New Years Eve

There's a blue moon out tonight. I haven't seen it. I tried at 11:56. It was too cloudy. I was too late. I thought it would be there later. It's about to be 2010. Whatever I wanted to accomplish in 2009. It's too late. I hear fireworks outside. I am going to try to celebrate another year I am blessed with.

Christmas Day

The kids wore the clothes they wore to church the night before. They look cute but hopefully that will not be a tradition. It was a calm and pleasant morning for the most part. The next day cousins Hannah, Claire, and Biella came accompianied by Charity and Maga. Zach prepared a delicious feast and we celebrated being together. The next day we went and saw the Princess and the Frog. Good times.

Tradition tradition

This is the first time our family has decided to stay home for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Therefore our family did not have any traditions. I asked everyone for ideas but received no feedback. I took matters into my own hands. I decided every year the family will paint a plate. When I was younger my parents had a plate with the year of my birth and a calendar on it. I really liked it. I don't know why. (I'm starting to learn that dishes are important and sentimental to me. ) Anyway, so we made a plate. We picked it out as a family. I picked the colors and Zach designed it. The rest of us painted when needed. Zoe also decided to paint a Christmas snake. Afterwards we went sledding and had a lovely time.
This year I read The Trees of The Dancing Goats by Patricia Polacco to the kids. It's about a Jewish family that helps their neighbors that have Scarlet fever celebrate Christmas by bringing trees to them. The trees are decorated with the dancing goat toys their grandfather made them for Hanukkah. It a sweet story. Zoe and I made a Christmas mobile with the Nutcracker, Nativity, and dancing goat stories. This picture is after it fell and became twisted. It was cuter in the beginning.

Little House

I was fortunate enough to take Zoe to Little House on the Prairie the Musical. Melissa Gilbert played Ma. It was so wonderful. We were right in front of the orchestra and in the second row. I loved looking at Zoe's facial expressions as she experienced certain things for the first time. It was the first time I have ever driven in Denver without a co-pilot in the front seat with me. I had never been to the theatre it was at either. I looked like a country bumpkin I'm sure. I was embarrassed leaving the parking garage and trying to put the prepaid ticket into the feeder. Cars lined up behind me and I was feeling more and more pressure. Then I realized the gate was open for everyone to go through. I thought surely they wanted the ticket after making such a fuss about keeping it but no. Zoe fell asleep in the car and I listened to Christmas music while blasting cold air on my face to keep me awake.

Rose, not in the way everyone thinks

The Rose story...

There is a woman at church. Her name is Rose Scoville. We are second cousins. We are related, but not in the way that everyone thinks. She married a Scoville and I married a Scoville. We look alike we could be sisters. Her father was my father's mother's brother. They are McNally's. My father is a deacon at church and wears a name tag. Rose saw the tag and realized they were cousins. People call her house looking for me. We are constantly asked if we are related. Yes, but not in the way everyone thinks.

Kitty and crowns

We adopted a kitty. Her name is Miyu. It means "beautiful moon" in Japanese. That is what the internet site says. I've been working on projects for others.
I made this garland or bunting for Biella's fifth birthday. I learned about it from the book The Creative Family by Amanda Blake Soule.
I made these crowns as well from a template in the book. A gold crown for day, a silver crown for night and a Grinch crown for Christmas fun. I watched Christmas classics while sewing. I watched Rudolph, the Grinch
and believe or not Die Hard. I stayed up until 2:00 in the morning one night. I later regretted it because I've been sick with a terrible cold ever since. It's been four days and cough cough cough. I think they turned out cute enough. Zach wants me to make him a "tough" garland for the band. I don't know how that is going to happen. Black fabric and death metal band T-shirts are all I can think of. He's cute for wanting something I made for a five-year-old girl.

Stitch by stitch

These are my nephews Nathan and Noah. Some days I am blessed with their company. They found out today they are going to have a baby brother. They are excited. Well Nathan is. Noah is oblivious.

I know it seems I have made no progress, but I have. In the last picture of this quilt my body was pieced to the background colors. When I sewed all around it was bunched and not square. As anyone knows the foundation is the most important part. If the foundation is crooked so well the rest. i was tempted to carry on as is. I mean one point of the quilt is to show how asymmetrical and crooked I really am. A fact I have tried to hide for years. My dear husband told me I would not be happy in the end and it would be too late. Although I knew he was right, I was sad. Progress is what keeps me going, visible progress. I undid and picked each stitch. Stitch by stitch I was grateful I had the ability to undo my wrong stitches. It gave me a hope that is hard to find in life at times. A hope that I can change and make a difference in the world giving the best possible version of myself.

The Frog Princess

I have inherited many things from my mother. We are mistaken in childhood pictures and in crowded room. I talk with my hands just like she does. We live in the same city, go to the same church. We are in the same book club. I talk in analogies just like she does. One needs to see a movie store inventory of movies to know what we are talking about, and a book shelf of books. However, there are surprising other amounts of similarities. One of my sisters this week explained how hard it is to relate to others at times as mouthed by my mother. My mother and I have lived a completely different life. We have found ourselves in the same spot at certain seasons of our lives. I am going to steal her recent analogy. I feel like a toad in the moat waiting to talk to the princess and we cannot speak the same language. How will we ever live in the same world? Yes, I am the frog or toad waiting in the moat. I am trying to love the swamp.

Inspiration from Somewhere

I believe that everyone is inspired from somewhere. I'm inspired by nature, music, and other people's expression of self. Here is my progress and next to it is one inspiration for this piece. It's a painting by Matisse.

Black Apple Doll

I finished my doll. I downloaded the pattern from the blog Inside the Black Apple.

Tangerine Elephant

It seems I cannot focus on one project for long without some interruption. My nephew was hurt this weekend. He loves elephants and his favorite color is orange. I made it in three hours from a drawing I did. He was asleep when I took it over to his house. While he was sleeping, his little one-year-old brother fell in love with it. I drove home and made another. They had twin elephants this weekend.

Sunday

We went on our annual fishing trip to Crystal Lake with my dad. I'm the only one that caught a fish.

More Childhood

We Help Mommy by Eloise Wilkin was my favorite book as a young young child. I realize now it was because I love the domestic life. I love decorating and creating a space called home. I love the smells of food cooking and having a place that belongs to me.
My other favorite books are those that my mom and dad read to me. I love homeschooling it combines my two favorite things into one. Today the children and I read Paddle-to-the-Sea. I never read it as a child. I now hope someday my children will remember all the books we read together. I hope they will be flooded with the same warmth, even in the coldest weather.
This is my favorite page. The color of her dress and the cherries always made me want to eat. I bought apron fabric to put in my doll quilt. I am working on. I thought I did not want people to know that much about me. The thing about sharing though, is once you start it's hard to stop.
Here's a peek at my doll. It now has arms and needs to be stuffed. The doll quilt includes so many personal elements. I am afraid they will be lost on anyone else, but me.

October Winter Wonderland

While some of our relatives enjoyed this week at the beach, we played in the snow. Santa gave us these beautiful sleds last year. We finally broke them in. I was the only one that screamed coming down the hill, but oh well. It was a blast!

Joie de Vivre

Here's the updated self-portrait. The progress is going rather smoothly considering the many directions I am pulled. I had an interesting day. I spent the day web-window shopping and reading random blogs. There are pseudo-celebrities in the blog world it's quite fascinating. It snowed furiously here yesterday. I gave into temptation and pulled a Christmas movie out. Today I went back to Fall. I lit an apple cinnamon candle and watched The Wizard of Oz. I read a little too. I am about to construct a doll for my newest project. I feel like my passion and joie de vivre has been locked in a vault for a long time. Like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs emerging from the Disney vault, so am I. I have so many quilting ideas I can hardly keep up. I have a new lust for life. My writing block is over. It's great. Hi ho Hi ho off to work I go.

Self-portrait beginning

Thankfully,
I have support from my dear, Jennifer Babcock. I am creating something I would never have created without that support.

Cartoon Cuss Words

I have found myslf saying "phooey" from time to time. I've often wondered where I learned it. No one in my family uses it. The other day I was watching Popeye with the kids and ah-ha Olive Oyl said it. The next day I heard my son in the hallway say "tarter sauce." It is a whole new generation of cussing from SpongeBob SquarePants. It was just of those moments that I thought, "wow, I could have never anticipated how different my kids' life would be from my own childhood." At times they seem incomparable.

The Personality of Chairs

I finally fininshed my chair quilt. It isn't as big as I wanted. Other than that I think I love it. I looked at so many chairs in doing this project. I was thinking of what each of them would say. Chairs have personalities I think.

The Table And The Chair by Edward Lear
Said the table to the chair,"You can scarcely be aware
How I suffer from the heat
And from blisters on my feet!
If we took a little walk We might have a little talk.
Pray, let us take the air!"Said the table to the chair.

Said the chair unto the table,"Now you know we are not able!
How foolishly you talkWhen you know we cannot walk!"
Said the table with a sigh,"It can do no harm to try.I've as many legs as you.
Why can't we walk on two?"So they both went slowly down,And walked about the town,With a cheerful bumpy sound
As they toddled all around.And everybody criedAs they ran up to their side"See! The table and the chair
Have come out to take the air!"
But, in going down an alley,To the castle, in the valley,They completely lost their way
And they wandered all the day‘Til, to see them safely back,They paid a ducky-quackAnd a beetle and a mouseTo take them to their house.Then they whispered to each other"Oh delightful little brother!What a lovely walk we've taken!Let us dine on beans and bacon!"So the ducky and the littleBrownie-mousey and the beetleDined, and danced upon their heads,‘Til they toddled to their beds.