Not much to say right now so I'll share a few pictures. I want to write, and I want to post here, but I'm not beating myself up over not doing it.

Recycling and Repurposing

I'm showing this picture for Sassy Pricilla because she wanted to see the secret compartment books I made. They're in the right of the picture, and the open one has some trinkets we put in for my nephew. The dress was made from an old men's polo shirt, and the little totebag was my rescue of a pajama pants pattern gone bad.



I made this little tree from Martha's tutorial with the papers cut out for the secret compartment book.



We still have lots of papers left from the books (I made the books for two nephews), and I was inspired by Sassy Pricilla's post on a Valentine's bunting and Maya*Made's bunting tutorial. I used watercolor crayons to give it some color.



Yessir, I do believe we have the ugliest curtains and windows on the internet.Do your best to ignore them. And ignore the fact that the bunting is not centered over the window. I love it anyway.

Maya*Made had a tutorial on making a fall newspaper bunting, and we made one in the fall. Here it is after I took it down.

Kitchen Magic

Showing Up

It's been a crazy week. Sam started coughing on Saturday night (in a tent, on a cub scout camp out), had fever on Sunday, and was still coughing on Monday. I'm pretty laid back when my kids are sick. I don't run to the dr. I don't give tylenol for a fever except at night to help them sleep. For some reason I made a dr's appt for Tuesday afternoon. And it turns out I was wise to do so. As she listened to his lungs the dr asked "does he have asthma?" Nope. So he's got bronchitis or pneumonia. So I've been home all week, administering nebulizer treatments, dispensing steroids and antibiotics. The one day Erik was going to use a sick day to care for him, his boss asked him to do something special. So there went that.

I've completely checked out this week- surfing the web all day as Sam watches tv or reads. I've squandered a great opportunity to be home and DO STUFF! I could have sewed, crafted, written, read. I did some dishes and some laundry, but that's about it. I did take care of my boy, but I wasn't necessarily present with him.

November and December were wonderful for me. I baked, cooked, sewed, created. It was wonderful, I felt that ever elusive flow. And then it just seemed to vanish after the holidays. Maybe having the holiday as a deadline for my creativity helped, I don't know. I know I've felt a little adrift since I ended my daily photography on December 31st.

Right before New Year's Eve I signed up for Jen Louden's Virtual Retreat. A lot of the topics appealed to me, and I've always enjoyed Jen's books. It wasn't too pricey, and I can listen to the recordings after the weekend if I can't catch all the ones I want to hear in real time. Last night I'm thinking how on earth will I do this? I really, really need to get my heart and my brain aligned again. So I decided at a minimum that I would make the first call this morning at 10 am.

I lit some candles and dialed the conference number. I didn't know what to expect. Jen led us through some relaxation breathing. It felt wonderful to be still, with purpose, as opposed to passing out in bed at midnight. We did some journaling, and that is when the ideas started flowing. How could I retreat and act with purpose as I go about my daily life- the life that has a lung re-check at two and all that other stuff? Jen talked about giving up our shadow comforts or time monsters for the weekend. Ooh boy do I have a lot of these. She also talked about doing the things you normally do in a different way. This is what I've worked out.

I'm going to do as much as I can this weekend using candle light. I did the dishes by candle light, I lit about six big candles. I took out a new scented dish soap, even though the unscented one is not quite empty yet. I am drinking my water in a wine glass. I sprinkled some ylang ylang essential oil on top of the Bon Ami when I cleaned out the sink. I did a pilates tape that I've been telling myself I was going to try for a few months now. I burned a paper containing the time monster I am giving up this weekend- mindless surfing on the internet.

What do I want out of the retreat? I want to align my heart and my head so that I can show up. I don't know what happened these first days of 2009, but I have not been living my values. It came pretty naturally at the end of last year, and somehow I've fallen off the path. This weekend I am showing up.

Mama, do you see yourself?

I have a hard time understanding people who don't believe in evolution. I understand faith, and for me there is room for both.

And when I see a video like this I am less able to understand how a person could deny that we are related to gorillas and chimps.I recognize myself in this mother mother- patting baby's bottom, lying down and nursing and feeling that oxytocin rush of relaxation. Don't you see yourself in this mama's eyes?

Quadruple Word Score

I've had a spare, not in great shape Scrabble game for quite a while. A few months ago I decided I wanted to make napkin rings out of them.



Hard to believe a family with so many cloth napkins hasn't had any napkin rings.



Took me a long time to figure out how I could do it.



I've always wanted a dremel tool. We got a Lowe's card from my in-law's for the holidays, and I told my husband- I want a dremel! And he picked one up for me. I already had some jewlery wire in anticipation of making them.



And now we have napkin rings.

Easy Peasy Polo Shirt to Kid's Dress

No-BloPoMo and other news

So this year instead of trying to post every day in November I thought it'd be fun not to post at all. har har har. I actually did want to do NaBloPoMo this year but knew that I'd be setting myself up for stress and frustration. I'm glad I just said no to myself.

The good news is that things are going really well and I've been busy. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I am having fun making things for the Dec holidays. Our laptop died and our desktop is decrepit. We bought an early Chanukah gift- a sweet new iMac and I am loving it.

One more tidbit: an article I wrote about my first time celebrating Christmas was published today! http://interfaithfamily.com/holidays/hanukkah_and_christmas/Babys_First_Christmas.shtml. I think I mentioned working on it here a few months ago.

I miss writing here, and I have a lot of half-written posts in my head, but I am not sure I'll get to write them before the start of 2009.