How a Weekend Can Save Your Brain.

Okay so you know how I flew to MD last minute? Well, I flew to MD last minute! This might not dazzle your mind or anything but I just don't do things like that. For one it seems like you have to have a lot of money to do that sort of thing. I still remember a friend from college telling me that her family just decided to fly to Disney World for a long weekend. That totally blew my mind because when we plan trips to Disney World they're like two or more years in the making. Any way so that seems like a rich person, or emergency thing to do. Second I'm sort of a planned out, routine kind of person, and I have kids. I mean everything with kids takes planning, and so many suitcases.

This is my cuter then cute nephew. He doesn't care
for me or any one that is not my mom.

So I was talking to my mom and sister on the phone and that evening I had a plane ticket and was busily working on an overnight bag so I wouldn't have to check any bags. Crazy! It was so much fun doing something like that.  Flying with out children is amazing. The only thing I wish that I'd done differently was taking my computer with me so I could blog on the plane. It's so easy to take off one pair of shoes and get zapped by the naked picture thing when it's just me (by the way does that thing make anyone else feel like they have to wear matching underwear through security?). Making my way to the plane, going to the bathroom before we boarded and flying was so easy with just me!

It was only two full days but it was so rejuvenating. My mom and sisters and I went to this thing called "Repurposed and Refined" it's sort of like a once-a-month thing where people come with vintage and antique items that have been refurbished and it's set up so pretty and cute. They had cookies and coffee and the prices were really good. I got several pictures of flora and birds for when i re-do my room (wait until I tell you about that).

The thing she's holding says "sweet sisters"

Repurposed and Refined.

We ate at cute sandwich shops, and went junking (where I tried on some diamond rings what fun!). And of course had a dress up dinner at a nice Thai place for my youngest sisters 25th birthday (we're really really all close in age). We came home opened presents, gorged ourselves on brownies and ice cream (soy for her and me). It was fabulous!!!

I love my children so much. They bless my heart daily but having a couple days to myself, to sleep in and not be woken up once or twice in the night, was heavenly. It was so refreshing and when I came home I was so much more calm and patient then I had been when I left. I think it's okay to admit that we need a break now and then. I think it's okay that we be reminded that we're more then just moms. Oh what a blessing that my husband watched them all alone for the weekend. What a blessing that I have sisters and parents that I want to spend time with. What a blessing two full days can be.

Somehow I got a ton of pics of
Heather and hardly any of Courtney.
That's a shame as Court has a baby bump.

That dress is vintage and fits her amazing!
How annoying.

On Flying To MD.

I have never lived in Maryland. My parents moved there a while after Brian and I were married. So explain to me why it is when I was flying over (mountains?) and cities and countryside, making my way to where my parents and sisters live, I felt like I was flying home?

It's not to say that my little green house in Michigan doesn't feel like home because it does. It's my house with my clutter, and my dog and my husband and my children. My house doesn't smell (why is it all other homes have some sort of odor, not bad necessarily, except our own?) it definitely feels like home (in fact I've never lived anywhere as long as I've lived here). But my parent's house still feels like home I don't understand it.  It almost feels like a different kind of "home".

Maybe it's because I'm not in charge there. I get tired of having to make sure people are bathed and in bed. I get tired of being in charge of clean socks, and what's for dinner, and bed times. It makes my brain tired. When I go to mom and dad's I don't have to be in charge of anything; I'm just along for the ride. I mean I make my bed and clean up my dishes and try to do my share of the laundry but it's just different somehow.

Maybe it's because it smells and looks like my home from my childhood. No matter where we've lived our house smelled good. No matter where we lived our house was always pretty and cozy on the inside.

Maybe it's because my parents are there and my sisters. That's where we laugh and talk and laugh and cry but mostly laugh. It's where we walk down memory lane and look at old pictures and eat until we're stuffed. It's the place where we're most likely to all be together.

Maybe it's a combination of those things. What I know for sure is it feels good to be able to go home.

Last Tuesday...

I was working on a Facebook page for a local business and loathing my skirt pieces staring at me from the sewing table.

By Tuesday nap time I was talking to my sister about said Facebook page and her birthday. About ten minutes later her, my mom and I had decided I should fly out there on Friday so I could be at the birthday celebration.

By Wednesday I had decided that I MUST have a new overnight bag to take with me. I MUST make my long awaited Amy Butler Weekender Bag. The pattern and fabric were gifts for my birthday (in June!) So it was a long time coming.

By Friday noon I was barely done with the bag and was barely done packing. I just barely barely managed to do the dishes so that my poor wonderful husband wouldn't be left with two kids and a dirty kitchen.

It was crazy of me to think I could do a project like that so fast and so on the fly. But, I did it and I'm glad. It turned out pretty good. Not perfect but honestly I'm super happy with the bag. It's very cute and holds a lot. I was proud to carry it through the airport Friday evening and made sure I showed it off to my mom and sisters who all ooed and awed appropriately.

More on the actual trip tomorrow.

I Am Making a Skirt.

Well let me be a bit more honest. I should be making a skirt. I have been working on it forever! You see my post baby body has left my waist a wee bit bigger then my hips. So far, as I have been making dresses and loose fitting skirts, it wasn't ever an issue but boy oh boy did I bite off a big one here! I am having to redraft the pattern and therefore need to make a mock-up of the skirt in cheap-o fabric before cutting into my super expensive wool. The entire process is long and tedious and I feel desperate that it won't work! So I am dragging my feet. Seriously by the time I finish this skirt it will be too warm to wear it or my waist will have shrunk (hey a girl can dream can't she?).

Made from scraps from a men's shirt.

I thought maybe I needed to reward myself (for what I'm not sure) by way of procrastinating some more by whipping up a super fast fun project. So I did. As you know I love coffee. And, am drawn to all things coffee; neat mugs (oh we have so many mugs) espresso machines, drip machines, some wonky thing I've read about but haven't found yet (I will find it) and my favorite; the french press. I feel so sophisticated when I use my french press and the coffee from it really does taste better (there's a bunch of science I won't bore you with). So I made a cozy for my french press, to help keep the coffee warm.

What a cute mug.

It was fun. I used all scraps so it basically cost nothing (SWEET) and a pattern I found on Martha Stewart. It worked well except it ended up being a bit too big because her's was for a 12 Cup French Press and mine is a six, so it didn't tie well. No problem a couple of hooks and eyes fixed that. I would rather have used snaps but didn't have any and it had to be a free project.

Now I will stop procrastinating as soon as I finish proofing this post, and do some dishes... Ooo a new magazine...

A Little Green Typing Table.

The last time I was in Maryland we went thrifting (of course) and my mom bought me this little green typing table. I was drawn to it's color and the fact that it was small and metal and even though I didn't know what I'd do with it, it was really cheap. I thought I might use it as a night stand in our new guest room. It just sat in the living room for days and I used it as an awkward side table to one of my chairs (awkward because it didn't look right) whilst waiting for our basement and new guest room to get finished.

My little table and my thrifted sewing basket
and thrifted dish turned into a pin dish.

Then one day while grumbling as I was moving my sewing machine onto the kitchen table and off again it struck me. I could put my machine on this little table and leave it there and just wheel it out of the way into a corner when it wasn't in use. It's clearly not the most amazing sewing table, it is quite small, but isn't it better then spending half my sewing time moving my machine from one place to another?

Yes, it is better! I got so much more done this Christmas because the machine was out and ready for me to use. It used to be that I'd want to sew but by the time I got the machine out what little time I had to use it between diaper changes was gone. Now I just sit down and sew a seam. And, one seam at a time I got a surprisingly lot done this Christmas season. I made seven aprons, seven dolls, four pair of pajama pants, three winter hats and two sets of mittens. I mean that's a lot for me for one season.

My view of the tree where the birds eat.

Some day soon I am hoping to have a sewing room. This room will be complete with a large sewing table and shelves filled with all my fabric and notions so beautifully arranged. But for now this works (better then it did before for sure). I'm militant about keeping anything not sewing off of it and the view from the little table looks out my large living room window at the birds.

New Year's Eve.

Our New Years was pretty low key. SuperH stayed at a friends. I made a homemade chocolate cake with coconut frosting (the kind that's on German Chocolate Cake) and we had our neighbors over for a couple of hours. The two little kids played, I held the baby and we ate cake and drank coffee. It was pretty relaxing. Later Brian and I watched the third Pirates movie, which honestly confused me quite a lot. I mean I don't understand why Elizabeth couldn't join her husband's crew and travel with him. I get that it was more tragically romantic for them to only get to be together once every ten years but seriously she is a pirate at heart and his father opted to stay with him on the "magic" boat so why couldn't she? That bugged me!... Where was I?

Is there anything sweeter then a sleeping baby?

The next day this is what I had for a nap snack during a snow storm.

This year I don't have a ton of outlandish resolutions. I want to continue to eat healthier (I feel I've been doing a decent job of that) do yoga three times a week because my back is getting sore a lot again. But mostly I want to yell at my kids less and hug them more (easier to write then actually do I'm sure.)  I just want to experience all the sweetness of a simple life well lived.

Happy New Years. I hope you're 2012 is filled with peace and joy.