pocket.

Today there is a menagerie underfoot, wee animals in groups of twos and threes and fours scattered from one end of the cottage to the other. It is very important to my girl that her four legged friends form families, so that no one is all alone. The polar bears were discovered in the fridge this morning when I reached for the milk.

Today I am studying maps, organizing collections, and wondering aloud. Today I promised my girl we would bake something sweet together after school, something with berries and cream. We will talk about the day and have two spoons to lick clean.

Today I have decided it is high time I got something going on the hook again, and the dust settling on my sewing machine creates a deep longing to spend time with my old friend. The wind has stirred up my creative sap and today I am dreaming up what I will make with my hands.

That is my today.

Tomorrow I sew!

What is your Today?

P.S. Thank you everyone who left me such wonderful comments on my last post and fantastic recommendations for my travels, what a wealth of information! especially to Patti who went above and beyond, I had no way to reply to your comment, I so appreciate it!

Lola Unplugged

Hello there!

Goodness me, where does the time go? I'm having a twinge of vertigo whilst looking at the calendar and realizing it is well past half of July! We finally got the go ahead on Summer with the weather turning golden on the 4th. Since then we have been well and truly Summering. So, I have "unplugged" and busied myself with the great outdoors and some wonderful times with my girl (& The Engineer when he is home from work) during the school break. I have even been so caught up in the doing and living that my camera keeps getting left behind and all I have to show are a few quick snaps from my phone!

There has been a bit of feasting from the garden...

There have been picnics in the park...

A good amount of monkeying around on playgrounds...

A quick pickle here and there...

As well as a not quite so quick bit of pickling...

There have been some super cool experiments...

Magic Ice Orbs created by putting a few drops of food coloring into a balloon, then fill the balloon with some water, tie off and freeze over night. Remove balloon and voila! Super cool!

There was a grand day at the river...

A bit of girly fun...

And a heavenly batch of home made, hand churned blackberry ice cream!

There was also a rousing family water balloon fight in the back yard and I was the winner! Well, if by winning you mean the the one who most resembled a drowned rat. And no, I haven't any photos of that.

So, forgive me if my posts are spotty, my replies and communications iffy for the next little while. This being "unplugged" is just too much fun!

I do hope that wherever you are, no matter the weather, that you too are having a bit of fun!