sock monkey tablecloth

our son, stewart, and his wife dawn, 

(who live in far away oregon) are thrifty young people, 

and so they host "game night" for their friends on friday nights.

i made this silly tablecloth for their card table

 for stew for his birthday.
he is a fun guy, so i think he'll appreciate it.

reclaiming balance

when the news of toppled oil rigs and fragile economies 

starts to feel heavy and overwhelming,

i tour the day's projects with my mug of tea

and my furry companion.

i eat my granola and yogurt out in the chilly sunshine,

admiring my bleeding heart hedge.

and i come back inside to look up lilacs in 

The Language of Flowers.

it says, "the lilac... the joy of youth".

happy birthday #28, on the 28th of april

to our firstborn, stewart.

sometimes it's that simple.
i am renewed.

transformations

• this is the family room, which over the years has hosted lego landscapes, children's books, a craft table, piano practicing, birthday parties, sleep overs, movie nights and gangs of teens.
• now that all four children are away more than they are home, they have encouraged me to dream big. they are my most enthusiastic supporters, along with their papa. 
• my mantra this year has been, "an empty nest is full of possibilities".
• so, the old family room is almost my new studio.
• i chose benjamin moore's  "calm" (2111-70) as the color for the studio. and its cousin, "stone harbor" (2111-50) for the cupboards. photos of the painted walls soon!
• floor plans sketched on graph paper, organizing supplies, painting old mismatched cupboards, silk screening a curtain(!) ...i am looking forward to the fun of making this space mine.

and i LOVED reading your opinions about the messiness/tidiness of creativity. many thanks to everyone who left a comment yesterday!

messiness

despite my efforts to tidy up, declutter and find calm,

sometimes it just gets messy.

 i'm not sure if the messiness helps or hinders
the creative process.

how does it work at your house?

open garden

My good friends, Liz and Paul, invited me along to
stroll an open garden.
Our visit was made all the more magical by the misty rain.

The greenness,  

the blossoming trees,

the ferns and the bulbs...

it was all so calm and peaceful and 

absolutely beautiful.

Some carefully tended, 

and some wild and natural.

An inspiration/aspiration.

a walking pouch

Remember this little bit of stitching?

A linen selvedge, French knots and lightweight canvass.

Well, the original project was, shall we say...unsuccessful?

Yesterday, while finding sanctuary in my studio, 

from the upheaval of a crew of painters, *

I did some spontaneous play...

...and created this little pouch.
Perfect for my get-your-butt-outside walks.
Just enough room for a set of keys, a license and phone/music.

It feels so good to rescue and transform
 the energies of a disappointment!

*will post photos of the newly lovely walls next week.

the day after earth day...

Yesterday, I spent a bit of time roaming around some of my favorite places on the internet, to see what was up on Earth Day. I found all sorts of ideas, challenges and attitudes about the whole green movement. Over at playful noshings, I found a link to Catalyst Magazine. Rebecca Brenner has a wonderful piece about "greenwashing" (sadly, related to brainwashing...) and includes some great recipes for DIY cleaning products.

I also took a look through my files of magazine tear outs. Last April's issue of Real Simple magazine had an article on back-to-basics cleaning, and I was delighted to find that glycerin really does help remove old wax on candlesticks! (I think I bought the magazine because the cover was so lovely. I really am trying to keep most catalogs and magazines out of my house these days.)

Bea, over at The Zero Waste Home is very ambitious. She has great ideas on how to manage all the stuff that life throws at us.

Fix it Friday continues over at maya*made, where readers are challenged to make repairs themselves or call in a repairperson before throwing something out. I must confess, I tried to replace the washers on my bathroom sink and was not successful. But I tried. And now I am looking for other things to fix!

I sometimes like to use a dry mop to tidy up my kitchen at night, or round up some of Henry's fur under the dining room table. The "refills" for these dusters are disposable and come in cardboard boxes that must be recycled. Lately I've been using washable micro fiber cloths instead. They are a little more bulky than the disposables, but they work just fine.

I knit organic cotton yarn into dish towels to give as gifts to some of my kids for the winter holidays. Recently, I used up some leftover yarn to make one for myself (see above). They are super absorbent and soft to the touch.

I still struggle with the BIG environmental questions in my life...like maintaining two homes, and the fuel we use to drive back and forth. This is a temporary situation, and once we are up in Vermont full time, our footprint will be much smaller...but this still troubles me. We belong to several environmental groups and support them as generously as we can. And we've worked hard to raise some environmentalists of our own...one of them may even be a bit rabid! :-)

So, gentle readers, every day is Earth Day in my mind...I try to be aware of the choices I make on a daily basis. Sometimes I am better at this than others. It's a work in process, for sure.

How about you?