a poem i love

i have been thinking about this poem lately and just pulled it out to read again. it still just hits me like it did the first time.

Kindness

by Naomi Shihab Nye

Before you know what kindness really is

you must lose things,

feel the future dissolve in a moment

like salt in a weakened broth.

What you held in your hand,

what you counted and carefully saved,

all this must go so you know

how desolate the landscape can be

between the regions of kindness.

How you ride and ride

thinking the bus will never stop,

the passengers eating maize and chicken

will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,

you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho

lies dead by the side of the road.

You must see how this could be you,

how he too was someone

who journeyed through the night with plans

and simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,

you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.

You must wake up with sorrow.

You must speak to it till your voice

catches the thread of all sorrows

and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,

only kindness that ties your shoes

and sends you out into the day to mail letters and

purchase bread,

only kindness that raises its head

from the crowd of the world to say

It is I you have been looking for,

and then goes with you everywhere

like a shadow or a friend.

Is it just me, or is that just right? I have been "catching the thread" lately and sometimes feel so overwhelmed by the "size of the cloth" the it is hard to breath... i am so grateful for the kindness that ties my shoes and sends me out into the day-- the kindness of my friends, my children, my husband, my God.

May days

We have not disappeared....


We have been celebrating anna's birthday, putting a pink cast on her leg, chasing hawks out of our chicken pen, killing copperheads, going on garden tours, planting our gardens, celebrating otis' birthday, finishing preschool, having thirty children in our yard celebrating a triple birthday party, missing Andrew while he was in Brazil for a week, celebrating his birthday, celebrating Elisha's birthday, and so much more... The month is not quite over.
I have made some things... I'll be back and show them - here is a little something I made for e's preschool teachers- zipper pouches:



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cute chicks!

this is a tutorial for a super cute little easter birdie-- mama with egg and baby chick:
i really hope i will get around to making one for e and a for easter... it would be just right for our spring of chickens... I have been placing phone calls to local feed and seed stores and farms to find six little chickies just right for us! hurray!i know what these fun loving little folk are going to think about our chicks....
but i'm not so sure how this old guy is going feel...?

Kitchen Christmas

here are some better pictures of our kitchen Christmas----they uploaded in reverse order...Christmas morning--- it is a hit!! they made us a delightful breakfast ;-)
anna has been quite the little mama -- strolling her babies (and in this case- a dvd). she is wearing her the new dress up skirt i made {this is what happens when crinoline is on sale ;-}
a top view-- notice the fried egg... felt food was fun to make on car ride during holiday travel. i think the eggs turned out the best...

here she is in her humble beginnings ... we had so much fun in the basement making it... note: santa's helpers had plenty of milk and cookies to fuel the work ;-)

broccoli slaw

have i told y'all about the broccoli slaw recipe from smitten kitchen?

we clogged our drain with broccoli around this time last year (i botched the recipe and put it all down the disposal... then the pipe busted and flooded our basement... and andrew had to pull up all the flooring.... single-handedly while watching the kids b/c i was deathly ill) and so i have been warned from making it again... but finally a year later i have made another batch--- yum yum yum!

old pics

i don't know if i ever posted these lovely pictures.... i just love our 4th of july tradition with andrew's fam!
here are all the grandchildren at the parade...i have such a weakness for watermelons on little girlies!
sarah and thomas took some breathtaking pictures of anna while we were in the mountains on this trip...
oh! i just want nibble on the little cheeks and arms! thomas and sarah have SUCH a gift! check out there site-- t2photography.com

i have uploaded some "new pictures" ... as in everything from the fall and Christmas... maybe i'll start blogging again... hhmmm....

happy anniversary to us!

today is our 6th anniversary... and it is as lovely a February day as the day we wed. for some reason i don't have any wedding pictures on our computer (at least that i can find) so here is a honeymoon picture. we had a wonderful time on the secluded cumberland island... we are really itching to get back. ...
I think i'm coming out of a grumpy hibernation-- this glorious weather should do the trick ;-) i can't promise that will translate into more blogging... it may just mean more living...

fall wedding quilt

my sweet cousin faira (a fellow artist) married her buddy j in november. a wedding quilt seemed like just the thing they needed as they make their home together.
here is shot of the back... a little rainbowish action for my hippie couz who registered for more than her fair share of brown things... hehe... i teased her about this, but i can certainly appreciate all the beautiful shades of brown.
i really! enjoyed making this quilt for them. it felt more like a work of fine art than anything i have made in a while. the wonky star blocks were a lot of fun and i am very pleased with the dappled brown background.... i used a very random selection of brown fabrics that i had on hand-- cotton, linen, corduroy, even silk.
and here is the happy couple... just starting their life together... in a little bitty home(do you see it down in the corner?) with a big starry sky full of dreams.

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Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night!

We have been bustling here... I like to bustle through December. I've stayed too busy to leave any proof here ;) I have a few pictures, but they aren't the best quality ( on my phone...) I think I'll post them anyway b/c there is no time like the present...


I really hope I post more pictures of this darling thing! One of my favorite memories of this Christmas will be the late nights in the basement with Andrew making this little play kitchen... like I said, hopfully more on that later.


Do you know how happy I am about what came in that box? I love the little girly- don't get me wrong, but I am thrilled about the seeing machine that arrived in the box! I have made many many a thing on my old/ never been serviced singer, that cost less than $100... But I am going to be much happier and quicker and neater on this machine... And apparently sneakier. Andrew said that ge doesn't know when I've snuck down to the basement to sew anymore because he can't here my banging machine all over the house;)


What a fun white Christmas! I think it will be well remembered!

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Excuse me please...

...while I indulge in a WAR EAGLE! I've been humming my Alma mater all day... We were thrilled to get invited to the big game...



I didn't realize that it had been five years since I last went to an auburn football game. What an awesome one to see! When we got home we started watching it again on dvr... And that is really something coming from me b/c in general I am not much into watching football.



I made Andrew stay until they played the Alma mater after most of the crowd was gone...
I'll end my football post with a quote from a friend who went to the university of alabama, "I hate to say it, but this year God is an Auburn fan." I'm glad to say I believe she's right!
Bodda getta bodda getta bodda getta ba. Ra ra ra sis boom ba. Weegle weegle war eagle, kick 'em in the butt big blue!

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Dress up

Halloween is a fun time to dress up... I want to try and extend the fun. We should play dress up more often!















We made this Thomas the train costume after church... Yes, I waited until the day of to ask e what he wanted to be. Maybe I wanted a design challenge... Maybe I wanted to avoid multiple mind changes...
The big box made walking up hills tricky for e... So there was a lot of "I think I can, I think i can, I think I can."








We had a monkey costume (you may remember our cute little boy monkey from two years ago), but e insisted that a had to be the strawberry. This picture reminds me of a picture if me in a watermelon costume when I was a couple years older than her. The red with black seeds and how her knees are locked back... Aw! And let me tell you- she was a pro at trick or treating... No one needed to teach her what to do!

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Fallish

Ah! Such fallish weather we are having...



Can you see the pansies and parsely in the background? (and perhaps the beloved red shoes?)




The wind was blustery as we did some fall planting this weekend... I say- just the perfect occasion for some hand knits ;) looks like anna's earflap hat is too small... I better get knitting! ( and her sweater is a pinwheel sweater I worked on over July 4th weekend)



Our little guy was a great helper...when he was helping fill pots with dirt he said," mama, I love to do stuff just you and me, just mama and Elisha!" it made me do happy ( and also made me stop listening to Jane Eyre in my earphones... Hate to miss his sweet words! ... Consequently, I just finished it... again, for probably the 5th time... But it was so wonderful... Ah!)

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love shack

innocent crush house blocks
Originally uploaded by simply plain jane

... so i really couldn't watch all those new fabrics spin around in the washer and dryer with out playing with them first... so i cut 2 inch strips off of each of the fat quarters and had a date night with my innocent crush ;-) i may pay for not pre-washing the fabrics first, oh well...
i have been really loving house blocks lately as i dive head first into quilting. for a while i felt like all this sewing was a detour from my ceramic work and painting that i had to take while my children were young.... but i'm beginning to realize that it has developed so naturally from my artistic interests all along. one of the reasons i love ceramic art is because of its functionality. i love the idea of people using, physically interacting with my artwork... that seems to give it so much of a life beyond the original creation of the piece.
i love that a quilt has such a physical presence, so many ways to experience it, places to use it... and of course people to love it... i love that it is something that can have such a long life, such a story to tell. i love to think of the generational aspect of a quilt's life. we have some quilts that have been in my husband's family and i love the connection i feel with his great aunt, whom i have never met. by studying her fabric choices and the stitches her hand's made i feel like i know her, perhaps in a more intimate way than i do my own great aunt....
i know that i am rambling, but i have wanted to express my defense of quilting and fabric arts. sometimes i hear a voice in the back of my head telling my that i am not really an artist... my friends from the art department that went on the get MFAs and show in galleries are 'really' artists and i am just wasting my degree. i know that is ridiculous, i just need to remind myself sometimes. seriously- anyone who has seen the quilts from gee's bend shown in a museum next to abstract expressionistic paintings cannot deny that they most certainly hold their own... and i personally would argue that they have a depth that i often find lacking in "professional" art.

but, back to these darling house blocks. isn't the image, the idea of a home...especially an imperfect one, such a comfort? i'm always drawn to them...

(if you click on the link under the picture you can see some close-ups... my computer isn't cooperating with me right now, so i can't post them directly)

I'm smiling today...

...As I think about my darling little ones...
....And how much fun we had this morning at the botanical garden together...


....Just us... No stroller, no diaper bag... Ok, I did have a little bag with my credit card, my phone, a sippy cup, and a pouch sling that was hardly used.


Here they are trotting along to the children's garden for storytime. I think this is one of my favorite pictures to date!


This little pile of fabric waiting to be washed is making me smile. I got a fat quarter selection of Anna Maria Horner's newest line of fabric- innocent crush... It wasn't supposed to be in stores until November but a shop (whipstitch) here got it in yesterday... And I am thrilled that I obsessively had them cut and hold the fabric for me b/c by the time I got there some of the fabrics had already sold out!


I am also smiling because I have two children exhaustedly napping and I am heading to the basement to work on a very special quilt for a couple who will be forming a new family as they wed in a couple of months...
Anything making you smile?
-
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fluffy twirly scrappy skirt tutorial.... finally

i forgot all about doing this tutorial for y'all! i have had the lovely pictures just waiting... and i think i had notes on exact measurements as well.... but, as this particular project was done during the flooded basement/ studio upheaval period of time, that i still remember with dread... well, those measurements are long gone. so instead you get to make this a couture garment-- made to measure ;-) which is best b/c my sizing isn't standard anyway...

the best fabric for this super gathered skirt is a light weight fabric such as cotton voile. i used anna maria horner's little folks. if you do a search for supplies on etsy.com and look for voile you should find some you like. i have made this skirt a variety of ways... but the basic idea is to decide on exactly how fluffy and long you to want it... get a skirt that you can measure to start your figuring.

*you will decide the length from the bottom of the waist band... add extra in for your seam and hem allowance (i used a hemming foot to make a narrow rolled hem, so only added about an inch for hem allowance)... i made a lining and let it hang about an inch longer to add interest.

for the skirt on anna(the skirt in the tutorial process pictures is actually a different one from the one on anna- sorry for the confusion- the one in the tutorial is a newborn size gift i made later) i cut my "scraps" 8 inches long and between 4" and 6.5" wide to add variety. i used 13 different pieces. this is an area where you can really personalize this skirt. you can use one fabric for the whole thing, alternate between two or three prints, or use a wide variety like i did...

*place your "scraps" in the order you like best and then sew them together to get your top layer panel. then cut a lining/under skirt the same width and if you choose, an inch longer. the finished width of the scrappy panel of anna's skirt was 59"... made a VERY fluffy skirt!

*pin the two layers together, both front sides facing up, and sew two long gathering stitches across the top edge. i do this by placing the fabric with the edge at the edge of the foot and making one line of stitches with the needle in the far rt. position and the putting the fabric back where it started and doing another line with the needle in the far lft. position.

* next cut a rectangle of fabric for the waist band. the width of this rectangle will be determined by the width of elastic you choose and the length should be long enough get the skirt on easily...you can measure your baby at the widest spot (her big ole diapered bottom) and probably add about 4-6 inches to that to make it easy to fit over said bottom as you pull the skirt up. the waist band piece on anna's skirt was ~ 27" long.
* lay the waist band fabric over the skirt panel(s) with right sides facing each other. gather the skirt fabric so the the edges of the skirt meet the edges of the waist panel.

*fuss with the gathered fabric until it is evenly distributed along the waist band and pin it together.

* sew the waist band to the skirt.

* press that seam open and the fold the waist fabric over toward the inside of the skirt to make a channel for the elastic... again the width of this channel will depend on the width of your chosen elastic.

* pin fabric so that the edge is folded under and extends just beyond the previously sewn joining seam. (don't know if that wording makes sense... study the picture?)

*sew with the front side facing up so that you can make a neatly hidden seam right along the joining of the skirt and waist band. i go slowly and check the underside frequently to be sure the folded fabric on the underside will be caught in the stitching.
* run the elastic through the waist band channel.

* now you will fold the long panel in half with right (front) side facing inward to close up the side of the skirt.

* sew the waist band closed catching both ends of the elastic in the stitching.
*sew the the top layer closed separately from the bottom layer. this is very tricky to do neatly and completely. all i can say is- try the best you can and know that i am not a professional pattern designer! there may not be a correct way to do this ;-)
* once each layer is sewn closed, all you have to do is hem the bottom of both layers! i highly recommend a hem foot!
ta da!!

once again-- this skirt is different from the one anna is wearing at the very top of the post. it was a newborn size that i made as a gift. it is significantly less fluffy... and as i mentioned before, i lost the measurements... sorry!

i also want to add a note about the waist band fabric. i did anna's with two layers of voile. i scrunches up a lot and i would have preferred it if it had been quilting weight, or voile lined with quilting weight... i have since made a skirt out of old jeans and i made the waist band channel for elastic out of quilting weight with a lightweight interfacing ironed on to help it keep its shape.

*** ok--- please post pictures (or links to them ) in the comments if you actually use this tutorial... it may be poorly done, but i did try and would love the reward of seeing other creations! ;-)

tucked in

i did get his quilt finished for his 3rd birthday! he has been sleeping under it since then... hurray!here's our little fellow puckering up... duck in hand, in his red big boy bed... and don't forget to note the quilt... you know, the one i made out of 300 squares and hand sewed all the quilting (through denim backing even!)... and no, it did not turn me off to quilting, or even hand quilting... i'm slowly making my way through a queen size now... but i can tell you-- no more denim backs for hand quilted pieces!

Girl band

On a whim (and based on an idea my sewing buddy had) I whipped up this little head band for Anna today.



She was so generous to sit still while I photographed it... I could tell she was excited to be posing for a picture ;)




All I did was cut a piece of elastic to fit around her head, then I cut a strip of fabric about 4-5 inches longer... Mine was a bit wider than 2 inches b/c that is what worked with my width of elastic. However, you can make it whatever width you would like...
I folded the fabric and sewed a tube... Turned it right side out, ran the elastic through it, then pinned each end of elastic to each end of the tube of fabric. Next I stretched the tube long as I sewed a long wide zig zag stitch down the center. After that all I had to do was connect the ends... And of course embellish if that is your taste;) I put a felt circle with a couple of buttons layered on top to hidden my closure. Finally, baby fine hair out of fine looking baby face!

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ok ok... i'll update

i realized that i hadn't uploaded pictures from my camera in a while... i guess it had been four months! here are some pictures from the big three and thirty bash we had for our boys.it is rather rare that we are all in a picture frame together... hoping for everyone to be looking at the camera and smiling is an awful lot to ask ;-)
elisha definitely enjoy being king for the day... his crown was a big hit... and so was the cake...
what our birthday cake lacks in beauty and cuteness, it makes up for in tastiness. the day will come when elisha will ask for a cake that looks like ___ , but until that day comes we will all be enjoying a cream cheese pound cake to celebrate !
it was such a wonderful evening... so many friends, good bbq, above mentioned pound cake, bubbles, and for the older birthday boy- pbr and horse shoes. it was a big kick-off... getting used to summer nights...

... andrew and i just sat outside after putting the kids to bed. we enjoyed some blue bell homemade vanilla with cut up peaches... it was a bit chilly out to be eating ice cream... my my we are rounding the curve in the season circle...

my sister has been giving me a hard time about updating my blog.... so here's to you sis ;-)