Let's begin again

5 months later, to the day.  SO, I ask you guys how often would you like to see me blog?  You respond, then I don't show up for 5 months.  My bad.  I think maybe not one day goes by that I don't think about this place and have a 'want' to fill it.  I love writing here, it's just not always at the top of my list.

My list looks like this (in no particular order):

paint lettering
paint art
tidy desk
fold washing
feed baby
change baby
spend time with baby
exercise
get 5 year old to the bus on time
tidy my dresser
sew stuff
crochet stuff
draw
do a dot-to-dot
blog
take pretty photos
finish custom work
list new things on etsy
eat
drink coffee
drink water
drink more water
mail stuff
make that gift for so and so
mail that gift
have a shower
get dressed
put face on (brows and mascara)
clip toe nails
drink cold coffee
nap
write a novel
make a calendar for 2017

At this stage in my life, only about six things on the list get done every day.  Every day I think about everything on that list, and more.  Oh, to have more time, more sleep, more exercise.

I have been fighting lately, not always winning, at thinking positively.  But I know I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.  He is the only One that can make me truly content, if I truly let Him.  He fills the voids that I create myself, the greed void, the envy void, the 'I want' void.

I made a baby sling a while back.  And although it's perfectly fine, I really want to have one made out of linen.  I want to buy some linen.  I don't need it.  I have a great ring sling, it works, it's comfortable.  I don't need another one.  I tell myself to stop wanting what I don't actually need.  It's hard!

My husband is really good at making coffee.  I am a lot less of a perfectionist when it comes to designs on the top, I try but it doesn't bother me when it's not super pretty.  I can make a heart, and something that resembles an onion, or a blob, or a hippopotamus if you squint.

Around the time baby was due, I bought a nice big bag to use as a diaper bag.  It only took a few months before the seams began to split.  I was not impressed.  Granted, it was from a massive store, bag made in another country en masse, not well-made.  But, really, if you buy a bag, do you expect it to fall apart in a few months?  If that's the quality of workmanship we have grown to expect (and still pay for), then it's a sad era we live in.  I patched it up with pretty sashiko style mending.  This bag is going to last.

For some (or most of us), when you have a baby, your body is a completely new shape afterwards.  Even if you get back to your original weight, things just don't fit the same.  Wider hips, thinner or larger thighs, wider fingers, narrower neck.  Seriously, pregnancy has changed my body forever.  It's not for the worse, or for the better.  It's just different.  These pants looked great post pregnancy, but a few months later they didn't stay up the right way and the length was weird.  I decided to cut them shorter.  Silly me, I did it right in front of my 5 year old... who then decided he wanted to cut some of his pants up... parent fail. I saved his pants.

Jumbo crochet.  So pretty, so soft.

I bought a plain bandana and carved a new fish stamp, to try my hand at fabric stamping.  It turned out so pretty.

I love painting wreaths.

Here I am, trying to take a 'cool' pic of my giant yarn and giant hook.

Leaf-painting inspiration, down at the bus stop.

It's halloween season, but all this made me think of was, "Oh my, there are BEAR HUNTING SPIDERS?"  Giant (fake) webs cause my imagination to wonder what the spiders are trying to catch.  At the Dutch Brothers coffee drive-through, of course.  New Zealand, drive-through coffee is the way to go.

A photo of my desk.  A great reminder to be content.  He provides me with everything I need, nothing more, nothing less.

Pretty wreaths.

I noticed that I usually draw the leaves all flowing clock-wise.  It's kind of funny, but in my eye it just looks right that way.

Testing out some coloring paper with my designs.  Pretty and fun.

Sometimes I think I'm finished with a piece of art, but it doesn't quite feel right.

Then I finished it.

After remodelling this mobile I made 5+ years ago, it bothers my perfectionism that the five sheep are all hanging at the same level (6 weeks ago).  I haven't changed it yet, and it still bothers me.

xx