made by Rosie

Here's Fidget's busy work for a day's recuperation. I also baked cookies for her to ice, but those were not as successful. They were about as soft as ceramic tiles. So that wasn't a recipe to repeat.

We missed a couple days' schoolwork, a day of karate, and I was glad that her fever was gone by mid-morning today; that she showed an intetest in making a doll, and I encouraged her as her stitches improved with close attention. This precious doll with her hand-embroidered eyes& lashes, was her great gift to me after a day spent happily cutting and sewing snippets together.

I still have the Matrida painting to finish, fabric for renewing the sofas, and a surprise to finish for a young bride. Plenty to keep me busy, and many contemplative moments.

The more I struggle with a painful jaw condition this winter, the more my ears hurt and the more I value silence. Not only my own, but heart's silence as well. I find with joy that God does speak, if I will but listen. In silence is beauty.

Exciting Summer Plans

Gracious, it's been over a month! We had a few weeks of sickness here in April. It was a busy month still, as I tested for my green belt- and passed. Yay! I'm in Fidget's class now and we're having so much fun. If I'd known karate was this much fun I would have started it sooner!

Looks like summer's almost here already. I've been working on some knitting and painting and have plans for opening an etsy shop in late August! I want to thank all my pen pals for participating in my one-for-one offer: If they send me a pretty postcard, I paint a picture of it and send it to them. Then my hope is to paint another and offer it at the etsy shop. So far they're such fun I've had a hard time not sending them off the minute they're painted. Here's another peek at my sketchbook and some new work.

The cool weather we've had lately is just gorgeous and our yard has gotten considerably better-looking than the sad and neglected state in which we found it upon move-in. Fidget and I have started running 2 miles in the mornings and are enjoying seeing all the new birds and squirrels in the neighborhood.

Fidget has exciting summer plans as well. After all, art and playing are great but her mind wants more work to do! So she is taking beginning Latin from a dear friend this summer. After the first class this week, she wanted to play Latin teacher when her friend came over later that day. So it looks like this class is a good fit for her. She is also planning to attend a Latin summer camp and a karate Olympics camp.

There have been sad and alarming things all over in the past month and this is something I want to address. Because just last fall God brought me out of a season of fear. I can testify that the past weeks God has been faithful to be my strength and my shield, a peaceful force to my soul that overcame any anxiety. 

I want to encourage you that no matter what you face personally, no matter what our country faces, God will always be enough. He is trustworthy, He is faithful. It is faith in Him that allows us to have joy even when things are sad. We know He will redeem everything bad one day. I hope you can see and appreciate that He gives us many great blessings here, but I also pray you say with me 'Come, Lord Jesus. Come!'

This week has been so blissfully full of art. Fidget and I have a karate belt test tomorrow, but after that, I'll be back to painting, and she'll be back to using the quill pen she made from a peacock feather.

Joy

A happy day in the kitchen baking bread, as well as in studio using watercolors while Fidget did too and the Pres piddled with his Harley. I made some sketches, painted a post card, and one little canvas board for the church art auction. I am using scenes from all the postcards my pen pals have sent me in the past 6 months. Painting= joy!

Comfort

Grey skies, rain and grieving here today. I was reminded last week that the tough questions, the unsolved hurts, are times we must choose to draw near to God. We can trust even when we don't understand, and God will bring redemption of even those things that we cannot reconcile. We continue to unpack. Here is a little quilt that gets broken every time we move. I am finally making a new little clay figure, a little Fidget swinging high and carefree, that I made from one of my favorite old photos of her. The quilt isn't ruined if I determine to make it better as I refashion it. Just as the hard things don't break us, but increase our faith as we offer them back to God.

Optimism

Lots of great things are going on at the Train Central workshop. Yes, we're into the grey days of winter. But the thing about being a believer is that the Lord gives our spirits great buoyancy, no matter what is going on in the world, in our hearts, or in our schedules. So, we carry on. As the Bible says, we are not consumed. Instead, we knit :).

Here are two gifts completed this week.

Some luscious, just-arrived bulky soft 

Italian wools for winter projects.

 

 

Some wool that's been on the back burner that I am using for new socks to wear with jeans through the long grey winter months. 

I love the variations on blue.

But we have to keep our strength up. Here's Fidget about to gobble
 one of Sunday's hand made  pizzas.We made 3: pepperoni and mushroom; pineapple and Canadian bacon; and just cheese.
 

 School work continues. And somehow, even next to the train tracks, with grey weather outside, it is encouraging. Math work is being understood, Fig's love of Greek mythology continues, and we get to be together all day long. Here's what we're reading these days. 

 God is good!

A Little Friend

Fidget is still into Greek myths. This is a tiny sewing project she did at a play date. I love that she has a friend who sews! She shared her fabrics with Rosa and they each made a doll. Rosa's is named Andromeda. When Rosa was finished, she showed Andromeda around the apartment. Andromeda went for a walk in nature...

and then it was time for a cup of tea. 

Lap of Luxury

Here are a few things going on at the new place. First, the Ada Cowl from Mollie Makes Magazine. I love this yarn (M235 Wine Splash) so much that I made 2 cowls and 2 baby sweaters from it this summer. I brought this cowl project on our camping trip and finished just as we moved in at the end of the trip.

 

It's going to be a Christmas present.

 

These socks are for a little girl in California, the first daughter of a friend of mine who I last saw several years ago. She turns 4 in October. I was going to make some for Fidget as well but haven't done it yet. Still plenty of time until Christmas. 
 

These socks are from the basic pattern taught at the knit shop where I took a class with Christmas money over a year ago. Since then I've made a bunch of socks for nearly all the adults in the family. For my brothers in law I'm doing short manly socks in a luxurious yarn. This one was called denim but was a close out so it isn't available anymore. I got it because it reminded me of camouflage. 
 

We've already been at our small apartment for 2 of our 6 months' lease. I've come without my mixer, my sewing machine, most of my pots and pans, and all my art supplies. The nice side effect of living small is that I have plenty of time and attention for home schooling with few distractions. But another lovely thing is that I have time for creative writing. Yes, my big, hand-crafted desk is packed away in storage in Rhode Island, but I find my lap desk is all I need. In fact, it's the lap of luxury on a night when Fidget is sick in bed. It's quiet here if you don't count the trains going by, and after awhile they just add to the ambiance. 

Inspiration is good!

A Young Dreamer

Family is coming in town tomorrow so I have been mowing, raking, grocerying, baking and cleaning. It has been a great few days, including an entire day of baking with my new friend Stacey yesterday. Fidget is beside herself with excitement about the cousins coming.

I have a couple of new knitting projects finished but instead of showing them this evening I wanted to share this video of a little boy's story. With cardboard boxes from his dad's auto parts shop in East L.A., this 9-year old, Caine, created arcade games complete with tickets and prizes. His first customer was so enthused about this young man's creativity and inspiring motivation, he made this little film about Caine and his shop. It is a blessing to see someone so young following his dreams. Enjoy.


Caines Arcade

A Little Bit of Art

Fidget and I finished school this morning and wanted to do something fun this afternoon when it was scheduled to snow but only a little, and most of it is supposed to be sleet. I decided to try something I got as an assignment in grad school. That is, sketch a bunch of animals and then combine two or more to make your own creature.

 We have had fun drawing and painting our ideas and are going to make paper dolls from them next.

Slipper Bread

A lot of times I feel like I have very little to give when it comes to holidays. I like to give home made gifts, and sometimes they take a lot of thinking about before I come up with something. The Pres is such a thoughtful gift giver. Even right before Valentines' week, I had come up with nothing. It goes without saying I always want to make a card, but what else? I finally thought of reuben sandwiches, which are one of the Pres' favorite things that I almost never make.

This year, part of my Valentine to the Pres and Fidget was ciabatta bread. This word ciabatta comes from the Italian for slipper. So sometimes we call it slipper bread. But the taste is far from shoe-like. And it would be perfect for showcasing the special taste of reubens.

The biga, or starter, has to be prepared a day in advance. It is in the green milk glass bowl, above. It has to be added bit by bit to the ciabatta dough in the mixer. While it takes almost half an hour to add, it makes a wonderfully complex taste, like sourdough. The biga and ciabatta come from this book, The Village Baker, which I highly recommend.

After a little while the dough rose and bubbled like a science experiment. Bread is so exciting!

 I wish this had smell-o-vision. There's nothing like the aroma of bread dough, especially the tang of an artisan bread dough.

 This recipe makes four loaves, plenty to keep and share. You also have the option while at this stage, of saving some for grissini, that is, Turinese Breadsticks, but I can never make myself do it.

Naturally I forgot to take photos of the reubens on Valentine's Day. These loaves were enough for reubens, as well as served another night with butter and my sister in law's wonderful spiced lentil soup. One morning Fidget had the bread with honey butter for breakfast. And I brought some soup and bread to two friends. I love it when baking works out and there's plenty to share.

Knitted Gifts

I don't know how a month has gone by since my last post. But I have been busy working on Christmas gifts, so I will share a couple. If you are Cousin Anne, stop reading now before your present is spoiled. :) I am pretty sure Cousin Anne has no interest in this blog, but just to be sure, I had to say it.

A month or so ago the Pres asked for knitted arm warmers. I was making a pair of socks and he said the arm warmers would need much smaller stitches. I was a bit surprised, since I was using a size 1 needle at the moment. But I ordered a size 00 set of circular needles and had him pick his yarn. This Opal yarn was the gift of a friend who needed to make room in her yarn stash, bless her. The Pres picked two skeins from the ones I showed him, that way I was sure I would not run out, as I am not a great judge of how much yarn is ever in a ball. I just finished the arm warmers (loosely using this pattern on knitting site Ravelry as a guide) and have laid them out to block them after soaking them. Blue is not an especially favorite color of his but I think he was pleased with how they looked as they came along. Now he's agreed to forget about them by Christmas. He's a good egg.

Here is my latest project (the large pin midway is only there temporarily, so I can measure the second glove against it as I knit to be sure I come out with an even pair). This is right side out, where you can see a lot of the knit stitches. If it is worn inside out, it is a lot loopier and fuzzier, which is lots of fun as a fashion statement. These fingerless gloves will be for Cousin Anne. She, I realized recently, is the only girl in the family for whom I have not made any gloves yet. Last Christmas I made her a scarf out of the same color yarn and just found the second skein stashed away last week. Perfect! Here is the scarf from last Christmas:

I love the variations in this Farmhouse Yarn, Trixie's Loopy Mohair. I hope to get more at Knit Wits in Virginia Beach on my next trip down.

It is such fun making presents, thinking about loved ones' hobbies and preferences. My hope in giving these things is that they will be useful as well as reminders to these loved ones throughout the year that they are loved. Jesus' love for us is a year-round love, after all.

That's all I can share of my Christmas workshop for now. What are you making this season?

A Secret for Remembering that Anything is Possible

Fidget has gotten into photography lately. When she is out of film she uses my digital camera. Which is nice because we can delete a lot. She has taken to making videos of her 'kids'. She's into superheroes too. So yesterday after Bible study she borrowed the camera while I was making lunch. She said  she was doing family portraits.

But that's just Pooh Bear, I said. No, she said, it's a family portrait of Pooh Bear and Silky! 

And this is her new superhero, Blue Diamond. I love her spelling. At this age I just so love to see her creativity coming out, so I don't want to correct her all the time. If I did I'm sure I could discourage her very easily. She often leaves out vowels and word endings. We do work on those things at school. But being a kid is about being creative. I want to foster that and I want her to remember that when she grows up she was always encouraged to create. 

Here is the painting I'm making her for Christmas, from my favorite photo of her at the nearby topiary gardens. I work on it after she's in bed every night. When it's finished, I'm going to start writing the story that goes with it. I can't wait until it's Christmas and I get to give them to her. One look should be all it takes anytime she needs reminding that with imagination, anything is possible!

Adelaide's Treasures

As you know if you've been reading this blog, my daughter Fidget and I have an ongoing mystery to work on when we run to the Elizabeth River down at the end of our street. While we do collect clues (sometimes in the form of broken pottery, which we bring home), I am not sure this is a mystery we want to solve. It is something we expound on every time so it takes different turns.

Here are more broken items from Aunt Adelaide's sunken ship. Fidget and I were fascinated this morning, because we chanced upon low tide and there were bits of glass and pottery strewn all about. Jackpot!

I was particularly enchanted with two fragments that had back stamps pressed into them. You can see them better if you click the photo above, it enlarges the picture.

I found so much, it filled both my hands on the way home. Lately we find more and more pieces. We are going to miss the fun of finding shards of the past when we move this summer. We may never solve the mystery of Aunt Adelaide's disappearance, or find the chest with her fortune in it. We may never apprehend the pirates who posed as fishermen to steal her trunk. But I am sure another mystery is awaiting us in Rhode Island!

At the River's Edge

Fidget and I went down the street to the river yesterday. We were delighted to see the tide was the lowest we'd ever seen. We walked way out on the squishy sand and found all kinds of treasures. We brought a shovel and a trowel, imagining we were archaeologists, and what fun it was to lose ourselves for an hour walking the shoreline way out almost to the bridge pilings. Fidget made a pyramid and a tunnel; I collected pot shards. 

Who used to own the things that made up these dishes, we wondered? How did they lose them? That was enough to spark our imaginations. Actually, Fidget's imagination needs no sparking. On the way to the river she pretended we were dolls out for a walk without their owner.

It is such fun to observe Fidget's simple joy in the sunshine, going walking and exploring. How God must delight too, in seeing His children enjoy the good gifts He gives.