pARTy pics

The second day of pARTy we all went to Aimee’s house, where about a dozen of us made soaps and lip balms,with instructions and supplies from Super Jen.  Amanda, tribal leader of Gourmet Nomads, brought these gorgeous cookies.  I also got to meet in person Heather, whose artwork and photographs I had been admiring on flickr the last few months. 

Jello shot anyone?  Just kidding – those are some of the soap bars that were made.

And there was a little moo card trading going on as well!

Flaming Pits of H-E-Double Hockey Sticks

We temporarily interrupt the last installment of the Lawrence trip to issue a heat advisory!   Heat indexes in the 100’s!  And I just got a call from my blueberry farmer friend who said the picking season will end next week, rather than around 4-5 weeks from now because of the heat wave.  If I don’t get blueberries I’m going to throw a major (and I mean it!) major hissy fit!  So what do you do when it feels like the flaming pits of h-e-double hockey sticks?  Well, if you are an idiot like me you will run 4.5 miles.

Then because your brain has been boiled in its skull you will let your son talk you into letting him slide down the laundry shoot into the basement.

 And again because your brain has been boiled in its skull you will publicly post pictures of the most hideous space in your entire house.  I bet you are impressed with our “vintage” fuse boxes!  However, if you are smarter than I, you might skip all the above idiocy and pull out the sun print paper and make sun prints with your peeps.

I picked up this paper at an educational supply store, but you can also find it here or here.  Photojojo also has a really cool tutorial about turning your photos into shrinky dink jewelry and magnets.  Just something else to do if your town’s pool is broken.

Journal Making

I wish that I could show you photos of the delightful people that were a part of this weekend.  It seems everyone has a bit of shyness when it comes to showing themselves publicly.  This blogging crowd likes to stay behind the scenes so to speak.  So, you get to see the things we worked on and made instead.  When I arrived Friday afternoon Jen showed up bearing some amazing gifts for us.

I made those chocolates disappear in short order.  And the paper fish – SCORE!! She also gave us a bottle of cheap summer wine which I’m saving for the perfect summer evening.  The wine in the picture was a total splurge in the $20.00 range that I bought earlier.  Here’s the thing, just because it’s more expensive doesn’t necessarily mean it will be better that the $10.00 stuff.  Lesson learned.  I’m willing to bet that Jen’s cheap summer wine will be better.

Anyway, in between wining and dining and window shopping we made coptic bound journals.  We first chose our paper, and Jen had an entire folio full of awesome papers.

Then we glued the paper to our book boards.  Jen carefully guided us and helped us make neat and tidy corners.  I can still picture the gestures of her hands as she showed us how to fold the paper and use the bone folder to smoothly apply the paper to the boards.

Our book boards were placed under our mattresses overnight so that they could dry without any warping.  If we had had a stack of heavy books we could have used those instead.  The next morning we pulled them out and they were crisp and smooth.  The next step in the process was choosing coordinating thread from Jen’s stash.  We also folded blank pages to create the internal signatures for the journals.  Apparently I had chosen one of the more difficult book binding processes.  The reason I chose it though is because I love the way these journals will lie flat when open.  And the stitching looks like braid work on the bound edge.  In the whole process we learned new vocabulary and used new tools – a hole punching awl, a punching cradle, bookbinding needles, waxed thread.  It makes me giddy thinking about it, and potentially I now have the knowledge I need to make more of these for myself and others.  Thank you, thank you Jen!!

Here is the inside cover of mine and the finished journals that Melinda, Jen and I made!

Spider Silk

I’m still basking in the light of this weekend, sorting through my pictures and thoughts.  I took the bench with me to Lawrence and since it’s Bench Monday it seemed a fitting snippet from this weekend.  Right now the thought picture I have is of connections made that are as fine and strong and luminous as spider silk.  And the way that those threads stick to you.  But in this case in a pleasant way.  Brushing up against the memories of this weekend, and having them softly clinging and feeling my heart in my chest suddenly too large for its space.  Later this week when I can be less abstract I’ll share more.  Thank you Jen,  Melinda, Aimee, Leslie,  for a wonderful weekend!

pARTy!!!!

This post would contain a bazillion exclamation points, if I didn’t have exlamation point overuse phobias.  I’m heading to Lawrence, Kansas in two hours!  Jen is taking her pARTy on the road to my neck of the woods.  Melinda  and I are driving up and meeting her for crafting, food and wine, picture taking, and who knows what other trouble we can get into.  We will also be meeting Aimee and some other like minded people on Saturday to make lip balms and soaps.  First I will be dropping off 5 teenage boys at the KU campus for basketball camp, and then a weekend of girlfriends.  I am so ready, I’ve literally had kids hanging off of me as if I were their own personal playground equipment.  And having to step over them as I prepare meals because they insist on laying on the kitchen floor while peppering me with questions as I’m trying to cook.   You all know I love ‘em, but sheesh I need some SPACE! 

I’ll be taking lots of pictures and jotting notes to share next week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I just broke out in a sweat over that punctuation.)

Lake Weekend

I can only say that I hope you are spending as little time in front of this computer screen as I am.  Summer is here, and it is full, and frenzied and wonderful.  Go out and play!

Summer Tips

This post is really dedicated to those of you have younger children.  Some of them could be translated or tweaked to work with older children or even yourselves.  A lot of these tips I got from a friend of a friend.

Set up a pad of paper and markers, pens and pencils right by the door.  When you get back from an excursion or outing have the kids jot down or draw pictures of the things they did or saw or funny inside jokes.  This makes a great summer journal of sorts that the family can look back on and remember.

Every day right after breakfast have the kids make their own sack lunches.  Maybe one day a week or every two weeks have the kids go grocery shopping with you to pick out healthy, easy foods to pack in lunch sacks.  After they make their sack lunches they can stick them in the fridge for later, and if you spontaneously decide to go on an outing you simply grab lunch and go with out having to eat out or worry about what’s for lunch.

At the start of summer or right this very minute start a list.  Have a little planning session where every one gets a chance to say what things they would like to do this summer.  Swimming, fishing, museums, water balloon fight, sleep under the stars, etc.  Check the local paper for free or cheap things to do – concerts, outdoor movie viewings, nature walks, crafty classes.

Assign chores or tasks (those things that you find yourself doing over and over) that the kids can do, and make the point that if EVERYONE works hard for a short time, then EVERYONE (this includes you mom) gets to play hard too!

Help your kids find a “secret” spot where they can go for some down time with a book or legos or something.  The friend of a friend planted a pole bean fort with bamboo stakes and pole beans.  It’s probably too late for this now at least where summer is  in full swing.  But you could do this by hanging blankets somewhere or creating a quiet spot in the yard with a little chair and table or whatever.

So, these are just a few ideas.  I would love to hear more, especially things for older kids.  I’m hoping that by being a little intentional about our time the summer won’t slip away from us and disappear. 

I ran across this when I was looking for photos for the furniture redo pool and just think this is the greatest idea ever for those of you with little lads and lasses.   A play kitchen made from an entertainment center.

Play kitchen made by nirenire.  You can read her full post here.

Heather from Simple Daisy gave me an award.  Thank you so much for honoring me!  You should go check out her jewelry, it’s stunning!  I’m never good at passing these on because it would be impossible for me to narrow it down.

Hitched

A couple of weeks ago I attended a wedding.  All weddings are special, but this particular wedding had a little something extra built in.  I had never before met any of the people there.  I traveled 5 and 1/2 hours to go and witness a wedding of two people (very special people I might add) that I had never physically laid my eyes upon.  From the moment I arrived however I felt as if I did know them and had met them.  They were familiar to me somehow.  But let me back up a little.  Lea, the bride, and I became aquainted via Flickr – making comments on each other’s photos, and from there making comments on each other’s blogs.  This all started around March 2008.  Somehow we forged a connection, and the connection grew into actual handwritten letters and gifts being exchanged in the mail.  In fact I’ve probably recieved mail from her about every other week for the past 15 months.  One piece of mail was an invitation to her wedding.  Perhaps she only sent it to me as a courtesy, not thinking that I would actually attend her wedding.  But I knew I had to go and meet her in person, and meet Daniel (the groom) in person.  

I also met her PawPaw, her Aunt Carol, her niece and nephew, her dog, her bridesmaids, her sister – people I had heard about or seen pictures of.  I smiled when I arrived because I saw her mobiles hanging from the tent.  They looked just like the ones she had sent me.

Happy, Happy life together Lea and Daniel!

Disappearing Act

Contrary to appearances I did not bike off into the sunset never to appear again.  Thought about it……

The bike trip was delightful, three days - 110 miles, good food, great weather, the company of my best friend for life.  The Katy Trail has become a favorite of ours, and the small town of Rocheport as well.   Eventually I will have a few photos from the trip.  I took the Diana camera with me, so it’s the old fashioned process of finishing the roll of film and having it developed. 

As I get back into the swing of posting I’ll share my hyperbolic crocheted lichen.

This photo is the same piece of crochet I just boosted the color in Picnik.

I have several recipes I want to share too.  I made these chili peanuts and I thought they were terrific, especially sitting on the patio with an ice cold beer.  The rest of the family was not all that impressed.  Please note that the children were not drinking ice cold beers.  Theirs were room temperature (kidding!!)  Here is the recipe – try it and see what you think.  (I left out the cayenne pepper to suit the family.)  I thought it was very clever of me to put them in little individual parchment paper cones like the picture from the recipe.  My family was not all that impressed with that either.  *sigh*

There has been so much going on lately.  So, I plan to make up for my absence.  Also I’m working on a few papercuts, and I’d love to make this handmade wrapping paper from A Little Hut.  And as much as it saddens me I am no longer able to respond to all the comments.  I will try to answer particular questions in the comments, and I will respond to personal emails.  I do read every single comment and appreciate the time you take to respond to something I’ve said, but I’ve been racking my brain as to how to have time to visit your blogs and flickrs and to also do my own posting.  So far this is the only solution that seems viable.

I will leave you with these incredible ottomans by Christien Meindertsma.  Which I first saw on Blue Moss.

Blue…….

Today we took Marshall to the airport for his 10 day trip to Spain.  He is going with two other students, a parent, and his Spanish teacher.  Such an exciting experience for him, but now I’m feeling blue, blue, blue…..  This is a real milestone towards his independence and a giant step towards his leaving our little nest in two years.  Now several hours after taking him to the airport I want to burst into tears.   But you can see by this earlier photo below, Marshall on the left, his buddy Tanner on the right, that he is so excited and can’t wait for us to leave so he can embark on this trip of a lifetime!

And there they go heading to the security checkpoint, and as I type this right now he is somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean.

Then there is Everett who is now technically a freshman, and Nate who just lost his last baby tooth the other day.  The summer days looming before us, and me feeling lost and stranded, unable to come up with things to fill our days with adventure and discovery.  Because we’ve done so many of those things when they were younger and they don’t hold the same magic as they once did.   But once I make it to the other side of the blueness we will figure it out.  Mostly I plan to soak up this remnant of time, because that’s what it feels like - a scrap of fraying time, and get to know them all over again.  That’s the gift of summer time I think!

But I have a few days to work these things out in my heart and my head, because Brian and I leave for our annual anniversary bike trip tomorrow.  We have been trying to have a date for over 3 months now.  So it’s probably time for us to reconnect.  After all, at the rate things are transpiring, it soon will be just the two of us rattling around the house.   It might be wise for us to get to know each other again.  It would be kind of scary for us to look at each other in the not too distant future and to be thinking who the hell are you?

Will be catching up with all of you next week!  Hope you have a good one!