beautiful things

4 projects

Well I've gotten a good start on my 52 projects - I can cross 4 off the list - vests for my three boys (2 pictured below, the other one was sleeping in this photo and I don't really have a good one of him in his vest... to be taken soon.  I used the "carla C festive vest pattern"  from youcanmakethis.com . Seriously, I love pdf patterns!!!  

Bowties are project #2 for the boys, with no pattern, I must say - I just copied one that I had that my exceptionally gifted mom made. Kieran is wearing his in the collage.

My handsome guy sporting a bowtie!

  I did make Ani a dress using the "Sweet Little Dress" pattern from Leila and Ben (etsy shop!  pdf pattern again!), but it got sidelined by the flower girl dress she was given which is beautiful!! I did however make the shoes she is wearing in the photo at the wedding, using the toddler Mary Jane's Pattern from ithinksew.com.

One epic fail were the baby sneakers I tried to make, again using a pattern from ithinksew.com.  I think I printed out the pattern with the wrong scaling, and then the interfacing I used was so stiff that I couldn't manoeuver it around right.  (How do you spell manuoever? any way that I spell it it comes out wrong...)

And finally, this "Sweet Little Dress" Pattern from Leila and Ben (etsy shop) I made 3 dresses from this pattern, two of them for practice and to figure out the pattern (totally easy, which is great for me!).

 

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new. ~ Albert Einstein

About my anger...

From: thehappiestmom.com

Throughout my marriage and life as a mom, I have often found myself at that crossroads where you have to choose to either stay angry or let it go. Moments of disappointment, anger, annoyance and even rage are inevitable, and certainly there are certain behaviors that justify big and lasting feelings (like, say, infidelity). But silly little things also have a way of getting fat and large on all the energy we feed them when it would have been just as easy to starve them away.

There comes that pivotal moment where the initial event–whether it’s a soggy plate of food or a child’s misbehavior or the spouse who forgot your anniversary–isn’t enough to fuel the anger anymore. At that moment you have to make a conscious, intelligent decision to feed the negativity. And I am convinced that a huge percentage of marital discord and parental bitterness comes from people making achoice to stay angry or disappointed or disgusted or resentful. I know because I’ve made that choice myself, many many times, especially early in my life as a mom and wife. And it has never, not once, made my day better, improved a relationship, or given me any real, lasting satisfaction. Now I go out of my way to make the other decision: the decision not to nurture the annoyance or resentment, to forget about the self-pity. Like anything else, bad feelings need to be fed in order to thrive. If you starve them of attention or focus, they have a way of shriveling up and going away.

Imagine how much happier we’d all be if we let moments of anger be just that: moments. And then went on to embrace the humor in the unexpected, the love of our families, and the freshly-baked cherry turnover.

I’m not a patient person. It’s one of the hardest things for me about motherhood. I watch weeks, months, and years passing by and think about all the things I never did in my 20s, that I may also not do in my 30s. I sometimes feel panicky about the time that’s going by, all that is still undone.


....when I make that choice, it’s a waste of time to feel bad about it. Instead, I need to celebrate and make the most of the impossibly brief window of time that I have to spend with my small children, and the enough-ness of the ordinary, messy, lovely life I lead.


from The Happiest Mom
thehappiestmom.com

The Creative Process

"Have you ever heard of Parkinson's law?  It states:

‘WORK EXPANDS SO AS TO FILL THE TIME AVAILABLE FOR ITS COMPLETION’

I heard this in college and I found it to be a fascinating idea.  What does it mean?  It means if I give you an hour to write a letter, it will take you an hour.  If I give you 5 minutes it will take you 5 minutes.  We tend to expand tasks according to the time alotted.  What does this mean to me?  If I have a day ahead of me and the only thing on my list is to do laundry, that's all I will do.  On the other hand, if I know I have 10 things that need to get done that day I will make them happen"

http://iammommahearmeroar.blogspot.com/2011/01/time-management-how-to-make-it-all-fit.html

"Life is hard.  But it's also amazing, and I will rock the hell out of it.

I will not die an unlived life. I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire. I choose to inhabit my days, to allow my living to open me, to make me less afraid, more accessible, to loosen my heart until it becomes a wing, a torch, a promise. I choose to risk my significance; to live so that which comes to me as seed goes to the next as blossom and that which comes to me as blossom, goes on as fruit.
-Dawna Markova"
http://www.kellehampton.com/p/about.html


I love this so much.  This is what this blog is about.  I'm tired of living half a life and waiting waiting waiting all the time.  What a waste!  No more.