Life these days

I realized why I've felt a disconnect between my life and the things I typically share on my blog. I'm just not in a very project-y, "life is good, let me show you the pictures" kind of place right now. Yes, I have been crafting and sewing and shopping and cooking and homemaking and visiting inspiring places, but underneath is grief and some upheaval of purpose that seems to keep me from posting about those things.

Last year, when I started making more conscious efforts to focus on what matters most in my life, it felt connected to my preparations for motherhood. I chose to slow down, be home more, focus on family. I said no to projects and simplified the projects I did do. It often ran against my grain, but I felt it was important, part of a higher purpose. I hoped, assumed even, that this time of change would seamlessly blend into pregnancy and motherhood, but it did not. Now, in the midst of that heartache, I sense the need to continue these difficult changes anyway.

So, I'm doing it. I'm working on my daily living. I'm thinking about my marriage, my home, my spirituality, my creativity, my health, my future and trying to care for those things. I'm starting to think that consistency matters far more than I've ever cared to acknowledge and (begrudgingly, at times) trying to learn how to be consistent.

Bleh, it sure feels boring at times. I don't want to blog about boring! You certainly don't need to see the daily stack of clean dishes on my counter (though having the stack be clean on a regular basis is definitely new around here). And I don't want to blog incessantly about heartache, although there are days when I feel chin deep in it. But I do want to blog about life and what my life is. So for now, that it occasionally means sharing some slogging and working through change. Bare* with me, I know the changes will also bring beauty I promise to share too!

*This is why I need an editor. (J.B., you've got the job!) This was not intended to be an invitation to go skinny dipping. Although skinny dipping with all of you lovely bloggers would probably bring a bit of beauty to the world, it would simply be one more thing I wouldn't photograph. This isn't one of those sites.

Foundations of a good marriage

Husband-o: (Eying the last bite of sandwich in one hand and his last chip in the other...serious internal debate occurring.) Which one should be the last bite?

Me: The sandwich. (Pointing to the still 1/2 full bag of chips on the table.) If that's just not satisfying, there are still more chips to munch.

H.: (Smiling.) Brilliant.

Me: Aren't you glad you married me?

H.: You enrich my life every day.

Yes, indeed.

Iraqi Bundles of Love

Anyone else putting one of these together for IBOL?

(Click here to check out the project)

Here's my growing pile...some large folds of cotton, some decorator weight, some yarn, some smaller folds for color (do only quilters love fat quarter sized bits and pieces?), some thread....

Don't you want to help???

Raid your stash this weekend and get a bundle in the mail by the 8th. You can't go wrong sending fabric to someone who wants to sew, for heavens sake. Right?

Quick sewing projects?

Here are last week's "quick" little projects that turned out to not to be "sew" quick projects due to...

(My block for the Pixiedust Gather at Bumble Beans.)

...drafting curving pattern pieces, then attempting machine curved piecing for the first time and fighting it all the way...

and...


...attempting to figure out my rolled hem foot (anyone? I couldn't get it to work consistently), having threading problems (operator error or my NEW machine??? Argh!), bailing on the rolled hem and then fighting the bulk of the corners even after they were trimmed down (They weren't moving at the start of the seam. Is this normal?).

Shouldn't napkins be an easy sewing project??? Hemming four straight edges? It was a frustrating sewing day to say the least. Guess I will take my sewing machine sales shop on those free lessons soon.

Oh well. I love how the block for the Pixiedust Gather turned out and I love seeing homemade napkins when I open my kitchen drawer.


Good bye paper towels at the table! Yes, we were that high class. Call Martha Stewart if you must. Maybe she could show me how to use my rolled hem foot...

Unexpected Benefits

Last night, I took the time to give myself a pedicure, a practically unheard of occurrence in my life. Ahhhh....the indulgent attention. I buffed. I massaged. I cuticle creamed. I trimmed and filed. I lacquered, and then re-lacquered my stubborn big toes. I watched a favorite movie while they dried. Perfection.

Flash forward to my walk home tonight through my 'hood where everyone was out enjoying the lovely night....kids in the streets with baseballs and bats, men playing at domino tables, ladies gossiping on front steps and in lawn chairs, teens chatting and texting, and endless groups of young men just hanging out. Hanging out and passing out compliments (or come-ons) of "God bless you, mami" or "beautiful" or "angelita" to every woman who walks by.

Tonight's compliment? "Beautiful toes."

Why thank you. Thank you for noticing.

I'm Home...

making tortillas...

airing out camping gear...

auditioning fabric for a quilt back...



laughing at my funny cleavage tan
(ummm..my swimsuit might have cut just a bit lower than my sunscreen coverage did)...

and missing my family.

Have sunglasses...will travel

Husbando is finished with his grad school program (Wahoooooooo!) and so we're heading off for a little va-cay with the familia. I'll be scarce around these parts for a while. Hope you are getting in some good-time summer fun yourself.

¡Ciao!

p.s. Fear not Ms. V...the Pixie Dust block is all planned and will be sewn up lickety-split upon my return. I haven't forgotten you!!!