Archive for January, 2010

Here are the stacks of fabric on my kitchen table right now.  Since I don’t have a sewing or craft space, that’s were the stacks wind up… next to my sewing machine.  We eat on the bar stools at the counter when I’m sewing.

The stack above is for skirts for the girls.  I love the fabrics, so girly and sweet.  And speaking of girly, I’m thinking I’ll make them into the Girly Skirt from Pink Fig… since I already have the pattern and it’s cute and easy.  I have a few fun ideas for embellishing the skirts that I’m toying with.

And a runner for my kitchen table for Valentines Day.  I am trying to dream up a pattern and it’s still on the drawing board.

There’s no picture, but I’m also working on a Valentine’s Flags Banner… hopefully to show on Friday.   Which I can’t wait to finish… so fun.

And last but not least.  I’m collecting fabrics for a new quilt for my son’s bed.  Have you ever read the book, “If you Give a Mouse a Cookie”?  Well, a new quilt for Ben is the “glass of milk.”

My son has been bugging us to paint his room for several years now.  It has been a nice (very tame) tan… albeit a bit dark.  And Ben really hated it the dark color.  “My room looks like dirt color mom, can’t we paint it a fun color?”  “Lily and Emma have a nice color room.”  “My room is so dark it makes me feel sad.”

Finally after the room makes me sad statement, my husband says, “Maybe we should paint his room.”  Knock yourself out honey.  So Ben chose green and Drew happily painted it for him.  And they are both thrilled with Ben’s very green, very bright room.  Me, I’m still a little shocked by it’s brightness.

And now his quilt doesn’t match.  And then to issue the final blow to Ben’s quilt, which I love, it was chewed on by our very smart mouse friend that visited our home.  I could have killed the mouse for that… (luckily for the mouse, it was caught alive and released into a field a ways from our home.  But the moral is: if you give a boy a painted bedroom, he’s going to ask you for a new quilt.

I’ve been deciding what to make for him: A Bull’s Eye?  or A Chinese Coin? or something I haven’t thought of yet.

I love dreaming about what can be.

Picture from Lovlies and Inspiration by Kelly McCaleb

I came across this image the other day and fell in love.  I love the quote too, which I had never read before.  It seemed like the perfect sentiment for what has been on my mind lately.

Though I’ve missed much of the coverage of the earthquake in Haiti, what I’ve listened to has been heart wrenching.  I heard a story yesterday (while waiting in the car to pick up the carpool) on NPR’s The World.  An American doctor, a pediatrician, was being interviewed.  She stoically talked about the nature of the injuries the children in her care had sustained.  She discussed that the most prevalent injuries were crushed bones and compound fractures.  She also described how the children were dying because of infection do to those compound fractures.  Her makeshift hospital did not have the ability to perform surgeries or administer antibiotics because they hadn’t received any of the desperately needed supplies.

The doctor was stoic as I mentioned…. all the way through the interview.  Right up until she talked about one boy in her care.  She feared the boy would die if help did not arrive that very day.  And then she broke down and described how the boy’s mother had lost 3 of her 4 children in the earthquake.  He was the only survivor, and his fate was very precarious.

Unfortunately they never told the fate of the child.  And I found myself praying for that mother that help had arrived.  I imagined myself in her place.  I imagined the desperation and grief.  And I know I cannot truly imagine.

At our house, the kids are doing some extra jobs to earn money to send.  They have heard enough of the coverage to be very sad and anxious to help.  They want to send their old clothes to Haiti, and I am yet to discover whether that is needed or even a possibility.  I am looking at which charity the kids could to send their job chart earnings.  Maybe one that focuses on helping children.

It’s hard to give when you are making it do.  But not impossible.  And if everyone gives a little, it will make a lot.