Playing for my township’s softball little league for 8 years I racked up a lot of baseball shirts, each with the name of a local sponsor.  I played for the ”Medicine Shoppe” for at least three years, a few embarassing years with McDonald’s written across my threads, and at least one year for ”Croydon Sofa and Mattress Factory”.  Since I started in first grade, many of them were tiny.  The numbers that returned to me year after year were 7, 11 and 17.  One of the appropriately-sized shirts that has survived until now was the good old Croydon one, which I planned to sport around town here in Scotland.  I wore it while visiting my parents in the Spring and upon washing it, lost all the paint from my “7″.  This visit, I repaired it.  I cracked open the acrylic paints, placed cardboard inside the shirt and carefully taped around the sides of the number to ensure clear edges.  So far so good.  When it had dried enough, I used the hair dryer to deep-set the paint and then removed the tape. Viola!  It was almost perfect! There was a tiny blur at the top of the number where the tape was not sticky enough, but I planned to doctor that up with a q-tip and maybe some nail polish remover.

Satisfied with my refashion, I packed my shirt in my bag and flew home that night.  Somewhere across the ocean, things went all wrong for the little shirt.  I don’t know if it was the drastic temperature changes or if it wasn’t actually dry after several hours and a hair dryer, but the paint stuck together and peeled off in some places while stacking up in others.  I may look around for some white acrylic paint or I may just wear it as is, because sometimes, “failure” equals “vintage”.

I spent new year’s eve with my college roomate and teammate, chatting, nibbling on snacks and knitting.  A few days before I saw her, she asked me to teach her to knit.  She was so exicted after purchasing the yarn that she taught herself to knit beforehand.

It was a wonderful way to slow down, evaluate our positions in life at the moment and the previous year, and enjoy time together.  In the past week, she had intentionally slowed down each evening to knit and reflect on her day. 

My new year’s promise is to work on becoming more organised for things that matter and to get past the things that don’t.  I already have moments of mindfulness in my week; rowing on the river or falling asleep at night, but I want to expand my attention throughout the day. The starting place to begin this year was as simple as unsubscribing from unwanted emails.  I hope that this organisation enables me to remind myself of the things that are important, particularly slowing down and being in the present.  When eating, commuting, re-stocking shelves of yarn while working, and anywhere inbetween.

What are your successes or struggles with achieving mindfulness?

Happy New Year!

My family vibrantly and wholeheartedly celebrated Christmas this year as usual but focused the food and gifts on the idea that less is more. Gifts were largely homemade foods and treasured treats, like ribbon candy! One sister made a beautiful photo album, the other made delicious cookies and all the food, while another made candies and soaps. My nice and nephew made the beautiful pottery you see below! They all made me proud!

]]> http://riotflower.wordpress.com/2009/12/31/signs-of-a-handmade-christmas/feed/ 1 riotflower My christmas contribution GiftsTheyMade http://riotflower.wordpress.com/2009/12/25/so-many-reasons-to-celebrate/ http://riotflower.wordpress.com/2009/12/25/so-many-reasons-to-celebrate/#comments Fri, 25 Dec 2009 04:00:10 +0000 riotflower http://riotflower.wordpress.com/?p=845 ]]>

This December, my world is full of reasons to celebrate! Many friends have recently become parents or doctors, I have fantastic friends around me and am spending the holidays with family!

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” ~Pablo Picasso

I am constantly reminded of how easy it is to discourage someone’s creativity. So many people I know tell me that they “can’t” sing. They speak this to me, audibly. So obviously they can sing! They have been told, however, in one way or another, that they should not sing. It’s amazing how one negative response when earnestly sharing a new discovery, talent, or attempt at a creative endeavour shuts people down.  A friend of mine made something for me for Christmas.  She is creative through writing and cooking but doesn’t usually craft and was nervous about gifting this to me.

Well, obviously I love the thought and caring that was put into it and I am now the proud guardian of this cute little bear!

Last week I taught another friend to crochet. One thing I am looking forward to doing in the coming year is to stretch my skills further while learning from /teaching friends to expand theirs!

This week I discovered an amazingly cheap way to make tomato bread. Usually, the tomato juice left in the tin from making pizza (using the no frills tinned tomatoes with no extra ingredients) finds its way into soup. This time, I replaced the water in my basic bread recipe with the juice!

This ’sun dried tomato’ bread begged to be eaten in one sitting (I saved a tiny bit to share with a friend!).

Simply use left over tomato juice instead of water and throw in some mixed herbs!
What fun cooking surprises have you discovered?

Christmas Altar

Originally uploaded by Riotflower

Since I will be in the U.S. this Christmas (for the first winter since 2005!), I kept my decorations in the small flat simple and stuck with the decorations that really represented the holiday to me. Click on the photo to see the flickr notes of each ornament or decoration. Some have been handmade and others carry importance for the images they use.

I had a massive ball of aran weight yarn left over…probably about 200 grams worth. It had been used to begin many different projects yet always getting ripped back because I just wasn’t happy with the acrylic sheen it carried. So it sat in my stash- the Obvious stash that doesn’t fit above my wardrobe but in a frame backpack in the middle of my room-and I stepped around it each day.
I have finally put it to good use by making a simple scarf to match my coat!

On Thanksgiving, a friend of mine showed up with a bag of shirts she thought another friend and I would like. At some point in the evening, once most of the hosting (the rotation of warm food and desserts through the oven, the washing of all the cutlery so new arrivals could eat) had been taken care of, we decided to have a trying-on fashion show. Yes, this is how we phrased it.

Heading into a room, this friend’s friend who is also our size followed us in to try some on as well. The three of us passed the shirts around, rejecting those we didn’t like, verbally noting the ones we really liked, and laughing and talking. What is it about trying on clothes that makes it so social? I always forget this since I don’t usually go shopping in regular stores, but place a good bag of hand-me-downs in front of a friend and me and it’s party time!

It was so much a party time, that after returning to the gifter after the clothes session and being sent back to search for the shirt we overlooked, we got into the longest fit of giggles I’ve had in ages (over something completely different) and those sitting in the hall began laughing at our laughter!

Anyway, these are the shirts I went away with.

Several weeks ago, a friend gave me a sewing machine that she was not using. She received it on freecycle and never used it so was unsure if it worked.

I finally (waiting for my injured wrist to heal) took it out (it is the heaviest sewing machine I’ve ever carried!) and set it up. I have threaded the bobbin, wound the thread up through the wooden base and sewn a few stitches. I tested them on a knit fabric wrag so the next step is to get some cotton to test on and mess around with the dials until I figure out the tension. I cannot find any useful information on Alfa sewing machines, but I do know that it is pretty old, comes from Spain and has one stitch! I was interested to see that the needle eye faces side-ways instead of the front-facing eyes I’ve seen in the other machines I’ve worked with.

Thanks so much for this machine, K!