Coming Back Around

While I have not passed out as of late, I feel like I've been quite out of it. Two and a half weeks ago I got a call on Saturday morning from my mom. My dad had passed out while walking the dog at night and fallen and hit his head. I experienced a similar incident with him this summer, when he passed out at the city pool with the girls and I and hit his head on the steps to the water slide. At first we thought we were in for an experience like that - he would be sent to the nearest major city that specialized in trauma cases, be monitored for a couple of days and then come home. Except this time it was different. He had a severe brain bleed and there was a lot of swelling on his brain. He could talk, but just in short, curt words. His heart rate was also out of control (part of the problem that caused him to pass out). It was scary.

A week later he was discharged and sent not to the rehabilitation facility they'd said they'd send him to, but home, with just my mom to care for him. That was a Friday. At his first meeting with his PT and OT on Monday, both agreed that he should not have been sent home. After some phone calls on Tuesday, they were able to get him into a rehab facility on Wednesday. He was there for five hours before being sent via ambulance back to the hospital. He has stopped using his right hand, his right foot was dragging and his right arm was swollen and cold to the touch. Another CAT Scan showed more swelling and what turned out to be a second brain bleed. He was not in good shape. Thankfully, a week after arriving back at the hospital, he has been released to rehabilitation. As of this morning, his swelling on the brain is decreasing and he's regaining use of his right arm and hand. His speech and cognitive skills have a long way to go, but I am hopeful that with lots of therapy, the dad I know will be returned to me.

So, all my artsy craftsy ideas have sort of been consumed by fear, worry, concern, dread - you name it. I've laid in bed and watched more mindless TV in the past two and a half weeks than I've seen in years. I'm feeling optimistic now though and might actually get something accomplished soon. I cannot say that the quilt on dad's lap was made by me though. A good friend of my mom's belongs to a quilting group that makes these "prayer quilts". The centers of the blocks have a tie that remains untied until a visitor says a prayer and ties it. A neat idea, I thought.

And if you looked at the picture of my parents (taken on my mom's birthday - happy birthday mom!) and thought "That man looks familiar...". Then maybe you're remembering the creepy, old neighbor from Home Alone. As my dad ages, he is being "recognized" out in public more and more, but no that is not my dad hanging with Macaulay Culkin.

On a brighter note, we welcomed an eight year old into our family this past Saturday. Well, she was previously our seven year old, but she's graduated now. She also shares a birthday with my dad, which makes it extra special (we think). We were blessed with an incredibly beautiful weekend - temperatures in the high 60's, blue skies and good times. We spent time at the park as a family, walked next door for pizza and scored ice cream - our first outside ice cream of 2011!

Now to plan the slumber party for five 7 and 8 year olds this Firday. Why am I tired already?

A Bit of This and That

I'm starting to get the crafty urge back. Something about this summer has made it hard for me to work. With the girls home, there is just no time (or peace) during the day, and at night I guess I'm just a bit too spent to start on something once they go to bed. I did manage two small projects this week though, that have me itching to keep moving forward.

I needed a gift for my girl's night out bingo game last night. Money was tight this week and I would have felt guilty spending money on a bingo gift, so I worked with what I had. I figured a jar of fresh, homemade blackberry jam would be a good place to start, but wanted to add something to it. I have been inspired by pieces of work like this one by metro-station and wanted to give something like that a go myself. I know there are others I have seen and would like to share them with you as well, but I can't seem to find them right now. So this is what I came up with, a dish towel to go with the jar of jam. I had a stash of these plain white towels that I'd picked up in Target's Dollar Zone quite a while ago (maybe around Easter ...2009 possibly) and I knew that one day they'd serve their purpose, which I think they've done quite swimmingly. I did throw in a nice bar of dark chocolate as well, so that hopefully the gift was not disappointing (can you really be disappointed if you get chocolate?).


I've also been distracted by this website, which I'd read a bit about in the Spring issue of Stitch. There is also a great Flickr pool which I would recommend checking out. Conveniently enough, I have a lot of clothes that I don't particularly love and as a bonus, I am not inclined to get rid of things very easily, which comes in very handy if you'd like to start chopping up your clothes and refashioning them. Case in point, the long linen skirt above. I love the color of the linen and the fact that it is linen, but the length was not doing it for me anymore.

I believe it was this picture of Fiona Goble's first upcycled skirt that reminded me of my own blue-gray skirt that needed a new life. I happened to have this leafy print from Ikea in my stash, which matched the color of the skirt pretty well (in certain dim light) and decided to go for it.

I chopped the skirt off a few inches above the side slits and added the decorative print band to the bottom. Then I cut one leaf out of a bit of scrap, attached it with Heat-n-Bond Lite and free motion stitched around it to ensure that it stayed put. I'm really happy with the results, but you will have to settle for the hanger modeling it, because I'm less than happy with the shape of my pudgy knees right now.

While I work on the issue of my knees (and other unsightly bits), rest assured that nothing in my closet is safe from my scissors right now.

Live and Learn....and Learn Again

When I was making my last quilt, I messed up. I think I mentioned it, but if I didn't, somewhere along the way, I let the backing fabric fold over onto itself and I quilted through it. I had to rip out about 4 feet of quilting. It was not fun. So, after that experience I told myself that I will be more thorough with my pinning and will pay more attention to what's going on underneath the quilt while I'm quilting so as not to have that nasty surprise again. And that's exactly what I thought I was doing as I finished up quilting Rachel's quilt top from last summer (ah hem). So my alternate title for this post was "I am an Idiot", as the same exact thing happened yet again. Thankfully this is a smaller quilt, the area needing to be torn out was smaller, etc., but still - I was not thrilled with myself.

In the end it turned out alright though, as she is happy with it. This was a summer project from last year. All incoming kindergartners had to had to have read (or have read to them) a book and done a project to share with the class relating to the book. Rachel and I read The Quilt Story by Tony Johnston and then she got to work making the nine blocks for this quilt. The quilt was actually inspired by this quilt, which I had seen on flickr, which was made by a six year old boy. So while I wouldn't let Rachel use the rotary cutter or the iron, she did pick all her fabrics, tell me what width and length to cut them and assembled them all on her own. I added the red sashing, did the quilting, put her name on it, and bound it. Some of the steps I was responsible for only happened in the past two weeks. (See previous post mentioning procrastination).

I think my biggest hang up about finishing this was that the quilt in the story has a little girl's name on it, and I just didn't know how to add her name, which was something she wanted on hers as well. I finally went with satin stitching the letters on and then a bit of quilting through them. She seems quilt pleased with the end result and it was a fun project to work on together. Sarah will have the same assignment this summer, so perhaps we'll read the same book and take the time to start her quilt, as she really seems quite interested in sewing. Then again, perhaps I ought to let her blaze her own trial, as she so often does anyway.

A Picture Heavy Post

So we've been wrapping up Christmas here today. It's always so depressing for me, having to take down the tree, cut the lights, etc. Sort of like snuffing out the magic. Rachel was disappointed as well, so I tried to spin it as "won't it be fun when the magic returns next winter?". Ha. I'm not even buying what I'm selling. The stockings (with the exception of Jim's, on the left) were all knit by my Grandma. I don't know what year she made them for my sister, cousin and I, but I feel as if we've had them since birth. At the least, our very early childhood. We loved them as children (and still do) and I am so thankful that all my Grandma's great-grandchildren have them now as well. Thank you Grandma!

I have something else to say thank you for as well. I was the very lucky recipient of a handmade Christmas gift from Amy. Not only is it an incredibly beautiful purse, but it's also reversible, so I got TWO purses. Lucky me!! Thank you, thank you, Amy!

And Jim gave me a present on Christmas day as well. The "HOME ADVANTAGE", I'd like to call it. Also known as a kitchen floor. Not the final kitchen floor, mind you, but something to walk on besides joists.

And he moved the refrigerator and oven in and hooked them up, as well as the sink, dishwasher and a few cabinets, giving me a bit of a working area. Unfortunately the oven only worked for four days, two of which we were out of town, and now it's out of commission again. Sigh. I almost made some cookies.


Earlier this week we had the pleasure of a visit from Jim's brother Sam and his family. Rachel was really digging her new cousin, Elaine, who we got to meet for the first time over the holidays. We enjoyed getting to spend some time and hanging with all the kids.



And here's Sarah, as I was trying to wake her from a nap today. She partied too hard last night, as all four of us rang in the new year together. The wisdom of that decision is debatable today. So that's a look back at the past week or so. Now I'm ready to look forward to what 2009 will bring. Happy New Year!

Goodness in the Mail

This great notebook/sketchbook came in the mail on Saturday. I was trying to think of what I'd ordered, as I saw the girls walking back from the mailbox with the envelope. They were trying to figure out why a package didn't have their name on it. When I opened it, I was so excited and felt so lucky! About a month or so ago, Erin Harris of house on hill road, asked for anyone willing to share some vintage sheet scraps with her. I happened to have a few scraps sitting on the top of my pile from a pillow case that I'd turned into a twirly skirt for Sarah using Erin's tutorial, so I offered to send them on. I have to say, I think that what I received as a thank you is infinitely nicer than what I sent to her! And you can see what she did with all the scraps right here. How beautiful is that?

Garden Hijacking

This is not my yard. I wish it was, but it is not. Instead, it's my next door neighbors. He's out of town for a few weeks and I have "watering duty". At my house, it is a task I'd take lightly, but in his yard, it seems like a much more serious job. We have been neighbors for about five years now, and while I see his yard daily, it has just recently struck me that it is incredibly beautiful.

I have no idea how you might describe his gardening style, but I guess I'd call it eclectic. What I've really noticed as of late is how he has layered so many things, not just plants, but also furniture, pots, bird houses, tools, bits of found objects....you name it. All this layering also gives the garden an incredible amount of texture to be found.

There's the texture of all the different plants, from flowers to fruits and veggies to shrubs and plants and there's also paint peeling in places, rust forming on things, moss on rocks, different types of planters, miscellaneous things hanging on the walls, fountains, lights, you name it. Everything comes together to make a really beautiful yard. Or garden. I don't know what to call it.

I think I have another week of watering duty, and I'm hoping to be able to grab some more pictures. I'm planning to use some of the photographs to make a set of cards for him for his birthday. Or, if I move as quickly as I usually do, for Christmas. You can see more pictures from his yard over on flickr.

If I Were a Strawberry Shortcake Doll.....

My name would have to be Mulberry Pie.

Or Mulberry Almond Coffee Cake.

Or mulberry pancakes, or any number of other mulberry treats. I tell ya, these dern mulberries have taken over my life. It is with a happy sigh that I notice that not as many are dropping on the ground these days. For a while, I was picking upwards of 12 or more cups a day. I froze 4 gallons, which basically took up my entire freezer. Some have gone to live with a friend in her spare freezer until we have time to try our hand at making jam with them. We're thinking we'll try our hand at regular jam and also maybe try freezer jam. Who knows what the last of the mulberries will turn up in!

Aside from being a slave to the mulberries, I have been working on my Mom's Mother's Day gift. Yes, that holiday that passed a good few weeks ago. I'd told her that I'd deliver her present in person, when I made a trip up in June, but what I didn't tell her was that the gift wasn't done by Mother's Day. It also wasn't done this past Monday. Or Tuesday. But that's beside the point. It's done now. And here it is. It did not turn out anything like what I'd imagined when I set off to make it. Inspiration came from an episode of America Quilts Creatively, which I talked about earlier. I think that the layering thing is a challenge for me. I'm really intrigued by the idea of building up layers, incorporating fabric, paper, paint, stamps and more into a piece , I'm just not proficient at it. At all. It was a good learning experience for me and in the process I was lucky enough to stumble up on the work of Judy Scott, who has some really beautiful images on flickr. It was one of her images that got me going in a direction that enabled me to get this finished this week. Phew! If only I could take better photographs. That's my Dad's Father's Day gift at the top, by the way. Late with one and early with the other. What's a girl to do?

Ballerinas abound

Sarah has a modeling gig. It's not a typical gig, but she is the model, nonetheless. A friend of my parents is a painter and did this painting. She first painted Sarah about a month ago, when she saw an email of the girls after they'd dressed themselves. (It's the first picture I posted on this blog.) After she painted that, she asked for more pictures to use and I've been sending her some. I almost didn't send her this one, seeing as how it was just a back view, but I thought the picture expressed so much about Sarah that I went ahead and sent it. Ironically, it's the first one she chose to paint. She is thinking of doing a series, as I'd taken a slew of pictures of the girls outside in their tutus last winter on a warm day. I just love this painting, as I can feel Sarah in it, how she often just takes off by herself, content to be alone, doing her own thing. This painting is up for auction on ebay, so check it out, along with all Kathie's other beautiful paintings. I made the girls' tutus using an a tutorial I found online. This wasn't the one, but it looks like the same deal. No sewing, just tying some knots. Easy peasy.

Since Rachel seems to be getting the short end of the stick as far as her picture showing up here, I thought I'd share one of her in her tutu from last Halloween. Here she is as Angelina Ballerina.

I was hoping that I'd have pictures of an apron that I'm almost done with to share soon, but seeing as how I seem to have misplaced the instructions, I'm at a standstill. This is most disappointing, as I'd intended to finish it up tonight. I'm off to dig through a weeks worth of paper recycling now to see if it might have landed in there. Good times all around!