Sorry for my absence and lack of response via email the last week. Anne got sick last Friday and ended up being hospitalized on Monday. We got home late yesterday. Today was spent convalescing, much the same way we will spend tomorrow. No sewing of any kind has happened, mostly just worrying about my baby and taking the best care of her that I could.
Never fear, she has turned the corner and is on the upswing but may it took a lot out of both of us. I will be back next week for sure!
Many people out there are blogging about their New Year’s resolutions and their “word” for 2016. (Christa from Christa Quilts picked the word Relax and Pat Sloan picked the word “Space”.) I decided that I wanted to focus on a word too. It isn’t going to be a goal or anything like that, more along the lines of taking ownership of that word.
My word for 2016 will be ARTIST.
For some reason I have never considered myself to be an “artist”, which is especially weird interesting given the fact that I actually have a Minor in Studio Art. There are many reasons for this, but mostly because I never felt like I could draw. I mean, my best picture of a person is a stick figure. I have always associated artist with someone who can draw. When I took up Zentangle 11 months ago, I realized that I can draw. In fact, I really love my Zentagle drawings. Learning to Zentangle has made me better at Free Motion Quilting.
I have decided that being able to draw something that looks like a real life replica is no longer how I will define the word “artist”. I cannot draw, but I create beautiful things every day, and that should be included in my definition. In addition to drawing, my love of photography has helped me learn how to put colors together in quilts and it has helped me translate the things I see in every day life into beautiful quilts, which I shall now call “works of art”.
So from here on out I will be thinking of myself not only as Melissa – mom, wife, daughter, sister, friend, quilter, designer, but also as Melissa – Artist.
Taking ownership of that word is a huge step for me.
What word are you taking ownership of this year?
We had so much fun in Disneyland. One of the special Christmas things they do is they make handmade candy canes. Each day it switches from California Adventures to Disneyland. You have to stand in line in the morning and get a wrist band, they only hand out a certain number for each day. We were able to get 5! One for each us and one extra for my dad.
It was super fun to watch them make the candy canes. They candy makers at Disneyland are just so talented!
We took Anne to the Frozen princess salon that they have at Downtown Disney. She had such a good time getting all dolled up. It is always fun to get to spoil her just a little bit with something special like this. I wasn’t sure at first if we should do it, but my hubby reminded me that this isn’t an every day occurrence and it would make life long memories.
I think one of the coolest (literally) parts of our vacation was discovering that it now snows at California Adventures! Olaf, from the movie Frozen, has his own little winter wonderland. Anne got to make snow angels and play indoors while it actually snowed on her. We all loved the magic of it! We even went on a short toboggan ride!
Anne loves the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas and we got to meet Jack Skellington. She was so excited! We also got the chance to go on the Haunted Mansion ride when it was transformed into the Nightmare Before Christmas movie. It was so exciting to see it set up differently.
We had so much fun!
Only a few more days left until Christmas and then I will be back to sewing my heart out. I have some exciting projects coming up in 2016 and I am looking forward to sharing them with you as the year unfolds!
Well autumn has surely arrived in Western Washington, where we call home. It is a balmy 46 degrees this morning while I write this post. Along with autumn arriving (a bit too early for me), Anne has decided to grow up before my very eyes and become a Kindergartner. Not sure where she got this crazy growing up idea from, but alas, yesterday was the day when I had to turn my baby over to complete strangers for 6.5 hours for this thing called school.
Just yesterday my baby girl looked like this:
Ok, so maybe this wasn’t yesterday (after all Anne wouldn’t touch pasta with red sauce with a ten foot pole these days), but still! This is all I saw yesterday when I was taking this picture:
I mean seriously! She just kills me being all grown up. The last two years she has wanted to be a pilot, this year she wants to be a zookeeper. I love how her personality has changed and developed over the last 5 years.
Can you tell her mommy might be a quilter? Look what she designed during open free time!
So there you have it, my baby girl is in Kindergarten. Bring on the fears that accompany normal children and multiply them by multiple health issues and life threatening food allergies. Quite frankly, I’m surprised I survived yesterday with all my worry. Anne, was of course, just fine!
I know, I haven’t been the most consistent blogger this year, between personal family disasters and my home being torn apart for new floors things have been crazy. This time though, I have a very positive reason for disappearing, and if you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, I bet you already know why…
That’s right! Anne’s daddy came home over the weekend! After 9 very very long months our family is whole again.
Yesterday, was the first day I have sewn since my hubs got home and I finished up all of the teacher gifts. The mug rugs turned out beautiful, now Anne and I need to go pick out coffee mugs to go with them!
Sorry for the blurry picture. I took it with my phone while standing on top of an office chair that spins, holding onto the ceiling to steady myself (yup, good thing I don’t work for anyone else or OSHA would be all over me for that one! LOL).
I hope everyone has a very happy Thursday!
