Counting (Impatiently) to Seven

Okay people, just in case you have not made your paper chain...quilt retreat is one week from today.

Joy!

And gulp.

I wish my house and yard were in better order, and I wish I had something to show at trunk show, but I doubt that any of these wishes are going to come true.  I may have to settle for having clean sheets and towels.  Even that is going to be an accomplishment.

I tried to find my block-of-the-month project to see about burning the midnight oil and finishing it up.  I have a box of "unfinished" projects and it wasn't in there, so I burned most of my midnight oil just tracking it down.  Eventually I did find my crumpled blocks, but never did find the pattern, which makes things significantly more difficult in putting them together.  Well.  At least for me.  My aunt Jill would just whip up something fabulous.

I may seriously have to look into some sort of organizational system.  Either that or rent out somebody else's brain, as mine is seriously on the fritz.

Speaking of things "on the fritz,"  after running 4 batches of laundry my washer became muddled again (I clearly overtaxed it by asking it to wash with "cold") and has decided that it needs me to walk through the cycles with him again.  Perhaps this is why I can't remember anything...I'm too busy trying to remember to go in and trick the washer into rinsing.

Word of the Week: Tractable

tractable /adj. /  easily managed or controlled, docile.  yielding.  easily worked, shaped, or otherwise handled, malleable.  amenable.  willing.  compliant.

tractable  /adj./  1.  This week my sister, Rachel, proved to be extremely tractable when I proposed starting up some morning exercise.  For whatever reason I exercise more consistently (who am I kidding...it is the ONLY time I exercise) when I have to meet someone.  Apparently I have a hard time letting someone else down, but no problem letting myself down.  (Sounds about right.)  We're starting with just walking...she just had a baby and I am just so frighteningly out-of-shape that anything more would be dangerous.  I loved watching the sun come up and visiting with Rach as we rounded the track together. 

tractable  /adj./  2.  On Tuesday morning I took Caleb to the bus stop as usual, but he was wheezing so loudly, I could hear him breathing over the radio.   I suggested that I take him home and then to the doctor and I was shocked to hear his tractable agreement.  He doesn't like to miss school for anything, but he was so tight-chested and miserable he readily agreed.  After a trip to the doctor, who expressed dismay over his "soupy chest" and tractably gave us three prescriptions,  Caleb spent the rest of the day like this:

Ethan was thrilled to have a friend join him in a Star Wars marathon.

tractable  /adj./  3.  I got a surprise visit from my cousin Jennifer and her kids on Wednesday afternoon.  My kids had "early release" and all the kids were begging for some entertainment.  We ended up going to the movie, which as it turns out, is a very fun thing to do in the middle of the afternoon in the middle of the week.  I loved having an excuse to "play" and even though neither of us wanted to see "College Road Trip" we ended up being very tractable, since that was the movie all the kids were begging for.  (Please note: I only recommend this "film" if you are trying to please 9 darlings and get completely out-voted.)

tractable  /adj./  4.  David lost his glasses last fall and has been completely reliant on his contacts since then.  This week his eyes were driving him crazy and by the end of the week he finally resolved to get a new pair of glasses.  On Friday night we skipped our usual "date" and went to get him fixed up...he could hardly stand it another minute.  He was cheerfully tractable as I made him try on pair after pair, but not quite as tractable when I tried to take a picture tonight of the pair he ended up with.  Here's his end of the conversation:

"Why?"

"Okay, but just my face."

"I have a good angle.  What's my good angle?"

"I said 'JUST MY FACE.'"

"This is not fair."

Bless his ever-tractable nature.

tractable  /adj./  5.  The Quilt Retreat countdown has begun and so tonight I enlisted my girls' help in making pincushions.  They are tractable to any activity involving fabric and had lots of fun stuffing these little fabric balls I made.  Happily, this proved to be the perfect task for their tractable little fingers.

Sneak Peek

I wanted to share this little guy.

I made him yesterday for a secret surprise at quilt retreat this year...those of you Family Piecers who are getting this sneak peek will have to wait and wonder (and stay mum). 

Doesn't this just make you wish the retreat was tomorrow?

A Crisis of Confidence Among Other Things

My head is spinning this morning...no real idea what to write, but feeling a need to say something in order to quiet my brain.  So this may be random and rant-like.  Ran-derful.

1.  We had New Beginnings for the young women in our church congregation on Wednesday night.  On Tuesday night with my list still long and my heart in full-fledged panic, I had to go to a meeting for something completely different.  I was reluctant to attend and had the thought that maybe all the parents of my young women and the young women themselves, were probably all just as reluctant to attend New Beginnings and, among other things, listen to me talk again.  I was seized by angst and beside myself thinking about the evening we had planned and what was surely going to be  a waste of everyone's time.

My husband's response:  "You do this [freak out] every time.  It'll be fine."

But as I got closer and closer to the event, my heart was failing. 

I had written a little skit for part of the night...just to make the girl's laugh with their leaders, and teach a little point...and feeling sick about the whole thing, I asked my counselor, "Is the skit just dumb?"

Silence.

Then she said, "Um.  Well, I think it teaches a point."

Okay...

This is not good.

By Wednesday at 5, I was beside myself.   As you can imagine, RIM and CIM were raging.

And after all that...it turned out beautifully.  I honestly think it could not have gone better.  I believe it blessed the girls' lives.  So why the crisis of confidence?  Why can't I just have more faith?  Why do I berate myself?

My house was a wreck.  Still is.  (Just didn't have the heart to do anything yesterday.)  Why can't I just prepare...steady and confidently...so that I don't have these crises of laundry and faith, where everything stops and I lose my mind for three days?

I don't know.  But it's a problem.

2.  Our theme for New Beginnings was "Put Your Best Foot Forward."  And I had all the girls bring one of their shoes to display, something that said something about them...their talents, or their personalities.  It was like a little snapshot of each of them.  Very fun.  The little skit was all about the "De-Feets" of Personal Progress, excuses that they might meet along their way to getting their YW medallions.  (Busy feet, Casual feet, Old feet, Baby feet, Tired feet, and Finished feet.)  My laurels spotlighted the new girls who entered our program and my mia maids did a beautiful musical number.  My heart was busting with pride for all of them.

Anyway, I don't have a good picture because there were too many people by the time the girls arrived with their shoes, but this gives you a little idea.

My short remarks were about the 2008 theme of "Steadfast and Immovable," which went right in with our feet theme.   At the end of it, I talked about the rainboots...how they need to be steadfast and immovable because "the rains" will come.  (The rains came down and the floods came up, and the house on the rock stood still.)

3.  Yesterday I met Rachel and Christine and my aunt Tori  over at my mom's house for lunch and a meeting about Quilt Retreat this year.  (All you Family Piecers out there, get ready...it is going to be so much fun!  Your invitations should be in the mail next week...provided I finally get my Monday laundry done today.)  Every year all my aunts and their girls get together for a big quilting/sewing/talking/laughing weekend.  (This is our eleventh year!)  And this year it's our turn to plan and host it and we are so, so excited.  To quote my cousin Andrea, "Can life get any better than this?  I submit that it CANNOT!"  It is the exact antidote for a crisis of confidence...to be in a house with 30 women who love you and know you and believe in you despite what they know...to laugh and talk and cry with them...it is the best therapy, the most fun, and I absolutely cannot wait. 

This is our group photo and "finished" project from 2006...(we celebrate all the various "states of doneness").  Do we look tired?  We haven't slept in three days...I can't wait!

Let Them Eat Cake

Though I personally prefer pie.

I appreciated Kelly's comment, "A wedding pie could be the beginning of a glorious new trend in weddings."  I agree, but somehow I didn't think the bride would see it that way.  Truthfully, I did seriously consider it for a few dark moments on Thursday night.

I rolled that fondant until my arms felt like they had been slalom waterskiing.  I went back for more fondant...three times.  No, it was not homemade.  No, it is not as easy as it looks on the box.  And no, the "Easy- Glide Smoother" is not magic.  The only instruction in two wedding cake books for square cakes was this: "Rounds are easy to cover with fondant.  But what about other geometric shaped cakes?  On squares or hearts, pull the corner flaps gently out and downward, then smooth to avoid creases."  Oooohhh.    Just pull gently out and downward and then smooth to avoid creases.  Why didn't I think of that?

I remember RIM thinking (when my brother asked me to make the cake), "I ought to take a few classes this fall and just get really comfortable with fondant."  You know, try not to "just fake it" again.  Um, yeah.  That would have been good.  Then real life intervened and CIM pretended that everything "would be fine,"  "I'll figure it out later," "How hard can it be?" etc.

I made my sister Rachel's cake a few years ago, and I've decided I must be a "one-cake wonder" because though I do remember powdered sugar covering every surface of my house, I do not remember the angst and despair, nor the struggle against the very laws of nature:  gravity and conservation of matter. 

Amy came to my rescue.

And she brought back-up too.  (Thank you Cyndee.)

They were like the cavalry riding in on Friday night.  It took all four of us (my husband was roped into the project as well) to lift the bottom layer of fondant (28 inches square!) onto the the cake. 

This cake is brought to you by "Friends Who Fondant." 

I think Amy was a bit distressed at the final result, but I was, by that time, reduced to accepting anything remotely resembling a cake (delusions of "good enough").  I added the satin ribbon around the bottom of each layer to hide most of the flaws and a bit of pearl dust (razzle dazzle) to the tops.  It wasn't exactly like the picture the bride had given me four months before...but as Amy pointed out, the "campaign for real beauty" applies to cakes as well and surely the picture must have been "airbrushed."  Yes, surely.

So my short and illustrious career as a wedding cake decorator has come to an end.  Almost as soon as it began.  A pity, really, as it's the only serious exercise I've had in six months.

Word of the Week: Incandescent

incandescent /adj./  very bright.  shining brilliantly. beaming, effulgent, radiant.  a high degree of emotion, intensity, or brilliance.

incandescent /adj./  1.  My husband finally got all the Christmas lights hung and our house is again dressed for the season in all its incandescent luster.  For over a week, he had only the trunk of one orange tree strung with red lights.  The rest of the house was dark.  It looked like the burning bush, and I told David that people were going to think we worship Moses.

incandescent /adj./  2.  My heart lept with incandescent joy, when I found this card from Barb in my mail among my Christmas cards and bills.  My first "good mail."  I hung the card on my sewing room wall, next to my Will Rogers postcard.   (I secretly think the woman in the card is incandescently giddy over her "seat assignment.")

incandescent /vt. and adj./  3.  I was thrilled to finish a few Christmas projects this week...namely the Christmas cards

and a project I have been working on as part of a gift for my girls.  They are "pencil rolls," which I made and filled with markers and colored pencils.  I am absolutely incandescent about the way they turned out.  And I can't wait for the looks on their incandescent faces on Christmas morning.

  

incandescent /adj./ 4.  There are moments in motherhood that are so full and sweet that it makes all the other moments "worth it."   Incandescent is the only way to describe my heart as I went to Caleb's violin recital this week.  He kept smiling at us throughout his performance, to reassure us that he knew what he was doing and that he was enjoying himself.  I just sat there grinning at him as he played through all the variations of "Twinkle," looking up to smile at us every few measures.

He's the one with the incandescent grin in the middle of the back row. 

Get This Girl a "To-Do-List"

My Christmas decorations are not up.

Savannah informed us all at dinner, with utter disgust in her voice, that she is the ONLY person in her class who doesn't have their tree up.  By the time she got done telling us of this tragedy, the disgust had changed to tremulous sorrow.

My Christmas card is not written.

David "casually" said, "So, what are you...ah...thinking about writing this year?"  This is his way of trying to reign me in without stepping on the "creative-artist-at-work" land mine.  (Seriously, you don't want to be married to me.) 

Young Women's is forever needing something...this week it's a new counselor, a combined activity, and a lesson on Sunday.  I have not started working on any of these things.

And the list goes on.

But instead of doing any of these happy and worthwhile projects, yesterday I decided to put up curtains in the toy room and make a couple of pillows for the couch.

We have lived in our house for over two years.  But yesterday was the day.  Smack dab in the middle of the Christmas bustle, I'm making a cornice box for the toy room.  Plus pillows.

I've had the styrofoam for the cornice box sitting in my garage for over six months.  But yesterday was the day.  Thought I'd just whip that up.  Nothing else going on.

My sister Rachel said (speaking of crazy-inside-me), "I thought you weren't going to let her out anymore."

I said, "Yeah.  I wasn't."

I do think the little green pom-poms are darling though.

A Labor of Love and a Sigh of Relief

 This year I have been giving these scripture bags as birthday presents to my young women and yesterday I finished the last one.  I ended up making 32 of them over the course of the year and I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see my young women carrying them around.  They are all unique...I tried to think about each girl as I picked out my fabrics.  And some of the fabric combinations have been so delicious that I can hardly stand it.    (If you want to know how to make them, you can click here.) 

I have loved doing this project this year, which seems appropriate since I'm madly in love with the girls who carry these little bags around.  

To quote from a new favorite book by Joelle Hoverson, "... it's wonderful to know that what we make--whether it takes just a few hours or much longer--can be lived with, used, and treasured for years to come by the people who are special to us."  Amen.

Wool Gathering

Here is my latest obsession:  all things wool.  Yes, I know that it is still 90-freaking degrees outside, but still...there it is.  I love the texture, the colors, the combination of humble simplicity and subtle extravagance.   I found this gorgeous pile at Zoe's in August and have been dying to create something lovely out of it. 

I started with a table runner that was inspired by a much smaller piece I saw at a shop in Utah when I went to Quilt Retreat.  I am totally thrilled with the final result.  I love the colors, the scalloped edge of the runner,  and the little-bit retro look of the circles. 

I just used a buttonhole stitch around all the circles...I didn't do the edge of the runner...I'm not sure how much the wool will fray, but I guess time will tell.

A view from my table...

About the close up...I didn't worry about the circles being perfect or the stitches being perfectly spaced and I think this adds to the charm...at least, this is what I tell myself.

Once I got wooling, I just couldn't stop.  I redid my applique wall to look a little more "autumnish," and to keep my family on their toes.  (It actually took them a few days to notice.  Subtlety is my specialty.)  After the question, "Did you notice anything different?" was answered by, "Did you cut your hair?" I gave up and just pointed it out.  Check out the before and after...I love, love, love the black wool backgrounds...yum!

Again, just wool with a buttonhole stitch...no pattern either, I decided I could make pumpkin shapes all by myself.  About a million times easier than the original applique which only took me about 7 years to complete (seriously)...the wool project, about 7 hours.  Makes me happy just thinking about it.