lady cordelia

i am not the measurer.

This is a work in progress.  Getting close to sewing on the backside and then the edging. Months in the making.  Many thrift store trips to find more material.  For my elder daughter's new(ish)twin bed.  She is five. 

I love making patchwork quilts but since I never measure a thing, it's always a wonder if it will fail or not.   I just go by feel.  A long strip here, a row of squares there.  Sometimes the same material ends up squaring together.  C'est la Vie, baby.  Sometimes I sew seams the normal way (so you don't see them) sometimes I sew them on the outside for the sake of "funkiness." 

I've worked this way for all of my life.  Never measuring.  Planless.  I go by my heart.  I got the book Growing Up Sew Liberated for Christmas- I had wanted it.  Oh did I laugh when I got it.  I so respect people who can sew such wonderful things...but never could I sew something with that much math involved.  For better or worse, my creativity and sense of patience don't flow that way.  I think it's just how I was born.  And so far, it doesn't seem to limit me. 

By the way- I will trade someone the aforementioned book for either a yard or two of darling little girl material or  a small bag of scraps in pinks, whites, yellows, puples, oranges....  (I need a pillow case to go with the blanket.)   Ya.  It's not a gift giveaway, it's a barter.   First person interested gets the deal.

*** first commenter, Amanda from Blue La Reve won the "barter" but hey- I think this barter thing is rad.  I'm going to start doing it more.

XO

Firsts for 2012

 

Daily Veggie Juice. Pulled out the Champion Juicer and not planning on putting it back into the cupboard means: fresh veggie juice almost everyday for this family in 2012.  A year ago the juicing "clean-up" used to bother me so I put the juicer back into hiding.  Now the clean up is like nothing and the everydayness of doing it is, so far, just a simple ritual. THAT, my friends, is progress in the kitchen.  See.  I am not saying we will do it every. single. day.  But the juicer is not going back.  He's part of the family.  The son I never had.  I'll call him Bruno.

Her first piano lesson. Sigh. Smile. So happy. Makes mama proud.  

 

(Pinterest photo. I'm a little lazy today.  The rest of the photos are mine.)

Zippers. Who knew I would be so excited to find zippers (for sewing projects) at a new local thrift!  Really, Cory?  Zippers make you smile?  Zippers?  Yes.  Zippers.  Now zip it. 

Little Guy.  A first sewing project for my five-year-old from this book.  She fully rocked the whipstich.  Way cleaner than my messy stitches.  Really.  I mean it.

These are just some of the wonders and wonderfuls around here since the beginning of 2012.
I'm still kind of tired from the holidays actually and looking forward to a day with the family at the beach tomorrow.
So.  Well.  Ciao!

 

Following my heart into the New Year

In 2010 and 2011 I learned to knit, cook, bake, raise my own chickens and ducks.  I bought a used sewing machine.  I started to thrift shop more and retail shop a whole lot less.  I fell in love with vintage. I planted more food grown in my own little garden, I became more clearly committed to helping the environment by simple, conscious everyday choices with food and general consumption. I began to truly enjoy the movement of the seasons, AND I found a "style" for my home that I liked after almost 40 years of not having any heart-directed sense of home style.  (The style of my home?  A little to the tune of bohemian flea market, of course.)  All this, of course, in root was inspired by my kids and the desire to be a "rad homemaker."

Because I'm an songwriter by career, I have always been open to the creative.  I always made things, quilts, gardens... But....it was almost as if I needed an affirmation saying TO me: you CAN do more.  You can go deeper.  If you want to, just dive in and DO IT.  Amanda Soule's blog certianly helped.  And many other bloggers out there.  Also: inspiring books, rad local thrift stores, supportive parents, appreciative kids, a patient husband.

And so...  I am slowly getting better at all of it.  When I started my blog about 400 posts ago, I was crying over knitting and throwing my needles.  Burning food.  Making bread that looked and tasted like bricks.  Bringing home a lot of things from the thrift store to The Brad's disapproving look, then a few months later taking them right back to the thrift store (I've found having an eye for interior home design isn't a natural born quality, but getting in tune with the heart is.)  

I've made progress.  I've continued to follow my heart.  And into 2012 I go, following it all the more.  Going deeper.   What lies waiting?

::::::

We have a chicken who was very sick for a long time.  She never was a good layer, her pretty blue eggs broke inside her.  We tried everything to no avail and figured her sickly.   As you may or may not know, in late Fall and Winter, when daylight is more scarce, chickens don't lay much if at all (they need a certain amount of light to lay an egg!).  This is exactly the time, when all our other chickens stopped laying and our gal, named Lily, began laying perfect pale blue eggs almost everyday.  

This is why I have chosen this path.  The path of a little more hard work and a lot more gratification.   Because one day when you least expect it, on the exact day you never should, you start getting beautiful perfect blue eggs.  

Yes.  A little more work, and a lot more gratifcation.  I'm glad I made it past the starting gates, because learning new things is never easy.  But the thing is, you get better at it.  And there is always further to go.

I have other visions too for the New Year- ones that are career based.  But somehow they seem secondary to what I do in my home and with family.  Perhaps these career dreams are not secondary, and the misconception that they are  prevents them from fruition. Rather, I choose to now think: all if it is part of it.   (Hint: I would love for 2012 to prove that to me.)

Much Love to you and I will be seeing you in the New Year.

(By the way- I just found out several of my albums are available on Spotify.  I can't figure out how to send you the direct link to my music..but if you go to Spotify and search "Cory Sipper" you should get access.)

weekending into the holidays

Went upstairs to the room
where sewing machine lives.
I hardly go there
cause
I hardly sew.
The girls go up to this fantastic room sometimes when The Brad is working.  They mess it up real bad. 
And jump on the pink camo mini-trampoline (that will never ever make its way downstairs.)
They make it hella messy. 
Cause a bunch of pens and paper and dress-up clothes and other toys are up there too.
Every few months, I clean it up.
Then, after all that, I'm usually too tired to sew.

But.  It's time to make presents.  So, I cleaned it halfway and used the rest of my energy to start a twin size quilt for oldest daughter.

All thrifted material that I have collected over the last while.  Cool, no?  You betcha.  Way.  Cool.

Someday I would like to construct quilts that are a little more, shall we say, tidy.
But, I would probobly have to use pins and measuring tape and stuff like that.
Oh well.

But, anyway.
I love this room.
And I like to sew.
And I like to re-use material.
So I think I'll be getting better at this.
And in the meatime.
Things still turn out cute.
Even though.
My sqaures
don't match up.
Hey.
You know what?
They're pretty close.

 weekending with my pal amanda.

Weekending

Meet Lucy May.  World's cutest and sweetest kitty.  The girls are doing great being mommies to little Lucy who was found abandoned with her litter and brought to the local shelter.   Lucy is starting to understand that she hit the jackpot and is going to be immersed in loving adoration for all her days. If only all of the planet's creatures were so lucky.

Meet Saturday's real find from a thrift store down the street.  You can't really tell in this picture, but every star has a little rose in it.   I don't know how this could have been done so perfectly by hand. 

Meet my "Mermaid Blanket."  I show it folded here, but it still is only big enough for a little girl.   This sweet blankie was inspired by an ocean-inspired quilt I saw on soulemama's blog.  She had some awesome mermaid material and I was like: wow.  I'll never find cool mermaid material like that.  sigh. whatever.  But guess what everyone!  I did find some on Etsy!  Just little remainders.  Priced way too high, if you must know.  But I absolutely had to have a mermaid blanket.

(By the way: I sew like I knit: imperfectly and with moderate to no attention for rules and regulations that may or may not hamper the overall effect of the finished item.  Simply, for better or worse, I do things my own way.  I've accepted this reality about myself, as any other hope is a lost cause. And so, my seams are not perfect -far, far from it.  Scissored material cuts are more uneven than a 3-year-old's self given haircut.  Measuring tape?  Oh..ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.   You are so darling to joke like that.  I love a good laugh, I do. From a distance, it looks mighty fine.  From close up, it looks mighty "cute" - like a 3-year-old's self given haircut. And so I add to the plethora of funky homemade little girl blankets that grace their wee beds.  Soon, they'll be in real big girl beds and need twin blankets. Way too much work!)

Also: My 5-year-old lost her two bottom teeth this weekend (first teeth lost.)  She asked daddy to pull the first out for her and sat unflinching as he did (what a kid!)  Then the next day she opened her mouth to reveal the other little tooth on her tounge. It had fallen out all by itself.  I was laughing and crying on this most sweet rites of passage.  (Are you crying happy tears again? my toothless daughter asked.  Yep.  Again.)

~Linking today with wonderful Amanda at Habit of Being.

 

first stiches

Lately I have been waxing sentimental on the 'baby stages' of my girls lives.  They are not babies anymore.  And that is that. Moving on...

I have been waiting a long time to introduce my older girl to sewing.  Not being a great sewer myself, I didn't quite know where to start.  Then, yesterday in the craft store everything became clear.  I knew to ask for a blunt needle, material that would work for it, and one of those circular thingy's to put the  material in (see, I don't even have the proper seweing vocabulary but I'm sure one of you will enlighten me quickly.).

A few hours later at home I nonchalantly asked her if she would like to try sewing.  Oh boy, did she ever!  

I gave her basic instruction and then sat down quietly beside her.  I watched her little hands push the needle to and fro.  First big, long stitches, then medium and smaller.   The studious look on her face and then the sheer joy at completing another stitch! 

There is something about sewing, not unlike knitting, not unlike baking.  Many of us intuitively know how to care-take for ourselves and our families.   It's an art that gets passed on generation to generation.  I love that.  In her cells, I believe, is a genetic connection to sewing.  My mother sewed (and taught me), and her mother, and her mother and so on.  Whether or not my daughter continues to resonate with the motion of a needle and thread...that is a different story.

In my view, school can only teach so much.  Or rather, so little.  Sitting with mama learning to thread the needle, again and again...this is the learning my girls will carry in their hearts.  It doesn't matter what they do with it later in life.  These precious moments of love and connection, they too create channels for future generations. 

 

 

Big Love

Often I find, I do not want these times to pass.  The times of little toes. I try to find comfort in the fact that it happens for all: little feet get bigger.  I remember measuring their newborn feet along the side of my hand.  Trying to take in the moment as both fully real and suddenly passing. 

Many people say teenage years are terrible.  But I have a friend with several teenagers (who I've known since thier birth.)  These kids are amazing, happy, funny, comfortable, creative, dedicated, bright, polite, responsible.  My friend does not miss them being little.  In fact, she finds the teenage years the sweetest yet.  I love this.

They will always be my daughters.  I will always have carried them in my belly and carried them in my arms.  And I can always hold their hands no matter how old we all become.

C. is five now.  She has been taking a pottery class up the street for over a year.  Now look what she can do:

And last night she figured out how to make a crown for a stuffed animal with paper, scissors, glue and wire.  It takes my breath away as I watch this little five-year-old color her world with creativity and joy.  And am reminded that every year, every stage is incredible. 

Still.  On some nights, I awaken out of my sleep with a shudder.  A shadow of fear overtakes me:  the fragility of life.   I reach out for something to soothe me, comfort me, realizing quickly, there is nothing of substance.  Nothing is certain.  Nothing is clear.  Only my love for them. 

Only my love for them.  That is what I fall back on in the dark of the night.  And that, thank goodness, is what saves me.

on a morning before christmas

on a morning 'fore christmas, with coffee in hand a mama helped elves make bracelets, headbands ornaments also O Mama's so blessed with her little elves and a holiday mess

what is the world without art?

Well, gosh.  I like art.  And I am glad that the world has art. On that note, have I told you I really like knitting?   And even more since I now think I might just be able to knit a pattern.  Remember my sob story a few days ago?  The one about how I can't follow patterns?  Well, I think I can now!   I just started a hat for myself with the Soulemama "favorite hat" pattern and I do believe, now that I know all the correct knitting stitches (which matters quite a bit, evidently), I am on to my first real finished knitting project! How nice it will be to not have someone say:  "Oh, uh-huh, it has your own creative touch.  How nice."  In other words:   Ya just couldn't follow the pattern, could you? (And by the way, the knitting pictured here is not the one I speak of, this is a simple knit stitch cap for O.  I knit like I read, several  are open at once.) And you know why this is so important to me?  Because, although we very much honor personal creativity in this family, there is something to be said for being able to do something the way it is supposed to be done.  Creative liberties are nice when they are chosen by free will.  But, who would not want to be able to follow directions when that was the chosen matter of course?  Let me describe it another way: Artistic license is great- when it's not an excuse. Ok.  And here's what else:  A $1 (yes, $1) wood frame from Michael's that you can have your kids (or yourself) paint and then put a sweet photo in as a Christmas gift.  (I found these in-store- not sure if they are online.) (I love parenthesis.) And here's what else.  No kids paints are better than Tempera, I now see.  (Not Ikea, not Melissa and Doug, etc...  just plain ol' Tempera.) And here's what else.  It's Monday and I need to get my butt moving. The usual Monday grocery shopping in the big city. Onward.

(Very) funky.

A little sewing project I did in about an hour a few days ago.  Another idea from Soulemama.  And, not as wonderful as hers (imo), but still cute!   A valiant effort!  A little  travel pouch for art-making objects; pens, pencils, brushes, watercolors, some small pieces of paper (or in this case a handmade book by Chloe.)  It rolls (or folds) up into a neat little bundle for easily carrying, but still needs a string/strap to tie it closed.  I figure once I get that part on, Chloe can learn to tie a bow by using it. It is for Chloe- and although it is most definitely second best to the last kitty I made (post previous), it has been of some creative use to her the last few days.  Especially when I remind her that it's a cool way to bring pens and etc...out of her playroom and into another place. When I'm a little more inspired, or have a little more time to myself, I will write about other things- sans children's (very) funky art projects.