Grit and Gumption

2012-01-07T11:46:00.000-08:00

Somebody somewhere in the cosmos knew I needed this site this week. Thank you cosmos, just thank you.

Sufficient for this day....

2011-12-30T12:40:00.000-08:00

God gave me this song for today and this scripture: Psalms 25

Christmas time's a comin'......

2011-12-10T14:20:00.000-08:00

Whew! The first two weeks of this month was totally dedicated to completing one of the biggest projects of my life, to date! Unfortunately it is a Christmas gift, so I can't share about it until after Christmas. It will be a great post, though!

Here are a few christmassy shots- the tree now has a sparkly gold star for the top!

Our Thanksgiving meal....

2011-11-24T08:31:00.000-08:00

Roast Turkey crisped with butter
Mashed potatoes and turkey dripping gravy
Roast onions and sweet potatoes
Green bean casserole
Wheat pumpernickel stuffing with apples, celery, and onions
Cranberry salad
Crescent rolls
Homemade pumpkin pie with whipped cream

I am so thankful for my family, both near and far/friends that gather and share a meal/ my dogs and horse who live every day simply as themselves/the never changing mountains that ring this place I call home/the everlasting, infinite goodness of my God who loves, protects, provides and disciplines. May His will be done here on earth as it is in heaven.

Happy Thanksgiving!

From 'blech' to 'not so bad'....

2011-11-22T18:52:00.000-08:00

Here's a quick project I did while Ron was gone and the boys were at daycare/preschool. See that media stand? It was free which is great, but our TV didn't fit in it and all the wires were exposed to view. Seeing wires=irritated Faith. Nothing a saw couldn't fix!
I don't know what the name of the saw I used is, but it is handheld and has a round blade and gives me a small case of the heebie jeebies. My imagination supplies pictures of chopped off fingers all too vividly! But usually I need it for projects so I force myself to use it and act like it's no big deal. I've almost got myself convinced! Anyways- I sawed off the top of the media stand, leaving just the bottom cabinet. Then I sanded the top down.
I spray painted the knobs and hinges a copper color.
And painted the base in some paint I had left over from the trim.
Looks better, doesn't it? It also makes the TV a better height for viewing. I rearranged the furniture and am enjoying the fact that all wires/remotes/DVD player are hidden. No more mess!
See the metal bucket? That is the boys' toy bucket. I have decided if the bucket over flows, we get rid of some toys. We do have a few things that aren't in the bucket- a giant floor puzzle, a wooden train set, and a plastic light up tool stand thing, but so far we're doing pretty good with not having toys all over all the time.
(what you don't see is the 8 inches of Hot Wheels cars in the bottom of the bucket. We will NEVER get rid of these because the boys know exactly how many we have and what color and how fast each one goes. When they go to college I'm going to make a decorative wall hanging from them.)

Library to Office

2011-11-22T18:16:00.000-08:00

Remember my 'library'? In my goal to maximize the usability of my house, I compressed the 3 bookshelves of books into 2 and moved them into my guest bedroom. The guest bedroom now functions as a reading and nap room as well as housing guests. With that project over, it was time to move to phase 2 of Operation Use Space Wisely. One of the things I dislike about our home is that the main entrance is a small laundry/office space. It is ALWAYS a mess and is the first thing to greet our guests. We are revamping the whole thing. Phase 2 involves moving the office to the old library. I wanted to get rid of the giant ancient desk in our office- it's uncool 60's flavor and inappropriately huge size needed to give way to some nice streamlined built ins. Here's how it went:
I first self tinted some paint and tried it on the walls. It looked like skin. Moving on. The desk was going to be one long plank of wood running down one wall. For the support structure, I started with a long 1"x2" and cut it the right length and then screwed it into the wall.
Then I cut another 1"x2" into 12" lengths and screwed those into the wall underneath the long strip. At this point I was going to cut more 12" lengths of the 1"x2" on 45 degree angles, screw them into the vertical supports and then lay the plank on top, but I found these metal "L" brackets in the shed. They don't look as nice as the wood, but if we want to move along our desk our knees will have room and won't bang against the supports. So I screwed those in and went to the hardware store. Lo and behold, they had this shelving that was 16" wide-perfect! It was pretreated in a smooth white finish and they cut it right there to the right length. Even better? It was only 25 bucks!
We had our desktop. Now, our house is OLD. Like built in 1900 to be the first school house in our town. That means nothing is straight or square. I decided I would cut some quarter round to trim out the desk and cover the gaps between wall and desktop. Also, I needed to settle on a paint color. I was thinking tan to tone down the room. This room will be primarily used by Ron and he liked the tan color in the bathroom so away we went. I got a satin finish which I am REALLY liking in here. To my surprise, in this light the color turned out a steely grey. There is just a hint of cool undertones that look fantastic with the cream trim. I couldn't bear to paint all that trim again, so I am so glad the wall color looked so great with it.
This is a new favorite color combo! So serene! In the below pic the quarter round hasn't been nailed down yet, but you get the idea of how it will finish off the desktop. I also like how the hickory cabinet that we hung plays off the floor and quarter round.
Up next is to hang two long shelves above the desk and move the filing cabinet in, then transfer all the desk stuff, but I feel great about how this room is coming along! I'll be taking more pics as we go so you can see the complete transformation.

Why are these questions so hard?....

2011-11-11T08:21:00.000-08:00

Today I was faced with a parenting dilemma:

LB was playing on the couch with a partially eaten granola bar (which I have conned them into thinking are cookies) (which they sort of are-have you seen the sugar content?) when he dropped it and the dog ate it. He turned to me in horror and said
"I wanted that! Mama, I wanted that!"
His face proceeded to crumple and tears brimmed.

What do I do? Do I take this moment to teach him about loss and responsibility and why were you jumping on the couch with your food anyway? Or do I just get that little darling another 'cookie' cause it really was important to him and life is hard enough why am I forcing him to come to grips over a lost 'cookie'?

I just got him another one. Was I right? Did I miss a learning opportunity? I don't know. Big Picture people have a hard time with things like granola bars and dogs.

Yesterday....

2011-10-27T07:54:00.000-07:00

was so beautiful- just the perfect day (almost) in Wyoming. We packed a picnic lunch, picked up the boys from preschool/daycare and headed for the mountains. Over night the trees have been washed in their golden fall color and the river is a dashing, glorious thing. Eventually, after watching a hawk swoop down on its prey, we found our spot- a little creek winding its way through tiny bluffs covered in grass, soft dirt and a skiff of snow. We sat in the sun and ate while the boys hung over the edge of a culvert and yelled down the long metal tube. I remember playing in the culvert at my Uncle Dave's when I was a kid- there is something so attractive in that giant tunnel under a road that seems to draw kids like a magnet and makes mothers shudder in horror.

We had the dogs with us and they were running around like crazy, sniffing and rolling in all sorts of gross things. Ron took the boys for a walk and I sat in the sun, taking it all in. i heard the dogs barking at one end of an old log out in the bushes and smiled, thinking they had found a rabbit or ground squirrel. My dogs aren't particularly adept at hunting- while they are barking at one end, usually the quarry vacates the area through the other end and they never notice.

Well, they quit their barking and dashed back to me, shaking their heads and pawing at their noses. When I saw Royal's face my heart sunk. They had found a porcupine in that old log and had been given a taste of why even a gnarly old griz leaves a porcupine alone. I called Royal to me and started pulling quills. Thankfully, there weren't that many, although they were embedded pretty deep all around his sensitive nose and lips. The quills look smooth, but must have microscopic barbs, because they don't want to pull out, and sort of come out with a rrrrrrrrip! Oh poor dogs! Royal, although sensitive and needy to the bone, is a tough little guy because he stood absolutely still while I turned his nose to a fountain of blood.

Tack fared a little worse because the barbs were through his lips and into his gums. We ended up having to go to a friend's house to get a pair of pliers to get them all out. Tack was not as stoic about it all as Royal, which made it difficult to make sure we didn't leave any tips below the surface. I think we got them all, and we ended up staying to visit with the friend which was fun.
So that was yesterday!

I'd miss him dearly....

2011-10-24T12:21:00.000-07:00

SO here's a crazy story:

The night before I left to visit Indiana for awhile, I thought Tack had been killed.

By owls.

They're really big around here, ok?

I had let both dogs out to go to the bathroom before bed. It was a pitch black night where even the stars seemed tucked away in their beds. After a little while I whistled and Royal appeared out of the darkness, running like his tail was on fire. Tack did not appear, and right about when I started to get irritated I heard them.
The owls.
It sounded like their was 2 or 3 of them up in the tree tops behind our house and they were excited about something. The "whoo whoos" were coming fast and furious. Now, the great horned owls that we have are big, from 2 to 3 foot tall and a wing span that makes you think a jet is coming in for a landing. They also have claws that would scare a grizzly- sharp and long. If you really think about it, its a wonder there isn't a horror movie out about owls cause they really are freaky silent death machines.
So instantly fearing the worst, I ran out back. It was BLACK! I hit the edge of our yard and heard a suffocated scream from what I was thinking was our fat little darling of a dog. I hollered for Ron to get a flashlight and ran (winceing and hopping from our poky 'grass') into our neighbors yard. I half expected to come apon a huddle of happy owls, hunched over a dying grey body, which kind of freaked me out anyways, but all I heard was the soft rustle of air over wings.

Ron came running with the flashlight but the owls had silently flew to some other, less busied spot. No Tack. No fur, no limbs, no feathers. We scanned the trees, hoping we wouldn't spot his little body cached in the giant pines out back, but found nothing.
I was sure they had killed Tack and then carried him to some quiet spot to devour. It was a horribly sad night. All I could think about was Tack's sweet brown eyes and how sudden and painful his death must have been. I tell you I was a weeping sodden mess. I slept.
The next morning, who appears on the porch, fresh and bouncing from a fun night out on the town? Yep. The dog I had cried over.

Little bugger.

My Christmas Books...

2011-10-23T13:04:00.000-07:00

I know its a little early, but I've added to my Christmas Book list and I thought you guys would like to see what the Kingstons are reading this December:

Jolly Old Santa Claus is one of my all time faves. The beautiful paintings depict Santa getting ready for the big night and all the shenanigans of his elves. Some elves are hardworking, some are tricksters, some are lazy, and some, like old Grandpa elf, are starting to slow down. I love all the characters, the incredibly detailed pictures, and the glowing illustrations. This book introduced the idea of a picture telling an intricate, interesting story to me and was a part of my "art history".Next up is The Night Before Christmas by Tasha Tudor. This poem just never gets old. There are a ton of versions, and a lot of them with fantastic pictures (even a pirate version that I think I am going to buy next year!) but this is the tried and true version I read my boys because it was read to me. Tasha introduced the vignette to me, and the borders of her pictures are just as good as the pictures themselves!

The Legend of the Poinsetta is a new one we are trying this year, illustrated by one of my all time faves, Tomie dePaola. Tomie's use of simple shapes and rich saturated color really awakened a love of color that helps my own artwork come alive.
The Cobweb Christmas is another new one and one I can't wait to get in the mail- I remember checking this out of the library over and over again. I just love the story and the illustrations are so great. This book made me want to have a built in bed more than anything. And when she walks in and sees what the spiders have done to her tree- magical.

I am going to try and get one or two new books a year and have them set out during the season. It's really a fun way to make the holiday special.

The Calendar System...

2011-10-17T11:41:00.000-07:00

This is the system I want to try and utilise to keep track of these "paper" years. The boys bring home so much stuff from preschool and toddler time. Most of it isn't saveable, but some of it is really cute. What we've been doing is just tape it to the wall so we can look at it and talk about it. The boys loved that, but the wall was getting really cluttery and we were having to throw away cute stuff to make room for more cute stuff. SO! enter the calendar system!

Each boy has a calendar. I took six sheets of large sketch book paper, stacked them on top of each other and stiched a seam through the middle. Wah lah! Calendar! Then I printed out a blank calendar sheet for each month. I hung it on the wall with big bulldo clips from WMart. Instead of a picture, I am taping the cute stuff that I want to save. The limited space really helps me edit, although you can see there is some big stuff that is still taped under the calendars!

I like the blank calendar space to write in different things that the boys are learning, or saying, or events. I don't use it as a planning calendar, just momentos.

Ex: Chubzie is saying "gel" (hard g) for "girl". I think its cute, so I jotted it down. I also wrote in when BabE got his shots and how he responded. I also copied in LB's Preschool calendar, so I can look back and see what he was working on. My big end goal is to make it through elementary and then bind the calendars into a big book for each boy.

Its fun and makes me feel safe that we will remember these little things when our giants are in highschool.

Apple Butter Days....

2011-10-17T11:03:00.000-07:00

Well, the day didn't start out with Granny out back scrubbing out the big copper kettle- we are modern day canning over here at Casa McNasty. I bought two bags of apples from WalMart- one Fuji, one Granny Smith. Then I got out my handy dandy peeler/slicer/corer thing. I LOVE this little piece of twenty dollar equipment. The boys wanted to try, so I thought I'd give them a go. I fully expected them to get bored after a few apples, but LB did both bags! Chubzie cranked a few apples and then got interested in eating the looooong peely strips.

I finally got to try the crockpot apple butter recipe a friend gave me last year- it worked SO well, compared to last year's endless cooking on the stovetop only to have it stay runny experience.

Here's the super simple recipe:

Fill your crockpot full of peeled, sliced and cored apples. (two grocery store bags yielded almost enough. My crockpot was 3/4 full.)
4 c. sugar (this was WAY too much for my taste. I used 2 cups and was happy with the sweetness.)
4 T cinnamon
2 T ground cloves

Cook on high for 1 hour, then turn on low and cook all night. Transfer apples to a blender and blend until smooth. Ladle into prepared jars and process in a hot water bath for 20 mins.
Done!
For me, this made 8 1/2 pint jars. My apple mixture in the crockpot had a LOT of water. Next time I am going to use a slotted spoon to transfer the apples and just a little juice so that my apple butter isn't so runny. The flavor is really great though!

I'd like to can some applesauce and apple pie filling at some point this season. Really wish I could find an orchard around here. I think Meeteetse is just slightly too cold and too high for apples.

Victorian bedroom

2011-10-07T09:00:00.001-07:00

Victorian bedroom by wyofaith on polyvore.com

So word on the street is that there are plans for the Meeteetse Merc to be turned into a six bedroom bed and breakfast. We happen to know the guy planning it and I begged Ron to mention to him that I'd love to do some design for it. Ron told me he already has a renovator (different than a designer! I still have a chance!) and that the guy wants to do late 1800's Victorian. NOT my favorite era due to its fussy, dark, oppresively knick knacky in nature asthetics, but I thought I'd try some mood boards for how to achieve a Victorian look without wanting to hang yourself from the drapes.

Now, obviously the settee would be better in a linen or brownie grey velvet, but what do you think? I was thinking a heavy cream, taupe, or natural linen color for the walls. The bed also came premade in colors I can't change, so I explored some blue in the pallette. I'm still not a fan of Victorian- those fringed lamps? Yech. But! I think it would be possible to make some really beautiful rooms in a neutral palette using drop dead gorgeous antiques for a Victorian feel.

We'll see. Maybe I'll be the next Design Star of Meeteetse!
And I am really LOVING polyvore.com, even more than pinterest! I love how I have a free hand to create instead of just stockpiling photos. Try it!

I created this mood board to help me focus on a goal for my living room

2011-10-06T14:47:00.001-07:00

My livingroom by wyofaith on polyvore.com

Chubzie...

2011-09-16T19:33:00.000-07:00

Chubzie came up to me today and roared in my face.
I of course acted scared and said, "Oh No! A tiger!"
Chubzie said "I not a tiger!"
Over his fierce snarls and growls I asked "Are you a lion?"
"NO!" he shouted.
"Well, what are you?"I asked.
"I a rabbit! A scary scary rabbit!"

The Catcher in the.....what?!?!

2011-09-12T15:32:00.000-07:00

So I was shopping at Walmart and I came to the discount book rack (my Achilles heel. And if the jackets have good graphics, well I'm sunk. Hello, ramen night!) and there, knocking me out with its artwork was "Catcher in the Rye". I, unlike most of America, had never read this book so I thought I 'd give it a whirl.

I'm telling you, all the way through the book I was thinking to myself, when is the story going to start??? I am unabashedly a story reader. I like books for the story. If it's simply character sketches or philosophical thoughts or a political commentary, its just not going to do it for me. Maybe that's a bit blue collar of me, but I'm ok with that. Without us blue collars where would Slaughterhouse 5 or Journey or the Boss be?

So when I got done with the book I thought 'what a colossal waste of controversy that was' and went to the computer to google 'Why is Catcher in the Rye worth reading?'
It told me: blahblahblah 'catcher in the rye addresses teen angst' blah blah blah.

My brain did a mental firecracker- that was it exactly! J.D. Salinger somehow managed to capture teen angst perfectly. The irritation at 'phonys', the wandering looking for a direction, the inibility to deal with strong emotion, and what I think is one of the most fantastic things about teenagers..... well, I'll get to that.

So then last night I happened to watch a Disney teen movie called "Lemonade Mouth." I watched it mostly for the name and the fact it had 4 stars. I'm telling you, people like me keep graphic designers and ad execs in business. Good dust jacket? OK! Catchy name? I'll try it!
During the movie I was thinking typical old fart thoughts about teen movies: Why do they always portray teens as passionate intelligents and adults as stupid money grubbers? Adults always look excessively moronic or corrupted by power or safety. and Teenagers have the sassiest mouths!

And then came the other mental firecracker- but that's what I think is so great about teenagers!
They want to change their world. And they have enough passion to maybe actually do it.

Holden Caulfield wants to save a field of little kids from falling off a cliff. Be the Catcher in the Rye. He wants to save the world. Or change it in an awesome way. Kids aren't really worse than they ever were. I mean, texting probably will bring about the end of the world, but in a general sense, they are the same. They want to change everything. To be heard. To find a platform. To know they are of cosmic importance.

I remember feeling that way so clearly at 18. And I guess at 31 I am fulfilling that dream/desire/yearning. Not in the way I thought I would (I mean I seriously thought I would save the entire Mongol culture by becoming a far east circuit rider. I still think that idea has merit, by the way.) I AM changing my world. My 'world' is simply much smaller than I ever imagined.

I keep thinking about the book too. Today is my cleaning day, and was thinking about Holden and how the stupid guy wouldn't call up the girl who is really important to him. He just settles for stupid Sally. WHY?? Because he's afraid of really caring for someone? Being hurt if she doesn't like him back? It's just easier to settle for Ok than to go for the best? (I think it's the last one.)
If I can't stop thinking about the book, it must be good-to stick with me that way. To irritate me just enough to consider why it is doing so. So here is my book report- what do you think about the book? And if you read it as a christian, I don't want to hear that Holden needs Jesus. That's a cop out. I mean, I KNOW that. You know, if he were a real person vs. a fictional character. I want to hear what you think about him and what he thinks about and the themes of the book.

And Lemonade Mouth had good music, by the way.

I can't stop making them......

2011-08-27T13:48:00.000-07:00

I've been making these cute little clutches whenever i have a spare 30 minutes. They are so fun and easy to make, but my favorite thing has been thinking up and making the embellishments. How cute are the ruffle and flower on this one?
This one makes me think of a Spanish flamenco dancer for some reason.This is the other style I've been making. It's a foldover style clutch, but it has so many other uses. The bold graphic cowboy print caught my eye and I though a few cute yo-yos would finish it off.
This is a leather fold over in a crocodile print with a tassel and fun flowered lining.This is my favorite fabric by far- clean, bright, and fresh colors.
What do you think?

Catagories on Blogger...

2011-08-27T09:27:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if this is the best way to organize a blog, but for one like mine it works fine. I don't have that many catagories, and in all essences, this is a personal blog.

So, to create catagories:

Go to layout>on your layout of your blog go to 'add a gadget' wherever you want your catagories spot. I wanted mine on the top left to make it easy to see and select.

When you click on add a gadget, a window will pop up> select 'labels' gadget.

Enter a title. When I first did this I added a title for each catagory, and it was all messed up. This should be a very broad title encapsulating all the catagories, like: Find me here, Search my blog, or All my topics. something like that.

Select all labels, alphabetically, list, show number of posts per label. at least, this is what I chose based on my preferences. You can do what suits you.
And your done! Now, you won't see anything on your blog until you start labelling your posts, then it will pop right up and file everything for you, which is so great!

If you, like me, are formatting after you have already started blogging and haven't labelled any of your posts, it's easy to go back and label old posts so that they get filed in the right catagory. This is boring though, so save it for a rainy day or late night boredom!

Go to Posting>Edit posts>select the edit button on a specific post>add your label to the bottom of thepost (in the box)>click on publish post.

This will repost in its original spot, but now it will be filed in your catagories.

So Easy!

Building a Header

2011-08-24T14:45:00.000-07:00

Yay! I (sort of) figured out how to do catagories on the blog! I'm not totally sure if its the best way to organize posts on the blog, but I'm going to go with it for now.

I wanted to explain how I did the header to my blog and add the links to the posts I used. I know its not perfect, but its so much better than it was!

I googled how to add a header to my blog and got this tutorial. You might want to bookmark that blog- lots of awesome info!

I started by opening a free account in Picnik.com and uploaded pictures directly from my computer. When I was searching around the nets, one blogger said your header should represent you and what your blog is about, so I kept that in mind when I was choosing pictures.

I pretty much followed the steps in the tutorial above, but I didn't add the text in Picnik. They have great fonts to choose from, but I liked the ones I had in Photoshop better.

Its important to know the width and height of your blog header like she says. I didn't pay attention to that part and ending up fiddling endlessly. I kept it really simple: four pictures, spaced closely and with gently rounded edges. I saved it to my computer in my "My Pictures" folder as a jpeg.

Then I opened it up in Photoshop. If you don't have Photoshop, Gimp is a free online photo manipulation program that is really similar to Photoshop. Or you can add words in Picnik and keep it simple!
I googled how to add words to my pictures in Photoshop and got this tutorial. I made two lines of text, one with "Grit and Gumption" and the other with "discovering life in the dust and wind of Wyoming" .Then I saved the image to my computer in my "My Pictures" file as a jpeg.So! I opened up my blog dashboard, went to the design tab, clicked on the headers edit button, and a window opened up. I clicked 'add a picture from my computer, used 'browse' and opened up the jpeg of my header that I had saved in 'My Pictures'. I made sure I selected "instead of title and description" and then saved it. Bam! Done!

All these steps may seem complicated, but it is actually very very easy. And fun! Picnik is a great tool to make all sorts of fun things, and its free!

Second block of the month......

2011-08-17T20:33:00.000-07:00

This is August's block for the block of the month quilting bee. It is supposed to be free form and a bit wonky, but I had a hard time with the looseness of this block. Not my favorite quilting method! I'm glad I tried it, but not a new love. Can't wait for September!

And do you like my new header? I'd like to post all the links I use to make changes to my blog once I figure out how to make catagories. This header was really easy to do by just following along some tutorials I found on the nets. I used Picnik and Photoshop. You know, trolling around reading my favorite blogs really made me feel like I should be trying to make money or have some sort of blog business or at least make money from the craft crap I make. It was really getting me down! Once I let go of that expectation, and let this just be a little hobby I do cause I like it, then the motivation to make it better came right to me. Crazy right? Anyways, I had fun learning how to make that new header and love the new look.

Suffering is a part of life....

2011-08-17T12:56:00.001-07:00

I talked to my sister H the other day, and she said something to me that has been simmering in my mind every day since then. Our conversation was about going through really difficult things in our lives. This is what she (paraphrased) said:

"More and more I realize suffering is a part of life. It just is. But so is the gift of beauty, especially where you live. (Wyoming) I think of you out there, riding your horse through the fields, and beauty is all around you. You just have to accept it as God's gift."

I've been mulling that over. How I walk sometimes so deeply in suffering, in a context of such overwhelming natural beauty. Its like the physical edge of a knife juxtaposed against the untouchable idea of majesty. Concrete against spirit. Flesh and hope.

I have been walking through the 'dark night of my soul' and just got the news yesterday that our friends' 18 year old boy was killed in a car accident. Just like that eternity walks all over us without even knocking or ringing the doorbell. There is no possible way to prepare yourself for something like that. It just seems like my life is sadness heaped apon sadness right now.

And then I went out to my horse, saddled her up and rode into light filled limitless beauty. Sun setting in a ring of razor edged mountains, spilling rays into grass that became gold. One foot in sheol and one foot on the mountain top. How long will I be asked to live like this by the One who knows exactly how I feel?

On a boy's mind.....

2011-08-08T10:48:00.000-07:00

LB came up to me while I was on the computer. He leaned his head on my arm and participated in a little stream of consciousness started by a picture of oranges.
"Mom! I like oranges! and candy, and chocolate chips, and snowballs."

When I get bored...

2011-08-07T18:14:00.000-07:00

I go to this site and imagine I have 10 wooded acres with good fences and a perfect creek, and all I have to do is pick out my classic english cottage to put on it.

For the month of July...

2011-07-27T14:13:00.000-07:00

The gals over at Sew Mama Sew are having a fun quilt a thon- one block a month for 12 months. Each month they give a different modern quilt block pattern. I had a lot of fun making this block and it came together really fast. I hope I stick with this- I am more of a 12 blocks in 12 minutes kind of a girl. (which usually translates to 3 1/2 blocks in 12 minutes, get overwhelmed, leave it lay for 6 months then finally finish in a desperate all nighter)
I wanted to do a fresh light colored quilt that is girly, just for me. I don't know if it will really match anything, or even if I will stick it through for a whole year, but it is really fun to try!
Interested? Here's a link to check out the online quilting circle:

http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/2011/07/modern-block-of-the-month-bom-sew-along-with-alissa-haight-carlton/

An article I wrote and sent in for possible publishing...

2011-07-27T13:52:00.000-07:00

What I wish someone had told me about mothering: notes from a Hip Young Mom.

Honestly, when I look around I wonder why in the world anyone let us take our babies home from the hospital. Couldn’t they see through our mask of hope, idealism and astonishing superiority? We would NEVER be “that mom”. The one hauling her screaming child through the supermarket or, (here comes the superiority) all organic farmer’s market. OUR child would never, NEVER drink the thinly veiled poison sucked from the dirty under regions of a cow. Not to mention anything made of, gasp, sugar! No NO, dear nurse, our babies will live all organic, low foot print, sustainable lives built around core values that include silence at the library and quinoa. We know. We know it all.

Then we get home and realize that the birthing classes were useless. We should have been taken on an African Safari to gain the skills needed to raise wild animals. I am the lone, hip female in a man clan of four boys and a husband. Each day, the three boys compete to see who will be the master of disaster. Everything is a weapon. Cereal is a weapon. If I didn’t have my husband to point the way I would have dropped them off at the zoo, considered myself a parental failure, and moved on to raising something easier, like werewolves or King Kong.

The fact of the matter: nothing showed me how little I knew about parenting more than real live kids of my own. Suddenly my mother took on sainted status (she had SIX) and if I had a grandmother alive I’m sure I would have showed up on her doorstep, sweating, in tears, gasping, “Hide me! Somewhere with decorating magazines!”

If you just became a mother, fear not. You have just entered a tribe of women who completely understand. When you are weeping in the bathroom stall of a fancy art gallery after your child has just broken a cement cube titled ‘thinking of death in Brooklyn” and priced more than your car, we don’t judge. We don’t ask WHY you brought your kid to an esoteric art exhibit. Mothers have a right to a life too, dammit! Even if it kills us! Which in many cases, has already happened, we were just too busy to realize. When you are up in the middle of the night, shushing a screaming baby and wiping upchuck out of your bra, don’t call your young, single friends. They will be casually sipping chilled wine around someone’s little patio with a view, trying to steer the conversation back to themselves. Call us. The Safari Guides of femininity. We’ll bring you a low brow beer and a listening ear. ‘Cause now, after three or four or fifteen kids, we really do know all there is to know about parenting, and let me tell you-it ain’t much. You’ll be fine.

design seeds: rusted hues

2011-07-23T14:59:00.000-07:00

design seeds: rusted hues: "{rusted hues}"
I'd like to go this route in my bedroom