Tea Time & such

One of the things I have noticed about creative people is that they must create. I don't mean they do so at convient times,(I mean look at this daughter's blog life of a fritz, she just can't help creating, even when she will be sad to see her good friends leave.)I mean they must create even at inconvient times. While I had my grandkids this past weekend my parents also decided to pay us a visit. Of course I love having my mom and dad here. They are such wonderful people and still going as they hit their mid 80's.

So I'm thinking as I know my parents will get here and want some coffee, which is of course the "proper" thing to do. Did I mention that my mom is the quientisential southern belle? Did I also mention that two of my daughters think it is too funny she is so proper. When my little life author was about 8 and we went to Florida. As I was driving trying to find my way to our motel, in a state where I had no clue where I was, in the middle of freeway construction with my mom arguing-no wait-instructing me which way to go, she said to the, bouncing off the walls-literaly, three kids in the back 8, 5, and 3 "lets be calm and gentle." That author started to laugh and giggle, so hard that I as the driver almost lost our way. So Calm and Gentle has become part of our lexicon.

Just so you will know, I did get the coffee ready. I did get the tea cups my mom loves and I did get the... Oh no! The napkins! I have really really old napkins for the kitchen. Ok I admit it. My kids always comment on how rag tag my kitchen napkins are. Well, they are for the kitchen use, not dinning room use. We always use cloth napkins, and it looks I have trained them to do so in their own homes. (Yea me. One for the Mom) But, of course I would not get the "good" napkins out of the dinning room, even though I have gotten most of my damask and linens from thrift stores and meticuosly clean them. OH No. I had to go upstairs and sew new napkins.

I don't mean I just wanted to. I had to. I was compelled to sew new napkins. After all I had cleaned my living and dining rooms so my mom could see that I don't always have a flea market in my home. Not that I care, "...and out of the back of the class came a sarcastic, 'yeah, right.'" But I did get them done and we did have our coffee in style and we did use my new napkins.

The funnyest thing happened after we all had coffee and chit chatted. My mom and dad folded the napkins they had used with the stripes going sideways. Am I missing something? Is there a southern belle way to fold napkins? What is it in our psyche that wants us to still impress our moms? I'm a Grandma for goodness sake. Aye, there is and always will be something in us that wants to please those we love. My mom is always good about not presuring me to live up to her wants, but still I do. I am just thankful I have a sence of humor and that I love to create.

Well gotta go sew potholders out of quilt squares cause I am going to a bridal shower and that quilt was never gonna get made anyway. Proverbs 10:4 But the hand of the diligent makes rich.

Warming up my mind

Today I was working on some curtains for a client of my daughters. You know that girl over at My little life. Well, all day I have been sewing sewing sewing! Up and down the stairs, cause my sewing room is upstairs and my dining room has the only table long enough to work on these curtains. Here is a snippet of the table in my sewing room. A summer beach/swim bag I am designing for my etsy, A Razorback bill cap I have to mend for my husband, a couple of baskets I want to put fabric in for Easter decorations ,etc. Why do crafty people have to be so creative? So much to make and so little time. Isn't it great!

I came downstairs,(again), because I was fixin' to get supper ready when I walked through my living room and saw the sun coming in the windows. That is such a warming feeling. Even here in Arkansas where we will have winter now for about two weeks. Then it is spring and sooner rather than later it will be summer. But the sun shining in makes you remember that you really like this winter pick me up. The sun makes me feel warm, not just physically warm, but warm in my mind. As if it is saying be warm, the sun didn't go away.

I really can't blame the druids for being scared every year when the shortest day would come around. After all, they didn't live around the equator so when the sun set earlier and earlier they were in darkness and cold longer and longer. But you would think that someone would see that the same thing happened year after year.

Which brings us to faith, (wow that was a really cool transition), because if you thought that what you did would influence the earth and natures cycles and of course that included the sun, you might think it was up to you to save yourself and those that you love. Hey does this sound like anything we are hearing about now. You might do something drastic like have a human sacrifice or set things on fire to bring back the sun. And, you would see by golly it worked! The sun returned. So now you have set a precedent. If we have a sacrifice to appease the "sun god" the earth will obey. Jeez, and we think they were crazy. Aren't we being told the same thing today. It is our fault the earth is warming. We have to sacrifice our lifestyle to the "earth god." Not only am I insulted by that thinking, I feel the shamans of today's world want to hold sway over our lives. But I'm not going to go along.

Here is what I believe 3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

Wow! It is all about Him. Not what we do, but what he does. So now I get to enjoy what he has done. Which is why I love the sun in the winter. He called the light "day," It is good.

Just warming up in my mind.

Homebodies unite! Oxymoron?

Today I was working on my mantra. Oh, I don't mean I was trying to find zen or anything like that, but I was trying to get my mind around doing what I love. That is what I am telling myself these days. Not that I haven't been doing that most of my life, but I find myself in pecular situations where I have the opportunity to work outside the home, but I absolutely hate it. I don't mean I hate the people I have to work with, I hate being out of my home.

I love being in and around my home. I am a true homebody. I can remember even when my husband was going to school and I had three children under the age of 6, we were living in an apartment in a complex where there were many people, but I loved being in my "home" as it were. I just have to accept the fact that there are many days I would just as soon stay home as go anywhere else.

Today I was up in my sewing room on the second floor where I can view my domain, (you remember the kind that is an actual place, not an internet cyber-nowhere place) and I just sat in the sun sewing and just enjoying my life. I have been sewing aprons like this one which is at my etsy shop. It has been a very satisfying experience. Creating, executing and hopefully sending to a new home. I was emailing a fellow fabriholic, (person addicted to fabrics) about loving fabrics. Not just certain fabrics, all kinds of fabric. And mostly if they are very colorful. And not only do I love fabrics, I feel like a mother of adopted orphans. I want to give them new homes where the people will love and take care of them.

The window was open, because of course it is January and it should be 70 degrees outside, and I sewed and sewed and sewed loving every minute of it.

So, when I begin to feel myself wanning and I feel the tug of Outside Job I repeat my mantra:"Do what you love. Do what you love." I am always encouraged and feel myself going again for another session of glorious creating.

So do what you love, do what YOU love.