Happy First Day of Spring!

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Blink again! I promise that you are in the right place!


Welcome to Sweet Eventide, my NEW HOME in the blogosphere. 

I have been planning this for us for a long time. Not everything is perfect just yet, but the minor changes here and there in the near future will be little things to look forward to and nothing to fret over.

Today is the first day of spring and I chose this as my personal launching day for two reasons: it is a symbolic season characterized by budding and new growth all around our natural world and it's a powerful verb (to be released from a constrained position; to come into being; to take an upward course or curve from a point of support).

All of this is around me and all of this is me. I have been moving towards this moment for a long time. I have been supported in so many ways by so many people from all different times and parts of my life. But today, in my first post in my new home, I need to thank one person in particular.

Jay, you are a master gardener and you don't even know it. You planted the seed that has now bloomed into my sweet eventide. I will always be grateful to you for your wisdom.

Oh, happy day!




A Little Letter

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Dear Little Spider in My Shower:


I am not sure if you are a Miss or a Mister but I have a small issue with you now. 

For the past week or so, I have observed you and you have stayed still and we have had a successful relationship in this manner. I felt so secure in the way we related to each other that I did not even mention you to my husband. If you'll post a quiz on my Facebook network, you'll see that is abnormal behavior for me.* 

To further demonstrate the depth of my security with you, when my husband mentioned you to Jaden in my presence, I did not make a single comment. I merely enjoyed a quiet internal conversation that went something like this: "You and me, we're good. You stay still and I stay quiet."

Well you betrayed my confidence this morning Mister Miss Whatever Gender You Are and by the way what color are you: white or brown? Normally I could care less about this kind of thing, but since I'm writing, I'm bringing it up. I thought all this time you were white (freaky enough but I accepted our differences) but it appears you are two-toned: white in the sunshine and brown in the shadows. 

Back to your wicked betrayal. I turned on the water, did not check for you in your permanent location and stepped in with confidence, thrilled to use my new razor and new Alba facial scrub.

Then! Then you immediately started dancing around erratically on what? Your web? Seriously? You're building a WEB in my shower upon which you plan to behave in no comprehensible fashion WHILE I am showering? How could you do this to me? To us? 

For a brief moment I thought we had a chance. I finally spoke to you right out loud. I said, Go up to the ceiling right this minute! And you did! You scrambled up immediately. I was so impressed with your good listening. 

But it didn't last. A split second later and you were wigging out again: up, down, side to side and I had no choice but to retreat to the farthest wall, then the farthest corner and shave rapidly risking cuts. Is that what you wanted? You wanted to break my trust and make me bleed?

Now we're doomed. A report will be filed. A report is being filed right here in the interwebs (you didn't know I spoke your secret web language did you?) and my husband WILL see it because he DOES have a feed reader still. I know this is true even though he NEVER stops by my blog anymore or even my Flickr (even though I painstakingly make every photo an active image with a direct link to its Flickr page).

But I digress. 

My life is unstable enough most of the time. I need a little stability in the morning. A hot shower and a cup of coffee and I have a chance of facing the day.

Sadly,
Your soon-to-be EX-roommate 

* Sadly you can't post such a quiz because now I won't add you as my friend.

A New Year's List

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Inspired by Clare's post Lists, wonderful lists, I thought I'd share the list I made on January 1st this year.

A New Year's List

1. Get a stainless steel water bottle and use it
2. Use my MOMA membership regularly with Jaden
3. Beach Tuesdays
4. Take a drawing class
5. Buy and use a Canon Rebel training dvd
6. Subscribe to letterpress printer blogs
7. Find a Gocco
8. Make weekly uploads to my Etsy shop
9. Advertise my Etsy shop
10. Create a bookkeeping system for RRD
11. Visit Portland in winter
12. Go to San Diego
13. Take Jaden to Disneyland
14. Update portfolio
15. Buy a case of wine

I have rocked #1 right off the bat with an awesome bottle from REI.




I was driving yesterday and thought to myself as I sipped from it, "I have really, truly bonded with my water bottle." This is huge for anyone who knows me and knows "drink more water" has been my sole resolution since, oh, 1995.

#11 -- done!

As for #8-10: big changes are coming to this part of my life very soon. And RRD stands for Rosina Red Designs but let's just say a lot has changed in my mind since I wrote this list. So don't be too tied to RRD specifically.

#13 is up for heavy debate in the household right now with Jaden's birthday looming on the horizon. So far the vote is 2 against 1, me being the only one who wants to go. Frankly I don't take Jaden's vote too seriously since he's never been to Disneyland. All I know is he said to me just yesterday, "Mama it's nice that you want to take me to Disneyland but I have to tell you something honestly." "What's that baby?" "I would never S-U-R-V-I-V-E the drive to Disneyland!!" Um that dramatic language at the end of the commute = one upset Mama. Maybe I'll just take myself to Disneyland.

#15 -- Jamie, did I miss the 5-cent sale completely by now? I bet I did.

So there's my list. Did you all know that I don't really make lists very often? I think I may have mentioned this a few times. It mystifies me as I'm a Virgo. I think lists should be like oxygen for me. I bet if I could get in the habit of list-making, I'd free up a lot of my brain for other things. Hmm. I feel a personal challenge coming on.

A Dream

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During the most recent holiday season, I revealed my long-time dream of owning a porcelain, ruffled cake stand. My darling husband told me after Christmas that he had looked high and low for a vintage one, to no avail.

Fast forward to last week.

A box arrived from UPS, Marsh had warned me "a little treat" would be coming for me.


This, by the way, NOT a little treat. No.
This is one of life's dreams coming true!


Peach pie = "little treat"

In case you're wondering, this is my second peach pie in a row (baked by Whole Foods, pas moi.) I bought myself one right after I got my big news. I finished the first one, and went right out and bought another one. I have a slice every night with whatever amount of whipped cream I see fit at the moment.


I love this peach pie, it suits me just fine!

Friday Poems

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A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man's life as in a book.
Haste makes waste, no less in life than in housekeeping.
Keep the time, observe the hours of the universe, not of the cars.

Henry David Thoreau


I've been home with Jaden for three days now, nursing his fairly mild cold, but what a gift of time and leisure it has been. I've been freed from the daily commute -- leaving space for hugs & love, bike rides, chess, photography, frozen yogurt with sprinkles and picnics on the front lawn. This feels more like vacation than our actual vacation did last month.

My heart rate is low, my body feels calm, rested and centered. These are not my usual sensations; they are foreign but wonderful and I never want to release them. This was not a week for one of my dad's angst-ridden poems. Nope.

Blue Skies

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This is the kind of whimsical drawing that I couldn't wait to receive when Jaden was a baby and first learning to grab a crayon at all. I knew these drawings would be in my future and I just couldn't wait for them to arrive with the cute writing that I emulated with kid fonts on the computer before I could possibly know what Jaden's handwriting would look like.

I really love Jaden's use of color in this drawing. How he repeated the blue sky color around the window and in his writing. And of course the coordination of color between the sun, door and banana.

That is a banana there, by the way, a yellow-green and magenta banana that exists perfectly normally in my boy's imagination. His drawing has changed a lot so far in 2009 -- he is doing way more representational art now and the use of multiple colors is actually very new for him. And I heart it all. Oh how I heart it all.

Pardon me while I go hang out in my little house and eat a giant banana in the front yard. Better grab my sunscreen...

Dramatic Lighting

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Betty had some new lights installed in her kitchen this week.

Also this week, Betty saw a painting of Jaden's and she loved the colors in it. So I told her to enjoy it because I am running out of display space out here in the studio.

Being Betty, she displayed it in the most amazing way with some of the tulips we received after Jaden's surgery.




Being Jess, I had to use her new dramatic kitchen lighting and take a photo. This is actually not my favorite of the photos I took, click here to see it.

Healing

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Jaden is healing from his strabismus surgery with time, lots of love and lots of Star Wars.






These photos were taken yesterday morning very quickly in the morning light (through the drawn shades) as he is quite sensitive to light. We were snuggling in bed and he looked so beautiful to me so I asked his permission to take a few photos. No tripod (yet) so forgive the blurriness. This is how the world looks for him right now anyway when he finds the courage to open his eyes for a few minutes.

I'd like to thank everyone for all of their love and support through this ordeal.

And Then She Made a Tote Bag

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Here is the tote bag I made for Marsh for her Christmas gift:



We had a handmade/vintage/reused holiday in our family. I gave it to her partially finished to open that day but I only finished it this past weekend. Mostly I needed to sew the straps together.

The tutorial* I chose to follow was much harder than I thought it would be. Being a newbie seamstress, I do not know how to evaluate a pattern.

Note to other newbie seamspeople:

Tote bags with linings?
Anything with linings?
Not for us. :)



The vintage glass button is definitely the best part of the whole bag.

Too bad I sewed the loop too far in so the button is in the most awkward position! This is AFTER I sewed the loop in upside down. You don't even want to know about the lopsided interior pocket, trust me. I won't even mention the actual stitches, machine or hand! All crooked all the time!

Yeah I may not sew again for awhile, LOL.


*TinyHappy is a rad blog btw.

Changes

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While I go on and on in circles in my mind about new blog names, I will at least mix up the look here for now.

That banner photo up there? Taken on the Coast Starlight last weekend somewhere in Southern Oregon when the train came to a stop in a forest to check on a power failure on board. It was quiet, still and it started snowing. It was dreamy. It was the most peaceful moment in time I have experienced in years (if not ever).

I may hate all this grey on the blog when I wake up tomorrow but I will live with it for a few weeks. Spring is coming and hopefully by then, I will have made a decision on a new name.