Bliss Beyond Naptime

One Yard Wonder After Another

I'm excited to share that I contributed a project to the next One Yard Wonder Book - Fabric by Fabric One Yard Wonders. My design's the obi belt you see up there which could be a reversible gadget if you wish so really it's a half yard wonder. The book is filled with tonnes of other projects designed for gorgeously crafty ways to use up those smaller bits of fabric lurking in your stash piles.

And I'm also happy to announce that Storey Publishing is generously offering a copy of Fabric by Fabric to one lucky reader. Leave a comment sharing something you wonder about and I will draw a winner on the morning of January 1 and notify you by email. Sorry, fellow Canadians and other exotics but the publishers are limiting the contest to US mailing addresses.

Good luck my dear American readers and if you want to follow the blog tour along here are the next stops:

12/30/2011 Studio Cherie  

January ‘12 Lu Lu Carter

January ’12 Fiberosity

January ’12 Zuhause

January ’12 Obsessively Stiching

January ’12 No Bad Days

January ’12 Craft & Cackle

January ’12 AfricanKelli

(Photos excerpted from Fabric-by-Fabric One-Yard Wonders © by Rebecca Yaker and Patricia Hoskins, photography © Tara Donne, used with permission from Storey Publishing)

Winner has been drawn and it's Sophie from The Joy of Farming. Congratulations Sophie and beautiful wonder sharing everyone :)

Twelve Days of Squish-mas

Thank you all so much for holding my hand while I was hyperventilating about seasonal type preparations! Gorgeous points were brought up, healthy perspectives shared and glorious reminders of what's truly important this frantic time of year. Something else that really inspired me is the always inspirational Tiff from Dottie Angel who has the sweetest post on her twelve bits of joy to celebrate this season and so I thought I would kopy kath her on those and make my own little list of Twelve Shticks of Bliss. And here I present to you  twelve shots of Kale in his balaclava for perhaps the last time due to his cheeks getting to big for his face britches and his allergy to wool that I'm still not able to talk about!

The First Day of Bliss

Kale's cheeks of course. I can kiss them all day. I start with his cheeks and then he looks up so I can kiss his chubby little chin and sweet patch of skin between his chin and neck.

 

The Second Day of Bliss

Kale's and Edie's cheeks squished up together. These two are the best of friends reminding me very much of the dynamic happening between my little brother and I growing up. When I was still pregnant I was calculating the age difference and felt what a shame that there will be four whole years between them remembering how my little brother and I were so tight with only a year between us. Not to gloat but these two play the whole live long day in peace and cuteness overload like they were in utero together. Lucky mama!

The Third Day of Bliss

I found my soulmate. I'm talking about Craig, yo.  I won the life lottery that beer google-y halloween party night so many moons ago. Look at those cheek genes he carries!

The Fourth Day of Bliss

The beauty of our surroundings. Just like me meeting my soulmate we found us a community and town that sings to our hearts. Sure, it's a long way to town where all the action is but I think I don't think my nerves can take much action these days anyway. And I'm not ready to give up my morning lattes to sooth them yet! Let's keep them on their toes a bit.

The Fifth Day of Bliss

On that note, I can't believe the bond that has formed between me and Miss Daisy the last year and a half. The first year we were just kind of getting to know each other. Now I can see I'm totally in there with her. I remember at the beginning she would shuffle, whack my head with her tail, pee, poop whilst I milk her. Now we have a really romantic routine; she stays put and halfway through milking I let her suck my fingers. Craig thinks it's gross because he sees her lick Meatball's butt but I think it's okay if you keep it in the family.

 

The Sixth Day of Bliss

We're halfway to twelve and I'm halfway to eighty. I turned forty this year and am grateful for feeling so fabulous. I think sleep's the ticket! All I can say is my face don't bounce back like it use to after a rough night.

 

The Seventh Day of Bliss

 

I love my little office I'm sitting at now. Is that superficial? We had thoughts of moving, long story, but probably won't be anytime soon, but have been thinking of how wherever we live I need me a corner of a room at least. I love writing here, creating here and just kind of being in my recharge zone. And then I just look over my shoulder like this (looking over my left shoulder) and I can see Daisy out the window giving me the hairy milk me now already or else I'll shuffle and poop" eyeball.

 

The Eighth Day of Bliss

My lady friends. I'm a homebody whose energy levels plummets once the kids are in bed causing me to decline a many a Thursday night knit sesh. I think I caught on to a trick that gets me out there though. Meet the ladies for a quick appy at the local restaurant before heading to the designated knit house for desserts. Then I bypass the lethargic let's just sit here and watch Weeds mode I tend to switch to after I read Edie some chapters from her book de jour. And then the laughter and catching up that happens at my ladies circle? Hoo wee! I love me my ladies. Funny, gorgeous, inspiring crew. And of course my besties that I can only catch up with via telephone or who don't knit - I love you too. Thank you for being in my life.

The Ninth Day of Bliss

My cross country skis. I'm starting to sound a little material me thinks! I'm just blown away about how even a half an hour of this at lunchtime makes such a difference in shifting my perspective on things, getting me out there surrounded by and deep breathing in the beauty of what drew us out here to begin with. In the summer, my ninth bliss would be Little Prozac, my cruiser. Bliss on a few metal sticks. And wheels.

 

The Tenth Day of Bliss

The health of our family unit. Always, always grateful for that!

The Eleventh Day of Bliss

At least three generations of seamstresses and counting! I must have attempted to learn how to sew about six times in my life and I never really got what all the fuss was about until I had kids. Now that I love it it's tricky to find a whole day to really dive into a project. But I'm grateful nonetheless for loving it the way that I do now. And now Edie's turning into a regular sewing fanatic it seems. Kind of cool to see it pass on from generation to generation.

 

The Twelvth Day of Bliss

My love of communing here with you (ooo, that's sounds saucy!). I'm kind of living out here in luddite land so sometimes at soirees the neighbour folk have no idea what I'm talking about when I mention this favourite pasttime of mine called blogging. It's like you guys get me, know what I mean? Thank you so much for reading me (see, it's so weird, but you know what I mean!). And I'm going to take a bit of a breaky breaky until the new year. Until then, take good care of yourselves and your little units and have the happiest of holidays. Smooch!

Christmas Confessional

I hope you're holiday planning is going along swimmingly. Normally I'm on top of things in the Christmas countdown but this year I kind of lost count. Here I like to blame this on my new daytimer. It's all the Planner Pad's fault!

Want to share your self talk or tips on how you cope with any holiday freak out moments?

 

Don't Forget to Wreath

Though it's already the week of beasts we have only just hung up our front door's wreath with care and still have yet to make our trek up Grouse Mountain to seek out the perfect Charlie Brownish Christmas tree to adorn. I was pretty keen on making another felted rainbow of balls wreath like we did last year but Edie broke it to me gently that she didn't care for that wreath much.

See the distaste in her face from last year? So I bestowed upon her the title of wreath maker this year and in the end I don't think I ever seen her little face beam so hard from pride as when she finished this project.

I only helped out with the getting started bit; setting the wire frame with three rings interlacing each other, showed her how to weave the boughs through the gaps and let her in on where Mama keeps her secret stash of special ribbons. And then she was on her way while I skedaddled back on the couch to eat bonbons and continue celebrating the week of stones by reading a few more chapters from the new Keith Richards autobiography.

The second plant related story I wanted to share from the week stems (ha, ha) from a mishap earlier in the week. Edie was picking up her cross country ski shoes warming by the fire and in her haste burned her cute, still baby chubby little fingers on the wood stove. Ai, yi, yi – it looked nasty and I panicked because that’s the way I roll in moments of crisis. Mind you I was in a delicate condition at the time; minor life stuff that piles up until one of those full on ugly cries are called for and then all is well again. All I have to say is thank Sweet Baby Jesus for girlfriends (and Craig too of course).

A new friend I have recently connected with came over with an aloe plant because we still don’t have any plants in our home due to my subconcious fear of slowly killing them off.  And here it sits on the window sill, feeding Edie’s wounds with its miracle goop. Don’t you love the beauty of the healing power of nature and generous mamas? So, lesson learned:  keep an aloe plant in the house! And tell your girlfriends you love them today. Better yet, celebrate this week of beasts, and be a saucy one yourself ,and  sneak out for a glass of wine or dessert or a knit session, or all three, with a handful of your lovely lady friends. That's what I'm up to tonight anyway- rawr!

Vlog ~ Breve New World

I really could write a whole book on this subject, but here I try to condense the secrets to my famous latte to five minutes. But, alas the watched stove top espresso maker never perculates phenomena kicked in so I didn't get to do the grand finale I was envisioning of me pouring the espresso into my magic mug from three feet above - chai style. Please do not try this at home! But everything else - please do :)

 

Make A Haramake

I'm subscribed to a lot of newsletters online which are fun to recieve  (though I'm trying to cull them thanks to time management advisors) but I'll never unsubscribe from my accupuncturer's seasonal real life, tangible newsletter. It's very short, obviously generic (he simply stamps his stamp on and, voila! Newsletter!) and written in a no-nonsense, slightly cryptic asian translation style. Love it! In this issue there happened to be an article that got me running to my sewing machine; "What in the World is a Haramake?".

Little side note about the speech bubbles; this is an ode to the guy I dated in highschool; "Good For Nothing" which my mom affectionately reffered to him as and he, surprisingly, affectionately responsed to. He always wore this orange tshirt with that bubble bubbling up from his naval. I've always wanted to embroider that somehow on to my kidney warmers. Until then, photoshop it is. So a Haramake is basically a kidney warmer; a topic I've gone on and on about here on the olde blogge over the years. So keep your kidneys warm because even generic newsletter says so. And I quote:

Traditionally worn by the Japanese, the Haramke, a wide waistband made from cotton or wool and covers the location of the Adrenals and Kidneys, protecting the Vital Energy and Essence for the body. The cloth extends from the lower rib cage down past the belly button, covering the entire middle of the body and protecting the organs, most importantly the Adrenals and Kidneys, from external elements. A Haramake also protects the body from cold, exhaustion, stress and illness, ultimately helping to prevent illness.

It goes on to tell you that you can make one youself simply by sewing two ends of stretch fabric, 12 inches wide, to form a tube that fits snug around your middle. I, on the other hand, like to make things a touch more complicated (but not in the parenting front, of course) but a little prettier:

I had just enough organic fleece leftover from another project and cut it out to a 12 inch by 32 inch (my hip measurement) rectangle and designated the fuzzy side the "right" side because I want that to touch my skin, or most likely, the outfit I'll probably be wearing underneath my haramake. If you do this ensure that the stretch stretches the most across the body or you'll never be able to step into it. I then cut out a piece of stretch lace the same size and placed these two right sides together and sewed the long sides together as indicated by the one way signs up above.

See there where I'm holding the fleece bits right sides together again? Sew that together but keep sewing so that you then end up sewing the lace bits together too eventually leaving a three inch gap so that you turn things out right side out and then hand sew the gap shut.

 

And then here I found an opportunity for a design feature. Things were a little unsightly due to my haste to hurrymake things up whilst handsewing. And fleece, being not the stretchiest thing on the planet, made things a bit gappy up under the rib cage where some "Vital Energy and Essenceses" like to leak out. So to add a securing device, I made six teeny weeny buttonholes straddling the gap to thread a string of stretch lace through corset-style.

Ta, da! Edie thinks it looks silly but don't worry about that. She's a homeschooled seven year old that thinks kidneys grows on trees that are tended to by organ fairies. I know my internals are happy, and when I squint my eyes when checking out my style I look cute. And for that I am internally grateful.

Ski Do and Ski Don't

 

We picked up a pair of second hand skiis for Edie from town this weekend (Not a purebred ;) Sorry. Couldn't resist. A silly nod to the mild daschund contraversy a couple of posts ago, which, by the way, has been put on hold due to Craig not totally (long) backing the idea at the moment). And what a chord it struck in me to see how she's really taken to it. I think its due to my growing up when it was the one outdooor activity my family participated in together. It's amazing how those moments can stick to the ribs.

And though I took a hiatus from cross country skiing between childhood and and moving out here five years ago, I'm surprised about how much I geniunely love it myself. I typically head out on my own when Craig comes in for lunch and eats with the kids and I head out with my ipod onto the rails to trails. Blissful mama time. And I come back feeling really glowy. It's not a streneous excersice (which, in the current newsletter I received from my accunpuncture suggests one should avoid in the colder months), at least at the pace I go,  but enough to stoke the inner fire and circulate icky toxins all around and out. At least that's what I'm imagining because I'm all about visuals when it comes to my health. And now that I see how Edie's digging it (Craig took her out on the trails shortly after these pics were taken and she loved it!)  I'm looking forward to our going out as our own family unit in which appears to be in the not too distant future by the looks of things.

Kale can't wait to join his sister on the fun. I found these cross country skiis for kids at an antique store about four years ago but Edie kept missing the necessary shoe size. Kale is just about there but not quite yet.

But that didn't stop him from trying. Or at least pretending.

And looking like such a cute at it! What a munchkin. This is a shorty today - just like my little man. I'm off to town this morning for some appointments. I hope this quickie inspired you to play in the snow if you can. Even if it's just pretend.

QAWK-Wow: For The Love of A Cow (and Fresh Lattes)

 

Apparently, I've always been drawn to cows. This picture was taken when I was about ten or so (dig the satin shorts?) at the Calgary Zoo (at least I'm sure that's a cow). I'd like to thank Kelsey for the question about cow having. I forgot to answer her question on how we found out about the breed. Funny thing is it's kind of blog love related. Catherine of Catherine et les fees fame blew me a way with a visit to our land and  planted the Dexter cow seed in my brains. My other friend, Pegs, always told me to hold out for a 'mini-moo' so we can ship them in together from Saskatchewan so we can throw them into the hatchback of our cars and have them over for playdates but I googled, and googled and I still don't know what she's talking about.

But the Dexter fits the bill for smaller cow, hardy in cold temperatures and dual purpose. Not to mention sweet tempered. At least I think that's a Dexter thing. Daisy's seriously the sweetest!

 

Creative Advent-ures

I knew Edie was recovering nicely from that flu bug this week when she emerged from her room with a craft project she's been making on the sly in her hand. She was inspired by the advent calender we just put on the nature table; we get one every year from Maplerose. They're so beautiful. Every day during advent the kids take turns opening up a window to see the new picture inside. We always like to practice our psychic skills and try to guess what the picture is going to be. It’s a little creepy (in the most Christian way possible) when one of us guesses right. It truly is the most magical time of the year.

Here we have the lovely Kale modelling the calender for us. Edie has gifted him the honor of opening all the windows to this one. And then she explains what the image is. The first one was a candle :)

Now we have an advent calendar making maniac on our hands. She just lovingly cranked one out yesterday for a little friend. What she does is she cuts out a door for each day and writes anumber on it (we just finished our first math block in which we went over the numbers) and then glues it onto a giant piece of paper, draws a drawing behind the door and then with a dab of glue, glues it shut. Not too much, just enough so it stays closed until it's magical day to open up again (very Anais Nin-ish, no?).

 I’m just so impressed with her ingenuitiy and moxie. And it's a jaunty day when I can use the word moxie. And it’s pretty cool witnessing how the kids always seem to emerge from an illness a little tweaked in a way. Like the sickness had catapulted them to a new level. Or perhaps it was the sheer boredom of doing nothing for almost a week, or eating super clean for that time (staying away from wheat, dairy and anything that reminds her of the very loose tooth in her mouth, like rice). Regardless, I've noticed her demeanor has changed subtly the last couple of weeks; she's more resourceful with her crafting, a little more even keel emotionally, going to sleep more peacefully. Seven is truly a magical age to turn. I think she's ready for a puppy don't you? Second one down specifially has my name on it. Literally. (Craig would appreciate it if you tried to talk me out of this latest obsession of mine in the comments below)