Catch You On The Flip Side

I am going to be absent from this little space, my cyberspace home, for the next week or so as we transition from our West Coast home to our East Coast home, and I will be back in full as soon as possible.

Mothers Day Gifts

I knew that I wanted to make our Mother's Day Gifts this year, but I just didn't know what to make. It had to be something simple and versatile as the gift would go to three very different mothers in our lives--my own Mama, my Aunt Donna, and Brian's mom. In the end, I decided to sew up some handkerchiefs from my new favorite book, Linen, Cotton, Wool. I embroidered the first letter of each of their names on the kerchiefs, had the kids paint the cards, and added some dried lavender for effect. The embroidery isn't perfect as I am new to that sport (and neither is the sewing for that matter), but hopefully they will be loved nonetheless.

2009 Faery Festival

This past weekend, amidst packing and tying up some loose ends, we went to the Faery Festival


There were some happy crown wearers

and some unhappy ones...

What a dreamy place it was. Norah and Harvey made fairy wings, they planted fairy gardens, we watched men on sticks walk around in circles and we
sat
in
the
green green
grass.

Learning to Let Go

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Wild Geese by Mary Oliver



For the most part, here in my little blogging corner of the world, I try to focus on what makes me happy in my life--my kids, general domesticity, the natural world, good books, etc...and there is some space here for deep sorrows or mild annoyances to make their appearances as well. The faces of my/our/your troubles show up from time to time throughout all of my days and, I have found, if I try to ignore them, they only insist on staying around longer. So I am learning to invite them to sit down next to me throughout my days, to offer them some lemonade, to chat with them awhile. Maybe then they won't look quite so ugly; maybe then I can see what they have to offer, maybe, just maybe...

I spent some time tonight looking through pictures I have taken, of ways that have chronicled our year here in Portland--pictures that mirror back at me a time of discovery, a time of peace, but most of all a time of tremendous pain. A time of tumult, of chaos and abandonment, of coming together, of falling apart, of rebuilding, of birth and rebirth. And yet, there are those pictures of this year, this moment in time, this seeming eternity, this ephemeral chaos and this fleeting peace, and they reflect exactly what Mary Oliver so pristinely describes above--the world goes on.

Ah yes, it does.

It really does.

Amazing What You Can See

in one short walk home from school...

Summer Sewing

Just because I really don't have enough to do, I have decided to pick up sewing again! The pending cross country move with two small children in tow (and everything there is to do along with it) is not nearly as much fun~ I made Norah this skirt minus the ribbon at the hemline on Saturday. This poster claims that they can be whipped up just before dinner, hence the name "Before Dinner Skirts." Hmmm, then I guess I will have to name mine "The Before Breakfast Lunch and Dinner with Lots of Meltdowns In Between Skirt" or the "Bribe My Child With a Cookie to Wear It Skirt." BUT I did get some crafting satisfaction from the making of it. There might be a few more of these in my future...

Remains of the Day

: half-eaten take out salad:
: half-knit "Christmas" sweater, likely partially unraveled, strewn about:
: picnic for "Grandma" still waiting to be eaten:
: one child's dinner still on the table:
: other's child's dinner in the sink, amongst other things:
: last minute grocery buys by the front door waiting to be unloaded:

and this pregnant lady is rolling herself upstairs to bed...