simply plain jane

Friday, March 9, 2012

Insta-Friday

Just a little peek at what my Instagram feed looks like lately.

first salon experience

hobbitish lass

prelude to a peach

makin plans for makin

warm 'leave the door open' days don't mix with free range chickens!

???

Twin egg: enormous with double yolk--- our first!

one hundred twenty-five holes to dig

... And this last one explains why my sweater tutorial isn't ready yet. I have been planting until after dark... up to my elbows in dirt and giddy with excitement over enjoying these chlorophyll filled friends over the years.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Stay tuned...

I'm working on something darling... Tutorial coming soon!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Monday, March 5, 2012

a little eye candy {pinterest}

Source: gatherlove.tumblr.com via Jane on Pinteres t

Source: ellabellafloral.blogspot.com via Jane on Pinterest

Source: luliewallace.tumblr.com via Jane on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Jane on Pinterest

Source: Uploaded by user via Jane on Pinterest

Source: michellearmas.bigcartel.com via Jane on Pinterest

Source: 1stdibs.com via Jane on Pinterest

Source: thedesignfiles.net via Jane on Pinterest

This last one, I'm taking it to heart. Today my front door has changed from traditional red to sunny yellow. And it makes me smile! Neighbors- think what you will... I like a door that makes me smile ;) .

* I do not however, have a gnome by my door...yet. just kidding- much as it may make me smile I don't know if the whole family would be on board ( and by whole family I of course mean Andrew. What kid wouldn't love a front door gnome?)

Friday, March 2, 2012

seven years

I'm heading out of town for a quick overnight get away with my love... Seven years !

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

loss

This is how I sorted through my new world the day I found out that I wouldn't meet my third baby. I felt like I had tried so hard ( I know that 5 months doesn't seem all that long to the veteran fighters of infertility, but from my experience it was a shockingly long time) and I was devastated. I had a treasure that I could not hold, that I was helpless to protect. Andrew was in Brazil for the week and my mom was keeping the kids for a few days. The line on the test was getting fainter and blood test looked bad and I wept and I sewed... I felt so raw and I needed to make something that reflected my heart. I had that littlest secret bud of promise, but now I felt surrounded by darkness on every side. I felt like I was spiraling down in a big dark fog.

There is a time to grieve. I was afraid that if I let go and cried as much as I needed to that I would never stop... But there are times to grieve and times to heal. They hold hands and sometimes you can't tell whose fingers are whose. Really making a space to grieve was healing for me. I cried until the tears were gone, sewed some of the patchwork above, and then cried some more. Expressing my grief made room for the light to come in.

God has comforted me through numerous things as I have walked through this valley. As I left my basement after sewing and crying most of the day I saw a flicker in the middle of the room. There was a dragonfly flying around the middle of my basement. It struck me as unusual... and it felt encouraging. I had not been down there alone like I thought, this little messenger had been keeping me company. I remembered reading a while ago that dragonflies were symbolic of something so I went and did a quick search. While different cultures associate them with different things, a lot of the various meanings have to do with living life to the fullest because a dragonfly has such a short life. The dragonfly was a wonderful reminder that though this child has had such a short life from my perspective, his/her life has worth and purpose and should be celebrated nonetheless. Another symbol I held on to was the unusually enormous snail that lived on our backdoor just above the door handle that weekend. Every time we came inside we saw it. A snail symbolizes perseverance...I needed to be told to persevere. It is easy to be cynical and discredit little messengers from God, but I am so thankful for those tangible reminders.

The patchwork piece above was inspired by realizing that, while I felt lost in my gray, I was gifted with the presence, support, prayers, and encouragement of my community... a bit of a perspective shift. I had several friends tell me they were thinking of us while they listened to the song "Timshel" by Mumford and Sons... the refrain "You are not alone in this, You are not alone in this- as brothers we will stand and hold your hand" felt so so true. We felt the embrace of our community. It is an amazing thing to feel surrounded and upheld by people who love you. Another line from the song --"Death is at your doorstep, and it will steal your innocence, but it will not steal your substance." Life is not quite as simple now... some innocence is gone. But something must be said for going all the way down and feeling that your substance is something more sure than gravity. My prayer that night was- "God, I know you are good. I don't like this. I am miserable, but I know you are good and for that I am thankful."

My favorite C.S. Lewis quote seems to fit here. It is rather long, but there have been a number of times that it has felt like my one hand hold. In A Grief Observed he writes,

"The terrible thing is that a perfectly good God is in this matter hardly less formidable than a Cosmic Sadist. The more we believe that God hurts only to heal, the less we can believe that there is any use in begging for tenderness. A cruel man might be bribed-- might grow tired of his vile sport--might have a temporary fit of mercy, as alcoholics have fits of sobriety. But suppose that what you are up against is a surgeon whose intentions are wholly good. The kinder and more conscientious he is, the more inexorably he will go on cutting. If he yielded to your entreaties, if he stopped before the operation was complete, all the pain up to that point would have been useless. But is it credible that such extremities of torture should be necessary for us? Well, take your choice. The tortures occur. If they are unnecessary, then there is no God or a bad one. If there is a good God, then these tortures are necessary. For no even moderately good Being could possibly inflict or permit them if they weren't."

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It has taken me almost ten months to be ready to write about this... I thought I could cover everything I have to say about the subject in one long post... but as I worked through how to do it I realized that in reality I have far too much to say... You will be hearing more on this topic later.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Calloway

We had a sunshine tea party with daffodil tea cups... and it was delightful!

The glorious days we have had during this mild winter have had me longing to go to Calloway Gardens... And lucky for us, admission was free (and will be until the end of the month)! We enjoyed all the beautiful bulbs and greenhouses and the warm butterfly house. But, my heart was warmed to see that both of my children have inherited my faithful love of daffodils. They enjoyed everything, but without a doubt the daffodils were their favorite. Every time I turned around they had their face in a bloom.
Looking back at the pictures I took reminds me that we were made for this-- We were created for a garden.

Isn't it amazing that we have a physiological response to beauty? This image makes my heart ache.

Sweet boy... knows to stop and smell the roses... or daffodils, as the case may be.

It may have been chilly and windy outside, but inside the warm humid butterfly house it was very easy to forget that!

(Andrew feels like this picture is indecent... but I think it is too lovely to pass up for prudish reasons ;-)

Sure, sure the butterflies were amazing, but give our kids a mirror and they can entertain themselves (and on lookers) for hours.

I'm telling you-- they love them!!

Don't you love how it feels like butterfly kisses when you smell a daffodil?

You didn't think I would take a road trip without some handwork did you? Bit by bit these hexies are getting together. And I am very pleased with how useful the Pediped box has been. Ever since I saw Anna Maria Horner's new sewing boxes I have been longing for one... but in the meantime I guess the Pediped box is a decent stand in... I may need to decorate it, though...

Friday, February 24, 2012

Baby Princess Goes to School

Wednesday was Elisha's day to bring show and tell... and since the letter of the week was 'c', can you figure out what he wanted to bring? I'll give you one guess ;-)

I remembered taking Baby Princess to school last year in a Pull-Up box... it worked great. I forgot that at that point she wasn't anywhere near full grown! Last year's school visit is pictured below... my my, how all my little bitties have grown!

The kids LOVED seeing our chicken... I kept hearing, "wow! I've never seen a real live chicken before!" And Baby Princess was very well behaved--- no pecking, despite being completely surrounded. I think she may be ready for a nursing home visit ;-)

However, when we went downstairs to visit another class she had had enough I guess... She pooped the biggest chicken poop I have ever seen-- all over me and the chair and the floor. The teachers were SO gracious about it and the kids learned first-hand that chickens poop too... The three year olds got a big kick out of it, probably was their favorite part of the visit ;-) But it made me think of a crazy character on the PBS "Natural History of the Chicken" that keeps a chicken in her house wearing a "panty" as she calls it... I may need to craft one before our next school visit.
On our way home Baby Princess was fairly happy with her box until we got into our neighborhood. Then she decided that riding in a Pull-up box was for the birds... hmmm. I felt an awful lot like the crazy chicken lady in the documentary... If you need a laugh the whole documentary is very entertaining, but if you skip to 6:50 in this clip you can see the car scene and laugh at me ;-)

don't worry mama, I stopped the car before taking the pic!

I love this -- can't decide if we look like we are singing together or about to crash... but I just love our matching expressions. Oh dear, Oh dear dear dear.....

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

bag it

Here is an overnight travel bag for my little sleeping beauty. You could pretty easily wing it for a bag like this, but I was in a hurry and didn't want endless options. I bought a pdf pattern from Studio Cherie's etsy shop. The inside is not the most professionally finished (exposed seam allowance), but that really doesn't bother me. It is quite large- maybe more than I would need for a weekend... but then again-- our bags are usually exploding out of the top, so I think my husband is thrilled with something that doesn't get too stuffed to zip ;-) Plus, when you have to cart around pull-ups and special blankies and a few books and baby dolls... and maybe a sound machine... well, you can see how the extra space is quite useful!

This is by far my favorite part. It was fun to copy my favorite part of the sleeping beauty print with some embroidery. These prints are Heather Ross' Far Far Away 2... aren't they just perfect for little girlie stuff?!