Christmas Spirit

If I let myself, I would happily shirk all of my responsibilities and spend every last minute of my day in the studio. Time passes with a different cadence between these walls. I get lost in a project and before I know it hours have passed and I never accomplish as much as I think I will. That's okay. Maybe even preferred as it lends itself to having an excuse to visit again soon. I am  also drawn more and more to the peace I find here. I find myself wanting to go to bed early so that I can awake early and hurry back to my space. 

Fortunately, lately I have had plenty of reasons to squirrel away stolen moments here. My favorite of which, was putting together an advent for my best friend Melissa. You may recall seeing her pop up in my blog before since almost the beginning of times. We met at an art retreat and became immediate friends sharing a love of creativity among many others. 

This year, anticipating that Christmas could be a rather bleak affair, and that not only would my much anticipated return to hosting a Christmas crafting party have to be postponed, and that we wouldn't even be able to see each other, we were inspired to exchange a 12 day advent leading up to Christmas with a handmade gift to open on Christmas day. I've loved having something fun to work on and anticipate.

It was one of the better decisions I've made this year. It has been such a bright spot for me and a joy to focus on. It jump started my creativity in a way that I desperately needed. I'd say that and not spending much time reading the news are responsible for a more well balanced mental state than in quarantine past. 

One of my favorite parts was gathering up bits around the studio that fit my vision for packaging the advent. I wish I had finished it earlier so I could've had it sitting around looking beautiful and making me happy for awhile.

It was a little bittersweet shipping it off but I knew if anybody would enjoy it as much as I did, it would be Melissa. We're like peas and carrots. In fact, last time I was visiting her, while out shopping, a lady asked if we were sisters. That is so funny to me because we look zero alike. I think it had a lot more to do with how we behave when we're together which is very much like people who have the total comfort level of sisterhood. ;)

                                                                                                                                                                           

I gently packaged everything up, wishing I could deliver it in person but hoping that she could at least feel the love that went into that box and looking forward to the day when we will again be together creating, talking, laughing (always laughing), shopping, getting lost on an adventure or just sitting quietly next to each other watching cheesy movies in our pajamas and not needing to say a word.

And lucky for me, shortly after sending it off, her amazing advent arrived and has been thrilling me to pieces for the last three mornings!

Can you even imagine receiving anything so beautiful in the mail? I was gobsmacked!

Celebrating Life

You know how some stages of life just make you feel like you've been rolled over by a steamroller? That accurately sums up this summer.

Since last we met, I sewed a skirt.

And knit a giant shawl/wrap/blanket...shlanket for Emma.

We travelled to MO for a family visit and then had some family stop by to visit us.

We celebrated our big girl Maddie's 26th birthday!

We celebrated Emma's impending wisdom teeth removal.

We celebrated the last baby (puppy) gate coming down.

There was a weekend trip to help a friend setup her studio.

And a drive south to take a rug hooking class with another friend.

There were even some peaceful moments filled with lazy naps. Those were mostly enjoyed by Clover and Winnie.

There was a lot of dreaming about future creative projects and a mile long list of things I hope to get to come autumn. And maybe a little cheeky fabric shopping.

We tried to find stay cool and water was scarce. The heat wave felt like it would never break.

There was a lot of shopping and preparation for college.

Lots of lists and emotion and goodbyes.

And lots and lots of hellos.

And now she is off at school with the loveliest of roommates and we are all starting to get a feel for our new routines and finding our new normals and, most importantly, figuring out who is going to empty the dishwasher now that all of our child labor has left the nest. And while I don't know what exactly comes next for me, I'm really excited about figuring it out!

Winter Plans

So far January, like many of the month that came before it, is not looking the way I had imagined. Which, as it turns out is exactly how life works. Things like puppies, arctic weather patterns, frozen pipes and broken dishwashers sometimes conspire to turn your plans upside down. It has been exceptionally cold. The kind of cold that has you drawing the curtains to keep drafts out, has you wearing knee highs, leggings and cozy sweaters. The kind of cold that has you hosting your best friends in your pajamas for lasagna and a movie. If you've never hosted friends for a pajama night, I highly recommend you do it.

Partly due to the weather and partly due to the chaos, I have so far refused to take down all of the Christmas decorations. I have left just enough to keep the spirit of the holidays alive. As I write this, I'm sipping my evening chai latte and looking out of the studio windows where I can see the warm glow from the lights still hung on the front porch. It's hard to get motivated to take it all down when it requires multiple layers of clothing just to step outside.

As a planner, it can sometimes be hard for me to adapt to the unexpected. Right now I'm struggling with the basics of keeping the house going, let alone figuring out a new schedule and getting things in ship shape. Organizing my junk drawer has literally been on my to do list for over a month. It is January 8th and I've yet to finish putting my 2018 planner together. My brain is full of ideas and things I want to accomplish but the truth is that trying to find a new normal with the demanding schedule of a puppy and the lack of time and energy left from that, is no easy task. I've struggled a bit with losing my Sacred Day and am just now, a month later, figuring out ways to work creative time into my life. I'm having to shift my thinking and as always, I have to process a big change for awhile before I can adapt and thrive.

While I look forward to getting back to having a full day to spend as I chose, my reality now looks more like a couple hours here and there during puppy naps making it that much more important to be intentional about my time. It's hard enough fitting in all the things I need to do during her nap times, let alone finding time for the things I want to do.  Golden Retriever puppies require a lot of supervision. Maybe it's that way with all puppies, I've only ever had Goldens. You can't take your eyes off her for a moment!

So while it's taking me a little while to figure out how to make my days look the way I want, I am still finding time to knit more socks to add to my basket of socks that I made last year, or do a little embroidery and a fair amount of reading since I discovered that with the help of a weighted bookmark, I can actually read while I'm knitting. This may be how I spend my days until the spring thaw. This discovery has been one of the best things to have ever happened to me!

We have a brief warm up headed our way this week and I plan to make the most of it with lots of puppy walks and maybe even find a few minutes to take care of that junk drawer. I hope you are staying warm and dry and finding lots of moments to do things that make you happy.

Christmas Creating

This Christmas I spent so much of the season making gifts. I have a feeling that the number of presents I make is only going to increase this next year. I already have so many ideas and apparently I plan to create like it's my j-o-b.

Every year for several years, I have made the girls a Christmas gift. This year I embroidered their first initial on the pocket of these aprons I got them. I love embroidery. I always forget just how much until I start doing it again.

I have recently become obsessed with knitting socks (which deserves a post all it's own) so I decided to knit the girls both a pair. It took ages but was so satisfying. Something tells me we all have more knitted socks in our future.

Also look at the arch on that ballerina's foot. Crazy.

With my newly acquired need to knit ALL THE SOCKS, came a new obsession with project bags. This was my first, which I made for one of my favorite people. It's my first zipper ever. The Sense of personal satisfaction I have derived this year from tackling knitted socks and zippers, things that previously were so far out of my comfort zone and which I thought were out of my skill set, has made me feel like  I can accomplish anything. On the one hand it's just socks and zippers, right? But on the other hand it feels like so much more than that. It feels like overcoming fear and limitations and makes me feel like I can do anything!

This is a knitting project marker I made that doubles as a zipper pull. I figured why not since I already had all my jewelry supplies out from making the next gifts.

Necklaces! You may recall that last year I made necklaces for the girls for Christmas. All year I've been meaning to sit down and replicate their necklaces for myself and have yet to do it but I did find time to sit and make them for two very special friends in my life.

Jewelry making is addictive for me. As with every creative interest I have, putting together the colors consumes me! It often takes me hours to arrange all the beads and bits before I can even start constructing the necklace itself. It borders on insane. But the good kind of insane. Or so I tell myself!

For several years now, the girls and I have done a Christmas Eve craft. This year Maddie requested we make snow globes.

This is such a highlight of that day for me. I love watching the girls work in the studio and to see them enjoying all that the studio has to offer and to watch their creative spirits in action. It gives me so much joy! They constantly have to remind me to work on my own project because I get so caught up in watching and helping them!

Emma's snow globe:

Maddie's snow globe:

My snow globe:

All three lit up with lid inserts found on Amazon. I'm not sure if I'd recommend them as I find them not very reliable, but I'm trying to determine if that is something I'm doing wrong.

This Christmas season proved to be my most creative and satisfying and I'm looking forward to what I have a feeling will be my most creative year yet.

P.S. I got your message about not limiting the photos in my blog posts LOUD AND CLEAR! And thank you for all of your sweet and encouraging comments. I think it quite possible I would not have been able to do it anyway but it was quite lovely to hear that all these photos don't get on your nerves!

The Quiet Life

Life has been fairly quiet lately, by choice, and I have found myself introverting on a larger than usual scale. I think it is due, in large part, to the ugliness and negativity in the world. I also know from experience that part of it is the change of seasons which always bring on a need to quiet the noise around me. This year there is an additional reason.

I am in the midst of the most creative season of my life. I'm not really sure where it came from. There aren't enough hours in the day to get all of the creative ideas I have in my head finished, and because of that I find it incredibly difficult to tear myself away. It is at once an overwhelming and exciting experience. I told my Sweet Man that I think this might be my midlife crisis. How lucky is he? I feel like I am having an affair with creativity! The most fallout there might be from this crisis is a surplus of pretty things around the house and possibly less cooking and cleaning going on. I'm pretty sure he can live with that and maybe even be better off for it.

The down side to this creative fire is that I have a hard time shutting it down for the day. The up side is that most nights feel like Christmas eve to me and I can't wait to go to sleep so I can hurry up and wake up and start creating again. I find that I'm pushing myself outside of my comfort zone and tackling things that I've been afraid to tackle before like sewing zippers, learning crochet and knitting socks.

ALL the socks. I'm obsessed. It seems a very odd thing to be obsessed with. Like 40 is the new 70. I just wish there were more hours in the day and also that I had an extra set of hands. It's all consuming for me right now and I've just decided to give into it. I'm really enjoying this place just out of reach of my comfort zone and I love the satisfaction and pride that comes with pushing through obstacles and teaching myself a new skill. It feels like a gift I am giving myself, and one that was very needed right now.

Actually now that I think about it, I'm sure this must all stem from giving myself the gift of my Sacred Day. Of course! I'm not sure why that didn't occur to me before. It's the gift that keeps on giving. Preserving that time for myself has given me permission to open myself up to all of the ideas and apparently they were just looking for an opening. I'm so thankful for this particular season.