honeyflake

w is for wednesday

w is for wednesday.
w sure is for wednesday, isn't it?

w is for winding down.
believe it or not, i've been sitting down at the computer every wednesday for a full year documenting "w" related details that captured something from the day. the first one just happened on its own, very organically, it was simply just what was going on, on that cold winter day — i noticed a few elements of our day that all began with w, so i grouped them together into a post and titled it "w is for wednesday"... once i wrote that first w themed post on january 10th, i apparently couldn't stop. each week i've told myself if there wasn't anything that fit the day, i wouldn't post it, but each week, each wednesday, there would amazingly be some w words that would surface and find their way to the blog. but now, i think it is time to take a break from the w's, put them aside for a while. the mark of a full year seems like a nice time to do that. not saying that they won't pop back up here from time to time, making encore apperances in the future, just for now there will be a little more space in between. you know, letting go of this weekly reccurring w pattern might be just right... we'll see...

w is for woohoo!

w is for wednesday

w is for welcome 2008.
happy new year everyone. well the new year has happily begun and without further ado here goes my official first post of '08...

w is for we're home.
not sure if anyone noticed or not, that last weekend we packed up, set the blog to post on auto-pilot, piled into the prius and hit the road for a small family roadtrip. over the river and through the baltimore harbor tunnel to grandmother's house we went. it was just a couple days and nights but we packed in a lot of visits with family and several trips to multiple main streets — main street annapolis (maryland), main street newark (delaware)... it was fun to travel together for a quick getaway and of course it is pretty nice to be back and settled in. yes, hello home.

w is for watering hole.
while cruising through delaware on new year's day we stopped by an old favorite place for a quick lunch...

w is for wxpn.
the trip to maryland and back is one that we've done many times before. we know the route without a map. we know the pitstops. and we know the local radio stations as the road meanders southward. fresh, live out-of-town air waves are a highlight on the journey. first stop 88.5 philadelphia.

w is for wrnr.
next to be dialed in is 103.1 annapolis. a sign that our destination was near... and for the return trip? same stations, reverse the order. listening to each station until reception fades away. until we are back home again.

w is for wednesday

w is for wrapped up.
for the most part anyway... the preparations, the gift making, the gathering, the celebrating.... hope you too had some days filled merriment, togetherness and holiday cheer as well. the lazy quietness of today is oh so nice. the day after christmas is like a holiday unto itself really. time to relax, reflect a little, take it all in, wind down... we all pretty much spent the greater part of the day hanging around, wrapped up in something...
me = old big blanket and sweater... chuck = wooly knitted hat... margaret = toys... the dolls = their new blankets, sweater and hats...

w is for world cafe.
listened to a few good broadcasts of this radio show through the magic of the internet while we hung around.

w is for weeeeeeee.
not-so-new bendy folks seem like new again while they go for a spin on their new wooden swing ride. sweet.

i'd love to share more of our holiday happenings, i'll hopefully put together another post or two in the next couple of days recapping what i can before the spirit of the season is too wrapped up and i forget all the details. enjoy the peacefulness of the week.

w is for wednesday

w is for warm soup.
today's lunch. warm soup. each week i've been trying to cook something full of flavor and comfort in a large quantity, like a chili, a big squash lasagne, or a soup. i spend one day cooking something really good, which will hopefully last more than one meal (this soup lasted two dinners and one lunch ) it has been giving me time away from the kitchen and more time to work on the handmade holidays, or if i choose, time to clean up around all the handmade holiday attempts... this week i tried a new recipe from my favorite soup cookbook. all of her recipes in this book are so good. it was given to me as a gift over ten years ago and i'm still working my way through all the recipes. this one is chick-pea soup mamusia — sweet potatoes, chick-peas, tomatoes, cinnamon, ginger, saffron, etc... a good one! flavor? comfort? yes and yes each time around!!!

w is for wreath.
deja vu. this years wreath — put together once again by chuck. embellished like last year with rosehips from the yard, driftwood from the beach (new idea for '07), rope bow and shells — making an appearance on a wednesday post, again.

w is for white christmas.
w is for we wish you a merry christmas.
w is for winter wonderland.
w is for we three kings.
w is for we need a little christmas.
w is for what child is this.
w is for what we're singing around here.
christmas tunes all around — starting with a w or not, really. my favorite one? anything sung by margaret. she's my favorite holiday music artist for sure. we sing a lot around here all year round, but there's something extra sweet about these sounds this time of year. listening to her versions of these classic merry tunes is a real highlight of the season.

w is for wednesday

w is for wisking and whirling.
baking? always a hit around here. so today, when i was feeling like i wanted to keep the whole holiday creating momentum going, but couldn't really work on margaret's gifts while she was around, i opted to go for making a few batches of cookies. i'm thinking this was an excellent choice. (gotta love when everyone's involved, engaged and feeling productive.) we started with a batch of sugar cookies and spent the afternoon together wisking, mixing, rolling dough and cutting shapes (stars!).

w is for well stocked.
i've got enough butter, sugar, flour and eggs for many more batches to come. holiday baking, how i love thee.

w is for wednesday

w is for winter-ish.
more snow
veggie chili
tree lights
old comforter
christmas crafting

w is for wednesday

w is for w.i.p. (work in progress).
just a glimpse of some projects i have going on. most of the ones here are of the doll-accessory variety. i'm thinking these will make great wee gifts for the advent flags (which will go up this weekend) or as gifts in the stocking. it is pretty hard to work on these and have them remain a secret. quite challenging actually to keep anything from the resident all-knowing four year old. the works in progress include two knitted doll hats, a doll sweater, a pair of felt doll shoes and two doll knapsacks. all do-able i think, it is the keeping them a surprise that i am worried about.

w is for without a net.
i pulled this classic double-disc album out off of our cd shelves today to import it into my itunes. i thought i should include it in this "w" post for sure. this was one of my very first cds. part of the *11 free* cds i received when my sister got me to join the columbia house music club (being 1990 i think my official first cd was the police?) right before i went off to college. i was transitioning from albums and tapes to the smaller, modern cds. yes, off to college i went with a dinosaur-sized 3-disc cd player and a small handful of new music. this one quickly rose to the top. 1. because, well, it is the grateful dead and 2. it was probably one of the few that my freshmen year roomate and i could agree upon. she was a huge follower of the band, and while i really liked them, at that time my feet were still pretty planted in all the new wave i knew and loved (the smiths, the cure, etc...). listening to this cd today, as it gets converted into mp3s, takes me back. i remember watching my roomate frantically calling the dead's hotline in california, long-distance, daily to see when mailorder would start for tickets. this was fascinating. and i had no idea that just a year or so later i too, along with my good friend and now-husband, would be blissfully sucked into the vortex of the grateful dead phenomenon. we ourselves soon were mail-ordering tickets. we were travelling. we were dancing. we were collecting and trading bootleged live shows on maxell tapes. (some of these traded audience taped live shows are already in my itunes like the 9.2.68 show at betty nelson's organic rapsberry farm.) goodness. but without a net was my first. the beginning of an extraordinary and wonderful musical adventure.

w is for wordy.
hmmm, apparently i have no problem going on and on about who knows what here today. i know some of you prefer the shorter, photo-based posts. i'm sure those posts will return soon. however, if you have taken the time to read through all these words today, thanks!

w is for wednesday

w is for we're feeling... thankful.
preparing for a day that will be spent gathered around the table (actually, by now, we need about three or four tables for this ever-enlarging-four-generation-family's traditional day of thanks). here's to gratitude, family, food and just plain good warm vibes all around. have a great one!

w is for wednesday

w is for wool details.
i'm still carrying around my golden knitting project that i started a few weeks back. the main shape is there - now it is all about the details. the pattern calls for an i-cord. i needed to research this on some knitting sites to figure out what it is and how it is done... turns out it is a thin yarn tube created from repetitively knitting three little stitches row after row. after a few tries on several different sized needles i got it going and a drawstring is now underway, just a few inches to go. next up — fringe!

w is for washing and ironing.
little clothes. little clothes line. little wash board. little iron. wash-day never looked so sweet. and if you too have a wee pair of two inch mary-janes in need of ironing — today, this was your place.

w is for wednesday

w is for windy day.
the kind of wind that when it stops blowing has the sunshine feeling nice n' warm and you can enjoy watching your child collect up the falling leaves but when it briskly kicks in again has you zipping up your fleece, crossing your arms (trying to remember where you stashed last year's winter coat), and wanting to scurry back inside for a little more chamomile tea... (thanks to nonnie for the tea, backyard trees and
their leaves)

w is for wednesday

w is for white pumpkins, way ho! and what a lot of loot.

happy halloween.

w is for wednesday

w is for witch.
someone around here is embracing that true d.i.y. halloween spirit! (hint: as of yet it is not chuck or myself). can you believe it is just a week away? we need to weigh anchor and get crackin on this year's costume request pronto...

w is for wednesday

w is for washroom.
things are still moving forward (and sometimes slightly backwards) around here with the washroom renovation. today's chapter (and probabaly the next few days' as well) revolves around the tiles. these little swatches of clay were one of the first decisions we made in this process. we loved them because they had a great texture, they were a bit reminiscent of beach glass in color, and also because they were hand crafted of fifty-percent recycled materials. one-by-one these little three inch squares are finding their space on the wall of the shower. i keep walking by thinking how cool it would be to have every surface in there entirely covered with this green smooth patchwork (obviously i'm not the one laying these wee little tiles one-by-one). yes, we'll stick to our plan to only have them up and around the tub. the rest of the walls will hopefull get to be covered in another form of clay material which chuck already picked up from green depot... but one step at a time. for now it is tiles. and i'm hoping not too far behind will be a usable shower with hot running water...

w is for wednesday

w is for walls.

or lack thereof... today, the remodel continues...

w is for wednesday

w is for wood chairs.
the wood chairs that i sit in while typing up my posts. there are 3 lined up at the table, all second-hand with their own origin and story. these interchangeable seats constantly get switched around and rearranged. today i am in this one (above). the criminal chair. picked up by us at a grungy looking antique-ish/used belongings type of place in the city several years ago. it has a little plaque on the back that reads "n.y.s. supreme court criminal term" giving us a hint at it's past... its scratched up, its sturdy, its the one in front of my monitor right now... other times however it might be this chair lined up for computer use...

the college goodwill chair. one summer at college, i wanted to paint up some furniture to add to the tapestry covered sofa and lazy boy. chuck found this chair at the local goodwill and as a surprise picked it up for me and spent a day sanding it down to reveal its simple wooden finish. i never could bring myself to paint over it. it came home with me from college, spent a few years at my parents house, was one of the few pieces of furniture in our first apartment, and now is here in the house, as comfortable but creaky as ever...

and then the baby bear chair. the wee little wooden chair that today sits in the middle of the two. the littlest with the lowest seat but probably the heaviest. this one was found by chuck at a garage sale one day. it has a matching partner that's in another room (or possibly in the attic now that i think about it). somehow this pint-sized version even finds its way in front of the computer too.

yes. an eclectic bunch these chairs, yet fitting together quite nicely.

w is for wednesday

w is for wale.
from dark evergreen wide wale to light soft pink thin wale with several other wales in between, the various corduroys from my stash seem to have me inspired lately. it's a bit surprising because these guys are far from new, most of them i've actually had for a pretty long time... for instance, i recall a specific bulky corduroy buying spree back in the fall of 2001 at a mid-town nyc fabric store... that is where the mustard yellow and navy blue cord came from (there was also a dark maroon that i think i used up last fall for a knapsack). the evergreen piece came from my grandmother's attic a while back. and then there are scraps from clothes — that beige swatch (try to say that 5 times fast for laughs) in the photo is from a pair of my brother's old cord pants. so yeah, lots of different wales right now sitting next to my sewing machine...

w is for white beans.
this afternoon found me sitting down to shell a pile of cranberry beans from our csa with margaret right by my side. as with most kitchen activities, she enjoyed this task so much i let her take it over in full force — inspecting each white and sometimes red-speckled bean, one-by-one as they came from the pods... she was quite happy to do this herself, and i was quite happy to have the help, and chuck was quite happy to eat them when he came home.

w is for wednesday

w is for wood stove.
i think at least once a day there is some flurrry of activity at the play stove. stirring, whisking, boiling, baking... on today's menu: tea, carrrots, mushroom and seashells...

w is for well fed.
after a summer of providing our yard and flower vases with beautiful golden blooms, our sunflowers are moving on and are now providing the neighborhood wildlife with food for their bellies. The little yellow finches go wild in the morning and afternoon fortifying themselves with the seeds. now, sudddenly they have a little competition from this squirrel. i've caught him munching out there two days in a row. he completely chews off a flower head, scurries over to set himseslf up on our chair and then the feasting begins... it is nice to see this guy (as long as he stays away from my bulbs!) because it is really a sign of the seasons changing—that we can observe right outside our window... nature... bulking up for colder months to come, and hopefully spreading some of those hardy seeds to secret places which will surprise us in the spring!

w is for windchimes.
just a great sound coming in through the open windows today...

w is for wednesday

w is for without a memory card.
while i tend to bring my camera with me wherever i go, i need to remember that it won't get me very far if i do not have the memory card with it. sometimes, like this afternoon on our beach trip (the kind of "off-season" afternoon trip with an empty beach, a child full of energy, amazing lighting, wicked waves, plenty of room to play and photo inspiration everywhere), i find myself clicking away, only to realize well into it that i have left the memory card back at the computer. all the photos i thought i was capturing were really nowhere to be found. yes, a bit of a bummer. however i bounced back pretty quickly after realizing this mishap... tossing the camera into my tote, along with our shoes, carrying on with our walk... letting go of all thoughts "photo"... feeling the wind and the little grains of sand being blown onto our legs... letting my hair be blown into my eyes... simply noticing and enjoying the almost solitude that is there during the week now that the summer crowds have wanned... so, ok, we didn't come home with any cool new photos, but we did come home home with 1 scallop shell with a hole on the top, 1 nice worn down purple piece of a clam shell and i think a bit of that calm, renewed energy you get from being outdoors that then had us ready for the evening's routine.

w is for wednesday

w is for watercolors.
today as an activity i set margaret up at her little table with three simple jars of watercolor paint and just two pieces of watercolor paper to see where she went with it. at first there was a lot of talking and excitement and then came the quiet. as she chose each color and added it to the water-soaked paper she was totally silent and absorbed in it all (as i myself was getting lost behind my camera lens taking probably a few to many pictures of it all). there was swirly, dotting, color-making "look! i made orange!", just a really good time exploring colors and their moods and the process of painting...

w is for what a surprise.
oh look, tomatoes for lunch today. what a surprise. and dinner tonight? yep. more tomatoes... this much anticipated and appreciated summer bounty has the kitchen creations pretty predictable around here lately... but with real flavor and color like this we don't mind at all.

w is for wednesday

w is for week off.
a whole week without a blog post! where have i been? pretty much here and possibly a little bit there. let's see, since last wednesday's post there has been more summer cooking with tomatoes (more sauce), summer flowers blooming (our sunflowers are still coming with bursts of color around our yard), summer lawn care, summer roadtrip planning, summer afternoon yoga teacher training classes, summer mixed-cd making (you know, tunes for the road trip), and a bit of some sort of summer flu (i picked up a head cold or something that had me zapped of all my energy for a few days, but i think it's on it's way out, and luckily no one else in the house seemed to pick it up), and finally we hit the road and escaped for another summer getaway... be back soon (sooner than next wednesday, i promise)...

w is for wednesday

w is for white mug.
my favorite for tea. tonight since it is pretty chilly, it is filled with warm red rooibos. so good.

w is for warm fleece.
why is it so much more lovable when it comes in wee little child sizes? a much needed layer for the cooler days ahead.

w is for waiting for the sun.
there has been a string of gray and rainy days this week... it will be so nice when the sun makes an appearance again.

w is for waiting til the last minute.
this wednesday post is coming in just under the wire tonight. 11:57 p.m. a few minutes just before thursday.... its been that type of week...

w is for wednesday

w is for watering.
unless there's been rain overnight, this is the start to my summer mornings — out the back door, shoes optional, to water the garden. above is a photo of one of our brandywines... we're still waiting for the first one to ripen. anyday...

w is for wrapping.
for a brief period this afternoon our backyard felt like a mini-summer camp. margaret and i found ourselves with a blanket spread out on the grass, a pile of yarn (purchased from a thrift store on a whim several months ago), and a nice selection of twigs, exploring a classic child's craft... it took a few rounds of over/under, over/under before margaret picked it up and was happily off creating away... i made one too and actually found it pretty meditative, all that repetitive wrapping, like a gentler knitting or something... happiness all around! (and around, and around, and around....)

w is for wednesday

w is for water filter.
after months of waiting in its box our water filter for the kitchen sink has been installed. copper pipes were cut, water was turned off and back on, and by the end of the afternoon cool filtered h2o was flowing from our faucet's new side-kick tap. this is something that we've been wanting to set up for a while now, but haven't exactly had the time to do, until today. good for the planet and good for us on a hot — really hot — summer day.

w is for wading.
while the water filter was being installed by chuck on the homefront, i kept busy by bringing margaret to meet up with friends at a little beach/preserve (one i've never been to before) where the water was calm and rocky and the mamas and little ones waded out up to our knees to keep cool...

w is for where did this guy come from?.
a surprise visitor growing on our back stoop... a wee arugula plant. was he carried there by a bird? the wind? or could it have been the time margaret and i accidentally spilt that pack of seeds out there? hmmmmm....

w is for wednesday

w is for watermelon.
a whole lot of it. perhaps a little too much of it? yesterday, while out shopping for some summer fruit to have on hand, i must have gotten caught up in my mission and ended up coming home with an entire watermelon. we got home and i served up a few slices while margaret cooled off under the backyard sprinkler (now if that doesn't conjure up a total image of summer i don't know what does, right?). then i realized our few slices hardly made a dent in the massive green globe. so i chopped up the remaing fruit into haphazard geometric shapes and stored them on several shelves of the fridge. until today. oh yes, today was all about the watermelon. after having some for breakfast and a mid morning snack, i realized that i might need a little inspiration in using up the rest creatively... here are some results of my research, hopefully i'll get to try one or two and perhaps you may too....

on skewers with tomatoes

with parmesan cheese!!

ice pop a la martha

with arugula and vinegar

as a blank canvas

w is for wednesday

w is for windows.
letting in the evening breezes.

w is for waldo.
he's been coming home with us from the library time and time again this summer.

w is for winning streak.
the home team is enjoying a bit of a winning streak. go yanks!

w is for wednesday

w is for wave that flag.

w is for wednesday

w is for wash day.
lights. darks. all of it has been needing a little attention the past few days and finally today i got around to it. fluff and fold. fluff and fold. fluff and fold. fluff and fold...

w is for windsocks.
the windsock project that i started a few weeks ago at a festival (but didn't have enough time to finish there) is finally all stitched up and hanging from a tree in the yard. this was such a simple project and a really good way to use up some fabric scraps, i thought i'd share a little more of the details... the shape was sewn freehand placing some scraps of fabric to be sewn in the seems for fins (that should eventually fray in the wind). a large plastic yogurt container was used for the mouth, which the fabric was folded over and sewn. it was finished with more fabric for the eyes and string to hang it with. a little breeze is all we need now...

w is for warm and muggy.
that was today. the first day of summerish heat. humidity building all day and finally now as i type the skies have opened up with an early evening shower to cool things down a bit.

w is for wednesday

w is for warmest season.
summer. all the signs are here. flowers from the yard. fresh local fruit. sun still coming in the dinette window well after six pm... are we sure it hasn't begun? the warmest of the seasons, is officially hours away (in some parts of the world celebrations are already underway! cool.) and i am so ready...

w is for while they're still in season.
another rainy wednesday morning, another trip out to the strawberry fields. we didn't have anything planned for today so margaret and i decided to go see if the farms still had any berries growing in their strawberry patches. we were happy to learn that they did and that the little fruits were even sweeter than last week... must have been that fresh misty coating of raindrops.


w is for wine carafe.
something simple, just a used wine carafe i came across at a thrift store this afternoon. i actually have been looking for something like this for the small handfulls of fresh cut flowers i bring in during the summer.

w is for wehm.
after margaret wore herself out in the backseat singing "rain rain go away" and "mr. golden sun", we took a tour up and down the radio dial and picked up this laid-back station...

w is for wednesday

w is for while they're in season.
something we look forward to all winter long is here... the middle of june when all the little berries out in the local strawberry fields are ripening and at their sweet peak. lately i've been very inspired by many articles, books and websites talking up the virtues of eating local fruits and vegetables that are in season - how it was generations ago. i can totally get down with that this strawberry season. i'm ready to embrace the fresh ruby gems in all their glorious abundance until our pallettes have savoured enough until next year. we already received a container of these edible red treasures from our csa, which we devoured in about a day. today we were ready to head out and pick some more for ourselves. so margaret, nonni and i piled into the prius and took a ride, through some rain showers, to an organic u-pick strawberry field, where there was blue sky and not a drop of mud in sight. i think they must have been expecting us. we spent a bit of time out in the field, looking down, getting lost in our own search - but sticking together. i think the highlight for me was hearing something, a noise, and looking up to realize it was nonni singing a song as she was reaching down to pick another strawberry for herself. i was just really appreciating this time together.

w is for wandering.
getting to the strawberry field was a pretty direct route, with one destination in mind. returning home was a bit different. my grandmother is one for scenic routes and stopping for things along the way. driving home we meandered, wandered and stopped to smell the roses (as well as the sunflowers, cosmos and a few fresh baked pies) and eventually found ourselves back home.

w is for waking up.
on the ride home, margaret surprised me by falling asleep. this is something that hasn't happened in quite some time. and since i usually don't get to carry her sleepy-self in from the car that often, i decided to keep on holding her in the house for a bit longer until she woke up and realized we were back home.

w is for wednesday

w is for wun-hundred and wun.
cue the music, start the fireworks display, and enjoy the celebration. today's post is number 101!!!!! release the recycled confetti!!! i'm quite pleased to have made it this far with this blog. all the photos, the words, the w's on wednesday, i can remember... oh, what's that? i don't have it quite right? wait, let me see, last time i checked it was something like ninety-eight, ninety-nine, wun-hundred, wun-hundred and wun? isn't that it? ok, yes, i know... well, anyway, i hope you choose to sit back and enjoy today's summer-like fanfare photo and keep on visiting. cheers to fun, happy blog posts and wun-hundred and wun more! as always thanks for stopping by.

w is for wednesday

w is for white salad turnips.
amazingly good. this is the last of the white salad turnips that we got in our csa box yesterday. it was reccomended to us to just slice them up and eat them raw and so that is what we did. all of us loved them. i served the last one tonight at margaret's request.

w is for whale spinach.
spinacia oleracea. another photo of our whale spinach. (i promise there are really other things growing out there). i can't believe how fast it is maturing. i picked a bunch tonight and mixed it in with some of yesterday's farm spinach for dinner.

w is for walkin the plank.
still very much in pirate mode around here. we've been pluggin away at creating pirate paraphernalia. hoping everything comes together so no one will be sent to walk the plank.

w is for wednesday

w is for world traveller.
this little dude hitched a ride all the way from india to my living room, along with his sandalwood companion ganesh, in my sisters suitcase this week. while on a business trip she picked up these carved souvenirs for us. here is the happy buddha stetching from his journey. ganesh is currently abiding with my candle and incense.

w is for weekend.
today is wednesday. i'm sure of it. but it really feels like the weekend around here. chuck is off for a few days, so today felt like a saturday... filled with weekend activities like sleeping in, drinking coffee until lunch, mowing the lawn, eating lunch and dinner together, etc...

w is for washing out.
we had a few silkscreens that needed to be washed out before they could be used again. so early this morning chuck got them all cleaned and back to a useable state. i love that even when clean they still hold the impressions of old projects.

w is for weru.
listened to this cool radio station via the internet this afternoon. weru is broadcast from a town called blue hill up in maine. i remember discovering this station while on a camping/road trip around the pine tree state back in 2002. today i was happy to catch a song played off of page mcconnell's new solo cd. go page - so good to hear you!

w is for wednesday

w is for windows.
a few little fingerprints and smudges turned into a whole window cleaning extravaganza this morning. the sun shining in through our front window got me to notice all the blotchy spots on there. some days i don't see them at all. today they seemed extra smudgy. so i got out the spritzer of cleaner and wiped down a few windows around the whole house. then i realized that it didn't fully solve the problem in the big front window. most of the spots were outside. should i? or shouldn't i? i thought about it. and i figured while i was thinking about it and while i had the spritzer out, i'd try to clean the outside too...

w is for wobbly old ladder.
i went so far as taking this old wobbly wooden ladder out of the garage, by myself, and carting it out around to the front window. this ladder is pretty old—i'm not even sure if i should have been standing on it. it is such a cool ladder—aged wood, caked with paint, a little unsteady... a few careful steps and it worked fine. i got up to the window and cleaned what i could (without stepping on too many of the wildflower plants down below) while margaret buzzed around the lawn pretending to be "baby fairy" who was watching me clean the castle windows... then i lugged the creaky ladder back to its reliable spot against the garage wall. being that i was not able to reach all the spots on all the windows i have a feeling that this ladder will be out again soon...

w is for white flowers in the yard.
little white flowers found all around the corners of our yard. my favorite is the small lily of the valley. i'm not sure what the other ones are but the large tree/bush will briefly be full of these small blossoms. i've already set up a mini-bouquet of the lily of the valley on my clean-for-now front window's sill.

w is for wednesday

w is for watering the tomatoes.
still up in the attic. still under their lights. today i found myself still going up to there to water these guys. they are doing quite well, i think.

w is for wardrobe.
every once and a while, like today, i'll bring down from the attic a treasure from my childhood... my prized collection of snoopy clothes. yes after all these years i've kept this box of outfits and the 2 stuffed snoopys that they belonged to. it is something that margaret really gets into - it keeps her very entertained. she uses the wardrobe for my old snoopy dogs, her more modern version of snoopy and any other doll or animal that she can. it thrills me to be able to share this box of memories with her.

w is for worn.
after 30 or so years he still hasn't aged much. just a few worn out spots and a nose that is hanging on by a few threads. he's as cool as ever.

w is for weeds?.
today's fresh cut flower bouquet. a solo dandelion. margaret picks them as fast as they grow around here. in our yard we embrace the dandelions in all their yellow-ness. they multi-task not only as fresh cut flowers but as nitrogen infusers for our lawn and as golden pirate treasure waiting to be found. lovely.

w is for wednesday

w is for walkin blues.
fresh out of the box and still bright turquoise blue, today margaret did some walkin around and playing around in her cool new shoes.

w is for wild-crafted.
my aromatherapy treatment of choice. buddha nose. a few years ago, when i was living in the city, and i was a very new stressed out mom, i went for a shiatsu massage. it was just the coolest experience. the massage therapist mentioned that the scents which she used, and created herself, were sold at the front counter. so i picked one up on the way out, you know, swooning from my treatment and the fact that she used organic and wild-crafted essential oils, who could resist? i think i'd like to have anything if i was told it was wild-crafted (which is harvesting plants from out in their wild & natural habitat. done sustainable and with respect for the living plant). anyway, maybe it is the wild-crafting or maybe it is the blend of cedarwood and juniper, but i find myself dabbing a little of the magical salve behind my neck, on my wrists, etc... on any given wednesday... ok, on any given day.

w is for who loves the sun.
w is for who cares that it makes plants grow?.
w is for who cares what it does since you broke my heart?.
pa pa pa paaaaa, who loves the sun? while i was in the kitchen this afternoon, cooking up a tofu & red kale quiche, i popped in the velvet underground's 1970s cd loaded. good to listen to this track while the sun was trying to break out from behind the clouds and into my back door. pa pa pa paaaaa, who loves the sun?

w is for wednesday

w is for writing in journals.
i've always been into keeping records of the life's details in some form or another. i love saving thoughts from a time in my life and finding them again later on - be it a blog, travel journals, calendars, scrapbooks, sketchbooks, written journals, art journals. lately i've been filling up 2 different moleskine journals. one is mainly straightforward writting and pretty much always in black pen. the other is more of an art journal - filled with paints, stamps, stapled or glued in ephemera... one great thing about this artistic outlet is that it is portable and perfect for sunny spring/summer days spent outdoors. i like the art journal process because it is a great excuse to break out the cool supplies. and if i plan on breaking out all these fun supplies to work on a new page or two, the only way to get it done is to include margaret in the process and let her experiment and create right along side me. and that is what we did today.

w is for wet paint.
a photo of today's page in progress. simply 2 handprints side-by-side. something quick and easy to capture what was going on in the moment.

w is for woodless watercolor pencils.
some of today's tools. these just feel so great when you hold them. what more could you ask from a medium? they are like colored pencils without the wood - just a stick of pigment that can be dissolved into the page with a little water.

w is for which roll do you think is margaret's?.
this morning's bread making session turned out pretty ok. fuelled us up for our busy afternoon.

w is for wednesday

w is for water bottle.
the warming up of the season definitely brings our thoughts to camping around here. this weekend we picked up a nice, shiny, red, plastic-free, mini water bottle for margaret of her very own. she is very excited. it has been her favorite drinking vessel of choice. today she had me hook it up to her knapsack (along with some other small gear) so she could be all set. i can not believe she is getting big enough to want her own water bottle and i also can not wait for the first time she gets to use it out on the trail.

w is for whole tomatoes.
all week i've had an eggplant and a bunch of green beans sitting around, waiting to be cooked and i just hadn't felt inspired to make anything with them, until today. with some help from a can of whole tomatoes and a borrowed copy of the 1965 the bontempi cookbook from my grandmother, i got some ideas and i whipped them all up into a few tomatoey dishes that we can enjoy over some whole wheat cous cous tonight. viva la pomodoro!

w is for wishing my mom a happy birthday.

w is for wednesday

w is for writing books.
a new favorite thing to do around here is to make books and write stories. margaret and i made this simple paperbag book, then she drew a few pictures. the story line is short and quirky and all hers. i am just the bookmaker and scribe. she dictates it all to match her drawings and i dare not change a word. we hope to make a few more to make a collection.

w is for we are neighbors.
our lovely neighbors bestowed upon us a few old books they were going to get rid of. one of which was an old school reader entitled "we are neighbors" (how perfect). it is currently at the top of our book reading list. margaret loves all the stories (chapter after chapter) about the children who live on garden street in the 1950s, who seem to play wonderfully all day in their pinafores and tucked in striped t-shirts.

w is for wand.
this morning's priority was to fix the baby fairy's wand... very simple. just retwisted the ribbon along the wand, a bit of scotch tape to hold it in place and it is ready for magic once again.

w is for wednesday

w is for wet.
watched the rain pour down all day while perched in front of my computer in the living room...

w is for working again.
i spent all day finishing up another freelance job today. this one was much shorter and easier than last week's. it helped a lot too that chuck was home from work both yesterday and today taking care of and playing with margaret while i tried to get the project done (this time trying to keep it to daytime work not middle of the night work). i'm happy to have finished up so i can now try to return to the more normal rhythm aroud here. and perhaps tackle some of those other creative tasks like easter dresses, easter eggs, etc...

w is for walnut bars.
today chuck and margaret went off in the rain to whole foods together and along with the good stuff like kale, chard, asparagus and apples they came home with over a pound of shelled walnuts. they asked if i would make a batch of walnut brown sugar bars (from magnolia's cookbook)... no twisting of my arm needed, that was a perfect excuse to take a break.

w is for wednesday

w is for winner.
thanks to everyone for leaving enthusiastic comments on the gnome post. i wish i had enough extra gnomes for all. we put the names in a little basket today and the golden winner was... beth (there were actually 2 beths in the basket, i marked one "beth" and the other "beth d.") congratulations. they'll be on their way soon.

w is for work @ home.
getting reaquainted with photoshop. saying good-bye to and missing quark xpress. getting aquainted with indesign. this week i received a surprise and much welcomed offer for a quick freelance design project. so i've been here at the computer in the day and well, well, well into the night... reminding me somewhat of my sleepless college all-nighter days, moving photos around, juggling layers of type, and who let that child in my dorm room and why does she keep asking me for breakfast?