Laundry

This is real life. This tangled mess of mine and his and hers and hers and his is how our life is lived. Wrapped up in each other so tightly that some times we have to be forcefully pulled apart. Together we are weaved into the fabric that tells the story of our life. It's messy, complicated, all different sizes. I could not be ME without THEM. The people that make all this laundry that I wash and dry and fold over and over again. It's smoother now that the little people are older and they can help, but still I try to control it. Fold it like this, not that. That's the wrong way to fold towels, and I refold them the right way. But, really, it's just my selfish way of folding it. The way I think looks right. The way my Mom made me fold them. Really, truthfully, my going behind fixing the towels or the shirts or pants isn't important. It really isn't. Even though I somehow find peace in knowing all the towels are folded the right way and the linen closet is tidy. Even though I find it soothing to have everyone's shirts folded the same way and placed just so into all the drawers, it really is just a bandaid if all the other pieces of me are broken. And really, I am. Broken into bits. It's not a bad thing, it's just where I am. Being knit back together by the Master Weaver, relearning how to see beauty in the mundane. Being taught again that yes, it's wonderful to have an orderly and tidy home, but it's also wonderful that I live a messy life. I don't get those extra hours of kidlessness during the school year. We've chosen to homeschool and it's wonderful and awesome that I get to have my little people here growing and learning. It's not always the easy choice and the cleaning we do lasts for about 5 minutes before it's back to real life. I am learning that messy and complicated and hurting and broken and lost are how we grow and change and become better than we are. That in the act of weaving together my children into who they will be is not a task I take on alone. Their Daddy is there, in the morning coffee, the bedtime prayers and the weekend hikes. He walks with me and listens to my wondering if we can possibly accomplish well read, well learned, well raised children when I am as me as I am. He's there in the mix and I am glad. I am glad that when I bend over my buckets I see each of us. That Chris is here, his shirts needing to be mended and ironed. That I can see the girls growing tall and lovely and right out of little girl clothing into women's. That Holden is here, his knees still torn right out of his jeans and his shirts colored brown with dirt from toad catching and tree climbing. I can't help but be thankful that I'm not missing any of them. That my folding laundry can be a moment to stop and breathe prayers over them, remember to be thankful that my piles aren't smaller. Because I know people who have smaller laundry piles from loss and I cannot be upset any more that I have these piles of mine and his and hers and hers and his.

Bedtime Stories

There's this tiny, tini little girl, one I used to know, who had blonde hair with little red paintbrushes on the end.  She felt really big, today she was a whole TWO years old. It was her very own birthday and she was very excited to know that Dad and Mom had a present just for her.  It was a big secret. She had heard her big sisters whispering about the surprise for Tini late at night when she was supposed to be sleeping, tucked up nice and warm in the middle of the bed.




She waited and waited, oh, ever so long for her big, strong Daddy who called her his very own Honey Bunch to get home from work. When he did, she felt all jumpy and excited and kind of scared. She had a hard time eating her supper, even if it was her favorite.  A friend was there too. His name was Alex, and he was very big and very strong and young and the little girl had an idea that he was a very nice man. The kind that big girls dream about with sparkly eyes.




He helped the surprise by blocking the door to the porch with his solidness and the little girl cried, worried that she wasn't getting a present at all. She sulked, that naughty little girl, she didn't want to wait any more for that surprise. Then, oh joy of joys!, her Daddy said, "Ok, Honey Bunch, come out and see! Happy Birthday!" And there----in front of all her family on that big porch, was a brand new SHINY RED TRICYCLE of her very own!




And what do you think that little girl did? Why, she hopped right on that tricycle and peddled as very hard as she could and raced past all her family. She almost went right off the porch, pell mell, down the stairs to the concrete! Her big brother caught her and the whole family laughed and laughed at how thrilled the little girl was, that she forgot there was an edge to the porch. And for the first time, the little girl laughed right along with them....and she felt loved.






Years later, when that little girl was grown up with children of her own, she found a picture from that birthday. She had always thought she was four or five on that birthday, but it was written very blackly on the bottom of the polaroid that she was two. She remembered that birthday so very clearly that it must have a big deal to have something of her own to chase after her big brothers and sisters with. And she told this story to her little girls and boy.

Hello?!~~~is anyone still out there?! Sorry I have been so neglectful of this poor little blog! I shall be back soon with some new projects and things~! I promise~ Isn't fall just lovely? Especially if you are blessed enough to live in New England!  Loving the beauty of it all. I should find some new fall inspired crafts to do, and share some that I did while I was away.

Discovering New Things

I am madly in love with sewing. But, I am living with some lovely chronic back pain, so I am learning to like some different things that are a little less stressful. Things like painting and hot gluing. haha, that sounds funny to me! Pretty sure that hot gluing anything is not really crafting, but let me pretend it is!

This is my button specimen! I love buttons so much, that it's only right that I have them on my walls too!  These are all but three vintage buttons, and it was so much fun choosing which ones to put on! I've toyed with the idea of offering something like this in my etsy shop...what are your thoughts?

Painting with acrylics is FUN! I've had this idea in my head for a long time and  finally put it on paper.  Maybe I should offer something like this too?!

This one is mine. Ha. It's on a canvas and in my happy colors. Love the whole aqua and yellow look. So bright and cheery!

And, Little Miss Doodlepunk, the shop is  open! I'll be adding things throughout the day! Come over and visit me.  I'd be super pleased if I sold something! :) *Here's to hopeful thinking!*

You can find me here: Little Miss Doodlepunk

This And That

I haven't been crafting on my sewing machine as much, but I have been doing other little things.

This tea cup rose pincushion was meant to go to my sweet Mama, but alas, Sir Punkybritches dropped it on the floor and it broke! *insert super upset Mama face here*

I've been building my button collection! You can honestly never have too many of them, because you can use them all over the place. I have a ton of vintage ones, the littlest jar is all vintage. I rarely pay full price for such things.  Thrift stores are where it's at!

Painted container that holds our summer straws. I love the look of opaque glass but it's expensive if you can manage to find it. So, I followed one of the thousands of tutes out there and made one of my own.

This  sweet little hedgehog is destined for a  baby shower in the near future. :)

I followed the lovely tute over at matsutakeblog .

Seriously how cute is she!!?

I love these little projects that don't take much time but are so sweet when you are finished with them.  I can't wait to gift her along with some other little crafty things I have in the works.

I love when people have baby girls. It's fun to think of little pink ruffled things!

And, yes, this was a rather rambling post. That's how my brain has been functioning lately! I can't wait to get back into crafting and sewing full swing! I have some other things in the works that hopefully I will be able to share again soon. Have a beautiful, glorious day!

Braided Headband Tutorial.

I know there are about a million of these out there, but I was so excited that *I* figured it out that I had to share!

1.) Choose some pretty fabrics..you can do two or three braids. Either one is adorable.

2.) Cut two- three strips. Mine are approximately 4"x20"

3.) Cut each of those into three strips.

And no, it doesn't matter if you are cutting in a straight line. This is one of those projects that I like, because I can neither draw nor cut in a straight line.

4.) Find a binder clip, or I suppose you could just tie it off on one end

5.) Clip binder clip to one end and start braiding away. :) I found that if I held the binder clip in my mouth it worked the best for keeping the most consistant looking braids.

6.) Tie off your ends tightly.

7.) Repeat until you have two or three sets.

8.) Pin the ends, so that your braids don't slip as you sew them. It just helps keep everything together for the next step.

9.) Sew those bad boys together. I've found that a tight zig zag stitch holds them together the best. Make sure you go all the way to the ends of your braids, otherwise they will unravel on you!

10.) See how pretty?!

11.) Cut off the ends, pretty close to your seam.

12.) Fold over a piece of scrap on the end to make it look more finished, if you'd like. Sew it on with a straight stitch.

13.) Get out your trusty plain white elastic. I can't really give you a number on it, because I think every kid has a different head size. Just remember that it needs to be snug so it doesn't fall off.

14.) Sew the elastic on the bottom side of headband on both sides.

15.)  Tada! Pretty headband for a sweet little girl or for a Mama to wear. (As is the case for this one!)

16.) You could most certainly stop there, and just leave it like this. Because this is cute.

17.) Or you could make a sweet little coordinating flower to go with it.

18.) I like this one so much that I hot glue gunned on both types, a pin and a clip. Mostly because I want to wear it with other things.

19.) Pin on in the desired spot and wear your sparkling new hair piece. :)

Ps: I am aware that it's been forever since I posted here! Life got in the way.  Summer is busy, but fun! Plus, we got to go camping as a family and it was awesome!

Monster Mouth

Mr. Buddy  has already created holes in the pairs of one our favorite pants, so I fixed them.  He runs around making yelling noises and growling, so I figured I may as well make them monster mouth patches!  They were super easy to do, just felt or polar fleece, needle+thread, and some imagination.

He loves them!  They've even helped him learn new words: mouth, eyes, teeth, and monster! One of these days I will be a good blogger and remember to take pictures of these kinds of things. I forget the step by step photos until I am most of the way through.  If he had another pair of ruined pants, I'd have fixed those too, and then blogged about those ones.  I think they were pretty easy and didn't require any machine sewing, which is great for beginners!

ps: i shall be back soon on a regular blogging schedule! Just trying to fix my back so that I can sew again!