Breath by Breath

Aftermath ::: interlude

Advent ::: Days 13 through 21

 

Scenes from the Season

Dinner with a dear old friend and Mr. Darcy.

The funny pancake maker!

Gingerbread men & such.

Making tamales.

Silas takes a portrait of his family.

Traditional Christmas miniatures.

 

Silas finds a home at the North Pole.

Some making at Silas' school Christmas party.

Note card making.

Singing in public (!!!) at the Solstice Tamale Fiesta.

Not pictured...reading "Cops & Robbers", watching "Rudolf" & "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", wrapping presents, giving presents, the beautiful Solstice Tamale Fiesta ceremony (fire & candlelighting outside this year), making snowflakes for Newtown, and on and on....

 

 

Halloween Comes and Goes

Another year of Halloween costume-making has come and gone.  The young Obi Wan was created using thrifted belt and boots, and fabric from the stash, including some really nice brown 100% linen for the cloak.  It's been sitting around for a few years now, so I thought, why not?

The wicked witch costume was made from a thrifted skirt which I altered to be longer, and a women's black blazer from Goodwill.  I snugged up the sleeves, closed up the front to make it high necked and added the rings and cinching lace.  I made slip-on puffy sleeves which I attached to the cape and jacket with large saftey pins.  Green makeup by Snazzaroo.

A good time was had by all.

Spring scenes

Sometimes life is just so very full. I've written before about the notebook I keep of my "accomplishments", big and small. As I review my notes from time since I've last posted, these are some things that jump out at me.

::: Teaching yoga two, sometimes three times a week and growing in intimacy, caring and engagement with my friends/students.

::: Managing tons and tons of financial and personal matters (insurance, retirement, education savings, taxes, mortgage, wills). I take all this on so that I am completely in the know about our situation and have educated opinions, suggestions and advice to offer.

::: Decided to buy a used car and then decided to get energy efficient windows instead. They still aren't installed.

::: Knitted a kindle cover, a scarf for a gift, one sock, and finished knitting a shawl my mother started but couldn't finish due to her arthritis. Spool knit another rainbow garland for the party supply box.

::: Finished stripping and staining our old 15-drawer dresser and another piece of furniture.

::: Silas spontaneously switched from a "join us in bed every night" kind of kid, to a "sleep in his own bed most of the time" kind of kid. We are all sleeping better and I feel great about how we've evolved.

::: Read several books for pleasure (all on Kindle) -- The Paris Wife, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, The Sense of an Ending. I've now tackled The Brothers Karamozov.

::: Read The Science of Yoga, (also for pleasure, but of a different kind).

::: Cooked and cooked and cooked some more. Our CSA is abundantly supplying us with vegetables and we are trying our best to eat them.

::: Sewed some jammies for Silas. Repaired three skirts, hemmed pants. Finished and mailed the last of the Picnic Rolls I made for gifts. Cleaned out the closets and donated all the discards.

::: Started voice lessons and love my teacher. Hard to practice with discipline.

::: Play groups, play dates, volunteering at school for every party and event, hosting egg hunts, checking out and booking after school and summer activities, field trips, strawberry picking.

::: Rose tending, palm pruning, tree trimming supervising, front entry way courtyard tearing down, vegetable garden pot planting and maintenance, kishu orange tree learning.

::: Spring deep cleaning, rearranging furniture, aquired a lego table off craigslist, finally chose a kitchen paint color.

::: Coordinated a fantastic mini-reunion with 3 college friends in the D.C. area.

::: Lots of visits with local and semi local family and friends.

::: Got up close and personal with Alice Waters and Sir Ken Robinson.

::: Said goodbye to the Byzantine Fresco Chapel.

::: First visit to Galveston of this year. Trekked at Brazos Bend State Park, visited Shangri-La in Orange, TX, spent a weekend in New Orleans.

::: Booked our whole summer vacation.

::: Riding bicycles everywhere -- school, library, grocery store, for fun.

::: Flying kites out on the green space behind our house.

::: Lego, lego, lego.

::: Star wars, star wars, star wars (and he hasn't seen one movie yet!).

::: Harry Potter, Harry Potter, Harry Potter (we are halfway through book 1).

All is well.

Home crafts ::: bedside caddies

Silas sleeps upstairs and we sleep downstairs (at least he sleeps upstairs until he decides to come downstairs).  Lately, that happens in the wee hours and he's requested a flashlight to guide his passage.  He also asked for a place to keep his flashlight so he can always find it. 

Thus, the gusseted bedside caddy was conceived and formed.  After making Silas's to fit his current chapter book and flashlight, I decided I needed one, too.  Mine is designed to hold all the important things I like at my bedside--book (and now Kindle), book light, notepad and pen, reading glasses, ear plugs and headphones/Bluetooth (who doesn't need earphones to facilitate those pre-sleep viewings of important things like "The Daily Show" and "Downton Abbey" and, if I'm super tired, "Murder She Wrote"?).  [Does everyone else love Jessica Fletcher the way I do?"]

I used cotton upholstery fabric and sturdy interfacing between layers, so they hang nicely without sagging.  Silas's has ties on it.  Mine employs hair elastics, which I hang from tiny cup hooks screwed into the underside of the moulding on the night stand.  Mine doesn't really show because it is attached to my nightstand, facing my bed.  I used the fabric to match the pillows I made last summer.  

All-in-all, quite functional.

 

Home crafts ::: picnic rolls for friends

Holiday gifties for families we love...Picnic rolls inspired by Amanda Soule's project in Rhythm of the Family.  It took me a few tries to get the proportions I wanted and I thrifted silverware, useful utensils and napkins to tuck inside--ready to go to the park, beach, playground, festival hill...

I used cotton upholstery fabric in four different colorways (of course I forgot to take pictures of the others) and this vintage print (above), which I scored at the International Quilt Festival in Houston way back in 2006, when Silas was a mere 6 months old!  I tucked a thin layer of cotton batting between for cushiony comfort.

Home crafts ::: finishing things

I am under the weather this week.  So, in pursuit of my goal of finishing things, I've been keeping quietly busy while I nurse myself.  Not all of these projects have been accomplished during my current bout with the cold/flu (how do you know anyway?), but I've been plugging away.  I set a goal of finishing all projects in progress before I allow myself to start on this with the yarn I got in New Brunswick last summer.

The two-years in progress Solstice sweater, finally ready for Silas.

The family picnic roll (inspired by a project in Rhythm of the Family), with awesome thrifted vintage linen napkins and silverware.  Some more are in the works as holiday gifts!  (Shhh.)

The hospital scarf in seed stitch (started while mom was in the hospital).  Finished.

Twenty-two of twenty-five advent stockings for my friend.

I'm on the last ball of this blanket/throw project, which I began more than two years ago!

A little warm for this week, but I'm looking forward to snuggling on the couch all winter long.

And, I'm on page 567 of Anna Karenina.  I can't believe how much I love it and that I've never before read it!

What do you do when you are sick?  What are you trying to finish?

Practice notes ::: gratitude list

Thankful Friday begins again...

::: cool nights and warm, sunny days

::: projects completed

::: this recipe which helped me use up last week's CSA bounty of persimmons and prepare for what to do when this week's ripen.  (I made some modifications, but still totally terrific!)

::: more spaghetti squash!

::: daylight savings time's impending termination

::: walking to and from school each afternoon

::: each return to the yoga mat

::: a short break from snipping, glueing, taping, & sewing and a return to the rhythmic motion of knitting.

Have a love-r-ly weekend!

Home crafts ::: back in business with Blaze the Bernina

I am so pleased to introduce my new friend, Blaze, my craigslist-purchased birthday present.  She is a Bernina Activa 130.  I am infatuated.  She purrs like a kitten and has so many lovely qualities.  I know the honeymoon will wear off eventually, but I LOVE her and I'm looking foward to getting to know her better.

I definitely traded up from my last relationship with Chunker (Singer 6211).  Chunker served me well over these past 5 years and I learned so much from him.   He's sticking around (we are loyal in our family) because Silas wants to learn to sew (and doesn't everyone need a back up?).  I just have to figure out what's wrong with him so he'll run again.  That's for another day.

Today I get to bask in a Blaze of glory.

Home crafts ::: while the sewing machine is on strike....

With 90 percent of Silas's Halloween costume complete and 50 percent of the holiday stockings stacked up, my sewing machine went on strike.  I haven't fixed it because I'm shopping for a new one (my birthday present from Scott) and haven't made up my mind yet (any advice?). 

While the sewing machine is on hiatus, I unpacked a Hearthsong Knitting Mushroom .  I bought it a year or two ago, assuming someday Silas would be ready for the project I had in mind ::: a spool-knit rainbow "garland."  I thought he might be able now, but it turns out he's not quite ready. 

Nevertheless, I managed to knit this entire rainbow garland using this yarn while watching Ken Burns' Prohibition.  I used two balls, and I have two more in reserve for when Silas is ready.  Destination?  The holiday tree.  Sure, I'm a little early, but when I get a sewing machine up and running again, I'll be off the the races and won't have any more time for spool knitting. 

I must say there is something delightfully meditative about it.  The simple circular motion, that long tube emerging very quickly from the center.  No wonder I enjoyed it as a kid.  It took me a few minutes to reacquaint myself with the process, but once I got going I knocked it out in no time.  The very unexciting Okahoma-Texas football game gave me the chance to finish it up.

By the way, Prohibition is a wonderful program in case you haven't seen it (availalbe to watch online at PBS), with tons of insights applicable to the political/moral/economic climate of today.  The inspiring (if not always admirable) roles played by emerging women leaders was particularly fascinating.

Anyhow, we have a sweet, festive rainbow garland to add to our holiday glow.