just wondering...

manzanita beachfront . iphone with hipstamatic app

this evening, i am over here thinking about you and wondering:

how are things in your world? (really. how are you?)

thoughts on a rainy monday night.

new all dressed up necklaces in the shop

i am so thankful that yesterday included sunshine so i could take photos of my new creations...before the (supposed) ten days of rain began today. ten days of rain. i am hoping the sun will decide to show up in the midst of it all as spring just doesn't quite seem like spring without some sun peppered in here and there.

lately, i have been realizing (or maybe a better word is acknowledging) that this crazy, wonderful life i lead needs some more organization. more than just the house stuff i am always in the midst of (or...ahem...ignoring). organization in the "to do" today/this week/this month sort of way. i need to be able to check things off.

i am wondering, do any of you use an online organizer? or do you find the binder organizers are a better way to go? i use the computer so much with all the job hats i wear, that an online organizer seems to make sense (and [she writes as she rolls her eyes at herself] i fear i might misplace a binder in the chaos that is the messy.ness of this home).

and since i am asking questions, i would also love to know what you are listening to these days. i am heading across the country in a week and would love some new tunes (or books or podcasts) to download to my iPod.

hope things are beautiful in your corner of the world...

a peek.

shedding maple, seattle, 11.8.08

i am so very sleepy after so much goodness in my world during the last four days.
and even though i (keep trying to insist that i ) am not officially doing this (except for the part where i just went and said i will), i just can't seem to go to bed without stopping by this little corner of my world and saying hello.

but today, i would really love it if you would do the talking...

so, what's going on in your world?

tell me something...anything...maybe a new favorite book or something you want to let go or something that has made you laugh out loud or what you had for dinner...

please,
give me a peek inside your world...

want to join me?

washington apples, seattle, 9.27.08

saturday evening, jon and i were up in seattle having dinner with friends and afterward we did our usual "we are in fremont so we might as well go to PCC before we head home" ritual...

while there, i suddenly had an urge to take photos of snippets of the produce section.

when i stood up after bending over to capture as many colors of apples as possible, i caught the eye of a man who had been watching me with quite the bemused look on his face.

if someone created a comic strip of that moment, this man and me looking at one another, the caption above my head might have said, "you mean you don't take photos in the produce section?"

i found it so amusing to think about what he must be thinking. as i walked across the store to join jon and our friend christine, i imagined explaining the life of a blogger to this man...explaining how blogging has caused me to notice my life, my life experiences, in a richer way. how blogging for three years has invited me to document my life now...how i pay more attention.

and this made me think about you...
you out there reading these words...
you trying to do this same thing: pay more attention in your life.

and as i walked up to jon in the cheese section (because where else would he be?), i explained that my mind had connected all these dots from bending over apples to thinking about you out there who visit my corner of the world...how my mind had connected these dots to an idea of a series of posts...a series of "i dare you" kind of posts that i might toss out into the world every now and then...a series of posts where i see if you, you out there reading this, might want to join me in a few things...like taking photos in the produce section...

still rolling the idea around in my brain...

but today,
today i wonder if you just might want to grab your camera the next time you go to your favorite grocery store.
i wonder if you might want to capture something bright and cheery in the produce section.

just for fun.

just because you want to look at your world in a different way...because you want to pay attention in even the simplest moments.

just because you can.

yep.

i dare you.
you reading these words.
i dare you to take a photo in the produce section.

(then come back here and tell me all about it please)

whispers of fall (and a sale)

even though i expect we will have a few more summer days, the whisperings of fall have appeared this week. the windows are slightly cracked to let in the fresh air. the water is on for tea. i am snug in one of jonny's sweatshirts.

and i am diving into fabric that reminds me of fall. browns, deep greens, sky and ocean blue, and a little pink (because...well...why not?) i'm working on a few things for my vendor table at squam and a few things to put in the shop.

so i thought i would have a "heading toward the end of summer" sale in my little shop. all totes are 35% off, maude bags are 20% off, and pillows with a dash (or more) of pink are 15% off (the pillow form is still included at the sale price). i hope you will check out the sale here.

a few people have been asking about my prayer flag sets. i do have plans to make a few sets this fall. hopefully i will have a handful at squam and then will put some in my shop later in september. thank you so much for your interest in my creations.

*****

on another note, i had a perfect moment today that i wanted to share. i was making myself a little fruit salad as part of my lunch, and the orange i wanted to add didn't want to pull apart. i was getting juice everywhere. so i simply decided to stand over the sink and suck the juice right from the orange (ala miss matty). it dribbled down my chin as i giggled with each slurp.

it was wondrous.

have you had any perfect moments lately?

meet the library pocket totes (and a question for you)

Summer. Hot sun. Keds. Pulling my little brother behind me in his wagon. A purple bike complete with banana seat and white wicker basket. Walks to the neighborhood library for books. Stopping at the Burger Dairy corner store for popsicles. Walking home and curling up on the orange-flowered cushions on the screened-in porch with a stack of books…The Yearling, Trixie Belden, The Boxcar Children. Adventures await...

This is a peek into the summers of my childhood. I remember carrying a small rectangular tote bag with a rainbow on the front during these walks to and from the library.

With these memories in mind, I designed this tote for the summer reading of my adult life. It will hold adventures where I might:

Have a picnic at Pemberley
Take a walk in the gardens of Green Gables
Have tea in Cranford
Solve mysteries in Sleepyside

I can't wait.

I would love to know some of the places you visited while reading through your summer reading lists of the past...or the present. Where have you had a picnic or solved a mystery or twirled with laughter? I would love to join you there...and a bet a few others would too.

Share your favorite summer reads with us...

(I have added a few of these and some simple selma totes and some aprons to my etsy shop)

blooming...a question.

backyard bloom, april 2008

it can be very difficult to check in with ourselves when we are in the midst of living our lives. we have so many roles that we juggle and so many things to get done and we are pulled in this direction and in that way. it can be easy to forget ourselves. this can happen even when we might be in a place where we have time to do things that are "for us" (like creating and writing and taking photos and cooking on and on).

all the ideas and thoughts and hopes and dreams that tumble inside my heart and mind sometimes invite me to just want to take a nap. my wish that those dreams would become real now or my idea for a new design that takes over the energy i need to put into the current design i am working on can quickly change from inspiring to exhausting.

in the balancing of my full-time job with time with family and friends with living this creative life with trying to breathe, i can lose sight of what i am actually doing, how i am actually growing, how i am living in my life. it is hard to see when i am standing in the middle of it all...

today though, as the confused snow falls once again on the spring blossoms, this thought came to me:

how are you blooming?

it felt like an invitation to take out my moleskine and write an accounting of me. to write about where i am right now. it felt like an invitation to sit quietly and close my eyes and breathe and just notice. it felt like an invitation to honor me and where i am in a given moment in time.

i wonder if you might want to join me...

this is an invitation to let go of the shoulds and the pulls of others and things around you. this is an invitation to check in with yourself through writing an accounting or sitting quietly or whatever other way moves you.

this is an invitation to honor how you are blooming in your life.

a question (for you)

caprese salad for one, 2.7.08

What have you done just for you today?

(If you haven't done anything just for you today, think about what you could do...just for you...then come back here and share after you do it or even after you think about doing it...)