in the rear-view mirror

The past two weeks have been something else. I’m ready for a little boredom, if anyone has any to spare. Life has been interesting, in that Chinese-curse kind of way. So instead of being here as planned last Sunday, unveiling the winner of the Wabbit pattern, I was elsewhere doing other stuff. In one week, Max dislocated his knee and my mother opted to move into a nursing home about two hours away – those are just the highlights; there were also plenty of “minor” dramas and excitement unfolding seemingly at every minute.  So here I am, waving goodbye to the negative stuff as it recedes in my rear-view mirror: adios!

For good stuff, the kids enjoyed a spectacular Halloween. Our little town offers daylight trick-or-treating among the local businesses, which is just so wonderful – nighttime trick-or-treating is thrilling, but even in such a small town it’s challenging and a little scary trying to keep track of your kids, avoid running over anyone else’s little ghost or goblin, and maintaining a strict policy of staying outside people’s homes even if they ask you nicely to come in. Nick made a last-minute decision to go as a gangsta, Rowen’s brainchild of a costume this year was Dracula’s Granny, and Arden was an adorable Punkinhead.

 

And of course I enjoyed the opportunity to take out my favorite spooky stitching smalls. It’s wonderful to reconnect with stitching friends with different seasonal displays.

 

Speaking of stitching, I finished the Prairie Schooler WIP and have been enjoying an interpretation of Old Crow by La D Da that I’ll use as a box top for a surprise Sinterklaas gift I’m constructing for Rowen, who has become extremely fond of the murder of crows that frequents the playground at school.

 

I loved reading everyone’s responses to my last post and felt so connected to everyone’s loving thoughts of friends and family. Margaret, your recounting of your grandma that worked but was also the quintessential grandmother brought my much-missed Grams immediately to mind. I LOL’d at a number of comments and cheered along with others. Breast cancer has touched us all, it seems, in one way or another. I’m happy to say that Coral’s the lucky winner and she’ll need to contact me with her postal mailing address. Thank you all for your comments and for sharing some special moments with me.

I’d also like to shout out a huge thanks to Ranae for swapping PS charts with me, so I now have all the animals that I want to stitch!

It’s a chilly, overcast day here today. We’re cozied up around the woodstove, which is crackling merrily and making us all feel toasty. The cats are curled up in the burn box, and the dogs are enjoying their new massive dog bed. From our home to yours, we send our love!

 

autumn, and life on the farm

Oh my heavens, what a gorgeous autumn this is! Every time I go someplace, I forget my camera so you’ll just have to trust me on this one. Yesterday I drove out to Cutler to pull in most of the remaining vegetables and I’m happily up to my ears in kale. At least, thanks to Kathy, I will be well dressed for it Kathy surprised the heck out of me today when I opened a package from her to find these handmade goodies!

 

Just in time for a flurry of baking activity, too! Today I made cranberry scones and then a double batch of cherry/chocolate/almond scones and a carrot cake.

I’ve managed to put in a few stitches nearly every evening, so my interpretation of the Homestead snapperland by Bent Creek is done and ready for framing. I have a great little frame that is going to fit it perfectly (I adapted the pattern to make sure of that). The colors are less drab in real life, but it’s a dreary day out and this was the best my camera could do.

 

It’s been a funny week. Nick has been lax about schoolwork, so I’ve spent every afternoon being The Homework Police. It seems to be paying off, though, so it’s time well spent. I’ve also enjoyed some really great time with the other kids as well, and tonight we are off to a pizza gathering that we’re all looking forward to.

There are lots of fun things online attracting my attention these days, from preparing for next year’s garden and getting it set up to bringing some plants in to overwinter. There are some cool craft ideas, like DIY wrapping paper. There are all kinds of great free stitching designs available, too, like Marly’s, and By the Bay Needlework - not one, but two!. Of course, cooking always enters in when there’s free time to be had and I can whole-heartedly recommend these muffins (I made mine with Grape Nuts cereal). And of course there’s lots of time spent with the animals. I’m so in love with Maybelline, our Myatonic doe, that I’ve been looking for a permanent mate for her and think I’ve come up with one. What do you think of this fellow?  His name is Rich (it has nothing to do with my baby brother of the same name, I swear it!) and he’s a Silky Fainter:

 

Speaking of the animals, if we’re going to make it to the pizza night, I better get my chores done! Thank you for visiting, and I am overwhelmed by all the wonderful comments on my last post. I treasure each & every one of them! Wishing one and all a wonderful weekend!

 

much to celebrate

Autumn tends to be a transitional time for me – as it is for many, I suspect. Now that I’m back in Maine, I love the season: the crisp air, the  bright foliage, the impossibly blue skies. But for some reason, it also tends to be a time of emotional “housecleaning” and that can lead to some ups and downs on different days. Add to the mix how incredibly busy each day seems to be between our jobs, the kids’ schooling and extra-curricular activities, the farmette, connections with extended family and friends … the list seems to be endless. It could be an easy time to feel overwhelmed, so I’ve decided to instead feel grateful for some of the amazing gifts that have come to us out of all this activity.

First and foremost, I’m extremely grateful that Niek’s sister has safely given birth to one incredibly-anticipated baby girl. Anna is one of those babies who has been dreamed of and wished for long before she made her appearance and we’re all thrilled to welcome her to the world and to congratulate her parents. I know Niek would love to hop on a plane and go see his baby sister and niece – maybe this is the week to buy a lottery ticket? Congratulations, Amarentia & Benjamin on the birth of your beautiful daughter!

On the subject of kids, I obviously can’t move on without saying something about our own amazing brood here at Chateau Chaos. Arden adores school (though he continues to miss Miss Chloe, his favorite teacher from the Montessori School he attended last year) and thinks riding the bus is the bees’ knees. The bus driver has taken me aside to tell me what a joy it is to see Arden’s smile get bigger and bigger the closer the bus gets to our house. All of the kids are doing well and enjoying school and I am still, nearly three years later, pinching myself to believe it is real after all the difficulties the boys had in their Dutch school. I shout out my thanks to Mr Look and the amazing staff at our local elementary school, the Rose M Gaffney. Talk about landing in clover when we moved home; this school would stand out in a wealthy suburb – in a tiny rural community it’s an absolute gem.

Ro recently got a real pet rabbit – not just a “pet” chosen from the meat rabbits I raise here on the farm – and it has been love at first sight. She worked hard to earn her new companion and I’m tremendously proud of the dedication she puts into the things that are important to her. I’m really enjoying the journey I’m on as her parent (as I am with all the kids, of course!).I know the photo is blurred, but the emotion is just so palpable!

Speaking of journeys, my job continues to challenge, educate, and exhaust me – not necessarily in that order! I’ll be making the formal application to graduate school and taking my MATs in a couple of weeks. If all goes well, I’ll begin my official studies in June 2013. With how much that happens on the job, I feel like I might be in a position to teach some of the classes. I had a good session with our clinician last night and received some very positive feedback regarding my own clinical development that was appreciated. Apparently my inability to suffer fools gladly – and here I refer to desk jockeys, not to the clients we serve! – continues to be an area that requires improvement, but otherwise, all is well.

The farmette has been downsized due to all the other wonderful things going on that take up time, but Niek pointed out yesterday that it doesn’t really feel smaller to him. I guess there are those who’d say 30 or so birds and 5 goats is still a lot, but I’d have to respectfully disagree (see, I can be polite! LOL). The rabbits and the goats are cohabitating at the moment with the hope that we’ll have a healthy group of baby goats born in late winter and a couple of litters of bunnies born before winter gets underway. My goal of supplying the bulk of the food we eat through the year has made a giant leap forward – our gardening venture with friends was a success in many ways, though I really do need to become more comfortable with canning, and our freezers are full of meat and vegetables that we’ve safely raised with our own two hands.

Believe it or not, I’ve even been stitching. I’ve finished Good Morning, a Bent Creek kit I recently bought on eBay, and I’ve been working on my own interpretation of one of their Snapperland series. I changed the horse in the design to our goat, Annie.  I’m still hoping to make a great deal of our Christmas gifts, as I did last year.

Well, at the risk of driving the few readers who still follow this dusty blog into a coma from reading about the minutiae of our lives, I’ll stop now. Those friends who still stop by to read and comment are deeply appreciated.

i really miss my old photo editor

PicMonkey has a lot of the features of picnik but it doesn’t tie in with flickr for storage, it requires about a thousand more keystrokes, and it just isn’t as good. There, I’ve said it! And being unable to edit my photos in a timely fashion and have them come out looking good enough that they’re worth the effort has had disastrous effects on my already poor blogging habits. These pics are clickable for a larger image if you’re so inclined. And now, on to the point of this blog post…

We’ve had some fun this past month (where does the time go?) celebrating the ending of summer and the beginning of autumn. We made a trip over to Blue Hill for the agricultural fair there – it was our first time as a family, and we all loved it. Even though it rained the day we went, we had a blast and everyone is looking forward to going again next year.

 

We’ve taken a few other trips, like a day at a waterpark-amusement place that had go-carts and mini-golfing. Wow, that stuff is so exhausting for the adults, but so fun for the kids. I don’t think I could handle more than one trip a year, LOL! The kids have also had a great time amusing themselves with games they’ve created out of their awe-inspiring imaginations. And the weather this summer was beyond gorgeous – every day seemed even finer than the day before.

 

Grownups also got a little outing – Niek and I and best friends Tigger and Rachael went to the last show of The Last Summer On Earth Tour with Barenaked Ladies, Blues Traveller, Big Head Todd & the Monsters, and Cracker. LOVED it!!

I’ve been gardening, although my gardening companion has lately been pointing out that I haven’t been active enough. It’s a lot of work, but I’ve loved it. With grad school next summer, it’s unlikely I’ll be able to participate, but I’ve loved it this year.

 

Just this week, with the kids going back to school and the weather cooling off, I’ve begun to bake again. I was afraid I might’ve forgotten how, but the Chaos Crew assures me that I haven’t lost all of my skills. These are some sourdough pumpernickel baguettes I just pulled out of the oven.

 

Everyone is growing up and getting older and I guess that includes Niek, who just celebrated a birthday. Each year, I seem to go wrong in my selection of a gift, so this year I decided to just have fun and go extremely “wrong” in my choices and the kids followed suit. Two stellar gifts, IMHO, were a DIY worm farm (a baggie full of live worms) and a package full of wood shavings from Rowen’s hamster that we are pretty sure had not already been used.

 

In between it all, I occasionally manage to put needle to linen. Right now I’m working on an Easter table runner with some Danish designs. It doesn’t look like much now but it will … someday.

And I’ve received some stitchy goodies in the mail, too. I bought a few small things on Ebay and Cathy surprised me with a lovely Maine chart – thank you so much, Cathy! Lots of stitching plans in my head … now to eke out a bit of time in the slower-paced (ha ha ha!!) winter months.

 

I’ll disappear back into Chateau Chaos now. Lots of plans for the day, including some time in the garden, some stitching, and perhaps a little more baking. Take care and thanks so much for visiting with me today!

go love them up

I’m just off from a ten-plus hour shift of crisis work and feeling extremely grateful for my wonderful family and amazing kids. I was nearly three hours late getting home tonight and after an extra-long bedtime story to try to make up for lost time, I asked Rowen if she wanted to talk about how she felt about me being out of the house or if she wondered what I was doing. I don’t want the kids (or Niek, for that matter!) to ever feel that work or school is more important than they are. So I explained to Rowen a little bit about the last client of the day, not giving any particulars but just a general sense of visiting people who are in need and then the (never-ending) paperwork that ensues and even a little bit about how important all that paperwork is in keeping everything on track. She thought about it for a few moments and then hugged me, saying, “I love having you as a Mommy but I know there are other people who need you, too – I’ll share.” And so here I sit with tears in my eyes and a heart that feels three sizes too big, wondering how I ever lucked out with such an amazing daughter.

We have enjoyed a lot of summertime fun – have no fear, it’s not all work and big emotions! Every time we go to the beach, I forget my camera. What’s up with that? But we’ve been several times, and when we can’t go, there’s always the hose and the kiddie pool in the backyard.

During the rainy weather we were experiencing just before this heatwave, we also did a lot of indoor crafting. Lots of fun! And one smart mama stocked up on plenty of cool craft supplies (for which she will patting herself on the back for months to come, no doubt, LOL!).

I think one of my favorite outings so far has been a day hiking the public trails at the Quoddy Head State Park. It was so incredibly gorgeous, and the kids were great – no bickering (or at least very little), lots of laughing … just a really special day together.

On that bit of beauty, I’ll wish you a goodnight! Stitching pictures next time – I’ve been pegging away at that BBD Loose Feathers design. Till then, be sure to tell whoever it is in your life that brings you joy that you love them.

whooooosh

My Dad just turned 81 (Congratulations, Daddy!) and reminded me again that the older we get, the fast time goes. Which puts me in mind of this little Dr Seuss ditty:

How did it get so late so soon?
It’s night before it’s afternoon.
December is here before it’s June.
My goodness how the time has flewn.
How did it get so late so soon? 

Anyway, it’s been a jam-packed, mostly wonderful, month. If a very fast one. I started a new project I was sure I’d have done in no time – but no time is exactly what I’ve had. This is Little Sampler by The Goode Huswife. I did it years ago in blues for Annemarie, over-one and very wee. This one is huge. I’ll use it as a seed pocket.

I’ve been trying to greenify my thumbs and other fingers with gardening endeavors. My friend Tigger just finished consuming his garden bounty from last year – I want that to be me next year!

The kids have, as always, been busy with a zillion things: sports, concerts, clubs, and much more. It’s not uncommon to hit the ground running at 2:40 when the school bus drops them off and not catch my breath till 7:30 or 8 in the evening. I don’t know how it affects them, but it exhausts me! LOL. Here are a few shots of the younger kids enjoying this and that, here and there.

There’s been a lot of farm activity, with the births of chicks, ducks, goslings, and bunnies. It being a farm, there have also been some sad losses. We are looking forward to the birth of some baby goats later this summer, as it appears both Annie and Eve are pregnant! Muffin left us to join her new home, and we will be welcoming a new buck to the farm in a week or so.

There has been a great deal of beauty in small things – special moments with the children, trying new things, mastering skills, connecting with friends, acts of gentleness and kindness – and over all, Mother Nature treats us daily to a spectacular feast of the senses if only we look around us.

I’ve been reading. Right now I’m reading The Wind-Up bird Chronicle by Murakami (and have the third volume of 1Q84 ready to read) and In One Person by John Irving. I just finished The Wind in the Keyhole by Stephen King and will soon be re-reading The Shining. Stacked up and ready to read are Affliction by Russell Banks, Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell, and Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates. I’ve been listening to lots of music, too, mostly thanks to my Pandora connection, but I also bought Affairs of the Heart by Canadian artist Marjan Mosetich – it’s sublime.

Niek’s been traveling much of this month in Europe for his job, and next month I’ll begin a new job in the mental health field. With Arden ready for school, it’s time I can get back out in the world again and will do so with a new job and grad school plans. First we’ll enjoy the sweet months of summer together, though – I’m only working one day a week till school resumes after the summer holidays.

I have no idea how much time I’ll find to get online, but I won’t be far away. Thank you for your friendship – I’m looking forward to sharing more soon.

boo! bet you didn’t know i was here

Busy, busy, fun, fun. The kids had last week off and we had plans enough to fill the entire summer, let alone one measly week. We had such fun – visited with my mom, dad, and aunt (all separately), had friends over and/or went to friends’ houses, took long walks, instituted Family Game Night (every Friday, heaven help me – I don’t like games), and did approximately one gabillion other fun things together. Toward the end of the week, my asthma kicked up and turned into something that has nearly robbed me of my voice – but there are those who seem to find that an improvement.

Now that things are back to so-called normal, the kids are in school and I’m busy with this and that. I had class yesterday and today I taught a half day workshop on cross stitching at a local high school. I was more than a little nervous going into it, but it went quite well. I’m sure I had the smallest workshop (4 kids, with one wandering off never to return) but they were great kids who really put a massive effort into it and did a great job. While they worked on their projects, I did this Sampler Girl design with some minor changes:

I started a second teeny project with geese, but didn’t get too far. I was doodling the other day, trying to break out of my anti-stitching mojo while Niek drove us to Bangor to belatedly celebrate Max’s birthday. Before I knew it, I’d come up with this:

It needs some sort of  green viney border, don’t you think? I’m also thinking of putting in a segment of the lion and the unicorn poem.

I doodled some more in the car and started this girl, who will be one of … three? … sisters, I think:

And ages ago, I started the Favorite Font Sampler. It got sort of buried under other stuff and slightly forgotten, but here it is again:

I’m using a Gloriana overdyed silk for the lettering and will use ‘plain’ silk for the figures below the verse. Eventually.

It’s a gorgeous sunny late afternoon here. Yesterday at this time it was raining so hard I thought I’d drown while taking care of the animals. No joke! My coat, hung up in front of the woodstove, still isn’t dried out! I had to bring the half-grown chicklets up on to the porch to safeguard them. The other birds stuck out in breeding coops were totally encased in tarps. They didn’t care for that, but it was better than the rain.

I’ve been reading up a storm. I finished and greatly enjoyed The Dry Grass of August by Anna Jane Mayhew and am currently reading Black Swan Green by David Mitchell. I also finished volumes one and two of 1Q84 by Murakami and am wondering where volume three is to be found. Normally one of my all-time favorite authors, I’m withholding judgement on this series until I’ve read the whole thing.

Through it all, I have the most excellent company – as you can see. He’s my calorie saver – he ate the whole donut and drank a substantial portion of my coffee Coolatta.

Thank you for visiting despite my rather lengthy absence. And for all who left tips and suggestions about my terrifying foray into education today, I thank you most kindly. Have a great day – catch some sunshine if you can!

you may call me ms barbara

So … I’m going to teach this half-day workshop on cross stitching for high school students because a dear friend (you know who you are, Dawn!) roped me into it and now that the hour draweth nigh, I’m experiencing a few Lepidoptera in the abdominal region. I’ve pulled a bunch of freebie designs and kitted them up with floss, evenweave and Aida, and some bling (like felt shapes, funky buttons, little bells, etc.). I’ve tried for designs that are easy and fun, but that are also cool. And there’s where I run into trouble, because when you use your thesaurus and you look up antonyms for cool … there’s my incredibly unflattering driver’s license photo staring back at you. I am not the poster child to bring the cool, hip factor to cross stitch. I’m more the one you’d find encouraging you to embrace your inner nerd.

So chime in, friends and fellow enthusiasts. Let me know what you wish someone had told you way back when you first put needle to fabric. How big is big enough for a half-day program, without being overwhelming or … underwhelming? Is the bling important? Should I bling it up more? I’m a huge buff of the history of cross stitch, but I understand it could put some people to sleep … should I bring it up, or let it slide? What about specialty stitches? I would just love to plant some little seeds that will sprout into future stitchers, so any comments you might have will be hugely appreciated!

a face only a mother could love, and other stuff

The entire week has consisted of days that were not longer than 15 minutes each. How is anyone supposed to get anything done under those circumstances? I’ve felt like I’ve done little but race madly from one thing to the next without actually accomplishing anything. So today, I’m taking it a little slower (although there are still a million things to do!) and tomorrow I may take a road trip to meet some other farming-types who live in central Maine.

I don’t really know where to begin, so maybe I’ll just start chronologically and see where I wander from there. We had a gorgeously sunny day last Saturday. Although it was very cold, Rowen and Arden got the idea into their heads that we needed to go on an Exploration and have a picnic. So … we did. Brrr. Here are Rowen and Arden fearlessly perched atop the broken branch of a gigantic tree – especially when viewed from the perspective of an uncertain four-year old.

And here is Rowen with Flip in the same tree. Rowen has explained to me that the path we followed was one that Flip shared with Ro and Nick several days previously. I’d tell you where it is, but it’ a secret.

And here is Flip, showing that he is a fearless cat who possesses remarkable leadership qualities. Hey, do you think it’s too late to get him on the ballot?

Today is another brilliantly sunny day, and it is a lot warmer than last Saturday. So of course, no one is interested in being outside at all. Go figure!

Since I’m talking about our furbabies anyway, here’s the latest on Tom, who has been re-named by Rowen and now bears the weighty moniker of Major Tom Stubbs. He’s had his neutering surgery and is being introduced to the house. The other animals hate him, though, so it’s a slow process. His own behavior is still a little unpredictable – he’s generally an absolute love bug but sometimes he forgets that the hand that’s petting him is attached to the arm hovering in his vicinity and he bites and/or scratches the arm. The arm usually belongs to me, and I’ve been very glad we keep antibiotic salve and gauze pads on hand. It’s a face only a mother could love, and yet … we do love him and are glad to be able to offer him a comfortable spot for his golden years.(I’d like to point out that I obviously took these photos elsewhere because my own house is kept spotless and clutter-free at all times!)

Well, maybe some of us are less happy to welcome him than others. Flip is letting him know that this pool of sunshine will not be shared under any circumstances.

Also taking place in my clean and uncluttered kitchen is baking. Lots of baking. Baguettes by the bag full this week, and each more delicious than the last. Yesterday, the gray weather really got to me so I also began baking cookies (something I tend to avoid because I like my own cooking…).

Talking about the gray weather offers me a reasonable segue into the bizarre storm we had that dumped close to a foot of snow on us earlier this week. It’s still melting off. Here’s the barn, viewed from the back door of the house, the day it snowed.

Down in the barn, life has been busy. The geese continue to lay eggs and because I only have two small incubators, we’ve been eating some of the eggs. I made scrambled eggs the other day and when I saw how huge the goose egg yolks were compared to a regular chicken egg, I had to take a picture. Doesn’t it look like a face?

We have some new chicks down in the barn – 2 month old Barred Hollands. I love them! They look a lot like Barred Plymouth Rocks but they’re a much older (and rarer) breed that lays a white egg (rather than a brown one).

In the house, the little Miracle Marans are doing well, and the incubators are full-up. Hoping for some exciting hatching to start soon! While I wait, I occasionally find five or ten minutes for stitching. This is for an exchange, so I can just show a snippet.

I’d probably be able to get a whole lot more done if these impossibly adorable creatures didn’t keep distracting me.

Thanks for visiting! I hope your weekend is full of joy and good health!

it’s all about the …

There hasn’t been any stitching at all. It’s been all about the weather (spring is coming – we hung the sap buckets this morning!), the animals, the kids, and cooking. An exhausting but tremendously rewarding week. And before I go any further, I have to shout out a huge thank you to Niek for taking up all the slack at home – getting meals on the table when I get busy building chicken coops and simply don’t show up, taking Arden to and from school, driving to Bangor to watch Nicky’s performance today, and listening to me blabber on about things that are probably painfully uninteresting to anyone else.

Nicky has had a busy week at school and has had two different performances. In the third grade class play, he was a mail carrier and had us all laughing at his antics.

But before Nick’s part came up, some members of the audience were pretty critical:

And others got a little sleepy:

In his Destination Imagination group, they put on a skit about adopting animals from a nearby no-kill shelter (they also did fund-raising through the year for this shelter). Nicky and Niek are in Bangor today, where Nicky’s group is competing at a regional level. Good luck!!

I’ve been baking breads and muffins and scones. After taking a pretty long break from any sort of baking, it feels good to be productive in the kitchen. Not to mention that it tastes about a zillion times better than store-bought baked items!

I’ve also tried my hand in the woodshop. I am much better in the kitchen, but under Tigger’s guidance, I’ve managed to help put together three small portable coops for the chickens. I put the last one together on my own after he cut all the pieces to size, though I still need to put the wire around it.  The Icelandics and Welsummers are loving it, and after 10 days I can start pulling purebred eggs to go in the incubator. I’ve been incredibly humbled by the carpentry experience, but also pretty chuffed by the results.

School has also taken up a chunk of time and there are no fascinating pictures of me hitting the books, which is what I’ll be doing much of today in preparation for Monday’s test. Argh, my first test in … how many years?

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend!!