My Land

Dandelion Wish Jar

Here is a gift I made for Angie for her birthday. Before all you family go and start saying I'm doing to much again, I made this a year ago. I meant to give it to Angie earlier, but I lost the wish tickets when I put them someplace for safekeeping. When I finally found the tickets, I was pretty excited to give this to her.

I gave Angie the jar with instructions to use a wish ticket to write out something she hoped for herself every year on her birthday, and place it in the jar. I'm hoping that many years from now, she'll have a nice chronicle of what was important to her and what she has achieved.

I got the tickets from Inspire Company but she doesn't seem to have them anymore. I've seen them other places on the web though.

Whenever I get around to making things for the shop again, I hope to make some more of these. I think they are fun.

At the Farmhouse

A couple weeks ago, my Auntie Laurie and Uncle Ed came for a visit. One day we met up with them at Lloyd's farmhouse. Lloyd and my mom have been doing a lot of work on the farmhouse, so we wanted to check it out. Elise was more interested in the dandelions.

If you're wondering, she dressed herself.
 

Mother's Day

Chris was out of town Mother's Day weekend, so I get my mama's day today. I'll be doing some resting and some shop wandering and probably some coffee drinking. All. by. myself. I hear there are plans for breakfast together though.

On the actual Mother's Day, the girls and I went up to my mom's house. Elise planted tomatoes and made brownies with Gram. Elise was pretty excited about Gram's "secret clubhouse" (i.e. her pink! potting shed). Chris sent me some ranunculi on behalf of Charlotte and Elise. He actually remembered that I said I never see any in the stores around here, and I love them. The fact that he remembered the name is quite something considering every flower is a petunia to him.

We've been having perfect weather lately, so we've been setting up day-camp in the back yard. Elise's Chicago aunties have her pretty well set up with equipment, as you can see.

Let the Kid Photos Begin

OK, I have a backlog of kid photos here, and I know my relatives would like to see them. So bear with me while I get through all of these!

Back when I was visiting my grandma in April, we tried to get the girls' portrait taken at JC Penney. That didn't work out so well. After waiting almost an hour past our appointment time, the girls were both in tears (though they were happy when we arrived). So we had to ditch the photo studio. My grandma really wanted some photos of Charlotte in this blue dress though, so I set up my own photo shoot. I don't really like portrait studio photos anyway, so this worked out.

Still Here

I'm just dipping my toe in here. It has actually been nice to take a little blog vacation. I know my family would like to see some kid pics soon, so I'll work on getting those posted sometime in the next few days.

We've been busy here, and I've been feeling better. Thanks to everyone who has been checking in on me. It seems I have a case of PPD. I tried to get back on track by more natural means (vitamins, no birth control, lots of time outside, going for walks, talking with friends and family), but it just wasn't working, so I'm on an antidepressant now. Within a few days on it, I was feeling so much better -- just more like more normal self. I'm hoping I will only need this for a few months. We'll see. Right now I'm just happy to enjoy spring and work on some projects that have suffered while I was busy lying on the floor unhappily staring into space with children crawling all over me. I finished both dresses for my sister's wedding! This week, I need to work on the house (inside and out) and get ready for the wedding. The wedding is on Chris' birthday, then our anniversary is the next day, and Elise's birthday is the week after that. So we have a lot on our plates here.

I'll try to get back in the habit of checking in here. It has been so beautiful lately, it's hard to be inside on the computer (which is why I have my laptop out on the deck right now).

Oh, and the photos were taken in our front yard when the crabapples were blooming. I sent one in to Alicia and Heather's Noticing Project guest week.

My Petal Fairies

It's that time of year again.

Doesn't Charlotte look good in her Mayfly smock? Thank you again, Alicia!

And thank you all for your kind words on the last post.

Me With New Glasses

I got some new glasses for the first time in almost seven years. You can't really tell, but they are more tortoise-shelly-brown, not black. They are kind of making me dizzy though. I hope I don't have to take these back to Targ-ay. I'll give them a week.

I thought I might try to explain my long blog absences lately. It seems like people have no trouble telling you the gory details of their stomach flu, but they are scared to tell anyone if they are having some mental issues. I think that is kind of silly -- it's all the same body. I don't know if it is delayed postpartum depression or just a really bad reaction to hormonal birth control (my post-pregnancy body does NOT seem to like the stuff), but I've not been too happy the past few months. It often seems overwhelming just to get out of bed, let alone gather enough coherent thoughts to put on the blog. Not even springtime is snapping me out it. It's like trying to turn on a light switch, but the bulb is out. And there are no replacements in the hall closet. And the store is sold out. And I know the problem isn't with my life -- I love what I am doing (even when it is hard). It really seems chemical. Anyway, I'll have a chat with my doc in a couple weeks and see if we can't get this worked out. I think I'm going to talk to her about cleansing myself of all this hormonal pharmaceutical crap first and see how that goes.

I miss myself. I hope I'll be back soon. Until then, if I'm only here sporadically, that is why.

Weekend at Pockey's

The girls and I went with my mom down to Arkansas for a long weekend. My grandmother (aka Pockey) lives there. According to my photos, Elise spent the entire trip reading. She is definitely a book girl. Charlotte seems to be more of a toy girl. Maybe that will lead to fewer arguments over books/toys?

Elise likes to memorize her books. So she entertained everyone with her rendition of "The Cat in the Hat." I'll have to take a video of that sometime.

We all came down with a cold while we were there, and the girls weren't sleeping well away from home anyway. So we are all still recovering.

Angie is coming to visit today, but I think we'll have to stay away another day or so. We don't want to make her sick. She has a bunch of wedding stuff to take care of while she is here. I'm hoping to get some dress work done while she's here, too. We found a cute dress for Charlotte for Angie's wedding, so now I only have two dresses to make! (only... ha)

Happy Birthday, Angie!

What a year for Angie! All good stuff.

The artist wouldn't pose with her work. (We're all sicky and crabby.) See you soon, Angie! We love you MORE!

Spring Walk

Charlotte has been getting better at sitting up these days, so we took her for her first wagon ride last night. She thought that was pretty nifty. Elise has been wanting Charlotte to sit in the wagon for a while, so everyone was happy. It was kind of nice to take a walk with my hands free. I actually dragged two cameras along with me. I have no idea what was on the beginning of my Holga roll, but we'll have some spring walk photos on the end of it. There's something so light and simple about taking a photo with the Holga. I should do it more often. I'll be curious to see how the photos differ from these digital shots.

Look, there is a blue thing popping up in the middle of my miniature daffodils. I don't know what that is, but it is pretty.

I was supposed to be driving with my mom and the girls to Arkansas today to visit my grandmother, but we postponed the trip until next weekend (my uncle is sick). It looks like we'll have good gardening weather this weekend, and my beds desperately need some mulch. I want to switch over to cocoa hull mulch, but I'm looking for someplace with a reasonable price for it... (Forget the cocoa hulls mulch: apparently it completely breaks down every year, and it can be poisonous to dogs in the same way chocolate is.)

Oh, and we've been listening to the new REM album a lot around here. Very good! Chris and I are longtime fans, so we like all the albums, but this one is good and old-school. When Chris and I first met, I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't have to be embarrassed by my clear REM obsession when he was browsing my cassette (cassette!) collection -- lots of bootlegs in there, taking over about half my music collection. I even read REM biographies. Here was someone else who wouldn't find it odd to take a road trip to Athens, Georgia. We still haven't done that. We will.