Enjoy the Silence...

Can you hear that?? I mean NOT hear that? Quiet...

So quiet that I was discombobulated for near 5 minutes before I thought "BLOG!" Brownie is at an impromptu play date and Blondie fell asleep in the car... do the math and that just leaves me and Mango and we are not too loud!!

I was thinking earlier about all the things that I have not been keeping up with, but then that is an exercise in futility that I don't need to explore, SO INSTEAD I opened up my flickr stream and saw the things that I have done.....
Planted peas... I have never planted them before June in the past, but there were some sunny weekends in March. I was able to weed and put up the little pea fence this past weekend. Hooray for me!
I have been sewing my fingers to the bone trying to finish up the Hoop-up swap and the Placemat #3 swap. I am happy to say that I just need to finish the binding on my placemat and DONE!!
Finally, I have been learning a new phone and it needed a cozy out of my loudest and most favorite Kaffe prints. (it is almost gone, sigh.) This weekend I am off to a hat making class. We are making our hats off of our own head sizes so perhaps my big noggin will have a covering this summer!

I hope that all is well in your neck of the woods. I am not going to sign up for any swaps for awhile (famous last words), I am thinking of trying to get a Modern quilting guild going around here and I am curious about how much time it would take up. I love having all of my virtual quilting/crafting friends, but I would like some flesh and blood ones too. I want to put some energy in that direction and see what can come of it.

JMB

Babies...

How much do I love this cute-ness? (Ok, so it is shameless baby spam, she is so cute!)

Touching...

I was going to write about something else today... I don't know what, but not this. I have missed the writing, looking through my pictures, finding something to say that is just for me.

Have you heard of Photojojo? I get their e-newsletters and more often than not they have something cool to share about photography and digital art. Today their "news" was about Richard Renaldi and a project he did about touching. I am interested in photographing people and seeing the "them" in the picture. It is something that I haven't done much of, but would like to. I also have always been a bit touch-phobic. I am not sure why, but I feel more comfortable with a large "body bubble" and I don't like "close talkers" and acquaintances who insist on hugging. Having children was a major breakthrough for me. They don't really acknowledge those kinds of personal space limits. My kids have helped me to feel OK about people being in my space and touching me.

BACK to this project... he asks strangers to take a portrait together with the caveat that they must touch in some way. When I read that I was, at once repulsed and intrigued. I went and looked at his pictures and WOW... I found them quite striking and thought provoking. I also found myself wondering which of the people in the pictures knew each other beforehand and which were the stranger, what they thought of the project, taboos about touching. I am sure I will think about it much more.

I like that. Hope it makes you think too.

JMB

What a mug!

What is a mom to do when your baby insists on scooting around on the floor like a seal pup with this hair and their tongue hanging out all the time?

I don't know what you would do, but I laugh a lot. Her hair refuses to lay down and she is determined to get where she wants to be by any means necessary. The boys were both considerably larger and were not this mobile at 6 months. A part of me is totally petrified that she is going to be walking by 9 months or something equally ridiculous. Mango is a little sweetie, but she doesn't put her arms out to you yet to be picked up, instead she does a seal pup wiggle over to you and arches her back as much as possible and then squeals really REALLY loud. I was slow to figure this one out, and so she was so noisy one afternoon and then I picked her up and she was so relieved that I FINALLY got the message.
I made a big trip to the post office to send out some swap items (some were even early!!) My first embroidery for the Hoop-up swap....
Spawned a summer themed embroidery on my Traveling Threads block for March...
the quilt police are welcome to come and check out my last block for Another Quilting Bee#1...My corners all connected (no cut of points!!), the block was supposed to finish at 12.5" AND IT DID! (could be the first time ever!)...
My Traveling Threads block for April...already finished and sent (on Tuesday!!) Thank heaven for a simple Log Cabin block.

How did I finish all of these you ask?

This past Saturday Big Daddy did all things domestic and I got to sew and occasionally feed the baby. The funny thing is we were both so satisfied at the end of the day (I think that he misses being at home and doing the "usual") that I don't know why we haven't done that before. So Good!

I was reading blogs today and I came upon a particularly relevant (to me) post that I thought I would share. Amy has a way of putting thoughts to writing that I really relate to and love to read.

JMB

P.S.

Baby Mango has developed the ability to spot a tiny scrap of paper from across the room. We are done for.