I ran into a bit of a snag with posts this weekend. My camera memory card died- with photos on it.
I tried but, alas, could not retrieve them.
We had lovely weather and planted peas and carrots in the garden. We tidied in the flower gardens and other areas of the yard and found a few bits of color. It was good to be outside.
B is a steward for a nature preserve near us. He was there working on a trail the other day and took some great photos of tree bark. Look at all the different textures!
Shagbark Hickory
Beech
Black Cherry
Black Willow
Isn't it interesting how different they are, all growing together in the same little bit of forest. At first glance one just sees the forest.
Gwen Marston, a quilt artist friend, was asked about her work and how she developed her style. Her answer was that she grew up in Kansas. She said that in Kansas, especially in winter, you have to notice the tiniest of differences in color shades and texture to fully appreciate your surroundings. I think this is good advice wherever one lives.
Take time to enjoy and really see the world around you!
Here is more inspiration from our trip last April. These are doors on the cathedral in Strasbourg.
I can see this design as a "tree of life" appliqué or even a quilting pattern.
I have more ideas than I will ever make, so, I thought I would share some of the things that inspire me.
What inspires you to create?
I was just looking through our pictures of our big spring break trip to France last year and this one jumped out at me.
These stained glass windows remind me of the colors of our eggs.
I think a quilt in solids like this would be beautiful. If only I could find that swatch card for Kona Cotton fabrics...
I think I may be the last person I know who does not have a cell phone. But, then, I don't want one so that's good news. I like my old rotary phone, though I do wish it were black and a bit heavier. I like that it is simple; it doesn't break. I don't have to program it and I don't have to worry about accidentally dropping it in the toilet. It sits next to my computer on my desk.
I don't really like to spend a lot of time on the phone. I hesitate to have phone time bleeding over into other things that I like and want to do.
I remember my mom using a pen to dial the rotary phone that we had when I was growing up. If the conversation was very long, she would sit on the stairs behind the wall where our phone was kept. We had a heavy black phone that would not budge even if the receiver cord was stretched across the room.
My sisters and I had the job of reserving a racquet ball court for our father each week. The lines at the local university gym would open at 7:00 in the morning and we would have to call continually to get through to get a court. There was no redial and, of course, we would have to wait for the dial to tick back to its starting position after each number. I still like that sound; it gives me time to gather my thoughts as I dial.
We were also forced to remember phone numbers. I still remember numbers of my childhood friends, even some of my sisters' friends. It is interesting how times and technology have changed though.
How strange the first phone conversations must have been and how very special it must have been to keep in touch with far away family. Instantaneous and vocal connection to distant loved ones was not possible before. The reasons for phone use have changed a lot over the years and I am not sure they are all good. I like to keep my phone conversations close to the purpose of keeping in touch with far away friends and family. For friends and family who live close, I would rather arrange for a time to meet in person and have a visual connection while talking.
Sometimes, I have business for which I need to call. I call and rarely get a human ("Press one, two, three, four..."). Most of these prerecorded or computer generated messages used to end with "If you are not calling from a touch tone phone, please stay on the line..." They don't anymore. They just hang up on you in a very impersonal way. Sad, don't you think? I have learned to make business calls from the kitchen on our other phone which is a touch tone and also has an answering machine in it.
A cell phone could make some situations easier, but I am not sure that easy is what I want. My oldest son and his father recently attended a scholarship awards dinner an hour and a half away. I was eager to hear news of the outcome, but, it was also fun to wait and wonder (even if they didn't get home until midnight). Cell phones would allow me to communicate with my teens to coordinate after school activities, but, I like that we make a plan in the morning and stick with it. I think it is important for them to think about their plans and how they fit in with the rest of the family. If phone use were easier, I would probably use it more. I might take it with me. I might talk on my cell phone at the park instead of playing with my daughter or meeting other parents.
I like that my rotary phone makes me think about my telephone time.
My camera and computer are tools I use daily. I am still learning how to use my camera. It is not easy - the book that came with it is only written in French. My previous camera died while we were on vacation last spring. I could not have a vacation in France with no pictures so I bought this little Panasonic. D may now know enough French that he can translate the book for me. I would like to know more about the light settings. Maybe then it would be easier to take pictures of yarn and fiber items and have the colors be true.
I used to take pictures of things that I made with the idea that I would have a notebook of photos with some writing about why I made a particular thing, who it was for etc. That never happened. I have a lot of pictures but it always took too long to finish a roll of film and have it developed that I would forget what I wanted to write. Or the pictures would sit in a pile until I found the notebook. Things are soooo much easier now with a digital camera, computer, flickr, and a blog.
My laptop gets a lot of use. It is where I organize our family photos, photos of my creations, write my blog, and keep in touch with family and friends via email. I also enjoy sharing things on flickr and visiting other blogs.
This is also where the boys write their papers for school. They email them to themselves and print them out at school. It is also how we watch videos as the computer is our only DVD player. We can hook it up to the television but we have noticed that we end up watching the computer screen because the picture is so much better. Now, we just put the computer on the coffee table and all get very cozy on the couch. Last night, B and I were watching a movie so D had to type up his English assignment on the back up equipment you can see there on the right.
Now, all I need is a faster internet connection. It is painfully slow to upload pictures to flickr, keep an etsy shop, and blog with our #@* dial up connection.
P was playing with our Fisher Price Little People; she dug in the bin to get just the right people, matching tables, and matching chairs. Then, she said they needed dishes. I handed her some coins and pony beads to use for plates and cups.
After arranging those on the tables, she said, "They need silverware." She ran out of the room and returned with some real, life size forks from the kitchen and seemed surprised that they were too big for her little play scene. It made me laugh and reminded me of when I was small, and the boys too. I remember getting gifts and thinking that ANYTHING was possible. A tiny little box could hold a pony or a bike. The package size or shape gave no clue to what was inside. I remember that feeling of mystery that everything is possible. It is sad that we lose that innocence when we grow and learn. Of course, we need that knowledge for grown up tasks, but wouldn't it be nice to keep that feeling of wonder and amazement?
We have had several days of VERY cold weather. I am now thinking warm thoughts to years when we stretch President's Weekend into a trip to Florida to visit B's brother who lives in St. Petersburg. We camp on the beach at Fort DeSoto and soak up the sun and warmer temperatures.
Here is M in 2004. He made a friend at the Tampa Zoo.
We also enjoy sunrise walks and picnic breakfasts on the beach at Fort DeSoto. This is D in 2005. It is amazing the colors the water and sky can go through in such a short time at sunrise.
We see a lot of beach life on our early walks.
P has not been to Florida. Perhaps next year...
I know that icicles hanging from the roof are not a great thing for the house, but they are beautiful and interesting. We have enjoyed watching these grow for the last few days.
They changed with the light at different times of day.
Sometimes they sparkled in the sun.
M took this picture last evening with the pink sky.
The boys were hoping they would grow to reach the porch. This morning we woke to fog and warmer temperatures.
The icicles grew to about 20 inches from the porch. They melted today and the last chunks fell this afternoon.
During our weekly get together with the "knitting aunties" we have snacks and share projects and magazines.I get new ideas and inspiration from the sharing. It is also nice to visit with friends and have hot chocolate and scones on a cold day.
Before Jeff Daniels became famous and opened his local theater, The Purple Rose, Chelsea's claim to fame was that it was the home of Jiffy Mix. Chelsea is the only place in the world where those little boxes of Jiffy Mix are made.
Chelsea Milling also gives free factory tours. Some of the equipment is over fifty years old. I love the old mechanical machinery. The box builder machine is great. I could stand and watch that for a long time. P is not old enough to take the Jiffy tour; you have to be 6.For now, we will watch Mr Rogers DVDs from the library. I enjoyed watching Mr Rogers with the boys too. I never did like the other kids' shows that were on TV. They were, and I guess still are, too fast paced for my taste. They were like MTV for little kids. Mr Rogers was different. He talked TO his audience. He asked questions. M would always answer. M liked Mr Rogers a lot. He would wear cardigan sweaters and would always leave them hanging on hangers in his dresser when he was not wearing them. M liked that his dresser had a door like Mr Rogers' closet. He wore this sweater that P wears now. No, I did not knit it; I got it for 50 cents at a garage sale! I did put new buttons on it, though.
P watched her first Mr Rogers episode with me the other day. He toured a pretzel factory. She was mesmerized. First, they showed how to make pretzels by hand, and then they toured the automated factory.P is very eager to make pretzels now. We will be trying that soon. Does anyone have a good soft pretzel recipe that they would recommend?
I thought I would share a little more of our winter beauty.
Viburnum berries.
more
sumac
P shovels the walk.
Ice on the Huron River taken by B on his way to work.
M found hugs and kisses in the driveway.
D took this one at midnight the other night. He went to close the chicken barn and came running back for the camera to get this moon shadow of the redbud tree.
Today, I will be traveling to Grand Rapids with the High School Symphony Orchestra for their performance in the Michigan Music Conference. I have my knitting packed for the bus ride! If I can possibly manage it on the bus, I'll work on the December Lights Tam (designed by Mary Jane Mucklestone) shown on the cover of Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts 2007.
Don't ask me why. I have never worn a tam. I don't need a new hat. I have two and am already knitting myself another hat. It's just that my friend A got the magazine and, well, she and I drooled all over page 38. We were practically fighting over the magazine. We finally broke down and ordered the yarn. We figured that if we went in together and just ordered one extra skein we could get two hats out of the yarn. Dear A divided the yarn last weekend and now I am dying to start. I know that she has started and she knits really fast. I can't let her finish first!!!
If I can't do that project on the bus I can always work on simple socks.
More winter white:
Michigan is seldom sunny in the winter. Here is a glimpse of snow in the evening sun.
B cut down some locust in the field for firewood next year.
Yesterday, the first thing I heard from P, while she was still in her crib, was "what should we bake today, mom?" Of course, we had to bake some cookies.
She wanted to make cutter cookies. I am working on finishing things on my list this week, so I wanted something quick and easy to satisfy this request. We made chocolate chip cookies because, well, I am sure I could make those in my sleep. I promised that next time we would use the cookie cutters. B has requested short bread cookies dipped in chocolate. We will make those next.
Today I'll share photos of a gown my great grandmother made before her wedding in 1914.
The padded satin stitch petals are amazing.
Isn't that hand stitching incredible! I love all of those little eyelets.
Look at the edge stitching on the cuff!!I hope someday to be this good!
Now, as it is snowing outside, is the time to make our garden plan.
We are thinking of warm rows of soil and what will go in those rows. We usually grow lots of root crops like potatoes and onions because the deer and rabbits like to visit our garden and eat the tops of plants.
purple potatoes
Last year, we fenced part of the garden and were finally able to harvest enough peas to put some in the freezer.
peas
Now, we think we will add some new foods to our garden plan- some tomatoes, more peas, and after trying Amy's pumpkin muffins I know we will be planting more pumpkins to freeze.
We also have our perennial plants like rhubarb and raspberries.
raspberry
Those are the ones I like best, the ones that rest underground under a blanket of snow all winter and then burst through the soil after being warmed by the sun.
That's what we think about when we look out the window on our cold world of white.
As mentioned here M WAS Buzz Lightyear when he was younger. He dressed this way all the time. Only the rocket was added to the outfit for Halloween. His brother was an eagle that year. D really got into his character. His arms did not go down the whole time we were walking around town! He soared.
M was also a prolific artist. Here are some of his Toy Story illustrations. If you have seen the movie at least a gazillion times as I have, I am sure you can recognize the army men parachuting down beside the jump rope.
Here we have Rex, Ham, and the army men carrying the baby monitor.
And of course, Woody and Buzz.
I fell in love with these drawings when he made them. I started doing them in bluework. (redwork with blue thread.)
Like many projects I start, they get buried under new projects and resurface periodically. I like working on these on and off as they remind me of when the boys were small and how we did things we never thought we would do before we had children. We went to Burger King and got the Woody doll. Then B drove around to all the Burger Kings in the "tri-county area" trying to get the Buzz Lightyear give away doll. I don't think we have been to a Burger King since!After the boys had the Buzz toy they both wanted to play with it and have it in their bed at night. This is when they REALLY learned to take turns. They each had a night with Buzz and then a night with Woody. For years after that we called turn taking "Buzz-Woody."
M does not know that I am working on this. Unless of course he is reading this blog while he is at school. Perhaps this would make a fun graduation gift in a few years.
Don't you think a quilt out of these would look great in his dorm?
I was trying to find something in the sewing room today and came across this.
I should use Valentine's day as a deadline to do something with it. I did the needlework about 10 years ago and then it got buried in a pile of other stuff.
There are lots of inspiring redwork ideas out there.
The beautiful thing about this needlework is that you can so easily make your own patterns.
This rabbit design was from a magazine but, if you can draw it you can stitch it. It is fun to stitch children's drawings. I have another (almost) 10 year old project I'll share tomorrow. It features some of M's early work!
P has a blog. Or so she says. The other day she was running around the house saying,"
I have a blog, click, click."
She likes to go up to the computer and click. When she leaves the desk area she says, "offline. unload."
Recently we were folding clothes at the dining room table while dinner was in the oven. She looked out the window and said, "Mom, take a picture of the sky. It's pink!"
I guess this is her post.
In an attempt to get over the winter blues we have added our own little splash of color.
We are thinking ahead and planning out Valentines, colorful spring crafts and new treats to bake.
We should get busy with Valentines projects. I just heard P. say. "Where did it go?" and " I just had my pink fabric in my hand." Where do you think she heard that?
Instagram Photos
