Mantra

Drama swirls. 

Remembering this ... again.

Trying to infuse it into my bones this morning.

I so miss posting here on my blog. I simply don't have the extra energy. Surgerys (minor). Chemo. Doctor visits and visits and visits. Packing. Bankers, lawyers, CPAs, real estate agents, mortgage lenders, endless emails. 

So much got squeezed out of our charmed life ... to build the next chapter, the next season, the next adventure.

Thus, the mantra:

Life is good. 

Life is good.

Life is good.

Good Fortune

Oh, I hope so!

My intent is in the very best of ways.

Still Waiting

 

The trip to see our Idaho grandchildren weakened me, then I got sick. I'm somewhat better, but still not fully healed. 

Bag Days - Day 5

Here's another purse I made in August. I love the way it came out. My goal with this piece was to use up my ball of pink yarn.

The handle took longer to make than usual because instead of two rows of double crochet, I did five rows of single crochet. It was worth it because it came out more beautifully than I anticipated. And I used up the pink yarn.

I made a single flower from the turquoise and added a sweet butterfly button.

This lining fabric scrap from my stash worked wonderfully! It ties the whole project together.

After I finished this purse, my daughter asked if I did this color combination on purpose. These are the colors of the transgender flag. No, I hadn't realized that! But I love that it has the butterfly as a symbol of transformation. Wouldn't it be great if this purse went to a trans kid who is in crisis because they're questioning their gender identity? Perhaps receiving something like this would help her feel seen. 

I'm all for that.

Simple Pleasures #29 - Classic Recipe

A recent discovery for me. Lindt hazelnut chocolate bar.  mmmMMMMmm

Second only to the original Ferrero Rocher

Noodles for Brains

I haven't been blogging regularly. My moods have been all over the place for the last week. The excessive heat. The national politics. Haunting memories. They all get jumbled up in my noggin. Then it feels like I have noodles for brains.

Colorful noodles, true, but noodles none-the-less.

It becomes a challenge to go from start to finish on projects. Things I started out doing for fun become tasks that need to be completed. Not fun. Progress. Starts and stops. It's hard to find concrete ideas I want to write about. It's a test to try to take and (especially) edit pictures worth sharing.

So maybe I'll go outside and read another Judy Blume book. Or maybe I'll get waylaid by some shiny object that crosses my path on the short walk downstairs from my Studio to our backyard.

Momentous Day

Well done, Time. Well done.

Petit Purses: Part 2

The next three crochet purses Jodie and I put together used variegated yarn.

This was a standard 4 ply worsted weight yarn. It was interesting to watch this yarn color pool into diagonal stripes.

For the inside, I used some scrap fabric from a pillowcase that used to belong to my mother-in-law and that I inherited when she passed. It's nice to think that a little girl will have a piece of my mother-in-law who was also an artist. She was great with kids and enjoyed giving girly-girl things to her granddaughters.

I used the same kind of decoration on this purse as the previous two - a white crocheted flower with a flower-shaped button.

The final two purses were made with a specialty yarn that Jodie had in her stash. She thinks she bought it at an estate sale. I'd never used a yarn like this. It was quite kinky and slinky. One of the strands was very sparkly. The yarn was fairly tangled up, so I took some time to unknot it (quite some time, actually, due to lots of knots), then spun it into new balls.

Because it is a very thin yarn, we crocheted with a double strand. In this side-by-side photo you can see that Jodie used a larger crochet hook and her stitches are nice and loose. She made a bag that was slightly wider and shorter than mine. I used a smaller hook and tend to crochet with more tension, so I had to stitch a couple extra rows to make the proportion of width to height look correct to my eye.

Here's an observation for those who enjoy creating. Depending on how we combined the strands, it gave each purse a slightly different look. Jodie's has more of a confetti feel with all the colors mixed together. I lined up the colors on the two strands more closely, so I achieved a bit of color pooling with slightly diagonal stripes. 

I point this out not because one method is better than another, but because it shows how Jodie is a much more free spirit in the way she takes an idea and runs with it. I tend to be more rigid and follow the pattern instructions precisely as written. Working side-by-side, Jodie helps me be more playful and less concerned about outcomes. I find it an interesting correlation to our personalities. It's super fun to craft with Jodie because we bring out the best in each other.

I lined these two purses with a sweet pink small-checked gingham I recently found at a thrift store.

Jodie tried the single, wider handle on her purse. We added another white crocheted flower with a blue flower-shaped button center.

In this photo the shimmer of the slippery, slinky, shiny yarn is very apparent. I stepped out of the norm and added a turquoise flower made of a super soft yarn, then added stacked buttons in yellow and pink, sewn onto the center of the front of the purse with turquoise.

:: stepping up on my soapbox for a minute ::

Some folks have asked if I sell my artwork. Making these purses is a good reminder of why I never opened a craft business. It was fun to try making the same pattern with different yarns and linings and decorations - to a point. But I tire of doing the same thing over and over. 

If I had a business, I'd have to do the same craft repeatedly. To make any kind of profit - or even cover the cost of materials and photographing and advertising - the finished items would be too expensive. Each of these purses took about five hours from start to finish - not counting the time it took to untangle yarn and wash the lining fabrics and write blog posts. Even at a minimum wage for labor, the cost for a single one of these little-girl purses would be at least $75.

There are simply too many fun crafty things I want to try in a great number of mediums. I'd rather use my crafting space for a variety of yarns and floss and fabric and paint and paper and specialty tools than have to give up space to inventory and shipping supplies, and give up time for selling and accounting. Thank goodness I get to use my free time for learning and enjoying the process and honing my skills. Most working women don't have this opportunity. 

I have an embarrassment of riches in the way of time and supplies. It's one reason I like to share my completed work through charity or via random acts of kindness (think painted rocks and quilted hearts). I don't keep this blog so much to show off my efforts, but to try and inspire others to try things, to not fear making mistakes, and to give freely. I receive a lot of satisfaction and gratitude in return. Priceless.

:: stepping back down ::

A Lovely Day

Most mornings I wake up with some kind of earworm (song) in my head. Yesterday it was this:

Lovely Day by Bill Withers

I decided it was a good day to pay attention to the Lovely Moments that presented themselves, and take photos:

The aroma of a fresh bar of soap

My lowest fasting glucose reading in months

When my daily haiku practically writes itself. 

A bright, warm, red sweatshirt on a chilly, grey, rainy morning

Enjoying the puzzle I put together yesterday (a dedicated blog post on this coming)

Sewing linings in these 5 little-girl purses Jodie and I crocheted for Bags of Love.  I'm delighted with how these came out! (a dedicated blog post on this coming)

Stacks of freshly laundered towels and underwear.

50 bookmarks I finished sewing, also for Bags of Love.  (a dedicated blog post on this coming)

The beautiful Oregon afternoon with bright sun, blue skies, puffy clouds and kids playing soccer. Lovely after the morning rain! Photo taken through my Studio window.

Crisp clean sheets to snuggle into at night.

It really is the little things!!!

I ended the day with a huge sense of well-being. I'm convinced that there are pleasant details around me all the time. I often notice one or two and showcase them here on my blog ... like the late afternoon lighting up my fruit punch.

Now and then, it's "lovely" to consciously look for these moments and either take an actual photo, or make a "memory snapshot" where you stop to look at the scene and place it in long-term memory ... or maybe even write about it in a journal.

I highly recommend this exercise to pull more happiness and loveliness into your day.

Today's Phrase

 Let's be part of the courageous, the steadfast, and the just.

Good Enough

Today ... not even excellence. I'm a bit under the weather (which is cloudy and rainy), so I'm shooting for good enough. 

I like the sentiment, even though I don't chase perfection any more. That's a young woman's game.

A Little Bit o' Paradise

 

Come Fly with Me

Every year, on the week between Christmas and New Year's Day, I take time to reflect and plan. I reflect in writing on the year gone by, remembering lessons learned, "wins," things in myself that could use some updating. I plan by picking my "Word of the Year," by deciding on a main focus for the coming year, and by making lists. My main list is "23 in 2023," a list of goals to reach for.

I happened upon this image today. I'm not only the pilot for 2023, I'm the navigator.

I think I'll fly through the week with this in mind.

Pandemic Brain Day Two

Wow. This smoke and lack of light and energy is getting to me. I really don't like this feeling of having "pandemic brain" again.

Dale and I talk about where I am on the emotional scale as a way to gauge how well I'm managing the bipolar syndrome I deal with. At the "one" slot is complete depression. At "ten," I'm manic. Thankfully, I've never been at either extreme. I aim for the 4 - 7 range. 6.5 is my sweet spot.

This morning I was at a solid 3.5 ... not so good. Whah. I feel like crying for no discernable reason.

So I opened my emotional toolbox and tried a number of techniques to try to get back to center.

• Concentrating on only doing the "next three things." Teeny tiny baby steps that move me forward and help get the motor running.
• Going for a walk. The smoke cleared a little overnight, but not much. That was a mighty short walk -- maybe a quarter mile, but I doubt it. It's not good breathing weather.
• Checking on the pumpkins to see how they're growing.
• Chat with the grandkids. Dale and I were gung-ho. But the little girls were not in the mood to be on a videocall. 
• Brunch at our favorite coffee shop. That helped some.
• Visited Jodie to give her a gift. That helped some, too.
• Making a jigsaw puzzle. More help.
• Watching an episode of Call the Midwife.

As I write this blog post, I can say that I'm at a solid 4.25. That's a decent step in the right direction.

Here's the puzzle that helped me today.

It's another 350 piece puzzle called Multicolor Pencil Crayons.

This was a much quicker build than yesterday's puzzle. Putting the bodies of the pencils together was easy and fun. The only tricky parts were the sharpened tips because of the way they interlink.

I'm so grateful that I've built up an extensive number of tools to help get me through my sad days.

Another method Dale and I used is called The Happy Things. When Jodie was a little girl in elementary school, we used to play this game to help give perspective to the day. We take turns saying one thing that makes us happy.

Dale and I played the game while waiting for our server to bring our food. It helped me get out of my head and into the present moment. 

• I'm happy I live in Oregon
• I'm happy we're retired and financially stable
• I'm happy we have good health care providers again
• I'm happy the artwork I do is no longer a job, but simply for my own enjoyment
• I'm happy I have many forms of entertainment, and am overflowing with content
• I'm happy I have a partnership with the best man I know, and he loves me too
• I'm happy I had four days this week with nothing on the calendar and no obligations

You get the idea. A practice of Gratitude can turn the tide.

Sunflower Wreath: Part One

The "Part One" in the title is aspirational.

I've had this menagerie of crafty items on my work table for an entire month now. What's more demoralizing is that I bought most of the supplies last year so that I could make a new Autumn wreath for our front porch. The pieces landed in a project bin last year and have been gathering dust. Literally. 

I pulled the bin out in August, determined to make the wreath this year. I got this far. Now I'm stuck.

I MISS MY CREATIVE ENERGY!!!

Now that I have that off my chest, I'll stop beating myself up. I'm hoping that by making this blog post, it will encourage me to complete my wreath so I can decorate our front porch and share the results here.

So! 

I started with a straw wreath I had on hand after I took the  previous Fall wreath apart. It's big - about 18 inches in diameter. Straw wreaths are notorious for being messy. This old one has seen better days, so it's shedding like crazy every time I touch it.

I'd planned to wrap the wreath in yarn, so there is no reason to keep any of the straw showing for aesthetic reasons. I decided to wrap some plastic around the straw to keep things more tidy. I cut open some old plastic bags left over from mail order packages. I wrapped them rather haphazardly and held the plastic in place with tape.

This is the pretty yarn I'm using. It was this yarn that inspired the wreath in the first place. The colors are yummy and rich. I even found matching ribbon in the same tones.

I'm making this up as I'm going along. I started by wrapping the yarn around the wreath form in sections. The wrapping doesn't need to be perfect because I hope to cover about a third of it in florals. Plus, from a distance no one will see any of the plastic showing through.

I've wrapped all six colors around the wreath in sections that are about 4 inches long. I've covered half the wreath form so far. I'll repeat the wrapping on the second half of the wreath. This way, the wreath will have two sections of each yarn color.

And then ... I stopped. I've been fighting my workspace ever since. This wreath-to-be is taking up my entire worktable and whispering nasty things at me every time I walk into the Studio. 

My hope is that I'll find the oomph to complete this project ... soon. Can you cheer me on?

#flowersforfriday

In July, I Wonder

#foranaudienceofone

Friends, Friends, Friends

I hope I'm this kind of friend. 

I know others are for me.

Throwback Thursday: Sunflowers

In solidarity with Ukraine, their national flower. Here are some I shared space with over the years.

#throwbackthursday