Who Knew?

I noticed a few days ago that Christian's hair is looking especially good. His curls are nicely tamed, but not crunchy and not spiky. I didn't ask about it because he tends to grow bright red when complimented. Today, he asked, quite nonchalantly, if we had any more homemade healing salve stashed away somewhere. 

"Oh, I'm sure we do," I replied brightly. "I made lots of it. Why? What hurts.?"

"Nothing; " came the quick reply "it makes awesome hair gel."

I thought about that a moment. Olive oil and a touch of beeswax. Nourishing herbs. Certainly good for his hair. Why not?

It's about time to make some more, so I dug up this post to remind myself of what to do. I figured it's been awhile, so I'll re-run it for you, too. Maybe you need some hair gel?

 Today is the day to assemble gift bags for the dance teachers. In each bag, Mary Beth will place a bar of saintly soap, a sachet of garden lavender buds, and a tin of homemade healing salve. It's a bag in keeping with the handmade pledge. The soaps are not handmade in our home, but they are handmade. I think the teachers will be very happy at this improvement over last year's soaps, which were made in our home:-). Trish's soaps are truly amazing and I think it still counts as homemade. I can only imagine how wonderful her Canadian home must smell. [Alas, this link is not live right now. Trish is taking a break. But maybe in time for Christmas?]
The salve is becoming legendary. Recipients of last year are begging for more. I'm told it heals anything from diaper rash to windburn to hemmorhoids. I'm also told that some northern ladies were coveting some southern ladies' healing salve and I've been encouraged to skip sending teas this year and just send large vats of salve. Alrighty then!
We have a small crockpot that came with my large slow cooker. I think it's intended purpose was to keep dips warm.We've never used it for that. Truthfully, we'd never used it at all until last year when we discovered it to be perfect for making salve.
I put a handful each of dried plaintain, comfrey, calendula, and St. John's Wort in the crock and then fill it all the way with olive oil. I leave the herbs to simmer all day.
    At the end of the day, I drain the oil through cheesecloth, squeezing as much of it as possible out of the herbs. I toss the herbs into the garden. Then, I measure the oil and put it back into the crockpot. When it is warmed, I add one ounce of pure beeswax for every 8 ounces of oil. This seems to give it the right consistency when it cools. While it is still warm, I add a few drops of lavender essential oil, a few drops of tea tree oil, and I squeeze out the contents of two or three Vitamin E capsules. Don't skip the Vitamin E--that's the preservative. Stir it all until the beeswax is melted and it's all blended. Pour into containers of choice. Mountain Rose Herbs sells the dried herbs and a variety of containers. I think these little herbals sets would make nice hostess gifts, too. 

Or, perhaps this year, they are the teenage gift of choice. Everyone needs hair gel.

Intentional Weekend: Healing

I had planned to go to Pennsylvania this weekend. Three of the boys have soccer games there. We were going to make a family trip of it. But something tugged at me. At the last minute, Mike and I decided I'd stay home with the girls.

We talked as he packed. "I feel like the world has kicked me around in the last month," I remarked to him. "It has," he said, his eyes meeting mine, "and that makes me so sad."

It wasn't just me though; it was my girls. In a very short period of time, those tender-hearted girls have seen more illness and death and disappointment and loss than a strong, healthy adult could bear. The world was kicking them around, too.

I resolved to take this weekend and teach them, show them, how a woman of faith responds to grief, how to heal with grace. I would walk through this with them. Together, we'd heal.

It helps to have a place, a place where we go when our hearts are singing with joy, a place where we go to share with friends, a place where we go when the world knocks us around and we need to heal. Our place is a woodland place. It changes with the seasons. It gets battered by the world sometimes and creaks and is brown and gray. It changes with time, usually slowly, but sometimes drastically. Still, it is familiar, and beautiful, and we are well accustomed to seeing God present there. 

Some families have a beach, a place to gather there to celebrate glorious moments, to share with friends, to make a trip and turn a bad day around. We have a creek (or is it a river?), big old trees, and springtime's most generous flower show. We have rocks to skip across the water and skies so blue they beg to be painted.

This was a place to sit on a blanket and just wait until she talked. Just listen as it all came bubbling out. When it hurts so much and the world feels like it's crushing, come away, girlfriends, to a place where you can clear your head and open your heart, a place where He beats down on you like warm sunshine and you feel grace poured into your soul.

We talked about death, about loss, about hard knocks, about that amazing tree, clearly perched precipitously, commanding our attention in its infirmity. Would it be here next time? Or would it be the newest "bridge tree," stretched across the river, changing currents, inviting children to scamper across its back? 

Nothing stays the same.

 Babies grow into "little big girls." And little girls face big girl hurts.

 Big girls?  Well, sometimes in the life a girl on the brink of womanhood the universe offers an entire curriculum on loss all at once. And it hurts so much that every woman close enough to know can scarcely breathe in the watching.

Take a deep, breath , my girls, after you've had your big cry. Look around. See? He's here. He has a plan for your life. A good plan. And this --all of this-- is part of the plan. Be watchful with Him. Be watchful for Him. Even now, He sends tender mercies, sweet moments of joy. Moments, that wouldn't have been possible without the pain.

We took our fill of fresh air and sunshine. We stayed long and came home late. We feasted on good food and then we discovered a belated birthday present in the mail. 

Fabric!

So, we did something else that girls do when their hearts hurt and the universe has kicked them around. 

We created something beautiful for someone we love.

{{Psst, to my Girlies: I had the best day with you today.}}

Just my Favorite Jeans.

This is a little story about my favorite jeans. Old jeans. They were my "fat" jeans after Stephen was born, nearly 13 years ago--so called because they were the first jeans I could wear after maternity clothes. After Sarah was born (my second baby in my forties), they were my "goal" jeans, as in "if I could just wear those jeans again, I'd be very so grateful." These are well beloved jeans, probably the last jeans I ever bought that don't have at least a little "stretch" woven into them. 

They survived the "great jean purge" a few years ago (how I wish I could have all those jeans back). I just couldn't bring myself to give them away. And I wore them pretty much every day for a two blissful weeks last spring. My favorite jeans, my favorite jacket, my favorite place.

My happy jeans.

I got a notion to do something with these jeans, to cover up a pretty intense mud stain (not the one in the picture). How hard could it be? To applique and then to embroider and give these old jeans some new life? So I recalled an embroidery tutorial and set off a bit haphazardly. I cut a flower from a favorite Heather Bailey fabric and then cut some Heat and Bond to "glue" it to my favorite jeans. 

I might have been a little reckless.

I bought Heat and Bond Ultra. Ultra. Just as I finished ironing, I caught this line in the package directions:

DO NOT SEW.

Hmmm. That's pretty harsh. It doesn't say, "sewing not recommended." It says, "DO NOT SEW." Just like that. In all caps. I thought about it. What could happen? My jeans will spontaneously combust?

I could not peel the fabric off the jeans. They would look "unfinished" without the embroidery. That would be just a random patch of fabric. No dimension. No handwork.I had no choice but to press on. These were my favorite jeans.

So, I proceeded with the plan.

I might have rushed a bit.

I had read through the tutorials on Wild Olive several weeks prior. I confess that I didn't go back and reread them. I just forged ahead. Through concrete.That stuff was not intended for sewing. Needles broke. My fingers were killing me. The embroidery looked pretty much beginnerish. Beginnerish through concrete. I thought about re-doing it. My stepmother kindly suggested that a thimble would help. I kept on keeping on. 

 

What was the alternative? These are my favorite jeans. And really, they will do very nicely for mucking about in the mud at Bull Run.

And with the rest of the floral fabric? Why not the next Stitch-by Stitch project: a hipster belt?

Sure. Why not? Let's just rush right in. Let's make this thing. It was pretty easy. I did want to do a little variation. Instead of free-motion quilting. I wanted to hand quilt it. Just around the pink flowers. Why not? Some project needs to be my first handquilting project. 

Because, newbie, you just stuffed super stiff interfacing between those layers. Again with the sewing through concrete?

This wasn't quite as bad. Oh, and I found the tutorial after I quilted. That is one very beautiful tutorial. I look forward to the next project.

Ladies, so far, I'm not finding hand needlework to be very relaxing.

And there was one more little problem. I didn't check the size when I cut the pattern for the belt. I just assumed.

One size fits all.

Um, no. Despite the fact that my jeans fit, the belt doesn't fit the way it's supposed to fit. These hips have cradled nine babies. Move that button over an inch or two. Now it looks ridiculous. But I can button it.

 I learned a lot.

Katie's belt was second. We altered the pattern. She tried freemotion quilting. She loves her belt!

Skills we Learned:

freemotion quilting

buttonholes and buttons

(and a little embroidery and a little handquilting)

Stitch-by-Stitch projects so far:

An Eye Mask and a Whole Wardrobe of Aprons

Reversible Totes

See our knitting needle cases and Kindle case here

See our Fancy Napkins here.

Yarn Along

The knitting pace is picking up.It's so nice to have hit a knitting rhythm again! I have taken six children to the dentist in the last 24 hours and Sarah visited the pediatrician--lots of waiting room knitting. Tomorrow, we have 5 orthodontist appointments and then Friday will bring some labwork. I think this sweater might get as finished as possible without a trip to see Ginny this week.

It's been nice to knit in waiting rooms and talk with recptionists about knitting. One of the ladies behind the desk at the dentist told me all about how her mother taught her to knit when she was little. She said she hadn't knit in years. Then, she went on to remember how it's a wonderful stress-buster. Pretty sure there's a visit to a yarn store in her near future:-).

I'm reading Young and in Love: Challenging the Unnecessary Delay of Marriage. I did receive a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for a review and I'm breaking radio silence this week because that review is overdue (and because I missed talking with y'all  about knitting.). The topic of early marriage is one that fascinates me. By today's standards, I married young. Since one of my children is already older than I was when I married (he's actually older than I was when he was born), it's a topic whose time has come around again. I haven't finished the book, but there is one critical point that absolutely rings true with me: young people today have a tendency to extend the immaturity of their teen years well into their twenties and delaying marriage is part and parcel of that selfish behavior. Often, delaying marriage is not about delaying gratification and waiting until one is mature and capable of establishing a household; it is instead, about choosing to behave as if they were the center of a universe that exists solely for their pleasure. 

Ted Cunningham, the author, validates young love. He doesn't dismiss the idea that there are young people who know that they have found the spouse God intends and he encourages them to get married and begin the life of love God wants for them. He gives a young couple tools for evaluating the relationship and for forging a solid bond. It's a worthwhile read and it is certainly food for thought and for discussion. If God is trying to knit a couple together, society shouldn't tangle it all up. Every relationship is unique. When I consider my own relatively young marriage, I'm always astonished. How did we know? How did we do that? Where did we get that sure confidence and exuberant joy? It was the grace of God. Only the grace of God. And 25 years after making that decision, it's still the grace of God that fuels the union. No matter how many books are written or how many scholars and pastors weigh in, no matter how many demographic studies are done, the most important thing I want my children to consider God's will for this most important decision. 

Go visit Ginny for more reading and knitting inspiration.

Stitch-By-Stitch: An Eye Mask and a Whole Wardrobe of Aprons

I know a bunch of you purchased the Stitch by Stitch book. What do you think? Have you gotten started? Chosen fabrics? Please leave a comment or a link below and let me know so we can go check it out.

This week's Stitch-by-Stitch project was an eye mask. While we don't need a family's worth of these, we did have one genuine, urgent need for one. Michael's new job has him working the overnight desk at USAToday from 7PM to 3AM. Every day. Then, he comes home and attempts to sleep.

Katie made him a mask from navy blue flannel and she used a ribbon we had hanging around to tie it. She filled it with lavender but left out the dried lentils because he's sleeping in it.  He was most appreciative.

In order to gain more experience from some of the skills taught with the eye mask project (insides and outsides, stitiching around curves, ties), we turned our attention to aprons. A ridiculous number of aprons. I've lost count it's so ridiculous.

First the girls each made an apron of the fabric Katie used to back her quilt. Yes, we still have more of that fabric. I used an old apron we decorated for a Tomie de Paola apple printing project, way back when Michael and Christian were little. It served as a very nice template for the medium sized girls. It's a bit large for Karoline, but she wanted hers to be just like Katie's and Gracie's. I traced the outline of the old apron onto a double thickness (wrong sides together) of the quilt fabric.

Then, knowing that all four girls would want their aprons that day, I opted to use ribbon ties instead of making fabric ties. I pinned the ribbon in place to the right side of one of fabric pieces. Then, I gathered all of the ends in the middle and pinned them so that they would not accidentally get sewn into a seam.

We sandwiched the other fabric piece on top so that the right sides were together and we stitch all the way around, leaving a hole big enough for my hand to fit through at the bottom.

Then, the great inside out magic. It never gets old. Reach in the hole and pull the inside out through the hole. We did it over and over again. After turning to the right side out, I pressed all the way around, tucking under that open edge at the bottom. And the girls top-stitched it closed and top-stitched the whole apron.

For Sarah, I used an even smaller template as a pattern. Michael printed on this apron when he was not-quite-three, just Sarah's age now. I think we have archeological evidence that we grow attached to our aprons around here. I remember so many messy, happy times with this particular garment.

We repeated the above process in miniature. 

Four happy girls, ready for a new year's worth of domestic adventures, on the Feast of St. Martha. Definitely a new tradition.

 
 
(I promise Gracie's fits. She just wouldn't let us tie for her.)
 

I want to be able to sew garments. And I'm trying to be patient and let myself work all the way through Stitch by Stitch, knowing that there is garment sewing at the end. But when I really stop to consider my every day wardrobe, it's pretty much the same year 'round: t-shirt of some sort (vary the sleeve length with the seasons) and jeans (either full length or capris). And an apron. I have some old aprons--one denim, one red-and white picnic check, one to match the canvas one above, and another canvas that used to have a French Quarter motif screened on it, but that has long since washed away. I wear those all the time and they all look pretty terrible. And here's the thing about aprons: the say "I'm home and I'm planning on staying here awhile." So, why not have that message be a beautiful one? One that sings that the people at home are worth a little extra effort to look pretty and the work I'm doing is worthy of its own dignified attire. And there is one apron I love. That apron is the one I made several years ago.

I love that apron. It fits well, reverses beautifully. It's pretty much the perfect apron for me.I made it from a pattern in this book.  So why not make a bunch? That way, I have a pretty apron that really does function as a wardrobe piece, even when I'm "just" at home with my kids. I want to use these fabrics, I want to make things that are useful and beautiful and, frankly, my skills are limited. But aprons I can do. And boy did I:

This one is called Summer House, it reverses from a bright blue, to a pretty pink paisley floral print.

 

This one is Dogwood Trail. I don't have a finished picture and I'm too lazy to get up and take one right now, but this is kind of my "I'm in denial that summer is ending" apron.

 

And this is the "it's going to be fall and fall is beautiful, too" apron. I think the idea of an autumn with a Bohemian Soul sounds just fine.

There's is something very right about sewing with fabric called Grace Evergreen Flowers and Grace Evergreen Paisley. I'm thinking this is Christmas-y without being super fa-la-la-la.

This one is my favorite, so far (well, maybe it's a tie with Bohemian Soul). It's just such a happy country french kitchen look . And vertical stripes are always a good thing, right? And a pretty little floral. The thing with the stripes, the pattern in the book cuts that one yard of each fabric really tight. It's darn near impossible to have enough fabric to make the ties if you're trying to work with the stripes, hence the ribbons. Also, I decided that these look more finished if they are topstitched all the way around. So I did.

This apron, with its pretty blooms and sunny yellow reverse, is at its new home in Charlottesville. It's perfect for this kitchen, I think.

Wish I'd snapped a shot of it there.

The boys needed aprons too. And so they made theirs.

 
 

 
 Heavy duty denim that reverses to a bandana print (Robert Kaufman's American Heritage. I bought it locally and can't find a current link).

Mary Beth chose Paris Aparment coordinates: Sunny Le Chintz Moderne and Dusty Rose la Salle du Soleil.

There's one more Paris Apartment in my future, of this and this. I'm fairly certain that even if I sew nothing else from Simple Sewing, I've gotten my money's worth out of the apron pattern:-).

Skills We Learned:

Stitching Curves

Insides and Outsides

Making Ties

Filling and Stuffing

Slip Stitch

Our Stitch-by Stitch projects so far:

Reversible Totes

See our knitting needle cases and Kindle case here

See our Fancy Napkins here.