Monarch Post

I'll take it in green, please.

I have gardening fever... I am unable to not stop at any garden centers. I work for hours in the morning unconcerned about dirty dishes or laundry or me taking a shower until afternoon. I am spending inordinate amounts of time planting, watering, and walking back out oh, every couple of hours just to see "how things are doing"... ummm... I think it grew a little since I was out here, uh, two hours ago???

Gosh, I  really love it. We've lived here seven years and have spent most of that time working on the inside of the house, getting it the way we want it (it still isn't either, but it's closer). So for me, the outside just never really felt like "ours". The previous owners planted some basic shrubs and thankfully, the big honey locust tree in our backyard, but most of the yard is just grass. Can't think how many times I've pulled open the blinds in our bedroom, looked down below at all that grass on the side of the house and thought what a perfect spot for a kitchen garden... and now we have one : )

This weekend we'll be making a short, white picket fence to enclose the garden. This will be good. Very good. I am tired of yelling at dogs who think vegetable beds are meant for their use. I am also tired of pulling bark off of Winston's furry fanny.

So farI've planted: nine varieties of tomatoes, four of sweet peppers, three  cukes, zucchini, crookneck, basil, thyme, rosemary, parsley, cilantro, dill, oregano, mint. Two blueberry bushes, two raspberry bushes, and three hanging strawberry planters. And seeds... jalapeno, green beans, carrots, and radishes. I still have watermelons and cantaloupe and more flowers to plant. I am slightly nervous about it all, wondering if any of those seeds will really even sprout. Our last home had a mini- mini tomato and zucchini patch, so this one feels like a farm in Kansas... The suburb girl, is getting in touch with her inner-farm girl :)

I find myself thinking of my grandmothers' and my Mom's gardens when I plant. They feel closer to me when I'm out digging in the dirt, and I feel connected to my long line of gardening great-mothers (and mother Earth too). I can still hear my Mom's voice... plant it deep enough and make a well around it, so the water stays in better... I tell Sophey the same words now. (And I'll bet my grandmother said those same words to my mother).

Hope you have a lovely Memorial Day weekend, my friends.

 

 

got the dirt on it.

I have been lost in a jungle of wild monkeys and gardens lately... but in a good way. This is one of about nine sets of little girl's aprons with matching sock monkey/ clothes I've been working on. I think it's time for a little haute couture for the monkey world... I mean really, how many naked sock monkeys are there running around the world? It's just not right ;)  (And then there were all those apron and dress scraps... I couldn't waste those. So I sewed baby balls, headbands, flower barrettes, etc. to match.)

Her name is Poppy (not very creative, I know, but who else could she be?) The poppy fabric came from an estate sale last summer. It looks like it's from the '60s and it reminds me of all the Marimekko fabrics and wallpapers I loved in the '80s. The fabric had been made into curtains. I bought yards of the poppy fabric and a big box of other fabrics for four dollars... love finding stuff like that!

The goal is an Etsy shop again by the beginning of summer. Well stocked and adorable is the plan. I'm also working on stocking a booth for the farmer's market this summer, and the shop I sell too, and I'm working on not feeling overwhemed by all my grand ideas :)

Last week I went hunting for a few display pieces for the farmer's market. I bought everything at my friend Brenda's shop, Just A Bed of Roses. If you're local and you're looking for lovely antiques, she is your "go to" girl. 

I found an old metal bread box, wooden hangers, doily, a pretty rose candy dish, and a gold and cream damask tablecloth.

Isn't it gorgeous? I love it. I also found fabric at a fabric store that matches this perfectly- a small golden gingham print for the display table that reminds me of warm toast and honey... don't ask me why...

The next day I found more yellow gingham at the thrift store- old curtains again. A whopping two dolla. I love the brown and cream cross-stitching pattern along the bottom.  Not sure what I'll make out of it yet though... then I went to Hobby Lobby and found this children's vintage reproduction fabric.  

I said, "monkey dresses!"

And the last best thrift store find lately... this jello mold, now hanging in the kitchen. I have been on a rolllll...

That includes sod rolling around here too. Two Saturdays ago Mike rented a sod cutter for the day, and as a family we dug up 7,500 lbs. (!) of sod from our yard and hauled it to the dumps... We needed canes and walkers on Sunday. Oh. My. Gosh. Muscles none of us knew we had hurt for days, but it's looking great. Mike and Jesse built the raised beds, installed weed cover underneath, and hauled load after load of dirt and bark to fill it all in. The sprinkling system is still being rerouted and a drip system is almost ready to go.

Tomorrow, I'm buying the veggies to plant. Tomatoes, squash, broccoli, carrots, melons, herbs, peppers, and whatever else looks intruiging. I layed in bed thinking of vegetables this morning at 5:30 am, wondering if I could make my own salsa with only our homegrown veggies this fall.

(Suburban produce fever? )

The seating spot will include a movable fire pit for now. That area needs to be clear to drive into when we build the waterfall and new deck next year. After that happens, another raised bed will probably go where the seating and firepit are now. Around the edges of the garden will be a white picket fence; it's scheduled to go up next weekend. I'm planting the front outside edges of the fence in cosmos, snapdragons, and whatever else I fall in love with at the garden center. The rounded corner edge will have a birdbath, an ornamental tree, more flowers and a beautiful St. Francis statue Mike gave me for Mother's Day yesterday.

We are all so excited about this project... and I'll keep you posted through the summer.

Aren't you so excited for vegetable slideshows ha,ha!

I think they are called Western Tanengers. They are here everyday, suddenly, along with a big blue-jay. "Need" a new birdbath for sure.

We are having the most gorgeous spring in Utah this year, and I am so glad after the great, wet, soggy, miserable, flooded April, May, and June of last year. We could not have put a garden in last year, there wasn't a dry day until mid-June. I definately think it's making it all the sweeter this year... and I am on the hunt for an awesome homemade salsa recipe.

XOK

 

 

 

lost and found

I have so many projects in the works right now, my mind is full of ideas. I love spring for that... along with a million other reasons... everything coming back to life- green, blooming, growing... it's the best. All that frozen, stagnant winter brain stuff of mine is over and I have more ideas than I can possibly bring to life as quickly as I want to.

May is my favorite month of the year.

I wanted to have so much finished to show you by now, but I honestly have about twenty sewing projects going at once. Sometimes (yup, like spring) I just work better on lots of things at once- it's some sort of cross-pollination thing... one idea leads and flows into others. And so I go from one to the other project/idea like a bee, almost.

So for now the design for the tea towel I showed a little peak of awhile back is what's finished. I like how it turned out. It's a plain old craft store tea towel that I added appliqued fabrics to, my red crocheted flowers, and some sweet vintage Black-eyed Susan trim found on Etsy. The butterflies are appliqued fabric, the words are written with water-soluble embroidery marker, and back-stitched in three strands of embroidery floss. I love the words... the whole quote is from Romans and goes something like this, "be transformed by the renewing of your minds". It feels like my creative journey over the last four years. It's been very transformative-ish... and sorta butterfly-ish. I stop and land here for a bit and then fly along over there... admiring the beauty of all I find along the way, then posting about it. It's how I've rolled. And you know what?? It's not a bad way to figure yourself out, I've decided... it looks like lots of superficial flitting along, but it's an uncovering too, of sorts, finding all that you love, and then (now) putting it all together. (I went to design school and worked as a designer in many different jobs, but I was always designing what other people wanted me to, not zero-ing in on my own style. I'm thinking now that lots of kid raising had something to do with that delay too! ;) 

Wholeness. I have hunted for it for four years. And those four years were pretty rough years at times... a year of watching my Mom slowly die from dementia (I don't know of a more horrific way to die) and another year grieving her death. Deep issues surfaced within my family during my Mom's illness- Dad, sister, brother, myself, and have been the source of  heartache too. I was so stressed, my hair even started to fall out for awhile. A few more health problems gave me a scare too in the last couple of years, but most have thankfully been solved.

The first year of this blog I didn't know what it was supposed to be about, or the business I had launched for that matter... blogging and writing did not come easily either. (Putting it out there publicly is really intimidating for me at times). I named it Monarch Post because all I really knew for sure about it was that I was going through a time of personal transformation and the monarch butterfly fit that transformation image perfectly, still does.

But through it all a picture finally presented itself... and... fiiinally, I got it. It was my life... this business was meant to be about my life/our life... whadayaknow- ha, ha! Crafting, children, creativity, gardens, flowers, food, justice, spirit, joy. It feels like a homecoming, a circling back around... a transformation- and it feels really great. It probably sounds silly, but I knew when this little tea towel project was done that I was at the beginning of that wholeness I had searched for... all the little pieces of what I love coming together somehow... so easily, so full-circle moment...finally. It flowed. Things are  moving along in a happy direction now. Staying true is hard work though... I read a quote on another blog one gray day, "Keep your face to the sun and you cannot see the clouds"  ~ Helen Keller.  And that is exactly what it takes to get through the hardest times, I've learned... and also just putting one foot (however freakin' weary) in front of the other. every. single. day. on that journey of keeping your face to the sun. I'm so glad I started to blog and hopefully, blog designer number four will be able to give me a new blog design soon.(Sorry for the long mess here... not my plan). I never kept a journal growing up, but now I can see the value of journaling... it's like a  road map of where you've been; looking back and forward leads you along...like the real labyrinth at church I walked during Lent this year... you do eventually get to the center- going forward and backward, backward and forward, as long as you keep putting one foot in front of the other...you cannot,  can not fail to get to the center... labyrinths, I learned, were created to symbolize the spiritual journey everyone takes through life. Such a great metaphor for that journey through life, don't you think?

Tomorrow we're digging up sod and planting a kitchen garden in the completely un-landscaped east area of our backyard. Mike and the boys are also digging up the grass along the east fence to eventually be landscaped. This summer it will grow zinnias.  We've got plans for plants, trees, and a waterfall in the north-east corner of the yard. And a two-level rock deck project for next summer that will circle under our lovely honey locust tree. I am really looking forward to it all. Oh, and we decided as a family to dive in and craft goods in fabric and wood for the local farmer's market this summer. The kids, Mike and I are really excited to do this too- after all it fits the plan... children, creativity, and joy! 

And so anyway, as usual, I'm writing and rambling along in hopes that you find something to take with you too on your creative journey through life. It's the other equal reason for being here at this blog... you know...??  It really, really is :)

Hope your weekend is lovely.

XOK

 

ruff week

Straddling the recliner, backwards and asleep... I felt like this last week.

I crashed all over the house too... from one spot to the next.

I had the flu and so did Sophey... she also has an ear infection like no other.

Obviously, this is not going to be an exciting post.

Nothing has been done around here but surviving... and some whining.

But I did order a Kindle book about fifteen ways to improve your immune system, we've been sick too much this winter and I'm going to read it and IMPLEMENT, by darn it.

So... on this exciting note I will leave you (aren't you sooo glad you stopped by today).

Back in a few when I have something FUN to share!

Have a good week, my friends.

XOK

 

 

 

spring still lifes

Spring break was lovely. Sleeping in, reading, and tea drinking in the morning in the warm living room sunshine, (while kids slowly made their way to pancakes and showers...) friends, play dates and a day at the new SportsPlex diving off trampolines into rubber brick filled pits made up our staycation break this year. Mike marked out space in the back yard for a kitchen garden- I think it's going to be a fun summer family project. Baking Easter cookies, and crocheting while watching the snow storm Good Friday morning...it felt like Christmas instead of Good Friday, so strange.  Sunday it was the sound of brass bells and ancient hallelujah choruses rising up through the church rafters on a glorious, warm and sunny Easter morning. 

A week of contrasts, but a settling too into a more peaceful place these days... like a dog who has gone round and round to make his bed and then settles in... that's me... and that's the best explanation I can muster at the moment.

But today it was back to work... laundry, cleaning, and thinking... what am I making in the craft room this week?  :)

How was your spring week?

XOK

Spring chickie tutorial

Oh, hello there! Aren't we the cutest chicks you've ever seen...?  ;) 

We are so happy that it's finally spring, we've been chirping, "hooray for spring!" all day long while sitting on the sunny kitchen windowsill.

  Hee hee ;)

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So I made it back on Monday...like, barely. It was a kid-ful kind of day.

Here's that quick little Easter/spring craft I mentioned for you...

1. Cut out six green fabric scraps (about 6"x6"), and three pieces of double-sided iron on interfacing the same size as the fabric scraps.
2. Sandwich the interacing between two pieces of matching fabric with right sides both facing out.
3. Iron the fabric/interfacing sandwich pieces together and cut out lots of little one-inch leaves.

I didn't use a  pattern for the leaves and cut them out un-exactly, because un-exact is part of the charm.

Next, I hot glued the little crocheted primroses I made awhile ago for the chick's hats, but you could use silk flowers, or cut out felt flowers.

Or whatever you want to use for hats- it's your creation :)

I strung little red beads with a needle and thread, and then tied a knot. Dabbed the tiniest dot of hot glue where the knot was tied and hung the glued part at the back of the chicks neck (do chicks have necks...?)

Then I made little scarves for the rest of the chickies. I cut fabric triangles measuring about three inches in both directions, but adding long ties on one edge to tie under the chicks chin (do chicks have chins... well, you know what I mean ;).

Again, add just a teeny dab of hot glue to the top underside of the scarf to secure to the chicks head.

Glued the chicks on a branch from the back yard. Added the leaves and more red flowers...

And voila! Chicks on a stick chirping their little hearts out : )

Easy enough with a little help from an adult for older kids or grandkids to make too.

They made me  happy sitting there on the windowsill, watching me do dishes. 

I made five sets to sell at the shop. Each birdie/set seemed to have  it's own personality... how does that happen anyway...?

So there ya go.

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Did you have a good weekend?

I did... the house was a happy, crazy place with all the kids here working on projects. Ainsley and Jeff bought a 1960's teardrop camper last summer for $200 (!) to refurbish. (They completedly gutted it and started redoing it last summer, but couldn't get it and a wedding done at the same time). The cabinets are done and Ainsley is making upholstered cushions for it... burnt orange and avocado green for the decor. I'll show you someday when it's finished.

Sophey made April Fool's Day "egg cupcakes" for Sunday dinner.

 I almost finished a new design for appliqued tea towels.

 

Corbyn and his band worked on recording their first music CD.

 Jesse didn't sprain anything! 

And friends we haven't seen for way too long stopped by and surprised Mike and I with  a Sunday evening visit ... it was all good... really good, in fact : )

See you next Monday, after the holiday...

Happy Easter to you!

XOK!

 

 

 

 

bark duty

We've named it "bark duty" around here. The window staring  patrol that goes on everyday to protect our home against such threats as villainous preschoolers, other dogs (gasp) and cats.... (oh horror of horrors). Yes, it's a big job and it's an important job... and Winston and Greta are always up to the task of keeping the Henderson household safe from ominous threats to the Henderson way of life. Woof woof. Ha ha.

( Sophey kept him company and woofed along with him last week. Nice slobber all over the place. Sheesh. I cleaned it.)

Where where we...? Ah, baskets.... Done. Finished. Out the door. All nineteen. Yay.  And all of that crafty fun last week in between a child's sprained ankle, a husband in Europe, and very scary banging sounds coming from the basement every time someone flushed a toilet in the house. Thank you Spiers Plumbing- you saved us last week. That was freaky.

 I pretty sure I'm suffering from craft burnout this week. I am repelled by the sight of wool, scissors, hot glue guns, and fabric... well, sorta. But I'm almost over it. I'll have a cute little yellow chick mini-tutorial idea thing for you on Monday. And then I'm stepping away from the computer for a week because it's Spring Break and Holy Week (not in that order) and I want to shift my focus for a bit....

XOK

 P.S. If you know of anyone who does Typepad blog design I would love to know. I've had two people lined up who can't redesign my blog and it's getting to be almost as embarrassing to look at this poor blog as it is the dog slobber in those photos, but I'll keep working on finding someone to give this blog a makeover!

humming along

 Happy first day of Spring to you. Finally. Yiippeee!

Yesterday, I saw the first real daffodils around the neighborhood, but it was snowing and they looked like they had been dusted with powder sugar (I was trying to see the beauty in more snow, it's getting harder ya know...)  It was so cold in the morning I started a big pot of white bean and ham soup for dinner.

Did you have a good weekend? It was a good weekend here. And yesterday was a good day too. I was wide awake (and felt great!?) at FIVE A.M., had a husband dropped off at the SLC airport, groceries bought on the way home, two loads of laundry done, the house cleaned up, dishes put away and dinner on the stove by ELEVEN A.M.  And then I worked the rest of the day until ELEVEN P.M... I have no idea where all the energy came from, but it was great to feel like a twenty-five year old for a day, haha!

There was no school yesterday, so with the kids home the kitchen was a humming place. I hauled my craft supplies downstairs, piled them on the kitchen table and worked on making more wooly Easter baskets to sell while Sophey baked treats for Jesse and his friends.

 

We can't eat everything she wants to make, so usually half gets donated to our neighbors who have five growing teenage boys- food does not linger long at that house.

Okay.... gotta go.... I'm back to basket making for the day.

XOK

baskets and ballet

I have nineteen Easter baskets to decorate and sell to All Tucked In this year.

And I have been workin like a factory robot this week...

little wooly yellow daffodils and pink roses.

I am pretty sure I'm insane to do this again.

They are time consuming, but they sell OUT.

and that is a good thing for my little cottage business :)

So there ya go.

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I've been watching TED while I work on my iphone and I love it!

TED features over 1,000 20 minute talks from leaders in all sorts of fields.

Smart people who are progressive and visionary thinkers.

And no name calling... Wow. Imagine that.

It's been really good to watch something so positive.

And I feel like my brain gets a workout.

When I'm doing work like today that is just repetitive I feel braindead.

I like to watch tv so it's less tedious, but The View is old

and soap operas are the biggest waste of time ever invented.

what else is there? (Except working dogs on PBS- that was fun to watch this week too.)

So go check it out, if ya want : )

Nice shot of the superhero guy on the tv on my sideboard mirror.

Whoops.

But the baskets are looking sweet, don't you think.

They are thrift store finds for about $1.00 each.

I've been hunting for baskets whenever I hit the thrift stores since January to find the really nice ones, and then I paint them with semi-gloss spary paint

I sprayed them white and pink again this year- they sell the best. 

Mike bought Sophey a dozen pink roses for her ballet recital last recital.

He played around with my camera and took  photos.

Aren't they pretty?!

And so was the ballerina girl.

She was a bridesmaid for Cinderella's wedding.

This was an elaborate production... an hour and a half of dance segments.

Amazing costumes and creativity.

If you live near Bountiful Utah and need a dance studio, the Creative Arts Academy is wow.

This girl is a dancer... and a performer.

She is shy when she is around large groups of people, but not when she hits the stage.

She loves it.

Have a great weekend everyone!

And a happy St. Patrick's Day.

I forgot it was St Patrick's Day until just now.

Mike and I are going on a hot date to Red Lobster tomorrow night.

I don't think that's very Irish,

so maybe I'll just tell my lobster a nice Irish limmerick and call it good ; )

XOK!

congratulations... it's a teenager :)

Hi!

I'm here... really.

Just working away on Easter baskets to sell to my shop.

Jesse celebrated his birthday last weekend with a four hour party with his buddies at this awesome fun center.

And he told me no pictures and couldn't wait for me to get lost at the fun center.

He wasn't rude and didn't say he didn't want me hanging around, but I got the message...

and he didn't want balloons or crepe paper decorations either.

BOOHOO.

He turned 13, so this explains the party-pooperness.

Hate it when they grow up.

But I still made small goody bags- with whoopie cushions because I couldn't resist whoopie cushions in the party store.

So not many photos... I had to sneek the few I got.

Like this one.

And then I started looking in files and found these photos of him.

Mr. Cute.

Those eyes are the sparkliest blue eyes.

And THOSE dimples.

And THAT smile.

The jr. high girls have noticed too.

They have called the HOUSE...

And I am getting worried ;)

We LOVE you Jesse Ryan and we think you are amazing-

whatever you do, you always put your whole heart into it.

You are light in our lives!

And I CANNOT believe you are already thirteen years old.

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K- gotta get back to work.

The kids and I had a bug Monday and Tuesday and I am behind, again :(

Back in a couple.

Have a great day!

 

XOK