pondering

It seems silly to still be talking about Christmas this far past the actual holiday but seeing as I believe the spirit of Christmas is something that should be shared year round, I'm not late at all, just getting ready for next year...

Regardless, I did receive the most perfect of gifts this year from my husband and son.  I found a tin of wooden spools of thread in my "teacher closet" that I finally cleaned out this fall.  Not knowing what to do with all of that beautiful thread, it remained in those tins the past few months.  The tins made their way into the house, out into the garage again, back in next to my sewing machine, and around and around.  I loved to just open the tin to look at the threads, to imagine women of another generation using that thread to create goodness for their own family.  A time in which things happened a lot slower and objects were valued for their craftsmanship.  A time in which something as insignificant as a spool on which to hold thread was made out of wood.  Carved out of a tree.  And wrapped around it was a rainbow of cotton.  Used to create magic from cotton and needle.

And then, on Christmas morning, Jed and Nate disappeared into the garage and told me to close my eyes.  When I opened them this amazing-ness greeted me!  It now has a home on the shelf above my sewing table and I get to gaze at it in wonder every meal from our dining room table.  Truly the perfect gift.  So thankful. 

gifting

Sometimes things come together exactly as you would hope and this time it was with our gift wrap.  Last year I found bunches of fabric in my stash that were various 'holiday' prints (a very loose term in my mind, really anything that is colorful, bonus points if it's red, white or green). 

I took some time to sew up bags and was able to wrap most of our presents with that and some scrap yarn.  This year, I was able to pull out those bags to use again (the beauty of reuse!) and only had to make about 10 replacements/additions to complete our gift wrapping.  I found a stash of gift tags (thanks to some good clean up of my 'teaching cupboard' this fall), got a to/from stamp on sale at Joanne's, found tons of 50 cent real ribbon at Michael's and my wrapping was complete. 

I am so very in love with the way all the gifts come together under the tree and the ease with which all of us, even Jed :), can wrap a present with ease. 

And even better?  Folding up the bags, rolling up the ribbon and using them again next year!  I'm currently in the market for some fun ideas for the gift tags.  I have an idea of a wreath, with the tags circling around, flower side out...we'll see! 

projects in progress

I've found myself in a mini-flurry of creating lately.  A little for me, a little for others. 

I pre-ordered this sweet pattern book a couple months ago, completely forgetting about it after it was ordered.  When it arrived last week, it was just the thing to set my clothing making heart a-flutter.  Patiently working on a shirt for myself, oh so slowly, to avoid ripping out any seams. 

I have begun sewing the advent calendar.  I'm making one for Nate and one for my sister's family.  I am so beside myself with excitement about this one.  It deserves its own whole post once I'm closer to finishing it up.  December 1st is creeping up faster than I could have imagined!

A bag.  A friend asked me to design a bag for her.  And I came up with this one.  It speaks to me about her on so many different levels and reminds me that we are all the shelter of someone's heart- whether we know it or not.

Finally a hat.  As a knitter who makes gifts for people, I try not to post them here before I give them away because I don't want the spoil the surprise.  As this one has not been gifted yet, that's all I'll say- a hat :)

the most wonderful time of the year

I thought I could settle into fall a little bit longer.  It is, by far, my most favorite season.  Yet, a small home improvement necessitated a trip to Lowe's whereupon I was greeted by rows of shiny plastic trees and waving Santas.  This jarred me back to reality and the crafter/creator in me was suddenly overcome: it's almost Christmas!  While fall is my favorite season, it is definitely Christmas that holds my holiday heart.  Just last night Nate and I were in the car and he asked if I could find Christmas carols on the radio and I was sad to not have my ipod with me to fulfill the request. 

Yet, there's something within in me: tradition?  stubbornness?  naivete? that's refuses to begin true Christmas crafting until after Halloween.  (As full disclosure: I was able to sneak in making one present while spending hours on airplanes this month.)  And, inevitably, there will be a flurry of making and ripping out and joyous creation during the next few months.  And I just can't wait.  In the meantime, I will start allowing myself to peruse favorite crafting sites/ravelry/etc to begin my gifting lists. 

Here are my beginnings of inspiration...

Sew Mama Sew :: Pear Tree Advent Calendar

Christine Fromm Designs = magic with upcycled sweaters

Fish Hat by Thelma Egberts

in this moment

There has been a flurry of activity in our house of late as we slowly begin to gather 'necessities' for our trips east.  Of course, when certain things must get done (ie laundry, packing, animal care, etc) other things must really get done (taking advantage of dewy mornings to spot huge spider webs in the yard, making lots of art, eating so very many delicious figs, making mozzarella cheese for the first time, sewing the perfect skirt-oh that picture does not do it justice...perhaps a few more lazy daisies will make it even better?).  This will be my last post for over a week- I may bring my computer so that I can upload pictures off my camera as I will surely want to have room to capture fall in Maine- but I can't promise any actual posts.  Enjoy your first week of October...I know I will!

new bags

I got to spend a lovely (stormy!) Monday sewing...and these are what I came up with. It was magic to get to sit at my old machine, listening to it clack away, smelling freshly wet concrete and sage.  A perfect holiday in my book. 

zippered bags

I have been making zippered sandwich and snack bags for a little while now- giving them away to friends and family, enjoying how useful and easy to clean the bags are.  Well, at the insistence of everyone around me, I've decided to finally put them up for sale.  In keeping with the 'inspiration' theme, I've decided to hand-stitch little words or phrases to the bag to brighten up snack or mealtime when people are out and about.  They are lined with nylon and are hand or washing machine washable.

I've used these bags for just about everything in my house...food, wet suits, craft supplies, if you can fit it in a bag, then it'll probably end up in one :)

I currently have two sizes- snack (7x5) and sandwich (7x8) and am at work on a larger size (7x12).  Click the pictures below to see more info:

snack bag

sandwich bag

creating movement

Mark Hoekstra- Flickr

I get stuck a lot.  I get stuck on projects.  I get stuck in writing.  I get stuck in negative thinking.  I just get stuck.

I find it's often much easier to keep going with the same old patterns, the ways of being that are comfortable, that are known, that are 'easy,'  even if they don't making me happy anymore.  There are many a night where I am found clicking from website to website, slowly wasting away my time rather than dreaming or reading or sewing or knitting or stretching any creative muscles.

I came across this excerpt by Nina Wise the other day that spoke to me. I like the idea of starting small- a new recipe, sand castles, a shower in the song.  I was talking to a friend today about the joys of sewing- that there are times when you need the technicalities of a tough project to get your mind off of something but there are other moments when the mindless seaming together of straight lines is what's called for- something meditative and soothing in its monotony.  Creating something calls us to appreciate those small steps we take to make something out of nothing, to connect with other people when we share our gifts and time and sometimes to stop and notice the world that's right in front of us.  

From Nina Wise:

Everyone is creative. Creativity is our very nature. But for many of us, the creative impulse has gone into hiding...

Creativity is about having the courage to invent our lives--to concoct lovemaking games, cook up a new recipe, paint a kitchen cabinet, build sculptures on the beach, and sing in the shower. Creativity is about our capacity to experience the core of our being and the full range of our humanness.

The question of how to become more creative is not about learning anything, or even doing anything, but about allowing whatever arises to gain expression. To do this, we must bypass the voice inside of us that says stop...

We obey this voice as if being guided by inner wisdom; but when we tune in, we hear a quieter voice calling out to us to express ourselves freely. This is the voice that can liberate us. If we listen and respond, our lives become rich with the pleasure creative freedom provides.

oh, did i mention

That I'm selling bags now?  Yep, it's true.  I decided to quietly and slowly set up a shop on etsy.  You can use the link found to the right, click on a picture below or click on the link found in 'my shop' in the tab up above.  Each bag is made to order with any of the images shown (new ones will be added as I make them), a word of choice to be stamped and your color preference.  They are made with an organic hemp/cotton fabric for the main bag, up-cycled fabric for the image and PUL water-resistant fabric for the lining.  There are two sizes: small (11x14) and large (17x18).

It is so very much fun to make these...sitting down to my grandma's machine with fabric and thread in hand is true meditation for me.  I love thinking of who I'm making the bag for, what the bag's journey may entail, the stories the bag may invoke, the inspiration that a simple thing like a bag can be.

So, that's that.  Browse around a bit.  If you are an etsy user, feel free to favorite.  If you're on facebook, feel free to link :)

I have more ideas for other items so don't forget to check back at the shop every now and then to see what I may come up with.

click on the images to visit my shop

new bags

It's interesting for me to look at my process for making a bag.  I often get an idea or inspiration from a bag days or weeks before it's made.  I have a running list of different images and corresponding words I'd like to pair with each one.  Yet, when I finally sit at the sewing table and get out my chalk to draw my image, inevitably the image turns out to be totally different than what I thought I was going to work on.  So far, each bag has been something that was not on one of my lists or something I'd thought of before I sat down to sew.  I think my own openness throughout the process of creating each one has been something novel and enthralling for me.  I'm normally so much more of a planner, yet working within the familiarity of the tote pattern has allowed me to open up more- to allow my creations to truly be created in that space of time that I'm sewing.  Needless to say, I'm having SO much fun making these bags and am looking forward to giving them away soon. 

Thank you to those who have expressed interest in purchasing them- I am slowly putting together orders- though each one is custom-made with a different fabric for the image (I'm working through my scraps pile).  I'm thinking $20 for the smaller tote and $25 for the larger one.  I have a really hard time asking for money for these, though as they are truly a gift for me to be able to make them...so if you want one and have a different price in mind, I'm sure I'd be open to it :) 

Oh!  And I have one more style bag that I've yet to debut.  Waiting for a smaller stamp to come in so I can make a sample to show. 

another creation

As much as I try to fit my sewing into naptime (yes, my 4 year old still naps and yes, he's amazing) and bedtime openings, I'm bound to get caught up every now and then in a project that takes me over my self-allotted time slot.  I enjoy getting caught up in the flow of a project, watching something unfold from beginning to end, so sometimes I find it hard to move away from the machine when I hear Nate calling me.

Over time, I've learned the simplest way to avoid this dilemma is to throw in a project or two of his imagining into the mix.  As I've been on a bag kick, he decided he really wanted a bag of his own.  During bedtime, I made a quick and dirty version of something I thought he might enjoy and showed him in the morning.

His reaction?  "That's SO cool mommy!" (SoCal boy through and through.)  After a couple fabric choices (fireman and flames, of course) and some free time, his bag was made.  The best part about sewing for kids is you know right off the bat if you've made something awesome.  They either play with it, use it or wear it right then and there.  This bag was a clear success as it was used within moments and has been used almost every day since.  I call it the mini-adventure bag- he had me stamp NATE on it so he calls it the little Nate bag.  Either way, it works.

And that, folks, was a long preamble to introduce another item I'm  thinking to sell: the mini-adventure bag.  Not to be confused with the full-sized adventure bag that may be in the works in the (distant) future :)

what i've been working on

My machine has been a-humming and my thread has been unspooling.  I've been pondering the idea of selling things I make but at a loss as to what to make.  I realized that what bothered me most was the idea of just selling 'stuff' to sell it.  I also realized that the handmade goodness I'm most likely to purchase for myself is often inspirational or has a message for the world.  So, I started making bags, with a word to hold on to.  Something to remember as we go through our hum drum days, making the ordinary less ordinary.  These are my first tries- they have a waterproof lining- which I love as it can catch spilled water bottles, hold wet bathing suits or damp produce from the market.  I like the idea of having a story to go with each bag- a kind of- 'if i were a bag, this is what i would want to do with my life' kind of story.  Maybe that's what I'll spend nap time today doing.  In the meantime, without further fanfare...the bags.

creations

I love creating.  No, that's not right.  I need to create.  I find that when I am having a hard time in this world, I am often not creating anything- I have become a passive participant in my life. 

I believe this was one of the primary reasons I became an educator years ago- each day was open to creation.  Whether it was creating a system with the children to determine how best to utilize our classroom library, to creating a more inviting and comfortable environment that would naturally stimulate inquiry- teaching was an act of creation for me.  

When I began teaching, I found myself less and less engaged in the creative side of my life.  I picked up the knitting needles less, rarely pulled out the sewing machine and only grabbed my camera when I felt I 'should' be the one taking pictures at an event.  This lifestyle change followed me into motherhood and it wasn't long before I was adrift in a sea of meaningless.  I know that sounds quite dramatic and cliched but it's something I've found as my truth: creating gives my life meaning.

I now see how mothering is very similar to my classroom but  on a smaller scale.  Yet, there is something about mothering that makes the act of creation less intentional for me.  I can still go whole days, perhaps even weeks, without really thinking or creating something that will support Nate and I on our journey together. 

Picking up the pieces and beginning to create again wasn't as easy nor as natural as I had hoped it would be.  It has taken me almost half a year and I still find myself stuck in ruts of non-creation or find that I slip into old habits of coasting through life without actually engaging with anything, and I find myself miserable.  Because, through all of this, that is what I've learned: creating is engaging, waking up, becoming an active participant in not only my own life but in the world around me.  It wakes me up, it gets me excited, it gets me thinking, it gets me going.  'It' can be just about anything: a new cross-stitch pattern, a dress just waiting to be designed, bag possibilities galore, a new bread recipe, homemade granola.  But 'it' requires me to move out of my mind and into the real world.  To actually touch, transform and engage with the world, not quietly sit back and read about the amazing things other people are doing. 

So, that's where I am.  I have found my truth and am now working on the slow process of figuring out what that looks like in my life.  How do I fit in creating without it becoming a chore or something I'm crossing off a list?  How do I make the space for creativity and spontanaity when so much of my time does not feel like my own?  I'm excited by the possiblities and eager to see where this all may take me.

As I postscript...I came back to edit this post a day after I first drafted it and that morning came across this perfect quote:

 

Just create to create. Create to remind yourself you're still alive. Make stuff to inspire others to make something too. Create to learn a bit more about yourself. - Frederick Terral-