bits of sunshine

my crafty space

On Sunday afternoon and evening I tackled piles of fabric, piles of scrapes, piles of cast-off clothes, and a hodge-podge of furniture.  I set up a little sitting area ::

And my sewing table ::

One shelf for works in progress ::

And another shelf for bits and pieces and fabric ::

Yes, it's all in the dark basement.
Sometimes it's damp down there.  I'll be purchasing a dehumidifier soon.
And I'll always have throw rugs that can be picked up and hung to dry if need be.
But, it's a good little space.  And I'm filling it up with things I like. 

I've already done a fair bit of sewing since I cleaned it up - something about a clean organized space to get the creativity flowing! 

And Maddie joined me on Monday night - she sat in the cozy brown chair and worked on an embroidery project that she drew out.

Lots and lots of fun fiber art will be coming from Elizabeth's sewing space . . . I'll show you some works in progress tomorrow.

a yarn wrapped tree ::

in the early morning light
waiting for the bakery to open

pssst. tomorrow I'll have pictures of my creative space!

so much love .5

a daddy and his girl
a girl and her daddy

these two
love each other so much
and I love them so much

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thanks for enjoying this little
so much love
series

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the summer sun
has tilted away from us now

the wind is whipping from the north
it is a cold and dark morning

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posts coming this week :: how our school mornings are going :: my crafty space (I've been working on it!) :: de-cluttering :: some sewing :: and we'll just see what else

have a happy Monday
all of you!

so much love .4

a dad
teaching a son
to ride a two-wheel bike

so much love
in the gift of confidence
and independence

and just in case you were wondering,
those are magic sunglasses that Isaac is wearing
they keep the sun out of his eyes
so he can balance while he is riding

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thank you all so much for your kind words about my dad
he is very sore, but he has been up and around
it was so good to see him today and give him a kiss on the cheek
yes, thank you for your thoughts and prayers
i appreciate you all so much!

we interupt this little series . . . .

to tell you a bit about this guy

the guy in this picture
he's putting a band-aid on Maddie's knee
he's gentle
he's strong
he's the guy
who used to make me the bananas and milk and honey
I wrote about yesterday
he's Maddie's grandpa
he's my dad

I got to talk to him
on the phone tonight
I get to go give him a hug tomorrow
the most gentle hug I'll have ever given anyone
and a kiss on the cheek

why is this so extra special?
and why will the hug be so gentle?
because today
he fell
while working on trusses on a second story
while holding a sheet of plywood
because he broke at least one rib

but he did not puncture lungs
he did not break his neck or back

he will be sore for many, many days
but he is home with my mom
he is home
and I got to talk to him tonight
and I get to hug him tomorrow

thank you, God
thank you for leaving my dad here

I made him homemade bread today
because food makes everything better
right?
maybe we'll have to eat bananas and milk and honey
together
one day soon

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written on Thursday evening

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go call your dad and tell him you love him
and share a good dad memory here, if you wish
it could be as simple as bananas and milk and honey

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I will continue my "so much love" series tomorrow or Saturday . . . I'm not sure how many more entries there will be - a few more, anyway.

so much love .3

in a treat
just like the ones my dad used to make for me
bananas and milk and honey
(i just added strawberries)
and thought about my dad
and tried to remember the first time
he made this treat for me . . .
he usually made it in the evening time
right when i needed a tangible expression
of love
sweet to the taste
and sweet to my heart

so much love .2

in 62 years of marriage.
i want to be like this "extra" grandma and grandpa of mine.
i want to still be loving Ben 53 years from now.

so much love

in one tiny envelope.
just a few sweet words
thoughtful
full of love
my heart is warm
and oh so full.

Arrr, Mateys! Today be "Talk Like a Pirate Day" ~

Welcome Landlubbers, and Sea Dogs!

Join the fun!  Or walk the plank, arrrr.

Some pirate fun ::

There be an official Talk Like a Pirate Day website.

Click here and the second song on the list is "A Pirate Says Arr."  A great pirate tune!  

This be the best pirate movie I've ever seen, me hearties!  I'm buying it today!

The coloring pictures be found here.

And some more pirate fun.

Heaps o' information about piracy and pirates.

A pirate glossary.

And, a pirate joke ::  Why weren't the children allowed to watch the pirate movie?

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It was rated Arrrrrrr!

Ahoy, me hearties!  Godspeed to ye!

Disposable . . . or Not.

And I'm not talking about diapers.  We're long done with those.  Thank goodness!

I'm talking about this list.  I first stumbled across it at Sorta Crunchy.

It's floating around out there in blog-land.  And making me think.  Here's what my copy of the list looks like ::

You can make the switch from:

• Paper napkins to cloth napkins We usually use cloth - why buy something for the express purpose of throwing it away?
• Paper towels to cloth towels See the first point
• Tissues to handkerchiefs Ummm, well, I guess we just use TP.  I honestly don't remember the last time any of us needed a tissue, though.  Ben and I both blow our noses in the shower and let it go down the drain. 
• Paper, plastic or Styrofoam plates to your kitchen plates I love my kitchen plates!
• Disposable utensils to regular silverware Disposable utensils are almost always too wimpy anyway.
• If you order food “to go” or have food to take home from a restaurant, bring your own container rather than accepting Styrofoam or plastic  I don't remember the last time we had carry-out, besides a pizza in a cardboard box.  And that is so rare.  Once every two months or so.
• Inexpensive plastic “Take & Toss” sippy cups to Thermos or Camelbak bottles or other reusable, eco and people-friendly options  We are done with sippy cups and each have our own water bottles
• Disposable water bottles to (again) reusable bottles like Thermos, Klean Kanteen See above
• Plastic sandwich bags or paper lunch bags to reusable containers/bags  I do about 1/2 and 1/2 in Ben's lunch box
• Plastic straws to glass or stainless steel straws we so rarely use straws . . .
• Swiffers (or similar products) to a broom and dustpan or mop (or use reusable cloths like cloth diapers/terry inserts in your Swiffer) love my broom and dustpan.  and reusable, microfiber cloths are awesome!
• Disposable dust rags to cloth rags again - microfiber
• Disposable diapers to cloth diapers no diapers in this house!
• Disposable wipes to cloth wipes (inexpensive plain washcloths work really well) we don't have wipes around, either
• Disposable feminine products (tampons, pads) to reusables like DivaCup, MoonCup, Glad Rags, Luna Pads, Pretty Pads, or New Moon Pads, among others. You can even make your own pads.  Not so sure what I think about this at all.  I've been doing some reading on it, and after my first reaction - no way! - I might just become a convert.  We'll see.
• Grocery store bags to reusable bags I'm about half-way there on this one. I use the grocery store bags as garbage can liners.
• Disposable wrapping paper or gift bags to reusable cloth gift bags I recycle all of my wrapping paper - I just reuse what I have from gifts we've been given.
• Single-use batteries to rechargeable batteries our cell-phones and Ben's ipod are rechargeable and I can only think of a few other things in our house that use batteries, and I hardly ever change those.

Or, for the really crazy dedicated:

• Toilet paper to cloth wipes/washcloths (for #1 or #2 too if you are really, really adventurous)  Yikes!  Yuck!  No! 

O.K.  So, I've never thought of myself as being particularly green, BUT I do like to save money and I do like to make choices that make sense.  And buying things (except TP!) that are just going to be thrown away, doesn't make any sense to me, cost-wise or environment-wise.  And it's been suprising to me to realize just how green I am!  Look at my list up there - I got to cross a LOT of it off!

I will say that the occasional meal on paper plates is a luxury! 

And, I will say that washing things with lots of body waste on them just grosses me out (handkerchiefs and TP and reusable pads) - those wastes are, in my mind, meant to be thrown away.  

About feminine products - I really don't like pads.  And the idea of reusable pads . . .  reusable nursing pads leaked like crazy for me!  Why would I want to use reusable feminine pads?  But!  I just read about the DivaCup (link above) and this sounds like something I just may do.  It's basically leak proof.  You empty it and wash it and use it again.  I think that I'm going to convert.  Nothing to throw away.  No soaked cloth to put in the wash.  Just waste down the toilet and a cup to rinse out.  I'm liking this idea.

We recycle just about everything we can recycle - but I'm not psycho about it.  Our city garbage can is about 1/2 full every week.  (Lots of cans around town are bulging over the tops.)  The cool thing about the garbage in our city is that none of it sits in a land-fill.  And it doesn't get trucked miles and miles.  It is all incinerated - very hot and very clean - and the heat generated heats our county government buildings in the cool and cold months (which, here in Minnesota, is more than half the year).  So, I don't feel so bad about tossing something. 

I know that the end of objects isn't the only way we can be earth-friendly.  It's also in cutting down on the manufacture and shipping of new goods.  Well, I love to thrift-shop and rummage-sale-shop.  A  LOT of the things we have and use are second-hand.  Partly out of necessity.  Partly because there is just something about finding a treasure in what someone else is done with.

I want my children to grow up knowing that it is good to "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle."  That it is good to bring home only what we really need, to not just buy things that are going to be thrown away or that will sit on a shelf or in a drawer (more on this at a later date).  To be good stewards of our resources.  To take care of what we have.  To make wise choices. 

And I am going to keep thinking and working at what I can do to live simply and wisely.

So - how green are you?  What would your list look like?  If you post it, will you let me know?  I'm curious.  Are there any disposables that you just couldn't do without?  Let's have a conversation - we just might give each other some good ideas!