Wren's Nest

Tea Towel Swap Partners - Coming to your e-mailbox tomorrow!

Ladies - the time is finally here!! You've been very patient - only one more day (well, not even a whole day) and you will get your Tea Towel Swap partner information!!! Then you can get busy designing or buying those tea towels and have 2 of them ready to send by the October 15th due date (along with a reicpe or two). This is a reciprocal swap, so you will send to your partner and they will send to you.

I'll e-mail you your partner info tomorrow morning (California time) including their blog (if they have one) and e-mail, so you can feel free to check in with them if you like (completely optional). I also have a Flickr group started for this group specifically - the Tea Towel Swap group - here's the address - http://www.flickr.com/groups/teatowelswap/. Once you send or receive your towels, please post them, so we can all enjoy them!! Always fun to see what everyone is creating!

Look for my e-mail tomorrow!!

Going, Going, Gone...

I mailed off my Club Little House treats this morning. Hooray!!! These are going (12) to Miss Amy so she can pack them up with all the other people's treats and send them out - can't wait to see what everyone made and get more goodies for my little house to be. One is also going to my Club Little House mini swap partner - I made her the same treats, plus a little extra. I'll show the pictures of what's in the packages after a while - don't want to spoil the surprise, though, obviously, I did a Halloween/Autumn theme. I just saw on the CLH yahoo group that someone else did something similar, but I think there's room for lots of Halloween things in people's teeny houses, so I'm going to try not to worry about it!

Last night was Back to School Night at the elementary school. It's fun to meet the teachers (though I knew Collin's 1st grade teacher a little) and see how excited they are and how passionate they are about what they do. Our kids are really lucky to be taught by such great people! I think I went a little nuts in the first grade room, though and did a Marcia Brady and signed up for quite a few things. Since Collin is my last little one through, I really feel as though I need to be involved and present and enjoy evey moment with him. In Meg's class, they want less help, and it's more on an as needed basis, so that makes it easy. So now, we're all back in the swing of the school year...

Book Meme 2

Miss Paula from On a Rainy Night tagged me for this -

Book Meme 2...
Here are the rules:

1. Grab the book closest to you...NO cheating!
2. Open to page 123
3. Scroll down to 5th sentence.
4. Post text of next 3 sentences on blog-and name of book and author
Tag 3 people (that will be the hardest part!)

OK - the book closest to me was one from my book swap partner - Samantha (I haven't posted about my lovely package from her yet!!). It's The American Boy by Andrew Taylor.

"Though Mrs. Frant could not hear the words of their conversation, it was clear from his gestures that Mr. Frant was angry and that the other man was cowed by his anger. Mr. Frant came into the house and the other man walked rapidly away. Mrs. Frant asked her husband when he came up who the man had been."

Well, hmmm....very interesting. Wonder who the man is... guess I'll have to start this book soon. OK - who wants to play? If you're interested, I'll tag Jen B, Angie and Pam. OK, ladies? I'd love to know what any and all of you are reading anyway! So let me know - what's on YOUR nightstand?

Hooray!! Club Little House Mini Swap

Oh my! The mailman made his way up the hill to my front door today with a HUGE treat!! Here is what he delivered - in a big box then in a cutie felt covered box - I found these teeny tiny goodies.. Isn't it the cutest little sewing room you've ever seen? The photo doesn't really do it justice. There is a treadle sewing machine and table, measuring tape, 3 spools of thread, a teeny card with teeny "buttons" - that Em WROTE the word buttons on somehow! Teeny tiny (ok, I could put teeny tiny in front of each thing, but that would wear me out...)scissors, that open and close, a yardstick, a PINCUSHION - my favorite!! a little pattern, cutting mat, cutting ruler, rotary cutter, bolt of fabric, ball of yarn and a teeeeeny THIMBLE!! It's all so adorable - now we just need to build a dollhouse for it! The fabulous lady who sent all this goodness to me is Em. Plus, (yes there's more...) she included some fabulous buttons (not dollhouse size, though some are teeny) - check these out - can you stand the cuteness of the mother of pear bird, squirrel and seahorse? They are all fantastic and it was so sweet of her to include these. Thank you Em - you made my day!!

Beautiful Sunday at the Famer's Market

We headed out to the Farmer's Market this morning. We hadn't been in a long time and wondered why we don't go all the time. It's a beautiful, relaxing place. We had yummy pear and ginger scones there sold by a fun lady with blue hair who always gives the kids "samples" that are huge (well, I think she actually gives them each a free scone). The weather was perfect, sunny with a little chill. We walked and sampled and bought eggplants for eggplant parmesan tonight, tomatoes, lemon cucumbers, French cantalopes, flowers and 3 beautiful baskets sold by a woman and her daughter who travel to Kenya and get the baskets there - each basket has the name of the woman who made it and the money goes right back to that woman in Kenya - the lady selling them runs a group at a local high school and they are really amazing. I got the large basket pictured, another smaller one (in my A Year in Color picture) and Meg got a cool purple-y one. A lovely morning!

Corners of My Home - Meg's Room

I was talking to Selena about a quilt I made for my daughter a while ago and she mentioned that I should do a Corner of My Home post with the quilt in it. So, here it is! Meg's room is really sweet and looks just like her. I made the quilt from Seaside Rose prints (the back is the pink seashell print), beautiful Japanese florals and trimmed the inner border with crocheted lace edging. The way it was quilted and the batting I used give it an antique look (especially after it was washed). Her pillowcases match the quilt and having a little nap is Anna, Meg's wonderful doll (who was a really good sport on the flight to Portland - having her face held against the window a good bit of the time). The bed was bought at the Alameda Antique Fair held there the first Sunday of each month. It's hand painted and really pretty. On the shelf about her bed is her collection of little fairies and root children (and her Brambly Hedge books). Her night stand is also an antique - currently housing her lamp (with her bird cut-out stuck to it) and Harry Potter 4 (she's a big reader). In the evening, she likes to open her window and bring the branches of the Japanese maple in through her window to feel like she's outside. It's great laying in bed and reading to her because her room gets a wonderful pinky gold glow in the evenings. It's quite magical and I would have LOVED to have a room like this when I was a little girl. It has a chair rail and is stenciled all the way around with vines, flowers, birds and birdhouses. She also has vintage Limoge plates hanging up around the room. I'll take more pictures of the rest of it sometime to share - this was the only clean corner and Miss Marshmallow (the hamster) requested a no picture policy today - she's feeling very tired after her wild night of running and chewing on her cage.

So, that's it - that's where my girl loves to be - reading and writing and drawing. What I wouldn't give sometimes to be 9, in a beautiful room with a very sweet life.

Online Fun

OK, first things first - I caved and bought this book. I've been seeing it everywhere - on blogs, in stores and on and on, so I finally just bought it and how appropriate - because check out this page! (not the best, but it's all my little scanner can manage). This book has so many beautiful pictures and is really inspirational. It gave me lots of swap ideas (of course, maybe I should finish up this tea towel swap first - HA!) I'm thinking homemade pillow case swap (they are so easy to make and I could post a tutorial for those who haven't made them), tea towel challenge (make something new from a new or vintage tea towel every month or every other month - like journal covers, aprons, etc.) and lots more. Yikes! Anybody interested, anybody???

On to more online fun - have you checked out this new little treasure yet? Buzzville and Super Eggplant have opend a shop and it's so cute I don't know what to do! When I was little I'm pretty sure we had this design in our kitchen, but it was wallpaper (in an orange and aqua colorway no less!). Anyway, congratulations to them for having such a great idea and making it happen (and having it be so cute to top it all off). Also, I know most of you know about the Red and Aqua swap over here - there is still time to sign up (until Sept. 5th, I think) - I LOVE these colors together and I'm so excited about this swap! I am teaching a class at a local quilt shop - an advent calendar made of wool and the colors are ----you guessed it ---cream and red and aqua. Though finding the right aqua color wool is turning into a challenge. Moki is also doing a very cool carve your own stamp swap here - you carve your stamp out of craft foam (a 3" design) and stamp FABRIC - a yard of fabric, which you'll cut into fat quarters and send off 3 of them to your partners and keep one. I haven't really done stamp carving, but it sounds so fun, so I'm giving it a try. I bought my fabric yesterday (OK, it is aqua-ish) and have my design in my head - just need to start carving. Check it out - you can still sign up for a little bit longer! She also made the stinking cutest "peggys" which are so fun - I ran out and got some of those peg and can't wait to make some!

Thank you to everyone for all of your great comments about the kid's first day. They have had just a great time this week and are all really enjoying their classes and teachers. They are so cute every morning heading on out, backpacks at the ready, which are, as Kristin pointed out as big as they are! I love walking them to school (except poor Matt who has to get driven to middle school)- it's a really pretty walk and we run into friends along the way - I have to laugh because it's all sort of '50's feeling - except, of course, those moms wore pumps and skirts and we wear sweats and flip flops...(and aren't we all glad about that!)

First Day of School

There they go - up the hill out of our street and on their way!! Here are my two youngest headed off to 4th grade for the Nutmeg and 1st grade for Collin (Matt left earlier with John and I didn't have the battery in the camera). They were all really excited and we had quite an evening last night getting everyone ready for their respective grades. Collin had to bring a favorite book and stuffed animal, Meg a bunch of school supplies and Matt, my oldest who started middle school today had so much stuff - supplies, gym clothes, a schedule (he has to change rooms now). It was pretty stressful, but this morning went smoothly and everyone seemed really happy. I can't wait to hear how everyone's day was. I went to the PTA Welcome Back coffee and saw a lot of friends I hadn't seen over the summer, then I walked home and went to Trader Joe's (alone!!) and got us all set food-wise for dinners for the week, snacks, etc. It was so relaxing - I do miss them, but it's nice to have time to myself and I know they're all having fun with all their friends and the excitement of starting a new year.

To me Fall means, getting a fresh start to things. I think it comes from loving school starting when I was young and school supplies and how everything was new and clean with all the possibilities in the world. I want this fall to be like that - I want to start new and fresh and to be open to all the possibilities in the world.

Fun things from Portland

Some pictures of fun purchases - we're still waiting on the scenery shots. Have to find the connecting cable for the Nutmeg's camera so we can download her pictures. I also took my little camera, so I need to find the cable for that one.

Here is my fun orange and aqua fabric - new Amy Butler line. I got it at Josephine's Dry Goods. It's also my Year of Color picture since the color is orange this week. We also got some great used books at Powell's - the one I could get my hands on is "The Happy Hollisters and the Haunted House Mystery". It's one of several Happy Hollister books we got. I read these as a kid. They were published in 1961, which was a few years before I was born, but I got a bunch of older mysteries from our dentist's
receptionist when I was about 8 or 9 - I was always reading a Nancy Drew when we went in, and she was not going to have children, so she gave me boxes and boxes of Nancy Drew's, Trixie Belden's, Bobbsey Twins and some of the Happy Hollisters - a great gift and I still have all of them. Now Meg is enjoying them. I really love the colors on the covers of these books - they just don't make books with covers like this - they are great fun to read too! That Mrs. Hollister is one relaxed mom and let's her kids run around all over the place - down alleyways, out on roads, wow - times have changed! Also in this picture are the great seam binding ribbons I got at Josephine's - these can be hard to find and I love using them on my pincushions instead of ribbon - they add a vintage look and can be sturdier. If anyone has any sources on those, please let me know!

Lastly, I stopped in at Knit/Purl and had a great time looking around and touching everything - I'm sure the woman working in there thought I was nuts! I'm not the greatest knitter, but I found one of their
easy patterns and this great bulky yarn and started this seed stitch scarf. The color didn't come out too well - it's the Rowan Big Wool #21 - ice blue. It looks sort of grey here. I also got this cutie book at Powell's - Lois Lenski "I Like Winter". It has the cutest illustrations. I thought they'd make great embroidery inspirations as well as inspirations for some little things I'm making to fill advent calendar pockets for a class I'm teaching. Her illustrations are so charming - we have the Betsy-Tacy books that she illustrated and I just get a warm feeling looking at them.

Well, that's about it from here. Took the brownies to the school for the teachers (sadly, without taking a picture), but the recipe makes so many if you cut them smaller than it says (they are really rich, so some big honking brownie might make you sort of sick - or not!), so we still have some here. Maybe I'll take a picture later. They are really yummy - the three littles (I still call them that, though they're not so little anymore) had a taste test and gave them big chocolate-y grins, so I know they're ok. Anyone say "got milk"?

Be it Ever so Humble

We are home!! It was just a short little trip, but it's great to be home. We had a lot of fun and the kids really enjoyed themselves, though keeping three kids fed and entertained without being on familiar ground was sometimes a challange. I'll have more pictures later in the week - they're mostly on Meg's camera. She was the official photographer of the trip. We did a lot of walking and also did a lot of riding on Portland's great rail system (love it!)!!! I mostly kept up the rear with Collin who was a real trooper. We went all over downtown - walked to Powell's - wow - could I lose myself in there for a couple of days. Went to the zoo and had a great time at the World Forestry Center. We stayed at the Embassy Suites downtown so the kids enjoyed the pool and free treats for breakfast and in the evening. I also got to head out alone and went to Knit/Purl and Josephine's Dry Goods. I'll show you those goodies later too!

The kids had never flown before, but they did just great. Our first flight was cancelled (good job calling ahead!) so they shuttled us down to San Jose to take a flight from there. The way home went smoothly too - of couse, I managed to drop the car key out of my backpack in the plane and when we got to baggage claim, I realized I didn't have it. Luckily the plane was still on the ground and they found it and we got in our car and got home safe and sound!! Phew! There is no place like home!!