what i (secretly) love::fashion

i think this goes hand in hand with my secret love of makeup. i dont buy "fashion magazines" but if i see a picture of a fashion that i dream of wearing but will probably never do so in my life, i tear it out and ferret it away somewhere. i am nowhere near a fashionista. i think if i could i would wear jeans and tshirts everyday of my life, except of course for all those gorgeous gala gowns i would have to pull out now and then. yeah right. i wish i had a more original sense of style, i like to attribute my lackluster fashion performance to work. or more specifically the work wardrobe. i hate business and business casual (bleh) dress codes (but i would dearly love to own a really really really sharp, and expensive suit). economy forces me to straddle that line between acceptable for work and something i would like to wear on the weekend, because who can afford to have two sets of clothes, or really want that many clothes anyway? of course what ends up happening is that i end up with the worst of both. see above note about the suit. sometimes i think i could fix things with a well placed piece of jewelry or some other accessory, but my fledgling sense of style gets freaked out and back i go to jeans and tees. but i do love shoes. shoes can be outlandish and impractical and still go with a pair of jeans. i can break out in the shoe department. ah shoes. i love you. speaking of a freaking awesome sense of style, have you seen this picture? love that girl...

so as not to infringe on copy rights, the first and last images are from interview magazine, and the middle one is from blueprint.

what i love::family naps

a jumble of arms and legs and cuddles in the middle of the day is just right. not at night, but during the day i am all for it, and if you can throw in a nice light rain? perfect. have you seen this picture? it brings tears to my eyes...

what i love::baby chub

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amanda's post hit the spot this morning with the strange mood i am in. my crafting umph has puttered to nothing. bleh. instead, how about some baby chub? everyone loves it. everyone.

whatever

i am having one of those days were i dont feel like doing anything. you ever have those? eliot is over at his friend lake's house ALL day, both girls are sleeping and david is off filming so here i sit. i keep thinking to myself i should work on this project or that one, or maybe read a book or have a snack but i cant bring myself to do any of it. why? i have no idea. just a strange day i guess. my mom called me this morning to ask me if our laptop battery was going to explode, this was happening all over the country according to the news. no i told her, ours is fine. it was such a strange phone call because (a) my mom never calls me with an actual question, just to say hello and see if i am home and (b) she knows nothing about technology so you can imagine my shock. i lied and told her i had already checked and ours was not one of the recall ones, because i know she was picturing our house going up in flames. although as i sit here, my right thigh is getting rather warm. perhaps i should check. that is if i had any motivation today. dang. sorry for this random post, i thought that maybe if i were to actually write down that i had no motivation it would make me feel sheepish and i would get up off my arse and do something. here i go.

couldnt resist that bit of blue + red graffiti at the gas station yesterday. ok here i go for real.

bff

our good friends john and kristen (you know, the ones with the crazy cool shoe store?) had their baby saturday. a sweet little boy named vance. i have yet to get a picture of this little one. oy. last night we tried to give j & k a little break and picked up margot, collettes bestest friend in the whole world, on our way to the park.

these two are like night and day. margot has blue eyes and ringlets, collette is brown as can be, but they just cant get enough of each other. they literally spent the first five minutes running in circles giggling and then stopped for a hug. whew. when did we stop doing this as adults? im doing more circles and hugs from now on.

hemming and hawing

no crafting yesterday, just some hemming for david. eliot and collette supplied the hawing...


i wonder if they got their silly faces from watching mom sew. hmmm... a very definite possibility. ok, so you all are probably going to kick me on this one, but i have been thinking about two big things on the sewing front: halloween and christmas. what? shut yo mouth. its true! there is halloween candy in the store for pete's sake (ha! i only know one pete)! is this happening all over the country?? i think it must be. so lets see, according to mass consumerism the year breaks down like this:
valentines day
st patricks day
easter
mothers day
fathers day
independence day
back to school
halloween
thanksgiving
christmas
in a perpetual cycle i guess. so of course it makes sense that we skip straight to halloween in august. and if i plan to stick to my guns from last halloween, then i should be working on this right away. the first thing that popped into my head was two peas and a pod. i like the family theme thing, which is funny because i dont go for themes anywhere else, no matchy matchy here. but i dont think i can get eliot to go along with the whole pod thing, and then what am i going to do with two girls dressed like peas? not much really. the real task at hand is getting eliot to commit to something so i can get going. and yes, you can picture me hassling him night and day for the next few weeks and yes i will try my best to dissuade all the transformer/robot/spaceman themes that are sure to crop up. bad mommy? maybe. i just had a brilliant thought that might fly, maybe they can all be legos?? everyone loves legos at our house, heck even arlo uses them for teething purposes. ok, stop blogging hannah and start planting lego seeds in eliots ear...

fabric endeavours

believe it or not, i had actually gotten out of the habit of going to the fabric store. i hadnt been in ages, but then kerry, sarah and i went fabric shopping for the quilt, and it kinda got the itch going again. i went back to pick up a bit of fabric for that baby gift i had to make for work. which incidentally got tossed onto a huuuuge pile of gifts. i guess i should reserve judgement until after the thank you note. eah. on the positive side of things, i picked up some goodness for myself. i am hopping to see a gigantic tote bag for myself out of the bubbles fabric and i couldnt resist these two sweet fat quarters.

and dont you know, good things come in bunches?? the next day kerry surprised me with these two lovelies.

i mean come on, are you seeing those red and blue flowers, are you??? oh my. thank you kerry! and speaking of friends and fabric endeavours, the big big news is superbuzzy!! kelly and mariko have teamed up to bring us fabric and notions from japan, bless you ladies, bless you. i have already placed an order and can not wait to see my goodies in person. what a tuesday...

easy

we had an easy laid back weekend. david is done with his travels and it set the mood for good times. what better way to pass the time than jumping on the bed? maybe eating some yummy indian food, working in the yard, enjoying some porch time with friends and meeting a brand new baby? i cant really think of any.

wip, handmade, six months

sadly this little book bag has been in progress for a couple of weeks. it is a birthday gift for my mother-in-law who works at an elementary school library. better late than never, i think i can get the straps sewn on tonight and pop it in the mail tomorrow. i think. hmm. i also had to whip up a baby gift last night for a coworker's shower today. as i was sewing i was playing that mental game of ping pong in my head that always occurs when doing something handmade for someone i dont know very well. you know what i mean? will they like, or better yet, will they even notice? is it even worth the effort when really they would be happier with a pack of diapers and some dumb toy? sigh. i never know. the first thing i ever knitted was a baby sweater for someone, i agonized over it (silly me started with a cow print pattern that required yarn bobbins) for weeks, trying to get it done in time, only to have it opened, glanced at and tossed in a pile. i am fairly certain it was never, ever put on the child. i was crushed. and i felt a little stupid as well. of course not everyone appreciates handmade, i understand that. my dilemma is should i give handmade because it makes me feel better? is that ultimately selfish? i dont know, i dont know. all this for a stupid burp cloth and bib. grrr. it will be interesting to see if this just gets tossed onto the pile. i will let you know next week.

and now onto a more pleasant subject, arlo! in the midst of all that mad quilting i forgot to post a six month picture tuesday. yikes! i mean, this is the closest thing to a baby book that i can muster right now, so bear with me.

i can not believe that six months has gone by already!! oh my goodness. arlo my love, you are truly a blessing that i never ever expected. i thought our family was set at four, but now i know that it was always supposed to be five. thank you for the joy you bring us, and at some level understanding that our life is so crazy right now and just going with the flow and being your laid back self.

finally, finally, finally...

the secret project that i have been working on for weeks. i felt like i was going to burst not saying anything or slip up some how and give away the surprise! whew.... boy am i glad that is over, i am not very good at keeping secrets, gift secrets anyway. real secrets i am, but that is another matter. so i finally worked on my first quilt!!! hop, skip and jump from the denyse schmidt book and boy is it awesome! this was totally a collaborative project, which i think is how i want to make every quilt from now on, with sarah and kerry. we surprised kristen with a shower for the little one that is supposed to be here in two weeks! and i can finally say that it IS hard to take pictures of a quilt. oh my. so the details, kerry and i pulled some flea market fancy from our stashes and other blue/browns. the three of us did all the cutting in one night, and spent another night arranging all the pieces on the floor to get the blocks set the way we liked it. then kerry and i split up the blocks for sewing, only six each! i gave her mine finished blocks, and she sewed up the rows and quilt back and then it came back to me. i did the really scary part, making the sandwich and the quilting. i can honestly say that i really had no idea what i was doing with that walking foot and um, i still dont. is it supposed to feed or am i supposed to feed the quilt through myself? regardless of pretty much having no idea, it still went pretty smoothly, although i did slip up just a bit, thanks leslie for pointing that out. lucky for me kristen is in the final throes of pregnancy brain and didnt spy that little peek. so after i got the quilting done with moderate safety (there was blood involved again and a broken needle) i handed it back over to kerry who cut and sewed the binding and just like that a quilt is finished! and oh how we love it! thank you kerry and sarah, good work team! next up kerry's baby quilt! we are seriously going to start our own quilting guild and churn these puppies out!

and just because i couldnt resist making yet another stencil...

ok, please no one make me keep any more crafting secrets. i cant take the pressure right now.

in greenwood

david went out of town again on sunday for three days, so the kids and i packed up and went to my parents house for half the week. my mom is generously watching them so that i can save my vacation time for september. instead of making her do all the driving to my house, i have been commuting to work from their house. my parents live in a wonderful old house (the one my dad has lived in since he was eight) on nine acres out in the "country". i grew up there too and it is amazing to be able to share it with my children now. we spent most of last evening making rock soup for lucy the cat. there is a whole set of pictures on flickr. and i also tried to capture the sound of summer on video. this is for you molly...

more blue + red

i had my first go at a two color freezer paper stencil last night. this tshirt was supposed to be for me, but is now going to our nanny. i botched the shirt i was making for her, and when i say botched, picture me dropping a paintbrush loaded with black ink on the front of the shirt. big black smears and lots of words that are not appropriate for children. oh well. our nanny totally deserves this, she has been absolutely wonderful and has made what was a scary situation for us (leaving the children with a "stranger") so easy and good. the huffsters adore her and so do we. david finishes up traveling next week and kristan will packing up to go back to college, so the timing was great. we love you kristan and will miss you dearly!

the design for this shirt was, um, shall we say, heavily borrowed from a pillow from this store, thank you john for the awesome link! sorry for the crummy picture, it was taken at work. i didnt have time to take some this morning at home because of course kristan showed up early. damn her for being so good.

the man of steel

holy cow, my vintage button swap package arrived from storme and it couldnt possibly be anymore perfect! the man of steel? blue and red? my head was spinning! thank you so much storme, i love every single button and card, they are all so so wonderful! and the packaging was just amazing. ok, i am going to stop gushing now because obviously i am going to make people very jealous, if you can stand it there are more pictures on flickr. on a sad note, eliot was very disappointed that i got a package from superman and he did not. and no, i did not share, maybe that makes me mean, but a mom has to draw the line somewhere right?? thanks again sally for such a great swap, cant wait for the next one!

8.8.98

today is our golden anniversary, eight years on the eighth that is. here i sit in kansas city and david is working in tulsa. our first anniversary apart. i didnt think that i would be sad, but i find that i am just a little bit. eliot, collette and i had some pizza to celebrate and during dinner my friend kristen showed up on a secret mission. david had secretly commissioned kristen to surprise me with flowers!

so beautiful and from my favorite shop. ah love, i miss you! eight years have gone by in a blink and i wouldnt change any of them. thank you for working so hard to achieve your dreams and remember that i will always be there to support you.

self portrait tuesday - enclosed spaces

there are days when the duties of keeping house are just too much. you know those days? when you walk in the door from work, and immediately it fees like the house itself is has interlaced its fingers and is slowly closing them, shutting you in. laundry here, dishes there, shoes all over the place. i hate this feeling, it suffocates me. it makes me want to fling my arms out, scoop up piles of junk and dump them into the trash. forget cleaning, lets just get rid of stuff, any stuff, just get rid of it. who needs it? i hope i do not. i like to think i do not, but still it creeps around, filling the house, closing in on me.

bounty

we had a nice relaxing weekend at our house. we finally managed to get off of our cabooses and go to the river market saturday morning and get some produce; basil, japanese eggplants, cherry tomatoes, wild grapes, peaches and half a dozen ears of sweet corn that had already been eaten by the time i took this picture. so good. it was fun to walk around and actually talk to the people who grew this food. the peaches came from buckner, missouri a tiny town with one stop light. the farmer and i exchanged some thoughts about the vw bug parts store in town that draws an occasional visitor from the "city". david restored two beetles before i met him and he himself had gone to buckner for parts, never for peaches though. luckily for me he doesnt like peaches (what??? is that really possible?) so i get these babies all to myself.

peaches and (ice) cream. really could it get any more summer? i think not. anyway, i would love to be able to share with you some photos of what i am working on, but again i am stuck in gift land. soon i promise. i noticed something last night while i was sewing, i caught myself making these terrible faces. when i am concentrating on something my mouth starts working and i know it must have been bad because i could feel the contortions with out even having david around to point them out to me. children of the 70's do you remember that violin player who would be on sesame street sometimes? i think he had MS and he could play like magic? i remember being fascinated by him, the music, his walking sticks and most of all watching his face contort in time with the music. he was my favorite visitor, him and cab calloway. while i am certainly in know way saying i am gifted, i am saying that i know i screw my face up like some sort of maniac when i am sewing and i am pretty sure that anyone would would have peeked in my window last night would have gotten a good laugh. it was bad, real bad, there were strange buck teeth motions involved. ok, i am going to stop talking about my face. hope you all had a good weekend and thank you for the compliments on my shoes and arlo. i did manage to shave my legs this weekend and that is about it. loved hearing your small goals, it made me add a few more to my list. letterpress class? hello? what a no brainer.

ps. with a little more concerted effort on google i found out it was itzhak perlman, and it was polio and he was my very favorite guest and he was why i pretended to play violin for a year in grade school.

wip, fotos and small goals

is it friday again? man. so here is what i am working on. i dont really know what i am doing, but lets hope i end up with something i can actually wear. so do you really have to cut out those little triangles? really? i am bad about following directions, i use them more as suggestions, which might be why things turn out like crap. could be. loving that 4 on that picture. my other wip (i hope this counts fiona) is planning my vacation!! david and arlo and i are going to take five nights in portland! how excited am i? i just got a gurgly feeling in my chest writing that sentence. i havent taken a vacation to a place i have never been before in so so long. it will be so fun to see a new town, go to the coast, decompress with david and spend time with four amazing ladies. amy, melissa, sally and stephanie thank you so much for your enthusiasm and generosity. it means so much to me. i am looking forward to september like you wouldnt believe.

in other huffmania news, it feels good to have a camera in my hands again. toby let me borrow his and i went a little crazy. tons of pictures of arlo on flickr if you need a fix like i do. here are a few of my favorites.




ah. that feels much better. i love taking pictures. love it. i took the last two this morning with the excellent light i get. so fun. which had me thinking this morning on my drive into work. it really did feel good to do just that little thing, snap some photos this morning. which got me thinking how i would love to take a photography class and then it just spiraled from there. i am going to start making lists of small goals here on this blog. maybe i will do some of them, maybe i wont, but i do like the though of looking back and seeing what my mind was churning through. here are my five small goals from this morning.
1. take a photography class
2. make this torte
3. create a more beautiful space for crafting. look at stephanies...oh my.
4. shave my legs sunday
5. speak more spanish with my mom

as you can see, my mind was really skipping all over the place this morning. what are your small goals? tell me friends.

to swap

my vintage button swap package is ready to go. i dont feel as though i can brave the post office today with three huffsters and a heat index of 105 so they will actually be postmarked august 2nd. *gulp*, sorry storme! luckily she gave me the ok on that, now lets hope sally doesnt bring the hammer down. thank you so much sally for organizing such a fun and easy swap! if you are not my swap partner, feel free to click through the picture to see the actual buttons on flickr. no peeking storme...

and thank you toby for letting me borrow your camera for a bit. here is to christmas and the d50!