Love and Kindness . . . and Prayers

This is a post that shouldn't be difficult to write, but for some unknown reason, I am having trouble getting the words on the screen. Since early December, I have been housebound, recovering from surgery. When I first came home, my activities were quite limited. I wasn't supposed to lift, push, pull  . . . pretty much do next to nothing! Thankfully, I am blessed with a husband who is the best caregiver I could hope for. I really mean that. Paul took care of me and everything else, including all the things I used to do pre-surgery. He ran errands in some of the snowiest and coldest weather we've had in years, shopped for and cooked special things for me to eat, cleaned the house, finished the Christmas shopping, wrapping and mailings, helped me in and out of my chair, stayed up all night with me on many nights when I was anxious or could not get comfortable, and the list goes on. Imagine being helpless. That is pretty much how I felt for about the first four weeks when I returned home. Since my surgery, I have been out of the house about a handful of times. But, if you follow me here on my blog, you already know I am content to stay inside my nice warm home in the winter!


The highlight of my days was getting mail, and in January there was some very special mail that made its way directly to my heart. Several of the friends I have made in the quilt guild and artsy group that I am in sent handmade gifts to me. I was so touched, and am still, and forever will be. As the gifts arrived, I felt so cared about. My friends made beautiful prayer flags for me. I get very teary when I consider the time that each of them took, during what is an already busy time of year, to make something for me by hand. I know that I was being thought of and prayed for by these special friends and that just touches my heart to its' very core. Each flag reflects the maker and I can't express how special I feel to own them. I know from having been on the other side of this kind of project, what it feels like as you design and create something for a friend who needs to know how much they are thought of and cared for. I have been deeply moved during the process of making things for someone to where the feeling of prayerful meditation becomes part of the process. Those prayers are sent while making things and then again when they are received. That is what this has been like for me. I feel the prayers when I hold the flags, look at all the meaningful expression that they hold and when I look at them from across the room.


I strung the flags on a ribbon so I could look at all of them together. They are a wonderful lift when I walk into the room. We've had the snowiest and coldest winter in a long time. The nicest thing about the piles of snow outside is the light they added to the landscape. It made the rooms brighter so our moods didn't succumb to the often gray skies, and these precious prayer flags seem to light up when they are illuminated from the window.


If you would like a closer look at the photos below, you can click on them to enlarge them and see the beautiful details in each prayer flag.

My beautiful gifts strung on a ribbon to make a banner.

Made by Mary Ellen Casey

Made by Chris Kuehl

Made by Lori Anderson

Made by Tracy Jachimowicz

Made by Susan Rathbun

Made by Elaine Ross
Elaine has a blog where you can see her other work.
http://quilterelainesblog.blogspot.com/

Made by Connie Grimsley

Made by Martha Lorshbaugh
Martha has a blog where you can see her other work.
http://bitsofmerth.blogspot.com/

I think you can see why I was overwhelmed by love and kindness . . . and prayers. These prayer flags are cherished gifts that have made the days I have spent at home recovering from surgery brighter.


Thank you for stopping by to read my blog today. As always, your questions and comments are welcome. It is my hope that you and those you love are safe, happy, and healthy. And until we meet again, may the Lord hold you in the hollow of His hand.


Emmy

Be Mine!

It is Valentines Day! As I mentioned in a previous post, my mother made a pretty big deal out of Valentines Day when I was a little girl. Even on a school night, we had a special supper with red Jell-O in heart-shaped molds and a heart-shaped layer cake with pink frosting for dessert. I still like to carry on her tradition and make the day special at our house, too.


Not fans of going out to dinner on Valentines Day, although the TV ads for restaurants are very enticing, my husband and I opt to stay home and celebrate in our own small ways. A pretty card, a funny note left on the fridge, watching a favorite movie together, and a home-cooked meal are more interesting to us than going to a crowded restaurant. And as much as we like Hallmark cards and the Hallmark Channel, my husband always laughs and says he doesn't need Hallmark to tell him that it is time to let his wife know that he loves her! I am a lucky girl because he lets me know I am special and loved in a thousand ways all throughout the year.


When I was able to get back into my studio in January, I decided to actually be ahead of the game for once, and made a Valentines Day banner for our dining room. Instead of a card this year, Paul gets a banner that he can look at when he is having his morning coffee. I wasn't sure how fancy I wanted to make it, but I had a little box of supplies just for the occasion; so I dug around in it and pulled out what I thought would make a cute banner. I kept it simple. I am fully aware of how I can get carried away sometimes and make things rather fancy and involved; but the goal was to get it finished ahead of time and hold it for the special day, not to embellish it until every inch of it was covered in lace and roses!  ;-)


I snuck downstairs early this morning to hang the banner across the mantle and now I am waiting for Paul to descend the stairs. I tend to get excited like a little kid on Christmas morning when I have something like this to unveil. I'm pretty sure he will be able to tell when he notices my excitement about the day, my sense of urgency for him to get downstairs for his morning coffee, and my boisterous mood thanks to a lot of caffeine; so it shouldn't be too long a wait until he sees the it! In the meanwhile, I will have more coffee, pick out a movie for later and plan a nice home-cooked meal.

♡♡♡ Be Mine Banner  ♡♡♡

I hope you and those you love are enjoying this romantic holiday. It can be as elaborate or as low-key as you want to make it. Have fun and make some memories. When all is said and done, the memories we make are what are most important. ♡


Thank you for stopping by to read my blog post today. As always, your questions and comments are welcome. And until we meet again, may the Lord hold you in the hollow of His hand.


Emmy

Getting My Art On . . .

It is time for me to get my art on. I say this because I want to learn new things,  and use many of the materials I have accumulated. And what better time is there than now, when I am still pretty much staying home and only venturing out when absolutely necessary. Between the winter weather and the threat of the flu, I am perfectly happy to stay home and take up residence in my studio.

After reorganizing my work table to provide more surface area for work, I set out to use my new watercolor paper. I didn't know what size I would need, so I picked up an 11" x 15" tablet. It might be a little big, but I can always cut a paper down to a smaller size, should I decide to.

Another trip to the hardware . . . and a shoe shelf that my husband assembled for me.
It helps to get the clutter up and out of the way so I have some surface area to use.
There is an issue with clutter on the right side of my table, but I will deal with that later!

On Sunday afternoon, with Valentines Day on the horizon, I decided to work on a multi media piece that had a little romantic theme. I quickly pulled a few pieces of ephemera from my stash, pulled out some paper that I found last week in my miscellaneous papers that looked like it could pull off a bit of romance, and a few paints, inks and rubber stamps. I wasn't sure if I should use gesso on the paper first, but I did. I like to use gesso because:
1. It makes me feel like an artist. and . . .
2. I like to say the word "gesso". It sounds so . . . artsy! ;-)
Gesso was one of the first things I learned about when I started to do paper crafting. The artists I watched on YouTube were all referring to it, so I researched it and went to Michaels and got the biggest bottle of it they had. I like to use it because it gives surfaces some "tooth" for paint and other things to adhere to. Now, don't I sound like I know what I am talking about? Its all because of gesso!


Trying not to think too hard about the piece I was about to make, I taped the paper down to my work surface and started to place bits of that found paper on it.

Torn paper.
Its a start!

Pleased with the placement,  I removed it and painted with a mixture of a few paints and a bit of the gesso that was left on my palette. I liked the color and after it dried, I glued the papers down with Mod Podge did some stamping. I added a couple paper doilies to the page.

Some paint, some stamping, some ephemera and a couple doilies, but it lacked something.

I thought there was too much blank space, so I added free-form painted hearts. I added too many, but I left them there and hoped they would grow on me. They didn't.

So . . . I thought I would add a few free-form painted hearts to it.
Hmmmm. . . .

I decided to cut some paper hearts from some scraps I had in a bin, and didn't worry too much about color or pattern. Once they were glued to the page, I liked it better. But I wasn't finished. From a distance, the piece just faded and the hearts couldn't be seen. I got my glitter glue out and painted them and that helped. I am happy with my first experiment and I plan to journal a little bit on the back. I will probably make more of these and keep them in a portfolio, but for now the plan is to put this one in a frame and hang it in my studio.

The photo is a little dark, but I think I managed to salvage the piece with some hearts and an old standby . . . glitter glue!

I continued on my art journey this morning. I really didn't have a plan, but realized in order to paint, I needed to learn to draw. So, I went searching around in YouTube to find some videos about sketching and drawing. I watched a few and pulled out a sheet of drawing paper. I began to sketch a tree that I look at every day right outside my studio window. It was actually fun. I think I will put my sketch in my portfolio. Now, doesn't just saying that I even own a portfolio make it sound like I really am an artist?

The maple tree right outside my studio window.

My drawing of the maple tree outside my studio window.

This pursuit gives me a lot of joy. I hope you are enjoying learning new things . . . or renewing a former hobby or interest. It is never too late to learn something new.


Thank you for taking the time to stop by and read my blog. As always, your questions and comments are welcome. And until we meet again, may the Lord hold you in the hollow of His hand.


Emmy

Feeling Sentimental

It just washed over me. The sentimental gush of emotions from faint memories of my childhood. Not that I am totally surprised, since I am a rather sentimental soul. It began when I decided to look through the boxes I keep stacked on a shelf in my studio that hold a lot of things that I received from other crafters in online swaps, along with things I have made for challenges or just because I wanted to try a technique, or . . . whatever. As I peered into the boxes and went deeper into the layers of altered tags and Altoid tins, handmade cards, button fairies and decorated boxes, my memories of Valentines Days of my childhood carried me deeper into my heart. I must have stopped for quite a while. I don't actually recall. But I found myself daydreaming about 2nd grade and my one of my favorite teachers, Mrs. Adams. She was so nice. I thought she was very cool, too. She was young and pretty and sometimes she wore what looked like white majorette boots. It is funny what we remember about a person. She made learning fun. When it was getting close to Valentines Day, she asked us to each bring a shoe box, with a slot cut in the top, to school. She showed us how to cut out paper hearts, gave us red streamers and paper lace doilies, big sheets of newsprint paper, construction paper, crayons and paste. We decorated our shoe boxes for the big event . . . the card exchange.


At home, as the day approached, my father set me up at a card table in the living room, along with a mimeographed list that Mrs. Adams sent home from school, so I could get my little Valentines ready to take to school on February 14th. The cards were adorable. We bought them at the 5 & 10. They came in a cellophane pack and a thin cardboard tray that was so flimsy, it couldn't really hold them. I poured them out on the table and sorted them, making sure the one marked "teacher" was put aside for Mrs. Adams. The prettiest ones would be for my little girlfriends and I made sure I didn't give any mushy ones to the boys who used to try to kiss me in the cloakroom. Ick! Equipped with a pencil, I printed my name on the back of each card and then went down through the list and addressed each little envelope. I'm pretty sure there was some parental supervision, but I don't recall. As an 8-year old, I'm sure I didn't have it all together, even if I thought I did!


On Valentines Day, the classroom was decorated in red and white and there were treats, as I recall. Mrs. Adams, or more likely a classmate's mother, provided frosted cupcakes or cookies and there may have been a few conversation hearts in a dish, too. When it was time to exchange our little cards, we delivered them to the decorated shoe boxes on each classmate's desk and slid them into the little slot in the top. At the end of the school day, we took our decorated boxes, filled with cards, home. It was fun to open them and giggle over the cute little scenes on the cards. Some even had glitter on them!


My father and mother seemed to really enjoy Valentines Day. I'm not sure why, but perhaps because they came from a generation that was raised by Victorian parents. The Victorians elevated the holiday to a new high with lace, sentimental postcards, candy and romance. My father bought a big red lace-decorated heart-shaped box of chocolates for my mother . . . that I ate more than my fair share of; and my mother often made a heart-shaped layer cake with pink frosting and red Jell-O in little heart-shaped aluminum molds. It was very festive for a school night!


With a smile on my lips and a blank stare across the room, I snapped out of it and focused on those boxes of handmade things. I was actually rather surprised at what I discovered inside. Since I started paper crafting in 2012, I have accumulated more pretty little "makes" than I thought I had. In fact, after being inspired by watching several craft room reveals on YouTube over the past few weeks, I decided that these gems shouldn't be cooped up and stashed away in boxes. I have drooled long enough over other people's creative spaces. It is time for me to step up my game and make my studio a place that inspires me and reflects my creative journey. By doing so, I hope to stop devaluing the time and effort I expend when I create things. Let me think on that. That's fodder for a future post. But first, I will decorate our living room mantle for Valentines Day and make a plan to start redecorating my studio in a few weeks.

The mantle is the perfect spot to display the special finds from my studio.


PLEASE NOTE: I don't know why there is such a big gap beneath this photo.
When I tried to fix it, it grew even bigger!
Please scroll down.
Thank you!



From Left to Right:
A multi-fold Valentine I made a few years ago, an altered Altoid tin made by Gretchen Lont, an ATC (Artist's Trading Card) from Margaret Sallee leans on a explosion Valentine box I made a few years ago. A beautiful button fairy, one of a pair, made by Traci Savely, sits atop a pink gift box I made.

Altered Tags
From Left to Right:
"What's Love Got To Do With It?"  made for a challenge.
" O O O la la love" made for a challenge.
"Valentine Clown" made by Traci Savely.
"Be my Valentine" made by me just for fun.
"Red and Black Valentine" made by Yolanda Taylor.
"Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder" made to try a couple new techniques.

Left to Right:
Lace-covered book page pocket with pearl trim made by Tiffany Heggs Morrow.
Heart-shaped box painted, but not trimmed yet!
Handmade cube with designer paper (made by me).
Button fairy, second of a pair, made by Traci Savely.
Gift card made by Linda Kuniyoshi.
Chunky Mini Album made by me.
Altered shoe figurine made by Amber Cade.
Stick Pins by various makers, including me.
Tent-style Valentine I made a few years ago.

With Valentines Day a week away, there's bound to be another Valentine post. But, in the mean while, I thank you for taking the time to read my blog. As always, your questions and comments are welcome.


And, until we meet again, may the Lord hold you in the hollow of His hand.


Emmy

To journal or not to journal?

Journals. I love to make them, I love to watch YouTube videos of other people making them. I love paper, fabric, trims, ephemera, any and all materials that can be used, and the whole creative process that goes into making journals. So why, then, haven't I used a journal? What is a journal, really? Is it a diary, a record of events, a planner, a place to store dreams? I write elaborate TO DO lists daily, but I throw them out when they are so crossed out and scribbled on that I can't make sense of what I wrote on them in the first place. Those lists would be the closest thing I have that would chronicle my days, but I don't keep them.


As I recently celebrated a milestone birthday,  I was moved to think back . . . which I seem to do more often lately . . . and I found myself wondering where did my fleeting memories come from? When was that particular event that just came to me from out of the blue?  What evoked the memory? Today I have been daydreaming and recalling the past.


The sound of the blade of the snowplow scraping the pavement on the street jolts me away from my dreamy thoughts and I lose track of the faint memory I was enjoying and look down at the blank page on my legal pad with only the heading "To Do" and today's date written  in large cursive letters and numbers. Yes, I have such important TO DO lists that they require a legal pad! Ha, ha!


So, will today be the day I start to journal? Why? Why not? Actually, I just remembered that I did journal once. I was quite faithful about it, too. If you read my blog post, http://studioemmy.blogspot.com/2018/01/good-gravy.html, you saw the cubby holes I was cleaning out in my studio. Well, one of the finds inside one of the cubbies was a handful of little handmade pages for a journal. Those pages were from my first foray into the world of paper crafting. As I pulled them out, I was transported back to 2012. I inhaled and a long emotional breath escaped from deep inside my chest. I remembered vividly how enraptured I was back then when I discovered YouTube videos by crafters who made show and tell or tutorial videos. It was February and that has always been a good month for me to be creative. I'm usually inside because of the snow and cold and find myself sewing and knitting . . . and since then . . . papercrafting.

Before I knew much about papercrafting, I made these little pages.
Words like chipboard, cardstock, photo mats, pop dots, and pocket pages were all foreign to me.
I found a list I had written with definitions of terms I needed to learn.
My love of pretty paper was finally finding a creative outlet.

I pulled those pages back out this morning and realized I never used them because the original little journal I made had gotten pretty fat; and I just never made new covers to start a second one where I could add the extra pages and continue my journaling. But that is so me. I had learned the process, but not the lesson. Shaking my head and feeling somewhat disappointed in myself, I reached over to my little gallery shelf, where I display things I've made, and picked up my first papercrafting project. It was what people call a junk journal, which is simply an unplanned and random collection of stuff that represents you, your thoughts, events in your life, dreams, and really whatever you want to incorporate into it. I had only a few supplies back then, such as pretty papers, ribbons, rubber stamps, ink and some decorative paper punches and as I learned techniques, I would make a page and I would write about things. Thoughts, events, challenges, successes, dreams. Hmmmmm. Guess what?  I was journaling!

February 2012
My first little journal . . . a junk journal . . . a name I still really don't like.
My life isn't junk and my work isn't either!.

A view from above.
I copied ideas from photos and videos I found online.
It was fun and being an amateur was quite freeing, as I think back on the experience.
I just dove in and made stuff using the supplies I had on hand.

A couple of my favorite pages.
The envelope holds a tag with memories written on it.
The dress form, buttons, and the word "sew" represent my interest in sewing and making clothes.

I had absolutely no idea how to make a binding.
I came up with a creative use of ribbons and embroidery floss.
It worked and I still love it.
It makes me smile.
:-)

 Since I got married, almost 14 years ago, my life has changed dramatically from my single days. There's a lot more to recall now because each day involves not just myself but also my husband. Each day, week, month, year, and now years, is filled with memory making. In fact, recently when recalling something we'd done together, I remarked to my husband that I wish I had kept better records. I wished I had documented things that we'd done together. Not just the big things, but the little things . . . the things that get lost in my memory banks.


I truly think that I misunderstood the whole purpose of journaling. I believe that I thought I had to write deep meaningful and imaginative essays in a journal. I guess I figured I wasn't up to the task, and that what I had to write wouldn't be interesting. I think in the back of my mind I imagined that the kind of journal worth writing would be the kind that one distant day, my descendants would discover in a trunk in the attic. It would be tied up with beautiful ribbons and smell like old paper and ink and reveal deep inspiring thoughts that would cause them to weep. Oh my glory! This is true. This is the reason I have not journaled! This is the lesson.


To top it off, I recalled how much I have enjoyed reading my parents' diaries. The stuff they wrote about was not poetic, nor did they reveal tightly held secrets on those pages. Their diaries told about their days, just like what I did in my first little junk journal. My father was more inclined to write about his work as a farmer. He recorded the purchase of tractors, combines, the sale of 20-ton loads of hay, and the funny daily entry all winter long that simply stated "graded pot", which was his abbreviation for potatoes. My mother wrote more from an emotional standpoint, but still nothing secretive. She recorded what time she got up, where she went, who she visited and where she stayed for weeks at a time to help out an ailing friend or relative . . . and it seems she was always going somewhere . . . that she stayed up until 4 a.m. playing cards and went out for rides cross-lots in the horse-drawn cutter when there was a lot of snow. That is what she wrote before she got married. After she was married she wrote less frequently, but one of my favorites is when she recorded that she had put the water in the reservoir on the cast iron cook stove in the summer kitchen to heat it up for the next day's laundry. :-) Their lives look different to me now when I can get a little glimpse into their days. They didn't write in their diaries for me, though. They wrote in them for themselves and left them behind when they passed away.


So, what shall I do? I have today. This day. Not yesterday. Not tomorrow. Today. I will journal. I won't just make pretty journals as gifts or to display on my gallery shelf, I will use them. I'll write in them, stuff them with unrelated things. Things that mean something to me, such as my messy To Do lists, receipts from a big purchase or a trip, a recipe, a photo of us doing something together, a funny little story. These journals will be mine. They will be for me. And I will enjoy looking back a year from now, five years from now and enjoy the memories. And, should my descendants discover them one day, they might weep or laugh or just smile as they read the pages.

The mini album / journal that I started about 3 weeks ago is finished!
I put it aside for a couple weeks, but then I was inspired to finish it this week because I did not want it to be forgotten while I jumped into another project. I made myself use only materials I had on hand, much like my first journal. I will start using it right away to record my 2018 gardening journey.

I tried some new-to-me techniques on this project.
I added the little brad with the ring on it to the binding and made a dangle charm in a garden-theme.
I included a little bottle filled with milkweed seeds and fluff from last year's garden.
I plan to make a short YouTube video to show the details of this project.
Stay tuned! 

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog post. As always, your questions and comments are welcome. And, until we meet again, may the Lord hold you in the hollow of His hand.


Emmy

Let It Snow!

If you've ever read some of my other blog posts, you might recall that I LOVE SNOW DAYS! Yes, I  love them. I love the day before, too, when I am excited about the anticipation of a snow day. The day after is a little bit like when all the Christmas presents have been opened and the excitement has passed; but for now, let me have my snow day.

Even though we're now 13 days into the new year, we still have our Christmas decorations up. We both love the house decorated for Christmas and we have collected so many beautiful and meaningful decorations over the years that we enjoy looking at them . . . especially on a "snow day", like today when the rooms are brightly lit by the reflection of the snow on the ground. (Technically,  it's really NOT a bona-fide snow day, but I'll choose to ignore that fact. There's a lot of ice and snow outside our door, and there's shoveling to do, so to me that constitutes a snow day.)

In anticipation of today,  I decided to make something I've been mulling around in my head for a week or so. To help make the transition from Christmas decor, I usually start putting out some of my snowmen and blue and white decorations in January. The change in the color scheme represents the change to the long winter ahead.

Since I am on a mission to use the supplies I have on hand and not buy more unless I need them . . . Please don't ask me to describe "need" to you . . . I shopped my stash and pulled some things out that I thought would work together to make a banner for our living room mantle.

I gathered my supplies.

Left to right: Stencils, blank corrugated cards, ribbon, hole punch, clear glue, gesso, pearlized acrylic paint, Diamond Dust  (which is actually finely ground glass), paper, and scissors.

I had four sheets of this in my stash. It was so pretty that I could never bring myself to cut into it! But, I finally did, but only one sheet!

A closer view of some of my supplies.

I covertly worked at my TV table on Thursday night, tracing and cutting out the letters I'd chosen from my stencil set. I do things secretly because I like to surprise my husband when I create something. He is very supportive of my crafting ideas and activities. He is my biggest fan, my cheerleader, and by default, my design consultant; which he does quite well. It's always nice to have another pair of eyes to look at something and some input, even a non-crafter.

 So, yesterday morning, with the prep work of the letter cutting complete, I started my project. I qued up my audio book, cut and glued, painted and glittered, while waiting for the snow to start falling, which was after record warmth and rain that caused flooding, ice jams, wet basements, and a myriad of other related not-so-fun events for local homeowners. In 24 hours, we went from this . . .

Friday morning.
 After the temperature soared to 60 degrees, the Tonawanda Creek spilled over its' banks. Thankfully, we live uphill from the creek.

to this . . .

Saturday morning.
What a change in only 24 hours! 

But inside where I was warm, dry and safe, I crafted. Here's how the afternoon and evening progressed in captioned photographs:

With all the little bottles of paint that I own, you would think that I would have some plain white paint!  But, no . . . I don't! 

I cut the corrugated cards in half, so I could get two flags from each card. After gluing the letters and snowflakes to the cards, I used gesso and acrylic paint to create the look of snow. While the gesso and paint were still wet, I covered the entire card with Diamond Dust.

After shaking the loose Diamond Dust off the surface, I put the flags aside to dry.

I waited for the gesso, paint, and Diamond Dust to dry overnight. I assembled the banner this morning. 

It is hard to see the sparkles in the "snow, but if you click on the photo and enlarge it, you can see the sparkle.

It really does sparkle!
(No pun intended!)

I think you can see some sparkles in the "snow" in this photo.

Let It Snow
I'm very happy with how it turned out and, as usual, I learned a few things about construction and materials while making it.

Had I been able to run to the store yesterday, I may have broken my own rule and purchased snowflakes that I imagine are on sale just about everywhere, but I persevered and used those hard-to-cut-out paper snowflakes! Between the weather and the fact I have been restricted from driving the past six weeks (post surgery) I wasn't going to go anywhere in the car!

I put the banner together this morning and waited...and waited...and waited for my husband to make his way downstairs. I thought he'd never come down! When he had finished his morning coffee that I had carried up to him earlier....which bought me more time to fiddle around trying to hang the banner... he descended the stairs. It is actually good that I had that extra time because I kept feeding the ribbon the wrong way, getting it twisted around the fragile snowflakes, and putting knots in the end only to discover it needed more slack. Have you ever tried to untangle a tight little knot in organza ribbon before your second cup of coffee?

But I like how it turned out, and it really does serve to help me visually and mentally transition to January. My husband likes it, too. :-) He said it reminds him of one of our favorite movies, Frozen, which would be good to watch today while we are having a "snow day"!

Whether you are inside or outside today, dealing with snow or not, I hope you are enjoying yourself. These unplanned days when we are required to slow down and break away from the normal routine are what I tend to remember most fondly. Doing something other than the ordinary day-to-day activities we all must face is a gift. It is refreshing to break away from the familiar and the sameness of a typical day. Make today a day that, when you look back on it, you will feel a smile start to form on your lips. There's time tomorrow to resume the usual, expected-of-you stuff.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog post today. It is my sincere wish that you will be making some memories this winter, and that they will make you smile in the future when they cross your mind. ♡ And until we meet again, may the Lord hold you in the hollow of His hand.

Emmy

The smell of dirt.

Dirt. I like how it smells. I usually start noticing the earthy (no pun intended) odor wafting through the air in late March when the snow melts and the wet soil is exposed.

As I watered one of my three houseplants this morning, I got a whiff of wet dirt. It smelled so good! While recuperating from surgery the past several weeks, my exposure to most household activities has been diminished. But today, in early January, it felt like the first day of spring, just because I smelled dirt. I am discovering I can do a little more each day. Today the "little more" included carrying a small  plant to the kitchen for watering and...this is a real biggie...walking up the stairs. I hadn't seen the second floor of our house since the morning of November 30th, when we left for the hospital. 40 days! Things look about the same as when I left and I can't wait to sit down at my sewing machine soon. There are some small projects that I'm sure I can maneuver under the needle.

Now that I've had the little glimmer of hope that thoughts of spring conjure up, I think I'll take a glance at some of the gardening catalogs that have been arriving in the mail. I won't place any orders, but I might make some notes and pull a few pages out for future reference. It will be interesting to see . . .  when spring really arrives here in Alexander . . . what is pushing up through the dirt in my perennial garden. It will be its' first real springtime!

For now, I need to settle back into winter mode. After all, winter began only 15 days ago! We have a ways to go until spring.

Much of the snow that fell last week has melted in our warm 30° temperature today. But between the railing posts, you can see my perennial garden under a protective blanket of snow. It will be a few months before we will be having our morning coffee on the deck and enjoying the view of the garden. But I don't mind because I actually like the time for rest, reflection and planning that winter gives us.

Now that I'm starting to feel better and want to do more things, I still need to be mindful of the doctors advice to take it easy and not push myself too much. They say that the rest of my healing will require about 4 more months . . . just in time to dig some dirt in my garden . . . not just smell it!

I hope you are enjoying winter days and the prospect that spring will return. In fact, you've probably noticed the days are getting longer. Five minutes more of daylight tacked on the start of the day and ten more at the end make a big difference!

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog post. As always, your questions and comments are welcome.  And until we meet again, may the Lord hold you in the hollow of His hand.

Emmy