I forgot to put these up here. I have been making some more aprons for gifts and for the shop, and I also have a few more splat mats done (and need to post them to the shop). I want to keep this chalk cloth mat (lousy picture), but also want to sell!
A little break can do wonders for your perspective. We all hopped in the car and headed up north where there's tons of snow and even beautiful icicles. We visited the boy's great grandparents and he enchanted everyone with his busy, busy ways. T pulled us in a sled up at the farm and the boy was a little concerned about what his crazy parents were up to! We had lots of time to visit and had some good food too. I had lots of quiet time in the car while T drove and the boy slept; I looked out the window at the snow-covered fields and barns, with the mountains off in the distance. I thought about people we were missing. The little petty things that seem to be filling too much of my days lately just melted away and I spent time enjoying the moments, as they happened. T pulling me and the boy in the sled through the fields in the only place that's always been the "same" from the time I have memories... It was wonderful and joyous and sad too.
The light is beautiful this morning, and misty ice covered all of the trees in the night. As it melts off from the sun it looks like delicate snow falling once again. I'm going to try to take more pictures sans flash, as I've read I should, but it'll take some time to get better at it. I never, ever took photos before the boy, and since I don't want those sixteen hundred photos plus up on this site I have to take some non-boy photos. What a challenge for the new year!!
Something sold on Etsy. Woo hoo... Time to create. Instead of worry I'm trying to fill pockets of my thoughts with ideas for little quilts, more aprons, etc. It's good for me!
Oh the joys of having a graphic designer husband. He's much, much more than that of course, but the thrill of good design so close and so attainable is a wondrous thing! T took too much of his time last night, sick and all, to "whip out" a little shop header for the new Etsy store and I LOVE it! He's going to do cards too and with the new blog up and going it feels so full of... possibility. I can't remember how T put it last night, something about how I need a small success like that header every day, just for me. He's so right!
More snow today and the boy and I headed out for a morning walk, Radio Flyer bumping along with it's cushion of a fluffy old quilt to enhance the snuggle factor. With two pairs of pants, two coats, a heavy shirt, hat & giganto mittens I'm sure the boy was A-OK. If we lived in the mid-west I'd probably give the poor kid a heat stroke in the winter!
My goal is to do a big shop update next week and to see where we go from there. Very fun!
I've been in the dumps lately and don't quite know why. The new year hasn't been a refreshing start yet, but I'm still holding out hope. Today there was snow and I love the fresh, new look it gives to everything. I knew it had snowed before even opening the curtains because it was so bright!-- Love that reflected light! Both boys (big & small) were home sick yesterday so I sort-of worked around what they needed. Both are improved today and T is back at work while the boy is back to play. We had lots of fun running around in the snow and I had this moment of thinking: Oh, my gosh. He's RUNNING. In the SNOW! The boy is getting so, so big lately and seems so old and capable. He's growing up by the minute.
So, rather than feeling like I'm accomplishing nothing I'm going to take two minutes to think about what's been done in the last few days:
1. successful 80th birthday dinner for 7
2. haircut for T
3. massive amounts of cookie dough prepared for late Christmas gift
4. dinner for the grandparents
5. six splat mats
6. TONS of fudge and caramel, finishing off another late gift
7. child's apron
8. lots of fun time with the boy
Check, check, check... Okay, so it's not so bad. I'm getting stuff done. That's just the last five days, and the thank yous will get done, etc. Maybe the whole problem is that I need to slow down?
And this was fun! It's about 3000 miles away from Perfect, but it turned out super-cute (especially on my little guy though it's in someone else's home now!).
It was a long day in a LONG (or is that short?-- I guess I mean it was hard) weekend. For over an hour and a half last night I smelled the delicious Hawaiian Sweet Bread baking in the bread machine, and I dreamed about taking a break with a huge slice or two or three covered in butter. It was going to be so good! When it beeped I ran over and deflated right along with the bread. The whole center of the "loaf" had deflated and only the outer parts looked bready at all. I decided I could still salvage the edges and tried to get the thing out of the pan. It EXPLODED! So much for fresh-baked yummy goodness! Oh, and I braved a taste of the edge after the explosion still hoping, hoping... It was disgusting. 
On the bright side I was able, thanks to the wonderful extra help from my guy with the little guy, to accomplish lots in the sewing department this weekend. After putting it off for weeks and weeks I was finally able to deliver six sweet little packages today, fulfilling the playgroup orders for splat mats. It seems to be feast or famine around here lately when it comes to having time for creativity. This was too much, with time pressure and a trickster of a machine to boot. I need more regular doses and I think it'd make for a happier mama.
But I'm putting them up anyway: My first project posted on the blog! This weekend I have to whip out six more of these oilcloth mats as they're a hopelessly overdue "order" for our playgroup high chairs.
I looked and looked and couldn't find a reasonably priced version anywhere that seemed nice enough, aside from the Land of Nod (http://www.landofnod.com/-- keyword: reversible mats) ones. Someone in playgroup has the woodgrain one and doesn't like how thick it is (reversible is a good idea but evidently very "bunchy"). So I bought some oilcloth and used double-sided bias tape to trim the edges. Ta da!
Months pass by in the blink of an eye! I don't think I feel quite as alone and, what's the word?-- Snarky?-- as the last post reads to me now. By luck I happened upon one blog the other week and it made me think and think, and then it led me to all of these other blogs... I'll stick a bunch of them up on the sidebar eventually, but for now just wanted to note that it's a new year and I'm going in a new direction. I think I've just been stuck. I'm getting the mommy stuff down, slowly but surely, and I can run our house pretty effectively now. I need inspiration and creation. That's what came to me as I thought and thought and perused these other crafty blogs.
Originally I wanted to have this additional blog (the first, focused on our little guy, has an audience of family members and friends who adore him and news and pictures about him-- the house/me stuff isn't as interesting to any of them so, for the most part, I leave it out) to inspire me to write. I want to be more of a writer and the way to become a writer is to write. It's really the only way. It just doesn't work though, and still feels too public even if I hide this blog away in the universe of the internet. That part, then, should be an early morning (oh, dear... I'm not an "early morninger") effort. This spot, then, should help fill that other part of me that's yearning for a connection to others like me. There MUST be other moms out there, working to create happy childhoods and baked goods too, sewing away when time allows and sneaking off while the little one's engaged for two minutes to reheat some coffee. Maybe by having this here I'll feel the urge to post pictures of what I create (implying, you'll surely note, that I have to make time to create!). Maybe by having this here I'll feel more like those other moms in the other blogs I found? Maybe, maybe. The only way to know is to try.
