Monday, May 11, 2009

What's Up

I was going to write a post yesterday about how the girls brought me breakfast in bed, and I got to spend a portion of the day sewing and going to the church and to the bookstore for my mother's day treat.  I was also going to write about how grateful I was to have a conversation with my mom yesterday morning, how it is not even remotely lost on me what a privilege that is after we came so close to losing each other last year.

But, instead, I'm inspired by the blogs of the members of my tribe, all the crafty mamas out there sewing their asses off and creating sacred and nurturing spaces for their little ones, who can laugh and create and think big.  Here's what has been up around here lately:



We've been in this house for two years now and are finally starting to make some progress in the garden.  Here's our new bed (made with rocks from the many oogy rock gardens scattered all around the house), with our new seedlings nestled in.  Who knows what will make it in there?  But it's fun turning our own compost and growing things from seeds in our kitchen and seeing what might produce for us this summer.  We're lucky that our backyard already had some great things going on, like flowering fruit trees, lilacs, and tulip bulbs:



The last five weekends or so have been cloudy, rainy, or cold, but the weekdays have been beautiful.  Here's the fairy house Addie and Nolie and I worked on last Monday after school, while Eric was at racquetball:



Our insides have been getting a bit of a makeover, too.  Eric's home a lot right now, and has been doing some great projects around the house, like painting Addie's room, and hanging blinds we found at the thrift store, so that her room stays cool in the summer but we can still see the glorious trees in the backyard.  Translation:  me handing Eric the paintbrush (wha...?) and then hauling crap out of Addie's room.  "Guess what?  You're painting today!"  I'm SO glad to be rid of that freaking acoustic popcorn on the ceiling.





Here's a close-up of the stencil I did on the wall (free-handed onto poster board from a design in this great book of stencils):



Addie wants a mermaid on the other wall, which may be beyond my capabilities.  We'll see.

Lots of sewing and crafting going on, too.  I made this bunny out of some of gram's vintage sweaters from this free pattern:



My friend Ashley is having a baby boy--for her baby shower, she got five of these, all in different fabrics and colors, strung on one long ribbon, as a mobile, or wall hanging, or baby toy.  I made my first sale for another one to a mom at the shower, which was pretty exciting.  And a little uncomfortable.  More on that later, maybe.

Here's a silk scarf for my friend Ellen, who has been clean and sober for one year:



Toni brought me a pair of her mom's old shorts (I don't know--25 or 30 years old?) and asked me to make something from them.  I put together a little beach bag, and this picture ("Shark Love") and pillow, made from the shark print on the shorts:





When Addie was home sick one day last week, we worked on this project, suggested by Soule Mama:  A Princess and the Pea activity bag, drawn and sewn with Addie's big-girl help.





And, finally, we've been celebrating cinco de mayo for days now, making Mexican wedding cookies, agua frescas, and these beautiful little luminarias, out of aluminum baking tins from the grocery store:



Thanks to Dandelion Bones for cluing me in to the Book of Days, which is an awesome way to organize crafts and activities and adventures with your kids.  You're a huge inspiration :).

I've been making some great clothes from pillow cases, but won't scare you off with any more pictures.  I was at the thrift store this morning, finding big t-shirts to repurpose into a skirt for Nanny, so that and the bunny mobile order are up next.  It's been an awesome, lovely spring, and I am so excited for the coming days, where the weather is fine and the pace a little slower.

17 comments:

  1. Way to go, mama! Look at all that crafty fun!

    Love,

    the mama at Dandelion Bones

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looks like I'm going to need to look up a couple more things but this was a really good spring board.

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