Easter and Creating

This past Easter Sunday found me in desperate need of some rest. The few days previous had been filled with worry and late nights working on logistics for a fundraising event which I'm excited to help plan. So instead of pursuing a few invitations to celebrate socially,
we stayed home.

I made my traditional "Easter" bread very late in the day. (We ate it warm from the oven at 10:30 pm...all gooey, melty deliciousness.)

I sewed a signature block for my friend Victoria.

I basked in the loveliness and fragrance of the lilies which the hubster bought me for our anniversary last week and which have been blooming like mad ever since then.

I rested.

I may have also giggled a time or two about the comment I heard at church about the Easter Bunny representing the religious side of Easter because, as prolific pro-creators, bunnies are symbolic of new life. Maybe so...but I don't know that I'd share that Easter morn to the whole congregation.

A little bit of rest, a touch of humor and some quiet creativity brought me new life this weekend. It may not be the New Life we typically talk about around Easter,
but I'm grateful all the same.

Kitchen Scents

This morning, my kitchen smells like basil from last nights dinner and ripening peaches. Lovely! My peaches from the farmers market were finally ready to be
blanched, peeled, sliced and frozen.


I love how these girls just slip out of their skins after having taken a hot bath!
Now they slices of gold, tucked away and ready to eat all winter long.

Abundance.

Generosity

These are the little bits of generosity I saw sprinkled through my day....

- A crook-neck squash, two tomatoes and a green pepper delivered by the gentleman across the street straight from his garden to my grandmother's doorstep, a cane in one hand and bag of fresh-picked produce in the other. What a generous friend!

- A walking path paved on private pasture land for the neighbors to have a nice place to exercise. An extra treat for me as I don't get to walk past lounging cows very often. What a generous neighbor!

- My aunt's open home and a spread of hamburgers, salads, rootbeer floats, homemade cookies and all the fixing compiled by family who gathered for a short-notice barbeque to enjoy one another's company, visit with us out-of-towners and just catch up. What a generous family!

- A little blue bird hanging in my grandmother's window which was custom-made by my cousin's lovely and creative wife. (If you want one too, look here. Aren't they fun?) What a generous gal!

- A stack of blocks-in-progress sewn by Grandma while I cut fabric for my next quilting project. What a generous grandma!

It has been the loveliest of days. What generosity did you see?

Tonight's Inspiration: Loops and Circles

Tonight I fell in love with this wonderful looped song by Emily Hope Price



and this photo seen here.

Don't you just love being drawn in by unexpected finds? What have you been inspired by lately?

Daily Beauty and Creation

Inspiration...

Exploration...

Hiking the Hudson...

What I want to remember about today:

That I really wanted to go hiking and we made it happen, in spite of... having to bail on the early hike, missing the train to the later hike, rushing back home for our hiking book and nearly missing the next train, and then discovering that the last train to our hiking destination was the one we missed. Grrrrrr.......but I remember thinking "it's going to be ok" and it was better than ok.

Going up....and up....and up...

Breakneck Ridge

All of the people scrambling up the rocks with us. Everyone seemed to be out on this gorgeous fall day!

Watching the mile-long train across the river, (or was it only a half-mile? a lively debate ensued), while eating a morning snack of bananas and Oreos.

Lots of talking with husband-o, as always...then a bit of solitude on the wooded trail heading back. Nice to stop for a chat, a hug and a reminder to root for the home team!

Go team!

The lonely, lovely stone architecture left from an abandoned dairy, especially all the arches of what must have been a beautiful, large multi-story home.

The light on the stream, the sun shining through the trees, the layers of color...sky, mountain, foliage...

The sugar maple leaves in town. (Right, Alexis? Sugar maples?)


Hot chocolate in town before we headed home, tangy-sweet Ida Red apples with ricotta salata cheese and watching the sun set over the Hudson.

What do you want to remember about this weekend?

Home Report

Recently, I've been struck by the beauty I took for granted when I was growing up. It was just the way it was. Once I moved away, I saw that the "way it was" is not the way it is everywhere.

When I'd go back home, I noticed the way it had been all along. (I really DID grow up in a dry state. There really aren't TREES outside of mountains or parks or yards.) And I started to regard that little part of the world as unremarkable. "It's brown! It's dry! It's ugly!", I'd whine. "It's just suburban yuckiness for miles!"...etc...etc...etc.

Lately though, I am amazed at how beautiful it can be. Yes, the mountains may look dusty by August. Yes, there is suburban sprawl. And yes, you can see it all exposed as you whiz by on the freeway (unlike the towns tucked behind the East Coast curtain of forest), but wow, Utah can be beautiful! Wanna see?

I love the land where I grew up.
It is part of me.

Wordless Wednesday: Visiting V . . .

Getting through

To say the last few weeks have been hard would be an understatement. Another setback on our journey to parenthood leaves my emotions reeling. Yet in the midst of this, the tears and the painful days, I am getting through. How? "How am I ok?" I ask myself.

While Mr. CK, my family and my faith are bedrock during the worst of it, noticing the small and simple things is day to day survival. Perhaps it is the coming together of the Buddist idea mindfulness, the "tender mercies" talked about David Bednar and this blogging community's focus on honoring everyday beauty. (So a Buddist monk, a Mormon apostle and a blogger walk into a bad day....?)

In any event, since this is a place for recognizing the beauty in my life, here a few of "the very personal and individualized blessings, strength, protection, assurances, guidance, loving-kindnesses, consolation, support, and spiritual gifts" I've received this past few weeks:

peonies on my kitchen table (inspired by bloggy friends)...

an invitation for tea...

time to create...

(A mad mess of strippy scraps sewn up into 16 lovely blocks.)

a virtual hug....

a visit to the Botanic garden with a friend....

texts, e-mails, lunch hour visits...

things that make me laugh...

(Is it appropriate to notate seminary honor roll achievements (aka diligent attendance at 6:30 am religion class) with symbols that look like cartoon expletives???)

(R. reigning in her desire to chase the bunny in the garden...)

(...and almost succeeding!)

a few new plants for my window sill...


blogging to reflect on it all...

Thank you for being part of my tender mercies.

Creating beauty from chaos

Every night this week, I've been turning this...


into these...


Giving order to confusion.

Magic Slippers

This morning, I tiptoed into the lives of two little girls and discovered the delights of reading stories about the ballet and a child's love of the night sky, creating celestial hair decorations in a Crayola studio and dancing 'round a playground where hippos wander free.

On the way back to my "regular" life of part-time office job, I found this in my shoe:

the tail of a shooting star. I smiled and took it out...paused...and put it right back in.

After all, how often do you get to wear magic slippers to work?

Home at last...

Trying to catch up on sleep...

Wearing this new addition again....and being asked if I am going for the hippie look...
(um, no)

Cleaning up and getting organized....

Listening to my "Cooking in Dad's Kitchen" playlist (lots of John Denver and Heart) after having cooked in his outdoor "kitchen" on Saturday...

Baking these cookies....

Looking forward to sewing some and knitting some...

Trying to figure out why in the world our prescription program includes four different companies and what each one of them does....

Mostly being grateful to be home....

Spring Break 2009

A sum up of my whirlwind week? Backpacking into a cabin in CT, (related packing/unpacking), going to youth conference in upstate NY, (related laundry/packing/unpacking), cleaning the house some (emphasis on some, I'm afraid), reading your delightful blogs as a post-YC wind down (instead of scrubbing away mildewy shower curtain), attending to post-YC sleep deprivation, hosting cousin and his lovely wife for a few days (where they had to shower behind said shower curtain....YIKES!), lunching with a dear friend from home, then rehearsing, working and celebrating with my honey. Whew! It was great, but I don't mind getting back to a routine!

I wish I had a picture to share of the beautiful sunrise on the shores of Seneca Lake. I also loved seeing the sky from this grove of trees. How lovely it is to have hills and trees and lakes and long horizons around you!


And for you quilters, here's a picture of a quilt from a historic cabin we visited. Never got the chance to ask if it was period or replica, but I like it none-the-less. (Makes me think of Laughing Duck's flying geese quilt.)

Hope you have the Spring or the Break you need.

Wilderness II

"We need the tonic of wilderness."
- Thoreau -

Upon my return from staying in a little cabin by this stream, I couldn't agree with Mr. Thoreau more. Off again for a few days with a church youth conference. Hope you have lovely week.

Design: rings, circles & petals

This is one of my favorite designs. There is something I love about the circles shifting between being interlocking rings and four-petaled flowers. I'm love noticing different interpretations of this idea.

The double wedding ring quilt pattern...

Photo by CaliforniaAmy

An antique ring from my hubby...

An improvised block...

Quilting on my show quilt...


And the graphic design on Amy's banner. When I first saw it, I was heartbroken that it wasn't my blog banner! (Aside: If you don't know Amy, you really should. For many reasons above and beyond her lovely banner!)

How about you? What designs and patterns do you love?

Wilderness

"Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of birds, the ebb and flow of tides, the folded bud ready for spring. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature..."

- Rachel Carson -

Current Favorite Necklaces

I just love delicate necklaces. I seem to be wearing one of these almost every day.

This one is just a bit of upcycled bit of hardware I found.

And this one was from my honey for Christmas from lolabean.

Do you have something you wear all the time?