A Little Imagination and a Pile of Junk

you know, for kids!

Just taking a few minutes away from flipping back and forth between watching my man Van Morrison on Austin City Limits and Raising Arizona (one of the funniest movies of all time) to give you a little update on a few works in progress. All I can share are the pretty little piles just yet, but if you're geeking out over those sweet red & white fabrics--and I know you are!--then hightail it over to Sweetflavor before December 7 for a little Christmas inspiration. Besides great Japanese fabrics, you'll find some lovely cotton prints at good prices. I'm also planning a list of some of my new favorite handmade shops to share as soon as I can  get it together--my life, not the list. Before Christmas, though. Promise.

Finally, *most* my gifts for the 12 Days of Xmas Exchange are in flight to their new homes, so I should be able to start a new project this weekend. A Winter coat pour moi.

I've been feeling so unproductive lately and having a really hard time getting used to the shorter days in Tennessee. Knowing it will be dark by 5 pm, I start feeling panicky around 4:00 thinking of all I still need & want to do with the day. No wonder I'm utterly exhausted by 8 pm.

Noise? What Noise??

We're back at home this week for the holiday. It feels good to be home, but a little overwhelming with the clutter left behind after our quick departure. I'm even more determined to get rid of half our stuff once we move back from Tennessee. John had to go into work for a bit today and is bringing me back as many boxes as he can. I may not be able to get started today, but at least I'll have the boxes when I'm ready. Something to look forward to!

Since I don't have any pictures to show, I thought I'd share our Fall '07 soundtrack. We've picked up some great new music recently.

Finally, picked up The Weepies that have been on my list to buy for a while. John says the girl's voice kinda gets on his nerves, but I love the folky sweetness of it. I can't stop singing Gotta Have You and Citywide Rodeo. John's favorite: The World Spins Madly On.

Oh, Icky Thump! The many ways that I love you! The first 3 songs are on constant rotation now but I predict that we'll move through the rest of the album quickly. Just when I think Jack & Meg can't possibly get any better, well, off they go.

And who would have thought to pair these two together?  A musical genius, that's who! The whole album blows me away. Beautiful, haunting, yet simple and just so right. Polly Come Home and Your Long Journey are perfect.

Well, I hope you have a wonderful week planned. We'll be at the beach relaxing with family this week, and I'll be finishing up The Thirteenth Tale so I can start The Book of Lost Things. I love a great story, but a book about books is heaven indeed. Have fun!

good-for-you cookies and the beauty of trees

This weekend we drove out to Chickasaw State Park to see the trees. The weather was perfect: sunny, upper sixties, late afternoon. It was amazing. The kids ran and played, John and I sat in the swing and talked and smooched until the sun set. I've been told that the leaves started turning late this year. I think they were waiting for us to get here.

While it is still 90 degrees back in South Texas, the cooler weather here has made me feel like baking, so I finally tried out a whole wheat chocolate chip cookie recipe I found over here. They were absolutely delicious! Crispy on the outside, chewy inside, and best of all good for you. I don't even think they made it through 24 hours. The kids said they were the best ever and I think I've found my new standard chocolate chip cookie recipe.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 C Unsalted butter
1 C Sugar
1 C Light Brown Sugar
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla
2 eggs
2 Cups sifted Whole Wheat Flour
1 C Flour
3/4 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Salt
2 C Semi-sweet chocolate chips

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Cream butter & sugars in an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix in vanilla & eggs. Combine flours, baking soda & salt. Gradually blend flour mixture into butter mixture. Fold in chocolate chips and drop onto a greased cookie sheet.  Bake 8-10 minutes. Allow cookies to cool for 5 minutes on baking sheets before placing on a wire rack.

A few tips: the dough is crumbly until everything is completely worked in. We didn't have an electric mixer so I did all the mixing by hand and it was more like kneading bread by the end. The cookies hold their shape really well, though. Because they are darker, it is harder to tell when they are done, but I waited until they browned a little on the edges before taking them out. It was closer to 10-11 minutes but they were perfect. Next time I'll use all whole wheat flour because the one cup of white flour didn't seem to make much difference in the texture. So delicious and when the kids ask for a cookie before breakfast, you can say proudly, "Sure! Let's all have one!"

the good life = living simply

It is funny how, if you let it, a new environment can open your eyes to see things in yourself and your life in a completely different light. It is good to get away from time to time just to get some perspective. I love it when this happens. When suddenly a light goes on and you can see a situation or problem like you never have before. And it suddenly makes so much sense. Not too long ago I wrote a bit about my search for simplicity. A slippery little thing it is, and hard to grasp firmly, especially in the midst of somewhat-ordered chaos. But living away from home in this small (compared to our house) apartment without the clutter of my usual daily life, I see how desperately I need a change. I always think the change I need is to get out of the Valley, but now I see that it is much deeper.

This is one of the things that I've learned from being in Memphis so far:

I don’t need near as much stuff as I think I do. Having more than I need just complicates my life. The more stuff I have, the more time I have to spend cleaning, organizing, and taking care of it. The parts about my daily life that frustrate me most (piles of laundry and dishes that are never ending; toys, papers, and books everywhere all the time, no matter how I try to organize; the tremendous amount of time that feels wasted every day just keeping up the household) are bad only because I have so much to take care of. The level of frustration I get from the things I need to do daily is directly proportional to the amount of stuff I have.

Less stuff I own = less time I have to spend taking care of it = more time I have to do the things I want to do.

I don’t need more time in the day, I need less stuff to take care of. Coming to Memphis, we brought a limited amount of clothing, but instead of creating more laundry rewashing the same clothes like I thought it would, we actually have less laundry to pile up. Three or four loads and everything in the house is clean. I keep asking myself: do we really need 5 choices of cereal in the pantry? Five baskets overflowing with toys for just one kid? Five bookshelves filled with many books I am certain I will never read again? 2000+ square feet of tile that needs sweeping daily? Cabinets full of art supplies that I only use once a year, maybe? And I am not a pack-rat; I love getting rid of old stuff. But still I hang onto many things because I may possibly need them someday. So now I'm asking myself: is having to pay for and maintain a bigger house and more storage space really better than having to repurchase something in the small possibility that I will suddenly need it again? It seems like I am spending more money for a mortgage on a bigger house and utilities alone just to hold onto stuff I rarely need than it would take to occasionally repurchase something. And that's not even considering the time it takes me to keep it all from taking over the whole house.

Most people I know up-size with each house they buy, which makes sense as a family grows. But how much of that extra space we think we need will just be filled with more stuff leaving us needing more? I mean how many people do you know that park their car outside in the elements because the garage is being used as storage? Umm, me! Now I'm thinking that when we get home, I want to get rid of it all, sell the house and buy a smaller one. I want to spend less time maintaining and more time doing the things I enjoy. I'm thinking that's one reason being here has felt so much like an extended vacation.

What do you think? Isn't this something we all wrestle with in one way or another? Do you have any tips for me on the logistics of down-sizing and getting the kids on board with it?

when YOU WIN, we win

I have to say, the Memphis thrift shops have been good to me. I've been using considerable self-control with my purchases considering that we will be flying back home with the same number of bags we flew here with, which was already too many. I do have several projects in the works including my gifts for the 12 days of Christmas exchange that I need fabric for, and since I couldn't bring my whole stash along with me, I've given myself permission to do a little fabric shopping.

Lovely yellows, rich browns, happy blues. My favorites, though, are the vintage sheets.

Except for a few buttons, maybe some trim, I'm all set. At least for a little while. It wouldn't take me long at all to have this nice, neat, little apartment overflowing with crap that I'm sure I'd convince myself I couldn't live without.

bad bad bad momy

That's me. The note was left anonymously. We are all greatly perplexed at who could have left it. <dead pan silence>

Thankfully, John took the kids out this evening to give me some much needed quiet. We had a rough day today. I was yelled at in the grocery store by my 6 year old after not letting him open his new fuzzy coloring poster in the car and then making him go grocery shopping instead of being at home coloring his coolest ever dinosaur. And that was just the beginning. Although the kids have been playing really well together since we got here, we are all way too close for too long every day in our apartment. There's nowhere to go to get away from each other even for a little while.

Getting out of the house is great, though. So many things to see and do. And praise the Lord for GPS. I can really understand now how you can fall in love with that sweet voice that just knows the exact moment when you need to change lanes or make a turn. It's like she can read your mind, man. And, it seems as though the trees actually waited for us to get here before putting on their Autumn attire. Everything is just beginning to take on this amazing glow. Tomorrow, I think we'll drive out and get some pictures and press some leaves. Having grown up in the piney woods of Southeast Texas,  I've really missed being surrounded by trees. After living 4 years in the razed and paved suburbs of Austin with no single tree above 6 feet tall and then another 6 years in the Valley where the palm tree is the only thing providing a little shade, I could never, ever again take the trees for granted.

 

Ahh, the quiet. I can hear digital cable calling with her sweet seductive voice. But first, a hot bath, a fistful of pilfered Halloween candy, and the most comfortable spot on the couch all to myself.

do as i say, not as i do

Before we left home, I cut a bunch of fabric for projects I didn't want to forget about after the move. One of them was a sewing apron/craft apron. I have been wanting to make one of these for a while because it drives me crazy having to go back and forth looking for scissors, pins, etc. while I am trying to sew. My iron, machine, and cutting table are all over the house, so I'm already getting a work out without leaving tools behind. So, for this extra special project I cut into my beloved $17 a yard Japanese fabric (I actually bought mine at ReproDepot and I've seen it at Superbuzzy, but I couldn't find it either place to link for you). Unfortunately, in my rush, I was just happy to dig up a piece of canvas fabric the right size and didn't realize that it hadn't been washed.

And this is after I ironed the heck out of it, stretching and pulling until my fingers hurt. Oh, you should have seen it when it was finished--of course, I didn't get a picture then--it was so cute and just perfect. But I had to go throw it in the washer. Well, this is what happens when good fabric goes bad, or when you don't pre-wash your fabric. Ugh.