Swimming Upstream

Do you ever have times when you KNOW you need to give up swimming against the current and "go with the flow"? I'm still learning the limits of my time and energy. For the first 2 weeks of January Karlie was with us. Daddy & Poppy are building a bar-b-que trailer that needs to be ready to put in service in Feb. so keeping up with Ms. K fell mostly to Bebe (the name Karlie gave me and I LOVE).

Lesson learned: serious art making time is limited with a 2 1/2 year old but there is FUN to be had. It is amazing to watch an active & inquisitve 2 1/2 year old take such delight in the world around her. Every day was an adventure with new things to learn, absorb & conquer. This included dancing, riding her new Strider bike, pretending, laughing, reading & cuddling.

On one of the prettiest days (it seemed more like April than Jan.) we met Ashley and visited the Japanese Garden in Ft. Worth. Karlie most loved feeding the fish. The fish are beautiful but one of my favorties sites was a hawk. This one had obviously figured out where to get a good meal. We saw him swoop down a couple of times and fly low past visitors. Exciting.

 Karlie is in Midland this week with Mommy so I'm playing a bit of catchup. Yesterday was errands, haircut, groceries, general shopping and a more involved dinner of sesame chicken and grilled veggies. Today the new dishwasher was installed early and I've done multiple loads of laundry & prepping fabric for dye. I did a bit of baking (Biscotti for tomorrow & chocolate chip cookies for the guys) and gathered my supplies.

This afternoon I finished my first art of the year, a postcard for Art Quilt Elements. They offered a catalog of this year's show for a fiber postcard donated for their fund raising; I am glad to participate and hope there's more sewing this week & next.

Tomorrow the Wonders are doing printmaking and I hope to have good things to show.

The Week In Between

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas & Hanukkah.  The days after Christmas and before New Years have always seemed a bigger "in between" time to me than just another week.  It might be all the years of school,  as a student and then teacher,  but I like the relaxed feeling of this week after the build up to Christmas. I do wish we had more emphasis on the 12 days of Christmas but I guess we're tired from all the commercial hype. 

Among good things to enjoy are the left over yummy treats before we go on the universal diet in January. I like to use some of the quieter moments for reflection and planning. Whatever you do this week put your heart into it and then march into 2012 with high hopes. I'll be spending most of my time with family & friends. Wishing you a Very Happy & Blessed New Year. 

Almost Ready.

I'm rather anxious for 2011 to be over with as it's not been a top year for our family. That's not to say there haven't been some woderful moments of joy & celebration and I hope we have a few more in the final 2 weeks of the year. The stocking are hung and we're on the count down to Christmas. I think of Christmas as a special Beginning and then we get a little rest before we jump into a New Year.

Beside the stockings and ornaments on the tree I added another bit of color to the decorations with a paint chip garland; I'm a loyal Home Depot customer so they shouldn't mind when I take a few extra.

Looking back a bit I just downloaded pictures from our trip a couple of weeks ago so I'll share a few here. The furniture show was a guy's version of Quilt Festival (much smaller but very creative). I'm hopeful that Karl will absorb some of these ideas for furniture in the new year and there will be a new house in the not too distant future. Our abode won't be as creative as the one below at Camp Lonehollow but will share the metal exterior.

In the meantime, I'm finishing up gift projects & doing some baking so that I can take to my rocking chair with a good book (hint to Santa) and cup of tea in those last quiet moments of 2011. Hope you're getting primed for a wonderful holiday with family & friends too.