Lesson My Impact #6: Coffee and Knitting

It turns out, people, that if you order a BOX of coffee from Einstein Brothers (for your office or your long trip home from Florida) and you drink all the coffee and break down the box to recycle it, of course, INSIDE the box is an AMAZING bag.

It's silver.

It's thick enough to keep the coffee warm and away from things that don't need to be wet, but not too thick to push a needle and thread through.

What I am saying is that you can add a strap, people!  This strap can hang on a hook, or even your shoulder.
You can wind a ball of yarn and throw it in the bag, then pull the working string through the hole that the coffee used to come out of.
I know, be amazed.
Now your yarn won't get all knotty!

Then you can start knitting yourself a hat.
Pick one of those mindless patterns where you just go 'round and 'round because, after all, you drank all that coffee so there is none left to help get you through a hard pattern with dropping and yarn-overing and or using a cable to do that cable thing.

Then you can call your friend who works for the Laura Crandall Brown Ovarian Cancer Foundation and find out when they are putting packets together with Chemo Caps and Port Pillows.

Get all of your other friends to make one cap each, a few pillow ports for fun, and Voila! We are caffeined-up happy knitting sewing encouragers for all of our sisters fighting Ovarian Cancer!

Go team!

*If you will knit one chemo cap for an adult-sized head, let me know.

**A port pillow is a small pillow with velcro attached that clasps around the chest strap seat belt in a car so that the seatbelt doesn't press uncomfortably on the port usually embedded to attach the chemo tubing during treatment. Here is a pattern:

http://www.abbieandeveline.com/2014/09/12/my-recipe-for-portacath-pillows/

I Need a More Inspiring Closet

Brian and I share a closet.
We are committed to not outgrowing the space.
But it seriously was too depressing in there so I pulled everything out.

There was old paint in the garage, so Corinne became Madame Helper.

She LOVED painting and has since tried to start new projects painting in there. Now the challenge is to direct her powers towards good and not evil.


Here is the final-ish product:

Giving Thanks This Season

Quilt for Genevieve

Dear Genevieve, 

We waited, and longed, for you for ages.  We loved you before you even came into this world. That's weird to write since I have never actually met you.

My idea for your quilt began when your mom and dad began planning for and loving you. Now you are big. Like, five years old or something.
Your mom loves cats. So do I. And aren't those colors cute??

Through each of these squares, I thought of you, made wishes for you, hopes, dreams, and silly faces.

There are thousands of stitches here for you, sweet girl.  The stitches are not even or straight. In fact, the color of thread may not even match. But that's okay; sometimes life is like that.

I hope it brings you warmth when needed, comfort and cushion when required, and a send of proud purpose as YOU are a GIFT to this world.

Love,
Mollie

Reba's Quilts

My friend Reba has 93-year-old hands.

She started several quilts for her own family members, and then allowed me to finish them for her. Reba's hands were no longer up for the task.

She asked me to hand quilt them, and I explained that I worked only on a machine and that I didn't actually measure or plan...my quilts just happen.

She agreed to let me take this Jewelry Box Quilt home to machine quilt:

It was fun - just basic straight up and down.

She thought that was okay, so she let me take this brown one, that's for her great-grandson, home to machine quilt.

Each of these squares is different and was hand-pieced by Reba.  I got the squares outlined on the machine, but it was so large for my small-armed device, that I tried quilting each square by hand.

At night, while I built callouses on my fingertips and threaded needle after needle, I could feel my brain repairing itself. Seriously, my brain felt different. 

The quilting meant I had to sit still. It meant I couldn't read subtitles on a movie or check email while my kids bark out requests and questions. I had to uni-task. It felt very unnatural at first.

The true test of our friendship came when Reba trusted me with her hand-pieced Double Wedding Ring Quilt.

I showed her my new callouses and told her I felt up to the task. 

I was seriously nervous - what if I spilled something on it? If my cat threw up on it? What if I lost it, ruined it, accidentally cut it in half?

I threaded my needle and rocked it back and forth building up stitches, like I was skipping rocks.

It took months, but I did it.
My brain felt good.
I sat still and listened while I loaded and stitched, loaded and stitched.

Reba was pleased; I was pleased.

I told her I was ready for my next project from her, and she just laughed her 93-year-old laugh and shook her head.
I am so grateful to her for trusting me, teaching me, and leading me to this new art of contemplative quilting.  I think I'll get started on a new one today...

Bernadette, the Angry Cat, and Heather

My friend Cheryl lent me the book Where'd You Go, Bernadette?

I had one of those experiences where I didn't know I was at risk, but while reading that book I realized: This story has UP AND SAVED MY LIFE.

Right before Bernadette, I read Carry On, Warrior on a partial recommendation from my friend Angela (she recommended Glennon's website Momastery and would have recommended the book I feel sure, but I found the book through her blog).
Well that book UP AND SAVED MY LIFE too.

Glennon talks about being a writer and how it is akin to having an angry cat inside of her clawing to get out; there are just all of these ideas!
I get that.
I think I have lots of angry cats.

But I want my angry cats to come out looking like Emptied Gestures by Heather Hansen.
Her angry cats are so smooth and pretty.

I can't stop watching weird, modern, abstract art in motion after those two books and Heather Hansen on You Tube.

Y'all, I don't know what book to read next. The bar is so high in these recent life-saving experiences (again, NOT feeling at risk, just terribly inspired).

Carry on, you warriors, let your angry cats out in Antarctica if you have to.

Color Wheel Table, and Then Some Chairs...

My friend found a table and 6 chairs at a garage sale. They weren't a good fit for her home so she gave them to us. GAVE them. So generous.

First they looked like this:

And the middle of the table was the most interesting:

Brian wanted to preserve the wood grain, but I kept itching and itching to paint it.  So I did:

And there was the question of the chairs. 

Henry and Svea used to really be interested in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. Whereas I appreciate art and humor, especially in the form of comic books, and whereas I LOVE the idea of a male adolescent expressing himself through journal writing, I was not a huge fan of the level of sarcasm, practical jokes, and attention to the popularity hierarchy...but I guess that just means I am not a huge fan of puberty in general.

So I made this one:

Then I asked Henry who his favorite artist was and he looked at me like I had the cheese touch.
He said, "Lichtenstein."
I was shocked.
He said, "You know?  1960's pop art?"

Then he was too annoyed with my mommy-ness and had to leave the room.

So I made him this chair (not like Lichtenstein necessarily, but the colors DO pop):

I often have dreams about Magritte, so in ode to his The Son of Man, I made this one:

Corinne joined me in the painting and kept her's abstract. Then she put her vintage booster seat on top. Voila!

Only 2 more chairs to complete!!

Cheese Balls

At Corinne's preschool, they eat a lot of snacks.
Snacks that I don't usually buy...like cheese balls.

So I asked the teachers if they would start saving the containers for me.  After washing the orange grease out of the many many many containers...I thought, What to do???

I also save empty toilet paper rolls. I don't ever do anything with them. I just save them.  ?!?!?!?!??!?

Then I remembered that one preschool teacher did a CRAFT out of empty TP rolls!! Perfect!!

So I painted the label, filled it up, and promptly returned it to the preschool.

Hooray!

The iPhone and I

I drank the kool-aid and got an iPhone.

Friends near and far are glad I can now open their texts. 

(what does that even MEAN? "Open their texts"?  It could be so profound.)

I was nudged by the straw and the camel's back because I couldn't open a text message from a mom who had my kid over for a playdate.  

What if her text was a picture of my kid smiling?  What if her text was of my kid bleeding?  What if her text was my kid on a 4-wheeler on a steep hill? My kid is 2. And she was kinda in a battery-powered Barbie car on a driveway, for real.

So I bought the data package and upgraded to the free phone.

I can Facetime, y'all.  I cant believe that word is in my vocabulary. ("Facetime," not "y'all."  "Y'all" has always been there. Since in utero.)

I don't know how to use all the features on the phone yet.

I do know how it is making me feel.

I treat Facebook and Twitter and smart phones like the postal system.  I send a message and then wait a few days. HOLY COW that is NOT how social networking works.

If I don't return a text or an email within a few hours...or a day...people think I may have died and what will happen to my kids.

Deep breath.

So I have this iPhone and I am thinking to myself, what about that time Jesus went into the desert and fasted. Fasting being no water, no food, no Internets.  Then the devil says I will give you EVERYTHING - instant everything - at your fingertips - all info and text and this and that and google this, y'all.  And Jesus says no thanks.  

I am thinking, what if he meant, why go to lunch with ONE person when you can leave your smart phone on the table and go to lunch with one person PLUS everyone in your Contacts, including your kids' school(s)?

What if he meant, you can go to the playground and a picnic and dinner out, but why do that with those you can see, when you can do that with ALL who are on the grid?

Why be present, when you can be PRESENT?

I am confused.

I am not against smart phones, I am just not for them.  

So where am I?

Why don't iPhones come with a prescription for Paxil, or its generic equivalent?

I feel more connecting, more confused by my opportunities to connect, and feel sure that if your hands are wet, you CANNOT effectively use the touch screen.

My hands are wet a lot.

I think I need to go to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store.  If I ask about scripture there, do you think the teenage experts will be more confused by my "irrelevant" questions, or by the fact they were up until 4am with their most recent garage band?  

Regardless, I am grateful.

Confused, but grateful.

Perfect Slippers

My sister gave me the perfect pair of slippers.

Within months, I had worn holes in the toes and heels. Where are you Stella & Murphy when I need you??

So I did not despair; I continued wearing them.

And they looked like this:

I cut off the threadbare fabric and tacked in a layer of thick felt:

I had a thin yoga sticky mat that was on clearance (thank you again, sister, who found it for me), but the mat is terribly slippery. Not Sticky is what the label shoulda said.

I re-purposed the mat as slipper cushion.

Then I found some old fleece to sew over the yoga mat, which was next to the thick fleece:

Here are my new soles:

And the perfect end-of-the-day moment...with the dog's approval...

Thank you again, Meredith, for the perfect slippers!  Stella & Murphy would be glad my feets are comfy, but they might have opinions about you shopping at Target...

New Photo Books

So we started with this:



These are 3 nasty, broken, rotting albums that were using their sticky sheets to peel the backs off of old time pictures that represent part of the family story.

So I found a coupon for Photobin.  Then I scanned in all the photos from these 3 albums.  I uploaded about 1/3 of the photos to Photobin and made a 50 page hard cover book of the photos.

Then I gave it to my parents.
This is them at their Rehearsal Dinner before the Wedding:

Luckily, Shutterfly came out with a 50% off coupon for photo books today so I can continue the journey of preserving the memories.
Awesome fun revisiting and remembering!