Wow! Napkins and Placements!

I had a WOW! Happy! week last week.

My favorite sewing and fabric store, Sewn Studio, offered a class last week called, "Improv Sewing . . . 101 fast, fun and fearless projects" which included a book titled, surprisingly (!) Improv Sewing . . .  101 fast, fun and fearless projects!  The class also included all the materials and 3 hours of sewing time.  Sewn Studio taught the napkins/placemats pattern from the book and so that is what I made.

Darling linen napkins and placemats!!

The class wasn't difficult and it wasn't anything I couldn't have done at home by myself.  But I did learn something new, something I've never thought of doing before.  My top thread and my bobbin thread were different colors of thread so what is on top of the fabric is not the color on the bottom of the fabric.  Coooool!!!!!  ALSO, and this may be the best part for me, my sewing lines weren't straight.  Purposefully NOT straight!!!  WOW!!

It took me 3 hours to cut and sew four napkins and placemats.  The fabric and all the thread (I used 3 different colors) were less than $20.  I used a natural colored linen but wouldn't a black linen be fabulous too?!  I think that everyone on my Christmas list will be getting napkins and placemats this year . . . . if I can part with them!!!

Happy-ness is sewing . . . and then being able to gift my handmade-with-love (and excitement and Wow!) to friends and loved ones!!  A bonus Happy-ness!!

Give yourself the gift of Wow!  Treat yourself to an afternoon of picking fabric, threads and then sewing napkins and placemats (or even just the napkins!) and gift your home sewn happy-ness too!!  Don't forget to share your happy with me!!!

XOXOXO

A Peace

I have begun knitting again.

Without too much drama and detail, once upon a time ago, my need for knitting was voracious.  I went everywhere with my knitting.  I knit socks while waiting to check out at the grocery store.  I knit sweater sleeves while in carpool lines.  I knit while walking through my neighborhood.  I worked in a small yarn store and still shopped at many other yarn stores for yet more yarn and more projects.

And then one day, I stopped.

It was as if, upon waking up one morning, I decided I don't like knitting anymore.

My yarn store closed and with it, all other yarn stores.

But recently, the yarn spoke to me.  Gently poking me awake.  Nudging me. Reassuring me that I can be at peace with knitting.

No person is putting upon me deadlines.

No customer/yarn student/shop owner is picking out projects and yarn for me.

No one is competing with me; making me feel compelled to knit this sweater with this yarn for this person by this time.  No one is inferior or superior to my knitting.

I can knit for friends.  Or even friends of friends.  I can knit for me.  I can knit for you.

I can see a beautiful skein of sock yarn and knit . . . . well . . . . socks.  I don't have to go above and beyond and turn that beautiful skein of sock yarn into an impossible shawl.  My beautiful may be another person's NOT beautiful.

And I'm okay with that.

I am sooooooo okay with that.

I am so okay with yarn that is whispering softly to me.

I am so okay with spending a quiet afternoon knitting in the sun.  Just alone.  With my own dreams and thoughts and wants and wishes.

And so, a few weeks ago, I listened to the yarn and began knitting again. And while I am not a fast knitter and it takes me weeks and weeks to finish just one sock, I'm okay with that, too.  

But still, socks. For a friend of a friend. A mother of a toddler.  A woman, who, like me, can't quite give up her flip flops in the winter.

A perfect sock to wear all winter long with flip flops!!

 The beautiful wood double points and the messy ball of yarn simply add to the comfort.  I have found an old friend again!

Happy-ness is coming to peace with my knitting.  Yes.  A solace with yarn and double point needles and each stitch formed to make a sock.

Happy-ness in the hope that my peace will bring a frazzled mother of a toddler a few more weeks in her flip flops.

XOXOXO

Apple Pies in Jars

Fall is my most favorite time of year!  Cold crisp nights; sunny warm days; the color of the changing leaves; Halloween; baking and looking forward to the upcoming holidays.
One of my favorite gifts to give to friends, neighbors, teachers and family is Apple Pie in a Jar.  A friend gave me this recipe when we lived in Indiana and I have used it every year for many, many years. It's another stupid simple recipe with major yums and a bit of impressed ooooohs and ahhhhhhhhs.
A day trip to the apple orchard (I always, always, always find myself in Indiana in the fall so I make a big to-do about going to Stuckey's Farm, where I have taken the kids since they were crawling in the pumpkin patch!), a few bushels of apples (I use Jonagold since they are great for baking AND eating!) and you have yourself several quarts of Apple Pie in a Jar.  Two bushels of apples gets me 14 pies.  Make sure to spend several hours finding the biggest best pumpkin while you are at Stuckey's or your orchard trip is definitely not complete.

Apple Pie in a Jar

7 qts. peeled, sliced apples

Syrup: 4 1/2 cups sugar

10 cups water

1 cup cornstarch

2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. salt

Combine above syrup ingredients and cook until thick.  Add 3 Tbsp. lemon juice.  Fill hot jars with peeled, sliced apples.  Leave 1" space.  Pour syrup over apples.  Leave 1/2" space.  Process for 20 minutes.  Yields 7 quarts.

You can decorate your pie jar with a label or a ribbon.  Attach a note or label that says: "To make pie, pour 1 jar into pie shell.  Top with crumb topping or crust.")

Enjoy the process, from picking apples out of the orchard or from your local grocery store to labeling your jars and giving a favorite friend your apple pie in a jar.  If you're extra lucky, your friend will bake the pie for YOU!!!

Spend today loving each other.  Smiling.  Laughing.

Happy-ness is warm apple pie.  Fall weather.  Handmade gifts to special friends.

XOXOXO

The Great Basement Clean-Up

Okay.  Wow.  In showing you these next few photos, I am making myself completely vulnerable to you.  I am allowing you into an area of my life in which I can't stand.  I am overwhelmed, feel helpless, hopeless and defeated by this area.  This is a huge area of the basement which I avoid.
When we moved into this house 10 years ago, we made a "kids' side" and an "our side".  "Kids' side" is fun and has a chalkboard wall, a comfy couch, bookshelf full of books to cozy up with, a puppet stage, paints and papers, paper dolls and scissors, a cubbyhole under the stairs with a beanbag chair and several journals, flashlights and other various but much-needed "things".  The "kids' side" does NOT have a t.v., a gaming system, a telephone or anything electronic.  It is a quiet area for reading, thinking, doing, being.  It's messy at times but never out of control.
. . . . . . . Out of control is the "our side".  Before I reveal these photos, please know that I'm showing you these photos because this is my huge, overwhelming fall project.  I'm going to address every box, every stack and pile.  I'm going to wheedle through papers, make new file folders.  I'm going to purge.  I'm going to clean.  I'm going to post photos when I'm finished.  And then . . . . . I'll take a nap.
Deep breath.  And . . . . . you may look.

Ahem.  I'm really not even going to speak anymore about this.
Happy-ness is a new adventure, if that's what you want to call an overwhelming, almost hopeless, great basement clean-up project!
XOXO

A Most Delicious Breakfast

Madeleines are a shell-shaped sponge cake originating in France and have a reputation for being a light dessert served with berries or as a treat with a cup of tea.

In my house, they are breakfast!  Warm madeleines before school?!  Who would want anything else?

I use the recipe straight from Martha Stewart's Cookies and it has never failed me.

Lemon Madeleines

1 1/2 cups sifted cake-flour (NOT self-rising)

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. coarse salt

3 large eggs AND 2 large egg yolks

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

zest of 1 lemon

2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

3/4 cup unsalted butter, plus more for pan

Confectioners' sugar for dusting (a MUST!)

1.  Sift together flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.  Set aside.

2.  Put eggs, egg yolks, granulated sugar, vanilla, lemon zest and lemon juice in the bowl of an electric mixer and mix on medium-high until pale and thickened, about 5 minutes (the longer you mix and the lighter in color and thicker the batter, the lighter your madeleine will be---melt in your mouth!)  Using a spatula, fold flour mixture into egg mixture.  Let batter rest 30 minutes (but I never do!)

3.  Preheat oven to 350 and butter your madeleine pan (but I usually do this first as I never wait my 30 minutes.)

4.  Pour batter into prepared pan, filling the molds 3/4 full.  Bake cookies, rotating pan halfway through, until edges are crisp and golden, 7-8 minutes.  Let cookies cool slightly in pan on wire rack.  Invert and unmold.  Dust with confectioners' sugar.  Cookies can be stored between layers of parchment in airtight containers at room temperature up to 1 day.

. . . . but instead of storing them, they are BEST SHARED!  Warm with the children; warm with best friends over a cup of coffee and good conversation.

I was hesitant to buy the molded pan because I wasn't sure how often I would make the madeleines.  I am sooooooo glad I bought the pan---I make them all the time.

Happy-ness is warm madeleines!!  Come over and we shall bake some together!!!!  :-)

My Summer Romance

. . . . . has it really been that long?
And in case you've forgotten me, I'm going to let you in on a little bitty secret.
I've been having a hot romance!  With summer!  And my three favorite people in the world!  My kids! :-)
Here is a smidgeon of what we've done since May:

(See her flippers?!  LOVE this picture!)

(Library books during the 3 hour daily swim practices!)

(Swimming championships at Miami University)

(We lost electricity for an afternoon--the 3 of them playing a game together!)

(Napping!)

 (Eating at one of our favorite restaurants, The Taste of Belgium)

(Body butters, deodorants, lip balms and farmers' markets every Saturday!)

(A little bit of dressing up.  The best we can!)

(First day of school.  Three different schools; three different start times!)

I'm absolutely certain I've had time to blog about my daily happy.  I'm certain I should have made more time for friendships, near and far.  I should have picked up the phone and called.  I should have knitted more.  Sewn more.  But my summer romance was a whirlwind. I blinked and it was over.

I spent every waking moment that I possibly could with my three favorite people. We were swimming every day, both for fun and for competition.  We played games, watched movies, grilled outside.  We stayed up late and took afternoon naps.  We savored.

Because just yesterday my first baby was born . . .  but I turned, kissed him on the cheek and sent him with a car full of teenagers to find his way as a Junior in High School.

And just yesterday my first daughter was born . . . but I turned, kissed her on the cheek and walked in the dark to the bus stop with her so she can rise above mean girls to be a seventh grader.

And just yesterday my baby-baby was born . . . . but I turned, kissed her on the cheek and sent her with the neighborhood car pool to find herself as a fourth grader.

I blinked.

But . . . . with summer over and school starting, I have time.  My house is quiet and I am listening to opera with a dog by my side.  And I'm blogging again. And planning sewing projects and socks to knit.  I am mixing up new fragrances for body butters and perfume sticks.  Thank you for my summer romance; let's enjoy each other this fall!  :-)

Happy-ness is this quiet peace I have after a wonderful summer love!!!

April Showers Bring . . . .

Ahhhhhhh Happy-ness!  May you enjoy your fields of May flowers today!

XOXO

Spring Knitting

Hello, dear friends.
I've admitted to you before, I am a most terrible knitter.  Slow.  Painful.  I am not sure if I'm a process knitter, one who enjoys the rhythm of the knitting, or a finished project knitter.  Or not really a knitter at all, but a knitter-wanna-be. Or maybe a little bit of all of that.  At any rate, I'm not highly motivated to finish a project.  And I do enjoy having a bit of knitting in my hand; but if I'm not knitting, meh, I'm okay with that, too.
Anyway, I have been knitting this silly sweater for too long.  I bought the yarn years ago.  For the middle child.  But now, it will have to be for the Pipsqueak.  I find it boring.  Tedious.  But I want it finished!  This is my year of finished projects and inspired knitting!  I decided to sit under my favorite loverly tree and, well, knit.

But it's beautiful outside!  And there were distractions.

And I felt like I was being watched the entire time.

Hmmmmmmmm it's loverly knitting in the spring sunshine and fresh air.  I think Keeper is in the right frame of mind!!  And I did manage to knit . . . . a few rows, anyway!

Happy-ness is distraction and playing!!
Go outside and enjoy your spring romp! Now!  Go!
XOXO

Sometimes Sadness

Hello, dear friends.
This has been a week of sadness.  A day of defeat.  I meekly stand and wave my white flag of surrender.
And....
I put on my favorite jeans.  And a favorite white linen shirt.  And I turn up the Italian opera music so loud even the neighbors can hear it.  And I make tea.  From a tea kettle given to me by my most favorite person.  A birthday gift.

And I mourn the loss of friends and loved ones with Buckeyes.  Not very pretty Buckeyes.  But therapy. Remembering.  Wishing.

Happy-ness is one more day. To love.  To be loved.
XOXO

Be True!

It has been too-too-too long since I have posted anything!

I have been busy.  And lazy!

There was a trip to Atlanta, Georgia to visit family.

Spring Break.

A few sick days.

Lots of sewing.

A little knitting.
Wine drinking.
Dinners with best friends.
Lunches with good good friends.
And a business launched.
You can see me here on Etsy.
I have always been about the natural body, home, lifestyle.  In this day of ultra conveniences and throw-away mentality, I embrace the simple even more.  Clothes drying on a clothesline.  Books borrowed from the library.  Handmade (everything!).  Fresh (air! food! everything!).
I have been making my own deodorant for years, I have been sewing since I was about 9, which is not so many years ;-) and I have been using essential oils to freshen (the house, the laundry, everything!) and to cure what may ail the body (the big teenager had a very big, very nasty blister on the bottom of his foot; so nasty and big that it was making me woozy just to look at it!  I used the magic combination of essential oils to soothe over the blister and it was gone the very next morning!)
So . . . . . when my friend (and business buddy!) approached me about starting an Etsy business, I don't think I hesitated even a fraction of a second.  I jumped up, gave a war cry and ran with it!  And, me being me, she did all of the leg-work/prep-work while I did all of the cheerleading!  And some sewing.  Stephanie is fabulous!  Her cafe mocha sugar scrub is out of this world!
Visit our shop!  Check us out! Support two moms with a love for the all-natural, healthy, holistic, simple lifestyle!!  You will find my deodorant, Stephanie's sugar scrubs, eye masks that relax with lavender or soothe a headache (hangover?!) with peppermint.  I have an indulgent body butter that I will be adding; new things are being made and added daily!  Leave your comments; let us know what you think!

Happy-ness is being a mom; a woman business owner; empowerment; doing and being the person I'm made to be!  Be true to yourself today!!
XOXO

The Hope Of Spring

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold:  when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade. 

Charles Dickens

Happy-ness is the hope of Spring and all that it brings.  Flowers.  Fresh Air.  Clothes blowing and drying on a line outside.  Skirts and flip-flops worn with a favorite schleppy sweatshirt (which has been my Spring wardrobe for a week or so now!)  Summer in the sunshine; winter in the shade.  May you enjoy your Springtime!

Rrrrrrruffles!

I found this ruffle fabric at my favorite sewing store and decided the Pipsqueak needs skinny ruffle capris.  I found this pattern book, also at my favorite sewing store.  The pattern book is fabulous!  And my requirements for any pattern, book or otherwise, are really very simple:
1.  The pictures have to be awesome.
2.  I need to understand the directions.
3.  The directions need to contain no sewing grammar at all.  Patterns need to have words that I understand.  Also words that make me feel like it is speaking directly to me.  (Read:  dumbed down.  A lot.  For me.)
4.  I need to feel confident that I will use several of the patterns in a book or that I will use the pattern over and over and over again.
5.  Dumbed down.  A lot.  For me.
I love to sew.  I love to sew.  Probably more than kintting.  Which is saying a lot.  But I don't have a lot of confidence because I don't know what "bias" means.  "Basting stitch"?  Why bother?!  I also hate to cut.  I hate to think that I spent money on fabric and before it even gets to the sewing machine, I have ruined it by cutting it wrong.  "Cut on the grain" . . . . . ????  And quite honestly, my method of sewing would make my mother cringe.  I mostly wing it.  I can see it in my head so I usually just skip a lot (A. LOT.) of the steps in written patterns to get to that finished piece.  Not so with the skinny ruffle capris!!  5 steps.  That's it.  (And, since it's me, I did it in 4 steps!!)
It took me 90 minutes.  Including running out to Michaels to find a white t-shirt to applique the cute little heart with the extra ruffle fabric. 90 minutes from laying out, cutting, sewing, running to Michaels, appliqueing to finished.

[Side note #1: So tickled with myself, I took pictures with my iPhone and showed them to everyone at work.  I showed the pictures to one of my favorite friends, Jason.  He is a 35 year old single man, never been married.  Only goes to the grocery store when he runs out of laundry detergent or toilet paper.  Love him to death and have knit socks for him and given him soups and casseroles just because.  As I was showing him how cute (!!!), I said, "I wish they made them in my size!"  He laughed out loud.  Belly laugh.  And said, "Did you seriously just say that you wished they made them in your size?!?!?!  YOU MADE those pants!!!!" *giggle*]
So in love with this outfit are we, I went out and bought more fabric.  Just one more color.  It had to be orange.

(Blurry photo?!?!  Ugh. . .)

[Side note #2:  Pipsqueak is days away from being 9 years old.  I used the size 6 pattern.  She's a . . . well, pipsqueak!  I teased her that she will have Big Bird legs in her orange ruffly pants!  Because, hey!  It looks like legs that Big Bird might wear!  And she said, "The great thing about Big Bird is that he's . . . . . BIG!!!"  Poor little Pipsqueak. . . . ]
Happy-ness is RRRRRRRuffles!!!!!!

Birthdays

Much birthday-ing in February!
Mine:
I decided that since it was my 24th birthday (yeah, don't argue.  Don't even question.  I'm 24 . . . . ) . . . . since it was my 24th birthday, I would treat myself to my very own store-bought bakery cake.  I have a twin brother.  We always shared a cake.  Then I baked my own birthday cake.  And since I am now 24, have been fighting a cold for a month, have been working crazy weird and toying with an Etsy shop (details soon!  OMG Excitement!), I would treat myself to my very own store-bought cake.  A raspberry torte.  With a not-buttercream icing (I forget the icing!) and roses.  My very own roses.  I will admit, it was very, very hard to pay $32 for a cake.  For me.  And I almost changed my mind.  But I'm only 24 once, right?!  (wink-wink!)

A few of my favorite gifts:

My best friend gave me a new tea kettle but that will be another day :-)
And my big teenager also celebrated a birthday.  15!  (Again, don't do the math.  Don't question. Don't argue.  He is 15 and I am 24. . .)
He requested chocolate.  Anything chocolate.

He raked in the cash, scored some good gift cards and enjoyed a case of Mountain Dew.  I'd say not bad for a birthday!!!
Happy-ness is feeling forever 24!  Celebrating birthdays with loved ones.  Really living your days and making every day a celebration with loved ones.  Finding love in each day . . . .
Enjoy this moment of your day.  Enjoy the warmth and sunshine.  Surround yourself with your friends and loved ones and laugh today!