Posted at 10:35 PM in craftiness, crochet, decorating, designer sock monkeys, holidays, home, made from felted wools, Winston | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
There's a giant colander of crookneck squash sitting on the kitchen island... I have absolutely no idea what to do with it all, except make soup, that my family won't eat (Google crookneck, again). Another colander was filled with tomatoes in addition to the aqua bowl filled with tomatoes. Today, I got the tomatoes down to one bowl again. And I'm beginning to be afraid to go into the jung garden at this point. The peppers went with kielbasa on Monday night and more went into teriyaki chicken last night. There's another half-bushel still to be picked. I am so happily amazed at how much food we grew in our backyard this summer. I made more jam last week. This time with roadside peaches and frozen raspberries. It turned out really well. September has now officially risen in the ratings of second favorite month (May is still a strong first place), because picking food from the backyard and marvelling over it all has just made September weirdly wonderful.
Okay, moving on. I worked like a crazy woman all last week...my Etsy shop is open. It's not fully stocked, but I will keep adding to it weekly. We helped Ainsley and Jeff moved from their cute little rented '40s cottage to a cute little mortgaged '40s cottage, just a few blocks from their old home in the next town up from us, which is still just five minutes away, so perfect arrangement, all in all (we all think). (Cute photos to show here someday.) I sent off licensing proposals/photos in between Etsy and kids moving, and got told politely "no thanks". I got the stomach flu the same day as my "no thanks" and spent Tuesday through today SICK. Like awful sick. A really high and low week... hard on the soul. Getting a rejection letter and the flu in the same day really stinks. I cried. I rarely cry in front of the kids. (Corbyn cleaned his bathroom; it must have been dramatic for him.) (Mike brought home yellow roses; he's a keeper.) I was so sick on Wednesday I couldn't do much but lay in bed, just thinking and really praying for guidance. I so want to go where I've been being led; it's hard for me to see God's hand in my life right now. I wonder how much more I can surrender to understand God's will in my life... I know I've been given talents to serve God with, and through so much asking and praying, I have been led along a path that I thought was just about to open into a "promised land'. A place where my talents could bring joy, creativity, and help for people. I think one of the lessons I'm being taught is that this is going to happen in God's good time, not mine. I am definately being taught patience and perserverance... I won't give up. I know I'm being awfully cryptic in all of this... someday I hope to be able to tell more about my licensing journey. I just can't do it here, since people in China seem to really enjoy knocking stuff off they see in blogland. I sorta feel like I live a bouble life in my blog, because I can't talk fully about my licensing pursuits. It must seem odd when I've been gone a week or two here and come back having nothing very creative to share. Especially when that's what my blog is mostly meant to be about... sharing creativity on the creative path... (for hell's sake.) I just need to remember that this IS the creative journey... it doesn't follow a linear line; it meanders; it turns back on itself, and sometimes the clearing in the woods is just a rest stop, I've learned, not the promised land. So I'm going to pull weeds this weekend and clean my house and get caught up on laundry...clean undies wait on nobody...and then I'll get back to figuring out where to pick up from and start over again. This journey is circular too, I've learned :)
Oh, and on a cool note... :) I'm helping plant a Mary's Garden at our church. I'll tell you about it next week!
Have a lovely weekend, my friends.
XOK
Posted at 06:01 PM in designer sock monkeys, food/recipes, gardens, home, sewing, Winston | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
This past week was so busy and at the same time so... quiet. We ran Sophey to camp and back in the mountains above Salt Lake city last weekend and Friday, Jesse to golf clinics every morning, and on Wednesday he played all day in his first golf tournament. (He took fourth out of fifteen boys!) His friends were all away for camp through the week, so no herd of neighborhood boys through the house either. It seemed like the first week back to school, that week that I just can't seem to settle myself to do anything very constructive, because I'm well, off schedule from the summer chaos I've gotten used to living in! I was restless in the quiet and I couldn't focus on finishing any of the projects I should have... and then the Farmer's Market was Thursday and that takes up the day... sooooo, there went my week.
I'm hoping for a Saturday morning sewing session... the camper and golfer will sleep late, the dog has a haircut appoint. at nine a.m. ( so I can't sneak sleeping in) and I will be able to focus on getting some things designed/sewn/done with my noisy family home and doors slamming, and dogs barking... how weird that I know that will help.
It's so freakin' hot this summer I'm not complaining yet, not yet...but it's hovered around a hundred degrees all week.
Wednesday while the guys were golfing I got a haircut (shorter for the heatwave :). After, I stopped and thrift store hunted for a little while. I've got it down to a science at my favorite store. Enter doors, turn right, scan sweater racks, move to interesting blouse fabric, sharp left again, hit up books and the good "junk" under glass cases, scan houseware aisles, out the back to the patio where the large items are located, head to checkout... Twenty minutes flat. (Beats a McDonald's drive thru lately :) Last week I found margarita and wine glasses, the cute yellow dishdrainer, a rose china plate (now a craft room catchall for teeny things) and... baby books... (I don't know why I'm buying them, but who can pass up the cuteness for fifty cents?) for grandkids someday, I guess(?). And of course, the great guide to Great Britian because, you know, I need to start planning that trip back now... for umm... someday.
So there ya go, that's my adventurous week...
pretty pictures with perfect images because I was home alone and the house never got messed up.
Ready to get back to summer and the noise and mess over here.
XOK
Posted at 11:11 PM in books, gardens, home | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)