A Place Like This......

One Small Change: Trees and Napkins

Everything is starting to come alive. After this very long winter in Tennessee, I was beginning to wonder if Spring was ever going to pay us a visit. It always amazes me how quickly the metamorphose between Winter and Spring happens.

Our March "One Small Change" was to plant trees. This hasn't happened yet because of the very cold,rainy, and muddy weather we've been having. The trees have been purchased and will be going in when the weather clears. Above is the fruit  and nut orchard we planted 5 years ago. 

One of the wise children I live with pointed out the trees we are planning to plant are really just part of an "oxymoron".

"An oxymoron?" I asked

"Yes. Mom, we are planting these trees and then we will come in for a great meal and wipe our mouths with one of the paper napkins you circulate around our table."

Oh my aching gosh she's right. I really have loved my decorative and thematic napkins. Every time I go to IKEA I pick up a horde of them because they are pretty and cheap, but what are they made out of? Trees!

Aprils "One Small Change" is to make fabric napkins. I have so many remnants of fabric and this will be a really fun activity for all of us to do. So I guess you could say that we plant a tree, save a tree. Happy April everyone!

  

"The Camera Taker"

The above title is in quotes because our little friend Elwood first used this name in lieu of "photographer".

I, on the other hand, have met a camera taker in the literal sense. While sitting outside saturday in the beautiful sunshine, little "O" asked if he could just take a couple of photos with my camera. "Sure" I said. After 40 minutes I began to wonder if he had gone into the house or what exactly happened to the boy?

Soon I found him still taking photos and discovering his everyday world in a whole new way.

   As I was going through the photos I just loved the idea that he experimented with several self-portrait attempts. In this last photo can you find the bird? He discovered camoflage in it's truest sense and felt he was carrying a very important secret. 

I loved looking at  his photos and learning about discovery in a whole new way. I always considered myself capturing our memories but it wasn't until new eyes took over the lens that I've realized it's also about discovering everything around us.  

A re-bag String A-long

 
  
First let me say a big thank you to everyone who stopped by last week. It's been so great reading your comments and visiting your blogs. Our blogging community is just terrific and I'm so thankful for all of you.

Last week I started working on a market bag made out of plastic grocery sacks. As you might have heard I have a fox family in my yard and therefore I spent most of the week acting like Jane Goodall instead of knitting. 

I got my bag yarn ready and almost have the bottom completed. This great pattern along with how to make the plastic bag yarn is from a great talent named Julie of Coco Knits. Head on over and see all of her great patterns. You can find the re-bag here.

Sadly this is the last week of string a-long. I'm so thankful to Emily and Dawn for being such great hostesses. I promise to show you the end result. I'm having so much fun doing this re-bag. I think it is going to be so cute and it's definately clever.

Before I go today I just wanted to let you know about the post over at Jump Into A Book. A Booklist of read out-loud favorites for groups consisting of multi-ages.

  

{This Moment} and Circle of Stones

I'm happy to offer one photo which sums up our week. Amanda is hosting this event which I'm greatly enjoying.

 

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On another note,......I'm so honored to be featured on Heather of Shivaya Naturals, Circle of Stones. Thank you Heather for asking me to be a part of this. I'm thankful to all of you who stop by here and share a moment with us.  Have a great and happy weekend everybody.

The Stone Labyrinth

Though sometimes life is a little bumpy and can feel like it's hitting you with stones,

we can always take those stones and "make" a moment to reflect in their lessons.

One by one in their individual beauty, we place them into a continous line. 

Lighting our path as we go.

To remind ourselves of the one continuous line which binds us to each other.

   

All Buttoned Up

What lies in this box is verging on a miracle.

And the story can only be told while having tea and eating some Irish soda bread.

Ok, with that said, I can now continue. A couple of weeks ago I was reading some of my favorite Swedish crafting blogs.Elin  from Feeling Stitchy (all blogposts are in Swedish and English)  announced that she was having a button swap but not just any button swap but an embroidery button swap. Most of the swappers lived in Northern Europe but I felt this keen connection that I had to be a part of this swap.

Everyone at this point should be asking why. What was I thinking? I haven't embroidered anything since I was 10 years old an required to make a sampler for my grandmother's wall. Elin and I started emailing and she hinted that I should go "big" as in embroider big buttons. Not only this but she had a link to some embroidery button patterns. At this point in the process, one has to love Elin.

And then it happened. I drew my circles, transferred my patterns, pulled out my thread bag, and stood in my kitchen embroidering these cute little buttons. It was so relaxing and I just loved them as their little personalities appeared.

 
After the embroidery came the very scary part........making them into buttons. Thanks to the button kit everything snapped together in seconds. Not one problem.  Here are my results. Do you love them? I just love them. Remember....beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I'm beholden them.  Is that last sentence english or is it svenglish? Anyway I'm happy.

So off to Kristina in Sweden they go complete with chocolate, ribbons, and buttons all wrapped up in a heart box.

Thanks for eyeing my little buttons. Now little "O" wants me to embroider badges for his tree-house club. Wow, I'm so honored. Have a great day.

The Sunny Weekend that Wasn't

Isn't it amazing when the first spring sun comes out it feels like it will be out forever? The sun of Thursday and Friday completely ditched us for clouds and rain on Saturday and Sunday. Today it's even snowing. How Rude!

We had planned an entire outdoor weekend with tours of Vanderbilt for dad, walking around Nashville, going to Grassmere and seeing the zoo, walking around various plantation houses. Instead we got our windy walk through Vanderbilt University and a walk through Old Nashville and then it was duck and miss for the rest of the trip. Mostly bookstores, the Grand-Ole Opry Mall, an eating adventure in a Rainforest where it actually rains on you inside the restaurant. Why didn't we just stay outside for that? And of course we visited many cafes. All in all it was still a fun trip with my little family. 

  

I really love family car talk. There are so many fun things to be discussed and great music to share. It's a moment which is all ours and the world can't come in.   

Now it is Monday and can you believe it is snowing? Clearly we are having the tempermental weather of spring. Seeing it snow this morning reminded me of this great book I use to read to the girls. You can find it over at Jump Into A Book.

Now with all of the cold and dreary weather it's time for a little creativity. It's String a-long Monday and I'm re-bagging. I spent yesterday evening starting to make my grocery store plastic bag yarn for my next take along grocery store bag. The yarn takes a bit to make but the final product is so fun. I can hardly wait to show you.

Off To Have Fun

~ The traveling tribe is off for a few days of fun in the sun. We'll be back on Monday. Have a great weekend.~

  

The Rhythm of the Garden

Inbetween the rain drops and the cold weather, we're preparing our garden for planting. there is something so hopeful in this project. It is the reconnection with the earth and the hope that spring will be here very soon.

While growing up, my family had a huge garden, almost verging on a farm. A couple of years after I was married and living in Pennsylvania, I remember digging up the entire backyard to put in a begetable garden like the one in my childhood memeory. Wow, what a lot of work! Weeding, handwatering, ....weeding,weeding, and yet more weeding. All of these efforts produced very little yield. To say I was discouraged was an understatement.

 

It was around this time that I met this lovely French woman who introduced me to the term potager or kitchen garden. Kitchen gardens are often times in raised beds or in enclosed garden spaces. She really was more like my gardening angel. We took fieldtrips to the Rodale tests gardens. We made compost, I learned what to plant when and when to plant what. That year I had a great harvest and have been kitchen gardening ever since.

This is in Versaille France. Thank god I don't have to weed that.

Every year I go through my favorite seed catalogs including seeds of change, an organic seed company and I plan my garden. And then the moment arrives when I re-enter the garden. There is a moment when I distinctly feel the rhythm of the garden starting again. It is my annual marker that it's to reawaken.

  
 


 

Movie Magic

Friday's post left everyone wondering what were those two boys doing?

 
Our friend is making a movie with an old movie camera for her film making class at the University of Tennessee.

She has picked her subjects well , I think. Part of the pains of being an onscreen actor is enduring being written on for the title shot.

So here they are, Pirates and Vikings starring in the movie Imagination by Stacy English.

When all the battles had finished for the day there was still the cat and some cast off costumes. One would never know a movie was shot there.

  On a very different note, I finished by string along bag. Now it's onto the next one. These are so fun and easy to do. Find out more about it here and here.