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Yesterday

My mind was in Haiti all day....with mothers and fathers, children and loves, brothers, sisters, people of every sort, caught fast in the trenches of heartache and suffering. I tried several times to write a post about regular, everyday things, but nothing would come and I decided to go with that instead. A moment of silence of sorts. Instead I spent the day being deeply and fully grateful for the simple, but oh so powerful, blessing of being able to hold each and every member of my little family on that day and everyday.

If you have the means please consider finding a way to help. For many that would mean a monetary donation to an organization like Doctors Without Borders. For others finding a way to help means something else entirely. Whatever it means to you, I hope that you'll take the time to do what you can.

Today I was going to try to pick up the thread of every day life, but, for whatever reason, I can't seem to get on to flickr (is it just me?), so....maybe tomorrow? Either way, I think that by the end of the weekend I'll have a little announcement to make.

Winter Season's Round Exchange: Part II

If the first part of my package was a disappointment, I have nothing but love for the second part.

I love everything about it, the whole process of making her, the way she turned out the feeling of giving her and knowing that she would be loved in her new home.

note: my package did actually go out on time, but it was right before me moved and it seems I forgot to post about it. I still have to get some pictures of the package from my partner. It's wonderful!

Winter Season's Round, and all that jazz...

When I was a little girl and taking piano lessons, there was one recital that I remember being particularly nervous about. My father, who has been a musician all his life, said to me, "If you make a mistake, just do it twice and call it jazz."

Well, let's just say we are going to call this one jazz!

Over the years the terms have changed for me, but the concept has remained the same. Now things are "original" or "artistic" and if all else fails, I can always slap on the label of "folk art" and get on with my day. It's my own sly way of saying, "yeah, I meant to do that..."


The pattern for this one was featured in this winter's issue of Living Crafts and it's a great little pattern. I'm planning on making quite a few for our own family. It's kind of large and rather floppy, so I do wonder how they will hang though. I imagined this one as the sort of thing one would lay out on a nature table.

The theme of this exchange was "light" and my partner expressed a preference for lighter colors; yellow and cream, blues and purples, as opposed to the traditional red and green of the season. The preference was a big part of my inspiration for our package.


The "jazz" of this project comes from my apparent inability to count while working in the middle of the night. Being off by say, 100 or so beads, really puts a crimp in things. As does not having enough beads and having to supplement with beads of a different size. Needless to say, the whole thing was a bit of a compromise.

This was my first time knitting with beads and the whole process was aggravating, fiddly, and slow. And... I *loved* it. It makes no sense what-so-ever, but let's face it, I rarely make any sense anyway.

Part II of the package tomorrow!

A His and Hers Birthday Celebration

We're in "morning after" mode here at the moment, meaning a slow moving, tired mama, lots of playing with new presents and cake for breakfast (with plans for leftovers for lunch!).

I think that the party went well for the most part. There were, of course, the usual assortment of mishaps...there was the neighbor who decided to come over and introduce herself an hour before guests were due to arrive ("so nice to meet you, but we're rather busy at the moment...", "oh, I'll just stay and chat for a bit..."), the full blender that I managed to accidentally turn on, sans lid...the frosting that outright refused to thicken, and a certain variety of cupcake; moist and lovely the night before, but glued to the liners by morning (one child actually returned his to me declaring that it "didn't work"), a pinata that refused to die, in a too small room with a too long stick, and a whole, whole lot of noise (quite a bit more then several of the adults could stomach to be honest). But there was also a lot of sledding and a lot of laughing, and a lot of friends that we haven't seen in a long time, all together at last. The kids had tons of fun and amazingly few things broke, so I'd say it was a success. One eight year old approached me at the end of the day, looking very earnest indeed, and said in a confiding sort of tone, "I just wanted you to know that this was probably one of the top three parties I've ever been to." So there you have it!

His:

Brownies and double chocolate cake in a woodland night theme.

I looked more into those India Tree natural food colorings and in my irritation at the price ($30 for food coloring? Seriously??), decided to get creative and come up with my own: blueberries, strawberries, bee pollen, and (don't tell the kids!) spinach.

Hers:

A bunny carrot cake with lots of fruit and cupcakes topped with "rosebuds" (raspberries and mint leaves).

The bunny cake was not my best work. I've made much nicer, but it was thrown together at the last minute (see "mishaps" above) and I didn't have enough frosting to do it right (and the frosting that I did have wasn't really the right consistency, again, see above.) and I never did find those toothpicks that I was going to use for whiskers...

I'll be back with another home made Christmas post tomorrow!

Taking a little break...

Just for a couple of days while we finish up preparations for the party this weekend. I should be back Monday with still more Christmas posts and lots of birthday posts too!

Enjoy your weekend folks!

snapshot: the two of them

Mom and Màiri Rose
January 2nd, 2010