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 . . . .

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

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.

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.

More Secret Llama

A Strange Sight

The Great Summer Destash 2008

100 Things or Categories I’m giving up . . . my sister-in-law,Marsha, has inspired me to simplify with an article she posted on her blog about the 100 Things Challenge. I told her I didn’t think I could do this – reduce my possessions to 100 things. There’s too much memorabilia and stuff at this point. However, I think I can get rid of 100 things. I’m going to try it this summer – ending with a garage sale and then give all the rest to Goodwill – and see how it goes.
Marsha, you’re my judge – this is the beginning of my list. Do all these count as one thing? Or can I count some as individual items?
1. 1 box of summer clothes that are too small
2. 1 box of winter clothes that are too small


3. non-black/white turtle necks
4. the fancy sofa
5. sewing patterns with no material attached to them
6. fabric with no project attached to them
7. non-matching mugs (ugliness factor)
8. plastic cups (ugliness factor)
9. old lotions
10. big pink pillow
11. old sheets
12. 5 knicknacks
13. 1 box of Christmas stuff
14. bag of candle melts
15. 1 box of other Holiday items
16. 2 boxes of books
17. 1 box of paper (to recycle)
18. 3 games
19. 1 box school stuff (Social Studies)
20. 5 skeins of yarn
21. 5 scarves
22. 5 pieces of jewelry
23. 1 box of scrapbook/craft items
24. 2 kitchen appliances
25. Old makeup
26. 5 hanging shirts
27. 5 skirts
28. 3 dresses
29. 2 pairs of jeans
30. 5 t-shirts
31. 1 box of office items
32. 1 box of memorabilia
33. 1 box of old stuff
34. 1 set of dishes
35. 15 Martha Steward mags
36. 15 cooking magazines (useful recipes saved in recipe folder)
37. 1 box of picture frames
38. 1 box of old tapes, books on tape
39. 4 old towels
40. 1 box of winter clothes I never wear
41. 1 box of summer clothes I never wear



This is not 100 yet . . . any suggestions.

The Upcycle Corollary
As a corollary to this I would like to find 10 things to up-cycle among our trash this summer. Up-cycling is recycling items or material that makes them immediately useful. Wikipedia defines up-cycling here. I heard the word first on etsy.com because their all about handmade and recycling. That's cool.


Here are some examples: leather cuff bracelets, a wool wreath, bird giving ball, plarn and crocheted plarn, journals and much more.


I like the idea of up-cycling, because it requires some imagination to repurpose materials originally used for another. Often the most successful up-cycling requires some artistic expression, but it is also entirely practical.


The bird gift balls are a clever example of this. I’m tempted to buy birdseed just so I can try out these bird gift balls next spring.

Stipulations:
- I will not buy any new supplies in order to up-cycle these items. I will have to use the supplies already on hand in order to complete the process.
- These may be items from the 100 things challenge. They may also be just trash that we would have thrown away otherwise (paper, aluminum, cardboard, etc.).
- The products may be reused in our household or made to sell.
- I need to list these on the blog as they are completed.

Havana Quilt

I wanted to share some pictures of the completed memory quilt my mom and I made for the Havana church. She did quite a bit of embroidery around the church and the crosses that really set it off and tied it together. I think it looks great in the foyer.


I suggested that since many of the pictures do not have captions, it would be helpful to have a scrapbook with more information on the pictures on the quilt and other pictures. They could add stories and other documents that would go along with the picture as well. She’s started working on that, but it requires more work than the time we had before the 85th anniversary. Many of the pictures were printed directly onto the fabric with an inkjet printer. I ironed on freezer paper as stabilizer, cut it to 8 ½ x 11 size and ran it through the printer.
We also used iron on material for other pictures. I painted the large church and the denominational seal. Mom and I worked together on the stained glass window, which is the design in the church previous to the current building. I don’t know how familiar most of the people are with those windows, so it was nice to reclaim that. It is primarily applicait (sp?), with some paint and thread attached. Mom, of course, did a lot of the embroidery, but we both worked on different embellishments for the pictures and design.

Potential

Chance 1996-2008