Fall Wreath

I never feel like it's fall until I need to wear my slippers. And last week it began. So to comemorate the beginning of my fall season I made a cute wreath to adorn our front door. I'm kinda in love with it.

 

You can make one too! Just go to this link for an easy how to. I will admit that wrapping the wreath in yarn took, what felt like, ten years and a day but was so worth it in the end. Total spent: $10.

The future

A family friend passed away this week. She found out she had lukemia while giving birth to her first child. It definitely put a lot of things in my life in perspective. I'm continually praying and thinking of the families affected by this tragedy.

Today I am thankful to still have these things to look forward to in the future.

Hiking to Machu Pichu
Learning to sail
Owning a bakery
Living in Texas
Going to the Almeda Flea Market
Scuba diving in Hawaii
Making cheese
Learning to play the banjo
Being a mother
Making a book of my photographs
Having a fine art show with my work
Inventing something new
Sewing a dress
Taking a boat ride down the Nile
Writing a short story
Publishing a children's book
Flying kites in Japan
Traveling the entire length of route 66
Going to the World's Largest Yard Sale
Taking ballroom lessons with Sir Luke
Getting over my fear of flying
Sky diving (I can't even think about this without being gripped with fear, at the moment)
Conquering depression
Running a marathon
Building a house I designed
Owning dogs
Spending Christmas with my whole family without fights or hurt feelings (dreams can come true!)
Water skiing
Owning an evening gown
Taking my kids to The Nutcracker
Baking a successful souffle
Reading the Harry Potter Series
Re-learning to play piano
Find treasure
Attend an opera in Sydney

That's all I got for now! What do you look forward to doing in your life? There are SO many possibilities.

Upular

Capree shared a video by Pogo with a remix of Snow White. So awesome. I remembered seeing Alice years ago and loving it. It seems that Disney has embraced these remixes because they promoted Toy Story 3 with them and also...this:



Is it weird that these all make me want to go running? I hate running. I love them all. BANGARANG

Halloween Haircut

Borrowing a Cruella DeVil and Dalmation costume from a friend for Halloween was deemed "out of the question" by Sir Luke. Being that I didn't want to buy anything and only use what we had he suggested Peter Parker and Mary Jane of Spiderman fame.

Thus I had to figure out how best to look like a comic book character and not Kirsten Dunst.

 

I think I did pretty decent considering all it took was a bottle of red dye and some scissors. Yes, my friends. I cut my bangs...again. I look like a cartoon character. But that was kind of the point.

**I did not use my fabric scissors I instead chose tiny eyebrow scissors that were barely sharp. I will next time use Luke's actual hair trimming scissors he has with his kit...oh hindsight.

Today

I decided I need to be more positive. It's funny what a small thing will set thoughts in motion that are destructive. I was watching In Plain Sight in marathon fashion while working on a project and I heard this song by Patty Grittin.



It was so beautiful that I bought it on iTunes. I knew it was her. I listened to her a lot in high school. Flaming Red was a favorite album at the time. Strong, beautiful and powerful. You should listen to her more.

And then a good friend's lady love left a comment on my blog and I went scoping out her blog and found these gems. And they are so different from Patty Griffin and instantly made me happy, just like she said they would.

Little Owl

My friend Sarah is having a baby (slated for Christmas day!) and she's been making oodles of beautiful things for her little bundle. I thought her owl was so darling I decided to take on the task of making one for my friend's little girl for her second birthday.

I went to etsy.com and hunted around for ideas and combined a few to make one. I loved the idea of the legs so Izzie couple drag him around the house if she wanted. Sir Luke, thought they were a little silly, but what do boys know anyway! Paula said that Izzie was toting him around all day yesterday so that made me happy!

I was a little concerned she would be afraid of his giant eyes and talons. What? The owl has to be a little realistic, right?

Craftable

My niece, Kahla (pronounced Kayla), called me her "craftable aunt" when I was young. She and I are closer in age than me and my siblings. It was a charming comment at the time that I still grasp to when I try and explain to people why I like to do so many things.

I hate the phrase "Jack or all trades, master of none" because I think I'm becoming a master of a few and enjoy scads more. I grew up watching "I Love Lucy." And being totally enamored of her world. Unlike me she could hardly do anything at home. Her cooking had issues, she over spent her money, couldn't sing and was always causing shenanigans. But I idolized her and still do to an extent. She did something new and exciting each episode (day) and even if it didn't go well she tried it.

My mom has been a big part of my education in crafts. We had an entire craft closet where I could delve into all the pom poms and clay to produce tiny birds' nests or broaches. Half the time I just found something at my favorite craft store, Grason's (since put out of business by Michael's), decided I liked it and tried to figure out what I could do with it. Whenever my mom and I would go shopping I would see something that I liked and point it out to her. Her inevitable response was, "You can make that." Which would send me into a huff because I didn't want to make, it I wanted to buy it! But what it really did was force me to investigate how most everything is made so I could indeed make it myself.

I took oil painting starting at age five and continue with drawing, singing, piano, 4-H, softball, soccer, Brownies, swim team, sewing, and the like. looking back on it I had total activity ADD. To be honest, I still do. If I got bored with any one thing I had ten others I could dive into head first.

This has definitely carried over into my adult life. Sometimes I see an item that I absolutely love and think about how I could manufacture it myself. This is probably what possessed me to reupholster a wingback chair. And what will make me take up metal works at some point so I can cast jewelry (yep, something I've been dreaming about for a long time). One of my favorite shows, aside from Martha Stewart, as a kid was the Style channel's Runway show. All it was were the fashion shows from Paris, Milan, New York one after the other. The creation of garments got me excited. Really, the creation of anything.

I just really like to create things! Sitting here sick on my couch, wrapped in my first quilt I think it's served me well over the years. I love to try new things, learn another trade and attempt to master it. My mom totally shocked me today in an email saying she wanted to get X.Y and Z done before she got over her quilting fetish. She's been making over 30 quilts a year for the last few years and I was stunned to think she might be toying with the idea that she didn't want to do it anymore. But I guess that's one plus of attempting to do so many things, I don't have to be 100% devoted to one area of interest. I can take a book binding class, keep my equipment together and make a book ten years after or sew the curtains for my bedroom to keep the nasty morning light from waking me up at dawn.

Creating and making are my favorite things to do. I've always got a to-do list ten miles long. But I don't mind. There's always something to look forward to. I'm not entirely sure why I felt like I needed to get this out, but I did.

P.S. I so didn't proofread this. Pardon my typos.