graceful designs

Matriculated

The mom in me is ready for a night out. The geek in me is so excited!

Quilted Ornaments

Since we had a winter storm warning last night (nothing came of it, thank goodness), I figured it's a good time to start talking about Christmas gifts. As soon as I saw one of these quilted ornaments, I knew I had to give it a try. There is a tutorial here.

My suggestions if you decide to give these a go: Make sure you have a lot of pins. Lots and lots of them. Don't go all crazy measuring things. If you eyeball it, it will turn out just fine. Cut yourself a stack of squares, get cozy in front of the television, and go to town. This is a simple project, but pretty time consuming. But this is a good thing, because it means you can watch as much TV as you want. Guilt free. Because you aren't choosing mindless entertainment, you are creating family heirlooms. 

Happy Crafting!

Photo Finessing ~ Fun, Free, & Fast

So I stumbled onto picnik.com. Not like I needed another way to spend mindless hours at the computer, but...

It is incredibly easy to navigate, and too much fun.

Really.

 

Community Gardening

We've been busy this past week with activities wrapping up the gardening year at our school garden, and what a year it has been!

We started out with lots of grass and inspiration.

A fence was erected, and beds were built.

We built a teepee frame, and did some planting. (And media came for some photo's)

We had a wonderful garden celebration. (Blurred picture because they are obviously not all my kids.)

More work was done over the summer. Here's proof that I stepped out of my delegator role and actually labored.

The children were excited with a mid-summer harvest.

Our tee-pee flourished, and was a magical hideout. This was one of the students favorite places in the garden.

The morning glories were beautiful!

Our sign says "Peace of Earth Garden", a name selected by the students in the school.

Last week I helped coordinate a group of sophomores who came to the school and helped the younger students weed, plant bulbs, and mulch. We are just about done for the year. All that is left is more mulching, a group hike through the woods behind the garden to start planning our nature trail, and creating an end of the year survey.  I plan to spend a bit of time in the winter months helping to carefully plan out the beds for next year. Now that most of the heavy labor is done, we can really focus on planting, and getting those beds filled with veggies for the children to eat.

I've learned an awful lot this year. When we started this process, I didn't realize the crash courses I would get in grant writing, organizing and planning, soliciting volunteers and materials, and working amiably with different personalities, let alone the actual gardening piece.

All in all, it was a wonderful gardening year. Exciting, exhausting, and fruitful. I'm already looking forward to spring!

Good Deals

I went to a yard sale this weekend. I have been avoiding them like the plague this year for a few reasons-mainly we live in a very rural area, and I hate to spend the gas money, but also because my house is too full of crap, and I have been trying my hardest to move it out, not bring more in. Every once in a while I feel a twinge of regret though, and wonder what I am missing out on. Especially when I read the article conquering the yard sale in our newspaper and realized that Bruce Littlefield, author of Garage Sale America is local, and had recently held a yard sale. Ouch. That's a sale I would have liked to attend. Maybe next year.

But Laura and I hit a sale, and I found a few things I love.

Like these vintage Frye boots.

Normally I would say that they are well worn, and could stand a bit of cleaning up, but after reading this ebay auction I realized I should say "These vintage beauties have been aged to perfection. There are some very light scratches, creases & natural discoloration to the leather that only add to the INCREDIBLE Vintage Patina that cannot be duplicated. " It's all in how you word it I guess. I am going to try to clean them up a bit though (the dark spots on them are from dew, not damage). I was concerned that spending $5.00 was being wasteful, but I guess not. Now I have a new name to look for when thrifting.

I also bought these mixing bowls for $3.00. They are a welcome addition to my hutch.

My other find of the weekend wasn't at a yard sale. Daryl and I went to Michael's together to look browse,
and found these mirrors.

They were marked 90% off, the big ones originally $49.99, and the small one $29.99. We decided to get all three, and when we checked out they rang up $0.01 each. Yup~one cent each, and the guy checking us out didn't bat an eye. That's even cheaper then the mirror I picked up at the dump when you factor in the spray paint cost.

So it was a fruitful weekend. I found some great deals that are useful, and aren't going to contribute to clutter. And I am feeling pretty cool in my cowboy boots. Yee haw.

Dump Treasures; Part Two

A Tacky mirror...

Transformed into...well.... a tacky mirror. Nothing says classy like fake flowers and a hot glue gun, right? Laura is pleased though. And as you can see, it matches the pepto bismol pink that she finds so charming.

While it's not a dump find,it's a side of the road find that I don't think I've shown before ~ Laura's bed. Perfectly lovely, and perfectly free.

 

Dump Treasures; Part One

A recent dump find.

Transformed:

I'm not quite done with it, but if I wait for a completed project, I'll never have anything to show...

Regeneration

Remember the fire we had in April? We took a nice hike this weekend to enjoy the fall foliage and survey the damage.

We walked in the area pictured here.

It was an interesting juxtaposition, the charred wood and ashes with the new growth surrounding it.

If you look closely, the damage is evident.

Take a step back, and all you see is beauty.


We had a lovely morning, and I feel so fortunate that we are able to walk out our door and into this wilderness. I remember how scared I was when the fire was burning, and how distraught I felt at the landscape being scarred. There are areas that were burned much more thoroughly, but the power of mother nature was evident this weekend. She's not going to let one cigarette mar this beauty. Thank goodness. It's a powerful lesson, this notion of regeneration and the ability to come back strong after apparent devastation. And then there is just the beauty of it all. There are some lessons there as well.

Lessons that can be taught without saying a word.

Nature was speaking, and these guys heard what she had to say.

Quite clearly, I think.

Relief. And a wonky blanket.

This week has been a pretty quiet one for me. I guess I could say that about last week, or last month... So many things have gone on in my life that I'm not sure I want to talk about here. But I am finding if I don't talk about them, I don't talk about anything. So I might be straying away from crafty/family posts sometimes, and writing about what's really on my mind.

There were three stressful events for me this week. The first was meeting with our accountant to do the school PTA's taxes. That is over and done with, and I feel like a hundred pounds were lifted off of my back. I don't mind being treasurer, but sometimes I just don't want the responsibility that comes along with it.

The second stressful event was meeting with my doctor to start a new medication for my Behcet's Disease. I still am not fully comfortable with even acknowledging that I have this, and here I am starting a medicine that I will take every day. I have been dealing with symptoms by taking prednisone, but the jitters and insomnia have officially gotten to me, and I realize that it is time to try something new. Even if it means going to the doctor and admitting I'm not totally healthy. That is really hard for me. I have been putting off this visit for a while, but I am hopeful that I will be symptom free with this new medicine. It's time to at least give it a try.

The third stressful event was a bilateral breast sonogram I had done yesterday. When I saw my doctor in May she wrote a script for this because of cysts, and I have been in denial/putting it off for way too many months. I finally came to my senses and went in. I graciously agreed to let a clueless radiology intern practice on me, a decision I quickly came to regret. It took forever, she didn't know what she was doing, and I had to lay there and listen to the radiologist explain the masses to here, and show her how to measure them, and type it all in. Ugh. By the time she was done I had managed to completely freak myself out. I was certain I had cancer, and was going to die because I put it off for so long, and my children wouldn't remember me...

But I got a call this morning, and the cycts are benign. I need to follow up with a mammogram and another sonogram in 6 months. What relief! I got off the phone and just started sobbing.

I plan on spending the rest of today relaxing. I am attempting to make a blanket out of felted sweaters. I'm having quite the adventure, trying to square up these wonky squares, and make something that looks presentable. We'll see how it turns out. It will be warm at least.

Thanks for letting me vent a little.

And have a great weekend.