sunday

saturday

This Moment.

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

-Amanda Soule (SouleMama)

Here is mine...

Happy weekend everybody!

Lost In Space Fabric And Big Hair.

ME EARLY THIS MORNING- "Hey Colyer let's go run a comb through your hair."

COLYER- "Why?"

ME- "Because it is nice sometimes to have smooth, tidy hair."

COLYER- "All right, I knew that."

Onward went the combing, wetting down, and combing again and off the boys went to school.

With Colyer on the brain, I buckled down to finish the little brother version of this messenger bag. I have had the space fabric for months waiting to be put to work.

It was pretty quick going even with a little girl at my feet trying to get into EVERYTHING. She found the stickers so you can imagine the constellation of sticky things all over the carpet in here. No prob. I got to sew.

I can tell my technique is getting a little better and I am much neater throughout the process. I clip threads and iron and organize in a way that slightly resembles someone who knows their way around a sewing machine. I am loving it more and more each time.

Here is the finished Space Bag. I had it waiting in C's seat when I picked him up at school. (They love that!)

COLYER AFTER SCHOOL- "Awe! I knew it! You finished it really good!

ME- "Do you like it?"

COLYER- "Yeah. Hey Mom? Why do you always make us cool stuff?

ME- "Because I love you and sometimes it's nice to make things for people you love."

COLYER- "All right, I knew that."

Have great day!

Whereabouts-The Garden.

I am loving all of the garden tours and photos of planting that are popping up all over the place. I love the idea of gardening and I am always so inspired when I walk around my mother-in-law's beautiful yard. It is breathtaking. But it is always the case that somewhere during the 20 minute drive from her garden back home to mine, the inspiration is gone and all my plans of potting and digging are gone as well. Humph.

When I say "my" garden I mean my landlord's garden and that may have something to do with the lack of motivation. It isn't mine to go crazy with AND it is awfully pretty already, so it isn't like it's barren and in need of help. So even if I never get motivated, we have a very pretty yard.

Let me show you around... THE GARDEN.

Here is our first rose of the season! I pruned these bushes outside of our living room window when we moved in back in January. I did something right. Little buds all over, phew. Pretty!

These callas grow like wild-fire all over. We have them lining the sheep fence and a big bunch by our front door. (Some day I will work on my calla embroidery to finally fill the empty wall above our bed.)

And has anyone seen a lemon HEDGE before? Not me. I don't even know what to do with it. It needs to be power washed and pruned and picked or something. It is a big cob-webby, spidery mess but there are lots of little lemons on it. Could be nice.

And you can't talk about the garden without mentioning what shades it part of the day, the barn. Such a cool, sturdy, red barn. I will miss it most of all when it comes time to move on.

Well, there is so much more to see and I could go on and on but I won't. I think I will do some more tours on "Whereabouts-Wednesdays" though. Just a bit of what it is like for us out here. That could be nice too...

How are your gardens coming as Spring touches them?

You feeling inspired? Or not-so-much, as I am?

What's it gonna take to get us to pick up a shovel?

Here's What You Do...

What do you do when you are so lucky to receive a neat shelving unit FOR FREE (Thanks Jess:), that fits perfectly in your little girls room but has some slight wear and you can't seem to muster the time or energy to sand and paint it?

Oh, you get a thrill by looking in your linen closet and finding the old sheet that you begged off your Mom a while back and forgot about. Then you make the easiest panel ever by using the hem at the top of the sheet as a casing for a simple tension rod and hemming the sides and bottom in a contrast thread.

Up the panel goes and your done! I love that all the washing, pulling, tucking and wrapping that sheet went through over the years has given it a sort of sheer and dreamy weight.

The greatness of this sheet doesn't stop there though! I had been searching for months for a used, white daybed or captain style bed for Minna. I can't believe she is almost two and maybe ready to transition to her own bed for at least part of the night, my baby!

Anyway, I got impatient and instead found a cute powder blue daybed, brand new, that I could not resist. The only problem is that powder blue is not yellow, or white, or light green, or pink either. There was no blue in Minna's room before the bed so it kind of stuck out. But that perfect sheet has some sweet blue flowers and made everything o.k. See? Ties it all in, yay!

The rest of the sheet is waiting to made into Minna's big-girl bed set; throw pillows, pillowcase and hopefully make it into my first real quilt somewhere.

That sheet is going to have a long, long busy life.

What have you done around your house lately?

Cannery Row.

I have wanted to visit Monterey for almost all of my married years. That's going on 11 years folks! Many authors and photographers have been inspired by that part of our coast and I wanted to see it with my own eyes.

I got to see it!

The city itself was much more crowded and busy than I imagined because I had pictured a smaller, beach-bum type of town. We took so many wrong turns and got lost often but that didn't take away from the beauty. I love visiting places that have a distinct history. Part of Monterey's history is sardines and you can't get much more distinct than that. Our favorite stop was the aquarium and it did not disappoint, even though we took a few wrong turns there too.

Here are bits of one of Steinbeck's quotes about the area,

"Cannery Row... is a quality of light, a tone, a nostalgia, a dream."

I certainly saw that quality of light on the cheeks and hair of my children as they explored.

I felt that tone that can only be felt when you are close to where sky meets sea.

I had my nostalgic moment when we got lost (again) and I begged to go into the antique mall on the corner. There I stumbled upon the dishes I grew up with, oh that Butterfly Gold!

(Vintage Pyrex collectors and fiends would LOVE that place! Just get lost a few blocks up from Cannery Row.)

Than, many a dream came true when my biggest boy's blue eyes were inches away from a creature that is very much loved out here.

Not a bad trip if we can compare it to a famous writing, eh?