Resurrection Fern

Sunlight diffused

wearily

across the dusty black table.

Golden dust

swirled lazily down.

Soil and spider web coated

pots of aloe and

sharp tongued mother-in-laws.

Aunt stood

the brittle celluloid watering can

in her hand

prepared to feed the dry ones.


I sat on the front porch swing

finishing orange sherbet

before coming over

to stand.

She held a plastic lid.

“Would you like to see the resurrection fern?”

I had seen it a million times before.

But it would be hours

before Mom would come.

We could bring the dry and brown

to life ever so slowly again.

Awkward baptism

of tendrils tightly bound.

Momentarily fresh again.

We stared so hard

waiting for the sweet surprise.

“Just like Jesus rising from the dead.”

Finding the rolling drops

pooled along the

farthest recesses of its reach.

I turned back to recite

my Bible verses

and dig for snails.

At the Cusp of Autumn

I went a little garden crazy again. I got mums for the front porch pots. They're not very big, so I'm hoping they expand before the end of the season and fill out the color a little more. They are cute though. Just like the coleus that I bought at the beginning of the year.
I thought I'd try the anise hyssop . . .
Three plants I've been wanting for a l-o-n-g time -- lavendar, autumn joy sedum, and russian sage. Now, where to put them?

Green is the Loveliest Color

Well, the fresh asparagus inspired me. I remembered some of the greens I've enjoyed this summer.

Ferns from this spring. Sadly Vegas loved to eat them too.

My herb buckets -- sweet basil, chives, oregano, peppers, chili peppers, and wonderful sage. Look at them now!

My birthday girl.

Well, it's been a long time, but I'm celebrating the arrival of an organized pantry. I love old houses but it's a challenge to figure out storage for narrow, odd-shaped closets and crannies.

Oh, and a reward for our new-found organizations . . . mushroom turnovers from Trader Joe's and fresh steamed asparagus with chives from the herb bucket. Mmmm . . . .

Oh Baby Flower PB album for Ginny

I'm not a big baby person, but I LOVED this paper so I finally broke down and got the stack. I was able to use some stamps and embellishments that I hadn't used yet, either. I was pretty happy with how it finally turned out.

The owl is a design from one of my cricut cartridges.

An end view.

I just posted a set of Kitschen Witch magnets on etsy. I made these awhile ago, but I thought they were pretty cute.

FOUND!!! Theodora

I'm making a bulletin board for the Kinderworship Room for Rwanda, and I wanted to use my African doll. So, I got out the tub with my international dolls in it. As I'm digging, I unearth a box -- what is this? Oooo, I think I know! It's Theodora, whom I have been looking for since we moved from Olathe!

I've loved the story of Theodora ever since I took Eastern Orthodoxy with Dr. Bassett as seminary. A dancer and actress turned empress, Theodora was a controversial and influential figure in Christian history. She was a monophysite, but was married to Justinian, who was Orthodox. So, I'm ok with it. He built the first Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, now Istanbul.
I had this Barbie-saint phase for awhile, which I think I'm over (except for Ursula . . . I still want to do something with her), but I started Theodora based on the mosaic in Ravenna, Italy (image on right). The drawing on the left is one I did to develop what decorations and materials I should use. I didn't complete her before we moved to the parsonage next to St. Paul's. That was something like 2002! Well, here she is . . . . Beautiful!

An Shabby Autumn Recipe Book

This is DaisyD's paper, but I 'roughed' it up a bit. I made 5-6 Recipe/Memory cards that are interspersed through the album.

I thought this album would be a good gift for traditional family recipes, ones passed down through the generations so that pictures and memories of times together could be added to the recipes themselves.

It's 4x6 inches. And I used recycled cardboard from boxes, etc. I also got to use a lot of flowers and fun stuff like that.

Halloween at the Abla house . . .Chilling Indeed.

My New Obsession - Cupcake Piks!

I've seen some on etsy and thought - I need to do this! So I made a bunch for the craft show last week, Halloween, baby shower, retro Christmas.  I got an order for a wedding shower of 20 piks.  Yeah!

The colors were black, silver and ice blue.  Hmmm . . . So, this is what I came up with.  

I used square inchie and circle punches.  I found the stickers at Joann's.  Then I just used whatever ribbon, stamps and frou frou I could find. 
Can I just say - I love Stickles!
The dollar store is a great place to find stuff if you dig.
I freehanded the white hearts with black and blue pens.  

Upholstery - Ta Da!

Mom came to visit this week. I told her the one thing we were going to do was upholster the chair I got at the Springfield antique flea market last year. So this is it . . .
I've been sitting on it, springs only, for a year. Evan wouldn't sit on it. It's a pretty firm cushion since we put a piece of cardboard in between the springs and the batting, but it feels much better. But I think now that it's done, I think it looks pretty good. We used a brown, mossy velour that changes color depending on the light. I'm pretty pleased with the result. It doesn't look like this in person.
What I learned from this experience was that I am a visual person, but not a spatial person. Eh. After much discussion and many staples, you are now invited to our house and have a seat.

New Kind of Album - 4x6 Photo Album - Black French Toile

I made these after an idea I saw in a scrapbook magazine. They had simply used their uncropped 4x6 photos in a regular photo album. Then added scrapbooked inserts. I thought, why not?

This is the first one I've posted on etsy. I love the glitter sticker flourishes.

And the brown craft paper. It looks antique, but with the black and white very elegant.