scrapbooking.... visual journaling

 Awhile ago a friend said to me "why do you do this hobby? i think it's a ridiculous thing to do... i mean, i guess it's great that you like to do it and all but i don't get it."

and this really got me thinking. why DO i scrapbook? the thought knocked around in my head all winter  without coming to a truly satisfying answer. now, i haven't done any scrapbooking all season... i've been too busy to make time to do something i was questioning. today, though, the urge hit me. i got out my books & was flipping through the pages, trying to "see where i was" when i realized just why it is that i do this. gratitude. i know it might sound strange but, for me, it's all about gratitude. i tend to lose sight of exactly how amazingly wonderful my life is if i'm not reminded to be grateful. as i looked back over the photos & read the journaling i just felt a wave of sweet, warm calm wash over me. this is my life. it is wonderful! all those little moments captured... things that i definitely would've forgotten, like lars running around with the wii remote just laughing his head off. or when we dyed sami's hair red & it was SOOOO cool. the light in any given season. the unknown blaze orange flower in the garden. chives. tricycles. cousins. cookies. rainstorms. bbqs.  little things like that. we always remember the big stuff... but i think it's the day to day things that really help remind us that life is good all the time, even when it's hard or dreary or boring.  so that is why i scrapbook... to hold the gratitude for a wonderful life in my hands & say "look. it is good."

a love letter....

springtime, oh springtime how do i love thee? let me count the ways...

     i love you in the early morning when the air still holds the chill of the night, the dew stands like jewels on the grass & i hear the song of the mourning dove coming in through my long closed window, now open to the sweet, fresh air.

     i love you in the morning when i go out to survey the days work in the gardens, reveling in just being out of doors. the quiet moments watching the steam rise lazily from my mug of morning coffee.

     i love you in the mid morning when sun comes in at the east window reflecting through the crystals i hung there and scattering a multitude of tiny rainbows everywhere, reminding me of the possibilities of each glorious day.

     i love you in the daytime with the golden sun warming the soil, releasing its heady scent, full of the promise of summer flowers. or, on a grey day, when the rain falls gently and melodically like a lullaby sung to a fretting baby.

     i love you in the afternoon when my young son and i can escape to the backyard & have adventures of all sorts and his delight at all the wondrous things the new season brings for him to discover.

     i love you in the mid afternoon as i go for a stroll, unencumbered by the trappings of winter wear, enjoying the first buds & blooms of the year. or, perhaps, as i steal a lazy moment or two in the hammock under the tree, staring up through the branches now dressed in green.

     i love you in the early evening as the laughter of children & the relaxing drone of lawnmowers fill the golden air, me ever trying to resist the temptation to flop down on my voluminous comforter and float away in a nap.

     i love you in all your guises... warm, cold, wet, dry, muddy, loamy, green, sunny and grey. i love your ever changing moods & the promises you whisper. my dear springtime, i long to revel in the joys you bring!  please come soon or i feel i shall go mad for want of your sweet presence...



time flies!

wow! it has been a long time since i blogged!

here's *some* of what i've been up to...

* knitting and more knitting! i think i've knitted more things this winter than i ever have all total! plus i've learned alot of new techniques. 

* been doing alot of beading too. made quite a few new necklaces.

* slowly but surely making headway on the quilt for sami (almost halfway done with the hand quilting!)

* finished up my december daily album... what a fun thing to do!

* will be turning in some work for a juried gallery exhibit...i've been agonizing over the selections for that!

* met some great people & made new friends! yay!

* working on some more of my fun little altered boxes. (no pics yet...sorry!)

* followed up a connection to a wonderful little boutique down in the cities called the linden tree... i'll be bringing some of my things down there to sell in the next month of so. lots of product development goin on there! i'm pretty excited about it!

* oh yeah & josh & i finally set a date so i am planning our wedding too! yay! been doing alot of graphic design work on my save the dates. oh and research on flowers & decorations & everything else that goes into a wedding. we are having a small wedding so it's all going to be handmade. can't wait!





it's gonna be a busy & exciting year!

homemade decorating! (or what to do on a snowy day)

 

*spicy hot cocoa of my own recipe topped with homemade cinnamon whipped cream & sprinkled with cayenne pepper & nutmeg! mmmmmm!

    it's snowing today. big wet flakes started this morning & have fallen all day in varying intensities. the christmas music is playing and i have been trying to decide what to do about my tree situation. this year when i started thinking about my christmas decorations i was contemplating doing something a little different. i had seen some wonderful decorations, consisting mostly of greenery with some low key ribbon and eucalyptus tucked in here and there, candles in plain glass jars &  sturdy garden cloches full of a single color of pretty glass balls... i really liked the almost rustic simplicity of the look. and when josh reminded me that we have a frisky kitten as well as a two year old, the thought of putting up the 6 foot tree with all those breakable ornaments was just intolerable to me.                 

                so.....  i decided to do a charlie brown or maybe a topiary type tree this year. and for the sake of still having some lovely decorations, i'm thinking paper (and maybe some felt?) ornaments in white & kraft, white twinkle lights, cinnamon scented pinecones. i bombed out at the store looking for a tree in the size and shape i was after, so back to the drawing board i went with that. then, today, i found this one today and got inspired!  so... i made a tree this afternoon! ta da! lol

 it still needs some finishing touches..(aka greenery!) and to get all dressed up but i'm happy with the shape & size of it so far! i took pics of the process and put them up in my picasa gallery. don't know if it will continue to live in that pot or if i will get a chunk of wood drilled for a base?  hmmmmmm. anyways, after all that, i set out on an online fact finding mission to find some fun & beautiful patterns for paper ornaments. here's some of the great links i found....

.......on the wonderful design blog howaboutorange.blogspot.com i found these delightfully

       modern yet elegant ornaments... she also has a bunch of great links for paper ornaments!

.......found a tutorial for an amazing lacy (and easy!) star here 

.......your basic puffed star template & instructions here

.......template for dodecahedron that makes a beautiful ornament here

.......hp.com also has quite a few ornament projects here

moonlight on the snow

      i have this friend.... and she loves winter. and i mean loves! she always talks about how beautiful it is & how she can't wait & how excited she is at the prospect of it. i know, it's crazy right?! but, when everyone else is bemoaning the snow & bluster & ice & cold.... she is giddy and perfectly happy in the purest way usually reserved for small children. her enthusiasm is catching and i have found within myself a deep, abiding love for the season that must have always been there just waiting to be recognized.
the thrill of that first whiff of snow on the cold air.
the excitement of the first flakes coming down.
the beauty of an unspoiled expanse of white.
the coziness of snow days, all tucked up nice and safe and warm in your own little home while the wind howls outside your door.
the extraordinarily brisk feeling of being really alive you get when you've been out in the cold and you come in, stomping the snow off your feet & sniffing against the tingle in your nose.
the comfort of warm food.
the magical wonderment of a still, moonlit winters night.
      and that's what hit me last night. as darkness fell, the moon rose & cast it's ethereal glow over the world.  the snow & ice glittered in the cold stillness of the night, the bare trees standing in silhouette against the orange glow in the sky where a small bank of clouds hovered just over the lights of our tiny town. the swatches of pale moonlight coming in at the windows and lighting the house in a way unusual and yet somehow familiar. a hidden world of wonder that most are unaware of... or asleep for. a world almost lost amidst modern conveniences and the strain of growing up.  and last night as i stood in my dark, warm house looking out at the beauty that lay before me i felt that childlike sense of wonder and delight.... it's something you realize you've lost somewhere along the way only when you see someone else with it. and i sent out a silent thank you to my friend.

terrible twos....

    ya know i guess i just never really realized how much time a two year old takes up! he is so thirsty for knowledge and experiences that i barely have a moment to call my own these days...or for any of the days this summer... or fall for that matter.

    after my success early this year with overcoming my self doubt & just seizing the day i was ready and willing to go forward in a hurry. i had so many plans for things i was going to get accomplished and really got caught up in trying to get it done. i felt that after years (...and years, if i'm honest) of my close people telling me to go for it, i finally did and it was wonderful! i had found the outlet & the desire & the gumption i had always been lacking. and then... i found myself feeling so much frustration at having found all of those long sought things and then dealing with the demands of a two year old.  in desperation i instituted a tradition of walks at our local state park, which is luckily only a few miles south of town.  initially these walks were to wear him out so he would nap for me so i could get things done.

 but in the course of going on these outings with my little guy, who loves to wear his own backpack and run most of the way, i discovered that the walks were healing my frustrations.

 i saw the trails through his eyes. 

the fascinating colors of fall, the sounds of the birds, the mystery of the wind in the trees and the prairie grasses...that little gasp and then, "wissen!" he says with his little hand up to his ear.

 the occasional snake, buzzing bee or prairiedog whose paths we crossed,

 the flowers & plants he pointed out to me.

 his interest in the trail signs and informational markers..."wat say mimi?" he asks at every one.

my admiration of his boy-ness when he bites the dust and gets a skinned knee but doesn't care

& of his bravery when he conquers his fears and jumps off the end of the bench at the council ring. 

 his absolute delight the day we saw the garbage truck driving through the park from the far side of the lake and he ran all the way up the hill calling "garbage truck?!" and was rewarded on the other side by getting to see the big, grumbly truck drop its fork arms and lift the big dumpster over its cab and dump! into the hopper. in all these things i realized that my aspirations had time to come to fruition but this time... this tiny span of time in my life when i get to experience this amazing thing, is just that. a tiny span of time, a window into the wondrous nature of life at two years old.

 it'll be over before i know it & it'll never happen again. my knitting and sewing and all those things can wait but this won't. it's challenging to remember that when he's screamin his head off acting like a banshee but i'm gonna give it my all!  three cheers for the "terrible" twos!!!!

on dealing with some people...

while washing up the last of the dishes today i realized i had forgotten to wash the knives. after a pause, i ran an inch or so of nice hot water into the sink with a tiny squirt of soap and put all the knives in to soak.  now, i NEVER put my knives in the sink...while they are dirty they are on the counter behind the sink and when i wash them i do so one at a time. i'm a bit of a clutz and it's just safer for me that way. but there were alot of them and they were sticky so i did it. point is, for me, it was an out of the ordinary thing to do and they say that doing out of your ordinary things helps build neural pathways in your brain. so... as i was standing there, giving the hot, soapy water some time to do its work before i started scrubbing, my mind began to wander a bit and  i considered just leaving the knives to wash when i got back from running my daughter over to her friends house. then my brain gave me some wonderful examples of why it was a bad idea, most of which involved some unsuspecting (or clutzy) person reaching in and drawing back a bloody hand.  now of course, intellectually, i know that i would probably remember the knives were in there and that if something heinous did happen on my 10 minute trip to drop off my daughter, and someone else was left to deal with the knives, the water would at that point no longer be soapy thereby resulting in them being able to see the fact that there were knives in the sink and disaster would be averted.  ( i know, i know... but this is how my brain works so bear with me) so anyways, i decide to just stay and wash them and while i'm standing there looking at the bubbles i have an epiphany....  dealing with some people is like reaching blindly into a soapy sink full of knives.  you can be careful and most of the time you'll emerge unscathed but there's always gonna be that once. that one time you reach in and get cut. and you have to wonder (or i do anyway) is it worth it? why would i NOT do what i know is good for me and just not even go there... to the metaphorical sink full of dangerous sharp edges hidden amongst the innocuous mounds of rainbow tinged bubbles?  hmmmmmmm.