Alabama Chanin Scarf with Bloomers Stencil: In Progress

This was my Alabama Chanin workshop project from February. Stitching around the leaves is so meditative.  

I love the back, with all its knots.

In reality, I am done with this project!  Finished product pictures to follow...after I get through this busy week!

The Task of the Modern Educator

"For every one one pupil who needs to be guarded from a weak excess of sensibility there are three who need to be awakened from the slumber of cold vulgarity.  The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irritate deserts."

                              --C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man

Easy Saturday Luncheon

Today we invited a lovely couple over for lunch; they were friends of my late mother, and are genuinely kind and gracious people.  I was too busy enjoying their company to take pictures before we ate--but here's the one glimpse I got with my phone.

 I did all of my cooking yesterday, leaving this morning for the fun task of table-setting. Annie and I picked the tulips together, and I was happy to use my jadeite--perfect luncheon plates--and my husband's grandmother's silverplated flatware.  

  The menu was perfect and simple to make ahead, which is what I needed. I was cooking for four people who eat anything, one vegan, and one gluten-free person.

The Menu: 

chicken salad on a bed of lettuce (for my husband: lettuce with pecans, raisins, et cetera)

platter of hummus with radishes, carrot, celery, red pepper and cucumber

fruit salad (strawberries, blackberries, apple)

crisp whole-grain crackers 

Dessert:

chocolate-almond cake for dessert topped with freshly-whipped local cream and a dollop of berries

hot tea!

Oh! The unsightly paper towel is covering fresh, still-warm cinnamon bread that our guests
brought to share.  Delicious!

After we ate we all sat around and drank tea and visited. W, the husband, did the portraits you can barely see in the background here, so we took him on an art-tour around our house and discussed the origin of the various pieces we have collected over the years.  I even pulled out an old watercolor that he had done in 1968, of his two daughters, and he'd forgotten about it.....that was a sweet moment.

After they left we spent the rest of the afternoon happily engaged in various productive pursuits: my husband mowed and did the weed-eating outside, the children played raucously, and I sewed a new tee-shirt for myself, then we had Thai food for supper, topping off a perfectly wonderful Saturday.

Doing the Creative Best

"Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that....each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life."

                       --Galatians 6:4-5 (The Message)

Altering my Easter Dress

I wish I had taken photos of this process, but I was doing it on the fly while babysitting a friend's daughter on Saturday, so I didn't achieve photos!

A couple of weeks ago I bought a few dresses; one of them was the "casual weekend dress" from Boden (in Lavender Grey Woodblock).  When it arrived and I tried it on I realized that it was perfect except that the bodice was way too big on my short-waisted physique, resulting in a very low-cut neckline and unattractive "bagginess" throughout the bodice.

{source: Boden}

Here's how I fixed it: I put the dress on my dress form and played with it. (My dress form is a replica of me: SO HELPFUL.) At the shoulder there is a narrow panel and the front and back bodice pieces are attached with some gathering to that panel. I took my scissors and cut the panel--just sliced it open!  Then I just lifted the bodice until it looked good, pinned it, and sewed it all shut--right sides together, of course. The back side was larger than the front side. I didn't do any formal gathering to eliminate the extra fabric; I just put a couple of little tucks in as I sewed along and no one is the wiser.  Now the dress is perfect, the neckline is at the right place for my comfort level (I do not like a low neckline), and I didn't lose my armscye (a big concern).  I cut the excess fabric out of the seam-there was a lot--and tacked it back so it looks nice.  The binding on one side is a little odd, but I'm not worrying about it.

I still cannot believe I had the nerve to do this, but I'm glad I did because I wore the dress for Easter with a white cardigan and my favorite linen-cork Etienne Aigner peep-toe wedges.  Yes!

Fortunately the other dress I bought only needs to be tacked at the crossover front for the sake of some modesty, and that's easy!

Lovely Easter

"And it will be said in that day:

'Behold, this is our God; 

We have waited for Him, and He will save us.

This is the Lord; 

We have waited for Him; We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.'" 

-Isaiah 25:8-9 (NKJV)

We had a chilly, breezy, beautiful Easter.  It began with attending a moving, candlelit, incense-soaked Easter Vigil Saturday night with my father at my sister's church in her city. When we left the service a luminous moon hung directly in front of us in the sky.  The next morning I was up before dawn to attend our own church's sunrise Easter service, and the beauty of that moon over purple mountains was holy. After Easter baskets we went back to church for the traditional service. I rested in the afternoon, battling a raging head cold, and then spent the rest of the afternoon and evening at my in-laws' house. Egg-hunting!  Family-visiting!  A dessert spread of strawberry trifle, chocolate cake with poached oranges, and cheesecakes.

Everything was beautiful. 

Facing the Giant

Finn loves the story of David and Goliath and asks me to read it to him frequently.  Well, yesterday I entered Finn's room to face my own bloodthirsty giant: cleaning up.  Although I like to stay on top of cleaning tasks, Finn's room had been neglected because last week we were out of town. (It gets cleaned every Thursday; typically Finn and I do it together.)  There were toys, clothes and papers scattered across the room as well as 'nature' items--random rocks, pieces of bark, etc--his treasures--in various spots and lots of stray legos.  He's an artist, so the quantity of paper alone is staggering! And we had not been faithful picker-uppers at nighttime this week.

I dove in.  My modus operandi for cleaning a room that is way past due is to declutter first by going counter-clockwise around the room and ending in the center. This keeps me focused on one bit at a time, and keeps me from feeling overwhelmed. After that is done, I pull out the vacuum and go crazy with it: furniture, valances, window frames, floors. I even did inside his dresser drawers (I switched out seasonal clothing while I was at it.)  Make sure the sheets are fresh and the bed is made.
When we read our bedtime story last night it was so refreshing to sit in a clean and tidy room again.

Next up: the basement!! It needs some love.