the work of hands...

I have a goal to be intentional about "making" this summer. Whether that be with yarn, fabric, wood, paint, or food, I have some aspirations.

First of all, I absolutely go a bit crazy when I have a project languishing for too long, That means I have a few things that I absolutely want to get done before we start back to school in August. First of all, I have a pair of socks that I knitted for Brad. I finished the second sock while we were in Tennessee in May, but forgot my dpn's so I couldn't finish the toe. And it's STILL sitting in the project bag now a month later! What?! That's definitely a priority. Not because Brad needs wool socks in the summer, but because I only have several rounds left on that darn sock and it needs finished!

I also want to knock that large crocheted afghan out of the park over the next three months. It's already quite large, but my goal was to make it huge so that multiple bodies could snuggle under it. I was working along at a very nice clip until I ran out of yarn and had to order more and then, subsequently, lost my momentum. I'm using this pattern by Attic24.

Another fun crochet project was the market bag. I literally made that entire thing in under 24 hours, start to finish. I used this pattern, and I love how it turned out. It's a bit bigger than I thought, but that just means I can fit more things into it. This was a practical item for me to make, and I do plan on using it when I visit the little farmer's market we have here in the summer. But I could also see this bag being very useful for the beach as well.

Lily is currently making a crocheted rug out of thrifted sheets. I made another thrift store run yesterday morning for more sheets. One of our local thrift stores sells flat sheets for $1 each, and you really can't pass that up, especially when you have a use for them. I bought enough sheets for her to make her rug, as well as enough for me to make one.

I also have a collection of vintage, thrifted pillowcases that I want to trim with a crochet trim. This will probably not be done this summer, but it's definitely on my list of creative "to-do's." I love the look of these pillowcases. In addition, I bought that charm pack last spring because I wanted to make a quilt. Not an over-the-top quilt, but, rather, just a plain, simple patchwork quilt. I've only ever quilted a few smaller projects, so I think intimidation has been preventing me from actually cutting into that fabric. That's silly though, isn't it?

Handiwork has become a very important pastime here in our home. I suppose it has something to do with me sticking the kids in their highchairs at the age of one with oversized paint brushes and non-toxic paint. They've always just seen the process of creating from both Brad and myself, so I suppose that they would just naturally assume the same habit. In the above photos, the sewn doughnuts, the woven candle mat, the rag rug, and the yarn on the spindle are all projects that Lily completed or is working on right now (plus many, many more.) That girl can create up a cloud of dust when she gets in the frame of mind to do so. She's always got her fingers into a project of some sort. Ian is more interested in working with wood or repurposing things (he gets that from him dad and a bit from me.) He made me the wooden coasters from a tree he cut down behind our house and gave them to me as a Mother's Day gift.

So, yes, we spend a lot of our time making things here in our home. Maybe that's foreign to some people, but I honestly couldn't imagine not making that a priority for our family. And I am absolutely certain that it is essential to me and my peace of mind. It's a big part of how I express myself. I just feel like I must create. Which is one of the reasons I have recently took up watercolor painting again this summer. I used to paint in high school and college and my hands-down favorite medium was watercolor. I recently started a nature journal which I am head-over-heels in love with because it is enabling me to practice painting again and learn and record so much about nature (which is another favorite topic of mine.)

Now I suppose I need to find the time to pursue all of these creative goals/projects this summer. I have a rather good feeling that I will not accomplish near what I would like to because I do spend most days out-of-doors in the summer. But there are always rainy days and nights around the campfire which lend to the "making" mood.

Some other crafty plans I have...

I love this Chevron Crocheted Bag

These would be great for storage.

I love this shawl by Cherry Heart.

I need one of these on the side of my barn.

finally finished

The afghan that I was supposed to have finished for Lily's birthday at the beginning of the month is finally finished. And the only reason that happened is because I had to break down and tell her that I was making it. Unfortunately, it became very evident that it was going to be impossible for her to receive it anytime soon if I stuck to working on it in secret when she was asleep.

Since then, I have been working on it in all of my free minutes. It's made using the crochet linen stitch which is extremely easy but also extremely time-sapping since it's just single crochets alternating with chain stitches. Makes for a slow go. 

But it's done! Yay! And she loves it! Yay! And it's huge, which I'm very much pleased with. The first few photos are of it laying across our queen sized bed. (As a side note: this little dog tried to claim the afghan before I could even give it to Lily. She loves soft, fluffy things.) 

I love making my kids handmade things. In my mind, I see them treasuring them forever, although that may not happen in reality. However, I feel like I give them a little piece of myself (and my life) when I make them something with my own hands. And for me, that's a wonderful feeling, and my whole tribe really seems to love and appreciate the things I make for them. 

Some project notes:

The pattern ~ Beach Stripe Surf Blanket
The yarn ~ Bernat Super Value (Although I would definitely consider myself a yarn snob and reach for the natural fibers for most projects, I have used mainly acrylic yarns for large projects like afghans. They hold up well, I don't have to worry about laundering them in any special way, and they are more economical. This blanket cost about $60 in yarn using the super value yarn. It would have been at least triple that if I had used a wool blend.)

mother and daughter crochet

I taught Lily to crochet when she was around seven or eight. Of course, those early lessons pretty much consisted of chain stitching and a bit of single crochet. 

As she practiced and became better at the basics, I began to teach her more stitches. She made many little purses and bags. She made miniature afghans and pillows for her dolls and monkeys. She even made herself a Lily-sized afghan for her bed. 

Then came the opportunity for her to learn to crochet in the round. For that skill, I taught her how to crochet a hat, which she pretty much did completely independently once I got her started.

Last week, I found a cute little kit that came with a pattern book for twelve different crocheted animals as well as enough yarn and materials to make two of the patterns. When I saw that one of the patterns was for a monkey, I snatched the kit up because Lily LOVES monkeys. 

We sat down last Friday for our first lessons in crocheting stuffed animals. Of course, almost all of it is done in the round, and I have found teaching the magic ring technique to be quite challenging. It's one of those skills that just kind of flows without me thinking of it, so when I was attempting to slowly demonstrate and explain it to Lily, I found I was all thumbs! 

We did get started though, and she completed the mouth portion and both ears during our first lesson. She had so much fun, and was so proud of what she had done that, of course, the first thing she did when her daddy walked through the door after work, was to show him her work. 

I've decided that this is going to be our little winter project. While she was working on the monkey, I sat next to her crocheting what was supposed to be one of her birthday gifts ~ a rainbow striped afghan. Despite the fact that I started this afghan at the beginning of December, progress was extremely slow because of my Christmas-time orders as well as the fact that I could only work on it at night after she had gone to sleep. 

Since her birthday is this Saturday, I could see that the chance of me finishing this afghan (which I had made big enough to fit on her double bed) was highly doubtful so I hesitantly pulled it down out of hiding and broke the surprise. She was absolutely delighted and could have cared less that one of her gifts was no longer going to be a surprise. I was slightly bummed (I am a huge lover of surprises!) However, we have a few other nice things for her and she is having a little party with some of her friends. So all is good.

 

these january days

I love photos. You wouldn't know it if you came to visit me at our home. I think I have one actual photograph hanging on our wall, and it's a photo of our family when there was only four of us and Lily was about two. In fact, one of my friends used to make fun of my lack of photos considering how often I have my camera in my hand. I just don't know.

However, I do have many, many photo albums, and it's always a delight to look back through the years and see how the kids have grown and the things we have done. I'm always so happy when I receive our annual Shutterfly book. It makes the hours of organizing it online worth it - when we have that finished picture book of our previous year.

I also find myself simply enthralled by others' photos. Admittedly, the photos on blogs are what draw me to certain blogs. I love the capturing of each moment. I love to see the story of others' lives played out in photos. There are times that I have found myself just studying particular photos, taking in the light, the shadows, the details. I think it's the right side of my brain that pulls me into the artistic aspect of photographs. 

When I worked as a visiting nurse (in my former life, pre-homeschooling), I vividly and clearly recollect an elderly woman that I had to visit to draw blood. She lived in an old apartment building, in a tiny little efficiency apartment. She was so frail, so fragile looking. She had her oxygen on, coursing into her old lungs the necessary substance of life, and I helped her onto her sofa and prepared to draw her blood. As I was pulling out the needle and the bottles, I glanced at the wall behind me. 

There she was. Sitting in the typical 20's style restaurant that you would imagine. The tufted booth (I imagined it red) and many photos on the wall behind her. It looked like it would have been a lively place. She had dark, dark hair and dark lips. Her hair was styled in a wavy bob, and beside her sat a handsome gentleman with slicked back dark hair, looking very dapper in his suit. Huge smiles on the faces of both. In the prime years of their life, probably around the same age that I was that day as I sat there on her sofa getting ready to draw her labs. 

It just struck me and struck me hard. The life she had. Her husband. Her children. What did she do in her spare time? How did she spend her days as she lived her life, growing older each day? 

Gosh. This poor, fragile woman once lived a vibrant, full life. She faced many of the same problems and complications that life was going to bring to me, to anyone who is alive. 

Though I don't remember her name, I can still see her face. The photo on her wall was burnt into the hard drive of my memory. It was such a vivid reminder to me to live each day, to live each day of this short life fully, and to be thankful for the blessings from God. 

So I think that's partially why I love photographs. They capture those moments in time. They capture faces and places and adventures and sometimes even awkwardness (I have some REALLY awkward photos from junior high dances) and fears. 

That, my friends, is why I read through photos. I do love words. Words enrich the mind and the life, but photos speak to my soul. And so I capture the simple moments of our mostly simple life in photos. That's why I do it. And that's why I share those photos here. 

And this post? Whoa, an overload of photos in this post, eh?  

We've had the sickies in our home over the past week or so. This is actually the first annoying sickness we've had so far this winter so I'm thankful for that. 

I made a big turkey dinner this past Saturday, and with the leftover carcass, I made bone broth. Have you ever made bone broth? I make it anytime I can. It's easy, especially if you do it in the crockpot like I do. There's no worrying about watching the stove-top fire when you use the crockpot. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about (bone broth????), go here and read.)

It turned out that I needed that bone broth sooner than I thought. My intention was to freeze it and use it in a few weeks. Then Ian woke up with a sore throat and cough on Monday, and so, last night that nutritionally-packed bone broth was used as the base for turkey soup. You really should consider making it. It's packed full of nutrients, and it tastes so much richer and fuller than regular old meat broth.

Hmmm. What else is going on here? Well, we are doing some small renovations. We painted the entryway and installed some new lighting a couple of weekends ago, and then this past weekend, Brad and I tackled the hall bathroom. Painted the walls, ripped up the flooring and replaced it, painted the vanity, and we are working on replacing the trim. So we've basically been living with the contents from various rooms in our living room. I've attempted to put everything as much out of the way as possible, and when I cringe as I walk past the piles I try to remind myself of how nice everything will look once it's all done. How do people live through kitchen renovations? Oh my. Well, I suppose we'll find that out in a few years or so when we tackle that huge project.

I forced myself to go down into my studio earlier today and clean it. It's been a mess since our open house back in December. I cleaned it partially sometime after that, but I've been busy with a fundraiser which wrecked it even more. But with all of that mostly behind me now, I managed to put everything mostly back to normal. Gosh, do I love having things cleaned and spaces cleared. A clear space clears my mind. 

I think it's been a long time since I posted about our little hobby farm. We still have rabbits, alpacas, the goats, and lots of chickens. And, of course, there are the two spoiled dogs who are pampered in the house.

I'm really regretting not breeding the goats this past fall. I really want some baby goats. Gosh, they are unbelievably cute, fun, and mischievous. Next year, I'm really going to work on that, breeding them. The problem is that I don't really know of anyone local that has a male Nubian goat that we could borrow. And I'm very hesitant to purchase a buck because I've heard from numerous people that they are extremely stinky animals, and I'm not sure what level of stinkiness I'm willing to deal with. We've already got a fair amount of stinkiness with all of the manure. Hmmm. 

So this very random, all-over-the-place blog post just filled you in on the last week of my life. Thanks for all of your comments. I've really been enjoying reading them, and I've really enjoyed allotting myself time each day to read everyone's blogs once again.