My Borrowed Small Town Life

I have always wanted to live in a small town, instead I've always lived in large towns and small cities....so I borrow other peoples small towns.
Especially on holidays



What's more small town than Jr Grange?



or Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?



Antique Cars



Hot Happy Kids



and Kentish Guards



a really large horse pulling a cart



ICE CREAM



and musket fire.



After a chilly damp spring today felt like summer - Eighty degrees and humid,
lots of ants, bare feet, and the Memorial Day Parade. Love days like these.

Inspired by.....

In the middle of everything going on I hadn't made anything in weeks...hadn't even thought about it. I had no interest and not a single idea or bit of inspiration...so I made myself dig get out the scrap bag and sat around my room looking for something to inspire me...and there it was, same place it's always been. The bookshelf where I keep all of my favorite books...I've been sewing ever since. Little projects to be sure but they are making me a bit happier and a lot less stressed out.

William Shakespeare
"Tatiana"





Miss Jane Austen
"Emma"





Thomas Merton..
Seven Stories





Put together will a little bit of this and that from the grab bag of scraps.
And some happy memories of some favorite books...

Spring and other Things

No matter how bad things seem, or are, Spring always makes me feel like the eternal optimist. Things have been bad, or at least unsettled. But the flowers have been beautiful.



Some strange alchemy of cold and rain left all of the flowering trees extra full, the cherry blossoms only lasted a week but what a week. Same for the apple trees, hopefully we'll have an extra large bounty of apples in September.




My bike and my "go slow" lawn mower are hanging out waiting to get used..



And the wrens have put in their annual appearance in the hanging pot outside my door.



We may need to move, a reality that breaks my heart a bit. I've spent a lot of time lately looking at this house and yard that I love so well, knowing I may have to leave it, reminding myself that change is scary but is also good. Aware that at being ruled by fear of the new is a good way to start dying, the real curse of middle age I think. A grasping desire to keep things just as they are, a desire that would have shamed me when I was young. So I keep looking at all of my options with a sense of adventure and gratitude. Beauty can be found almost everywhere. Maybe I'll be fortunate enough to find it here for a long time, maybe it will be somewhere new. It will most certainly be in the smiles and warmth of my friends. Lucky, no matter how I look at it.

Cloudy with a chance of Kittens

Oops! that's all I could say when a took my kitty to the vet just a little too late.
Here is the proud momma with her three babies...I know it shouldn't have happened but I'm glad it did. It's been a tough time around here with no end in sight, but this puts a smile on my face and a look of absolute wonder on my kids faces.





And we have homes waiting, so all around a real blessing by surprise!

Indigo Girl

My first ever indigo experience.
I bought the indigo in a dye kit from JoAnn Crafts
it was on clearence so why not?




I'm incapable of dying clothes without dying my arms and hands. There are no gloves that seem to cover enough. I'm glad to say that while indigo smells a lot worse than Rit dye, it washes off with soap and water.



A couple of bandannas and a sweatshirt in need of a new life.



and a shirt/fabric remnant re-do that I've been working on...




my new blue top, I love the way the dye re-acted with the different fabrics.



with my "new" sweatshirt



Nellie and I are already wearing the bandannas....
Love love love indigo, was very easy to use, even easier to clean up,
and the dye vat will last for several days...
Not to mention how much the kids loved the rather magical way the fabric
changed from and awful yellow-green to a beautiful blue as they hit the air.