I came across a new book and site that looks very promising for stitching with/for the kids. The New Crewel has projects that are relatively quick to do up and bright contemporary color schemes. They are drawn up for crewel embroidery which is done with wool.  I am thinking you could get the same effect with three (at least) strands of DMC floss. 

I am excited about this! Crewel embroidery patterns are HARD to track down on the net. If you have given it any effort you know this. They are split between historic tapestry and 70s gold and avocado jobs.  This really is something new.

I am on a mission to review some new wave stitching books in the coming weeks.  If you have any suggestions please send them my way! 

Now there’s a snappy title.  It belongs to this stylish blogger who has lots to share.

there may be a quiz later ; ) 
Dh is not feelin’ the retro love as much as I am.  He says he likes my ‘layers’ of farmgirl chic.  He is all aout warmth. So with that in mind let me introduce you to Homestead in TX.  This was my first exposure to shabby chic- the western edition.  These images are not from the original store in the Hill Country but fun nevertheless. 

I am finishing the crochet wrap I started when Brendan was a baby.  (I got a little bored, what can I say) I think this is my next project.  Love the colors and pattern.  Actually I need to get working on the slipcovers too.

from here  you get this:

the whole site is eye candy

Had a weird thing happen the other night.  I was wandering through Target waiting to get the kids from piano. I came across a tub of Christmas ornaments which could have walked right off my Gram’s tree.  They were styrofoam balls wrapped in satin thread of jewel toned colors – aqua, pink, gold, lime. I nearly cried.

Maybe it is a midlife decorating crisis but I find that certain images from my childhood are especially meaningful to me as I grow older. It was the end of a golden age of homemaking. Days were spent in a a whirl of cooking and learning and household chores. Entertainment was what happened when relatives and friends dropped by, not when Survivor came on the screen. I miss that. I miss her.  I miss the pared down decor that she was able to manage so expertly while I wallow in layers of ‘texture’. The shabby chic I was drawn to in magazines is more shabby than chic with a full house.

I find myself more and more often browsing through pages of Atomic Ranch and Ranchredo and Shimandsons. As one reader shared in her blog there is a plethora of mass produced items passing for handmade these days.(Please if you read this resend me your blog link!)  It leaves me cold. I want to fill my spaces with things my children and I really have made. And I don’t want to copy a Victorian or Colonial or anything scheme.  I want our home to tell OUR story in a simple graphic visually appealing way. Washable surfaces would be a major plus.

Long and short: I am getting very particular about what I am willing to share my home with and lug around. I want to pare down to that which is personally meaningful.  There is an awful lot around me that doesn’t fit into that category. With that in mind I bought the ornaments with no idea what I will do with them yet. Somehow holding
that tub of colored spheres I was right back in front of that 60s era
tree and it really didnt matter. It took all the Dave Ramsey coaching I
could muster not to charge that retro white tree in the
Target display to hang them on. ; )

I know I am going somewhere with all this but not sure where we will end up yet.  For now we will continue to purge and be selective and create and see where it takes us. And when I miss Gram I will look at those ornaments and smile.

This was fun. I watched one of the video clips from Becky Higgins and see there are several more uploaded to her blog.  Check it out. 

…our rockers?  But hey, I never wanted a sedentary life anyway. <g> We have been asking some hard questions lately.  Questions along the lines of "this is your life, are you happy with who you are?"  Would you be happy to be this in 20 years?  Is it possible there is more? How far outside the box are we willing to think to get there? 

Well, the short answer is mostly.  We have lots to be thankful for. We have a good life. It comes with a hefty price tag though in terms of time and money. (ie debt)  We suspect God does not applaud that part.  Nor are we thrilled with the part that requires Dad to be gone for most of his children’s waking hours. Thinking inside the box left few options. Happiness requires a mortgage, a computer, a car payment, and a lot of classes and lessons right? We don’t know how to do (fill in the blank) therefore we couldn’t possibly (fill in the blank) right?  It seems that there are folks out there who would disagree.

This conversation will take some time. It requires us to look at housing and lifestyle in different ways. It comes with a hefty learning curve.  Who knew simplicity could be so challenging? In this day and age, when most of us are incapable of providing our most basic needs, the idea of meeting those needs ourselves asks a lot of a person. Not more than people have given for all of time however.

I realize this post begs more questions than it answers. I have already shared my ambivalence about the screens so I will have to tackle it in small portions. Here are a few sites to get started:

Off Grid Living  asks how much of your chosen life is nourishing you as a human being? Are our choices nourishing us or simply putting food on the table.  Not that putting food on the table is a bad thing.  We have 9 people of various sizes who happen to be quite fond of food put upon their table. ; )  But our choices determine whether we are thriving or merely surviving. 

Tyra and James at innerexplorations have written an ebook called the Treasures of Simplicity. If you have looked around the ranch blog at all you could probably deduce that anything with a name like that would send a little rush through me. I printed off the whole document and we read it aloud on the way to pick up hay last wknd. Here are two people who took the challenge to make nourishing choices seriously. In the process they found out more about themselves and the world than they expected. Their reflections about institutionalized housing and non-instant gratification are worth considering. I am not as big a fan of Jungian psychology as they however. Sift, as usual.

The pictures remind me of the very first homeschool book I read some 18 years ago, Homeschooling for Excellence by the Colfaxes.  They made the news back then when their four homeschooled boys got scholarships to ivy league schools.  They, too, had stepped off the corporate merry-go-round and bought raw acreage in Northern CA. Together with the boys they carved out a homestead with their hands and built not only a home, but a life.  They have a follow-up book called Hard Times in Paradise which details the homesteading itself and the evolution of the homeschool phenomenon.  I am picking up this second title soon.

Ooooh, now this looks like fun – a magazine full of family craft projects.  Doesn’t sound like fun yet?  Admittedly not.  The very term brings to mind plastic canvas and toilet paper tubes. Instead, how about a knitted doll sweater, beeswax modeling projects, beading, felting,and crochet crowns for one’s birthday? That’s more like it. : )   I am anxious to get an in person look at the premiere issue of Living Crafts Magazine to see if it is as nice as it promises to be.

ooooohhh aaaahhhhhh – look at the retro appliances!  My grandparents had this same fridge in white through my high school years. Sigh.