I simply love our Flowering Plum.
The way it smells, that it’s the first to blossom in the spring, the delicateness of pink on it’s white petals…
And the way the sunlight plays in it’s branches…
So. Beautiful. Ahhhh…
May, 2011
Monday, May 23rd, 2011
Spring Has Sprung
The longest winter I can remember is finally over! At least, that’s what the garden has been telling me this past few weeks. In between cleaning and organizing the inside of the house, I made sure to take some time to enjoy what was going on outside…
The garden is planted, the containers are full of flowers and herbs, and I’m ready to start taking my morning tea on the porch once more… Of course, it looks like the weather is going to be a little rainy for a while, but I’m trying to think of it as Mother Nature doing my watering for me. 
I could just get lost in the beautiful scent of our Flowering Plum. Ahhhh… Hurray for spring!!!
Monday, May 16th, 2011
The Garage Sale
Okay. Another week has gone by with nothing “creative” to show for it. But with good reason. I’ve been diligently working on getting our “stuff” in order – decluttering, downsizing, getting some good chi flowing… whatever you want to call it. And boy, does it feel good! Our basement is still in the midst of chaos (it’s been ignored for a very, very, very long time, and boxes are slowly being shifted around and gone through), but at least it no longer looks like this…
Or this…
The years of stuff just being shoved into a dark corner to be “dealt with later” have come to an end. Into the light with all of it, I say!
Mountains (of fabric, in this case) are becoming neatly organized mole hills, and the surplus has either been sold (in our garage sale)…
…or is on it’s way to be given to charity. The garage, the basement, and the shed are all currently receiving similar treatments. And I can’t quite put into words just how amazing it feels!!! Yay – go, me! The money we raised in the sale is going towards a future family adventure, with the exception of some that we earmarked for donation to a charity, and a few dollars that Monkeyboy Junior worked hard to earn for some spending money.
And while I was less than impressed with the people who came to the sale and spent a whole lot of energy trying to get something for nothing, it was a great experience overall. (I really wish I had gotten a photo of the elderly Asian fellow who spoke no English, but signaled that he wanted to try on my big leather biker jacket… Now HE was a character!) At any rate, this is why I’ve been away from the blog recently. Now that the sale is done, I will endeavor to find a little more balance between work and play, lest I should become a dull girl. Woohoo!
Tags: balance, chaos, charity, chi, creative, decluttering, downsizing, garage sale, mole hills, mountains, work and play
Monday, May 9th, 2011
Can I Post This Now?
As you may have noticed, posts have been kind of scarce lately. Long story short, I’ve been spending most of my “free time” working on our upcoming garage sale – cleaning and organizing the garage, unpacking boxes from as far back as our first move (well over a decade ago), sorting through the years of “stuff” we have unconsciously accumulated whilst our attention was focused on raising kids… Yowza. At any rate, the one creative thing I have made time for was making some aprons and dish towels for my friend Kim, so she could give them as gifts. I finished them last week, but didn’t want to post about them until I was sure I wouldn’t be ruining any surprises by doing so…
She requested a “royal blue and yellow” theme for the first apron, which I found to be somewhat challenging as they don’t seem to make fabrics in that combination nowadays. So, I got a bit of each and played around with combining them.
Eventually, it ended up looking like this…
I also made her a black and white apron with splashes of red…
And finally, some dish towels to go along with this apron…
Not too shabby. I really hope the recipients love them as much as they love Kim (who is incredibly loveable by the way <3). And now…back to the trenches for me!
Tags: aprons, dish towels, gifts
Monday, May 2nd, 2011
Happy May Day!
It all started years ago, when Monkeyboy Junior was only two and a devout Thomas watcher. They showed an episode on TV where the engines got all fancied up for May Day celebrations, and I figured that sort of thing might actually be a fun mommy-son activity. So, on May the 1st we got out the construction paper, the markers, the ribbon, and some trains and we got to work – the taped show playing in the background.
Sadly, Monkeyboy Junior has long since outgrown his love of Thomas. Although he did help me decorate our Duplo Thomas trains last year, with his little brother drooling right alongside us, he had absolutely no interest in doing so this May 1st. Needless to say, it made me sad to think that this might be the end of a fun and silly 5-year-old family tradition – seeing as his little brother has yet to embrace the whole Thomas thing, and may very well not. So. I decided to switch gears and make use of the crush Monkeyboy Junior has on his teacher…
I got out some artificial flowers, some ribbon, and some colourful paper and then asked Finny if he’d like to make something a little special for his teacher – a posie for May Day. Of course, he was fully “on board” with that idea, and after I showed him how it was done (with one I made for our home), we set to work making one for his teacher. We picked fancy paper and chose pretty flowers, and I helped him tie knots and cut scalloped edges…and it was awesome. And THEN we made a second one for the other kindergarten teacher who teaches in the next room.
What an adorable goofball. I’m just hoping that he continues to have female teachers – at least for a couple of more years… Happy May, y’all!
Tags: flowers, May Day, mommy-son activity, posie, tradition
