The space between the notes...

It is a beautiful Mother's Day. I really love these cool sunny days in the spring. On Mother's Day I get breakfast in bed so I am forced to linger around the bed a lot longer than I would like. This morning everyone was busy in the kitchen getting breakfast ready, flowers cut, and cards made. Amongst all this was the usual fighting over who does what, who is not sharing what, and so on. There never is peace with young kids -- or very infrequently anyway. Today I wasn't minding the noise though. The breakfast was delicious - crepe suzette and espresso.

Soon after breakfast we were off to church. My husband played a beautiful piano piece today. He really played so lovely. As I listened it dawned on me why I find this specific type of music so relaxing and meditative. Those brief hesitations and pauses between the notes seem to stop time and we wait on the brink for the next note. I marvelled at how perfectly he played this and how those pauses seemed so absolutely perfect. If they had been shorter or longer everything would have been off. The children's choir also sang and they were so adorable. This is the first choir group that has worked hard learning their songs and they did so well.

I spent the afternoon doing odds and ends. I made a driftwood and railroad spring sculpture to hang off the porch. I also used a few antique strap hinges with that so when the wind blows they ring like a bell against the spring. I had to use some plastic coated electrical wire to hang it because it was so heavy. I also made a bunch of repairs to the other driftwood, sea glass, and old bottle wind chimes I have had about the yard for a few years. They all look so beautiful again. I also put up our rather naked christmas tree to make another bottle tree. I don't have enough blue bottles yet but I will have to keep my eye out for them.

A day for reflection and remembrance

It was a rather sleepless night as I slept beside my youngest with her huge head bump. She was rather uncomfortable all night long. And I was a little worried that we should have made a hospital visit. That and my cousin's funeral today kept me thinking too much.

My cousin was too young to leave us at 46 years old. I regret that I had not seen her in so long too. Once my grandparents passed away the annual family gatherings pretty much ended except for weddings and then again funerals. I remember playing with her and her brother in their basement while the grownups talked upstairs. My younger sister joined us in playing hide and go seek amongst the many interesting things they had stored down there. Our own basement was not one you would want to linger in let alone play in and was the source of many of my nightmares growing up. But their basement was more like an attic with and assortment of things to explore and awesome places to hide. When you are young and in the moment you don't realize how fleeting these times can be. You take for granted that Christmas parties will go on forever, grandparents will never die, and families won't drift apart as children grow up and have families of their own. I can't help but feel nostalgic for those times even though I am thoroughly enjoying parenting my own family. I look at my children and am sad for my aunt and uncle and for what they have endured. The loss of a child at any age is a difficult thing to cope with. So on this day I remember my cousin as I remember her -- a beautiful young child with a bright future ahead of her. I pray for the strength to endure whatever our futures hold and the peace to enjoy those beautiful moments in life.

Yankee doodle chicken

I had most of the day to myself while my youngest went on a school fieldtrip that ended up being rained out. I finished up work on this patriotic little hen. I had to make another hen for my daughter since she is so in love with them. She came home with a huge lump on the head after being chased by a boy in the playground. Ouch!
I am going to do a few more little birds and chickens on these little wooden containers/stands. We have a shop within a half mile of here that sells unfinished furniture and lots of wooden trinkets.

Getting through the week...

I am getting dizzy driving my kids to and from activities. With three of them there always seems to be some overlap of activities so its difficult to work this out. With my husband now working so much farther away I can't count on him for "pick ups". This will all be over in another month and then we can relax a bit, I hope. In the mean time I am more than a little stressed.

I finished up my little hen and chicks that I had been working on for a while. On Monday me and my youngest took a walk over to the nearby antique store and found the base for this. An antique salt container missing its chicken top was perfect. My daughter also collected a few little glass figures there too. It is difficult to shop with a child who would rather talk a walk outside. She pestered me CONSTANTLY. But once she picked up her little trinkets she was quiet.


My needle felted penguins are featured on another Etsy treasury. This one is for felted items and was put together by kraftymomma.


My daughter and I checked up on the lilacs and they are really so beautiful. We cut some and put them in water to bring inside. I wish I could do this everyday of the year. I suppose since these things are so temporary we treasure them more.

Beautiful Day!

It so lovely outside but a little too hot to garden. The lilacs are finally starting to open up. They smell heavenly. We enjoyed them while waiting for the school buses.


I did get that dreaded mammogram done and it really wasn't so bad. Not that I would want to do it too often but it was pretty quick after all and the tech doing it was so nice.

I finished up this little family of ducks with two way too cute ducklings.


I also re-photographed my wedding birds because I didn't like the line created by the paper backgrounds. Photographing these things is so hard to get right. But I just happened upon the lace idea and I think it works well.

Tuesday

I have been busy working on a sweet wedding couple based on a request I had on Etsy. The bride is a sweet white bird with a veil and white flowers. The groom is black and white with a tuxedo appearance and a cute felt black top hat. I was going to work on a base for this couple so they would work better as a cake topper. But I am still thinking out how I want to do this so I went ahead and listed the pair in my store on Etsy anyway.


Tommorrow I am going to the local hospital for my first mammogram. I am seriously dreading this but being 43 now means I am definitely overdue. I hope it doesn't turn out to be too bad. Getting older is NOT fun.

Enough whining.... One of my chicken families was included in an Etsy Treasury titled "Family" by ayeyet. It is such a cute treasury.

Did I do that?

This morning I woke up before anyone else and snuck out to my little studio area off my bedroom. I really does feel like sneaking because you have to duck into this very little door to get into the room. This meant I didn't have to wake up the dogs and have them wake up the rest of the house too.

As I sat at my drafting table needle felting a new pair of birds I spied a colorful painted board far under the table and propped up against the wall. It was partially buried by other things propped against it. As I bent down to investigate further what do I see but a sign I painted 2 summers ago and guess what the words on the sign were -- The Hen House. I thought this was particularly odd since I was only thinking yesterday what a great idea it would be to paint a sign with exactly those words (inspired by that flickr group). And I really did have that feeling "DID I DO THAT?" I laughed about this all morning while I worked.



I managed to get out of the house and away from the computer and my projects to do some gardening. With the kids we prepped some of the vegetable garden beds and planted some lettuce, spinach, beets, kale, and snow peas. I wandered about the yard cleaning up random things left over from last year. The lilacs are almost blossoming too!