Summer Is:

This beautiful, sweet, chin-drippingly juicy muskmelon from our weekly CSA share. (Our farm told us that muskmelon is slightly different than cantaloupe, and I do think it tastes different. However, Wikipedia says it's the same thing. So I don't actually know.)

I'm excited to announce that during August, while I get some things settled around here, this space will host some amazing guest bloggers as part of this series! I appreciate the women who have agreed to help me out in this way so, so very much, and I am really excited to see what they'll share.

Hi there

I'm so sorry I've been absent from the blog so much this summer. It has been a big several months; many changes (to which I never adjust all that well). Yeah, I'm one of those kids who has problems with transitions. ;)

Anyway, there's so much to write about, including so much more on my Summer Is... series, and I'll do my best at catching up. I have another huge work-in-progress going right now which is taking up all my time. (More on that in the next month or so.) But I'll try to check in here a bit more often. I didn't mean to neglect this space so badly!!

In the meantime, I'm dealing with my transition by listening a lot to this piece, which my mom, a pianist, used to play for me a lot when I was a little girl. She'll still play it for me if I need her to, which is good.

What is summer?

I've been thinking a bit about what summer means to me. Sentimental stuff -- my own childhood summers spent at the pool, riding my bike, running in the rain. Family trips for ice cream. All that good stuff. So, I thought I'd do a little bit of a "series" about summer here on the blog, now that we're really in the middle of it. It'll be a bit of an intermittent series, because I'm also going to take Kristin's good advice (from the comments on my last post) to take some time to breathe.

Today, Summer is:

Water play. Specifically in a fire hydrant that was opened today on our street. Good friends to share it with. A perfect summer's afternoon.

So, what is summer to you?

{PS: Follow along with my Summer Is: series here and here, or join in yourself here!}

Saying Goodbye

So, it's been about a month since we officially began to live in our new house. Since we took a long trip and celebrated a holiday in the midst of that, I'm still feeling a bit unsettled.

But last week, we went to gather the last few things out of the little home we'd known for the last three years. A home that we had outgrown quite a while ago, but home, nevertheless.

So I took pictures inside our empty house. And we said goodbye.

Goodbye to the very place where James was born that snowy March morning. I know I am not the first, nor the last, woman to leave behind the spot where her babe first took breath. But oh, my. This is the hardest part for me about saying goodbye to the house. Goodbye convenient 3/4 bathroom off the big bedroom.

Goodbye odd, inset, north-facing bedroom window, and goodbye walls and ceiling painted moss green. I will not miss this dark bedroom.

Goodbye fireplace, before whose hearth we spent so many happy, cozy, beautiful family moments. I will miss you deeply. (New house does not have a fireplace. A concession I am still kind of surprised we made.)

Goodbye ugly linoleum in the laundry room which I actually kind of love now.

Goodbye hideous ceiling fan. Before James was born, his daddy and I used to joke often that when our baby was born into this room, we'd need to shield his (or her) eyes so that this fan wasn't the first thing he saw. Because then he would want to go back inside of mama!

Goodbye acres-long view outside our front door of the private golf course that our condo abutted. Goodbye not being able to let the children play outside without my being with them.

Goodbye to the tiny spot between the front door and the air conditioning where we just squeezed a sandbox. (Goodbye air conditioning!) Goodbye rude golfers who would sometimes come and peep into our windows. We certainly won't miss them and their noisy golf carts speeding by!

Goodbye narrow hallway that looks so long now that you aren't cluttered with laundry and toys.

Goodbye hill that Elisabeth learned to turn four somersaults in a row down, and where many of our family sledding parties happened.

Goodbye kitchen with more green paint and cabinets with that glaze that my husband thought made you look dirty instead of stylish. Goodbye kitchen where birthday cakes were baked, and James's first foods were served up, and where we prepared Christmas day brunch, and Thanksgiving the year that Grandma's foot was broken and James was still in mama's belly, and three years' worth of pumpkin-carving pasta dinners with Rebecca, three years' worth of Halloween chili, first dairy-free baking efforts, and where countless breakfasts, lunches, snacks, and family dinners were prepared. Sometimes with love and thought, and sometimes in a big hurry. But here.

So, goodbye little house. Little condo, I mean. There was nothing remarkable about you in your 1980-ish-ness. But I will miss you. And I won't. Because I know it's time. Time to say hello to something new.

A tale of three dollies

Hello, patient friends! I don't know where I've been lately! It's been a long week -- good long, I suppose, but very long!! Hopefully things will settle back to normal around here very soon.

Part of our recent trip was allotted for doll deliveries.

Alicia and I had organized a swap of our dolls months ago, although the one I made went to little N, while I greedily kept Alicia's all for me! It was so much fun to exchange our dolls the night we arrived.

I love her curly pigtails! Excuse the blurry photo -- I took this one at Alicia's and since we've been home, I haven't straightened up my creative space enough to do any photography in there. But that's where she'll be living! (I have my own room now! Yay!)

My other doll was for a mama and little girl who had been waiting very patiently for a long time on a doll that I was having a hard time giving up! There was something about this doll that I just didn't want to part with. But, the family lived serendipitously near Cincinnati, and they drove to our hotel to pick up the dolly.

I had some apron-making problems with this one, but I don't think her new little mama will mind. ;)

As always, see more pictures of my dolls here.

Making me happy

We returned from our trip yesterday. It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of driving -- I think the grand total was 3700 miles. Whew!

I had the best of intentions for uploading to flickr and even posting here a few times while we were away -- and I did upload a few things from the first day's drive to flickr, but somehow they remained private all that time. But I really had less computer time than I expected (which is really a good thing). So, now we're home. We have lots of unpacking to do in the house (we took a trip only days after moving?! what were we thinking?!), my husband was out mowing the lawn first thing this morning, and we generally have lots of easy, unscheduled summer days to look forward to now that the rush of this crazy June has passed.

I have tons of photos from the trip, and I'll get many of them up in the next few days. But for today, while I'm still in recovery mode, I thought I'd share a few things that are making me happy right now.

1. Being home

2. A meal shared with old friends (who we hadn't seen in many years) on the last night of our trip

3. Paper dolls

4. Stopping to smell the flowers on a Kentucky backroad

5. The music of Ingrid Michaelson

6. Visiting the home of my daughter's -- and my own -- childhood superstar

7. Sunsets over water

8. A blessingway for one of my dearest friends tonight

9. A new nightgown made by another very good friend

10. An afternoon at the beach

About a Boy

This summer my little one has turned from a baby into a little boy. (Here he is helping his daddy move a mattress earlier this week.)

Not the loquacious child that his sister was at this age, his language is just beginning to take off. He likes to add "ie" to the end of many words: "Lissie" (what he calls his sister), "rice milkie," "buggie" (for bug), and "bonkie" (when he gets a bump on the head -- or anywhere else!) are some of my favorites. Another of my favorite phrases is "Oh, my, Mama!" whenever something is amiss. "Me do it!" is something we're hearing a lot these days. And one of his very favorite things: to jump up or out from somewhere and shout "Pize!" (for surprise). I'm loving the way that his little sentences are so deliberate and carefully constructed right now. I'm just loving hearing him talk, I guess.

He's growing a bit of hair ... finally! It's sandy-colored and curls after a bath or when he's been playing hard outside.

He loves to play the piano with his sister.

He loves mud. He loves lawnmowers.

He loves a little "kitty" that he got at the zoo one day (nevermind all the mama-made dollies around here!) He loves to wear dresses and ballet costumes. He really loves to talk on the phone to anyone who will listen!

And he loves his sister most of all.

{My new computer is up and running! Yay! I can finally see what I'm looking at! My new house is not quite up and running, although we've slept here for four nights now. It has been a long and crazy move. Tomorrow we're off for a week-long trip, to here, here, and here, and stopping here and here as well. I'm so excited! I think we'll have the laptop with us, so I might post some pictures in flickr, and maybe I'll see you in this space, as well.}

Just a peek...

...from the new house this week.

Moving could be going better. ;)

But we're all so very happy to have a huge backyard.

With flowers and trees and swings and all the important things.

My little one spent the evening (normal bedtimes are suspended while all the grownups are working) making this tent with small branches the other night.

As we laid in it and looked up at the sky, the moon, and the trees swaying in the breeze, I was never so grateful. In the midst of chaos (maybe more on that later), I have been blessed with the gift of a child and her real sense of perspective.

From the Land

Last weekend we visited our CSA farm and picked asparagus. It was a sunny, warm (but not hot) morning.

It didn't take too long to finish our row, with a laundry basket nearly full of the long stalks.

Afterwards, we visited with some chickens, cows, a goat, and the cutest little piglets.

The piglets ate right out of my children's hands -- they were so gentle and playful. It was great fun!

When we got home with our 8 (or so) pounds of asparagus, determined not to let it go to waste, Elisabeth and I cleaned and trimmed all of it. We blanched it in batches -- 2 minutes each -- and then submerged it in ice water until it was cool.

Then we dried it and divided it (what you see above is not all of it, either!).

Elisabeth commented several times that this work reminded her of the olden days. I knew just what she meant: working to gather our food, and then spending time preparing it in large batches to be used over a long period of time. It's so important, I believe, for children to experience this. It can be so easy to assume that all food comes from the grocery store, and to become disconnected from the source. I'm so glad that we have these opportunities through our CSA.

So, now we have about 8 meals' worth of asparagus, which is wonderful, since we are an asparagus-loving family. {For many years, I declared that it was my least favorite food. I claimed that it looked appetizing, but tasted bad. Then one time, about 3 years ago or so, we were staying with some friends and were served a meal with asparagus in it. Not wanting to be the only person not eating it (all of the children were), I went ahead and tried it. And, to my surprise, I loved it.}

And in just a couple of weeks, it'll be time to pick (and preserve) strawberries!

suddenly summer

It kind of sneaks up on you, you know? Especially after a cooler-than-usual spring. But it's here, and we're oh-so glad around here.

Enjoying the first fruits of our little garden.

First flowers, too!

A bag constantly at the ready.

Feeling awe at the beauty of summer storms -- and knowing that they sometimes bring hail and cyclones with them.

Bits of green everywhere.

Fresh braids every morning before swimming lessons.

New joys discovered as our boy is big enough to play in the water on his own -- under his mama's hawk-like watch, of course.

Hoping that your season -- whether summer or winter -- is shaping up as beautifully as ours is!

Meme-in'

In the midst of hunting down appliances and packing (how is it that stuff takes up so much more space when it's in boxes?!), I haven't been taking too many pictures. But, I did come across this meme that's going around flickr today, and decided to join in. I'm usually awful about participating in memes (sorry to anyone who has tagged me!) -- they tend to overwhelm me -- but this one was so much fun!

These are the questions, from the upper left:

What is your first name? Grace. Most of the images that came up when I typed "Grace" were of swans, which is just so not me. So I chose the above image.

What is your favorite food? Indian food

What high school did you attend? None: I was homeschooled

What is your favorite color? Pink, of course!

Who is your celebrity crush? Dave Matthews -- in a silly way. That photo up there just makes my heart beat faster. Luckily my husband is a pretty secure guy, because I have been crushing hard on Dave for 14 years.

Favorite drink? Mojito -- but really only those made by my husband. :)

Dream vacation? While my recent trip to NYC was quite awesome, my dream vacation is London, London, and only London. I am a huge anglophile. Did you know that about me? Though I've been to Europe, I haven't had the chance to visit the UK or Ireland yet.

Oops! I left out this one: What is your favorite dessert? Cherry pie!

What do you want to be when you grow up? Not so sure if I loved my answer here, but I said "peaceful." I am pretty anxious and intense, so I hope that one day I can outgrow those characteristics a little bit. ;)

What do you love most in life? That's an easy one -- my children! I cheated to add this one. But I'm good with that.

One word to describe you. I was going to say "intense" but none of the images that came up were quite right, so I switched it to "perfectionist."

Your flickr name. It's UncommonGrace. The shot of Graham is one of my most "interesting" photos on flickr to date.

Click on the photo above to get photo credits and so on.

Elisabeth wanted to do one, too.

Hope your weekend is going well, everyone!

Bring in the Boxes

{photography in this post by Elisabeth}

We found out a couple of days ago that we got the house we wanted, and so we're moving in less than two weeks!

We're excited, although I do feel a bit like a chicken with its head cut off. I'm a pretty bad (read: disorganized) mover, so everything is a bit topsy-turvy around here.

I've been spending about half my time on Craigslist looking for stuff we're going to need: washer and dryer, freezer, swamp cooler ... the list goes on. And the packing. Oh, the packing. I have never been happier that my children go to bed early. Tonight -- just as soon as my husband returns from a box and newspaper (OK, and movie and treat) run, and I finish this post -- it's back to the madcap hilarity (er, packing). It's funny how even something small like emptying a bookshelf or packing away some CD's makes the house look and feel different.

The children have been having no end of fun using boxes to construct tunnels and hideaways -- and collapsed boxes make great slides, too. So it's all fun!

New York

Since my wee ones are sick and our routine is a bit on its head this week, I thought I should finally do my big New York post.

Whew. It's been a whole month since the trip, and I don't want to do too much description of it -- just share photos.

It was fantastic to spend the weekend in New York with my mom. The weather was glorious until the morning we left, when it became chilly and foggy.

We did some shopping -- mostly on Erin's recommendations.

We met up with an old friend (who I hadn't seen since her wedding almost 6 years ago) at a cute tea shop. Of course, I forgot to take a picture of my friend in the midst of all the catching up.

I had my very first blog meet-up, with Kristin, who came into New York for the morning on one of the days we were there. I can't believe how amazing it was to connect face-to-face with someone I'd met through blogging. It just keeps astounding me as I think about it! She gave me a sweet birthday gift, which I just realized I haven't photographed yet. I'll fix that later today.

We ate at two great restaurants (both were Kristin's suggestions). La Paella was beautiful and yummy. Becco was just so delicious. And we ate at Sardi's for the tourist experience.

And we had lunch one day at Serendipity3, because I just had to go there -- for the touristy thing, too. (And my sandwich was so good that I'm still thinking about it.)

We went to see The Country Girl on Broadway starring Frances McDormand and Morgan Freeman. And we went to see The Phantom of the Opera -- which was an experience.

We stopped at Purl and Purl Patchwork. The girls in Purl noticed that my bag was made with Joelle's fabric, though the girls in Purl Patchwork did not! I got a little bit of Liberty of London fabric to make a little something for my girl.

 

There is nothing like April in New York.

We walked -- a lot. We rode the subway -- not quite as much. And we took some cabs, too.

We nearly saw the Pope, who was visiting at the same time, but just missed his motorcade.

Best of all, we saw Satyagraha at the Met (click that link and watch the 4-minute video! It's amazing!), which was one of the most inspiring experiences of my life. Really and truly. It was beautiful, and just esoteric enough for me. ;)

It was a great trip.

Questions and Answers

Ack! Typepad created a new Compose editor and it appeared on me yesterday -- and it's driving me crazy! I am having so much trouble with links and with, um, backspacing over typos (there are some kinks they're working on, I guess).

My promised post about meal planning may or may not happen later today -- my little ones both came down with fevers and nasty coughs yesterday, and so, although I made dinner at the usual time, I was busy running back and forth between it and the two sickies and didn't snap any photos.

I did want to answer a few questions from the last post, though.

I got a couple of questions about why some, like me, feel it's so important to have an early bedtime. There are two reasons, in my mind. The first one is that children need a lot more sleep than we sometimes think they do -- 12 or more hours in a 24-hour period for children younger than 7 or 8. Especially if children have to be up early to go to school or a class or daycare or whatever, then (I think) giving them dinner at 6:00 so that they're realistically asleep by 8:00 on a regular basis could really cause chronic sleep deprivation -- the symptoms of which can be subtle or really intense, depending on the child. (I wonder if attention disorders might not be related to sleep deprivation? Just my hypothesis ... I'm not diagnosing anyone!)

The other reason to have the children asleep early is, of course, so that Mama can have some time to herself. :)

I also got a couple of questions about how the dinnertime ties into the bedtime. This is the most important part, I think. I think that it holds pretty true for most families that I've observed and asked -- two hours after the children sit down to supper, if bedtime follows in a pretty orderly and efficient manner, is the time that they will actually be asleep. I have tried about a gazillion other things to get my children to sleep earlier, and when I finally recognized this and shifted our dinnertime earlier (at my mom's continued urging), things fell into place. My husband is a school teacher, so he is often (but not always) home in time for a 5:00 supper. On days that he's not, I do go ahead and feed the children before he gets home. I know that family meals are a big deal, but I think that the overall rhythm of the family is really more important than a rigid idea of "every member of the household must eat the same meal together at the same time." For us, while our children are so small, it's OK for them to sometimes have dinner with just Mama, and spend more time with their Daddy at other times. And, I'm sure as they grow older, we will shift our dinnertime back to a later time.

Some of you wanted to know about what time my children rise and whether they nap. The first part of that question is easy -- they are usually awake before 7:30, although that can vary a little bit with James depending on his nap situation.

The nap part of that question is complicated. Both of my children were naturally morning nappers, and I discouraged that a little bit when they were tiny. With Elisabeth, it was because we were, at that time, pretty involved in various social activities (which were fun, but perhaps we did too much if I couldn't accomodate her need for naps). So she gave up napping at a pretty young age. Now I insist that she have an afternoon quiet time because she really needs it, even though I wasn't so good about recognizing that earlier on. James, also a natural morning napper, had his natural napping rhythm disrupted a lot when he was littler due to classes and other commitments that we had in the mornings until he was about 14 months old. (Less than what I did with Elisabeth, but still disruptive to him.) Right now, if he takes an afternoon nap, he's not sleepy enough to go to sleep at night, so I don't allow him to nap past a certain time. If he doesn't get his nap, he'll usually sleep about 14 hours at night. If he gets an early enough nap (which I try to get him to do every day, but sometimes with more or less success), then he'll usually wake up around the same time as Elisabeth, between 7 and 7:30.

And finally, about the book The Seven-O'Clock Bedtime. It is not my all-time favorite parenting book, and I hesitate to recommend it to people with infants or even young toddlers, because I feel like the system, and overall approach to meeting very young children's nighttime needs, is a little bit too strict. As I mentioned before, I have absolutely no problem nursing a baby to sleep (and frankly, it's just so much easier!), I do share my bed with my little ones, and I really don't agree with "crying it out" or sleep training of babies. But, with slightly older children, I thought that there were points in the book that were useful -- it's kind of a "take what works and leave the rest" kind of book. Whew! I'm glad I got that off my chest!

Does that help? Do you have more questions? 

when it's time for bed...

I've received several emails -- heartfelt emails from other mothers who are "in this" right now -- since my last post. Many of you, both commenters and those of you who have privately emailed me, wanted to hear more of my household management and parenting tips. The first thing that I'd like to say -- before I get into some concrete suggestions that have really been helpful to me and my family -- is that I am not a good household manager in general. In fact, it would be not only untrue, but really laughable to call me so, as most of my friends will confirm. But I do have some things that I do well in that arena.

The biggest thing that I can offer as advice, a piece of advice that I have been given by my own mother many times over the last six years (it took some time for it to sink in for me) is that children must eat supper early if they are expected to be asleep early. If you are pretty good about keeping yourself and your little ones moving along from one thing to the next in an efficient manner, then two hours from the start of supper to the time you intend for them to be asleep is about right. If you or they tend to dawdle, then it may need to be even earlier! (And therefore you might have to work in a bedtime snack about 60-75 minutes before their intended asleep time.) There's a book called The Seven-O'Clock Bedtime which speaks to this as well. [I read The Seven-O'Clock Bedtime several years ago and there were many things in it that did not resonate for me in my particular circumstance -- we share a bed with our little ones (Elisabeth is in her own bed now, although I often put her to bed with James in the big bed and then transfer her later), I have no problem with allowing my babies to nurse to sleep, and of course, we aren't working with an external school schedule. In other ways, though, I thought that the advice given in the book was pretty good.]

What this ends up looking like for our family on most days (my cello teaching days are usually an exception) is that I start making dinner at about 3:30 and have it on the table at 5:00. When I first started doing this, it was a huge paradigm shift for me. It felt so strange to be making dinner so early in the afternoon. But I made myself get into the habit, and it has ended up working really well for our family most of the time. After dinner, there is not a lot of time for doing other activities before bed, but the children do usually play outside for about 20 minutes while I check email or something. (My husband does the dishes because he is a super hero.) Then, by 6:00, we are getting into pajamas, brushing teeth, and beginning bedtime stories. I also sing, say verses and prayers, and usually light a candle during this time. James is asleep before 7:00 virtually every night, and Elisabeth understands that she needs to stay in bed, even if it takes her a little bit longer to fall asleep. She has just started falling asleep without my being present in the last year or so, and it was like a miracle to me! She was (and is) very intense, very "high-need", very active, and very demanding of attention and energy from me. I never believed she'd be able to fall asleep on her own, but lo and behold, even the most high-need child will eventually be able to do it. So, have faith, mamas! It does get easier!

Anyway, although I know when I outline this, it sounds like a very rigid schedule, we are really just doing the same things that we have always done (even in the days when they were asleep much later), but I just make sure to start supper early. That has really been the key. Once you have them fed, it becomes much less of a struggle to get them off to bed.

For us, the key has been to think of it more organically -- as an organic rhythm rather than a rigid schedule -- and to find things in our day (like the dinner preparation-eating-getting to bed process) that we can work on in a consistent way each day. I have discovered that "instituting a schedule" is a much different thing than living with a rhythm. But that's another post all its own!

Another piece of household management advice I can offer relates to meal planning. Since this post is already super long, how about on Wednesday I'll share photos of tomorrow's dinner making process and talk about my approach to meal planning and cooking?

Tonight I'm off to do some cello playing, and tomorrow a very dear friend and her two wee ones are spending the day here with us. So see you Wednesday!

On "Creative Outlets for Mothers"

{At a rehearsal earlier this week for an upcoming recording session.}

Thank you all so very much for your well-wishes, tips and advice, and inquiries about my talk last week. I'm so sorry I haven't been able to respond to any of you -- I have to say that it is completely possible to underestimate the importance of having a reliable computer. I know I certainly took it for granted way too much! Our new computer has arrived, but still needs all the software installed and so on, which requires my husband and his brother scheduling a time to do it. Ugh! Who knew that the death of our computer more than a month ago would turn into such a huge hassle?

OK, I'm done venting now. My absence this week has been due in small part to still working with the laptop which I don't have access to every day, and in large part to not one, but two un-charged camera batteries. That I'm too lazy to plug them in says something, I think.

So, the talk. Wow. I was so nervous about it. But it went really smoothly. One of my biggest fears was that I wouldn't have enough material planned for my entire 90-minute time allotment, and to a certain extent, that was true. I had a solid 60 minutes of points that I wanted to address, and then I opened it up for Q&A and input from the group. Fewer people came to my talk than had signed up, but I think that had to do with it being on the first day of the conference when everyone was still getting settled at the conference center.

I had prepared a long handout, formatted into the categories Why?, What?, When?, Where?, and How? The handout was mostly about the nuts-and-bolts of incorporating creative expression into a mother's daily life. I included reasons for having an outlet of any sort, and why creative outlets are specifically helpful; a really long list of ideas for different things to try (many of which came from your helpful responses to this post), as well as things to consider when choosing what to do; different ways to schedule it into the course of the day; the importance of creating a dedicated space for and valuing our creative work (as well as different ways that space could work for us, and ways of making it fit!); and finally tips on getting started, and a resource list of tons and tons of books and websites (and links to some favorite blogs, too!).

My talk itself did not actually follow the handout. I had prepared a slideshow of about 250 of my photos. (They were all taken from my flickr account, so you have all probably seen most, if not all, of them already.) About half of the photos were of objects that I've made, and about half of them were just examples of photography of mine that I like for one reason or another. I had the slide show playing in a loop throughout the entire talk, and began it before anyone arrived, so as to "set a mood". I began the session by playing some Celtic music on my cello, with only a minimal introduction. I didn't want it to seem like I was performing for the group, but rather inviting them to share a creative experience with me. Afterward, I shared with them a poem that had been shared with me by my herbalist and mentor.

Then I introduced myself, talked about my own creative journey -- which began with my mother, as all things seem to do ;) -- and my depression. I feel that my reemergence as a creative soul is so intertwined with the severe depression that I experienced after James was born that the two cannot really be separated. So I talk pretty frankly about it -- to friends and strangers.

And then I talked about inspiration. The definition of the verb to inspire that speaks to me most deeply is "to stimulate or compel to action." I love that something very small -- James's rapt attention to a saxophone player, a pretty little corner in my home, Elisabeth peeling apples, the two of them puddle-jumping -- can compel me to action. A lot of times, that action finds easy fruition in my camera's capable lens. But sometimes, it requires me to seek out a bigger project, something different, something else that I can do or make or create. For me, the biggest part of inspiration is this call to act, to do something with what I see, feel, and experience, rather than allowing the moment to wash over me and be lost. I think that many of you other crafty mamas and bloggers seem to get this at a very core level -- either instinctively, or quite consciously, and this is one reason I love this community so. (Even though my computer dilemma has taken me from your midst for the time being. I do think about all of you so much.)

I also talked a bit about mindfulness/living in the moment, and some household management/parenting tips, such as an early supper and bedtime for little ones (the best advice I have ever received, thanks to my own mama!), and about the importance of being a strong adult presence in our children's lives rather than a playmate. (For those of you who would like to know more about that subject, Jean Liedloff, whose book The Continuum Concept has formed much of the research basis for so much of what has come to be known as "Attachment Parenting", has an article on her website which talks about this in more depth.)

Most of what I talked about can be kind of summarized as "when we nurture ourselves, we nurture our families". I didn't say this in the talk, but I truly believe that when we model living a creative life, we give our children the freedom to grow and learn and experience life all the more fully.

May Showers bring...

Some news from me! (Photos here are from our first good rainy spring day. During a pause in the rain, my wee ones had enormous fun doing some puddle jumping!)

We ordered a new computer. Thank goodness. It's not the Mac that I would have hoped for, but it'll work. A whole lot better than this "can I borrow the laptop again?" thing that is happening right now!

I'm leaving tomorrow for the parenting conference that I'm giving a talk at. Oh, my. I am so nervous.

And finally, I think we've found a place to live! It all rests on our references now. ;) It's a pretty sweet little house with a great big backyard and a fantastic kitchen. As with any house (especially when renting), there are compromises to be made. It doesn't have a fireplace, which I really thought I'd never be able to live without -- but I guess I will, and it's only two bedrooms, so the play/creative/art space for the children as well as what will be my own creative space are in a dark basement. We'll have to figure out ways of brightening it up (and we haven't talked to the landlords about painting yet, so I don't know if that's a possibility or not) without spending a whole bunch of money. It's important to me that we do manage to make the space comfortable and workable for our needs, though, because obviously that's one of the reasons we're moving out of this teeny place.

But lest I leave you on a "we're moving into a dark basement" note -- the backyard! It's fantastic! With trees! And a garden! and a wooden swingset! And the kitchen! It's so spacious! With a gas stove! And there are hardwood floors throughout the house! Which I grew up with, and wanted to have once again so much. So we're pretty excited. 

five-two

5/2 :: May 2nd :: a return to our 52 weeks project. There are so many amazingly beautiful and creative shots in that group -- I really want to get more into it. So here are our three pairs of shoes today. James is, of course, jumping.

Enjoy your weekend, everyone! It's cold here -- we're having a late spring, it seems. But I am looking forward to a fun weekend of making, at any rate!

Meet Hattie!

I have tons of pictures from New York to go through before I can talk about that trip, so today I'm going to introduce you to Hattie.

Hattie was commissioned as a birthday gift for the older sister of the two boys who now have Faolan and Colin. I was so honored that their mother was happy enough with the two boy dolls and appreciative enough of my work to order another doll from me.

That said, I had a really hard time with Hattie. This was the first doll with which I really struggled for inspiration. I think that mostly it was the timing -- creating her in the midst of making my own children's birthday gifts, some awful late-season colds, and preparing for my trip (which was an ordeal in itself because I thought there was a decent chance I would die in the airplane). Part of it was also that the mother of the recipient had something really specific in mind (she is totally nice -- it's not that she was being difficult or anything), and I wasn't sure how to work that vision into my established dollmaking "style". With all this going on, there was a moment that I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get her to her new family on time. She ended up coming along in my carry-on (messenger bag) on the plane to New York, and her hair and pinafore received their finishing touches in the air. She was quickly photographed in our hotel room, and then we rushed to a Manhattan post office to mail her off. Whew! That was a whirlwind, and a strange way to begin a vacation.

Ultimately, despite the rush, and my own anxieties about her, I think she is so lovely, sweet, and most of all, authentic. There are lots of Waldorf dollmakers out there who are making their dolls to look more modern, fashionable, updated, what-have-you. Some of those dolls are really exquisite. But I like my dolls to have an innocent, old-fashioned quality to them. I want them to be representatives of the archetype of childhood. Despite having sort of come into dollmaking by happenstance, I've discovered that I really do have a philosophy behind my dollmaking, beyond the general Waldorf philosophy regarding dolls (that they should be free from too many details so as to be a "blank slate" for the child's imagination and creative play).

So, I've discovered that I make my dolls with that very wholesome concept of childhood in mind. I believe that they could very well be at home with a child living centuries ago. They represent childhood in its purest form. And each of them is a treasure to me -- as I hope they will be to their new little mamas and daddies.

Remember me?

Hi, my name is Grace, the person who formerly posted to this blog. That's me in New York. On a trip that I took and really want to tell you all about.

Computer. That's all I have to say. It's still dead (I suppose that's kind of redundant), and I don't always have access to the laptop, since it isn't actually mine. And I hate editing photos on it anyway, because despite your reassurances, I think they look bad.

So. These are the things that I think still need some updating on this blog. I am making a list so that you can hold me accountable. Although the timeline might be sketchy depending on computer yuckiness.

1. Trip to New York. Very quick summary: It was so awesome. Too short. But then, I wouldn't have wanted to leave my children for any longer. The opera was the best part. By far. (Although getting to see a very dear friend for the first time in six years and meeting this lovely blogger for the first time ever were also incredibly fantastic.) For now, here is a photo of the Grace building on 42nd Street, just because I had to share it:

2. Elisabeth's birthday doll

3. Another doll that I completed and mailed off recently

4. James's birthday gifts

5. Completed messenger bag (Here's a photo of it for now.)

6. Catching up on my 52 Weeks, My Kids and Me photo project

7. My Virtual Quilting Bee square for April, which I completed about three weeks ago

8. Other various and sundry projects completed sometime in the recent past

Whew! That's really a list! OK, nothing to do now but begin to tick it off. Slowly. :)

PS: Reader Anne left a comment to my last post that a set of birthday ring characters made by the same company as mine (though not the same exact set) can be found here.