Story

I am not quite sure what triggered this memory, but I thought I'd share it with you today because it's kind of awesome.

My junior year of high school I was 16 or 17 and Sam was 4. My mother was away for the evening at some nursing related activity. Sam had been playing in the other room. Eric was over visiting me. Dad and Ben were variously occupied around the house when Sam approached holding out what appeared to be a half rotten molar. He said, "I lost a tooth." We all inspected it in horror. How had he managed to have a tooth rot and fall out, my family is kind of serious about clean teeth? We couldn't wrap our minds around it so we did what seemed natural, we put the tooth in a glass of water and waited for my mom to make sense of it.

When she came home she didn't have a chance to look at it until after Sam was in bed. After a brief moment she deduced that it wasn't a tooth at all, but rather it was a chunk of walnut. She concluded that it must have been stuck in Sam's tooth and when he dislodged it he simply thought he'd lost a tooth.

She put some change under his pillow because he'd gone to bed hopeful for the payoff (we never believed in the tooth fairy, but we knew that a lost tooth meant our parents would put some money under our pillow). She planned to explain the whole thing to Sam in the morning.

When it was explained it him that he hadn't lost a tooth he just kind of smiled. Turns out the little evil genius had just concocted the whole story when he realized that a walnut looked kind of tooth like. He had just conned the whole family.

Random Monday

A few different odds and ends on my mind today

1) When I cut Cordelia's hair for the first time I couldn't throw the hair away. Eric thought it was totally creepy, but I soon discovered that other mothers are weird about this too. I ended up putting the 30 hairs (an approximate number, I didn't count them) into a little envelope and I'll put it in her baby book. Did you do that? Why do you think we're compelled to save the first haircut trimmings?

2) Yesterday and elderly woman told my husband that he was foxy!


3) I just love these two together!


4) If you haven't had a chance please check out Wyoming Rose, the shop that my mother and I opened. Also, my friend Robin is having a sale through today at her shop Rya Creations.

What random bits are on your mind today?

First Haircut

When Cordelia was first born she had hair, plenty of it. Slowly over the following months those hairs dwindled down, finally reaching near baldness this summer.

We began to wonder if she should go as Uncle Fester for Halloween, but then hair began to grow on her little noggin. First on top, then curls started to appear in the back.

Eventually the stuff on top began to hang down in a point in the front and we though that perhaps a haircut was in order. For months we've just been shoving that bit aside, but this week it was finally time to make a decision. So we went for it.

Before the haircut

One snip later...

After the haircut

Don't forget to check out Wyoming Rose, my Etsy shop.
Also take a look at Rya Creations, she's having a sale!

Giveaway Winner

Thank you all for checking out our site yesterday! We had a very successful opening day!!!! If you didn't get a chance to check it out, please do so. Our site is Wyoming Rose. Without any further ado I will announce the winner of our giveaway, Blossom! Please send me an email and we'll work out the details!

The real Wyoming Rose, my Great Grandmother

Also, I wanted to give you another option. Technically I am telling you about the competition, but my good friend Robin has a great Etsy Shop Rya Creations with some good sales going on. Please check her out too!

Introducing Wyoming Rose: Giveaway!!!

I have been teasing you about our Esty store for weeks now. I am happy to report that we are officially open for business! We named our store Wyoming Rose after my Great Grandmother Rose who is a jewelry maker herself and a Wyoming woman to her core.

My mother and I have been creating up a storm. We have a huge variety of items for sale: jewelry, scarves, blankets, clothes and more. We are constantly adding new items as well, it's an addiction at this point. We have free shipping in the US and great rates to everywhere else!

To kick off the store we are offering any item under $20 to the giveaway winner!!!

How to Enter (You can enter several times!)
1) Go to Wyoming Rose and look around. Let me know what you like best in the comment section of this post.
2) Make Wyoming Rose a favorite on your Etsy list for another entry.
3) For a third entry you can blog or tweet about Wyoming Rose.
4) For a fourth entry you can find us on Facebook and like us! You will receive updates when we post new stuff.

Be sure and let me know what you've done so you will be entered into the giveaway!! Giveaway winner will be announced tomorrow morning.



Thank you!

Blast From the Past: Thanksgiving 2001

Eric and I were married in 2001. Shortly after that we moved to Missoula, MT, far away from our families who were living in NM at the time. We were to spend our first Thanksgiving as a married couple by ourselves. We were also on our 1st vegan Thanksgiving...and I had heard of a thing called a tofu turkey.

I went online and looked up a recipe for a tofu turkey and thought I'd make that. I dutifully gathered supplies with our meager budget of $0...we were really poor then. We couldn't afford a tasty tofurkey (the kind you buy at health food stores, so good).

I wasn't the seasoned (pun intended) vegan cook that I am now and I didn't realize that the tofu turkey was going to be an outright disaster. The ingredients were tofu, cheesecloth, onion, and some other stuff that made it seem like it might all come together. I can tell you now that it definitely did not come together. The end result was a gelatinous, tasteless blob that would frighten any vegan---because normally vegan food is really SO GOOD.

We didn't really care, it was just the two of us. Plus we didn't even have a dinner table so we just couldn't take anything seriously that day. We set our food out on the coffee table and sat cross legged on the floor in the living room while we ate our Thanksgiving Day feast.

This year we had intended to travel north to spend the day with our extended family, but bad weather and a baby who is clearly feeling a bit under the weather prevent that from happening.

So, Sam, Eric, Cordelia and I will have a feast of our own here, at our place. The menu will be a bit abbreviated because I wasn't necessarily planning to cook today, but we'll make it special and we'll be thankful for each other. Most of all we'll all be thankful that there will be no tofu/cheesecloth concoctions!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Thankful For: Simple Joys

I am thankful for the simple joy of putting on a lunchtime comedy routine to get my little lady to eat. For the record she thinks I am hee-larious.

What is your simple joy?

Scatter Brain

Recently I have developed this strange habit of losing Eric's keys, not my keys, his. I leave them all over the place and I have no idea why. I am totally unaware of what I'm doing when I have his keys in my hand. Yesterday, after a thorough search, it was revealed that I put his keys underneath a dishtowel on the kitchen counter. The day before that they were under a stack of books.

The worst part is that when Eric can't find his keys he comes straight to me (he is not the type to lose keys) and I say, with a touch of indignation," I didn't do anything with your keys." Then I feel a cold shiver when I realize that I did do something with his keys and I have no idea where I left them. So the search begins. Thankfully we don't live in a mansion and they eventually turn up.

I am generally a scattered person. I like to think of it as lovably scattered, but I am sure it can be maddening. Eric has developed his own coping strategies. When it's time to leave the house I always run around like a nut, searching for my own keys, phone, purse, whatever. Eric generally has already gathered them up and he just doles them out to me as I ask, "Have you seen my ____?"

I am very thankful that he is so patient and good natured about this. Perhaps it's a balance in his hyper organized mind. Whatever it may be I am sure happy that he understands I will continue to lose his keys for the rest of our lives.

What Happened Last Night?

Have you seen those teen movies from the 1980s that begin with a slow pan across a filthy floor piled high with beer bottles, cigarette butts, and other gross party left-overs? The next scene is inevitably a lead character sitting up in the midst of the filth and rubbing his/her head and asking, "What happened last night?"

We had our own version of that this morning except replacing booze and cigarettes with diapers and toys.

Let me back track to Saturday night. We were sitting on the couch watching TV at 11pm. Cordelia was in my arms, having just fallen back to sleep. Florence and the Machine started playing on SNL and Cordelia woke up to the sound of familiar music, then she started clapping. She was awake and she didn't go back to sleep until sometime after 2am. I was up at 6:30 on Sunday morning.

Needless to say we spent Sunday in something of a fog. The weather outside was downright frigid. Snow and arctic blasts to be specific. We mostly stayed in, only briefly venturing out in the a.m.

I made banana bread and later pizza. Eric and Cordelia were in their pj's by 3pm; I held out until 7ish. Neither of us made any effort to clean up. Instead the toys piled up. Cordelia emptied out her drawer of diapers, her toy box, clothes drawers, etc... things began to accumulate. You many be wondering why we let it happen, but I don't have an answer any better than simple exhaustion. I think we both entertained the idea of doing something about the mess, but we didn't. You know what, it was kind of wonderful! Like when I was a teenager and didn't care about the layers of funk on my floor. Of course we didn't just sit there like zombies, we were productive in other ways, but cleanliness wasn't on the radar.

Now it's morning and I am looking around at the remnants of an awesome Sunday and I think, perhaps, it's time to pick up a bit. How was your weekend?

Another Snowy Day

We awoke to a fresh dusting of snow this morning.



What is it like where you are?

Heritage

My family has always emphasized it's Norwegian heritage for my whole life. This means weird jokes about Ole and Lena (thanks Dad), a general knowledge of Norwegian cuisine (lefse* and lutefisk**), and for me a name that is generally mispronounced by most of the population. The actual percentage of Norwegian in my blood is pretty diluted, but it's the only culture that has really hung on in my family.

I am Norwegian via my father's side. My mother's side is pretty much Irish (and some other stuff, of course). My mother has kindly made lefse* claiming no responsibility for any imperfections, even though it's always great, because she lacks the proper heritage.

The other day she received a phone call that threw my mother's image of her heritage on it's ear. She learned that her mother's maiden name McLaughlin means, one who comes from Norway (not confirmed by any scholarly research on my part)! So I have been celebrating, though I am not really sure why, my new found Norwegian info.

I suppose I am enough of a mutt that I have no business claiming any other heritage beyond American, but that's just how I do it I suppose. What's your background?

*Lefse is kind of like a tortilla made from potato. Mine has been veganized and I like it with margarine and a sprinkle of sugar rolled up into a little treat. Die hards would never use sugar.

**Lutefisk is essentially rotten fish, gaaa-roooossss.

Hint and...Kiss My Face Winner

My mother and I are nearly ready to open our little etsy shop. What a load of fun we are having! We have been creating up a veritable craft storm here in Wyoming. We each are stuffing crafting into our spare moments here and there and then we talk and text all day sharing creative ideas. I can't wait for you all to see just how busy we've been these past few months.

We plan to officially open the shop next week. Since it is the season to give I think a little opening giveaway will be in order. Here is a little hint about our store...more next week!

Affectionknit has won the Kiss My Face Giveaway! Please send me an email just to confirm your mailing address and I will pop your box -o- goodies in the mail tomorrow.

Celebration Time and Last Chance to Enter the Giveaway

Celebration with Champagne

Yesterday we FINALLY completed a large project we've been working on for over a year. We completed a series of 10 children's videos (plus bonus features) for children's musician Andy Mason. We were hired on the job in August 2009 and 15 months later we are done! The videos are awesome and fun. I will let you know when they are ready to go out to the world, they're off to production!

Celebrating!

Also, today is your last chance to enter the Kiss My Face Giveaway! Check it out here.

Vegan Cookie Recipe and Reminder About the Giveaway

Yesterday was a dreary afternoon. The day was windy, cold and separated by periods of snain (snow+rain=snain). When Cordelia awoke from her afternoon nap I decided that it was high time I bake some vegan chocolate chip cookies. Even though they're vegan they aren't exactly a health food, but since there is no egg in the mix you can eat cookie dough to your heart's content...and I did.

Here's my recipe (it regularly changes):

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. Combine 2 1/4 c. of flour, 1 tsp. baking soda, 1/2 tsp. salt. Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl combine 3tsp. EnerG Egg replacer + 4 Tbs. warm water, 1 c. softened vegan margarine, 3/4 c. sugar, 3/4 c. brown sugar, 2 tsp. vanilla extract.
4. Combine the wet and dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Add 1 c. of vegan chocolate chips, 1/2 c. of nuts or coconut flakes are great too. Mix it until integrated.
5. Drop by rounded spoonful onto cookie sheet and bake for about 10 minutes or until they begin to brown. Enjoy with a cup of soy or almond milk.

Also please remember to enter my awesome giveaway. Scroll down to see yesterday's blog. I fixed the link for those of you who were having difficulty.

Kiss My Face Giveaway

Today I am excited to hold a giveaway of Kiss My Face products. Kiss My Face has just released their Holiday Peace Collection, featuring their new 100% natural all-purpose castile soap in a liquid form and also a foaming hand soap (free of animal products and testing).

Kiss My Face says, "As consumers are searching for ways to remove toxins from their lives, this versatile soap is the perfect solution. The liquid soap has over 101 uses from the shower to the kitchen to the lake and even washing man’s best friend. All bottles come with a to/from holiday card for easy gift giving."

The Holiday Peace Collection is available in 4 “peaceful” scents: grassy mint, lemongrass clary sage, pomegranate acai & lavender mandarin scents. In addition, they have soy wax Peace Candles in the same matching scents.

10% of the profits will support Seeds of Peace, an organization that brings together teens from countries of conflict, like Palestine and Israel, to a camp in Maine where they learn about “the enemy” and leave more educated and compassionate about their neighbors

So today I am hosting a giveaway of some of their awesome new products (all vegan and biodegradable!) and I think this may be one giveaway you don't want to miss. You could win three full sized products from their new collection as well as tons of great samples and big coupons!

You have several opportunities to enter this awesome giveaway.

The first way to enter is to visit their site (click here) and then leave me a comment telling me what looks good to you.

For additional entries you can:

a)blog about this giveaway.
b)tweet about this giveaway.
c) Facebook update about this giveaway.

Finally you can follow my blog, or just let me know if you already are following.

Just be sure and leave me a comment here so I know that you've done it! The winner will be announced on Friday morning!

Collecting

Over my life I've tried to collect. My first childhood attempts included troll dolls (don't you judge me) and rocks. More recently I've been trying to collect Russell Wright chartreuse dinnerware (I am making some progress there). However, I find that generally I am a terrible collector of things. I lose interest and I lack motivation to gather more/spend money on stuff. If you've been a long time reader you probably know how much I love to edit and purge myself of belongings. I am also married to a real collector so we find a good balance that way.

While I am not a collector in the traditional sense I stumbled upon a little personal insight last night as I lay in bed. Every living creature in my home was asleep. Eric and Cordelia were both soundly sleeping. Bumblebee was snoring in her bed. Mia and Ophelia were lounging at the foot of the bed, eyes closed. I was awake. I had been reading my Kindle until my eyes couldn't focus on the words. I flipped off my lamp, intending to fall asleep, but my oldest friend insomnia made an appearance. I closed my eyes and my mind whirred back to life. Ugh-- I thought, just let me sleep, but I knew I had to just sit there and think until I got it all out of me.

So my mind bounced around for a while. I thought about books, conversations I'd recently had, obligations that were piling up. Eventually I thought about a term my mother used to describe herself, a serial hobbyist. She's right, she is definitely a serial hobbyist and so am I in many ways. However, as I pondered this further I realized that I, more specifically, collect responsibilities. Man alive, do I ever. I have always been that way.

Eventually I began to wonder if this is an actual problem or if it's something that is beneficial to me/others. I decided that it's a little bit of both. I tend to get carried away with the responsibility business and I find that I will take on responsibilities that should never be mine in the first place (saving worms is one that I just can't remove from my list, ever).

I began to wonder how I can set some parameters for myself. Finally I decided that my only 3 responsibilities include:

Loving: My family, friends....oh and everyone. Oops so much for narrowing down that category.
Giving: My effort...where needed. Man alive strike two.
Creating: Uh oh, no help here because I mentioned that, like my mother, I am a serial hobbyist.

So I finally drifted off realizing that I am destined to collect responsibilities and somehow that recognition was enough. What do you collect?

Bumblebee Gives You Something to Ponder

She has a special way of laying down.

Hitting the Wall

Cordelia has been having another major spurt of development. She's been doing a lot of imitating (sweeping, dusting off her hands, laughing --all when she observes someone else) and it's been amazing/amusing to watch.

She's also been learning new words, lots of them, and making associations. For instance, the other day Eric was showing her a circle on one of her toys. He said, "This is a circle." She proudly replied "Kirkle." Then she made an association by pointing at a circle on her shirt and saying,"Kirkle". We were amazed.

A short while later I wanted to see if she recalled what she had learned. We went into the other room and went through the motions again. I was thrilled and we went running to tell Eric how smart she was...and she ran straight into the wall. Such is the nature of human intelligence!

Fill My Head

Eric and I own an androgynous glass head, a lucky thrift store find. Over the years we've tried to come up with ways to fill it. Our ideas never pan out. I would love to fill this glass head with something awesome. Do you have any ideas? Please nothing super expensive; we once looked into filling it with vintage marbles until we realized that it would be a $100+ venture. I'm thinking more in the free or $5 range. Maybe it could be something we change regularly. Anyway, ideas???

Super Stat Thursday

Outside: I fear that it is winter here now. Sure, there will still be some warm days, but we've started the freezing time of year. The bonus to the cold is that there are lots of opportunities to cuddle up under a blanket with a cup of hot vegan cocoa!

Busy: My mother and I have been busting our humps with every spare second dedicated to our shop, which will open next month. Yesterday I spent most of the day making adorable purses. I can't wait for you to see them. My mother and I are also busy with all that the shop entails: photos, tags, pricing, business cards, etc. We are starting to get quite a massive pile going.

Listening to: Florence and the Machine, The Wild Beasts, Talking Heads, Credence Clear Water Revival, Sparks, T-Rex.

Eating: Vegan mac and cheese for dinner, vegan waffles and scrambled tofu with oj for breakfast.

Considering: I am currently considering a pumpkin spice cookie as a 9am snack. Getting my hair layered or something, my hair wants to be curly I think and all of the length really doesn't help the situation...or I could chop it all off.

Planning: To have lunch with Eric and my parents and Cordelia. My mother and I will find some more supplies and return home, inspired to create.

Watching: I recently watched the movie The Road, having read the book. I think it was a decent movie. Also, watched the movie Splice...worse than I could have imagined-there is a dancing scene with a mutant girl and Adrien Brody-enough said.

What have you got going on?

Teacher

Yesterday was the first real snow of the season. Technically we had a skiff a couple of weeks ago, but yesterday there was some honest to goodness accumulation on the ground. I always feel sort of jarred when winter hits, like I've crash landed on a strange (but somehow familiar) planet. I hunted for the winter gear and we spent the day coming and going.

Later, we had a super garlicky dinner. I only used one clove, but it was like a super clove and our whole house reeked of garlic. We didn't have time to dwell on it though, because I had a class to teach and I had a guest lector...Eric!

Eric dropped me off at work where I administered a test. He continued on with Cordelia who was to spend a couple of hours hanging out with her Grandma. Eric returned to my class and we waited as my students completed their tests. While we waited we passed little notes. I also noticed that some of our garlicky dinner had clung to us and I hoped we weren't those weird people that stink up a joint...who knows.

The students completed their tests and patiently waited for the whole group to be done. I noticed them all giving Eric the once over. They were curious about the spouse of their teacher. I totally remember that feeling from when I was a student.

After all of the tests were in Eric gave a presentation on Japanese woodblock prints (he has a small collection). My students were all quite interested and seemed to enjoy the lecture. I had such fun watching Eric in action, he's such a smartie pants.

When we wrapped it all up one of my students stopped by to tell Eric that she really enjoyed his lecture. She mentioned how she loved the change from the very Western focus of much of art history. Obviously she had a point, but a little bit of my heart sunk because that's what my class has been...following along with the textbook recommended by the school. I didn't have much time to feel sorry for myself because she then launched into a super compliment about how much she's enjoyed and learned in my class. She also mentioned practical applications in her daily life!!

My heart soared. I know it's totally cheesy, but that is kinda what I'm like. I worry about how much my students are retaining, how interested they are, etc. I mean it's a 3 hour lecture course, at night, with slides...that is just asking for a student to fall asleep (but none have). Anyway, it's not like I am teacher of the year, but it sure was a great confidence booster to learn that something is getting through! I only wish I had given my professors more feedback. I never even considered that they cared what I thought as a student.

We left class together, both of our egos glowing just enough to keep us warm from the first very cold night as we went to collect our daughter.

What Sacrifice?

Last night was a long night, actually this past week (month) has been full of long nights. The kind of long nights that only other parents can ever truly understand.

I found myself pulled from slumber, slipping down a tunnel from a dream and back into reality. For a moment I was accosted with sound that seemed to mingle with my last dream (last night I was in the midst of a dream about a cool new art/hang out place called Harf Anng) and I couldn't place the sound. Oh yes, it hit me, I am a mother and that sound was my little lady. She's been struggling with teething lately and apparently it's most troublesome to her at night.

I sat up just enough to catch a glimpse of the sickly green light of the clock telling me it was only just after midnight. I knew I was in for it. I soothed her and got her back to sleep and was just drifting off again when the cycle repeated. Over and over every couple of hours. I finally gave up around 6am.

I took Cordelia out to the couch where we just sat there in a daze, under the glowing yellow lights of the two lamps I turned on. The heater rumbled to a start and breathed its warm breath over us, enhancing the strange mood of the morning.

Eventually we roused enough to begin our day. I did the math and realized I probably patch-worked together about 6 hours of sleep, enough for me to function on. I reminded myself that parenthood is about sacrifice and then it hit me...what exactly am I sacrificing? I spent the night cuddling the most precious gift. I get to be her mother. I am the one and only that gets this wonderful job. I am just so thankful that I am here, that I get to be the one to comfort her in the night, to snuggle her in the morning.

Random Monday

1) First I thought I'd start out with these super cute photos of Cordelia. She's wearing a dress that my mother made for me when I was a little baby.





2) I spent a large part of my weekend working on transforming our rental into a home. I am not done yet, but we've made some real progress. We've re-arranged, hung up some wall decals in Cordelia's room, and worked to get everything a bit more orderly.

3) Yesterday we photographed a dog. I think we must have taken a hundred photos of this little guy. He was VERY active and thrilled that we were paying so much attention to him. While this photo wasn't a glamor shot that we were going for I loved it, so hilarious.



4) Eric and I went to Super Flea this weekend and enjoyed going through the endless piles of odds and ends. I found several necklaces that my mother and I can rehab or just jazz up. I also spotted these polka dot Pyrex bowls that I've been hunting for, but they were too much. Someday they will be mine!

What's on your mind today?

Little Did They Know...

Here is a photo of my parents, taken while they were still in high school. Yes, they were high school sweethearts, just like Eric and I. I love this photo because I know where their story goes (at least until the present), but they didn't. Did they know they would be married? Have kids? Become grandparents? Did they know where their lives would take them? All of the moves, the jobs, the varied life circumstances?

Of course they had no idea, how could they? In this moment they were just teenagers--not mom and dad, not their jobs, just themselves.

Girlie Girl

Cordelia is officially a little girlie girl. I am not one of those women who cared much if she had a girlie girl or a tomboy. I assumed either way she would be awesome. I was a little bit of both. I loved being a girlie girl with fancy chap-stick (I would eat the bubblegum flavored chap-stick though) and sweet smelling things. I also loved worms, playing in mud and having fun exploring ponds and creeks for creepy crawlies.

However, I cannot deny that this little lady is interested in all things girl. When she watches me put on makeup she wants to try. When she catches me brushing my hair (embarrassingly infrequently) she wants to comb her own 13 hairs (OK maybe it's closer to 40 hairs now).

Last night as I was going through a jewelry box, cleaning it out, I handed her a little tin that holds my chunky necklaces and bracelets and she was in heaven. She put it ALL on. Then paraded about, took it off, tired it on again, paraded about---I think you get the idea.

No matter what this girl ends up like it is just so much fun to watch her begin to figure it all out.

Wigging Out?

Today has already jumped off to a strange start and I find when things start strange they continue on as strange. I love weird days...a lot.

Cordelia and I went out to the museum where Eric works as a curator. Eric showed us the exhibit he has been toiling over for the last couple of months.



Cordelia enjoyed pointing out all of the mannequins. Seriously, that must be super creepy for a little one who doesn't quite understand what's going on.

Then I was introduced to her...


Eric asked that I give her a more presentable hair cut. I am not sure how this happened, but for some reason many people trust me with major hair cuts! I have no training people. Once my friend Dorothy let me cut her shoulder length hair into a pixie! Why does this face give people a sense of haircut trust. Have you seen my bangs? I cut those at some sort of an angle and I try really hard not to. Anyway, I did as requested and spent my morning cutting the wig of a mannequin.



In the end she had a solid bob and was back in her case. Cordelia and I were back in the car and on the ride home I sang both the Sonny and Cher parts to I've Got You Babe. How's your day going thus far?

Making a Home

We have been in our current apartment for just over 6 months. When we moved in here it was to be a quick stay, but one thing led to the next and it looks as though we will be here for a while. Unfortunately we didn't really make this place a home, not really, and the result is that none of us feel truly comfortable here. The last place that felt like home was here and we haven't lived there for a year and a half.

Heart, by Michael Copeland

So we have decided to change that. We need to nest because we are here and it is unclear when we will finally get home to Montana and buy a home of our very own. Since we have a really good thing going here in Wyoming (family, fulfilling work, opportunities for personal growth) we need to feel like we have a home.

Cordelia in her room

Eric and I have begun to nest, finally, and our place is starting to look a little more like home in little corners, bits and pieces. Objects are finding their homes, comfortable and creative areas are beginning to develop. I hope to soon give you a tour of the finished effort, well as finished as it will ever be as these things are more perpetual than anything---growing and changing with life, season, etc.

No home is complete without Susan the Elder

What makes your home a home?

Gift to Myself

I recently mentioned that my mother and I are busy working on our own little online shop. We are planning to offer handmade items as well as repurposed and vintage finds. Since my mother is still unable to work she's been crafting up a storm at her home. I have been fitting in moments of craftiness during the busy business of day to day life.

Sometimes I can forget how restorative it is to be creative, just the simple act of making things rather than taking them or buying them. I tend to mindlessly create, but lately I have been doing it with intention, planning it and fitting it in between other obligations and planned events. Crocheting in the car, sewing while Cordelia is playing, planning as I am laying awake in bed.

I have been spread a little thin lately and this has just been something of a gift to myself, the gift of creating. Futhermore, I am working on this project with my mother! We've been researching, supply hunting, sharing ideas, etc. What a gift!

What creating have you been up to?