post-holiday Billy Collins poem

Feeling grateful today.

I hope you had a peaceful Thanksgiving.
I am grateful if you are reading this–
or have read any of my posts–
or bought my products or fabrics–
for the past few years.

This morning our house was quiet-
a rare morning with the kids away-
we laid in bed and drank our coffee-
and we watched a feelgood movie-
The Wedding Date–
remembered what it felt like when we had nothing but time
to watch the shadows in the corners of our wakening room–
then I grabbed the book of Billy Collins poetry from the nightstand-
and found this one-
with a dogeared page-
the one that had been my favorite nearly 8 years ago–
when this book was given to us as a baby gift–
and read it aloud.
If you are a mom-
or have one-
you will cry.
We did. read more

Painting again (more)

You know that this sewing stuff I make and show to you here is all relatively new for me. It comes from a deep and abiding joy. It is a new project–a new brand. But it isn’t the whole me. I will sometimes share a tiny bit of my other work. It might not appeal to you and that is OK. We are each our own morass of impulses, urges, and complexities. They don’t all overlap. But they define us. read more

Grateful Sewing :: Thanksgiving gifts for teachers

Teacher gifts are always fun to give. Thanksgiving seems like a perfect excuse to make a little craft for giving thanks and expressing gratitude for the wonderful people who help nurture our kids. Today we made lavender sachets for the kids’ teachers. They were super easy and the kids helped out. I often want to help my children to do more to express their gratitude. I was hoping that we’d do some hand sewing for these, but that was a lofty goal. I’d rather them do a little with joy, than a lot with whining 🙂 So my wee one filled the sachets and the big kiddo wrote “Gratitude” and “Luve.” read more

The big four oh.


My birthday is this week and it has got me thinking—really thinking.

On March 15, 2010, when I began this blog with a post about my sewing machine, it was a bold move to make a beginning. It was a tiny speck of dust, a squeak, a throat-clearing, spoken into the immensity of the internet. I didn’t know where it would take me, but it was a start. At its conception, it was just like what blogger, Herriott Grace calls, “a savings account for things I like.” Pretty simple—just my favorite stuff from the web and the things I was sewing. I was a beginner at both sewing and blogging, and I was healing some stuff so I was following my bliss. read more