Joining, sharing, swapping.

Suddenly, I have an overwhelming urge to join in every single project I see people starting on their blogs. I don't know why this is exactly, I'm just being a bit of a joiner right now. Well, I do know a couple of reasons this could stem from. The first is a (somewhat reasonable) fear that once baby #2 arrives I will never be able to make or do anything I want to ever again. Well, that's not really reasonable, but I'm sure creative endeavors will be few and far between for a while. The second is that I have a lonely mom thing going on here lately. I don't think it's any secret that this is a reason for a lot of us being joiners in an online creative community. I'm at home with kids during the day, and then my husband takes our one car to work at night so I'm usually home some more. So what do I have to do after bedtime but sew and then talk to people about it on the internet? (Lord knows I'm not watching The Bachelor.) I'm thankful for that, but I know the pre-kids me would have thought this kind of sad. Maybe it is in a way still, but I don't care. I like you guys and your blogs and I like my blog. So there.



Anyway, at the risk of my blog becoming completely over-saturated with sugary-syrup little girl dresses, I'm really excited about Vanessa's project going on this very week:





She's heading up an effort to send a ton of pillowcase dresses to an organization that gives them to girls around the world who don't have 28 dresses neatly hanging in their closets. This is a good thing. You have til next Wednesday to finish a dress or five, and pillowcase dresses are pretty quick, so join in!





The other project I heard about from Angelina's blog and of course decided to join, in my join-iness. It's called 30 Days of Lists.  Not much to explain there, but I thought it would be fun to get back into regular bite-size writing. I'm not a journal-er, but I love making lists, though I go through phases with it. They give you a different topic each day, and they've been pretty good so far.

I stole a little moleskine from my husband to designate to the task. I won't share all my lists here, because you don't care, but they will mostly be on my flickr. Did you know I had a flickr? Let's be friends there too.

The list topics have been fun so far, but today's is "What's in Your Bag?" This is the first one I think I will need to change. No offense to everyone who blogs about what is in their bag, but those kind of posts generate zero interest in me. We all have basically the same things in there, and besides, I don't even carry a purse any more, just a lovely utilitarian unit they call a diaper bag. It's got diapers and wipes in it- not an exhilarating show and tell. Maybe I'll change today's list to "What's been on your living room floor for 3 days straight?" or maybe, "What simple things are becoming impossible due to your ginormous belly?" Those seem more applicable to me right now.




Since this has seemed to become kind of a rambling post, let me tell you what else I have become addicted too. Swapping. That random old photograph up there came from Janee in a package she sent me full of random things in exchange for a load of wine corks. She asked about my corks, I said let's swap. Ever since Tara's scrap swap, this is my first thought about any of my supplies. Yesterday, someone commented that they liked my yellow nursing cover fabric and I offered to swap them for what I had left of it. There might be something wrong with me... I'm trying to think of a way to turn swapping into a more regular event around here.


Anyway, Tara's mug rugs that she made with my scraps inspired my grandmother in Florida to make some of her own. (I love it that you read my blog Nanny!) She emailed me these pics yesterday. It just goes to show that not only do people's creative blogs inspire other bloggers in our own little pat-each-other-on-the-back online world, but also people who are observing from afar and we have no idea about. I love it.

So I hope you don't mind you are famous on the internet now Nanny :)

Put a Bird On It!

This video cracks me up. Aren't we this ridiculous sometimes in the crafting world? You could really replace bird with deer, owl, unnecessary ruffle, whatever the next trend is...Of course I'm guilty of it too. (Stick a doily on it! Stick a mustache on it! Make an obvious tutorial about it!)

What good are we if we can't pull the that mod-podged stick out of our butts and laugh at ourselves?

Childhood in the Suburbs

I've already told you I think the new Arcade Fire album is amazing.


But I just had an experience that takes it to another level.


Artist Chris Milk created an interactive film that is a customizable music video to "We Used to Wait." It actually uses Google maps images to take you down your childhood street, to the very house you grew up in.


It is brilliant.


I tried it, not knowing what would happen. I had a very good childhood in Florida with lots of running and playing outside and memories with family. But I haven't been to that house in years. Just seeing it during the song made me a little emotional. There is something sad about the fact that you can never be a child again, I guess. The experience ends with a chance to write your childhood self a letter while the song  and experience is still going on. You don't have time to think, you just write and draw. Then you can choose to send the postcard in and it might be used in Arcade Fire's tour.


Here is mine:

I think I'm going to go do it again....right here.

Technology Love/Hate

Just to preface, I realize that much of what I'm about to say makes me sound like I'm 70. But maybe that's not so bad. I hope to be just like this grouchy dame when I'm 70:

So I've succumbed. I held out for quite a while, but now my iphone 4 is in the mail and should be in my hands in 7-14 days. I said for a very long time that I would never get one and didn't want one at all. But recently the opportunity to have one without having a higher phone bill was placed in my lap. I don't think I would have succumbed if not for that opportunity. Don't get me wrong though, I have not been above wanting one lately. They are just BA- there's no way around it. I won't tell you all the features I am excited about, you can go to the apple website for that. It will be quite a change for me, considering I have never ever owned a phone that wasn't the free one that comes with signing up for a plan. Heck, I still don't even text very fast. (I know, reference above picture.)

However, here is the list of reasons I dread the beautiful device's arrival:

1. Paired with my dark-framed glasses, it will nearly complete the uniform of a hipster d-bag. Gross. (This is why I will never buy TOMS shoes no matter how much I like them. It would form a hipster trifecta that there is no recovering from.)
2. I will automatically look like I have that air of superiority. You know the one- it's the attitude of a mac person. Which I have technically been for years, but the iphone is just such a walking commercial.
3. I will probably start playing time-wasting word games. I hate that. But I will love it. 
4. I will become somewhat rude. This is what I am most afraid of. I have complained to my husband countless times about him having his nose in his iphone at the wrong times in social situations and with my family. He's really not that bad. I'm just a little sensitive about it, probably just to make a point about why I don't like iphones and the way they make you uber connected in a way that you can't shut-off. My how the worm has turned. 
5. I don't want to become all addicted and stuff. These iPhone people are like crack addicts. Every time a new one comes out and "changes everything," (really? are you really changing the world?  BS.) you hear about people waiting in line at the AT&T stores for hours and hours. Would it really be that bad to wait a week or two? But I can already feel the high-tech hunger growing in me in subtle ways. I have even wanted an iPad, of all ridiculous things, ever since I saw this video. (It just makes it seem crafty somehow!)

Anyway, I know some of these on the list are my weird way of worrying to much about what people think about me, and the others are completely in my control. There is nothing inherently wrong with the dumb thing, and I don't have to be that into it if I don't want to be. I guess I just feel like I'm giving up a little bit of the old lady in me who wants to abandon civilization and live on a farm, sipping home brewed beer and painting pictures. Maybe I will just have to do something else to balance her out, like plant a garden or stop shaving my underarms.

Mother's Day Reflections

My major accomplishment today was getting my mom's gift in the mail. Ever since experiencing the joy of trying to use the automated postage machine while holding a hungry one year old and trying to feed him a sticky strawberry cereal bar, I have been thinking about being a mom. You know, that weird moment when you realize, hey I've been doing this for over a year now, so I guess this hallmark-created day is for me too. Weird.

On my first Mother's Day, HG was only about a month old so I was still living in that zombie-haze. I do remember that Nick gave me a beautiful orchid, which was nice-wish I had kept it alive. But I don't think I really felt like a mother yet.

Now I definitely feel like a mother...most of the time. Most of the time it feels so natural that I can't remember a time when I wasn't. But there are also a lot of days when I have no idea what I'm doing or why I'm doing it. Like when I hear those motherly things come out of my mouth and it sounds like someone else talking. Or the times when I just really really want a big block of time to myself, and then when I get it, all I can think about is getting back to that baby. The other day Nick and I were talking about possibly going to Bonnaroo again. It sounded really really fun to me, to the old me. But the first objection out of my mouth was that I didn't know if I could be away from HG for 4 days. What? Before, if I had heard the mom of a one year old talking like that I would have been all eye-rolling, "cut-the-cord," yada yada... now that's me. But I think I'm ok with that. I'm guessing it's one of many more moments to come when I will feel stuck somewhere between old me and mom me. But I'm guessing the two will just blur together as the years keep going- is that how it works? I don't really know yet how it works, but the learning is good. Me being a mom is me being me- hopefully the most me I've ever been. Being a mom is good.

And it's not just good because it gives me some sort of self-worth and identity and fulfillment and all that. Those are great, good for me. But the reason it's really good is because it's an actual job. It's a charge I've been given, and the actual responsibility is to love and teach that baby, not just find myself or whatever.

So this led me to thinking about what I want my son to learn from me. Of course, if you start on this path, the list can get pretty long. But here are the first things that came to mind.

1. I want him to know how to love, and I want him to learn from watching his father and I. I'm not just talking about him learning how to love a woman or have a good marriage. That's good, but beyond that, if Nick and I are loving each other well, our kids will know how to treat people with love- any and all people. Not out of fear, not out of self-promotion, just love.

2. I want him to know that even though it seems like money rules the world, it doesn't. Really, truly, it doesn't. Sometimes you have to squint to see past it, but there is so much more behind the big, fake, shiny culture money has built. You can do what you love in life. You don't have to do anything less just for money. (It may take you a while to figure out what that is, your parents still haven't.) You don't have to treat anyone badly because of money. You don't have live in fear of not having enough. Really, it's just money. And if for some reason you ever happen to get a lot of it, give lots away.

3. I want him to see the world and learn to be in awe of it. I want him to meet friends on other continents, and when he can't do that, maybe just have penpals. I want him to be an easy traveler, not afraid of places and people who are different. I want him to learn that people are pretty similar to him all over this world. Hopefully this will make him less judgmental than I am with the people who live on my own street. Really kid, it doesn't hurt your mom at all that the neighbors don't take care of their yard. She's just being foolish and you don't have to be.


The funny thing about this list is that they are obviously all things I am still trying to teach myself. But if he can watch me learning them as he grows up, maybe that will at least give him a head start.

Yeesh, forgive me for being much more reflective and personal than I usually am on this here crafty-blog. But I guess that is what happens sometimes when Nick works at night and I sit here waiting for him to bring me back delicious thai food. mmmm...