Stuff.

Well, hi.

You don't have a library card??? 

Hells no.
Seriously, just walk away.

pin silliness : D

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oooo but this one too since it's a month for dresses and all ~

True story.

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A slightly late this week shoutout from the freewill peoples, for no other reason that than it amuses me~

"There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm," wrote the novelist Willa Cather. According to my reading of the astrological omens, Taurus, you're in a phase of your cycle when storm-learning isn't your priority. The educational experiences you need most will unfold when you're exploring the mysteries of peace and serenity. In fact, I suspect that the deeper you relax, the more likely it is that you will attract life-changing teachings -- lessons that can transform your life for the better and fuel you for a long time. 

freewillastrology

hmmm.

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Reason 42 I effin love this place.  The "spontaneous community art program" has brightened my day once again.

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And now for something actually sewing related.  I am moving (yays!) and can't stop to make dresses (terrible) but here is a little something at least.  The being said please bear with me I need to get some things done including an exciting new project for a beautiful friend of mine (and yes there will be pictures it's gonna be awesome!) before I continue with a few more dresses and some exciting new goodies for next month.

Probably two years ago I was at a store moving sale and they had this roll of god awful upholstery fabric.  Just sitting there on the roll by itself it really looked terrible, but I work with kids and saw potential.  I asked and they were nice enough to donate it. *yays

The room I spend most of my time in at work is half covered by windows, like in this picture but times three.  I gravitate towards sunshine usually but the room is south facing and everyone would end up blinded for two hours or so every morning. 

They didn't end up as anything 'special' but with a little bit of green on the bottom it kind of looks like we have stained glass windows across the room with the sun coming up behind them. I may have found the only suitable use for this mess of colors, and I think they turned out pretty amazing. 

The point is - don't knock a piece of fabric/book/car/house/person by your initial reaction to what you can see.  It's much more fulfilling to see the potential in everything around you than to shut it out because it doesn't fit some culturally made description of what pretty/smart/respectful/classy/insert your own personal favorite adjective here is.  There is something beautiful in damn near everything if you're grounded enough to be open to the possibilities.

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myfm ~ Been in my head for a few days but it's catchy and I like it.  Safe and Sound from Capitol City

The Rainbow Spinny Dress

I've had a lot going on this week.  I can't believe I haven't posted anything in a whole week.  Bear with me.  Lots of stuffs goin on for the next month or so but I'll be around  : )

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So...one day I go back to the newly opened Joann's in my area to get more of what I had gotten the week before (amazingly soft and light cotton/silk blend).  When I got in and there wasn't any, I was for once content to leave with nothing. *gasp*  However, my sweet little lady had another idea.  As usual, she comments on a fabric in each aisle:  Wow, this is beautiful - or - Look at this one mom!   But this time, she happens upon this cotton fabric with a black background and randomly shaped and colored flowers. 

"Ooooooo mooooom this one is sooooooo beauuutifuuulllll!"  Well, it's alright,  I think to myself.  I convince her to walk with me and she just stops and says,

"But mom, we didn't pick up that beautiful fabric!  It's just sitting there and someone else might pick it up and then it will be gone and there wouldn't be any more and it was sooo beauuutifulll."

She's really starting to get upset.  She's never been so attached to a piece of fabric before - so we go to look at it and she tells me what a nice spinny dress it would make and of course we end up going to get a yard and a half cut.  It ended up being $6 something for all of it instead of $15 so I can't really complain.  I know how it is to be hopelessly enamored with a piece of fabric, and who am I to deny the beginning of my sweet girl's love of fabricy things.

I sat down with a ridiculously small amount of minutes left in the day and an idea, and somehow I managed to make it work in a few hours, with no pattern or little person to try it on (did I mention I should have been sleeping?) but I ended up with something that was really pretty great.

After ranting about it to anyone who would listen for a week or so she finally had her magical spinny rainbow dress and loves it. 

Don't let the angelic sleeping girl picture fool you, it's all a big scam.  Seconds later......

 

I took a picture of her more recently in it but I can't find it right now.  Maybe (or not) I will get it updated later.  It would be helpful to see what she actually looks like standing up in it...

 

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Because I didn't get to it earlier this week, and because it made me laugh, here it is for this week

 

 

freewillastrology

Am I willing to put up with more crap.  That is the ultimate question isn't it.  Don't see how I really have a choice.  Bring it on.

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Funny pin this week

stuff I would do

 

Totally would do this.  Which would probably be followed up with a somewhat heated discussion about why it couldn't possibly be incorrect as it very literally followed the directions.  Which I would win whether it got a passing grade or not. Because it's awesome.

 

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~myfm~

So very much music going on this week.  But this one I have heard a few times and it is so very lovely ~ See Beneath Your Beautiful

I can't wait until my sweet girl starts randomly singing this one : )

 

 

mid week randomness

Well, hello Wednesday.

Our Wednesday began at BattleCat Coffee Bar.  Pretty spiffy way to start a day.  I didn't make it there Sunday because I had to work ridiculously early for a Sunday and I was missing it so we made a not quick at all stop there.  Sweet girl becomes instant friends with anyone within 20 feet of the place and we end up chatting with some pretty nifty people.   

 

 

 

This however, is random story time.  Domo-kun and rabbit (he is holding his two arms out to hug Domo-kun and only has one leg because the other was crushed or something...) get together and hug and Domo accidentally bites rabbit on the head and something about a baseball game and pink blueberries and rocks. I have quite the little improv master.

 

Anyway, there actually are pink lemonade blueberries here.  Sweet girl made friends with the woman that designed and installed the beautiful new outside and she ended up showing her these awesome plants. 

 

They are quite tasty.  I wish a had a bunch I bet they would make beautiful jam. At my forever house perhaps : )

 

We (kiddo and I) also got to talking about clothes.  I asked her to draw me a picture of the dress she wants me to make for her.  Well...

 

 

Not octopi.  Although I can't see how she wouldn't like a dress covered in octopi.  Those are lovely flowers and three ginormous buttons.  I told her we may have to compromise on the buttons part but I think I can make it work : )

 

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Who says vandalism is only for uneducated vagrants?  I'm going to call it a free educational community art program : D  Can't rely on public schools to keep up on both grammar and(or?) art these days now can we.

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favorite pin right this second

 

Makenzie's Junk Drawer

because cake. and cash. and frikkin cake. Also, because I could totally see a number of people I know and love, including myself, doing this very thing.  because cake.  man...I'm totally going to have to make a cake and find a tree to eat it under now...

 

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freewillastrology

Love it.  Of course I had to go look up that song.  Catchy little tune.  Piss in the wind I will not.



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myfm ~ Don't know how anything else could be stuck in my head after hearing that song.  But wait!  Pokey Lafarge takes over.  I got to see/hear him for the first time at MerleFest this year and I get to see him and his people again on Friday!  There is an article in the local paper this week about the guy ~ I like the way he thinks...

“People think, with me, that it’s a dress-up contest or a history project,” says dapper roots musician (and former, albeit briefly, Asheville resident) Pokey LaFarge. “I just choose to look nice. When I dress nice I feel good and hopefully that passes on to other people.”

mhmm. that.



opposite of boisterous

Happy random Tuesday.



So, she's really into tattoos lately.  She come up to me a couple times a week and asks if I can paint a tattoo on her, but this time, I was busy and said, "Sure, but after I finish what I'm doing.  Why don't you make one for me while you're waiting."  So, I ended up with an amazing flower garden with huge awesome roots,  I finished what I was doing and it's her turn.  "What do you want today love?" ... "A flower garden just like yours." ...  So I get on it.  I think they turned out pretty sweet : O)  Yes, there is a big stupid box over where she wrote her name, but  she's friendly enough without strangers knowing her name.  I love my girl.  She makes a pretty spectacular sidekick. 

 

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favorite pin this week

Why Being a Nerd is Awesome

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Then there's this ~

 freewillastrology~

Ha!  I laughed for awhile.  Done and done.  

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At a game night with a bunch of buddies recently, we are playing Taboo and it's Owen's turn.  He begins, "........the opposite of boisterous", to which my incredible 4 year old kiddo barges in before any of the adults and shouts - SHY!  I was not alone in my shock and awe, but it just makes it that much easier to ignore people that look and smirk when I explain words like sarcasm and tremendously to my sweet inquisitive girl.

Then it's not so humorous when she then turns around and uses it correctly in an amazing sentence like, "I love you tremendously."  Well, maybe to me.  I think I filled up the store with laughter with that one. 
I'm so thankful she shares my passion for words and songs and books filled with them.

For example, this is what I wake up to just about every day~

You may not be able to tell, but that is a badass pop book of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, except with the original text not some watered down version. 

Here's to making the conscious choice to always have real conversations with our kids.  They can handle the information if we just give it to them. 

For example, the other day I was laying on the floor at work (not the wear all black one, the works with kids one) and my sweet hearted girl comes up and says

I need to snuggle mamma.
~Perfect, I say, because I could use some good snuggles right now.
Why? (My four year old just asked me why...here are the options, be honest - or - talk to my very observant child like she hasn't eyes in her head or a huge feeling heart and blow it off.  Well self, when you put it that way who wouldn't just talk to their kids?)
~Well, because I have to do something difficult and it makes me sad.
Oh mom.  I'll help you.  When you have something hard to do I'll always always help you.
~Baby, you always always do. 

Sure, in letting my kiddo know that I'm sad about something she is exposed to something less than pleasant but that's life and in my opinion it's better that she have safe realistic exposure to the whole scope of emotions than to be sheltered or coddled and left unable to process them.  Love and honesty and strength and words and music may be some of the few things I can share with her but there isn't a whole lot more that's essential to life from my point of view. 

I love my girl, tremendously. 

 " Happiness don't drag it's feet, and time moves faster than you think."   Somehow both appropriate and irrelevant but a beautiful song for somebody somewhere  : ) 

This one just made me laugh.  Thankfully I find equal discomfort in both being depressed and slouching so I never tend to do either for long once I realize that it's happening ~

"This is my 'depressed stance.' When you're depressed, it makes a lot of difference how you stand.  The worst thing you can do is straighten up and hold your head high because then you'll start to feel better.  If you're going to get any joy out of being depressed, you've got to stand like this." ~ Charles Schulz


Here we go.  Half the time I'm vibrating (albeit invisibly to some) with excitement for one thing or another ~

"Happiness is excitement that has found a settling down place.  But there is always a little corner that keeps flapping around." ~ E.L. Konigsburg

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That ended up being somewhat of a ramble but whatevs.  To put it simply, my little kiddo is fucking awesome and I'm so thrilled to know her. 




myfm. Hayley Williams is amazing. 

most recent reasons for staying up an extra hour (or three)....

Here we are - on request from a few friends - randomness from the black hole otherwise known as pinterest

But while I'm on the subject of randomness this is pretty awesome. Like me and my girl but with us it was completely by accident - the first song I ever learned to sing and play at the same time ~ I played a chord, sang a line, played another chord, out of nowhere she sings clear as day, "Disregard your father's wooooooorrrrrdds".  omigoodness, this girl of mine.  Right now as per her request we're learning Wagon Wheel which is pretty frikkin cute with her sweet voice and her hand a slappin her leg in time.  Yup, I'm one lucky mamma.


And because this periodical is my companion Tuesday evenings and I find amusement within it~

well, that's....something to look forward to...?

freewillastrology

 

speaking of freewill~

“Chaos is more freedom; in fact, total freedom. But no meaning. I want to be free to act, and I also want my actions to mean something.”  Audrey Niffenegger

 



 

 

 And there are oodles of songs about chaos but what's really in my head right this second is this one.

Happy Tuesday all~