Stitch Rabbit

A Steady Constant.

 

It seems to me that there are not often times in my life when things stop, for even a moment. And there are times when I cannot find a room in my house where there is not something perched on a table or shelf or armchair waiting for me to return to.

And I like it that way. Idle hands I have not.

 Frankie's long-awaited quilt will be finished in time for her birthday. I am only a few stitches away from the hand-quilting being finished before I bind it for her seventh year. I can't believe she's about to be another year from the moment I laid eyes on her.

 A growing collection of buckets and pails of dye and yarn and linen and cotton are finding their way to the shop outside, recently emptied and ready to become my garden and dye studio. Scrap and salvaged wood is collecting as well, ready to become the interior walls of the shop. I can't hardly wait to have such a great space for all the mess and glory.

The garden grows and grows, and so do the trays of seedlings in all the windows. Perhaps it's time to build a greenhouse.

It seems that every space available there is something going on. It is spring. It is change, it is growth. It is making and creating. It is doing. It's how I like it.

It is a steady constant, and it is love.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Progress and Sunshine

 

Litt bits of encouragement in the form of finished fences and boxes, and plenty of worms.

 

Satisfaction and reward comes in the form of a cold beer and garden catalogues, and a hot, hot bath every single night. Planning out my seeds and spaces for the coming spring. Dreaming of all the green.

 

 

The Garden Project.

 

It's the kind of thing that could make me panic, but we've gone into it headfirst and have hardly looked up from our shovels.

We're completely reworking our yard. Front and back. Ripping out old boxes and beds, moving entire gardens from back to front and front to back, digging up and relocating perennials, building fences and transforming our outdoor space completely.

I want a garden space that is much more usable, and can hold a lot more. Along with our seasonal vegetables and fruits I am in need of even more space to coax new plants out of the ground all in the name of natural dyeing.

It's been a very hard-working week. Everything is covered in mud, the kids, the dog, the house. The laundry, the house chores, the knitting, the sewing... everything else is being (almost) completely ignored in a quest for a more workable garden.

The kids are in heaven, of course, filthy and happy. Outdoors from sun up to sun down, rain or shine, sharing sandwiches outside and barely making it through a nightly scrub down before crashing in their beds, dirt still under their fingernails, with me not far behind.

Everywhere signs of spring are showing as we unearth bulbs and new beginnings.

 

It's been a very, very long week. And the very best start to spring.

 

 

 

 

 

The Missing Room

Now that the kids have moved in and gotten settled into their new room, the house has been put back to normal, and life has resumed... I can finally turn my attention to what's been missing in my life.

EVerything studio-kept except for a few must-have baskets of yarn and needles is waiting for me in the dark and creepy basement of our house. Every time I go down to do laundry I look at all the boxes and machines and the furniture and the tables and lamps and all of it and I sigh and turn and walk away. I have yet to feel motivated to get to it. It's too much stuff. It needs reorganizing. I think it needs paint. And it definitely needs shelves. And it will have to get new lighting. It's going to take a lot of work.

But the motivation is coming. I can feel it in my bones. I've been scribbling ideas into a book instead of banging them out on the sewing machine, and it's not nearly as satisfying. I have spring ideas floating around that need somewhere to rest. I need a place to cut and sew and I miss my stuff. The basement WILL be good, once we get past the dark and basement-y feeling. It's a lot more room, I can afford to be and look less cluttered. I can have a bigger cutting table. I can put my machines side by side. I think I'll take the weekend to rest and to plan... and then it's time to gut the place and start from the beginning.

Wish me luck.

Secret Projects on The Side.

Repurposing Our Days and Gates

 

After a few too many days being cooped up indoors with books and children, I was starting to feel a little blue. A little housebound, and a little bored. In a tiny house with two kids who talk non-stop, a husband on a work break and joined at my hip and nothing but rain, rain rain....it was time to mix it up a little.  Finally the clouds broke and at last there was sunshine. Two and a half days of liquid "purpose to get out of your PJ's". You haven't seen me here because I've been busy loading up this guy:

 

Pulling away the dead to discover snowdrops and daffodils - already and at last, all at the same time.

 

Gabe and I have been talking raised beds for a few years now, and we're doing it this year. We found these beautiful old wooden gates yesterday for free and cut them up for boxes.

 

Along with the gates was a pile of great old green planks, nothing a little nail-pullin won't fix. Good as new.

 

Once the boxes were made and the old garden dug up and trenched (my job) we filled our new boxes with soil and laid straw down around for foot traffic. Keeps the weeds down too.

 

There's some good space between them so I have room for pots of tomatoes to hang out, who are getting kicked out of their usual spot this year.

 

 

We also found some old dresser drawers with all our woodly bounty. We Gabe knocked the bottoms and out and built them up in height. Two more cute as a button boxes.

 

But, after a few days of glorious sunshine, it all came to a flurried crashing halt...

 

(Frankie) "SNOOOWWWWWWW!!!!"

 

I think Charlie's expression says it all:  "But the onions, the spinach, the kale..."

 

Sigh...let's not get ahead of ourselves here...it is only February.

Hanging Myself on A Wall

I got to hang myself on a wall yesterday. I've been looking forward to this for a long time. It isn't often that you are given a chance to showcase what you do, or who you are, on a wall for an entire month. It means a lot to me. Not just to make the cash, not because I want to be better known or admired. I got to hang myself on a wall so I can say out loud,

"I have to be a lot of things in my life. Mother, wife, daughter, friend - but I can still be me. I have to find the time and space to do this, to make things. I have to work with my hands, all the time, every day. I have to do this or I wouldn't be me. I wouldn't be satisfied. I wouldn't be happy. This is my happiness, in handmade form, hanging on this wall."

Yesterday was a great day. I got to wake up early with my husband (the kids stayed at grandma and papa's) We grabbed coffees and loaded the van. We spent the morning hanging art and hanging out with our friends. I drilled and leveled and hung and fretted. I loved it. Every second.

So here it is, here is me. I hope you like it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Room Swap

Our house is small. For most people. For a family of four with a love for collections it is tiny. It's a two bedroom house with a shop (thank goodness, because where else would Gabe's tools go?!) One bedroom is quite large and houses our toys, crafts, sewing and home office. The other bedroom is fairly small and holds us. All four of our sleeping bodies, our clothes and our practically wall to wall bed.

Every fall I get the itch. The lets get out of here we need to move itch. The rooms are too stuffy and too full of stuff and dammit, it's time to move. Well, it just wasn't reasonable for us to move this fall, no matter what my crazy "turn of the season" moving whim was.

So..I switched rooms. And it has made all the difference.

The big room is now our bedroom, bright and airy and comfortable enough for us to lounge on our beds (plural) and play with toys and not feel suffocated by the looming piles of clothes.

The small room surprisingly fits our crafty habits quite beautifully. I was really surprised and totally excited that we now have a room dedicated purely to artistic endeavors. There is a sewing area, a paper crafts station on wheels, a computer desk, a bigger closet for more crafty storage and the kids personal favorite - a giant crafting bookshelf dedicated to puzzles, pens, play dough and paint. All in one place.

We're stoked. And inspired. Because just in time for all that cold weather, we have a reason to stay indoors. I personally can't wait to cover that floor in fabric scraps, pattern pieces and pins.