greenclogs

and there went January

Oops! I forgot to blog. It's been a busy and kind of stressful month and when I get in that mode, blogging goes by the wayside I'm afraid. Also, the dark gets to me and I think my day is over at 5, so then I'm useless for the rest of the night. Must not do this next year. 

A few things:

I'm documenting our days in a photo a day project. You can check out our project366 photos over here.  

After much deliberation (and Annika sneaking into the downstairs guest room) we decided that it was time to bunk the girls up in that room. Annika's room upstairs was poorly insulated and not great in the winter time. She's much happier and sleeping better. Kit is slowly transitioning to her Big Girl Bed in her Big Girl Room with her sister. Exciting! It's amazing what a set of bunkbeds from Craig's List and some pretty pink paint can do. I'll be rearranging more furniture and hanging art this week before taking the glamour shots. 

Kit got a haircut. She looks So. Much. Older. Except for when she's throwing a sad ballerina tantrum. Then she's still pretty little. Nice hair though!

I've been diligently finishing up knitting and crochet projects before I cast on with my Christmas yarn. Very motivating! I'll be showing these off all week. Here's the first one. It's the Multnomah Shawl by Kate Ray. 

I didn't have enough yarn to make it full size - I was using leftovers from a sweater that I made for Kit last year. The pattern was really fast and fun to knit. I'm a little embarrassed that I left it with only one row and the bind off to do. 30 minutes of knittiing and an overnight blocking produced my first complete shawl. 

The yarn is BFL Light Sportweight by Blue Moon Fiber Arts, which is a favorite of mine. Each hank is 661 yards of hand-dyed goodness. This hank in the Lemongrass colorway produced a cute sweater for Kit and a shawlette. I love that. 

This one will be headed out to a friend. I love it, but it's not a color I wear well and I have a shawl planned with that Christmas yarn that will be for me. Soon. Very soon. I hope she loves it. 

Maybe I'll be better about this blog thing in February. I think I feel like talking again. It feels good. 

2012 - starting by finishing (and Christmas recap)

Well, hi. I guess I effectively took December off. It was good - Lindsay was here for over 2 weeks, and we had a lovely time. There was lots of family time, talking, visiting, sight seeing, and Christmasing. 

Lindsay totally hit it out of the park on the Christmas gifting. Check out what she gave me. 

It doesn't get much better than that. Her boyfriend was also here for part of the trip, which we all enjoyed. Especially Kit. She and Brian were pretty tight by the time he left. Also, having a child who can go to the liquor store for you is pretty sweet. 

Okay, onward to 2012. I took a look back at my January 1 2011 post  to see how I did this year. I think I hit about 50%. My resolutions did not take into account the epic move from Scottsdale to Portland and all of the upheaval/stress/chaos that ensued. Nor was I realistic about what I was going to get done with a toddler. So, there's going to be some carryover from last year. I learned to crochet and have nearly finished an afghan. I did make 4 quilts. I finished most things I started, or I am close to doing so. The photography business is slowly taking root. Still on the list are throwing pots, screenprinting, weaving and project365 (366 this year). I'm also making good progress most days on that pesky computer time (see lack of blog posts). 

I'm taking a different approach this year. I've chosen 3 words to live by. 

1. Reach 

2. Simplify

3. Finish

I'll talk about the other two later, but continuing to improve at that pesky finishing thing is super important to me this year. If I have too many undone things, I get lost. I have fewer undone things than last year, but still too many. And on that note, I started the new year by finishing something. 

Start (and finish) small, I say. Santa put a lovely skein of Shelter in my stocking which was the perfect hat to knit for my brother. I cast on yesterday and finished today. The pattern is Fortnight without the short rows. As soon as I wove in the ends, the little one said "it's my hat!", crammed it on her head, and ran off. I guess she needs one too. The hat is now washed and blocking - we'll give it a proper treatment soon. Short version is that I enjoyed both the yarn and the pattern. I'd recommend them. 

Happy new year, friends. I'm glad you're still plugging along with me into 2012. I plan for it to be a pretty stellar year. Full of finishing. 

running with the cute

I took time away from frantic afghan crocheting to make a new window curtain for my kitchen. I've been hanging on to a 1/2 yard of this sweet kitchen fabric for a while now, and this was clearly why. I paired it with a tiny red gingham to make it long enough and to add some grounding to the print. This is why having a decent fabric stash is so great - the whole project went from "I need a curtain!" to hanging the curtain in about 30 minutes, including rescuing Kit from naptime. So, voila!

Much better. I'm sure my neighbors will appreciate not feeling watched when they walk by. I spend a lot of time sitting in front of this window.

 And now I won't bother you with the kitchen for a while - at least not until after we have gone to Ikea for a freestanding counter unit and reorganized the whole kitchen. Because if Thanksgiving taught us anything, it's that we don't have anywhere near enough counter space. 

when in doubt, add butter

It was cookie baking weekend. Yesterday I went to the neighborhood cookie exchange, which was lovely. I have such nice neighbors. I brought two chocolate shortbread cookies - one batch with cocoa nibs and one batch of chocolate mint sandwich cookies. Both recipes were from my favorite baking book. I don't know if it was impatience on my part (probably) or something in the air, but the dough didn't come together as quickly as the recipe implied it would. Rather than just continuing to let the beaters do their thing, I decided to add more butter. It worked. It also made for a couple of batches of very decadent cookies. Yum.

Last week was all about finishing the kitchen painting so I can move on to the guest room and be done before Lindsay gets here. 

I'm totally in love with it. The white pops way more and the kitchen is always bright and cheery. Just what I wanted. 

It looks especially good with butter. Happy Monday!

goodbye November. it was fun.

Well, I did it. Almost - I missed the 23rd and didn't make it up like I meant to. I looked at these trees today on the bike path at the end of our street and saw that long line of posts like sturdy little soldiers. I think the daily posting has been really good for me - it has been so valuable to sit down and focus my thoughts at the end of each day. I didn't feel pressured to talk about anything specific. I set no big crafting goals. I just lived and talked about it. I discovered important things about our rhythms and about myself as a mother. So thanks for putting up with me every day. I doubt I'll post every day in December, but I promise to post more than twice. 

Today was a lovely day. Attitudes were better. Progress was made on the room. Chores were negotiated. The sun shone. I let a lot go and we spent time outside, finding the remaining leaves and looking at how things have changed since the budding of spring, the bloom of summer and the glorious fall color have passed. We have been here for 3 seasons now, for 9 months this weekend. All that's left is winter. My girl is hoping for snow and my boy just wants to visit snow while he learns to snowboard. I just hope for more of these clear days that will help me get through my first winter dark and rain in several years. I was reminded today by a neighbor to take vitamin D. I have to pick that up - lack of vitamin D is something I haven't worried about in a long time. 

The girl's room isn't quite done but she worked until she could see the sheets on her bed and didn't dissolve into tears. I have picking up and picture hanging to do tomorrow along with finishing up the painting in the kitchen. We're getting there. Every day, progress is made. But today, we stepped back and took some time to stomp in puddles while absorbing our vitamin D. It was good for all of us.

Thank you for taking this little journey with me this month. It's been fun. Tomorrow we celebrate the daddy's birthday, so I'll see you in a few days. 

the disaster zone

Tomorrow I'll have an extended and hopefully thoughtful post on creativity and mess and boundaries and all of that. Tonight, I am all worn out by spending the day helping the 9 year old deal with the messes she left all over the house this weekend. Hopefully I'll be in a better frame of mind after a good night's sleep. 

I'll leave you with the before photos. Tomorrow I'm crossing my fingers for beautiful after photos. 

going bold

People, you are probably getting tired of paint around here. I, however, am not. 

I went into the basement stash of paint colors (what? you don't have one of those?) and pulled out the leftover paint from my studio in Scottsdale. I had a light aqua and this one, which I think is more of a turquoise. The light one was way too wussy for the kitchen - it was all too pale with the white cabinets and fancy fretwork. I painted a big swatch of this one, and with Annika's encouragement I just kept painting. I think it's a winner. A very bold winner for my vintage 1940's kitchen. 

I think I can get away with this because most of the kitchen is white. There's an eating alcove, seen here, and then the rest of the galley kitchen is white cabinets on both sides, white appliances, white counters, and even a white floor. So the color goes in between the counters and upper cabinets, in the alcove. along a stretch of wall above the sink, and on soffits around the ceiling. It'll work, right? Just nod your head and humor me like even my menfolk are doing. 

Also, Amy sent me the world's most awesome Thanksgiving card. I immediately put it in a frame. It'll stay in the kitchen in a white frame instead of black, and accompanied by some other favorite cards and photos by friends. We love our pie around here. Gunnar is more than a little ticked that I kept it and didn't let him take it to his room. 

I'm excited about my little kitchen revamp. I have this room and the guest room to paint and gussy up before Lindsay and her boyfriend arrive on the 15th. Nothing like a deadline to get me motivated! This is a good way to shake off the post-Thanksgiving back to normal blues and keep me from starting Christmas gifts that I won't have time to finish. 

Happy Monday!

handmade holidays. or not.

It's a quick Sunday night post with no pictures because, well, I didn't take any. 

For the last few years I've been a pretty big stickler on making Christmas gifts. Many things have been made over the years - pillows and bags, sweater vests, hats, quilts, potholders, napkins, dolls and stuffed animals. It has largely been a lot of fun. I'm glad that I make nearly all of my gifts - both for Christmas and for birthdays, but I don't think I'm doing so much of it this year. And I'm feeling a bit guilty about it, which is very silly. 

I'm still going to buy handmade this year at Crafty Wonderland, from creative friends with small businesses, and if not handmade then from local independent shops. I think this year I'll give my family the gift of my sanity. I'll spend a bit more, but not much, given the cost of supplies and my time. Frankly, this year, I think I can do more good by spending money locally and with small business people who are struggling to make ends meet in this economic climate. I know they can't compete with Black Friday sales and deep discounts by huge retailers. I'd rather put my money into the pockets of that I know and talk to and see as I go about my days. I feel good about being able to do that.

I still have a few handmade gifts that have been in the works for a while, but I think I can do that without becoming a crazy person who sews until 2AM every night. I can relax and enjoy making those things. I can have time to make new stockings that all match and Christmas Tree Pants for my trees. We'll bake cookies. We'll hang out by the fire and read stories while drinking hot chocolate. I'll sneak in some crochet and knitting on quiet evenings. It'll all work out and all get done. 

I feel like a big load has been lifted this year. I need a break (especially with that very busy 60 minute napping toddler). How about you? How are you tackling Christmas gifts this year. What do you have planned?

p.s. I would like to state for the record that I planned ahead for stuffing the Advent calendar this year for the first time ever. Maybe there's hope for me yet.  

sparkle power

It is really hard to capture good photos of a spinning sparkly lighted tree at night. I set my lens to manual focus and played with different levels of blur and I love the different effects. 

As the tree spun, I could see where lights needed to be adjusted. 

The best part is that I can just plug in the spinning stand and then stay in one place to put the lights on - no throwing lights around the tree. It moves around for me. So easy!

I think the spinning tree stand is the best $5 I ever spent. 

 

Bring on the Christmas decor! I'm ready to counteract the winter gloom with some good old fashioned sparkle power. 

tomorrow

Tomorrow we find the base for the tinsel tree and we assemble it while convincimg Miss I Take It Apart to not take it apart. 

Tomorrow we assemble the Christmas village (and see above on not taking it apart).

Tomorrow we buy a new fish for the fish bowl. 

Tomorrow we make new stockings and hang them. 

Tomorrow we eat the last of the Thanksgiving leftovers. 

Tomorrw marks the beginning of our Christmas season. 

And today was pretty great in its wind down of autumn/Thanksgiving. 

Hello tomorrow.