katie is a big girl now.  she is officially a teacher and I am so impressed, but not surprised by her accomplishment.  and if you want to have the most creative and thoughtful pen pal, she's your gal.  katie lives here in arizona now, but I loved it when she went back to Chicago for the summer to visit her family.  I would spend hours of my day preparing homemade packages and letters to her.  We would send our penpal love back in forth to each other till she came back for fall semester.  she knows the lost art of letters and handmade gifts and encouraged me to preserve it in my own life.  I usually don't give gifts unless I'm "inspired" or motivated (?).  So when an idea is seen on the horizon of my very tired and busy mind,  I force myself to chase it down even its simple like a care package to a cute girl.

I found out how to do an embroider stitch that agrees with my impatient fingers.  I will probably be stitching everything in zander's closet now with his name or a desert animal and maybe throw in a little heart here in there.  I got to leave my mark on him when he goes out and I don't wear perfume.

after another one of my deep and great sighs over the construction site that is our yard, he said

"Look I promise you.  Our backyard will be your most favorite backyard.  It will be full of character and charm.  Its just not about grass.  Do you just want someone to come and plop some grass and trees down and call it beautiful? (he mimes this with a few junior high bathroom noises..??)  
It will be like the elves came and designed it their way". (Insert sorcery hand motions and a rendition of elvish tongue- that is an uncanny resemblance to his Uncle Scott speaking in tongues if he were to).

continuing... he's on a roll

"Its like this.  I am a spider.  And my yard is my web.  You forget that I'm here and then one day stumble upon my masterpiece.  And I just keep spinning"

This guy has so much gumption.  Definition please.  - Shrewd or spirited initiative and resourcefulness.

*Bless his heart.  9:15pm and he is out digging a trench to lay underground conduit. 

Sew, a needle pulling thread

 

here you go my lad.  your very own counting bean bags. 

zander set up my sewing nook in the living room.  one day i will knock out a wall, in one of our side rooms, create french doors or a bay window that will look out onto our fruitful land, and there I will sew.  For now, i get to keep a watch on all the variety of people that walk down the sidewalk.  Its like an Indian buffet of spices out there!  The variety is impressive.  I wish they came with floating clouds above their heads that told their thoughts.  Rated for sunday paper comics, of course. 

i made this a long time ago.  an old picture frame, cork board with decoupaged scraps of paper on it (Simon & Garfunkel's "The Condor" piano music) and nails tapped in.  It hangs, as you can see, my scissors that snip into steel like butter, spools, and bobbins.  Zander hung it above my machine for quick access.  My sewing space is way out of place in the living room, but still so at home. 

crafting love notes

"writing a letter is a real form of conversation in which the image of a distant person is held in one's mind." - a severe mercy

Getting a written letter from zander meant deciphering hieroglyphics, but past the foreign scribbling there was a boy's thoughts that kept my mind transfixed for days.  I would probably get as much thrill as reading his letter as to responding.  Later on in our marriage he confessed that my love letters were just full of descriptions about trees, wind, nature and such; he would be always searching to read those three sacred words.  But they were there zander.  They were just tangled up in the branches, hidden under the rocks i discovered on a walk, floating on the lapping waves of Lake Bodensee... 

So, yes, zander, plainly put.  I love you. 

i had to rub fuzzy elbows with the bees to pluck these calyx clusters

 

 

We don't write letters to each other anymore.  But I think that practise is not totally lost to the past.  It was a season of Spring.  And we all know spring comes again. 

 

The latest exchange of words were passed during church recently sitting behind, apparently, an attractive, young gentleman that Zander noticed.

 

Zander: Is (so and so's) brother available?

Me: I'm pretty happy with you, but I guess we can keep him as a potential.

Zander: For Arica!  You ding dong!!

Me: I'll ask.  No shame :)

Zander: Be tactful.

Me: Always....

 

 

 

 

 

mother simplicity

ender sat like a toad on a rock in the middle of the gently flowing creek, croaking every now and again about his disdain for being left alone.  well, not completely alone, the water was ankle deep and there were innumerable shiny pebbles at his disposal.  and I was just a stone's throw away foraging for some sticks.  he's a good little pup. 

zander wrought the discarded branches i gleaned,  into curtain rods for our new home.  a small fancy of mine he made into reality. 

Daddy!  You forgot to take my drawing to work with you! Its not about planes or circles or beachy balls this time.  This is a fragment of a highly detailed map of Arizona trails.  Uncharted territories that calls our names. So, please study carefully and plan accordingly.  I will personally deliver the whole of this parchment for it cannot get into the hands of dispirited people or it will instantly disintegrate.   It "knows" who has the Spirit of Adventure in them, and thats you daddy.  This map will make sense in your hands. 

boiling the rain plant to extract its dye will make your kitchen stink to high heaven. and just when you thought that the smell of the desert in a rain storm would be ruined for you forever, you fling open all the doors, turn on the fans, take a deep breath and realize the creosote is still one of your favorite desert scents. next year i will do more foraging in the desert to see what natural dyes it offers.

some vegetables and fruits. swiss chard doesn't work for green(top right egg). in fact, it leaves an odd film on the egg that peels away.

an easter portrait.

fresh and natural

when i lay down at night, i have the vision of these treasures dancing over my head.

zander is getting nervous about my obsession with painting everything white. he has been through this before with me, except, it was with black and crayola green. haha, oh zander, you love it.

i know the succulents in the trendy CB2 candle holders is so last season, BUT, i had to get it out of my system, you know? And i have to hand it to my awesome cousin greg who was the first before any magazine to craft these cactus creations. hes so hip :)

the stones my father brought back from one of his trips into the heart of the desert. This is them after a few baths in the rock tumbler. smooth and creamy.

the antique-ish candle vases are from the dollar rack at Target. Score! 3 for 2.50, say what!

katie's craft

my quote for katie, always, is "impressed, but not surprised!" artfully lifted images of her family, given a glassy medium.

i stole this photo of her off a stranger's (my stranger, not her's) facebook. i like it.

hopefully i'll see this face rollerskating around in my new house. rustic, stained concrete floors are in my future.

LIST FREAK

My "to-do"lists all began back in the day when i was emotionally overcome by zander and picking flower petals one by one, "he loves me, he loves me not". In order to still be a productive human being, I wrote my chores and activities down on a good piece of scrap paper.

This came so essential to time management in college.

And when ender was first born you could see a pathetic list of: feed ender, eat breakfast, shower, cry, call my mom. ( i had a hard time getting motivated after hurricane Ender hit)

Still, if I do not have my to do list, i find myself wandering aimlessly. And even when I accomplish lovely, awesome things, if they are not written down I don't feel as satisfied. I quickly scribble the item down on my list and then with a sigh of success cross it out.

No I am not clinically OCD... I can't possibly be alone on this:) I refuse to believe I'm unique!

To enable my obsession with notes and lists, anthropologie came out with....

petrified magnets! I'm a rock geek, but not a big spender. This is another great idea to help me enjoy my rock collection again. I will be making these.

was and is

once a year, i take zander to buffalo exchange to buy his shirts and pants, this last year i found this very sweet, silk garden dress. (vintage of course!) i immediately imagined myself twirling on a rooftop garden, but when I went to try it on, wowza! this number was tailored for a wasp. no amount of inhaling would make the zipper ascend into its perfect place. blast! but i could not leave it in the store. it had to belong to someone and that someone had to be katie.

zander's aunt helped me turn another unwearable garment into a classy high waisted skirt :) This is one of my favorite projects to do. I just need to become completely independent.

Source: 2.bp.blogspot.com via Megan on Pinterest

what once was, now is

in lieu of trying to save money and de-clutter and still surround myself with aesthetic details. I nabbed this shabby old tackle box from my parent's neighbor. Then Walmart supplied me with a color named Jade.

before

after

i think i would make a great catch for an employer looking to hire someone to play adam to colors. Instead of Jade, though nice, i think.... lady mermaid.... too fantastical? Not for me!

i love this color. i'm not done with it yet. I think I will take apart an old fan and spray down its blades with some of lady mermaid.

the sirens must be calling me today. honestly, beautiful maidens of the sea, the way to my heart is through ender's grandmothers. Get them, you got me.

First Present of the Year

Zander's Aunt Kim has been teaching me how to sew. I recently just developed my fine motor skills if that tells you anything about my clutzy fingers. Ender is way ahead of me. Interesting Fact: at 11 months I taught him how to use a fork and he taught himself how to carefully eat cheerios with it. Yes, a cheerio puff balanced precariously on one prong as it made its stressful journey to his gummy, pink jaws. He'd then snort through his nose with satisfaction. Nerd.

I hoard anything anthropologie gives away to their customers to carry away their pricey products in; bags, ribbons, these buttons. It was time to put them to appropriate use. So here's to Aunt Kim!

Fair warning to my family: This is not the last homemade present I will be giving out this year. Some of you should be legitmately worried.

And LASTLY! The banana bread recipe is stellar! <--- try it here. I use 4 bananas, only 3/4 c sugar and don't feel like you have to bake it to the full hour. I've had many a palate melt.

bean bags for a semi-french boy

When you look at these bean bags, squint your eyes just so, and you can recreate that old Hollywood glow, you know, the one that leaves you sour about your own mug, (that could just be me) AND ta-dah! I made couture bean bags. Why, thank you!

otherwise.... look here
the original dreamer and doer

what once was....

now is.

today.

ender and i made a small herb bouquet for our lovely land lady, the queen of the King Kasa, Josie. if i ever feel discontentment in our abode, God always brings her to mind. i just look outside over at the periwinkle door to bungalow number 5 and remember that we have the sweetest neighbors. and i thought i would show God that I heard His reminder by giving a gift from our garden.

mint. lavender. rosemary. and a thank you scroll.

handmade

old scrap from isabel's stash
jasmine rice
to make bobbye her very own heating pad.
pop it in the micro for 1:30 and bing!

christmas leg warmers for k.m.s.

k.s.'s first dance recital i went to. followed by a surprise party that beats them all.