Finally....

I had a really great time crafting this holiday season. I started calling my craft room, my studio and I got in to the habit of telling my husband that I needed to go do my "work". It just felt good to use my materials...to see my embroidery thread disappear...to see the stack of empty thread spools grow. It was like a house cleaning purge in a whole new way.

The endorphin rush from finishing projects gives me a such a heady, dizzy feeling (because it happens so rarely). This season, when I would finish something...I would emerge from my studio and parade around for my husband beaming, like I had just won the lottery or "best hair" on senior day (we didn't have that kind of stuff at my high school...and I probably would have won "biggest hair", but whatever!)

I loved sitting in front of my husband's RIDICULOUSLY large TV and watching "Battlestar Galactica" in HD as I became a blanket-stitch wizard. This felt box was for my mother. I wanted to give her a blue bird of happiness to guide her into 2008. She loved it, more than I thought that she would...I mean she is my mom...But no, she really was gaga. (the picture is on the bad side, really doesn't do it justice, but that is what you get taking pictures @ 3am on Christmas morning)

There are really SO many bag tutorials out there, I must have read at least 50. Of course when it came down to it, I just winged it and made some really dippy prototypes. Eventually I came up with an idea that seemed to work and I will admit that I did some experimentation with fusible interfacing. I am not "in love" with working with it....BUT I will admit that it makes for a very smart looking bag---maybe the first thing that you would say is "Wow, nice bag" instead of "Hey, did you make that?" That whole issue is one I will continue to grapple with. I realized, as I continued my craft-o-rama, that I felt that I needed to make each person on my list A LOT of things in order to compensate for them being homemade/handmade....I never feel this way when gifting something from a craft fair. Maybe by next year I will make my projects a jazzy label and that will solve that issue for me...we will see.

This was my second favorite thing that I made (after the fleece pillow friends for my boys--see above). I have TOTALLY fallen in LOVE with free-piecing patchwork and making parts and having them come together rather organically rather than drafting a pattern on Electric Quilt. The blog class I participated in really was such an inspiration. I free-motion quilted words that I think of when I think of my sister Reba, and it felt a bit like a journaling quilt, similar to some painted pieces by Ali Edwards.

Reflecting back on these projects and the times that I had creating them makes me feel really content and happy. I will say that I have been totally EXHAUSTED these past few days, since Christmas. I don't think that I went to sleep before midnight this past month. I do think that I will try and continue to hand make my gifts. I also think that I will give myself more time and maybe branch out in to different media (I just love to sew SO much) as sewing takes A LOT of time. It is funny how in hindsight all the little problems just get lost in the glow of the holiday....I didn't even write about the things that I gave up on...or the jean quilt that I started for my husband that I swear I will finish by his birthday in February....Argghhhh sewing old jeans... but that is for another time.

JMB

Storm troopers taking Downtown?

Just a few images from our Weekend "away"...just me, the husband, and the boys. Very fun, funny, and what weirdness was had.

Only a few more days until...I don't know what...the crafting will be over??? Maybe just the deadline.

Happy elf days!

JMB

Handmade bags, quilts and ornamnents...OH MY!

Here is the forest that I would like to retire in. It is actually a cyclamen that I am trying to keep alive...I don't have much luck with these, but they are just SO beautiful. I have to be honest...doing this handmade Christmas thing is HARD...I didn't realize that I had so little time and my energy is just being sucked out of me by my kids this season.

I am going to be trying to shift something (?) the rest of this week...you know, the new parenting strategies that you have to come up with when you just feel like what you are doing is not what is working for your kiddos. My oldest son seems to have a few really wonderful weeks followed by some that are really hard....like figuring out what amount of power he can control...versus what Mommies and Daddies control. Those are hard lessons for all of us to learn....but most...no some adults have the behavioral control skills to make the confusion of it all more bearable for everyone else. I don't think that 4 year-olds have those skills all intact yet. They shouldn't, they are working on it...but WOW hard stuff.

This one here...he is a real powerhouse...his latest is climbing. "No fear" is his motto. He usually just wants to leap in to my arms when he has had his fill of the heights. (BUT WOW...kinda scary...his brother was far more cautious.)

SO, back to my original thoughts...Handmade...what a challenge, but on the other side...I am realizing that I have some wicked skillz. I have been trying a few things and they look really cool. (I will post them someday after the 25th). When I do have time...it is great to see that my ideas are not just wisps of fancy, that they are practically viable (does that sound dry or what?) My friend Emily had a quote the other day...so artsy she wrote it on her hand:

“The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.”
Emile Zola

This thought creeping in my head...."the gift is nothing without the work" That is it... we need to put in the work, the effort, the time....let me not waste the gift. A good thought, I will continue to ponder it. Here, also thanks in part, to Emily is my new hair. Granted, I am still in my bathrobe...just woke up. (The more I look at this picture the more I see the asymmetry of my face and it just starts to wig me out... but the best I could do this morning) I got about a head of hair cut off...I feel much lighter and I like the messiness of the cut...feels reel reel gud!

JMB

to post, oh, to post....

Just a small note...
I have been feeling rather depleted lately...not enough sleep, TOO much inspiration and too little time to create...coupled with TWO beautiful boys, that are both on the verge of some great developmental leap, creating a ruckus where ever they roam.

So, rather tired...
BUT look at this boy...
Driving me mad, but the wonder of the season, wonderful and full of wonder...figuring out the people in the "activity" scene (Nativity)...He has decided that he prefers say "Mary Mother" to "mother Mary". Yes, it does matter to him. His little brother has just mastered "Thank you" this week...it is wonderful to hear, and the smile...beautiful.
In all the chaos there are rewards.
Now...to sleep.
JMB

Oh, very young....

My poor dog.

Luckily for him, today was the day my husband and I said good-bye to a lot of C.R.A.P.... oh yes, I don't have to spell because my kids are not here inside of my head.

Today, we said good bye to all of the threadbare towels that we have been hanging on to since our wedding day. We said good bye to the pillow shams and cases that I just thought were the cat's meow 10 years ago. We said good-bye the dog costume exhibited so proudly (?) by dear sweet Peetie.

Back in the days before children, this little dog was my baby. I would make him clothes that he would wear only because he loved me and he loved treats. One Halloween, I think 9 years ago, he was a dalmatian to my Cruella, very fetching, I'd say, but then again what CAN'T you do with a bit of Velcro and fake fur???

I thought about taking the demon look out of his eyes, but that would have been a lie. Thanks Peetes, I will be getting rid of your torture device tonight.

JMB

Gifts and whiners...

I am feeling a little bit whiny. This is mostly due to not posting my work because it is for presents. It is so fun to post and craft and post and craft. But for today I am just going to whine a bit... boo-hoo poor me...OK done.

I have also been feeling like I am on the cusp of something really great...I have been feeling this way for a month or so. It is kind of feeling like the last two months of your first pregnancy, like you want that baby to be out already, in all of it's glory...BUT it is just not done cookin'.

Sometimes I just have to get outside and move, move, move, because maybe that is going to make the ideas come faster. They don't, or they haven't yet. I am still waiting. I am trying to funnel the anxiety of waiting into making things and trying to make new things...but it still has my head all a buzz.

I am just going to have to sit with myself a while longer. This in itself is going to be part of my answer, part of my quest.

JMB

Because life is a blur sometimes...

Fear less, hope more;
eat less, chew more;
whine less, breathe more;
talk less, say more;
love more, and all good things will be yours.
~Swedish Proverb

Love more, love more, love more.
JMB