groovin'

in between sewing fabric together and running errands and spending time with jonny and breathing in the sunshine for just a few minutes at a time and solving the problems of the world with my friend heather while she tolerates the whir of the sewing machine as we talk on the phone and spray painting display pieces and crossing items off my "to do" list with a smile on my face and winding vintage twine onto spools and trying not to panic and waking up in the middle of the night with a mind abuzz and deciding to just go ahead and start working for three hours as the birds chirp before the sun comes up and emailing with a dear friend and watching movies while hand sewing and eating dinner with friends and hoping and trusting and believing and laughing and so many other things, i have been taking dance breaks while getting my groove on listening to this.

(you should take one. right now. go on. dare you.)

a wednesday post...on a thursday morning

i had intended to post yesterday...but i went to bed when it was still light out because i was exhausted and fighting a bit of an intense "the only thing that will work is to get into bed with the covers up to your nose" headache. maybe there will be two posts today...stay tuned.

this morning i feel much better.

and yesterday morning i felt really good too. it seems that getting up early, eating breakfast with intention, and then getting out of my usual office clothes i wear until early afternoon (aka pajamas) and into the shower and then into some clothes i love is key to that feeling better feeling right now. my plate is pretty full at the moment...life is pretty full. and that is a gorgeous, happy thing. but it can also feel like a big old pile of stress at times. so self-care has become pretty key. self-care while also working during every available hour.

although sometimes those hours fill up with the ways i find to procrastinate. but that's the way it is for some of us...(thanks to those of you nodding in understanding). that procrastination can come in many forms but often it is through looking at blogs and lately at other vendors who will be at the farm chicks show...and suddenly the self-doubt creeps in. the procrastination that can be a tool for motivation becomes food for the negative self-talk gremlin inside. so i try to find my breath, my balance again and come back to me and to what i know. lately, it hasn't been quite as difficult to do that. a true blessing.

sometimes i feel a bit like the irises jonny brought home for me over the weekend. at first, they just looked like green stalks standing tall. i wondered if they felt annoyed that i had put them in the vase with the tulips that were showing off with their full blooms and honey smell. but slowly they began to stretch and reveal a small peek of purple. and then when i woke up yesterday morning, they had decided to smile widely at me with their deep purple petals kissed with yellow. this is how it is sometimes. we have to be willing to come out of hiding to share the beauty that might be hidden or resting inside us.

i hope you take a breath and then share a bit of your beauty today...

a day for wearing an apron

i found out about national apron day last year at the apronista. i think it is supposed to be the day after mother's day, but i haven't really heard any whisperings about it in blog world this year...but i am celebrating today all the same.

i suppose the real point it to wear your apron out in the world...but i am not so much getting out into the world today...however, i did wear my apron:

watching 30 minutes of marie antoinette and feeling quite inspired by the colors in that movie

dancing with millie while the indigo girls sang "virginia woolf"

choosing fabric for some patchwork

eating some m&ms dipped in peanut butter

changing from annoyed to grateful when thinking about the garbage truck waking me up so early this morning (because of it i was able to finish editing early enough to sew this afternoon)

making tea

thinking about what flowers i would like to plant in the pots outside

smiling when jonny emailed to say he would pick up some food for dinner

reading an email from a friend just checking in with me

creating a few aprons that will look like this one (though this is my favorite photo of that apron in action)

chatting on the phone with a friend

singing along with billy joel to his glass houses album while the sewing machine whirred

feeling hopeful and content

a saturday evening

an evening filled with:
the last forty-five minutes of this favorite movie from my childhood*
cuddling on the couch
indiana
chocolate ice cream
more hand sewing
the honey smell of yellow tulips
avoiding the mess that can no longer be contained in the little room
the sound of millie softly snoring
this candle burning on the altar

now i'm off to bed with the current issue of artful blogging...

what are you up to?

*the soundtrack is up there in my top ten favorite soundtracks...seriously...though i bet you aren't a bit surprised

a weekend full of

laughter

playing

love

breathing

friendship

sewing

watching movies (scary but good and beautiful)

enjoying the sun

doing

planning

being