Make Stuff Archives - Page 19 of 22 - Enjoying the Small Things

Waning Gibbous

September 19, 2011 By Kelle

Friday night, the moon was large, pushed to the center stage of black sky like an understudy who just scored the leading role. For a moment late in the afternoon, you could almost mistake the moon for the sun–just as big and almost as bright.

While the moon had his moment of spotlight outside this weekend, it glowed inside as well.

In the form of fall cravings.

Chili & Football

Brett likes football. He’s not the die hard glued-to-the-screen fan who screams during good plays or misses Christenings and birthday parties for an anticipated game, but he likes watching football. I too have come to appreciate the thrill of roaring fans, the calming voice of commentators, the line-up of spandex-hugged tight ends. It means things are about to slow down and holidays are around the bend. So this weekend, we watched football and did Septemberish things.

The first pumpkin bread of the season. (Last year’s pumpkin bread, Nella still had her glasses.)

And homemade carmel apples.

I woke up at midnight last night to get out of bed and eat the last one. Brett found me hovered over the kitchen island, in the dark, literally gnawing the last hardened puddle of carmel off of wax paper. I said “What?” He said nothing.

My seep-it-in-slowly approach to fall decorating continued this weekend with some crafty homemaking.

We hiked past tall palms and into the sparse evergreens of our woods, scouring the ground for anything that bore likeness to a deciduous tree. We found a nice weathered branch to hang in our dining room. Accessorized with a string of leaves we cut from decorative paper, it pulls a little Michigan into our Florida home.

Lainey chose the paper, glued the sheets together and helped sew the big needle through the finished leaves. And then she ditched me while I was left to finish it by myself. I kind of wish I would have cut the leaves out of felt instead of paper, but felt doesn’t come in patterns and glitter, and Lainey wouldn’t have it.

We’ll swap snowflakes for leaves come December.

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Weekends work a bit like shaking an Etch-a-Sketch for us. For all the drawings we’ve accumulated throughout the week–the things we wish we would have done with the kids, the time we wish we would have allotted differently–we make up for it. We shake our week clean and start fresh.

More family walks.

Reuniting with an old friend. I swear, he has a parole anklet that beeps when he’s out of range now. We don’t see him much these days.

And outside play.

More backyard adventures.

And front yard entertainment.

More catching the last of the sun flare from a prickly grass seat–and staying out well past its encore.

And finally retreating in to etch new drawings to begin a new week.

I’m always comforted by full-circle routines. Moons that wax and wane, tides that forge and recede, seasons that bloom and die out, and weeks that begin with challenged schedules which grow and fall and finally end with redeeming Saturdays. The shifts are both forgiving and motivating, and I thrive on the balance of enjoying this very phase and season while knowing I will never tire–next week, there’s a new moon.

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New sponsor, Cozy Rags, joins us this month in sponsorship. Cozy Rags is owned by Nancy, also known as “Grandma Yokie,” who makes all of her beautiful hand made blankets and accessories in her home’s sewing room. Blankets come in a variety of animal or damask prints, are double lined and are made from the very softest material.

Nella obviously loves her plush pink damask stroller blanket.

Cozy Rags makes great baby gifts–if you can bear to part with them.

One commenter on this post will win a baby blanket of his/her choice, courtesy of Cozy Rags.

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I think the moon is somewhere between a waning gibbous and a last quarter right now. I don’t know what the hell that means, but in my language it can only mean one thing…half full, Baby.

Here’s to starting out weeks half full. Cheers to that.

Sailor’s Warning: September Storm

September 8, 2011 By Kelle

“Red sky at night, sailor’s delight; Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning.”
This morning’s sky.

I should know by now this pattern that has evolved over time with the sequence of arriving seasons. Even without the dramatic outward shifts in weather here, there is some pilot light within me that ignites with just the preface to a new season–pencils and college ruled paper for sale on the end caps in Target, camel colored swing coats and Fair Isle sweaters in JCPenney commercials, summer fruit slowly being overtaken by heaps of peaches and apples in grocery store aisles. I’m suddenly inspired–caught up in this mysterious creative current that sweeps in like a squall.

Elizabeth Gilbert explained it well a couple years ago in this TED clip–her analysis of how creativity arrives. I’ve watched it several times and always laugh at her story of how American poet, Ruth Stone, explained her “brush” with creativity–as if it arrives in a paranormal wind and when you feel it, you better grab it and use it or else it will continue its path to find another source. While I believe creativity is present in us all–it just needs to be stirred up now and then, I can relate to this “come and go” theory, especially when it arrives at the onset of a new season.

Hence the June challenge.
The burning need to craft come November.
Wash flowered sheets come March.
Write, run, bake, design, think new, think different, do better come September.
Winds come and go, and so I’m grabbing it and using it just in case it drifts away–this September storm.

*****
I ache for my Midwest this year and am hoping we can swing a trip maybe by the end of the year. Text messages and calls from family and friends exclaiming “sweater day” and football crowds and “first fire of the season” definitely aren’t helping.

But I’ll be damned if I don’t know how to make the best of what we have.

And we have Indian Corn.

And boxes in the attic with “Harvest” scribbled in thick marker across their sides. I pull a little out each weekend, saving the best for last–the silver pumpkins and the pinecone mantel swag. For now, we swap pale summer pinks for aubergines and russets.

And relish the September things that currently make me smile:

* This hat I dream of.

*…that would match Nella’s red shoes.

* Argyle.

* Savoring late summer fruit.

Dot’s daughter, Ali, was home from Orlando for the week, and we were lucky to spend the day with her!

* “The High Bun:”

She has a repertoire of hairstyles she requests now–high ponytail, low ponytail, two ponytails, two buns, high bun, low bun, half up/half down, all down, french braid, two braids, low braid, high braid, barrette. Whew. Sister knows what she wants, and Heaven help you if, God forbid, you deliver a low bun when she asked for a high bun. I cringe at the high bun request. It’s tricky. You have to wet the brush and smooth it about a bajillion times to get the hair high enough–with no bumps. And then you wait for her approval–nervously. Watching as she stretches her hand back to assess the height. If it’s just a smidge lower than her expectations, you’re done. I actually got a text from a friend who was watching her one afternoon that said, “She asked for a bun and she keeps telling me my bun’s not a high bun. I don’t know what to do.”

I love it.

* Physical Therapy

I love our people. Our P.T. and O.T. are husband & wife, and I am thankful that what once carried so much apprehension for me has become such a meaningful time in our home.

We are always thankful for every little milestone each of our children make, and right now it seems this September creative current has swept up their little minds as well. This week Nella said “shoe” and a really good version of “cracker,” and tonight, as were standing at the check-out at Publix, she looked up and pointed at a Winnie-the-Pooh balloon and smiled. I said “balloon” loudly and enough times to annoy the check-out lady and finally, my girl smiled and said her little version of what was clearly…balloon.

Guess who got to take it home?

September storms bring cleaning and weeding out old clothes, always a bit of a sad task for me.

And we crafted.

We made a button mobile for Lainey’s room. I knew I wanted to do something with a bag of buttons I had and, after a few trial and errors and a little meandering through Joann’s aisles, I discovered a cross stitch hoop was exactly what we needed. I stained it a bit to acquire the color I wanted, tied and knotted long strands of hemp cording around it, and Lainey and I went bananas gluing buttons. The result fits perfectly in her room–just waiting for Brett to hang it for us.

Finally, this September storm brings with it the challenge of more meals, more people, more love in our kitchen. We’ve been talking about it a lot, and we’re excited to clean up some bad habits of quick meals and settle into Fall with dinners around the table, music, candles, and some new recipes.

So tonight, we did it. The good silverware, the good dishes, Diana Krall crooning from the kitchen, tea lights in Mason jars, and company. I knew we needed to do it more often when, while Lainey was helping me set the table, she smiled and said “I like this day.”

I like when Lainey weasles her scooter between kitchen cupboards while I’m cooking.

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Finally, appropriate for the season, Jessica Clough’s Scentsy shop is back for the third month in a row for sponsorship. Girlfriend is hooked. I ordered my fall scents, and I can’t stop burning the Clove and Cinnamon bar. It’s like Norman Rockwell painting plus apple orchard plus holiday party hot wassail all in one. And it makes me excited about September. And creative storms.

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Any other September storms brewing out there? Do share.
I’m trying to do a better job of popping in to answer comment and FB questions when I can. And I’m revamping my Facebook page soon, so hold tight if I haven’t accepted you as a friend. My Unplugged day overlapped a bit last week–and rightly so–so I have a little bit of catching up to do.

I love this little foot that pops through the crib slats.

Storm’s a ‘brewin. Good night.

Unextreme Makeover: Lainey’s Room

August 15, 2011 By Kelle

On cooking shows, when, say, Martha Stewart whips up some eggs, scrapes in some butter, dollops perfect spoonfuls of creamy batter into muffin tins, it happens gracefully. Dishes magically disappear when she’s done with them, and of course she sprays her counters clean in between each step. Because that’s the way it’s supposed to be done. And cupcakes with lemon curd frosting taste so much better when you’re enjoying them in a clean kitchen, right?

The way I cook? Complete opposite. Egg shells cracked and thrown on the island, melted butter slopped on dish rags, batter carelessly dripping onto cookbook pages and never wiped off. It’s a measure of excellence: the more crusted crap on a cookbook page, the better the recipe.

Throw in a home improvement project with the cooking? Hay-ell no.

So it was last night, as I was making lasagna and tying up the last bits of my weekend home project, the kitchen took a beating. It had already served as the holding tank for all tools and homeless knick-knacks that I cleared out of Lainey’s room while I worked. And cleaning it up before I made lasagna wouldn’t have been any fun. So I spread noodles into my pan while I elbowed the cordless drill. I knocked over an Allen wrench, two screwdrivers and a USB cord while I stirred my sauce. And yes, it would have been so much easier if I did it the Martha Stewart way. But Girlfriend ain’t Martha.

Thank you Dad for giving up your weekend to make a couple girls very happy.

I like to mess up three rooms just to clean one. I rob Peter to pay Paul, dumping piles from Lainey’s room to the kitchen, from the kitchen to Nella’s room, from Nella’s room to the entry way, until the entry way serves as the audition tape for Hoarders. But what happens in the end is that I’m so excited about what I accomplished–about all the rooms that look new and refreshed, homey and inviting–that I’m inspired to clean that last room, those remaining piles–and clean it I did. I love new projects.

I needed a change, that is all. I wanted a new inexpensive home project and felt it was time Lainey had a space that was all hers. Most everything from this room is stuff we already had around the house. What we added was extremely inexpensive (Mason jars, marbles, dominoes, cardboard letters, paint, etc.).

When I was pregnant with Lainey, I poured all of myself into her room. When it was finished, I’d spend my evenings sitting on a chair in her room taking it all in. Sometimes I’d cry because I couldn’t believe the crib I ran my fingers along would hold a baby–my baby. Brett would wake up every morning to find me sitting in there–lights dimmed, feet propped, coffee in hand. “What are you doing in here again?” he’d laugh. And “Just dreaming” was how I’d reply. There’s something special about the space you create for your kids. This one was especially meaningful because now that I know her–what she likes, how she thinks, what turns the corners of her mouth into her infamous shy smile–it was so much fun to create ideas that would capture who she is. My creative, curious, colorful girl.

Her new space:

Lainey’s old Pottery Barn Kids kitchen–used to be pink. I repainted it red and put a coat of chalkboard paint on the refrigerator. My friend Rebecca made new curtains for the pie cabinet.

My one hold-up in this room was the chandelier. I hated it. This room used to be a dining room a long time ago and, to me, the light screamed dinner table. I wanted it gone. When my dad suggested we keep it, I fought him hard. He suggested painting it funky; I thought I’d hate it.

I humbly admitted once we were through that he was right. I freaking love this lamp.

Plain ‘ol toss pillow jazzed with some felt we cut, glued and stitched.

Toys adhered to wall with Velcro.

Discontinued Ikea curtains: $15 for both panels; shelf: $4 piece of wood painted and screwed into window opening.

Prints above dresser are 8×8 photos mounted on Styrene. I like canvas, but it’s expensive and I can’t justify it because I like to switch out photos and wall art when I get bored. These were $7 each from WHCC. You can also get them mounted on mat board with varied thickness.

Since we’ve finished this room, Brett has again found me sitting–lights dimmed, feet propped up, coffee in hand. “Just dreaming,” I say. Because it makes me happy.

It makes her happy too.

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